I’m a devout believer in the crippling effect software patents will have on software development in general, and open source development in particular. Participate in the webdemo against the EU Software Patent Directive like WE do, and/or talk to anyone you might know that may be able to influence the politicians. The vote will take place between the 5th and 7th of July. Just say NO!
There is plenty of information about what sofware patents really would mean. Basically: no vlc, no mplayer, no ffmpeg, no gimp, no OpenOffice. The list goes on and on, and as you can clearly see, strong software patents WILL mean that software will be controlled by the few big companies that can afford patents and the lawyers to go with them. It just plain stinks!
Totally silly: MPAA has decided that BitTorrent is a criminal protocol per default, which has resulted in the autobanning of people using BitTorrent for totally legal purposes. There’s an article in Boing Boing that tells about a case in particular. The huge free media repository archive.org also uses torrents for distributions, as does game companies such as Blizzard, and many many MANY others. Shall I EVER be able to stop complaining over the sheer stupidity of Big Biz? Not bloody likely.
This saturday, 2 days ago, the first Kontra-musik festival took place in Malmö. Fool that I am, I had a whole hawg to drink before going there, but it was still a very enjoyable event, dizziness notwithstanding. The lighting was beautiful, and the sound great. The live artists were swell, and especially Isolée was a big surprise. Cockrockdisco with Jason Forrest was, as expected, fun drillcore of the highest order…
Here’s an elektronikkk-looking pic I shot of Isolée, btw:
First off, I moved back to the old theme. The reason? It looked like crap in IE. Again!
Now then: the massive open art project UbuWeb is no more. At any rate, it will no longer be updated:
The UbuWeb Project — a decade-long experiment in radical distribution of avant-garde materials — has finished. Founded in 1996, the project has been a success beyond anyone’s wildest expectations. As of Spring, 2005, it averaged over 10,000 visitors daily and hosts nearly a terabyte of artworks in all media by over 500 artists.
The site will be donated to a university shortly, where it will be archived intact for posterity. Please note that the site will no longer be updated. A URL linking to the archive will be posted on this page.
A big THANK-YOU goes out to the principals, as well as the artists. I know that much of the material was/is probably copyrighted, and infringed upon, but it seems most of the artists have been very supportive, and showed that sharing the wealth isn’t necessary something that will COST you money. Having followed UbuWeb since 1999 or so, I’m sad to see it staled. But there are other projects ahead, I’m sure. For example, you can still listen to Kenny G’s fine web radio shows on WMFU. You should. I’ve found lots of music through Ken, and I believe you might too.
Well! Yesterday, my brother Surgubben complained that his blog looked like crap in IE. Go figure. I totally forgot that Explorer sucks so nicely at showing CSS. Anyway, I hooked him up with a new theme that worked significantly better, and right now, I switched theme as well, to Patricia Miller‘s winning contribution to Alex King’s theme competition. I think my brother’s looks much sweeter, actually. One of these days, I’ll make my own theme. Word.
Two days ago, I received the 4th season of Homicide from Amazon. I LOVE season boxes! Or boxes of any kind, including sweetness like this. I’m not going to delve on Homicide now, because I’m hungry & need to get my lunch soon-ish, but let me tell you: it’s one fucking awesome series! Season 3 is probably the best so far, but season 4 shows promise & more. The only problems are
- That I’m a goddamned junkie when it comes to boxes
- That the DVDs lack subtitles (being a swede, having English subtitles really helps)
- That I will have watched all episodes by monday evening
- That I will need to buy a new box pretty damn soon
And that’s about it. And, oh, tomorrow I’m going to the Kontra-Musik festival. 12 hours of blip blap drööööön! Will be interesting: vegan food & Jason Forrest.
