# 09 Nov 2011
4 notes
“The goal behind the project is to create a global darknet, a decentralized web of interconnected wireless mesh networks that operate independently of each other and the conventional internet. In a wireless mesh network, individual nodes can relay data for other nodes, ensuring that the routing of data remains robust as nodes on the network are added and removed. The idea behind TDP is that such a network would be resistant to censorship and shutdown because there would be no central point of control over the infrastructure.”
— The Darknet Project: netroots activists dream of global mesh network
# 21 Oct 2011
22 notes
Disappointing closed-source Android 3.x line soon to be just an unpleasant memory
We plan to release the source for the recently-announced Ice Cream Sandwich soon, once it’s available on devices.
Better late than never.
# 15 Aug 2011
77 notes
Mad about metered billing? They were in 1886, too
Worst of all, from the operator point of view, was what one journalist called the “Telephone Dead Head Evil”—non-subscribers using the telephone of a subscriber; for instance, patrons of a local drug store using the phone for a nickel a call.
Awesome. Unrevoked should totally change its name to Telephone Dead Head Evil. (Not that people are using it to enable wireless tethering, or anything.)
As someone who uses less than average data a month for an “unlimited plan”, I’m still waiting for any service provider to offer a metered service at an equivalent rate. I never asked for this fictionally segmented market of unlimited bytes that are authorized only for certain uses.
Crazy as it may seem, I am actually way more into having undisputed control of my wireless devices than I am into subsidizing other people’s heavier data usage.
# 04 Aug 2011
7 notes
Google Should Publicly Oppose Software Patents
Conspicuously missing here is any mention of patent reform. Congress is currently working on a patent overhaul called the America Invents Act. Google is one of the world’s largest and most prominent victims of our innovation-taxing patent system, so lobbying for better patent laws seems like an obvious way to fight back.
Constructive criticism, +1! (Or is that patented?)
# 03 Aug 2011
8 notes
“But Android’s success has yielded something else: a hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents.”
# 14 Jun 2011
4 notes
FOSS Patents: Apple feels "harassed" by "copyist" Samsung's demands for early look at iPhone 5 and iPad 3; showdown on Friday
Apple made its original request for expedited recovery because it may soon want to file a motion for a preliminary injunction rather. In other words, Apple seeks to get legal leverage to take down some of Samsung’s products in the very short term — which would enable Apple to negotiate a settlement on its preferred terms.
This must be some of that merely defensive use of patents we were told not to worry about.
# 03 Jun 2011
7 notes
Motorola CEO: Open Android Store Leads to [Sales,] Quality Issues
Motoblur collects information about customer use of applications and how that use relates to functions like power consumption. With that data, Motorola learns which applications drain power. “We are getting to the place that we should be able to warn you,” Jha said. He envisions presenting a notice to users when they launch an application alerting them that using the application will drain 35 percent of the phone’s power, for example, he said. The user can then decide to continue or conserve power.
Motorola is doing exactly the right thing, surprisingly. Just like Coderspiel said a year and a half ago:
The design problem is that users (and casual programmers) aren’t exposed to this new dimension of bad. Normally you can judge software just by using it. The user interface is good, bad, or ugly. The app is fast or slow, it crashes or it doesn’t. But for battery waste the feedback loop is broken.
For mysterious reasons, PC World’s headline puts a negative spin on this positive development. The article’s leading sentence wanders even further from the truth: “Motorola’s CEO blamed the open Android app store for performance issues on some phones.” Sure, if by “blame” you mean figure out how to improve on the trade-off of your platform’s primary competitive advantage.
If it weren’t for Android’s wretched openness (hated by delicate tech-industry commentators, gobbled up by the rowdy public) the original battery-dropping Droid would have been an irredeemable flop. There would be no three-quarters baked Android tablets for industry idiots to use as propaganda for bureaucratic control of software distribution. What exactly is their issue, anyway?
# 05 May 2011
1 note
Homeland Security Request to Take Down MafiaaFire Add-on
Longterm, the challenge is to find better mechanisms that provide both real due process and transparency without infringing upon developer and user freedoms traditionally associated with the Internet.
Lately it’s open source organizations who are the grownups in the room, and government the rampaging adolescent with no concern for tradition or respect for the law. A legacy system gone haywire?
# 08 Apr 2011
5 notes
“Asus has released the kernel source code for the Eee Pad Transformer Android tablet. On the one hand, that’s not too surprising, since the tablet uses open source technology that’s licensed using the GNU General Public License which requires anyone using the software to make the relevant source code available. What is a little surprising is that Asus is releasing source code for an Android 3.0 tablet before Google has released the source for Android 3.0 to the public.”
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