Friday, October 31, 2014

Elpy 1.6.0 released

I just released version 1.6.0 of Elpy, the Emacs Python Development Environment. This is a feature release.

Elpy is an Emacs package to bring powerful Python editing to Emacs. It combines a number of other packages, both written in Emacs Lisp as well as Python.

Quick Installation

Evaluate this:

(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives
             '("elpy" .
               "http://jorgenschaefer.github.io/packages/"))

Then run M-x package-install RET elpy RET.

Finally, run the following (and add them to your .emacs):

(package-initialize)
(elpy-enable)

Changes in 1.6.0

Sunday, October 26, 2014

The Paradox of Freedom of Speech

Freedom of speech needs to be restricted to protect freedom of speech.

This apparent paradoxical statement is well-founded in philosophy, but it is the cause of much confusion in online debates. Quite regularly, any kind of moderation activity in comment sections or other discussion spaces is likened to censorship, with the argument that the basic human right of freedom of speech needs to be protected.

While it is possible to silence all dissent using moderation, most of the time when freedom of speech is invoked, it is done in the misguided assumption that ultimate freedom is the goal.

It can not be.