tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19798349.post7519329761362077811..comments2024-03-22T12:20:48.920+00:00Comments on open...: Bill Gates Gets Sharing...AlmostGlyn Moodyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04436885795882611585noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19798349.post-51880500007780536882009-07-17T21:26:55.883+00:002009-07-17T21:26:55.883+00:00well spotted...I now feel *really* annoyed - how c...well spotted...I now feel *really* annoyed - how could they? (Don't answer that...)Glyn Moodyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04436885795882611585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19798349.post-44501743886797591992009-07-17T20:53:36.924+00:002009-07-17T20:53:36.924+00:00It gets worse. Apparently the goddamn BBC held the...It gets worse. Apparently the goddamn BBC held the rights to these lectures and <i>sold</i> them to Gates.<br /><br />http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/breaking/2009/07/15/feynman-messenger-lectures-now-available-online/phayesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19798349.post-37079157979246766092009-07-17T18:36:43.428+00:002009-07-17T18:36:43.428+00:00excellent analysis. Yes, even WMA would have been...excellent analysis. Yes, even WMA would have been better...Glyn Moodyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04436885795882611585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19798349.post-50814403576859291302009-07-17T17:51:04.634+00:002009-07-17T17:51:04.634+00:00There's an interesting discussion between me a...There's an <a href="http://boycottnovell.com/2009/07/16/feynman-lectures-lockin/" rel="nofollow">interesting discussion</a> between me and Jonathan Wong from Microsoft on BoycottNovell about this issue. Reasonable good-faith communication between vastly disparaste views.<br /><br />(I agree with Roy Schestowitz on pretty much everything around software freedom issues, but I suspect I'm better at communicating with people I severely disagree with on them ;-)<br /><br />They were trying to do more than straight video, a really unbelievably cool app with commentary streams, transcripts, etc ... but when you say "Feynman video", people expect something like a Flash player in a web page and were upset they were expected to install software.<br /><br />If they'd just done a flash player for the video streams, approximately everyone would have been happy. Even a video download link (even in WMA) would have been reasonable.<br /><br />The trouble they have is that even though Silverlight may be technically superior to Flash (I'd be surprised if it wasn't - it was designed from the start to do moren and entice designers and programmers), it's faced with an incumbency problem. Flash has >95% market coverage, Silverlight has 20% if that. Same problem Linux has versus Windows on the desktop, or Bing has versus Google in search - the incumbent is assumed, switching is a hassle and a bad user experience.David Gerardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13057086390864018760noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19798349.post-58033938075178823962009-07-17T17:44:37.544+00:002009-07-17T17:44:37.544+00:00amen to that.amen to that.Glyn Moodyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04436885795882611585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19798349.post-80730203829594719252009-07-17T17:38:07.702+00:002009-07-17T17:38:07.702+00:00Sad indeed. I saw this via NYT via BS and knowing ...Sad indeed. I saw this via NYT via BS and knowing what MS is like I wasn't exactly hopeful about finding a downloadable, CC licensed version or some HTML5 video tag and javascript wizardry. Still, as it was physics, and Feynman no less, I (reluctantly ;-) installed Moonlight anyway and tried again, but the b****r <i>still</i> wouldn't work! They could've easily provided an alternative stream, FFS.<br /><br />I - and <i>everyone</i> else (100%) - can watch Sidney Coleman's classic QFT lectures, download Kip Thorne's GW lectures, watch Weinberg and others' superb lectures at the 2003 Kavli-CERCA conference, see cutting-edge stuff from the likes of Frank Wilczek at the Perimeter Institute website, watch the Vega trust's recordings of Feynman's QED-lite lectures, download HD ESOcast astro. videos, etc. etc. <i>and etc.</i> So the idea that I should be <i>grateful</i> for MS technology salesmanship masquerading as educational philanthropy is thoroughly repugnant.phayesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19798349.post-31430741209491310412009-07-16T20:22:25.300+00:002009-07-16T20:22:25.300+00:00@anonymous: you're absolutely right. Fortunat...@anonymous: you're absolutely right. Fortunately, I'm pretty indifferent to the general public's view of my mental health.<br /><br />But I find this sad.<br /><br />Sad that important footage of one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century wasn't *already* available: the university(?) that held this had amoral duty to make this stuff available - it would have done their image good, too.<br /><br />And I find it sad that we are supposed to be grateful that this important footage is now locked up in a proprietary system: if Gates were really such a great benefactor, he would have released it in multiple formats, or allowed others to transcode.<br /><br />So, yes, he's making it available, but the circumstances of that leave much to be desired.Glyn Moodyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04436885795882611585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19798349.post-17492730954287663882009-07-16T19:25:22.665+00:002009-07-16T19:25:22.665+00:00This is what makes open source advocates look craz...This is what makes open source advocates look crazy to the general public.<br /><br />Gates has spent his own money to acquire rights to something wonderful that most of us would never be able to see, and has made it easily available to 98% of the desktop computer users in the world. (Windows users using IE or Firefox, and Mac users on Intel Macs using Firefox or Safari).<br /><br />Most people see taking something that was only available to a handful of people and bringing it to 98% as a very good thing.<br /><br />Instead of complaining that he failed to reach 100%, how about finding a way to contribute to the Moonlight project, so the Linux users can view the videos that way?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19798349.post-39764986772060271442009-07-16T07:13:20.730+00:002009-07-16T07:13:20.730+00:00@David: thanks for that. Someone else now underst...@David: thanks for that. Someone else now understands...Glyn Moodyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04436885795882611585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19798349.post-20219260265955694952009-07-16T00:44:03.874+00:002009-07-16T00:44:03.874+00:00Here's two tweets from Ben Goldacre. Note the ...Here's two tweets from <a href="http://www.badscience.net/" rel="nofollow">Ben Goldacre</a>. Note the process of revelation:<br /><br />http://twitter.com/bengoldacre/status/2654866952<br />http://twitter.com/bengoldacre/status/2655276081David Gerardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13057086390864018760noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19798349.post-34795955193685031582009-07-15T17:20:35.945+00:002009-07-15T17:20:35.945+00:00Well, he probably used Silverlight because he gets...Well, he probably used Silverlight because he gets the encoding and streaming software for free, but that's still no excuse. If his motive was sharing, he should have used something more accessible to the public than Silverlight.Matthew Stinarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00686606097820939245noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19798349.post-89047616573024138612009-07-15T13:05:57.669+00:002009-07-15T13:05:57.669+00:00well, the story was interesting: that's what c...well, the story was interesting: that's what counts, I think.Glyn Moodyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04436885795882611585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19798349.post-67128313472608464802009-07-15T13:01:39.990+00:002009-07-15T13:01:39.990+00:00Let's not let Ina Fried or CNET, who pretty cl...Let's not let Ina Fried or CNET, who pretty clearly have unmasked themselves as nothing more than microserfs and corporate shills...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com