Friday, November 15, 2002

Thanks, Lloyd, for writing about the Info Awareness Office #

When Isaac pointed out William Safire's chilling op-ed piece from yesterday's NYTimes about the Information Awareness Office, I thought about pointing to it.  I'm glad that Lloyd has already done an excellent analysis of the issue.  Makes us wonder how much we should be writing about what we really think so openly on our weblogs, doesn't it?  Even pointing to the article could possibly construed as unwarranted dissension.   (Of course, many say, if you're not guilty and have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about....Right....What is "done nothing wrong?") Along similar lines is "Grounded", an article in yesterday's Salon (you need to be a premium subscriber to read it), about a blacklist of air travellers in the US deemed to be of danger to air travel.  It seems that a lot of left-wing activists/environmentalists are on the list for no apparently justifable reason.  Hmmm....   Posted by Raymond Yee on 11/15/02; 10:13:18 AM from the Web Technology dept. Discuss

Congratulations to the Digital Knowledge Gateway #
"The digital Knowledge Gateway, The University of Texas at Austin's Internet-based portal to its vast library, art and other holdings, has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF)."  [link from Catherine]   Posted by Raymond Yee on 11/15/02; 10:06:03 AM from the Unclassified dept. Discuss

The beauty of open source and how I want to give back #

Two days ago, I posted a question about wxPython, an open source GUI development toolkit for Python. Last night, Robin Dunn, one of the creators of wxPython answered my question. (Thanks, Robin.) Similarly, I've been writing a media adaptor for the Multivalent Browser (another open source project) to handle METS documents. I've been receiving a lot of helpful coaching from Tom Phelps, the creator of the Multivalent Browser. (Thanks, Tom.) Without such help, I would be hard-pressed to push on in using these fine frameworks -- in spite of all the work that the creators have already put in to make their systems useful to others. So what can I do in return? At this stage, I'm a newbie in using wxPython and in the Multivalent Browser --so although I'd like to help other users by answering their questions, I'm not able to do so very effectively. However, I will be soon enough. I also think that one of the most useful things I can do as a newbie is to document the questions I have and "how-I-was-stuck-on-such-and-such-but-finally-figured-it-out-in-this-way" I will do more of such writing -- perhaps in my blog or perhaps in a specialized site (like the site I'm hosting to document my e-Berkeley work). Ultimately, I'll be able to give back some code to the community. And surprisingly, it shouldn't take long to reach a point where I'll be able to do so. (For instance, there is a wxPython wiki for anyone to edit and make contributions.) Hence, the beauty of open source. I'd never seen the personal face of open source software until I learned that Christian, a former housemate of mine, is a contributor to GnuCash, a open source (or is it free software in GPL talk?) a personal financial management program. Christian ran Linux on his notebook and did not use a commerical package like Quicken to manage his checking account (like many of us). The cool thing was how rewarding it was to him. It must be rewarding to a lot of other people too -- and the beauty of open source is how individual contributions freely shared by many add up to great software.   Posted by Raymond Yee on 11/15/02; 10:02:57 AM from the Unclassified dept. Discuss