Richard Stallman's Political Notes' Journal
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Saturday, December 21st, 2024
| Time |
Event |
| 10:38a |
| | 10:38a |
| | 10:38a |
Freedom status of Signal client
The Signal client's own code is free/libre, but it farms out some
activities to Google services.
Depending on what Signal uses each of those services to do,
using it might be SaaSS,
which is as subjugating to the user as locally running a nonfree program.
I don't use Signal, because it is almost impossible to make a Signal
account without having a cellular phone, so I can't. Since I can't
use Signal, I don't try to learn anything else about it. I know
almost as little about the specific Google services named in the
article — I don't have a Google account, and most of its services
require the user to run nonfree client software.
As a result, I don't know whether it is possible to get some real use
out of Signal without using the Google services listed in the article,
or whether the job each one does constitutes SaaSS.
I can correct two errors made in comments in that page: (1) free
software is a matter of freedom, not price
and (2) Android is contains nonfree components, and has contained
them since almost the beginning.
</li> | | 10:38a |
| | 10:38a |
Rainfall patterns changing
* Rainfall patterns are changing, crops are ripening earlier, and the
normal rhythms of farming have fallen off — exactly as climate
scientists warned.*
We are already encountering the next step, which is shortages of some
foods. That can lead, some years later, to mass hunger and eventually
to mass death and breakdown of society. My addition to this forecast
is the end of globalized manufacturing and the loss of all high
technology. You and the hundred people in your fortified farming
village won't be able to make ICs or solar cells, thus soon
no computers and no electricity.
You won't even be able to keep the local all-devouring weeb from
taking the land away from you.
Sure, you could cut it and uproot it in any particular small area.
However, doing that in a large area will take too much work,
especially when the only power available is muscle power.
</li> | | 10:38a |
| | 10:38a |
Mangione's political views
Mangione's political views are a mixture of right-wing and left-wing,
and he has crystallized hatred of US medical deinsurance companies among
both sides.
Right-wing leaders are trying to attach that to "wokism", but it
doesn't stick.
In fact, most Deinsurance in Congress and most Republicans in Congress
are plutocratists, and that goes double for the wrecker. If you want
to find an official, or candidate who seeks to put an end to medical
deinsurance, you'll find that progressive Democrats stand for this.
I've said that Biden is 1/3 progressive. He has a history of trying
to reduce medical deinsurance, but he did not push to go all the way
by instituting a universal medical system.
</li> | | 10:38a |
| | 10:38a |
| | 10:38a |
| | 10:38a |
Urgent: Seeking speaking invitations
I'm looking for speaking invitations for a trip in January and
February that will include some part of Europe, then India, then some
other part of Europe.
The first visit to Europe will be roughly Jan 16 to 22. The visit to
India will start Jan 22 and can continue into February. The second
visit to Europe will be after that. Those dates are flexible.
One advantage of this period for you is that the intercontinental
flights are already covered, so you won't need to pay for that.
If you are interested in inviting me, and you have a venue to use and
a public to invite, please email me soon with "speaking invitation" in
the Subject field, using the name rms and the host gnu dot org.
</li> |
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