Disclaimer Change

This post could very easily have been titled "Boring Legal Stuff", but it's a necessary part (a.k.a. evil) of running this blog.

We have changed our Disclaimer/Terms Of Use to more accurately cover what we do here on Tillamook Rage. Please read this document over and make sure that you still agree with everything before you continue using this blog. Just make sure you have a caffeinated beverage handy before you start reading.

You can find the updated disclaimer here.

And now, back to the good stuff...

Prerelease Review: Xubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope Alpha 3

It's been too long since we last posted. JeremyW and I both took new jobs late last summer and fall, so we've been quite busy. But with the snow on the ground I can finally get some fun work done. Installing the latest build of Xubuntu, the Alpha 3 release of Jaunty Jackalope!

For those of you unfamiliar, this is what the majestic jackalope looks like:

The version I will be discussing today has a much more sleek look to it. And Xubuntu's take doesn't leave a mess on the carpet. This is version 9.04, and with it comes XFCE 4.5.99.1 and Linux Kernel 2.6.28-3.4. The goal of this release is to improve the experience and remove transitional barriers for new users as well as decreasing boot times. By the time of the official release Jaunty will include XFCE 4.6, improve Samba integration, decrease login time, and make Xubuntu better for multimedia use. There have already been some good improvements in appearance and login speed, and they are working on logging the events occuring upon boot and login to find ways to increase the speed. It's already much faster than Vista, though that wouldn't take much. My boot time on my old laptop was 43 seconds, as opposed to 1:22 with the same setup in 8.04. Results may vary with your setup, but that was my experience.

Thankfully, OpenOffice.org 3.0.1rc2 is finally included in the repository. It isn't installed by default for the sake of making the iso fit on a CD. OpenOffice.org continues to improve, and for the average user is as good, or for some better, than Microsoft Office. My qualm had always been how bad the graphs look, but they are looking and working much better in 3.0.1, I recommend any Linux or Windows user to at least give it a try.

Firefox 3.0.5 is included and is the default browser for Jaunty. It also comes with Pidgin for chat, Thunderbird for an email client, and the Remote Desktop Viewer for all your online needs. I'm still eagerly waiting for Google to finally port Chrome to Linux, a surprising omission on their part. Firefox is still an incredible choice, and is an Ubuntu staple.

Wireless support continues to improve, and a novice user should have no problems getting online right after an install. Joe Tillamook out there should be able to install and get to work quickly and trouble free without calling their Linux-capable friends.

We're still 3 months away from the release of 9.04, but the Alpha 3 release is still looking amazing. For either a seasoned Linux veteran, or a new convert, it is arguably one of the best combinations of ease of use and speed out there.

Links:
Download Xubuntu 9.04

The World-Wide FOSS Community

This started out as part of the Desktop Publishing post, but as I got into it, I realized that I've wanted to talk about some of the global impact/importance of the FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) community for some time. So, here are some of my thoughts in their own separate post. I've included some Additional Reading resources that cover areas other than software to give you even more ways to get involved. Please keep in mind as you read this that you can contribute to the community, even if you're not a programmer or an Open Source software guru. If you have questions about how your talents fit in with the grand scheme of things, send us an email and we'll try to give you any information that we have and/or refer you to projects that will fit with your talents.

As always, be careful with any information that you get from us, or any other source on the Internet. Always be sure to double (and triple check) information from any source, and form your own educated opinions. For details, take a look at our disclaimer.

Linux Publishing Around The World
There are many organizations using Open Source software on Linux for publishing around the world, and several that focus on helping people to better themselves through the acquisition of technical job skills. Publishing and general word processing skills are two key elements in many educational programs since they are some of the most basic computer skills that people need in the modern workplace. If people are taught the hows, whens, and whys (as opposed to only memorizing a set of steps) of working with an office/publishing software suite, their skills seem to typically transfer well when the user is faced with non-open source software like Microsoft Office. This cuts out the cost of organizations having to spend their budget on fee based software while still passing on useful knowledge to their students/clients. It's important to note though that Open Source is not a totally "free" alternative either. There are many costs associated with setting up and running computer labs whether they are free or fee, such as obtaining computer hardware, installing and maintaining the hardware and software, and training people how to use the hardware/software that's been set up. The training of course needs to include the end users, but something of equal importance is to train system administrators so that they can keep things running. For more on the cost of open source software versus fee-based software like Microsoft Windows, have a look at the Linux for the Long Haul Linux Journal article referenced in the Additional Reading section of this post.

Another reason that it's important for the open source community to be involved is because technology is not a fire-and-forget type of thing. Continued involvement in training, support, providing replacement hardware, putting on workshops (in person and over the Internet) and the like are critical things for the community to be doing. Another important component as well seems to be developing a project that a local contingent of people can rally around (like a local newspaper or comic strip) to make sure that the new skills/hardware/software don't gather dust. Making sure that adequate learning resources (e-books, tutorials, etc) are available is very important too. Check out the Additional Reading resources to see what I'm talking about with these issues.

Not to be left out, we here at Tillamook Rage are involved, and continue to look for more ways to be involved in providing technology (hardware and software) and educational resources to those who need it. Take a peek at our "EAT Initiative" sidebar to see what our philosophy is. We're currently also looking at expanding our support offerings through cooperative research projects with colleges, audio/video podcasts, and many more. Keep your eyes open for future posts and projects coming from us.

Environmental Impact
One last thing that I would like to mention has to do with environmental responsibility. Boot and I are both heavily involved with programs that deal with electronic scrap (sometimes called E-Scrap), and we would like to hit you with a few things to ponder when sending computers (if you choose to get involved that way) to countries with weak or non-existent environmental protections. This definitely isn't a full list, but it addresses some issues that we want to make sure we tell you about.

1. Please don't send non-working computers, or computers that will soon be non-working to a country where it's going to get thrown in the trash if it dies. Keep in mind that one of the many reasons that we endorse Xubuntu and Puppy Linux here on Tillamook Rage is that both of those distributions extend the usable life of computers. As long as the computer is fuctional, even low end hardware (i.e. 266 MHz Pentium with 128 MB of RAM) will run well with Xubuntu and Puppy Linux (Puppy even runs on very old 486 computers). Even so, there is a limit to how much life you can squeeze out of a computer. Don't send a computer that's so sluggish that you can't bear to use it for 5 minutes. If it's frustrating for you, chances are the person that ends up with it on the other end is going to get frustrated eventually too.

2. Laptops are a good choice for shipping to areas that need computers because they cost less to ship, typically (but not always) use less electricity, and are good for areas with frequent power outages (or unstable line voltage) since they can run on battery.

3. If you are rebuilding or repairing computers to be sent to those who need them, please recycle your unusable parts with a reputable recycling vendor.

4. This is an idea and not something that we've tried yet (and I emphasize yet). If possible, look into getting prepaid shipping labels and packaging sponsored (or just pony up the dough yourself) to send with the computers (or at a later time when it's needed), so that the end users can send them back to you to be disposed of properly if they can't do so themselves. This may seem like a really inefficient and expensive way to handle the problem, but I feel that it would be better than having a computer buried underground leaching lead and mercury into someone's water supply.

Conclusion
Well, I've just scratched the surface of a very deep topic, but maybe it will open some dialog on this topic here on Tillamook Rage. Please feel free to comment on what you think. We're always interested to discuss what we write about with you our reader. Also, the fact that a resource is listed in our Additional Reading section does not necessarily mean that we endorse it, so if you have any experience with any of the organizations or resources listed (good or bad), please let us know.

Additional Reading
1. Linux Journal Magazine - Oct 2007 - Pages 16,17 - "A Ticket out of Poverty"
2. Linux Pro Magazine - September 2007 - Pages 92,93 - "Hai Ti! Comics"
3. Linux Journal Magazine - August 2008 - Pages 68-71 - "Linux for the Long Haul"
4. Five Minutes To Midnight - http://www.i2r.org/fmm/
5. Article 13 - http://i2r.org/fmm/a13i/
6. FOSSED - Free and Open Source Software in EDucation - http://fossed.blogspot.com/
7. Geekcorps - http://www.geekcorps.org/
8. TechSoup - http://www.techsoup.org/
9. The Open Source Teaching Project - http://www.opensourceteaching.org/
10. Non-Profit Technology Resources - http://www.ntronline.org/

Created: 09-20-08
Revised: 09-20-08

An OSS Friendly Microsoft?

There's been a huge shakeup at Microsoft lately, what with Bill leaving and Stevie B taking even more controls, but this latest was news to me. Microsoft had paid lip service to wanting to embrace open source software (OSS), but like anything coming from the wealthy or politicians I took it with a grain of salt. Actually with their track record I brushed it off entirely. But then I found out they have a $5,000,000 budget for their Open Source Software Lab I took a second look. The head of this seemingly contradictory lab is Sam Ramji. When I was looking through the information on OSCON 2008 I chuckled a little when I saw Microsoft was one of the top sponsors. I assumed it was so they could do what they do so often, destroy their threats and spread misinformation. After learning more about their attempts at reform I almost feel I owe them an apology, but still have an uneasy feeling about it all.

Their website for open source development is Port25. According to the website it is the "home to the open source community at Microsoft. This represents an open conversation dedicated Linux, Windows and open source interoperability." Two questions on that, why the poor grammar (leaving out "to" in "dedicated Linux") and why the italics on open source community and conversation? It makes me think of air quotes or a little "nudge nudge wink wink."

One other area that makes me uneasy is that Microsoft is now supporting Apache financially. Specifically they now pay the salaries of several of the top people at Apache. Does this sound a lot like buying them? Typically I think of the person paying my salary as my boss, or client. Now since they aren't providing services to Microsoft they wouldn't be clients, and it wasn't given as a donation, it's the paying of salaries. So I'm left wondering what the actual terms were, but it sure seems like Microsoft would be the boss. It seems like they're giving them a little treat to gain Apache's trust, which may just lead to them taking Apache code, making some slight modifications, and selling it. We'll just wait and see.

A couple years back Microsoft made the Open Specification Promise, which guaranteed free use without fear of a list of services and specifications. Without fear may be a bit of a stretch, when I use Windows I have fear of viruses, but I digress. It promises "not to assert any Microsoft Necessary Claims against you for making, using, selling, offering for sale, importing or distributing any implementation to the extent it conforms to a Covered Specification." This includes such highly contested formats as .doc, .xls, .ppt, POP3, AppleTalk, HTTP, LDAP, FTP, PXE, USB 2.0, UPnP, and some TCP/IP extensions. Thank goodness I no longer had to worry about being sued for using .doc! Some of those listed I'm fairly certain aren't theirs, such as PXE (which Intel developed) and AppleTalk, which would seem to be Apple's. I'm no lawyer, so maybe I'm missing something here though.

Here's one more fun tidbit:

"Q: Does this OSP apply to all versions of the standard, including future revisions?

A: The Open Specification Promise applies to all existing versions of the specification(s) designated on the public list posted at http://www.microsoft.com/interop/osp/, unless otherwise noted with respect to a particular specification (see, for example, specific notes related to web services specifications)."

Wait, so if they come out with a new version it's not covered. Even that's not entirely true, as they state "This promise applies to all versions of these specifications existing as of the promise date, October 16, 2006." To confuse things more, "If you file, maintain or voluntarily participate in a patent infringement lawsuit against a Microsoft implementation of such Covered Specification, then this personal promise does not apply with respect to any Covered Implementation of the same Covered Specification made or used by you."

So now let's say developer X uses one of these specifications to develop WidgetY and gets it patented. Then Microsoft steals the code and makes WidgetZ. So developer X files a patent infringement suit against Microsoft, but they have then revoked the Open Specification Promise, and open themselves up to a counter suit of patent infringement. That seem fishy to anyone else?

One parting thought is that they are careful to always say they are committed to OSS, and not FOSS. Some might say "what's the difference?" The word free, in either the beer or speech sense. Open source without freedom to modify it or redistribute it freely is like putting a toy behind glass and not allowing pictures. You see it, but can't enjoy it.

Created: 8-2-08

Further Reading

Sam Ramji Background
OSCON 2008
history.forward()
Open Specification Promise
Microsoft at EclipseCon
Port25 Fighting the Good Fight

Reuse Robotics - An Introduction

If you're like me, then you don't have a ton of money to blow on your hobbies (that darn money tree just won't grow). I'm sure that everyone is like me and would love to build C3PO or a Replicator/Replicant in their garage , but who has the cash to heat their evil lair and still buy equipment? Well, that's where reuse robotics comes in. Now, I'm not talking about modular robotics platforms, or reusable source code, I'm talking about getting outdated and discarded computers and electronic components, and reusing/re-purposing them for your projects. There are examples of these types of projects all over the Internet, just try to Google mousebot and see what happens. Boot has written a great post on some ways that we can lay our grubby little paws on discarded computer/electronic equipment (legally I might add), so that even if you have no money at all, you should still be able to get gear. Check out his post called High tech "dumpster diving" for details.

As time goes on and Boot and I continue to have a blast with Linux, we find all sorts of things that could cross over to robotics. I myself have a penchant for robotics and embedded systems, and I find a lot of reuse ideas through doing my own projects. As Boot and I come across things, we'll use this series to pass them along to you. By the way, for any of the un-initiated among you, when I refer to embedded systems I'm talking about computers that have as much as possible crammed onto a single motherboard (storage too). Your cell phone is a good example of an embedded system.

Below are just a few things that I want to mention as we start this series.

Exhibit A
As I mentioned above, Boot has a post on the basics of scrounging for equipment. I can't recommend this post highly enough. Whether you're a pre-teen or teen with no money, or whether you're Donnie Trump, you can get some good out of the information that Boot is issuing forth in that one. Please check it out.

Exhibit B
A website that I really like from a hobbyist perspective is Anthony Beckwith's robotics page. To me a lot of his projects are the purest form of reuse robotics. You can see parts from computers, VCRs, calculators, and much much more in his robot designs. He also does quite a bit with solar powered robots, which I think is really cool. Mr Beckwith, I salute you.

Exhibit C
Boot and I are working on several posts for this series, and as time goes on and more things come to us, we'll throw them on here. To give you and idea though, coming up we'll have at least one post on building diskless robot controllers out of old motherboards and network cards, and we'll also have a post on using the sound card of a computer for analog sensor inputs.

Well, there you have it. The things that I've mentioned here are just to whet your appetite. Stay tuned for future installments of this series. We've got lots of cool ideas and information to share with you.

Enjoy!

High tech "dumpster diving"

The guiding star behind the development of EONS, and many of our projects, is reuse and keeping electronics in use as long as possible. My job, the one that actually pays the bills, is as an eScrap Management Consultant, so managing electronics is my speciality. Electronics are especially toxic, containing 9 deadly elements. So I'll give everyone a crash course in how to increase the longevity of your electronics, and how you can help.

1) Don't throw away your electronics. Landfills are the worst possible location, once allowed to be put in the ground the toxins leach out and into the ground and water. Your local Solid Waste Management District or recycling district will know who to take it to if they don't take it themselves. You can usually find the closest district through your state's Department of Environmental Management.

2) College move-out days are a great time to get good stuff from dumpsters, especially at large colleges. Many students who live a long ways away, and a lot of international students, will throw almost new things out at the end of the year because it's cheaper/easier than hauling it home, and then back to school again. In fact, the computer I do the EONS builds on was from a dumpster, it just needed a new power supply and voila! I had a 2.8 GHz P4, 512mb DDR, 60GB hard drive, and all the bells and whistles I could want in a free computer.

3) Take care of what you have. Don't leave things turned on when they don't need to be, especially if there are moving parts. As an added bonus you will save money on your energy bills.

4) Keep good airflow to your electronics. Don't sit them on carpet, this allows them to pull in more dust and cuts down air flow. Almost all electronics are air cooled, and when they accumulate dust or have less air flow they can't dissipate the heat as well. This wears things out even faster. Keep fans in good shape as well, when you hear extra bearing noise from a fan you should take it out and add some oil to the bearings. Use a source of dry compressed air to blow out computers every few months to keep down dust, compressed air cans are a waste of resources. Make sure the source doesn't have a lot of moisture in the lines or you might turn on you computer only to hear a snap-crackle-pop.

5) Look for ways to reuse items when you upgrade. Find someone who can still use whatever the item is. Local nonprofits may be able to help. If you're in Northern Indiana and need help, you can contact us and we might be able to help you out.

6) Volunteer for local groups doing work with electronics recycling and/or reuse, we always need the help. I even reward my volunteers with points that they can use to redeem for electronics and parts they might need or want.

7) Find reuse parts and do repairs of items you would like. You can look in dumpsters, go to school auctions, or go to recycling centers to find some good parts. They're usually very cheap and you can find some great deals to keep things in use.

8) Buy recertified electronics, recycled content items, and reuse items. They help fund recycling and keep commodities in the production cycle, rather than landfills.

With all that said and done, you can purchase recertified and reuse items from us to help fund our research, education, and recycling programs. Our eBay store is here, or email us (eonsproject at gmail.com) if you are looking for computer parts or specific Mac or PC items, I can get a shipping quote for any item with a zip code.

So do the right thing, recycle and increase your electronics' longevity.

XFCE, KDE, or Gnome? We lay it all out

There are three main window managers, or "the way the OS looks and feels", for Linux. Gnome and KDE are the oldest, and XFCE is the newest. There are some advantages to each, and most of the talk over superiority are between Gnome and KDE, so I'll give some more press to XFCE as compensation. So here we go, and please ask questions if you have them.

The Background

KDE was the first breakthrough window manager, started in October of 1996. It was based on Trolltech's Qt development library, and some members of the community became afraid that such a crucial piece of software might go proprietary, they split and formed the Gnome windows manager in 1997. Gnome was developed out of the toolkit originally used for the GIMP, GTK+. XFCE was a separate project, started in 1996, that was similar to KDE. It gained the GTK+ toolkit abilities in 1998 and can take install and run programs for KDE and Gnome.

The Advantages

KDE and Gnome both have the advantage of a huge community behind them, as well as the fact that they are the two most prevalent window managers in Linux. KDE typically is considered to have the best programs, and looking through my preferred apps on my computer I would have to agree. Gnome typically has a better user interface and makes an attempt at being lightweight, though in my opinion both KDE and Gnome are overly bloated.

XFCE is rarely talked about, for reasons I will never understand. Try this out, get three 100 MHz computers with 48mb RAM and install Kubuntu, Ubuntu, and Xubuntu on them. Then tell me which one actually runs. XFCE is the lightest of the mainstream window managers, though tiny window manager is still much smaller. It also has the ability to run all KDE and Gnome applications. In my mind, XFCE is the easiest to use for those used to using Windows and can unite the best of all worlds. It's easier to change the look, since any window manager tweaks made for XFCE, Gnome, or KDE can be used. It definitely runs the fastest as well.

If you want to find out which you like the best pick up a live CD and try it out, or if you're feeling adventurous you can always triple boot and see what you think. It's also possible to do concurrent installations and switch at login, but it can be a huge headache. If you have your own opinions, leave some comments.

How do you use Linux?

We're hoping we're helping a lot of you out there with a variety of problems or situations. But we like the feedback, or suggestions. We're especially interested in how you use Linux, and how you have it set up in business or educational settings. So let us know what you like, what you don't, and how you use Linux so we can better tailor our approach. Either comment on the posts or email us at eonsproject (at) gmail.com.

Thanks, and keep enjoying the FOSS lifestyle.

Linux multimedia roundup

One area we've struggled with, and from what we've seen it's a problem for a lot of users as well, is media support. Linux doesn't natively allow playing encrypted DVDs (because of proprietary coding and moral dismay), though there's a fix. So here is a roundup of our picks for media players. Beside the name of the programs I have listed the repository package name for easy install through apt-get.

Audio Players

There are three great media players, almost all identical actually. I've always been a Winamp fan in Windows, and they make a version of Winamp 3 for Linux. These are three apparent Winamp clones, but all good players which I haven't had trouble with. Beep Media Player (beep-media-player), XMMS (xmms), and Audacious (audacious) are great programs and play mp1, mp2, mp3, Ogg Vorbis, wav, raw, and au file support.

CD Players

Here is one category Jeremy and I disagree on, and it's only because he has had some compatibility issues on his laptop. I prefer KsCD (kscd) for its features and simplicity. It's a very clean program, and I like it for CDs. Jeremy prefers the Free Software Foundation's CD Player (gnome-media). I recommend trying them both and seeing which you like.

DVD Players

VLC Media Player (vlc) is great program with excellent DVD playback. It's also a full media player, though I prefer other programs for other media types, though if you like an all-in-one solution to your media playing needs I recommend VLC.

Photo Editing

Most likely everyone who has used Linux, almost any distro, for a length of time is well aware of Gimp (gimp). Gimp is like Adobe Photoshop, but free. It's a wonderful photo editor and can save in a wide range of file formats. I recommend picking up the gimp-data-extras package as well for additional features, especially for the professional or semi-pro digital artist.

An update

Jeremy made some improvements to the DNS Speedup post, so if you used that you may be interested in making the changes. He noted that there is some "drift" in DNS addresses over time, so this should fix it.

We would like to thank the over 1,500 of you who have visited us in the past 3.5 months. Hopefully we've helped you. We always like feedback or suggestions, you can do so through comments or eonsproject (at) gmail.com.

Happy New Year!

Where does Linux (and its users) fit in?

Happy New Year my fellow Tillamookians! It's been a bit since an update, I've been on involuntary sabbatical and Jeremy has been kept busy with the job(s) that pays the bills. We've kicked around a post like this for a while, but after reading this article from Linux Journal I decided to get on it. Besides, what else am I going to do while watching football?

I use Linux on my laptop, which I use more than my home desktops. I have one desktop with Linux, and one with Windows XP Pro. My parents have 2 computers with Windows 98 and 4 with XP Home. My fiancée uses XP Home on her desktop and Vista (does it matter which version, they're all painful?) on her laptop. So you could say I'm an OS outcast. I set up a desktop for my mom's classroom with EONS on it and she loved it, she preferred it to XP or 98. Then I told her it was Linux and she said she didn't know how to use it. Where is this going? I ask the same of Linux sometimes.

Most average users think they can't use Linux. They already do in a lot of ways though. It's used in car computers, phones, broadband routers, HD receivers, wireless devices, PDAs, and public computers. I've been doing some testing, I let average users try out a computer with EONS on it, and they always like it, they think it's a new version of Windows. When I ask them if they would want a Linux computer they always say they don't know how to use it and don't want to learn a new system. I find that really interesting.

Linux is more secure, so for careless users who are more at risk of getting viruses and spyware it should be advantageous. It's free and so is most of the software for it, which is good for users but bad for software companies. Unfortunately for most Linux distros though, their UIs are poorly designed and unintuitive for even those of us who have been using Linux for a while. That's where Windows, up until Vista, was far superior. My grandparents finally learned to use Windows 98 last year, I'm not about to hand them a Linux distro with a greatly different UI. For Linux to fit in and thrive in the desktop market it must adapt to the well designed Windows desktop and menus, and add built-in Win32 program support.

Where do Linux users fit into the desktop world? As a free software community most Linux developers are unpaid and are working in their spare time. It then falls on the users, not out of obligation but out of desire for better free software, to help report problems and do what they can to help. If a user wants to support a project they don't need to donate money or code, they need to donate documentation and support. Support isn't enough, the documentation needs to be tested and make sure that it is accurate on more than one computer. Linux needs the How-To books and the Quick-Start guides that Windows has had almost from the start. Sure there have always been these guides for server environments, but desktops are where most users are.

So what need does Linux fill now? It gives you all Windows does and more, but for a pricetag of $0, and last I checked that was less than Windows. And where do its users fit? They act as developers, users, writers, and testers. We want to encourage users of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) to always help however they are able, even if it's just spreading the word. Now go do some good and have a safe new year friends.

New Feature

Over the next few months the EONS Team will try out a new feature. We'll have polls on the right-hand side of the screen to let you, the reader, vote on your favorite "Tillamookism" and eventually take submissions for Tillamookism of the week. This raises a few questions:

1. What is a Tillamook?
2. What is a Tillamookism?
3. Did you eat paint chips as a kid?

We can easily answer those questions.

1. Tillamook (Till-uh-mouck) n - was the name of a short-lived processor made by Intel. After finding one in a laptop and wondering what it was, the team laughed themselves silly over the name, try saying it, it really is fun. After which the Tillamookism was born.
2. A phrase, usually from TV or movie, in which a word is replaced by Tillamook.
3. No comment.

So go and vote, exercise you rights as a human*! And if that doesn't convince you, sudo go and vote.

*Sorry, but any animals or plants capable of voting are excluded from this poll. If you feel the need, call you congressperson and ask for Universal Eukaryotic Suffrage.

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Changes to the Terms. The Authors reserve the right to change these Terms at any time. You will only be notified by the Blog through posts or syndicated content (RSS), NOT IN PERSON. It is Your responsibility to make sure that you agree with the new Terms, whenever changes have been announced. Changes to the Terms will be effective 48 hours after the notice has been posted on the Blog. If You do not agree with the Terms, DO NOT USE THIS BLOG.

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This disclaimer was adapted from a document provided by Giovanna Di Sauro on the "Writing a blog disclaimer (part 2)" page here.