NL Minister Blok takes flying leap from reality in criticism of open source

The minister states that he thinks (his vision is backed by a bunch of closed source software vendors [Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, KPN, CapGemini, Ordina, ATOS, CGI and IBM]) that not having to buy licenses is offset by the costs of having to manage and pay for the deployments of open source software (OSS). Which is Read more about NL Minister Blok takes flying leap from reality in criticism of open source[…]

The end of Democracy in NL

The Netherlands is now officially moving towards becoming a banana republic. Foreign media hasn’t really seemed to catch on to this, but there’s a very important cabinets crisis happening in the Netherlands at the moment. A translated version for English people: An incredibly stupid law* was stopped in the senate by 3 brave PvdA** senators Read more about The end of Democracy in NL[…]

US Is an Oligarchy Not a Democracy, says Scientific Study | Common Dreams

Despite the seemingly strong empirical support in previous studies for theories of majoritarian democracy, our analyses suggest that majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts. […] When the preferences of economic elites and the stands of organized interest groups are controlled for, the preferences of the average Read more about US Is an Oligarchy Not a Democracy, says Scientific Study | Common Dreams[…]

NL Gov decides Police can break into houses with (almost) no cause

All that is needed to break into and search a Dutch residence is a “suspicion” that there “may be” an illegal immigrant in there. Once inside, the (military) police is allowed to search through absolutely everything in a violent manner, stopping short of breaking down walls. You can stop them by showing your identity papers Read more about NL Gov decides Police can break into houses with (almost) no cause[…]

French students sue Twitter $50 Million After Refusing To Identify Authors Of Racist And Anti-Semitic Tweets

The French have much stricter anti-hate speech laws than the US, so some Jewish students thought they would go after Twitter when users of their service posted anti-semitic content. Twitter removed the content, but didn’t identify the culprits. The students feel they have the right to personal retaliatiin or something and went crying to a Read more about French students sue Twitter $50 Million After Refusing To Identify Authors Of Racist And Anti-Semitic Tweets[…]

Discursive Politics – Language with a Spin

A project sponsored by the Austrian Science Fund FWF has made a detailed investigation on what viewers understand and how they evaluate the statements of politicians during televised debates. To this effect, software-assisted conversation analysis established how the individual social knowledge of viewers nurtures the interpretations – and reinterpretations – of political statements. For the Read more about Discursive Politics – Language with a Spin[…]

Parliament for the people! Adhocracy / LiquidDemocracy / LiquidFeedback

Adhocracy is a policy drafting tool for distributed groups. It allows members of organizations or the public to compose or vote documents that represent the policy of the group. In order to allow cooperation, Adhocracy uses LiquidDemocracy, a set of ideas that include delegating a user’s voting rights to another to enable both active and Read more about Parliament for the people! Adhocracy / LiquidDemocracy / LiquidFeedback[…]

Idiot .Amsterdam politico wants to spend fortune on gTLD.

Some idiots think that the city of Amsterdam should do anything to set up a .amsterdam global top level domain to market the city (so you could have www.stupid.amsterdam as a web address). 'Gemeente moet topleveldomein .amsterdam claimen' | Webwereld. That, hoewever, costs $185,000 New gTLD Applicant guidebook, ch. 1.5 as well as having to Read more about Idiot .Amsterdam politico wants to spend fortune on gTLD.[…]

NL .gov opens anonymous portal to tell on Midden and Eastern Europeans

Basically the PVV, backed by Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, have a few sensationalist headlines from a religious magazine that no-one knows (Reformatiorich Dagblad) or reads and a few from a more serious newspaper (AD) that aren’t so sensationalist, and on the basis of this they’ve decided to open up a Hitlerite plan to Read more about NL .gov opens anonymous portal to tell on Midden and Eastern Europeans[…]

NL gov wants to revoke NL nationality for expat Dutch people

Aside from the fact that NL is a trading nation and thus has a disproportionate amount of people living and working outside of the Netherlands and thus having multiple nationalities, it makes it seem like having the Dutch nationality is like being a member of some kind of exclusive club. What nonsense! Being a member Read more about NL gov wants to revoke NL nationality for expat Dutch people[…]

European Court of Justice To Outlaw Internet Filtering; Esp. For Copyright Enforcement

It looks like where copyright goons and the NL are failing by wanting to turn our society into a surveillance society, the unelected EU Court may come to citizens’ rescue: Advocate General Cruz Villalón considers that the installation of that filtering and blocking system is a restriction on the right to respect for the privacy Read more about European Court of Justice To Outlaw Internet Filtering; Esp. For Copyright Enforcement[…]

The great internet censorship firewall of… The Netherlands!

Without any judge or court of justice having to ‘interfere’, the NL department of justice is going to just filter out access to sites they don’t like. Because that’s never gone wrong before and no-one has ever misused that power. Not only are they going to do that, but in the process they’ll be spying Read more about The great internet censorship firewall of… The Netherlands![…]

EU Votes on copyright extension soon – mail your local JURI MEP today!

Background: In 2009, the EU discussed the issue of a term extension for the ”neighbouring rights” that record companies have to recorded music. These neighbouring rights are now 50 years from the recording of a song. The proposal was to extend them to 95 years. After a lively debate in the European Parliament, it was Read more about EU Votes on copyright extension soon – mail your local JURI MEP today![…]

Net giants challenge French data law that stores your password as plaintext

The law obliges a range of e-commerce sites, video and music services and webmail providers to keep a host of data on customers. This includes users’ full names, postal addresses, telephone numbers and passwords. The data must be handed over to the authorities if demanded. This means that the data which is handed over can Read more about Net giants challenge French data law that stores your password as plaintext[…]

Hungary goes dictatorship – crazy media law requires “balance” (whatever that is) or huge fines

Under the new law, a government-appointed media council will have the power to decide whether a publication has broken rules on what it calls balanced and ‘moral’ reporting, and can issue heavy fines. Print and Internet media can face fines of more than $100,000 and broadcasters nearly $1 million, if, for example, their coverage is Read more about Hungary goes dictatorship – crazy media law requires “balance” (whatever that is) or huge fines[…]

Primaries For Palin – Democrats want you to vote for the weakest Republican!

PrimariesForPalin.com aims to nominate Sarah Palin as the Republican presidential candidate by encouraging Democrats and Independents to purposefully vote for her in state primaries. In head-to-head polls with President Barack Obama, Palin consistently fares worse than other possible Republican candidates because of her divisiveness. If Palin is nominated, Obama has a much better chance of Read more about Primaries For Palin – Democrats want you to vote for the weakest Republican![…]

Lord Blackheath has laundered GBP 1bn of IRA money and has a foundation X willing to invest GBP 5bn in the UK

For the past 20 weeks I have been engaged in a very strange dialogue with the two noble Lords, in the course of which I have been trying to bring to their attention the willing availability of a strange organisation which wishes to make a great deal of money available to assist the recovery of Read more about Lord Blackheath has laundered GBP 1bn of IRA money and has a foundation X willing to invest GBP 5bn in the UK[…]

State Dept. warning prospective recruits to steer clear of Wikileaks

Because if you discuss the material on there, obviously you can’t handle sensitive information and so are not fit to work in government. Or in other words, you have too much of an independent opinion and won’t fit in with the superconformist monkeys and thus are not fit to work in the US Government. State Read more about State Dept. warning prospective recruits to steer clear of Wikileaks[…]

US SecDef Gates is realistic on Leaks, Wiki and Otherwise

This is the most realistic sound I’ve heard coming from the US about the wikileaks affair. If only Clinton and the rest could be so normal, maybe we would like the US a bit more… “Now, I’ve heard the impact of these releases on our foreign policy described as a meltdown, as a game-changer, and Read more about US SecDef Gates is realistic on Leaks, Wiki and Otherwise[…]