Linux Luddites

not all change is progress


August 8, 2016

Episode #84


Direct download links: MP3 & Ogg

00:01:03 News
00:35:41 Feedback
00:55:11 FOSS Talk Live

Take three Luddites, add some liquid lubrication and an engaged if sceptical audience, and you’ve the perfect recipe for our outing at the first UK FOSS Talk Live event. Listen on after the news and feedback to see if we managed to convince anyone that the simpler computing technology of yore was more empowering than the complex black boxes we all carry with us everywhere today.

00:01:03 News

Seymour Papert, 88, Dies; Saw Education’s Future in Computers
Lenovo to ship laptops with Endless OS in Mexico
Hacker Compromises Fosshub to Distribute MBR-Hijacking Malware
GNOME Maps Is Back On Track Thanks to Mapbox
Cyanogen Inc and CyanogenMod
Cyanogen CEO denies pivot to apps and emphasizes ‘open Android’ mission… using an iPhone
Motorola confirms that it will not commit to monthly security patches
ITU Facts and Figure 2016
Google’s Instant Articles competitor is about to take over mobile search
Google’s AMP project: Better than Facebook, or just a different walled garden?
BlackBerry makes its Hub software available for all Android Marshmallow devices
Kickstarter’s Impact on the Creative Economy
€1.2 Million for Open Source Projects

00:35:41 Feedback

Thanks to all of our Monthly Supporters for your continuing support. And if you enjoy what we do (and if you’re reading this, you clearly do!) but don’t currently help keep the lights on, please pitch in with a small monthly donation using the link in the sidebar.

We kicked off the feedback by bringing you a couple of sad bits of community news: there definitely won’t be an OggCamp this year, and the hosts of the Pi Podcast have hung up their mics.

Rob Landley noted that the main reason that Google flags up firmware changes on mobile devices is to somewhat ameliorate the ‘Evil Butler’ problem. And, moving to the question of an advocacy void, Rob pointed us towards a blogpost from Eben Moglen that talked about the role of the Linux Foundation. Also pitching in on this topic were Robert Horn and Will — thanks all.

Jezra wondered why Jesse doesn’t rate Thunderbird, and Brian offered a potential homebrew PBX solution to move us away from Skype. Wrapping things up, Jim Salter made the case that Internet access should be seen as a human right as its absence would (at least in the developed world) exclude us from participating in everyday private and civic interactions.

00:55:11 FOSS Talk Live

Breaking with tradition, we ditched our virtual pints and sat down with real ones, on stage, in front of a crowd of Linux enthusiasts at the inaugural FOSS Talk Live event. For our topic we decided to discuss whether computer technology, once so empowering for the end-user, can nowadays be considered emasculating?

Linux Luddites
 

Linux LudditesAs ever, we’d welcome your feedback about the show either here on our website, via a mail to show@, on Twitter @linuxluddites, or over at our Google Plus and Facebook Community pages.

Thanks for listening.


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