Older blog entries for cdfrey (starting at number 91)



    louie writes about "permission culture."

    Ignoring reality doesn't make it go away, and the reality of MIT labs and copyright resulted in the reality of the GPL.

    Because of real laws, the reality of permission still exists. Rejecting permission rejects a lot more than just copyright. It strikes at the heart of ownership and flirts with theft.

    "Permission culture" exists not just in the software world, but in every other sphere of property as well. If I wanted everyone to feel free to use my car, I would need to take special steps to make that permission known. Same with house, food, clothing, and money. There may be subcultures where this permission is so widely shared that it is an unwritten rule, but even so, those people who participate in that subculture need to consciously make the choice to live that way, by joining the club. We should not make that choice for them.

    And people make that choice via "permission culture." To rail against it, even in the software world, seems short-signed to me. It would be less far-reaching to rail against copyright itself. "Permission culture" covers too much ground. If you (or any software author) want to get rid of copyright, please say so. That's a valid subject of discussion. But if we're talking of getting rid of permission, we're discussing something else, likely in the realm of anarchy. This too can be discussed, but is much broader.

    Somehow, I doubt that all those folks who find licensing too burdensome would care for a free-for-all on the rest of their possessions. And if that is the case, then this is just a matter of laziness (eg. "Licensing is too hard!"), and possibly even greed (eg. "Why do I have to obey the GPL??"), not culture.


fzort: I'm not a guru, but the ? operator needs the same type on both sides of the colon, whereas the multiple return statements can handle each type separately and convert to the base foo. Try:


struct foo { };
struct bar : foo { };
struct baz : foo { };

foo *doit(bool which)
{
return which ? (foo*) new bar : (foo*) new baz;
}

badvogato: I'm not sure who you're quoting, but that's not the only way to view this topic. See also this (point #10) and this.

Time for that monty python spam song again... :-)

ryuslash: looks like you've got the right balance to me. Advogato is just more free-form than you might be used to. We make up the formatting rules as we go along.
    ryuslash wrote:
      Anyway, the reason that I have found this is that I'd really like to comment on certain people's posts, but I don't want to fill up the recentlog with these replies. Only the people interested in the original post would want to know about any discussion about that post, I would think.


    Actually, this is totally the wrong logic for Advogato. :-) If it is about Free Software, then assume that everyone is interested, and comment away. If it is even remotely linked to Free Software, you can assume the same. And if someone has already posted something to the recentlog, then responding to it in the recentlog is definitely fair game.

    It is helpful if you include a link back to the post you are replying to, though.

    As for features, I don't know StevenRainwater's patch queue process, so he should answer that. But I did add some comments to that particular article concerning features that I think would improve the recentlog threading.

bbTracker and Local Content warning on the BlackBerry

    I've been playing with the bbTracker BlackBerry app on a BlackBerry 9000 device, running v5.0.0.348 (Platform 5.2.0.23) firmware. bbTracker is an open source GPS logger, which just tracks your location, but does not include maps. Useful for very basic GPS work, or for Open Street Map.

    Anyway, when you install this application as a COD file, it is not signed like many others, and when it tries to access the filesystem on the device, the BlackBerry OS shows the following prompt message:

      The application bbTracker has attempted to open local content. But it does not contain a signature. It might not be from a trusted source. Would you like to allow this? Yes/No

    This gets very annoying, as you can imagine. And this particular prompt does not have a "do not ask me again" checkbox, so it appears every time.

    I'm using a BlackBerry 9000 device, running v5.0.0.348 (Platform 5.2.0.23) firmware.

    Since bbTracker is not signed, you will need to adjust the filesystem permissions manually. Go into Options | Applications | Edit Permissions. Unsigned applications have three main groups: RIM, MIDP groups, and MIDP JSRs.

    Groups

    When the cursor is along the top, select MIDP groups:

    MIDP group

    Expand the Data Space, using the main menu:

    Data space

    I set all these options to ALLOWED:

    Menu options Finished

    I'm not sure what the ONESHOT, SESSION, and BLANKET options are, but allowing these permissions removes the above prompt for me.

Syndicated 2011-09-03 15:49:50 from A Pilgrim's Journal - Entries tagged advogato

ryuslash: Welcome. This can be a rather daunting site to get started on, if you don't know anyone. I've given you the benefit of the doubt and set you to Journeyer (for personal reasons, that's the only cert I give).

Try writing about the free software you've done, or would like to do. Tell us more about yourself so we can get to know you. Perhaps even write some documentation and post it here.

What languages are you proficient in? What free software do you use regularly? What features would you like to see in them? What's your current free software project?

The recentlog needs more free software topics. :-)

Inspiring Japanese Culture

    fzort, thanks for the link! There is so much that's smart in that article. I like the idea of rotating teachers. I'm impressed.

    My small personal experience with Japanese culture is also favourable. Their respect for their elders takes things to a new level that just seems completely out of fashion in the west. I found that there was a lot to learn from the simple example of just one Japanese student's life.

    Your Don Knuth comment made me chuckle. It's true; it would be hard not to love him. Maybe if more Christians lived like that, we wouldn't be "taking the Lord's name in vain" and giving God a bad rep in the world.

Syndicated 2011-03-19 17:57:46 from A Pilgrim's Journal - Entries tagged advogato

Crackpots and Disasters

    fzort, as fair warning, you might consider me as one of those "religious wackos" that you dislike, but not every wacko is the same. If I may be so bold, I'd suggest that you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. The "bathwater" here being the Christians who are giving you all the reason you seem to need to hate their God.

    If God exists, who do you think He would be more angry at: a person who makes over a million dollars a year, who may even claim to be a Christian, and still has most of it in his bank account at the end of the year; or a poor Haitian who practices voodoo?

    I think this is a difference that a lot of us "religious wackos" miss. If we are somehow blessed with plenty in the western world, that is not evidence that God is rewarding us for something good we've done. Rather, it is proof that we are doing a piss-poor job at the responsibility God has given us to take care of the poor. And if any of these Christians read the Bible, they should take note of the parts that indicate that rich people who don't share are actually storing up judgment for themselves in the very wealth they take comfort in. Their riches are their judgment. That cool thousand, million, or billion in the bank will be a liability at the last day.

    Don't assume someone is a Christian just because they claim to be. And by that same token, don't assume that God is pleased with Christians just because they claim He is.

    If I understand the Bible correctly, North America could easily be more hell-worthy than Japan or Haiti, in the same way that Jerusalem in Jesus's day was more hell-worthy than Sodom and Gomorrah.

Syndicated 2011-03-18 17:44:25 from A Pilgrim's Journal - Entries tagged advogato

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