Microsoft's Cracked Sense of Priorities

Once again, Bruce is on the money - literally.

If you really want to see Microsoft scramble to patch a hole in its software, don't look to vulnerabilities that impact countless Internet Explorer users or give intruders control of thousands of Windows machines. Just crack Redmond's DRM.

Why is that?

Because it makes near-term financial sense to Microsoft. The company is not a public charity, and if the internet suffers, or if computers are compromised en masse, the economic impact on Microsoft is still minimal.

Microsoft is in the business of making money, and keeping users secure by patching its software is only incidental to that goal.

But a DRM crack is another matter:

this vulnerability is a big deal. It affects the company's relationship with major record labels. It affects the company's product offerings. It affects the company's bottom line. Fixing this "vulnerability" is in the company's best interest; never mind the customer.

So Microsoft wasted no time; it issued a patch three days after learning about the hack. There's no month-long wait for copyright holders who rely on Microsoft's DRM.

And this isn't going to change anytime soon - not until the underlying economics of security changes.

The Semantic Newspaper

Here's a typically thoughtful meditation from Techdirt that considers ways in which newspapers could usefully embrace not just the Internet, but its more advanced technologies like the Semantic Web. It's an interesting idea, but I fear we may have to wait a while to see it implemented by any of the big names, even the savvy ones (yup, that's you, Guardian.)

Oooh, Look: MOOXL

Rob Weir has spotted an interesting fact about Microsoft's implementation of MOOXL compatibility for Office XP, and its relationship to ODF support.

IPv6: You Know It Makes Sense

The Internet is deeply, deeply broken, it's just that nobody's noticed. Fortunately, the solution is already to hand. Unfortunately, nobody is really bothering to use it. It's called IPv6, and is version 6 of the Internet Protocol that holds the Internet together; we're currently all running version 4, and it's just not working (version 5 seems to have got lost somewhere).

If you want to know why IPv6 is important and fun, read this great article, with more to come.

NeoOffice 2.0 Beta

One of the under-appreciated qualities of free software is its cross-platform nature. The fact that Firefox and OpenOffice.org are available for Windows, Macintosh and GNU/Linux gives it a unique advantage. This makes the arrival of the beta version of NeoOffice 2.0, particularly important because, as this article explains:

Although OpenOffice.org 2.0 is available for OS X, it is an X11 binary. NeoOffice uses a fully native Aqua interface, is integrated with OS X system services such as clipboard, drag-and-drop, and Spotlight, and uses OS X's font, printing, and internationalization subsystems.

Open Knowledge Definition 1.0...

... is out.

The Commons of Silence

Well, who could fail to be intrigued by a posting entitled "Ivan Illich and Silence as a Commons"? Especially when it links to an essay called "Silence is a Commons" by said Illich (dating back to 1983), with the following definition of a commons:

People called commons those parts of the environment for which customary law exacted specific forms of community respect. People called commons that part of the environment which lay beyond their own thresholds and outside of their own possessions, to which, however, they had recognized claims of usage, not to produce commodities but to provide for the subsistence of their households. The customary law which humanized the environment by establishing the commons was usually unwritten. It was unwritten law not only because people did not care to write it down, but because what it protected was a reality much too complex to fit into paragraphs. The law of the commons regulates the right of way, the right to fish and to hunt, to graze, and to collect wood or medicinal plants in the forest.

An oak tree might be in the commons. Its shade, in summer, is reserved for the shepherd and his flock; its acorns are reserved for the pigs of the neighbouring peasants; its dry branches serve as fuel for the widows of the village; some of its fresh twigs in springtime are cut as ornaments for the church - and at sunset it might be the place for the village assembly. When people spoke about commons ... they designated an aspect of the environment that was limited, that was necessary for the community's survival, that was necessary for different groups in different ways, but which, in a strictly economic sense, was not perceived as scarce.

Open Source Robotics Toolkits

One more for the open source ticklist: robotics toolkits. Here's an article explaining what they do and what's available. (Via LXer.)

Touchez Pas au Pingouin

Now here's a daft idea:

if Linux wants to be taken seriously by the business desktop market, it has to first take itself more seriously. What do I mean by that? Basically, kill the penguin and all of the marketing cuteness!

GNU/Linux does not "want" to be taken seriously by the business desktop market: if it is, well and good, but the outcome will have little effect on the course of free software. I've already suggested elsewhere that the transition to an open source desktop is happening, but not in the way you might think.

The whole point about GNU/Linux is that it is different; trying to accommodate the business market by betraying its own nature would be a huge mistake. Don't touch the penguin.

Torvalds' New Book on Open Source

Who better to write a book called Open Life: The Philosophy of Open Source, than Torvalds? And this book is indeed written by Torvalds - Sarah Torvalds. Admittedly she's the translator rather than the author (who is Henrik Ingo), but she is perhaps the next best thing to Linus Torvalds: his sister.

Substitutability and Modularity

Wise words from Bob Sutor on substitutability:

the ability to take one software application from one provider and put in its place another application from a possibly different provider. Open standards enable interoperability and hence substitutability.

Open standards may enable such substitutability, but it is open source that lives and breathes the principle, thanks to its higly modular structure. This means substitutability can be applied at the level of the sub-routine, and not just for entire apps.

I'll Have What Doug's Having

Doug Engelbart is The Man: he invented practically everything clever in recent computing, from the mouse through to hypertext. One of his lesser-known but more ambitious projects was the Open Hyperdocument System. Or rather is, since it's back as HyperScope 1.0:

The HyperScope is a high-performance thought processor that enables you to navigate, view, and link to documents in sophisticated ways. It's the brainchild of Doug Engelbart, the inventor of hypertext and the mouse, and is the first step towards his larger vision for an Open Hyperdocument System.

The HyperScope is written in JavaScript using the Dojo toolkit and works in Firefox (recommended) and Internet Explorer. It uses OPML as its base file format. It is open source and available under the GPL.

In practice, this sounds like fine-grained navigation and presentation of documents (although it seems to be much more). There's even a demo you can try out.

After just a brief perusal of this stuff, I can confidently say I don't really know what's going on. But if it's good enough for Doug, it's good enough for me. (Via Techmeme.)

Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Fluxbuntu

One of the reasons why free software will ultimately triumph is that it is based on the eminently sensible idea of building on other people's work. That is, you do not need to re-invent something from scratch, but can take the achievements of others and improve upon them - and then make your own efforts available for further development.

This can happen at the level of sub-routines, chunks of code, libraries, applications and even distributions. Oen of the most dramatic examples of the latter is the proliferation of the Ubuntu family.

This was originally based on the GNOME desktop, so those who preferred KDE soon took the code and swapped in the latter to produce Kubuntu. Others, who prefer the Xfce desktop environment, have come up with Xubuntu. And now, for lovers of the svelte Flux Box desktop, there is Fluxbuntu. Screenshots are available to whet your appetite.

Is Writely Right for You?

And talking of Writely, here's a handy round-up of Web-based word processors. I'm pretty pleased with Writely, not least with its ODF support. The one area where I find it lacking is in the organisation of files: there doesn't seem to be any way to create folders for grouping documents.

But I've not used other systems like ajaxWrite, ThinkFree Online and Zoho Writer; if you want to find out how they stack up against Google's offering, read the review. (Via Newsforge.)

The ODF Dark Horse: IBM Workplace

By now, everyone (well, nearly) knows about ODF support in things like OpenOffice.org, KOffice and Writely. But a name that may not be so well known is that of IBM Workplace. This mysterious and slightly amorphous product is finally pinned down with almost obsessive thoroughness by Andy Updegrove in one of his continuing series on the ODF environment. Read it for more than you ever wanted to know about the subject.

Indian Simmer

I was lucky enough to make a couple of extended visits to India some years back, and I still follow developments there as closely as I can. One area of particular interest is that of intellectual monopolies, where the country has a rather ambivalent attitude. Support for software patents seems to ebb and flow, and it's never quite clear to me what the final situation will be.

This finely-written piece from Intellectual Property Watch is fascinating in itself, and also seems to hold out the hope that software patents are not about to be meekly accepted - certainly not by the splendid Yatindra Singh of India's Allahabad high court, the central character of the story. But it's not just about him: there's all kinds of fascinating historical background as well as up-to-the-minute information about moves on the copyright front. There's a lot simmering away in India, it seems.

Why ID Cards Are Idiotic: Technical Impossibility

I hate to gloat (well, not much) but this story about the scrapping of a £141 million computer system by the UK's Department for Work and Pensions, after over two years of desperate efforts to make it work, is perhaps a tiny, tiny hint why the infinitely more complex ID card system does not stand a snowflake's chance in hell of operating successfully.

I suppose I ought to be comforted by the fact that the ID card's computer system is guaranteed to fail, as it means the scheme will never be implemented in its present, megalomaniacal form. But somehow, the idea of all those billions pouring into consultants' and contractors' pockets for nothing spoils this otherwise pleasant thought.

GNU GPL Punch-up in the Offing?

One of the unusual things about the GNU GPL is that it uses traditional law to untraditional things. This means that there's plenty of scope for argument (which is why the GNU GPL provokes such strong emotions, I suppose). It also means there's plenty of scope for litigation, and yet there's been surprisingly little so far.

That fact makes this spat about GNU GPL'd software noteworthy, since it might even get to court. That's good news - for the licence, at least, because every court case helps make clearer to people, especially corporate lawyers, just what the GNU GPL does, and how it does it. And so, paradoxically, every court case makes the licence stronger, at least in terms of its effect on the non-hacker world. (Via Slashdot.)

Warning: Tenuous Connection Follows

Well, Linus is Finnish, and hails from Helsinki, and this story is about a Finn in the same fair city.

OK, I confess, I choose it for the headline: "Suicide squirrel in opera-hating kamikaze bike spoke mangle". Gawd bless The Reg.

Skewering SpiralFrog

I've avoided mentioning SpiralFrog until now, since it is such a blatant attempt to be hip in a Web 2.0-ish sort of way, while completely missing the point (since when was DRM cool?). But this post on the subject by Umair at the one and only BubbleGeneration Strategy Lab is too good to miss.

Rich Blogger, Poor Blogger

There's a fun thread on Thomas Hawk's Digital Connections blog, where people are having a go at Blogger. And quite right too: it's a dog's breakfast in many respects (even the beta currently being used by Yours Truly.)

What I can't understand is why some Grand Google Pooh-Bah hasn't issued an edict - Fix It - and Lo!, It Is Fixed. I mean, this isn't rocket science, is it? The fact that this fixedness has not appeared, lo-like, suggests some worrying problems deep in the Googleplex.

Open BIOSes

BIOS: Basic Input/Output System. We rarely give it a thought as we boot up a machine. But it turns out that there's a lot of clutter in your common or garden BIOS that GNU/Linux in particular could do with out. As this excellent article explains:

On many systems, a large portion of boot time goes into providing legacy support for MS-DOS. Various projects, including LinuxBIOS and Open Firmware, are trying to replace the proprietary BIOS systems with streamlined pieces of code able to do only what is necessary to get a Linux kernel loaded and running.

Of course: if you've got an open operating system, it makes sense to use an open BIOS. I don't think I'll hold my breath waiting for PC manufacturers to offer that particular option, though. (Via OSNews.)

The Fat Belly...

...and why we need it.

Eclipse - the Magazine

I know, I know, magazines are so twentieth century. This one is different - it's a PDF magazine (OK, so that's worse). But at least it's entirely devoted to the world's favourite IDE: Eclipse. As a result, it tells you rather more than you might want to know, but it's good for skimming. (Via Bob Sutor's Open Blog.)

Grokking Wikipedia

For a project that is beginning to assume an ever-greater importance in the intellectual landscape (to say nothing of the online landscape), relatively little is known about how Wikipedia actually works. There's lots of polemic flying around about how it should work, but precious little research into the facts.

This makes Aaron Swartz's piece "Who Writes Wikipedia?" valuable - and long overdue. The results are not what we have been led to suspect:

When you put it all together, the story become clear: an outsider makes one edit to add a chunk of information, then insiders make several edits tweaking and reformatting it. In addition, insiders rack up thousands of edits doing things like changing the name of a category across the entire site -- the kind of thing only insiders deeply care about. As a result, insiders account for the vast majority of the edits. But it's the outsiders who provide nearly all of the content.

And when you think about it, this makes perfect sense. Writing an encyclopedia is hard. To do anywhere near a decent job, you have to know a great deal of information about an incredibly wide variety of subjects. Writing so much text is difficult, but doing all the background research seems impossible.

On the other hand, everyone has a bunch of obscure things that, for one reason or another, they've come to know well. So they share them, clicking the edit link and adding a paragraph or two to Wikipedia. At the same time, a small number of people have become particularly involved in Wikipedia itself, learning its policies and special syntax, and spending their time tweaking the contributions of everybody else.

And you've got to love a story that includes the line

To investigate more formally, I purchased some time on a computer cluster and downloaded a copy of the Wikipedia archives.

As one does. (via BoingBoing.)