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Bomb threat clears Boylston Street Apple store; no bomb found

Boston Police report at 7:35 p.m.

Nothing found. Area deemed safe & sound.

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Comments

Strange... and a day after the loonies at the Free Software Foundation published this account of their "protest" of the store. https://www.defectivebydesign.org/appleaction2013

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Sounds a bit like an Apple fanboy if not just a slanderer.

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They are loonies. See below.

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Calling the Free Software Foundation people 'loonies' and trying to connect them to this sillyness definitely puts you in the idiot-or-troll category.

Stallman is certainly a character, and suffers from 'smartest-guy-in-the-room-itis' (like so many high achieving nerds). And the FSF has definitely been controversial and provocative - hardly suprising, given their mission. But they are also seriously legit and productive. GNU and GNOME are incredibly important parts of the world of modern software (hopefully the Gnash flash engine will join that list soon). And the FSF-created Copyleft and GPL (General Public Licence), while still imperfect, have had a profound influence on software development and on consumer/civil rights in the 21st century. Linux and probably 3/4 of the free and/or open software in the world wouldn't exist without the FSF.

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I'm not a troll, sorry to disappoint.

The FSF is full of zealotry. RMS may have done some good years ago but is a ridiculous figurehead nowadays that does more to dissuade innovation under the harsh oppressive rules of the GPL v3 than anything else.

Look at the FSF's gift guide for this year linked in that article. They say that instead of buying itunes gift cards for people, you should get them memberships to their organization! Ridiculous, along with their insane anti-DRM garbage even though Apple has dramatically reduced DRM in recent times. What do they want, the ability to pirate software now? Preposterous.

The FSF is an old, outdated relic run by someone who has no concept of what the modern user needs. He doesn't even use a web browser and instead has web pages emailed to himself so he can read the source! That's how obsessive he is, if he had his way everyone would need to be a programmer and writing their own software to do basic tasks instead of - God forbid - paying for software already made.

Until RMS is ousted and ridiculous zealotry "movements" like their DefectiveByDesign campaign are eliminated only then will people respect what free software really means, which involves sane, selective licensing like the BSD or MIT licenses, not "do as we say or else" crap like GNU.

I wouldn't put it passed a fundamentalist freetard to call in a bomb threat. Seems ridiculously convenient.

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Only trolls sling around terms like "freetard".

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Sure just discount everything else because of one word that describes perfectly people who hate that others that have the indecency of wanting to profit from their work

Or view videos on youtube

Or use any computer that uses a bios they don't like (something 90% of users don't even notice or care about)

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... because every word you say is loony rubbish.

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Nah, sorry. If you wanna see some loony rubbish, look at this https://fsf.org/givingguide/2013

Hope grandma enjoys that linux computer for Christmas. She may have no idea how to email photos or get audio from it, but her freedom to write new kernel modules and argue on usenet about source forks is preserved perfectly. Isn't that what really matters over the holidays, gifts given for the purpose of smug lecturing on an esoteric topic no one gives a damn about?

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Shows how much you know about the Linux operating system and how out dated your theory is.

I'll go on record that for work I support Windows. But I do have a Linux background also. But I digress.

Most modern Linux installations are now like Windows or OS X, plug and play, all the hardware works, installing software is fairly easy, the GUI is easy to use and makes sense. And heck, you can even make it LOOK like Windows or OS X. It's very unlike it was when I first started using Linux in the mid-90s where there was a lot of compiling and what not to make it all work right. Now its just as install and "plug and play" just like Windows or Mac. It's come a VERY long way.

Of course you'd have to show Grandma how to use the computer too, but you'd have to do that with any new computer, Windows or Mac regardless. And if she's never used Windows before (or just an extreme casual web/email user) the switch to Linux wouldn't be that hard. Its the people who are savvy users (like most of us here on Uhub) that would have issues because we're used to Windows or Mac or Linux and switching to the other and knowing how to do things is a PIA. (cuz we resist change). To a new computer user (or a not so saavy one), they are more receptive to changes since they don't know any better.

This is also why tablets are taking off with the techno-phobics. Easy to use with big clicky buttons. (and guess what? Android OS is based on Linux!)

Of course would *I* as a techie person give my grandma Linux? Probably not. Why? because as a techie person, for family members you end up being tech support so its far easy to say "go to geek squad for help" or go to BestBuy and buy this software package or hardware piece. Not that I wanna NOT help my grandma, but its far easier to say "just go buy office at BestBuy" than it is to remote in and help her install StarOffice or something like that. I'm just lazy I guess.

(and if it matters, I received a phone call from my 86 year old grandfather the other day... He had installed Ubuntu onto an old gateway PC they had in the garage.. I asked him why he did that, he said he was just bored and wanted to 'try it' (mind you he's never used Linux before). He says he likes it, but will let "Ma" (grandma) use the Windows PC they have in the den because she likes Windows. Impressive.. on his own..)

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Great story!

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Ubuntu, which I installed for him after I got tired of doing tech support for his constant problems, especially with anti-virus software, on his Dell computer running Windows. He barely noticed the difference. He's had no problems emailing, IMing and video-chatting with his grandkids, downloading and listening to audiobooks from the library, scanning and organizing his pre-digital photo collection, etc. I'm pretty sure he's not compiling any kernel mods. I'm pretty sure he's not making any bomb threats either.

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Have to agree that Linux is becoming much more mainstream. It's not going to eclipse Windows on desktops by any means but there definitely is a large market share of devices and machines out there that already are using Linux in order to keep costs down.

One item I am especially interested in, and wishing it the best of luck, is Valve Software's foray into the hardware/console market. Their new Steam Machine is running a Linux based OS, and they have long made a strong commitment to supporting the Linux platform with releases. And, even on the hardware level the Steam Machines will be open source, with different manufacturers able to promote their own versions at different price points. Competition is a good thing.

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Despite my interest in this discussion and finding I can't fully go with the arguments made to either side. I do want to point out an irony.

"Profiting from Youtube" - Perhaps the official stance of the Foundation is for users to give their videos they create to be free (I actually do not know, but sure it matters to my point). But, currently Google is trying really hard to screw their biggest content creators and personalities with a new content match system. It mostly affects gaming-type channels, but it is hilariously poorly implemented making copyright claims on behalf of parties who most have no interest to making such claims. Hilariously, many of the "claimants" have no idea but are responsible to drop the claim they never made and it seems they have not even made easy to do so. Many times the claims goes to parties who are not related at all, making it even more likely to not get address. A few articles hilariously pointed some claims noted the claimant is them self. Aside from Google's role, this whole mess is caused by copyright laws and the Foundation tend to be sympathetic whose actions have been protective regardless the final goal is even further (and I'm not sure of that, their actions seems to be protecting the little guy than total chaos disincentivizing entire industries).

I'll fear and loath from these "loonies" when I actually see them eating into innovation of the software industry. I'll sympathize with your DRM point when DRM actually effectively attack pirates than attacking users in various forms we see now. Then, it would make true these guys actually aid pirates and hurting the related industries. But currently, it doesn't seem to be.

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These college age techie males have got to knock it off with the bomb threats. It has become trite.

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BPD is starting to get a bit annoyed at whoever is calling in these threats.

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Or all the other places they called tonight on Boylston. Or a check cashing place on Mass Ave yesterday afternoon. Many of these calls lately, its a scam.

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Start really throwing the book at these folks.. 10-20 years in jail as an automatic term might be a deterrent. (key word = AUTOMATIC)

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