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You are here: Home Free Software Supporter 2014 Free Software Supporter - Issue 77, August 2014

Free Software Supporter - Issue 77, August 2014

by wtheaker Contributions Published on Aug 29, 2014 04:49 PM
Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 82,437 other activists. That's 848 more than last month!

Encourage your friends to subscribe and help us build an audience by adding our subscriber widget to your web site.

Miss an issue? You can catch up on back issues at https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter.

El Free Software Supporter está disponible en español. Para ver la versión en español haz click aqui: https://fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2014/agosto

Para cambiar las preferencias de usuario y recibir los próximos números del Supporter en castellano, haz click aquí: https://crm.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=34&reset=1

Le Free Software Supporter est disponible en français. Pour voir la version française cliquez ici: https://fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2014/aout

Pour modifier vos préférences et recevoir les prochaines publications du Supporter en français, cliquez ici: https://crm.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=34&reset=1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • Richard Stallman's TEDx video: "Introduction to Free Software and the Liberation of Cyberspace"
  • GNU hackers discover HACIENDA government surveillance and give us a way to fight back
  • US cell phone unlocking law: a temporary fix to only part of the problem
  • Watch: "JavaScript: If you love it, set it free"
  • Replace your proprietary BIOS with Libreboot
  • FSF at CommonBound conference on economic equality
  • Introducing Micah, summer intern for the Licensing Team
  • Free Software on the final frontier: GNU Radio controls the ISEE-3 Spacecraft
  • Recap of Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: August 1
  • GNU MediaGoblin 0.7.0: Time Traveler’s Delight
  • Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
  • LibrePlanet featured resource: Laptops comparison
  • GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry: 26 new GNU releases!
  • GNU Toolchain update
  • Richard Stallman's speaking schedule
  • Other FSF and free software events
  • Thank GNUs!
  • Take action with the FSF

Richard Stallman's TEDx video: "Introduction to Free Software and the Liberation of Cyberspace"

From July 31st

Are you in search of an easy way to explain to others what free software is and why it matters? Or are you perhaps wondering why you yourself should be concerned about computer-user freedom? If your answer is yes, then this TEDx talk by RMS is what you're looking for!

GNU hackers discover HACIENDA government surveillance and give us a way to fight back

From August 20th

GNU community members and collaborators have discovered threatening details about a five-country government surveillance program codenamed HACIENDA. The good news? Those same hackers have already worked out a free software countermeasure to thwart the program.

Press release:

US cell phone unlocking law: a temporary fix to only part of the problem

From August 21st

Every three years, the Library of Congress is charged with carving out exemptions from the DMCA's (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) anti-circumvention provisions. While the current law allows users to have someone unlock their phone for them, it does not permit so-called "bulk unlocking," where someone buys multiple phones and unlocks them for resale. And it doesn't address the root issue, which is that users must be able to fully modify all the software on any of their phones or computers.

Watch: "JavaScript: If you love it, set it free"

From August 27th

FSF executive director John Sullivan spoke at this year's FOSDEM, a volunteer-organized conference held in Belgium that highlights the development of free software.

Replace your proprietary BIOS with Libreboot

From August 4th

With the launch of the Libreboot project, users now have an easy-to-install, 100% free software replacement for proprietary BIOS/boot programs.

FSF at CommonBound conference on economic equality

From July 31st

FSF campaigns manager Zak Rogoff reports on his attendence at CommonBound, a Boston conference for those working towards a more equitable and sustainable economy.

Introducing Micah, summer intern for the Licensing Team

From August 5th

Micah-Shalom Kesselman recently started working at the FSF as one of this summer's licensing interns. In this post, he writes about his interest in free software and what his goals are for his internship.

Free Software on the final frontier: GNU Radio controls the ISEE-3 Spacecraft

From August 8th

Equipped with free GNU Radio software, a group of citizen scientists has contacted, controlled, and is attempting to recapture a 1970s-era satellite and bring it back into an orbit close to Earth.

Recap of Friday Free Software Directory IRC meetup: August 1

From August 1st

GNU MediaGoblin 0.7.0: Time Traveler’s Delight

By Chris Webber, from August 26th

The GNU MediaGoblin project has released version 0.7.0 of their media management software. The release features preliminary federation and a new theme.

Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory

From August 29th

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions to version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing. The Free Software Directory has been a great resource to software users over the past decade, but it needs your help staying up-to-date with new and exciting free software projects.

To help, join our weekly IRC meetings on Fridays. Meetings take place in the #fsf channel on irc.gnu.org, and usually include a handful of regulars as well as newcomers. Everyone's welcome.

The next meeting is Friday, September 5 from 2pm to 5pm EDT (18:00 to 21:00 UTC). Details here:

After this meeting, you can check https://www.fsf.org/events to see the rest of September's weekly meetings as they are scheduled.

LibrePlanet featured resource: Laptops comparison

Every month on LibrePlanet, we highlight one resource that is interesting and useful -- often one that could use your help.

For this month, we are highlighting our Laptops Comparison page, which provides information about free softare support on laptops. You are invited to adopt, spread and improve this important resource. Try adding your laptop or importing the current information into h-node.

Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us know at campaigns@fsf.org.

GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry: 26 new GNU releases!

To get announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu mailing list: https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu. Nearly all GNU software is available from https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/, or preferably one of its mirrors (https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html). You can use the url http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ to be automatically redirected to a (hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.

This month, we welcome Raman Gopalan as a new co-maintainer of GNU gengen (with its author Lorenzo Bettini), Marcel Schaible as the new maintainer of GNU gperf, and Sergey Poznyakoff adds yet another new package, direvent, to his long list. I'd also like to specially thank Assaf Gordon (the author and maintainer of GNU datamash, new last month) for a significant amount of effort with all aspects of Savannah; new Savannah volunteers are always needed, and welcome. Thanks to all.

A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance: please see https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint if you'd like to help. The general page on how to help GNU is at https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html. To submit new packages to the GNU operating system, see https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html.

As always, please feel free to write to me, karl@gnu.org, with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.

GNU Toolchain update

From August 24th

The GNU toolchain refers to the part of the GNU system which is used for building programs. These components of GNU are together often on other systems and for compiling programs for other platforms.

This month features improvements to GCC.

Richard Stallman's speaking schedule

For event details, as well as to sign-up to be notified for future events in your area, please visit https://www.fsf.org/events.

So far, Richard Stallman has the following events in September:

Other FSF and free software events

Thank GNUs!

We appreciate everyone who donates to the Free Software Foundation, but we'd like to give special recognition to the folks who have donated $500 or more in the last month.

This month, a big Thank GNU to:

  • Andrea Tasso
  • Ritchie Thai
  • Badley Geoscience Limited
  • Michael Albert
  • The US Charitable Gift Trust in honor of Daniel G and Lynn B.
  • Grimes
  • Rick and Betsy Bronson
  • Alexander Steinhoff
  • Association for Computing Machinery
  • Dominik Kellner
  • Mirko Luedde
  • Iljaszenko Charitable Fund
  • Alain Brenzikofer
  • Matthew Hillyard
  • Dutt-Keshavacharya
  • Krishna Kunchithapadam
  • David Fifield
  • Stephen Ippolito
  • Aaron Gotwalt

You can add your name to this list by donating at https://donate.fsf.org.

Take action with the FSF

Contributions from thousands of individual members enable the FSF's work. You can contribute by joining at https://www.fsf.org/join. If you're already a member, you can help refer new members (and earn some rewards) by adding a line with your member number to your email signature like:

I'm an FSF member -- Help us support software freedom! https://www.fsf.org/jf?referrer=2442

The FSF is also always looking for volunteers (https://www.fsf.org/volunteer). From rabble-rousing to hacking, from issue coordination to envelope stuffing -- there's something here for everybody to do. Also, head over to our campaign section (https://www.fsf.org/campaigns) and take action on software patents, DRM, free software adoption, OpenDocument, RIAA, and more.

Copyright © 2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.

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