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Open Source in Oregon
Anonymous writes "MWVLUG's coordinator, Cooper Stevenson, has asked Linux Today to post this detailed history of events surrounding the battle to get open source software legislation enacted in the Beaver State in an effort to raise public awareness for the campaign."
oh, and good work posting this just in time for the eurotrash to comment on. a story about oregon. michael.
fp for lunix oregon fagz.
Good time for easy fives 9am GMT 8)
Is sex with a fatty better than no sex at all?
What's so srtange about having to justify paying for something, it being software or something else? I know I would like expenses paid for by my tax money to be justified.
Support costs will be added no matter what. Why not justify the extra expense of licensing?
Science has yet to discover a slashdotter that has gotten (or even thought about) pussy. It's all buggery and scat porn for them.
What about opensource in Utah?
The fate of a law is once again more influenced by what lobbyists want than what is in the interests of the people.
It may be one man, one vote, but that man is the picture of a dead president printed on green paper, and the more of them you have, the more votes you have.
It's a proven fact that the wearing of the sacred undergarments precludes participation in any free software project...i call it the Linus Law.
If i had a nickel for every time i had to reupholster my couch because of some overexcited 'dotter...
"All the Oregonians out there say heeyyy-hooooo" *a cricket chirps* "Anybody?"
Do you Americas have power yet? The comments are getting less and less. Or maybe it's because the stories are getting more boring...
I mean. It's been a battle to get open source accepted everywhere. Not just some part of soem state on some continent somewhere.
"I used to have that really cool,funny sig
The original listing is gone but check out a mirror.
==
Web Developer
So you were a top Web Developer, once, many years ago, until the "correction". Now nobody cares and you are shunned in public, much as lepers were in the fifteenth century. Your modern-day equivalent of the chiming bell and vile burbling exclamations of "Unclean! Unclean!" is the obnoxious ringtone on your expensive mobile. There's a good chance you listen to either Sisters of Mercy and Bauhaus or elaborate Paul Oakenfold remixes, with a bit of bootlegged Chemical Brothers thrown in for good measure. Maybe you find yourself missing the ashtray completely, and your ESC through F3 keys are thoroughly clogged up with burned, cancerous grey flakes. For better or for worse, you're familiar with such repugnant images as goatse.cx and know what STFU means. In all probability your beverage of choice is Jolt/Columbian Cola, and you have the weeping stomach ulcers to prove it. You give copies of Photoshop 7.0 to your friends, thereby depriving a fat CEO somewhere of a heated driveway. You have a world-crushing collection of MP3s. Your author of choice: Neal Stephenson or William Gibson. You have every volume of Gaiman's Sandman series, though you decided after Volume III that it`s all a bit of a wank. Sometimes, you pretend you are in The Matrix. Your half-elf mage/rogue is at Level 9, and has actually worked out how to put a Bag of Holding within another Bag of Holding without imploding Ravenloft. You can pronounce "Urotsukidoji" without hurting yourself, and can rocket-jump better than anyone you know. You have a bit of an attitude when it comes to Windows XP, and you like to recompile kernels.
Your spine looks like a u-bend.
Others may call you freakish. We call you lovely. And in reward for your loveliness, we would like to offer you this mildly exciting opportunity, if your idea of excitement is a RAM upgrade:
This is a fun little two week contract for a reasonably experienced Web Developer with plenty of HTML (well, duh), JavaScript and ASP know-how. Ideally you will also be fluent in the, and I quote, "uploading of ASP pages from a SAP business connector". I said that out loud and Shub-Niggurath appeared and attempted to devour my soul through some impressive shambling and ominous tentacle-writhing, so I won't investigate it any further.
But anyway, that's the deal. Either you like it or you don't, and we're not about to tell you either way. It's a two week contract for a company here in the city, and will probably be paying about $25 per hour, commensurate with experience. So apply now (or don't), or call Gary Fernandes for more information.
Please contact Gary Fernandes quoting reference number SK/GFWD on:
phone (03) 9629 6788 fax (03) 9629 5788
Email: Please click the 'Apply Now' button below.
Use ISO 8601 dates [YYYY-MM-DD]
a citizen lobbyist.
Interesting to see an amateur go up against a fleet of paid pros (BSA, MS, et al). It would be nice to see it work. You know, that whole account appeals to my root-for-the-underdog, iconoclastic, giant-killer streak.
Just to pick a medical nit, however, he did misspell his medication... it's Vicodin, not "Vicaden" (changing a letter or two in a medication name could cause a medication error).
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
I need to get out more.
Karma: Bad due to google bombing - Robert Watkins woz 'ere.
The problem here is, again, that legislators are elected by people to represent the interests of those people but instead are acting on behalf of artificial entities such as corporations and/or other organizations which pay them money in turn for which the legislators then represent their interests, often in betrayal of the interests of the people they are supposed to represent. It's a most cynical and duplicitous perversion of democracy.
r rorism-Lif e-OR-SB742-27feb03.htm
/or which represent aims with which the legislators identify themselves, even if those aims are detrimental to the welfare of the people to whom the legislators should be wholly dedicated to protecting.
I regret that I have to say this, but a big part of what's so far preventing this bill from succeeding is John & Karen Minnis, a powerful but very misguided duo in Oregon's capitol. Look at this beauty from last session:
http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2003/Te
This bill would define almost anyone, anywhere, as a terrorist and send them to prison for life without possibility for parole.
The Oregon open source law's failure to pass indicates that our legislative process has been quite effectively coopted by legislators who draw their power from the people, then use their power to protect and further the interests of organizations which pay them money and favors, and
Hopefully the bill will pass. Even so, the problem of our subverted legislative bodies will continue. And as it does, we are in deep, deep trouble.
What a surprise that the state Rob Malda lives in offers such a course and at a university level. Conicidence? I think not.
But it is probably nothing to be proud of.
When it comes to it, at least you could just close your eyes and fuck the fat sluts hole.
Also, you may get the chance to root the bitch up the poop shute.
And finally note that fat chicks have big titties you can play with.
The best that you can hope for is that the whore at least knows how to take a shower.
Vote out the bastards and we can let the good times roll again.
Never deprive someones wallet of more money than it would cost to have you killed
I mean, there's the speaker of the house arguing against savings when other equally or more urgent sectors experience budget cuts. Don't voters care about such things? Aren't the voters ultimately the people responsible for just who's up there representing them?
Is it really worth while to line your pockets with campaign contributions when ultimately nobody will vote for you anyways because you sold them out?
to have it posted somewhere besides a site that already advocates Open Source solutions? I mean, how about local newspapers?
/. and LT readers are pretty well in favor of it already. How about telling someone who doesn't already know?
It's preaching to the converted, otherwise. I don't mean to sound like a troll, but c'mon guys.
To celebrate the occasion of my 1000th post, I will post no more forever on Slashdot. Goodbye.
don't count on yOUR unelected Godless greed/fear based georgewellian fuddite southern baptist freemason execrable to act on yOUR behalf.
the posterbouys for grand larcenIE would include any & all of the walking dead who peddle phonIE stock markup payper to millions of hardworking conservative folks, & then after stealing/spending/disappearing the real dough, pretend that nothing ever happened. sound familiar robbIE? these fauxking corepirate nazi larcens, want us to pretend along with them, whilst they continue to squander yOUR "investmeNTs", on their soul DOWt craving for excess/ego gratification. yuk
no matter their ceaseless efforts to block the truth from you, the tasks (planet/population rescue) will be completed.
the lights are coming up now.
you can pretend all you want. our advise is to be as far away from the walking dead contingent as possible, when the big flash occurs. you wouldn't want to get any of that evile on you.
as to the free unlimited energy plan, as the lights come up, more&more folks will stop being misled into sucking up more&more of the infant killing barrolls of crudeness, & learn that it's more than ok to use newclear power generated by natural (hydro, solar, etc...) methods. of course more information about not wasting anything/behaving less frivolously is bound to show up, here&there.
cyphering how many babies it costs for a barroll of crudeness, we've decided to cut back, a lot, on wasteful things like giving monIE to felons, to help them destroy the planet/population.
no matter. the #1 task is planet/population rescue. the lights are coming up. we're in crisis mode. you can help.
the unlimited power (such as has never been seen before) is freely available to all, with the possible exception of the aforementioned walking dead.
consult with/trust in yOUR creator. more breathing. vote with yOUR wallet. seek others of non-aggressive intentions/behaviours. that's the spirit, moving you.
pay no heed/monIE to the greed/fear based walking dead.
each harmed innocent carries with it a bad toll. it will be repaid by you/us. the Godless felons will not be available to make reparations.
pay attention. that's definitely affordable, plus you might develop skills which could prevent you from being misled any further by phonIE ?pr? ?firm? generated misinformation.
good work so far. there's still much to be done. see you there. tell 'em robbIE.
What I found most interesting was that untill the people outside of governmnet noticed that open source could help them directly they weren't interested in how it impacted the government they voted for!
Politicians might be short sighted and highly influenced by lobyists, though it looks like the voters -- and all citizens in general -- also suffer from this.
Who's in charge? Counting on human nature to remain the same, what would be necessary to change this?
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
Remember that Munich (Germany, Oktoberfest, remember ?) decided to migrate 15,000 desktops to Linux? That decision was mainly based on the strategic argument that open source software would help local consultants and IT vendors better than MS software would.
The argument that open source software creates jobs for smaller entities instead of spending money on software from big companies located somewhere is a strong argument if you talk to politicians.
See, the lobbyists' money allows the candidate to get larger and more powerful advertising out to the masses, which brings in a number of votes. This is weighed by the savvy (read: greedy, corrupt) politician against the loss of votes due to voters' disagreement with his choices on policy matters. So, ax - bx = c, where a is voters influenced by political ads, b is voters influenced by decisions on policy issues, x is the amount of leaning towards the lobbyists, and c is the net votes gained or lost by the policy decision. Add other factors, like the opposing candidate, other notable practices, party affiliation and affinity with the voting district, etc., etc., etc., and you come up with why Joe Senator decides not to vote like you told him to.
To reduce the effectiveness of lobbyists, therefore, simply increase b and reduce a.
Well, okay - seeing as it means educating voters and reducing apathy, it's not all that simple, but it's our only hope for a democracy that works. VOTE!
Nicholas Eckert
vidstudent
Open source needs more CAREFUL representation. If one quotes this article to literate people, putting the '[sic]' disclaimer after every pitiful grammar and spelling mistake, it becomes a sic, sic article. A good cause and informed debate can carry the day, Mr. Stevenson, but why handicap yourself with such juvenile writing? How about asking your English-major girlfriend, of SOMEBODY, to look things over before you publish them? Did the information on that CD contain such poor and distracting writing?
[troll]
Maybe if he had at least typed it in Word, he would have gotten some spelling and grammar checking?
[/troll]
I'm sorry, but open source word processors have spelling and grammar checking too. You couldn't tell from this article. If that CD Ken Barber is passing around is this pathetic, he is hurting the cause at least a little.
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. - Geek's corollary to Clarke's law
You ever have that stuff?
:(
I wish I had more wisdom teeth to extract.
How about, instead, a bill that requires:
This way, instead of the "or else" tone of the original bill, you get a more "let's level the playing field, and open the books to the paying public". That might get your legislators more amenable to passing that kind of bill.
Just a thought..
OK, so the legislators who are being coddled daily by bigtime special interests are a problem, but what's THE problem? As previously mentioned, that article is a terrible perversion of the most basic grammar and spelling rules. I realize not everyone has taken the time to gain even a basic mastery over their native language, but Christ, at least run a freaking spell check over it.
Next, let's point out that, while the Minnis crew is undoubtedly corrupt to their rotten cores, there's an enabler here: the people they claim to represent. You're preaching to the choir here, but what good would it do you to post this information anywhere else? Most of the sheep-people I talk to get googly eyed when you tell them to double-click something, think a license allows you to drive or indicates a corny spy movie is coming up on TNN (spike.. sorry, whatever), and couldn't tell you what "proprietary" means in the software world if you typed it into webopedia for them.
Until people stop reelecting the festering carcasses of self-important, money-grubbing, crooked, backwards, slimy, snake-oil politicians and demand some level of accountability from the government, what chance do we have to get things set straight? I think the part of this story that really speaks volumes is this:
They're not even saying they SHOULD use Open Source in Oregon, just that they should CONSIDER it as a viable solution to technology needs and it's still floundering. I would never say that people should be required to use OSS, but to not even be required to CONSIDER it? Would someone like to call shenanigans?
I can't wait to tell my wife. She'll giggle herself silly over that term.
Just to pick a medical nit, however, he did misspell his medication... it's Vicodin, not "Vicaden" (changing a letter or two in a medication name could cause a medication error).
He also used "past" when it should have been "passed". This slight changing of a few letters speaks volumes about his (lack of) education, and harms his credibility.
Some people say I'm obnoxious and lazy
I'm uneducated...my opinion means nothin'
Uh-huh.
when legislators in a financially strapped state insist on paying _more_ for something then they need to. Even if they have no intention of using anything but Microsoft software, the minute they present open source as a viable alternative, Microsoft will swoop in offering massive discounts as incentives to stay locked in to their proprietary solutions. Why anybody would intentionally work to block this negotiating tactic can only be explained as corruption. But then, these are the same people trying to introduce a bill to pass a law preventing the city of Portland from buying the local electric utility (PGE) from the now discredited Enron -- despite the fact that Portland had made no attempt yet to do so. Again, they're effective tying their own hands; in the latter case, they are preventing the city of Portland from using the threat of Eminent Domain to extract concessions from Enron. Why anbody would do this, short of being handed a stack of unmarked bills under the table by company executives, is beyond me...
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
Even as one of those unemployed consultants, I still suspect you are exagerating.
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
Most people in Oregon let alone people outside the state don't know what Linux is, let alone open source.
Besides, aren't those goons in Salem too busy trying to get a baseball team to Portland to create a few minimum wage jobs for the trailor park crowd here??
write a short letter, e-mail or place a short phone call.
/. readers.
I had some involvement with this while it was in the house general committee. The combination of AeA lobby and the Minnis couple are what is holding this bill back.
I got a chance to speak with some legislators on a one for one basis. Most of them do consider well written / spoken input and are happy to have it.
When you do write this letter or place a phone call, be sure and ask for a response to a question. Not only is your input catagorized and considered, it will take time. They will give you some sort of answer; otherwise, they are on the defensive for later conversations.
Interestingly enough, if you mail Minnis, you get a short form indicating in advance exactly why you will not get a direct response. (Really shows where the attention is here doesn't it?) Anyway, phone calls and fax work best for her because both of those take actual time and resources from her staff. Your legislator may vary...
Example questions:
What is your position on SB 589, the Oregon Open Source bill?
Given the number of unemployed IT professionals and the potential for savings HB 589 holds, why not work to keep Oregons dollars here where they can do some good for those struggling to find work in tough times?
Can I count on your support in committee regarding SB 589?
If, they express support, ask them how you can best help them move the bill forward. --Then do it. (Won't be bad, just a couple phone calls, friendly discussion or a letter.)
If against, ask them "why?". Take those answers and do some research and get back to them.
Finally: (The guilt approach)
Cooper Stevenson along with Rep. Phil Barnhart's staff have worked very hard on this bill against a powerful lobby. Many people across Oregon, myself included, devoted time and energy to the task of education for our legislators the first time around.
After about a month of hard lobbying, phone calls, letters and appointments, I personally believed Minnis had stopped the bill. We have a second chance people! Passing a bill like this is worth it! Spend a little time, feel good today --why not?
This is damn good news coming at a time when the legislature is looking for money anywhere it can. Perhaps ongoing pressure from the people of Oregon can make a difference. There must be at least 10,000 Oregon
This is a lot of noise people. If you have never done this before, it's easy, please start now and get two other people to do the same.
This group deserves an hour or two of your time.
Cooper, Sally, others... --good job!
(Off writing and calling as you read this...)
Blogging because I can...
You are forgetting they went with IBM, an American company, as well.
While IBM may be headquartered in Armonk, NY, USA, it is very much an International company. Almost all of the hardware is manufactured in Asia nowdays.
Hey buddy, get off his case!
PSaltyDS had a valid point about looking good in print, and just 'cause he made one eensey schmeensey error doesn't mean you have to get all hypercritical and rub it in and... [rant fades off in to the distance]
My other car is a 1984 Nark Avenger.
- and for wich it was not necessary
- there really wasn't anything to preven state agencies
- I might accept the argument that they just weren't sure yet of Linux as middleware accept for
- this Bill can only really be past with support from you.
and my favorite:- As I approached Sen. Atkinson's office I called to him, "Senator Atkinson," I said, "would you at least consider this legislation?"
The "he" was Senator Beyer, not Senator Atkinson."I'll tell you what I'll do," he said, "if Senator Atkinson says it's okay, then it's okay with me--he's the tech guy.'"
Nothing for 6-digit uids?
Someone (editor of story..cough..) should be killed for this. I don't feel like doing the exact math, but only about 40% of the posts in this whole story were 1 or better. And I think about 50% are -1. Just fucking wow.