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Created
Wed, 26/09/2018 - 21:51
With Australians trusting media platforms less than do people in just about every other country, why would you set about dismantling the one institution they trust the most? The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, our 86-year-old taxpayer-funded and constantly beleaguered public broadcaster, regularly tops surveys as one of the country’s few remaining […]
Created
Tue, 04/09/2018 - 10:41

Day off work today. I took H to school and Winnie for a trail run. That’s what we call it now, apparently. My Garmin watch defined it for me.

I could not decide on a definition
I could not decide on a definition

It wasn’t a run because the hills were too steep. It wasn …

Created
Sun, 02/09/2018 - 06:35

Emrys and I are mending a puncture… Well we did that, and moved some flooring downstairs. He has his uses. I was just showing him how this blog worked.

a puncture
Smell the rubber, it’s puncture fixing time’

It’s now evening and I’m waiting for the roast to finish …

Created
Sat, 01/09/2018 - 03:11
Permalink to this post This essay was originally published in November of 2017 as part of a series commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Zeran v. AOL case. Twenty years after it was first litigated in earnest, the U.S. Communications Decency Act’s Section 230 remains both obscure and vital. Section 230 nearly entirely eliminated the liability […]
Created
Sat, 01/09/2018 - 03:11
Permalink to this post This essay was originally published in November of 2017 as part of a series commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Zeran v. AOL case. Twenty years after it was first litigated in earnest, the U.S. Communications Decency Act’s Section 230 remains both obscure and vital. Section 230 nearly entirely eliminated the liability […]
Created
Thu, 30/08/2018 - 19:10

[ A similar version of this blog post was cross-posted on Software Freedom Conservancy's blog. ]

In recent weeks, I've been involved with a complex internal discussion by a major software freedom project about a desire to take a stance on social justice issues other than software freedom. In the discussion, many different people came forward with various issues that matter to them, including vegetarianism, diversity, and speech censorship, wondering how that software freedom project should handle other social justices causes that are not software freedom. This week, (separate and fully unrelated) another project, called Lerna, publicly had a similar debate. The issues involved are challenging, and it deserves careful consideration regardless of how the issue is raised.

Created
Mon, 27/08/2018 - 05:20

Hello there H, You asked for some money advice. Let’s be clear I am no financial advisor. I am barely financially literate. It’s true however that I put my beloved R to sleep at night regaling her with my financial equivalent of a shortsighted Don Quixote attacking windmills …

Created
Sun, 26/08/2018 - 08:32

It has been almost a week since I had a run. I have had a busy week of work and home renovations, and I know that is an excuse. I will go for a run in about an hour. I’m dropping the boy off at a birthday party this …

Created
Wed, 22/08/2018 - 19:13

[ A similar version was crossposted on Conservancy's blog. ]

Proprietary software has always been about a power relationship. Copyright and other legal systems give authors the power to decide what license to choose, and usually, they choose a license that favors themselves and takes rights and permissions away from others.

The so-called “Commons Clause” purposely confuses and conflates many issues. The initiative is backed by FOSSA, a company that sells materiel in the proprietary compliance industrial complex. This clause recently made news again since other parties have now adopted this same license.

Created
Mon, 30/07/2018 - 07:30

Yesterday, we lost an important member of the FLOSS community. Gervase Markham finally succumbed to his battle with cancer (specifically, metastatic adenoid cystic carcinoma).

I met Gerv in the early 2000s, after he'd already been diagnosed. He has always been very public about his illness. He was frank with all who knew him that his life expectancy was sadly well below average due to that illness. So, this outcome isn't a surprise nor a shock, but it is nevertheless sad and unfortunate for all who knew him.

Created
Sun, 29/07/2018 - 13:31
In the aftermath of the ‘Super Saturday’ by-elections, the professional media types squeezed into their box seats on the ABC’s ‘flagship political discussion program ‘Insiders’ to discuss how the political commentariat (not looking at anyone) had got it so wrong, again. Despite the media spending a month telling people that the story […]
Created
Tue, 24/07/2018 - 06:21

Someone linked me to this blog by a boutique proprietary software company complaining about porting to GNU/Linux systems, in which David Power, co-founder of Hiri, says:

Unfortunately, the fundamentalist FOSS mentality we encountered on Reddit is still alive and well. Some Linux blogs and Podcasts simply won’t give us the time of day.

I just want to quickly share a few analogous quotes that show why that statement is an unwarranted and unfair statement about people's reasonably held beliefs. First, imagine if Hiri were not a proprietary software company, but a butcher. Here's how the quote would sound:

Unfortunately, the fundamentalist vegan mentality we encountered on Reddit is still alive and well. Some vegetarian blogs and Podcasts simply won’t give us the time of day.

Created
Mon, 23/07/2018 - 22:17
UK July 22 West End Centre Aldershot July 23  ~recording London ~ July 24 Norden Farm Maidenhead July 25 Exeter Phoenix July 26 Emsworth Sports & Social Club, Emsworth July 27 Port Eliot Festival, St Germans, Cornwall July 28 Port Eliot Festival, St Germans, Cornwall July 29 Fishery Wharf Cafe Boxmoor Hemel Hempstead EUROPE August [...]
Created
Mon, 16/07/2018 - 18:15

I took the motorbike (which I tend to think of as on loan from John Lee) up the road today. It flew like a Mongolian pony on the steppes. It was great. Winter days here are just perfect. The air is chilled and the sun flashing between the trees is …

Created
Thu, 12/07/2018 - 19:40

If you're one of the people in the software freedom community who is attending O'Reilly's Open Source Software Convention (OSCON) next week here in Portland, you may have seen debate about O'Reilly and Associates (ORA)'s surreptitious Code of Conduct change (and quick revocation thereof) to name “political affiliation” as a protected class. If you're going to OSCON or plan to go to an OSCON or ORA event in the future, I suggest that you familiarize yourself with this issue and the political historical context in which these events of the last few days take place.

Created
Mon, 09/07/2018 - 05:02

Feeling hungry at the end of a long day my colleague and I found ourselves remembering Breville sandwich toasters with mouthwateringly fond memories.

The Fantastical Breville Sandwich Toaster
Do you remember the Breville Sandwich Toaster?

Toast is banned at work due to the smoke alarms that call the fire brigade everytime toast is burnt which …

Created
Fri, 22/06/2018 - 04:40

My friend, colleague, and boss, Karen Sandler, yesterday tweeted about one of the unfortunately sexist incidents that she's faced in her life. This incident is a culmination of sexist incidents that Karen and I have seen since we started working together. I describe below how these events entice me to be complicit in sexist incidents, which I do my best to actively resist.

Ultimately, this isn't about me, Karen, or about a single situation, but this is a great example of how sexist behaviors manipulate a situation and put successful women leaders in no-win situations. If you read this tweet (and additionally already knew about Software Freedom Conservancy where I work)…