Maybe it's time for the USA to recapture some of the passion for freedom that has set the Middle East on fire, over the past couple months. For most of the 20th Century, we let fear of foreign enemies and ideas and people different from us frighten us into turning our backs on the freedom-loving principles that are stated ideals of the US. Ten years into the "War on Terror", we are still falling over ourselves to let a small number if Islamic extremists give government thugs like the TSA license to humiliate us and abrogate our rights at airports and other transportation sites.
Much of this springs from the fear-mongering platforms of both major parties, which we have foolishly given the power to make us choose between two sets of vitally important rights:
- we have the Republican lifestyle police, elected en mass in 2010 on a "small government" platform and now going all out attacking...abortion and gay marriage.
- on the other hand, where justifiably Republicans get a bad rap for being anti-woman because some even oppose abortion in cases of rape, many leading Democrats would not want women to have the option of avoiding rape by carrying a pistol and using it as a last resort (which certainly makes calling them pro-choice a bad joke in my mind).
Come on America, wake up and stop being so easily manipulated and fearful! They only do this to us because we let them turn us on each other so easily...
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Dear Microsoft: Bite Me
The misuse of software patents has become rife in the software industry, with common software features being claimed as proprietary "intellectual property". Worse, these claims are being used by large companies like Microsoft and Apple to extort payment from other companies. In my mind, this is a virtual statement by those companies that they are no longer capable of innovation.
The latest such misuse is in the form of a lawsuit by Microsoft against Barnes & Noble, claiming that its Nook eBook reader infringes on Microsoft patents due to its use of the Android operating system. Seriously, is there ANYTHING more pathetic than a company like Microsoft attacking a book selling company in this economy because they won't hand over their figurative lunch money?
This article is the best summary of the situation that I have seen recently:
Drunk On Licensing Fees And Patents, Microsoft Has Become A Joke.
Other companies have been down this road before. For example, SCO. In 10 years, will anyone except former employees and a lot of lawyers remember SCO or Darl McBride, Microsoft's former anti-Linux sock puppet?
Snap out of it, Microsoft. Go back to your roots and focus on innovation again (you have the people with the smarts for it) or age with dignity but stop acting like a high school bully, either way.
Sincerely, Don
The latest such misuse is in the form of a lawsuit by Microsoft against Barnes & Noble, claiming that its Nook eBook reader infringes on Microsoft patents due to its use of the Android operating system. Seriously, is there ANYTHING more pathetic than a company like Microsoft attacking a book selling company in this economy because they won't hand over their figurative lunch money?
This article is the best summary of the situation that I have seen recently:
Drunk On Licensing Fees And Patents, Microsoft Has Become A Joke.
Other companies have been down this road before. For example, SCO. In 10 years, will anyone except former employees and a lot of lawyers remember SCO or Darl McBride, Microsoft's former anti-Linux sock puppet?
Snap out of it, Microsoft. Go back to your roots and focus on innovation again (you have the people with the smarts for it) or age with dignity but stop acting like a high school bully, either way.
Sincerely, Don
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Social Networking for Book Lovers
Social networking sites seem to be all the rage these days, from general conversational/reconnecting sites to blogs to specific interest sites. For example, there are loads of sites dedicated to specific interests, e.g., television shows, photography, sports.
Given that popularity, I started wondering what sites existed for book lovers. Books don't seem to get a lot of love from the public, compared to interests like television and sports, and so we in the book-loving tribe need to stick together! While looking around, I found a few interesting sites and also had an idea of my own that I'm debating as a project...
Virtual bookshelves:
Personally, I enjoy both eBooks and paper books and hope that both continue to be available indefinitely. However, there are a lot of books that I'd like to buy for my Nook Color that haven't been published in eBook format yet. And you CAN go to B&N or Amazon and click a link that sends a message to the publisher indicating interest in that book in eBook format but who knows how much weight that carries?
What I was thinking, though, is that if I could get a few friends to click those links (and in exchange, I'd do the same for their links), and they could get a few friends to click the links, then maybe we could generate some real interest in publishing some very cool books in eBook format.
So how about these steps:
Given that popularity, I started wondering what sites existed for book lovers. Books don't seem to get a lot of love from the public, compared to interests like television and sports, and so we in the book-loving tribe need to stick together! While looking around, I found a few interesting sites and also had an idea of my own that I'm debating as a project...
Virtual bookshelves:
- LibraryThing: Book reviews and discussions.
- Shelfari: Book reviews and discussions. Published authors participating as well.
- Goodreads: Book reviews and discussions.
- BookCrossing:This site has a REALLY cool gimmick. It's sort of a combination of a book club and a geocaching/travel bug site, in which you tag a book and leave it in a public place for others to find. They can then enter its tagged information online, so that the book's progress as it travels around, from person to person, can be tracked. This is one that I'll be participating in myself!
Personally, I enjoy both eBooks and paper books and hope that both continue to be available indefinitely. However, there are a lot of books that I'd like to buy for my Nook Color that haven't been published in eBook format yet. And you CAN go to B&N or Amazon and click a link that sends a message to the publisher indicating interest in that book in eBook format but who knows how much weight that carries?
What I was thinking, though, is that if I could get a few friends to click those links (and in exchange, I'd do the same for their links), and they could get a few friends to click the links, then maybe we could generate some real interest in publishing some very cool books in eBook format.
So how about these steps:
- a site is created where you can register a new account of your own, with your eBook reader(s) of choice specified
- once you have an account, you can search for favorite books and add them to your profile. Perhaps these choices are then available when friends navigate to your current profile; perhaps they're content you can embed in a mashup page. Maybe the content lists your top 5 requests and the top 5 requests of 2-3 of your friends.
- other friends click on those links, which (for example) send a vote for B&N to release a Nook version of "Double Rainbows for Dummies" or Amazon to release a Kindle version of "Can I Take My @#%& Vote Back, Please?"
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
March 1, 1917 - The Zimmerman Telegram
94 years ago today, the headline below was dropped like a bomb on the front page of the New York Times. Its news that Germany had proposed an alliance with Japan and Mexico against the US finally nudged a waffling Woodrow Wilson over the edge, leading to a declaration of war against Germany and her allies.
The telegram in code below is the fatal VERSION of the telegram that was presented by Britain to the United States. But there's much more interesting history behind the story...
You see, that's not the version of the telegram that Britain's cryptanalysts in Room 40 initially intercepted and decoded. On January 16,1917, German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmerman transmitted the original version from Berlin to Germany's embassy in the US. However, the telegram didn't go straight to the US. You see, on the first day of WW I, the British ship Telconia cut German's transatlantic cables, a farsighted move that forced Germany to communicate via other nations' cables or via radio...both options rendering them much more vulnerable to interception.
So Zimmerman sent that fateful telegram by way of Sweden to the US, using a US code (more Wooodrow Wilson brilliance). And when Britain intercepted and decrypted it, they had to step carefully and not raise questions of how they were intercepting neutral Sweden's cables or decrypting American cyphers.
What they did is arrange to have an operative in Mexico intercept the version that was sent there and have it decyphered again. Then they sat on that telegram until it became clear that only a serious nudge would bring the US into World War I. In the end, they revealed the SECOND version of the Zimmerman telegram to the US, leading us to make war against Germany after an infuriated American public demanded it.
The facts in this story are one of many fascinating anecdotes from history found in David Kahn's fantastic book, "The Codebreakers".
The telegram in code below is the fatal VERSION of the telegram that was presented by Britain to the United States. But there's much more interesting history behind the story...
You see, that's not the version of the telegram that Britain's cryptanalysts in Room 40 initially intercepted and decoded. On January 16,1917, German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmerman transmitted the original version from Berlin to Germany's embassy in the US. However, the telegram didn't go straight to the US. You see, on the first day of WW I, the British ship Telconia cut German's transatlantic cables, a farsighted move that forced Germany to communicate via other nations' cables or via radio...both options rendering them much more vulnerable to interception.
So Zimmerman sent that fateful telegram by way of Sweden to the US, using a US code (more Wooodrow Wilson brilliance). And when Britain intercepted and decrypted it, they had to step carefully and not raise questions of how they were intercepting neutral Sweden's cables or decrypting American cyphers.
What they did is arrange to have an operative in Mexico intercept the version that was sent there and have it decyphered again. Then they sat on that telegram until it became clear that only a serious nudge would bring the US into World War I. In the end, they revealed the SECOND version of the Zimmerman telegram to the US, leading us to make war against Germany after an infuriated American public demanded it.
The facts in this story are one of many fascinating anecdotes from history found in David Kahn's fantastic book, "The Codebreakers".
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