As I predicted in June, Amazon has quietly launched read.amazon.com, a full-featured HTML 5 version of the Kindle that runs perfectly on the iPad, looks for all the world like a native application after it’s been added to the iPad home screen as an icon and can even store books to read offline. Goodbye, Apple app store. Read my thoughts on why they have done this over on ComputerWorldUK.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK | Tagged: Amazon, Apple | 2 Comments »
My time in the US was all-consuming, as you may have noticed by the absence of posts for the last week. I’m ending the hiatus with a long review of OSCON – you’ll find it over on ComputerWorldUK.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK | Tagged: OSCON | Comments Off on ☝ OSCON Round-Up
Yesterday saw the launch of the Open Cloud Initiative here at OSCON in Portland. It has the potential to steer the evolution of cloud computing just as the Open Source Initiative did. With every cloud provider today either using centralised service or proprietary software as a way to lock in customers, this is extremely timely.
You can read more about this in my article on ComputerWorldUK.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK | Comments Off on ☞ The Open Cloud Initiative
Will you be in Portland (the one in Oregon in the USA) next week? ForgeRock would love to meet you during OSCON. Join us at Kells at 6pm on Thursday July 28th (it’s an easy and free Max ride from the Convention Center and you can easily make it back for the State of the Onion if you need to). Come to our session on Thursday morning to collect a wrist band for unlimited free drinks!
In case you’re not familiar with ForgeRock, we’re a rapidly-growing startup that’s taking a radical software-freedom-first approach to creating an identity-oriented application platform – SAML, LDAP, provisioning, single-sign-on and much more. The software we’re developing is already mature and is already in use at around 50 of the worlds most interesting high-scale technologically aggressive companies. At OSCON I’ll be joined by colleagues to explain our philosophy and our software.
Afterwards, maybe some Norwegian music is in order? One of my favourite Norwegian musicians, Thomas Dybdahl, is playing the Doug Fir Lounge at 9pm.
Filed under: Events, ForgeRock | Tagged: OSCON | Comments Off on Ⓕ Drinks With ForgeRock at OSCON
The first release of the contributor agreements created by Project Harmony were published last Monday. I participated in the Project, but I don’t endorse it. Find out why over on ComputerWorldUK.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK, Copyright | Tagged: Harmony | Comments Off on ☝ Out Of Tune With Community
Does your company use open source software? Do they contribute to it in any way? If not, perhaps you should follow the Brazilian government’s lead.
Read about it on ComputerWorldUK.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK | Tagged: Brazil | Comments Off on ☝ Investing In Open Source
In a post to a private mailing list I follow, Software Conservancy chief Bradley Kuhn has confirmed that an unexpected problem highlighted recently by CASH Music is indeed a real issue for open source groups in the USA seeking to formalise non-profit status. I asked Bradley if he’d be happy to share some of the information from that posting and he agreed.
You can read all about it on ComputerWorldUK.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK | 1 Comment »
When society was arranged as a series of intermediaries serving disconnected clients, distinguishing clients from non-clients was a key element of business. But in a meshed, massively connected society, simulating that world using artificial control mechanisms simply does harm. In today’s article for ComputerWorldUK I connect the dots of Apple’s patent on video shutdowns, the problems projectionists have with Sony movies, Cory Doctorow’s recent keynote at PDF and my own essay on Digital Restrictions Management (DRM).
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK | Comments Off on ☝ Control Considered Harmful
I got an e-mail from the Financial Times yesterday, announcing their new “FT App”. That sounded unusual; after all, the FT has had an iPad/iPhone app for some time. I took a look, and found the whole world of mobile publishing waiting for me in microcosm. It’s not open source, but I see the same yearning after freedom driving choices here.
What’s happened is that the FT has scrapped their native Apple app for the iPad and iPhone, and replaced it with a purpose-built HTML 5 web site that can be installed on the iPad home screen as an app. The result looks and feels just like the old native app. It doesn’t work on older devices like the first-generation iPod Touch (the redirect to m.ft.com amusingly says “slow device”), but on the iPad it’s pretty slick.
Why have they done this? Read my view on ComputerWorldUK.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK, Technology | Tagged: Apple, HTML5, IPad | Comments Off on ☝ The FT and the App Trap
As expected, the Apache Software Foundation took the first steps to admitting the OpenOffice.org project to the Apache community, following Oracle’s IBM-designed proposal. It now faces a time of maturing and proving in Apache’s Incubator.
I’ve avoided publishing articles here during the Apache discussion as I have both a history and strong views. But with the end of voting, it’s time to document the story so far. You can read my views over on ComputerWorldUK.
If that’s TL;DR, here’s a summary: The best thing end-users can do is ignore OpenOffice.org at Apache, and switch to LibreOffice instead until the dust settles and we can all see a better path forward.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK, LibreOffice, ODF | Tagged: Apache | 8 Comments »
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