Tech News – Canonical Bringing Music to Ubuntu, LH Strikes Again & Affero GPL Can’t Fix the Cloud

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Canonical Launching a Music Store?

Rumours on the world wild web point to the possibility of Canonical building an iTunes-like music store.  Works for U thinks such a move would add another viable revenue stream for Canonical, even if it seems to stretch the resources of the firm.  If this music store comes to Ubuntu, I’m sure many users will enjoy using it.  And it will help Canonical start a community of artists, musicians and software firms to using Canonical and Ubuntu as a platform for selling content and applications.

The Linux Hater Tries Karmic Koala

No one knows who hides behind the LH mask.  Is he an enlightened but disgruntle Linux programmer?  Or is the king of all trolls?  Who cares!  Read up his (or her) review of the “fail” that is Ubuntu’s Karmic Koala.  You’ll get a kick out of it.

Kubuntu Needs Documentation Help

nixternal (Richard Johnson) calls for help to improve the sad state of the Kubuntu documentation.  If you are a tech writer and enjoy using Kubuntu, please help out.  UPDATE: You should know how to use DocBook to help.

Affero GPL Can’t Fix the Cloud

One of the great opportunities and threats for commercial open source is the emerging cloud computing landscape.  However Matthew Asslett (451 Group) points out the Affero GPL doesn’t negate the threat of no monetary contributions from cloud providers to commercial open source vendors.  Yes it doesn’t.  But the licenses were designed to get  source code contributions from developers.  Business models need to focus on selling value (some scarce resource based on real scarcity not an artificial one) to clients, and some clients will not see the value.  There will always be those that get away.  The Affero GPL does help “guide” most cloud providers contribute back.  If anything the GPL will give more freedom and opportunities for many more smaller players than a few large ones.  And that solves many more economic and social problems than anything else.

Writer’s Block – Echoes in the Endless Returns & Totally Unknown Writers Festival

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Last week I mentioned that I restarted writing of my novel.  Well actually I’ve restarted the writing of TWO novels.  Yes, I’m writing TWO novels in tandem.  And while it sounds like  a bad idea, this can work since I can switch between the novels depending on the mood I’m in.  If I’m in the mood for something epic, I’ll continue with A Collection of Shards.  If I’m in the mood for something more quiet and personal, I’ll work on Echoes in the Endless.  In either case, I’m planning to work on both simultaneously.  Also I can not give an estimate of when I will finish writing these books.  My previous estimates and personal due dates came and went, and the book writing did not progress.

Echoes in the Endless will look similar to the earlier variants that I started working on.  However instead of the majestic huge starships of space operas, I’ve taken a liking to the gritty grim spacecraft of today.  I also enjoyed hard science fiction, that involved reality based stories.  Yes authors go into great lengths to explain things and it does make stories less “plastic epic”.  However these constraints lead to more provocative unconventional stories, and I plan on writing those and not another clone of “Battlestar Galactica” or “Star Trek”.  A warning to all readers, neither of these books are meant to be happy.  I’m a realist not an optimist so I tend not include pink tinted glasses with my stories.

Finally, I’ve been initially invited to contribute to the next Totally Unknown Writers Festival.  Everything is still in the conception stage, however with any luck I’ll read something at next year’s show.

And for kicks, I read the flash science fiction 365 Tomorrows a lot.  Here is an awesome piece: EULA by Cesium Artichoke

Update – A Week in Review

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This has been quite a busy week in hindsight.  I managed to build up my portfolio and work on my professional image.  I managed to restart my coding and writing projects.  And I’ve finished up on my correspondences.  I look back and I’m quite proud of my achievements.  I just wish I could move such mountains on a regular basis.

News – Chromium OS is Here

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Chromium OS is Here

Google just announced their Chromium OS project.  This will act as the open source precursor to Chrome OS.  And the folks at Canonical are helping Google build it.  Exciting times ahead, especially for netbooks users and cloud computing advocates.  Thanks to the 451 Group‘s Matthew Aslett team for posting about this.

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

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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.

Updates – justCheckers Open for Business

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An update from the justCheckers website:

Cleaned Up and Open for Business

2009, November 17 – 18:02 — Dorian Pula

It took a while. A much needed upgrade, some changes to bring this site back into the larger multi-site effort I’m involved and some re-integration work back into SourceForge… and justCheckers is back! Finally there are no more blockers to getting back into coding, and hopefully moving this project forward. The plan is to finally get around to implementing the work I’ve meant to implement for so long.

So justCheckers is open for business… and is seeking new developers.

And some other updates:

I’ve restarted work on my stealth project as part of the “larger multi-site effort”.  In addition, I’m almost caught up on responding to everyone’s e-mails and messages.  I should be free enough to restart my writing and work on other long-term projects.  I’m really excited with the progress I’ve made, and I hope it continues this way.

Hectic Day

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I guess this comes of procrastination and of enjoying one’s weekend.  All that work that accumulates, and now I look in fear at the height of the pile.  What can I say, inbox anxiety is a very real syndrome even if the inbox is virtualized.  The cost of adding to the pile has decreased thanks to the Internet.  The cost of removing the pile and overcoming procrastination remains the same nevertheless.  Today is hectic because I’m trying to cope with a swaying mountain of work.  However I’m posting this not to complain, rather as a way to help the rescuers  find me when the pile finally collapses on my head. 😛

The Joys of Seamless Upgrades

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Upgrades often is a naughty word in programming and system administration.  When a system admin or programmer starts an upgrade, often it is with clenched teeth and an expectation something will break, explode or spontaneously combust.  So congrats to the WordPress guys for releasing another seamless, non-breaking, and easy to do upgrade.  And yes this blog now runs on the latest greatest WordPress 2.8.6.

Now if only upgrading my Drupal sites could be as simple and trivial.

News Flash – Matthias Ettrich Gets a Medal, the N900 Gets Reviewed

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Dorian continues his quest in pursuit of sanity, salvation and free time under the combined mountains of e-mail and code.  He sents his regards and asks yet again for patience.  As a token, he gives you his take on the latest cool developments in the consumer Linux space.

Matthias Ettrich Awarded the German Medal of Merit

Matthias Ettrich, founder of the KDE project, received the German Medal of Merit for his contributions for the common welfare.  Specifically for his founding of the KDE project.

Dorian’s thoughts: As a rabid KDE user, thank you for starting this awesome desktop project.  Thank you for kickstarting the project that is pushing the Linux desktop computing experience forward in ever increasing terms of usability, aesthetics, flexibility and freedom.  Thank you, and thanks to all the contributers of KDE and the wider libre software community.

An In-Depth Review of the N900

Still wondering whether or not to get the Nokia N900?  Well take a look at this in-depth review of the pre-production N900 from The Nokia Blog.

Dorian’s thoughts: I’m still thinking of getting it.  I wonder how it compares to my current 5800 XM in terms of hardware, but I think it is much, much better… Still waiting for availability of the unit in Canada, and for a review of a production variant too.