SunMink

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

LiveMink: Dave Johnson and Project SocialSite

It's Tuesday so that means LiveMink. I got the chance to speak with Dave Johnson last week and catch up on his work building Project SocialSite, a social graph framework exposed as widgets and web services for use by websites wanting to build collaborative communities. Both technically interesting and destined to be an important part of the social media scene, I'll be looking forward to seeing SocialSite in action.

[ MP3 | Ogg ]

Posted by webmink ( Sep 30 2008, 02:13:19 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]

links for 2008-09-30

• xkcd - Height
  Another awesome xkcd that's an instant classic.
• Linux Foundation's misguided attacks on Solaris
  "This is not advocacy, Mr Zemlin. Sun is a member of the Linux Foundation and you don't turn on your own membership."
• Launchparty OOo3Paris
  OpenOffice.org 3.0 launch party organised by the French contingent of the OO.o community.
• Sun Honors Community Awards Winners
  Recording all the interviews was something of a marathon, but we managed it. Huge congratulations to all the winners.

Posted by webmink ( Sep 30 2008, 12:49:00 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]

links for 2008-09-29

• FiveThirtyEight.com: Electoral Projections Done Right
  Seems to have the balance and the data that's been lacking from all the other places I've seen so far. Of course, what do I know.
• Conferencia internacional en Málaga sobre el software libre
  I'm on the opening day agenda of the Malaga conference again this year. Very pleased to be going back to it, last time I spoke was a great experience and seemed to be memorable for others too. I'll be speaking about the challenges the "third wave" (or commercial and government embrace) brings to software freedom.
• ODF workshop update
  This looks like being a fascinating event. It's the second ODF Workshop organised by the ODF Alliance and this time it's in South Africa. I'm honoured to have been asked to participate and I look forward to meeting the speakers and delegates, all of whom have fascinating stories and valuable experience to share.
• The First Annual JVM Language Summit
  Great report from Ted. He says "I think that the only regret that I had was that this was the first annual JVM Language Summit. Imagine where we’d be if this had been the fifth". In fact, I still think this was a primary failure by Sun stretching back to the late 90s - this should have been happening for ten years, there have been multiple languages for the JVM for a decade.
• Deathbed
  Jim (Grisanzio) is right - the out-of-date attacks by Jim (Zemlin) simply demonstrate the opposite of his assertion is true by the very fact of the attack, before we even get to the easy task of refuting most of them.
• Now is the Time to Resist Wall Street's Shock Doctrine
  The fact the "Wall Street Crisis" is being used as a shock opportunity to fiscally rape those not inside the right-wing elite is not the surprise. The question I'm still waiting to hear answered on the economic crisis is: why now? Why not last year or next year? Why now, just at the end of the Bush & Brown regimes?

Posted by webmink ( Sep 29 2008, 03:34:00 AM PDT ) Permalink

OpenOffice.org Power Tools

You may have seen that version 3 of OpenOffice.org is nearly ready for release - I am now running release candidate 2 and finding it ideal for work. Along with the new release, there's an important change emerging in OpenOffice.org development. For the last 18 months or so, the team has avoided adding significant new features to the core code, focussing instead in performance and usability improvements as well as on preparing a full, native Aqua port of OpenOffice.org to Mac OS X. That hasn't meant that innovation has stopped, however. Instead, the developers have been able to devise valuable new functions for OpenOffice.org without having to mess around inside the (undeniably complex) core code.

The result has been the emergence of many add-ons for all parts of OpenOffice.org and all supported platforms, by virtue of the Add-On Manager and the powerful platform-neutral UNO API offered by OpenOffice.org. After a discussion with Allison Randal on identi.ca about which tools to use, I thought I'd spend a little time while I wait here at the airport describing the add-ons I find are essential.

1. Presenter Console

   My absolute favourite add-on is the Presenter Console. This adds a new display mode to Impress so that, when using an external monitor (i.e. a projector) the laptop screen differs from the external display. While the audience sees the slides being presented, the presenter sees the slide sequence, speaker notes and a timer and is able to navigate directly to slides if necessary. It's a familiar function with some other packages but it revolutionises Impress as a presentation tool and I have been using it constantly since it first appeared.

2. PDF Importer

   Next favourite is the PDF Import Extension. As the name implies, this enables OpenOffice.org to import PDF files so that the text they contain can be edited. It's not perfect, not least because it imports into the layout tool (Draw) but it has proven so useful time and time again when I have been supplied with a "dead" PDF file from which I have needed to derive some "live" text.

3. Presentation Minimiser

   The Presentation Minimiser can be a real problem-solver. I use photographs extensively in my presentations, and the resulting ODT files can be absolutely huge. This add-on does its best to make the file the minimum size possible by removing unused templates, rescaling graphics and doing other tricks to eliminate wastage. Having it on-hand is essential for me when I need to e-mail presentations to other people.

4. Template Packs

   One of the common criticisms of OpenOffice.org when compared with other packages was that it didn't include templates to allow people to build appealing presentations. Sun included commercially-created templates in StarOffice, but has now paid the originators for permission to make the two template packs freely available to all OpenOffice.org users. Template Pack 1 will be familiar to many StarOffice users; Template Pack 2 includes a range of newer templates and is my favourite. The packs are also available in a range of languages in addition to English.

There are plenty of other add-ons available and which I'm gradually trying, but these are the ones that have become part of my work style. Individually, each of these add-ons has been very helpful for me. Together, they represent a set of power tools I'd not be able to get by without any more.

Posted by webmink ( Sep 26 2008, 12:00:16 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [2]

links for 2008-09-25

• Sun: OpenSolaris 'pretty freaking amazing'
  Pretty reasonable interview in The Register.
• A passenger 'bill of rights' is passed! (In Canada)
  Of course, any system also has embedded within it by implication the game that exploits it. In Europe for example, I believe airlines now have passengers board aircraft even though they know there is no available take-off slot just so that they don't have to be compensated under the equivalent EU rules. We'll have to see how Canada's rules work out in practice.
• Businesses Can Win the Competition Against Open-Source Technology
  Reactionary dinosaur thinking from Stanford. A smarter set of academics would suggest using open source technology to win in competition against the incumbents.
• You'll get closer to the source
  I'd forgotten all about this interview for The Age in Australia. It loses a little precision in conciseness but overall it's pretty cute.
• The Two Classes of Airport Contraband
  Excellent explanation of why confiscating pasta sauce and shampoo actually makes us all less secure at the airport.

Posted by webmink ( Sep 25 2008, 03:05:00 PM PDT ) Permalink

LiveMink: The Thirsty Bear Tapes, 2 of 2

If you survived the knockabout discussion in Tuesday's podcast, you'll want to give this second episode a chance. It was recorded during JavaOne this spring at the Sun Open Source Party ("unBOF") in the Thirsty Bear pub in San Francisco. It features Redmonk founder James Governor, Joe Hildebrand of Jabber (acquired by Cisco since the recording), Ross Turk of SourceForge, Silona Bonewald of the League of Technical Voters (among other things) and myself. We discuss all sorts of random stuff in a random way - hope you like it!

[MP3 | Ogg]

Posted by webmink ( Sep 25 2008, 03:25:00 AM PDT ) Permalink

India: Code for Freedom

I'm delighted to see that Sun India is repeating the Code For Freedom Contest again this year. It's a scheme to directly reward contributions to a selection of open source communities by citizens of India, and was very popular last year. This is in addition to the various participating communities in the Sun Open Source Innovation Awards, which are just now announcing winners.

Posted by webmink ( Sep 24 2008, 06:49:00 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]

LiveMink: The Thirsty Bear Tapes, 1 of 2

Since today is a travel day for me and I'm unlikely to find a chance to blog, I thought you might be interested to hear this podcast recorded during JavaOne this spring at the Sun Open Source Party in the Thirsty Bear pub in San Francisco. It features a round-table discussion with uber-journalist David Berlind, Redmonk founder James Governor and his colleague Michael Coté and myself in a raucous and opinionated discussion about whatever came to mind. There's another episode coming soon.

[MP3 | Ogg]

Update: Episode 2 now online.

Posted by webmink ( Sep 23 2008, 01:11:00 AM PDT ) Permalink

links for 2008-09-21

• what to make of the american election: a guide to the brit-perplexed
  I found this fascinating - not seen anything like it in any of my reading elsewhere. I'd be interested in an opinion on its accuracy from an informed American.
• EA Loosens Spore's DRM, Account Restrictions
  Don't be fooled, anyone. EA's use of DRM still treats the people that pay as the enemy while doing nothing whatever about the people who don't. It's invasive, potentially harmful but most importantly it is the pinnacle of disrespect to say "thanks for the cash but we're going to mess your machine up in a way you can't fix, becuase we think you may be a thief but not one smart enough to actually get round the harm we're doing." EA calls you dishonest and dumb, even after these "concessions".
• My comment on Luis Villa’s Blog / what you can (and can’t) learn from Google’s EULA mistake
  Keeping a note of my comment, because I think this is an important point both for my client/colleagues and for others. By the way, Luis, I wish your blog kept the name entered when OpenID is used to authenticate.
• Tax Plans (that’s one for you, nineteen for me).
  If you are a lover of Edward Tufte's clear graphic communications, you should find this chart wonderful. The design, anyway, the truth it reveals is much more disturbing in many dimensions.
• Keynote for Holland Open 2008
  My keynote slides from Friday - probably only of interest to conference attendees.
• Manually entered with ScribeFire again.

Posted by webmink ( Sep 21 2008, 02:45:00 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [2]

LiveMink: Software Freedom Day

This is by way of a pointer to the podcast for those only subscribing to LiveMink.

[ MP3 | Ogg ]

Posted by webmink ( Sep 20 2008, 05:12:42 AM PDT ) Permalink

Students and Software Freedom

It's Software Freedom Day, and among the many other volunteers around the world, Sun-sponsored students have been working hard on their campuses to prepare for the opportunity to cry Freedom! One of the questions that came up was why students should care about software freedom; here's the answer Lowell Sachs and I came up with.

The growing popularity of free and open source software offers advantages and opportunities to students (as well as developers, users, and budding entrepreneurs) all along the adoption curve. Many will already recognize that the future for society is one of digital liberty, where every user of digital technology is a possible creator, and where all creators in the digital medium are, by definition, users. The open source model fits in perfectly with this emerging reality. In fact, the remarkable success of open source is the result of a feature that is at once a key characteristic of the program and a fundamental pursuit of people everywhere... freedom.

Software Freedom

Many people, if asked to name the main appeal of open source software would reflexively point to the fact that it is free of charge, and thus a good way to save money. However, it is a different kind of ‘free’ that lies at the heart of the open source movement -- the freedom to acquire, adapt, tinker, develop and deploy code (applications) without the restrictions traditionally associated with proprietary offerings. All the best virtues of open source software are really derivatives of this kind of ‘free’ (as in liberty) rather than simply ‘free’ as in price … although the savings are certainly a nice draw as well.

On the academic front, open source software can serve as a real boon to the student looking to sharpen his or her skills or excel in a class. Those looking to build a career in IT will find open source software the perfect virtual laboratory to build skills or explore new ideas without the constraints and prohibitions that come with proprietary programs. Break it down, build it up, throw in something new. Hit a brick wall?... No problem. Try a different approach. It's yours to play with.

This freedom can come in as handy for those working on a supervised project as it will for those trying to seize a share of a new market. Looking for a little enlightenment outside of lectures? Open source software is there as well. It empowers independent learning by letting you tinker with the code on your own schedule and your own system -- no professor necessary.

Entrepreneurs

Looking for an application that does what you actually need it to do? Gone are the days of having to hope that a large corporate player will develop and offer for sale a program that you want, only to discover that it is at a price you can't afford. And when you find it doesn't quite live up to the hype? No longer will people have to wait for expensive and imprecise updates or patches to fix their applications. When source code is shared and distributed freely under an open source license, anyone is allowed to use, modify and reproduce that code on a non-discriminatory basis.

With open source software you get to decide what to create and when to release it. Then your friends and peers can fine tune and improve upon it with the fruits of all this labor being offered back out to the general community... at no cost. Where will the next YouTube come from, or FaceBook or Wikipedia? It may just come from you. And now you don't need tons of capital and corporate infrastructure to launch that next great innovation. All you need is inspiration.

Transparency With Privacy

The emergence of open source promises a world marked by several digital freedoms -- the freedom to participate, collaborate, create, use and deploy. Open source communities can enable students to connect with each other and collaborate across the boundaries of geography and culture in a way that benefits all of society. Part of this emerging reality is a shift from the old model of security with secrecy, where lack of access to a program's source code often (ironically) spawned vulnerabilities and restricted choice, toward a new paradigm of transparency coupled with privacy, where communities can flourish while assuring quality and protection to their members.

It is a world of expanded opportunity, increased flexibility, and continual innovation. Keep your money - Release your ideas - Build a business - Launch a community - Start a movement! The barriers to entry (and exit) are down, new horizons are emerging, and the climate for innovation is more welcoming than it has ever been. Jump in!

Posted by webmink ( Sep 20 2008, 12:00:00 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]

LiveMink: Duelling Podcasts

I'm in Amsterdam today where I've been giving a keynote at the HollandOpen conference. As it happens, I just had the pleasure of discussing the open society with journalist Brenno de Winter. We sat with our R-09 recorders head-to-head and we're both publishing. His is of course more polished :-)

Posted by webmink ( Sep 19 2008, 05:30:00 AM PDT ) Permalink

Software Freedom Day Podcast

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of discussing Free software and Software Freedom Day with co-ordinator Pia Waugh, John Sullivan of the FSF and Jono Bacon of Canonical. The podcast has some rather nasty background noises caused by the telephone system, but some interesting conversation. Software Freedom Day is this Saturday, do join in - there are local events all over the world, including many sponsored by Sun!

[ MP3 | Ogg ]

Posted by webmink ( Sep 18 2008, 07:06:30 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]

links for 2008-09-16

• Fears over privacy as police expand surveillance project
  Mission creep, always for extremely plausible reasons and with some unarguable scared cow like "stopping terrorism", "foiling paedophiles" or somesuch, will lead us to the Britain of V for Vendetta. It is time for it to stop.
• Sun Microsystems - Software Freedom Day
  See what Sun is doing around the world to celebrate software freedom on Saturday.
• I recorded a podcast last night with Pia Waugh from Software Freedom Day, Jono Bacon from Canonical and John Sullivan from FSF. It explains the what and the why of Software Freedom day. Watch for it here as soon as it's edited!

Posted by webmink ( Sep 16 2008, 12:43:00 AM PDT ) Permalink