[Original Link] “The free software that found its way into the big league” and “Microsoft Threatened by Alternative Ways”.
Two positive articles about Open Source in the London Times
July 25th, 2002
[untitled]
July 21st, 2002
“Bill [Gates] isn’t afraid of taking long-term chances. He also understands that you have to try everything, because the real secret to innovation is failing fast.” – Gary Starkweather quoted in a Fortune article by Brent Schendler. Good point.
[untitled]
July 15th, 2002
Rose has just noticed that one of the cardboard boxes we used when moving house recently has a label on the side:
“Made from at least 100% recycled paper. Fully recyclable.”
At least?
Are Mac users smarter?
July 12th, 2002
[Original Link] “A new study compares Mac-using Web surfers with their PC-wielding counterparts. If you’re reading this on Windows, feel free to take your time on the big words.” [from CNET News.com]
Half the world has never used a telephone
July 9th, 2002
[Original Link] Clay Shirky has written a splendid article, discussing this well-known maxim, which teaches us something about statistics, something about catchphrases, and quite a bit about telecoms. [Found on Michael Gilbert’s excellent Nonprofit Online News.]
Update, twenty years later: Clay’s article is no longer at its original location but can be found on the Internet Archive here.
Views on Linux in Business
July 9th, 2002
[Original Link] Doc Searls quotes Vint Cerf: “The history of the Net is the history of its protocols”.
And then in this Linux Journal article he emphasises
…that the real virtue of Linux and other forms of infrastructural software…is not only that it’s open and free, but that it’s transparent. It is see-thru infrastructure. In fact, what makes it infrastructural is the fact that you can see through it. You can trust it because it has no secrets.
…Bill [Gates] says, “Trustworthy Computing is computing that is as available, reliable and secure as electricity, water services and telephony.” We should note that all those services are pure infrastructure whose workings are mostly transparent.
The Big Lie
July 8th, 2002
[Original Link] I’m a bit concerned about my weight and my cholesterol level, both of which are rather higher than they should be. I also enjoyed Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. This combination makes me interested in this well-written New York Times article in which Gary Taubes asks whether the dramatic rise in obesity recently has come about because of, rather than in spite of, the received wisdom on how to tackle it. Could the Atkins diet live again?
Y2Pay
June 28th, 2002
I like the banner on Ximian’s site:
[untitled]
June 27th, 2002
A good friend of mine told me a nice story. The poet W.H.Auden once asked him, “Don’t you think Tolkien is a wonderful writer?” To which my friend replied that no, he didn’t really think so. “I respect you for saying that”, said Auden, “but I’ll never trust your opinion again.”
TCPA and Palladium
June 27th, 2002
[Original Link] Ross Anderson has written a very good FAQ about the Intel/Microsoft plans for control/protection of digital content. I’m worried about this stuff, but I was worried about .NET and Passport/Hailstorm. Still, that was just Microsoft, and however big they were, you could choose to ignore them; enough people did, fortunately.
If the motherboard manufacturers adopt TCPA/Palladium, on the other hand, it may be rather harder. It has potentially worrying implications for Linux, Mac and other platforms. If somebody sends you a Word document in future, you might not only need a Microsoft software package to read it, you might also need an Intel motherboard. It’s a good thing there’s all this anti-monopoly legislation around, isn’t it?
(About a year ago, Microsoft even wanted me to change my name!)
Mark Pilgrim
June 27th, 2002
[Original Link] The scourge of web design is the “javascript:” link. Agreed. Javascript, if used at all, should augment normal web activity, not replace it.
The name’s Bond. Osama Bond.
June 16th, 2002
[Original Link] John Naughton’s column about the changing role of MI5.
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