Is it me or is it weird that so many people who love open source, who swear by it, argue it to death, and would die for it, seem to like Apple, which isn't open source? Maybe I'm missing something. Or maybe it makes sense, if you need to charge for the software (so you can pay the engineers, for example), to hold on to the source. Hmmm. Sorry. ";->"[Scripting News]

Who knows why! Actually, I don't know if I agree with that assumption - and it looks as if it is more of a hunch than anything else. My own hunch would be that the Open Source crowd would be bigger than the Macolyte crowd.

4:08:43 PM    Comments []  

On this day in 1999, the NY Times ran its first piece on weblogs. Some have claimed that weblogs didn't get started until late 1999, a few months after Blogger was first deployed. This is contradicted by the Times article and an earlier one by Scott Rosenberg at Salon, in May 1999. Both pieces reported on a weblog world that was already established and growing. The first note of Blogger on Scripting News was 8/23/99. It's possible that was not its release date, but I think it was close. BTW, it's really cool that the Times and Salon both keep archives back that far. Most pubs don't. [Scripting News]

More helpful info for my article on blogging.

11:51:51 AM    Comments []  

Losing the Librarian Image, Or Just Plain Losing?. Are librarians up to the challenge of changing the way the business world perceives us? [TVC Alert]

We can't assume that just because we're right that we will prevail. It is definitely an "interesting" time to be a librarian. On the one hand we are struggling to convince our customers what we're really about and how our skills are even more necessary today. Then on the other hand, Big Content (not just the music and film industry, but also but the mega-consolidated publishers) is on a huge post-DMCA land grab that would marginalize our role even further. To add insult to injury, we are under increasing pressure to censor information from and spy on our patrons - or at least provide information to law enforcement - which further undermines our role/vocation.

I think that once in a while it is necessary to stare into and acknowledge the bleakness. Only after this is done honestly, can effective solutions be found.

11:39:30 AM    Comments []  

Hollywood Vigilantes vs. Copyright Pirates

Berman's bill gives copyright owners a legal right to hack into and disable peer-to-peer networks suspected of illegally trading copyrighted works. It's an aggressive new tactic in a battle that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America initially waged primarily against those behind the software and services that they allege are contributing to copyright infringement....

Critics of the new tactic are calling it vigilante justice, and it certainly looks a lot like that. ...

All copyright holders need to do before launching an attack is alert the Justice Dept. about the kind of software they're using. They don't have to tell Justice how long they plan to conduct a hacking campaign or even which site it will target. They don't even need to inform the person whose computer they are hacking what is going on -- even after the fact.

Meantime, consumers who share a network with the person being attacked could end up having their service impaired. And a legitimate file-sharing service could come under attack without a chance to respond to a copyright holder's claims of infringement. ...[BusinessWeek, via TeleRead]

[The Shifted Librarian]

Now this is getting really scary and quite ridiculous.

10:29:40 AM    Comments []