The Silent Number

At this point, the only reason i still use the term "Free Software" is to align myself with the Free Software movement as opposed to the Open Source movement, but to end this stupid naming controversy and make both movements stronger, not only do we have to, but we should for our own benefit use the term "open source" instead. I did a little rant about this a while ago on YouTube. The argument is really very simple.
The term Free Software is good because it emphasizes freedom, or at least it's supposed to. The problem is obviously that people confuse it with freeware (free as in beer, not as in freedom). Open Source is bad because their movement only focuses on practical advantages, and ignores freedom. The distinction between the disadvantages of both terms, is that one is inherent in the term, whereas the other is only a reflection of the group of people that choose to use it. In other words, Free Software will always be confused with freeware because the English language doesn't distinguish free as in price and free as in freedom, and Open Source just ignores freedom because of the movement currently aligned with the term. This means that the Free Software movement could use the term open source, but make sure to always emphasize freedom, so there wouldn't be the harmful confusion around the word "free", nor the lack of emphasis on freedom by using the term "Open Source".
Now, there is Libre software, which distinguishes free as in freedom from gratis, free as in price, but it still hasn't caught on and it keeps the Open Source and Free Software movement arguing about terminology instead of working together to promote their ideals. I'm glad to see the Free Software Foundation Europe has recognized this, but now who will convince Richard Stallman?

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtgcB8aFit8From my YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheSilentNumber
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Do you like your name? Forgetting all the standard conventions of personal names, if you did not have a name and had to choose one for yourself, what would it be, and why? 

If you believe in democracy, then you should care about the current state of our own, here in America (sorry readers from the rest of the world!). If you're really aware, you might know that our democracy isn't in fact very strong at all. Many people barely consider it a democracy. We have much less say in goverment than we may think we do, but if we stand together, we still have the power to bring about great change.
People argue about today's hot topics and promote the causes they care about, but we need to focus on something a little more fundamental: our political process. Without a strong democracy, it might not be the case that the majority wins, but the side with the most influence (money) does instead.
To put into perspective only a few of the problems that still exist today: Why should we have an opinion if congress serves lobbyists instead of us? Why should we vote if our votes are not counted, are miscounted, or are downright manipulated? How can we form valid opinioins if the media serves corporate interests instead of putting journalism first? For all this and more, we need to focus on improving our democracy. here are my top 7 organizations that are doing exactly that. 

1. Change Congresshttp://change-congress.org/Stop congress from accepting money from lobbyists or PACs, end earmarks, and support reform to increase Congressional transparency
2. Free Presshttp://www.freepress.net/Free Press is a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media. If the media is slanted, how can you trust what you hear and see? 
3. Verified Voting Foundationhttp://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/Ensure our elections are reliable and publicly verifiable
4. Public Campaignhttp://www.publicampaign.org/Campaigns should be publicly funded to make elections about voters, not lobbyists and campign donors. 
5. FairVotehttp://www.fairvote.org/Our elections need universal access to participation, a full spectrum of meaningful ballot choices, and majority rule with fair representation for all. 
6. Sunlight Foundationhttp://www.sunlightfoundation.com/Open up government and increase transparency by revealing the interplay of money, lobbying, influence and government in Washington.
7. Free Governmenthttp://www.freegovernment.org/Empower citizens to engage in government decision making and promoting true representation in congress

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDrqirvM6loFrom my YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheSilentNumber
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My school is about to invest a lot of money towards this so please post any good arguments against it or open source alternatives!

Also discussed here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1080456

To cite this article from 2002:

First there was AM. Then FM. Now, the next evolution in radio broadcast technology could very well be "P2P."
What could be even more controversial than Internet radio/audio broadcasting--which has made headlines this year over the issue of royalty payments--and P2P file sharing? Probably the merging together of these banes of the music industry.

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArMNOVO4tuE From my YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheSilentNumber
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I recently made a post offering $20 and a laptop to whoever slashed my bike tires without taking any action against them. So far, nobody has come forward , but the offer still stands. Perhaps i'll put a sign up where it happened or ask the school to make an announcement on my behalf. Why would i do this? To put it in the form of a corny quote, "Those who are the hardest to love are the ones who need it most". I've honestly always believed in that and wanted to do things like this. Just like anything else i believe in, there's just as much pragmatism as idealism in the idea. What good would it do to get the person in trouble? I'd rather know who did it, and, if they let me, talk to them about why they did it so i can hopefully convince them to not do it to anybody else.