Telling the World About Open Source Software

October 19, 2004 by Steven Garrity

When I first heard of the idea for the latest community campaign to help promote Firefox, I was a little skeptical. The idea was (is) to ask for donations of $30 from people. With the money, they will buy an ad (hopefully full page) in the New York Times about the 1.0 release of Firefox (coming Nov. 9). The name of each person who contributed to the campaign will be listed in the ad.

Well, I was wrong to be skeptical. Not only is it working, but I’m finding myself strangely excited about it. There’s something really cool about the open source software community sending a bellwether through the mainstream press.

I can almost hear Gandalf in my ear saying, “I come to you now, at the turn of the tide.” My name will be on the ad. Ad yours.

Hate Rays – a definition

October 17, 2004 by Steven Garrity

Hate Rays – (hät’ räz) noun.

An intense feeling of anger or hatred directed physically towards an individual, group, or object. Direction is often indicate with an intense stare, though eye contact is not necessary. Usage: She sent hate rays in his direction as he, oblivious, slurped his soup loudly.

Prior art:

Ben Folds’ song “Rockin’ The Suburbs” from the 2001 album of the same name includes the lyrics:

In a haze these days, I pull up to the stop light,

I can feel that something’s not right.

I can feel that someone’s blasting me with hate,

And bass, sendin dirty vibes my way.
Marvel Comics’ villain, Mandarin “…constructed a gemlike device capable of broadcasting ‘hate-rays’ toward Earth… The Avengers managed to thwart the Mandarin’s scheme and destroyed his satellite.”

USB2/Firewire PC Card adapter that doesn’t stick out?

October 17, 2004 by Steven Garrity

Does anyone know if there is a PC Card (PCMCIA) with USB2 and/or Firewire ports that doesn’t stick out of the side of your laptop? Something that ads the ports but stays flush with the side of your laptop so you can leave it in all the time.

October 16, 2004 by Steven Garrity

A little Firefox has been spotted at Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google.

October 13, 2004 by Steven Garrity

Tech support for the iPod, off-shored to Prince Edward Island

Notes from the Gnome Summit in Boston

October 12, 2004 by Steven Garrity

I drove down to Boston this weekend for the Gnome Summit. I have posted my photos from the trip and collected some rough notes on the experience:

The who/what/where/when/why/how of marketing open source software to normal humans (non-developers) is uncharted territory. I’m skeptical that we should worry ourselves much about marketing at all.
It takes about 10 hours to drive from Charlottetown to Boston
Americans like to express their partisan politics with bumper stickers. Some stickers noted on the I-95: “Veterans for Bush”, “Veterans for Kerry”, “Veterans Against Bush”. There was no “Veterans Against Kerry” – but I guess Massachusetts is a blue state.
The Stata building at MIT (photos) is fascinating, compelling, and beautiful. However, it strikes me as architectural masturbation.
MIT has really nice projectors in the class rooms
Harvard is bustling with culture and diversity. MIT is eerily sterile.
The Gnome Summit was held in the William H. Gates building. I was please that this was not the subject of as much mocking as I had feared.
Where my hos at, biatch? (translations: “Open source software is suffering from a significant gender bias that will hinder the long term prospects of the movement. Biatch.”)
Geeks can be really set in their ways. I met people who still think the classic Mozilla browser is “more usable” than Firefox because it has more options and someone (you know who you are) that thinks Gaim sucks (it doesn’t). The hard-core geeks were in the minority now. There is a growing respect for artists, usability-dudes, and general well-roudnedness.
I met my first AIBO.
My father drove down with me to visit some friends and relative in Boston. It was fun and strange to travel with my father as two adults. He said it was the first time in his life he’s been on a trip and one of his children has paid for the gas.
People were nice to me.

October 7, 2004 by Steven Garrity

Tod Maffin does a piece for CBC radio about personal web audio “podcasting” – including some references to our audio work