Month: January 2004

Interesting ultra-portable (somewhere between a pda and a laptop) computer coming this year (2004)

oqo: hardware: basics

From the site:
The OQO computer has all the functionality of an ultraportable notebook computer, with a 1GHz processor, a 20GB hard drive, 256MB of RAM, color transflective display (for easy indoor and outdoor viewing), 802.11b wireless, a removable lithium-polymer battery, and FireWire‚Ñ¢ and USB 1.1 ports. For input and navigation it includes thumb keyboard with TrackStik‚Ñ¢ and mouse buttons as well as digital pen and thumbwheel.

Open Source Idea’s, Defeat the patent system.

OpenBrick Community: Ideas

Not much here yet but a damn good idea.

Thanks again to Hans for the link.

From the site:
This section contains ideas published by OpenBrick users. Publishing and idea with some example of implementation allows to destroy the possibility of having that idea patented by others. Since we all have 10 ideas per week and since writing a patent takes 2 days, we will never have enough time to patent all our ideas. It would be very sad if someone else did and remove our possibility to use our own ideas. So, please publish your ideas here: this will make patents from Hitachi, IBM, etc. invalid.

What happened to my book?

Salon.com Technology | Blowing up “The Anarchist Cookbook”

I used to have a copy of the Anarchist Cookbook but can no longer find it. Hmmmn.. Not too long ago I decided to see if it was still in print and available, in the process I found William Powell’s comments/letter on the Author’s comments section on Amazon’s page for the book. Here is some discussion of that from Amazon. BTW: Of course it is available, I added it to my wishlist.

From the Salon article:
The author of the famous do-it-yourself bomb book renounces his creation — on Amazon.

Visit the page on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0962303208/rightocom/103-1792148-7791024

Here is the Anarchist Cookbook FAQ: http://www.righto.com/anarchist-cookbook-faq.html

The Danger of Software Patents

Thanks to Hans for the link:

Speech by Richard Stallman at Cambridge University,
25 March 2002

You might have been familiar with my work on free software. This
speech is not about that. This speech is about a way of misusing laws
to make software development a dangerous activity. This is about what
happens when patent law gets applied to the field of software.

It is not about patenting software. That is a very bad way, a
misleading way, to describe it, because it is not a matter of patenting
individual programs. If it were, it would make no difference, it would
be basically harmless. Instead, it is about patenting ideas. Every
patent covers some idea. Software patents are patents which cover
software ideas, ideas which you would use in developing software. That
is what makes them a dangerous obstacle to all software development.

Do turkeys enjoy thanksgiving?

The Hindu : Do turkeys enjoy thanksgiving?

Since seeing a speech that Arundhati Roy gave in NYC last year I have paid close attention when coming across her words. Here is the transcript from a speech she recently gave.

From the article:
It’s not good enough to be right. Sometimes, if only in order to test our resolve, it’s important to win something. In order to win something, we need to agree on something.” After a tour d’horizon, the author of The God of Small Things calls for a ” minimum agenda” as well as a plan of action that prioritises global resistance to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Here is the text of her speech at the opening Plenary of the World Social Forum in Mumbai on January 16, 2004: