Yesterday I spent the day at Microsoft. I flew up on Wednesday night, out of LAX at 6.30pm, and it was a beautiful evening. As we took off over the Pacific, we passed over a small bank of stratocumulus and banked north, flying over Malibu and the mountains. Two hours later we passed Mt Rainier,… Continue reading Into the belly of the beast
The Gamer Test
The Gamer Test: How much of a gamer are you? Score one point for everything you can answer “yes†to. Technicalities count. (Warning: spoilers exist below!) Miscellany. 1.I’ve played a game. 2.I’ve played a game continuously for more than an hour. 3.More than 4 hours. 4.More than 12 hours. 5.More than 24 hours. 6….and it… Continue reading The Gamer Test
Google's NDA: not evil, eh?
ValleyWag: This NDA never existed. Google's NDA: Forbids the interviewee from disclosing that they interviewed or signed the NDA, and anything about the offer. It even forbids mentioning Google anywhere ever again! Forbids any kind of reverse engineering, etc. of Google technology. No exception for reverse engineering for the purposes of interoperability, expressly allowed under… Continue reading Google's NDA: not evil, eh?
About that HD-DVD AACS key…
In a stroke of genius, the guy(s) over at http://linuxnotes.blogspot.com/ posted the key on a webpage with (almost all of) the key in its web address. Why didn't they include the 56-88-c0 on the end? I don't know. But what this means is that the takedown notice sent to Google, a matter of public record… Continue reading About that HD-DVD AACS key…
Microsoft bought me dinner last night
I think I bent the Microsoftie’s ear a bit about eBooks, DRM and open source. But in fairness, I was provoked by a colleague… Yes, I ordered the most expensive thing on the menu.
LA Times Book Festival, Day 2
We arrived a little later than yesterday since Mrs. Elbeno does a long run on Sunday mornings – 12.5 miles today. But we parked in almost exactly the same spot. I hurried to get to a panel entitled “Science Fiction: The Road From Here to There” featuring Cory Doctorow (author, blogger, civil rights advocate), John… Continue reading LA Times Book Festival, Day 2
LA Times Book Festival
We spent the day at the LA Times Festival of Books at UCLA. I’d never been to UCLA before – it’s a nice campus. Ample parking meant no hassles getting in or out despite the huge numbers of people there. I attended a morning panel session entitled “New Media: Blogging and Beyond”. The panelists were… Continue reading LA Times Book Festival
e-books: not a threat to real books any time soon
Am I in the minority here? Most people I talk to seem to think that e-Books are great and ordinary books are going to go the way of the dodo in the next 5 years… e-Book readers do seem to be getting better and better, but here’s why real books are going to be around… Continue reading e-books: not a threat to real books any time soon
Never could resist a challenge…
Well, I installed Feisty. I know I said I was going to wait, but the fact that I tried anyway and it wouldn’t let me – well that was tantamount to throwing down the gauntlet. I sidestepped the error it was giving me about required disk space – to discover that it wasn’t kidding. Because… Continue reading Never could resist a challenge…
Feisty Fawn
I’m not upgrading yet. Give it a few weeks. I’m sure I’ll run into a few things which don’t quite go according to plan, and it would be handy if someone else hit them first so that I can see the fix on the forums. Edit: Well, I decided to try it, since the auto-update… Continue reading Feisty Fawn