Bonum Certa Men Certa

Techrights Plans for 2014

Summary: As 2013 (nearly) comes to an end we look back at this year, reflecting and looking ahead at the coming years

2013 was a relatively slow year for Techrights, mostly for personal reasons and nothing related to the volume of news. In recent months there has been only scarce coverage of patent issues; this was due to lack of time but also a sense of despair. Allowing corporate influence in this area has taken us nowhere but fake 'reforms' which make elimination of software patents in the United States too distant a dream. The same thing in copyright policy motivated people like Professor Lessig (of Creative Commons fame) to 'guerilla' activism and sometimes suicide (Swartz). Lessig, a friend of Swartz, turns his attention to political corruption and next month he and many others will march in protest against such corruption. Without some political action we cannot expect good technology to be triumphant. It's sad, but that's how the world works.



As noted yesterday, 2013 was good for GNU/Linux and the future holds promise. In terms of journalism, however, 2013 was very bad. Putting aside the important leaks about the NSA (which served us well for the second part of the year), surveillance put an end to the excellent site Groklaw while several other excellent sites, including The H, pretty much died for financial reasons. By now it should be realised that unless we as readers support the sites we like they are likely to simply vanish or produce less output (I now work full time elsewhere and my wife does too). A few months ago Tux Machines was put on sale because the personal affairs of its founder threatened to put an end to it; my wife and I put our savings together to acquire and to keep running it. Now that site is very much focused on GNU/Linux and to a lesser degree on Free software in general. Here in Techrights things are getting more political, usually in a way that directly relates to technology. We oughtn't shy away from politics. Good (as in benign, benevolent and technically better) policy will be imperative for progress. Without it, corruption like bribes (i.e. money) will determine who benefits from government contracts.

For quite a few years it has been possible for me to produce a daily (sometimes bi-daily) summary of links, informing readers of important news and sub-categorising it for easier absorption. I can no longer do this. It's too much. A lot of readers appreciated it, but it's no longer sustainable. Instead I occasionally post articles with relevant recent news appended and bits of commentary throughout. In 2014 it will stay the same unless readers have suggestions. Until a couple of years ago I was able to work on Techrights as though it was a full-time job (with salary of zero). Right now, if the goal is to keep the site going and always with both eyes on the ball, then cooperation is needed, e.g. contribution of articles, help in IRC (dropping links there can help), and even financial help. Of course one could turn rogue and serve privacy-infringing (remotely-hosted) ads -- even full-page ads like Phoronix does -- but that would defeat our goals and rightly make us look like hypocrites.

Techrights -- like today's Tux Machines (I've removed the ads from there) -- is viewed as a public service. It's not a business and not a job. It was never perceived that way. To help Techrights or Tux Machines is not to help some kind of business; it's to help a cause, an idea, a process.

In 2014 we are going to release quite a few new videos that I recorded with Dr. Richard Stallman. These would already have been released if I had more time to edit. For those who wonder about TechBytes (audio), editing takes a long time (especially with music segments, as the rest is raw and unedited) and there are other issues because Tim, my co-host, may soon be moving to the United States. The show began in 2010 and in its current form it's mostly centred around Richard Stallman, a person whom we agree with on many subjects.

As always, those who can financially support the site (to motivate more output) will be eternally remembered because currently there have been no more than half a dozen people who chose to do so. The sacrifice of time is ideologically driven, not business-driven. Techrights will never be anything resembling a business, just a site that gives readers what they want.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Openwashing Shills Initiative (OSI) - Part II: Lying to the IRS is a Big Issue
The OSI of today pretends to be something that it is not
Bloodlust and Love of Blades (Fascination With Murder) Nothing New Among Microsofters
Violence is not a joke and no group is magically entitled to make such "jokes"
Links 01/06/2025: Bird Flu, Food Price Inflation, and Growing US-China Hostilities
Links for the day
Links 01/06/2025: "Vibe Coding" Turns Out to be a Fraud and Amazon Merits Boycott, Argue Bloggers
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/06/2025: "Stardust" and Ideal PC Setup
Links for the day
Links 01/06/2025: Windows TCO, Openwashing, "It's FOSS" Still Promoting Microsoft
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/06/2025: Simplification and Networks Everywhere
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 31, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 31, 2025
Google Bribes EFF. EFF Promotes LLM Slop as 'Fair Use'. To GAFAM It's a Low-Cost Lobby Hedge.
So the bribes pay off ("slush fund") and the word spreads
Slopwatch: Fake Text and Images, Financial Bubbles, and Scams in "Intelligent" Clothing
Sometimes what they mean by "AI" is just cheap labour somewhere else, as we discussed in IRC a few hours ago
Why Microsoft is Collapsing (Similar to What's Happening at IBM), As Insiders See It
IBM seems like one heck of a mess
Reliable Computing Means Free (Libre) Computing
Sites that want to promote security ought to deal with the biggest issues
Links 31/05/2025: US Court Orders Sides With RFE/RL, War Updates From Ukraine
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/05/2025: ARM Server and power_supply Subsystem
Links for the day
Links 31/05/2025: Slop Stigmatised as Disinformation, Catalyst/Driver of "Death of Communication"
Links for the day
Common Sense 101: Do Not Write Blog Posts Saying You Want to Murder Colleagues (or Yourself)
Only crazy people would think stabbings are a joke
Microsoft Bankruptcy
"Microsoft unit in Russia to file for bankruptcy, database shows"
Techrights Does Not Compete With LLM Slop, It Exposes the Bastards, Plagiarists and Scammers Who Do That
People like Scam Altman, still facing a lawsuit from his own sister for sexual abuse against her
Links 31/05/2025: Microsoft-Connected Builder.ai is a Fraud and US is Purging Students Based on Race/Nationality
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/05/2025: Limmat, Doomscrollers, and Arguments Parsing
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 30, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, May 30, 2025
The "AI" (Slop) Bubble Already Popped, But It's Not an Overnight Collapse
where Microsoft put its money
No More Steven Astorino at IBM, Chatter About Weekly/Nonstop Layoffs at IBM
What happened? Good luck guessing.
Looking at Corruption in Europe, Going Beyond the EPO
Expect a new series to kick off very soon
Slopwatch: Security SPAM and LLM Slop for SEO and FUD Purposes, Perpetually Tarnishing the Perception of Linux and (Open)SSH Security
A lot of this Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) comes from Microsoft and its LLMs
Links 30/05/2025: Google's LLM Slop Pushers Are Killing Journalism and Shira Perlmutter Fails to Stop Bribed Regime From Legalising Plagiarism (in "AI" Clothing)
Links for the day
Links 30/05/2025: Offline Arts and "Threshold of Patience"
Links for the day
Signing Off Serious Lies With a Statement of Truth is No Joking Matter
It's not hard to see what's happening here
Links 30/05/2025: LLM Slop Already Ingests and Vomits Its Own Garbage, Facebook Exec Admits Copyrights a Concern Too
Links for the day
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Result in More Whistleblowers From Microsoft
Microsoft's predatory pricing is further
Slopwatch: Planet Ubuntu Became LLM Slop and Some People Fail to See the Immorality of Plagiarism
it lessens the incentive for people to publish real articles
EPO Poll: 68% Dissatisfied With Quality of Slop (Wrongly Framed as "AI") for Patent Classification
Slop does not work, it's just falsely advertised with extra hype (funded by slop pushers that sponsor the major media)
Big Crowds Gather to Learn About Software Freedom From the Man Who Started GNU/Linux in 1983
"It was a great success"
Microsoft Layoffs Again in Bay Area
Microsoft relies on people's false belief that being "in LinkedIn" will get you a job; well, seems like even working inside LinkedIn really sucks and you lose the job
Gemini Links 30/05/2025: Fighting Against the Bad News, and Slop is Dehumanisation Disguised as "Intelligence"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 29, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, May 29, 2025