confused of calcutta

a blog about information

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Entries from April 2008

Waxing lexical. Or maybe I mean waning.

April 30th, 2008 · 2 Comments · DRM and IPR

I’ve kept an eye on the J.K.Rowling lexicon lawsuit for some time now. Initially I thought it was an April Fool’s joke. Then, as I realised it was serious, I thought it best to park it at the back of my mind, I had more important things to do. I guess I considered the lawsuit [...]

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How to tell if you’re Generation M

April 29th, 2008 · 11 Comments · humour

Well, not really. But probably not too far from the truth.
Try this eye test with a difference (thanks to Chris Messina for bringing it to my attention). You can buy the T-shirt via OffWorld Designs

The difference is, it’s not enough to read the chart. You have to know what it means. And when you finish, [...]

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Musing about Flickr and YouTube and mobile phone cameras in the enterprise

April 29th, 2008 · 6 Comments · Four pillars

Recently I spent some time considering the differences between traditional office e-mail and facebook e-mail: the lack of bc, cc and forward buttons, the way links and videos and sound files are attached, the absence of spreadsheet and document and presentation attachments, and so on.

All that got me thinking. For a while now I’ve been [...]

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Learning about community. And an apology

April 28th, 2008 · 4 Comments · Four pillars

It’s been a frustrating time for anyone even vaguely interested in reading this blog: it’s been up and down like a yo-yo. My apologies.
Last Thursday my account was suspended by the hosting company, on the grounds that it had been reported as a phishing site. To my shock they were right. So the site was [...]

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Musing about “commercial” development of Linux

April 22nd, 2008 · 5 Comments · Opensource

There’s an interesting study of Linux kernel development that’s been doing the rounds recently. Published this month by the Linux Foundation, it makes for fascinating reading.
While it concentrates on the kernel itself, the report is still exhaustive:

Covers a period of over 3 years
Spread over 14 kernel releases
Relating to 3621 lines added, 1550 lines removed and [...]

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Want a break from being rickrolled? Here you are

April 22nd, 2008 · 2 Comments · humour

Tara Hunt recently tweeted that she doesn’t click on links any more, she just assumes that everything is a rickroll. And I have some sympathy with that view: it’s not just the videos that have gone viral, it’s the process itself.
So for Tara and for others amongst you who feel similarly, here’s a link that’s [...]

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Taking the long view: Or, Don’t Float Your Bloat

April 21st, 2008 · No Comments · Four pillars

Bob Frankston pointed me at this Dan Bricklin piece a few days ago, suggesting it was good background for a discussion that a number of us were having about infrastructure. [Thanks, Bob. And thanks to Dan as well, great piece. Something to discuss over dinner next time we meet.]
Dan draws out a number of themes [...]

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Of shoes and money …. and information

April 20th, 2008 · 8 Comments · Four pillars

I’ve spent the best part of three decades immersed in large organisations: watching and observing them, working for them, working in them. With very few exceptions, I have found the following to be true of large organisations:

We stress the importance of human resources, human talent, human capital
We stress the importance of teamwork and collaboration
We stress [...]

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The rise of the creator class

April 19th, 2008 · 6 Comments · Music

I was very taken by the launch of SoundIndex from the BBC, which came to my attention today. Why? Take a look at this partial screenshot:

The chart by itself is not particularly remarkable. Not until you take a look at the rubric for the colours under each track, shown as the Power Bar Key.

A good [...]

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Indulge me…

April 19th, 2008 · 5 Comments · Four pillars

…while I play around with themes for the blog. Apologies for disturbing your reading. I thought it was time for a new look, and I’m trying to do this all via WordPress for the first time. So far so good.

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