Bonum Certa Men Certa

Software Freedom is Not a Disaster and Those Who Oppose B.Y.O.D. Are a Monarch's Dream

Video download link | md5sum 5a2a7550c3dc497d9a1e0af501abb91c Opposing Device Freedom Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: Mr. Shim (Matthew Garrett, Microsoft 'asset') is telling us that people owning the electronic devices they use at work is a "disaster"; when it comes to security, being compromised (breached by a remote party) is part of that "security" as they define it, for "security" means the "trusted ones" control you, i.e. imperialism spun as "national security" or "war on terror"

THE video above is a response to this morning's post from Mr. Shim, "mjg59", who is best known for his contributions to Microsoft inside Linux, notably (notoriously) UEFI 'secure' boot. Aside from being Stalin's Dream, UEFI 'secure' boot is means by which to remotely sabotage other people's computers. Mr. Shim will never understand that. He refuses to understand that. Don't tell that to him. He is extremely sensitive and, in spite of being naturalised as US citizen, he does not or cannot grasp the First Amendment. So the video is probably a lot more polite than it ought to have been.



"It seems like fake security is a religion now; it's practiced not by security experts but failed biologists."This issue was also discussed for a bit in IRC, though one might need to wait for tomorrow's IRC logs (published for today -- the past 24 hours). Mr. Shim's arguments are full of holes (more of that was explained in IRC) and the gist of some of these misconceptions is that security is mistaken for control, where the control does not belong to the device's user but to some company like Microsoft or a Big Boss. The meaning of security has spectacularly been inverted! We're meant to think that oppression is freedom and security, but the Queen would not turn in her grave today (had she heard that). That's the sort of thing monarchs (dictators) have always fancied. They also seek to silence people who criticise them, just like Mr. Shim. Apparently in 'democratic' Britain it is now an arrestable offence to ask who elected 'King' Charles (nobody elected him).

In the video above I use the analogy of hotdesking; you own nothing, as everything is both temporary and rented. I explained why happy employees (hence, staff retention) is good for security and I reject pretty much all the straw man arguments from Mr. Shim. It seems like fake security [1, 2] is a religion now; it's practiced not by security experts but failed biologists. We've seen lots of this in the EPO -- a deeply corrupt institution where most managers aren't qualified for the positions they occupy, they're just imposters with connections.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Ludicrous Mythology of Commonality as Signal of Value, Merit, Popularity
Devalue what's true, promote marketing?
[Video] Richard Stallman on the Four Essential Freedoms (Manuel Cuda News, 2025)
Added to a channel several days ago by Manuel Cuda News
[Video] Richard Stallman on Understanding the Misconception of So-called 'Artificial Intelligence'
to "know and understand"
Gemini Links 09/03/2025: Lagrange 1.18.5 and Writing Mannerisms
Links for the day
Links 08/03/2025: International Women's Day, Software Patents Being Squashed
Links for the day
 
Links 10/03/2025: Small Web Praised, LLM Chatbots Exposed as Worse Than Useless Again
Links for the day
A Call for GNU/Linux and BSD Developers to Unite Against GAFAM and the Regime They Empower
We have long encouraged and continue to encourage people who value Software Freedom to altogether boycott GAFAM
Gemini Links 10/03/2025: Realisation About Young People, Punks, and Discord IPO
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 09, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, March 09, 2025
FSF's Defective by Design (DBD): Amazon Tightens the Digital Handcuffs
Reproduced verbatim
The Fall of the Open Source Initiative (OSI): Plenty of Issues, Plenty of Censorship
The OSI is abusive on many levels!
EPO Staff Appraisals Apparently Benefit Kakistocracy, Including Cheaters Who Grant Illegal Patents and Punish Good Patent Examiners (Who Find Valid Reasons for Denials)
In prior reports the staff representatives said that rewards typically went to people who granted many patents, i.e. didn't do proper examination and instead just allowed many fake patents get enshrined as EPs, causing fiasco (from which some patent attorneys could profit)
As The Web Gets Drowned Out, Sinking in a Pool of LLM Slop, Real News Sites With Real News Become Increasingly Rare If Not Extinct
This is a real problem
Links 09/03/2025: Moderna Patents Thrown Out, Climate United Sues E.P.A.
Links for the day
Links 09/03/2025: FiveThirtyEight Killed by Disney, Nature (Journal) Chooses Suicide by Slop
Links for the day
Hiding Problems Doesn't Work
transparent organisations will be more stable and sustainable
The Harder They Try to Censor, the Bigger the Scandal (and the Impact) Will Be
We don't plan to self-censor our coverage; sometimes we just delay publication a little
Gemini Links 09/03/2025: Leasehold Derangement Syndrome, Raspberry Pi, and More
Links for the day
All-Time Low for Microsoft in Africa
it helps show how irrelevant Microsoft is becoming
French woman (frontaliere) trafficked to promote unauthorised cross border Swiss insurance
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
New York Times & Guardian reporting on Modern Slavery Act prosecution of Glodi Wabelua
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Diana & Adrian von Bidder-Senn, EVP, Palm Sunday & Debian death on wedding day
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The RTO (Return-to-office) Layoffs or 'Soft' Layoffs at IBM and Red Hat
There are certainly many layoffs going on there, but many are described as "resignations" or "retirements" after RTO or some other form of relocation
Under the Pen Name "John O'Donnell" (LLM Slop, Not Real Article or Author) LinuxLinks Pushes Spammy Page
it happened some hours ago.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 08, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, March 08, 2025
Graveyard of Mastodons: A Vast Number of Inactive Accounts
More than 80% of users in mastodon.social (the "big one") are no longer active
Gemini Links 08/03/2025: Reading Cory Doctorow's 'Little Brother', Abandoning GAFAM Forever
Links for the day
No, We Don't Want to Go "Viral" (and You Probably Don't, Either)
"Viral" junk gets forgotten quickly
Windows is Being Eradicated
On the Web, in Africa in particular, user strings or UAs that say "Windows" are becoming more rare
For International Women's Rights Day (Today) Staff Representatives at the European Patent Office (EPO) Opened Up on Gender Discrimination at the Office
Office discrimination against women is widely known; unless you sleep with men in management
Links 08/03/2025: Tariff Self Harm and Mostly Solved Diseases Making a Comeback
Links for the day
Links 08/03/2025: Climate Change Causing Food Shortages, Selling Off Chrome Still in the Cards
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/03/2025: Driving in Japan, GrapheneOS, Tariffs Silver Lining
Links for the day
Working Like a Pack of Hyenas, the Microsofters Try Hard to Hide the Truth and Actively Censor Critics
They even target women
The Fall of the Open Source Initiative (OSI): Bylaws of the OSI a Shocking Oversight
That's what the OSI is right now: a salesperson
Thinking About Abandoning 'Google News' Altogether Due to Easy Poisoning by LLM Slop
As long as Google News keeps sending traffic to these leeches, it'll be very hard to justify relying on Google News for anything at all
Links 08/03/2025: Microsoft Failures, Further Attacks on Speech in Hong Kong
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/03/2025: Physical Albums, Analog Computing, Deleting All Social Control Media
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 07, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, March 07, 2025