October 23, 2014

0x5A: Gamergate's Free Software Connection

Summary

Note: Episode 0x5A was released out of sequence, but they are in the order of release date on faif.us (rather than numerical order).

Karen and Bradley discuss connections between the so-called “Gamergate” controversy and how it relates to the Free Software community and a few obvious legal issues.

This show was released on Thursday 23 October 2014; its running time is 00:55:31.

Show Notes

Segment 0 (00:37)

• Karen asked if Bradley had heard of the Gamergate situation. (01:30)
• Matthew Garrett wrote a blog post regarding this topic entitled Actions have consequences (or: why I'm not fixing Intel's bugs any more) (10:23)
• Mathew was attacked on LKML about this blog post (10:50)
• Lennart Poettering also wrote an essay recently about aggression and attacking people in Free Software communities. (12:12)
• Karen mentioned the harassment Kathy Sierra faced in the late 2000s. (13:00)
• Bradley called out Linux Foundation to ask why they tacitly support the bad behavior by its employees and others in the Linux Project (14:35, 31:10)
• Bradley mentioned that Antti Aumo in his LinuxCon Europe 2011 keynote, said that a great thing about the Internet of Things is that you can put a lock on your fridge when the wife's on a diet. (16:32)
• Bradley mentioned the Eddie Murphy's Saturday Night Live skit, White Like Me, which according to the transcript, originally aired on 1984-12-15 on SNL. (24:45)
• Bradley mentioned FaiF 0x13, which discussed torts and why they're important. (29:50)
• Bradley wrote a blog post about Bradley mentioned his blog post about John Oliver's discussion of the Miss America Pageant (43:30)
• Bradley suggested that Intel should have instead given the Gamasutra money to Society of Women Engineers Scholarship fund. (45:30)
• Karen mentioned the statement Intel published a statement regarding the situation. (47:10)

Tags: faif, commercial, tort, gender

October 9, 2014

0x4F: Linus Torvalds' Comments at DebConf 2014

Summary

Bradley and Karen discuss and criticize comments made by Linus Torvalds at his Q&A during DebConf 2014 in Portland, OR on 29 August 2014.

This show was released on Thursday 9 October 2014; its running time is 00:38:51.

Show Notes

Segment 0 (00:37)

Bradley and Karen discuss the Q&A with Linus Torvalds at DebConf 2014 in Portland, OR on 29 August 2014. (01:09)

Segment 1 (04:30)

• Ryan Lortie asked about an offensive public statement Linus Torvalds made on 6 July 2012. (05:04)
• Bradley mentioned that Linus Torvalds argued Red Hat was kowtowing to Microsoft using offensive language. (07:57)
• Karen mentioned that Linus called GNOME an unholy mess. (19:05)

Tags: faif, GPL, FSF, licensing, Debian, gender, conferences

May 28, 2013

0x3D: Conference Behavior Redux

Summary

Karen and Bradley discuss the sexist comment issue that occurred a few months ago at PyCon USA 2013.

This show was released on Tuesday 28 May 2013; its running time is 00:39:23.

Show Notes

Segment 0 (00:00:34)

• Bradley and Karen previously discussed conference behavior back in Episode 0x04.
• Bradley had blogged a few years ago about the issues of sexism through the computer industry, including this study showing the glass ceiling in CS academics. (05:17)
• Bradley mentioned that he'd blogged in the past that proprietary software companies also have issues of sexism at conferences (05:58)
• Bradley mentioned the How to Perform Like a Porn Star CouchDB talk at a Ruby Conference (06:13)
• There is indeed a Project named PyCorn. (09:38)
• Bradley mentioned the Planet Money story about Online Pharmacies but he couldn't find the original audio of the longer piece that ends with the phrase Stay Shady, Internet (21:30)
• Bradley mentioned a quote about the human mind being the most dangerous thing because everything is in it, which is actually from Heart of Darkness by Joesph Conrad. (23:40)
• Bradley mentioned that a keynoter at LinuxCon Europe made sexist comments back in 2011. (30:02)
• Bradley and Karen encouraged listeners to promote the GNOME Foundation Outreach Program for Women (31:20)
• Bradley mentioned Shuttleworth's comment at LinuxCon North America in 2009 (32:02).

Tags: faif, gender, conferences

January 17, 2012

Episode 0x20: Gender Inequality in Software Freedom Community

Summary

Bradley and Karen discuss issues of gender inequality in the software freedom community and technology generally.

This show was released on Tuesday 17 January 2012; its running time is 00:47:17.

Show Notes

Segment 0 (00:38)

• Bradley and Karen discuss issues of gender inequality in the software freedom community and technology generally.
• Bradley wrote a blog post a while back noting that issues of gender inequality are technology-sector-wide, as shown on PDF page 10 of this study. However, Bradley incorrectly remembered the study: in fact, all levels of academic computer science are (23:19)

• Karen got a 5 on our Calculus AB exam, even though her teacher told her only boys were good at math. Bradley also got a 5 on the Calculus AB exam. (27:06)
• Bradley believes that Stand and Deliver. (29:37)
• Bradley is sure there is no Calculus in Good Will Hunting (30:08)
• Bradley mentioned that S05E11 of American Greed contained an rsync output on a Debian system and Python DBUS binding C code as “code cracking examples” (31:00)
• Miguel de Icaza had a cameo in the file Antitrust. (33:27)
• Bradley mentioned that Craig Mundie keynoted OSCON (38:55)
• Bradley mentioned the USENIX/Freenix to Perl Conference to OSCON history (42:50)
• Karen mentioned the GNOME Marketing Meeting at FOSDEM 2012. (43:27)
• Karen is speaking at Linux Conf Australia on 19 January 2012,Bradley is speaking at Scale 10x, the 2012 Southern California Linux Expo (44:16)

Tags: faif, gender