Open Source

Diebold Variations --because America's democracy is not open source

Thanks to dana boyd, the high priestess of social networking, I found this wonderful site with some frighteningly real parody ads of Deibold, one of the two companies in the country that manufacture electronic voting machines --and which may have won the Republicans 8 years of elections.

Rand Creaga writes:

I came into possession of the image of Stalin casting a vote, and wondered what the ghastly old fellow might have made of the new touchscreen voting technology. A magazine ad suggested itself, and then another, and another... They're arranged here in the order conceived; after two days inspiration

This site would make Brad Friedman, the blogosphere's anti-Diebold crusader, a very happy man.

Enjoy.

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Freedom of expression, freedom of the press and freedom to internet : That's what net neutrality is all about

And Ask A Ninja makes it effing hilarious to understand.

[via YouTube - Ask a Ninja: Special Delivery 4: Net Neutrality]

Doesn't he sound like Strongbad?

Now back to net neutrality.

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Intellectual Property Law, a recipe for genocide

Intellectual Property Rights block technology transfer and TRIPS (trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights) promote monopolies on seeds and medicines and piracy of Third World biodiversity and indigenous knowledge.

That is why we had to fight WR Grace and USDA to revoke the Neem Patent, we had to fight Ricetec to prevent them claiming our basmati as their invention. And we have successfully fought

The rules of The World Trade Organization were designed to impoverish poor people and poor countries, transform their biodiversity and water commons into corporate property so that seed multi-national corporations like Monsanto could sell us our seeds for $1 tr. per year and water giants like Suez and Bechtel could sell us our water for another trillion. And the free trade rules of agriculture are robbing Indian peasants of $1 trillion per year through falling prices because of $400 billion subsidies in rich countries distorting trade by distorting prices.

This is not just a recipe for poverty, it is a recipe for genocide. In the free trade world that Bhagwati upholds, peasants sell kidneys to pay debt for poisons, displaced rural women sell their bodies to feed their children, hospitals become centers of organ theft, and India which sold the finest fabrics and tastiest spices to the world becomes the dumping ground for the toxic wste of 9/11 and the exploded and unexploded shells from the war in Afganistan and Iraq.

Free trade is becoming a mechanism to take our wealth, our biodiversity, our minerals, our brains and give us trash and toxic in exchange. It is an exchange of "bads" for "goods". This is not comparative advantage, it is loot. Which is why we say, "Our World is not for sale".

— Vandana Shiva, ecofeminist activist
ZNet Commentary: An Attack On People's Movements

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This is the funniest anti-Microsoft campaign ever

Via BoingBoing.

This is one very funny and smart viral marketing campaign. SEE PEOPLE HOW IT'S DONE? I like this so much that I can't decide which of the 13 reasons to switch is the best. Still, I think that #4 takes the prize for most 'truth in tongue'

4. Mozilla doesn't inflate prices and use the money to vaccinate children in Africa.
Uhh... wait a second. Maybe Microsoft's monopoly hasn't been all bad. Better donate to Oxfam. Seriously, you should.

while #5 is just plain funny.

5. If we knew web designers would hurl themselves off it, we wouldn't have put the Golden Gate bridge so close to San Francisco.

Every year, hundreds of web designers take their own lives rather than continue the hopeless struggle of making their websites IE compatible. Is that what you really want?? Dead web designers????? Cause that's what you're going to get!!!!!! See if I care!!!!!!!!!!

For all you little younglings, there was a time when putting browser sniffers on your web pages was a big web standards no-no with Zeldman's of the world frowning down on mere web design mortals who could not slap that bitch into non-tabled CSS validation.

Well, we are at war in more ways than one in this country. Open-source vs. Proprietary is turning into a huge war waged not only in technology but in politics and more so government. Look at the indictments and the impending call for impeachment of Cheney and then Bush.

Transparency, cooperation and open development are going to be huge in 2008. And people will ask the same transparency and democratic reliability with their software.

ps : You can tell I've been dealing with browser hell, can you?
ps2 : I am definitely joining in the Explorer Destroyer campaign.