SunMink

Simon Phipps's other Weblog
(a WebMink in the Sun)

While these proposed reforms of the US system are to be welcomed, they fail to address - or even acknowledge - the real issues, which are to do with the way patents are used to support demands for injunctive relief and demands from non-practicing patent holders. Both allow extortion of the "nice business you have there, shame if anything happened to it" kind and need urgent attention, especially in the ICT industry.

Very worthy and very broad.

Excellent news here - I hope they follow through fully and don't find a way to make it closed at the 11th hour.

Great story about using a Googlewhack to monitor for researchers pursing a secret.

Answer: Yes. So why do the labels want to kill it off? Because they don't. Translation: All this toxic law to cut people off the internet is all about protecting big businesses with tired business models and not about protecting music artists, art or culture. Shame on you, Lord Mandelson.

I do hope it's actually a hearing and not a kangaroo court. So far the EC spokespeople that have responded on the record seem to treat all counter-arguments with very little respect, which is probably what finally made Oracle snap on Monday.

Very interesting language, even if it's yet another extension of Google's hegemony.

While the sentiment is a common on, as Matt says it's a bit rich coming from SAP. I can't help thinking this is more to do with their frustration that the EU didn't include Java in their Statement of Objection despite SAP's best efforts to join in with the rest of the companies busily trying to advantage themselves in the name of "competition".

US Department of Justice issues a statement that's the diplomatic equivalent of a challenge to the EU regulator.

Completely agree with the points made here. The deep evil of software patents is less their actual enforcement in the cases where there is merit. It's the many, many cases where they are used cynically to force out-of-court payments with menaces, as illustrated here. The absolute minimum changes needed to the system are to outlaw this sort of practice or at very least make any money extorted be repayable with interest in the event the patent is later overturned.

The European Commission declares war

Looks like the gloves are off.

Bad news for software freedom. Yes, it's pragmatic, but it means the diseased status quo of the mobile industry is infecting Android. (And yes, I have fought every instance of Sun doing the same thing)

DAISY is a talking book format that allows texts to be read out loud - especially valuable for the visually impaired. Today saw the launch of a new add-on for OpenOffice.org that makes creation of DAISY talking books easy. Great news, congrats to Vincent & the team.

I like this reflection from Chris Messina. The OpenOfficeMouse is just part of the rich flora and fauna that happens when you're in a place that's truly open. It's not in any way associated with Sun or endorsed by the OpenOffice.org project, just an excursion into entrepreneurship by an enthusiast.

How long before the "advance passenger data" required by airlines includes your Facebook and Twitter IDs?

I saw this from Highway 17 near Los Gatos and thought it must have hit Felton - but from the various accounts it must have actually been much further away and much higher. In which case, it was an enormous fireball over the ocean that made a heck of a splash.

Michael Geist put the evidence together from the available "leaks" and shows us all why ACTA is anti-open, anti-freedom. If democracy means anything today we need to mobilise popular opposition to this disgusting travesty before it's too late.

EFF's title sums up the purpose of ACTA nicely. It's a secret work by the copyright fascists to lock down their business model before we all realise what's going on, and to do so at a trans-national level so that no country is empowered to challenge it. Dirty, dirty, dirty.

Once you're past the tabloid sensationalism, there's an insight in this piece - that the copyright fascists tend to concentrate on monetising a cult of personality whose actual music doesn't stand too much scrutiny.

Could prove useful, although I couldn't make the list of places work.

Important to understand how this model works as it will be at the core of the disruption all technology businesses face from Google over the coming years.

Dinosaur alert.

Looks like the extension capability in Chrome is already getting plenty of exercise. If the ones I'm hooked on in Firefox show up, maybe Chrome will get more of my attention.

I'll be opening this conference (which is mainly in English) in the splendid town of Bozen (or Bolzano). Come for the wine (the local Lagrein grape is great) if not for the tremendous content, which includes Sam Ruby.

And naturally this will be the story with internet downloads as well. All the fuss from the big media companies - and their manipulation of legislation through their powerful joint lobbying with the pharmaceutical and software industries - will be shown to have been based on false assumptions depending more on a desire to retain their oligopoly than on any benefits to society.

A thing of beauty, not to say obsessiveness.

"Eating a diet high in processed food increases the risk of depression, research suggests. What is more, people who ate plenty of vegetables, fruit and fish actually had a lower risk of depression, the University College London team found." In my experience being depressed leads to eating more processed food.

The scope of the work covered by Apache is just enormous. This list omits the Apache project I think has the largest potential to change the web for the average business, OfBiz, but otherwise does a good job.

"The people who file-share are the ones who are interested in music," said Mark Mulligan of Forrester Research. "Duh" say the rest of us, "a crack-down on file sharing will harm all but the richest music superstars."

Tickets already going fast. We can't decide on Oxford, Bournemouth or London, all equally inconvenient.

Nat Friedman from Ximian & now Novell with useful observations supporting the idea Paul Graham proposed to have easy access to US (or indeed any other country) visas for bona fides startup founders. A much better option than expanding H1Bs (or their local equivalents).

It may be an advertising stunt, but the videos are great and it embodies the idea central to open source that people contribute readily to thinks they get a kick out of.

"But to suggest that taking ecstasy is less dangerous than horse-riding, or that cannabis is safer than alcohol and tobacco - however true that may be - is to say the unsayable in the political drugs debate" -- The UK has a government that would rather appear OK to the Daily Mail reader than actually do what's right according to the experts advising them. It's true in the case of drugs, and it's true in the case of the internet and downloads. Watching Labour erode its core of support as it desperately tries to win over the Conservatives' heartland.

Good list, although I disagree with a few of thee choices which seem to prioritise simplicity over safety (for example, there's no way I will use Empathy for IM without OTR).

Carlo Piana (Europe's answer to Eben Moglen) once again delivers a clear analysis, this time showing how Amazon's announcement of hosted MySQL in the cloud punches a hole in Stallman's argument against the Oracle acquisition. Looking forward to hearing from Stallman both why Carlo is wrong and why dual-license is good for software freedom.

Finally Flickr has a serious competitior.

Indeed, my experience of late is that there are very few voices without a vested interest who are against.

Really great visualisation.

Stephen O'Grady's new initiative to build a good, old-fashioned, answering-questions-in-public Frequently Asked Questions hub for the Free and Open Source Community.

This has been a long time cooking, but finally allows the US Defence Department to proceed with clear guidance, ending much of the FUD that the vested interests have used to keep it at bay. DoD consulted very widely and did the politics carefully so I believe this is a landmark moment for the FOSS movement.

I noted on Twitter how many of the people I know have gravitated towards following roughly twice the Dunbar Number. This article considers the matter in greater depth and includes a number of interesting references.

That's MySQL in the cloud as a web service. This is exactly the sort of thing that creates demand for service at the point of deployment and drives the open source ecosystem. I hope those declaring the future of MySQL gloomy are paying close attention here; it seems that open source makes this sort of thing possible and it's hard to see who could stop it.

OpenSolaris has a new web site, built using XWiki.

Matthew Aslett makes a bid to become the definitive index of community comment on the MySQL dimension of Oracle's attempt to buy Sun.

Brian Aker thinks dual licensing (or what Richard Stallman calls "selling exceptions") is bad for open source. I tend to agree with him.

I do hope the folks filing narrowly-focussed letters at the EU are paying attention to this stuff.

Useful insights from Tim O'Reilly including details of the software stack. The White House runs MySQL...