advocacy

Why I stand up for Stallman

Why I stand up for Stallman: A few years ago I met Richard Stallman, in Berkeley. It was arranged by my friend Sylvia Paull, who was his publicist (she might still be, I’m not sure). It was amazing, because one of his associates there (whose name I don’t remember) was teasing me just like people in workgroups on the net were. I looked at him, and asked him if he seriously was going to do this, in front of Stallman. Yeah, he kept at it. That’s how pervasive this culture of disrespect is. To Stallman’s credit, he not only stopped it, but dug in. He wanted to understand what was at the root of this. I told him I had GPL’d my life’s work. And this is the kind of treatment I was getting fairly widely. It wasn’t a long conversation, but I could see in his eyes the empathy that Sam had been looking for so many years ago. People think Stallman is oblivious, but my feeling is he’s a lot more aware than most people.

[Anil Dash in the comments on the above story: “using that power to cow conference organizers and academics into submission to an arbitrary set of whims, the same as a rock star refusing to eat certain colors of M&Ms. Just make good music, and ignore the unwelcome M&Ms in the bowl. And be thankful someone wants to hear what you’re singing.”

Here’s where I step in… most people get that story wrong and Anil does here. And I think it helps make a point, I’m simply trying to be pedantic about a often mistold story.

The “no red M&Ms” (or whatever color) wasn’t about arbitrary control and power but about trust. Setting a venue for a show requires a lot of technical work. There’s an awful lot of voltage flying around those lights and plenty more in the audio systems. Cross connect something by mistake, lift a ground in the wrong spot, etc. and you greatly increase the chance that someone will get electrocuted and seriously harmed (if not killed).

The remove one color of M&M while it seems arbitrary was a test. For something that the venue or promoter might feel is bullying or a power trip, if they attended to the detail of it, chances are that they’re attending to the details that really matter as well. It’s a litmus test for attention to detail.

While I had no problem pointing to a story about Stallman’s inconsistency’s, that’s not a reason to jump on him. It doesn’t smack of power trip to me. It simply seems like the a “possibles bag” of collected things that have gone wrong in the past, and an attempt to improve things in the future. Anyone who has done even some of what he does knows that expectations aren’t ever clear enough. You arrive to give a talk and suddenly “could you just” do this event or something. And a million other assumptions that may or may not be true. That document rings true to me, although some of it might seem odd. So what.

So while Anil has a point in the “you must call it” section, you might want to consider that most of this has probably happened and is there to prevent it from happening again, if at all possible, and is no more a power trip than saying “These things have gone wrong in the past”.]
Source: Scripting News

User-led RSS advocacy

User-led RSS advocacy:

A picture named loveRss.jpgIf you’re a regular reader of this blog, take a few moments and read this manifesto by actress Felicia Day about the importance of supporting RSS. She says that some sources are turning off their feeds. I was not aware of this. I subscribe to new feeds all the time, and rarely do I find a source that updates regularly that doesn’t have one. I think I’d notice.

But what’s reallly cool about this is that passionate and intelligent advocacy is coming from users. For me, that’s new. And very welcome. I’ve felt like the only person who’s willing to stick his neck out of the idea that we could have news flows that were not controlled by the tech industry. I was told that users would never understand why this is important. Well, looks like the people who said that were wrong.

This happens regularly in the tech industry, as I’ve written about so often. In the early days of a technology, in this case news feeds, users need training wheels on their tools. But a few years later, they understand how it works, and they can see how they’re being controlled. Shortly after that they break free of the bonds and a new layer of tech comes online.

If you’re a developer, it seems now is a good time to take a fresh look at building networks of news flow that doesn’t run exclusively through Google, Twitter or Facebook. There is an architecture possible here, built on formats and protocols we all know well. XML, JSON, HTTP, DNS. All of it lightweight and easily cloned for lots of choice for users.

But at least read Ms Day’s screed. :-)

[+1]
Source: Scripting News

The difference between management and leadership

The difference between management and leadership:

Managers work to get their employees to do what they did yesterday, but a little faster and a little cheaper.

Leaders, on the other hand, know where they’d like to go, but understand that they can’t get there without their tribe, without giving those they lead the tools to make something happen.

Managers want authority. Leaders take responsibility.

We need both. But we have to be careful not to confuse them. And it helps to remember that leaders are scarce and thus more valuable.

[And frankly the real trick is to balance both. Good one from Seth though.]
Source: Seth’s Blog

I Hate My Smartphone

I Hate My Smartphone: The rest of the ways that I interact with my smartphone, they’re all social and, as an introvert, it just doesn’t hold a whole lot of appeal for me. My text messaging skill and finesse, especially when compared to my typing ability, it’s pathetic. I hate trying to input text on the device, especially complex passwords: what a pain!

[So let me see if I understand… a “geek” who implies a severely limited social life (I’ll grant the choice) can’t understand what all the fuss is for people who live on their phones. Hmmm. Wonder of wonders. (note the sarcasm here folks). I, of course, use my phone for silly things like having conversations… with a touch of email checking, a bit of social image sharing, and the odd bit of texting. I don’t know how smart my phone has to be, but it sure is easier to do those things with it than the “dumb” phones I’ve owned.]

Daily Kos: A Voice From the 1%

Daily Kos: A Voice From the 1%: Thus you can imagine my amazement this summer when I watched the Republicans in Congress push the United States to the brink of default – and the world to the brink of ruin – over whether to repeal a portion of the Bush tax cuts and raise my taxes by 3.5%.  I know a lot of people with high incomes and even the conservatives among them were confused by that sequence of events.  Here is a secret about rich people:  we wouldn’t have noticed a 3.5% tax increase.  That is not only because there isn’t a material difference between having $1 million and $965,000, which is obvious, but also because most of us don’t actually know how much money we are going to make in a given year.  Most income at that level is the result of profits rather than salary, whether it comes in the form of bonuses, stock options, partnership distributions, dividends or capital gains.  Profits are unpredictable and they tend to vary wildly.  At my own firm, the general rule of thumb is that if we are within 5% of our budget for the year, everyone is happy and no one complains.  A variation of 3.5% is merely a random blip.

[So right on it hurts.]

A Week With iOS 5

A Week With iOS 5: Put it this way: I’m home now and there’s not one task that cropped up during the week that I had to say “I’ll have to wait until I get back to my Mac to finish this”. That, to me, is the interesting bit.

[Indeed. If you have a chance, hook up a blutooth keyboard to your iPhone. It can be an eye opening experience to have a full sized keyboard attached to that device.]
Source: Fraser Speirs

My Favorite Pen: The Pilot Razor Point II, super fine, in black

My Favorite Pen: The Zebra Sarasa 0.4mm:

Black ink, of course. Been using it for a few years now, nothing else comes close. (Well, the Uni-ball Signo RT 0.38mm comes close.) Anyway, if you’re not buying pens from JetPens, your pen probably sucks.

[Well I haven’t bought from them (yet) but my favorite pen is the Pilot Razor Point II, super fine, in black (natch). It does not suck. 9That’s for general use (daily scribbling with a touch of sketching and whatnot.) Other uses demand other pens…]
Source: Daring Fireball

52×52.org



52×52.org:

The lovely Jessica Hische just revealed her latest do-good-side-project called 52×52.org here at BrooklynBeta.

The idea: 52×52.org will help you give to charity, every week, for one year. Her site will act as a messenger, not a middle-man, asking you to donate $52 directly to the featured charity. If $52 is too much, donate $25, $15 or $10! Give whatever you can, each and every week for one year, and together we will make a giant difference. Here’s the site: 52×52.org.

If you want to help Jessica to make it easier to donate/give and help her build out the site, please get in touch with her!

[Nice idea.]
Source: swissmiss

Occupy Election Day

Occupy Election Day:

A picture named thinkUsa.gifI guess he thought that was funny. I don’t. I think the vote is sacred. I don’t care who you vote for, but the thought that one American would even think to deprive another American of their vote, is well un-American, in the extreme.

Helping people get to vote is a very powerful way to flex political muscles in a totally legal way. And prove that there is no specific agenda for the #OWS movement. Help all kinds of voters get to the polls. If a member of the ruling class needs help, we’ll help. Anyone means anyone.

There’s a pulse to this thing. I get that now. We have a really big election coming up in 2012, but the one this November is important too.

[Yeah, there’s some awful stuff being brought to the for. Here’s hoping that sunshine will disinfect the country.]
Source: Scripting News

NYPD Interfering with Photography

NYPD Interfering with Photography:

It appears that the NYPD—or at least some of their officers—are using strobing flashlights to purposefully interfere with cameras recording them during Occupy Wall Street protests. Here are two examples that Lucy Kafanov tweeted earlier this evening:


This is really disappointing. I’d go so far as to say it’s reprehensible. It joins the list of bad things we’ve seen the police do in New York—such as beating up protesters, beating them up some more, and running them over. It doesn’t really matter if you are aligned with the Occupy Wall Street protesters or not, you need to be aware of how our public servants are acting and what that says about our nominally free and open society.

Posted by
James Duncan Davidson.

[Righteo. I also retweeted about an officer that got things right. It seems the individuals stand a chance even if the organization sucks. Not a surprise.]
Source: James Duncan Davidson