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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Service interruptions possible today as I travel to Rome for the OMA meeting.

posted at 10:34 AM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

The excitement at being linked for the first time from someone's blog brings back memories of adolescence! Thanks, Lynn, appreciated - send me an e-mail and I'll send you a copy of the photo of your choice :-)

posted at 9:04 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Vanity I know, but I've been out looking for comments on my open source article. Tuxreports liked it. Bruggen found it interesting. Ah well, I'll start that storm another time.

posted at 3:37 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

This is my new blogchalk:
United Kingdom, Hampshire, Southampton, Highfield, English, Simon, Male, 41-45. :)

posted at 12:40 AM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Cool! I had forgotten about my interview with Popular Science - the results are in the September issue.

posted at 9:52 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Free overnight accommodation with every purchase? Just made a mental note not to shop at (or even near) KMart in Houston.

posted at 12:17 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

After a long wait, my feature on Open Source appears today on C|Net. The original essay on which it is based can be found here.

posted at 5:38 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

What is going on here? How many people are being held indefinitely without charge or trial by the US government? Isn't that unconstitutional? There's a whole bunch down in Cuba, then there's Jose Padilla [via This Modern World], James Ujaama, Yaser Esam Hamdi [via Rebecca Blood] and ... who else? Now that there's not a press release on arrest it's harder and harder to know. No wonder the US will need more space for the prisoners at home and abroad. America has done it before. I just hope dissenting views aren't enough to make one an 'enemy combatant'. Yet, anyway.

posted at 12:43 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

A while back I commented on reports from the weapons inspection lead in Iraq. Well, the Asia Times [via blah3] is reporting that, to all intents and purposes, war in Iraq has already started. In these days where meanings are constantly shifting, it seems that an actual declaration of war comes at the end of the process, not the start.

posted at 12:11 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

I can't tell from Europe whether I am just looking in the wrong places or whether the level of dissent in the US is indeed rising. These reworked world war two propoganda posters [via charging the canvas] are spot on, the accompanying rant is phrased in extreme terms but seems relatively sound and also spots the pre-Nazi trend I alluded to a few days ago.

posted at 10:29 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

While there's a lot to think about and take seriously in this incredible diatribe by a Canadian against the US, I find the language just a touch too inflammatory. But the tide is turning, and unless the rational points hidden under the rabid rhetoric are addressed, the spiral will continue downward. I still think Michael Moore puts it better in Stupic White Men though (and as his current web site proves, he is a real and decent person).

posted at 6:22 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

OK, so the web host looks like it's up again now too. They say they lost all upstream connectivity, and that the site has been flakey all day so apologies to anyone who couldn't get this far for whatever reason.

posted at 5:59 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Enetation say they were down because of distributed denial of service attack. Why do people do that? So childish. Should be up and running again now, just going to add the comment script back to the blog template. Meanwhile my web host (Nextra/CIX in the UK) has gone down and can't tell me when they will be up again so I doubt anyone will even get to read this :-(

posted at 4:09 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

The comment system seems to have failed - looks like Enetation is down. I have removed the dynamic comment counts for the time being, and it's likely you'll find the "comment" buttons don't work. Sorry for the loss of function, normal service will be resumed as soon as possible...

posted at 2:52 AM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

All that fuss about Tux last week and I forgot all about this erudite piece on penguin behaviour...

posted at 2:22 AM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Breaking news. First IBM, then Sun, now it seems Microsoft is getting into Linux, as evidenced by their stand at LinuxWorld last week.

posted at 1:11 AM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |