Bridging the Open-Closed Divide

It’s interesting how often FOSS is a good answer at the type of company I work (let’s not get into that).  Just yesterday, my team discussed how we couldn’t distribute Firefox because of the logo (the truth to that is debated, so if someone can clear that up, that would be appreciated).  I suggested Iceweasel of course.  The was met with the typical “open source hippie” backlash I’ve come to deal with.  Mostly, it’s ignorance and not true backlash, but it’s still irritating.  We’re putting Wubi on all our laptops because of Windows viruses and we’ve even giving people what are essentially netbooks with Linux in some cases to avoid licensing costs.

But today it really hit me.  Verizon won’t allow us to distribute the driver for a wireless card.  Seriously?  We’re paying to use your service and we can’t even pre-install the ability to pay you?  What are companies thinking?  I understand companies are just trying to protect themselves against hideous US law, but that doesn’t make it any better.  If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.  As a rule, I don’t like proprietary software, but I understand selling software *if you are a software company*.  Verizon is not a software company.  There is zero reason for this driver not to be FOSSed.  Sure, don’t use the GPL.  I’m cool with that.  Use MIT or BSD or MPL or whatever.  Just give us the code.

So, it is probably in vain that I attempt to find a FOSS replacement for this driver.  Writing drivers for closed-spec hardware has got to be one of the hardest things to do (I’m not a programmer, but based on how poor driver support often is for Linux, I’m going to stand by this).

There is so much to discuss at OpenCamp tomorrow in Madison, but maybe this is one of them…

If you have ideas, please add them to the workshop idea page.  BTW, if you are finding this on the web, NYC is also having an Open Everything event tomorrow.  However, registration is closed for them.  We will be accepting walk-ins.

GO TAR HEELS!

Ok, now that I got that out of the way, I have a few things to discuss before I head to bed.  First off, you’re probably going to hear about OpenCamp from me just about every day between now and the 18th.  If you aren’t in the Madison area, start your own!  If you’re in the US, check out http://openeverything.us.  If you’re elsewhere, check out http://openeverything.wik.is.  The Madison event still needs two projectors for two of its session rooms.  We need two more for the other two rooms.

Netbooks: I promised some comments on netbooks.  I doubt I’ll ever get one.  I like Internet on the go.  I had a Blackberry for my last job, and I loved it.  However, the in-between size of netbooks isn’t for me.  Right now, my Dell Inspiron that came with Ubuntu is working just fine for me and I use some HPs from work on occasion too.  I do testing on piece of crap Acer TravelMates.  When the Inspiron dies I’ll have some decisions to make.  I hate the free pass people give Apple, because in a lot of ways they are as bad, if not worse, than Microsoft, but I might get an Apple simply so I can learn something about the OS.  I used to have an iBook and the fact that it was underpowered did not sit well with me.  I’ll probably go with a machine with Linux pre-installed, but I’m not sure if I’d go with ZaReason, System76 or Dell.  Part of me wants to stick with Dell because I’ve had good luck with them and they were good to us in Chapel Hill with Software Freedom Day 2007.  However, I’m always for trying something new, so that may push me in another direction.  I will have had the Dell for two years in June, so it’ll have warranty for another year.  A lot can happen in that time frame. I think it’s worth thinking about now, but I won’t make a decision until the time comes.

WIRED: I wonder if WIRED’s content has changed since the web has gotten more pervasive.  The print edition has articles on all sorts of things that aren’t directly technology related.  An article on board games? seriously?  I’ll be debuting writing for www.sportazine.com in May and my already mostly written first post discusses the geek/tech barrier.  Look, I’m president of a Linux User Group.  That’s serious nerd cred, but there’s a lot of things I don’t understand about geek culture.  There’s also an article on a diamond theif and one on the brain.  Now, I understand that the diamond heist could be related to cyber-security and the brain thing to AI, but we are seriously stretching here.  The diamond heist was the good ol’ steal a key and drill a hole in something variety.  The reason the guys were caught had nothing to do with technology either.  They dumped the evidence in a field and some dude with weasels found it.  Unless you’re stripping branding out of Firefox, I really don’t see what weasels have to do with technology.  Oh, and there was an article about a woman with obsessive-compulsive disorder.  I see how that ties in with the brain article, but should either of them been included?  Now, maybe I’ve missed the boat on what WIRED is supposed to be, but I feel like this is a stretch.  Wikipedia is going to back me up here. It says the magazine “reports on how technology affects culture, the economy, and politics.”  Now, don’t get me wrong, other than the article on Terminator, I read it cover-to-cover.  The board game article was interesting simply because I know nothing about board game culture.  So, this brings me back to my first question.  I’ve never read an article of WIRED before.  I’ve read some of their online content, sure, but never a dead-tree version.  It would be interesting to see if the articles appeal to a more upper-class sensibility these days.  It would make sense.  I know this is an over-generalization, but I see magazines as a niche market for the ties when people are without Internet and/or without computers.  Basically, magazines are for people that fly.  I don’t know, maybe WIRED has always had broad content.  Let me know if you can help connect the dots for me.

Plane Delays Suck: ok, I said traveling was great for sort periods making me get stuff done, but then I got stuck on a plane for an hour while they fixed something. ugh. I could have had Internet for an extra hour!  The pressure to be concise is nice, but I’m not well equipped for travel. One day when I’m making more money, I’ll do first class…although, on the two flights I was on this weekend, the planes weren’t big enough to have a first class.  I’m not short by any stretch, but I’m not tall either.  I can only imagine how horrible flying is for my brother.