last call

We're now just days away from the final release.

"Piracy" fighters

Via CNN. And just a reminder, I am against piracy.

pointless debate

Evangelicals Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort recently teamed up to debate the existence of "Him". Why people debate their beliefs never ceases to amaze me. Why people try to convince others of their beliefs never ceases to amaze me. Why people believe never ceases to amaze me.

Is asking questions and not knowing that scary?

Speaking of evangelism, have you seen this yet?

pedagogy?

I wasn't there. Therefore, I don't know all the details. But this certainly appears to be "poor judgment".

task of monumental contradiction

"occupy the moral high ground" during an immoral occupation.

tasty torvalds

This must be what Han feels like during the GPL3 drafting process. :)

Thanks Cory.

Free software drivers from ATI?

Slashdot has an article linking to several websites concerning ATI and free software drivers. I'm still not convinced that the ATI statement last August was not purposefully spun to set AMD up as savior.

Fact or not, a spin I'd be happy receiving some vertigo from.

accountability in education

I'm not against accountability in education. I don't want to "leave children behind". While I have a strong opinion on what accountability means, this post isn't intended to travel down that road. But to be clear, my understanding of "accountability" has no relationship to the quantified results of standardized tests mandated by authorities outside of a school (e.g. district, city, state, country).

Accountability can take many genuine forms (e.g. parent involvement). Kimberly Moritz's suggestion is certainly one that fits my understanding of "being held accountable".

"Seems to me we need a superintendent’s blog."

Read her post here.

Sam Varghese on Dell/Microsoft-Novell

Update: Just as I finish writing the post below, I hear this news.
-----------------------

Sam Varghese plays a little on the Star Wars theme with "The empire strikes back".

The article is pretty straightforward. Sam mentions the Microsoft/Novell deal eventually bringing SUSE to Dell's plate. As well, the news of Dell's deal with Canonical to support Ubuntu. This all gets mixed into a reasonably pessimistic outlook for "Linux" with Microsoft playing dominant bully. Sam says,

"There's a message here from Microsoft that little people should not mess with the big boys. There is space for only one 800-pound gorilla and it sure isn't Canonical. Microsoft is by far the biggest player in the industry. It is also the most paranoid. The only way it knows to keep its products on top of the sales list is by knocking off competitors, using any means that will work. The spread of Linux (sic) on the desktop is not going to come from the efforts of any big industry player; it is only going to come from concerted efforts by smaller players."

I see what Sam is getting at and agree. However, what I found missing in Sam's article was any mention of how GPL3 figures into this. Perhaps Sam is reasonably convinced that the Linux kernel will never move to v3? And even if so, does it really matter? After all, though important, Linux is just one program.

Perhaps if we see the situation in a different way, we may find a "big industry player" inadvertently helping FOSS along. This help comes not from the hardware company Dell, but from Microsoft itself. And it's Microsoft despite its "gorilla"-like tactics. This is so because what is happening is not so much about "Linux" as it is about the GPL. Microsoft's very effort to subdue the GPL is simultaneously blowing wind on the back of the FOSS turtle. Slow and steady with a sprinkle of serendipity. Serendipity thanks to a "paranoid", "800-pound gorilla" generating a considerable karmic gale.

Obviously, the patent deal expressed in SUSE is not what many FOSS supporters would describe as "ideal". But with GPL3, is that aggression not just sedated, but turned back upon the aggressor? Is it possible Sam, that Microsoft shot themselves in the foot? Is "the only way it knows" its worst, long-term enemy?

I don't know. We'll have to wait and see.

defending software freedom...by blade

Resulting from an xkcd webcomic that gave me a chuckle, RMS receives a bedside buddy to help bring about a GNU dawn. My question: has anyone sent nunchucks to Torvalds yet?

cold beauty

Arrowhisper sends me early morning photos of her Valiant during a frosty Spring (2007) morning in Canada.


Click on images for full size (~500KB each).