cyberenviro.org » FOSS

stop the madness and just switch to an open-source browser

gtdonovan — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:11:45 +0000

Yet another major security flaw found in Internet Explorer, Microsoft’s proprietary web browser. Via the BBC:

Users of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer are being urged by experts to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw has been fixed.

The flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer could allow criminals to take control of people’s computers and steal their passwords, internet experts say.

There’s no sense in using a proprietary web browser. Free and open-source browsers such as FireFox or Opera may be just a susceptible to security breaches as proprietary ones, but the problems are almost always identified and fixed in a shorter of time. Hierarchical dinosaurs like Microsoft may be good for certain things, but they simply can not identify and solve security breaches as quickly as a large decentralized community of networked users.

Just stop the madness and just switch to an open-source browser. I recommend FireFox.

we are the ones we’ve been waiting for…

gtdonovan — Sun, 04 May 2008 22:00:35 +0000

From Chopra & Dexter’s Decoding Liberation: The Promise of Free and Open Source Software, p173:

Jacques Ellul imagined an iron cage constructed of technology (Ellul 1967), but never the possibility that the cage could be unlocked by its prisoners. We began with a historical note on hacking: the significance of hacking should now be clear. Hackers set out to discover the workings of technical systems but found themselves doing much more. In the cyborg society, investigating a technical system is not idle tinkering: it uncovers the roots of power. A hacker is a public investigator, a gadfly, a muckraker, a public conscience: the guilty hide while the hacker lays bare. Foucault despaired of the immanence of opaque power, but free software creates a moment in which to make the exertion of power transparent. The technical is political: to free software is to free our selves. [emphasis added]

a research blog: open source, open process.

gtdonovan — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 22:51:09 +0000

This research blog has been setup to assist me in preparing for my second doctoral exam. This blog will hopefully afford me a space where the scholarly content of my reading list can interact with popular culture as well as my thoughts and experiences. In addition, this blog will help semantically organize the information I’ll be gathering, processing and interpreting, and provide a forum for public engagement. My examination committee, colleagues, faculty and general blog visitors will be able to observe a graphical representation of my exam preparation process and even participate in that process if they so choose (by commenting on posts or posting their own thoughts – and perhaps more ways will follow…).

I’ve spent the past month developing this research blog, and while its not complete (in fact it’ll never be ‘complete’ as it will only evolve as my needs and the demands of the exam change) the basic design and infrastructure is ready t ogo. A number of features have already been modified and/or added to the blog such as a dynamic glossary (so I can build definitions over time), a photo gallery (so I can incorporate and respond to visual data), and a way for me to txt message & email my thoughts directly to the blog.

First, publicness provides a model for all students and faculty for their own work. Second, each of these events is a forum for ideas stimulating both to faculty and to students. Third, an open process enhances Program culture by providing links between students at different levels as well as between students and faculty who are not otherwise directly involved on a committee.

- Environmental Psychology Program Handbook
Section 6: “On the Opennes of Procedures.”