Tag Archives: Distributed Systems

Nowadays, an internet service such as Facebook or Skype is usually controlled by one company. People who want to use the service have no choice than to trust its operator and surrender their privacy to it. A distributed service on the other hand allows for many operators. You can even operate the service yourself if you like.

The following articles touch the subject of Distributed Systems and are hopefully interesting to you.

Briar – Next Step of The Crypto Messenger Evolution

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Update: Há uma versão em português. Who still remembers ICQ, AIM and MSN? My first messenger was ICQ and I liked the fact that it was instant. In those days, I didn’t think much about security and was probably too young anyway. We can count ourselves lucky if those tools even used transport encryption. This means that our messages are encrypted on the way from our computer to the server, so nobody can see the content of the messages while they are in transit. Whoever has access to the server however can know the content since all messages get decrypted … Continue reading →

What to use instead of WhatsApp and Threema?

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WhatsApp is a messaging app for smartphones that allows you to send (text) messages free-of-charge. After WhatsApp’s recent acquisition by Facebook and in the face of the NSA revelations, many of the millions of WhatsApp users are looking for secure and trustworthy alternatives. Because this effects so many people, we at the Free Software Foundation Europe would like to be able to promote an alternative that respects your freedom and privacy. Therefore we decided to do some research and to hold a workshop on WhatsApp alternatives during our latest FSFE team meeting. While most tech-people really didn’t see the point … Continue reading →

FSCONS 2010 Divide and Re-Conquer Talks Now Online

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Last year in November, FSFE hosted its own track at FSCONS around different topics of decentralized (social) networks and free network services. Now the videos of the talks are finally online for you to see. With the exception of one, they are all in WebM format :) Designed For Decentralisation: Understanding the Internet – Benjamin Bayart Centralised Internet Services and Problems of Power – Torsten Grote – WebM HD Socially Responsible Social Networks – Michael Chisari Web Search By The People, For The People – Michael Christen GNU Social and GNU FM: Empowering Communities – Matt Lee Have fun watching … Continue reading →

Cloud Computing

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Since Internet services such as Facebook, Twitter and Skype became popular, I began to think about their political implications, especially about how they threaten computer user’s freedom. Within FSFE I developed my ideas more and began to spread them. So I think it is about time that I blog about my activities. It all began with a talk at Berlin’s Linuxtag 2010 and a follow-up interview with Germany’s Deutschlandradio as well as another German interview with the community Radio Tux. Out of those interviews and discussions I had with conference participants, the need for a starting point for people interested … Continue reading →

Microsoft denies certain countries access to its messenger

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My recent blog entries were about Skype and about how companies might eventually abuse the power they have over some of our technology. Many of my arguments against Skype also apply to Microsoft’s instant messenger. Now Microsoft gave one more example that this abuse actually happens. Ars technica writes: Microsoft this week decided to turn off its Windows Live Messenger service for five countries: Cuba, Syria, Iran, Sudan, and North Korea. […] The user is not informed as to the actual reason for the block. Currently, it’s not clear how broad the block is or how long it will last. … Continue reading →

Brave New Skyping World Revisited

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A vigilant reader of my blog challenged my earlier criticism of Skype thoroughly and even though I felt his remarks could have been tempered a bit, here is my thoughtful response. I am very thankful for all of the comments I receive and encourage more people to express their opinions here. It is only when our opinions are constantly challenged, are we forced to rethink them and are less likely to believe in aged and false dogmas. Below I intend to counter the main points of his argument, but only after I have refashioned and strengthened my main argument. The … Continue reading →