Sunday April 30, 2006 links for 2006-05-01
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"The great thing about REST is that you can just demo it in the browser ... Given the number of different things that the web services community is asking of developers, I think that's really important" -- Jeff Barr, Amazon
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Time to get more serious about switching folks away from IE. I've installed this at level 1 on www.webmink.net, let me know if there are any issues.
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Of course, if they had developed a thin client strategy instead of being sucked (suckered?) into the Windows Trap, the updates would be of a server or two and the old workstations would remain an asset.
Posted by webmink
( Apr 30 2006, 06:18:17 PM PDT )
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JavaMail Open Source
Small note I should have posted a week ago, but was busy in Brazil with FISL: a process that was triggered a while back has finally come to fruition and JavaMail is now open source as part of Glassfish. I hope it's not too late for the folks at Apache that originally asked me for this quite some time ago.
Posted by webmink
( Apr 30 2006, 05:44:01 AM PDT )
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Saturday April 29, 2006 links for 2006-04-30
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This looks very promising - it's a site that reviews new music and provides free downloads of the sample tracks the bands provide on their own web-sites. There's a podcast too.
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This insight is still brilliant - it explains, simply, why DRM is fatally flawed as a mechanism for acting with humanity. I've gone on to call the same thing "quantisation of discretion" but Weinberger captures it with simple grace.
Posted by webmink
( Apr 29 2006, 06:18:16 PM PDT )
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Friday April 28, 2006 Giving Back
If you have an encyclopaedic memory, you'll remember that last year Boeing and the US Army decided to use JXTA technology in their key future combat support projects where there's a need for a peer-to-peer service discovery mechanism. You may have thought JXTA had been forgotten but in fact the JXTA community is vibrant as it turns five years old.
I just heard from the JXTA team that they now have agreement from Boeing and the US Army to contribute all the improvements made to the core JXTA implementation for this project back to the open source community. This is great news, and just the way I expect more and more software projects to evolve - real open source in action, with opportunities for innovation and growth that a closed approach just can't match. So powerful, and so good for everyone involved.
Posted by webmink
( Apr 28 2006, 09:23:44 PM PDT )
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links for 2006-04-29
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Lovely posting by Guy Kawasaki!
Posted by webmink
( Apr 28 2006, 06:24:00 PM PDT )
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Thursday April 27, 2006 links for 2006-04-28
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OpenSolaris is in, there are some cool projects (Nexenta has a load) and cool mentors, all we need now are students!
Posted by webmink
( Apr 27 2006, 06:19:25 PM PDT )
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Wednesday April 26, 2006 Open Source Licensing Paper
I've commented before on the three-category model I use for classifying open source licenses for internal use at Sun. We've prepared a white paper [253k PDF] explaining the approach we take and I would welcome constructive feedback. Feel free to pass this on, it is Creative Commons licensed, and let me know if it proves useful. Many thanks to Mary who actually wrote most of it (and had to endure hours of listening to me talk about open source licenses) and to chief squirrel herder Sara who made it happen.
Posted by webmink
( Apr 26 2006, 07:05:13 AM PDT )
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NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha Available
If you're a Mac user, you'll be delighted to know that Patrick has got an early alpha of NeoOffice 2.0 ready, complete with all the features that are in other OpenOffice.org distributions including full OpenDocument support. He's experimenting with raising funds by selling access to the alpha program - well worth supporting in my view - although everything remains GPL licensed and the source remains available.
Posted by webmink
( Apr 26 2006, 05:45:04 AM PDT )
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Tuesday April 25, 2006 Human Touch
One of the things making the FISL conference in Brazil special is the human side. Yes, there were lots of geeky talks, there was political activity, there were exhibits. But there was also a stand showing where all the food donations made last year went to around Brazil, and there were interesting ideas like this t-shirt painting event. The SouJava folks invited a team of local artists into the event to take t-shirts and ehnace them with designs of their own. These were then auctioned with the earnings going to charity. There was plenty of this sort of energy, with noisy, joyful celebrations passing often. Very different from the usual conference experience!
Posted by webmink
( Apr 25 2006, 07:54:17 PM PDT )
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links for 2006-04-26
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Fact-check this Slashdot report and ask yourself: did the submitter or the editor even read the article referenced?
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Sometimes I want to say "ssshh, don't tell them" and this is one of those times - Dvorak unusally on his mark this time.
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Nice analysis from Andrew of why the current appeal by Microsoft is a defining moment for the whole industry. It's worth noting how his comments about not signing up for Microsoft's partner programs reflect McNealy's.
Posted by webmink
( Apr 25 2006, 06:19:39 PM PDT )
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Monday April 24, 2006 links for 2006-04-25
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This looks promising. It could be a vital part of the migration plan for many potential ODF users.
Posted by webmink
( Apr 24 2006, 06:21:53 PM PDT )
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Sunday April 23, 2006 links for 2006-04-24
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This week is TV Turn-Off Week. Sounds a wonderful idea.
Posted by webmink
( Apr 23 2006, 06:20:17 PM PDT )
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Parasites and Revolutionaries
I did some research on why there are no international corporate IT exhibitors at FISL this year, despite it being a vibrant venue attended by all the technology folks who will be building tomorrow's Brazil. As has happened in many other countries round the world, the LinuxWorld conference has moved in here and leeched all the corporate money out of the grass-roots events. Last year we saw Sun, IBM, Unisys, HP and more at FISL; this year there was just Sun. Even Jon "maddog" Hall is missing this year - he's been an anchor for FISL but this year has gone to LinuxWorld.
For the exhibitors it is understandable to a degree. The sponsorships are authorised by people with little empathy for F/OSS and LinuxWorld, with its promise of IT buyers, sounds a better bet than FISL with its grass-roots activists. But my observation in the US is that LinuxWorld has lost its charm and all the big names are thinking twice about spending money on it.
Why? Well, once it becomes a corporate marketplace, with admission and exhibit fees in that stratosphere, the grass-roots people can't afford to attend even if they want to. The content declines, the glory moves on and the event is left as a shallow warehouse experience, more cathedral than bazaar. But by the time that happens, the grass-roots events like FISL have been destroyed. It's very sad, but it's what happens when the parasites annex the revolution.
Posted by webmink
( Apr 23 2006, 08:13:01 AM PDT )
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Friday April 21, 2006 links for 2006-04-22
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That new Ubuntu kernel is looking really hot.
Posted by webmink
( Apr 21 2006, 06:20:10 PM PDT )
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