Slashdot has a piece up on an open source business model that uses the patent system against itself (similar to how Stallman used copyright against itself with the GPL). I’ve batted ideas like this around in the past, but in my head at least, it always breaks down right at the patent troll level: I […]
Well said…
The fundamental problem with all forms of “intellectual property” is that they attempt to perform a form of social engineering (encouraging innovation) through the violation of free market principles (using government enforcement to reduce competition in the marketplace).
Encouraging innovation by restricting the spread & use of information seems highly counterintuitive to me.
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Some say Microsoft, in spite if its using the word to death, is simply too large and complex to innovate. But Microsoft can innovate:
Ah, but you see, they’ve developed a program to help with that.
“It looks like you are trying to innovate! Maybe I can help you
Wade through mountains of bureaucratic paperwork.
Convince your technically conservative […]
So the latest Ubuntu release, Hardy Heron, is rapidly approaching. I dropped the beta on my laptop a few days back, and Holy Shit am I loving life. I’ll be completely whiping my Gutsy partition as soon as I get the chance!
I’m reading a lot of chatter about people being none too pleased that Hardy’s […]
In case you’re wondering how a bribe goes down today, here’s a interesting example…
I want to tell you Slashdot people something about how this kind of thing works. I don’t really know the name for it, but I call it “soft bribery”. You might also call it “economic alignment” or whatever. Here’s what happens.
A large, […]
Brian Moore over at Angry Blog lays down a textbook debunking of Noah Millman’s familiar argument against legalizing “sin idustries”:
The trick Noah is pulling here is assuming that “sin industries” themselves are bad, and have victims that suffer. He lumps together the abuse and the industry — which is like saying that convenient stores are […]
Mark Pligrim, translating Joel Spolsky’s truthiness…
Those documents are super confusing.
With a little truth of his own…
Hi, I’m Web Developer Barbie. Pull my string and I say, “Standards are tough! Let’s go shopping!”
Can someone explain to me why Mr. Joel on Software gets so much link-love?
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I can’t believe it: Enso is finally Free!
Of course, this had been hinted at for a while, so it’s no great surprise, but it’s still pretty big news for the Python geek and the HCI geek in me. Jono’s humane explanation of the open source development model is a great read for the uninitiated…
But the […]
A few days back I received what I think is the first chain email that was actually worth reading — a little ditty about the little Fucking town in Austria. At first I thought it was Bullshit, but Google confirms…
I Google’d for Bullshit too, but no dice. Hell, I thought it was cool when I […]
Larry David on the “Sybillish personalities” Clinton’s broken out on the campaign trail.
I don’t want her talking to Putin, I don’t want her talking to Kim Jong Il, I don’t want her talking to my nephew. She needs a long rest. She needs to put on a sarong and some sun block and get away […]
Those predisposed to dystopian visions of the future, fear not…
Google is not, and never will be, the problem. The problem is going to be the following:
The local city government monitoring your car at every intersection and every stretch of road, and mailing you a ticket every time you exceed the speed limit by […]
From the /. comments, here’s another Wikipedia scandal I’d never heard of…
At some point I picked up in slashdot comments about the whole antisocialmedia.net / Gary Weiss / Judd Bagley / Overstock.com mess and decided I was interested enough to spend the time (several hours) reading everything I could about it and trying to figure […]
Wikipedia founder accused of corruption. And another great comment about community governance:
That’s a bit mean. Wikipedia has obvious problems, but the fact that it is probably the world’s largest book and is more or less accurate is an astonishing achievement. What it loses in accuracy or polish it makes up for in sheer breadth.
The problems […]
I hadn’t yet heard the saga of Shareaza, the yet-another-p2p-app that has been hijacked by a pretty scammy bunch. There are even rumors a’swirlin’ in the echosphere that Discordia Ltd. is really just a shell for the MAFIAA, evidenced by the fact that they’re a US firm and no US firm could survive for long […]
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I noticed a nice little humane cue on the humanized site recently. Next to the “POST A COMMENT” label, they’ve included a small, subtle reminder…
Please respect this public space
Now I’m not a fan of wasteful sign pollution, but if you’re in the habit of actually reading the comments (incredibly useful sometimes), this little cue might […]