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Monthly Archives: September 2008

saddest (truest?) conversation of the day

30-Sep-08

(me) I’m an irritating perfectionist who can’t prioritize
(me) stubborn ‘pride in work product’
(friend) lose it
(friend) that’s an evolutionary …whatchamacallit
(friend) like the appendix
(friend) a holdover that adds no value

computer usage data bleg (update: and server market share)

22-Sep-08

Hey, all. I’m in need of data about ‘typical’ computer usage- i.e., ‘in 2007, the average computer user spent X% of time on the internet, Y% of time doing word processing, Z% of time listening to music, etc.’ The ideal data set would have this information for a number of years- ideally going back at [...]

what you can (and can’t) learn from Google’s EULA mistake

18-Sep-08

When people started complaining about the Google Chrome EULA, it seemed obvious to me that it was a copy and paste error- old language, copied into a new situation where it didn’t quite fit. But after Google explained that they had just reused language from other licenses, Gizmodo noted:
It’s not that I don’t trust Google, [...]

what these guys need is… a trademark license!

17-Sep-08

Most screaming case for a community mark license I’ve seen in a while is the utterly cool PARK(ing) Day. Basically, they’ve got a very cool idea (probably patentable, not copyrightable) and have registered a mark (PARK(ing) Day, protected but not under copyright.) And they’ve put the thing (or tried to put it) under a CC-BY-NC-SA [...]

that havoc, he’s such a nice young man. John McCain, not so much.

14-Sep-08

HP: very nice post. The version in my drafts folder since Friday night is… hrm. Very similar in content, but, well, less polite. One might say ‘angrier’.
I had a lot of respect for John McCain (probably would have voted for him over Gore in 2000) but over the past couple of weeks that respect has [...]

GNOME Mobile Stewardship Team

08-Sep-08

On behalf of the board, I just announced a new GNOME Mobile Stewardship Team on foundation-announce. I’m pleased with this announcement for a number of reasons. Primarily, I think it’ll help us get better focus and direction around GNOME Mobile, and obviously that is important. But I’m also excited that this is a big step [...]

Software Freedom Day event in New York City

07-Sep-08

James Vasile asked me to pass along that the Software Freedom Law Center is having a reception for Software Freedom Day. Details are at his blog (which is worth subscribing too- low volume, high value when something is said.
(I’ll try to make it, but my brother will be in town, so… possibly not.)

Deblois plays NYC!

04-Sep-08

My sister Deblois will be playing her acoustic-folk-blues-surf-rock in New York City on Friday and Saturday nights; details here or below the fold. (Some sample music here; buy here.) Krissa and I will be at both shows; let us know if you want to join us!

creative commons picture script request?

03-Sep-08

I’m doing a lot of slide show work of late, so I was wondering if any of my readers knew of an in-image equivalent of the gfwa script I use on the blog? Basically, I’d love to know of (or have written?) a script that, given an image, a license, attribution strings, etc., would spit [...]

quick thought on blizzard’s thoughts on google chrome

01-Sep-08

“The fact that Google believes that they can launch a browser based on new technology means that the market is alive.” –Blizzard

monopoly-e-commerce by Daniel Broche. License:
It is a pretty bizarre “market” where the major participants are, in market share order:

a repeatedly convicted monopolist that makes no money off its product in this market
a non-profit [...]