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I've made a simple start at porting Debian's NetHack packages to Maemo 5 for the Nokia N900. For now there is just the console interface. It and the nethack-common package are now available in the extras-devel repository.

http://maemo.org/packages/view/nethack-common/

http://maemo.org/packages/view/nethack-console/

The packages are "optified" so they don't occupy space on the root partition.

Note that right now the default shell does not include /usr/games in $PATH, so you'll need to either add that or just start it with /usr/games/nethack.

Bugs can be filed and files downloaded at the Garage project page.

I'm sorry I won't be in Boston/Somerville for the opening of this new vegan cafe. I went to its predecessor (Vej Naturals in Malden), and it was tasty. I'll be checking it out when I'm in town in March.

The Pulse Cafe

I'll be in San Francisco this Wednesday morning for the Defective By Design anti-DRM protest at Apple's launch event. We'll be out having fun handing out flyers, doing a little theater of our own, and talking to the media and people walking by about the danger DRM poses to the public's freedom and the history of Apple's support for it. We'll be focusing especially on the App Store model used on the iPhone (and possibly used on the tablet to be announced on Wednesday), which prevents users from installing any software from anywhere else.

We're starting at 8:30am (that's not our fault -- Apple is starting at 10am so people will be arriving by 9am I'm sure) outside the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater. A perfect time for stopping by on the way to work :).

Here's the full background info.

If you can come out and support the effort, please let me know at info@defectivebydesign.org.

We'll be meeting up outside the Theater entrance. Stay tuned to http://identi.ca/dbd for updates. Hope to see you there, and bring some friends!

I finally got around to installing GNU Emacs on my Nokia N900.

The instructions and package there worked for me. I did not find it necessary to do the maximization fix -- after turning off the tool bar, the minibuffer was visible for me.

Remapping the keyboard using the file provided does seem to cause some problems. The function key is no longer sticky, so I have to hold it down along with the letter key to get a number. That's not so possible when trying to type the number 1. Will have to look into that.

Now, to get Planner mode working well on it.

And yes, I will be trying out reading my mail using Gnus on it.

Click to reveal Amazon's latest innovation in shipping. The screenshot was taken Wednesday, November 18th, around 12:30am.

I ended up being in Logan this morning longer than expected, so I was poking around Terminal C looking for some vegan friendly food, without much hope for anything better than trail mix.

Turns out the Boston Back Bay Cafe (kind of by Gate C15) carries some of the "Macro and Vegetarian" prepackaged stuff. They had the Vegan Pad Thai, Vegan Dumplings, and Vegan Udon Noodles. Supposedly they can be eaten hot or cold. I've had their stuff before and it's not my favorite, but in the airport, I'll take it.

Unsurprisingly, the cashier didn't know how to ring them up.

There must be more like this in his collection -- the unspoken speech written for Nixon by William Safire to be delivered in the event that Armstrong and Aldrin couldn't return to Earth.

This article confusedly says, "Will carriers be willing to subsidize the N900 and its locked-down Maemo OS?" The "lock down" that it's describing refers to the comments by a Nokia executive saying that Nokia would not do customizations for carriers. These customizations are usually proprietary, often relating to locking the phone to their network, or implementing carrier-specific features like "MyCrap" or whatever. Nokia's comments were in contrast, for example, to Google's Android operating system, which is licensed in a way to specifically allow proprietary software extensions on top of a free software core. So apparently, unlocked is the new locked. Or something.

Unfortunately, Nokia quickly retracted the executive's comments anyway, saying they are leaving room for the possibility of such customizations.

In other phone freedom news, Palm has been working hard to demonstrate the fundamental incompatibilities between free software and the exclusive "app store" model of software distribution.

My OpenMoko FreeRunner has still been having some voice quality issues in low-reception areas, but is otherwise working quite well running the SHR distribution. Unfortunately one of those low-reception areas is my home, but I've been compensating for that by using the free VOIP software Ekiga and Asterisk more when I'm home.

Good to see that the dudes who ran off with one of the cash registers from Dave's Fresh Pasta have been apprehended. I apologize for blaming it on the return of the students, since I don't think these guys even qualify as students of life.

As the men fled in a car toward Teele Square, they were pulled over by police. A witness identified Doane and McCarthy as the men who busted into Dave’s Fresh Pasta. An open 10-inch folding knife was found in the car the men were in, police said.

McCarthy was arrested and charged with possession of a dangerous weapon, destruction of property over $250, breaking and entering in the nighttime for a felony, operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license and larceny over $250. Doane was arrested and charged with receiving stolen property over $250.

Also, it's funny to me that when people break the law in one major way, they seem to often break it in other random incidental ways. If you're going to drive around robbing places, how about having a valid license and not carrying a weapon? And does this mean that it's a worse offense to break into a place at night?

Now if that second cash register could be returned, I'd appreciate it. With only one, the line has been looonnnngg.

The FSF is not "open source." Any ideas where this Google description comes from? It certainly doesn't come from the web site it's supposedly indexing and presenting.

I'm happy to see that Allston's TJ Scallywaggle's (which as I understand it is actually closed despite the fact that their web site still pretends that they are open and asks you to donate to them) is reopening under a new name "Peace o' Pie" and will continue serving vegan pizza.

Vegan pizza - returning soon to Allston!

I'm finding some irony in the fact that the Peapod grocery service does not carry baby lima beans.

(No, those big fat butter beans don't work for succotash.)

I thought I'd read something about him reverting; happy to hear that's not the case.

Another NFL season is upon us but what can the red meat macho world of pro football offer an earth-friendly greenie? How about a lesson in eco-eating from Atlanta Falcons Tight End Tony Gonzalez? A ten-time Pro Bowl selection, Gonzalez currently holds the NFL records for single season receptions (102) by a tight end, career touchdowns by a tight end (76), career receptions by a tight end (916), and reception yards by a tight end (10,940).

A Vegan in the National Football League? : Planet Green

I'm not a fan of the iPhone, because of its proprietary software and Digital Restrictions Management (DRM).

Sometimes people e-mail me from iPhones, and so I see that little "Sent from my iPhone" note at the bottom of their messages.

While I would prefer that people change that note (if Apple allows them to do that) to say something like, "The iPhone is Defective by Design (http://defectivebydesign.org).", my second choice would be to just not see the note. Fortunately, in Gnus — my favorite free software e-mail client — it's easy to "wash" messages.

Today to my .gnus file I added:

(setq gnus-parameters
      '((".*"
        (banner . iphone))))

(setq gnus-article-banner-alist
      '((iphone . "\\(^Sent from my iPhone$\\)")))

Now I don't have to see those notes.

Related:

• Stripping NYT ads
• Stripping Yahoo banners

4.At Broadway, take the 3rd exit onto Broadway

...

9.Take the exit

(Getting from my apartment to Logan Airport..)

Trying to cook up the contents of my refrigerator before I leave on vacation this week, I started today with:

• Oven roasted corn on the cob
• Potato Kale Soup
• Roasted Beets and Carrots
• Fresh squeezed lemonade

Tomorrow there will probably be zucchini bread plus maybe some roasted zucchini, mashed potatoes, potato salad, three-bean salad, and something with broccoli.

Please add your signature to the petition, "We believe in the freedom to read | DefectiveByDesign.org", and help spread the word. No pun intended.

Tofu Tahini Spread

I don't like it so much just on crackers — the flavor of hippie is just too strong — but it's been good on sandwiches for lunch the last few days. Pictured above with cucumbers, romaine and pea sprouts from Boston Organics, plus some red onion and grape tomatoes.

This seems like very good news. It seems like the FCC is asking the right questions.

Recent press reports indicate that Apple has declined to approve the Google Voice application for the iPhone and has removed related (and previously approved) third-party applications from the iPhone App Store. In light of pending FCC proceedings regarding wireless open access (RM-11361) and handset exclusivity (RM-11497), we are interested in a more complete understanding of this situation.

To that end, please provide answers to the following questions by close of business on Friday, August 21, 2009.

...

6. What are the standards for considering and approving iPhone applications? What is the approval process for such applications (timing, reasons for rejection, appeal process, etc.)? What is the percentage of applications that are rejected? What are the major reasons for rejecting an application?

FCC Takes On Apple And AT&T Over Google Voice Rejection