02.13.21
Posted in Debian, Deception, Finance, Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Google at 12:34 pm by Guest Editorial Team
Reprinted with permission from Debian Community News
The Fellowship has recently blogged about FSFE President Matthias Kirschner misusing screengrabs from video calls with interns.
We hate to see interns names and photos brought into these disputes. The Debian Project Leader has been asked to cease vendettas against other volunteers. He continues the vendettas, he continues to let rumours hang over the heads of innocent volunteers so we have no choice other than showing who is really guilty.
Nicolas Dandrimont (olasd), an administrator in both Google Summer of Code (GSoC) and Outreachy, sent the email below, announcing that his girlfriend would apply for an internship. Dandrimont indicates he would still lurk around the administration of the program. He takes a swipe at the RTC projects managed by another volunteer. Incidentally, those RTC projects have been essential for many Free Software communities to work remotely during the pandemic. This is the email from Dandrimont:
Subject: Recusing myself from Outreachy applicant selection decisions, internships funding
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2016 12:37:46 +0200
From: Nicolas Dandrimont <olasd@debian.org>
To: leader@debian.org, outreach@debian.org
CC: [mentors, redacted]
Hey all,
As of today, the person I’m involved with, Pauline Pommeret, is applying to an Outreachy internship in Debian (on the GPG cleanroom environment project – I don’t see her mail on the list archive yet, so something must have gone wrong, but it should arrive soon enough).
To avoid an obvious conflict of interest, I am recusing myself for any decisions regarding applicant selections for this round.
I am of course still happy to serve as a liaison with the Outreachy program administrators, and to forward our applicants to them for general funding when selected, if the money allocated by Debian runs out.
This would especially be relevant, in my opinion, to RTC projects, as I’m not sure at all that we should fund them from Debian money directly. Karen Sandler also told me that one of the Outreachy sponsors was interested in funding interns on Reproducible Builds. All in all, we should be able to have two or three internship slots with Debian only disbursing one.
I’ll stay on the outreach@d.o alias for now, but let me know if you need help ranking applicants, and I’ll ask DSA to remove me so you can discuss at ease.
Cheers,
–
Nicolas Dandrimont
An application was commenced by this woman using the name Pauline Pommeret. Investigating, we find that she also uses other names, such as Maria Climent-Pommeret and chopopope. Some people have used aliases like this when doing something wrong in Debian but we don’t want to jump to conclusions. It might be because she saw how people are subject to doxing in Debian. Some people don’t use their real names to avoid consequences for their mistakes. The public shamings and Maria / Pauline’s decision to use an alias could be a hint about why so few women volunteer in Debian.
As this woman hoping to become an intern began discussion with the Debian mentors, Dandrimont participated:
Subject: Re: Details concerning my application to the Outreachy program
Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2016 17:15:43 +0200
From: nicolas@dandrimont.eu
To: [redacted mentors], Pauline Pommeret <chopopope@crans.org>, olasd@debian.org
(on mobile, sorry for the short reply) Just a detail, the contribution can happen/be merged after the application deadline too, no need to rush it. It only needs to happen before the selection, and the earlier the better, of course.
Le 15 octobre 2016 17:01:55 GMT+02:00, [mentor] a écrit :
On 15/10/16 15:37, [mentor] wrote:
Hi Pauline,
I don’t know if …
A few days later, on 18 October 2016, Dandrimont advised mentors that Pauline would withdraw from the selection process. At this stage, for privacy reasons, we decline to publish the withdrawal email.
In 2017, Debian did not participate in GSoC
In August 2017, Dandrimont resigned from the role of administrator. He did not give any forced public confession for the situation with his girlfriend. Dandrimont was not removed from the Debian keyring. He was not subjected to doxing in LWN and other places.
Some people in Debian appear to have immunity, like the leaders of communist regimes in Eastern Europe. Other people have been subject to severe punishments for the smallest mistakes.
Consequences
In 2018, a similar situation occurred with other contributors to Debian in Google Summer of Code (GSoC). By way of precedent, mentors handled the case in the same way that Dandrimont had handled the case with his girlfriend.
In the 2018 GSoC case, all admins and mentors were made aware of the conflict of interest. Nobody kept it secret. Everybody in Debian knew. When the manager at Google, Stephanie Taylor, found out, she had a fit. It was Friday the 13th.
Subject: Concerns around Debian GSoC students and conflict of interest
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2018 UTC
From: Stephanie Taylor <sttaylor@google.com>
To: Pranav Jain <contact@pranavjain.me>, prabaharan jaminy
<jaminy02@gmail.com>, Alexander Wirt <formorer@gmail.com>, [redacted], molly.deblanc@gmail.com
Hello Debian Org Admins,
It has come to our attention that one of your [name and title redacted], is the [relationship redacted] of one of your students – [student redacted], which is in clear violation of the GSoC Rules both [redacted] and [redacted] agreed to. We will have to remove both [redacted] and [redacted] from the program immediately.
One of the Debian people explained to Taylor the precedent set by Nicolas Dandrimont and Pauline (or Maria) Climent-Pommeret in Outreachy 2016. Taylor sent additional comments
Stephanie Taylor (Google): It is never okay to have a conflict of interest like you had with [redacted/leadership role], having a [redacted/relationships], etc. in the program as a student. That is a clear conflict of interest that would influence the mentor whether or not they intend it to. No one wants to fail the [redacted/leadership role]‘s [redacted/relationship] during the program, there is already favoritism even if the [redacted/leadership role] is not involved in the student’s selection or mentoring.
The volunteers who were blackmailed, removed from the Debian keyring and subject to sustained public attacks that continue to this day were not involved in any romantic conflict of interest. It looks like Debian uses people as scapegoats so that other people can get away with anything.█
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in Site News at 11:26 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
We first looked into it back in October when making text bulletins of this site
Source: Wikipedia
Summary: Adoption of Gemini has been fast, boosted by Web fatigue and disdain for bloated Web pages; now it’s the time to join the “space” or the “sphere” of Gemini (it has not been spoiled by corporations, spies and marketing firms)
Today, in 2021 (COVID-19+2), gopher:// links — or the source of inspiration for gemini:// links/protocol — have long been unsupported by all the major browsers, including Firefox (for over a decade now; the comments here are certainly interesting as they aged well; it’s quite illuminating what Brendan Eich wrote back then). Mozilla is funded by Google, a company that does not wish to see the carpet pulled from under its feet (e.g. large-scale shift to IPFS or Gemini, even if partial), so the journey towards widespread Gopher adoption may seem long. It’s not unattainable, it may never replace the Web (it doesn’t strive to, either), but it can be complementary. To read the news, for example, there’s almost never a reason to run any JavaScript or use forms to submit things, log in etc.
“We’d love to promote Gemini at least once a week if not on a daily basis (the latter frequency is unlikely to be sustainable) because from a tech-rights point of view Gemini has a lot to offer.”In the first 24 hours since our capsule’s launch we saw a relatively high level of traffic (much higher than we expected or hoped for, knowing that access would require downloading a browser/client just for that purpose).
We’re continuing to make improvements and updates are now largely automated (to keep our capsule synchronised with the latest stories, originally published as HTML and RSS/XML).
Earlier today we saw Techrights already showing up among Gemini search results (yes, there are search engines there and also at least 3 Web proxies, such as this one or this one).
We’d love to promote Gemini at least once a week if not on a daily basis (the latter frequency is unlikely to be sustainable) because from a tech-rights point of view Gemini has a lot to offer. It’s like the Web “done right”… without the bloat and the excess complexity. It’s secure, it’s suitable for mobile/small devices, it’s working well in the terminal as well as in GUIs, and it’s not in any way — not even remotely — controlled by corporations. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in Deception, GNU/Linux, Marketing, Microsoft at 11:11 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Video download link
Summary: The Raspberry Pi’s official blog spreads Microsoft lies (openwashing) and marketing propaganda, composed not by Raspberry Pi staff but Microsoft staff; this is a severe crisis of confidence, seeing what was done to the Linux Foundation and OSI (infiltration tactics appear to have paid off, undermining the core mission so as to promote proprietary software and Microsoft monopoly)
The Raspberry Pi people have lost their tongues; they’re now shilling Microsoft’s proprietary software using Microsoft lies, composed by Microsoft itself. If this is their best response after covertly installing Microsoft malware on millions of computers without asking their owners, then they’re destined to become a failure like OLPC, infiltrated by a cult. The video makes me sound louder than I intended to be. A better microphone may be used soon. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in Deception, GNU/Linux, Microsoft at 10:20 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Video download link
Summary: Microsoft engages in intelligence operations that seem to be geared towards undermining the community and diverting everything (or everyone) into Microsoft’s proprietary traps
Microsoft has not changed and is not changing. It is infiltrating. As evidence of that, consider the story shared with us earlier this month. We made a video about it as it’s easier and safer. We cannot show some of the raw details as it might reveal sources, but it certainly seems like Microsoft is looking to disrupt GNU/Linux from the inside (as it already did the Linux Foundation and OSI, among others). Don’t fall for cheap slogans like “New Microsoft” and “Microsoft loves Linux” (they’re politically motivated). Ask former employees of Borland what Microsoft did to their company in the days of Bill Gates crimes (before using similar tactics through his foundation).
“This company is not a friend but a fiend. It talks about GNU/Linux users like they’re cockroaches.”2 days ago it became apparent that Microsoft forges spying alliances inside the GNU/Linux world, not just in Raspberry Pi (the subject of our next post) but also Canonical/Ubuntu. See “Dev creeped out after he fired up Ubuntu VM on Azure, was immediately approached by Canonical sales rep” over at The Register. What we’re dealing with here is a spying corporation sharing (passing around) and leveraging data about users of GNU/Linux.
As readers may be able to recall, documents from inside Microsoft reveal how Microsoft spies in order to “target” people and institutions with the ‘audacity’ not to use Microsoft/Windows. This company is not a friend but a fiend. It talks about GNU/Linux users like they’re cockroaches. “Linux infestations are being uncovered in many of our large accounts as part of the escalation engagements,” Microsoft wrote. “Regarding the RPi stories,” an associate has reminded us, “people are going on about the tracking, but none mention EDGI and similar programmes which relied on knowing which institutions to target…”
“RPF [RPi Foundation] did a great disservice to very many insitutions,” this associate has added, “especially schools (see «Bärendienst»).”
“It’s also disappoiting to read how many peole are fooled or flat out lie about Microsoft appearing to have changed from its illegal and unethical behaviors,” the associate has concluded. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in Antitrust, Europe, Patents at 8:51 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Video download link
Summary: We take a quick look at yesterday’s news roundup (and items in it that expose issues in the patent system)
THE trolling or trigger-happy companies are ever more aggressive [1-2] and patent boosters or patent maximalists aren’t getting past the fact that the Unitary Patent is doomed [3-5]. Some sites finally take note of the EPO‘s staff [6]. They otherwise just repeat mindless nonsense from Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos, as happened with Managing IP yesterday [7], and in the United States it looks like pro-35 U.S.C. § 101/Alice (SCOTUS) elements are being put in charge as Trump-appointed U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) leadership steps down proactively [8]. Those are the people who gave us the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) inter partes reviews (IPRs) and served to improve patent quality [9]. They’re one of the reasons the Federal Circuit keeps tossing out software patents, including those that otherwise cause needless embargoes (ITC/injunctions).
“The video above ties together some of those things and we’re generally encouraged to see growing debate about what’s shown by the Staff Union of the EPO (SUEPO).”This was all in yesterday’s coverage alone, even if much of it comes from misleading and self-serving sites of law firms. The video above ties together some of those things and we’re generally encouraged to see growing debate about what’s shown by the Staff Union of the EPO (SUEPO). Maybe that’s the kind of thing that the EPO management has been desperate to distract for? As a side note, the EPO finally managed to fix its Web site. They have far too many such incidents for a multi-billion (euros) institution, maybe due to loss of talent. █
Links/items from the videos:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Content is available under CC-BY-SA