Happy New Year

On The Turning Away

On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we won't understand
"Don't accept that what's happening
Is just a case of others' suffering
Or you'll find that you're joining in
The turning away
It's a sin that somehow
Light is changing to shadow
And casting it's shroud
Over all we have known
Unaware how the ranks have grown
Driven on by a heart of stone
We could find that we're all alone
In the dream of the proud
On the wings of the night
As the daytime is stirring
Where the speechless unite
In a silent accord
Using words you will find are strange
And mesmerised as they light the flame
Feel the new wind of change
On the wings of the night
No more turning away
From the weak and the weary
No more turning away
From the coldness inside
Just a world that we all must share
It's not enough just to stand and stare
Is it only a dream that there'll be
No more turning away?

Today, took a trip to Middlemore to see the old team. Ran into more of them than we expected, but it was welcome. Sat awhile in the "Healing Garden" where Corwin got his last taste of nature. Then off to Sylvia Park for dinner and a movie.

Movie: The Golden Compass - epic fantasy for children. A subversive tale of order vs chaos ... "A long time ago the Authority was disobeyed and that is why children get worrying ideas. We must always obey authority." Sound like Genesis? But that was the villainess (Nicole Kidman) speaking!

Sumptuous sets, resonant detail, check cyncism at the door. The kids were awestruck! As a bonus, we saw it in the "Half Pipe" cinima - lounging on really big bean bags. It was like the dream sequence from Solla Sollew. Don't just sit there... go look!

I was planning to launch the course + linux support after xmas, but I see people spending $500 to $1500 to migrate their existing computers to Windows Vista. Sad. I should run an ad warning people. After all, an upgrade to gnu/linux costs $0 to $250 depending on what you want. Hell, I can supply a managed home-desktop install for $50-$100.

I've also heard that the Vista soles-pleebs are telling buyers that viruses and malware are not an issue any more. This is such a blatant lie! The malware is worse than ever and much more malicious, they know this, ergo, they are lying. Don't do business with them.

Meanwhile, linux is even more serious than before:
Wall Street banks and traders are increasingly turning to Linux for cost-savings and flexability. And the NY Stock Exchange is migrating their big machines to IBM AIX, with the rest taken up by HP servers running... Linux.

Otherwise a bit of a blue day today. Spent most of the day writing up a short treatise on Scientific Philosophy as a kind of cluebat for the evangelists I keep running into. That way, if asked about God, I can give them a pamphlet.

I found 10 reasons to worship God (it's pretty representative)... makes me wonder what planet Christians come from.

10. It's our response to His love.
... and the appropriate response to "I love you" is to fall on your knees and worship the one who says that? I don't think so! Let God love whomever, why does that entail an obligation on me?

9. Worship is commanded.
... and the appropriate response to "Worship me" is to fall on your knees and worship the one who says that?Did these people doing the commanding give any reasons?

8. Worship dethrones the enemy.
... and I want to thwart Satan's plan (to stop me worshipping God) because of what?

7. Worship puts our relationship with God into action and gives it expression.
... but why would I want to have this particular action and expression of my relationship with this particular God? (Begging the question.)

6. Worship touches our emotions.
... so do a lot of things. Why is this particular method desirable?

5. Worship pleases God.
... I'd be quite chuffed myself, but I don't see anyone kneeling.

4. Worship keeps our relationship with God in perspective.
... provided that the relationship is one of worshipper and worshippee, yes, I imagine so. But why would I want that relationship in the first place!

3. God deserves to be worshipped.
... I guess, otherwise you wouldn't be suggesting it. But the question is: why? Anyway, all religions make that claim.

2. We worship to prepare for what we'll do for eternity.
... translation: because I'll go to hell if I don't. Threats aye - any God that relies on threats (and bribary) to get freinds is not worthy of worship. I'll gladly go to hell for my objections to this unethical treatment.

1. Worship is what we are created for.
... then I shouldn't have been given free will. A lawnmower may have been created to mow lawns, but it can be used to power go-carts. If I own my will I need a reason for worship. If I do not, then my will is not free. So, being created for a purpose is not sufficient reason to fulfil that purpose.

The trouble with these things is that the writer is always assuming that "worship" = "come to my church". So the "reasons" are never provided in a wider spiritual environment. All these reasons are equally valid for Allah, Ahura Mazda or Baal.

There is a baby next door so I am assembling a xmas parcel for them.

At first this seems a bit odd... surely MS owns Windows, and owns IE? They are a commercial entity. Surely they can bundle their stuff if they want to?

And if there was anyone else on the playing-feild, that would be fine. In this case, MS is being accused of hogging the playing feild, not letting players from competing teams get on. Those players allowed on are required to play with their shoelaces tied. And they keep moving the goalposts! They do all this and claim to have the best team.

MS may protest that they pwn the playing feild.

What the EU is saying is that you don't just get to do whatever you want with (or on) your own property. You don't just compete any way you like. If you are not prepared to act like a responsible member of the community, you are not welcome here. And, this behavior is considered irresponsible.

On the linux and F/OSS front, it is a mixed bag. We get to ask people if they really want to do business with a convicted and unrepentant monopolist. (To which people keep saying, "Yes.") It means that Free applications have more of a lookin - but won't we just see Windows Vista EU sold with the core apps (IE OE and WMP) on an install disk? Or OEM vendors preinstalling them?

In fact, the place where MS actually most abuses monopoly position is in the OEM requirements. What does and does not get installed and what you are allowed to say etc. This is an area consistently ignored - and for good reason: the first major OEM to buck the system risks losing their licence. (But see Dell, and how they use their own market dominance to pressure Microsoft...)

Of more significance is the addendum:

Opera asked the Commission to ... require Microsoft to follow "fundamental and open Web standards".

Of course, with governments getting involved with LARTing large corporations, the available LARTs need to be expanded. The KA51 LART Delivery Vehicle (pictured, sidebar) has already been considered. I'd also suggest the T80U Compliance Monitor [image][youtube] or, perhaps, the T84?. Or, maybe, this (below) one?

(click for original context)

I aten,t dead.
I came across the above BoingBoing acticle about Terry Pratchet. Tracked it down to the link you see above. This is a blow! Good news is that there are still books to come. With a known time limit, maybe he can bring the discworld cycle to a close?

Seems tha hbclinux.net.nz has crashed! I've had no news, I'll have to look into it tomorrow.

*** Later: Service is back up.

Around this time last year, New Zealand's DMCA-style hack [history][analysis] to the Copywrite Act got to the stage it needed serious opposition. Canada is now in the same position. While NZ eventually adopted a softer (but still mine-ridden) version, Canada is going for the works.

The USA "Digital Millenium Copywrite Act" was a kneejerk reaction to the phenomina of widespread music (digital content) distribution over channels the music industry cannot control (read: the internet). It is an understandable one too. However: "uncontrollable", "widespread", and "sharing" are all things that are built in to the web.

"The US’s approach to enforcing copyright in the digital age has resulted in 20,000 lawsuits against music fans, technology companies being sued out of existence for making new multi-purpose tools, and has not put one penny into the pocket of an artist or reduced downloading one bit. The USA stepped into uncharted territory in 1998 with the DMCA and fell off a cliff — that was reckless, but following them off the cliff is insane."

A saner option is to adjust the models to compensate.

Academics have been discussing and proposing as usual. Some examples: Example 1, Example 2, Example 3,

Meanwhile, a host of businesses have sprung up around the concept of a creative commons. Vocal among these is Magnatunes, as an example to the music industry. Fact is, handled properly, the tendency to copy and share can be leveraged to make even more money. This is going to happen anyway: how painful the transition is depends on our legislators.

A fascinating documentary on music copyright. QOTD: "The world will little note nor long remember what we say here..." Abe Lincoln in his Gettysburg address. (He reckoned without history teachers.)

Thinking about the seminar I am to present next year, I have been investigating Powerpoint. I found this neat slide set of how Abes most famous speach may have turned out if he'd had acces to ppt. And also this article on how Power Point is A Bad Thing. Now I'm thinking, "Maybe I'll do something else".

Went hunting for the Battlestar Galactica Season 3 DVDs but everywhere was sold out!
AAaaaaaaaaaaargh!
... I'm over it now.

It was a sunny day, and half Orewa was out. Lots of children. Cathy had a Tarot reading and I had a look in one of the house-trucks: they are exactly how you dream of living when you are a kid. I'd build a static one, but housing regs get in the way.

We had lunch there, and a walk on the beach. Simple indugencies. Then home for a long laze by the pool.

I set up my home desktop to share my music collection over the wireless network. This meant I could bring the music to the pool without relying on disks or hogging a laptop's HDD. I'll have to be careful to make sure the access dosn't get hacked as the wireless is connected to the internet.

I'm not worried about the computers on the LAN, because I've been strict about their exposure. Unlike some legacy OSs, Linux does not share the whole drive by default. Intruders get read-only access, and there's nothing there I mind being copied.

I'm not worried (much) about intrusion from the internet end either - the LAN is behind two firewalls and DMZ. Then, each host is firewalled. Nothing gets in without an invitation.

No - the likely problem will be kids hacking the passphrase and using my wireless net (from across the road, say) to hitch a free ride into the internet. I don't mind sharing my connection, but I pay for my bandwidth. I'd prefer hitch-hikers to contribute.

If I see a )( symbol on the letterbox, I'm changing the pass.

Mind you: I could paint one on myself and filter the resulting traffic for personal information... bank details, credit card numbers...

I chose a Linksys WRT54GL (powered by linux) wireless router. It was a breeze to set up - practically plug it in and go. Effortless networking, and fairly secure by default (then I tweaked some). I can strongly recommend these things.

The idea is that I can use it to set up a portable classroom for that course I'm offering. Networking is one of the things linux is good at after all.

Now ... Quake party? :)

Movie: Merchant of Venice - (2004) Al Pachino is Shylock! Backed up by Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes, and Lynn Collins (Some of Porschia's best lines didn't make the final cut though.) with recognisable faces in the background. The handling of the language was flawless, not a clunky line, and easy to follow. Starts a little slow and unfocussed, but builds inexorably to a white-knuckle climax. Must see, even if you don't like Shakespeare.

How could such industries as software, semiconductors, and computers have been so innovative despite historically weak patent protection? We argue that if innovation is both sequential and complementary — as it certainly has been in those industries — competition can increase firms’ future profits thus offsetting short-term dissipation of rents. A simple model also shows that in such a dynamic industry, patent protection may reduce overall innovation and social welfare. The natural experiment that occurred when patent protection was extended to software in the 1980's provides a test of this model. Standard arguments would predict that R&D intensity and productivity should have increased among patenting firms. Consistent with our model, however, these increases did not occur. Other evidence supporting our model includes a distinctive pattern of cross-licensing in these industries and a positive relationship between rates of innovation and firm entry.

In other words, the tech industry operates like the fashion industry, where legal protection on design is not allowed, but innovation and creativity are very strong. Firms must innovate to stay competitive.

This is not new. What's nice about the Bessin & Maskin study is that they cite empirical evidence to support the model. Unusual in this kind of paper. There have been a blather of papers like this, here's an overview.

Of course, all these academics are talking from a macroeconomic point of view. Software patents are very good for maintaining existing monopolies. The broader the better.

Considering the last post, broadband users may like this youtube Redhat ad.

Finally brought all the laptops up to date and all at the same level. Now things are set. I discovered that "hibernate" (suspend to disk) mode is erratic in Ubuntu, but there are reports that some people have managed to get it to work with the uswsusp package. Interestingly, I checked in Windows and found hibernate dosn't work at all! Not on the nx5000 anyway. So there is a good change I'm having trouble with this because the BIOS isn't set up to handle it.

I guess Windows just isn't ready for the desktop huh?

On the Open Source Front - Steve Ballmer continues to insist that Linux uses MS-owned intellectual property. Linux and Open Source developers re-issue their "put up or shut up" response. This is getting boring Steve.

What the Linux people seem to be missing though, is that an software patent is not defined in terms of source code. Rather, it is a description of what the code does. In that respect, it is not surprising that linux could be doing things covered by these descriptions. I remains to be seen whether such a patent is even enforceable: patent disputes are usually settled out of court - a prospect unlikely for Open Source (As SCO found out earlier this year.)

A possible defence is prior art. MS has some fifty-odd patents in NZ, which are currently under investigation by NZOSS. The dozen or so that have been examined all contain or comprise prior ort - i.e. Microsoft did not make the innovation being claimed. These are all public domain or open source.

Another approach is due to the nature of computers that things will tend to look alike despite being sufficiently different in fundamentals to satisfy patent law. A dozen different water pumps may all be a box with hoses and a switch - it's what's in the box that counts.

Fact is, if MS had any evidence, they'd take it to court instead of messing about like this. Despite it's 2-and-a-bit market-share, MS seems frightened of Linux. Of course, advocates like me think they have good reason to be. But why do they think they have good reason? It dosn't actually hurt them now, and reduces the actual incedences of MS-piracy, and they keep claiming that linux is no good. If I were an MS user, I'd be curious about this.

What's missed by the news reports is that Steve does not actually state that anyone is actually infringing on MS IP this time. Strongly implies, sure. Check it out for yourself. [youtube] He is saying that he'd like to see Open Source able to participate in the IP morld - like pay people for use of their IP. He cites the MS/Novell deal and MS own settlement with another company as examples.

Steve is careful to specify only small companies. They're unlikely to bite back. (In fact, only Redhat.) Perhaps a group (like those that defended against SCO) could attempt suing for defamation?

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