Anarchogeek

Radio Interview

I did a radio interview with Chris on KPFK about anarchism on the indymedia radio program. It was pretty good. We just covered some introductory issues. I wish we could get in to more depth. I forgot to mention that alcoholics anonymous is a large anarchist organization. It's worth mentioning when talking about anarchism working.

The Rails Wiki Tutorials, Documentation, and the i18n of Rails

I've been working with the Rails framework for a little while now and I really like it. A couple of weeks ago i was giving a small workshop on rails at CATS in seattle and somebody mentioned that they'd tried to walk through the tutorial, but found it wasn't very useful. I'd found it useful when I first started with Rails in August, so it got me to go back and look it over.

They were right, the good tutorial had fallen apart. The wiki, while active, had nobody gardening the tutorial. About the point at which you start getting in to the real tutorial, step 6 of 11, the links were broken. I asked around the irc channel and nobody had any good reason for it to be broken. So i went through and fixed it. Then i got dragged in to noticing there were other places the documentation was sorely lacking when i went to find out how to use layouts and templates.

Now there are nice pages for templates, the scripts for new_model, new_controller, and new_mailer, etc... The Templating section i think still needs a lot of work, as that could be a whole site worth of tips, tricks, howto's, and documentation.

Two issues have come up in this trying to organize the documentation. One is that the current templating system has some rather large security holes if you ever let an untrusted user edit templates. For building ASP type hosted applications where allow the user to customize the look beyond just changing css, this is an issue. One solution mentioned, which needs further exploration, is using a second embedded templating system such as textile, or bluecloth (markdown). I don't like either very much, I'd rather have something properly sandboxed like Template Toolkit does for perl.

The second issue which has come up, is the lack of a clear plan for i18n and l10n (internationalization and localization) of apps written using Rails. I feel pretty strongly that this should be something integrated in to the framework. Especially for native english speaking programmers, if there isn't a framework in place for expecting and using language bundles, then it won't get used. One of the best things which struts does, is clearly put that in the view part of the framework.

Unfortunately, the knowledge about how to i18n and l10n is not spread widely, even though it's not rocket science. Gunner and folks are organizing a localization conference in poland next week for programmers working for nonprofits and civil society organizations. The best article i've seen on i18ning of web apps is about the perl maketext library.

For ruby there are a few ruby i18n packages, mostly based on mo files or gettext. None of them really appeal to me as having the flexibility of maketext. For now the best thing is probably to create hooks in to ActionView for what ever l10n package the coder wants to use. The default should be ruby-gettext.

If a new directory in the rails folder is created for bundles, then ActionView could create and load a gettext library and files. Two things needs to be addressed. First is handling the definition of what language is being requested, this should probably be added to ActionController, and the second is display in the templates.

It would be pretty easy to do it right now with:
<%= Gettext.gettext( 'messageid' ) %>.

The problem is that's really wordy, and will require repeating text which reduces the readability of the templates. Another option is to create a third template tag such as <%- messageid %>. All tags with <%- would look up to the gettext library directly.

I haven't started hacking, but i bet the whole thing is doable with ActionController::Filters and you wouldn't even have to modify the base rails package to get it working. That's part of i really like about rails, every time i want to do something which i think would require futzing with the framework, I found out you don't need to do it, it's easily extendable. Sure, i think more folks would i18n their apps if it was clearly integrated in to rails, but it's not necessary.

Anarchoblogs & The Objectivist

Anarchoblogs has steadly had a request for new sites to be added. Most of the time i take a quick look over the site, quotes they have on it, and their links. It seems that 'self identified anarchists' seem to have been enough, and nobody had applied who didn't seem to me to be 'ananarchist' or anarchist leaning. Until a few days ago.

I got a request from Roderick T. Long to include his blog Austro-Athenian Empire. The thing was two thing stuck out, and kept me from just directly including it, one was an 'Ayn Rand' quote, posts about the Badnarik libertarian party presidential campaign and that Long is the editor of a book on 'Objectivist Studies'.

I was at cAts sitting with a few other anarchoblogers (lattice, kellan, dru, and gaba) along with a bunch of other anarchists. We decided to reject the application by Long to be included in Anarchoblogs.

Here's the email I sent:

rabble to Roderick
We looked over the site here at a gathering of a number of people who contributed to anarchoblogs. We are rather specific about our left leaning perspective and don't feel that libertarians who are not socialists are part of our movement.

For more information to why we're not including you please read the anarchist FAQ on anarcho-capitalism. http://www.infoshop.org/faq/append1.html

To which he responded with this:

Roderick T Long to Rabble
I don't consider myself a capitalist; I see myself as a left-libertarian who's trying to transcend the false opposition between "anarcho-capitalism" and "anarcho-socialism." (That's why my website includes texts from Proudhon, Tucker, etc., and why I've been working closely with Radgeek, who's also trying to transcend that opposition, and whom you you do include on your page.) From your reaction I see my work is still cut out for me; I look forward to the day when the heirs of Tucker are as friendly to "anarcho-capitalists" as Tucker's own journal was: http://praxeology.net/SR-GM-SF.htm
Oh well.

---

Followup email

I'd read the FAQ before, and found it more puzzling than helpful on this issue; but in response to your prompting I went back and gave it another look, trying to figure out why I'm being classified as a bad "capitalist" anarchist rather than a good "socialist" anarchist. But I'm still none the wiser. As far as I can tell, the "socialist" anarchist case against "capitalist" anarchists is that "capitalist" anarchists oppose only the state, while "socialist" anarchists *additionally* oppose various forms of private power, including the power of employers over employees, landlords over tenants, etc., and prevailing forms of interest, rent, etc. Well, gosh. By that standard I don't see how I get classified as a "capitalist" anarchist at all.

After all, I've been arguing for years that libertarians need to focus on private rather than solely governmental forms of power oppression:
  http://praxeology.net/unblog10-04.htm#12
  http://praxeology.net/unblog03-04.htm#18
  http://praxeology.net/unblog01-03.htm#05
  http://libertariannation.libertyserver.com/a/f31l2.html
I've advocated a redistribution of power from employers to employees and from landlords to tenants:
    http://libertariannation.libertyserver.com/a/f41l2.html
I've argued that big business would pose a danger to liberty even in the absence of the state:
    http://praxeology.net/civsoc.htm
    http://libertariannation.libertyserver.com/a/f21l2.html
and that, accordingly, capitalist protection agencies alone cannot be trusted to keep the peace under anarchy:
    http://praxeology.net/unblog04-04.htm#09
I've argued that a great deal of land ought to be collectively owned:
    http://libertariannation.libertyserver.com/a/f33l2.html
    http://libertariannation.libertyserver.com/a/f53l1.html
In addition, I've advocated the abolition of the patriarchal family:
    http://praxeology.net/unblog05-04.htm#03
    http://praxeology.net/unblog05-04.htm#02
    http://praxeology.net/unblog08-04.htm#01
    http://praxeology.net/unblog10-04.htm#11
    http://libertariannation.libertyserver.com/a/f43l2.html
I've advocated the abolition of punishment:
    http://libertariannation.libertyserver.com/a/f12l2.html
I've argued for limitations on the enforceability of contracts:
    http://libertariannation.libertyserver.com/a/f22l1.html
and argued in particular that usurious interest contracts are not enforceable:
    http://libertariannation.libertyserver.com/a/f73l2.html I've also argued against intellectual property:
    http://praxeology.net/unblog09-03.htm#02
    http://praxeology.net/unblog03-04.htm#21
    http://praxeology.net/unblog07-04.htm#21
    http://praxeology.net/anticopyright.htm
    http://libertariannation.libertyserver.com/a/f31l1.html
On all these issues I'm a lot closer to Benjamin Tucker et al. than to Murray Rothbard. So I'm afraid the FAQ hasn't done anything to clarify to me what specific sin has cast me into outer darkness. I remain convinced that the opposition between "capitalist" and "socialist" forms of anarchism is simply one more tool whereby the statist-militarist-corporatist-patriarchal establishment keeps its enemies weak and divided.

Best wishes,
Roderick

My general feeling is my initial assement is still correct, i don't like objectivists, and don't feel like we're in the same movement. Even though, it appears that Long is trying to mix in some traditional anarchist ideas in to his objectivism. What do you think?

Should the site be included?

What about RadGeek who is included right now and seems to share at least some of Long's objectivist tendancies, but aside from a couple of links to the libertarian party website, seems to be much more within the anarchist spectrum.

In the absence of any way of having a direct consulative process, i'm going to say this, let's have a vote. All the bloggers who are currently included in anarchoblogs get to vote. If there is clearly a preference one direction or another, i'll change who's included. If not, we get to debate the subject more, and things will stay the same (RadGeek as being listed in anarchoblogs, and Long's blog not).

Options:

  A) Include the Austro-Athenian Empire blog , the big tent includes market-anarchists.

  B) Keep Radgeek, don't include the Austro-Athenian Empire blog.

  C) No objectivists or objectivist leaning anarchists. Remove RadGeek and change the mission to say 'no objectivists' or something to that effect.

Please indicate your preference in order. I'll use the condorcet method of calculating which of the three options to take. If there is serious object to the voting system, then we can, in anarchist tradition, have a long discussion about what might be a better system.

Anarchoblogs & Debate

There has been some real debate happening in the anarchoblogs 'community' around the issue of anarchism and elections. Chuck0 took a number of people to task for their pro-voting stance.

The whole thing spawned a long discussion about voting and anarchism.

I'm not going to talk about the merits either way. What i'm happy about is that clearly anarchists are reading and responding to what other anarchist bloggers say. Sure, you could say it's an echo chamber effect, but that's better than all blogging out in to the barron silence of the net. This circles and connections are what make other communities of bloggers function, DYI media personalized, but interlinked. It's inspired me two look forward with two things. One is to develop a better way of categories. Some posts are not relevent to a collaborative site.

If the anarchoblogs concept will be extended to other themes, such as a media activist collaborative blog, or advocacy developer blogs, we need to have it set to do keyword searching. For a tech blog, you want the posts about tech issues, not politics, or visiting family for thanksgiving. For a media activist blog, you want the posts about media activist issues, not the ones related to general activism or personal issues.

For now the easist way to do that, is to setup keyword matching. All posts from given feeds which match a long list of keywords get included. Some stuff will be missed, some incorrectly included, but it should work. When i find some time to do it, i'll probably drop planet-planet and switch to using an aggregator based on magpie cus it's written by an anarchist and is more fudgeable.

More Ohio Fun

David Solnit who 4 years ago was doing a 'don't vote campaign,' is this time around helping organize direct action campaigns in Ohio around fraud. The actions were planned ahead of time, and not quite as spontainous as the article / press release makes them sound, but it's still good to see stuff out there. I find it highly ironic that most of the beyond voting and Nov3rd actions were organized by anarchists and radicals.

Anyway, as has been said a thousand times, don’t mourn, organize.

The Red Blue Map - County By County

County By County

It makes all of the trying to find a viable way to split up the US seem pretty useless. What is amazing for me is to see the dominate urban vs suburban/rual divide.

One funny thing is this, a lot of why Bush gets those votes is he comes across as being more 'working class' honest god fearing american. Edwards who is actually from a working class background doesn't come across like that at all, and Kerry comes across as he is, an upper class east coast elite.

Living out in Trinity county this summer at our cabin, we're in a 'red county,' which means redneck country. Aside from the cattle ranch, everybody living in the valley are progerssives. When we've broken down, it's loggers who with Bush Cheney stickers on their trucks who stopped, helped, gave us a ride, let us use their cell phone, and generally helped out.

It's complicated.

Even then i want to live in a place where people know how to take vacations, where there is a public health care system, where there is a vibrant arts community, where critical debate is a daily part ouf my life. Most of the united states doesn't even get close to meeting those needs.

Palast claims it was fraud

Greg Palast did reporting on the Florida debacle four years ago, and has started to do the same for Ohio this time. I don't know how real it is, but seems likely enough to me. The exit polls are supposed to be the most accurate form of polling, and they are the way fraud is determined when elections have international observers.

Of course, the Democrats are spineless and won't demand a real investigation. It does make me feel a little better, the republicans proably won with fraud, the democrats would have committed fraud if the could, but it was the republicans.

Fuck it, i'm still moving to uruguay.

Elections, Elections, Elections

For the last month Gaba and I have been selling a little bit of our souls to the democrats. Not the actual democratic party, but it's hangers on, the progressive organizations which work on related issues such as GOTV and election protection.

We developed a system for sms's and voip / telephony applications. The SMS stuff was built upon txtmob and the amazing smster java applet that N. from Ruckus wrote. The voip applications were build using Asterisk and the tools we used during the RNC protests.

The whole, work night and day thing on some project related to elections made me change my perspective a little about electoral politics. I wasn't registered to vote, and the last time i was actually able to vote (i.e. they didn't say my registration had disappeared when i showed up) was for Nader in '96. Two days before the deadline i registered, and actually did vote, in the hope that Prop 66 to repeal the California 3 Strikes law would be appealed, it wasn't.

Last Sunday there was a major victory in the national elections in Uruguay. For the first time in Uruguay's history a leftist government has taken power. There was an enormous party in the streets of Montevideo, I wish i could have been there. There's a ton to write about the effect Frente Amplio's winning of the presidency and both houses of parliament. What happens to a leftist government after they take power. The best example, is looking at to other South American elections which also took place on Sunday. In Venezuela the chavistas continued their wave of energy after winning the recall vote and having extensive funds from oil revenue to take 20 of 22 provincial governments. In Brazil the PT which has alienated it's left lost control of both Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre, the PT heartland.

On Tuesday the US elections were held. The exit polls said Kerry was winning, the official polls say it was a decisive victory for Bush (up 3.5 million votes over Kerry). The way i see it, either the exit polls were massively wrong, or there was massive fraud. Maybe the country is moving towards a religious hard right which goes around invading other countries, tries to impose scriptural doctrine as law, and builds walmarts as far as the eye can see. The Democrats are definitely spineless corporate sellouts with no hope of providing the space for progressive change. Maybe if the US is going one way, and the world the other, I'm going to choose to go with the world.

I will be moving back to Uruguay in early 2005.

It wasn't a decision which was driven by who won or who lost on Tuesday. It was something we have been planning for a while, but something about this election made me want to get on the next plane. I'm not saying i won't come back, I'm not giving up on the US left completely, but for me, for now, I need out. That, and i can rationalize it by saying that being a techie, i can still support US radicals with code and servers without having to actually live in the US.

Nothing is rosy where I'm going, either. Uruguay has high poverty and unemployment and abortion is illegal, just like the republicans want to make it in the US. But, in Uruguay when they try and privatize the state water company 60% come out and vote it down. That wouldn't happen in the US where we go around invading other countries so we can privatize THEIR state industries (iraq). Frente Amplio will sellout the social movements out, they will sign agreements with the IMF, they will do what leftist governments do. But at least they are living in the same world as everybody else.

Back Blogging

The fucking election is over and i have finally found the time to fix my blog after we upgraded protest.net to a new server. There were a few things i ment to post, but the reality is i've been way to busy hacking on voip & sms stuff night and day for the last three weeks.

Anyway, i'm back, we now have an apartment in Bernel Heights, San Francisco. Gaba and I are going up to seattle for CATS.