free speech, free beer and free software

A Sun executive writes on the hidden costs of open source, talks about the impact of corporations on open source development and compares the different types of management in open source models (e.g., Apache vs. Linux). Interesting.

me too

Privacy group warns of massive EU surveillance plan on the works. Is this just done so the EU Commisioners can say to the US that they aren't the only ones? I can see EU diplomats telling the US diplomats at the next UN meeting: see? We can trample on civil rights too!

it's not just the weather

This article from the Economist lists some reasons that contributed to the harm created by the recent floods in Central Europe, including lack of maintenance of flood defenses that were in place, simply because floods hadn't appeared in a while. Global warming might be proved to play a part in this, but local factors are certainly at work here as well.

humans and the environment

Two examples of how we affect our environment; regardless of whether we are trying to fix a problem (e.g., anti-whaling laws that can end up letting a species become too dominant) or simply behaving like the stupid primates we are, and then destabilizing local ecologies that can end up creating what could turn into global epidemics.

Risk and reward: the state of music

Would the rise of a band like U2 be possible today? Industry experts at a world music conference reply unanimously: no.

So sad. To think that most of the new music that should rise in the future will be robbed of its place in the spotlight by a bunch of well-groomed idiots chosen simply because they fit some market-based profile.

the risk of creativity

Two years ago, Dave had a great entry on Scripting News on the risks of being creative. It's true. In any field, creating something means you are exposing yourself. And with exposure comes risk. No question about it.

fear of criticism

From Salon: Too hot to handle. How the media has failed to ask the right questions about the problems the NY Fire Department had on Sept. 11, and why problems that had already surfaced in the 1993 bombing hadn't been fixed by last year, possibly ending up costing dozens if not hundreds of lives.

This is part of the more general problem in the US post-Sept. 11 where people are wary of criticizing the government, as if criticism would be equated with supporting terrorism (a line that the Bush administration has been happy to use time and again to stop honest questioning). Why is it so hard to some people to see that precisely it's things like these that make democracy good?

new company buys PGP technology

From News.com: PGP Corp aims to simplify PGP. Will they finally do it?

Encryption in email in particular has the problem of requiring everyone you communicate with to support it. Until an email program includes fully integrated transparent encryption on the messages (and so if you want someone else to communicate securely with you, you just tell them to use that email program) it's unlikely that the situation will change.