Software and Freedom

A big part of my life involves software (and therefore, of
course, computers). After all, I write software for a
living. But there is a peculiarity about the software that
I actually use, both to get work done at the office and to
play around at home. I try, wherever possible, to use
free software.

Occasionally, I have a conversation, or write an e-mail
message, or post a message such as this one, in order to
advocate the use of free software or just to let others know
what free software is.

Ultimately, free software is about the freedom of speech.
It is about the freedom to think of a neat idea, to write
some software to carry out that idea, and to distribute the
software to anyone.

There is, however, a software-related war raging. In U.S.
courts, battles are being fought right now. The outcome of
the war will determine whether certain freedoms that exist
now will continue to exist in the future.

On this particular occasion, I refer, as a report on the
aforementioned war, to an article
by Richard Stallman, who, many years ago, started the
Free Software Foundation.

Stallman begins by talking a bit about IBM. IBM has for a
couple of years been fighting key battles on the side of
freedom. Recently, IBM released about 500 software-related
patents under licensing terms agreeable to the free-software
community. Stallman mentions this as a backdrop for his
critique of a recent, similar-sounding---but ultimately
meaningless---announcement by Sun Microsystems. He writes:

Perhaps Sun will eventually give substance to its words,
and make this step a real one like IBM's. Perhaps some other
large companies will take similar steps. Would this make
free software safe from the danger of software patents?
Would the problem of software patents be solved? Not on your
life. Neither one.

We can be quite sure that not all large patent holders will
do this. In fact, there is one company with lots of patents
that surely won't take such a step. That is Microsoft, which
says it is our enemy. Microsoft would love to make useful
free software effectively illegal, and has plenty of money
to pay lawyers to use whatever avenues governments provide
them.

That last sentence, in particular, prompted me to post this
message, because Stallman identified succinctly the central
conflict of the war. Not only Microsoft but also SCO would
like to see useful free software cease to exist.

One of the biggest problems facing the free software community
is the software patent. Unfortunately, the software patent
exists in the United States. The EU is currently debating the
issue, and certain courageous countries like Poland are
resisting the corporate pressure to enact a software patent
policy in the EU.

We shall move toward that aspect of fascism that is an economy
dominated by corporate monopoly only if the government grants
corporations the legal means of achieving their fascist end.
The patent system, when it comes to software, no longer stimulates
innovation but stifles it, and, what's worse, provides the tools
that media and software companies may use toward an end that is
ultimately undesirable not just for computer geeks like me, but
for everyone.

Creativity

Before I read the "With a Little Help From My Friends" post, I had been thinking about how and why we have all (apparently) (more or less) started looking to Curtis to keep this blog going. I had been thinking that it is his "day job" to come up with ideas that will appeal to a lot of different kinds of folks, and that this is why he is able to get his creative juices flowing every day (almost) to come up with something interesting to post.

On the other hand, I find myself thinking "oh I don't really have anything interesting to say," and maybe most of you do too. It got me thinking about how hard it must be to be a writer, or any kind of creative professional in general. Probably most of us feel like we spend more time than we'd like reacting to others, whether it's news stories, emails, or needy children. Maybe in a "simpler time" it was easier to be creative, because you had no choice: if you wanted to hear music, you played it, and if you couldn't read music, you "wrote" it. But I'm not sure. Maybe being creative is like being in shape: if you don't go to the gym and work out, you become flabby. In other words, in a "simpler time" it was just as easy to be lazy as it is now!

So I'm gonna try. It's a little intimidating to think that what we write here can be read by anyone in the world; I've already seen a couple of comments by folks I don't remember from our high school class (sorry if you were and I forgot -- you hereby have permission to give me shit!). But what the heck. There's no better anthem for muddling through than "I get by with a little help from my friends." It got me through school anyway.

Southern Cross

Today's "Astronomy Picture of the Day" features the Southern
Cross. Apparently, it is visible from Hawaii, where the
image above was taken. When I looked at this picture, I
first saw a cross whose long axis is horizontal, but the
real Southern Cross is a smaller asterism whose top-most
star is reddish and whose long axis is vertical.

I think that I have never seen this with my naked eyes. I
was once in Hawaii, for my honeymoon, but I didn't know to
look for it, or whether it was even the right time of year.

With a Little Help From My Friends

When I started this blog site a few months ago, I was hoping it would help all of us ex-Brahmas reconnect after living separate lives for the last 20 years. I have been very pleased with the results, especially the vibrant and sometimes funny exchanges in the Comments section.
Now, I have a favor to ask all of you.
I am going to Florida for the next 4 days for a Today Show shoot. I will be away from a computer for the first time since I started this blog. I would appreciate it if all of you could help fill the void by making at least one new Post on the blog every day while I'm gone.
I never intended this site to become the World According to Curtis, and I only post frequently because I think it's important to keep the site fresh to keep everyone coming back to the site. I'm worried that if the site becomes too static, our interest will wane and the slim connection we have established will be cut before it had a chance to grow.
As I told Walter a couple of weeks ago, there is no such thing as a "bad" or "stupid" post.
Kid just said his or her first word? Tell us about it.
Did something kickass or interesting at work? Tell us about it.
Saw a great movie or read a great book? Tell us about it.
Discovered the secret to "cold fusion"? Call the patent office, then tell us about it.
Doesn't have to be insightful, funny or poetic. God knows most of my posts don't fit into those categories.
Just let us know about something interesting going on around you, or tell us about what everyone is "buzzing" about in your social circles.
I appreciate those of you who have already been Posting and Commenting on a regular basis. Thanks.
I know y'all have very busy lives, but contribute when and if you can.
See you next week.

Resistance is Futile

What's Your SDF?

If you need any more proof that Starbucks is taking over the very fiber of our society, you only need to go to the www.starbucks.com and click on the search function - choose retail stores - select 5-mile radius - and hit search. What you will get is the number of Starbucks stores within a 5-mile radius of your home or office. That figure is known as your Starbucks Density Factor (SDF).
Obviously the results will be drastically different if you live in a small town or suburb, but if you live in a big city like me, the numbers are kind of frightening. There are 33 Starbucks stores within a 5-mile radius of my home in Studio City (a neighborhood in Los Angeles). I typed in my old address in downtown Chicago and there were 87 stores within a 5-mile radius!
I'd be curious what your SDF is in other parts of the country.
And no, I was not paid to shill for Starbucks on this post. I'm just curious.

Texas Twang Taking Over, Y'all

Two linguistics professors from the University of Texas at San Antonio are studying Texas Twang, the distinctive dialect of English proudly spoken by natives of the Lone Star State - and sometimes ridiculed by the rest of the country. Their work is being underwritten by the National Geographic Society, and the final research could become the definitive guide to Texas English.
The professors say the use of "Y'all" is spreading beyond the South into the rest of te United States. Why? Because it fills a linguistic need. It's a clearer way to denote the second-person plural than the existing - and more proper - "you".
But Texans are always looking for a way to stand out, so now some Texans are using Y'all to refer to only one person as well - as in "Y'all are my beautiful wife." It's apparently a defiant counter-reaction to the mass appropriation of the beloved term.
Other findings of the research - Texans use a flat "i" saying "naht" instead of "night" and "rahd" instead of "ride". They don't make any audible distinction when pronouncing words like "pull" and "pool" or "fool" and "full". And they have distinctive pronunciations like "warsh" instead of "wash" and "lard" instead of "lord".
But of course the sure way to spot a Texan is when he or she says "I'm fixin' to go to the grocery store." Fixin' is a dead giveaway.
How about y'all? Do people spot you're from Texas because of something you say or how you say it?
My "y'all" always gives me away.

Spawn of Satan?

Hook 'em Horns... I mean Satan

Here's a funny example of how unsubstantiated internet rumors spread like wildfire over the web.
If you watched the Celebration of Freedom for President Bush the night before the inauguration, you may have seen Jenna Bush make this gesture (seen in photo above) while standing next to her dad.
By the next day, the internet was rife with rumors that Jenna was making the sign for the Mark of Satan, implying that she was somehow the spawn of, or at the very least, in cahoots with Satan.
Of course, anyone who went to the University of Texas knows she was merely making the Hook 'em Horns sign for her alma mater. It took a few hours for posters on the web to correct the false rumors on the internet and by the end of the day, it was pretty much squashed.
However, that same sign in Sweden means "My penis is bigger than yours."
And in Italy, it means "Your man is a cuckold."
So maybe Jenna really was trying to tell us something.
Hmmmmmmmm........

Skinny Kirk

Fat Kirk

Shatner Reigns Supreme

If anybody still doubts that William Shatner has become a permanent fixture of our pop culture, you only had to watch the Golden Globes. There were Kevin Spacey, Kevin Kline, Javier Bardem and other great actors of our time vying for the little statuettes, but did any of them win? No.
But William Shatner did.
He took home a Golden Globe for his performance as Denny Crain in Boston Legal. That is in addition to the Emmy he won last year for playing that same character in The Practice.
The only thing left to trigger armageddon is for the Motion Picture Academy to give Shatner a retroactive Oscar for his performance in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Speaking of which, you have to go to www.khaaan.com where you can relive his greatest acting moment ever - over and over again.
Check it out - it's funny. Make sure you have your speaker volume up.

Who are We?

The exchange between Julia and Doug under Doug's beautiful daughters' photos reminds me that even though we are slightly connected through this blog site, a lot of us still don't know much about where we live and what we are doing right now. Please take a few minutes to let us know important things about you that we may not know. I wouldn't recommend any specific addresses or phone numbers since this goes out all over the world, but at least place of residence and occupation would be a good start.
I'll go first.

Don't Worry, It's Only a Flesh Wound!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to see a Monty Python production live on a stage?
Wonder no more, because Spamalot is here.
Well, actually it's in Chicago until January 23 and then it starts a run on Broadway in February.
This is a stage musical version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The sheer nostalgia value should be strong enough to carry you through the production even it ends up sucking. However, it has gotten some pretty good reviews so far.
The web site is also very entertaining - just go to montypythonsspamalot.com. Very Flying Circus.
Thanks to Walter for the tip on this.

Genna (6) and Maddie (8) Horvath

Real World Austin

After more than 10 years of avoiding one of the most obvious locales for their hit show, MTV has finally decided to put seven strangers together in a house in Austin and see what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real (yeah right).
So you figure they will have at least one gay roommate because that is a prerequisite (this season's show in Philadelphia actually has two!). You figure they will have a token black person from the North who will be scared to come to Texas because he/she doesn't know that black people actually live in Texas. They will definitely have some stereotypical shit-kicker type from West Texas who seems like a racist simpleton but actually has a heart of gold and learns by the final episode to leave people of all races and sexual persuasions.
The cool part is that they will show the kids going to various music clubs and we might get to actually hear some cool bands along the way. The uncool part is that more people will learn that Austin is a great city and even more people will move there and make it too crowded for the rest of us to even think about moving there.
Any other predictions about the show?
And please no jokes about why a 37-year-old man is still watching this show.
What can I say? I'm old school.

Luke & Thia Bronson with Santa

Doug Does Wine Country

Doug Horvath Lives!

If you look at the 3rd comment on the Coming Up Roses entry, you'll see that Doug Horvath was surfing the web and found our blog. Unfortunately, he didn't leave an e-mail address so that I can get him into the group. Anybody know his e-mail address?

Indonesian Earthquake affects Earth's rotation

I had this in my inbox when I came back to work today:

******************************************************************************
IGS Electronic Mail 29 Dec 07:53:53 PST 2004 Message Number 5069
******************************************************************************

Author: CODE AC Team


Dear colleagues,

the devastating earthquake in the Indian Ocean on December 26 shows its traces even in the Earth's rotation. Preliminary results from the CODE rapid analysis for the IGS indicate a displacement of the rotation axis by about 3mas (or 8cm on the Earth's surface) with respect to the prediction from Bulletin A. The length of day changed by nearly 0.1 msec/day.

You may find plots of the CODE rapid pole parameters together with Bulletin A predicted values under

http://www.aiub.unibe.ch/code/dec26_pole_xy.gif
http://www.aiub.unibe.ch/code/dec26_pole_x.gif
http://www.aiub.unibe.ch/code/dec26_pole_y.gif
http://www.aiub.unibe.ch/code/dec26_pole_ut.gif
http://www.aiub.unibe.ch/code/dec26_pole_lod.gif

The rapid analysis did not show significant displacement of the tracking stations around the Indian Ocean processed by CODE except for NTUS (Singapore) for which the measurements indicate a displacement of 2cm in westward direction.

That an earthquake influences the Earth's rotation underlines the
inconceivable extent of this catastrophical natural disaster.


Best regards
Urs Hugentobler
The CODE AC Team

Hook 'em Horns

Coming Up Roses

There is an old Persian proverb that says "He who wants a rose must respect the thorn." Michigan fans must be feeling the pricks of a thousand tiny thorns this morning after waking up from a nightmare ending at the Rose Bowl.
Kyung and I went to the game and I have to say it was one of the most exciting sporting events I have ever attended except for a few Heavyweight Championships that I have seen. The game was chock full of spectacular kick returns, mad scrambles by Vince Young, big plays by Michigan receivers and a nail-biting finish.
For those of you who didn't see the game, Michigan went ahead 31-21 with about 10 minutes left in the game and it looked grim for Texas. Texas made a great comeback to go ahead 35 - 34 with about 4 minutes left only to allow Michigan to kick a field goal with about 3 minutes left.
With the score 37 to 35, Vince Young marched the Longhorns down the field but had to settle for a 37-yard field goal attempt. We were at the other end of the stadium from the kick, so when the ball left Dusty Mangum's foot, it was so wobbly we thought the kick had been blocked. And when it came down, we couldn't tell whether it had gone over the crossbar or not. We had to wait for the referees to signal that it was good to start cheering.
There was easily about 60,000 Texas fans in the stadium and we all went nuts. I actually got choked up when the players came over to the band and everyone started singing "The Eyes of Texas". What a game!