So I’m getting married.

You can keep up at the Swedish-Hawaiian Friendship Society.

UK Gov’t: Open Source is the future.

Liam Maxwell, Cabinet Office director of ICT futures, said Tuesday in London that open source has grown up and it's time to dispel lingering misconceptions about this technology and development process. Maxwell told the Intellect 2012 conference: “Opensource software is not three guys in a shed anymore. There are a lot of misconceptions about open … Continue reading UK Gov’t: Open Source is the future. →

Automate your writing history, with real-world contextual information

I use Thomas Gideon's Flashbake scripts to log all the changes to the novels and stories I work on, automatically saving any edits every 15 minutes and noting a bunch of easy-to-automate "context" (the local timezone and weather, the music I'm listening to, my most recent Boing Boing posts). I have been doing something similar … Continue reading Automate your writing history, with real-world contextual information →

“So long.”

The salutation of parting—‘So long!’—was, I believe, until recent years, unintelligible to the majority of persons in America, especially in the interior, and to members of the middle and professional classes. I had never heard of it until I read it in Leaves of Grass, but since then have quite often heard it used by … Continue reading “So long.” →

NH HB418: Live free software or die.

Congratulations to New Hampshire, whose newly passed HB418 now requires the consideration of open source software, and promotes open data standards. This bill requires state agencies to consider open source software when acquiring software and promotes the use of open data formats by state agencies. This bill also directs the commissioner of information technology to … Continue reading NH HB418: Live free software or die. →

Open Source for America responds to the draft “Shared First” policy

Embracing the open source approach, though, and using it to encourage sharing between agencies, departments, other governments, and the general public is the purest expression of the goals of the Shared First policy. Open source excels at the Shared First Design Goals, including visibility, commoditization, reusability, extensibility, and standardization, and we believe it should be … Continue reading Open Source for America responds to the draft “Shared First” policy →

What government engagement looks like

So I signed a petition at We the People about making government archives available digitally. I like the work that Carl Malamud and Yes We Scan are doing, so why not, right? I thought we'd get some kind of perfunctory "Thanks for writing, we're glad for the feedback, etc." response and that'd be the end … Continue reading What government engagement looks like →

Fixed-width or monospace fonts in Sparrow

If you've been playing around with the Sparrow email application, like me, and you've been enjoying it, like me, and you're a geek, like me, then its rigorous use of Arial everywhere probably drives you crazy. Like me. Thanks to Vinicius Horewicz, with the penchant for lolcats talk, the problem is solved. Close Sparrow Wander over to … Continue reading Fixed-width or monospace fonts in Sparrow →

Symantec explains why proprietary software is dangerous

Someone stole Symantec's source code five years ago. Since that time, the only people who knew about the exploits were Symantec and the bad guys. So when Christine Ewing, the product manager, says "malicious users with access to the source code have an increased ability to identify vulnerabilities and build new exploits," she's only half-right. The … Continue reading Symantec explains why proprietary software is dangerous →