Posts filed under 'FOSS'
Net Neutrality Axed
US politicians have rejected attempts to enshrine the principle of net neutrality in legislation.
…O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Fossed
The last few weeks have been incredible, for the FOSS community at large, and personally to me as well. First, there was the FOSS-Ed for Hackers conference, where I had a wonderful time (and where Anuradha W presented me with a hard-bound copy of Free Software, Free Society, thanks mate!). And then, a couple of days ago I got confirmation from Google that I was accepted for the Summer of Code 2006. Awesomeness.
A Free Designer
Came across this interview of Issara Willenskomer in the RedHat magazine. He discusses the overly protective way designers tend to keep their design tricks secret, and why that’s totally bullshit.
One for Apache from Sri Lanka
Apache Axis2 1.0 released, comes the announcement from Dr. Sanjiva, a pioneer in promoting FOSS in Sri Lanka. Through LSF, and their latest venture WSO2, Sanjiva and his clan are leading the web service innovation.
Stop the RIAA
US citizens, please take a stand against the madness: Stop the RIAA!
Getting Real about Getting Real
37Signals released their book Getting Real as a PDF. I’m sure the book is excellent, but I can’t say the same about the terms and conditions under which it is released. If it were a printed book, I would have been free to share it with my friends, but if I buy this PDF, I have to agree that it’ll reside only on my computer, only to be seen by me. 37Signals are not the first to use this PDF distribution model, but it’s the first book where I really felt the hurt; it’s one book I’d love to have, if not for the need to compromise my freedom and agree to be an asshole by not sharing it with others.
Ideas? Yes. Actioned?
I do not want to appear critical, or worse, an antfucker, but the 330kb flash navigation menu on the website of the Government Internet Data Center does seem to reflect the sad plight of government websites in Sri Lanka. It looks as if the “poor” nature of connectivity of the country has been overlooked in an effort to make the site spiffy. Is the “pro-poor” idea not being actioned?
Y! User Interface and Design Pattern Libraries
Not only do the new User Interface Library and Design Pattern Library from Yahoo seem very comprehensive, they are also released under FOSS licenses. It’s good to see big companies contributing back to the community from which they have benefited. In Yahoo marketese these are Web 2.0 stuff, but I guess you can forgive them for that considering the quality of the tools.
The Myth of Intellectual Property
“Intellectual Property” is a phrase worth avoiding, as explained by much better people. Free Software advocates would be familiar with the reasons (I’m not very sure about the Open Source guys - ESR goes as far as to say that GPL is no longer needed, which, atleast to some of us, seems to be an unacceptable stand) but it’s not often you find the “management types” buying this idea.
$100 laptop - the intel version
Intel Chairman Barrett says world’s poorest don’t want $100 laptops. The world’s poorest say they want $100 laptops. And Simputers.
