WebMink

We must have open, inalienable resources at the heart of the Web. The news that Microsoft has renaged on its provision of basic fonts [via dev.null] to the Web community shows that when the rights to the basics of Web life are left with license terms that can be modified on a whim, our ability to share common expression can be withdrawn without appeal. Maybe fonts are a small thing, but we have all been led to believe that MSFT was offering a freedom in good faith and they have arbitrarily withdrawn it. Shame!

posted at 3:38 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

The story about a man dumping paint in the offices of a junk mail company [via DayPop] because he can't find a way to stop them sending him advertisements in his (paper) mail appears humourous on the surface. But it seems to me a symbol of the powerlessness of the web-aware generation (WAG) and a forecast of the civil disobedience we can expect to see from WAGs in the future.
All around us right now are things that have my injustice meter (and presumably that of other WAGs) hitting the end stop, yet there seems to be no representation in government (in any country) that is representing the rights of this citizen minority - now 45% in the UK, mind you. We see a US cartel trying to restrict global web-site access rights through the courts in fanciful self-defence against a movement that actually does them no harm and arguably helps them. We see an outdated and overloaded patent system being used to stifle innovation rather than foster it. We see legislation being introduced worldwide that tips the balance of copyright law so far in favour of corporate greed that fair-use rights are threatened. We see ill-devised laws appearing that, through the big-money lobbying of the media cartels, will criminalise me if I have to do anything to use my purchased goods other than follow the supplied instructions in order.
And so the tide rolls on. Today it is the over-the-top actions of a disturbed man that the local gutter press have gone out of their way to character assassinate. But the frustration at the injustices being piled on WAGs will only mount over time. These are the first signs of a bitter conflict ahead. Let's hope that the democractic system works over the next few years, before it's the mass actions of the rational that are being reported rather than the flare-ups of the disturbed.

posted at 1:42 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Friday, August 16

I've been threatening to write a book for a while now, but I'm excited today because it's just inched a little closer with the announcement of publication of "Developing Java Web Services", for which I have written the Foreward. It's on Amazon in the US, Canada and the UK, although you'll have to zoom in on the cover in both places to see my attribution as the author lists are incomplete. Next I'll have to write one of my own ;-)

posted at 5:07 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

The suspension of constitutional rights for citizens deemed to be engaging in activities that threaten the state? The fingerprinting and tracking of selected visiting ethnic groups within the state? Compulsory registration and reporting in to the authorities for foreign visitors? Concentration camps for the unacceptable as well as the dangerous? Does any of this sound like an episode from mid 20th century history to anyone else?

posted at 12:41 AM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Thursday, August 15

I am shocked and saddened to hear of the deaths of Galen and Barbara Rowell, whose photography and insight has become an inspiration to me. I am presently reading Galen's book "The Inner Game of Outdoor Photography" and only this weekend was contemplating visiting the Sierras to attend one of their classes.

posted at 2:30 AM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Tuesday, August 13

Is there a word for it? When, for example, MSFT spots that everyone hates it because it is the antithesis of 'open source' and so creates an initiative pretty much orthogonal to open source and gives it a name like 'shared source'? Or when a lobby group seeking to protect the threatened previous-century attitudes of the established software industry where consumers have no choices (epitomised by licensing that asks you to sign away your money and your right to choose for three years sight unseen, called 'Assurance' without a blush of irony) calls itself a name that makes it sound like it's promoting 'software choice'? There has to be a name for this behaviour where instead of changing your worst faults you seek to redefine language and practice so people call "bad" "good"? It's so 'Brave New World', so NewSpeak and doubletalk. And it keeps happening. Maybe that's the word for it - is there another?

posted at 9:20 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Monday, August 12

Questions: If you need to use GPS and cell-radio to routinely locate your under-12-year-old, does this mean you are spending too little time with your kid? As it uses US cell-phone technology, does this mean that you'll be unable to find your kid in 90% of the USA? And, finally, shouldn't this all be handled with a subcutaneous implant at birth?

posted at 12:23 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |