Today the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has announced that it has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Cisco. It seems that Cisco violated the licenses of GCC, binutils, and the GNU C Library through its Linksys brand. All of them are released under GPL and LGPL, so basically everyone had the right to modify and share Cisco’s stuff but the company denied this right to the users.

“Our licenses are designed to ensure that everyone who uses the software can change it,” said Richard Stallman, president and founder of the FSF. “In order to exercise that right, people need the source code, and that’s why our licenses require distributors to provide it. We are enforcing our licenses to protect the rights that everyone should have with all software: to use it, share it, and modify it as they see fit.”

These are parts from a press release I got today, with a few modifications.  I’m wondering what will be Cisco’s next move. Will they open up their stuff according to the General Public License and LGPL or will they try to prove they’re “innocent”?

Hello world. I’m testing Zoho Writer, an online platform that allows you to write anything, from anywhere. You can also post to your blog, like I’m doing right now.

I like the way it looks, if you’ve used an offline office suite, you will get used to it in a very short time. There are some issues, though. For example, I am using  Firefox 3.0.4 on Ubuntu Hardy Heron. There’s some sort of lag, as the characters appear delayed. The fonts look a little bit unaligned and there’s a horizonal ruler that appears halfed.

I will try it on Windows XP and Mac OS X pretty soon.

Two days after the official launch of Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex, I took the decision to upgrade my 8.04 to 8.10. Everything went fine until it gave a message telling me something like there’s no supported driver for my video card. I stopped the upgrade because the last time I got a message like that I had a hard time editing files from the command line.

Although Ubuntu 8.04 is an LTS distribution, sites and software developers that provide .deb packages are slowly stopping the offering of packages for Hardy Heron. I don’t think this is a clever move, because there are still many users who preffer Hardy Heron and will not upgrade to 8.10 Intrepid Ibex pretty soon. By doing this, the users who want to have the latest versions of their favorite apps will have to compile them from source which might create some problems in time if the process doesn’t go the right way.

These are my 2 cents on the “forced” upgrade issue. Keep in mind that this is just my opinion, maybe I’m paranoid, maybe I’m right… You decide:).

Sa zicem ca sunt ignorant si nu ma intereseaza politica. Sa zicem ca mai sunt destui ca mine, care sunt dezgustati de politicienii romani si nu mai au incredere in nici macar unul din ei.

Vin alegerile astea ciudate. Din simpla mea curiozitate, la fel de ciudata ca alegerile, as vrea sa stiu cam cate lucruri cunosc oamenii despre candidati. Ce au facut ei pana acum? Au fost copii cuminti si au facut fapte bune, astfel incat sa primeasca un vot in plus sau doar au tras mata de coada si nimic altceva?

Voi ii cunoasteti pe cei pe care ii veti alege (sau pe care ii veti ignora)?

Update: I took Amber from mydaysof.com. The old theme was too dark.

A few minutes ago I felt the urge to create another blog on Typepad. I don’t know why, but I felt that. After creating the user name and all the rest I said: “Hey, what am I doing? I already have a blog and I don’t even post on that one too often. Why would I need another one?”

That’s why I decided to stop making blogs (I have a few others besides this one, on which I haven’t posted in ages!) and concentrate on {function:geekesque}. So, here I am once more, ranting and hopefully writing something interesting pretty soon.

P.S: I think I’m gonna steal Mihai Dragan’s theme, Amber, pretty soon.

Astazi, in drum spre casa, mai exact la statia de metrou Unirii, am vazut pe “minunatele televizoare” o stire care s-a derulat destul de rapid: angajatii Metrorex si nu mai stiu ce firma vor dona sange. Sa inceapa sa prinda chestia cu CSR-ul si asta sa fie o manevra de a arata ce baieti de treaba sunt sau chiar vor sa faca ceva okay pt oameni?

Partea care mi s-a parut interesanta a fost cea in care au aratat cateva imagini cu donatori. Desigur, acei donatori erau tot din angajatii de rand, nu am vazut pe nimeni care sa para a lucra intr-o pozitie de conducere in Metrorex.

In orice caz, ramane de vazut daca au intentii bune si cei din conducerea Metrorex si nu doar ii arunca la inaintare pe conductori si pe vanzatoarele de la casa de bilete pentru a arata ca-s responsabili din punct de vedere social.

I was looking for some nice GTK2 themes on gnome-look.org, and during a couple of weeks I noticed the fact that originality is starting to make place to plagiarism and building upon others’ work. I admit the fact that I made a theme in June or July, using some elements from other themes, but at this moment the number of low quality wallpapers/GTK themes/icon themes is drastically increasing.

From my point of view, Kim Kahns is one of the best theme designers. I was always waiting for him to bring some new theme, with all the great details he put into his work. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have too much time anymore for this kind of thing. So, my dear Linuxists… where’s the art and where’s the creativity? I would like to see more persons like Kim, persons who can inspire and can create beautiful works. Things that are original. Things that don’t copy Vista or Mac (although I like its style:D) and can bring a new meaning to the looks of Linux distributions and especially to Ubuntu.

I am going to start creating a new theme pretty soon, hopefully something from scratch. Will you do the same thing?

In online-ul romanesc sunt foarte multi tineri, cu o medie de varsta de 22 de ani, sa zicem. Totusi, stau si ma gandesc daca vom fi la fel de entuziasmati la vreo 30 de ani, si daca vom continua sa fim la fel de “jucausi” si creativi la varsta aceea. Cat randament poate da o persoana care se considera deja plictisita de ceea ce face? Care ar fi modalitatile de mentinere a creativitatii, veseliei si visarii tipice varstei noastre? Chiar sunt curios sa aflu raspunsurile la intrebarile acestea. Ce credeti?

La noi in tara se moare de foame, dar se ridica biserici intr-o veselie. Vad cum rasar ca ciupercile dupa ploaie si ma intreb din banii cui sunt ridicate. Inteleg ca unele sunt facute din “donatiile” unor persoane publice care poate ca incearca sa isi spele pacatele sau sa motiveze niste sume de bani.

Unde bat de fapt? Aici bat: Oamenilor, in tara asta se moare de foame, nu avem nevoie de biserici, avem nevoie de adaposturi pentru batrani (ati vazut cati sunt pe strazile din Bucuresti si cersesc?), avem nevoie de niste scoli mai bune care sa poata fi numite cu adevarat scoli. Si profesorii de doi bani trimisi acasa, nu tinuti in institutii pentru ca au nu stiu ce pile.

Biserici? La ce bun?! Sa vedem maratoane de inchinat in autobuz sau alt mijloc de transport in comun. Ma amuza chestia asta, mai ales cand gestul vine din partea unor persoane in care poti citi ca nu au dat decat de vreo doua-trei ori pe la biserica in viata lor, si atunci pentru a se ruga sa le iasa nu stiu ce smecherie. Vreau sa vad si eu un adapost de batrani ridicat in locul unei biserici. Nu ii ajuta cu nimic pe acesti oameni daca DOAR se duc la biserica. Au nevoie de un acoperis deasupra capului, au nevoie de mancare si de liniste. Raiul nu e o promisiune prea frumoasa cand ai stomacul gol si iti tremura picioarele de oboseala.

Nu stiu din ce cauza au ajuns batraneii astia in strada, dar e dureros sa ii vezi ca-ti cer ajutorul si nu poti decat sa ii ajuti sa isi ia ceva de mancare. Ei intotdeauna spun “sa-ti ajute Dumnezeu…” daca le dai mancare sau niste bani. Si cred ca o spun destul de sincer, in comparatie cu popii. As vrea sa se poata mai mult. Si cred ca se va putea, cu destui oameni care se vor trezi din adormirea asta si se vor interesa de oamenii de langa ei, netinand cont de religie sau alti factori ce duc DOAR la dezbinare.

Crezi ca ai putea fi grandocardiac?

Daca prezinti urmatoarele simptome:

• inima mare
• generozitate
• marinimie peste cota normala

Sigur ar trebui sa te duci pe grandocardiac.ro, sa spui de ce esti grandocardiac si daca tu crezi ca mai sunt oameni de acest fel in Romania. Chiar sunt curios cati oameni sunt grandocardiaci in Romania, tara unde se zice ca oamenii sunt dezinteresati de cei de langa ei.

Si uite aici si un film scurt cu cateva pareri despre “grandocardie”:

Grandocardiac.ro