#1: Keeping it FREE. This is one post in a series, describing challenges we need to overcome to make free software ubiquitous on the desktop. We have to work together to keep free software freely available. It will be a failure if the world moves from paying for shrink-wrapped Windows to paying for shrink-wrapped Linux.… Continue reading #1: Keeping it FREE

Joey Stanford: Top Secret: Unboxing System76's Unannounced Laptop!.  Get yourself some water and a napkin because this is a drool-fest. Gizmodo eat your heart out. I stirred up quite a bit of excitement with my previous post concerning a new System76 laptop prototype that I spotted at my CoLoCo presentation to NCLUG. I am now… Continue reading Joey Stanford: Top Secret: Unboxing System76's Unannounced Laptop!

Digital Lifestyle Servers Everywhere. Marc has been struggling to find the right phrase the helps people understand what he's working on. Yesterday he wrote something I've heard him say, but I don't understand, that he was “forced” to change from calling it server in the closet. Why? I find that helps to position the software,… Continue reading Digital Lifestyle Servers Everywhere

Sensemaking 1.  Here’s an important question for all of us: How do you make sense of something that’s big and complicated?  Say… something like why your users aren’t passionate about your product? For the past several years I’ve been thinking a great deal about sensemaking—that is, the processes people go through when trying to “make… Continue reading Sensemaking 1

Matt: MT MySQL Grid. Anatomy of MySQL on the GRID. “A number of these users came running to (mt) Media Temple with the promise that their applications, despite all of their deficiencies, would be accepted and not turned off. These users are radically different, by orders of magnitude, from anything we had previously analyzed or… Continue reading Matt: MT MySQL Grid

Dougal Campbell: Hopping on the OpenID Bandwagon. I've added OpenID authentication here, thanks to the excellent WordPress OpenID Plugin from VerseLogic. If you already have an OpenID identity, you can now use it when commenting here, and your name will be flagged with an icon to signify that your identity was confirmed. If you don't… Continue reading Dougal Campbell: Hopping on the OpenID Bandwagon

I'm not sure….  I'm not sure how many people saw it. But the big catch in Scott Pelley's interview with President Bush last night, in my mind at least, was the new rationale for the invasion of Iraq: to defend against future hypothetical scenarios. Asked whether the invasion has made the Middle East more unstable,… Continue reading I'm not sure…

MLK Day 2007: Holiday Musings.  MLK quote for the day: Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over… Continue reading MLK Day 2007: Holiday Musings

Spamonomics 101. By Allison Randal The biggest thing I've wondered about spam is: Why do the spammers even bother? They spend an enormous amount of effort, time, and (I expect) money to deliver huge quantities of mail to my inbox, which I then spend an enormous amount of effort, time, and (for some people) money… Continue reading Spamonomics 101

Pretty strong stuff…. Pretty strong stuff for a straight news lead (from McClatchy): President Bush and his aides, explaining their reasons for sending more American troops to Iraq, are offering an incomplete, oversimplified and possibly untrue version of events there that raises new questions about the accuracy of the administration's statements about Iraq. But certainly… Continue reading Pretty strong stuff…