Freedom Dreams

Well, this weekend has been an interesting one. I finished school on the friday, ate pizza and watched Wall-E. On the Saturday, me and Joe went to Lugradio Live, which was really cool. Now you may wonder what either of these things has to do with the title of my blog post, well not much. There were a couple of minor annoyances with lugradio live, such as the fact I only went for one day and I didn’t manage to meet up with Fred.

However, the main topic of this blog post is about my frustration with my computer setup. Firstly, something that has been annoying me for a while know. Being quite a novice to the insides of computers, I managed to snap off part of my SATA hard drive data cable, so the connection is loose, and I have to constanly stick it down with tape (which only works so well). Soo, if anyone in the Manchester area has a spare sata cable…… otherwise, I may end up buying one from amazon.

The other annoyance is wireless. I did have both my computers networking working perfectly fine with ubuntu, but I hope to switch to gnewsense, and both computers have freedom hating network cards. One is plugged directly into the router downstairs, but the ethernet card requires non-free firmware; the other, a desktop upstairs, is connected via wireless (and is some distance from the router) – the wireless card, of coures, also required firmware.

So, I bought a Linksys WUSB54G, a usb card that seemed to be highly recommend by the FSF. And yes, it did work with gnewsense, didn’t require any firmware, but its wireless capabilities are quite frankly crap. It is not usable upstairs. With a lot of palaver I managed to get it working in one minute bursts, but only with WPA turned off. Now, AFAICT, neither of these problems are due to the drivers, since it works fine on my downstairs computer, when right next to the router. This is useful to an extent, since it allows me to use gnewsense, despite the non-free ethernet, but I had hoped to be able to use the linksys card on both computers.

So, I don’t know what to do, I hoped to try to use 100% free software for a certain length of time, but at the moment, I still need 24576 characters of non-free firmware for my freedom hating wireless card. Is there anything I can do to improve the reception of the linksys one? Solder a new antenna on? baked bean cans?… has anyone got any ideas?

*sigh*

Well, I’ve said I’d follow up on stuff on here a few times, but never did do. Well, heres time to change that tradition. Firstly, Freedom Socks! This is the new free software podcast I am doing with a friend. I’d love to know what people think of the first episode.

Also, as an update to my last post. The new fan is also being silly. Its slighly larger size means it is catching on the motherboard, so I occasionally have to nudge it a bit, to stop it catching and overheating. *sigh* Why are things always so complicated.

Well, now I’m 17, w00t. As birthday presents, I had a fsf membership and a nice gnu-friendly hp printer. The printer works out of the box, which is really great, and has really quite nice print quality too. I also got a new mouse (the old one was clicking more than one button at once) and a microphone headset, which I will hopefully be using to record a podcast.

Most of the above isn’t really blog worthy (or at least no more than the stuff I keep on not getting round to blogging), but the thing I really wanted to mention is my cake. Yep, that’s right, my Mum made me a GNU/Cake for my birthday. It really looks like a GNU, (especially the baby gnu that it is modelled after) and is also twice as high as a normal cake (yum yum).

I think GNU/Cake is the natural porgression from the tux cake I had last year. Question is, what will I have next year, a bsd daemon to complete the collection?

Okay, so we had another ADFA meeting today, although it wasn’t much of a meeting. We’re at a point know where its no point starting any campaigns since the end of the school year is so fast approaching. Annoying thing is, we’ve not really achieved much, other than a few firefox downloads and the early victory of the trial of debian pcs. But, hey, I guess its just a bad time of the year to be starting, and hopefully we can get going again in September with full force, and do something big for Software Freedom Day.

Another big bombshell was to hear that lugradio is going to stop podcasting. omg omg, how can they? those guys are so great and the show isn’t getting old at all (imo). Well, on the upside, lugradio live should be great, and will hopefully kick of a couple of new podcasts, one teenlug are planning and one me and Joe are thinking of doing.

Sooo… watch this space.

Heres an interesting thing that has croppped up a couple of times recently. Are there times when it is necessary for bad things to happen to have good in the long run. And if good is achieved through bad, how should we react to that? I guess it is kind of like the “room has to get messier to get fully tidy” paradox.

The first was with Alice (hopefully you’ll retaliate in the comments ). I was discussing how opressive our government actually was. She replied by stating the fact taht we are much better off than other places, such as China and Zimbabwe, which are both poor and oppresive. However, I pointed out that these countries had got to this point due to the immoral actings of our government upon them. The reply? You should be grateful for all of the good things that have been gained for you by war and oppression – wealth, womens rights (brought about by WWII) etc.

The second time was discussing Bill Gates and charity with someone. Although they did not bring the “bad for good” point themselves, it occured to me. After all, Bill Gates has given a lot of money to charity, yet this money has been earned by subjugating users in developed countries, and increaingly, developing countries.
One of the thing I was wondering was has Bill Gates caused net good or net bad for society (in my opinion of course). I think his contribution to computing has been undoubtably negative, due to all the use restriction. However, he has given a lot of money to geniune charity (work for combatting AIDS etc.) – but, this money has more or less exclusively been owned through taking away the freedom of computing users. Since the money has been earned this way, how can he have possibly done net good when only a fraciton of this money has been spent on charity?

I don’t think I can ever tell for sure wether the forces in either case were for net good or net bad. However, the question remains, how do I reaact to the fact that theese things have happened. As Alice points out, many of my 1st world priveleges are due to this kind of thing. But what if I was given the choice now? – if Bill Gates offered money to a charity group I ran? If there wwere no strings attached I think I would accept it. Seeing as the bad money already exists we might as well use it for something good. However, we should not be proud of the way that this money was created (as Alice seemed to be saying we should, perhaps she might clarify in the comments).

So, in the case of the Uk’s richness from force against other countries, the only remaining question is – could we have got to the point we are at now, in this amount of time, without the “bad for good” happening? Well, one of ALice’s points was that the UK has a lot of power in the global scene – we only got this through force, the UK does not have enough lands to get that much power through exports. And, in this case, I agree, the UK would not have as much power, because it should not! The UK population only makes up 1% of the world, so it shouldn’t have 10% of the power.
Also, our quality of life would probably be just as good by this point, due to money being invested in sensible ways, rahter than being used to fund agression.
Then, the question remainds, what about socially? Would we have womens rights without the war etc. This is a question I ifnd I can not answer. After all, not having agreesion means not restricting women (or slaves from African countries), in the ways that we so celebrate getting out of. So, I don’t really know. I really don’t know.

I am confused – the whole “bad for good” paradox is part of a wider issue: do we need to restrict peoples freedoms (in the way governemnt was) to ensure the freedoms of others. I really don’t know. I used to like the idea of democratic government and the welfare starte – it gave the best for all people. But, the ideal of voluntaryism sounds even better, just a bit too good to be true. I really don’t know – I really want New Hampshire to sucessfully become anarchist, just so I can see how well it really works.

Which just brings me to a little side note – am I close minded? A lot of what I say is manipulated (not malicously of course), by a particular group of people – free software advocates, especially those in #libervis on freenode, who have also made me rethink governemnt. Am I brainwashing myself, or just unbrainwashing myself? As I said above, I really do not know.

I really need to get a good notepad. I mean a real notepad – small pad of paper that will fit im my pocket. I had a few things that I was thinking about blogging – I thought of them this morning, but I’ve been out all day, and now they aren’t really coming to me.

I guess I could write some of the stuff down, but its about anarchy, and I want to read through all my older posts. (Which I cba doing now).

This whole things also make me wonder about my blog style, about whether anyone regularly reads my blog. About whether I should blog more – about how I should write down those things I want for my self. WordPress has a private post button but I don’t really like it. I have a private wiki I’ve used for a bit, but now its just notes and toedeo lists. Maybe I could do with a twitter, or a private copy of wordpress. Or maybe I should be more open – privacy is a funny thing on the interent. Anyone can read this. And, its going to hang around, already I know theres some stuff on my blog that I might mind people in the future seeing. Nothing too serious though, you just wonder.

Talking about privacy, (hmm im actually starting on the topic I had on my head), I’ve been listening to little brother. Its scary. On one level because of the terrible interogation procedures used on a kid my age. The most chilling thing though is the realness of it – I can quite imagine similar events happening – if they have not already!… most kids would be too scared to speak of it.

And, of course, it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone. I’m a criminal with dangerous views on anarchy. I know its not likely – I’m not that paranoid – but something needs to be done to stop the ever marching trampling of our rights. Whether the right way to do that is anarcy, I’m not sure, and will explore in a later post. But, one thing I know for sure – something must be done.

I’m helping push forward one fight for freedom, that on the digital frontier. But, I feel like doing that is not enough. I need to get involved in the amnesty group when it starts again after exams. Mind you, saying that, our amnesty group seems to be centered around stopping abuses by non-trusted groups – e.g. trafficing. Whilst such work is of course important, it doesn’t mean as much to me personally as work to stop the governments marching in directions that are harmful to us all.

I’m really beginning to dislike forced authority. Although, I’ve always really disliked it. I’ve never like being told what to do. I’m happy to co-operate with someone if they suggest something and it makes sense to me to do it, but something about straightforward order following really pisses me off. This is why I tried the CCF (combined cadet force at my school and hating it). I don’t like to be told what to do in that way. This isn’t to say I’m against people joining such organisations – that’s fine if they want to – just as long as I can stay away.

So, where was I? Oh, I hate authority, I really do. Not structered rules in themselves, but being forced to do them. For example, I am fine with rules at sixth form, because I have an option not to obey them, that is by quitting the xisth form. Consequently I am happy to obey rules because I know I am doing it out of my choice in return for betterment to me. I guess this is what kevin on #libervis was on about when he was talking about being personally free and yet paying taxes. I hadn’t realised that I’d felt it myself.

Oh, lost my place again. I was supposed to mention the culture of ownership blog – another example of how governments are conspiring against the “citizens” that they are supposed to protect. I had a breif glance at UK copright law. Goodness, law is confusing – but I’d really like to know what rights I actually have.

There’s a point. Surely a government is supposed to serve the people of that country. Pay taxes in return for services and a say in how stuff work. Not that I have much trust in modern democracies. All the main parties always seem to be heading the same way. Also, if this is some sort of mutual agreement, how do you get out of it!?! I’m still not convinced that an-cap can work, but I really wish there was somewhere without a government that all the people who wanted freedom could go, and the rest of the world could watch and see what happens. (Yes, I am partially stealing this idea from someone in #teenlug)

So basically, I want freedom. I want privacy. And I want to stop people trying to take that away. I really ought to do more about it, think more, act more, be more.

So, I have myself a little list of things I want to do:

• Get a notebook
• Read back through old blog posts (and wiki) for ideas and things I have not done yet
• Learn what my “rights” under UK law are with regard to copyright, and also in other areas. Maybe also look at human rights

Whoah, now that was one spontaneous blog post. I feel like I lost my thread completely at the end. Nevermind. Hopefully I’ll be able to read through all my stuff, pull my thoughts together, and decide what I really think of stuff – and what I should do about it. I like that little phrase I coined (its probably based subconciously on something else):

Think more. Act more. Be more.

Sounds like doubleplushuman, I wonder how that is progreesing. (Omg, I got so lazy I’m asking people questions throught my blog).

I end, 1000 words. (Edit: fail at that, gedit disagrees and I aciddently deleted the leading I; so much for trying to be poetic, I think that I wil leave that to Joe. Speaking of poetry…., no I must save that for later.)

Hello World

Edit: Okay, I lie, this is really my third attempt – my second was an absolute failure

This is my second attempt at a blog, hopefully this won’t fail as miserably as last time. Hopefully I’ll have stuff to blog about, that people might even find interesting, such as the couple of websites I am now webmaster of (Audenshaw Fair Trade and Audy Amnesty) any of the programming stuff I’m working on (see next post), and probably plenty of Freedomware rants.

So, all I need now is a hackergochi and some readers. I’ll get the former sorted fairly soon, as for the latter, if you’re one of them, please leave me a comment and tell me what you think.

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