Open Access and Open Hardware News: Sharing Ideology on the Rise
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-03-30 07:00:25 UTC
- Modified: 2014-03-30 07:00:25 UTC
Creative Commons and Academia
In the sharing of ideas, what Rundle, Nowviskie, and I really want—and, I’ll warrant, what most scholars really want—is simply proper attribution.
Nature Publishing Group — is telling all authors at Duke that they must obtain a waiver of the policy before their accepted articles can be published.
More Reasons to Boycott Elsevier
It’s easy (if tedious) to find paywalled Open Access articles in Elsevier journals. You go to Robert Kiley’s excellent spreadsheet (curated by Michelle Brook and others) , find publisher = Elsevier , search for the title and go to the journal pages. Here I show how
For some reason, Elsevier seems to take delight in being hated by the academic world. Its support for the awful Research Works Act back in 2012 led to a massive boycott of the company by researchers. More recently, it has cracked down on academics posting PDFs of their own research. Now Peter Murray-Rust, one of the leading campaigners for open access, has caught Elsevier at it again.
Schools and Textbooks
Several students complain every year – for good reason – about the exorbitant prices charged for textbooks. If there were any way to reduce this unbelievable cost to students, it should be implemented immediately.
College students are no strangers to shelling out hundreds of dollars for textbooks every semester. Even thrifty students find that used books will cost them greatly if they’re lucky enough to be able to get them. Students who are required to have “UConn editions” or “new editions” of books often see their bank accounts dwindle at the beginning of the semester. Often many students forgo purchasing textbooks or prowl around for an illicit online edition.
USM holds pilot in which students use free 'open-source' textbooks put together by their professors
Open Hardware
Brian Gerkey wanted a common robotic control language. Taking inspiration from the LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL Python) open source tools in the 1990s Brian worked to develop ROS, the Robot Operating System. ROS is an open source kit of tools, libraries and programming conventions for programming robots.
*Open Source is always promising to build a “whole new economy.” There’s a rather well-established open-source economy nowadays that’s neither whole nor new. Why keep saying this? It’s like promising Zen enlightenment without knowing that you still have to chop wood and carry water.
*The genuinely new development in Open Source is an open resistance to open-source by established power players. What’s especially new and different is the bitter, politicized, statehouse and working-class resistance to commercial Big Sharing efforts such as Uber and AirBnB. Distributing access to knowledge isn’t gonna be the problem any more — politics is gonna be the problem.
Electronics
"When you go to a store and buy an electronic gizmo, does it ever occur to you that you could make one yourself? Or even that it would be FUN to make one yourself?" This is how John Baichtal's Arduino for Beginners: Essential Skills Every Maker Needs begins, and that same curiosity and ingenuity flows through the entire book.
Frankovsky
Facebook’s open-source-hardware champion, Frank Frankovsky, has left the building.
In a personal Facebook post, Frankovsky, who headed up the ambitious Open Compute Project and ran Facebook’s own hardware design, announced that he’s leaving to start his own company.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- This New Determination on a Case Echoes the Modus Operandi of Microsoft's Serial Strangler vs Techrights (Its Online Decision/Judgment Says Truth and Public Interest Defend the Publisher)
- Noel Anthony Clarke hopefully has enough money left to pay his victims, which include the publishers
-
- Links 26/08/2025: DNS Tampering and TikTok Layoffs
- Links for the day
- Microsoft's Windows "Market Share" Overestimated
- Microsoft's income sources are shrinking
- We Shall See...
- My wife and I are hardly the first victims of Brett Wilson LLP
- Going Offline
- There was life before the Net
- The Register MS Has Apparently Shut Down Its Office
- It is basically a fake address on the face of it
- There Are Also Expectations of IBM Layoffs Very Soon With "Narrative Control."
- Some of them mention Red Hat and how IBM failed to achieve anything substantial with that acquisition
- After at Least Two Rounds of Mass Layoffs in August Microsoft Said to Have "September Layoff Confirmed - Performance Based"
- Those "M5 level meetings" sound plausible
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 25, 2025
- IRC logs for Monday, August 25, 2025
- Slopwatch: Slopfarms All Over Google News and Real News Sites Pushed Out of Visibility
- Google News is dying (as a tool of value)
- Gemini Links 25/08/2025: Numeric-only VM and Alhena 5.3.0
- Links for the day
- Links 25/08/2025: ‘Panama Playlists’ and Live Nation/Ticketmaster Suit Aims at Class Action
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 25/08/2025: Empathy Towards Autistic People and Old Gadgets
- Links for the day
- Links 25/08/2025: Datacentres Versus Water Supplies and "The IPv6 Divide"
- Links for the day
- Links 25/08/2025: Data Breaches, Politics, and Financial Strain
- Links for the day
- GNU/Linux Distros Ought to Replace Firefox (and Firefox ESR) With Something Like LibreWolf
- Perhaps it's come to replace Firefox
- Father of Julian Assange Said the US Government Was Trying to Bankrupt WikiLeaks, Now the Assange Family Promotes Fake Currencies
- Using the name for bad purposes?
- Bailing Out GAFAM, Giving Taxpayers' Money to Failing Companies, and Trying to Outlaw Lawsuits Against Them
- What would the late Lincoln have said?
- Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) Inc. Lost 2 Million Dollars Last Year and Its Chief Took a Salary Increase of Almost $6,000
- Another year or two like this... and the SFC will be bankrupt [...] Hallmark of mismanagement
- The "New Techrights" Turns Two Very Soon
- Accomplishing something each year is what's important, not merely "finishing" another year
- Gulf Nations Leave Microsoft Behind
- How much lower will Microsoft stoop in an effort to raise money from oil-rich lenders?
- How to Combat IRC Trolls (in Our Experience)
- Today I want to share my experience (or knowledge) of how to deal with IRC trolls
- The Register MS Needs to Stop Participating in the "Hey Hi" (AI) Hype, But It Gets Paid to Participate in This Hype
- the publisher (The Register MS) wants to have it both ways
- Gemini Links 24/08/2025: Living With Your Parents, Zürich Zoo, and Macondo
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 24, 2025
- IRC logs for Sunday, August 24, 2025
- Gemini Links 24/08/2025: Signal on OpenBSD and Keyboard Layouts Compared
- Links for the day
- Men Who Abuse Women Should Never Spend Over 3 Years of the UK High Court's Time
- This demonstrates that we need a reform in the UK
- Links 24/08/2025: Microsoft Settles Data Breach Lawsuits and Climate Change Causes Heatwaves, Water Shortages
- Links for the day
- CachyOS is Rising Fast, But Slopfarms Are 'Googlebombing' It
- CachyOS receives more media attention
- No Reason for Red Hat Relief Yet (Layoff Rumours)
- the execution could be stalled, delayed, or scheduled for some time after people come back from holiday
- GNU/Linux 6%, Windows 60% in Venezuela, Suggests statCounter
- The cash cows are dying
- Mass Layoffs Continue at Microsoft This Month (Remaining Workers See Conditions That Deteriorate)
- So far this month (one week remaining) we saw at least two waves of layoffs at Microsoft
- How SPAM E-mails With Windows-Centric Files Get Twisted as Linux Threats, Then Slopfarms Spread the Word
- Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt/Fear-mongering/Dramatisation
- Links 24/08/2025: Heatwaves Threaten Workers, Maldives Versus Press freedom
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 24/08/2025: Digital Cameras and Printers
- Links for the day
- Links 24/08/2025: GAFAM Lie About Pollution and Slop's Carbon Footprint, The Guardian Says Slop ("Hey Hi") is a Bubble That Will Send Stock Markets Into a Freefall
- Links for the day
- 80% of the Sponsored (Fake) Articles in The Register MS Are Promotions of Ponzi Schemes (Unethical Money), the Rest is Banned Chinese Business
- Is that an ethical way to make money? No.
- The UEFI Restricted Boot 'Time Bomb' is About to Go Off in a Few Weeks
- Garrett was the first person to face sanctions (like muting) in our IRC channels because of his abuse; worse yet, he hijacked other people's names and then locked them out of their own accounts
- Should Currys PCWorld Start Voiding Warranties of Users of Vista 11?
- If a person's laptop has a mechanical issue, should this person replace GNU/Linux with Vista 11 for the repair shop? Only to damage the SSD?
- Newer is Not Always Better, and It's Possible That 'Peak' is the Past
- People creating their own platforms means progress, whereas centralisation (like moving from blogs to social control media) is the opposite of progress
- LLM Hype is Sowing Destruction: It Contributes to DDoS Attacks and Makes the Web Less Accessible (JavaScript "R U Human?" Tests)
- If it was googlebot, it would be possible to argue that you'd at least then get referral traffic from Google Search. With LLMs, all you get is plagiarised.
- Links 24/08/2025: New York Times Talks About Hey Hi (AI) Bubble
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 24/08/2025: Upgrading Debian and Mobile-indifferent Design
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 23, 2025
- IRC logs for Saturday, August 23, 2025