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Tuesday, January 12
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 ReadersFor US Readers[Note that these links and offers are highly likely to corrode over time] Labels: Music
posted at 11:51 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far)
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Sunday, December 27
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.
There are huge cost-savings achievable for the airlines here, as well as potential new revenue opportunities and sponsorships such as those indicated. The pre-flight "hotel night" will naturally be charged extra, the need for in-flight entertainment systems is eliminated since no-one can see, hear or operate them, on-board toilets and galleys can be removed and replaced with extra seating and on top of all this far fewer staff are needed and training can be reduced. Ryan Air has already field-tested some of these, I gather.
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.
All for your safety, comfort and convenience, of course. Relax, sit back and enjoy the flight!
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.Labels: travel
posted at 6:51 PM (UK) | Comment? (1 so far)
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Sunday, December 6
December's First Crop
Here's a round-up of the music I've been recommending this week on Twitter. It was a busy download week and I have thrown away a load of other tracks that I didn't like as much as these. Signs are that there will be many Christmas-themed tracks in the next two weeks, plus I just downloaded three full sampler albums (of which more next week) so the sampler season is upon us again.
For UK ReadersFor US Readers[Note that these links and offers are highly likely to corrode over time] Labels: Amazon Music, Music
posted at 10:46 AM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far)
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Saturday, November 28
Thankful for Free MP3s
Once again, here's a round-up of the music I've been recommending this week on Twitter. For Everyone- Valleys: Tan Lines - Elemental shoegaze, whispered female lyrics, native-style drumming - what's not to love? ****
For UK ReadersFor US ReadersAn excellent selection on Amazon US this week for Thanksgiving, I recommend you try all of the 4* and 5* tracks.
[Note that these links and offers are highly likely to corrode over time] Labels: Music
posted at 11:02 AM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far)
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Sunday, November 22
Friday, November 13
Saturday, November 7
Friday, October 30
Thursday, October 29
Reptiles
 Several years ago, we had the chance to visit a crocodile farm in Queensland, Australia. There were several highlights, not least the chance for the children to hold a crocodile - a very small one, of course, with its jaws taped shut. Even with one that small, the frisson of terror remained and the children all laughed nervously for the camera. We noticed as we walked round the farm that many of the crocodiles had signs on their enclosure saying where they had been captured, and telling a story about where and why they had been caught. This was where we discovered an additional use for a family dog that we'd not previously considered - to check whether water holes are safe for swimming before your children do. Most of the stories were not for the squeamish. But yes, crocodiles do indeed eat dogs - regularly it seems.
Chickens and EvilDoes that make crocodiles evil? They certainly have a look to them that might make you think so, but another of the demonstrations at the farm was very educational. A zookeeper (dressed in typical Steve Irwin style, khakis and shorts with an Akubra) showed just how small a pool a crocodile needs. Standing next to what looked like a dirty shallow garden pond, the keeper took a long pole and attached the carcass of a chicken to the end.
Holding it over the muddy, empty pool, he allowed it to briefly touch the orange surface. Instantly, a gigantic crocodile appeared from nowhere. With a single, lightning-fast move, it took the chicken in its ample jaws and rolled with it in the water before disappearing under the surface again. After gasps of shock, the audience stood in nervous silence, grateful for the fence between them and the pool and wondering how the keeper could stand so close. Who would have thought such a tiny pool could hold two metres of hungry crocodile? It was easy to see what had happened to all those dogs.
Reptiles and InstinctAfter the demonstration, the keeper took questions from the audience, standing on the bank near the crocodile and giving the impression of a lazy familiarity with it. One question asked how long he'd been doing the job and how well he knew the crocodiles. He replied he'd been giving this demonstration four times a day for over a decade. He said he had a good understanding of how the crocodile thought; mechanically. He was under no illusion that he had a relationship with it. Each time it took the chicken was a single instance of predation. He was sure that any time he got too close, it would grab and roll with him rather than the chicken. So he didn't; that lazy familiarity was actually a carefully observed respect, established through training and years of experience. He advised to never, ever believe that a crocodile was a friend.
Just ReptilesCrocodiles are not evil; neither are they good. They are just reptiles, dealing with their hunger. To call something "a reptile" is not a value judgement; quite the opposite since reptiles are demonstrably amoral and mechanistic. Millennia of evolution have developed in them the speed and skills to sate their hunger, and they act and react out of reptilian instinct. Despite their evil looks and repellant behaviour, they are just being reptiles, doing what reptiles do. Working with them is not a matter of relying on their goodwill. It's all down to understanding their instincts - and learning to stand in the right place.
And that's what I mean when I say a corporation is just a reptile.
[Also posted to my OSI Blog] Labels: Parables
posted at 6:38 PM (UK) | Comment? (1 so far)
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Saturday, October 24
This Week's Music
Here's a round-up of the music I've been recommending this week on Twitter. Best of the week are the two jazz tracks.
For UK ReadersFor US Readers[Note that these links and offers are highly likely to corrode over time] Labels: Music
posted at 1:33 AM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far)
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Tuesday, October 20
A Remarkable Reversal
It was a surprise to see Richard Stallman's signature on a letter to the European Commission calling on them to block the acquisition of MySQL by Oracle with its proposed acquisition of Sun. The surprise wasn't primarily because of that position. Clearly we are all concerned, and clearly there is scope for free software advocates to differ in their conclusions, as the intervention by leading European free software lawyer Carlo Piana shows. I have my own views on the acquisition as well, which I hope one day to be at liberty to share openly1. But the direct subject of the letter was not the surprise. For many years, Stallman's advocacy of the GNU General Public License as the vehicle for creating software freedom has been a familiar and regular refrain. He has been happy to largely ignore other attributes of the open source communities that surround the various free software commons, and rely purely on the provisions of the cleverly-crafted license to promote software freedom. Amazingly (although not incorrectly), the letter describes that view as "naive". Following the lead in fixating on licenses alone, OSI differs only in trusting more licenses than just the GPL to be the "it's OK" indicator, even after a decade of experience.
The letter's arguments imply that the dual-license model used by MySQL is the origin of the potential loss of freedom its authors fear. This model involves a vendor having aggregated copyright ownership of the free software commons at the heart of a particular open source community. While every other member of the community is bound by the terms of the open source license governing the commons, the copyright-owning company is free to do pretty much as they please with the copyright, making it available under whatever commercial terms it wants, in sub- and super-sets of function and packaging.
Those terms can even include clauses that restrict the freedom of community members who choose to buy from the company - I have for example seen commercial terms that include "no fork" clauses preventing customers working on or with any version of the code apart from the one the company supplies. While commonly used in combination with the GPLv2 as the community license, dual licenses with GPLv3, LGPLv3, the Affero GPL and even with weak-copyleft licenses such as CDDL are all easy to find. The license makes no difference to the actions open to the copyright holder, who is not bound by it. Dual licensing is everywhere in commercial open source. So the letter from Stallman is a surprise because it's the first time I have really seen him acknowledge that the license alone can be no guarantee of software freedom. It takes more - including community governance, trademark and copyright ownership and administration, the percentage of core function in the commons - as partial indicators of software freedom. They need to be taken together to get the full view. In my previous postings, I've compared "open source" with "organic", called for an expansion of the definition of open source to embrace more "inputs" and proposed drafting a "Software Freedom Definition" and creating an "Open Source Audit" scorecard to help people identify the key software freedom characteristics of vendor product offerings. My goal is not to have some nannying organisation passing judgement on open source communities, or the companies that work in them. Rather, it is to expand the number of indicators available to us all of basic open source hygiene, so that when we choose to work in any imperfect community - and they are all imperfect in some way - we are aware of the issues and have handholds when we decide to address them. Transparency and truthful labelling is the key to intelligent choice and advancing freedom through informed compromise. The alternative - the One Approved Distribution - works for almost no-one. It seems that this is an initiative whose time has come. I'd love to see Stallman and the FSF join in taking action to broaden the definitions, now that it's been admitted that the license alone is no guarantee of software freedom and that we must consider more factors in reaching a conclusion on its promotion.
1: As a current employee of Sun Microsystems and a Sun shareholder I'll not comment for or against the transaction with Oracle. Please also note that nothing said here is necessarily the position of Sun Microsystems. Also posted to my OSI blog.
posted at 5:58 PM (UK) | Comment? (10 so far)
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Saturday, October 17
Some More Good Music
Here's my round-up of music recommendations for the week. For Everyone- Tom Waits will send you the first 8 tracks of his new album in exchange for any working e-mail address (I love Spam Gourmet!) Not my taste at all, but some readers may be fans.
- They aren't free, but you may like to explore the "album" I have put together of Imogen Heap's Rarities and B-Sides. I realised I had accumulated a wide selection of very good collaborations by her and decided to put a page together collecting them.
For UK ReadersFor US Readers[Note that these links and offers are highly likely to corrode over time] Labels: Music
posted at 2:00 PM (UK) | Comment? (1 so far)
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Friday, October 9
Free Tracks Around The World
Here is my free and recommended music roundup for the week ending Friday October 9th. For Everyone- Absolutely wonderful music video of Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie, with charming stop-frame and a great, gentle ballad. Free stuff worked for Oren; I bought the album.
For UK ReadersAmazon UK downloads are restricted to UK IP addresses regardless of account status
- The Raveonettes: Suicide - Rocky little number as a sampler of their new album, pretty good, and it breaks the drought for UK free tracks.
For US ReadersLabels: Music
posted at 10:21 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far)
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Saturday, October 3
The Lily Allen Mentality
Here's my Free MP3 summary for the week. For UK ReadersI wish there was something to report, but in the UK the Lily Allen mindset (that's the modern, airheaded version of the Metallica mindset for those of you with any history) is so strong among music promoters that the very idea of letting you listen to anything without paying for it first is anathema. This is the real reason they are in trouble. The only people who get to listen to new music are people who are willing to take the risk to download it in the face of the witch-hunt, or pay speculatively based on breathless fanboyism. The rest of us just keep listening to our back catalogue...
For US ReadersMeanwhile, there's no shortage of free tracks and sampler albums over in the US. Clearly promoters over there are discovering that letting people hear an artist can easily lead to selling more of their music.
Amazon US downloads are restricted to verified US account-holders
- Black Whales: Books On Tape - Pretty routine if gritty-ish soft rock, with enough energy to make it worth a try. ***
- Mike Keneally: Inhale - Despite the heavy opening this is actually another ballad. Pace is rather slow and style treacly, lyric delivery a bit strained, not really to my taste but not bad. ***
- The Maldives: Tequila Sunday - The nasal intonation, fiddle riffs and the pedal steel confirm that this scratch-band rock number is from a "country" group, but it's actually quite rocky otherwise. I went to give it 3 stars and surprised myself by wanting to give it a 4th. ****
- The Ryko - Flash of Light Sampler is excellent and worth downloading in its entirety. *****
- So is the Verve Vault Rhythm, Strings and Cool Breezy Jazz Sample, which has some of my all-time favourite jazz classics on it and is would have been worth paying for (well, apart from the fact I have all of them already!) *****
- As a footnote, the Celtic Sampler I warmly recommended a few weeks ago obviously is worth paying for as Amazon is now charging $8.99 for it!
Labels: Amazon, Music
posted at 10:40 PM (UK) | Comment? (2 so far)
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