Entries from November 2005 ↓

Apparently the UK Royal Society has deemed Open Access dangerous. It seems according to the article that Open Access could be “disastrous” and possibly force “some peer-reviewed journals to close.” Am I supposed to lose sleep over this? Guess what, I won’t. I really don’t care if a journal like Phil. Trans. B published by the UK Royal Society that costs people outside of Europe or North America $2,737 a year folds. In fact, one could argue it would be a good thing. If it did, a peer reviewed Open Access journal could come in and take its place. Are we to believe that scholarly publishing will cease to exist if over priced journals go away? I think that is ridiculous concept — Of course it won’t. Many of the people that publish in these journals do it because they are required to because it is part of their job. They’ll finds a suitable place to publish if these high-priced journals go the way of the Dodo bird. The difference is the over-priced journals being extinct would be a good thing. Even the UK Royal Society admits that “some scientific publishers ‘appear to be making excessive profits’.” It seems to me that they might just be one of these publishers that are making extensive profits when their cheapest real journal (versus Notes and Records) costs people outside of North America and Europe $1,104 a year. Journals that costs thousands of dollars like the ones published by the UK Royal Society are why we need Open Access. I hope no one even comes close to taking the UK Royal Society as a serious independent scientific society in the fight between Open Access and more traditional methods. They have a lot of money to make by keeping access to scientific literature closed.

Despite some rumor-mongering on racing message boards on the Internet, including at least one by a so-called respected racing journalist who made a post that he titled “ NATIONAL SPRINTCAR LEAGUE FOLDS…” the National Sprintcar League is not folding. It is a shame that someone who claims to be a respected journalist (but in reality is just a PR person who releases submarine articles would post a message with such a title even if it was to “get attention to the item.” Anyway, here is the press release from the National Sprintcar League: Continue reading →

I just read an article (thanks to /.) about the UN bowing to Microsoft. Apparently Microsoft asked the UN to remove references to Free Software and to Linux from a document, known as the Vienna Conclusions, presented at last week’s UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) conference. You may remember that his is the same conference in which the UN was originally trying to take control of the Internet from ICANN. Luckily, I’ve heard that has been shelved, at least for now. To be fair to Microsoft, they claim this was discussed in the committee that drafted the document. That said, the Free Software Foundation Europe president, Georg Greve, who was involved in drafting the document says it wasn’t discussed. It is kind of a he said, she said thing. However, I can give you one guess on who I would believe first. Besides, even if it was discussed, do you really think the FSEE president would agree to these changes? Anyway, this is just one more reason we need the UN and other such organizations out of running the Internet. How are they going to help get the Internet to poor countries in areas of Africa and Asia if they bow to the likes of Microsoft and ignore Free Software that can be used at a much lower cost (not to mention is more secure, reliable, etc.). Even worse then ignoring Free Software is that in this case they actively shunned it.

Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday. I hope everyone has a safe and healthy holiday (and don’t each too much)!

I just read a story about Danica Patrick* getting married to physical therapist Paul Hospenthal. Seems they meet when Danica was seeking treatment for a Yoga injury. The details of the wedding are pretty hush-hush. I think that is good, considering that is apparently what Danicka and her new husband want.

* The IRL driver who gets a lot of attention despite never having won a race in an automobile at any level.

I just read that today is the 100′th anniversary of Einstein’s famous E=mc² equation.

I just read an article and it looks like Sony BMG is being sued by Texas. This is a good thing. I hope 49 other states do the same thing after the shenanigans Sony BMG pulled.

I have just read an article about the twentieth anniversary of Microsoft’s release of Windows 1.0. I’m not a big fan (or even a small fan of MS Windows), but a twenty year anniversary is a pretty big deal in the computing world and it is surprising that Microsoft didn’t make a bigger deal of this. The article had a link to vote for your favorite version of MS Windows. I voted for MS Windows 3.11 (MS Windows for Workgroups), but I really wanted to vote for Microsoft Bob but, sadly, it wasn’t a choice.

Some of you may remember my problems with Home Depot’s so-called customer service. Well, if I needed any reason to reaffirm my stance on not going there anymore, I just found a good one. They banned someone “last week from all Home Depots worldwide for [accidentally] pocketing a pencil” worth less then a penny after they just spent over one hundred dollars in the store. Great customer relations by HD. The only good thing about HD is they sponsor Tony Stewart and J.J. Yelley.

The rumored move of Kenny Schrader to the Wood Brothers NASCAR Nextel Cup racing team has been confirmed. This is good news. Nothing against the #49 BAM racing team that Kenny was running for the last two seasons but I think the #21 Wood Brothers care is a better ride. Good luck to Kenny in 2006!