Another good Simon’s Cat animation. For the record, the large one is indeed mine and the small one is my daughter’s…
Filed under: Zeitgeist | Tagged: Cat | Comments Off on ⚡ Catness
☆ Thanks, ECJ!
Posted on November 24, 2011 by Simon Phipps
While the USA has a day of general thanksgiving today, European citizens need to be especially thankful to the European Court of Justice for their decision that it is not lawful to require ISPs to monitor traffic on the networks they provide their customers. The actual ruling asserts:
EU law precludes the imposition of an injunction by a national court which requires an internet service provider to install a filtering system with a view to preventing the illegal downloading of files
Such an injunction does not comply with the prohibition on imposing a general monitoring obligation on such a provider, or with the requirement to strike a fair balance between, on the one hand, the right to intellectual property, and, on the other, the freedom to conduct business, the right to protection of personal data and the freedom to receive or impart information
LQdN has a good summary of the meaning of this decision, as does TechnoLlama.
And happy Thanksgiving to all my US friends!
Filed under: Privacy | Tagged: Law, Thanksgiving | Comments Off on ☆ Thanks, ECJ!
☝ Big May Not Be Better
Posted on November 23, 2011 by Simon Phipps
Price myths persist long after their time. A decade after the popularisation of open source for business use, I’m still hearing the idea espoused that it’s safer to buy proprietary software from a big supplier than use open source and buy subscriptions. I consider that argument in today’s article on ComputerWorldUK.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK | 1 Comment »
☆ Open Rights Group on FLOSS Weekly
Posted on November 22, 2011 by Simon Phipps
Tomorrow (November 23rd) I’ll be visiting Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group (the UK’s answer to the EFF), and interviewing him on FLOSS Weekly in another Brit Invasion show with Dan Lynch. I’d be pleased to ask him any questions you may have; leave a comment here or send me e-mail.
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☝ Open Source Nurtures Innovation
Posted on November 21, 2011 by Simon Phipps
Following on from a blog posting about open source and innovation by Stephen O’Grady, I’ve written about the way open source potentially makes innovation easier and cheaper, over on ComputerWorldUK.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK | 2 Comments »
☝ The Problem With Free
Posted on November 16, 2011 by Simon Phipps
UK government procurement is still crippled by the dazzling power of the word “free”, which drowns out appreciation of the true strengths of open source. Read about it in today’s ComputerWorldUK article.
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Ending Aggregation
Posted on November 13, 2011 by Simon Phipps
I think it’s time for the aggregator on webmink.net to be closed down. I plan to redirect from there to here starting next week. If you think this would be a bad idea, tell me now!
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✈ T-DOSE in Eindhoven
Posted on November 4, 2011 by Simon Phipps
I’m just setting out for Eindhoven in The Netherlands, where I will be delivering the keynote at 10:00 tomorrow (Saturday November 5th) at T-DOSE. I’ll be considering how open source springs from a wider trend that also includes the Occupy* movement, and explaining why businesses should specify software freedom in their procurement activities. I’d love to see you there!
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☝ News Roundup
Posted on November 3, 2011 by Simon Phipps
I just posted an open source news roundup over on ComputerWorldUK, covering UK government procurement, Microsoft and Samba, LibreOffice and IBM’s MQTT. Take a look!
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♫ Eddi Reader this Thursday
Posted on October 31, 2011 by Simon Phipps
I just picked up tickets to go see Eddi Reader in Southampton this Thursday, November 3rd. You may remember her as the heart of the band Fairground Attraction back in the 80s, perhaps with their best known single “Perfect” as the memory hook.
Since then she’s been developing an impressive solo career, recognised in 2006 with an MBE. I especially enjoyed her performance at TED a few years ago:
There were plenty of tickets left – see you there!
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