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✈ The Lesson of the Pantheon Roof
Posted on April 17, 2012 by Simon Phipps
“No matter how tempting it is to judge a community by its failures, the true measure comes from finding and appreciating its successes.”
Probably the most amazing artefact of the ancient world I have seen, the Pantheon in Rome, started life as a Roman temple to all the gods around 27 BC. When it became a Christian church in 609 AD it was already as mature a building as a medieval church would be to us today. It is still splendid, 2000 years old and going strong. I first saw it when I was in my mid-teens and it’s one of those places in the world (like Mono Lake and Yosemite Valley) always guaranteed to awe me no matter how many times I visit.
It is an amazing leveller for me. It’s easy to imagine those ancient people were primitive, that our technology and culture is superior. No amount of words and explanation can dispel that intuition. Wandering modern Rome and seeing those piles…
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☂ Global Mink
Posted on April 15, 2012 by Simon Phipps
My new travel and photo journal, The Global Mink, is already getting plenty of traffic. One lesson I learned long ago is to always publish anything you care about on your own domain, as you can never be sure what will happen otherwise. So I decided to move it to its own address, at global.webmink.com, where you’ll now find it. All the old links should redirect – let me know if they don’t.
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☝ Open Source And Cut-Throat Competition
Posted on April 13, 2012 by Simon Phipps
If your perception of open source is that it’s all about volunteers and hobbyists working selflessly for the betterment of humanity, the cloud computing market today will be shattering your illusions. I explain more in my article today on InfoWorld.
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☝ Speculating About Microsoft’s New Subsidiary
Posted on April 13, 2012 by Simon Phipps
Microsoft just launched a new subsidiary to interact with open source communities. I’ve seen plenty of “what they did” reporting but so far no “why”. My (highly speculative) offering is intended to catalyse some real answers. You’ll find it at ComputerWorldUK today.
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✈ New Travel Blog
Posted on April 13, 2012 by Simon Phipps
If you aren’t following my new travel blog, do give it a try!
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✈ Eco Mower
Posted on April 11, 2012 by Simon Phipps
Sacred cows are not necessarily a problem. Just because something is sacred, that doesn’t mean it can’t also be useful. Make the most of them.
Cows are respected as a symbolic spiritual presence in India. They roam the streets freely and are described as “sacred”.
I took this photograph on the Raj Path in Delhi. One of the gardeners there was using the cow to pull the lawn mower, and rewarding the cow with luscious grass clippings. All very eco-friendly and practical!
Just because something is sacred, that doesn’t mean it can’t also be useful! Make the most of your sacred cows…
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☝ A New Kind Of “Public”
Posted on April 10, 2012 by Simon Phipps
As wave after wave of privacy news arrives, it’s easy to believe that public postings on social media sites are the problem. But I believe we are facing an issue caused not by public sharing but by an encounter with a new kind of “public”. Read my article on ComputerWorldUK today to find out more.
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☝ Who Loses If Oracle Wins?
Posted on April 6, 2012 by Simon Phipps
Talking to people about the Oracle-Google case which comes to court on April 16th, I realised much of the background knowledge that explains things is lost to the current generation of developers. My article on InfoWorld this week looks at that background as well as a possible bad consequence of the case for open source developers.
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☝ Profitable Freedom
Posted on March 30, 2012 by Simon Phipps
My column on InfoWorld today connects the dots of the pragmatic value of software freedom to the CIO and the success of Red Hat. Open source delivers cost saving via freedom, not just by being cheap on licenses.
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