freedom category archive

Celebrating Software Freedom Day: Check out some newly emancipated AI Java example code

An objection I’ve had to many programming books and web sites is that they don’t make sample code available under a free software license. This is within the rights of the author, of course, but it seems counter to the spirit of teaching and sharing knowledge to restrict the use of example code.

A writer of instructional material may be doing so to earn some money, but I hope he or she is also motivated by the desire to help others. I think the best authors and teachers are motivated strongly by this desire. And if this is the case, I think it reasonably follows that the author of a programming work should want their students to be able to freely use their source code in the students’ own creations.

I was happy to exchange words recently with an …

A Silly Post Brought to You by the Letters E and F

My daughter has a set of Sea & Learn Bath Shapes that are very entertaining for her and me and the wife alike. (The wife might not want to admit that. But for me I can say that they engage my brain more than a typical work-related meeting.)

I happened to notice that the “e” looks very Microsoft Internet Explorerish. It’s a small letter. It’s blue. So I looked around for the “f” and found that by an amazing coincidence, it is Firefox red!

(Ok, so the Firefox logo is predominantly orange and this is mostly red. Just play along, ok? The stars are orange. Take it or leave it.)

How about that? The forces of good and evil arrayed against each …

Who will own (and police) our digital future?

So the RIAA and MPAA want the colleges and universities (and corporations and your grandmother and etc.) to enforce our out-of-control copyright laws. It’s disturbing how much power these organizations already wield, and how much more power they think they should have in dictating how free the flow of information should be. Our future is digital, with infinite possibilities for freedom, but these guys would prefer that artificial scarcity rules the game.

(via Against Monopoly)

[…]

Reid’s amendment is a clear illustration of the effectiveness of lobbying. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to think the trade groups actually wrote the text of the law. It vests in these groups a vast amount of money–taxpayer money–and, hence, power.

…

Free Software Money Management Quandary

Update, 10 January 2008: See “related” below for the latest on this topic.

I found myself facing a moral quandary yesterday. I considered using proprietary software for a job that has lots of free software alternatives. You see, I have these doubts and reservations about the free options.

The gravitational pull of 12 years worth of Microsoft Money data has me continuing to run that program on my laptop. I really like MS Money; it’s worked great for managing my finances from when I was an underemployed drop-out living in my Mom’s basement through going back to school, moving out, having a real job and investments, getting married, and buying a house. It has great reporting features: you can really slice and dice the data.

Another potential problem I’ve created for …

Using GNU/Linux: Happy, Happy

I’m happily setting up shop in Ubuntu. There’s much to do, and now that I’m actually using it, I’m even more scattered in my approach. I run around getting this or that working as needed. All of which takes time, which is one reason I haven’t written much lately.

Another reason is that my writing resistance has been stronger than my will to open up the WordPress editor. One of the things I did to keep that specter at bay was move my local WordPress instance to Zodiac after having got it all set up on Prometheus. (Which prompted a couple of updates to my installing WordPress howto post.) Wasn’t hard to move, though, so I had to keep diligently practicing writing avoidance in other ways. (Not …

The Freeness of Free Software

I hope you don’t feel neglected, dear reader. I spent the weekend learning how to do something and am working on writing up a howto for it. It may not be something my regular readers will have an immediate need for, but I suspect it will be popular with the Google crowd.

I’m uncertain how to balance technical “how to” type articles with other more narrative/opinionated posts. Tutorials tend to draw searchers in and it’s rewarding to me if people find them useful, but I don’t think they serve subscribers as well. Then again, it’s a mystery why so many people want to follow what happens here at all. :-)

Generally I like to get editorial opinions from the blogs I follow, and therefore tend to think that others may like more of …