E-Voting News and Analysis, from the Experts

This and this show that this is not as important today as it was on Monday. Still, work needs to be done.

Sensor System Enables Real-Time Imaging of Audiotape Tampering

Very interesting news about an obsolete technology.

Novus Ordo Mundi

Of course, according to this map I don't need to worry about where I buy my wines.

FT.com Op-Eds on OSS

Richard Epstein's piece Why open source is unsustainable is now followed by a counterpoint by James Boyle: Give me liberty and give me death?

South o' the border

With every passing day several US deficits increase: trade, budget, and goodwill. This election may become the turning point in the US empire, the point where they begin their long slow painful slide into global irrelevance, eclipsed by the rising star of Asia.

I can only hope.

One question remains. Do I still buy Californian wines?

Yanks continue wiping their bum with the rest of the world.

The United States has a significant inventory of retired ships, including at least 125 obsolete military vessels in its 'ghost fleet.'

'The U.S. government fought this decision all the way,' said Townsley. The U.S. has not ratified the Basel Convention that went in effect in 1992 and is not obligated to follow its rules.

Spamusement! Poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines!

Because today you need to laugh.

Strange Horizons Fiction: The Great Old Pumpkin, by John Aegard

I always thought that there was something fishy about Peanuts.

Because governments should be fair and balanced :)

Responding to proposed bill C-17, Senator Joseph Day has introduced S-9, an attempt to grant copyright of all photography (including domestic and personal images) to the photographer. That's right, I hope you have received authorization to post those wedding photos.TheStar.com - Who should own your wedding pictures?

Bill C-17

John Ibbitson at the Globe and Mail writes this opinion piece: Let's remember Prohibition -- and legalize marijuana. C-17 is a start but needs to go further. The whole crop cycle should be legalized. No country which allows the sale of alcohol and tobacco has a moral leg to stand on when it comes to marijuana. I say nothing (here) about other drugs but let us just say that I am something of a libertarian on the issue. C-16, which allows road-side urine or saliva tests is a bit disturbing, but at least the saliva test is no more intrusive than a breathalyzer.

Whatdya mean, free software?

Robin Bloor has an article listing the perils of an OSS IT solution. My problem with the article is that it lists problems as if they would not apply in the closed-source world. Not true I say:

# Open source quality is not guaranteed.
Whereas close-source is? The bug-free Microsoft OSes is the obvious shining example of that I guess.

# There is no standard open source license. The Open Source license is not a commercial contract and this may mean that the user is exposed to some legal risks.
No license is a contract. It is a license. As you point out there are as many close-source licenses as there are close-source companies. At least in the OSS there is one license much more common than others.

# Open source does present some legal risks.
# Legal Indemnification.
I'll take these together. Read all of the closed-source click-through licenses that you agreed to when installing all of your windows software (assuming that you use it ... take someone elses if you don't). Count the number of times that those click-throughs disclaim any responsibility or liability. Count the number of times that they offer indemnification. What is that you say? You can see no mention of indemnification in any of them? Shocked, I say shocked!

# Vendor support.
Have you ever actually tried to get support from a software company? In my experience the user community is the best place to look for help. Bean-counters and lawyers like a safety net, sure, but you can get that in the OSS world too ... an expensive contract with someone that you never use because they are mostly clueless.

Whatever.

1-Box to serve them all

An interesting story to keep an eye on. Using a simple x86 box with multiple KVM support running linux to support multiple simultaneous users. Popular in educational/library circles.

Environmental good news/bad news

Environment Minister Stephane Dion wants to plant trees and flowers on the roof of every federal building, and wants the government to consider tax incentives to dissuade Canadians from driving gas-guzzling cars.

The federal and provincial environment ministers arrive in Ottawa Monday to talk about the implementation of the Kyoto climate change accord, a document Quebec has not signed. Only four Canadian provinces and territories have agreed to the proposed climate change protocol.

The Mystery of the Coca Plant That Wouldn't Die

See, I think that some Saskatchewan farmers should head down to Columbia to pick up some of this Roundup resistant coca and cross breed it with their grain crops. That would sure piss of Monsanto now wouldn't it?

Google plugs hole

phew