blog.ecorrado.us

The PDF versions of the slides that went along with my two recent presentations on open source software in libraries are now available at http://www.tcnj.edu/~corrado/scholarly/index.html. The citations are as follows:

• Corrado, Edward M. (2007, April 28). Open Movements and Libraries. Presented at the 2007 Endeavor Users Group (EndUser) Meeting. Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center, Schuamburg, IL.
• Corrado, Edward M. (2007, April 25). Models for Open Source Integrated Library Systems. Presented at the 2007 NJLA Conference: Protecting Privacy and Freedom in Your Library.” Ocean Place Conference Center, Long Branch, NJ.

For Christmas, my parents bough me a kayak. Although I grew up canoeing and taking row boats out on the local lakes to go fishing, I never really have been kayaking before. Since the weather has been so nice in New Jersey, I decided to finally take it out for the first time. I went to a small lake (or is it a big pond) near my house. Since this was my first time, I made sure I had my life preserver on. While getting in the first time was a small challenge, and my first ten paddles or so where a little iffy, I got the hang of it quite quickly and had a grand ole’ time. I even caught a turtle! It was a painter turtle with about a 6″ long shell that was swimming around. I reached my hand in and plucked it up out of the water. After checking out the little guy for about 30 seconds then I let him go. I actually saw about 10 turtles altogether back in the back-water swamps of the pond where no one without a kayak (or possibly a really small canoe) could go. One of them was a snapping turtle with a shell about the size of a garbage can cover. I wasn’t going to pick him up! He would have chomped my hand right off had I tried. Anyway, my first day kayaking was a huge success. Next time I plan on bringing my fishing rod to see if I can catch a few pickerel or maybe a large-mouth bass.

While surfing the Web, I came across an interesting blog post from Louise Kearney titled Open Source & the Common Good. If you know about Open Source or Free Software you probably won’t learn much from it as far as defining Open Source, but what caught my attention was Louise’s listing of what she considers the principles of open source: transparency, collaboration among peers, valuing the contribution of all, and innovation. She believes that these principals “are inspiring others to consider opening up knowledge, know how and design to create better knowledge, goods and services and make them available to more people for the common good.”

I guess what struck me about this is while I’ve thought, read, or heard about the principles of Free Software many times before, usually what gets talked about more is the Freedoms the software provides versus the principles of the internal community. I think this is something, for me, that is worth investigating, and reflecting on. With some of the highly publicised principles (at least publicized within the community), I sometimes wonder if many Open Source and Free Software developers always follow them, but I do think that the principles of transparency, collaboration, valuing the contribution of all, and innovation are, for the most part, are common in the Free Software and Open Source communities I am a part of.

Say it ain’t so. Who would have ever believed Microsoft had a monopoly? Well, it appears it is true since Microsoft has settled a class action lawsuit in Iowa for $179.5 million. According to the report on Yahoo! “The lawsuit claimed Microsoft engaged in illegal monopolization and anticompetitive conduct between 1994 and 2006 that caused customers to pay more for software than they would have if there had been competition.” I hope New Jersey gets on this action now as I’d probably get a few bucks for a copy of Windows I bought back in the mid-1990s. After all, if Microsoft was “engaged in illegal monopolization and anticompetitive conduct” in Iowa, they must have done it in New Jersey as well.

There is a community effort underway to get Tux on the side of a race car at the Indy 500. This was covered in an article that was prominently placed on the front page of the official Indy 500 Web site so I believe it is a legitimate effort. Linux-advocates can donate towards this effort and every little bit helps. According to a press release Tux will be riding with driver Stephan Gregoire in the Chastain Motorsports car. Their goal is to raise $350,000 or more in order to have Linux as the primary sponsorship. I’m not sure if they will make the ultimate goal since they only have $2,151.01 when I looked, but to get a Minor Associate Sponsorship they only need $25,000 so I think Tux will easily make it on the car. Hopefully they can raise more than the $25K and get a bigger/better spot on the car because as a racing and Linux fan I think it would be great to see a Linux car in the race. More information can be found at Tux500.com. I have not donated yet, but I plan on making a small contribution after I get my next pay check.

Sunday, March 4, I ventured to Cherokee Speedway in South Carolina for what was supposed to be a day-time show for the Souther n All-stars DIRT Super Late Models. I say supposed to be, because the actual feature was run at night. Racing was supposed to start at 2:00 PM, but that was really hot laps. Luckily, despite what I would consider a late start, once they actually started, the races were ran off at a decent pace. The Southern All-stars attracted a few really good drivers including Tim McCreddie, Freddy Smith, Clint Smith, and the Flintstone Flyer, Jim Duvall. Apparently they ran the night before at Bulls Gap in Tennessee and Scott Bloomquist won. Too bad he wasn’t at Cherokee on Sunday because maybe he could have gave “Cat Daddy” Clint Smith a run for the $10,000 winners check. The only person who had any shot at beating him seemed to be Tim McCreedie, but he got caught up in a spin in front of him in lapped traffic and was never a factor after that. Cat Daddy won easily after starting on the pole due to his heat race victory. He also set fast time. Cherokee is a little ahead of Golden Isles in that it already cut the track down in size. This was my first race at the track, so I never seen the bigger configuration, but I must say it was pretty racy in the new configuration despite the domination of Clint Smith. Unlike South Alabama Speedway, the owners didn’t seem to care much about the amenities, as the stands where not in the greatest shape. They are made of concrete placed in a hill, which would be fine – if the concrete wasn’t falling apart. The bathrooms and other buildings were also ran-down. So, if you are going to a track to see a nice-looking facility you might want to skip Cherokee. If you are going to a track to see a good race, though, you might want to keep Cherokee in mind.

My 2007 Stats after Cherokee Speedway are:
Races: 9
Tracks: 5 (3 new) (153 lifetime)
States: 5 (2 new) (37 lifetime)