Tue, 04 Oct 2005
Serenity is out Friday!
I've been waiting for this one for a while and it's almost on us. The weird
thing is it's starting to become difficult to not found out what happens in
the film. When it was only the occasional geek seeing an early screener or
preview I could spot the posts and ignore them. now it's on general release
in the US the sheer quantity of reviews, spoilers and discussions on the
film is becoming ridiculous.
The last time I had this problem was Farscape: Peacekeeper War, I even had to resort to scanning my mail for certain keywords before I read it. Now I'm not there yet with Serenity but it's getting closer...
While I may always say "Roll on Friday" this time I have a second reason :)
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Posted: 2005/10/04 19:18 | /geekstuff | Permanent link to this entry | This entry and same date
The GPL Doesn't Impede Linux
Over at ZDNet Paul Murphy has a rather annoying post about whether the GPL impedes Linux
more than it helps. The short answer is: No. The slightly longer
version is "who cares?"
Linux has become an incredible phenomenon, it's used in some of the biggest companies on the planet (Google, Oracle, Novell), it runs large chunks of the net and has an amazing community of very smart people moving it forward. The GPL is what's allowed us to get here. Big commercial companies like HP and IBM don't give their source code to competitors. With the GPL they can help improve a common system and still ensure that it can't be abused and locked in to another proprietary product.
Now to the points about the adoption slowing. There was a very good book published called "Crossing the Chasm". It explains the four phases of technical adoption, starting with visionaries and moving on to laggards. I think we're seeing a slow down as the more cautious companies allow other people to be their testers. All the easily swayed people, whether it be the very smart, dynamic or Microsoft hating crowds, have already moved over and in a lot of cases are saving bundles from it. The other companies will move as time goes by. Hell, look at the number of people still using Windows 95 if you want to see laggards in action!
As I get older I get ever more cranky when people start whining about the GPL. If you don't like it don't use it. If you do use it then play by the damn rules. It's pretty simple. A side effect of this is I have an ever greater respect for RMS and the work he's done to get us here. He might be an uncompromising bastard who pisses people off but he's determined, full of integrity and is someone who gives us what we need, not always what we want. And then we have the Free software song...
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Posted: 2005/10/04 18:59 | /geekstuff | Permanent link to this entry | This entry and same date
Friendships Should be Equal
In any friendship, hell any relationship, the most important thing is
equality. Each party has certain expectations, if they don't match those of
the other person then things will eventually come to a head.
In a relationship the same principles apply, but what they each offer may be very different and appear unbalanced on first glance. This is often the deal with "old rich guy" with "young attractive women" relationships. As long as they both understand what they're going to put in (no pun intended) and get out then they can work. Any time you see two people and think "what's he/she doing with him/her?" take another look. In most cases there's something that makes them consider each other as equals.
Every now and again you get in to a friendship or relationship where things start out as equal and gradually change. Sometimes you can even spot this happening and get an early warning that you either have to change the deal or get out of the way before it goes sour. Good luck.
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Posted: 2005/10/04 08:45 | /nottech | Permanent link to this entry | This entry and same date
Copyright © 2000-2010 Dean Wilson
