Tuesday 22 May 2007

Petition to UK govt for open source software

I've just found out about a petition to the PM about making public money funded software development to be done using a Free license. I think this is a great idea, BUT I have a MAJOR problem with the language of the petition. The petition is titled "Open-IT-projects" and Open and Free aren't the same. I also don't like that the choice of license is to be dictated by the FSF (Free Software Foundation) rather than OSI (Open Source Initiative), the former could imply GPL, LGPL only but the later would allow other licenses such as CDDL. I'm not sure if I'll sign this petition or not as it stands.

4WD != Chelsea Tractor

I've just read about about F1 considering allowing turbo charging and 4WD into a future season of F1. I had a quick scan over the comments on the BBC article about this. One comment got my back up. 4WD != Chelsea Tractor.
Not for road cars does it imply that nor does it even hint at that for race cars, see the fantasic Audi R8 and R10 as prime examples of where 4WD is used in a really efficient race car for significant performance advantage. Or the original Audi Pikes-Peak cars or the Audi 80/A4 cars in touring car seasons gone by.

So repeat after me:
4WD != Chelsea Tractor.
4WD != Chelsea Tractor.
4WD != Chelsea Tractor.

in the interests of full disclosure my car is an Audi A4 Quattro :-)

Friday 11 May 2007



Sunday 6 May 2007

Garden in Spring