Jul 302009
 
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Don’t ask me why but this remains my single all-time favorite Terry Pratchett line, as it graces the pages of Guards Guards (which is one of my favorite books). It is just one of those metaphors that is absolutely clear in meaning, can be visualized  with absolute (if disturbing) clarity – and image that burns the synapses… and would have made you want to gouge out your brain if you weren’t laughing so loudly.

Well, actually you can ask me why because I think I just explained it. :)

And that is how I believe one should approach life. All in, all out, rage against the machine, try everything and experience more, learn and grow and never give up and chase your dreams… with all the stopping power of… oh you know the rest.

Jul 282009
 
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I have given some thought about who the gothbusters might be and what they may look like. First I pictured a couple of fundamentalist preachers from the American Midwest, but it lacked a certain something. Perhaps a couple of bearded Virginian founding-father types ?
Finally it hit me. Gothbusters would make the perfect theme for the next season of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.


GOTHBUSTERS

If there’s scary teens
in your neighborhood
Who ya gonna call?
GOTHBUSTERS

If they dress all weird
and it don’t look good
Who ya gonna call?
GOTHBUSTERS

I ain’t afraid of no goths
I ain’t afraid of no goths

If they wear black make-up
on a shiny white base
Who can ya call?
GOTHBUSTERS

Prosthetic vampire teeth
sticking outa his face ?
Who ya gonna call?
GOTHBUSTERS

I ain’t afraid of no goths
I ain’t afraid of no goths

Who ya gonna call?
GOTHBUSTERS

When the girl next door
hits puberty
Then it’s time to call
GOTHBUSTERS

I ain’t afraid of no goths
Boys do it to get girls
I ain’t afraid of no goth
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah

Who ya gonna call?
GOTHBUSTERS

If she wears black lace
like a freaky lady
Ya better call
GOTHBUSTERS

Lemme tell ya something
Bustin’ makes me feel good!

I ain’t afraid of no goths
I ain’t afraid of no goths

Don’t get caught alone no no

GOTHBUSTERS

When the boy next door
looks like a dockside whore
I think you better call
GOTHBUSTERS

Who ya gonna call?
GOTHBUSTERS

Who ya gonna call?
GOTHBUSTERS

I think you better call
GOTHBUSTERS

Who ya gonna call?
GOTHBUSTERS

I can’t hear you
Who ya gonna call?
GOTHBUSTERS

Louder
GOTHBUSTERS

Who ya gonna call?
GOTHBUSTERS

Who can ya call?
GOTHBUSTERS

Who ya gonna call?
GOTHBUSTERS

Jul 272009
 
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I can’t lie anymore. My parents were ABBA fans, I was raised on the music even though I could not understand the words for most of my childhood (and when I did learn English, there was still a lot I didn’t understand, today of course I understand it all – and also exactly why I didn’t understand it then).

This band was poppy and lacked any kind of edge, but there was some kind of depth to their lyrics, and I hate them, but as Terry Pratchett keeps telling us, hate is an attractive force… I guess I have learned that I don’t loathe them.

I first rented the movie a while ago -more out of a macabre curiosity than anything else… and found to my shock that I enjoyed it… since then I’ve watched it several times… it’s a great date-night movie… but it’s so damn tacky, I mean what’s next “The Steve Hofmeyr story” ?

I can’t decide if my sudden reliking of ABBA means anything… Is just just nostalgia for my childhood ? Coupled with a fear of growing old, a fear of slowly dying (dangit stop quoting them !) ?
Does it mean I’m gay ? Actually scratch that one, I use it to seduce women so I think it’s definitely not that…
Or should I just check into rehab right now ?

You know what ? I think it’s something of nostalgia, couple with a strange appeal to the hopeless romantic hiding behind my hardcore facade, and maybe there’s nothing wrong with a little ABBA in moderation ? Provided I otherwise fill my ear canal’s with healthy music like Manson, Metallica and Manowar ? Look Ma’ I can alliterate!

Or maybe I should just admit that I have brought shame and dishonor on myself and my ancestors, and all who proudly bear the uniform of leather and the trappings of rage while screaming defiance at the world on heavy metal stages … and commit sepuku…

Much like Steve’s sexuality, the answer remains a mystery even to myself, so I think I’ll hold back on the ritual suicide until I’ve at least made up my mind. In the meantime, if you buy me a copy of Huisgenoot I will STILL beat you to death with it… May I never sink that low.

Jul 272009
 
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This morning I got linked to Umair Hague’s Generation M Manifesto which I read, along with some of the responses, including this rebuttal.

The sad truth is, they both completely missed the point, but the rebuttal writer missed it worst of all. I was seriously pissed off by this bit in particular:
“Umair, it isn’t about us – it’s about the world as a whole, and there are millions of other people beyond the boundaries of these United States who won’t cooperate with you and your manifesto, and I challenge you to change THEM… because no matter how many of US you change, you will still face the masses of THEM – who are not willing to change. Their manifesto is one of me first – something you accuse us of.”

Man, oh man… Lady, you are totally out of whack, then again – your blog is called lipsticking… perhaps you are a Sarah Palin fan… you sure sound like her. Europe has a far more socially-cohesive and community-built society than the US does (in fact – the most common economic system there is far more socialist than capitalist) and the rest of the world, us poor slobs in the developing world – we are just trying to scrape by without starving !

Where the hell are are these Non-American’s with their me-first attitudes ? American’s are the ones who confused individualism (a good thing) with selfish-greed (a bad thing) – the rest of us have been laughing about it (when we weren’t crying because of it) for years !

She’s right though – we do need a global solution to a lot of problems, but Omair’s solution isn’t it. Sure the companies he cites are better than most of the others – but they aren’t making things better, they are merely failing to make things worse.

Let’s do one of my favorite hobbies here, let’s learn from history. In the 19th century, something happened in England called the Industrial Revolution. Steal replaced wood, factories sprang up everywhere and urbanization reached the highest levels in human history as people flocked to the cities to work in these factories. That was as far as the good bit went. The factories were staffed by poor people without education, who then sent their children to work to supplement their income to something approaching a living wage.
This sort of backfired because what they achieved was the highest child mortality rate in human history. 90% of all children died younger than age ten in those years, not even the black plague could manage that ! So it was more a dying wage.

It took about one-hundred years, a couple of class wars and Charles Dickinson’s books to change it – labour laws came into being. They restricted child labor to only a few special-case exceptions and even then under strict limitations. They restricted the amount of hours a person could be allowed to work. They set minimum wages and minimum holiday periods.

In short, the governments were facing revolt and pandemic and forced to realize that industry was not useful unless the wealth was at least somewhat shared – something that clearly wasn’t going to happen unless it was forced by law.

So where are we today – in the last thirty years or so, all that good work has been undone. The age of globalization made it practical to go build factories in poor nations where these essential laws do not exist. Most big name brands of products – everything from ipods to nike’s are today, the result of sweat-shop labour.

In many cases, it’s sweat-shop child-labour.

This is not improving the wealth of the nations in which the sweatshops are built despite the claims of the corporations to the contrary. The same industrial revolution exploitation and mass-murder is happening today- the only difference is, now it’s happening far away.
And those people who do have labour laws protecting them ? Well that’s useless because their jobs are being outsourced.

In short, the gap between rich and poor is just widening, and nobody is doing it any better. Not buying sweatshop goods isn’t just about protecting children in China from exploitation – it’s securing your own future.

What we really need is to get the kind of momentum where we can essentially force the U.N. to make basic labor laws and human rights protection a requirement for recognition as a state, and their absense a cause for intervention – with military intervention being a last but sadly needed resort.

If we ever want to live in a peaceful world where at least nobody is starving to death tonight… we need to stop allowing greedy people to get away with making a world where that isn’t possible.
Think sanctions and the threat of war with China will cause world war three ? Think we can’t dare to tell them to enact proper labor laws ? Well what do you think will happen when all that unrest from opresion brewing in China today finally boils over ? When those protesters finally get driven to revolution ?
We’ll end up with the most populous nation in the world: led by a revolutionary government.

Do you want them to think of us as friends ? Or as the bastards who didn’t do anything to help ?

Better economics, seeking after quality and substance -these are noble things that Omair seeks, but they won’t make a difference – the only way to stop the collapse we’re seeing in the world today is to do something we have always skirted around and never really done: to finally start putting people before profits.

Jul 232009
 
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I had, as you may have noticed, a very rough week. I saw a massive argument break out – the worst ever, in a community I always thought of as my home. I saw people whom I would have liked to be friends with judge me uninformed and then stick to those judgements without bothering to check them against the facts, all this while work was even more stressfull than normal and I was dealing with issues with my ex-wife causing even more undue stress and unhappiness.

Anita deserves a special mention here, she reminded me daily that I am not as bad as some people made me out to be- that there are those who respect and appreciate me for who I am.
This post is one of the most personal posts I have ever done, and it’s purpose is simply this: to say thank you to my best friends, to the people who helped me survive my divorce and who are always there for me when I need them – and who know I am there for them if they need me.
I am sure I’ll be leaving somebody out – but that is no excuse not to try – so to anybody I may have momentarily overlooked – I know you’re out there, every single person who ever said to me “if you need to talk, I will listen”. This list is in no particular order, I’m just writing down as they come.

To Arno Breedt (camera_obscura):
You are the best friend I have, and ever had. The one friend who has always understood me, shared my passions and understood my frustrations. The one who showed me how to find the joy in life, even when it’s going rough.

To Lara Pietersen:
From the first time we met – you were one of the few people who actually laughed at my jokes. You supported me in hard times more than once, gave me some of the best advice I ever got. You are the best listener I know – and your passion for your beliefs frequently put mine to shame, indeed you are the one who – every time we speak – remind me that all my activism isn’t enough. The world needs more people like you.

To Christel Breedt:
You taught me how to relax and live out my true self without fear. You taught me how to value myself, and something of how to love others that I can’t define. You are the mother hen under whose wings I have weathered too many storms.

To Dallace Rickson-Jolly:
When I had given up on love and trust and ever believing in another human being again – you were the one who promised me that the pain would pass, that healing would come – and I would love again. Even though I was afraid to believe you then, I wanted to, you gave me hope when I was too scared to admit it – and with a knowing smile, waited until you were proven right. Your sense of humor has on many occasions been the happiest moment of an otherwise dreary day.

To Chris Price:
We’ve known each other for nearly a decade now. Shared highs and lows. I think we learned something about being true to yourself from one another. Something about honesty and not taking any shit from anybody.

To Daniel Pisanu:
For as long as I’ve known you, whatever ventures I have embarked on – while many turned their noses up and doubted their potential: you bro were always the one whose only response was “How can I help ?”. Your always offered hands have helped many a vision become reality in my life, and more than that – you have always been the one person whose sense of humor was even worse than mine, and made me laugh in ways and at times when I thought it was impossible.

To Fernanda Weiden:
What an odd friendship we have. We met so many years ago I can’t remember exactly how many – and we’ve only seen each other once since then. Yet through all this time, we would keep contact, at random times we would message each other and always we could talk – like we’d seen each other only yesterday. We damn well have to make a plan for that visit soon – I still owe you a beer.

To Tammy Soldaat:
You taught me that I am not ugly, in a very real way. You taught me that I could in fact flirt well, and it’s become practically a defining quality of me – you gave me the confidence to do that. If I had heeded your warnings long ago – my life may have skipped a very painful chapter, but when the dust settled – there you were, ready to stand by me again.

To everyone I didn’t name:
You know who you are, you know how much I appreciate who you are and you know I don’t deserve you.

To all my friends:
Thank you all, for always being there for me. Thank you all for knowing me and understanding me and never asking me to be anybody but myself, and thank you for always letting me be there for you too.

Jul 222009
 
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So Nietszche had a change that I knew I would get some comment on. The switch to the linux-libre kernel which in turn would mean that non-free firmware no longer works. About 99% of the real impact of this would be exclusively on wireless cards. Sure some motherboard extensions would lose features but these are power-user features anyway and wouldn’t really be noticed by desktop users. Very few other drivers have this problem, and again, most of them are not really noticeable by end-users in the first place.

But what about the wifi cards ? Right now the list of supported cards if you use a free distro is really not huge, though it’s interesting to see it’s growth compared to just a short period ago. This growth can be largely credited to the free distros’ refusal to include their non-free firmware, and since a large part of the market for wifi is embedded Linux* devices (like ADSL routers) having linux support without issues is a big market opportunity, this is one set of hardware manufacturers for whom Linux support is crucial.
It’s not so much an issue for the card manufacturers – from their point of view, we’re still a tiny minority, but the chipset makers sat up and took notice. Hence the sudden support by companies like Atheros and Broadcom over the past year or so with GPL’d firmware and drivers appearing.

But what about those users who have cards that worked with non-free firmware ? Cards that would have worked with Sophocles but won’t work with Nietszche ? I was concerned about it – but I couldn’t back down from the philosophical issues at stake so I prepared myself for a lot of patient explaining and perhaps losing some users.

What a pleasant surprise I had. Only a few users actually posted bug reports about this, which by itself is an indication that much of our userbase has been using free-software friendly devices in the first place, but the nice thing was the ones who didn’t.

In each case, I would calmly and without malice explain why this card doesn’t work. I would indicate why it’s important to support those manufacturers who work with us, rather than selling out our freedom to those who don’t (and thus removing their motivation to ever provide free drivers). I would then state that while the user has the option to replace the kernel with a non-free one, and I couldn’t stop them from doing that any more than any other piece of non-free software. I would say that it wouldn’t even be that hard since our linux-libre kernel configuration works with the non-free kernel as well so there is no need to configure it.

Then I would say – but it would really be better to rather buy a wifi card or usb wifi that can work with free software.
Virtually every single one of them responded: “I think I’ll rather buy a new wifi card – can you make a recomendation ?”
I would then link them to the above list, and mention that I had, personally, had very good results with Atheros cards.

This is the big thing – most distro’s have been to scared to stick to their guns on this issue, even Debian was – yet it seems that from Kongoni’s experience here, there is no issue – the users once they understood the issue, almost without exception, decided that the low cost associated with wifi device these days was a small price to pay to support freedom, that this freedom was worth more to them than a bit of convenience and a little bit of cash.

Now it is perhaps also true that my sample is skewed, most of our users came expecting a fully free system so they may include more people who are more open to the idea in the first place than say, Debian’s user base. Furthermore, our userbase compared to Debian’s is still very small, so our sample-size is not very big either.
If Debian or Ubuntu does the same, likely – there would be quite a lot of users who would complain. Especially from the open-source crowd who don’t care about freedom in the first place. This may have an even bigger impact on Ubuntu than Debian. Ubuntu is often a first-timers distro, it’s harder to explain this to a first-time user without making him feel it’s just not worth it (perhaps), but Debian, like Kongoni is mostly used by people who have more experience, that would suggest people not very likely to go back to windows.

I’m confident on this one, people may have trouble switching, but I have hardly ever heard of somebody who having switched wouldn’t need to be dragged kicking and screaming back to windows.

Our users would really rather buy another wifi card than to not run their preferred distribution of their preferred operating system. So my challenge to Debian is to be true to their own ethos, strip out the non-free firmware entirely. Sure some people will complain, probably more than in our case but they are not that many, and I promise you most of them will in the end rather spend a little money on a supported wifi card than to lose out on Debian. Your user loyalty is legendary, if our users would do it for Kongoni, there is no way yours won’t do it for you.

*In this case I am referring specifically to the kernel, not the whole OS – hence I used the word Linux, not GNU/Linux.

Jul 212009
 
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My parody post on sexism was done without my being aware of the current polemic about RMS’s keynote joke, but got dragged into it, and thus forced me to read up on what happened and ask this question myself.

I have at times spoken at length with several female FOSS activists such as Fernanda Weiden about their perceptions and while I have heard them say that the FOSS community is not always welcoming to women, that they often feel excluded and out of place – I have never before heard them complain it was actually sexist.

But now the question has been raised, we as a community have to answer to it. For starters, lets break down the question then. Are there sexist elements in our community ? Absolutely and without question, you will be hard-pressed to find any community of this size in which any particular belief however stupid is not represented. Political philosophies in this community range from extreme liberationists to socialist and everything in between and off to the sides – no doubt there are some sexists in there.

I won’t use the word male-dominated because “dominated” has enormous and in this case largely false connotations – but it is true that in the vast majority of the world the IT sector is largely filled by men, and that in the FOSS sector this discrepancy is worse. There are exceptions of course, in Malaysia the trend is reversed, more than 90% of IT workers are female and it is seen as a traditionally female job – boys are expected to do manly work like becoming policemen.

So that suggests, that there is a strong cultural influence on this. I have also always believed that FOSS community has a unique culture that is significantly more progressive than most. It’s a universal culture for starters – not one you enter by birth but by choice, and we never ask what country you came from, what color you are or even what your sexual orientation is. Most of our interaction happen in a sphere where this is invisible and we wouldn’t care if we did know. I have on occasion seen when stories were posted about FOSS projects in or from Africa that some commenters made racist remarks about the idea of computers in Africa.

Such elements exist, but I don’t think they represent our culture. In the same way our culture includes some sexists, but I don’t think that is typical either, and I don’t think RMS is a sexist, quite the contrary, his opinions on equality and his track record in promoting it proves he has no sexist ideas. He does have a very open and liberal approach to sex, but if anything that is in fact supportive of a large section of the feminist movement. Mentioning sex in mixed company is
most certainly not anti-feminism, doing it during a parody as far as I’m concerned is automatically critical of the idea about it you are presenting.
If anything then, his cult of the virgin mary joke was a feminist statement ! He was mocking the chauvinism that is a prevalent aspect of Catholic history…

But that’s one example – currently in the news, I’m trying to look at the bigger picture .I think sexism is a minority thinking in our community – but what about the other question – is the FOSS community unwelcoming to women ?

Actually no, I don’t think so. It isn’t unwelcoming to anybody – but it’s not particularly welcoming either. It’s a strongly meritocratic culture where one earns your position and respect through achievement. Anybody who can live up to that, will find themselves welcomed – but the community won’t make any particular effort to pull you in or adjust to you. We’re a community of strong minded individualists bound together by mutual self-interest – and we respect people for their
contributions.

I don’t know any single decent programmer who is not in awe of Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper – for their achievements they retain a demigod stature in our community equivalent to that of an RMS or a Linus Torvalds – but they played by our rules. Their equals are out there, and true they are still a minority but it is growing.

The problem right now with women in FOSS I believe is a circular one, there aren’t many women there, so new joinees feel singled out, so there aren’t many new joinees and some of them leave again, and the cycle repeats. Slowly it is changing, eventually I believe we’ll see a much fairer representation of women in FOSS than we do now, ultimately I expect it will be fairer than in the rest of I.T. because we are so open to individual ideas and reasoning. Furthermore because we judge by merit and merit alone – women will find that our community has far fewer glass ceilings than the rest of I.T. does, particularly corporate I.T.

This will also change the culture I believe, and I accept that. We have always been a culture that was happy to make fun of things, anybody, anything. This has been a cornerstone of our culture for years, and it’s interesting that in that “anybody anything” we include ourselves. Nobody makes more jokes about the false stereotype of the “nerdy men who can’t talk to girls” than we ourselves do.

It’s blatantly untrue, but we joke about it as much as we joke about anybody else, it’s practically a cornerstone of our expression of the free speech we believe in – that nothing is too holy to be made fun off.

This joking attitude I guess can actually make a woman feel exposed when we make a joke about sex, especially as she may well be highly outnumbered. I understand the feeling, it also suggests an answer to why my experience is that most of the women who cope well in FOSS happen to be the younger, more liberal kind who find jokes about sex funny rather than offensive (I’m describing a trend, I know it’s not an exact representation and it’s not even a specifically accurate one, just a trend) – because they will handle those situations more confidently and with less offense.

I personally think that, that is a healthier attitude and in fact certainly a lot more pro-feminist (women should feel just as
comfortable laughing about the silliness that is human procreation as men do – that they don’t is a symptom of the remaining double-standard in how we raise our children).

So then, the final question. We know there is an imbalance, we can identify at least some things that perpetuate that imbalance. They are not sexism, meritocracy and sexism are by nature exclusive ideals – you cannot support both, but they are real – and the question is: should we do anything to speed up changing it ?

I say “speed up” because I am convinced the problem will solve itself in time – we don’t need to do anything to fix it, but we may lose a lot of talent if we wait it out. So how can we help this happen faster ?

Well, I don’t have the slightest clue. We dare not let our core values, individualist communalism and meritocracy be affected – but other cultural expressions and traditions are up for debate. I don’t think however that I can or should make any statements about which should change or how. I know who can and should – the women already in our community.

Adrianna Pinski, Fernanda Weiden, Chani Armitage, Christel Breedt and all the rest of you – you are our women heroes, our pioneers.

We need your voices here. We built this culture without them – and it is not all it can be because of that. Speak up – don’t look for sexism where it doesn’t exist, but tell us how to reduce that feeling of being singled out.

Do you want us to just ignore your gender ? Well we’ve been doing that, pretty much just treating you like on of the guys (the ruby porn thing was a particular example of that – you felt out of place in this guy-joke thing, but that’s just it – nobody bothered to be sensitive to you as women because that you were women was never even considered or thought about).

Apparently this actually made you some of you feel more singled out.

So what would you prefer ? How can we do it better ? Not everyone will do what you suggest, and that’s okay – we’re after all, an individualist society and we put individual choice and freedom of expression to be higher virtues than social acceptance or pleasing others – but some will, some of the time.

Some of us will care about it because you are not just women in FOSS – you are our friends, and we don’t want you to feel uncomfortable. We shouldn’t be limited to those girls who are “one of the guys” – but before that will change – there needs to be enough of you that “one of the geeks” doesn’t actually mean “one of the guys” as it does now.

I think the FOSS community can do better here. I reject the allegation of sexism outright, but I do believe it brings to light an opportunity to improve our culture to make it more inclusive and more comfortable for people whose talents we provably need.

I do know that it’s not an easy thing to find answers for. I have heard many women in the FOSS world complain that they constantly get asked out at technical conferences. Being asked out is probably not bad, but being asked out ten times a day because you’re the only girl there… that must suck and I fully understand their feelings about it.

Of course, you can’t predict where you’ll meet your perfect person either, some of the happiest geek couples I know met at conferences. Maybe the answer is that in such a milieu until there is parity in the gendercount, the women can ask the men out if they wish, not the other way around ?

Like I said, I’m asking questions. I don’t know the answers, we need the women who are in our community to help us come up with them.

Jul 202009
 
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Now what I said to Jonathan regarding my ideas about censorship stands. I don’t believe in it, and I don’t condone it: not ever, not for anything.
However, I also believe that satire only works if people recognize it as being satire.

Apparently my satire was lost on many people. I still think it’s significant that the only people to complain about the post were male, while all the women who responded loved it. Nonetheless, I had no desire to offend anybody – but instead to make people laugh, and perhaps think. More specifically – to make * certain men* think. Since apparently I completely failed at this – the post is pointless. So I have deleted it from the blog.

If anybody was offended – that was not my intent and I appologize. I believe most strongly that nobody has the right not to be offended (that’s what free speech means) but that doesn’t mean that being offensive is a goal I aspire to – it’s merely not something I make any effort to avoid. In this case however, I felt that the post was in fact for a significant number of readers achieving exactly the opposite of what I had intended, so I decided to rather just get rid of it.