2013-09-26
2013-09-24
Community Summit: Open Source Communities as Collaborative Innovation Platforms, Opportunities and Challenges
Community Summit: Open Source Communities as Collaborative Innovation Platforms, Opportunities and Challenges
This ought to be interesting and not at all because I've been invited to speak on this panel :-)
This ought to be interesting and not at all because I've been invited to speak on this panel :-)
Community Summit: Open Source Communities as Collaborative Innovation Platforms, Opportunities and Challenges
Community Summit: Open Source Communities as Collaborative Innovation Platforms, Opportunities and Challenges
This ought to be interesting and not at all because I've been invited to speak on this panel :-)
This ought to be interesting and not at all because I've been invited to speak on this panel :-)
2013-09-21
NeoOffice FAQ
NeoOffice FAQ
I was being provocative before, in teasing that NeoOffice is not "free"; I meant it costs money. -- The really interesting thing about NeoOffice on the Apple App Store is that the code is still GPL. Thus, from the FAQ:
I was being provocative before, in teasing that NeoOffice is not "free"; I meant it costs money. -- The really interesting thing about NeoOffice on the Apple App Store is that the code is still GPL. Thus, from the FAQ:
Can I copy NeoOffice?Yes. Since NeoOffice is distributed under theGNU General Public License (GPL), you can copy it as much as you like and give it to whomever you want.
Since providing user support consumes much of our funds, there are some restrictions on when you can use the NeoOffice trademark. So, if you are selling NeoOffice, you must comply with the NeoOffice CD Distribution and Trademark Usage policy.
I used to be friends with Ed Peterlin, one of the founders of the company, and friendly with Patrick Luby, but my position at Sun complicated matters, as in introducing confusion about who is a who and not a company. I wish them both well--and would try out NeoOffice (this version) if it were not 10 dollars :-) but "free," as in free beer (I mean, of course, the compiled binaries; I can build it meself from the source.)
NeoOffice 2013: In the Apple App Store (not free)
NeoOffice 2013
It costs 9.99 USD, a fine price. I actually don't have any criticism about Planamesa selling the product, which quite honestly and clearly announces that it is based on OpenOffice. I am, rather, impressed by the (r)evolution.
It costs 9.99 USD, a fine price. I actually don't have any criticism about Planamesa selling the product, which quite honestly and clearly announces that it is based on OpenOffice. I am, rather, impressed by the (r)evolution.
The Truth About Open Source Hardware Business Models | Open Electronics
The Truth About Open Source Hardware Business Models | Open Electronics
Been working through week's fairly interesting accounts of the burgeoning open hardware movement. Basically, I tend to believe that there are obvious advantages to open collaboration, regardless of the matter (or lack thereof) at hand. But, less obviously but no less importantly, organising the open networks so that there is actually something produced that can be added to after the initial wave of enthusiasm, is both hard and harder than it seems at first. It's one thing to have a band of enthusiasts working night and day on release 1.0. It's another to have a sustained effort so that 1.0 leads to 2.0, and so on. History, one might note, is blotted by the faded (if not failed) efforts that never caught on.
What makes things catch on is, for the market capitalist, kind of like asking, What do women want?, where "women" is all of us as consumers. The answer is of course that we want "want," or neverending desire--not even, I suppose, the ability to act on it. Just the desire itself--up to a point. At some point, terminally anorexic with the infinity of desire, we die.
Been working through week's fairly interesting accounts of the burgeoning open hardware movement. Basically, I tend to believe that there are obvious advantages to open collaboration, regardless of the matter (or lack thereof) at hand. But, less obviously but no less importantly, organising the open networks so that there is actually something produced that can be added to after the initial wave of enthusiasm, is both hard and harder than it seems at first. It's one thing to have a band of enthusiasts working night and day on release 1.0. It's another to have a sustained effort so that 1.0 leads to 2.0, and so on. History, one might note, is blotted by the faded (if not failed) efforts that never caught on.
What makes things catch on is, for the market capitalist, kind of like asking, What do women want?, where "women" is all of us as consumers. The answer is of course that we want "want," or neverending desire--not even, I suppose, the ability to act on it. Just the desire itself--up to a point. At some point, terminally anorexic with the infinity of desire, we die.
2013-09-20
Anthony Amsterdam,"Perspectives on the Fourth Amendment". Minnesota Law Review 58: 349. 1974
Anthony Amsterdam is considered a major figure in undermining the reasoning for the death penalty's implementation and its long suspension in the US. But he also wrote importantly and influentially on privacy issues, and the cited paper is probably the most famous.
A nice way of looking at the provisions of the 4th Amendment, as it pertains to all citizens, which is to say, the presumed innocent, unless otherwise found otherwise:
Our thinking about questions of this sort is inevitably distorted by the fact that fourth amendment
controversies ordinarily come before courts only in criminal prosecutions where what the policeman sees
through the window is a crime or evidence of it. In that setting, it is natural enough to react by saying that
anyone who commits a crime or leaves criminal evidence lying around in front of an open window
deserves exactly what he gets. Let him at least have the decency to draw the shade before he commits a
crime.
But, unless the fourth amendment controls tom-peeping and subjects it to a requirement of
antecedent cause to believe that what is inside any particular window is indeed criminal, police may look
through windows and observe a thousand innocent acts for every guilty act they spy out. Should we say
that prospect is not alarming because the innocent homeowner need not fear that he will get caught doing
anything wrong? The fourth amendment protects not against incrimination, but against invasions of
privacy—or rather, as Katz holds, of the right to maintain privacy without giving up too much freedom as
the cost of privacy. The question is not whether you or I must draw the blinds before we commit a crime.
It is whether you and I must discipline ourselves to draw the blinds every time we enter a room, under
pain of surveillance if we do not.
2013-09-19
2013-09-18
2013-09-17
City of Munich throws Ubuntu lifeline to Windows XP holdouts • The Register
City of Munich throws Ubuntu lifeline to Windows XP holdouts • The Register
I assume that the lucky City of Munich workers will also get LibreOffice as part of the deal?
I assume that the lucky City of Munich workers will also get LibreOffice as part of the deal?
2013-09-11
SUSE Partners with Collabora to Deliver Commercial LibreOffice Support | SUSE
SUSE Partners with Collabora to Deliver Commercial LibreOffice Support | SUSE
Basically, SUSE has ceded development to others, if any, on LibreOffice. And also calling it a "community" effort--often, if not necessarily in this case--a code term for something thrown under the bus does not inspire confidence in LibreOffice.
Of course, as a champion of AOO, I *would* see it this way. But I also feel that though the desktop will be with us for at least the next generation, that at the same time we are moving to mobile alternatives, and, as far as I know, that means a more agile, lightfooted alternative than AOO or LibreOffice can offer. For it has to work well on the tablet.
Basically, SUSE has ceded development to others, if any, on LibreOffice. And also calling it a "community" effort--often, if not necessarily in this case--a code term for something thrown under the bus does not inspire confidence in LibreOffice.
Of course, as a champion of AOO, I *would* see it this way. But I also feel that though the desktop will be with us for at least the next generation, that at the same time we are moving to mobile alternatives, and, as far as I know, that means a more agile, lightfooted alternative than AOO or LibreOffice can offer. For it has to work well on the tablet.
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