“Nothing of value is free. It is very easy, Mr. Chairman, to convince people that it is in their best interest to give away somebody else’s property for nothing, but even the most guileless among us know that this is a cave of illusion where commonsense is lured and then quietly strangled.”

- Jack Valenti, MPAA

“If you design your own machine, you can’t fuss at people, because you’re one of just a few. How many Linux users are there?”

- Jack Valenti, MPAA

• Ars Technica: MPAA’s University Toolkit hit with DMCA takedown notice after GPL violation
• Matthew Garrett: MPAA don’t fuck with my shit.
• Matthew Garrett: More
• Wikipedia: MPAA’s Dan Glickman
• Wikipedia: Jack Valenti
• Wikiquote: MPAA’s Jack Valenti comedy goldmine
• ffii.org: Frits Bolkestein - digital copyright totalitarianism
• Wikipedia: Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act
• Geek t-shirts and stickers

Thanks to Gianni and Tig for help with script development.

“Google is running a unique viral video campaign aimed at creative GMail users that want to help put together a behind-the-scenes look at how a message gets to and from a GMail account. Just download the red envelope, come up with a creative idea, shoot it and upload it by August 13th.”

- Networkworld.com

“throughout our research we have found numerous deficiencies and hostilities in Google’s approach to privacy that go well beyond those of other organizations. While a number of companies share some of these negative elements, none comes close to achieving status as an endemic threat to privacy.”

- Privacy International

• Gmail blog: Help make a collaborative “video” (advert)
• google.com: The final video. Famous for 15 megabytes.
• Wikipedia: NSA Warrantless Wiretapping
• Tim Oreilly: Some long yawning post
• Googlewatch.com: Gmail
• Privacy International: Google worst for privacy
• Geek t-shirts and stickers: People don’t care what you think, just how you look. Shit isn’t it.

I received this e-mail and thought it might be interesting to the ELER readership. I paraphrase a little:

I am certain you will be surprised to receive this e-mail from me, indeed, I sincerely apologize for the embarrassment this might cause you. However, I wish to state, that it is sincerely necessitated by my present plight and I pray you will readily be of tremendous assistance. I am Mr. JONO BACON, from WOLVERHAMPTON and having consulted with my colleagues and based on the information gathered from the WOLVERHAMPTON chambers of commerce and industry, I have the privilege to request for your assistance to transfer the sum of £5.00 (FIVE ENGLISH POUNDS STERLING) from your account to purchase a ticket for LUG RADIO LIVE 2007.

LUG RADIO LIVE 2007 will commence precisely on the 7th and 8th July 2007 in WOLVERHAMPTON, UNITED KINGDOM which will be hosting AWESOME FOSSY RELATED speakers, only a small percentage of them employed by LARGE FACELESS CORPORATIONS.

I went to Lug Radio Live 2006 and it was great fun. I’m speaking at LRL 2007 about ELER and tribal leadership - come along and say hi. I’ll be the scruffily dressed geek with the laptop.

• Direct2dell.com: Offering pre-installed Ubuntu
• Desktoplinux.com Ubuntu on Dells
• BBC: Dell recall laptop power supplies
• ZDnet: Dell laptop batteries explode
• The Inquirer: Dell laptop exploding battery photos
• Smallworks.com: Michael Dell uses Ubuntu
• redhat.com: ESR breaks Fedora, moves to Ubuntu
• Geek t-shirts and stickers: You’ll look lovely.

• Mark Shuttleworth: Gutsy Gibbon Announcement
• Mark Shuttleworth: Taking freedom further
• Ubuntu.com: Feisty Fawn released
• Stallman, Schneier, Knuth and Raymond t-shirts and stickers: Buy now, or forever hold your peace. Or buy them later.

ELER Censorship! over on FOSS Hole.

• Pamela Jones at Groklaw: My Very Own Motion
• Wikipedia: Groklaw criticisms
• Ars Technica: IBM of colluding with Groklaw?
• The Register: SCO after Groklaw
• Technocrat.net: Dan Lyons obsessed with Pamela Jones
• Wikipedia: Astroturfing
• Stallman, Schneier, Knuth and Raymond t-shirts and stickers

Script help from Rev.Tig.

We’ve caved to popular demand and have launched two new t-shirt designs: Che Stallman and Bruce Schneier. We’ve also got stickers of these, and the Knuth design. These are all currently (26/03/07) on pre-order, so please be patient waiting for delivery. Thanks!

• Wikipedia: Ian Murdock
• Linuxformat: Ian Murdock “I’m a little dismayed by Debian and how it eats babies”
• IanMurdock.com: Joining Sun - “Smell you later, Debian losers”
• lwn.net: Kernel developer corporate whores
• comp.os.linux.development: Debian’s pre-announcement, 16 August 1993
• comp.os.linux.misc: Start as you mean to go on
• ELER and Donald Knuth t-shirts: Cheaper (but slower) delivery option now too!

I had to scrap the first strip because I’d confused Office Open with Open Office when writing it. Who’d have guessed people could make that kind of mistake. Not Microsoft, surely.

• Wikipedia.org: Office Open XML
• Grokdoc: OOXML objections
• Miguel de Icaza: The EU Prosecutors are Wrong
• Rob Weir: Miguel de Icaza is wrong
• Consortiuminfo.org: 20 Nations Respond
• Wylug-discuss: Why Office Document Standardisation Matters to *Everyone*
• Microsoft.com: Financial Highlights
• odfalliance.org: Open Document Format has cash too!
• Style.org: Strouhal numbers and simplified flight waveforms
• Need a new t-shirt with a theoretical computer scientist on it?

Initial script donated by a mysterious anonymous benefactor. Help from the the usual suspects.

• fedora-devel-list: Eric breaks an RPM and leaves Fedora for Ubuntu
• Alan Cox chimes in here and here.
• Matthew Garrett here
• Someone translated esr’s e-mail
• Linux.com gives esr much deserved attention.
• FOSS Hole: Linspire CEO backs off from Eric Raymond
• Everybody Loves Eric Raymond T-shirts
• Eric Raymond Facts

Announcing Eric Raymond Facts. Work out the current wave of esr induced frustration by suggesting new esr facts

ESR Fedora/Ubuntu strip coming up next week.

UPDATE: Ok, we’ve caved to popular demand and have launched a new t-shirt design: Che Stallman. We’ve also added a Bruce Schneier design and some stickers too. These are currently (26/03/07) on pre-order, so please be patient waiting for delivery. Thanks!

• redmondmag.com: Cuba Embraces Open Source Software
• Doug Miller: Software Libre in Cuba
• Venezuelan Politics: Free Software: Bla, Bla, Bla
• ELER Shop: T-Shirts for ESR and Knuth lovers alike
• This strip’s transcription page

Script help and awful CSS magic by Joe Rayhawk.

• Wikipedia: Buffer overflow
• Wikipedia: NOP
• ELER Shop: Cat warmed ESR and Knuth shirts
• This strip’s transcription page

nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop

nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop

nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop

nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop

n n n n n n n n
o o o o o o o o
p p p p p p p p

n n n n n n n n
o o o o o o o o
p p p p p p p p

n n n n n n n n
o o o o o o o o
p p p p p p p p

n n n n n n n n
o o o o o o o o
p p p p p p p p

nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop

nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop

nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop

nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop

nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop

nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop

nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop

nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop

nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop nop

n
o
p

n
o
p

n
o
p

n
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p

n
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Script by Ciarán O’Riordan.

Work has begun on transcribing the comics. It’s all happening on the ELER Wiki, thanks to Roel Teuwen and Matt Lee. If you have free time and have read/write ability in English and perhaps other languages, then it would be great if you could contribute.

This comic’s transcription page.

The other day I woke up and realised: “holy crap I haven’t done a new ELER in weeks! I need to get my act together!”. That was back at the start of November. Let’s see if we can’t get this free software freak show back on the road.

Script help from the usual suspects: Roel, Louisa and Gianni.

• Zdnet: Microsoft makes Linux pact with Novell
• Groklaw: Why the Novell Deal is Bad
• Richard Stallman: using software patents to threaten users
• Novell press release
• Microsoft press release
• Groklaw: Novell Samba guy resigns in protest

Hans Reiser has not been termed a suspect in his wife’s disappearance

• Google News: Hans Reiser
• Hans Reiser’s wife missing: DNA Sample
• Hans Reiser’s house searched by cadaver dog
• Namesys: $25 gets you an answer to a question about anything.
• Wikipedia: Hans Reiser
• FOSS Hole: Hans Reiser, Wikipedia and ELER

We met Gervase Markham at LUG Radio Live 2006 and he’s a superbly nice chap and a great speaker. Image credit (Gervase’s body double) to DKR.

Back in January, I promised to donate a tenner to the FSF for “a (genuine) photo of you hugging esr whilst wearing [an eler t-shirt]”.

Well, I’ve had my first claimant, Cathy Mullican! Check out the details at the all new ELER blog, FOSS HOLE.

• Gervase Markham: Hacking for Christ
• Why Hacking for Christ?
• Richard Stallman: St. Ignucius
• more on St. Ignucius
• Church of Emacs