B-Day

So, yesterday was my birthday. And NASA's. And Sysadmin Appreciation Day. Which is cool because I like one, and I am the other. So happy days to everyone!

This discovery was part of work today. No wonder the computer wouldn't wake up! 

The Stupidest Lawsuit Since the World Began

The Stupidest Lawsuit Since the World Began as declared by Groklaw, may very well be that. It's taking place in France, but there are no shortage of absurd examples taking place here in the United States of America. Look up almost anything involving the DMCA for starters.

Optimus keyboard

Now here is a keyboard that has me drooling. And hardware peripherals aren't exactly something that gets me started usually.
But the idea of a re-programmable keyboard, who's keys display exactly what they control in realtime sounds pretty cool! Now, I'm sure you'd have to do some work getting the proper pictures set up if you were creating a new key mapping for a program, but the reward might be worthwhile!
But, conversely, I can see this getting hijacked as well. One moment you are browsing the web normally, and the next your keyboard is displaying all kinds of NSFW images all over it! Very not cool! But, in the end, I'd buy one if it was available today. (Assuming infinite resources!)

Markl's Thoughts: Shipping Software

I was directed towards an interesting (to me) read the other day, Markl's Thoughts: Shipping Software. I especially like his thoughts on what shipping software means. As software evolves away from "the disks in the shrink wrapped box at (Best Buy/Fry's/Wal-mart)" and more to "just something I don't remember exactly where/how I got", the lines of shipping and delivery are rapidly blurred. As are others, such as what exactly the product you are paying for is. Many Linux distros are based on you paying for support, and access to their central database of software updates. Updates which, like the OS itself, can be freely gotten elsewhere, but which they neatly gather and package for you. You are paying for the convenience of one stop downloading, and integration into their installation tool, and often a little QC testing, or package customizing. Try quantifying a price on the value of that. I've often wondered how businesses will make money with Open Source Software. In my opinion, it is clearly superior to proprietary closed-source offering on many levels, but from a business plan perspective, it has many challenges to be faced. But, even business models and economic theories change over time, just ask Adam Smith!