Recent blog entries for jonas

I caught this from a post over at Websnark.com:

As long as Pepsi Cola's been taking a shot at the marketplace, they've held "Pepsi Challenges." You know the theory: two cups of soda. The person drinks them both and says which one he likes more. "Gosh," he says. "I preferred the Pepsi!" Cue logo. You never saw Coca Cola hold those taste tests, or talk it up, or even mention Pepsi. They talk about "The Real Thing," and teaching the world to sing, and polar bears that drink soda. But they don't talk about their competition. They don't have to. They're at the top of the heap. It's the same with McDonald's. Burger King talks a lot about how flame cooked burgers are better than fried, and any number of other invidious comparisons to the golden arches. McDonald's? McDonald's has "I love this place." Burger King isn't in their world.

It took a while to connect, but I finally realised that this could be said also about Microsoft, in particular with their Get The Facts campaign. They continuously talk about GNU/Linux and try to convince people that their system is better. Looking at advertisement for Free Software, such as the ones from IBM, they never mention Microsoft. They talk about how good Free Software and GNU/Linux is. Like McDonalds and Coca Cola, the competition isn't there. It doesn't have to be. Free Software is at the top of the heap.

I caught this from a post over at Websnark.com:

As long as Pepsi Cola's been taking a shot at the marketplace, they've held "Pepsi Challenges." You know the theory: two cups of soda. The person drinks them both and says which one he likes more. "Gosh," he says. "I preferred the Pepsi!" Cue logo. You never saw Coca Cola hold those taste tests, or talk it up, or even mention Pepsi. They talk about "The Real Thing," and teaching the world to sing, and polar bears that drink soda. But they don't talk about their competition. They don't have to. They're at the top of the heap. It's the same with McDonald's. Burger King talks a lot about how flame cooked burgers are better than fried, and any number of other invidious comparisons to the golden arches. McDonald's? McDonald's has "I love this place." Burger King isn't in their world.

It took a while to connect, but I finally realised that this could be said also about Microsoft, in particular with their Get The Facts campaign. They continuously talk about GNU/Linux and try to convince people that their system is better. Looking at advertisement for Free Software, such as the ones from IBM, they never mention Microsoft. They talk about how good Free Software and GNU/Linux is. Like McDonalds and Coca Cola, the competition isn't there. It doesn't have to be. Free Software is at the top of the heap.

Han går der, jamtn, lugn å trygg,
serfärlein, seker, bli å snygg
i ljösgrÃ¥ vÃ¥mmÃ¥lsdräkt. Ã... vÃ¥r han e, Ã¥ vÃ¥r han fer,
nå fjäsk han aller estimer;
han aller spring i ogjort ver,
â€`` om han e riktut äkt.

En äkta jamt han e se lik,
hort han e fattu eller rik,
om bonn hell ämbetsman.
Kan aller bli en fjasku''n sprätt,
ifall han ha sitt fulle vett.
En höygfälstok blir ittnå sett,
bland folk i Jamtelann.

Ã... fast han syns sÃ¥ allvursam,
ja nästan butter, â€`` sprÃ¥k Ã¥ glamm
de e hans lust å liv.
Te få e rävråmp riktut rögd,
te få en bralstut tyst å strögd,
ja â€`` bällt du luur''n â€`` dÃ¥ blir e frögd,
som går int te beskriv.

Ha jamtn bra te sköytes på?
De bäste, vå je kan förstå,
den friskest rot å stam.
Frå friheitsfolk i Svealann,
frå friheitsfolk på Trondheims strann,
som int fördrog når treldomsbann,
ha jamtn vyxe fram.

Ã... jamtn e sin feder lik,
en friheitssjel i politik
i meir än tusn år.
Han hata allt slags tyranni,
veit ittnå bätter än va fri.
Ã... sÃ¥ je tror han kom te bli
så läng, som väla står.

Han går der, jamtn, lugn å trygg,
serfärlein, seker, bli å snygg
i ljösgrÃ¥ vÃ¥mmÃ¥lsdräkt. Ã... vÃ¥r han e, Ã¥ vÃ¥r han fer,
nå fjäsk han aller estimer;
han aller spring i ogjort ver,
â€`` om han e riktut äkt.

En äkta jamt han e se lik,
hort han e fattu eller rik,
om bonn hell ämbetsman.
Kan aller bli en fjasku''n sprätt,
ifall han ha sitt fulle vett.
En höygfälstok blir ittnå sett,
bland folk i Jamtelann.

Ã... fast han syns sÃ¥ allvursam,
ja nästan butter, â€`` sprÃ¥k Ã¥ glamm
de e hans lust å liv.
Te få e rävråmp riktut rögd,
te få en bralstut tyst å strögd,
ja â€`` bällt du luur''n â€`` dÃ¥ blir e frögd,
som går int te beskriv.

Ha jamtn bra te sköytes på?
De bäste, vå je kan förstå,
den friskest rot å stam.
Frå friheitsfolk i Svealann,
frå friheitsfolk på Trondheims strann,
som int fördrog når treldomsbann,
ha jamtn vyxe fram.

Ã... jamtn e sin feder lik,
i meir än tusn år.
Han hata allt slags tyranni,
veit ittnå bätter än va fri.
Ã... sÃ¥ je tror han kom te bli
så läng, som väla står.

Some words of caution for all IT workers out there: Forty per cent of IT workers vomit at office Xmas party :-)

Bush beats Gollum to Movie Villain of the Year award

Regular Tea Drinking Improves Your Memory

Starting this november, I will be teaching a course in Free Software philosophy and theory at the University of Göteborg. Having received some interest about this course from foreign students, we have decided to give the course in English and invite students from other countries to participate as well. The course is a distance learning course, so students can participate from anywhere in the world.

Additional information about the course can be found here

"The most common format of music on an iPod is 'stolen'" , according to Steve Ballmer.

This is an interesting contrasts to the news of a few days ago that Sony Japan was dropping copy-protection on its CDs. The hardware and software manufacturers may go on about how wonderful DRM will be. But most of us know the truth already; they've already lost.

Eben Moglen has said that we need four things; free software, free hardware, free spectrum and free culture. We have free software. Free hardware means that the hardware should not be encumbered with DRM. We're currently in a state of flux where some new hardware is DRM-encumbered and some is not. I'm confident that with enough information, the consumers will eradicate all traces of DRM by chosing non-DRM hardware.

Free spectrum means our ability to share the spectrum through, for example, the use of WiFi devices. Our ability to be connected to everyone whenever we chose to. This will clear the way for sharing with each other without the possible DRM-encumbered broadband connections or cable TV.

Free culture is on its way thanks to organisations such as Creative Commons. I would argue however that I'm not sure what sense it makes to create licenses to free culture. Free culture can only exist when I, as the author of a work, can give this work to another and he or she automatically receives the freedoms that we associate with free culture. If I, before doing this, have to find, evaluate and decide on a license to use, chances are that 99% of the time, I wouldn't find it worth doing. 99% of the creative power Free spectrum means our ability to share the spectrum through, for example, the use of WiFi devices. Our ability to be connected to everyone whenever we chose to. This will clear the way for sharing with each other without the possible DRM would be lost to legal bureaucracy.

Our aim should be, not to create free culture licenses, but to create a world where such licenses are not needed.

(Imported entry) Together with six coworkers from the department, I've been to Liseberg amusement park and then to dinner afterwards. This, to celebrate the end of this semester and the countdown toward vacation.

On my way home, I was thinking about an article that Mirjam Eladhari pointed to earlier. She's one of the teachers for the Game Analysis and Design course that I'm taking now.

The article tells the story of Karyn, a norwegian girl who logged on to Legend Mud a few years back and quickly built a rather successful guild, getting to know several others on the mud in the process and making quite a lot of friends.

After a year and a half, the guild was falling into disarray because Karyn had not logged on for quite some time. Emails from her friends went unanswered, and eventually someone found her web page with a newspaper clipping telling how she had died together with a friend whilst test-driving a car.

This hit the small community on the Legend Mud quite hard, and some even constructed a mausoleum for Karyn. A dear and beloved friend had passed away.

Several years later, a journalist began to look into the story of Karyn for an article she was writing. It turns out that the girl on the picture on Karyns web page had never heard of Legend Mud before, and was certainly not Karyn.

The newspaper clipping turned out to have been altered, and the girl in the crash nowhere near the age that Karyn would have been. She wasn't named Karyn, either, and preciously few people in Norway are called Karyn.

So it would seem that Karyn never existed. She was a fiction of someones imagination, brought to life on Legend Mud and in some ways carried over into real life. Are the feelings of those who were her friends any less real now?

Not so. The friends we make online are just as important to us as the friends we make in real life. The feelings are just the same, and the fact that something is in a virtual community doesn't make them any less real.

We do not carry our feelings into the virtual world, nor do we carry the feelings of the virtual world into the real world.

They are one and the same, and we are just as vulnerable in virtual space as in real space.