February 2010
18 posts
Red Hat and Flat World Knowledge
This is kind of interesting: the open-textbooks company Flat World Knowledge writes a guest-post about their business for opensource.com, a Red Hat sponsored community-site. Right after the post gets accepted and published, Red Hat people comment and take Flat World Knowledge to the doghouse over their “fauxpen” licensing (their CC licenses are the non-commercial flavour).
It’s...
On performance bonuses and fair compensation →
For a long time, I used to have this naive reaction when friends quipped the usual smarts about executive performance-bonuses: that we’re all just envious, and banning such practices would discourage achievement. But lately my views have shifted - a lot - and I’d dare say they’re getting a bit more sophisticated and a tiny bit more mature.
Thanks to Shawn for sharing this link!
This Bloom Box
Lots of publicity this week. Rather sceptical discussions both at Ars and at The Guardian. The New York Times however writes
Mr. Sridhar contends the Bloom boxes, with reasonable maintenance, will have a 10-year life span.
This is the information every geek wants to know, and it’s not on the Bloom Energy website - not even in the data sheets. As a result, the Guardian and Ars...
“Self-expression is the new entertainment. So, you know, we used to never...”
– Arianna Huffington
Yale project study finds that people “more readily... →
This is important knowledge, because it’s not likely that you can change how millions of people’s brains work. If you want to change their opinion on anything, you’d better be pragmatic and use these findings to get your message across.
In other research the Yale team found that Hierarchical Individualists were more open to scientific evidence of man-made global warming when...
Lotus Elise uglified for 2011 →
I’ve mostly outgrown my love for cars, but seeing this facelift hurts all the same. In the end though, I still want one :)
“Ironically – given the recent media coverage – it feels a lot safer than any...”
– Danah Boyd on ChatRoulette
WatchBill Gates on energy: Innovating to zero. This, indeed, is the biggest challenge of our time. Even if you don’t “believe” in anthropogenic global warming.
“The funny thing is, you can turn most people away from the computer and read the...”
– wvenable in comments on HN
I think this is true, and it puzzles me. Someone should write a thesis on it.
1 tag
Ross Anderson: Chip and PIN is broken →
This is so broken, I can hardly believe it. There’s no fixing it either - the whole protocol is rubbish.
The flaw is that when you put a card into a terminal, a negotiation takes place about how the cardholder should be authenticated: using a PIN, using a signature or not at all. This particular subprotocol is not authenticated, so you can trick the card into thinking it’s doing a...
“I know it may not look like this. But it’s all scripted. I write down every word...”
– Malcolm Gladwell on public speaking
Google Data Liberation Suggestions: "Let me get my... →
This could use your up-votes. I have quite a few precious chats I’d like to keep on a local disk too.
Ksplice Abolishes the Reboot →
Ksplice Uptrack is now available for users of six leading versions of Linux: Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu, Debian GNU/Linux, CentOS, Parallels Virtuozzo Containers, and OpenVZ. The subscription fee starts at $3.95 per month per system, after a 30-day free trial. A free version is also available for Ubuntu.
I’m very grateful they’re keeping the free version in play for now - I...
“Amazon’s recommendation engine, Last.fm’s social music service, even...”
– Aleks Krotoski in The Observer
If you're going to do good science, release the... →
I still get shivers at the idea of people reading my work and having a laugh with their co-workers over all the ignorance on display. But that’s just the kind of pressure that helps us keep our standards up and produce decent work. For this reason, and for all the reasons the author mentions, I can only agree: without the source, it’s not science.
PwC Study Shows Patent Trolls Are Thriving →
The numbers surprised me:
…the study shows that non-practicing entities have consistently won larger damage awards than operating companies since 2002. Of the top ten patent judgments reached between 2005 and 2008, seven went to companies or individuals that aren’t competitors in the relevant market.
What's in the A4 chip?
Sybreon is disappointed with Theo Valich’ information that the Apple A4 chip is probably built on plain-old ARM IP.
Now, call me a conspiracy theorist, but the thought that Apple bought a whole microprocessor company just to build them a regular ARM system-on-chip, is too boring to me. Sure, they can afford it, and it would be custom-made for the particular application, resulting in size...
Tim Bray on the Amazon/Macmillan "Pricing Drama" →
So here’s what I think. In a sanely-functioning market for books, the following should all be true: […]
The list that follows is utterly sensible. The sad thing is this: I don’t think any of the items is currently true. Now, a great startup would come up with a business hack that makes this market work properly, and collect a cut of the increased efficiency as profit....