RMS, Aaron Swartz Among 2013 Internet Hall of Fame Inductees 118
gnujoshua writes "The Internet Hall of Fame inducted 32 new members, today. This years class had a number of 'policy innovators' and activists including Aaron Swartz (posthumous), John Perry Barlow, Jimmy Wales, and Richard M. Stallman. Stallman had this to say upon his induction: 'Now that we have made the Internet work, the next task is to stop it from being a platform for massive surveillance, and make it work in a way that respects human rights, including privacy.'"
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I bet you never even sailed on the RMS Aaron Swartz, did you?
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The only thing that can sink the RMS Aaron Swartz is Aaron Swartz himself!
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Hey, at least that ship lasted longer than the Itanic!
RMS named (Score:4, Insightful)
I think the world is actually finally reaching a more dire version of the 2010 panel of this xkcd: https://xkcd.com/743/ [xkcd.com]
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It was reached a long time ago, but we're finally starting to realize it. Where are all the smug "chicken little" accusations now?
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Re:RMS named (Score:5, Insightful)
How to you know that Microsoft Word doesn't spy on you? Do you have the source code?
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Let me ask you this: how do you know that God doesn't exist? It's a stupid question because it's very difficult to proof the lack of an existence of something. Rather, the appropriate way to phrase the question is simply: how do you know that God exists? You have to prove your case, not get others to disprove it.
Likewise: how do you know that Microsoft Word is spying on you? The burden of proof is on you to show this is happening. You make the point tha
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Because it's trivial to detect outbound data transfer.
Seriously it's like the same argument with Microsoft using Kinect in the new XBox to spy on you - you think people wouldn't be able to detect a video/audio stream sent from their console? You think you can make this kind of data transfer magically invisible on the network?
You may not control the software, you may not even control the hardware, but most people control the equipment those things have to pass through to get to their destinations. Even if th
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GNU/Internet now?
... only the segment that orbits RMS.
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Just make sure that you don't connect non-GPL parts of the Internet to the GPL parts and you'll be fine.
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Re: So do we have to call the Internet (Score:1)
Word is that RMS has graduated from eating toe jam to eating boogers. Good for him. Good for him.
Internet Hall of Fame? (Score:1)
What is this? Is this seriously a thing now? Who gave the people in charge the authority for this? Or is it just another group of old white guys sitting around congratulating themselves on being rich?
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That's progressive, activist, old white guys. Thanks.
In short, it's old hippies who don't see the irony.
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Yes it is [merriam-webster.com]. Induced doesn't mean what you think it means [merriam-webster.com].
RMS and unintended outcomes (Score:4, Interesting)
>Stallman had this to say upon his induction: 'Now that we have made the Internet work, the next task is to stop it from being a platform for massive surveillance, and make it work in a way that respects human rights, including privacy.'"
In retrospect, it would have been neat to have written that kind of thing into the GPL (the spooks would have run Windows servers instead, and our privacy would be safe if we used anything more complex than ROT13).
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The GPL would somehow stop the NSA?
Not seeing it.
Re:RMS and unintended outcomes (Score:4, Insightful)
and our privacy would be safe if we used anything more complex than ROT13)
I like the naieve implication that the NSA is somehow incompetent. Recall that the original AES spec was amended with a recommendation from the NSA which was determined, around 10 years later, to have substantially strengthened it against just-now-being-discovered cryptographic attacks. Recall that the NSA is largely responsible for SELinux.
Im sure there are other examples of their competence which escape it, but needless to say they arent exactly bumbling; theres every indication that some of the best security folks in the industry work @ the NSA.
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That's not what I was implying.
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SELinux is great. Configuring it could be somewhat easier.
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Qubes OS is a heck of a lot stronger and less fuss than SELinux. Anything that is not using hardware VM features to keep apps and services from misbehaving is looking pretty outmoded, IMO.
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Yet their dirty secrets were spread far and wide by Edward Snowden, and that's the reality.
They no doubt do have some absolute geniuses working for them but it only takes one bumbling manager to fuck it all up by saying something they shouldn't, or by mandating that their secrets should be accessible way beyond sensible levels of security. The fact a low level contractor at a 3rd party company had so much access to NSA secrets is evidence of that.
Security is always limited by the weakest link and it's no di
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Even the FSF says the GNU AGPL [gnu.org] addresses some, but not all [gnu.org], of their issues with software run over a network—best to just roll your own versions of the cloud stuff on your compy if you really give a fuck about not being mined and mailed out.
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The GPL would stop government spooks trained in illegal activities from doing illegal spooky stuff? I had not realized the superpower that GPL had.
Listen here. (Score:2)
Good. Is everybody now aware of the difference between warrantless, untracked government surveillance, and Amazon putting you into a list of potential Depends buyers?
You lost me at Jimmy Wales. Where is Larry Sanger? (Score:2)
Jimmy Wales
Fueled the user collaboration and sharing trend as founder of Wikipedia
Uh, what the hell?
RMS is a hero in my eyes (again) (Score:4, Insightful)
In my idealistic youth, I thought of him as a programming God.
As I grew older, I began regarding him as more of a cranky old, "get off my lawn", impractical hard liner.
Now, with the whole NSA/Snowden revelations, I realize I was wrong to be complacent. He has reverted to deity status for me.
Re:RMS is a hero in my eyes (again) (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm not sure what you think has changed. Unless you didn't already realize the NSA was doing this unlike the other 95% of the population did.
We knew it already and still ignored him, because in the end, no one cares. They *say* they care, but they don't.
In fact, at this point, I'd put even money on the assertion that the only reason anyone is even talking about this is because the media is telling us to care about it. You know, it's sort of like Jim Carrey figuring out he didn't like violence AFTER Newtown, but somehow having amnesia about Columbine, Virginia Tech, and well... just about every other act of violence before that.
Were you wrong to be complacent? Maybe. Did *this* make you wrong? I don't see why it would. As far as can be told, other than finding out some details, you're still living in the same world you were complacent about a couple of months ago.
I'm already working to figure out how many weeks it will be after Snowden is either caught, or safely in Ecuador, before everyone stops caring again.
Re:RMS is a hero in my eyes (again) (Score:5, Interesting)
In fact, at this point, I'd put even money on the assertion that the only reason anyone is even talking about this is because the media is telling us to care about it.
Really? The coverage I have seen is focused almost exclusively on "the hunt for Eric Snowden" and takes very little time to discuss the substantive issues raised by his revelations--chiefly that most of our privacy has been a facade for the better part of a decade. I was never that cynical before this, so congratulations for being the first ones to believe something was amiss.
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They've spent a fair amount of time looking at those implications already, I'd say. That they have moved on to the "action movie" drama that is unfolding only makes perfect sense for the news media.
I still am shocked to find people who believe that there was some sort of privacy "facade" out there. Don't you guys know what the capabilities of the NSA are? Have we not already heard of things like tapping Soviet undersea cables, ECHELON, and other fun toys?
Nothing has changed with this admission if you've
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Nothing has changed with this admission if you've been paying attention for the last twenty years or longer. They've always had the ability to spy on us. The fact that no one has actually shown that this has been abused in any way leads me to wonder how anyone, on sober reflection, could believe anything has changed at all.
Suspicion-free spying on every American doesn't count as "Abuse" in your book? What would they have to do to actually abuse their power based on your definition?
Prior to this the facade of "innocent until proven guilty" and "the 4th Amendment" still applying existed. Just because they had the capability to spy on us didn't automatically mean they were--only a paranoid nutter believes everybody is out to get them without any actual evidence that they are. Ironically, it seems that, in fact, by shutting down
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To be fair the BBC at least has had a number of articles such as "What could they know about me?" and that sort of thing so it's not all media outlets that have been ignoring the questions the revelation raises.
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Its possible for a fanatic with no perspective to make good points. Hes still living in his own little world where all software should be created by publicly supported, roaming gypsy programmers.
FOSS can be valuable, useful, and desirable without it being necessary (or even desirable) that it be the only option.
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Reach for the stars - hit the moon
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Stallman (Score:2)
Not that I agree completely with him on many topics, the idea about stopping the Internet from being a massive surveillance mechanism seems like a good idea...
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Why Aaron Swartz? (Score:2, Insightful)
I hate to do this, but I have to question the inclusion of Aaron Swartz.
Yes, what happened to the young man is a tragedy. But a 'Hall of Fame' should be for people with actual accomplishments. All Swartz did was get himself into trouble, and instead of enduring his legal difficulties he decided to commit suicide. That's a symbol of cowardice, not heroism.
Should naive activists who are cowardly in the face of oppression be considered for any Hall of Fame?
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Should naive commentators who are anonymously cowardly in the face of Slashdot be considered for any mod points?
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Apparently Slashdot isn't your personal fiefdom, so the answer is: yes.
Re:Why Aaron Swartz? (Score:4, Insightful)
1. The guy had depression. You don't fuck with depression. The government did, until he could finally take no more. If you knew fucking *anything* about depression, then you might have even the slightest clue of how he must have felt. Hint: It's not a happy feeling.
2. Yes, he got into trouble with a ridiculous federal law, and was made an example of by people in power who were had more greed than anything, wanting to utterly destroy his life just for a bit of fame and fortune on their end. In the end, their plan backfired--and deservedly so.
3. Enduring his legal difficulties? I'm pretty sure just before his suicide *ALL* hope for a reduced prison sentence was thrown out the window in Ortiz's infinite wisdom, meaning "enduring his legal difficulties" would be "stuck behind bars for 35 years or so." He hung in there for a couple years until the U.S. removed all hope.
4. The whole treatment the government gave him opened the eyes of a lot of people on the corrupt joke of the U.S. "justice" system, and in the end he has done the world a service on that alone. Changes are still likely to come, thanks to him.
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What? My shitty schools always applauded everything about this country. I refuse to buy into all of it, because frankly, a lot of it is pure horseshit. Just blind patriotism. I can see where the U.S. does things great, but I am most definitely not blind to all the things they fail miserably at. I am not blind to the corruption in government that keeps getting unraveled.
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I don't know when or where you grew up, but in no way do schools push patriotism today. They stopped doing that in the 1980s. Most of the teachers I had were more likely to be in a peace march than extolling the virtues of America and patriotism.
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Funny, I was born in '85 and *all* of my schools pushed patriotism every chance they could get throughout the 90s and early 2000s. I just learned not to believe all the bullshit they spewed, and to use my head to form my own conclusions from the facts. Same with all the anti-drug propaganda they pushed, those retarded DARE and MADD presentations... a few of which I just said "fuck this shit" and took off out of the school. Yeah, that wasn't allowed, but they can suck it.
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And if being in a peace march is patriotic? Loving one's country means more than being willing to kill for it.
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Care to cite?
"Last month, less than three months before his criminal trial was set to begin, Ortiz's office formally rejected a deal that would have kept Swartz out of prison. Two days later, Swartz killed himself."
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57570635-38/u.s-attorney-criticism-of-aaron-swartz-prosecution-is-unfair/ [cnet.com]
Didn't think so.
Not so fast. Can't I even get a chance to respond, dipshit?
Just another fanboy martyr is all he was. The Cult Aaron Swartz... just another fanboy brigade who will chant his name any time IP is ever mentioned again.
Nope, I guess not. You're just trolling.
Re:Why Aaron Swartz? (Score:4, Informative)
Swartz was involved in the development of the web feed format RSS, the organization Creative Commons, the website framework web.py and the social news site Reddit
This is just from the summary that doesn't fully capture the range of his contributions, so you might want to read some more [wikipedia.org].
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Yeah, the inclusion of Swartz shows you right there this is a political game. They want to make a statement. I guess all of these judged honors are political to some extent, but this is clearly on the "highly political" end.
I think it's unfortunate because it might give other young people the incentive to follow Swartz's example. It was a terrible precedent and it's irresponsible for adults to reward that behavior. Aaron Swartz died for what... so people won't have to pay for what seems to be inflated s
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Best way to get notice: die of something before you get old enough to grow up and stop making pointless demonstrations. That way you never have to deal with the possibility that people will catch on to the fact that your petulant little crusade is all you've got.
What a sham (Score:1)
How can they expect to be taken seriously as an institution when they have repeatedly denied membership to internet pioneers such as Goatse Man and Ceiling Cat? And their refusal to adopt "You're the man now, dog" as their slogan is outrageous.
Get your privacy back! (Score:1)
Some things never change, Slashdot (Score:2, Insightful)
I've got mod points today, and I figured that a good use of them would be beating the Stallmanite trolls into submission, who I knew would be infesting this thread. Unfortunately, there are far too many of them to be stopped by a measly five points.
The vitriol directed towards Aaron Swartz, additionally, is nothing short of disgusting. Until someone is able to offer me concrete proof to the contrary, I am going to continue to believe that Swartz was the victim of assassination by the American government.
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They've started doing that around here, now? I've been gone for a while. Given how fascist everything is getting everywhere else, it would be consistent.
Who are these people? (Score:1)
Did I understand this correctly? RMS, Wales and Barlow has got in recently, so they are less famous then some guys have already been inducted, but I don't know any of them. Self appointed hall of fame?
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Re:A Plead from Jimmy Wales (Score:4, Interesting)
http://xkcd.com/978/ [xkcd.com]
The problem is that they want everything to be backed up by a verifiable source, and fails to enforce it. You either allow everyone to edit, or you follow established scientific procedures. Wikipedia does something in between, leaving both sides unhappy with it.
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Wikipedia does something in between, leaving both sides unhappy with it.
You can't please everyone all the time, but Wikipedia does a damn good job at pleasing a lot of people.
Re:A Plead from Jimmy Wales (Score:5, Funny)
Expect a crazy video to soon follow from John McAfee, detailing how the Illuminati stopped him from getting in.
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He's already in his alternate "Free-Thinking Hall of Fame", sponsored by the letter B as in "bath salts".
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So edgy.
So hard-lined!
You really stuck it to that dead guy! Go hog wild!
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Microsoft is integrating Git in Visual Studio [msdn.com]. It starts small but you'll see, soon all they do will be open.