Open Excess

J. C. Penney is opening at 04:00 (AM for those not on a 24 hour clock) ...

Need I say more?

Open Justice...

...or the best justice that money can buy?.

This is just plain wrong!

Posted at LinuxWatch

Nov. 20, 2007

York Capital Management's proposed Asset Purchase Agreement and its associated credit agreement for SCO make it clear that if the bankruptcy court lets York buy SCO, that York will be bankrolling SCO's continued lawsuits against Novell, IBM and other Linux-using companies.

Groklaw published the APA and its associated credit agreement during the last few days. The most interesting aspects of the proposed deal are in the credit agreement.

York, a private equity firm, is offering a complex purchase agreement for SCO. While the total amount of the deal comes to $36 million, a close look reveals SCO would get $10 million in cash and what amounts to a $10 million line of credit to use to continue its legal fights with Novell and IBM.
...

While you would be hard pressed to find anyone who believes SCO's claims that Unix code is hidden within Linux after almost five years of lawsuits without any real evidence, York, if it can get the bankruptcy court to approve its bid for SCO, is willing to take a small bet that somehow profits may yet be reaped from SCO's lawsuits.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware will hold a hearing on the proposed sale on Dec. 5.

Please, let common sense prevail - Wagering on the outcome of litigation should have no place in our business society.

Open Advertising (???)

Quick! Tell me about two commercials you saw during the last Super Bowl.

Funny, neither can I. Ok, tell me the company or product offered in the banner ad in the last page you went to.

Funny, neither can I. You can only imagine how it must sound to the Marketing Survey caller when I honestly say that I cannot remember any of the advertisements in such-n-such magazine. Even though I had skimmed it only two days ago.

This awareness brings me to one of two possible conclusions. Either advertising works...on a subliminal level. Or, advertising is grossly over priced for the effect it has on the viewer.

I wonder if Advertising folks would be willing to fess up to either position? It would probably involve Lawyers speaking for the interests of the industry.

Hmmmm...

Hmmm, iffen you quote enough smart people...

Guess these folks didn't watch the Kermit the Frog video... Same as it ever was!

Open Responsibility

Microsoft's Bill Hilf Reveals Its Open Source Strategy

The man in charge of Microsoft's strategy for living in harmony with Linux lays out the company's opportunities with open source and the open source business model.

By J. Nicholas Hoover
InformationWeek
November 16, 2007 06:01 AM

...

InformationWeek: Are there any specific areas where you would see Microsoft placing things in an open source development environment as a way to further its own products or to better interoperate with things?

Hilf: When people buy commercial software, really what they're buying is a guarantee. You're buying a guarantee that what you have will perform, and has been tested and there's someone you can call up, and if things go really bad someone's liable if something doesn't work. You're buying this ecosystem of accountability. One of the challenges of open source and really the challenge with the open source business model is: it's hard to replicate that ecosystem of accountability and that guarantee.

Emphasis mine.

In adopting a "Blamers" mentality we have succeeded locking ourselves into our own prison. Instead of looking for a solution to a given problem we have taken up the practice of finding someone else to blame, someone on whom we can place the responsibility.

Open Source is the antithesis of "Blamers". Open Source people, as individuals or groups, who have accepted the full and nontransferable responsibility for their work. By accepting the tenets of Open Source these people are willing to place their work under the scrutiny of the most discriminating critics. In return their work is vetted and documented to a degree that insures the very highest quality.

When we as consumers use Open Source software we are accepting that same level of responsibility. This does not mean that I, as a consumer, am "out in the cold" should I experience any difficulty with an Open Source project. To the contrary, it is the community of developers _and_ critics that rise to my assistance when I have questions or issues. They do so willingly, on their own time, and most often at their own expense.

We need to move away from "Blamers" and the blame game mentality.