Notice:
I'm getting ready to go to USENIX/FREENIX in Monterey, California this
June 6th - 11th (on the student stipend program too I HOPE!)
So, everyone: get yer booties to Monterey! I heard that a Slink CD set is part
of the USENIX attendee packet this year... whoever did that, I salute you! :)
And I need someone to sign my pgp public key, so I can start contributing
packages. So if anyone will be in the SF, the Valley, or Monterey areas between
June 5th - 12th, please send an email and maybe your phone number so I can
contact you when I'm over there. I'll be flying into SF on June 5th at 5pm, and
then plan on taking an el cheapo rental car down the coast to Monterey. :)
I will also be hosting a Debian Linux BoF (Birds of a Feather) session also if
no other Debianites will do so. :) And may present a rough draft of a paper I'm
writing and doing research on, about "Free Software: How It Will Save The
World":
[snippet from an email on the subject:]
===============================================================================
The book "Open Sources", published by O'Reilly, is *very* well done! It is a
must read in order to more fully understand the history of Free Software. I'm
doing some research for a paper and presentation on Free Software for the 2000
USENIX/FREENIX conference. I have a good feeling I might be able to really do a
good job, and present the ideas in a positive way that can help create progress
and good debate over all the various issues surrounding the idea of Free
Software. The main point is that Free Software is beneficial to *all* people,
software developers, systems administrators, users, business people, and even
people who don't use computers at all. :) And of course for the business people
I plan to show how Free Software can make them all millionaires! :) And I will
even use arguments from Darwin's theories of evolution, and arguments from the
laws of physics, mostly the Second Law of Thermodynamics: Entropy. I hope to add
many new angles of thought into the "debate" over Free Software.
===============================================================================
[another snippet from an email on the subject, that I sent to RMS, but from
which I never received a response :( ]
===============================================================================
I just returned from the first ever USENIX NETA Networking '99 conference in
Silicon Valley (Santa Clara specifically). http://www.usenix.org/events/neta99/
It was incredible. Absolutely the most incredible and positive thing that has
ever happened to me in my life so far... or at least it feels like that for now!
I've been to USENIX '98 and Atlanta Linux Showcase '98. But I noticed that the
idea of Free Software was almost absent there among the many minds present. I
felt a dire need to help that situation out. And I was prompted by the two
co-chairs to present a paper at FREENIX, on Free Software as I see it.
I am not a software developer, but a systems/network administrator and student
of Computer Science and Japanese Language and Culture. I use GNU/Linux on my
desktops at home and at work. And have used GNU/Linux now for over 5 years.
Notice I say GNU/Linux! Yes! GNU and FSF deserve a tremendous amount of credit,
and I want to help you get the proper recognition you deserve. Yes "Linux" the
kernel is in the spotlight, but GNU, FSF, and yourself are NOT getting the
credit nor recognition you deserve. That needs to be remedied. I want to help!
:)
I am, or rather have been at one time or another, a mathematician, a physicist,
and a musician, among other things. I'm such a generalist it's hard to
specialize for me. But when I *do* specialize... I do so at incredible lengths,
in very small but meaningful ways. A favorite quote from Cicero is: "Careful
attention to small detail often proves superior to genius". (paraphrase because
I don't know if that is the exact translation or not) I don't claim to be a
genius, but I do claim to pay extreme attention to details when I think I need
or want to. Another favorite quote is from Einstein: "Make things as simple as
possible but no simpler." (also paraphrase ... this is why I need to *research*
to get all the nitty gritty nailed down and be "correct"!) Another is from
Abraham Lincoln: (again paraphrase) [my mind seems to work on IDEAS and FEELINGS
more than the exact translation to a given written or spoken language.] "My head
is like a block of solid IRON. It takes a while to etch something into it, but
once there it stays." :) Yes I'm hard headed and like to take extreme time when
learning so I learn it right. :)
Not only am I a part time mathematician, physicist, and musician (Jazz, Blues,
and Classic Rock Drummer) I'm also semi-fluent in Japanese. Maybe I should add
philosopher to that list too... I also have been through the flames of hell and
back with my personal life and have survived to the present day. And I am
stronger for it. Another motto: "Whatever doesn't kill you, only makes you
stronger." And when you know something is right, but feel a bit afraid to act on
it: "Feel the fear, and do it anyway." :)
I am very emotionally sensitive and yet at the same time, strong and try to
stick to good principles as much as I am able. I also find it quite easy for me
to move fluidly among different "kinds" of people and be able to fit in on the
outskirts and then work my way in by being honest and respectful, and by showing
my self respect and assertiveness... almost no matter what personal problems lie
below the surfaces of the other people. I have tremendous amounts of patience
and empathy, (or at least my friends tell me that) and can sacrifice all to the
core if I have to, as long as the most important needs are being met. I want to
use these personal strengths to help bring proper attention and recognition to
Free Software. Freedom! Sharing, Helping, Honesty! That's what it's all about
and I KNOW IT. I FEEL IT.
I have come to benefit from Free Software, very very much... maybe even
"immensely" is the right word. I have done a few little works, such as
documentation on how to convert Red Hat to Debian in place, and a little perl
conversion utility to chown/chgrp files on your system to match the Debian
numbering scheme for uid's and gid's:
[
http://www.geocities.com/researchtriangle/3328/conversion-tools.tar.gz
http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/3328/rh5todeb-howto.txt
]
I'm a debian "bigot" now, and hang out on #debian on irc.us.openprojects.net
almost all the time since 1996. I started out on #natter on irc.linpeople.org
back then but switched to Debian and #debian and about 8 months ago, and never
looked back. I still hangout on #linpeople now and again too. (#natter was
renamed #linpeople) I volunteer as much as I can to give free tech support to
anyone who needs it when I'm on as well. [I registered and "put on" the
#LinPeople Free IRC support services for GNU/Linux" BoF at USENIX '98, and the
"Debian GNU/Linux Networking" BoF at NETA '99.]
And I did write a little, not much of anything, C program to generate random
numbers, called "RandomIt" that is at Sunsite, or Metalab as it's now called.
But it died. I'm not a programmer and I admit it. :( but I tried to do it to GNU
spec as much as possible, as I understood it back then about a year or two ago.
But I feel I have some kind of calling to fight for Free Software in it's purest
form. But of course "Almost nothing is absolute", but I want to be as pure as is
possible. I still have a few "vices" with non-free software. I admit that, but
if it takes going completely Free, I may do it, but I haven't decided yet to do
that or not at the present time. I may not be ready yet. There are many areas of
my life that I still need to "cleaned" up. I admit that.
But here is an edited email that I sent to a friend of mine in which I outline
some of the major ideas for my paper... Which I plan on giving, with or without
your (RMS) help. But I feel I stand to gain much from your experience and
insights than if I went at it alone. You seem to be the "purest" of them all in
the Free Software world. And I admire that.
So I would appreciate your comments, thoughts, new insights, help, and guidance
in this endeavor to write a paper on Free Software and to present it at a
FREENIX in the near future. I want to do as good a job as I can.
Here is some of the outline: (as was presented to a friend in an email to him,
that I then edited and added to, for your reading.
[I am no writer, even though my mother is an english teacher, so beware of the
dangling participles. et. al. But I try as best I can. :]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[friend's name] wrote:
> Glad you made it safely back. I plan to live there [silicon valley], or
close to there.
> Already talked about it with [friend's fiance's name] many times. Next
conference, tell me
> within good time and I will come with you.
>
> Talk later, have much to do.
Next general conference is this summer. Have a look at
http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix99/ It includes the FREENIX track that
includes all the Free Software stuff: the Free Software Foundation, GNU,
Linux[the kernel], all the BSD's, maybe a talk on the HURD, Debian, and other
good stuff. It will be the second FREENIX Ever! And Richard Stallman might be
there too!
Did you know that there are only 4 or 5 hotels in the US that can handle the
size of the USENIX general conferences? And one is the Marriott in New Orleans.
So USENIX *has* to come to us every few years. Woo hoo! :) [note: I live one
hour north of New Orleans. :]
And... did you know you have to book conferences the size of USENIX general FIVE
years in advance!!! dude!
I want to get involved in the program committee for Freenix and then after that
experience, I want to prepare a paper on how Free Software will "save the
world", and present it in 2000. I bought the "Open Sources" book. It is a
collection of essays from the major minds and sages of the Free Software
movement. Very good material.
The main points I'm pondering on putting into the paper are:
How the laws of physics [and human nature] point to Free Software as a good
thing to help advance our society towards a greater [and happier] future. And
how sharing as opposed to hoarding is better for all of us, and how helping
rather than harming is better. Of course it's not an all or nothing proposition
in each case, but more helping than harming, more sharing than hoarding, and we
are all better off.
Free Software as defined by the GNU GPL espouses, and in fact enforces, the
ideas of sharing, helping, honesty, and freedom as opposed to hoarding, harming,
deceit, and powerlessness. I want to present those ideas in as vivid, animated,
warm, caring, and deep a way as I can. I want to show the extent of soul
searching and digging into the human psyche, and into the nature of physics
itself to show that Free Software is the best way to go. Not absolutely, but
mostly! 99.44% A little bit of proprietary software may actually be a good
thing, but I think mostly Free Software is better. :)
Proprietary software and software patents (with such LONG periods as 17 years [I
think that the length of time in the US, correct me if I'm wrong.]) represent
hoarding more than sharing, and harming more than helping. And also allows for
deceit. It's better to be open and honest *most* of the time than to to be
dishonest. (wow, I didn't think of that one before now!) And another benefit of
Free Software is that it is more likely to survive and grow forever and not go
extinct than non-free, proprietary software. In fact it is quite easy for
proprietary software to go extinct. All the original developer has to do is stop
work on it (one way or another) and not sell the rights to anyone else.
I did some thinking last night... I presented the first draft to completion at
the kitchen table, talking to myself. ("what a weirdo" I can hear you say...
heheh, but well, what can I say? :) It was a very very soul searching
experience. I wish I had a tape recorder, but I didn't. But I commanded my
memory banks to store that information as a very HIGH priority, until I can
recall and record it. :) You know the human brain/mind is capable of SO MUCH,
you only have to trust yourself, and not be afraid of yourself to allow it to do
more. ("Feel the fear and do it anyway.") The subconscious is also an
interesting thing to focus attention on now and again. I have found that you can
in fact delve a little bit into the "untapped" subconscious and "shine a light"
on what is going on down there and bring it to the focus of attention. The human
brain/mind is capable of about 7 simultaneous tracks of thought on different
matters, so I've heard. There is a lot going on "upstairs" that even we don't
fully pay complete attention to. But sometimes it's possible with a little
introspection and concentration to bring a focus to those other "subconscious"
levels of thought and feeling. (Have you ever notice someone commit a "Freudian
Slip"? That is one example where a "subconscious" thought slips out into
consciousness and into expression. (Man that interpersonal communication class
was really a great class! I recommend that everyone take a class in
Interpersonal Communication.)
I think there may even be a "calling" for me to follow in Richard Stallman's
footsteps... maybe I'm not the only one... but I feel the need, I feel I have
the depth and the experience in using Free Software, to do a good job on a
paper, and if there are others like me with more ideas and good arguments, it
only adds more insight! Yes of course I would like to have all the credit... but
as Spock once said: "The good of the many outweighs the good of the few, or the
one" (paraphrase I don't remember the exact phrase. I bet before that got into
Star Trek, it came from much farther back in history ... I'd like to know!) My
talk is probably about 90% complete... and could stand on it's own right now,
just lacking all the little details... like the full "2nd law of thermodynamics"
which will prove w/o a doubt that hoarding is a bad thing...
Here's a non mathematical example:
----------------------------------
If one person hoarded as much as he could for himself only, then all others
would starve and die. Then later he would die and no one would survive.
If he hoarded as much as he could but took a wife to share with, then he and she
would be losing a tremendous amount of good genetic variation and would probably
end up going extinct after a few generations.
BUT the 2nd law of thermo shows that that is very unlikely to happen. Just like
it is very unlikely to happen that all the air in the room suddenly goes to the
corner of the room just long enough for you to suffocate and die. It *can* in
fact happen, but is quite unlikely.
And maybe I can *calculate* a rough value for the right ratio of hoarding to
sharing that would maximize the survival of our species and maximize the
progress of the species ... by calculating what will maximize the amount of low
entropy, or order as opposed to disorder. :) order = intricacy = high
technology, disorder = a mess = broken = decay... I'm making the assumption that
the evolution process by pure chance has created us to be most "happy" (i.e. the
pleasure centers in our brains are most content) when we are living in an
environment with the lowest possible entropy, or the highest level of "order"
possible... perhaps it is not exactly "perfect" just like we humans are not
exactly "perfect" but I think that the lowest possible entropy on the surface of
the earth will maximize our survival, and thus as Darwin has theorized, will
produce animals and people that are most adapted to create and live in that kind
of environment, and I'm assuming as a part of that, we will evolve and be
"tuned" to be most happy in that kind of environment. :)
I think software and computer hardware are some of the most sophisticated
examples of low entropy that the human species has developed by itself, other
than the human brain itself... Perhaps living matter represents even lower
levels of entropy, but us humans haven't yet managed to get an animal to do such
interesting things as we have with computers, and other inanimate matter.
And perhaps the combination of computer technology and the collective human mind
IS in fact, as a system, the most extreme example of low entropy on the earth
and ... perhaps ... just perhaps in the universe as a whole... maybe there are
more advanced civilizations, but we have yet to discover them. At least if *we*
have I don't yet know about it! :) ... Roswell ... ??? Well I haven't *sensed*
it with my own mind so phooey!
And I'd like to calculate what the minimum amount of localized low entropy to
the earth's surface can be theoretically, and then calculate within the
constraints of the amount of time we have till the sun burns up it's fuel and
scorches the earth from it's red giant stage... which is about 5 billion years I
think, how far we can go towards reaching that limiting factor. The sun is a
middle aged star about 5 billion years old right now. (And I am the king of run
on sentences. Or is there anyone worse/better than me? :)
When the sun expands into it's red giant stage, the entropy level of the earth's
surface will increase wholesale... all traces of technology and in fact anything
at all resembling low scale order, and in fact order on all levels will
disappear as the sun melts and burns all of it away.
Maybe we will figure out how to fly away to more distant, more hospitable places
to survive, but I will assume we can't. That's just life! But the future is
bright, because, last I heard, the International Space Station will be running
GNU/LINUX on all their computer equipment! Free Software is *everywhere* !!! And
this is only just the beginning! :)
Nothing lasts forever! Maybe not even the Universe! (last I heard, the
experiments in Kamioka Japan to detect proton decay have yet to detect any, but
there is a theory from one of the "Grand Unified Theories" or physics that
predicts the decay of protons, which all atoms in regular "matter" are made of.
So if they can decay, then as Axel Rose once sang: "Nothing lasts forever, even
cold november rain"
Heh, does putting such a deep perspective on software startle you? Does it make
you think just a little more? I just wonder if anyone else has pondered along
these lines of thought before? Well if not, then I'm the first, and with the
help of anyone/everyone else interested I think we all, as a collective whole,
can at least do some good for the benefit of all on the level of computer
software and hardware.
"Open Spec Hardware": Hardware that is distributed with "Open Specifications" to
allow the buyers and anyone else to easily write software to utilize them fully.
The way I look at hardware and software is like this: Hardware is the product,
the hardware specifications are like the instruction manual on how to use the
hardware, and the software is like the particular *use* of the hardware that
uses it in accordance with the "instruction manual" or hardware specifications.
If you are going to sell a product, I think it is only a good faith idea to
include reasonable instructions on how to utilize it fully.)
Having proprietary hardware is kind of like having a car that is manufactured to
only runs on certain roads, and not all of them. Why would you want to buy such
a car?
[Well I probably could stand to strengthen and support my case for Open Spec.
Hardware a little more, but I'll leave it as is for now.]
Well that's what I have so far...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Any kind words of encouragement, support, help, new angles on my arguments, new
insights, information, and anything else you can do to help me in this endeavor
are greatly anticipated and will be immensely appreciated.
[end of email to Stallman] [it has also been edited heavily so it is not the
original email. I thought as I read, and added and edited as I went through it a
second time.] [dangit, RMS hasn't replied yet! :( ]
===============================================================================
I held a "Debian Linux Networking" BoF at the USENIX NETA '99 this past April
6th - 11th and quite a few people attended. Including a systems administrator
who works at Transmeta, which was across the street from the Mariott where the
conference was held. :) He was a Red Hat bigot, but I softened him up a little.
:)
Don't ask me for any info on Transmeta... because you will get none. Thank you
drive through. :)
R. Brock Lynn
(aka bytor on #debian at irc.us.openprojects.net)
--------------------- PGP 43 3C 3B CB CE 4B BF D3 F4 59 BD 97 92 DB 48 9C
__ _ Debian GNU R. Brock Lynn <brock@cyberdude.com>
/ /(_)_ __ _ ___ __ www.debian.org irc.openprojects.net
/ / | | '_ \| | | \ \/ /
/ /__| | | | | |_| |> < World Domination, of course.
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