LiveMink: Simon Phipps Out and About

LiveMink: Dave Johnson and Project SocialSite

Simon Phipps — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 02:13:19 -0700

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 ]

LiveMink: The Thirsty Bear Tapes, 2 of 2

Simon Phipps — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 03:25:00 -0700

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]

LiveMink: The Thirsty Bear Tapes, 1 of 2

Simon Phipps — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:11:00 -0700

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.

LiveMink: Software Freedom Day

Simon Phipps — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 05:12:42 -0700

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

[ MP3 | Ogg ]

LiveMink: Duelling Podcasts

Simon Phipps — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 05:30:00 -0700

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 :-)

[MP3 | Ogg]

Driven to Extremes

Simon Phipps — Wed, 9 Apr 2008 10:11:49 -0700

I've been speaking at the excellent Go Open 2008 conference here in Oslo today - attendees may be interested in my slides. My talk embodied the comments I made in response to Michael Tiemann a while back.

Of much more interest was what happened at lunchtime, however. I've heard plenty of accusations from certain OOXML proponents that all the noisy opposition to them is coming from extremist agitators and anarchists and should be ignored as a consequence. The (very un-Norwegian) activities in Oslo today seemed to suggest otherwise. As the International Herald Tribune reports, there was a demonstration and protest march by placard-wielding demonstrators on the streets of Oslo - see the local TV report. This in itself is unusual - Norway is not given to such outbursts - but there's more that makes it unusual.

This protest was organised not by extremist agitators but by Steve Pepper (who made a great speech), the widely respected chair of the SC34 mirror committee that reviewed OOXML for Standards Norway and by his colleagues. I asked them why they were taking this unusual step and they told me it was because the majority view of their committee had been ignored by Standards Norway. They are furious - Pepper has resigned. So there may be extremists involved in the protests against OOXML somewhere, but in the specific case of Norway the protesters are highly respected standards and business people who have been driven to extremes rather than starting from them.

Podcast Interview With Trond Heier

I also had the chance to interview the CEO of Linpro AS, a respected Norwegian open source service provider, about his reasons for taking part in the protest. You can listen to the podcast in either MP3 or Ogg format. Trond explains that the message Steve Pepper delivered was in English so that the Norwegian group could encourage other, similarly unhappy groups in other countries to speak out as well. The protest was held outside the building where JTC1 SC34 was holding a meeting.

More pictures:

If you are a writer looking for photos or clips for your article or blog, you are free to use any of these as long as you attribute them to me. I'd also prefer you to link to this blog posting too.

LiveMink: Alan Hargreaves and the telnetd bug

Simon Phipps — Tue, 5 Jun 2007 04:00:00 -0700

While I was in Australia last month I went to the Sydney OpenSolaris User Group, one of the oldest OSUGs. As part of the evening's casual conversation, I interviewed Alan Hargreaves. Alan was one of the first engineers in the OpenSolaris community to work on the telnetd bug that was zero-dayed onto the Solaris 10 community, and in this interview he describes a frantic day spent working on the defect. Some key quotes:

"This bug was a putback to kereberise telnetd"
"It didn't exist in OpenSolaris within about six hours of being reported"
"The actual fix was submitted by someone on one of the OpenSolaris discussion forums"
"It seems to me in this case closed source made the code less secure and open source fixed the problem"

Listen on!

LiveMink—[MP3]—[Ogg]—[iTunes]—(12' 00")

LiveMink: Jeff Waugh

Simon Phipps — Tue, 29 May 2007 04:00:00 -0700

Another skipped week, but my recorder is full of interviews so hopefully we should have weekly programming for a month or so, assuming the editing happens this week.

This week's LiveMink podcast is an interview with perky chappie Jeff Waugh. Jeff and his partner Pia run an Australian Free/open source software consultancy in Sydney, and are the Brad and Angelina of the FOSS community down-under. They recently co-ordinated the OpenCeBIT conference within the huge CeBIT Australia event in Sydney, and they invited me to speak there. Jeff is on the board of the GNOME Foundation and talks to me about his involvement there, his new mobile software activity and more. Listen on!

LiveMink—[MP3]—[Ogg]—[iTunes]—(12' 14")

LiveMink Extra: Open Source Communities panel

Simon Phipps — Thu, 3 May 2007 15:33:09 -0700

It's been a busy week in Australia where I have been speaking at their CeBIT conference. I have given my keynote about five times in one form or another. I really enjoyed meeting the Sydney OpenSolaris User Group last night, and I recorded an interview with Alan Hargreaves about the telnetd issue he helped solve recently. I'll edit that into shape and put it out on LiveMink in the future. I also have an interview with Jeff Waugh in the queue.

I also sat on a show-floor panel with Linux Australia, and since I have a new Edirol R9 to play with I decided to try recording it. Here's an unusually long LiveMink, of variable quality, with that panel in it.

LiveMink—[MP3]—[Ogg]—[iTunes]—(27' 22")

LiveMink: Ian Murdock's View Of The World

Simon Phipps — Tue, 1 May 2007 04:00:00 -0700

It's been a long haul, but I finally found time to edit the second part of my interview with Ian Murdock - apologies for the skipped podcasts.

This second interview is much longer than usual (half an hour) but includes all sorts of juicy goodness including Ian's views on Debian, Progeny, the Linux Foundation and more. Ian is very candid, I think you'll find it fascinating. Listen on!

LiveMink—[MP3]—[Ogg]—[iTunes]&mdash(31' 29")

LiveMink: Ian Murdock's New Job

Simon Phipps — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 03:22:00 -0700

After a missed episode last week (sorry, I was just burned out from the travel and started the Easter break early), LiveMink is back this week with the first of two interviews with Ian Murdock. The second interview is longer and ranges much further, but this one is a good place to start.

As you're doubtless aware, Ian has joined Sun to head up the operating systems strategy for the company, and brings with him a rich history of involvement in the area, not least with the semi-eponymous Debian. In this interview I caught him in the cafeteria at Sun Menlo Park just before his first big staff meeting and asked him about the job he was about to start, his views on OpenSolaris and more. Listen on!

LiveMink—[MP3]—[Ogg]—[iTunes]&mdash(9' 12")

LiveMink TV: Three Hot Databases

Simon Phipps — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 01:18:11 -0700

The SDN TV series on open source comes to an end this week with a programme in which I interview three of the people making databases happen at Sun. Josh Berkus is well known in the PostgreSQL community, and also serves on the board of Software in the Public Interest, the non-profit that manages finances for them and for Debian. Sun offers commercial support for PostgreSQL on Solaris.

Rick Hillegas and Francois Orsini are part of the Apache Derby community and work on Sun's database product (yes, we have one), Java DB, which is a distribution of Apache Derby. Go take a look at the programme, which is available both as video and audio (I enclose the audio on SunMink since my LiveMink audience are, I assume, expecting a podcast).

LiveMink: Roy Fielding

Simon Phipps — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 04:00:00 -0700

I was honoured to be asked to give the opening keynote at the first ever OpenSolaris Developer Conference over in Berlin. The other keynote speaker was Roy Fielding, who like me is on the OpenSolaris Governing Board. Roy is scary smart, having written the Apache License, coined the term REST and defined the HTTP 1.1 protocol.

Roy was distracted by his upcoming keynote so we kept the interview really short, but his comments about the Waka protocol he's working on (a successor to HTTP) will be interesting to those without the patience to listen to the full Udell interview. Listen on!

[MP3]—[Ogg]—[iTunes]&mdash(3' 49")

LiveMink TV: Open Source Development

Simon Phipps — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 16:24:59 -0700

Open Source Month continues over on SDN TV (have you subscribed yet?), and this week I interview Kuldip Oberoi about Sun Studio and about Solaris Express Developer Edition, and OSG candidate Glynn Foster about GNOME. If you've not tried Sun Studio go give it a try - it's a great development environment for the non-Java programmer.

LiveMink OGB Special: Jim Grisanzio

Simon Phipps — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:02:40 -0700

Right from the start of OpenSolaris, today's candidate has been a respected, moderate and firm influence despite his non-technical background. Having worked with him for many years I know these characteristics come from deep within, and I think that comes across in several of the answers to the questions.

Do persevere despite the poor quality of the audio connection, which took quite a bit of setting up and was pretty dodgy even when it worked. This is the last interview I have in the queue for election candidates by the way, I suggest you go ahead and vote if you were waiting for the end of the series, noting perhaps who didn't want to be interviewed.

This candidate interview is with Jim Grisanzio, who joined my via a relay of phone connections from his office in Tokyo, Japan. Listen on!

[MP3]—[Ogg]—[iTunes]—(18' 39")

LiveMink OGB Special: Stephen Lau

Simon Phipps — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 05:53:02 -0700

I'll be ending this series soon so the remaining candidates should contact me if they want to be included (Casper Dik just told me he has a throat infection and can't participate, I've not heard from the others despite two e-mails). I'm hearing that people are listening to the series and getting a helpful insight into the different candidates, which is good - the 24 or so hours of recording and editing haven't been in vain!

Today's candidate interview is with Stephen Lau, who joined me by phone from his office in California. He replied quite early in the process but was prevented from participating until now by a throat infection (lot of it about). Listen on!

[MP3]—[Ogg]—[iTunes]—(15' 05")

LiveMink OGB Special: Shawn Walker

Simon Phipps — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 05:53:42 -0700

It's the start of the second week of voting, and there are still hundreds of people who haven't voted, so I think it's worth continuing to publish interviews. Some of the candidates seem rather shy, but hopefully most of them will be willing to speak with me in time for voters to hear everyone's voice and views.

This interview is with Shawn Walker, who joined me via VoIP from Kansas on his return from Australia. His story about moving to Solaris from GNU/Linux is worth listening to even if you're not voting in the election. I've tried post-processing this interview with The Levelator, let me know if you like the audio quality it produces. Listen on!

[MP3]—[Ogg]—[iTunes]—(19' 53")

LiveMink OGB Special: Michelle Olson

Simon Phipps — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 05:15:32 -0700

We're half-way through the OGB Elections and I'm half-way through doing interviews with the candidates - let's hope I can find them all before too long.

This interview is with Michelle Olson, who spoke with me by phone from California. Listen on!

[MP3]—[Ogg]—[iTunes]—(8' 50")

LiveMink OGB Special: John McLaughlin

Simon Phipps — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 05:55:51 -0700

He's not been involved with the OpenSolaris community much, but today's candidate interview is with someone who has a big influence on the Solaris market by publication of System News. I've not met him before and so enjoyed the introduction. Turns out he has an extensive and practical background in both Solaris and user groups.

This interview is with John McLaughlin, who joined me by VoIP from Florida. Listen on!

[MP3]—[Ogg]—[iTunes]—(13' 35")

LiveMink OGB Special: Jörg Schilling

Simon Phipps — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:36:37 -0700

Many Unix and Unix-alike OS users owe a huge debt of gratitude to this candidate for his open source software. Without cdrecord, we'd be living in a greatly impoverished world concerning CD and DVD support. His high-energy, forthright and sometimes controversial approach makes him an interesting and often compelling community member.

This interview is with Jörg Schilling, who spoke via the phone from Berlin in Germany. Listen on!

[MP3]—[Ogg]—[iTunes]—(12' 58")

LiveMink OGB Special: Rich Teer

Simon Phipps — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 05:20:28 -0700

One of the nicest people I have had the chance to meet since getting involved with OpenSolaris is the author of the seminal work on Solaris System Programming, Rich Teer. Rich is a current member of the OGB having become one when the CAB was fully chartered last year, and he is one of two OGB members standing for election (Casper Dik of Sun is the other).

This interview is with with Rich Teer. He spoke to me by phone from Canada. He mentions his new business venture in the interview, My Online Home Inventory, which runs on Solaris. Listen on!

[MP3]—[Ogg]—[iTunes]—(13' 35")

LiveMink TV: Java Opens Up

Simon Phipps — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 10:52:40 -0700

You may recall this is Open Source Month at SDN TV. As I'm the host of the next three episodes, I'll treat them as LiveMInk podcasts and include them here, but to see the video you really should go over and watch the episodes, and the best move is actually to subscribe to the SDN TV Podcast.

This programme features the most excellent Mark Reinhold talking about OpenJDK and then the equally excellent Eduardo Pellegri-Llopart eulogising the Glassfish Project. I actually think it works quite well - take a look.

Update:Many thanks to Mark W for the transcoding, there is now an Ogg/Theora version of the programme.

LiveMink OGB Special: Ben Rockwood

Simon Phipps — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 15:36:48 -0700

You'll hear in this interview both the delights of working from home (I called at bath-time) and the perils of using VoIP (it took three attempts with Skype as you'll hear from the different levels and the static in various places). And we went on a little too long because of it - apologies.

The OGB candidate I'm speaking to in this interview is Ben Rockwood. Listen on!

[MP3]—[Ogg]—[iTunes]—(21' 12")

LiveMink OGB Special: Garrett D'Amore

Simon Phipps — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 06:53:27 -0700

Day two of the OpenSolaris OGB Election and the fruits of a long night recording interviews begin to be delivered today. I'll be travelling to OpenSolaris Day in London today, but I have two interviews queued so stay tuned!

The next candidate kindly agreeing to be interviewed is Garrett D'Amore. Garrett joined me by telephone from southern California. Listen on!

[MP3]—[Ogg]—[iTunes]—(17' 21")

LiveMink OGB Special: Karyn Ritter

Simon Phipps — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 15:23:34 -0700

OK, we are getting some momentum here. I have another 5 candidates in the queue willing to be interviewed, plus the one I am posting here. Maybe I'm not that scary after all?

My third interviewee in the LiveMink Election Special series is Karyn Ritter. Karyn joined me by telephone from California. Listen on!

[MP3]—[Ogg]—[iTunes]—(7' 40")

LiveMink OGB Special: James McPherson

Simon Phipps — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 06:35:41 -0700

The interviews continue to trickle in - looking forward to speaking to the other 17 candidates, assuming they will speak to me (I hear some of them don't want to).

My second interviewee in the LiveMink Election Special series is James McPherson. James joined me by telephone from Sydney. Listen on!

[MP3]—[Ogg]—[iTunes]—(14' 52")

LiveMink OGB Special: Glynn Foster

Simon Phipps — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 20:40:00 -0700

Last week I invited all of the candidates in the OpenSolaris Governing Board elections to record an interview for me. Responses have been rather slow (can you believe that they are shy?) but the first ones have started to happen. I'll be publishing a series of interviews just as soon as I can get them recorded. You may want to subscribe - the podcast feed link is down there in the left hand column near the bottom.

First to the microphone is Glynn Foster. Glynn spoke to me using VoIP from New Zealand. Thank-you for replying and being brave enough to go first, Glynn. Listen on!

[MP3]—[Ogg]—[iTunes]—(12' 33")

New Feed for LiveMink

Simon Phipps — Tue, 6 Mar 2007 19:31:37 -0800

Thanks to some nimble footwork from Dave Johnson (thank-you so much, Dave), I now have a new and much more flexible feed for my LiveMink podcasts. If you're subscribed with iTunes I hope there will be an automatic redirect soon, but if you are using anything else please change your feed subscription now to http://blogs.sun.com/webmink/page/livemink.xml

Update: I now have the new iTunes link in place, complete with a picture!

LiveMink: Miguel de Icaza

Simon Phipps — Tue, 6 Mar 2007 04:00:00 -0800

At FOSDEM in Brussels a short while ago I spent some quality time sharing a few beers with Novell VP Miguel de Icaza, the driving force behind both GNOME and the Mono project. Miguel is unfailingly upbeat, even after getting heckled in his keynote, and I think you can get a feeling for his energy and passion in this discussion we recorded at the end of the event in the hallway at FOSDEM.

Miguel talks about why he's not worried about Mono providing a pathway to Microsoft (I'm afraid the juiciest bits got lost when the plug fell out of the recorder), and how he welcomes Sun starting OpenJDK. Listen on!

[MP3]—[ Ogg]—[ iTunes]

LiveMink: Freedom Task Force

Simon Phipps — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 04:00:00 -0800

At FOSDEM last weekend, I met up with Shane Coughlan, a long-time Free software advocate and now full-time staff for the Free Software Foundation Europe. Shane told me all about the new initiative FSFE is starting, the Freedom Task Force, which aims to provide a legal focus for Free software in Europe. Listen on!

[MP3]—[Ogg]—[iTunes]