Slashback: ICANN, OLPC, Agile, Yahoo, BayStar 84
Spamhaus case tests ICANN. narramissic writes, "The U.S. court decision against the anti-spam black-lister Spamhaus Project Ltd. may trigger a 'constitutional crisis' for the Internet, say Internet experts. At issue is whether the U.S. court has jurisdiction over the U.K.-based project. Observers worry that any attempt by U.S. courts to exert control over ICANN could be bad for the Internet. 'It's a delicate time for ICANN right now,' said David McGuire, director of communications with the Center for Democracy and Technology... 'If a court were to order ICANN to remove a domain name, we think that would be a bad precedent because making ICANN a tool of the U.S. legal system in matters such as these would sidetrack ICANN from its very important duties.'"
Time is running out for OLPC sign-up. smilindog2000 writes, "Mike Liveright made news when he pledged, 'I will purchase the $100 laptop at $300 but only if 100,000 others will too.' The deadline for his challenge is October 31, and so far, only 3,330 of us have signed up. Surely, thousands of us Slashdotters would contribute $300 out of generosity. However, I'll do it for the rare privilege of owning an original edition One Laptop Per Child machine. Do other Slashdotters want one of these beasties as badly as me? My inner child has fallen in love."
More Agile commentary from Yegge. tmortn writes, "A couple of weeks ago Steve Yegge posted a harsh critique of Agile Methodologies that enjoyed a pretty spirited debate here on Slashdot and a few other sites. Recently he posted a followup to the mounds of return fire to his rant against Agile methodologies."
Yahoo's time capsule permit revoked by Mexico. prostoalex writes, "Yahoo's time capsule project has been jeopardized by the Mexican government, who revoked the permit given to Yahoo! previously. 'We did have the permit, but Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) told us Monday night that it could not be done,' Manuel Mazzanti, head of marketing at Yahoo Mexico, said on Wednesday. An INAH spokesman said the Yahoo event posed technical and operational problems that might damage Teotihuacan. 'We are the guardians of the heritage of Mexico,' the spokesman said."
Microsoft denies BayStar connection. walterbyrd writes to point out an InfoWorld article reporting that Microsoft has denied any financial connection to BayStar, the company that bankrolled SCO's anti-open source lawsuit.
Re:I'm not surprised (Score:1, Insightful)
That doesn't sound like a lot compared to world population, but it actually is in terms of niche: Consider that only 30,000 copies is considered good sales for a computer book. Consider that Starbucks are 'everywhere' with only 12,000 shops.
Yeah, only 30,000 for computer books; I was amazed when my publisher said that too. But consider the combined population of the US, UK, and Canada is 390,000,000 and divide by 30k - that's one book for every 13,000 people.
You're really just not going to get 100,000 CM1 enthusiasts willing to take part in this.
It's Not a Bomb -- It's a Device That Explodes (Score:3, Insightful)
In some ways, I'd consider MS's actions WRT Baystar even worse than just bankrolling the investment -- They convinced Baystar that they'd be backing up the investment then, once baystar committed their money, MS goes -- Oops! just kidding you. We really can't cover your back for you!.
It should also be noted that the same consultant who charged SCO for arranging the Baystar 'investment' also took a similar cut for MS's supposed license buy and for the same reason -- that it was an infusion of cash (as oppopsed to a legitimate license upgrade).
What better jurisdiction for ICANN? (Score:3, Insightful)
If an American one is "bad", can anyone name a better one?
A European country's? Where denying Holocaust and/or Turkey's genocide of Armenians is illegal? Chinese? Nigerian?
Yegge missed a critical strengthening point (Score:1, Insightful)
The bigger problem is the Hawthorne effect - if a group of people knows that their performance is being studied as part of an experiment, there is a temporary lift in performance. The result is that when you try any new methodology out, you're likely to have a success with your pilot group regardless of the merits of the methodology being tested. This compounds the whole mistaking correlation for causation thing.
In another random note, my favorite "correlation isn't causation" is the observation that among schoolchildren, height and spelling ability are strongly correlated. Tall children spell better. The effect is very easy to demonstrate.
But don't draw any conclusions from this about tall people being better spellers. The real explanation is that taller children tend to be older, and older children tend to spell better than young ones.
OLPC smells fishy to me (Score:3, Insightful)
Condescension sucks: Why does the OLPC need a special user interface ("Sugar")? Designing down to kids is a recipe for crap, as well as a refuge for the incompetent. Remember Logo? Well the guy behind Logo, Seymour Papert, is part of this project [laptop.org].
Dogfood gap:Torvalds uses Linux. Gates uses Windows. Jobs uses MacOS. Is Negroponte going to use the OLPC? Of course he'll play with one, but for real work - no way.
From the FAQ [laptop.org]:
Why? Why do they need "the newest technology"? And if they do, shouldn't we admit that the newest technology is a Windows PC, not some oddball "educational computer"? The 400MHz CPU and 128M RAM are not in line with the newest technology.
Again, from the FAQ: So you're going to manufacture and handle the OLPC in less than one hour? Or maybe 100 million is the wrong number to start with. The question should be, which is more expensive, making an OLPC or refurbishing a normal computer.
Looks like the tech version of "Live Aid".
I remember Logo (Score:3, Insightful)
I have no idea where you get the OLPC is "designing down to kids." Maybe it is for children who grow up with iPods, XBoxen, broadband Internet access and plasma TVs. Keep in mind who this product is being designed for though. (Hint: It isn't the kids at Beverly Hills High.) Most of the target audience doesn't even have reliable electrical utility service -- hence the hand-crank to generate power -- let alone access to all of the high-tech resources and modern conveniences that you and I take for granted.
I do remember Logo [wikipedia.org]! My first exposure to it was in the second grade. We actually had a real "turtle," wired to a computer, that would move around on the floor and draw out our programs (after testing them on the computer, of course). Logo taught me a lot about the geometric principles of distance and direction half a decade before they got around to teaching it in school.
My second exposure to Logo was in the seventh grade. Only the on-screen turtle this time around, but now I was exploring complex trigonometric relationships three years before I would actually take a trigonometry course. I also programmed a simplistic question-and-response interface to draw complex objects based on user input. The latter project certainly illustrated the relative limitations of Logo as a programming language, but I was really more interested in the geometric features anyway.
Crap on Logo if you want, but it is an excellent entry-level programming language for young people.
Good! Then there's a chance that these things will actually be usable by the users for which they're intended. I suppose we could hand them laptops with CLI Debian and say "go for it," but what use is that? Most of these kids can barely read -- one of the forces driving this projet is that there is a critical shortage of qualified teachers in these un(der)developed areas, hence the OLPC needs to be a surrogate teacher. Think more "Sesame Street," with Count von Count [wikipedia.org] counting to eight ('cause that's how many fingers he has! And look! There's Big Bird! Isn't learning fun?), and less differential equations in calculus (extremely powerful stuff to be sure, but also totally overwelming for someone who is just learning how to add integers).
Re:It's Not a Bomb -- It's a Device That Explodes (Score:3, Insightful)
When listening to diplomats (and PR people are the corporate version of diplomats), you must pay as much attention to what unexpectantly isn't said as what is.