I owe Doug Alder an apology. Doug left a perfectly correct comment on my Papa Predictions for 2008 posting. In it he observed, "I think you must have missed MS' decision to not charge any licensing fees for server 2008..." He is absolutely right. I missed that bit of news. (More on that elsewhere.)
Doug also mentioned that "Your comment form does not appear to give me a place to put my url when signing in using my gmail account - it is "
Now this is a really serious matter. Apparently the comment form strips out e-mail addresses as well(?). This is not boding well for Google.
All that aside, Doug Alder has been and continues to be a long-standing member of the blogging community. I am sorry for suggesting anything to the contrary.
Length: 38:20 - Longish but worth it.
This is something akin to landing on the moon. Its potential is huge but I won't be using it in my kitchen anytime soon. Still it represents a noteworthy paradigm shift in thinking about programming.
Actual video removed - click here to view it. Subtext
(It was taking too long to load the entire video each time you visit this page.)
I read the following quote and was unsettled...
Kenya: Deep lessons for South Africa
THE events of the last two weeks in Kenya have exposed just how fragile democracy is when it does not enjoy the protection of a country’s political leadership.
In a bi-polar paradigm...
Mass in church marks Armenian Christmas
January 5th, 2008 by anush
On the evening of 5 January each year a special mass is conducted in Armenian churches to mark Christmas.
Lots of visitors are here on this day. Most of them come not to hear the mass but to light a candle and take it home, which is the tradition.
The real meaning of taking a light home, which is having it in your heart and taking it home, comes true after staying here for a couple of hours.
Linux Mini-laptops
Beginning just after "Tax Time" there will be a run on OLPCs and ASUS Eee PCs. Once computer users are let out of the MS-Box they will quickly realize that the power and features of these and other small form laptops is perfectly suited to their everyday computing needs.
Real prediction: Enthusiastic reception of the Linux based mini-laptop will cause a landslide acceptance of Linux on the Desktop.
Bonus link: Noahpad
Coming under the privacy watchers fearful gaze Google will begin to reveal what will come to be known as the gShiner, the GoOgle - the Google blackeye. I view this as an unfortunate side effect of Google's main mission - to acquire and provide information upon request. Privacy watchers will insist that it is too much personal information. Google will suffer a blackeye for doing well exactly what it is used for...by everyone - vanity searches.
Real Prediction: Google, to stay competitive in the 'Information Display' market will release a new AI based criteria parser that significantly improves the average user's search experience. By implementing a more 'common-language' parser Google will be able to reduce the returned 'hits' to a much more succinct and manageable number.
Realizing that Papa's Prediction #1 is bearing down on them like a run-away freight train Microsoft will begin to do what they do best... FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt). Claiming that their 'small foot print, fully Windows compatible' version of MiniWini (MeanieWeenie) is just around the corner Microsoft will attempt to undermine common sense and the public's realization that surfing and internet are the only things they really do with any PC.
Real Prediction: Microsoft will implode! With revenue falling at a rate of 32 feet per second squared the Redmond Giant will come tumbling down the economic bean stalk at breakneck speed.
The real Real Prediction: Microsoft will slowly begin to release the Linux based versions of its "popular" applications. And foolishly try to sell them at bloated MS-Prices.
There is a sensation that affluent Americans experience when they skip one or possibly two consecutive meals. I felt it today.
I left the house this morning in a bit of a rush having consumed only a couple of cups of coffee. When I got to the office things started up right away so I didn't have time to lounge around. Later, when I passed through the main office, I looked over the selection of Vendor donuts and just kept walking. Errands to run on my "lunch" hour pushed my schedule back even further.
On the way back to the office I did manage to grab a Veggie Sub. That is when I felt that sensation. It wasn't a pain or a pang. It wasn't really uncomfortable. It was just a mild sense of ... hunger.
But more important was the sense of relief. A sense of being unburdened. I was not engaged in a food process just because it was a particular time of day. I was not mindlessly pushing just another meal into my face. I was involved in a marked celebration of culinary and sensual delights. A completion of a circle.
I know better than to make resolutions. For me they have been little more than momentary declarations of good intentions. Followed quickly on by first slivers then planks of guilt as each well intentioned point of resolve fades away...
So instead I thought I would make a list of reminders.
Chapter 1The way that can be spoken of
Is not the constant way;
The name that can be named
Is not the constant name.The nameless was the beginning of heaven and earth;
The named was the mother of the myriad creatures.Hence always rid yourself of desires in order to observes its secrets;
But always allow yourself to have desires in order to observe its manifestations.These two are the same
But diverge in name as they issue forth.
Being the same they are called mysteries,
Mystery upon mystery -
The gateway of the manifold secrets.
Golden sunshine, heavy with promise, cuts across the mist rising from the cold flowing Ohio river of December's last day.
The last day brings a host of last things...
Sitting at the breakfast table across from The Saint (my wife, who must be a saint to have put up with me these past 25 years). Fresh coffee, a two egg omelette, three sausage links and two slices of buttered toast. It won't be the last time sitting across the table...but it will likely be the last of the cardio-challenging breakfasts.
Inexorably the river flows...
Off to the office - yes, working on New Years Eve... I could have taken a vacation day - but there are those last sniggling year-end-roll-over issues that Information Systems Administrators need to watch over. So working today isn't really a bad thing - I would have been called in anyway. Besides, it is very quiet today... everyone else, well, almost everyone else opted to take the vacation day...
...and the river flows...
I broke the mirror of my life
and cut myself
trying to pick up the pieces
...and the river flows...
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated...
I am heart broken.
I did not know Ms Bhutto. I did not know her political views. I did not know her social views. I did not know her religious views.
I believed that in an open and democratic process Ms Bhutto represented the possibility of change.
I believe that Ms Bhutto was singled out as much for her gender as for any other value she may have held or supported.
I believe that Pakistan _and_ the world has lost an opportunity to grow.
We, as a world society, are less for this atrocity.
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide attack that also killed at least 20 others at a campaign rally, aides said.
 Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto wears a shawl presented by her supporters, a gesture of respect, during her visit to Peshawar, Pakistan, Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2007. [Agencies] |
As we approach the tax season the disparity of who pays more taxes will again raise its attention grabbing head. And as a group we howl... Beth-who-does-not-blog-yet, knowing my penchant for moral puzzles, sent me this link
BUSINESS | December 25, 2007I found this to be an interesting read as well as a fearless assertion in light of the author's criticism leveled at her home state. Without offering the specifics the gist of the article is that there is a disparity between how much the poor pay and how much the wealthy pay in taxes.
Professor Cites Bible in Faulting Tax Policies
By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON
The work of a professor at the University of Alabama Law School has prompted some other scholars to scour religious texts to explore the moral basis of tax and spending policies.
If you have read me before you know that I have taken a big gulp of the Google-Aid. So you won't be surprised at all to hear that I was an early adopter of the Google Browser Sync extension for Firefox. Across platforms my Firefox experience is [almost] the same. Now I should mention that this extension is just a bit idio-sync-ratic. I mean, I have lost my bookmarks once or twice but... seems that backups abound on the other platforms so... only a little blood, a little harm, so only a little foul. According to the Mozilla Labs blog post announcing the Weave effort, one of the goals of the project is to, "ensure that it is easy for people to set up their own services with freely available open standards-based tools." Mozilla also expects the Weave effort to grow into a social effort, enabling a user's online hosted data to be shared and accessed by friends. The group also plans to build out tools and APIs so that developers can expand and utilize the platform.
Caveat: Google is a search engine. It is intent on acquiring data and then drawing conclusions, specifically merchandising meta-data.
Mozilla enters the sync-ronicity fray offering ...The general idea is that by utilizing a Mozilla online services backend, users can store data such as bookmarks and history. That data can be synchronized with their local browser or even multiple browsers.
Just what we need...
...
This all started for me when Jeremy at too many topics, too little time. pointed me at ...
Which in turn prompted me to reflect on an article that Beth (who doesn't blog, yet) pointed my way from ...sean cubitt's blog
Thursday, December 20, 2007Crisis in the meaning of meaning
Meaning was the once-natural sequence of being, knowing, interpreting, judging, willing and acting . It is this sequence which no longer operates as it did in earlier times.
...
(Please read the entire post - it is well worth it. -Papa)
Meaning doesn't. Truth isn't. Law does not mean law. Freedom does not mean freedom.Notebook
by Hunter
Sat Dec 01, 2007 at 01:40:42 PM PST
...I had thought we had decided as a nation that internment camp was a monstrous thing. What foolish thought; it needed only a new era, and someone new to exhume it and give it the kiss of diplomacy, and now even that is a reasonable pair of words to utter.
Truth, though, seems the coldest word of all. We have decided that truth does not mean truth, and from that atomic alteration, all the other words reorganize themselves in seismic shifts. If truth does not mean truth, then journalism does not mean journalism, and law does not mean law, and freedom does not mean freedom, and equitable does not mean equitable, and every other word can be decapitated as well, left on the ground like so many fallen soldiers in an unexplainable war. Is one of our presidential candidates secretly a Muslim, and hiding it from us? Who cares, if the accusation can be made? Does a new law have a claimed effect? Who cares what the facts themselves might say, if there is someone to dispute the point?
Finally I stumbled upon this offering from Winston Rand......
The Generational Divide in Copyright Morality In an auditorium of 500, no matter how far my questions went down that garden path, maybe two hands went up. I just could not find a spot on the spectrum that would trigger these kids' morality alarm. They listened to each example, looking at me like I was nuts.
Finally, with mock exasperation, I said, "O.K., let's try one that's a little less complicated: You want a movie or an album. You don't want to pay for it. So you download it."
There it was: the bald-faced, worst-case example, without any nuance or mitigating factors whatsoever.
"Who thinks that might be wrong?"
Two hands out of 500.
...
I don't pretend to know what the solution to the file-sharing issue is. (Although I'm increasingly convinced that copy protection isn't it.)
I do know, though, that the TV, movie and record companies' problems have only just begun. Right now, the customers who can't even *see* why file sharing might be wrong are still young. But 10, 20, 30 years from now, that crowd will be *everybody*. What will happen then?
The Appearance of Governance…
The world is governed more by appearances than realities, so that it is fully as necessary to seem to know something as to know it. — Daniel WebsterThen again, some who neither seem to know anything, nor actually know anything, like to pretend play to be king. They are most dangerous when they really begin to believe that they are above the law of the land, that the Constitution is just a “damned piece of paper”, that they infallible since their words and deeds are directed by their god, and that their own wants and needs come before the wishes of the people they are supposedly governing. Do you know of anyone like that?
"...Searching for freedom, dignity, justice, equality, Shura and all the remaining Islamic values which are missing.. for Raghad and Khitab (his daughters)."
Saudi Arabia added yet another accolade to its freedom of speech record by arresting its first blogger. Fouad Al Farhan, considered by many as being the dean of Saudi bloggers for being among the first to blog in his country using his real name, has been arrested in Jeddah. No further news is available for the reasons for his detention.
This Mary Jo Foley announcement may well have the greatest impact of all time on Free/Libre Open Source Software...
The cynic in me wonders just how much Microsoft will change the protocol when they release MinWin. (I so much so wish for a level playing field and a sense of fair play.)December 20th, 2007
Microsoft and Samba finally come to terms over Windows protocols
Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 12:49 pmAfter years of public disagreement over ensuring interoperability between their respective software, Microsoft and Samba have come to terms. And not surprisingly, each vendor is offering quite a different spin on the licensing agreement they unveiled on December 20.
It took an intermediary, the Protocol Freedom Information Foundation (PFIF) — a non-profit organization created by the Software Freedom Law Center — to hand off the Microsoft protocol documentation that Samba said it needed to make its Unix/Linux file/print sharing products work properly with Windows.
According to a press release issued December 20, Samba is paying Microsoft a one-time sum of 10,000 Euros, after which the PFIF will make available to the Samba Team, under non-disclosure, “the documentation needed for implementation of all of the workgroup server protocols covered by the European Union decision.” (The EU decision to which this refers is the Microsoft’s loss of its appeal to overturn the European Commission’s 2004 antitrust decision against the company.)
Not surprisingly, Samba and Microsoft had quite different spins on today’s news.
Lane Hartwell has turned a great exposure possibility into a "I won't give your work another look" instance.
Let us get a grip on this situation. If...IF... a Hartwell image was being used to create an income stream for a separate party then I can understand Lane's objections. In the instance of the Bubble video there was no attempt to capitalize on the work of any given individual.
I see this as a litigious moment. "I can raise a stink because the letter of the law supports my sanctimonious position." Let common sense take a back seat to my egotistical "concerns".
So here is the laughable part of this whole thing.... if... IF Lane Hartwell had acknowledged the use of her photograph and... AND... didn't make a whiny mess... people would have surfed to her site in droves. Perhaps evens spending a few dollars on her photography.
As it stands now... "I won't give your work another look" regardless of the quality - you see, I can stand on the pinnacle of principle too. (But I won't lose any money on the deal. So sorry.)
In the previous post Open Blogging I echoed a couple of reports about Zhai Minglei. He is a Chinese blogger/publisher who was "visited" by authorities. I became a little concerned when I couldn't find any more information about his circumstances. Then I came across this report posted at Civic China. ..
...and I am prepared for the worst. This is the price to be paid in struggling for freedom of speech and media freedom. - Zhai Minglei, November 29, 2007December 2, 2007
Short Update
According to the latest post on his Blog named “One Man’s Paper” (一个人的报纸), Zhai Minglei has safely returned home. For now.
After copying it, the authorities have also returned his harddisk.
Mr. Zhai spent long hours trying to convince the police that Minjian has done nothing illegal whatsoever.
We hope that this effort will reach the right ears and eventually bring about some positive development!
The Accidental Russophile mentioned...
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Putin Announced as Time Magazine's "Man of the Year"
Perhaps not-so-surprising announcement regarding Time Magazine naming Vladimir Putin as their "Man of the Year" for 2007. Reuters has the story of one of the more negative sounding pronouncements of "Man of the Year" in recent memory.
To commemerate the occasion, I'm sharing the following Putin cut-out figure. Now you too can have a little Putin, Man of the Year, watching over your desk!I am folding mine now.
... Ali Shafeya Al-Moussawi was a contributor to the video blog, Alive in Baghdad. He was killed while at home, during a raid by the Iraqi National Guard in his street. Ali took 31 bullets between the chest and head and died immediately. Ali was not the only victim of that raid. Hussain, his neighbour, was found dead. Hussain's brother and nephew have disappeared too.
Ali is survived by his mother and sister. Alive in Baghdad are collecting donations to help the family with the funeral costs.
Wikipedia asserts...
"There's a sucker born every minute" is a phrase often credited to P.T. Barnum (1810 – 1891), an American showman. It is generally taken to mean that there are (and always will be) a lot of gullible people in the world.Emphasis mine...
However, when Barnum's biographer tried to track down when Barnum had uttered this phrase, all of Barnum's friends and acquaintances told him it was out of character. Barnum's credo was more along the lines of "there's a customer born every minute" — he wanted to find ways to draw new customers in all the time because competition was fierce and people bored easily.
December 12, 2007
'w00t' Crowned Word of Year by U.S. Dictionary
"w00t," an expression of joy coined by online gamers, was crowned word of the year on Tuesday by the publisher of a leading U.S. dictionary.
Massachusetts-based Merriam-Webster said "w00t" -- typically spelled with two zeros -- reflects a new direction in the American language led by a generation raised on video games and cell phone text-messaging.
It's like saying "yay," the dictionary said.
"It could be after a triumph or for no reason at all," Merriam-Webster said.
I followed Boyd back through Scoble all the way to Gates (sorta)...
to hear the moaning and bemoaning of corporate software initiatives and the relative 'sexiness' of them... SHEEEEESH!!! Give us a break! Can't you guys hear the paradigm shifting? It is not corporate software or the individual as a group or even sexiness!
People have just begun to wake up to what their real computing needs are.
The personal computing revolution will not be televised, streamed, meme'd, podcast or blogged... the PC revolution will be live ... lead by little children carrying OLPCs. People are waking up to the fact that they do not need HUGE personal computers running BLOATED software.
People are realizing the Google's Documents & Spreadsheets are all they really need. Businesses large and small are beginning to understand that we are not headed for a paper-less environment. We are headed for a paper-paradigm-less environment. As long as applications and programs were/are designed to render a final product on paper we are stuck in the paper-paradigm.
There are two great examples of this paradigm shift. The first of course are web browsers. Their final 'product' is not designed to be rendered (printed) on paper. So web browsers and by association web sites do not have to conform to the paper-paradigm.
Lotus Notes in my opinion is another great example of the paper-paradigm-less computing environment. Very early on criticism was leveled at Lotus Notes that its e-mail interface was built on a poor word processor. I argued then as I do today that Lotus Notes was never designed to be printed on paper. I found that if I left my e-mail messages inside Lotus Notes they formated perfectly. It was only when I tried to print them on paper that the formating appeared to change. I attribute this concern about format change to a deep seated paper-paradigm expectation. As soon as I moved away from that expectation I was able to accept Lotus Notes formating as it is. As it should be - in its native digital form.
Now I realize that I have dragged you the long way around the barn to get to this point but... people are beginning to realize that they don't need paper-paradigm computing applications or platforms. I am confident that we will see a new PC revolution, albiet a very small form revolution, with the advent of the small-form laptops.
Coming up next: In my next post I will offer up the paper-paradigm-less challenge.
From Global Voices Online...
Today, is International Human Rights Day and while this is good cause for reflection (and depression) about the terrible state of affairs in the world, there are also some remarkable victories to celebrate. Activists around the world are finding new, innovative ways to use technology to tell their stories, and fight back against censorship and oppression.
Yesterday, six Global Voices bloggers on different continents participated in a conference call with Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson, and Graça Machel. You can listen to an audio recording of the conversation here (thanks to Preetam Rai).
These heroes of human right have recenltly joined forces with Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi and eight others in a new group called The Elders. And they are asking the world's bloggers and citizen media activists to help them in their campaign to make human rights more relavant to individuals around the world.
A new campaign
The Elders new online campaign, Every Human has Rights is aiming to get as many signatures as possible on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
On openDemocracy's women's rights blog, 5050, I wrote:
… Desmond Tutu said he would like to see “a billion” signatures on it. I wonder how many have even read it? Considering the enormous mailing lists of organizations like Amnesty International, UNICEF, Action Aid, and other who are partnering in the effort, it shouldn’t take too long to reach the first million signatures. But 1 billion signatures? Has that even been done before?
From Datamation
Headlines I Never Expected to Read
Warning sounded over 'flirting robots'
Microsoft pulls plug on potty-mouth Santa
How Your Creepy Ex-Co-Workers Will Kill Facebook
Your Computer Thinks You're Lazy
Cops: More Smoke Toad Venom to Get High
White House Mum On Destroyed CIA Tapes*
* Just kidding. This one's no surprise at all.
Posted by Chris Nerney at December 10, 2007 01:47 PM
Silence should be put on the endangered list.
We live out in the county. That is a way of saying 'out in the country' or 'out in the sticks' or 'out in the boonies'. Sure the road out front is two-lane blacktop. And yes, the "highway" that is half a mile away is two-lane blacktop as well but out here at the 12 Mile marker we are about as far away from things as a body can get. Why, any farther away and ya'll start gettin' closer to somethin' else. If you get my meaning, if ya'll catch my drift...
So I made a point of pausing the most excellent work of The James Quintet. That leaves only the chiclet clicking of this laptop's keyboard and the rhythmic ticking of the two battery driven clocks that are in audible range. If you open your mouth slightly (improves the acoustic resonance - lets you hear better) you can make out the low rain slick whisper of the occasional car on on the highway.
Returning from town this morning after dropping my eldest off early I absentmindedly reached to turn on the car radio. I thought to myself how comforting it would be to hear the familiar NPR Weekend Edition. Then I stopped (not the car) and asked just why is it so comforting?
Certainly it is familiar - like hearing from an old friend. It is part of my vehicular ritual - listening to NPR during my regular morning and afternoon commutes. I also noted that the sound of the radio covers a multitude of niggling little 'road' noises - those little audio reminders that I am driving a 10 year old car that really wants a little more TLC than it is receiving.
I occurs to me there is one other reason, one personal pressing reason that I want something on the radio, something comforting. I really don't want to be left in my own personal silence. I don't want to have to listen to myself. I don't want to hear what I truly have to say.
If sound were a drug I would be the worst kind of junkie. Jonesing when the music isn't playing. Getting the shakes and the delerium tremins when the TV isn't on and blaring. (How about those odd moments when the TV is on but the volume is off?) Heck fire, I've even taken to talking to myself just to fill up the silent spots.
Now I am curious. Just what would I say if I would just shut up and listen.
Thank you Betsy Devine ...
Our mother’s belief system, summed up in four lines: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without.”
From the wonderfully twisted mind of Platicus at Sandwich Flats... The "Fatal Attraction" Kitchen Set
I wan' it, I wan' it, I wan' it... NOW!
Here is something fun to say...
...a silicon photonic wave guide...I want one...or a few... hundred.
Joi Ito received this when attempting to access Twitter...
While the United Arab Emirates are well within their rights to block objectionable content it is imperative that we see first hand the result of their actions.
When I posted "Open little "w" windows - MinWin" I tried to put the best possible spin on a commodity that I grudgingly endorse, Microsoft Windows. As an IT professional I have to embrace Windows even if I find them contemptible. When I learned about MinWin I thought there might be some redeeming value... until I heard this
TWO THOUSAND AND TEN ?!?!?Monday, December 3
Maximum Wait for MinWin, Windows 7.0
Microsoft Partners: Use Of Downgrade Rights Is Surging
4:49 PM EST Mon. Dec. 03, 2007
Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) claims that adoption of Windows Vista and Office 2007 is chugging along nicely, with more than 88 million Vista licenses and 71 million Office licenses sold in the past year.But these numbers belie the fact that some organizations just don't see the value in upgrading to Vista and Office 2007, and are perfectly content with XP and Office 2003. Many solution providers are seeing surging interest in downgrade rights, which Microsoft offers to business users of both Vista and Office, and which allow companies to use previous versions of Microsoft software.
Emphasis mine! This is the final tolling of the Microsoft death knell. "Surging interest" in downgrading from Vista to XP means that Microsoft's income stream will shortly dry up to a trickle. Couple that with a 'wait until 2010' forecast for the future and I can only ask if Microsoft can survive its own desolation?
It used to be that Linux was a fringe alternative. Now it is looking like the mainstream choice.
Amid the raging controversy of whether blogging is dead comes a not so quiet report from Rebecca McKinnon ...
Is Web2.0 a wash for free speech in China?
This is a picture of Zhai Minglei's computer after his hard drive was removed and confiscated on Thursday.
Blogger and publisher of the recently-shut-down grassroots newspaper "Minjian," Zhai posted the photo on Friday along with an account of the questioning he had undergone that afternoon. See John Kennedy's translation of Zhai's Thursday blog post describing how his home was raided. Friday's post is a long account, which hopefully somebody will translate in full. His hard drive was returned to him, with "Minjian"-related material removed.
...and I am prepared for the worst. This is the price to be paid in struggling for freedom of speech and media freedom.China: NGO blogger’s house raided, hard drive confiscated
Published by November 29th, 2007
...In an urgent post [zh] on 1bao this morning, Zhai writes:
At just after 10 this morning, on November 29, 2007, five people from the Shanghai Municipality Cultural Market Administrative Enforcement Squad (three men, two women) suddenly showed up at my home. Three of them produced identification, two did not, and they proceeded to search through every room and every corner of my house. Even the paper in my printer was confiscated, along with my last remaining copies of the forty-one issues of Minjian. At the same time, they demanded to search my home computer. They searched through files on the computer, and even removed the hard drive which they took with them. The reason they gave was my involvement in work on the illegal publication Minjian.
I told them:
1. Minjian is internal material pertaining to the Civil Society Center at Sun Yat-sen University, and not something I have published privately.
2. Minjian is non-profit.
3. Minjian contains nothing pornographic reactionary or related to religious minorities.I respectfully asked them to work appropriately and in good faith as they carry out their work.
As they left, they told me that on the afternoon of the 30th, tomorrow, I am scheduled to undergo an investigation.This is most likely connected to the notice I posted online informing readers of Minjian’s closure [zh], and I am prepared for the worst. This is the price to be paid in struggling for freedom of speech and media freedom.
Fortunately, I was able to express myself fully in [zh] the online notice, and it is also my formal statement in this matter: the shutting down of Minjian was illegal, a violation of academic freedom, of freedom of the press, and of media freedom in general.
Zhai signs off in a solemn, but carefully-worded tone; Minjian translates to ‘the civil,’ or ‘that among the people’:
Pass this news on to as many readers as possible, tell them to take proper care of Minjian, to appeal on behalf of Minjian.
[…]
Yours,Zhai Minglei
November 29, 2007
Microsoft has driven the last nail in Vista's coffin if the reports about MinWin are true.
From an end-user and "integrator" perspective this means never having to say I am Vista. It also means another 12-18 month delay before I make another significant Microsoft investment.Microsoft Partners: MinWin Could Soothe Vista Headaches
7:19 PM EST Fri. Nov. 30, 2007
In the year that has passed since Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) released Windows Vista to business users, the operating system has gained a reputation in the channel as a bloated memory hog that many companies are avoiding like a trip to the dentist.But Microsoft partners have a more positive opinion of Windows 7, the next generation of Windows that Microsoft expects to ship in the 2010 timeframe. That's because Windows 7 will be based on MinWin, a scaled down version of the Windows core that will also serve as the framework for Windows Server and Windows Media Center.
MinWin's source code base takes up about 25 megabytes on disk, compared to about 4 gigabytes for Vista. Solution providers see this as a sign that Microsoft has learned its lesson from trying to cram too much into the Windows OS, and some feel that Windows 7 will be a roaring success in the market.
At the recommendation of the august Blogist and Philosopher Frank Paynter I clicked on a link that took me to the writings of Ben Paynter. Most specifically the article in The Pitch - Don't Look Down.
Ben, you've done it again!
Who plants trees although he knows he'll never sit in their shadows has at least begun to recognize the sense of life. - Anonymous
Our forefathers should be forewarned
about the potential abuse of forearms...
Thanks to The Way I Think for the pic
As I have posted earlier I have no love for FaceBook. So it is sort of antithetical that I offer the solution to FB's privacy issues.
According to the WSJ's informal survey some 60+% of FB users would not like their friends to automatically be notified if they bought Prada or tickets to see Lion King. Ok, the answer is simple.
FB users should be notified that X number of their friends have bought the latest Stephen King thriller. Then privacy is maintained. No specific user is named. But the endorsement is implicit. AND the unknown aspect of X will only server to create a greater conversation (reads more FB traffic = more FB revenue.)
Somebody over at FB owes me a nice fat check!
In a recent segment broadcast on NPR about Privacy I heard (paraphrasing)
'A potential employer might discover something about me that I hadn't intended them to find.'The segment was concerning the publishing of personal information on sites like Facebook or MySpace and that employers were 'researching' prospective employees as a part of the vetting process.
Chris Sanders, who claims to be full of I.T., said he was thankful for growing up here-abouts...in Kentucky...just a bit west of here...
I can’t say that I will stay in Graves County for the rest of my life, as we all know how twists and turns can throw things off course. I will however, guarantee that no matter where I go and what I accomplish, I will always be Chris Sanders from Mayfield, KY. That would be about 30 miles southwest of Possum Trot, 40 miles southeast of Monkey’s Eyebrow, and about 10 miles north of the state line….just in case you were wondering….Way to go Chris... now they will never leave you alone. Prolly be two or three more people a week be round to look you up. :)
J. C. Penney is opening at 04:00 (AM for those not on a 24 hour clock) ...
Need I say more?
...or the best justice that money can buy?.
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.
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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.
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...
Guess these folks didn't watch the Kermit the Frog video... Same as it ever was!
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
InformationWeekNovember 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.
One of the great social philosophers of our time, Steven Wright, asked the pointed question, "If you had everything where would you put it?"
The answer is very simple. "Everywhere."
If we did in fact dominate the world where would we put it? Would we rearrange the continents? Rename the countries? Demand that people change the color of their eyes? Standardize on a universal breakfast cereal?
If we did dominate the world we would leave it just as it is. Nothing would change. We would still have a world economy. Neighboring people groups would still have long standing disagreements. Some areas of the planet would be warmer/colder/wetter/drier. Local political leaders would be subject to the influences of area political leaders who in turn would be subject to the influences of regional political leaders who would be influenced by ... all the same people who are influential now.
We need to realize that no one wants to dominate the world. No one wants the responsibility of managing any more people or territory than they already have.
Let me be clear on one very serious point here: We, the world population, must remain vigilant. We cannot allow atrocities to occur.
By unburdening ourselves of fear we can begin to grow. When we stop the false "competing" that our respective governments have committed us to we can begin to work cooperatively. Instead of investing in systems and mechanisms that are designed to keep us separate and apart we can concentrate on joining together. Joining as brothers and sisters.
This is just One World. Where else would we put it?
In previous "Open" posts I have focused on the disparity of what we have verses what we need. Today I want to focus on what has come to be known as OLPC. I am astounded at the foot dragging and stone-walling that has been going on with what will be the single greatest contribution to computing community. And I know why the industry hasn't stepped up to OLPC.
My experiment with being PDAless didn't last beyond the first hour of work today Monday, 11/05/07. Can anyone guess why? Of course, DST trumps PDAless every time. The first time I had to log into an obscure video switching system to set its display clock to/from DST... required my PDA and its encrypted list of obscure passwords. Sheeeeeesh.
According to the National Restaurant Association's report Restaurant Spending -- 2004:
Pictured here is the People's Home of rural China. This is a standard 5 room house. The central room fronted by the porch in the middle and is flanked by two rooms on either side. Above is a open loft.
