Category Archives: Cyberspace

Posts about cyberspace and liberty. Free software, privacy, technology, copyright/copyleft, our digital rights, and whatever concerns us in the digital age.

People should be aware if they’re seeing an advertisement

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A lot of people are tired of advertisements. For example, some of us are using ad blockers now when we’re surfing the web. A lot of people mute the TV when they see an ad, others may use different technics to avoid ads. But what we’re facing now, is advertisements that are not specifically tell us what they are.

If you see a billboard in a street recommending something, you can tell it’s an ad, but what if your favorite football player recommends something? Imagine Leo Messi posting a picture of himself drinking Pepsi. How would you know if it’s really his preference or it’s just a paid ad?

Such thing can affect our decision on choosing stuff.

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Most free programs are not alternatives

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It’s a reply to “Wanna try Jitsi Meet?” by Paulo Pinto.

I believe referring to a free software as an alternative to a proprietary software is not right. Most free software are not created to replace something. They have been created to satisfy a need for a service or software and are licensed free (as in freedom) to respect users’ rights.

I wouldn’t refer to a software as an alternative to another software, unless the creators specifically mention it.

Browsing in private mode

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There’s a lot of reports that some web sites are blocking users’ access if they are on private browsing mode. One of these web sites is The Washington Post, who chose “Democracy Dies in Darkness” as its motto. It’s very funny that the very news agency that claims to fight for democracy and freedom is tracking its users and collects their personal information.

If you visit The Washington Post web site with private mode activated on your browser, you’ll see such notice:

We noticed you’re browsing in private mode.

Private browsing is permitted exclusively for our subscribers. Turn off private browsing to keep reading this story, or subscribe to use this feature, plus get unlimited digital access.

I do support asking for subscription or limiting the amount of articles a user can read on free plan but limiting people from using private mode is not acceptable. The point of private browsing is to not being recognized nor  followed.

This is actually much more worrying that this is a bug from browsers. A browser should not let websites know if a user is browsing web in private mode. Not being tracked should not be a luxury. A user should be in private browsing mode by default and if they wanted, they can turn it off.

Tracking people in private mode should be considered as a violation of people’s privacy and browsers should be forced to put more effort to make private browsing much more safer and easier for users.

Save Internet Freedom

Link

Save Internet Freedom

There’s some crazy internal US politics right now that threatens Open Technology Fund, who funded Let’s Encrypt, Certbot, Tor Project , Guardian Project, Signal, and a lot more.

Looks like a couple proprietary software companies are trying to take over this free software money. Please sign on to the campaign to try to stop it.

About passwords

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For years, we have used passwords to protect our security. We used different kinds of passwords. From mechanical locks and keys to digital ones and of course current passwords for our accounts.

Setting passwords helped us to secure our accounts but as we had progress in safe passwords, others made progress to break them. For years, we protected our accounts and goods against humans but what we’re facing now is computers.

We’ve been trained to set passwords hard to remember for humans but easy for computers to find. This should be changed.

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How to move to GNU+Linux

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You may have notice that one of my emphasis is the use of free software and GNU operating system. Almost all of GNU distros come with a Linux kernel so we’ll call it GNU+Linux, and not only GNU.

Free software is one of the most important parts of my digital life. There’s no proprietary software running on my computers but what makes that happen is the GNU operating system and the Linux kernel (GNU+Linux).

For some people, migrating to GNU+Linux is easy and some even know the benefits. However, some people still don’t know why they should migrate to GNU+Linux. If you feel your computer works fine but you are

  • tired of major unwanted forced updates
  • tired of your slow operating system
  • tired of not being able to use a new technology
  • tired of viruses and spywares
  • tired of your privacy being violated
  • tired of being limited
  • tired of not owning your software
  • tired of not being free (as in freedom) about your software

then GNU+Linux is a wise choice for you. If you don’t know how you should start using free software and a free (as in freedom and most of the times as in price) operating system, then this small guide would be helpful.

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Discriminatory laws must be broken

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As a person who lives in a country under heavy U.S. sanctions, I know how discrimination feels and looks. What the United States has done to us is a good example of how discrimination affects people. My country is under heavy sanctions from U.S. and even basic stuff are facing troubles for import or export.

Whenever I talk about computers or software services, people suggest me different stuff to use or buy and every time I explain how I, like another people here, are deprived from having those stuff because of U.S sanctions.

U.S has the power over a lot of countries to force them do what it likes but this is unacceptable. I agree that Unites States wants to make sure they and their allies are safe but setting unfair laws and rules is not only unacceptable but also a terrible way and reason.

After Microsoft owned GitHub, a lot of Iranian users were banned from using it because of U.S. trade laws. A lot of people from different countries are still unable to use private repositories or buying GitHub plans.

What might they do? Storing nuclear codes or programs in private repos? This is what I’m talking about. A lot of rules and limitations are only ridiculous. I wrote about the GNU+Linux distro Fedora and the notice on its download page before. What? Iranians may use Fedora to build a nuclear bomb and they won’t download it because if this notice?

Some rules are only stupid and ridicules. They are discriminatory and offensive to human beings. Currently, the software community of Iran is experiencing a lot of difficulties and suffers from these discriminatory laws.

I believe discriminatory laws should not be respected. We should not obey them. We should fight for better.