The site does a thorough job of explaining the meaning and importance of this, but I will offer a brief summary here.

Many, if not most, people use proprietary software from companies like Microsoft and Adobe to create, edit, and manage their documents. Microsoft Office applications, Adobe Photoshop, and many others, create letters, spreadsheets and photos which are saved in a secret format known only to the company that created it. That’s great for the company that wants to control your access to your own data, determine how (and if) you can share it with others, and force you to upgrade if you want to keep support for your documents. Not so great for you, the creator/owner/manager of all these documents.

Another important issue is the preservation of documents in the digital era. There are documents from millennia gone by preserved on paper, scrolls, clay pots, even stone. The earliest known cave paintings are accessible to all who can see them. Who will read your Microsoft Word ’97 novel even five years from now?

I urge you to visit http://documentfreedom.org to learn more about the importance of document liberation. Start by freeing your own documents, then shine the light of freedom to light the way for others. Namaste.

Some interesting links:

US Dept. of Justice (excuse me while I lose my breakfast) Capital Punishment Statistics

US Notches World’s Highest Incarceration Rate (It’s big business throwing people in a cage, and you can get a franchise!)

Listen to Neil Young’s Ohio on Last.fm (full track)

Why does this come as no surprise? The defendants waived their right to a jury trial, which many people thought was a risky move. What was risky about it? Instead of having twelve honest citizens decide their fate, they entrusted the decision to an agent of the corrupt, murderous, out-of-control mega-gang known generically as “the government”. It’s high time the people took matters into their own hands.

I’m so f#ck!ng  sick of hearing pseudo-intellectual @ssh0les debate the relative merits of the crapweasels running for office as if any of that matters! Do you really think that our civil liberties will be restored if Obama gets elected? Do you honestly believe the war will end, gas prices will drop, the government will stop screwing the poor and middle class? That the police will suddenly act like enlightened protectors of the innocent and not like the ignorant thugs that many (but not all) of them are? How freakin wonderful the bliss of that naivete must be! I wonder how much it matters to Sean Bell, his family, or his fiancee?

Now, I’m off to install Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 on a server and (hopefully) forget goddamn politics, news and people. Like an ostrich, I’ll sink my head into the sands of geektopia. But come the revolution, brotha…