Prosthetic Conscience

How men can help in the movement: STFU

Just linking to a very good anti-racism, anti-sexism piece of reading for activist men. How can men act better in meetings? Shut the fuck up.

Relevant quote:

What’s to be done? I’ve come up with a little idea I like to call, “Shut the fuck up.” It goes as follows: Every time someone…

• Says something you think is irrelevant,
• Asks a (seemingly) obvious question,
• Criticizes your proposal or makes a contradictory observation,
• Makes a proposal
• Asks a question, or
• Asks for more input because there’s a brief lull in the discussion…

Shut the fuck up. It’s a radical process, but I think you’ll like it.

Via Dave Neary, via Planet Gnome.

[ Posted: 20:44] | [ Category: /politics] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

NSA involved in Windows Vista

For those of you that still need a reason to switch away from Windows, the NSA, better known for warrantless wiretapping, was involved in the development of Windows Vista. NSA’s security expertise is supposed to make us feel more confident in Windows’ security, but, of course, their worrisome involvement in domestic surveillance is liable to make most of us feel the opposite. For those of you not wearing your tinfoil hats, you should immediately suppose that any security facilities in Windows have backdoors installed for NSA surveillance purposes.

(Via Bruce Schneier)

This comes on the heels of a cost analysis of Windows Vista content protection, which describes Vista’s CRAP (Cancellation, Restriction, and Punishment) system as “the longest suicide note in history.” Basically, Microsoft put Hollywood’s interests above those of its customers in a way that promises to be very, very intrusive.

If you want your computer to be working for you, rather than the NSA or Hollywood, you need to be using Free Software. There is no serious alternative. The easiest way for most people to start using Free Software throughout their computer is to download or mail-order Ubuntu Linux. Ubuntu is a user-friendly Linux distribution and will easily replace everything you currently use Windows and other non-free software for.

[ Posted: 20:18] | [ Category: /computing] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]