Are We Running Out of Resources

Posted on 2011 March 26 by Dorian

I’m reposting this from LRC. It is an interesting note to bring up when discussions about resources running out, come up at a dinner party. While not perfect, conservation of resources comes built into the price-economic calculation.

Just a Thought – George Out to Help?

Posted on 2011 January 12 by Dorian

I wanted to post this a while back. Here is a thought experiement: Should anyone be forced to help someone else? Or do the right thing? Watch and discuss below!

Remembrance Day

Posted on 2010 November 11 by Dorian

Update: My sincere apologies for blogging for not fact checking before posting. Apparently Poland’s occupation by her neighbors officially only lasted 123 years rather than 200. However the partitioning of Poland’s borders started before that time, so my initial past may not far off. Still I apologize about that error.

Today is Rememberance Day. Originally commerating the end to the senseless slaughter of World War I with the signing of the Armstice. Today we commerate the sacrifices of men and women in the armed forces and resistance forces. But we should also remember all those died because of that most hideous of human acts, war. Since the French Revolution, the total war doctrine expanded the scope of war to include civilians and many innocents have been massacred in front of altars of War. We too need to remember them.

Rememberance should not end at wearing a poppy and a gloomy look. It should not be done for a few minutes of silence once a year. (But please the least you can do is offer those few minutes.) No we should try to learn about these sacrifices and why they happened. Knowledge for its own sake is of little value. Knowledge must be acted upon for it have value. We must act upon the knowledge of these wars, their victims and their consequences. For the consequences of even wars that happened hundreds of years ago, live with us today.

I’ll make the bold claim that it is our duty to help eliminate or minimize these horrors from touching future generations. Unfortunately, our current actions don’t speak well to a better future.

For Poles today is also our Independence Day from the combined empires of Russia, Austro-Hungarian & Prussia. The end of World War I ended 123 years of foreign occupation and resistance. Today as a Pole I remember about the many sacrifices done for our national identity and voice. And I pray that Poland does not lightly dismiss these gifts, for profit and conformity to the European Union.

Happy Guy Fawkes Day!

Posted on 2010 November 5 by Dorian

Remember, remember the 5th of November. A very merry Guy Fawkes Day to ye all!

Some thoughts:

Anarchism isn’t about blowing things. It is about resisting the unethical and immoral lording of man over man.
If you absolutely positively plan on blowing up any parlaments today, try using something with a higher yield than a few barrels of gunpowder. e.g. semtex, plastique, C4, etc. 😉
Guy Fawkes wasn’t an anarchist. He wanted to reinstate a king. And please try not to blow up anything.

News – The Future of Nokia N-Series Phones, IP for Libertarians, Animating the Death Star

Posted on 2009 November 19 by Dorian

Once again, Dorian has dropped off the side of the Internet to work on stuff. So instead of an update, Dorian sends some interesting bits of news he found on the Internet.

Maemo is the Future of the Nokia N-Series

Just when you thought Nokia planned on using Maemo only for their experimental line of phones… future N series phones will run Maemo! This is great news for all the Maemo fans out there. And it looks like this will be happen in 2012. So all you who follow the Mayan calendar, while be able to ring in the new Mayan calendar cycle with nice Maemo-powered phones. 😀

Intellectual Property from a Libertarian Perspective

This is not news so much as a well written article by Stephan Kinsella discussing Intellectual Property from a Libertarian perspective. So if you’ve been following the news concerning the mess that is intellectual property, this article premises that it doesn’t make sense to have it, makes sense. Patents cause the most amount of problems, being so broad in scope. But at the end of the day, it comes down to the question should or should not the owner of a physical property have exclusive rights to their property. The fact it cause loss for a content creator or it is not acceptable behaviour by “society” is a moot point.

Dorian’s thoughts: Thats why all that I publish is under the Creative Commons license. I’d rather just putting things in the public domain. Unfortunately there is a double standard of what an individual’s rights to that of a corporate entity’s, and thats why some restrictions to protect myself are needed. I’d hate to go to court over something I originally published, being picked up by a corporation and then being hunted down by their lawyers for some IP infringement.

Animating the Death Star in Star Wars

Think computer animation is hard nowadays? Then check this video of animating the attack on the Death Star in the old Star Wars. Amazing.

Lest We Forget

Posted on 2009 November 11 by Dorian

Today is Remembrance Day. Take a moment of silence for all those who have fallen or crippled by that most horrendous of man’s machinations: war. Thank for those who fought for freedom and end to tyranny. And promise them and future generation, that we shall fight the good fight, that will remember are veterans and that we will do what it takes to end war. Thank you.

For those of Polish descent today is Independence Day. Remember the sovereignty of our nation was fought for by with blood, sweat and tears. And let us not give our sovereignty up so easily and never out of fear nor convenience.

Clubbing In the Courthouse – Part 1

Posted on 2009 August 4 by Dorian

Today I had to go to a summons. I’m grateful for living in a country with a “fair” judicial system, and I’m not going to try to avoid my “civic” “obligations”. But it bothers me, why our dear tax-money fed bureaucrats can’t organize things properly. I see no valid excuse why to flagrantly wasting people’s time by asking until the judges and lawyers graciously call us in. Could such a waste of time and productivity not be fixed with a bit of advanced scheduling? For one this would help the economy, and social morale. It this waiting seems something of a hangover from ancient times, when the nobles could simply “ask” the peasants to put their lives on hold. Or am I missing something?

Why not small pools of potential jurors? Or calling them in at appropriate times? Why ask to place things on hold in a systemic manner?

Stop Signs

Posted on 2009 July 14 by Dorian

Some food for thought: Libertarians and stop signs. It may seem trivial and buffoonish to even discuss this matter. But is it? Read and make your own opinions. And remember: Real knowledge is gained by questioning everything, even the seemingly banal.

I’ll Be Right On It

Posted on 2009 June 24 by Dorian

It is a bit early in the morning to come up with material to write about. And I did not get much sleep this night. Today I probably wouldn’t be able to stop yawning. And insane amounts of coffee will only keep me from trying to take a nap on the new office’s couch. All that said, I am on track with my current work: personal, professional and long-term. I’ve even managed to get to those much delayed tasks. Yesterday I restarted my coding projects. Today I will dedicate some time on building a portfolio: in writing, graphics and coding. And I really need to clear the dust off my resume too.

The key statement for expressing the feel of these past few days should be: I’ll be right on it. And I will. Things get done and on time. The only thing missing is sleep, but I’m sure that will return if I keep at it.

As an aside, I played Alpha Centauri this morning. What a difference lower the difficulty a single level makes. At the moment I’m kicking ass and taking names. I can also verify that what they say about state theory is true. It is all about power and domination over a territory. It takes incredible restraint to not exercise aggressive military power, especially when you know you can get away with it. Hmm… that should prove a great uncurrent theme in my novel.

Final aside: I have to rewrite the first chapter of my novel. I can’t adapt any of my previous writing to it, in any real degree. I can use some ideas and elements here and there, but regretably it looks like the first chapter needs a rewrite. The overall plot and characters feel strong. The setting needs some thought, since the terrain in reality does not work a 100% with my idea. Anyways, I plan on just writing the rough drafts first. Then I brace for painful edits later on.

A Free Society Needs a Free Market and Free Software

Posted on 2007 October 12 by Dorian

A few days ago I finished reading Richard Stallman’s “Free Software, Free Society”. The book consists of a number of interesting, well-written essays on the philosophy and history of the free software movement.

Most people heard of open source as a practical development paradigm and distribution method. Eric Raymond’s “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” describes that in more detail so I will not delve much into that topic. Besides I get the impression that many people understand the goals of open source. But not so many understand the reasoning behind free software, which made open source possible.

As Richard Stallman says, free software is “free as in speech not as free beer”. The goal of free software is to bring freedom to software. The freedom of letting users and developer do whatever they want with the software, within limits. The limits being not to take away the freedoms associated with a program and its source code. Richard Stallman explains the cultural heritage benefits and freedom benefits in his book very well.

Many critics of the free software movement voice their concerns over “ownership” of and “marketability” of free software. Some even go so far to call the entire movement “communist” utopia. Me thinks these critics don’t (or don’t want to) understand either how free software works or free markets for that matter.

I will not go into details why a free market is desirable. These ideas are well documented by theorists from Adam Smith to Ludwig von Mises to Milton Friedman. For sake of argument lets assume a free market is desirable. Free markets depend on people owning “capital”. These owners exchange their “capital” with a customer for greater material wealth, which becomes more “capital”.

Free software unlike proprietary closed source software, gives “ownership” to a user. You can only own a piece of software if you have its source code, be able to modify it for a task, and distribute it to whoever you please. The only restriction is that you must not take away those freedoms. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, Abraham Lincoln once said. The free software with its “give back others freedom” clause, maintains the software’s freedom in perpetuity. Interestingly, this “give back” clause meets the most opposition.

In proprietary software, you get a license to run the program. Usually only one program on one computer by one person, and you are not allowed to give out copies of that program. And you can’t change the program because you don’t have the software. You don’t own the software.

Lets compare this to what happens in real life. You go to the store, and buy a drill. Now you own that drill. You can do whatever you want to with it. You can sell it. You can use it. You can disassemble it. You can use it to power your motorboat if you choose to. It might void your warranty. But you can be sure whatever you do with that drill, and you don’t break a law while using it; you will not have the police coming to your door.

If anything free software is far from being communistic. It gives you more ownership than the closed source software does. Free software encourages a free market, but also asks you to do so ethically. It asks for you to respect the freedoms of another person. Respecting the freedoms of another person is what a free society is about. Respecting the freedoms of a customer is what an ethical seller in a free market does. Furthermore free software with its “give back” clause promotes the idea of giving away “capital” in the form of ideas, work, code, documentation and the software itself; which gives the giver more capital. In fact it gives back more capital for everyone. Everyone wins, and everyone keeps their liberties.

Communism tramples on the freedoms of individual ownership. Free software promotes the freedoms of individual ownership.

Free software promotes ethical behaviour in programmers, cause your code is for all to see. Free software promotes ethical, sustainable entrepreneurs, who know they benefit if everyone benefits. Also often free software ability to be given away, increases a software’s exposure to potential client, better than any sale force can. Free software is also probably the only thing that lets the software market have any chance of become free of interference from corporations and governments. Only a few greedy monopolies and individuals will suffer from free software, but these people don’t care about hurting others to make a bit of cash.
A few days ago I finished reading Richard Stallman’s “Free Software, Free Society”. The book consists of a number of interesting, well-written essays on the philosophy and history of the free software movement.