The Daily Mink

links for 2008-05-01

webmink — Thu, 1 May 2008 09:36:40 BST

Open Source Java Technology Debuts In GNU/Linux Distributions

Huge leap forward for Java and for Linux. I'm delighted.

(tags: Java Sun Linux Ubuntu RedHat OpenJDK GPL FOSS OpenSource)

links for 2008-04-30

webmink — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:35:22 BST

Malware authors turn to EULAs to protect their work

Create a system, create the game that plays it. Apparently it's time to move on from the "internet" system to the "legal" system...

(tags: Malware EULA License legal abuse)
'Free Tibet' flags made in China

This seems to encapsulate the whole problem.

(tags: BBC China Irony Business)
Sun sheds light on its open-source future

Q & A with me in ZDNet UK. Good stuff, Adrian.

(tags: SimonPhipps Clippings OpenSource Sun)
Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 1 adds support for Java SE 6

At last. My Java apps are running much faster so far.

(tags: Java Mac OSX Apple)

links for 2008-04-29

webmink — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:34:14 BST

The miracle berry

Anywhere in San Francisco we can get some of these to try next week? I'd love to have a bowl of them at our open source party at the Thirsty Bear on Tuesday evening.

(tags: Food Travel JavaOne2008)
Sun: Trying to do the right thing

A very welcome respite from all the knocking Sun is getting right now from the people afraid we might actually succeed.

(tags: Sun OpenSource GNOME)
ODF is SA's national standard

Another country standardises on ODF. I wonder how many it takes before there's demonstrated "demand"? I expect the response to be "they can always use a plug-in" but really that's just insulting.

(tags: ODF SouthAfrica ISO26300 standards)

links for 2008-04-28

webmink — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:38:18 BST

GNU/Linux Distro Smack Down! Only at CommunityOne

As if the fact the event if free isn't enough!

(tags: Linux JavaOne2008 OpenSolaris Events CommunityOne CommunityOne2008)
Austrian 'hid daughter in cellar'

The depths to which humanity can sink seem to have no bounds.

(tags: BBC Austria Abuse)

links for 2008-04-27

webmink — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 09:32:15 BST

Amazon.com: Eye-Fi Card, Wireless 2 GB SD Memory Card

Anyone tried this? It looks like an interesting way to get photos straight onto Flickr from JavaOne, for example.

(tags: Gadgets Toys Photography JavaOne2008 WiFi Networking)
Does She Look Like a Music Pirate?

More power to her.

(tags: RIAA rights abuse)
Cash and Treasures: Digging for Benitoite

This is something I've never tried - looks worth a weekend excursion some time I am in the Bay Area.

(tags: California Travel)

links for 2008-04-26

webmink — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 09:34:47 BST

North Pole could be ice free in 2008

This doesn't sound good.

(tags: environment climate warming)
ODFDOM - OpenOffice.org Wiki

Wow. Great idea will put programmatic manipulation of ODF within everyone's reach.

(tags: ODF ISO26300 DOM OpenOffice OpenDocument framework api)
QR-Code Generator

Something new to add to my next business card.

(tags: QRCode Cool camera Nokia phone Geek Graphics)
Facebook | JavaOne

JavaOne has a posse.

(tags: JavaOne Facebook community social Java JavaOne2008)

links for 2008-04-25

webmink — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:39:12 BST

Sun Microsystems - Australia - APAC Extended Horizons Summit 2008

If you live in Australia or New Zealand please do come to this event where I'll be delivering the opening keynote. If there are enough you are interested, let's also go for a long table meal at The Sailor's Thai in The Rocks...

(tags: SimonPhipps Events Australia Sun OpenSource)

Primrose

webmink — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:57:32 BST

webmink posted a photo:

The garden is dripping with primroses like these.

links for 2008-04-23

webmink — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:38:31 BST

Debian and OSI Election Results

Congratulations, Steve (and nice kilt).

(tags: Debian FOSS Election)
Google's festering problem with the AGPL

It's not just AGPL. There are other licenses (like CDDL for instance) that are blocked for business reasons that get dressed up as social reasons. Seems OSI is not a respected arbiter of license soundness in this case.

(tags: FOSS OpenSource Licensing Google AGPL CDDL SaaS)
Christiaan Postma - Spelling Clock

This is unspeakably cool, and very soothing to watch.

(tags: Cool design Time clock art)
Open Standards definition: Is ODF etch on rock? No, not true

"A truly public specification can be upgraded by the public at large, provided the suggestion is a sound one."

(tags: ODF Standards Open FOSS OpenOffice.org)
Be Good

Another Paul Graham essay that is so good that it sounds obvious. Here he's asserting that the best plan for a startup is to behave like a non-profit and just serve people. Nicely complementary to the 37Signals video I posted here recently.

(tags: Startup Business advice Ethics Strategy)
My Dear John Letter from MSN Music

A shameful indictment of DRM as another DRM-using-customer-hating-corporation changes strategy and leaves its customers to twist in the wind. Just don't buy stuff that's got digital restriction management as this event is inevitable for all services.

(tags: DRM Microsoft Abuse Music Rights Customer Service)

links for 2008-04-22

webmink — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:35:52 BST

Contributor Subscription Information on iStockphoto.com

This looks like a positive step, likely to bring new money into iStock and make it flow more freely towards photographers. I'll need to resume uploads (I need the rejection slips!)

(tags: Photography Stock iStockPhoto Publishing)
A Tale of Two Jennies

Steve Pepper continues his blogging experiment.

(tags: OOXML Norway Prostitution)
Nokia CA-100 Charging USB Cable

Given the E51 is now standard issue for Sun in Europe I guess lots of people will need one of these, given Nokia neither made the thing charge from the mini-USB connector it uses to connect to the computer nor included this dongle.

(tags: Nokia Phone Mobile E51 Accessories Amazon USB Power Cable Plug)
Has MySQL Forgotten All It Learnt?

As I recall, MySQL has had non-Free software in its service/subscription cloud for quite a long time, so I'm a bit puzzled why it's suddenly become an issue. Maybe as part of Sun there's no longer cause for a suspension of judgment?

(tags: MySQL FOSS GPL Backup Business)
The secret to making money online

... is just do it and don't be greedy.

(tags: Business Web2.0 Startup Strategy)
Welcome | AppDrop

Strength or weakness of the open source model? My take is it will just validate Google without ptoviding serious competition since it offers no deployer security (as in confidence, not as in hackproofness).

(tags: Cloud Google OpenSource Clone Web2.0 Python amazon)
NetBeans 6.1 RC2 Available : Let the IDE Do The Web Services Plumbing For You

I think this is a leap forward and changes the nature of the IDE. I wonder if I can use it to program Python?

(tags: NetBeans Java Twitter Amazon Facebook)

links for 2008-04-20

webmink — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 09:34:40 BST

The Norway Vote - What really happened

The story explaining why Steve Pepper was motivated, after 13 excellent years as chair of the Norwegian SC34 mirror committee, to resign and to organise a public protest.

(tags: OOXML Standards Norway ECMA Microsoft)
How to make a Sawed-off USB Key

I want one.

(tags: Geek Toys)

links for 2008-04-19

webmink — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 09:33:40 BST

Economy Travel

Just waiting for this to show up in the travel policy. Managers get to travel next-day-air, the rest get 2-day or surface...

(tags: Art Travel)
InfoQ: Better Best Practices

Excellent article explains why managers mismanage experts.

(tags: Expert Process management Software development architecture)
Between two consenting corporations...

Matt stays calm and makes good points here. Ultimately, offering closed tools as part of the service cloud around an open source platform can help pay the bills only if it can be done without harming adoption.

(tags: Adoption Adoption-Led MySQL OpenSource Model)
TED | Talks | Yochai Benkler: Open-source economics

Benkler is great in person. Compelling both in energy and in content.

(tags: OpenSource Benkler creativecommons Wikipedia TED Video via:jimgris)

links for 2008-04-17

webmink — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:33:03 BST

Flickr Code

Cool and interesting departure.

(tags: Flickr Developer Community)

links for 2008-04-16

webmink — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:34:58 BST

Call For Open Source Awards 2008 Nominations

Always interesting to see who is up for these awards, they are usually eclectic and thoughtful.

(tags: OpenSource OSCON Awards)
Sun Executive Says Company Not Suffering from Open Source Malaise Stifling Novell

This has more legs than I thought, must be a slow news period. Note I am arguing from an adoption-led position about how there must be no artificial barriers to deployment - I am aware of the Free Software issues (warning: Sys-Con article)

(tags: Sun Novell SimonPhipps clippings Adoption Adoption-Led OpenSource FOSS SuSE)

links for 2008-04-15

webmink — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:34:54 BST

Commentary: the Linux Foundation and the future of Linux

Doesn't look like the grass-roots of the FOSS movement was much in evidence.

(tags: Linux Foundation Corporations)
Jonathan Schwartz's Blog: Freedom's Choice

"Awkward silences aside, we've now got a very productive engagment with the customer around delivering commercial support on a global basis to what's turned out to be the most popular database inside their development shop." Adoption-led.

(tags: MySQL Sun Adoption)
Scientific study about Debian governance and organization

Fascinating exploration of the dynamics and evolution of community governance. Having see how the jump to formal governance affected OpenSolaris, we're now taking out time over OpenJDK, and this study supports that approach.

(tags: Debian paper OpenSource Linux Governance Community Leadership)
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Announces Results of 2008 Board Election

Let's see if 2008 can make OSI more relevant again.

(tags: OSI Governance Election OpenSource)

links for 2008-04-14

webmink — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:33:42 BST

An Engineer's Guide to Cats

Love the yodeling.

(tags: Cat Humour Geek Animal YouTube Video)
ODF is now a Brazilian Standard: NBR ISO/IEC 26300

Yet another global endorsement.

(tags: ODF ISO26300 Standards Brazil)
Count To Ten: Tina Dico

Finally gave in and bought Tina's new album from Amazon MP3. Turns out it is just wonderful.

(tags: Music Amazon MP3)

Lean On Me

webmink — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 03:25:59 BST

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What Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Stronger redux.

Stave Church Dragon

webmink — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:22:40 BST

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Troll Cruise

webmink — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:13:23 BST

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Clearly the right venue for mailing list get-togethers is Oslo.

Norwegian Music

webmink — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 01:12:00 BST

Sitting in the hotel (right next to Herr Nielsen's Jazz Club) last night in Oslo I realised that the music I was listening to on my laptop was just track after track of Norwegian music. There was Beady Belle, then Thomas Dybdahl (try Damn Heart or Half Of Me, both free B-sides, and my absolute favourite single Love Story), then Ane Brun - and that's ignoring nearby Scandinavians like Teitur and Tina Dico (try this. Wonder how I'd missed the connection for so long?

Update: As Walter points out, I forgot the most obvious musician (and the one who features largest in my collection), Jan Garbarek.

Natural Mink Environment

webmink — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 04:14:34 BST

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www.mbr.no/

Protest in Oslo

webmink — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 10:30:30 BST

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The SC34 Mirror Committee organised an unusual protest rally in Oslo on April 9, 2008. More details in my blog.

links for 2008-04-10

webmink — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:36:13 BST

Some file types are blocked

I wondered why someone wasn't receiving messages I was sending him. Seems Google simply tosses any message with a .exe file in it in /dev/nul

(tags: Google Mail)

Driven to Extremes

webmink — Wed, 9 Apr 2008 06:11:49 BST

I've been speaking at the excellent Go Open 2008 conference here in Oslo today - attendees may be interested in my slides. My talk embodied the comments I made in response to Michael Tiemann a while back.

Of much more interest was what happened at lunchtime, however. I've heard plenty of accusations from certain OOXML proponents that all the noisy opposition to them is coming from extremist agitators and anarchists and should be ignored as a consequence. The (very un-Norwegian) activities in Oslo today seemed to suggest otherwise. As the International Herald Tribune reports, there was a demonstration and protest march by placard-wielding demonstrators on the streets of Oslo - see the local TV report. This in itself is unusual - Norway is not given to such outbursts - but there's more that makes it unusual.

This protest was organised not by extremist agitators but by Steve Pepper (who made a great speech), the widely respected chair of the SC34 mirror committee that reviewed OOXML for Standards Norway and by his colleagues. I asked them why they were taking this unusual step and they told me it was because the majority view of their committee had been ignored by Standards Norway. They are furious - Pepper has resigned. So there may be extremists involved in the protests against OOXML somewhere, but in the specific case of Norway the protesters are highly respected standards and business people who have been driven to extremes rather than starting from them.

Podcast Interview With Trond Heier

I also had the chance to interview the CEO of Linpro AS, a respected Norwegian open source service provider, about his reasons for taking part in the protest. You can listen to the podcast in either MP3 or Ogg format. Trond explains that the message Steve Pepper delivered was in English so that the Norwegian group could encourage other, similarly unhappy groups in other countries to speak out as well. The protest was held outside the building where JTC1 SC34 was holding a meeting.

More pictures:

If you are a writer looking for photos or clips for your article or blog, you are free to use any of these as long as you attribute them to me. I'd also prefer you to link to this blog posting too.

Organised by the SC34 mirror committee

webmink — Wed, 9 Apr 2008 04:25:22 BST

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