February 2019 – Bruce Perens

Here’s the IBM ad used to open their Think 2019 conference, featuring Buzz Aldrin, Arianna Huffington, Janelle Monae, Miaym Bialik, more illustrious celebrities, and astonishingly: me. A shorter version will run on the Oscars TV program.

Dramatis Personae

Buzz Aldrin
Mayim Bialik Neuroscientist in real life and plays one as an actress on Big Bang Theory
Tarana Burke Civil rights activist and founder of the me too movement.
Lisa Seacat Deluca Most prolific female inventor at IBM.
Donna Dillenberger, IBM Fellow, Enterprise Solutions
Jaime Garcia, Manager and Global Lead for Quantum Applications in Quantum Chemistry & Science
Arianna Huffington
Bryan Knouse founder of Project Owl and AI developer.
Chidegar Liberty founder of Liberty & Justice, Africa’s first Fair Trade Certified apparel manufacturer.
Janelle Monáe Singer
Bruce Perens Open Source evangelist.
Najeeba Syeed Leader in inter-religious peace-building, attorney and professor.
Akash Vutoti Youngest spelling bee champion.
Jaime Garcia, Manager and Global Lead for Quantum Applications in Quantum Chemistry & Science

Music composed and performed by Philip Glass.

Director: Mark Romanek

Production Company: Anonymous Content

Ad Agency: Ogilvy USA

ARRL has published a questionable virus notice at http://www.arrl.org/news/new-campaign-exploiting-linux-servers-to-insert-backdoor-speakup-trojan

ARRL should not be publishing this sort of notice, because ARRL does not have the expertise to determine its legitimacy or correctness. In the case of Linux, virus warnings should come only from the producer of your Linux system: Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat, etc. These people are responsible for removing any holes that allow a virus in, and will tell you how to update your system correctly. Linux is not Windows, and does not depend on third-party virus scanners for its security.

The company that published the virus warning has a commercial interest, in that it produces commercial virus and security programs and services, and these notices have the purpose of promoting their expertise (if they are right) and thus selling their products and services. The Open Source developer community provides these products and services at no cost, and the providers of your Linux distribution generally use the Open Source ones. They will update their systems as necessary to remove the threat, and will publish their own warnings as appropriate.

If you would like to learn more about this issue, please read this guide to responsible disclosure of security issues.

If you trust unauthorized sources to instruct you on the security of your Linux, Windows, or Mac systems, it will be a short time before one of them instructs you to perform some action which defeats your security. ARRL should know better.

Thanks

Bruce Perens K6BP (Co-founder of the Open Source movement in software.)

Month: February 2019

Bruce Perens featured in new IBM ad, during Oscars TV Program

ARRL Web Site Publishes Questionable Virus Notice