The Free Software Foundation Recommends Last-Minute Gift Ideas

"Do you need a last-minute gift these upcoming holidays," asks the Free Software Foundation, "one that will keep on giving for the rest of the year?

"Free your own digital life and the ones of those you love by opting to give them a gift that will raise their social consciousness, create more lasting cheer, and defend #UserFreedom: Gift a Free Software Foundation (FSF) associate membership!" After donating, you'll receive a code and a printable page so that you can present your gift as a physical object, if you like. The membership is valid for one year, and includes the many benefits that come with an FSF associate membership, including a USB member card [16GB and pre-loaded with the fully free GNU/Linux distribution Trisquel Live], email forwarding, access to our Jitsi Meet videoconferencing server and member forum, discounts in the FSF shop and on ThinkPenguin hardware, and many more.

Looking for more gifts? You can also check out the latest FSF Giving Guide, or have a look at the great list of potential gifts our operations assistant Davis Remmel made for this very purpose!
"If you're unsure what to get that special someone, or just want to treat yourself," Remmel writes, "consider our Emacs de Luxe Bundle: it has manuals, tutorials, references, mugs, shirts, and just like Emacs it includes the kitchen sink stickers.

"For privacy lovers (or those who have ever uttered the word, "cryptography"), we have a NeuG USB True Random Number Generator (RNG). Your cryptographic keys will be stronger than an ox, without any need to trust your CPU's definition of "random." I recommend this RNG in conjunction with our anti-surveillance webcam stickers, which don't leave residue and can also cover microphone holes."

Re: Unforgivable

[ArmoredDragon]

I've been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder -- so I'm literally "on the spectrum" -- but I know better than to eat my own toe jam, especially while doing public speaking, when you know that basically everybody in the room is looking right at you.

https://youtu.be/5nSrcK_rkp8?t... [youtu.be]

Re:

[tigersha]

Yeah I saw him do that in person, except it was his nose he was picking.

Re: Unforgivable

[ArmoredDragon]

If I had a daughter, I probably wouldn't want her around Richard Stallman, but not for concern of her being molested, rather, out of concern that she would pick up some nasty habits. If she was around him while I was present, that would be fine, because then I could use it as a lesson to her about why you never want to be a hippie.

Re:

[Joey Vegetables]

Then you know there are different levels on the spectrum. That's why it's called a spectrum. I'm on it as well, and that is not at all uncommon here on Slashdot.

RMS is fairly extreme. But I'm not sure that I myself don't seem pretty extreme in many respects to people who aren't on the spectrum, nor those who, for whatever reason, accept the word of government and mass media as fact rather than propaganda.

If a line has to be drawn between that which is "odd/extreme/repulsive/doing more harm than good to w

Re:

[tigersha]

Agree. I once saw Stallman talk at a a Linux Conference. “Sane Human” was not really the impression he left with me. “Quasi-Religious Cult Leader” was more the sort of vibe he left behind. He is a very strange individual.

The tragic thing is that he talked the crowd into some kind of rapture. Jesus must have been like that in his day.

Re:

[Joey Vegetables]

He's odd. I don't know that anyone credible has ever claimed otherwise.

But would there even be a free software movement without him?

Re:

[thegarbz]

It's amazing that disagreeing with the actions of someone widely known as being an arsehole makes them a fascist in your eyes.

Re:

[thegarbz]

Get professional help before you hurt someone.

Re:Unforgivable [is a legitmate FP sentiment]

[shanen]

I'll never forgive FSF for becoming the Fascist Software Foundation in their treatment of RMS.

Well, I feel I have to quote you against the censor moderators, though it's not the most constructive opening possible for the discussion. However, I've had a number of exchanges with rms over the years, and I have to acknowledge that he's an extremist, somewhat of a fanatic, and more than a bit of a jerk. Also weirdly naive about how the real world and money work (though he posed an extremely perceptive question to me at least one time). And yet, notwithstanding all of that, I certainly don't feel he's bee

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

Also weirdly naive about how the real world and money work

Anecdote: I once worked for a company that made an open-source product that included Gnu software. We decided we wanted to "give back" to the community. So I talked to RMS and asked him the best way for us to donate 5% of our revenue. He said we should give him 95% of the revenue and keep 5% for ourselves.

Re:

[shanen]

While the answer doesn't surprise me (at all), it's unclear about the scope of your offer. Was the Gnu software a significant part of your product? Were you talking about gross or net revenue for the product?

My naive reaction would be that if some fraction of your actual profits depended the Gnu software, then it would be reasonable to share some or even most of that fraction of the profits back to Gnu. But that's not anywhere close to how copyright (or patent) law works.

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

Were you talking about gross or net revenue for the product?

Sofware COGS is zero, so gross and net revenue are the same.

some fraction of your actual profits

Profit and revenue are very very different things.

Failing to understand that is an example of being "naive about how the real world and money work."

Re:

[shanen]

NAK

Some notes

[Okian Warrior]

Firstly, a subscription or membership (of any kind) is an awful gift because it implies that the recipient has to spend money/effort to periodically renew. In past decades, gifting a subscription to a magazine - even one the recipient likes - was considered a faux pas. Also, it opens the recipient up to periodic spamming and begging for money from the company.

Secondly, that FSF list of gifts is a roadmap for virtue signalling, mostly against Apple and Amazon products. Apple products certainly have bad freed

The Human Fund

[Latent Heat]

Is this like the Christmas present of a donation in someone's name to The Human Fund?

https://festivusweb.com/festiv... [festivusweb.com]

Re:

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

I tried a PinePhone about a year ago and although it was cool and looked like it had promise, it just wasn't good enough to be a daily driver.

I think I used the Plasma interface but I can't recall what distro was underneath, maybe Arch?. There's an app that lets you reboot and try different distos on it, and that was a great way to get a feel for it. Some of the interfaces were pure shit, to be blunt, while others were very polished.

I ended up selling it on eBay for a bit more than I paid for it so that was

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

I actually built a TRNG similar to that but better. Mine could put out about 1MB/sec. There's looks like it was "inspired" by mine, without really understanding how to optimise it for better throughput.

Anyway, I did extensive testing. It passes NIST tests, Die Harder etc. On a par with the best hardware TRNGs.

The key is using the on-board temperature sensor. The LSB is basically quantum noise, and when a bit of whitening it's an extremely good source of entropy.

The mistake they made with this thing is to us

Re:

[TechyImmigrant]

A good entropy source comes with online health tests that continuously check the entropy source is working. It would be better if the online health test could check the entropy level, but that's quite difficult. After several years of trying and a lot of mathematics, I came up with an online health test that produces a metric that monotonically varies with the entropy content of the data. That will be appearing in CPUs pretty soon.

As you suggest, assuming entropy is there is a terrible idea. You need to tes

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

I, for one, would be offended if anyone attached my name to a controversial ideological organization without my permission.

It would be no different than joining someone to the NRA, ACLU, or making a donation in their name to Trump's reelection fund.

No one has the right to presume that others agree with their views.

Re:

[Joey Vegetables]

Mostly agreed, but I doubt that anyone would knowingly gift a FSF membership to someone who was outraged by the mission of the FSF, or the behavior of some of its people. Seems to me that there are less expensive ways to offend someone if that is truly the goal.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

A RNG question.

[Ostracus]

For privacy lovers (or those who have ever uttered the word, "cryptography"), we have a NeuG USB True Random Number Generator (RNG).

Better than the RNG in a TPM?

Re:

[thegarbz]

Technically the TPM spec allows you to use Pseudo RNG, but in practice most implement true hardware RNG these days.

Re:

[TechyImmigrant]

For privacy lovers (or those who have ever uttered the word, "cryptography"), we have a NeuG USB True Random Number Generator (RNG).

Better than the RNG in a TPM?

The RNGs in TPMs vary from device to device. Some useless. Some good.
A bigger problem is you talk to the TPM over wires that can be intercepted. If the TPM is the only RNG in your system and you PC is using it to get the random numbers over those wires you cannot secure the connection because you need an RNG at each end of a link to secure it well.

On-CPU TPMs are a lot better in that respect, but you can't swap it out when the TPM has a problem.

The RNGs in CPUs vary in quality. I think the one I designed is

I want a signed poster of RMS in drags

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

I'll happily donate just for a laugh like that. Otherwise... meh not so much.

s/recommends/advertises/g

[Fly Swatter]

There, ftfy.

* Merry Christmas * -- Something Google Doodle will never say. But it says all the others.

Merry Christmas!

[know-nothing cunt]

I just gave everyone on my list free software. Didn't cost me a penny.

No need, really

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

"For privacy lovers (or those who have ever uttered the word, "cryptography"), we have a NeuG USB True Random Number Generator (RNG). Your cryptographic keys will be stronger than an ox, without any need to trust your CPU's definition of "random."

FFS, throw some scrabble letters in a cup and dump them on a table. Sprinkle in a few numbers and punctuation marks and you'll have something just as strong.

Or use one of the 50,000 free online password generators to make a strong password and then (if you're paran

I already did it

[nospam007]

"The Free Software Foundation Recommends Last-Minute Gift Ideas "

I gifted free software to everybody.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Awesome.

[Petersko]

The only gift I can think of that's less likely to be used than a book.