Electronic Frontier Foundation just posted an article discussing “Apple’s Crystal Prison and The Future of Open Platforms” in which they characterize Apple’s and Microsoft’s restrictive policies as affronts on users freedom, and call on Apple to lead the way by aligning with Steve Wozniak’s call for Apple to open up. They also outline a “bill of rights” outlining four rights they believe mobile computer owners should enjoy. I generally support the idea of more openness in computing, but I see a couple of key issues with what they wrote. It’s Read More

Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation recently mused on the topic of non-free games on Linux, and unsurprisingly he rejects them, even though admitting that they “might encourage users of the games to replace Windows with GNU/Linux”. His position has been consistent for decades. What’s important is teaching users about their freedom as software users, and making that a priority, and not so much increasing the Linux market share and mind share. In reality, however, I believe freedom rests with choice, and not with terms of various license agreements. Read More

Today we use computers to aid us in music composition and production, but still retain much of the creative control over the outcome. Sometimes we play actual musical instruments and use computers to mix it all up, add effects, and balance the sound. Other times we use sound synthesizers and sequencers that allow us to fine tune the composition to utmost precision, and with relative ease, but we still control the outcome. What if the role of a human musician was drastically diminished, or completely eliminated? Could computers make music Read More

Both Apple and Google are building a relatively seamless ecosystem around their products and services, and both of them involve the cloud as a key component. Apple seems to be leading the way in terms of integration and seamlessness of it (no surprise there) while Google might be leading in terms of features, that is, all of the things that can be done in the Google cloud, with only a web browser as a client. I currently own an Android smartphone and a Mac, but I have to admit that Read More

Less is more. This is the slogan of the future. It should be among the most valuable concepts to keep in mind and aspire towards. Where “less is more” does not describe the current state of things the goal should be to rectify that. This idea captures a multitude of fields relevant to everything from the survival of the human race to its advancement. Here are a few key examples. Key to Survival In a time of crisis predicated on the depletion of readily available resources doing more with less Read More

Internet Explorer and Safari may be pre-installed on their respective operating systems by default, but in this day and age they’re generally not considered very impressive compared to the likes of Chrome and Firefox. At one point I wondered what purpose do they even serve if their makers seemingly put so little effort into making them competitive. A friend jokingly told me they’re there so you can use them to download a “real browser” like Chrome or Firefox. Until recently I agreed. They both seemed rather underwhelming. Chrome and Firefox Read More

Few days ago I watched the latest Zeitgeist: Moving Forward movie after being linked to it by a Facebook friend about a week earlier. I watched it out of curiosity, and since I watched the previous two Zeitgeist films. I also watched it because they tend to be entertaining, intriguing and daring. If you ask me Zeitgeist gets a lot of things right when it comes to identifying the problems we find ourselves in, but slips when it comes to identifying the causes and prescribing solutions. But why is this Read More

I’ve recently watched an interesting documentary about globalization and its effects. It is called “The Economics of Happiness”, and it lays down eight “inconvenient truths about globalization”: Globalization Makes Us Unhappy Globalization Breeds Insecurity Globalization Wastes Natural Resources Globalization Accelerates Climate Change Globalization Destroys Livelihood Globalization Creates Conflict Globalization is Built on Handouts to Big Businesses Globalization is Based on False Accounting You would have to watch the documentary for a full explanation of these, but the general theme is probably familiar to anyone who has visited this subject before. Read More

It may be hard to imagine, but back in the seventies you would be considered either crazy or a visionary (or perhaps both) if you predicted that computers will be as common as kitchen appliances, yet this is exactly what Steve Jobs was predicting back then. Needless to say this vision has materialized, perhaps more than anyone could have imagined. Computers are so common and even so crucial to modern day society it is hard to imagine living without them. In fact, a lot of us owe our livelihoods to Read More

News of telepresence robots prompts some to argue that we are already going too far in terms of replacing personal face to face socializing with technological means such as Internet chat, facebook, instant messaging, virtual worlds and now telepresence robots. Anecdotes of neighbors who talk to each other over MSN instead of face to face are bandied about as examples of something going terribly wrong. First off, I find it really interesting that this has become such a popular issue. I remember when my parents kept telling me to get Read More