Thursday, February 22, 2007

Ballmer Repeats Threats Against Linux

...and open source will have to respect the intellectual property rights of others just as any other competitor will.

But maybe they should take care of their own code before worrying about the code of others.

M$ Hit by $1.5 Billion patent award.

Funny Funny

xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe: "Open Source"

A Wall Between the U.S. and Mexico?!

Schneier on Security: CYA Security: "we're seeing CYA security on the national level, from our politicians. We might be better off as a nation funding intelligence gathering and Arabic translators, but it's a better re-election strategy to fund something visible but ineffective, like a national ID card or a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

Securing our nation from threats that are weird, threats that either happened before or captured the media's imagination, and overly specific threats are all examples of CYA security. It happens not because the authorities involved -- the Boston police, the TSA, and so on -- are not competent, or not doing their job. It happens because there isn't sufficient national oversight, planning, and coordination.

People and organizations respond to incentives. We can't expect the Boston police, the TSA, the guy who runs security for the Oscars, or local public officials to balance their own security needs against the security of the nation. They're all going to respond to the particular incentives imposed from above. What we need is a coherent antiterrorism policy at the national level: one based on real threat assessments, instead of fear-mongering, re-election strategies, or pork-barrel politics.

Sadly, though, there might not be a solution. All the money is in fear-mongering, re-election strategies, and pork-barrel politics. And, like so many things, security follows the money."

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Get to the Point Paul

This essay is too long to read but too good to skim!

Is It Worth Being Wise?: "I think it's important to understand the relationship between intelligence and wisdom, and particularly what seems to be the growing gap between them. That way we can avoid applying rules and standards to intelligence that are really meant for wisdom. These two senses of 'knowing what to do' are more different than most people realize. The path to wisdom is through discipline, and the path to intelligence through carefully selected self-indulgence. Wisdom is universal, and intelligence idiosyncratic. And while wisdom yields calmness, intelligence much of the time leads to discontentment.

That's particularly worth remembering. A physicist friend recently told me half his department was on Prozac. Perhaps if we acknowledge that some amount of frustration is inevitable in certain kinds of work, we can mitigate its effects. Perhaps we can box it up and put it away some of the time, instead of letting it flow together with everyday sadness to produce what seems an alarmingly large pool. At the very least, we can avoid being discontented about being discontented.

If you feel exhausted, it's not necessarily because there's something wrong with you. Maybe you're just running fast."

All Aboard The Ubuntu Train! You Too ESR!

Goodbye, Fedora: "This afternoon, I installed Edgy Eft on my main development machine -- from one CD, not five. In less than three hours' work I was able to recreate the key features of my day-to-day toolkit. The after-installation mass upgrade to current packages, always a frightening prospect under Fedora, went off without a hitch. I'm not expecting Ubuntu to be perfect, but I am now certain it will be enough better to compensate me for the fact that I need to learn a new set of administration tools. Fedora, you had every advantage, and you had my loyalty, and you blew it. And that is a damn, dirty shame. -- Eric S. Raymond"

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Vista's Peach Wreck Cognition

...windows vistas speech recognition of king rocks delete of king rocks capitalize f asterisk see kay eye inn gee sucks exclamation point ...




YouTube - Windows Vista Speech Recognition Tested - Perl Scripting




Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Life Is Hard

I use Google cuz it makes my life easier. I run Ubuntu cuz it makes my life easier. I prefer to program in Python and use Django for web developement cuz they make my life easier... and now the Django cheat sheet (Mercurytide) makes my life easier still!

Saturday, February 10, 2007

I *HEART* Nintendo, I Hate Fox News & Penny Arcade is my Hero

MyFox Milwaukee | Nintendo Hand-Held Child Molester Target: "Nintendo Hand-Held Child Molester Target"

Penny Arcade! - The Most Recent Catastrophe:
"While driving on the highway, a child molester who is also driving might look into the back seat of your car and see your child using their DS back there. According to this terrifying report, the child molester can then - while driving their car - produce a DS of their own and utilize it to divine your home address. You will recall that he is driving on the highway at speeds approaching sixty miles an hour. One hand is on the wheel and the other is managing the gearbox. Thus, there can be no question... He is entering these messages into the DS with his erect phallus."

B.C. firm to show off quantum computer

B.C. firm to show off quantum computer: "D-Wave Systems Inc. of Burnaby, B.C. plans to show off its commercial quantum computers at the Computer History Museum on Feb. 13 and at the Telus World of Science museum in Vancouver on Feb. 15."