The Four Freedoms, listen to Stallman

Photo courtesy of Think Ubuntu.

SOFTWARE AS COOKING. Freedom for computer use can be compared with cooking, according to Richard Stallman, Free Software Foundation. You should be able to do four things:

0. Freedom to use the recipe (or software) when you want
1. Freedom to look at ingredients and change them
2. Freedom to copy recipes and share with your friend
3. Freedom to write down your version of a recipe and give it to the community

These are four essential freedoms for software use as well.
Learn more from GNU website (courtesy http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html):

“Free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech,” not as in “free beer.”

Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it means that the program's users have the four essential freedoms:

• The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
• The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
• The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this. (END of citation)
  

THE PHILOSOPHER. Richard Stallman is behind the GNU project that Linux became a part of. He says nobody knows how people actually use software. Indeed, he does not want tracking of free software.
Stallman rather wants you to defend the four freedoms of free software.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:051118-WSIS.2005-Richard.Stallman.ogg

Industrial designer investing in Saab

Today it was announced that the designer Bård Eker via his 100 % owned company Eker Group is actually investing in the Swedish car-maker SAAB together with some other investors. Saab is owned by GM and is not making any money, rather it has been in big debts (today "akkord" solution was agreed upon).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPDwncq36GU

2009 Year of Astronomy

It is four hundred years since Galileo Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) constructed his version of the telescope.

Courtesy to Wikepedia:

In 1609, Galileo was, along with Englishman Thomas Harriot and others, among the first to use arefracting telescope as an instrument to observe stars, planets or moons. The name "telescope" was coined for Galileo's instrument by a Greek mathematician, Giovanni Demisiani, at a banquet held in 1611 by Prince Federico Cesi to make Galileo a member of his Accademia dei Lincei. The name was derived from the Greek tele = 'far' and skopein = 'to look or see'. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo#cite_note-3