05.30.23
Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software, FSF, GNU/Linux at 12:57 am by Guest Editorial Team
2 days ago (earlier this month an RSS feed was added for the updates page):
Summary: A new and more detailed explanation of what the wordplay around “pleasure card” actually meant
The dichotomy of “business vs. pleasure” is well known. Given Stallman’s inclination to play with words and even change the name of things to either oppose or mock established concepts, we believe that’s one reason why he chose to call it a “pleasure card” instead of the conventional “business card.” And if we look at his lifelong activism for software freedom and other human rights, a second obvious reason is that he has never thought of making money as a main purpose of his life.
Handing out cards to those we wish to keep in contact with is normal and a better practice than asking for people’s phone number or email address. It’s better because it avoids pressuring the receiver. Traditionally, a man asked a woman how to contact her, which could make her feel pressured. Stallman avoids that. In case a woman is not interested in further conversations, she can reject the card, take it and throw it away, or chose to never phone or email him.
However, what some people complain about is not that Stallman hands out this card or how he calls it, it’s the wording in it. That wording is the result of Stallman’s inclination to playfulness. It’s recursive humor, something that hackers like. It’s recursive in that it is an example of what the card itself says: “unusual sense of humour.”
Even though Stallman hands out these cards to men and women alike, some women take it as highly offensive, to the point of describing it as “sexual harassment.” For the sake of advancing sensible thinking, intellectual honesty, and fairness towards victims of real sexual harassment, let’s stop hyperbolizing and recognize that it’s not anything near “sexual harassment.”
We don’t know which precise words some women find offensive. We suspect it could be the expression “tender embraces” and/or the word “exotic.” There is a wave a new puritans who seem to think that it is disgusting for people to admit they wish to find a romantic relationship, except perhaps when hidden in some dating website or app.
A “tender embrace” is a hug which expresses a feeling of warmth and caring, it does not normally refer to sex. With the level of exaggeration fueled by the new puritans we are witnessing these days, one cannot avoid wondering: if Stallman had started the Free Hugs Campaign, would he be accused of “sexual harassment” for that as well?
As for “exotic,” Stallman uses the word as a qualifier for music and dance. If we look at Stallman’s preferences in these two fields, we can see that most—if not all—of the music and dance he likes is foreign and mostly unknown in the U.S., which fits the dictionary definition: “From another part of the world.”
Margarita Lacabe, a not sexual girlfriend of Stallman’s from the 80s, gives testimony of how he would share his music with her and dance: “He had me over to his place to listen to Indonesian music (or something of the sort), while he danced…”
Fortunately though, not all women feel that Stallman’s cards are “meant to be sexual come ons.” Some even appreciate the sense of humor in them.
Here’s an ironic meme depicting the dangers of the card, and Richard Stallman dancing with a robot in his Bulgarian custom at MIT in the 70s. (Source)
And here is Stallman again performing a traditional dance with a member of the Yale Political Union who doesn’t look to have taken offense. (Source). █
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05.29.23
Posted in Deception, FUD, Protocol at 2:52 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Video download link | md5sum 60c27626a994551b2361b079b19fa27d
Gemini FUD Based on Ignorance
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0
Summary: The man behind Curl, Daniel Stenberg, criticises Gemini; but it’s not clear if he even bothered trying it (except very briefly) or just read some inaccurate, one-sided blurbs about it
THE DETAILED RESPONSE (in Daily Links already) to yesterday’s post from Daniel Stenberg merited a long video, aside from a rant in IRC. Stenberg and I used to argue about all sorts of things and right now he’s badmouthing Gemini while shilling GitHub, which isn’t just proprietary but also controlled by Microsoft. Stenberg tends to gravitate towards money, just like the World Wide Web Consortium.
“My thoughts in the video can be summed up as, Stenberg promotes misconceptions and misinformation about Gemini.”Stenberg’s background isn’t what many people assume (he openly admitted this days ago), but he’s very influential because his program is used on billions of computers, not just on this planet but also in Mars.
Stenberg isn’t a rude person. He can sometimes be both amicable and receptive to feedback. I hope he’ll spend more time actually using Gemini before leaping to unfair judgments. My thoughts in the video can be summed up as, Stenberg promotes misconceptions and misinformation about Gemini. Maybe it’s not intentional or maybe the veiled rationale is the lack of Gemini support in Curl (there are already Free/libre tools that way are ahead of Curl and support Gemini — I’ve even compiled some of them). █
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05.27.23
Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software at 7:57 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Video download link | md5sum 58fe869dbe56783f7f1ce90f27458ef6
Collective Risk From Social Control Networks
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0
Summary: With the Tux Machines anniversary (19 years) just days away we seriously consider abandoning all social control media accounts of that site, including Mastodon and Diaspora; social control networks do far more harm than good and they’ve gotten a lot worse over time
AMONG the potential topics for today we’ve included the impact of social control media ‘by peer’, e.g. within families (dinner table, sleep) or inside workplaces. I’ve meanwhile noticed, as stated in the above video, that Mastodon’s largest instance does not like GNU/Linux sites. It does not like GNU/Linux users, either. Tux Machines (username tuxmachines) has been delisted and demoted; it’s not visible, even if it’s still there, and nothing gets imported into the account.
“Tux Machines (username tuxmachines) has been delisted and demoted; it’s not visible, even if it’s still there, and nothing gets imported into the account.”For now I’ve decided not to even ‘fix’ the tuxmachines social control media accounts. It’s just not worth the trouble and as early as next week Tux Machines might quit social control media altogether. It’s a total catastrophe and nobody deserves to have to deal with such crap.
The video above focuses on this new article from YLE. It talks about how children’s use of crap like Fentanylware/TikTok harms health; those are topics that we did not cover or barely covered before.
To make society better off and more secured/protected from harm — both domestic and foreign — we need to convince peers/family/friends to abandon social control media, including federated/Free software/decentralised derivatives/copycats of the same behavioural machines. “Free (as in Freedom) platforms would not drive “engagement” nor aim for other aspects of addiction and harm,” an associate noted. █
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Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 5:36 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
More translations (with more languages) available in the site of the EPO‘s union, SUEPO
Summary: SUEPO has just released 3 translations of new articles in German (here is the first of the batch); the following is the second of the three (“Kritik am Europäischen Patentamt – Patente ohne Wert?”)
THIS is an article from yesterday, composed by Thomas Magenheim, who understands these matters. The following is at least partly machine-generated:
Criticism of the European Patent Office Patents without value?
26.05.2023 – 00:00 hrs
Photo: imago/STL
To increase its revenues, the European Patent Office grants questionable patents, say critics. Transparency International sees structures that favour corruption.
Thomas Magenheim
The example described by the Munich patent attorney makes it clear what is at stake. A pharmaceutical company developed a pill against infertility, had it protected at the European Patent Office (EPO) and invested in its marketing. Then a rival entered the market with an alleged plagiarism. The patent holder went to court and lost. The alleged imitator was able to show a US patent that Epa examiners had overlooked. This rendered their property right worthless. “In extreme cases, this can cause millions in damages,” explains the patent attorney, who wishes to remain anonymous. He works for one of the largest patent law firms in Europe. Patenting for several countries alone consumes a six-figure sum and many times that amount is invested in production in reliance on the patent. There is a system of meagre returns, the expert complains. Examiners are encouraged to grant more and more patents because this maximises the office’s income. Quality research falls by the wayside.
Michael Heisel hangs the grievances even higher. “We see structural problems at the Epa that facilitate corruption,” says the Bavarian head of the anti-corruption organisation Transparency International. An element of this, he says, is the Epa Board of Directors, in which 39 European countries are represented and which is supposed to control the management of the office. But this is called into question by a conflict of interests, warns Heisel. On the one hand, the office takes over the patent examination for many countries. On the other hand, the states receive a share of the Office’s income for granted patents. “The supervisory authorityThe administrative board is not independent of the person being controlled, and that can’t work,” Heisel criticises. Epa service instructions support this view. “Productivity has to improve, very soon, . …because productivity is the only thing that guarantees that our payroll will be paid on 26. of each month,” writes an Epa director. The clarity of a patent is not a priority, the inventive step is not to be examined in depth, it continues. It is to be examined quickly, decided positively and recognised a lot, it means.
Siemens is also among the critics
This practice is also a thorn in the side of Siemens patent chief Beat Weibel. His company is the largest German patent applicant and initiator of an industry initiative with the abbreviation IPQC. 20 major international corporations such as Siemens, Bayer or Nokia, but also smaller companies, have united because they fear for effective patent protection. “We have nothing in our hands if patent examiners can’t find the state of the art and can only do incomplete research due to internal time pressure,” complains Weibel. Siemens, too, has had similar experiences with Epa patents. Representatives of IPQC and Office 2023 have met twice to discuss and resolve problems. But that already fails in terms of awareness. “The Management of the office has denied quality deficiencies,” regrets the Siemensian. The Critics, meanwhile, remain silent. “We ask for your understanding that Epa does not wish to comment on this,” a spokesperson explains succinctly when asked.
The data speak a clear language. For example, Siemens has documented an increase in the time spent on patent applications by one third in the past decade. At the same time, according to internal Epa statistics, the time available to examiners per patent search has almost halved, i.e. the opposite development has taken place. As a result, those who challenge patents are becoming more successful. From 2015 to 2021, the revocation rate climbed from 41 to 46 per cent, according to Siemens. For 2022, a study by the Chair of Intellectual Property at the University of Osnabrück has determined a revocation rate of almost 50 per cent at the Epa Board of Appeal. Another almost 40 per cent of contested patents were marginally to substantially restricted. It is striking that not even one in ten revocations is based on documents that could not be found in the Epa patent database, the study authors write. This means that in nine out of ten contested cases, the patent should not have been granted in the first place if a precise search had been carried out.
Internal complaints have gone unheard
“We need reliable patents, and for that examiners need enough time and experience,” emphasises a patent expert from the pharmaceutical company Roche in Switzerland. He too is a member of the IPQC. Epa – Staff representatives support the accusations from industry and research. To the outside world, the office management claims that everything is fine and plays down quality deficiencies or ignores them altogether, they explain. Only four out of five exiting auditors are replaced, despite an increase in work. Internal complaints that this is at the expense of the quality of research have gone unheard.
“The Office must provide more examiners and more examination time,” the Munich patent attorney also demands. A few years ago, several large patent law firms sent a fire letter to the Office. which criticised the declining quality of patents. This has been negated on the part of the office. “Nothing happened,” regrets the expert. Like Transparency International, he sees the Epa Board of Directors as problematic.
Aiming for patent fees
“There are states for which this is a significant source of income,” says Weibel, criticising the control body’s actions and its focus on patent fees. Patent trolls have also recognised this and are taking advantage of it. These are applicants who apply for superficial patents, which are granted if the examination is poor, explains Heisel. These patents then block competitors. “China in particular applies for a large number of patents, and if they are not carefully examined, German companies can lose innovation opportunities.
[sic] take,” warns Heisel. This is another reason why the IPQC remains persistent. “We will not give up,” promises Weibel in the fight for patent quality.
European Patent Office
Organisation
The European Patent Office (EPO), with its headquarters in Munich, is a supranational organisation, not an EU organisation, which is only subject to very limited state jurisdiction in the German country where it has its headquarters. The management of the Office, under President Antonio Campinos, is controlled by the Epa Administrative Council. It is made up of representatives of the 39 European states that are members of the European Union.
Patent Convention have acceded to. These representatives are usually the heads of the national patent offices. For Germany, there is a Secretary of State for Justice.
Patents
In particular, patent applications from China have been on the rise at the European Patent Office for years. In 2022, the increase on this basis was a good 15 percent to more than 19,000 requests for protection by Chinese inventors. By comparison, applications from the USA grew by only three percent to a good 48,000 requests, while those from Germany fell by almost five percent to 24,684 inventions. However, these figures say nothing about their quality.
EPO managers redefined quality as speed of granting. That’s not quality at all. Remember that the EPO hired people from Transparency International (noted above). That helped silence them about EPO corruption for a while. █
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Posted in Deception, Finance, Fraud, Free/Libre Software at 12:01 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
It’s like writing to zombie agencies that exist only on paper or selectively enforce (based on special interests)
Summary: One week ago we reported tax abuses of Sirius ‘Open Source’ to HMRC; we still wait for any actual signs that HMRC is doing anything at all about the matter (Sirius has British government clients, so maybe they’d rather not look into that, in which case HMRC might be reported to the Ombudsman for malpractice)
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05.24.23
Posted in Deception, GNU/Linux, IBM, Microsoft, Red Hat at 10:20 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Related: SiliconANGLE is Selling Coverage (Fake ‘Journalism’)
Earlier this week: IBM Loves Microsoft*
Yesterday: The transformational journey of Microsoft and Red Hat: A commitment to open source and cloud technologies (openwashing and “clown”-washing of mass surveillance or imperialism through systemic outsourcing)
A huge proportion of articles and videos in that site are sponsored by the company/ies this coverage is about and sometimes they even disclose this, albeit only at the very bottom (in small fonts). This is no exception:
Summary: SiliconANGLE insists that paying SiliconANGLE money for coverage does not lead to bias, but every sane person who keeps abreast of SiliconANGLE — and I read their entire feed every day — knows that it’s a ludicrous lie (Red Hat/IBM and the Linux Foundation also buy puff pieces and “event coverage” from SiliconANGLE, so it’s marketing disguised as “journalism”
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* As a GNU developer put it in a message to me, “IBM not only loves Microsoft, they might secretly be married! 
Since 2019, I surmised that the Microsoft-led plan is to squash the Free Software Movement and the FSF in order to make the Linux Foundation the centre of FLOSS. That way, Bill [Gates] and company will have complete control. I also believe that the 2019 attacks to remove RMS from the FSF were already in tow when they found opportunity in RMS’ email concerning Epstein and Minsky. What RMS needs is a board that understands the dynamics of management and marketing as well as being strategically savvy in the game of mega corporate power play. People who can’t be bought.”
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05.22.23
Posted in Deception, Google, Microsoft, Search at 10:12 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Reality:
But forget about reality… Microsoft was eager to tell people they don’t need search engines and should instead get hyped-up chatbots.
Paid-for Microsoft fluff aplenty (we give just one example from each month; the marketing/propaganda strategy changed). Starting with January:
February:
March:
April:
May:
Summary: With an estimated market share of 93% worldwide, Google Search has only gained share [1, 2] — not lost share — since Microsoft introduced vapourware for Bing (whilst in fact laying off a lot of Bing staff — a simple fact that the media barely mentioned)
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