Monthly Archives: January 2009

links for 2009-01-28

Posted on 28 January, 2009 by stefano

Ctrl-Z: a return to the Supreme Court's software patent ban? – Ars Technica Tim Berners Lee on software patents: "the Supreme Court actually declined to extend patent protection to software algorithms, preferring to leave the matter to congress. In this … Continue reading →

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links for 2009-01-23

Posted on 23 January, 2009 by stefano

On Day One, Obama Demands Open Government | Electronic Frontier Foundation A good start: The President ordered federal agencies in a memorandum released today to approach the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) "with a clear presumption: in the face of … Continue reading →

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Cost saving is the wrong argument, but it may work

Posted on 22 January, 2009 by Stef

Scott Mc Nealy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, has been asked by the new Obama administration to prepare a paper about ‘open source’. From what I read on the BBC report, though, he is using a tired losing proposition: The secret … Continue reading →

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Architecture, Politics, Internet and Open Standards

Posted on 21 January, 2009 by Stef

I still have Obama’s inauguration’s speech in my mind, so full of passion and hope. It’s such a powerful word, hope.’  What most impressed me was his call to politicians to stop bickering and get to work to reform politics.’  … Continue reading →

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Obama Inauguration available also on Moonlight

Posted on 20 January, 2009 by Stef

So, in the end, the Mono hackers have worked overnight to make it possible to watch the official Obama inauguration on Moonlight, the free software implementation of Microsoft’s response to Adobe Flash. Good or bad, I don’t really know. I … Continue reading →

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Another brick falls on the US patent system

Posted on 16 January, 2009 by Stef

It looks like the US patent system, that the free software movement has been fighting for the past 25 years, is dying. First academia started questioning its usefulness (back in 1958), then the conservative cultural circles at WSJ.’  In the … Continue reading →

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Devolve me: a game to celebrate Darwin’s theory

Posted on 15 January, 2009 by Stef

To celebrate 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and 150th anniversary of his book ‘Origins of the species’ the Open University setup a special site. I’ve played with their Devolve me game.

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Nokia and the L of smart freedom

Posted on 14 January, 2009 by Stef

The good news today is that Nokia relicensed the Qt (pr: cute) libraries under the GNU Lesser General Public License, demonstrating that the mobile ecosystem is where things happen. The GNU Lesser GPL is a license that allows non-free and … Continue reading →

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DRM means: pay it again, Sam

Posted on 13 January, 2009 by Stef

While I cheered the new iTunes Plus, introducing songs without DRM I wasn’t expecting that Apple would charge its users again the the musing they have already bought. It’s incredibly bad for the customers and it shows once again why … Continue reading →

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links for 2009-01-13

Posted on 13 January, 2009 by stefano

Christopher Blizzard streaming video in firefox I love you. (tags: ping.fm)

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