"the be very afraid tour"

Eben Moglen

I love this video. To me it marks a turning point, a turning point in the fortunes of Microsoft.

About half way through the video while describing Microsoft's clumsy attempts to intimidate the Free Software Community the audience starts the laugh. Eben tries to continue but also starts to laugh and says "I know, it sounds absurd, I know".

What does this mean? Well it means Microsoft have shown us part of it's hand, part of what it hopes is a winning hand. And what happens? We're laughing.

Not the response the strategists at Microsoft were expecting!

The Microsoft strategists would do well to read Mark Shuttleworth's blog, he has a really good handle on it.

"The real threat to Linux is the same as the real threat to Microsoft, and that is a patent suit from a person or company that is NOT actually building software, but has filed patents on ideas that the GNU project and Microsoft are equally likely to be implementing."

But as clumsy as Microsoft's behaviour is, and as counter productive as it is too their own image lets not forget it is very very poor behaviour! I think Leo LaPorte and Steve Gibson summed it up best on the Security Now podcast.

"So here's what's so frustrating, too, is that the fact that Microsoft won't name the patents prevents anyone from curing the problem that Microsoft is complaining about. So they really don't want the problem cured."

When gangsters do this it is call extortion or a protection racket, why should it be any different when Microsoft does it?

The Anti Dawkins

From The Sydney Morning Herald Aiming for knockout blow in god wars.

I have to confess I have never heard of the "ethicist" Margaret Somerville but a quick Google search reveals her to be the author of "The Case Against 'Same-Sex Marriage'” and "The Case Against Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide". Hmmm, I can't say I have read either of these writings but they smell more like theology than ethics to me?

She says, "By attacking religion Dawkins thinks he is going to eliminate the world's evils, but he is so negative, so destructive in his approach, that he is escalating the conflict between warring cultures at a time when we should be seeking common ground,"

Dawkins is "a dangerous man"? Never mind the people flying planes into skyscrapers, murdering doctors in America, and blocking the use of condoms in AIDS ravaged Africa. Apparently, Dawkins is the dangerous one!

Hmmm, "escalating the conflict"! I do have some sympathy for her position. People who believe in supernatural beings do tend to be some what un-hinged. And as Dawkins and his contemporaries such as Sam Harris have been trying to point the out, religion is a big problem which needs attention. But, I can't say I think Ms Somerville's, "Sssh, let's tiptoe around the loonies lest we disturb them" approach has much merit.

Let's hope Richard Dawkins continues his evangelism of science and his thoughtful reasoned critique of religion. Let's shine a very strong light the superstitions religious fundamentalists and moderates hide behind. Let's not let them influence our governments to create laws based on "bronze age myths".