30 Dec 2007
Long Live Closed-Source Software?

I've never really understood the near reverential attitude some folk in information science have for Jaron Lanier, and after digesting this, I think I've been justified in my skepticism.

In an article for Discover Magazine, Jaron Lanier writes about his belief that open source produces nothing interesting because of a hide-bound mentality. "Open wisdom-of-crowds software movements have become influential, but they haven't promoted the kind of radical creativity I love most in computer science. If anything, they've been hindrances. Some of the youngest, brightest minds have been trapped in a 1970s intellectual framework because they are hypnotized into accepting old software designs as if they were facts of nature. Linux is a superbly polished copy of an antique, shinier than the original, perhaps, but still defined by it."

(link) [Slashdot]

20:10 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

World outsources pregnancies to India

This is quite possibly the most disturbing, if predictable, consequence of globalization.

AP - Every night in this quiet western Indian city, 15 pregnant women prepare for sleep in the spacious house they share, ascending the stairs in a procession of ballooned bellies, to bedrooms that become a landscape of soft hills.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

20:05 /Politics | 3 comments | permanent link