Culture | Nerdlets

Is Ubuntu Linux Mainstream?

Jan 122009

The New York times recently covered the increasing popularity of Ubuntu’s flavor of GNU/Linux, attributing much of its success to Mark Shuttleworth’s leadership and wealth.

There’s a lot of sensationalism in the article. Like this:

But rather than preparing to code for the highest bidder, the developers were coordinating their largely volunteer effort to try to undermine Microsoft’s Windows operating system for PCs, which generated close to $17 billion in sales last year.

I don’t think Linux coders are all that subversive—we just want more control over our software. But still, it’s nice to see Linux getting some mainstream attention.

Christopher Tozzi at the excellent WorksWithU blog responds to some of points made by the NYT, offering a little balance and perspective. It’s worth a read.

A Modern Esau Tale: Sacrifice Friends for Food

Strangelets 2 Responses »

Jan 082009

Nothing is free...

Burger King has released a new Facebook Application that will provide you with free food, provided you are willing to sacrifice a few friends. CNet reports:

Now is the time to put your fair-weather Web friendships to the test. Install Whopper Sacrifice on your Facebook profile, and we’ll reward you with a free flame-broiled Whopper when you sacrifice ten of your friends

Be warned: the sacrifice is public:

The funniest part: The “sacrifices” show up in your activity feed. So it’ll say, for example, “Caroline sacrificed Josh Lowensohn for a free Whopper.”

So, if you’re hungry, now may be the perfect time for a little Facebook cleaning. Come on, are you really that good of friends with what’s-his-name? Be honest, you just clicked yes to up your total friends, right? Well turn your low facebook-friend standards into free food! You can get the Facebook App here.

Finite Knowledge and Humility

Culture No Responses »

Jan 072009

Picture our galaxy in your mind. Got it? You probably do. Why? Because every 10 year old is presented with a picture of it early on. It’s one of the things we just know.

Well read this. It is a helpful reminder of the limitations of science, even when it’s conclusions are so ingrained that it has become part of our cultural consciousness. Need more evidence? How about this.

YAPFA (Yet Another Plug for Archice.org)

Culture, Webapps and Websites 1 Response »

Jan 032009

Though I’ve mentioned it several times, it’s worth repeating: the Internet Archive is a truly wonderful resource. It contains a wide variety of legal downloads in the open domain. I’m currently reading a little Origen (disseration work) while listening to recent Béla Fleck Christmas Concerts.

For the latter below, go here or here, or just listen below.

Politics and Technology

Culture, Tech/Gadgets No Responses »

Dec 122008

Obama was hailed by supporters and detractors alike for his tech-awareness (Twitter, Blackberry, a very well put-together web site, etc). It seems, however, that Obama has the same problems with technology that everyone else has. He may have to give up his Blackberry, for example, over security issues.

More interestingly, Obama’s “Open for Questions” website, a Digg-like system that allows interested parties to ask questions of Obama and vote on those of other users, has run into problems. Politico reports:

It was suggested when it launched that the tool would bring uncomfortable questions to the fore, but the results so far are the opposite: Obama’s supporters appear to be using — and abusing — a tool allowing them to “flag” questions as “inappropriate” to remove all questions mentioning Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich from the main pages of Obama’s website.

The Blagojevich questions — many of them polite and reasonable — can be found only by searching words in them, like “Blagojevich,” which produces 35 questions missing from the main page of the site. ….

Declaring a question “inappropriate” is different from merely voting it down; it’s calling foul on a question, not just disapproving of it.

Community reporting systems like this are often vulnerable to abuse from committed partisans — YouTube has wrestled with a parallel problem — and the only solution is conscious efforts to remedy it.

So far, Obama’s team does not seem to have stepped in to allow uncomfortable questions to rise to the top, and instead is allowing his supporters to sanitize the site.

Read the whole article.

The Blagojevich question is not the only politely inquiry question to be flagged. Justin Taylor posted a link to his question about the Freedom of Choice Act here, and according to the comments in this post (and my own visit to the site), it was flagged shortly thereafter as inappropriate.

Obama’s tech savvy is laudable, but it may be that in practice his administration will not differ all that much from what McCain’s might have been.

More Ubiquity Commands

Bible and Hermeneutics, Culture, Software, Webapps and Websites No Responses »

Dec 102008

For those who found this post interesting, there are a whole host of additional Ubiquity commands available to you. If you have already set up Ubiquity (follow this link if you haven’t), then you may be interested in Mozilla’s (incomplete) repository of commands that other people have been creating for this exciting new interface. Be warned: many of these are still a little buggy, so don’t go crazy, but some are still worth a try.

Update: There is also a Ubiquity command for Cli.gs, which is not listed in repository. Get that here.

If you’re still unsure whether to install Ubiquity, check out this video (but be careful—it may blow your mind):

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

The Unicode Collection: Volumes I-IV

Biblical Greek, Culture 5 Responses »

Dec 032008

Awhile back I posted a four-part series on the advantages of Unicode for typing out Biblical Greek and Hebrew. I am linking these posts here so those interested have a one-stop shop for the whole series.

These posts provide a detailed but understandable explanation of what Unicode is, how to set up Greek and Hebrew Unicode keyboards, and what Fonts work best for each language. Enjoy.

Copyright Law: A Proposal of Best Practices

Books, Culture 2 Responses »

Nov 112008

I ran into some copyright conundrums in the course of preparing for NTI, particularly regarding distribution of (out-of-print) materials. The problem is that copyright law is complex, and while individuals, libraries, and academic institutions are protected by “fair use,” it is not always clear what situations it covers (and the most efficient way to find out is to get yourself sued).

A group of researchers and educators have published this proposal on how institutions can properly use copyrighted material for educational purposes. It’s long, and often controversial, but may be worth it to those thinking through these issues.

Ars Technica has a nice summary:

In general, the document advises that faculty has broad abilities to use copyrighted material in educational materials, “including books, workbooks, podcasts, DVD compilations, videos, Web sites, and other materials designed for learning.” But it goes beyond what might be expected, as it argues that curriculum materials that incorporate copyrighted works can be sold, provided that accomplishes an educational purpose. Students are given broad leeway for the use of copyrighted works in assignments but, provided their work is sufficiently transformative, the guidelines argue that they should also be able to perform or distribute their assignments in any context, including online.

Google Takes a Stand

Culture 1 Response »

Sep 262008

Google makes a rare (for Google or any other publicly-owned corporation) stand on a California legislative initiative that does not affect Google’s core business, Proposition 8:

While there are many objections to this proposition — further government encroachment on personal lives, ambiguously written text — it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8. While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 — we should not eliminate anyone’s fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love.

Read the whole thing.

Email Alert: You missed the rapture…

Strangelets No Responses »

Sep 112008

Since we all apparently survived the activation of the Large Hadron Collidor, it’s about time for another strangelet. So what if the world did end, and you (or those you love) didn’t know it? Well, the good people at “You’ve Been Left Behind” have a solution:

You’ve Been Left Behind gives you one last opportunity to reach your lost family and friends For Christ.

The problem is this: once you’ve been raptured, who will tell your friends and family where you’ve gone? Hey, this is a Web 2.0 world; there’s got to be a solution, right?

I have a team, of Christian couples, scattered around the U.S. 4 active couples and one alternate. One of each, of the active couples, are required to log into the system everyday. They are scattered to protect us from having the team wiped out by attack, natural disaster, or epidemic. They are couples in case one is sick, injured, killed, and to assure their walk with God. If they (3 out of 4) fail to log in for 3 days the system figures the Rapture has taken place. There are then notices sent out to each of us daily, for 3 more days, warning us we must log in to prevent the sending of documents. If, we do not, then the system sends out all of the stored data to all of the email addresses. There is one alternate team member to ready as a replacement for a lost teammate. Also one team member is located near enough to the server bank, with access, in case the net goes down, or malfunction.

Foolproof.