09.28.19
Posted in Bill Gates, Fraud, GNU/Linux, Microsoft at 8:58 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Yes and no.
Bill Gates arrested before he had sufficient connections. Now people are given strategic awards (for corporate agenda of GMO, Microsoft etc.) named after a famous criminal glorified by press that he buys.
Summary: The reckless and likely illegal behaviour of Bill Gates (he was arrested in the past) continues to demonstrate that some people — especially those who bribe officials, media and so on — can get away with virtually anything
THE Stallman 'scandals' (whatever they are; mostly quote-mining very old posts of his), as we’ve just noted, ended his career; moreover, they’ve helped distract from Gates' Epstein affairs, which are the vastly bigger scandal (we wrote about this several times this past month). It certainly seems to boil down to connections, not deeds.
A reader has meanwhile asked us: “You following the Gates Foundation stuff in Kashmir?” He referred to Gates Foundation ‘gifts’ to the most powerful man in India, traditionally a growth area of Free/libre software. Cablegate (or CableGates) showed us what the Gates Foundation did in Tunisia in order to undermine GNU/Linux (OLPC). Bribing officials and heads of state through the Gates Foundation is habitual. Usually it’s not visible. It’s disguised (or laundered) as charity, children, social justice etc.
“It certainly seems to boil down to connections, not deeds.”The media has mostly ignored the aspect or angle of bribery, instead focusing on Kashmir. As the article “problem with the Gates Foundation’s award to Narendra Modi” put it: “Modi campaigned on a populist platform and was elected with a strong majority. He took that mandate and rescinded the special status of Kashmir, a mostly Muslim semi-autonomous region split between India and Pakistan. Modi then sent in police to make mass arrests. He’s also cut off mobile and internet service. At the same time, India is building mass detention camps in the northeastern state of Assam to hold what it considers “illegal immigrants,” mostly Muslim inhabitants who don’t have the paperwork to prove their citizenship. Modi’s rhetoric, meanwhile, has both incited Hindu violence around the country and inflamed tensions with Pakistan, a mostly Muslim country and India’s neighbor.”
“Isn’t it curious that the Microsoft Board can just bribe world leaders through a fake ‘charity’ and the sole scandal the press can see is something to do with Kashmir? And somehow child porn being found in Bill Gates’ home as well as strong ties to Epstein have led to not a single call to “remove Gates”?”Sabah Hamid has meanwhile published (3 days ago in the New York Times) “Why I Resigned From the Gates Foundation” and her reasons are politics, not the bribery. To quote: “Along with other staff at the India office of the Gates Foundation, I first heard about Mr. Modi being considered for the award a few months ago. I did not realize that the decision had already been made. It took me until early August to raise my questions, but I saw very quickly that the foundation had taken the decision and considered it irrevocable. That this endorsement of Mr. Modi would not do the Gates Foundation any good did not seem to be up for discussion.”
Isn’t it curious that the Microsoft Board can just bribe world leaders through a fake ‘charity’ and the sole scandal the press can see is something to do with Kashmir? And somehow child porn being found in Bill Gates' home as well as strong ties to Epstein have led to not a single call to “remove Gates”? █
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Posted in FSF, GNU/Linux at 7:59 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
What happened?
Update (16:00 GMT): turns out his site got defaced
Update (03/10/2019): Richard Stallman has since then stated he wants people to support the FSF.
Summary: Very confusing times; it looks like Richard Stallman is being forcibly separated from everything he ever created as well as the place of those creations (MIT)
TORVALDS and Stallman are both being besieged, albeit in somewhat different ways; both are also at different stages of the apparently staged ‘phaseout’.
It’s all happening so quickly. MIT, FSF, now GNU. He’s being ‘canceled’.
“It’s all happening so quickly. MIT, FSF, now GNU.”As reported by Phoronix, Stallman sought to clarify that he had remained in charge of GNU, but posted a short time ago was this odd (contradictory) update:
“I hereby step down as head of the GNU Project, effective immediately.
“Richard Stallman”
Only two days earlier Stallman wrote (as a formal statement, not a reply to anything):
From: Richard Stallman
Subject: GNU Project
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2019 13:20:25 -0400
[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]
On September 16 I resigned as president of the Free Software
Foundation, but the GNU Project and the FSF are not the same.
I am still the head of the GNU Project (the Chief GNUisance),
and I intend to continue as such.
–
Dr Richard Stallman
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://gnu.org, https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)
It’s very clear that something then happened; someone contacted him. One can guess.
“It’s very clear that something then happened; someone contacted him. One can guess.”No further details given. As DarwinElf put it in our IRC channel, “first RMS said he’s remaining as head of GNU Project because it’s not the same as FSF… now a few days later he said he stepped down as head of GNU… is the theory he was pressured/ordered by bad actors? It’s on stallman.org… his news (political?) section…”
“I don’t want it to be taken over by a Lennart/Red Hat/IBM yesman…”
RMS “turned into that anyway,” MinceR joked.
“Either way, Richard Stallman seems to have been incapacitated.”He was referring to Stallman’s reluctance to say something negative about systemd.
Either way, Richard Stallman, the legendary “RMS”, seems to have been incapacitated.
What a major, catastrophic loss for the Free software movement. █
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 11:27 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Just slightly
Photo from September 30th, 2013 (almost exactly 6 years ago)
Summary: When it comes to appalling patent quality and illegal scope (European Patents granted on things which are clearly not covered by the EPC) nothing has changed at the EPO, which has gotten closer to — to the point of overlapping — the patent trolls of the world
WHEN the European Patent Office (EPO) says something about “inventions” or “innovation” be sure to check who actually runs the EPO. António Campinos — like Battistelli before him (he was given or ‘arranged’ this job by Battistelli) — lacks a background in science. His sole objective is to grant as many patents as possible irrespective of the laws that govern the Office, notably the EPC. Human and labour rights don’t exist, either. Not on EPO premises…
“Human and labour rights don’t exist, either. Not on EPO premises…”As October approaches “Oktoberfest- Beer And Patents” gets published by Brett Landon (Haseltine Lake Kempner LLP). Is this what these lawyers think about also when they get tipsy if not drunk? Patents?
Mondaq promoted the piece, maybe for a fee (it is shameless self-promotion ‘dressed up’ as professional advice). Here he goes:
This year marks the 209th anniversary of Oktoberfest; the world-famous beer festival which celebrates Bavarian culture on the famous Theresienwiese grounds in Munich. In addition to a selection of beers brewed according to the strict German Reinheitsgebot purity law of 1516, the festival will also house a wide range of beer related inventions. According to the European Patent Office, located just a few kilometres away from the festival, every beer tent will contain technology that is protected by more than 2000 patents.
The inventions on display in the tents of Oktoberfest have come a long way since the days of ancient Mesopotamia, when open fires were used to brew beer from the remnants of porridge grain and naturally occurring wild yeast. It wasn’t until the invention of the thermometer, by Daniel Fahrenheit in 1714, that brewers were able to monitor temperature throughout the brewing process in order to accurately regulate beer production and thereby control the flavour of the resulting beer. Brewing was further improved by the invention of the saccharometer (a type of hydrometer) at the end of the 18th century, by Thomas Thomson. The saccharometer allowed brewers to consistently produce beer with a specific alcoholic content by determining the amount of sugar present in the beer as it was brewed.
One of the first notable patents to be granted for brewing technology was issued to Louis Pasteur in 1873.
Well, we have since then come a long, long way. As it turns out, today’s EPO works for big brewing monopolies such as Carlsberg [1, 2] (Jesper Kongstad‘s home country). They patent the pertinent seeds. The corrupt EPO management keeps granting patents on beer ingredients and processes that are trivial and barely (or barley) constitute invention. This is clear and naked abuse of the system. Like software patents being granted in Europe, what we see here is the award of monopolies against the law and sometimes against very clear and unambiguous instructions from European authorities. The EPO is totally out of control. Nobody seems able (or willing) to put an end to these abuses.
“The EPO is totally out of control. Nobody seems able (or willing) to put an end to these abuses.”In fact, the EPO has again advertised (in “tweets”) that it is working together with a front group of patent trolls, which has just appointed to its head position Data Colarulli (appointment mentioned by Watchtroll and by WIPR).
He comes from IPO (US), a lobbying front for software patents and aggressive patent zealots, not actual inventors.
According to WIPR, “Colarulli most recently served as the director of the Office of Governmental Affairs at the US Patent and Trademark Office, and was also a member of the agency’s executive committee. Prior to his government service, Colarulli led government relations efforts and facilitated policy discussions at the Intellectual Property Owners Association. [...] LESI is also rolling out educational offerings globally, including its Advanced Licensing Course, which is a joint initiative with the European Patent Office.”
“Those are the same sorts of people who nowadays control the EPO and seed legal chaos, enriching themselves through patenting and litigation.”It’s still rather worrying to see who the EPO associates/presents itself with; how about this new forum in Paris? As the summary says: “Blockchain, EU-wide enforcement, and the inner workings of in-house were just some of the key themes discussed at the European Patent Forum 2019 in Paris” (it’s just another echo chamber).
Absent from this event? Technical people. A bunch of litigation zealots such as Team UPC regroup to figure out how to screw technical people for/through legal bills. Those are the same sorts of people who nowadays control the EPO and seed legal chaos, enriching themselves through patenting and litigation. Scientists see just ‘collateral damage’. █
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 10:59 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: The EPO’s visit to the Czech Republic might be more about quid pro quo than a rather boring “centenary” (this country had just 242 applications for European Patents last year, or 0.1% of the applications’ total number)
THE MANAGEMENT of the European Patent Office (EPO) has not changed its tactics or even its antics. It’s that same old “basket of deplorables” — a bunch of unethical, under-qualified, over-confident non-scientists. They antagonise science and instead bribe the media and various corruptible scholars to tell lies.
“They antagonise science and instead bribe the media and various corruptible scholars to tell lies.”This is not the kind of management the EPO’s examiners need and this is not what Europe deserves. But having taken control of all the key positions in high-level management, law firms got their way; EPOnia is now stuck with low-grade politicians, career-climbing sociopaths and outright social outcasts ("lepers") instead of judges and scientists. The ‘coup’ was completed years ago and it has been nothing but nepotism since. It’s nauseating. There’s an urgent need for a management-wide ‘flush’, but who’s going to force it? Certainly not EU authorities; they insist that the EPO is institutionally separate and immune.
“There’s an urgent need for a management-wide ‘flush’, but who’s going to force it?”In the spirit of corruption and dirty tricks (everything in the name of patent extremists), EPO management arranged to meet or opportunistically convene at the home of Josef Kratochvíl, Chairman of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation (warning: epo.org link) since the previous one became the deputy of the Office manager (very serious conflict). As of Friday night, the EPO’s favourite ‘news dump’ moment, there’s a bunch of photo ops (one of the prominent ones says “President Campinos with Czech Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade, Karel Havlíček”). The headline states “Czech Industrial Property Office celebrates centenary,” but António Campinos did not go there to celebrate but for access to politicians (this is the Battistelli modus operandi; they’re politicians overstepping their authority).
Is this a UPC lobbying trip, vote-buying (bribery disguised as ‘cooperation money’, i.e. the usual), or both?
Here’s what they say: (warning: epo.org link)
“Patent protection is crucial in R&D when putting new ideas into practice,” said Industry and Trade Minister Havlíček. “Therefore, awareness raising is very important as well as co-operation on an international level. We intend to protect smart Czech minds to the best of our ability and help them to succeed around the world. The government is fully aware of the importance of IPR protection. That is why one of the chapters of the innovation strategy focuses on this.”
Josef Kratochvíl, President of the Czech IPO and Chairman of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation, said: “Czech industry and R&D must keep in touch with the best innovators and not re-invent what has already been invented and properly protect its own inventions. The existing patent system offers countless opportunities for inspiration. It is an extremely powerful tool for real innovators to protect and monetise their ideas. The income from the production of protected goods or patent licenses is a driving force for future development.”
Notice the overlap between EPO management and Czech authorities; Kratochvíl is “President of the Czech IPO and Chairman of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation”; it helps to have ‘connections’ when one needs them. It was the same problem with Jesper Kongstad of the DKPTO.
“Notice the overlap between EPO management and Czech authorities”As a reminder, published only 2 weeks ago (likely by Bristows) was an article about the Czech government refusing to ratify the UPC after commissioning an impact study. As one person noted in the comments, they very well know that the UPC is anti-SMEs and a comment from Hermann D. said: “A decision that honours the Czech republic. A government that cares about its SMEs is something rare. Obviously, the fact that there is not much big industry and few patent law firms helps. Still, kudos to the people in charge.”
The following comments were posted just 4 days before the visit above (it says “[o]n 19 September, representatives of the EPO attended an international conference in Prague on the occasion of the 100th anniversary”). Jameson asked: “Is the PwC report publicly available (preferrably in English language)? if so, could you please provide a link?”
“The EPO typically does this ‘spiel’ in smaller countries where necessary bribes (‘cooperation money’) are relatively small.”Kluwer Patent blogger (we are guessing Bristows) responded an hour later: “We haven’t been able to find a link to the report, if anyone knows if and where it is available online, this information is more than welcome.”
One has to wonder what Campinos said and promised behind closed doors. We might want to look back at the above meeting some time in the future. That may help rectify or at least explain any ‘anomalies’ in policy (words versus actions). We saw that before in other countries. The EPO typically does this ‘spiel’ in smaller countries where necessary bribes (‘cooperation money’) are relatively small. █
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Posted in FSF, GNU/Linux, GPL, IBM, Microsoft, Red Hat at 3:50 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: The corporate slogans and lies that are tossed about by corporate media remain as unconvincing as ever (no matter their repetition’s frequency); GNU/Linux is being raided
I HAVE BEEN USING GNU/Linux since I was a teenager. The last Windows version I had was Windows 98. When I ‘joined’ the ‘Linux’ community and developed software with GTK it was a job to me. The software was GPL-licensed. It was made available to all on my Web site and on SourceForge. 18 years later there’s hardly a SourceForge (it’s a shadow of its former self), a lot of Free software is controlled by Microsoft because it bought the largest Git repository, and as we noted in the previous post about the Linux Foundation (LF), Microsoft and IBM “Linux” is gradually becoming something else. The FSF is no longer RMS (albeit RMS insists he’s still in charge of the GNU project) and Torvalds doesn’t seem to be in charge of Linux.
“To put it simply if not bluntly, Linux is now owned and controlled by few large corporations.”What on Earth is going on? My job is still technical and some clients compel us to put code under a Microsoft site (GitHub). All their systems use systemd, which from a technical point of view appears to offer little or no advantage (except Red Hat IBM control over copyrights and development).
To put it simply if not bluntly, Linux is now owned and controlled by few large corporations. The fight to do the same to GNU is still ongoing. So what have we all worked and campaigned for? Is our work being ‘stolen’ by billionaires, who try to strip off or weaken the GPL?
We sure live in confusing times. █
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Posted in Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, IBM, Kernel, Marketing, Microsoft, OSDL, Red Hat at 3:33 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
The Linux Foundation (LF) business model, which revolves around marketing and openwashing, is draining the life out of Linux
Summary: Lack of devotion to Linux, the very thing that the LF is named after, is putting the project at peril; Linux is meanwhile, under the auspices of the LF and Microsoft GitHub, becoming IBM™ systemd®
HESITATION to publish this article can be attributed solely to largely speculative remarks about how Linus Torvalds thinks and feels. He has not spoken to me for a long time, though I don’t choose to interpret that as snobbery. I just don’t think he’s free to say as much as he did in the past (we corresponded even before the Linux Foundation existed).
Some time earlier this month (depending on one’s subscription/paywall status) I saw a photograph of Torvalds at LWN. I don’t see many photographs of him anymore even though I read Linux news all day long; he keeps a relatively low profile and he doesn’t make many public appearances any longer. The ‘face of Linux’ has changed. So anyway, earlier this month LWN published an article with the following photograph of Torvalds, who is only in his forties. I don’t want to ‘creep up’ and talk about his personal life, but this made me wonder if Torvalds even leaves the house much (he says he works in a bathrobe; he apparently exercises at home only, or so I’m led to assume because there’s a treadmill there); he looks older than he is in this photo. He looks/seems to have aged faster in recent years. Readers can judge for themselves. This is 2019:
5 years ago (famous picture, mirrored for comparative purposes):
Read the comments in LWN. “Is that really a photo of Torvalds on the left? Jesus, he looks like he has aged like, 20 years since 2012,” says the first comment.
“He’s not wearing glasses, looks like a very different person without them” was the unconvincing first reply. I saw him without eyeglasses many times before.
The next comment said, “bad photograph, perhaps, i saw him in 2018, he looked much younger” and immediately after that: “Was that before he took the politeness training break?”
This refers to the famous incident we’ll come to in a moment.
Out of 8 comments in total only a single comment (the one by Paul McKenney) isn’t about that photograph of Torvalds (and what it says about aging). So people were certainly taken aback.
I personally have a lot of respect for Torvalds. He’s a geek and he’s a hard-working person. Very hard-working. He typically releases Linux and its release candidates on a Sunday, sometimes even late at night or whilst on holiday. That’s dedication. It’s a 30-year (nearly 30) devotion.
Torvalds is in it for Linux.
Zemlin is in it for the money.
Microsoft is in it for sabotage.
“Zemlin is in it for the money.”The Linux Foundation is a facilitator of corporations’ power (including Microsoft’s). It may have outlived its usefulness (long ago). There’s also the IBM factor, which can give room for concern. In the 1980s we had RMS, FSF and his GNU project/manifesto. The 1990s saw media shifting all attention to Torvalds, the ‘new wunderkind’ (child prodigy) on the scene. IBM was happy to boost him as a poster child after he had made a kernel that went well with GNU (he said Linux was nothing professional like GNU). In the 2000s GNU was already ignored; “What’s that,” people might respond. “Oh….. You mean Linux!”
In the 2010s Red Hat was propping up systemd after the ‘Pulseaudio experiment’. It was introduced initially as just an init system (process number one or zero); from “nothing professional like Linux” it’s quickly turning into a replacement to most of Linux. The 2020s, in IBM’s vision (now that it owns Red Hat), might be an IBM-controlled system with very frequent releases of systemd to keep the competition always behind, always chasing IBM.
The LF has had virtually nothing to say about technical aspects and competitive aspects of the above. Nothing. It’s too busy doing what it does best: outsourcing projects to Microsoft (GitHub, where systemd too is hosted).
“Torvalds might not be in real control of the project he started almost 3 decades ago. Maybe he should consider picking his trademark and relocating elsewhere, as he did back in 2007.”Maybe it’s time to begrudgingly reach the conclusion that LF became another OSDL. A lot of people don’t know or don’t remember it, but OSDL was disbanded after it had been mostly abandoned by key Linux people. This is a matter of suppressed public record. They hated the OSDL and thought it went all wrong. It used terms like “IP” to sell services (article by John Oates), it wanted its own ‘GitHub’ (article by Ingrid Marson), it wanted Microsoft Office, and it was generally getting close to Microsoft. Sounds familiar? To quote Slashdot: “Martin Taylor, Microsoft’s general manager of platform strategy, declined to comment on the specifics of what was discussed when he met with OSDL’s CEO Stuart Cohen, only to say that they met.”
Readers have long told us that Torvalds went sort of silent or at least quiet after serving some time in the ‘penalty box’ one year ago (due to a media lynch akin to that which ousted Richard Stallman; he’s being pressured to be more 'corporate' (a 'socially-engineered' Torvalds), never use strong words, or else risk ousting). Judging by the photo above (it’s public), he might not be all that happy either. Torvalds might not be in real control of the project he started almost 3 decades ago. Maybe he should consider picking his trademark and relocating elsewhere, as he did back in 2007. Jim Zemlin and his corporate friends can carry on running their PR agency under a different name. Maybe they’ll even be asked, belatedly, to pay their taxes (if the IRS reassesses their status). “Not under my name…” █
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft at 12:33 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Microsoft’s slip of the tongue or instinctive reactions to GNU/Linux wins and gains help show that Microsoft really hates GNU/Linux and wants it to fail everywhere
PEOPLE around the Web have already pointed out that the following move from Microsoft is akin to “concern trolling” because Huawei is moving to Linux (on laptops, not just phones) and Microsoft cannot quite stop Huawei in the usual way (bribery and blackmail).
“Apparently Microsoft “loves Linux” so much that it’s complaining to the US government only when foreign firms move to GNU/Linux.”“Microsoft Asks For Actual Spying Evidence To Justify Blackballing Of Huawei,” says TechDirt this week (in the headline), but it’s usually Microsoft blackmailing Huawei and the likes of it (to avoid them using GNU/Linux). What an odd twist or spin. Apparently Microsoft “loves Linux” so much that it’s complaining to the US government only when foreign firms move to GNU/Linux. Recall the Cablegate revelations; there’s lots more to that effect.
Keep on showing that ‘love’, Microsoft… █
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Windows at 12:05 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Weeks ago: Microsoft’s Plan for Linux is to Make it Proprietary Software With ‘Surveillance Capitalism’
Summary: People don’t escape Microsoft Windows to just get more of Microsoft; but media close to Microsoft leverages the “Linux” brand to promote Microsoft
JUST over a fortnight ago Microsoft bombarded the word “Linux” to promote proprietary software that spies on people. It was vapourware of course and Microsoft seems to be doing that again; back then it was Teams, now it’s Edge. We’ve sadly seen not just Microsoft-friendly sites like Neowin [1] playing ball but also “OMG Ubuntu” [2] and longtime Microsoft propagandist (and liar) Bogdan Popa at Softpedia [3]. Microsoft apparently thinks GNU/Linux users will volunteer to test proprietary software of Microsoft. These people are either dreaming or lying (they often do; they also paste the lie “Microsoft loves Linux” habitually). An anti-Linux trolling site [4] soon joined in.
“Microsoft apparently thinks GNU/Linux users will volunteer to test proprietary software of Microsoft.”Phoronix and few other sites [5] later promoted some PowerShell nonsense (in relation to “Linux”). When the media speaks of “command line interface” [6] it now means Windows only.
Why are some so-called ‘Linux’ sites celebrating the mere possibility of proprietary software from Microsoft (based on Free software which is already better) coming to GNU/Linux? Why would any GNU/Linux user choose Edge over Chromium, for example? It seems like Microsoft googlebombing and brand dilution. Search for “Linux” news, get Microsoft news instead. █
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