Kevin O'Brien
Author's posts
Aug 21
Review of Where Wizards Stay Up Late
Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet by Katie Hafner My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is a classic book that sat on my shelf for a while and I just decided to pick it up and read. It was very rewarding. It tells the story of how the Internet came …
Mar 24
What’s Wrong With Free, Anyway?
So I am at my LUG meeting the other night listening to a spirited discussion, which is pretty normal for us. We have a lot of very opinionated people there, and there is never a lack of discussion. The trick is getting a word in edgewise, and normally three people are all talking at once …
Jan 31
Tablet share numbers prove I was right
In November 2011 I made the claim here, and on my blog, that by the end of 2012 Apple and Android would have essentially equal market shares. And the 4th Q 2012 numbers show that I was correct. I doubt there are any wonderful prizes for this, but there it is. My prediction was based …
Jan 23
Review of The Daemon, the Gnu, and the Penguin
The Daemon, the Gnu, and the Penguin by Peter H. Salus</a> My rating: 4 of 5 stars I give this a high rating because it does what it sets out to do very well. Peter Salus was involved in the history of Unix and Linux, which makes him a good guide to that history. He …
Oct 12
Data-Driven Objectivity
I recently had an exchange online with someone I tend to like, and it was about self-driving cars. My correspondent said that he would never, under any circumstances, get into a self-driven car. In fact, he seemed to think that self-driven cars would lead to carnage on the roads. My own opinion is that human …
Oct 09
KDE Manifesto Released
The KDE project has released its Manifesto. Since this is my desktop of choice, I thought I should mention it. It is very good: The KDE Manifesto We are a community of technologists, designers, writers and advocates who work to ensure freedom for all people through our software. Because of this work we have come …
May 28
Penguicon 2012 – April 27-29, Dearborn, MI
I thought I would share my own impressions of Penguicon 2012, which was held at the Dearborn Hyatt in Dearborn, Michigan, USA, on April 27-29, 2012. This is a rather unusual event, combining as it does both a Science Fiction convention and a Linux Fest. There are many examples of each of these, of course, …
May 12
Stop Buying from Dell Computer
At a recent company meeting in Denmark, something very disturbing happened. An “entertainer” was brought on stage right after Michael Dell and proceeded to complement the crowd on not having many women. He then said IT should remain a bastion of male privilege, and the the way to address women as “Shut up, bitches.” You …
May 11
Freedom and Licensing – Some Thoughts
A few weeks back there was a small tempest-in-a-teacup when Linux Action Show invited Richard Stallman (RMS) on to their show, and were astonished that he refused to compromise his views. This led Bryan Lunduke to accuse Stallman of wanting to starve the Lunduke family since he would not give his imprimatur to Mr. Lunduke …
Mar 25
Ohio LinuxFest Calls for Women
Please Redistribute I had two things happen to me this week that got me thinking. The first was the unforced error by Sqoot that by now has reached everyone on the Internet (but if you missed it for some reason, see Joe Brockmeier’s article at http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2012/03/how-casual-sexism-put-sqoot-in.php ). The other was an inquiry I got from …
