Category Archives: Politics

Distribution is Contribution

When the topic of contributions to FOSS come up, it usually happens that people focus entirely on the aspect of creation, specifically code creation, to the exclusion of all others.  In the context of software, this makes a certain amount … Continue reading

Posted in OpenSource, Politics, Upstream, Work | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

The Devil You Know

(Another school assignment, reposted here.) In 2010, the US Congress approval rating hit an abysmal 13% among the general public, according to a Gallup poll released in December. With voters holding such a low opinion of their national legislators, one … Continue reading

Posted in Politics, School | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Thoughts on balance

As we start getting into the political season (aka, a full year before the next election), it’s important to remember, in the course of our various political debates, that while all arguments have two sides, they are not always equal, … Continue reading

Posted in Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

What the Founding Fathers intended

One of our favorite appeals to authority in the US, when discussing politics, is to invoke the image of mythical figures from 1787 making grand speeches that support our current views on any given policy in 2011.  I use the … Continue reading

Posted in Politics | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Happy vs. Right

A while back I posted a question to Facebook asking if people would rather be happy or right.  I posed it without context or explanation, just to see what the initial reaction of my friends would be.

Posted in Politics, Religion, Science | Tagged | 23 Comments

Legally open, socially closed: part 2

There has been some interesting discussion on my last post, and I wanted to address some of the new criticisms that were brought up there and elsewhere.

Posted in OpenSource, Politics | Tagged , | 15 Comments

Legally open, socially closed

Much has been said lately about the revenue sharing decision made by Canonical in regards to the Banshee music store sales, starting with the announcement on Jono Bacon’s blog.  This was soon followed by posts questioning how the decision and … Continue reading

Posted in OpenSource, Politics | Tagged , | 46 Comments