The Thinking Digital Conference kicked off to a great start on it’s second (and last) day. The comedy of Tom Scott was a fabulous tonic to the rest of the first session which kicked off with an exploration od “Digital Darwin”, climbed considerable heights with data visualisation through an Internet connected presentation by Professor Hans Rosling, had a little dip with a spotlight on segmenting the US population for the recent Presidential elections, and finished with the Tom. Oh, and I almost forgot that there was a great digital piano solo that started the session by Rob Colling.
Archive for the ‘IT’ Category
TDC kicks off to a 2nd great day
Friday, May 15th, 2009Miguel de Icaza – more foolishness?
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008A, sadly, unsurprising interview that I read at derStandard.at, but alerted from the Boycott Novell blog. de Icaza has been lampooned in the past for his unpopular views on Microsoft, .net, and C#, but this interview really takes the biscuit. The guy comes across as extremely naive, foolish, and also, because of his position, frankly quite dangerous for Free Software.
Why my data isn’t in the cloud
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008This blog post is one of the best reasons why my data isn’t in the cloud:
Suddenly, Nick can’t access his Gmail account, can’t open Google Talk (our office IM app), can’t open Picasa where his family pictures are, can’t use his Google Docs, and oh by the way, he paid for additional storage. So, this is a paying customer with no access to the Google empire.
Nope, my data is safely locked up in my own mail server, my own web-server, my own backups, etc. I’ve always felt slightly uneasy about using Gmail for all my mail. Now I know why.
OpenMoko: Software and Hardware bugs
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008Let’s be clear: this is not a phone (yet) for the masses, but I think it is definitely heading in that direction. It has GPS, accelerometers, GPRS, Bluetooth, WiFi and an open software stack on which practically anything could be developed. I love this phone for what it will be able to do – but it’s not there yet.
OpenMoko: Software stacks
Monday, July 21st, 2008My OpenMoko arrived a few days ago, and comes with the stock OM2007.2 software. I upgraded it with the opkg update command and then tried to use it for a few days at the LUGRADIO Live 2008 event. It didn’t go that well, so I started hunting around to look at the other software stacks. There are three different software stacks for the phone. This is described in some detail here.
OpenMoko Freerunner: The Arrival
Sunday, July 20th, 2008On Thursday 17th July my OpenMoko Neo FreeRunner arrived from Truebox. I’ve taken a series of pictures which you can see below. I’ve been anticipating the release of the GTA02 for about a year. That’s largely because it has taken much, much longer than FIC/OpenMoko had planned to develop the hardware for the phone and get a (semi) usable software stack.
BSI legal challenge by UKUUG
Friday, May 2nd, 2008After my mini rant yesterday, it appears that the legal challenge to the BSI has actually happened. A judicial review of the decision making process of the BSI will at least look at why, and how, the BSI changed its mind regarding approving OOXML (DIS 29500) against the technical recommendations of the subcommittee.
Of course, what we really need, is a fully transparent process at the BSI where they publish their proceedings and are fully accountable for the decisions that they make. We need a fair BSI whatever the standard is that they are reviewing and considering approval for. Otherwise, the BSI will, unfortunately, continue to be seen (even if it is unfair) as a ‘for hire’ rubber stamp approvals agency.
BSI UK’s standard body sells out?
Thursday, May 1st, 2008Prior to the BRM the BSI voted no. At the BRM the BSI indicated that the specification wasn’t ready. Prior to the vote, the BSI’s technical committee said no; the BSI group still voted yes. Against the advice of the technical committee. Why would they? With a single decision they have shone a very bright light on the contradictory processes that seems to exist at the BSI.
What’s interesting is the reaction to it. John Pugh MP has already raised questions, the UKUUG is seeking legal advice of the matter and numerous people are asking “just what is going on”.
One thing seems clear though; in one stroke the BSI devalued itself, devalued the standards process and made themselves a bit less relevant in an open standards world. It also raises questions about how they make decisions. With corporate interests controlling how and what the BSI approves, can we trust any new or existing standards coming out of the BSI? They have questions to answer and the silence is deafening.
The myth of multiple “competing” standards
Thursday, May 1st, 2008A cracking post from Rob Weir about the myth that having multiple document standards is ‘good’ for the consumer and that the market should be left to decide. I particularly like this bit:
How many spreadsheet formats does Microsoft use internally for running their business on? Why should governments be denied choice in the same field that Microsoft itself exerts its right to chose?