Sam Ruby can be particularly inspiring.

Tommy Williams: What would you do if you were working for a company whose philosophy is not your own?

Simple: change the company, little by little, one day at a time.  From the inside.  Warning: going down such a path requires immense amounts of focus, patience, and persistence.  Seizing opportunity when it comes your way, and even occasionally manufacturing it.

At the time I joined my current employer it was known as the evil empire.  Times change.

In response to my statement that, as a Microsoft employee, I am not allowed to look at FSF code, Sam Ruby asks "Ever thought to ask why?"

First, I simply am not qualified to question the legal issues around IP. I am not a lawyer. I will not pretend to understand what I may or may not legally do in such cases.

In any case, since my actions in such cases reflect legally on Microsoft (the corporation and the individuals that comprise it), I, as an employee, choose to respect the requests of Microsoft in such matters. My only other option is to leave the company... and getting into why I am here is a story for another post.

However, I have questioned the reasons why such statements are necessary in the first place. The short answer is fear, plain and simple. Microsoft is afraid, FSF developers are afraid, Sun is afraid. Everyone seems to be afraid of.... a bunch of lawyers.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to scapegoat the lawyers for all the litigation going around. It takes a lawyer AND a client to file a case.

What I blame the lawyers for, starting with Hammurabi, is wanting to codify the ambiguity and chaos that is LIFE. That is a truly impossible task (we do live in a  universe after all). 

Inevitably, the rules have grown in complexity to match the subject. The immensity of LIFE is beyond the capability of the Human mind to understand. So is the legal system. We fear what we do not understand.

It is an F1 weekend!

Advice from Eben Moglen (FSF General Counsel) regarding the Microsoft's Shared Source License [O'ReillyNet]. [Sam Ruby's Radio Weblog]

So someone who is qualified to judge, says it isn't that bad. In fact, it is more then I have been told I can do with any of the FSF code. I can't even look at that.

Who will pay for [the Hollings bill inspired] government database? Maybe Oracle will donate it. There is nothing like having the government locked into your product to keep you afloat when you are starting to slip in the market place.

I heard a joke somewhere about three Microsoft people, a PM, developer, and tester, who found a genie while on their lunch break. In keeping with the genie protocol, three wishes were granted, one to each of them.

The developer asked to have a fully wired high tech house and the freedom to do what ever he wanted. Poof, he was gone.

The tester asked to have an isolated little cabin in the woods where nothing ever went wrong. Poof, he was gone.

The PM asked that both his developer and tester be back before their 2:00pm design review meeting.

So, Wolfgang, forget the 4 day weekends in Germany and get back to work!