I also see it as a reference to the fraternity-types that inhabit the Marina and North Beach, as opposed to a tech "hipster" who might live in the Mission.
I actually flew out of O'Hare on Thanksgiving day last year. The checkpoint was completely empty, but the agent very lightly challenged me when I opted out, saying something like "Why do you have to do that? You know its pointless." I wasn't actually ready with my A-Game talking points so I just said "I just don't want to support the security theater." but I don't think he really cared enough to have a debate about it.
Finally someone mentioned this way way down in the comments. Its sad that such a great project has so easily been forgotten. The remains of the project are still very interesting but there aren't enough people to even finance a production run of the new hardware. www.gta04.org
The Fairphone is about fairness in the supply chain, not openness or end-user control of the device, for that we have the much smaller OpenPhoenux project:/http://www.openphoenux.org/
The old OpenMoko Neo Freerunner did this, the price point is a bit high but you're asking for a very special feature with low demand in the general market, so supply and demand kick in.
There's a new version with better hardware that just hasn't gone into production because it can't get enough pre-orders to finance a production run. Check it out: http://www.openphoenux.org/ (Click the GTA04 link for more info)
This one is particularly bad because there is no "obscure and buried opt-out option" to check. The process to opt-out requires you to mail a physical signed letter to some office. I'm pretty sure none of these terms are actually legal and enforceable, particularly in California where the courts have already struck down binding arbitration clauses before, but it's a deterrent to actual justice being served. My wish would be that the "Severability" clause was found illegal, so if the corporation decided to put something illegal in the contract, it voids the whole contract. That would be the only way to get the corporations to stop doing these things.
This one is quick, but at my school St. Johnsbury Academy in St. Johnsbury, VT 05819 the students organized an after-school gaming project. It came about as such: The school's technical coordinator has no idea what he's doing, so a small group of students working in the AP Computer Science lab 'hacked' onto a network drive and installed Quake; Because every computer on the network had access to those network drives, students would open Netscape and using the open file command navigate to that network drive and start the game. There were tournaments organized for about two weeks before anyone in the administration found out about them. And with school over, they (the original 'hackers') removed the game from the computers, and no one got in trouble so it had a happy ending.
Well, I guess that could have been quicker, but I tried.
Slashdot Mirror
I also see it as a reference to the fraternity-types that inhabit the Marina and North Beach, as opposed to a tech "hipster" who might live in the Mission.
I actually flew out of O'Hare on Thanksgiving day last year. The checkpoint was completely empty, but the agent very lightly challenged me when I opted out, saying something like "Why do you have to do that? You know its pointless." I wasn't actually ready with my A-Game talking points so I just said "I just don't want to support the security theater." but I don't think he really cared enough to have a debate about it.
Finally someone mentioned this way way down in the comments. Its sad that such a great project has so easily been forgotten. The remains of the project are still very interesting but there aren't enough people to even finance a production run of the new hardware.
www.gta04.org
The Fairphone is about fairness in the supply chain, not openness or end-user control of the device, for that we have the much smaller OpenPhoenux project: /http://www.openphoenux.org/
The old OpenMoko Neo Freerunner did this, the price point is a bit high but you're asking for a very special feature with low demand in the general market, so supply and demand kick in.
There's a new version with better hardware that just hasn't gone into production because it can't get enough pre-orders to finance a production run. Check it out:
http://www.openphoenux.org/ (Click the GTA04 link for more info)
This one is particularly bad because there is no "obscure and buried opt-out option" to check. The process to opt-out requires you to mail a physical signed letter to some office. I'm pretty sure none of these terms are actually legal and enforceable, particularly in California where the courts have already struck down binding arbitration clauses before, but it's a deterrent to actual justice being served. My wish would be that the "Severability" clause was found illegal, so if the corporation decided to put something illegal in the contract, it voids the whole contract. That would be the only way to get the corporations to stop doing these things.
This one is quick, but at my school St. Johnsbury Academy in St. Johnsbury, VT 05819 the students organized an after-school gaming project. It came about as such: The school's technical coordinator has no idea what he's doing, so a small group of students working in the AP Computer Science lab 'hacked' onto a network drive and installed Quake; Because every computer on the network had access to those network drives, students would open Netscape and using the open file command navigate to that network drive and start the game. There were tournaments organized for about two weeks before anyone in the administration found out about them. And with school over, they (the original 'hackers') removed the game from the computers, and no one got in trouble so it had a happy ending.
Well, I guess that could have been quicker, but I tried.