Planet earobinson

earobinson: @shazow, I guess I follow the blogs I am interested in, and If I added you to twitter, I looked at your homepage. I guess I understand i ...

2008-11-03T13:25:21+00:00

earobinson: @shazow, I guess I follow the blogs I am interested in, and If I added you to twitter, I looked at your homepage. I guess I understand i ...

earobinson: anyone else find it annoying when people twitter about a new blog post?

2008-11-02T22:23:19+00:00

earobinson: anyone else find it annoying when people twitter about a new blog post?

Black and white

2008-11-02T21:30:22+00:00

So I'm pretty well-known for not exactly being a huge fan of the FSF and Richard Stallman, despite the fact that I obviously love the GPLv2 and use it as the license for all my projects that I care about.

The reason has always been that I don't like single-issue people, nor do I think that people who turn the world into black and white are very nice or ultimately very useful. The fact is, there aren't just two sides to any issue, there's almost always a range or responses, and "it depends" is almost always the right answer in any big question. And not being even willing to see the other side makes for bad decisions.

Don't get me wrong - I love seeing people who are really passionate about what they do, and many people have something they really care about. It's just that when that becomes something exclusionary, it often gets ugly. It's not passion for something, it becomes passion against something else.

This is, just to take an example, one of the reasons I try to avoid talking much about Microsoft - I'm very passionate about Linux (obviously), but quite frankly, I really find the whole notion of Linux as being "against Microsoft" to be silly and wrong-headed. Yeah, I might make an occasional tongue-in-cheek joke or two, but does anybody really seriously think that you can put 17+ years of your life and make good decisions based on hate and fear?

That was also why I didn't (and don't) like GPLv3 - I think many of the changes weren't due to being "pro free software", but more a mindless reaction against things like TiVO, and the whole black-and-white, "good vs evil" mindset.

The reason I bring this up is that while I can't vote, I did want to say publicly anyway that I really really hope that Obama will be the US president elect after Tuesday night. I realize it probably won't come as a big shock to anybody (yes, I'm a socially liberal open source freak from Europe - so what would you expect?), and others will just be angry.

If anybody wants a reason for that, just watch (or listen to) Obama's "Call to Renewal" keynote speech from 2006. It looks like it's split into 5 pieces on youtube - the whole thing is about 40 minutes - but it's worth it, just to hear something rare: mentioning religion in the US without being black-or-white.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tdoQr3BQ1g

It's not a rick-roll, I promise. It's also probably not the best link (the thing must exist somewhere as a single video - it's how I remember seeing it originally), but it's the one I found now.

There are other reasons, but that's the one that originally made me hope Obama would take the democratic nomination. And what he has done since hasn't changed that. He's obviously smart and thoughtful, and he has a very interesting background that makes me believe that he really can see the other side not just when it comes to religion, but when it comes to international issues too.

Of course I'm biased (we all have our quirks), but I think it makes a difference to have actually lived in another culture. I suspect Obama understands the US better because he has seen something else, and has seen it from a wider background. He's not a black and white person - and ironically, that is probably partly exactly because he is a black and white person in a totally different sense.

And this really is about more than just being positive about the issues (as opposed to negative campaigning). It's about having the capability of understanding - and accepting - that others have other motivations than you do, even when you don't share them.

Not that I'm saying that I'm always a great example myself. I get angry and negative, and quite frankly, I have a really hard time understanding and accepting some of the nuts I see out there. But hey - that's why I'm endorsing Barack Obama, not myself, for president.

earobinson: anyone else get confused by daylight savings time?

2008-11-02T17:38:09+00:00

earobinson: anyone else get confused by daylight savings time?

Third in a series of of pipline explosions hits BC, Canada

2008-11-02T16:12:51+00:00

submitted by xkey to worldnews
[link] [10 comments]

the many problems with Ultamatix

2008-11-02T15:00:20+00:00

submitted by teetante to linux
[link] [21 comments]

Blu-Ray disc protection BD+ broken by doom9 researchers

2008-11-02T09:04:15+00:00

submitted by Arve to technology
[link] [4 comments]

He just keeps folding this piece of paper. You should make one to show off. [vid]

2008-11-02T06:04:48+00:00

submitted by donttaseme to videos
[link] [28 comments]

Assorted UK Police and Security guards get owned by photographers/videographers [videos]

2008-11-02T05:35:26+00:00

submitted by burtonmkz to videos
[link] [8 comments]

earobinson: old I know but it always makes me happy http://tinyurl.com/2ud8u8

2008-11-02T00:45:04+00:00

earobinson: old I know but it always makes me happy http://tinyurl.com/2ud8u8

"Watching the cars quickly filling up the space, and occupants then walking to the subway is surprisingly and strangely engrossing."

2008-11-02T00:46:45+00:00

submitted by Noche to videos
[link] [50 comments]

German Foreign Ministry is migrating all of its 11.000 desktops to Linux because it's "far cheaper to maintain than proprietary desktop configurations"

2008-11-01T20:43:28+00:00

submitted by amazon10x to linux
[link] [33 comments]

Futurama Nerds will appreciate this Halloween Costume!

2008-11-01T17:37:28+00:00

submitted by cwright to pics
[link] [38 comments]

earobinson: 2 jokers, 1 palin but no barak? also why is Halloween always my heavy drinking night of the year?

2008-11-01T15:29:40+00:00

earobinson: 2 jokers, 1 palin but no barak? also why is Halloween always my heavy drinking night of the year?

'Plain packets' law to strip cigarettes of their glamour

2008-11-01T16:26:58+00:00

submitted by GeoAtreides to reddit.com
[link] [61 comments]

Futurama Bender's Piracy Warning!

2008-11-01T12:55:33+00:00

submitted by sk11 to funny
[link] [133 comments]

Nerds will appreciate this Halloween costume :~)

2008-11-01T05:08:13+00:00

submitted by charbo187 to pics
[link] [413 comments]

Now THIS amazing man is a living, breathing example of courage, grace and strength...with far less to work with than most of us

2008-11-01T04:53:03+00:00

submitted by IAmperfectlyCalm to videos
[link] [37 comments]

Futurama's anti-piracy message: D.O. I.T

2008-11-01T02:16:05+00:00

submitted by christopheles to entertainment
[link] [22 comments]

BBC Brings DRM-Free Content To Linux Users

2008-10-31T17:08:00+00:00

eldavojohn writes "The BBC is planning to release some of its programmes to users of GNU & Linux. You won't see Doctor Who or Dragons' Den on there anytime soon, but they have been working with Canonical & Collabora on getting this out there for Totem users. The developer blog mentions that the sheer number of options in the open source world actually makes this difficult to accomplish."

Ubuntu 8.10 Outperforms Windows Vista

2008-10-31T16:22:00+00:00

Anonymous writes "By now a lot has been reported on the new features and improvements in Ubuntu 8.10; it also looks like the OS is outperforming Vista in early benchmarking (Geekbench, boot times, etc.) At what point does this start to make a difference in the market place?" (And though there are lot of ways to benchmark computers, Ubuntu 8.10 with Compiz Fusion is certainly prettier on my Eee than the Windows XP that it came with.)

Halloween easter egg: Google protects itself from zombies

2008-10-31T14:24:24+00:00

You probably saw Google’s Halloween logo today:

But you may not have noticed that Google made another change for Halloween. Check out Google’s robots.txt file today:

That’s right. Zombies are disallowed from accessing /brains on Google today. You can never be too safe!

Hat-tip to Google Blogoscoped spotting it first and to Search Engine Land for a round-up of Halloween logos.

Futurama’s Anti-Piracy Message, Just Do It

2008-10-31T12:48:34+00:00

The latest Futurama movie, Bender’s Game, is released in a few days and as usual it’s already on BitTorrent. However, Matt Groening has included a nice extra on the DVD - a pretty amusing parody on one of the classic anti-piracy messages.

Anyone who watched The Simpsons Movie will have noticed Bart in the intro chalking his famous blackboard with the words “I will not illegally download this movie”. Matt Groening seems to appreciate the comedy anti-piracy message as his latest movie, ‘Futurama: Bender’s Game‘, also includes some mockery of file-sharers or, on closer inspection, possibly some encouragement. Whatever the intention, it is pretty funny.

The movie, the third in the Futurama series and due for release in a few days time, has already leaked to BitTorrent. This is nothing new, but hidden away in the DVD extras is a parody of the infamous movie industry anti-piracy ad, which was previously parodied by the IT Crowd.

Entitled ‘Downloading Often Is Terrible’ or D.O. I.T for short, the animated advert follows the familiar “You wouldn’t steal…” structure, but with more unusual content. Whatever the ad suggests that Bender wouldn’t steal or do, is followed up by Bender doing just that, starting with “You wouldn’t steal a spaceship”, which of course, Bender would, along with lots of other amusing things.

Although Bender is stealing physical objects in his 2D animated world, lots of people disagree with the use of the word ’steal’ to describe the act of copyright infringement. Australian lawyer Brendan Scott certainly doesn’t believe it. When someone downloads movies or music illegally, they make a copy, he argues. The original is still there, and legally speaking nothing is stolen. Scott concludes: “To use the infringement-as-stealing meme demonstrates something of a lack of respect for language and consequently a lack of respect for the people to whom you are speaking.”

But maybe Bender himself provides the truth. The copyright lobbies often paint the fight against piracy as a “matter of life and death” so it seems fitting to utilize the phrase to illustrate the chasm between stealing and copying. Having watched the clip and noted the final stolen item produced from Bender’s chest, I immediately thought about where that came from, the state of the gentleman in question, and where I could find him for a chat.

Because if anyone in the world knows the difference between copying and stealing, it’s got to be him. Or Lucy Liu’s milliner. Enjoy the clip.

If you go back 3 months on YouTube, it appears that even this parody got leaked ahead of time. Cammed too, you couldn’t make it up.

Post from: TorrentFreak

Luis de Bethencourt: factorials

2008-10-31T12:02:46+00:00

4! + 0! + 5! + 8! + 5! = 40585

1! + 4! + 5! = 145

MTV Bleeps Filesharing Software Names In Weird Al Video

2008-10-30T23:40:00+00:00

An anonymous reader writes "We've all heard Weird Al Yankovic's 'Don't Download This Song,' which came out a couple years ago, but did you know that MTV is apparently so afraid that kids listening to the song will discover for the first time that file sharing offerings exist that in its video of the song, MTV bleeps out their names? There's a line in the song that lists out Morpheus, Grokster, Kazaa and Limewire (most of whom don't really exist any more), but for some reason MTV considers those names to be bleep worthy." Unless this is all one grand inside joke from Weird Al.

Larry Page On Evaluating Projects

2008-10-30T22:17:39+00:00

Dharmendra S. Modha quotes Google co-founder Larry Page saying that he evaluates projects on a simple binary metric: “whether, if successful, it can change the world?”

[Thanks Siggi!]

[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Larry Page On Evaluating Projects | Comments]

[Advertisement] Want to advertise here? Your ad will show in the blog and feed.

A New Hope?

2008-10-30T22:08:42+00:00

I’ll be frantically clicking ‘refresh’ on fivethirtyeight.com until this is over.

McCain surrogate is totally owned by CNN's Rick Sanchez. He is hilariously unable to name another "anti-semite" Obama pals around with.

2008-10-30T20:56:37+00:00

submitted by kleffy to pics
[link] [538 comments]

earobinson: getting my ubuntu torrents on

2008-10-30T15:05:42+00:00

earobinson: getting my ubuntu torrents on

New Ubuntu: Intrepid Ibex 8.10: Download Links

2008-10-30T14:34:27+00:00

submitted by djm101 to linux
[link] [81 comments]

I totally cracked up at the 1:15 mark, I have no idea why

2008-10-30T00:04:19+00:00

submitted by RichardPryor to funny
[link] [478 comments]

Your Gmail Account is Now An OpenID

2008-10-29T17:21:02+00:00

You may not know it, but you probably have an OpenID. If you have a Yahoo account, you have an OpenID. If you have a Windows Live account, you will soon have an OpenID. And today, if you have a Google e-mail account, you can also start using your Gmail address as an OpenID.

By joining the OpenID movement, Google completes the trifecta and adds all of its Gmail users to the hundreds of millions of Yahoo and Windows Live accounts that can also be used as a single login for any Website that accepts OpenID. While Google is more than happy to become an issuer of OpenIDs, what is not so clear is whether it will accept other OpenIDs for people who want to sign up for Google services.

Google appears to be an OpenID “provider,” not a “relying party.” In other words, you cannot sign into Google with your Yahoo account. But this still helps the OpenID movement as a whole because it gives smaller sites more incentive to join as “relying parties.” Among the first sites to accept Gmail accounts for sign in are Zoho and Plaxo.

AOL and MySpace are expected to jump aboard as OpenID providers as well. The only big holdout appears to be Facebook, which has its own competing Facebook Connect program. But even Facebook might eventually join the OpenID fold. (Its partners seem slightly less than enthusiastic about deploying Facebook Connect).

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Linux.com :: Three scripts for package management on Debian and Ubuntu systems

2008-10-29T17:00:08+00:00

Obama: "I'm Sorry To See My Opponent Sink So Low," soon, "he'll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in Kindergarten."

2008-10-29T17:23:37+00:00

submitted by Wordie to politics
[link] [382 comments]

CTL - Distributed Control Dispatching Framework

2008-10-29T15:19:42+00:00

CTL is a flexible distributed control dispatching framework that enables you to break management processes into reusable control modules and execute them in distributed fashion over the network.

From their website:
CTL is a flexible distributed control dispatching framework that enables you to break management processes into reusable control modules and execute them in distributed fashion over the network.

What does CTL do?
CTL helps you leverage your current scripts and tools to easily automate any kind of distributed systems management or application provisioning task. Its good for simplifiying large-scale scripting efforts or as another tool in your toolbox that helps you speed through your daily mix of ad-hoc administration tasks.

What are CTL's features?
CTL has many features, but the general highlights are:

* Execute sophisticated procedures in distributed environments - Aren't you tired of writing and then endlessly modifying scripts that loop over nodes and invoke remote actions? CTL dispatches actions to remote controllers with network transparency (over SSH), parallelism, and error handling already built in.
* Comes with pre-built utilities - CTL comes with pre-built utilities so you don't have to script actions like file distribution or process and port checking.
* Define your own automation using the tools/languages you already know - New controller modules are defined in XML and your scripting can be done in multiple scripting languages (

It's powerful text process features and amazing library support made it an early favorite language choice for website designers. Other languages like PHP, Java, and .Net have since become more popular, but it still is favorite of many.

http://www.perl.com/">

http://www.perl.com/">Perl

, Python, etc.), *nix shell, Windows batch, and/or Ant.
* Cross platform administration - CTL is

Java is very popular on the server side because it is free, relatively high performing. has a large number of useful libraries, and great development tools. Websites build using Java generally use application servers and are accessed using servelets.

http://www.java.com/en/">

http://www.java.com/en/">Java

-based, works on *nix and Windows.

Did you realise modern candle wicks are a marvel of engineering

2008-10-29T15:07:09+00:00

submitted by Oberweis to science
[link] [239 comments]

Gmail Modes

2008-10-29T11:11:47+00:00

If you can't access Gmail, try some of these URLs:

Safe mode - http://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0. It disables the experimental features from Gmail Labs, just in case some of them are buggy. You can remove some of the features from Gmail's settings page.

Secure mode - https://mail.google.com/. It encrypts the traffic between your computer and Gmail's servers. Use it from public computers, Wi-Fi networks or to bypass some proxies and web accelerators. There's a Gmail setting that redirects the standard version to the secure mode ("Always use https").

Older version - http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=1. This version has been replaced in October 2007 by a rearchitectured Gmail, but the old version is a little bit faster.

Basic mode - http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=html. It's the version that doesn't use JavaScript, so it loads faster and it works well with older browsers. Unfortunately, many Gmail features are missing (contacts autocomplete, chat, spell checker, rich formatting) and each click loads a new page. If you like this version, click on "Set basic HTML as default view" at the top of the page.

Mobile mode - http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=mobile or http://m.gmail.com. This is a simplified Gmail interface for mobile phones that has even less feature than the basic mode. Use it if no other Gmail mode works for you.

iPhone mode - http://mail.google.com/mail/x/gdlakb-/gp/. A more user-friendly mobile version for iPhone and other mobile phones that use WebKit-based browsers.

iGoogle gadget - http://www.google.com/ig/gmailmax. This is the canvas view for the updated Gmail gadget which can be found in the new iGoogle. Some people found that this interface bypasses most corporate filters that prevent them from accessing Gmail at work.

"No browser checking" mode - http://mail.google.com/mail?nocheckbrowser. If you use a cutting-edge new browser and Gmail serves you the basic HTML mode, try this URL to bypass browser detection.

Vote up if you think that the US Election Day should be a federal holiday. Voting is one of the most important freedoms that we have, and it deserves respect.

2008-10-29T02:56:30+00:00

submitted by AMerrickanGirl to politics
[link] [548 comments]

Hit a child? Get! [pic]

2008-10-28T16:23:20+00:00

submitted by Kesko to pics
[link] [813 comments]

Gmail Modes

2008-10-28T14:39:51+00:00

submitted by gst to google
[link] [0 comments]

Codeweavers Gives Away Premium Version of WINE, Tuesday only!

2008-10-28T09:05:24+00:00

submitted by cthielen to linux
[link] [69 comments]

Astronauts Cast Their Ballots From The International Space Station, Remember To Cast Yours.

2008-10-28T08:49:14+00:00

submitted by socalsamba to technology
[link] [67 comments]

Download full version of Codeweavers software for free - One day only

2008-10-28T07:07:11+00:00

Download the full version of Crossover office and Crossover games for Linux and Mac. And get a legit serial number with one year support thrown in for free. Just for today. Courtesy: Codeweavers.

Ubuntu's rising revenue makes a small dent in Microsoft

2008-10-28T05:11:50+00:00

submitted by motang to linux
[link] [1 comment]

Google Adds Gadgets To Gmail (Docs And Calendar)

2008-10-28T03:35:48+00:00

Google is adding more sidebar options to Gmail. Now you can add gadgets on the side that show your appointments from Google Calendar and your last five documents in Google Docs. In the calendar gadget, you can see any calendar you subscribe to and add events directly from Gmail. The Docs gadget gives you a few different view options (only spreadsheets, only presentations, or only documents previously opened by you).

Gmail Labs is also releasing another experimental option that lets you cut and paste the URL of any Google gadget and turns it into a sidebar item. So if you don’t like iGoogle’s new wider look, you can squeeze those gadgets into the sidebar of Gmail.

I personally would prefer to have them in Gmail (because I am constantly in that app), but with the option of expanding them into more screen real estate when necessary.

These gadgets are new entry points into Google’s other apps. I’d expect to see more cross-fertilization like this in the future as Google finds new ways to tie its apps together in deeper and more intuitive ways.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.