October 2007

Unintended Consequences of the OLPC Give-one-Get-One

Submitted by Jon on Tue, 10/23/2007 - 11:01

Originally published on OLPCNews.

Celebrate LOGO's 40th Birthday

Submitted by Jon on Sat, 10/20/2007 - 11:08

Originally published on OLPCNews

The Logo programming language is 40 years old, writes WIRED. A Logo spiral

DRM Redux

Submitted by Jon on Fri, 10/12/2007 - 18:54

Back in the late 90s, as Napster was being circled by vultures, I dreamt of starting a consulting group which would seek out clients needing help and place dead fish on their doorstep as an introduction, to point out that they were out of water and needing guidance. I never did this (perhaps I should have), but I did use the conceit to spew some venom towards the RIAA and the MPAA.

JWZ on backups

Submitted by Jon on Fri, 10/12/2007 - 14:24

JWZ as usual offers good, if acerbic, advice; today on backups:

I am here to tell you about backups. It's very simple.

Option 1: Learn not to care about your data. Don't save any old email, use a film camera, and only listen to physical CDs and not MP3s. If you have no posessions, you have nothing to lose.
[...]

Put one of these drives in its enclosure on your desk. Name it something clever like "Backup". If you are using a Mac, the command you use to back up is this: