Nat has some wonderful pictures from the black tie event that lots of us attended on Saturday at The (Lucky) Cave. There's even a really good picture of me. I have some pictures as well, but to post them would continue to cheapen the Internet as a whole, due to their quality. Nat's indirect flash makes a huge difference. Well, OK. Maybe I'll post just one of Joe.

I notice that Shona has added Rollins' Art To Choke Hearts & Pissing In The Gene Pool to her reading pile. I think she's in for a pretty interesting ride.

Argh. He's back with his specious arguments and overly broad, misleading statements. It's so awesome. His main argument is that if someone uses the Mozilla code and it's put into the hands of 30 million people and they pay for it then it's stealing.

Didn't he read the license? Anyone can do anything they want with the derived binaries, including charging for it. Even AOL. And since, by his own admission that AOL provides most of the funding for the Mozilla project, wouldn't it be OK if they benifited from it? Of course, Red Hat, the company that I work for, makes money from Mozilla too, by shipping as part of our boxed sets. Just like AOL. But then I guess he thinks that Red Hat is probably some big bad company, too, controlling our lives and telling us what to do. Because that what we do.

This guy is just insane. I love this comment in particular:

Mozilla's logo and artwork is disgusting. If you don't think so, try replacing them with swastikas and maybe that will help in your understaning.

Of course, then you would be using other logos and of course it's disgusting. That makes sense. It's like saying "Milk tastes awful! Let it sit out in the sun for a few days and taste it!"

Quick, someone reboot the internet. It's getting full. Time to clean house.

I don't think that the release of source code by Real Networks has gotten enough press. This is more or less equivelant to the Netscape release a few years ago, but they probably have more code in place and they are doing it at a better time in their business cycle (they aren't completely desperate yet.)

I haven't read the license in detail, but the fact that they are even applying for OSI certification means that they are serious. You know, not like Sun.

Phil Donahue is back. I wonder if he can balance out the rest of the media or our attention-seeking president and congress. Ahh, well. It's good to see someone actually thinking about the issue instead of just pandering to the huge christian viewing and voting public.

Another day, another dollar. I've come to the office for the last two days and I'm extra tired from all the driving. Jonathan is in town and he's been staying with me until the GNOME summit starts.

Last night I went riding, looking forward to some storms that were going to move through the area and make for an interesting muddy ride. I probably should have stayed home since the storms turned out to be pretty severe. They hit right in the middle of my ride, so there wasn't anything to do other than finish. At one point, there was severe hail and I was out there riding around in it. Tree branches falling all around me. Lightning and thunder crashing above (and around, it seemed.) Rain being driven into my face like gravel. Next time, I'll pass.

Today in the middle of the afternoon, I was sitting in the living room and I suddenly noticed that I was having problems seeing the TV when I looked at it. Then I realized that I was having problems seeing the laptop screen that I was also glancing at. There was a large white splotch in my vision that had started in the lower left hand side of my vision and was slowly spreading to the center, like a blinding light.

Something like this had never happened to me and needless to say, I was a little bit alarmed. I was most concerned that I had a detached retina since I happen to know the symptoms of that particular problem. After it didn't subside for about 10 minutes, I told Shona and she was nice enough to find an eye doctor for me to go visit at 4:30 in the afternoon on a Saturday. We rushed out to catch a train up to Harvard Square.

By the time that I got there, my vision had returned largely to normal, but I was still concerned that something serious might have happened and there might be some kind of permanent damage. The very nice doctor even stayed late to have a look. We went through the standard routines. Big blue light. Little light that looks around. Eye drops that make you look stoned. Then another bright shiny light. Look up. Look down. Look right. Look left.

Turns out there's no damage to the retina, which is good news. She guessed that I probably had what is called an Ocular Migrane. Based on the description there and the images and description of the experience, it's probably what I had. I even got the headache afterwards and was really, really tired after it had subsided. The jagged, shimmering light is a great way to describe what I thought I saw. In some places in my vision I felt like I was looking through a broken pane of glass, where the images were jagged and overlapping.

Of course, she suggested that I go and get a regular physical since my eyes and eye nerve seems to be functioning normally. I haven't done that in 10 years or so so I should probably do that some time soon.

Today was also Shona's birthday. I hope I didn't ruin it too much.

I've been riding out in the blue hills six out of the last seven days. For the most part, it's getting easier every time that I do it. I didn't ride yesterday because the previous day I had ridden pretty hard and then gotten in a car and driven for two solid hours. My legs hurt like the dickens after doing that. Never got a chance to get all the toxins out, I guess.

Joe is updating his diary again! Yay, Joe!

One of these things is not the same. Try to point it out.

Jackson.

Jewel.

Surprise!

Coal.

On saturday and sunday I went and rode around the white trail at the blue hills reservation again. On saturday, I did the usual - about 2/3 of the trail - before I stopped because I was tired. However, on sunday I was able to finish the trail which is about 6 miles long. The last third of the trail, which I've never seen before, was actually quite beautiful and not too hard. However, just near the end of the trail a rock was kicked up off the front wheel and smashed right into my right ankle. Ouch. It didn't hurt too much when I was out there but it swelled up right good when I got home. No riding for me today. It seems to be pretty good now, so maybe if I feel up to it I'll go back out tomorrow.

There's a really good article about sleeping disorders on msnbc. As someone who doesn't sleep well, it's good to know that there's onoging research into it.

Pav has some awesome candids from OLS 2002 on his site. These include, but are not limited to, pictures of me, classic Jacob, classic Joe, Nat, sleepy Nat, happy-touchdown-loving Alan, evil Alan, me and Graydon, ever the ever dapper Matt Wilson, Zach pulling string cheese out of his mouth, Deb, Phil, looking resigned, Shaver, trying to prove something to his much smarter wife, some random girl's butts, and shaver smelling something foul.

This is why you should never, ever believe everything you read on the Internet. There are some stunning inaccuracies on this page, leading to some unbelievably shitty conclusions. Great section titles, too. Communism is not funny, Deception and Theft, Copyright Violation, Mozilla is not web standard compliant, Security Problems, and last but least, to understand the man behind the myths, Why All This Rant?

Just to refute some of the more gross incorrect statements in the document, here are some important facts to remember:

• The artwork for Mozilla.org was done by Shepard Fairey, and is along the same lines as a lot of other modern corporate art. It's like saying "Communists eat food, we should stop eating lest we become like them!" Whatever. (By the way, I call Goodwin's Law!)
  
  
• Software of this type is called open source, that is, you can modify it anyway you want without having to worry about much of copyright constraints of non-open source programs. (All you have to do with open source is give credit to the person who originally wrote it)
  
  Incorrect. You must always respect the copyright of the original author of any bit of source code, open source or not. Some require that you make changes available if you distribute those changes (like the MPL) or that you give credit to the original author (like the old berkley license.) Basically, it depends on your flavor.
  
  
• What open source should mean is that anybody could modify the open source files, and even reuse it fully in anyway they want.
  
  Incorrect. See the full definition. The MPL, which is what the vast majority of Mozilla is distributed under, is an approved open source license, at least according to the OSI.
  
  
• For Mozilla, open source means that a programmer could download the files and modify them in any way they want, however, they could not use it anyway they want.
  
  That is correct. You must follow the license and respect the original author's license and copyright.
  
  
• In fact, the only thing you could use it for is making Mozilla a better browser, without getting paid anything. Now in plain English: I could not download the "open source" files for Mozilla and then make a better browser called "Andras Browser."
  
  Incorrect. First of all, there are no limitations in what you can do with derived binaries from the source code under the MPL. You can charge for them, you can limit redistribution, etc. However, if you have made changes to the source files used to build the code, you must make those changes available. This is different than making all the source code that you are using available, or requiring that you make the resulting product free of charge. Also, you can use that source code in anything you want, not just a web browser.
  
  
• Because Netscape owns it, Mozilla gives all of its source code to Netscape so it can make the Netscape browser better.
  
  Incorrect. Netscape owns the copyright to the code that is produced by its programmers. However, that code is put into the Mozilla tree under the same license as everyone else's code. This means that aside from the fact that they have the copyright on some of the code, they do not have special rights under the MPL. When I put some code in the Mozilla tree, I own the copyright and Netscape does not have any special rights to it, except those granted under the MPL. Netscape does not maintain any special rights.
  
  
• The work of volunteer programmers, who are not paid in any shape or form, is given to a for-profit corporation (Netscape) where they can then add any features that will no doubt make Netscape millions of dollars.
  
  Incorrect. The code is given to the Mozilla project and is made available to everyone, including Netscape. Netscape can add features if they choose, just like I can. If they make money with it, more power to them. So can I since I maintain the same rights as they do.
  
  
• Although Mozilla claims to be "open source" it is not because its own Licensing Agreement sneakily tries to hide that all the source code made will be turned over to Netscape to make a commercial product. This is also copyright violation.
  
  Incorrect. The code is not "turned over" to Netscape. It is made available under the MPL with the expectation that it will be incorporated into other people's products and projects. There is no copyright violation here since the terms of the license under which the code was made available were not violated.
  
  
• For example, if you go to the my site with Mozilla, you will be redirected to a non-Internet Explorer page because Mozilla cannot handle any of the standards that it should.
  
  "We're taking patches."
  
  Isn't this fun? It's an open process. If you can prove that your code is correct and Mozilla is doing something wrong, you can do something about it directly or you can get in touch with developers who will. It's as simple as that.
  
  
• Let me underscore this with another example. A country is fighting a war. It wants to see what problems it has with its military so it opens all sensitive files to the public. While most people will help their native country by reporting most of the problems, some will undoubtedly exploit these problems. In conclusion, Mozilla is a potential security bomb waiting to go off at anytime.
  
  Guess what? People find security bugs in non-open projects all the time, just like in open source projects. In fact, some would say more. Insurance companies are offering insurance for hacker breakins. Guess what? The insurance rates for non-open source operating systems are higher, not lower. So, while this may seem like a logical argument, in reality it doesn't stand up.
  
  
• [AOL rant]
  
  Whatever. I work on Mozilla, not Netscape.
  
  I'll ask a rhetorical question, though: Would you want a world where Microsoft rules as tyrant king over all media? Fine. Support Mozilla. Help build software the gives you options.

And can someone tell this guy that the word 'stuff' has two 'f's in it? Thanks.

It seems that an old friend of mine is in this month's Jane Magazine. If you go look at the current issue, I think that's her holding some unlucky (lucky?) guy in some kind of crazed headlock. Anyway, it seems that since the last time I saw her, she's done quite well for herself.

I'm not sure if I like the fact that these quotes will show up in LexisNexis when someone searches for my name for all eternity. They are pretty out of context, and don't necessarily reflect how I feel anymore. Plus, they are just seething with arrogance. I've also met a lot more people who have gotten something out of school. I just didn't know the right people, I guess.

Another excellent article about the history of the pledge of allegiance and our national motto "In God We Trust" as well. I wish that we still had "E Pluribus Unum" (From Many, One) which I think holds a much deeper meaning, politically speaking.