After wandering around the U of M campus for the first time, I managed to find my way to Wiley Hall Room 175 just in time. Stallman took the stage moments later and began what would amount to 2 straight hours of speaking, evangelism, and laughs.

If you aren’t familiar with who Stallman is, well, I’m not surprised. Have you ever heard of the term ‘hacker?’ Stallman was one of the first. Ever heard of GNU, Linux, or Emacs? He either made them himself, or made them possible. If you’re still lost, then maybe you should stop reading here.

RMS began by explaining the four freedoms of free software.

• Freedom 0: The freedom to use software as you wish
• Freedom 1: The freedom to view the source code and modify it as you wish
• Freedom 2: The freedom to distribute copies of the software to others
• Freedom 3: The freedom to make improvements to the program and distribute those modifications to others

These four freedoms all must be true in order to call a piece of software ‘free.’ From there things really went everywhere.  There was much badmouthing of proprietary software and all the problems and hassles it brings. Stallman’s primary message was to refuse to use proprietary software, evangelise free software, and the computing world will become a much better place. Oh and there were a few jabs at the US government, Microsoft, large corporations that I’ll admit I laughed at.

RMS was also endlessly quotable:

“Ms. Clinton… probably mentions freedom more often than I do, but says much less about the substance of it.”

“If you see someone drowning, and there’s no one else around, and it’s not Bush, you have an obligation to save that person.”

“I am St Ignucius of the Church of Emacs.”

“Vi vi vi is the ‘Editor of the Beast’, but using a free implementation of vi is not a sin, it’s a penance.”

I can’t completely agree with Stallman though. It’s tough because I have a lot of respect for the man for what he’s accomplished and the views we share. Free software is great and so is the idea that we all should share and help each other out. However, that view is unrealistic. I think proprietary software has its place in the world too. And the world certainly isn’t as amiable and agreeable as Stallman would like it to be. I’m not about to give up my DVD movies, my Macbook Pro, or playing Warhammer Online, all of which are, run, or use proprietary software.

Most people probably don’t think about the freedoms they give when running proprietary software, but at the same time I think if they did, most would make the same choice. Because of that, Stallman’s vision of a utopia for free software will never exist. Nonetheless, I encourage Stallman and the Free Software Foundation to continue their work. He is exactly the kind of person you want to lead a movement. He’s pure, uncorruptable, and unflinchingly loyal. He’s made it his life’s purpose to bring his vision to reality. If only some of our politicians and world leaders had the same passion and outlook.

©: Tony Webster

In case you live outside the US or you live under a rock, you probably noticed last week the Republications held their quad-annual national convention last week in St. Paul. Being close to all the action definitely revealed some insights.

After the 35W bridge collapse last August, estimates came in for the rebuilding project and I was surprised to see they were all anticipating completion by December 2008. Considering that I’ve had to deal with construction in the 35W/62 commons area for over a year, I figured it might be a couple of years before the new bridge would be finished. The schedule was obviously influenced by the extra spotlight that was going to be on the Twin Cities the following September.

The months leading up to the RNC saw much back and forth between government officials and those intending to protest the convention. Protesters were denied routes that brought them anywhere near the Xcel where the convention would be held. Lawsuits were filed, but I never heard of them going to court before the convention. There were some compromises on both sides with the routes and lengths of protests though. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much to result from the protests These things always seem to have a louder voice than their numbers suggest.

A big news story leading up to the convention was the installation of security cameras covering all of downtown St. Paul. This was made possible by a $50,000 grant from the federal government. I’m not denying that a major event like the RNC is cause for extra security, but these cameras will remain in operation following the convention.

September finally came and the Republications flocked to the Twin Cities. So much so that you couldn’t find a vacant hotel closer than 50 miles away. Between 3,600-3,700 additional law enforcement officers were brought into the city. St. Paul went into lockdown. Over 600 people were arrested over the 4 days the convention was in town. A third of those arrests came on the first night of the convention. Interestingly, at the Democratic national convention there were less than 200 arrested.

Why were the numbers so much higher at the RNC? If I had seen the numbers without context, I might have guessed because this country is sick of what the Republication run White House, Senate, and Congress have done. That is no doubt partially the reason. However, I think the real reason is that the increased police presence provoked it. The usual atmosphere around St. Paul is much different from the one I felt during the convention.

I was lucky enough to score tickets to a taping of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Of course this meant going into downtown St. Paul during the convention. Finding parking was hard because half the parking ramps I saw were barricaded with police vehicles. Once I found a suitable place to park, I walked to the theatre where the taping was being held. You couldn’t go half block without seeing some kind of law enforcement. Forget about talking to one of them or asking for directions. The only phrases the zombies knew were “Move along” and “Get on the ground, you’re under arrest.” I heard a few stories of innocent people who got trapped in raids or were merely prevented from getting to where they parked their car. My friends and I were able to make it in and out without a confrontation though.

On the third night of the convention, Rage Against the Machine played a show in Minneapolis. Following the show, 100 people were arrested. Now if that’s all you heard, you might be inclined to think that a bunch of radical extremists were incited by RATM who is known for their political dissidence. However, you might change your mind if you knew a few facts. First of all, the show was in Minneapolis, not St. Paul. The two metro areas are separated by several miles. All of the protesting and any clashing between police up to that point had been in St. Paul. Second, Zack de la Rocha, lead vocals for RATM specifically told the crowd NOT to cause a disturbance. There are videos of him urging people to show more restraint than police. Third, concert goers were greeted with a line of police in full riot gear when exiting the arena.

UPDATE: An investigation into how police handled arrests after the Rage Against the Machine show will be done.

Now, someone going to a Rage Against the Machine show is probably the type that is going to be more inclined to protest. I highly doubt they’re going to turn into a violent, dangerous person merely by going to a politically charged show though. That’s why I see the riot squad as provocation. It’s like putting a hungry lion across the street from a bunch of zebras and expecting that it won’t kill any of the zebars. Why couldn’t you place a team or two a block away ready to be called in? Why did they need to be lined up directly across the street? The only word that comes to mind is overreaction.

First it was left shift + ‘i’ that wouldn’t work. Then it was the arrow keys. Finally, the whole damn keyboard just stopped working. Now I’d doused the laptop in much worse in the time I’ve had it so I didn’t think much of this relatively small spill. Given how fast things progressed, I was concerned.

The next few hours I spent researching keyboard replacement. Let’s just say there’s a reason Apple doesn’t just send you a replacement keyboard and let you fix yourself. Take the battery out, unscrew the memory cover plate, remove the bottom cover, remove the non-conductive black tape, remove a dozen screws, unclip ribbon cable… you get the idea.

So it was either use an external keyboard, send the thing into Apple for a few hundred dollars and a couple of weeks of time, or try to fix a replacement and fix it myself. The external keyboard worked fine in the office, but I wasn’t going to be lugging around a keyboard with me for work away from the office. Instead, I started searching for a replacement keyboard online. They were at least $70. At that point, I decided an Apple Wireless Keyboard was in order as it would cost just as much and have no installation. It’s also small and easily tossed in my laptop bag.

Consequently a few hours after I got the new keyboard, the Macbook keyboard started working again. It’s not back 100% though because random arrow keys get triggered from time to time. It also won’t sleep reliably as it keeps getting input from the keyboard. Things seemed to have gotten better since yesterday, but I’ll still be taking this external keyboard around with me for at least awhile.

From a friend who was in town for the event, I heard that four (of about 150) people showed up to my class’s brunch/social thing. First of all, had it been some kind of kegger, I’m sure you’d have gotten a few of the lifers (people who never left Virginia) to show up. Second, I think reunions are a thing of the past.

The reasons you hold a high school reunion in the first place is to get people back in contact with people that they may have lost touch with over the years. At worst, you showed up to see if all the jocks are working dead end jobs and if all the geeks are rich and married to supermodels.

The problem is, staying in touch these days isn’t that hard. Email can be blasted out to whole address books to keep old friends informed. People can follow your blog. Sign up for an account on Facebook. The list goes on.

I wouldn’t expect my parents to replace their high school reunions with online social networks, but for the generation that doesn’t know a world without the Internet, you can be sure it will for them.

My biggest problem with Taser parties is mostly the fact that they promote Taser use. How in the hell can you call something a non-lethal weapon if it’s killed people? In my opinion, there needs to be some serious studies done on Taser usage and the effects on the human body. What causes people to die from being shocked by these things? Why do some people have serious complications from being hit with a Taser while others don’t? Are there things that put me at a higher risk of death?

Second, the mere fact that these type of parties exist is proof people are accepting of the use of these kind of weapons. As soon as people started dying from these things, production should have been halted, research commissioned, all units recalled. Now, we’re having parties to promote the use of them? People are used to seeing these sort of parties for Tupperware, Mark Kay, and Pampered Chef. It’s just going to further reinforce the view that Tasers are safe and non-lethal when they really aren’t.

I’d be willing to bet that the people who go to these parties are already a little paranoid about their personal safety. Putting a potentially lethal weapon in their hands doesn’t seem like the best idea to me. The phrase ‘trigger happy’ comes to mind. And I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be on the wrong end of a misunderstanding involving a Taser.

It was the final day of our ski trip and to be honest, I was getting a little burned out. As great as the skiing was, my body was getting weary. Louie was extra juiced about all the fresh powder Apex had seen overnight and couldn’t wait to get out to the mountain.

As with the other resorts, you have to take mountain roads to get there. They’re narrow, winding, and usually made of dirt. With the snow overnight, the mountain road was making me nervous. The final nail in the coffin was when we came to a stuck vehicle being towed. We pulled over and chained up the tires right away. Luckily, we only had a few miles left to go and things went smooth the whole way.

It didn’t take Louie long to get suited up and ready to go. I was having some toe/foot/sock/boot issues, so I just told him I’d meet up with him later. I knew I wasn’t going to ski hard that last day anyway. It was as if my equipment had known all along because it was almost an hour before I did make it out on the mountain.

I did meet up with Louie temporarily, but I think we only managed a single run before getting split up again. I came up with a project for the afternoon. Yes, a project on vacation. I decided I’d take some POV videos of me skiing down.

At first I tried to come up with a way to mount the camera to my person. That basically meant positioning the camera so the lens stuck out of one of my pockets. As it turned out, all of the pockets on my jacket were too roomy to get that to work. I had a brief thought about putting it on my boots or skis, but quickly realized that would most likely result in a broken camera. Instead, I opted to hand hold the camera. As you can see, they didn’t turn out too bad. I could’ve probably spent some time editing and cleaned it up more than I did.

There is a funny story about my attempt to be an indie film producer though. Getting used to skiing and shooting isn’t as easy as it sounds. First of all, I didn’t have anywhere to put my poles. Louie was off skiing elsewhere and I didn’t want them to get stolen or taken by mistake. That meant holding them behind my back or off to the side so they weren’t in the shot.

You also have to concentrate on the where you’re pointing the camera. The first time all you could see was the snow and it kept moving around. The next it was a better shot, but there was still too much motion. After a couple more runs, however, I was familiar with the run and how to handle the camera. It was time to make my masterpiece.

I flew down the first half of the hill, made some wide sweeping turns with the camera low to the ground, and then all of a sudden I caught an edge. Clothing flew. The camera included. I snatched it out of the snow bank as soon as I could and wiped it off. The lens covers would not close for a very long time, but after some breathing on it, I was able to clear the lens off (hopefully without any srcatches). The best part was, the camera was running the whole time. Here’s a clip.