From Luke Ford’s blog: Unless you think hard about political questions in our culture, you are liberal by default. You have to think your way out of liberalism. – Heather McDonald.
From Luke Ford’s blog: Unless you think hard about political questions in our culture, you are liberal by default. You have to think your way out of liberalism. – Heather McDonald.
Rob Flickenger, a sysadmin for O’Reilly who doesn’t make his living writing code, thought he caught Linksys shirking the GPL, except he didn’t: As far as I can tell without having exhaustively looked at every piece of available code, Linksys appears to be trying to comply with the terms of the GPL (as I understand … Continue reading “Playing “gotcha” with GPL”
Rob Flickenger, a sysadmin for O’Reilly who doesn’t make his living writing code, thought he caught Linksys shirking the GPL, except he didn’t:
As far as I can tell without having exhaustively looked at every piece of available code, Linksys appears to be trying to comply with the terms of the GPL (as I understand them anyway), and putting many customizations into BSD code, which doesn’t require source distribution.
This is really disappointing to Mr. Flickenger, because he so wanted to stomp one of them capitalist enterprises that was dumb enough to use GPL’ed code.
There’s an interesting remark from Brett Glass in the Flickenger’s comments section, to wit:
This whole affair demonstrates the true nature of the GPL. It’s designed to sabotage businesses. In particular, it’s intended to strip them of the ability to add unique value to their products — which, in turn, is an essential element of success. VA Linux had to drop out of the hardware business because they couldn’t get a competitive edge — which happened, in turn, because they embraced GPLed code. Linksys, if the GPL zealots have their way, will go the same route.
Linksys was foolish indeed to use GPLed code at all. Instead, they should have used BSD-licensed code, which is friendly to programmers and to the businesses which issue their paychecks. The BSD and MIT licenses, as well as other truly free licenses, promote innovation and allow programmers to be rewarded for innovating. The viral, spiteful, anti-business, anti-programmer GPL does the opposite.
Is GPL “viral and spiteful”? Clearly, there’s a lot of spite on Flickenger’s part, but that’s just a personal issue, not a legal one. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using GPL’ed code, as long as you don’t actually need to modify it. For everything important, there’s the BSD license.
A fellow named Chris Lydon has been interviewing bloggers and posting mp3s of the interviews to a web site. The people he’s interviewed seem to think he’s a great interviewer, and I can’t see why. In the course of interviewing Reynolds, who he calls “the Warblogger” as if there’s only one, he asserts that the … Continue reading “The world of Chris Lydon”
A fellow named Chris Lydon has been interviewing bloggers and posting mp3s of the interviews to a web site. The people he’s interviewed seem to think he’s a great interviewer, and I can’t see why. In the course of interviewing Reynolds, who he calls “the Warblogger” as if there’s only one, he asserts that the New York Times supported the war in Iraq, and offers as proof the columns of Tom Friedman and Bill Safire. This was so idiotic it made my head nearly explode, and Reynolds questioned it but was polite and let him get away with it. When Reynolds pointed out that the anti- side in the Iraq war debate wasn’t really about the war, but about such things as America’s place in the world (really was more about Bush’s legitimacy as president, to tell the truth) Lydon didn’t see any problem with that, and the fellow was all agush with the “democratic” nature of the blogosphere.
While everybody likes a good ass-kissing from time to time, it’s always seemed to me that it’s much less satisfying when done by a moron. Is that too harsh?
The Cleveland Indians have a player named Coco Crisp who’s on a hitting streak, but the A’s beat them anyway, right after the Cubs beat the Giants on a 3-run homer by Moizes Alou, son of Giants manager Felipe Alou. While the Giants were 11-1 since the break, they failed to score a run against … Continue reading “Baseball”
The Cleveland Indians have a player named Coco Crisp who’s on a hitting streak, but the A’s beat them anyway, right after the Cubs beat the Giants on a 3-run homer by Moizes Alou, son of Giants manager Felipe Alou. While the Giants were 11-1 since the break, they failed to score a run against the Cubs on account of they never play well when Dusty Baker is in the room.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, just like Dusty stuck it to the Giants by blowing the All Star Game and with it, home field advantage in the playoffs.
Calblogger is as irritated as I am with Arnie and Dick’s little game of gubernatorial indecision: We’re not looking at Riordan getting ready or Arnold trying to decide. We’re watching two men playing hot potato with the governorship with the belief that it belongs to one of them and only one of them. Look, boys, … Continue reading “Hot potato”
Calblogger is as irritated as I am with Arnie and Dick’s little game of gubernatorial indecision:
We’re not looking at Riordan getting ready or Arnold trying to decide. We’re watching two men playing hot potato with the governorship with the belief that it belongs to one of them and only one of them.
Look, boys, the governor’s office doesn’t have either of your names on it yet, and if you keep this up it never will. For all the muscles, Arnie is a obviously a momma’s boy who can’t make a move without his wife’s permission, and Dick is a dilettante who’d rather sip martinis and tell stories than get down to business. While this tea-party is taking place, serious candidates like Tom McClintock are in the race and running hard, and the Dems have started a “Draft Dianne” movement that’s gathering steam toward a more plausible replacement.
If the race comes down to Feinstein and Riordan, the karma factor will be intense because both have been slimed by Davis so intensely, Feinstein with the Leona Helmsley ads and Riordan with the $9M in ads during the Republican primary.
The blogosphere is a-flutter with praise for Marxist Norman Geras’ criticism of the anti-liberation left, and rightly so. My favorite part was the conclusion: When the war began a division of opinion was soon evident amongst its opponents, between those who wanted a speedy outcome – in other words, a victory for the coalition forces, … Continue reading “The best part of it”
The blogosphere is a-flutter with praise for Marxist Norman Geras’ criticism of the anti-liberation left, and rightly so. My favorite part was the conclusion:
When the war began a division of opinion was soon evident amongst its opponents, between those who wanted a speedy outcome – in other words, a victory for the coalition forces, for that is all a speedy outcome could realistically have meant – and those who did not. These latter preferred that the Coalition forces should suffer reverses, get bogged down, and you know the story: stalemate, quagmire, Stalingrad scenario in Baghdad, and so forth, leading to a US and British withdrawal. But what these critics of the war thereby wished for was a spectacular triumph for the regime in Baghdad, since that is what a withdrawal would have been. So much for solidarity with the victims of oppression, for commitment to democratic values and basic human rights.
Similarly today, with all those who seem so to relish every new difficulty, every set-back for US forces: what they align themselves with is a future of prolonged hardship and suffering for the Iraqi people, whether via an actual rather than imagined quagmire, a ruinous civil war, or the return (out of either) of some new and ghastly political tyranny; rather than a rapid stabilization and democratization of the country, promising its inhabitants an early prospect of national normalization. That is caring more to have been right than for a decent outcome for the people of this long unfortunate country.
Conclusion. Such impulses have displayed themselves very widely across left and liberal opinion in recent months. Why? For some, because what the US government and its allies do, whatever they do, has to be opposed – and opposed however thuggish and benighted the forces which this threatens to put your anti-war critic into close company with. For some, because of an uncontrollable animus towards George Bush and his administration. For some, because of a one-eyed perspective on international legality and its relation to issues of international justice and morality. Whatever the case or the combination, it has produced a calamitous compromise of the core values of socialism, or liberalism or both, on the part of thousands of people who claim attachment to them. You have to go back to the apologias for, and fellow-travelling with, the crimes of Stalinism to find as shameful a moral failure of liberal and left opinion as in the wrong-headed – and too often, in the circumstances, sickeningly smug – opposition to the freeing of the Iraqi people from one of the foulest regimes on the planet.
But the question this raises is: why is it remarkable that a leftist supports the liberation of an oppressed people all of a sudden?
My, how the Movement has fallen.
Following up on findings generated from Original Internet Architecture (demonstating that mediocre programmers in a snit-fit could design network architecture), researchers have learned that baboons can program Visual Basic and XML: Research by scientists suggests that higher primates represent certain kinds of knowledge internally by discrete symbol structures, called scripts. This research tends to support … Continue reading “Monkey business”
Following up on findings generated from Original Internet Architecture (demonstating that mediocre programmers in a snit-fit could design network architecture), researchers have learned that baboons can program Visual Basic and XML:
Research by scientists suggests that higher primates represent certain kinds of knowledge internally by discrete symbol structures, called scripts. This research tends to support the hypothesis that primates can program. Other scientific research also supports the idea that primates may be used for routine programming, such as maintenance and report writing, within 10 years.
The implications of McAuliffe’s work has wide scope, and may effect software developer education, open source programming, H1-B visas, and commercial software testing. The research is already making waves in the business community. Some early adopters– and even some venture capitalists– are funding business models based on so-called ‘primate programming’. One such firm is the VC-backed startup Primate Programming Inc. It remains to be seen how effective the exploitation of this research will be in the marketplace.
Primate blogger types: read the whole thing.
Nice insight on Davis in Matier and Ross (Energy crisis pulled plug on Davis, pollster says / Overpriced energy deals that drained the state budget also cost the governor’s popularity plenty) Politicians live or die by their defining moment. For George W. Bush, it was Sept. 11. For Gov. Gray Davis, it was the energy … Continue reading “Massive Grayout”
Nice insight on Davis in Matier and Ross (Energy crisis pulled plug on Davis, pollster says / Overpriced energy deals that drained the state budget also cost the governor’s popularity plenty)
Politicians live or die by their defining moment. For George W. Bush, it was Sept. 11. For Gov. Gray Davis, it was the energy crisis of ’01 — and in most voters’ eyes, he came up short.
“No question about it,” said pollster Mark DiCamillo, who has been tracking Davis for the past five years. “That was the trigger. That’s when he crossed the line.
“Look at the numbers,” DiCamillo said. “In January of that year, Davis’ approval ratings were at 57 percent. Four months later they were under 36 percent.”
Davis never recovered.
Neither did California.
Verizon’s acting like the Internet bubble never burst, according this article in Bidness Week that was linked over at Hit and Run: “When you’re the market leader,” says Seidenberg, “part of your responsibility is to reinvent the market.” At the heart of this reinvention is the most ambitious deployment of new telecom technology in years. … Continue reading “Real stuff”
Verizon’s acting like the Internet bubble never burst, according this article in Bidness Week that was linked over at Hit and Run:
“When you’re the market leader,” says Seidenberg, “part of your responsibility is to reinvent the market.”
At the heart of this reinvention is the most ambitious deployment of new telecom technology in years. Verizon plans to roll out fiber-optic connections to every home and business in its 29-state territory over the next 10 to 15 years, a project that might reasonably be compared with the construction of the Roman aqueducts. It will cost $20 billion to $40 billion, depending on how fast equipment prices fall, and allow the lightning-fast transmission of everything from regular old phone service to high-definition TV.
No “World of Hippies” propaganda, just the facts.
Tim Oren’s funded a company that builds a GPS-guided automated tractor used, in part, by organic farmers: Part of the plantings at American Farms are certified organic, and the GPS system was originally bought for them, exploiting the reduced till concept for weed control and making it safe to leave irrigation piping in place while … Continue reading “Organic farming meets Venture Capital”
Tim Oren’s funded a company that builds a GPS-guided automated tractor used, in part, by organic farmers:
Part of the plantings at American Farms are certified organic, and the GPS system was originally bought for them, exploiting the reduced till concept for weed control and making it safe to leave irrigation piping in place while tilling, due to the greater precision. If your image of organic veggies involves aging hippies working their few acre truck farm, think again. What I saw was industrialized organic farming, 40 acres of raised bed lettuce ‘garden’ at a go, plowed and planted automatically under the control of Silicon Valley gadgetry, guided by Defense Department GPS satellites.
“Reduced till” means shallow tilling, preferred by organic farmers because it doesn’t bring so many weed seeds to the surface, it isn’t so hard on your worms, it reduces topsoil erosion, and is all-around a good deal, except it requires some precision, hence the farmbot.
This is some cool shit, in other words, doing well by doing good.
