Larry Lessig has written a great piece about the recent spat in which the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) criticised open-source software as running counter to its mission and open source advocates rose up in anger. The article is less hot-under-the-collar than Lessig's (understandably) irrate first posting on this topic. He's come to the conclusion, correctly I think, that if anyone's to blame it's the politicians, who listen more closely to Microsoft's lobbyists than their own consciences. The WIPO are, at worst, just being weak and clueless.
But I think the WIPO are also guilty of oraganisational hypocrisy. Maybe I just missed it, but I haven't seen anyone comment on this point yet, hence this post.
The WIPO, which not only uses open-source software itself, but also sings its praises in meetings. This, for example, in March 2002 on IBIS, their international patent classification system:
It is worthwhile to mention that this is one of the first initiatives to use open source software in WIPO IT projects; the publishing framework called Cocoon comes from the Apache Foundation, and it is available free of charge. The system runs on LINUX.
(A little ironically, this new system was built to replace a nine-year-old DOS-based one.)
And this in February 2003 on the PCT-SAFE (Patent Cooperation Treaty - Secure Applications Filed Electronically) system:
The Secretariat also reminded delegates that the software will be made available free to Member States and applicants; the editor and the Client will be available free of charge and downloadable via the PCT-SAFE website; the receiving server software will be made available to any Receiving Office under the PCT who requests it; and a low level certificate will be obtainable via a WIPO website and it is planned via WIPONET. In addition, the Secretariat also expressed interest to participate in some form of open source, and was already working with the EPO [European Patent Organisation] towards such an arrangement... the Delagation of the EPO took to the floor to comment upon the strength of cooperation and harmonisation with WIPO... In respect of open source, the EPO had decided to go to open source for its full epoline software with respect to electronic-filing... In response to a question from the Del[e]gation of the United Kingdom about the future developments of the online filing system and their inclusion within the MOU [memo of understanding] between WIPO and the EPO, the Secretariat was pleased to report that the move, by the EPO to open source, would mean that future cooperation would be assured and would take place in a more rich dev[e]leopment environoment... With regard to the IPC tutorials track, open source software had been used for development and had proved cost effective.
Mm, not much sign of open source-bashing there. As a friend has pointed out to me, it makes sense for the WIPO to go for open source and open standards because they have to ensure that people on any platform and in any country can upload to their servers. A shame, then, that they they don't think so much about people who are downloading and that they chose to publish the above documents as Word files. They also managed to leave out any mention of open source from their press release on PCT-SAFE. A conspiracy? Na! Don't assign to malevolence what can just as easily be explained by ignorance and carelessness.
Sean Gallagher has a nice follow-on from the recent Microsoft security monoculture paper that explains why Windows is like the potato.
(Via Phil Windley.)
Just doing my tiny, tiny bit for anyone searching for this term on Google.
Update: I see that Dan Gillmor is asking his readers to do what I've done above. No doubt this will have a much larger effect.
SCO now say that they'll leave you and your Linux box alone if you give them $1,399. (But for you, my friend, if you're quick, the price is only $699.) It's a steal!
Meanwhile, everyone's suing everyone else.
Back in the real world, Eben Moglen explains why SCO's claims look strange and full of ill intent, even to a lawyer. Perhaps the most interesting bit of his essay is this:
Imagine the literary equivalent of SCO's current bluster: Publishing house A alleges that the bestselling novel by Author X topping the charts from Publisher B plagiarizes its own more obscure novel by Author Y. "But," the chairman of Publisher A announces at a news conference, "we're not suing Author X or Publisher B; we're only suing all the people who bought X's book. They have to pay us for a license to read the book immediately, or we’ll come after them." That doesn’t happen, because that’s not the law.
It may not be the law, but it's clearly what SCO's rich friends would like them to do. Coincidence?
Marshall Stoneham of University College London reckons that he can put a silicon-based quantum computer on your desk by 2010.
No word yet when he expects the software to arrive. ;-)
This week's Face Value column in The Economist presents Craig Mundie, Microsoft's CTO, as their Colin Powell. The analogy is interesting — and to some extent accurate — in that Mundie is a relative moderate tasked with building bridges to groups that have been disenfranchised by the subtle-as-a-brick Gates-Balmer philosophy.
But quotes like this give you pause for thought:
"[I]f you're the biggest guy on the block, people will always resent you," says Mr Mundie.
Really? Do gamsters complain about the bleak soullessness of Sony playstations? Do petrolheads decry the lack of user-frindliness in GM cars? Do mobile phone users complain that Nokia handsets keep crashing on them? Do bank account holders cry out that Citigroup's marketing tactics are trying to lock them in? Get real, Craig, before some likens you to Comical Ali. Uh oh, too late...
Microsoft's latest proposed innovation is an online music store that sounds just like Apple's. Also coming soon from MS: interfaces that users actually find appealing, advertising campaigns with flair, and a boss who wears black turtle-neck sweaters.
Not that they're trying to copy anyone, you understand.
Actually, I'd just settle for an operating system that doesn't crash quite so often. This from the NY Times (pointed to by Slashdot):
Mr. Gates acknowledged today that the company's error reporting service indicated that 5 percent of all Windows-based computers now crash more than twice each day.
And presumably those are just the ones they know about. <sigh>
I'm trying to square this:
"Six months ago, I sent a call-to-action to Microsoft's 50,000 employees, outlining what I believe is the highest priority for the company and for our industry over the next decade: building a Trustworthy Computing environment for customers that is as reliable as the electricity that powers our homes and businesses today."— Bill Gates, July 2003
with this:
"Windows passwords are not very good. The problem with [them] is that they do not include any random information."— Philippe Oechslin, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology after developing a method to break Windows passwords in an average of 13.6 seconds
Any ideas?
A whole computer for a third the price of Microsoft Office?! Well, not a whole computer exactly. You don't get a hard drive, so anything that's not on the bootable CD-ROM has to come from the network. But I can see this being huge in all kinds of places from internet cafes to family dens.
This stuff's been around a while now, but still worth posting I think. First, USA Today on the lengths that Microsoft went to in order to avoid losing the city of Munich to Linux. (Surprise! Shock! Horror! Um, not). Second, Joel Spolsky on why he doesn't quite believe it all followed by a reader's explanation to him that these machines will actually be running Windows inside VMWare. (So it it such a victory for Linux after all? Yes, I reckon, just as methadone's better than heroine because it offers a way out of your addiction.) Last but not least, InfoWorld on the shift of small and medium-size businesses from Windows to Linux on the desktop.
The New York Times reports on a new method of reconstructing shredded paper:
Advanced scanning technology makes it possible to reconstruct documents previously thought safe from prying eyes, sometimes even pages that have been ripped into confetti-size pieces.
We seem to be entering a world where information can't be truly eliminated — however much you want to. Except perhaps by putting it into certain my trusty 'filing systems'. ;-)
In response to this post by Dave Farber complaining about the dodginess of his new Tablet PC, one of his correspondents sent in this funny story to demonstrate just how far you sometimes have to go to read a Windows error message. And after all that, I bet it was one of those ultra-helpful "Illegal operation: 505CR3WY0U" ones.
Tim Bray has posted a great piece about why, if you're a software developer, you don't want to be a 'sharecropper' (a developer of applications for platforms owned by other people). To avoid being screwed, you should develop for an open platform such as Unix or the web. Too true.
I'm still trying to work out whether this (rather funny) story demonstrates (i) a strange ignorance on the part of apparently clever people in government about how to use software safely, or (ii) a jaw-droppingly bad decsion by Microsoft about what features Word users would consider useful. A bit of both, perhaps. The BBC also reported on the same subject.
This seems to me like a sensible ruling – why should any company be forced to distribute another company's product? But it also demonstrates why splitting Microsoft into separate OS and applications companies would have been in the public interest.
It looks like Microsoft intends to go head-to-head with Google. That'll be an interesting fight:
Not that I'm gunning for one side or the other, you understand. ;-)
Derrick Story from the Apple WWDC:
Oh, and next time someone says, "Well, I think Mac OS X is a cool operating system, but I don't really want to pay a premium price for the hardware to run it," pull this out of your back pocket.You can buy a 2 GHz dual processor G5 that can hold up to 8 GB of memory with a Radeon 9600 Pro graphics card, 4X SuperDrive, high performance I/O, serial ATA hard drives, 133 MHz PCI slots, and full SMP to take advantage of those dual processors for $1,000 less than the equivalent Dell machine that doesn't fare as well in some of the benchmark tests.
Nature has published a commentary arguing that we should be taking more care to archive our old emails in print form. Personally, I archive mine electronically after 12-18 months and have hardly ever had to go looking for an old message, so I think they worry too much. But perhaps my emails just aren't as important as other people's.
The Observer reports on Europe, spearheaded by Germany, as the world's leader in use of open source software.
It seems that Microsoft can't compete in the application space with a software rival that owns the operating system. Well there's a turn up.
They're right to say that Safari is now the natural choice for Mac owners, which makes it a great shame that some sites still don't work in that browser.
A nice piece in Wired about Sun's problems. It's not all bad news: they have more than $5bn in the bank, a strong history of technical development and some talented people. But the Lintel threat to Sun is a classic case of being undermined by a Christensenesque disruptive technology and I don't see any public sign that they have a credible way out.
I hope they do, though. They're one of the few big computer companies who genuinely innovate as opposed to just talking about it.
Did you know that Microsoft ships GNU software and charges money for it?
Tim O'Reilly has a nice piece on Apple as innovator:
[W]hat Apple does so well is to realize the potential in a technology, and to frame it in such a way that people discover that they need it. In a way, they are cultural innovators more than they are tech innovators.
Microsoft products are like Japanese danchi (functional, ubiquitous, soulless and ultimately quite depressing). Apple products are like the Guggenheim in Bilbao (breathtaking, beautiful, artistic and just a little bit impractical). Just as the pyramids, not mud huts, are seen today as defining ancient Egyptian culture, so in 3,000 years time Apple products will be seen as the shining examples of our early 21st Century digital lifestyle.
From Munich to Mumbai, Windows is losing out to Linux. Is this just another part of the long, slow slide towards open source or the beginning of a new avalance?
Bob Cringely is wrong when he's says that you should never touch working code. Daniel Steinberg explains why: It's because having maintainable code is almost as important as having working code.
Hot on the heels of this revelation comes this news about Microsoft's latest plan to commercialise the output of their R&D department (aka Apple).
Our broadband connection got cut off yesterday. On phoning BT it turns out that the credit card I had been using to pay for my account has now expired. It would have been nice of BT to tell me this before cutting us off but it's no less than I expect from a company whose inexhaustable incompetence has been giving me grief for a year now. It would take a whole website to describe all the things they've screwed up during that time. Hey, there's an idea...
Microsoft claim that their iLoo was an April Fools' joke. But the joke's on them.
Update at 07:48: It's not a gag after all. Even funnier than if it had been.
Longhorn's myContact's screen (taken from this preview) looks like a more or less direct rip-off of Compendium (see this site for more info.).
As Slashdot has pointed out, life is now imitating The Onion. Never ones to miss a toilet humour opportunity, Slashdotters responded in droves. My personal favourite posting:
RandomGuy: Hey, I really gotta go. Can somebody clear a stall?
From Stall #1: Sorry, checking my email. I'll be a few minutes.
From Stall #2: I'm busy trading my life away on ETrade, piss off!
From Stall #3: *fwap* Almost *fwap* done! *fwap*
From Stall #4: We're out of paper in here, I'm contacting technical support!
RandomGuy: (Eyes crossed, making odd grunting noises, Exits)
