Off Topic: Shawn Dodd's Weblog

Kudos For AustinWireless

NY Times: The WiFi Boom. [Scripting News]

(So much in the news today!) This is huge; I just posted this to the AustinWireless mailing list.

There's a New York Times story on "The Wi-Fi Boom," and it features Austin prominently. It's a story about how quickly Wi-Fi is catching on and what people are using it for. It includes both community and commercial wireless networking, and mentions by name the Alamo Drafthouse, Austin Lone Star RV Resort, Schlotzsky's, the Green Mesquite, and of course, AustinWireless.

It's not a technical story, but this sort of coverage is very good for community wireless. The more our vision of public wireless gets publicized, the harder it will be for the giant telcos to subvert that vision to their benefit.

Everybody who's worked so hard at AustinWireless over the past two years should give themselves a big pat on the back. The NYT reported could have featured New York or Chicago or LA, but he didn't -- he chose Austin. And that's quite the kudo.

6:05:38 PM

Microsoft Wakes Up

According to Reuters, rumors abound that Microsoft is bidding on Rational (last week IBM announced they were acquiring them) and on long-time rival Borland.[Scripting News]

This blows my mind. When I heard IBM was buying Rational, I thought, "How could Microsoft blow this?" Microsoft (perhaps more than any other company) knows how important developers are to platform adoption. Dev tools are central to Microsoft's success. And Rational has been one of Microsoft's most important ISV partners in the area of software for developers. The thought that rival IBM could subvert that relationship is significant. It's almost scandalous. So it's not surprising to hear Microsoft has woken up and is going to fight IBM for Rational.

The Borland part of the story is quite a shock. Borland used to be an important ISV partner and competitor to Microsoft. (When you're a monopolist, you need both.) In recent years, however, Borland has made a strategic shift towards Microsoft's only real OS competitor, Linux. Should Microsoft buy Borland, it's fair to say that Linux support is in question.

5:40:43 PM

Honesty And Dishonesty In The File Sharing Debate

The O'Reilly article I just posted about makes arguments both cogent and honest. It is instructive to compare it with Fox CEO Peter Chernin's Comdex keynote, which is characterized by dishonesty and fallacious reasoning.

Note that both gentlemen represent publishing concerns. Why do they have different approaches? Well, one is willing to compete in new markets, while the other is digging in his heels in an attempt to maintain his oligopoly market position.

8:22:02 AM

O'Reilly On The Effect Of Widespread Copyright Violation

Idmat writes "In Tim's latest opus, he reflects on the lessons of his experience as a publisher: (1) Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than [copyright violation], (2) [copyright violation] is progressive taxation; (3) Customers want to do the right thing, if they can; (4)Shoplifting is a bigger threat than [copyright violation]; (5) File sharing networks don't threaten book, music, or film publishing. They threaten existing publishers; (6)"Free" is eventually replaced by a higher-quality paid service; and finally, courtesy of Larry Wall, (7)There's more than one way to do it." [Slashdot]

The Slashdot post originally used the P-word, but I refuse to use that word in this context, so I've replaced it with "copyright violation," above. (Piracy is when you illicitly manufacture CDs, tapes, DVDs, or books, and then sell them as if they were the real thing. Copyright violation via file sharing networks is not piracy. Tim is talking about the latter, not the former, and addresses that distinction in his article.)

Tim has done a great job of articulating the geeks' side of the file sharing debate. And his company publishes books! He gets it.

8:03:36 AM