Thursday July 31, 2008 links for 2008-07-31
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"Nonetheless, to watch U.S. Senators like Sam Brownback actually maintain a straight face while protesting China's warrantless spying ... is so surreal that it's actually hard to believe one is seeing it."
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"... we must conclude either that the Security Research Group does not understand the open source community, and how they operate, or that their report is a blatant attempt to mislead the public. In other words, it is FUD."
Posted by webmink
( Jul 31 2008, 01:32:16 AM PDT )
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Saturday July 26, 2008 links for 2008-07-26
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If this posting is correct, the sudden demise of all software patents in the US (apart from cloud computing patents) seems to be at hand.
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I'll be speaking at this one.
Posted by webmink
( Jul 26 2008, 01:32:29 AM PDT )
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Tuesday July 22, 2008 Un-Booth at OSCON
One of the perennial problems of sponsoring an open source conference is that the organisers always seem to want the sponsorship to pay for an exhibition booth. Exhibition booths need furnishing and decorating. They need things to exhibit. They need staffing. Most of this would be fine at a traditional exhibition, but at an open source conference there aren't many people attending to choose things to buy and thus the sales staff aren't keen to do all the above.
So what should we do with that booth? An approach we first tried at FISL a few years ago was to stop treating it as a selling space and start treating it as a social space. This year at OSCON in Portland we've decided to open up and dedicate our booth to hosting a micro-unconference. We've set it up with whiteboards, tables, electrical outlets and fresh coffee. And if having a place to veg isn't enough, we've invited all comers to deliver lightning talks throughout the two days. There are still a few slots on the agenda if you want to deliver a talk, but the quality of the speakers already listed is high (check out Monty's talk on Maria for example).
By the way, the legendary (or is that "mythical") Sun FOSS Party is back again this year, 8pm in the parking garage at the Doubletree hotel on Wednesday (July 23). Loads of cool diversions and I gather there is plenty more to drink this year than last. All welcome.
Posted by webmink
( Jul 22 2008, 03:12:49 PM PDT )
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Sunday July 20, 2008 Holistic Role
I'm in Portland, Oregon this weekend for an interesting meeting, but I'll not be able to stay on for OSCON this year because a change of my role at Sun necessitates attending a meeting in California that's a direct conflict with OSCON. It's not an especially closely-kept secret but I've now moved from Sun's software group and taken the Chief Open Source Officer role over to a newly-formed team reporting more directly to the CEO and working on Sun's relationships with communities globally.
The new team comprises some of Sun's best experts in open standards, open IPR and open source. It's called the Sun Open Technologies Practice, and in particular manages the Sun standards and open source websites. It allows us to take a more holistic approach to Sun's engagement in open standards and open source, especially in the area of influencing open standards bodies to have IPR policies that allow - or even encourage - open source implementation.
I'll let the new members of my team use their own channels to say they have joined, but suffice to say I'm excited by the challenging new opportunities this presents around the world.
Posted by webmink
( Jul 20 2008, 10:36:16 AM PDT )
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links for 2008-07-20
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It's been a long time coming but that's another one of the landmarks we've been aiming for. An unintentional barrier finally removed (it took a whole lot of review to do it BTW). Huge welcome to *BSD to the OpenJDK community.
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As predicted, getting OpenJDK into Debian main is the trigger for a cascade of other stones falling into place to build the foundations for a strong Java presence in GNU/Linux.
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Many eyes making all research shallow?
Posted by webmink
( Jul 20 2008, 01:31:01 AM PDT )
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Saturday July 19, 2008 links for 2008-07-19
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I think this is bad. This change to the law throws the balance of the social contract upon which copyright is based even further out of whack. It's time that balance was redressed; this attempts to eliminate it.
Posted by webmink
( Jul 19 2008, 01:31:22 AM PDT )
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Wednesday July 16, 2008 links for 2008-07-16
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Dogs and cats chase the same canary.
Posted by webmink
( Jul 16 2008, 01:31:40 AM PDT )
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Monday July 14, 2008 links for 2008-07-14
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Interesting perspective sees this as an endorsement and continuation of the open source strategy - very different view from how the instant-thrill section of the media covered it.
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Dalibor breaks the news that OpenJDK6 (aka Java SE) is now heading squarely for Debian main. That decision to use the GPL is paying off. Absolutely awesome, fantastic work everyone (yes, including the IcedTea folks too).
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Apple loves their customers. As a generic concept, though; individuals shouldn't expect too much.
Posted by webmink
( Jul 14 2008, 01:31:31 AM PDT )
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Saturday July 12, 2008 links for 2008-07-12
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Far from perishing, it seems the OpenDS community has been working diligently to produce this first stable release of the open source LDAP 3 server. Small and 100% Java it looks very promising.
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Ford plant in Southampton to close? First I have heard.
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"But sir, how can it not be allowed when it's the same knife they give you on the plane!" Yes, the flight crews suffer the idiotic security theatre just as much as the other travellers and are bullied just as much by the unaccountable TSA.
Posted by webmink
( Jul 12 2008, 01:31:52 AM PDT )
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Thursday July 10, 2008 links for 2008-07-10
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Pretty shoddy security at work here if this is true.
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Nice piece of open source collaboration going on here between the two Java implementations.
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Very funny and painfully true characterization of standards venues.
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Looks like there were substantial changes made. Undoubtedly needs careful analysis, if you see it somewhere let me know please.
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"the danger is that it's being accomplished ... because one organisational community (ISPs) has other important things to do ... while its opponents in the content companies don't". Note the UK Conservative at the nexus...
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Always worth remembering that the people you step over to get on in life may not be the scum you think.
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Another story to inspire confidence for the frequent traveller.
Posted by webmink
( Jul 10 2008, 01:30:44 AM PDT )
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Wednesday July 09, 2008 links for 2008-07-09
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Ted announces that Python support in NetBeans is coming soon. Excellent news.
Posted by webmink
( Jul 09 2008, 01:33:08 AM PDT )
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Sunday July 06, 2008 links for 2008-07-06
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Along with the Presentation Plug-In, this is the OpenOffice.org extension I'd been waiting for. It allows me to open PDF files in OpenOffice.org. Still work to do (it's only a v0.3) but already it works well enough for copying text blocks.
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This is the most important talk I have yet seen on TED. The message: the best thing you can do for yourself and the planet is probably to change the way you eat. As Pollan says, "eat food, not too much, mostly plants."
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How come this meme is popping up all over the world at the same time (that is, last-minute amendments to legislation to criminalise downloads)?
Posted by webmink
( Jul 06 2008, 01:31:25 AM PDT )
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Friday July 04, 2008 links for 2008-07-04
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Yep, I agree. But it takes time, because there are a lot of people involved and there's a business depending on most of the outcomes that applies pressures and slows down changes. I suspect this is the same in many other places.
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Happiness is never having to tell a lie (becuase someone else does it for you).
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Awesome free album from Amazon US this week. It's a sampler of tracks from the Naxos catalogue of early music. Drifting away to calm canticles.
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This really sucks. Even growing your own at home is not safe.
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Huge problem for the cloud computing model. Regardless of any Terms of Service, a hostile party may gain access to your data and usage patterns simply by convincing some judge somewhere. Solutions, anyone?
Posted by webmink
( Jul 04 2008, 01:31:30 AM PDT )
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Thursday July 03, 2008 links for 2008-07-03
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Congratulations to Adobe, very pleased to see this step for a variety of reasons.
Posted by webmink
( Jul 03 2008, 01:33:13 AM PDT )
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