Annus Mirabilis

GCN calls 2014 the worst year for government open source, and I set fire to London.

Stephen Fry on Ideological Maximalism

I have opened myself to charges of the most monstrous hypocrisy by championing open source and free software while simultaneously using proprietary systems here and there, hither and yon. I hold my hand up to the sin of being inconsistent – hypocrisy is going a bit far I think. I am no purist or fanatic … Continue reading Stephen Fry on Ideological Maximalism →

Red Hat Government Symposium 2013 Roundup

There were a bunch of announcements at the Red Hat Government Symposium this week, and I wanted to make sure we had them all in once place.

#13: Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz is German for winning Scrabble.

This week, Dave and Gunnar talk about NYC Checkbook, passwords, FSF getting silly, open source dying, killing patent trolls with fire, RHEL6 STIGs, Rasberry Pi, and next week's Red Hat Summit.

#9: Flowers for Support

Dave and Gunnar talk about two-factor, open source health, homomorphism, OpenStack security, and why Dave needs to send flowers to Red Hat Support

“Patches Welcome”: Quicksilver edition

If you want something done, don't tell me it's important to you. Show me. I will spend hours and hours answering your programming questions on the mailing list, or looking over your code, but I'm not going to spend 20 minutes on a feature or plugin if I don't need it. – Rob McBroom, Quicksilver … Continue reading “Patches Welcome”: Quicksilver edition →

Air Force Software Licensing Bible

If I ever had any questions about how the government can use or demand software with open source licenses, the answer is in this surprisingly readable, unimaginably well-documented manual: Acquiring and Enforcing the Government's Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software Under Department of Defense Contracts: A Practical Handbook for Acquisition Professionals

10 Years of Red Hat

Almost ten years ago, we made this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EkkMfjetEY And we just released this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FszWXy-eoI What they share, and what's different, tells you everything you need to know about Red Hat as a company.

#1: Fail Faster

Dave and Gunnar talk about the Air Force, sequestration, why the CIA is worried about education, and why TSA Pre-check is the greatest thing for air travel since e-ticketing.

DOL is with the program.

"Before enactment of this requirement for data exchange standardization, the Department had been a proponent of and strong advocate for the use of open source technologies and data exchange standards in the development of IT systems..." – Part of a proposed rule change at the Federal-State Unemployment Insurance Program