Posts

Here’s Matthew Yglesias on the acquisition of the Nortel patent portfolio by a consortium that includes Apple, Microsoft, and RIM: I think the basic dynamic to keep in mind here is that insofar as rich high tech companies dedicate resources to hiring engineers to compete with one another by building better products, the consumer ends up winning. But insofar as rich high tech companies dedicate resources to hiring patent lawyers to sue each other or hire investment bankers to help evaluate patent-based acquisition strategies, almost all the surplus is accruing to the lawyers and bankers. ...

Computer security pioneer and original Unix hacker Robert Morris has passed away at age 78. My favorite part of his obituary is the first sentence: Robert Morris, a cryptographer who helped developed the Unix computer operating system, which controls an increasing number of the world’s computers and touches almost every aspect of modern life, died on Sunday in Lebanon, N.H. It’s amazing and delightful to think that after all of these years that no operating system has surpassed Unix as a network server. It seems like a long time ago now, but it was widely believed that eventually Windows NT would kill off Unix. I’m glad that didn’t happen. ...

I’ve been thinking persistently about the difference between politics and activism basically since Barack Obama was inaugurated. As the old saying goes, politics is the art of the possible. Activism is about fighting for principles regardless of their possibility. We run into problems when we expect politicians to be activists, or expect political campaigns to be activist movements. Likewise, activists oftentimes make poor politicians. That said, political change is contingent on effective activism. In short, activism creates the changes in public opinion that result in political change. ...

Andy Baio explains how he got sued by the photographer who took the iconic cover photo of Miles Davis’ album Kind of Blue after he used a pixellated version on the cover of a CD he produced. He felt he had a good defense under the principle of fair use, but in practical terms, that doesn’t matter: Anyone can file a lawsuit and the costs of defending yourself against a claim are high, regardless of how strong your case is. Combined with vague standards, the result is a chilling effect for every independent artist hoping to build upon or reference copyrighted works. ...

Today the New York Times ran the first hand story of Jose Antonio Vargas, a well-known journalist who, in the piece, confesses that he unknowingly came to this country illegally as an adolescent and, after learning of his status when he tried to get a driving permit, still managed to graduate from college and work for some of the country’s top publications, most notably the Washington Post. I really recommend that you read the story. While I’m sure he feels better having relieved himself of the burden he’s carried all these years, there’s a good chance he’ll wind up being deported unless someone else intervenes on his behalf. ...

The New York Times has a report on an FBI raid that knocked some of my favorite sites offline yesterday. The FBI visited a colo facility and seized at least one full rack of servers leased by DigitalOne, taking down sites like Instapaper and Pinboard. Apparently they were going after a specific host but they had no idea how to seize only the hardware associated with that host, and in the age of virtualization, going after one VM could still cause many hosts to be taken down. ...

I think Matthew Yglesias nails the modern mix of work and play. He’s talking about a study that shows that email users check their work email on weekends, on sick days, and even when they’re on vacation. It’s a two-way street: At the same time, looking at our traffic stats here at ThinkProgress it’s evident that an awful lot of people are reading blogs when they’re supposed to be at their desk working. Not that I mind, you understand, it’s just a noticeable trend. And traffic really falls off during that week between Christmas and New Years when relatively few people are working. That’s not because nobody can access the Internet when they’re not at their office, it’s because the flipside of using digital technology to work even when you’re not “at work” is using digital technology to slack off when you are at work. Certainly I do both of these things—it’s neither rare for me to be reading an ESPN article during working hours nor to be reading a work email after hours. That’s the nature of modern life. ...

Today it’s all about the technology links. First, Peter Knego data mines Stack Overflow and finds that older developers are scarce but valuable. John Gruber compares Apple’s approach to Google’s when it comes to software development, arguing that Apple focuses on quality of user experience whereas Google focuses on reach – making their software available to the largest audience possible. I think he’s right on the money, and of course it’s worth pointing out that Google’s usability is fine for most users. I prefer Apple’s approach to interface design, but I am a happy user of a large number of Google products. ...

First, I started seeing more and more Web sites with Facebook like buttons on them. Then I saw Facebook widgets that showed my friends’ activity when I visited third party sites. Now, I’m seeing lots of blogs switch over their comments to use Facebook as a third party comments system. In the meantime, I’m seeing more and more people use Facebook to host images and video, and even Facebook as a URL shortener. Today, Nelson Minar commented on the fact that Facebook is taking over single sign on. ...

Telehack embodies everything I loved about the eighties. It’s a game that simulates a dialup session with a remote computer through a command line interface. From there you can “wardial” and explore other computers on the network. If you, like me, became totally fascinated with modems after watching WarGames, you must visit Telehack immediately. Andy Baio has the details on the breath of the game (awe-inspiring) and an interview with its anonymous creator. ...