Posts from — March 2004

Software Commoditization.

Notes by Om Malik from the OSBC 2004 conference where he hosted a panel on software commoditization.

What gets commoditized?

snipped by jeremy

* Commodity = Cell Phone // Real value = Convenient communication
* Commodity = Free / Open Source operating system // Real value = Control over how it can be used

[E M E R G I C . o r g]

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well, an operating system may be a commodity, but i don't think that any open source one would be. a commodity is something of value that can be traded in the realm of commerce, but really, it is something that has a socially defined value that is appreciable to the mass audience…. open source software isn't a mass audience.

ICANN and ITU: collaborators or rivals?. An interview with Vint Cerf by Declan McCullagh appeared today on ZDnet. Perhaps of greatest interest was Cerf's answer to the question of whether ICANN and the International Telecommunications Union were rivals or collaborators: “This is a reflection of how… [InternetPolicy.net]

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interesting goings on here….

bush blunder. Big George W. blunder on the news here last night. The Dutch prime minister visited the oval office yesterday. The press was positioned on the inside as Jan-Peter Balkenende knocked on the other side. In the footage show last night (watch it here) Bush is heard asking an off-camera aid: “Who?, well write his name down, I can't remember all that…hey! [door opens] John Peter! Glad you're here!” Great foreign relations move. [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]

An open mike moment that does not show him in the best light. I figure someone who made a big error for the photo op will be looking for a new job shortly. [A Man with a Ph.D. - Richard Gayle's Weblog]

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it certainly makes you proud to be an american doesn't it. oh my, who will we elect next? arnold?

Hook's review of the fate of HB 842.. In the newest issue of Charlottesville weekly The Hook, Courteney Stuart writes about Del. Mitch Van Yahres' efforts to convince the state of Virginia to use open source software through the ill-fated HB 842 (”Back at it: Waldo brings Microsoft… [Waldo Jaquith]

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people are working at least. i wonder if it might be possible to see if there are any associated contributions from the lobbyists mentioned here? wouldn't it be interesting if people and corporations from another state gave money to influence virginia policy….

why isn't your research and writing novel? everyone knows that your work is, but why isn't it? what is its context, from what is it derived, and as such, why isn't it novel?

as a contextualist, i find it hard to say my work is novel, because all of is it is derivative, even my new ideas i view as caused by the relation of other ideas in my head and i usually very quickly see that they are derivative and not necessarily novel. to say that i've necessarily done some great and new for me is to ignore history to some extent. so why is your work novel?

Organisations as people, clusters, networks. Ton Zijlstra neatly summarises in words and diagrams How We Might View Organisations as individuals and networks… not just people slotted into structures. “Organisations are clusters of relationships between people. | The individual and the network are the relevant economic… [Designing for Civil Society]

bugger…. i was just using this sort of argument today.

Chkrootkit Portsentry Howto. 17 Mar 2004: Falko Timme has written a detailed tutorial on how to install chkrootkit and portsentry/logcheck on Unix systems in order to check a system for rootkits and be alerted in case of system attacks. [RootPrompt -- Nothing but Unix]

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handy

Atom@IETF.org. Sam Ruby is charging ahead with the idea of taking Atom to the IETF, and I generally approve. Sun thinks it would be a good idea for me to put some cycles into syndication technology, so I told Sam that and he came back in about fifteen seconds saying ‰¥þWanna co-chair?‰¥?… [ongoing]

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this is a good direction to go with this….

if you are going to interview for a job as an assistant professor, have at least two things with you:

a. your dissertation, if its not with you, don't agree to an interview
b. at least three papers that define your work

that is my suggestion:) I've run into both issues in the last few weeks, and the way you feel if you don't have such things ready and available is that your colleagues don't seem to trust you as to your view of the future, and well a feeling of distrust is not pleasant. so…. who knows.

time to drive to dc, wee…. i hope i've not forgotten anything. i don't think that i have. though i certainly probably have. 5.5 hours from around 9:00am is when i should be there, but it is rainy and there are bad drivers in this world.