Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
Computing Without Walls: Open vs. Closed Source
Posted by Benjamin J. Thompson | Filed under Essays, Linux, Technology
In an earlier post I referred to Windows as a ball and chain, largely because there seems to always be some little thing here or there that I can only do via Windows, and so I can never completely leave it behind on my PC(s). There’s a reason I blame this inconvenience on Windows and proprietary software rather than the free stuff.
The reason is this: those who exploit the copyright and patent system stifle ideas that have every right to spread. Ideas only have a future if they are shared. That goes for software just as well as it does for philosophy and music. Open-source software licenses don’t impose restrictions on others’ use of ideas and code, but closed-source ones do.
Steve Jobs & Apple pull a James Watt and sue HTC!
Posted by Benjamin J. Thompson | Filed under Liberty, News, Technology
Steve Jobs says he would rather throw lawyers at his competitors rather than honestly compete:
We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it … We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours. (emphasis mine)
This, from the company whose flagship software product, Mac OS X, is built upon a foundation of BSD Unix. For those of you who don’t know, the BSD license is the most liberal, most open, most non-intellectual-property-enforcing license I know of in the software world. It is just short of committing your code to the public domain. This is what Apple uses as the basis of its most important software product after iTunes.
BookerFox gets “100% Clean” certification from Softpedia
Posted by Benjamin J. Thompson | Filed under Browser Extensions, Technology
Well, this is flattering! Softpedia has taken the time to download and review my Firefox add-on for book sellers, and create a page of their own for it. That page can be found here.
Maybe I should go ahead and submit it to the Mozilla team for review to finally make it an official add-on!