Week of October 26, 2008 - November 1, 2008
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Of Technology We Do Not Speak
On a topic near and dear to my heart, the McCain campaign is refusing to say "boo". ThinkProgress has the scoop. The McCain campaign completely ditched another potentially uncomfortable event, leaving the event organizers holding the bag. During the time he was supposed to appear at this debate, Douglas Holtz-Eakin appeared on an MSNBC interview.
Where In The World Is Joe The Plummer?
Joe? Joe? Where are ya Joe?
I guess he got what he needed from John and so he's outta here...
I guess he got what he needed from John and so he's outta here...
Open Source America
In the world of computer programming, an interesting trend has grown massively since the early 80's. The idea is very much a socialist one. I use that word very purposefully because I will attempt to show you how this is absolutely not a bad thing.
Let's back up a little bit. A few years ago, I worked for a shady company that was attempting to make money off of the big Microsoft class action suit. One of the fellows that worked there read an article in Forbes (if I remember rightly) and was questioning the fact that Linux was written by one guy. He didn't understand the difference between an operating system kernel and the tools that run on it.
As an aside, the kernel is a small central piece of the software on your computer which handles things like talking to your disk drive to save your work, communicating with your printer, managing multiple running applications, and a few other things. The tools that make up the bulk of an operating system, including command line commands such as "grep" which is used to search for text in files, or even the web browser you're using right now, are not part of the operating system, and were written by other people.
So no, I explained to my colleague, Linux was not written by one guy. The original version of the Linux kernel *was* written by one guy, but that by itself was not useful. In the years that followed that initial release, thousands and thousands of other people around the world donated their time and skill to improve that kernel and make sure desktop and server tools will run on it. Why did they do this? Two reasons stand out: 1) the love of doing it and 2) street cred - it's cool to have your code running on thousands or millions of computers worldwide.
The open source / free software world is not free of it's share of trolls, naysayers, fighters. This can be a very frustrating experience and has killed a few open source projects in the past. But many of them live on, and the people who get together and build this great stuff do so despite the detractors.
Fast forward to today. Linux is now an essential tool in the toolbox of capitalism. It allows companies to reduce their costs by not paying a huge Microsoft tax for each new server they purchase. This huge socialist network of people is actually turning out to be really good for capitalism! Sure, it changes the way money is made off of software. Instead of direct charging for the CD or whatever, now the model is a service one - technical support. So in that respect, the idea changes how some companies operate, and may kill a few companies who refuse to change. It will not however, kill the tech industry in any conceivable way.
People working together and not expecting anything in return can only be a good thing in my eyes. Self-serving, money hungry egotists have no place in the world in my vision of the future. I think if enough people were passionate about how our country runs and we were given a bigger stake in what happens, our country would be a much better place.
When I first moved to California from Illinois, I got my first taste of what this could be like. Here we have a large number of propositions on our ballot that lets us interact with the government in a much more direct way than I ever could in Illinois.
It's time we figure out how to engage the American people regularly. Find some way to get input from people early, so we don't hit a huge brick wall as we have this summer.
Socialists unite for an open source America!
Let's back up a little bit. A few years ago, I worked for a shady company that was attempting to make money off of the big Microsoft class action suit. One of the fellows that worked there read an article in Forbes (if I remember rightly) and was questioning the fact that Linux was written by one guy. He didn't understand the difference between an operating system kernel and the tools that run on it.
As an aside, the kernel is a small central piece of the software on your computer which handles things like talking to your disk drive to save your work, communicating with your printer, managing multiple running applications, and a few other things. The tools that make up the bulk of an operating system, including command line commands such as "grep" which is used to search for text in files, or even the web browser you're using right now, are not part of the operating system, and were written by other people.
So no, I explained to my colleague, Linux was not written by one guy. The original version of the Linux kernel *was* written by one guy, but that by itself was not useful. In the years that followed that initial release, thousands and thousands of other people around the world donated their time and skill to improve that kernel and make sure desktop and server tools will run on it. Why did they do this? Two reasons stand out: 1) the love of doing it and 2) street cred - it's cool to have your code running on thousands or millions of computers worldwide.
The open source / free software world is not free of it's share of trolls, naysayers, fighters. This can be a very frustrating experience and has killed a few open source projects in the past. But many of them live on, and the people who get together and build this great stuff do so despite the detractors.
Fast forward to today. Linux is now an essential tool in the toolbox of capitalism. It allows companies to reduce their costs by not paying a huge Microsoft tax for each new server they purchase. This huge socialist network of people is actually turning out to be really good for capitalism! Sure, it changes the way money is made off of software. Instead of direct charging for the CD or whatever, now the model is a service one - technical support. So in that respect, the idea changes how some companies operate, and may kill a few companies who refuse to change. It will not however, kill the tech industry in any conceivable way.
People working together and not expecting anything in return can only be a good thing in my eyes. Self-serving, money hungry egotists have no place in the world in my vision of the future. I think if enough people were passionate about how our country runs and we were given a bigger stake in what happens, our country would be a much better place.
When I first moved to California from Illinois, I got my first taste of what this could be like. Here we have a large number of propositions on our ballot that lets us interact with the government in a much more direct way than I ever could in Illinois.
It's time we figure out how to engage the American people regularly. Find some way to get input from people early, so we don't hit a huge brick wall as we have this summer.
Socialists unite for an open source America!
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Inspiring
Hope in the rain. I love this. The feeling that the cold must eventually break and a new spring and summer must begin - these are the things I felt when Obama took the stage in the rain yesterday.
Call me an old fashioned hippy, but it reminds me of this great old classic.
Oh and BTW, Michelle Phillips can kick Sarah Palin's ass any day!
Also, in case you missed it, looks like there may be an interesting TPM chat tonight on lingr during Obama's television spot.
HOWTO: Become A Right Wing Nutbar in 3 Easy Steps
1) Go to Drudge, gather talking points.
2) Repost them to TPM.
3) Attempt to defend:
2) Repost them to TPM.
3) Attempt to defend:
The easiest way to full professorship at a major university is to be a left wing terrorist nut case. Ayers, Dohrn, Davis, Rudd, Rosenberg, plus Khalidi and Al Arian at Columbia and USF, plus Churchil at CU. Our schools are crawling with terrorists and their sympathizers.I love it, this is some comedy gold right here. I guess I shouldn't expect much from a self-proclaimed speaking dog, but I can't just let the dog turds lie in the middle of the sidewalk, so I attempt to pick them up without getting myself all dirty. Yes, I admit it, I feed the trolls, I can't help it. I prefer to think of it as "troll grazing". Trolling lite. I just push the buttons a little and see where we end up ;-)
Rep. King puts foot in mouth
Over at ThinkProgress, they're talking about Representative King's recent remarks
King claims:
"When you take a lurch to the left you end up in a totalitarian dictatorship," King said. "There is no freedom to the left. It's always to our side of the aisle."
"Obama will make America a 'totalitarian dictatorship'".
King seems to not understand his own party. I'll attempt to clarify a bit.
On freedom: Let's talk, Rep. King, about the right of a woman to choose. Let's talk about my right to smoke marijuana. Let's talk about everyone's freedom to choose or not choose a religion. The only "freedom" the GOP seems to stand for is the freedom to not pay taxes. Which isn't actually a freedom, more of a slap in the face to Americans who do pay taxes.
On dictatorship: King George W. Bush called and wants 2004 back.
On Obama not putting his hand over his heart or wearing flagpins: my god Mr. King, where have you been hiding? When did Obama listen to the National Anthem without covering his heart? I want vid. Also, in case you didn't notice moron, Obama *was* wearing a flagpin during all the debates. The other guy, the monkey who started the flag pin idiocy, was the one who did not wear a flagpin.
In short Rep. King, you are the dumbest GOP shill in the world. Democrats are the party of personal freedom. I know it's a sexy mantra, especially now. But you won't steal it so easily while I'm watching.
King claims:
"When you take a lurch to the left you end up in a totalitarian dictatorship," King said. "There is no freedom to the left. It's always to our side of the aisle."
"Obama will make America a 'totalitarian dictatorship'".
King seems to not understand his own party. I'll attempt to clarify a bit.
On freedom: Let's talk, Rep. King, about the right of a woman to choose. Let's talk about my right to smoke marijuana. Let's talk about everyone's freedom to choose or not choose a religion. The only "freedom" the GOP seems to stand for is the freedom to not pay taxes. Which isn't actually a freedom, more of a slap in the face to Americans who do pay taxes.
On dictatorship: King George W. Bush called and wants 2004 back.
On Obama not putting his hand over his heart or wearing flagpins: my god Mr. King, where have you been hiding? When did Obama listen to the National Anthem without covering his heart? I want vid. Also, in case you didn't notice moron, Obama *was* wearing a flagpin during all the debates. The other guy, the monkey who started the flag pin idiocy, was the one who did not wear a flagpin.
In short Rep. King, you are the dumbest GOP shill in the world. Democrats are the party of personal freedom. I know it's a sexy mantra, especially now. But you won't steal it so easily while I'm watching.
I just have to say, this site is fantastic
It's a complete 180 degree turn from the experience I had on HuffPost. I would put an opinion on there, and through the censorship and all the noise, it was only about a 5% chance that anyone would hear my points, and less than that would get any sort of response before getting knocked off the first page. Any strong opinion on anything was instantly dropped.
Now, I realize that part of what's different is that TPM is not quite as big as HP, but the difference goes far beyond that. The average intelligence of posts is very high. I just had a long winded discussion deep in some thread from yesterday with a GOP troll. Even that never really degenerated to the point where I grew utterly disgusted with the troll. It was civilized trolling and he seemed to be able to make a few good points without profanity. I still think I won the argument ;-) but this was a ton different from a similar experience I had on HP.
I REALLY appreciate not being censored. It's great to be able to have an intense discussion with someone who has such a different belief system than I do. It lets me get inside their head a bit, see what they are thinking. Although I didn't learn a whole lot in tonight's trollfest, what I did learn is that at least some individual members of the GOP still believe in quaint notions like trickle down economics and that taxing corporations is going to destroy the country.
Anyway, thank you guys for running such a good site. You're doing the good work. Keep it up! This has become my favorite site, I come here first now :-)
--fletch
Now, I realize that part of what's different is that TPM is not quite as big as HP, but the difference goes far beyond that. The average intelligence of posts is very high. I just had a long winded discussion deep in some thread from yesterday with a GOP troll. Even that never really degenerated to the point where I grew utterly disgusted with the troll. It was civilized trolling and he seemed to be able to make a few good points without profanity. I still think I won the argument ;-) but this was a ton different from a similar experience I had on HP.
I REALLY appreciate not being censored. It's great to be able to have an intense discussion with someone who has such a different belief system than I do. It lets me get inside their head a bit, see what they are thinking. Although I didn't learn a whole lot in tonight's trollfest, what I did learn is that at least some individual members of the GOP still believe in quaint notions like trickle down economics and that taxing corporations is going to destroy the country.
Anyway, thank you guys for running such a good site. You're doing the good work. Keep it up! This has become my favorite site, I come here first now :-)
--fletch
