http://at.or.at/hans/blog random ramblings Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:50:28 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en So many people have gotten the ideas of Free Software confused with commerce. It is a commonly held belief that software released until the GPL cannot be sold. First off, there is nothing in the GPL license that talks about selling. And more importantly I think few ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2010/01/29/please-sell-my-gpled-software/ The world is not a black and white place, that is for sure. There is little that is simple in it. If you want to do good in the world, sometimes it might be beneficial to be a little less good for a while. Google's actions in ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2010/01/13/can-you-with-the-devil-to-achieve-good/ It is amazing to watch all the financial wheeling and dealing continue on, even after this insanity has caused the biggest economic collapse since the great depression. The big Obama bailout has kept all these wheelers and dealers in business, hardly feeling any repercussions at all. I just ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2010/01/01/put-it-in-the-bank/ This latest effort in the US Congress to reform the health care system in the US proves to me that the Federal Government has ceased to be an appropriate venue for any real reform. The best we can hope for is that they don't pass something so dismal that ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2009/12/20/health-care-reform/ New York City now has electronics recycling drop-off days all over the city four times a year, organized by the Lower East Side Ecology Center. All those materials go to a recycler that is in full operation. That recycler is extracting all sorts of materials and selling ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2009/11/19/recycling-mobile-computers/ PC Advisor: WPA wireless security cracked in 60 seconds The WEP standard for encrypting wifi networks has long since been easily crackable. Now the next 'uncrackable' standard, WPA, can be cracked in 60 seconds. Expect more and better automatic cracking tools to follow, just like the WEP tools like ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2009/08/30/wifi-encryption-cracked-again/ I am a devoted user of NeXTStep, ahem, which I started using in 1994 and still use to this day. Except now, NeXTStep is called Apple Mac OS X. I am also a vocal advocate for Free Software. This may be a contradiction, many have pointed out. ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2009/08/30/a-step-towards-free-software/ Humans are creatures that have proven quite amazingly adept at survival. Starting from a small area of the world, we have spread to pretty much everywhere in the world, and have adapted to drastically different conditions with no substantial physical differences between us, when you look at the grand ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2009/08/10/crime-and-adaptation/ People have varying views about war and particular wars, but it seems people with a wide spectrum of beliefs think that World War II was a 'good war'. As a ardent pacifist myself, it is indeed a very difficult case. Nazi Germany was indeed a brutal and expantionist ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2009/07/06/defeating-nazi-germany-what-else-besides-warpeople-have-varying-views-about-war-and-particular-wars-but-it-seems-people-with-a-wide-spectrum-of-beliefs-think-that-world-war-ii-was-a-good-war/ One thing that has clearly changed since Obama became president is the level of goodwill around the world towards the USA. Obama's story is indeed inspirational to many, and represents a good side of the USA: he is the son of an immigrant from a far off land ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2009/07/04/using-the-goodwill-towards-obama/ I've noticed over the decades I've been following technology a particular pattern in the development and spread of certain technologies: First comes the idea, then comes the early implementations funded by big money and restricted to a lucky few. Then takes form that can be easily reproduced in quantity, then ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2009/06/20/the-cycle-of-technology/ So the Iran elections are in the news big time, it is indeed fascinating to watch the large crowds of people gathering in the protests. Large protests can be a great exercise in the power of the people, but they can also be a highly effective propaganda tool. ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2009/06/20/let-iran-be-iran/ Egypt under Ptolemy had much of the ingredients for the industrial revolution, including a functional model of a steam engine in 100 A.D. So why did it take until 1700 A.D. for the steam engine to actually start being used? The ancient Egyptians had a multitude of slave ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2009/06/20/high-priced-labor-as-a-force-driving-innovation/ Property rights are often grouped together with the idea of universal human rights, rights like freedom of religion, of speech, etc. Certainly much of the world is now organized around the idea of property rights as a central idea, and well defended property rights for everyone have proven to ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2009/04/08/property-rights/ There has been quite a bit of discussion over the years about why the world of free software is so not diverse, its really something like 90% white European males, you could probably take it even further, like 80% shy white males of European descent. The world of computer ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2009/04/07/one-perspective-on-free-software-culture/ The Guardian did three 10 minute video documentaries about the most recent Israeli war against Gaza. They lay bare what Israel's spokespeople are so good at dancing around: the Israeli forces target civilians, hospitals and medical workers, in addition to militants. These stories are backed up by ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2009/03/23/gaza-war-crimes-investigation/ The madness is back at full strength in Palisraelestine, or more specifically, Gaza. Both sides in the grips of corrupt politicians who use hatred and violence to ensure they stay in power, no matter what the cost to their people. And the other side be damned... The ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2009/01/21/palisraelestine-again/ So we are now in the depths of a economic crisis mostly caused by vast and irresponsible borrowing and free spending. How can the solution to this problem be to borrow a lot more money and give it to the worst offenders? It seems that the discussion ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2008/12/05/what-we-should-be-bailing-out/ So Google has been talking a lot how open Android is, but unfortunately, if you are using to using a laptop or PC, then there are still quite a few restrictions in place. They still haven't come clean about its statements like “Android is the first truly open and comprehensive ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2008/11/30/how-open-is-google-android/ Anarchism has gotten a pretty bad name, and unfortunately for the wrong reasons. So it's a word I feel I have to avoid in order to discuss ideas about how to organize society without hierarchies. I never really understood it so well, until I recently got obsessed with ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2008/11/29/the-spanish-revolution-free-software-and-gpl-enforcement/ One thing I've been mulling over for at least the past decade is the state of utopian Capitalism that the USA has been in since the fall of the Soviet Union. Contrary to what most people seem to believe, there are not just one or two ways of organizing ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2008/11/29/utopian-capitalism/ Americans are obsessed with "choice". When we order a coffee, we want to have a huge list of options. We are not content to choose from one or two options for colored sugar water (aka soda aka pop aka soft drinks), we want at least six choices. ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2008/09/08/americans-are-obsessed-with-choice/ Moving windows has always felt a bit odd on an unconscious level. You are moving a very stiff, pretty sizable thing, according to our eyes, but yet the effort on the mouse is no different than moving just the tiny pointer. On some systems, the shadow around each ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2008/09/07/bringing-physicality-to-the-interface/ Jonathan Zittrain’s book The Future of the Internet has been getting quite a bit of attention for its discussion of “tethered” devices, or devices that are remotely controlled by someone besides the owner of the device. I have started reading the book myself, and it has some interesting analysis so ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2008/09/07/the-state-of-tethering-in-the-world-today/ Hardware manufacturers like Apple, Nokia, etc. etc. would love to get you to buy each new release of hardware that they make. Since computers started out as very expensive pieces of hardware, the whole computer industry was built around making computers upgradable, especially by updating the software. Smart phones and ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2008/08/23/free-software-keeps-hardware-alive/ There is a myth of science that has developed over the centuries: science is an open process. Of course, scientists strive to publish their results, and educate their students. But these alone do not make for an open process. Perhaps centuries ago, these practices were more open ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2008/08/12/what-is-open-source-science/ Jacob Winiecki, a friend of mine, is working on setting up self-sustaining businesses based on simple technology in developing countries; for example, replacing kerosene lamps with solar lamps by helping people set up importing businesses, distribution businesses, and local solar lamp rental businesses. This is done by finding workable ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2008/08/12/mobile-banking-mobile-phishing/ Phones started out on a very different path than computers did. The first phones where simple electronic devices and remained more or less the same for decades. By the seventies electronics became cheaper and cheaper, and phones started to incorporate electronics in them. Then came mobile phones, ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2008/07/24/your-phone-is-a-pc/ So often we see makers of various technology advertise it as "bringing people closer together". Mobile phones are a great example of this. So many projects at the various media labs around the world also talk about bringing people together, or maintaining relationships while physical separated. ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2008/05/10/mediated-life/ Mobile phone networks where designed to get users to use as many minutes as possible since the business model of cell phone companies is charging per minute. You can see the impact of this on the way that people use their phones. People think constantly about how many ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2008/04/24/the-nature-of-mobile-phones/ Have you ever struggled through a technical problem only to find some arcane fix? Then months later, you hit that problem again, but you FORGOT THE FIX! Arg, I hate that. So now I blog about such situations, so that people can hopefully benefit from the suffering, ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2008/03/19/annoying-technical-details/ I don't have a mobile phone. Many people think that's crazy, I only know a small handful of people who are in the same boat as me. There are a number of reasons why this is the case. First and foremost, mobile carriers are actively working against ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2008/02/21/telecoms-vs-the-rest-of-us/ Ten years ago, if you had asked yourself whether people would voluntarily sign up by the millions in order to for private companies to make a profit from your relationships to your friends, colleagues, family, etc. you might have thought that this is a preposterous idea. Yet now ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2008/02/10/commercializing-your-friendships/ In the not too distant past, Apple was getting a lot of flak about their resistance to implementing a recycling program for their products. While I am not surprised that Apple is bad about recycling, there is one very important thing that is not talked about much in the ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2007/09/27/recycling-is-good-reusing-is-much-better/ In prehistoric times, "high-art" meant the equivalent of the most basic storytelling today. When most humans would have been slogging all day just to make sure that they had food for the day and weren't going to be eaten by some bigger animal, it would have been the rare ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2007/09/21/high-art-from-innovation-to-obscurity/ We blame so many of the world's ills on "corporations" or multinationals. It is true that they hold vast power. But the question that is not asked often enough is: where do they derive that power from? The answer almost all of the time is from the ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2007/09/21/we-have-the-power/ There was lots of talk a while back about Jeff Han's presentation of a multi-touch screen at Ted Looks very nifty and fun, but too bad they don't have an real applications in that demo. Like what if you want to do something to those images he's throwing around. ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2007/07/10/where-have-all-the-real-demos-gone/ From my experience with Pd in academic environments, I think they are generally not very good an interfacing with the net communities and other external communities. Of course, there are exceptions, some very notable ones, but think overall the tendency is for academic communities to be very inward looking. ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2007/06/08/working-towards-an-ideal-academic-institution/ I just got a message from a service called that this website has been included in a directory of education and research resources. It's got a .ac.uk domain, so it has to be somewhat legit, but I have never heard of it. It seems like it is ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2007/05/09/intute-anyone/ 000009 F91102 9D74E3 5BD841 56C563 5688C0 http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2007/05/05/this-is-an-illegal-color-palette/ As someone who was fortunate to have early to computer programming at a young age, I believe that such exposure should be an elementary part of every student's education. Our society is becoming immersed in computers, much like how text surrounds every aspect of our lives. The key ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2007/04/23/the-barrier-between-learning-and-teaching/ http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2007/04/17/stop-illegal-spying/ Why do we still have to "save" work when working with a computer? Do you have to "save" when using pen and paper, or paint? The most important question here is, does breaking out the "save" function into a manually triggered activity actually add something useful? Perhaps ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2007/04/16/ditch-file-save/ I just came across OpenDNS, another service like Verisign's SiteFinder that is using DNS-related error messages as a means to deliver their content. I think that commercializing error messages is a really bad idea. It might work very well for them as a company, who knows, I am ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2007/03/05/opendns-open-to-what/ The idea of free software has become well established and in growing ever more in adoption. Free hardware is making inroads to the broader public's consciousness. The idea of open source is also starting to spread beyond the realm of the computer, with free journals such as PLoS ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2007/02/25/free-software-why-stop-there/ Free software development is merely a new twist in a long tradition of free and open human collaboration and sharing. I think sharing and collaboration are essential human traits, especially when it comes to intangible things like ideas, stories, music, and knowledge. For the past century at least, ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2007/02/15/from-free-software-to-upgrading-capitalism/ Many novel instruments have been build in recent decades, but they are so specific that they rarely catch on or even get played to any degree of virtuosity. When so few people play a given instrument, it limits the development and sharing of techniques. The goal of many designers of ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2007/02/02/creating-a-platform-for-modular-instrumental-technique/ Computers and software of all kinds have generally been designed and built by engineers for a broader population to use. Computing is becoming ubiquitous, and the skills for using computers are becoming as standard as reading and writing. Yet few of these tools are designed for everyone to ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2007/01/26/readwrite-tools/ I recently noticed that Creative Commons has dropped all non-Attribution licenses from the "Choose A License" page. That means CC is trying to make all people include Attribution clauses despite well known and long acknowledged problems with them. In the late nineties, people began to realize that the ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2007/01/14/problems-with-cc-attribution-clauses/ I am a product of two "experimental" learning environments. First I did my BA in the Music Program Zero, aka MPZ, at Bard College, which was a splinter music department with notoriously lax structure and perhaps standards too. MPZ was infamous among the students as the place to ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2007/01/03/how-do-you-take-the-bullshit-out-of-experimental-learning-environments/ I just read a short and interesting article in Free Software Magazine calling on the community to develop free hardware to solve the issue of free software problems when running on proprietary hardware. The problem with this article is that it proposes that we start by building free laptops ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/12/14/devloping-free-hardware-start-small/ I was just looking around for documentation of the G20 protests in Melbourne, Australia. And of course you find the typical edited footage of the 20 violent punks interspersed with footage of thousands of non-violent protestors. Watch out! The revolution is at your doorstep! They are ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/11/21/violence/ I was just checking my monthly log of my procmail rules, and I was blown away to find that one relatively simple rule has filtered out 2312 messages in the last month: :0 ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/11/02/2312-messages-to-devnull/ Finally, on to the good things that happened at Ars Electronica: the Electrolobby. David Cuartielles set up the stage by turning the Electrolobby into a festival of workshops. There were three traditional workshops, OpenFrameWorks, Arduino, and PyS60, with registration, regular hours, and a whole group of people listening ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/10/30/experiments-in-teaching/ Technorati Profile http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/10/20/25/ As radio connections replace wired internet connections, and more and more device participate in the vast mesh internet, traditional telecommunications providers will fade away. Why pay for the internet when you can just turn on your device and get it for free? But there is the issue of ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/10/13/the-internet-returns-to-being-local/ I was just reading the New York Times magazine and I saw a little blurb about "environmentally friendly interior design." They quoted the immortal three R's of environmental responsibility: "recycle, reuse, reclaim". Wait a minute... something isn't quite right there... Isn't supposed to be "reduce, reuse, recycle"? ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/10/10/the-3-rs-of-environmentalism/ http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/10/08/08102006058/ http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/10/08/08102006035/ http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/10/08/08102006033/ http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/10/03/02102006028/ So for some reason I feel compelled to work on Windows tho I don't use it at all myself. The sad fact is the majority of computer users out there are on Windows. And someone has to make the Pd builds on Windows, so here I find myself ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/09/28/sshing-into-a-msys-mingw-shell/ Ok, this is more of a rant/question than my more usual editorial-style essay. I just read The Big Gamble on Electronic Voting in the New York Times, which is really just a reiteration of what a bunch of people have been saying about electronic voting machines. Its appalling ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/09/24/free-software-for-voting/ So I just got back from teaching a "minishop" at Ars Electronica and I got to vent on an issue that is coming to dominate my thoughts on electronic art. We already consume so much, so much of everything from food to toys to whatever. We are also ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/09/11/flood-of-electronics/ I guess now that I have a blog, I feel like I need to post my views, for the record. Isn't that what a blog is for? Or should I be instead telling you that I sat outside on the back porch in my dormitory-like 4 bedroom apartment ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/08/07/why-i-am-a-vegetarian/ http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/25/health/25rats.html According to the above article, some scientists have found that they can create aggressive or non-aggressive rats depending on which genes they flip. This might be some kind of contributor to something that I have thought about a lot: why European cultures are so bent on destruction and domination. ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/08/07/the-newly-discovered-aggressive-gene/ I grew up believing that Israel was right in all it did, that it was a great socialist nation. Since I am American, I was raised in an country where Arabs where viewed as hostile, crazy, dirty people in far away lands. The town I grew up in ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/08/07/why-i-argue-against-israel/ The current situation in Lebanon clearly demonstrates that militarism has completely taken over Israel. The people of Israel seem willing to suffer deaths and a rain of rockets as long as the Israeli military is killing and destroying far more than the other side. Its an insane logic ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/08/01/militarism-takes-over/ One of my favorite things about NeXTSTEP, ahem, I mean Mac OS X is that you can turn on emacs key bindings everywhere that Cocoa is used. You do it in a file called ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict Here's the file that I use: /* Picked up from Help search on Key Bindings. ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/07/31/emacs-bindings-everywhere/ Yes, I finally set up a blog.... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/07/31/hello-world/ If you use Google, everything you do is stored in a database and all linked together. Anything from email to searches to maps, etc., this is all linked to your profile. Now the gov't has issued a large subpoena for Google's data: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/technology/20google.html With that data, the government can google ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2006/01/20/outsourcing-big-brother/ http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2005/03/22/a-picture-crying-out-for-a-caption/ I am writing a paper about the development of modular musical technique, i.e., someone can get good at various controllers (joystick, MIDI sliders, turntable) and get good at various synths seperately via software, keyboards, sequencers, whatever. But these skills would then transfer even when combined in new and unfamiliar ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2005/03/04/gamers-modular-technique-and-nimes/ "Sustainable" is a word that a lot of people are throwing around these days. The word represents a very good idea, but it seems to me that this word has been almost completely coopted to mean something else entirely. sustainable: "an action or process that is capable of ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2005/02/02/what-does-sustainable-mean/ http://www.alternet.org/story/21003/ From April 4, 1967, Riverside Church, New York City. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men [in the ghettos] I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2005/01/19/pertinent-words-of-mlk-a-day-late/ The battle for the future of Critical Mass is on, this time right here in NYC. Others have tried in the past to stop it, most notably Mayor Willie Brown in San Francisco. He lost that battle in a big way. Now Police Commissioner Ray Kelly is ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2004/10/30/the-future-of-critical-mass/ Gmail is a big step towards big brother. Many people argue that Yahoo, Hotmail, etc could read your email before, so what's the big deal? The difference is that Google will be able to google everyone's email and they plan on permanently storing your email, so you won't ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2004/06/28/big-step-towards-big-brother/ I am an ardent pacifist but I believe that if we are going to fight wars, then all should be required to serve. Charlie Rangel, the long time Congressman of Harlem, convinced me of this a while back. We all know war is hell, but it is ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2004/05/27/reinstate-the-draft/ I just saw Errol Morris' The Fog of War last night. Robert McNamara ended that movie by iterating his belief that wars will always happen because its part of human nature. But really it seems to me that its not human nature to want war, but rather the nature of ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2004/01/13/who-wants-war/ I have been thinking a fair amount recently about the net benefits of immigration, wondering mostly if perhaps that immigration these days does more harm than good, especially for the countries where people emigrate from, like Mexico. My dad is a pretty good example of emigration being harmful: Austria paid ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2004/01/13/thoughts-on-the-effects-of-immigration/ I have always had an interest in sound. Starting with the music my father, a devoted Mozart aficionado, would so often play, I grew up hearing music around me. I started to experiment with creating sounds of my own, first by creating the strange language of sounds ... http://at.or.at/hans/blog/2003/10/08/sound-and-me/