Posts by Harry Tuttle 14 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Aug 2009
I echo the other comments concerning the education sector: M$ doesn't want kids knowing how to develop on a Linux platform. Their "free" (gratis) software here is a loss leader in this respect.
Truly free software allows you to inspect how it works, change how it works, and share your changes.
What we see here from M$ is closed, proprietary software at that comes without financial cost (for now).
I've got 3 kids. I'd use something like this for their Interweb access
http://dansguardian.org/?page=introduction
(They're all under 5 at the moment, so have no use for Interwebs)
I certainly don't agree that the Interwebs should be censored when material is within legal boundaries for adults. As far as I'm concerned the default setting on the Interweb ought to be "adult". Other settings should have to be implemented manually by those who require them.
He means you are not able to dump some sort of a file e.g XML, of all the data sites like facebook hold about you, so that you can analyse / import it into another system.
i.e there is no open standard for exporting this sort of data so users are increasingly locked in.
Sites that hold your data have no interest in creating such a standard as they jealously guard the data they have collected about you, and only provide you with a small subset of it: Not enough to transplant your custom elsewhere, should you feel like it.
I feel sure he does not mean "any third party should be able to access all the data they hold on an individual, on request." Access does NOT mean a by third party, but the individual the data relates to.
Biometric data is flawed for a few of reasons:
1) Biometric data isn't secret - you leave it everywhere you go.
2) Its not hard to copy - sure its hard to create from scratch i.e. synthesise - but not too hard to duplicate. Fingerprints are relatively easy if you have a nice example of the originals. Hand someone a drink in a de-greased glass.
3) You can never revoke your biometric information even if you realise that it has been copied. You can't decide to change your "biometric password".
That is not to say that because the developer releases under the GPL they are above suspicion, but downloading / viewing / compiling the source oneself, certainly makes me feel more secure.
This applies in any situation, not just on the Android marketplace :-)
Sadly, most of the rest of humanity, seem to have very little interest in the source code behind the software they use.
If media can be reduced to a sequence of 1s and 0s, that sequence can be duplicated and repeated.
If the original sequence can be obscured by cryptographic techniques, it will be impossible to identify.
Whilst these facts remains, illegal copying will continue.
Why not try passing laws to make it illegal for the oceans to be affected by the gravitational influence of the moon?
It would be better to put time and effort into different models of distribution of A/V media, rather than try to keep alive the dying business models of the 20thC
"people will need to take Microsoft on trust, and that's not something Microsoft enjoys a great deal of in open source"
Oh, you noticed. I wonder why that is?
I thought one of the most popular Free Software licences, the GPL, was "like communism" and "a cancer", according to a certain Mr Balmer
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