antti.vilpponen.net

Linux is now seen as a more viable product in the UK, says BBC. Some government departments have stepped closer to using Linux after a study finds the product very usable.

I don’t use Linux. One of the reasons is that I cannot handle the customisations and running of it, at least I think so. But of course there are people who would argue against this, but for the sake of this entry, let’s keep this as it is :-). I’m currently reading The Cathedral and The Bazaar, written by Eric Raymond. He constantly writes about the productivity of the open source society. When people create something they enjoy doing - they are willing to do it for free. One of the quotes I remember from the book is that “people are the most productive, when they are at play”. I think Google takes advantage of this pretty well (just look at their policy on being able to work on personal projects during office hours).

But secondly, going back to the issue of adapting Linux. The new emerging users of this software, also mentioned in the article, are governmental departments and offices. You don’t need to argue why - if they are able to save money on running a free software, they will most likely do it. This also supports the theories being presented by Geoffrey Moore, in his book Inside the Tornado, which I’m also reading for my thesis.

Moore argues that when a company chooses very small niche markets which are however dominated by economic buyers with purchasing power, and the company does well in those - it will begin to create a tornado around it. The tornado is able to pick it into new atmospheres and market positions. I think Linux (more specifically the companies offering the customisations services, etc.) is beginning to create this tornado around it, very very slowly but surely. The governments are realising this and in a few years will be moving in herds for the software. The ever growing savings and cuts in expenditure being created by the eldering population in Europe will further strengthen their opinions on switching.

Just found out that LegalTorrents.com is hosting the CD distributed under the CreativeCommons license on the cover of the Wired Magazine. Get your copy today!

Luckily I’m stuck behind the school firewall and due to the police-state like internet policy - I am unable to download it :(

Finally it’s here - many people, including me, have been waiting for this. Should bring a healthy new breeze to the Finnish music scene. Biisi.fi is a Finnish equivalent of iTunes, but they never got the critical mass nor the UI designed well enough -> no success.

The Finnish RIAA equivalent has been criticizing that there is no way how songs could be sold for 1€. Just like SchizoJanne said, whenever Finnish authorities claim something as stupid as that, it is bound to happen quicker than you thought.

Hmm.. seems like Blogspot is down. I just tried to update my IsoG -blog and the whole page is empty. Anybody else who could confirm this?

I can access the Blogspot dashboard, no problem, but the blogs seem to be down - or at least mine is.

UPDATE: And after posting this it started working - oh well, promotion never hurts :-)

I calculated manually the current bandwidth usage approximately being used/created by my tracker. In about 30 hours 21 Gigabytes has been downloaded through my tracker - that’s a lot!

And this has created 11 megabytes of bandwidth usage on my site. Got to love the BitTorrent.

FreeCulture.org has launched UndeadArt.org - a campaign to promote and create new zombie flicks, just in time for Halloween.

“This contest spotlights the treasure trove of material available in the public domain,” says Nicholas Bergson-Shilcock of FreeCulture.org. “When you combine that with all of the new work that today’s artists are releasing under the Creative Commons alternative copyright system, it gives other creators a broad range of material to incorporate into their own work.”

Contest entrants will Bring Back Dead Art in three quick steps:
1) Download a piece of George Romero¹s classic horror flick Night of the Living Dead;
2) Combine with a clip from Amid the Dead, a student-produced 2003 homage to Romero, then:
3) Make an entirely new piece of art. From comic shorts to music videos, fake movie trailers to faux posters, the only limits are placed by the artist¹s imagination. And artists aren¹t confined to using only these two movies — any freely-available artistic content is fair game.

Src: FreeCulture press release

I am hosting the torrents on my torrent tracker. I was a bit late to reply and getting the torrents hosted, I realised only yesterday the need for the tracker, as we discussed it on #freeculture IRC-channel. I’m happy to help, making the FreeCulture movement a truly international one :-)

Aula.cc’s Jyri writes about the Choice 2004 documentary about the presidential candidates. I saw the first part of the documentary a few days ago in Finland, but missed the second one. I was able to watch the second part from the streamed videos made available online at their site.

Also, I found out some more of their documentaries available for streaming - looks interesting indeed.

I went out for a few beers with Panu and his wife Anna-Leena last night. I ended up deciding that I’m gonna hit the bars and party on a bit later. This is kind of fun, even though it’s a bit odd - going partying alone. Well, Savonlinna is a small town so you almost always find someone you know and end up spending the evening with them. This happened last night as well, found three friends at least.

Secondly, I’ve noticed that it’s either the sunlight or I’m getting old, because I feel like I need to sleep 10 hours just to make it through the day. *yawn*

There’s a good article on BBC website about the ways how Americans and the British forces handle their areas of control in Iraq.

Americans:

Top Cover for the Humvee stands with his head and shoulders out of the roof, and is mostly a traffic cop as Humvee Man forces his way through the Baghdad traffic, sounding his horn and shouting at other drivers at roundabouts and intersections. “Hey! Get out of the Way! You! Stop!”

Iraqi drivers stop, and swerve, and pull over to the side, and the Humvee rushes on.

This is all justified, they say, because of the acute danger of VBIEDs - Vehicle-Born Improvised Explosive Devices. That is, car bombs.

But I believe this is a vicious circle of their own making, that much of the hatred of the Americans that is now violently expressed was provoked by their ignorant disrespect of decent people.

British:

Down with the British in Basra it’s all a bit different.

I am still incarcerated - but in an armoured Land Rover.

And we stop here and there, and get out, and talk to people.

Out on patrol the British soldiers sling their helmets from their belts and wear soft hats and buy cans of Coke from street stalls. Softly, softly.

This somehow reminds me of the reactions I’ve heard from people talking about the ways of doing business overseas. One reason I’ve heard why Finns are a good employer in China is that the management respects local traditions and ways of life - instead of bringing the western way of life into China (even though it’s inevitable in a way). So many people have said to me that they do not like the attitudes of Americans, the “we rule the world” -attitude. This is just what I’ve heard from many people, but I don’t have personal experience on this.

Americans: Start making a change by changing your president - go vote for Kerry. Christian Lindholm also sent a message to people about changing Bush to Kerry. Ecyrd also did this in his entry.

I came across yet another legal filesharing/downloading site - Faircopy. The idea is that thei encrypt all files using their tool. Once you buy and download something you can decrypt it. It’s very small at the moment, as you can see in the catalog.

I think a similar concept to digital photographs being ordered online vs. music downloads could work in my case. I began ordering copies of my digital photographs immediately as I found out this cheap, yet very good quality print shop in Tornio, called Fotonetti. Of course the difference being, I can’t leech my photos from someone else as I can do with music, but still.

I feel like I want to be able to contribute to the artists as much as I can, but I don’t want to pay 10€ for a digital album - they have to be cheaper. I think I’ll begin supporting small artists by buying their music online (and for prices much more affordable, like 4-5€ for an album!) and switching my musical taste a bit - just to send a signal to the big corporations.