Moving to Freedom: About

Updated: 22 February 2008

Hello, and welcome to Moving to Freedom dot org. My name is Scott Carpenter. Since I haven’t done anything notable and you’ve never heard of me, I thought it would be helpful to share some things about this web site and myself.

about this site

This site is about free software, free culture, and other things.

other things

Last things first: In addition to free software and free culture, this web site is about other things. If you aren’t interested in free software and free culture, well, then, you should be.

But even so, if you’re drawn to my electrifying prose but not ready in your cultural development to fully engage with all the “free” stuff, some of which can be highly technical and of interest mainly to Google searchers for a specific topic, then you still may find some items of interest for day-to-day reading. More about this in the “future” section below.

free software

Free software is software that you are free to share with your family, friends, and neighbors.

Isn’t that a nice thing? It doesn’t cost anything to make copies of digital information, and we have these wonderful machines and a worldwide network that are perfect for copying and sharing. Why not use these tools to freely share our accumulated knowledge? You may also modify the software, if you are so inclined, and are free to distribute your modified version. You don’t have to ask for permission for any of this, either.

That puts things rather simply, and leaves out some fine print, but this is essentially how it works. And it does work. We’re in the midst of a free software revolution! Although like all revolutions, there are counterforces at work.

For a good introduction to what free software is all about, I recommend the GNU philosophy essays. For starters: “Why Software Should Not Have Owners” and “The Free Software Definition” by Richard Stallman.

So that’s the first purpose of this web site. To talk about free software and the counterforces at work against it, such as harmful software patents, Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). These are all tools used in different ways to prevent people from using free software to achieve the goals of sharing and cooperation and just getting things done.

As likely as not, I’ll excerpt and point to others who can more cogently present arguments in favor of free software and against the tactics of proprietary software companies.

Also! See history below for more on the motivation behind starting this free software blog and the kinds of posts you’ll find here.

free culture

The free culture movement, according to today’s Wikipedia entry, is “a social movement that promotes the freedom to distribute and modify creative works, using the Internet as well as other media. The movement objects to overly restrictive copyright laws, or completely reject the concepts of copyright and intellectual property, which many members of the movement also argue hinder creativity.” Also: “The free culture movement takes the ideals of the free software movement and extends them from the field of software to all cultural and creative works.”

That sounds like a good start at defining free culture, and is something I agree with. Copyright is a privilege that has been over-extended and is abused by many of those who hold copyright on artifacts of our culture. I am very much in favor of creative people earning rewards for their work if it is valued by others, but I don’t think the way to do this is to grant exclusive rights to the work for 100+ years.

Times are changing, and industries that rely on the intellectual monopolies of copyright and patents will have to adapt. There will be losers in the transition to a world of decriminalized file sharing (non-commercial, at least), but that isn’t a reason in and of itself to keep the old ways. I believe that effective copyright enforcement would require an intolerable control regime over our personal computing devices, and would take away precious freedom, digital and otherwise.

And that’s another purpose of this web site: to talk about issues related to free culture. This is another area where I’ll often point to other people who are doing a more thorough job of questioning copyright. For example, check out this great essay by Karl Fogel about the history of copyright and the promise of a post-copyright world.

some history

I became aware of free software in the form of GNU and Linux in 1998, and while I was immediately attracted to the idea of free software, I wasn’t able to get traction using and moving to a free operating system. I was comfortable using Microsoft Windows. I had a lot of applications and data entrenched in Windows, and all my expertise lay there. It was frustrating not knowing how to do things in GNU/Linux, and I didn’t want to invest the time in learning a whole new system.

But I kept coming back to it. I had started reading Slashdot in early 1999, and was regularly learning about the possibilities and opportunities afforded by free software. I really wanted to enjoy software freedom and be part of a community that believes in sharing and cooperation. In late 2005 or early 2006, I read Stallman’s book Free Software, Free Society, and felt inspired to try again and to start promoting free software to others. (I had previously read many of the collected essays, but reading the book provided a concentrated dose of inspiration and motivation.)

I started this blog In July 2006 for the reasons mentioned above, but I also hoped it would spur me on to keep at it and really make progress this time in “moving to freedom.” And I think it has served that purpose. In February 2008, finally, I’m all but done relying on Windows for home use. (See “Move Notes” for more on some milestones along the way.)

I’ve been honored to gather a few readers along the way, and happy to help other people on this journey: some of the technical posts here have drawn quite a few visitors via Google search results. Some of these people may not be interested so much in the principles behind free software, but they’re still moving in the right direction, and hopefully will learn in time to value freedom. I can try to be a good example, although in that area I have a lot of work to do myself.

So what next?

some future

I plan to continue writing about free software and free culture and my personal adventures in these areas. I want to promote these movements the best that I’m able to.

I’ll write about non-free culture, as I’ve occasionally done in the past. (Versus the future.) Below, you’ll find that I enjoy a lot of mainstream culture. I don’t think we should be excluded from enjoying work covered under traditional copyright. It is part of our culture, after all.

And I want to write about other things. You’ll find that people often advise bloggers to keep their content focused. That you should start a new blog rather than mixing up your topics on a single site. This can be good advice. I sometimes find and subscribe to a blog because I like what the writer has to say in an area, but if they stray too much outside of that, then I don’t want to follow them as much, and may unsubscribe.

But I don’t want to split my attention on different web sites that way. Not right now, anyway. It’s hard enough managing just this one site. So I’d like to think I can write whatever I want to write, right here. I can expand the concept of “Moving to Freedom” to include my literary freedom, and hope I can keep my current readers happy, and perhaps draw in some new recruits. Because even though I’m ok with writing “for me,” and going in directions not calculated to draw in a mass audience, it’s really about you guys. “All” of you readers out there. Ye vast multitudes. I want you to enjoy and gain some measure of benefit from this work. If you don’t get something from my writing, then why am I posting it on a public web site?

I’m not sure where I’m going from here. I’ll probably work it out in some upcoming posts. I plan on offering new feeds to help split things between free and other posts (or something like that), where the free posts would tend to cover the same things as I’ve previously written about, and the others will include… whatever I end up writing more about. Things that previously appeared in the catch-all miscellany category. Other things.

I really don’t know, ok? We’ll just have to see. But I’ll try to offer that new feed so current and potential new subscribers have a choice to stay on topic. All posts would then include the label free OR other. (Except those that include both. Maybe.)

“Literary freedom?”, you ask?

“That sounds rather grandiose,” you say.

Maybe. But not necessarily. It probably just means I’ll write more and shorter posts about things like my toe lint. “An Ode to Toe Jam.” And what about that would be the benefit to you that I so fervently wished for above? It would be in the way I write about the toe lint. You would feel the slightly gummy dampness of the lint as…

That kind of thing. (Although I’ve been advised not to talk about damp toe lint.)

Of course, things may really devolve in to the pits of self-indulgent ramblingry, even more so than they have already. Not to mention the grossness.

more about me (blah, blah, blah)

Perhaps this next section descends in to just such self-indulgent blathery, but then again, if you’ve read this far, maybe you’d like to find out more about me. Here’s a cursory snapshot of me, my home and family, and some of my pop culture interests.

One thing you might gather from this is that I’m more or less a mainstream kind of guy. Bland. Average. A rat in the race. I just happen to have these crazy free software and free culture ideas. (And I can move ordinary #2 pencils with only the power of my mind.)

living

I live in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota. (One of the United States.) Minnesota is a beautiful state, with many lakes, forests, parks, and hiking trails.

I’m married to a beautiful, patient woman, and we have a beautiful, impatient baby girl. They sometimes make an appearance in these pages, although I’ve (so far) attempted to keep my family life separate from this blog. Maybe that will change now. Our family also grows and (sadly) shrinks by cats and dogs over the years. Right now we have a dog and two cats.

I’m a big fan of the outdoors. (Nature, I’m your #1 fan!) My ideal vacation is one that involves a lot of walking/hiking and enjoying glorious nature and solitude. And vacation or not, simply sitting out in the woods on a comfy chair in the shade or around a campfire is a great pleasure. I’m also conflicted in that I like to spend a lot of time at the computer, which is why Minnesota is a good place for me. I don’t do winter activities, so I have 10 months out of the year that I can be inside without feeling too much guilt.

reading

I’m in favor of knowledge and learning. I’ve always been a big reader. I grew up on science fiction but don’t read as much of it as I used to. I read more non-fiction these days, including history and computer and technology books of varying technicality. Neal Stephenson is my favorite author. If I could pick five books to be stranded on an island with, four of them would be Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World. Not to dismiss Snowcrash–it is a blast to read–but I don’t think it will age quite as well. These days most of my reading is done on the Net; shorter essays and blog posts and I think I’m poorer for it.

watching

I like TV. TiVo helps me watch a few shows regularly: Lost, The Daily Show, Psych, The Office, 30 Rock, Scrubs, and CSI:Vegas. We’ve been watching Chuck this year, which is quite ridiculous in its premise and execution, but I like it anyway. I started watching Family Guy last year and find it hugely inappropriate and funny. I enjoy Seinfeld, Frasier, and Newsradio reruns. (The Phil Hartman ones.) Deadliest Catch is fascinating to me, but when are they going to start a new season?

I plead guilty to watching Amazing Race and Survivor, although I mostly skipped this past 07/08 season of Race. I’ll usually start watching Survivor about halfway in to the season. Around the time of the merge, it becomes interesting in a Mayberry Machiavellian kind of way. At the same time, it’s so forgettable. I can barely remember the participants a few weeks after the finale.

I also like movies. TiVo has shortened my attention span into 20 and 40 minute segments so I don’t seem to watch very many these days. My favorite movies include Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Groundhog Day, [Pixar/*], Princess Bride, Shawshank Redemption, Frequency, Garden State, the Bourne Identity movies, and so on and so forth.

Haiku Tunnel is a great movie you may not have heard of. While I enjoyed Office Space (along with many of my fellow cube-toiling office drones), I think Haiku Tunnel is much better. I didn’t especially like it on the first viewing. It took some reflection and a second viewing to begin to understand and appreciate the true comedy genius at work. Although it’s not just an office comedy. I think there is some deep meaning and answers to the mysteries of life in there.

listening

I’ve been in a rut for a number of years because I don’t listen to the radio and haven’t actively sought out new stuff to listen to. In 2007 I started working on changing that.

For example, if I heard some song on TV or in a movie that I liked, I might look up the artist and try some of their work. I discovered John Mayer’s Continuum this way after hearing “Waiting on the World to Change” on CSI. I was particularly thrilled to discover Martin Sexton after hearing “Diner” on Scrubs, and bought up his entire collection in the space of about a month.

I also got in to Alison Krauss and Union Station after hearing some of her work on the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou?. The soundtrack to The Ladykillers exposed me to some great gospel music.

I was aware of Stevie Ray Vaughan, but never really listened to his music beyond a few of the radio hits, but oh boy have I been getting in to his (and Double Trouble’s, of course) music in a big way lately. I just bought a boxed set of his first three albums from Amazon (only $20!) and am digging it. Maybe I just needed to be crushed down by my job long enough to start appreciating the blues more.

And I’m a long-time fan of Rush, and think they’re still doing great work. (Check out the YouTube premier of “Far Cry” from Snakes & Arrows.)