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Domain: hamakor.org.il

Stories and comments across the archive that link to hamakor.org.il.

Comments · 6

  1. RMS: "just" supporting academic boycott by An+Elephant · · Score: 1 · on RMS Cancels Lectures In Israel

    In a letter to one of the Israeli Activists, RMS writes:

    I saw that you sent an E-mail message canceling
    all of your talks in Israel in the upcoming visit.

    Not all of them -- only the ones at universities. It is the
    universities that the funders object to. I have one planned talk
    which is not at a university, which I still plan to give.

    Apparently RMS is OK with an academic boycott, as long as he gets to talk to somebody.

  2. Re:How about a fair compromise instead? by glodime · · Score: 1 · on RMS Cancels Lectures In Israel

    Another member of the mailing list supports funding the trip and placing no restrictions on RMS' activities. Not everyone agrees of course.

    See:
    http://hamakor.org.il/pipermail/discussions/2011-May/003030.html

  3. Re:Bad call IMO... by glodime · · Score: 1 · on RMS Cancels Lectures In Israel

    You got modded insightful, but it seems that you missed RMS' entire point for creating GNU, FSF and GPL. He was and still is protesting the coercion that software developers place on their end users. Here the people spending money on his travel are in a very analogous way coercing RMS to alter his travel plans and activities while in the reason. Yet RMS is not protesting, he is choosing to metaphorically press the "accept the term of the EULA" buttons for pragmatic reasons. RMS criticizes those that accept limiting license agreements on software. He should expect criticism when he chooses to accept limiting terms in his agreements on other topics. He in fact brushed off such criticism claiming they are invalid due to semantics.

    See:
    Response to RMS decision sent to RMS:
    http://hamakor.org.il/pipermail/discussions/2011-May/002978.html

    RMS reply to criticism:
    http://hamakor.org.il/pipermail/discussions/2011-May/003024.html

  4. Re:Bad call IMO... by glodime · · Score: 1 · on RMS Cancels Lectures In Israel

    You got modded insightful, but it seems that you missed RMS' entire point for creating GNU, FSF and GPL. He was and still is protesting the coercion that software developers place on their end users. Here the people spending money on his travel are in a very analogous way coercing RMS to alter his travel plans and activities while in the reason. Yet RMS is not protesting, he is choosing to metaphorically press the "accept the term of the EULA" buttons for pragmatic reasons. RMS criticizes those that accept limiting license agreements on software. He should expect criticism when he chooses to accept limiting terms in his agreements on other topics. He in fact brushed off such criticism claiming they are invalid due to semantics.

    See:
    Response to RMS decision sent to RMS:
    http://hamakor.org.il/pipermail/discussions/2011-May/002978.html

    RMS reply to criticism:
    http://hamakor.org.il/pipermail/discussions/2011-May/003024.html

  5. Re:nothing ironic about it by HonestButCurious · · Score: 1 · on RMS Cancels Lectures In Israel

    The obvious thing would be for Israel to pay for the entire trip, including the trip to the Palestinian territories. That would be the obvious, right and peaceful thing to do. Apparently, Israel isn't interested in that.

    I hope Israel will turn around and do the right thing.

    http://hamakor.org.il/pipermail/discussions/2011-May/003030.html

  6. More Info (Re:More than just convenience) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Israeli Government Suspends Microsoft Contracts
    Hi,

    Sorry for posting anonyously. Lost my /. account ages ago.

    My name is Shachar Shemesh, and I'm involved in the Hebrew OpenOffice effort, as well as having some intimate knowledge about the events described above.

    First - a correction. Adhering to the US settelment with MS was not something forced on MS by Strum. It was an agreement entered between Strum and MS some five years ago or so. In exchange for this agreement, Strum agreed NOT to declare them a monopoly.

    The thing that brought this business forward was a legal action taken by a forum called "Freedom to choose" against Strum and the Israeli MoF, trying to force Strum to declare MS a monopoly. As a result, the agreement was suddenly published (it was kept a secret!). As an indirect result, MoF suspended it's agreement with MS.

    Strum claim, by the way, is that MS is not a monopoly, as MS Israel is not selling to the Israeli market. MS products are sold by vendors (HP, IBM, etc.), who buy it directly from MS US. I can't even begin to describe how flawed I personally think this argument is, but that's a matter for a different article.

    In an unrelated issue, the MoF is also financing an effort to add Hebrew support to OpenOffice. Participating in this are Sun Israel, TkOs (Tak Open Systems), Netmask, and myself as a representative of an NPO called "Hamakor" (I'm vulenteering, most of the rest are paid by MoF). As a result of this (as well as Sun Hamburg work on the matter), OpenOffice 1.1 will have pretty good Hebrew and Arabic support (not perfect, though). The Hebrew export and import from Word are not as good, unfortunetly. I'm hoping they will get better over time (the plans are laid out, they just need to be carried out).

    Regarding the fonts and spell checker - Sun has bought about 5 fonts with Hebrew support, for use with OpenOffice (no mistake here - that's OpenOffice, not Star Office). They are not free (as in freedom), but they are free (as in falafel). There is also work to integrate a free software project called "hspell", which is a Hebrew spell checker, into OO. That, too, will take a little while longer.

    Background:
    • hspell home page
    • Hamakor's home page (most of it in Hebrew)
    • The "freedom to choose" forum has no home page that I could find, nor does anybody seem to know who is financing it, or what's it's exact charter. MS is claiming that it's competitors are behind it, but IBM, Sun and Oracle categorically deny it.


    Who ever heard of an anonymous coward signing?

    Shachar Shemesh
    Open Source Integration and Consulting
    Hamakor board member

    P.S.
    Does anyone know how to recover a lost /. ID based on email address?

    Sh.