Reading this entry on Freedom to Tinker about why Fraunhaufer's 'Lightweight DRM' is doomed made me think, 'Yet again, well meaning people are championing ideas long shot down,' and reminded me of Cory Doctorow's form letter for people who think they've solved spam. So I decided to take a first … read more

I can't believe Dave Winer thinks that this opinion is news.

Business has always been about find a need (ie. a customer's desire) and answering it. However, I think he oversimplifies and doesn't give the techies their due when he says that 'Vision isn't coming from [them]"; customers have needs …

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I'm looking for a CGI to run locally that will turn my current mishmash of digital photos in a nice album. Some features I'd like:

• the fewer actual CGIs the better
• no MySQL necessary - it just seems like overkill, not to mention too much fragility
• automatic generation of thumbnails and …

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Well, I finally caved and got a LiveJournal Account, just so I could comment on other people's stuff. read more

To: John Harell
Subject: absolute copyright

> When I create something, that thing is mine.

I'm a programmer, so I know what you mean. I write software and bring it into the world with much blood, sweat and tears along the way. And yet...

I didn't create the language the software …

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Here is a great essay on one of my pet peeves, using Word (or excel, though there are fewer open alternatives) as a document exchange format. It used to be that you could advocate a neutral format by pointing out 'what if I don't have Word, but instead use WordPerfect … read more

Talking to a friend the subject of SysV-init vs BSD-style init came up. I like SysV's /etc/init.d component because it gives you simple on/off controls for all the system daemons, all in the same place, and named predictably. I don't particularly care for the 'runlevels' idea because … read more

I wish there were more things like the Texas Action Network; It seems a useful feedback into the legislative process. But I also wish that it didn't supply form-letters - they're more likely to be ignored. Paradox: make it easy to show a unified front on an issue (via form letters … read more

Lawrence Lessig's blog says:

Ed Felten has a wonderful piece about the idiocy in the mini-DMCA's being considered by a number of state "governments." What is so frustrating about this business is not the people (like these governments) who disagree with you. But that their disagreement reveals that they have …

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