![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tcpipSomehow I neglected to mention in my last post two excellent events which I recently attended. First was John Foxx's Tiny Colour Movies. I shouted ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dukeofmelbourne to the event as it was he who introduced me to early Ultravox some twenty years ago. It was excellent, an arthouse-style archive of movie fragments from disparate sources, combined with the Foxx providing backing music. The second was a more intimate affair, but one by a person who has probably affected more people indirectly; dinner with arjen_lentz who regularly visits Melbourne to provide MySQL training and do more work for OpenQuery. As usual it was excellent technical and friendly conversation and I quite enjoyed the contributions by laptop006.
Free and Open Source software is one of the areas where, it seems to me, the morally right policy is also the best technical approach. Widely reported, for example, has been a serious OpenSSL exploit which has affected Debian and Debian-derived systems (e.g., Ubuntu), which of course was widely discussed on Slashdot. Now despite the seriousness of the problem, it was found and patched remarkably quickly. Would this even have been discovered in a closed source model? Would the company holding the patents and copyrights admit the problem? Would they release a patch? With those questions in mind - and given the general usability of FOSS desktop UNIX-like systems, it never ceases to surprise me that people, every day, are still using MS-Windows and other closed-source solutions. It's morally wrong, and it's technically dangerous.
Over the years, I have realised the people who are attracted to roleplaying games are an interesting bunch. Many are people with either an incredibly systematic knowledge (it seems that every second sysadmin is a RPGer). Many (such aspatchworkkid, artbroken, drzero for example) are people of significant literary merit and talent. But some however are special and not in a good way. For example, one has to be a "very special individual", to start an abusive tirade because an observer comments that a regular gaming schedule might work better than an inconsistent one. Such a "special individual" would include Ian Bouch (yeah, top-posting, start from the bottom *sigh*). Congratulations Ian; I don't often condemn people on my journal for their personal behaviour but you sir, are an arsehole.
dukeofmelbourne to the event as it was he who introduced me to early Ultravox some twenty years ago. It was excellent, an arthouse-style archive of movie fragments from disparate sources, combined with the Foxx providing backing music. The second was a more intimate affair, but one by a person who has probably affected more people indirectly; dinner with arjen_lentz who regularly visits Melbourne to provide MySQL training and do more work for OpenQuery. As usual it was excellent technical and friendly conversation and I quite enjoyed the contributions by laptop006.Free and Open Source software is one of the areas where, it seems to me, the morally right policy is also the best technical approach. Widely reported, for example, has been a serious OpenSSL exploit which has affected Debian and Debian-derived systems (e.g., Ubuntu), which of course was widely discussed on Slashdot. Now despite the seriousness of the problem, it was found and patched remarkably quickly. Would this even have been discovered in a closed source model? Would the company holding the patents and copyrights admit the problem? Would they release a patch? With those questions in mind - and given the general usability of FOSS desktop UNIX-like systems, it never ceases to surprise me that people, every day, are still using MS-Windows and other closed-source solutions. It's morally wrong, and it's technically dangerous.
Over the years, I have realised the people who are attracted to roleplaying games are an interesting bunch. Many are people with either an incredibly systematic knowledge (it seems that every second sysadmin is a RPGer). Many (such as
patchworkkid, artbroken, drzero for example) are people of significant literary merit and talent. But some however are special and not in a good way. For example, one has to be a "very special individual", to start an abusive tirade because an observer comments that a regular gaming schedule might work better than an inconsistent one. Such a "special individual" would include Ian Bouch (yeah, top-posting, start from the bottom *sigh*). Congratulations Ian; I don't often condemn people on my journal for their personal behaviour but you sir, are an arsehole.![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-05-19 03:25 pm (UTC)Indeed, this seemed to be the original idea behind patents--before they were corrupted by the political process.
I'm not too crazy about the government getting involved in compensating people for their IP, of course (and not just for the reasons you mention), but I do agree that solutions exist. The biggest motivation would come from open competition in the market, but I think we're sadly past that for computer desktops. I also don't have much confidence in the technical acumen of the average computer user to properly secure their desktop systems, whether they're using Windows, Mac or Un*x. Once you introduce a layer of visual abstraction to improve usability, you open up countless possibilities for security compromises. And no amount of secure open-source software will prevent some idiots from writing their password on a sticky note and pasting it to their monitor. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2008-05-20 04:53 am (UTC)*nods* But the corruption was also inevitable.
I'm not too crazy about the government getting involved in compensating people for their IP, of course (and not just for the reasons you mention), but I do agree that solutions exist.
I think there is as well, although I am yet to see it fully documented. It would be an awesome paper to write tho'.. the brainstorming involved would be great fun.
And of course, once written I rather suspect it would be adopted and probably quite widely..
And no amount of secure open-source software will prevent some idiots from writing their password on a sticky note and pasting it to their monitor. ;-)
For that your username is the appropriate solution (even if I prefer to at least start with a foam version thereof) ;-)