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© 2010,
Simon Phipps |
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☞ Community Matters
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Good to see SourceForge being responsive here and deciding to take this risk. The draconian US export laws do leave US corporations in an invidious position, even outside their own borders, and it's easy for managers to decide to play it safe at the expense of freedom and transparency.
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I hope there is more to this than there appears. I'll try to investigate.
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"Google shows no sign of working to get their code upstream anymore." -- Serious break-down of trust here, as seemingly the fusion of pragmatism and secrecy at Google is leading them to treat their community responsibilities as a low priority. We'll see much more of this from corporate FOSS users in the future, which is why I'm convinced we need to grade projects on more than just their license choice (or the warmness towards the FOSS communities of their out-of-band programmes).
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Good to see the Washington Post tackling ACTA and attempting to explain its provisions to the general reader. Still far to complex for everyman, but the seeds are there (like explaining that all the three-strikes legislation is advance preparation by national governments so that ACTA ratification is easier when it happens).
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While you can't take anything dangerous on to a plane in the US, you can certainly buy very worrying stuff in the on-board catalogue. This, for example, is a USB stick containing a rootkit and activity monitor. I note it doesn't work on a Mac.
☞ Worrying Trend
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Mark Pilgrim with a eulogy for the freedom to tinker. This is one of the key reasons I'm an advocate of and activist for software freedom.
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It is, of course, the more educated choice.
☞ The Advance of Open
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Spun out to its own site, this project (a virtual machine kernel written in Javascript) is absolutely fascinating and deserves wider investigation.
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It's FOSDEM weekend, so maybe it's time this shirt made a comeback.
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Some good news on internet rights from Australia for a change. This case establishes that common-carrier status does indeed apply to Australian ISPs. Hopefully this starts setting a precedent that will push back on thre-strikes regulations.
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Useful voice-of-experience post by Nat.
☞ More on H.264
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Disturbing but great post explaining how the license terms MPEG-LA force their H.264 (and MPEG-2/4) licensees to pass on in their sublicenses basically give you no useful rights to the 900 patents. This ridiculous situation has to end. No amount of "pragmatism" can excuse giving a patent pool cartel such power to shake down the whole connected population.
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Joy of Tech with a much more convincing hype cycle explanation than that tired analyst curve diagram.
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It's not necessarily cause-and-effect, though. Unless you're reading about H.264 patents and licensing.
☞ Why H.264 Must Be Avoided
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A long, must-read article that draws lessons from previous experiences (with GIF and MP3) to explain why anyone with concerns for liberty should discourage use of H.264 and promote alternatives. The link below is to a letter where the licensing company for H.264 even explains that they are using the drug-dealer model to minimise consumer fears via no-cost licensing while threatening implementors with aggressive legal action. I'm still 100% in agreement with Mozilla on this one.
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Pretty good synopsis of the interview I gave, which ironically appears to be locked up behind a paywall.
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If you are in any doubt that H.264 cannot be implemented legally as open source, take a look at this letter from MPEG-LA.
☞ Endings
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To summarise: MySQL was always Free software, always had these problems (some would say never open source in spirit) yet still thrived at the heart of the FOSS movement, so why should this transition prove any different.
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This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper.
☞ Access To The Party
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Excellent start to an explanation of Mozilla's position on H.264 and patent-encumbered CODECs. Still plenty of remaining questions, which will hopefully be addressed in part two of this explanation. Personally I think Mozilla is picking the right path and I hope we'll see Google (owner of YouTube) backing them in their promotion of technologies anyone in any country can use freely (rather than H.264 which is deviously chained to corporate profit).
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Tim Bray joins the growing number of writers dangerously circling in politically-correct shark-infested waters looking for the core truth explaining the low numbers of women in the technology industry. Personally I think we make a mistake to look just at gender for an explanation. I think there are plenty of men put off the technology industry too, for the same reasons as many women.
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Great feature on Neil Gaiman in the New Yorker.
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Details (in Portuguese) of the event I'm attending in Brazil this week.
☞ Making A Stand
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The issue at stake here is what some call "common-carrier status" for networks. Regardless of the excuse - be it China's hatred of protest, Italy's hatred of pædophiles or the USA's hatred of music lovers - governments should be protecting it. Once the principle has been breached, it is a slippery slope to a corporate-controlled society, whether the corporation is question is the state, the RIAA or, indeed, Google or Microsoft.
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Tone-deaf editorial by the Chinese government coruscates Clinton & Google while actually casting light on the paranoia that makes China censor its citizens and force them to live by rumour.
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If you were still in any doubt about it, this interview should prove that RMS does not live in your world. To go beyond the interview, a comment elsewhere points out he does not use web browsers; rather, he e-mails web URLs to a server that sends back the text for him to read in EMACS. Amazingly and inspiringly consistent philosophy and values over time, yes, but increasingly disjoint from the reality the rest of us have to navigate.
☞ Protecting Freedom
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Schneier points out that the feature China hacked in GMail was only there because the US government demanded it "for security", and that building trapdoors for use by spooks is an invitation for bad guys to hack them. They are another example of why security through obscurity is an anti-pattern.
Another question this raises is whether Google's position is truly defensible. They say they will only obey Chinese law if the Chinese government does too. Does the same apply to other governments? What about US government use of the same trapdoor?
To criticise here is not to defend China's execrable record on human rights. Rather, it is to note that China defends itself internationally by saying it is just doing publicly what other governments do secretly (while overlooking the fact its own use is usually tyrannous). Once again that defense is theirs. -
Excellent explanation of why Firefox has no H.264 support and why it won't be getting any. This is exactly the right position to be taking and I think it's a crying shame that major traffic drivers like YouTube aren't taking the same approach. [Is there also some rule that demands that the better the article, the more stupid the comments?]
RIP
The news is in that the EU has finally approved Oracle's purchase of Sun, and while there are some more hurdles to cross I think James' response is very fitting so I'll reproduce it here too.
I doubt there will be an official wake given what happened when James tried to arrange one before, so we'll need to have drinks ourselves.
(From Sun Mink on Thu Jan 21 15:52:29 GMT 2010)☞ Clear Thinking
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Google doubtless understands that the Chinese government don't respond well to public statements like this. I expect them to get far less diplomatic, directly-rude responses in fact. But after attempting to do things China's way, it's hard to see what response they could take to the betrayal of the trust they had placed in the Chinese government by toeing their line for three years. Google's business will increasingly depend on being globally trusted and this sort of political behaviour is a business necessity for them. It also challenges their competitors to make a stand that looks equally principled. Sadly, I expect most of them to be in Chinese government offices right now offering to fill the gap Google will leave. To understand why, Google "webmink reptiles".
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More intensely sensible comment from Schneier. We need to refuse to be terrorised, which means refusing to tolerate security theatre that responds to it by propogating it. To the readers who only read my comments and not the articles; go on, read this one before you accuse me of stuff for a change!
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Sensible comment on travel security from The Independent's travel guy: "We need a "Groucho" approach to airline security. To paraphrase Groucho Marx's attitude to clubs, I'd prefer not to join a flight that unquestioningly accepts dodgy characters like me on board."
New Year, New Music
Happy New Year! Here's a round-up of the music I've been recommending this week on Twitter.
For Everyone
- Tycho: Coastal Break - Fine 3Hive recommendation led me to this trancey-dancey electronic track, which is very good.
- Brooke Fraser: Albertine - One of my favourite artists has made one of the best tracks on her excellent second album available. It has rhythm, passion, melody, intelligently personal and challenging lyrics as well as beauty and is an essential download.
For UK Readers
- Corinne Bailey Rae: It Be's That Way Sometime - A typical relaxed lounge-feeling track from her, good download.
- Hot Chip: One Life Stand (Joris Voorn Dusty Flower Mix) - Full of juicy bass and electronic goodness, thoroughly enjoying this one.
Amazon UK downloads are paranoically restricted to UK IP addresses regardless of account status
For US Readers
- Lou Rhodes: There For The Taking - Beautiful new track from Lou Rhodes, who you'll recognise as the voice of Lamb but whose new solo direction is a foundation for 21st century folk.
- The Middle East: Blood - Despite the unpromising names, this is a charming and strong track that's worth the download.
Amazon US downloads are restricted to verified US account-holders
[Note that these links and offers are highly likely to corrode over time]
☞ Attention-Grabbing
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Lovely interview that captures Pollan's humanity. The idea of having a booklet of common sense eating rules to counter all the crazy diet junk that's floating around is wonderful, I've ordered my copy to pick up when I get to the US.
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Really scarey image here, showing the Gulf Stream diverted northwards, removing the additional moderation from the British Isles and adding warming to the Arctic.
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Must post more typos.
☞ Dealing With The Real Issue
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Show this to every politician: "What we need is security that's effective even if we can't guess the next plot: intelligence, investigation and emergency response. ... The real security failure on Christmas Day was in our reaction. We're reacting out of fear, wasting money on the story rather than securing ourselves against the threat. Abdulmutallab succeeded in causing terror even though his attack failed. If we refuse to be terrorized, if we refuse to implement security theater and remember that we can never completely eliminate the risk of terrorism, then the terrorists fail even if their attacks succeed."
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While it's great to see Microsoft finally joining the SVG WG after all these years, let's not forget (as this article does) that they were involved at the beginning and it was their unforgivable NIH attitude in rejecting the decision of the WG not to use Microsoft's contribution that has kept vector graphics from being a web technology for a decade. Imagine what could have evolved by now had they not listened to their greed and control-lust and instead worked with everyone to perfect web vector graphics. Even still I can't help myself wondering if they have joined the WG to snuff it out by over-activity.
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Given the news that Google is avoiding paying almost all the taxes it should on UK advertising revenue through an offshoring loophole, a specific tax on portals-that-advertise may well be the only way to get the tax that's due in today's global economy.
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It may be satirical humour but it makes a crucially important point. The reason so many of us stopped trusting Microsoft back in the 90s was we knew that partnering with them only had two exit points: acquisition or the "theft" of our ideas and customers (for me it was the latter). FSJ points out it's deja vue all over again.
Snow On Gorse
webmink posted a photo:
Path Less Travelled
webmink posted a photo:
Sledging on The Common
webmink posted a photo:
The Snowman
webmink posted a photo:
☞ Deep Links
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This is a useful part of the discussion, apart from the title. Since it describes a situation which has existed for many years, it doesn't justify intervention anywhere, but as a community of communities we neet to take its lessons on board and steer away from the problem over the coming years. Can I say "scorecard" again?
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"The point is that that kind of thing simply cannot be built if you start with large formal specifications and fixed-price contracts and change-control procedures and so on. So if your enterprise wants the sort of outcomes we’re seeing on the Web (and a lot more should), you’re going to have to adopt some of the cultures and technologies that got them built." -- I completely agree with Tim here. If you've heard my Adoption-Led keynote you've heard me say this, and Tim's more general point is spot on. Now expect whines from those who gave us WS-* instead of true "small pieces loosely joined"...
☞ Working With Communities
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Great article on community management (although most people who do it hate that term). It's rather specific to the community in question, and as Tim B points out there are plenty of nuances missing, but the overall lessons are entirely valid in my experience.
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Lovely, perceptive essay in the NYT that captures so many of the things that years of mixing culturally across the Atlantic teach.
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A sign that perfectly captures how churches feel about having to display this sign - and probably loads of other venues too.
The Pounce
webmink posted a photo:
On a rock in the driveway, a story plays out in the footprints...
(From Photo Mink on Mon Jan 04 15:25:16 GMT 2010)☞ The Other Sun
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This is a great YouTube channel. Some fantastic artists, complete with interesting video (usually with short interviews about the song) plus fine stereo audio.
Sitting In Front Of The Fire
webmink posted a photo:
☞ Unpopular Lessons
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"The first lesson is that markets are not self-correcting. Indeed, without adequate regulation, they are prone to excess. In 2009, we again saw why Adam Smith's invisible hand often appeared invisible: it is not there. The bankers' pursuit of self-interest (greed) did not lead to the well-being of society"
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Someone talking good sense about the case of the underpants bomber. Sadly his explanation also explains why it will be ignored.
☞ Policy As Promised?
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IBM is still schizophrenic on its patent policy apparently.
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Rational and important step forward for democracy as Obama declares nothing can remain secret forever, tells the intelligence agencies the President is the final arbiter of release, requires regular review of ratings guidance and says classified status should be the exception not the rule. Bravo.
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Calm and rational comment from Schneier as usual. It's time someone in government did the joined-up thinking on this issue and helped us all to switch to a "Keep Calm and Carry On" approach.
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At first sight, this seems bad (that's certainly how Gawker Media want you to think). But as long as the truth is actually being told, this strategy seems a great way to avoid being hounded to death by the media so that they can profit from your misfortune/bravery/whatever. It's not like he tried to charge the police or something; this was ambulance-chasing commercial writers he was dealing with. Treating the media as if they are present purely for the good of humanity is ridiculous, and Gawker are pretty hypocritical to suggest it.
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Fascinating article looks at how a menu is built to make the most of the way people read.
☞ Threats
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Fascinating insight gleaned from "Situations Vacant" shows just how much pain OpenOffice.org is really causing Microsoft, despite the effort their spokespeople make to dismiss it. The analysis is backed up by the statements they make about OpenOffice.org in their SEC filings.
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A refreshingly realistic view from The Economist.
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Maybe just a touch hyperbolic, but I do believe it's time for root-and-branch reform of the US security response so that it stops being an implementer of the terrorists' strategy to disrupt the west into submission.
For your safety and comfort...
There is only one way to make air travel secure, and that is to take security seriously and prioritise it above all other factors. We should learn from the most secure flights to date - operated by the US military for select trips to the Caribbean - and upgrade measures so that the antics of the Underpants Bomber can't be repeated.
In future, all passengers aboard planes must:
- Wear secured headphones for safety education and approved entertainment throughout flights, so that passengers cannot communicate with each other for co-ordinated attacks. It's possible Apple or Sony might sponsor these, reducing costs. This measure will also reduce incidents of unlicensed use of music, especially as people cross market boundaries, so maybe the RIAA will support this.
- Travel blindfolded. This prevents any awareness of location or time and ensures no targetted use of devices. This additionally defeats attempts to benefit from unlicensed movies, so MPAA sponsorship for the blindfolds is possible.
- Travel naked. This reduces opportunities for concealment of devices, although security staff will still need to use powerful scanners pre-boarding.
- Undergo sensory disorientation pre-travel, so that passengers do not know where they are seated or what the time is. This could be combined with the blindfolds and headsets.
- Travel in limb restraints fastened to the seat. In addition to protecting against unexpected turbulence, this will prevent any attempt to operate devices. Airlines could consider tube-feeding so they don't lose revenue from in-flight paid catering.
- Require a pre-flight "hotel night" where they spend 12 hours before boarding naked in solitary confinement under observation. This will eliminate the possibility of devices being ingested. Boarding will only be permitted with evidence of defecation.
In addition:
- Flights must operate to unpublished departure and arrival schedules using undocumented routes. This has the added benefit that flights can no longer be late.
- Business class passengers benefit from loin-cloths during boarding and in-flight sedation so they are less impacted by security measures. They can also purchase use of video goggles instead of blindfolds.
- First class passengers benefit from anaesthesia and are boarded on stretchers. Choice of approved drugs available pre-boarding.
If Naomi Klein is right, capitalists have been waiting for the Underpants Bomber. Let me know when you spot them. The hour is at hand for the Underpants Gnomes.
☞ A Selection of Ideas
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Great new video about OSFA, well worth passing on.
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Very serious compromise of sensitive data about children. Heads will roll (probably of elves).
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"Photographers in two-thirds of the country are subject to the rule of Section 44, despite Home Office instructions earlier in the year advising police forces against using the powers to prevent or curtail street photography"
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This derivative is unlike any form of Christianity I have ever studied. Avoid.
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There is still a strong thread of thought at Microsoft that imagines open source is purely the domain of solitary programmers of private means. This is yet another "covenant" from them that gives no assurance whatsoever to the average FOSS developer. Microsoft desperately needs a clueful open source leader to fix this stuff.
☞ Dealing With Corporate Thinking
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Excellent and typically thorough treatment of copyright assignment from Michael Meeks. I'm not a huge fan of copyright assignment, as I believe it inhibits community formation and operation, but tolerating it has been the only way to get a whole load of code liberated...
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Of course, this exact capability used to be built-in to iTunes, so I can't help thinking Apple will step in to take the capability away again...
☞ Public Information
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I've no comment on whether this is good or bad, but it's worth keeping in mind that under a draconian global copyright enforcement regime, it might become a serious issue to breach ludicrous "copyright" measures imposed by other countries for political or religious reasons. It's not just about music and movies...
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Buy the public domain a holiday gift! Once again Carl Malamud has had a great idea. This time it's how to work around the issue that the US National Archive isn't making these videos freely available on the internet. Buy just one of these public domain DVDs and Carl will copy it to a public server for all to enjoy.
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It seems that the instinctive reactions of human beings driven to fighting for their freedom (rightly or wrongly) follow a pattern that can be analysed and forecast.
[Daily Mink last updated Mon, 8 Feb 2010 01:21:18 GMT by Planet Roller]
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