Resonant Information - Page - Comments

Raw-imported, noise-filtered version of black shot

Zed — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 20:11:37 -0500

I've updated this to show a version of the "total darkness" shot that used a raw import and Noise Ninja to perform a spectacular recovery. Getting the shot right the first time is still better, of course.

Hammer analogy

Zed — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 20:03:01 -0500

The point was more that society places various accepted restrictions on freedoms on usage (by virtue of making certain actions crimes), and less that the restrictions on the use of hammers work exactly the same way as the restrictions on proprietary software. It's certainly fair to argue about whether one restriction or another is a good idea, but I am rebutting the idea that it is unacceptable to have to give up any freedom whatsoever in order to use a tool of any kind.

There are, in fact, tools with modification restrictions, however. Cars come immediately to mind: if I buy a car, there are limitations on how far I can modify it and still drive it on a public street. This is actually a fairly good analogy to proprietary software, since such software doesn't generally prevent you from modifying it locally (there are unofficial patches for many software packages), but only from redistributing it or (in the case of client/server style software) connecting to certain servers after it has been modified.

Hammers

Anonymous — Sun, 09 Jan 2005 11:09:58 -0500

"If I am given a hammer, I don't have the freedom to use it to remove the nails in my neighbor's house, nor may I use it to violently strip off my own clothes in the middle of a busy elementary school, whether or not I'm careful not to hurt anyone while I do so. As a society, we don't want people to have that kind of freedom. So if it's given that some freedoms should be restricted by society, why then is non-free software a social problem?"

A better anology would be a sledge hammer. Lets say you buy a sledge hammer along with some fence posts and put up a fence. A week later you are putting up a different fence and the sledge you have is unweildy due to the design of its handle.

In the proprietary model, you are prevented from using your skills as carpenter to modify the sledge in anyway. So, what other tool works the same way as proprietary software? I can't think of any.

In addition, which hammer actively prevents you from comitting certain acts? I'm thinking of lawful acts here, but while we're at it, which tools stop you from commiting crimes?

The rest of your article is quite agreeabale.

Nasser, Israel, and the Six Day War

Zed — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 01:32:10 -0500

I found some interesting quotes written to the Globe and Mail (http://izayid.tripod.com/TheGlobeAndMailDec11_01.htm), implying that Israel, and not Egypt or Israel was the aggressor in the Six Day War. This is somewhat contrary to the way it is usually explained, so I'm logging the quotes here.

Quoting Yitzhak Rabin:

"I do not think Nasser wanted war. The two divisions he sent to the Sinai would not have been sufficient to launch an offensive war. He knew it and we knew it." [Le Monde, Feb. 28, 1968].

Quoting Prime Minister Levi Eshkol:

"The Egyptian layout in the Sinai and the general military build up there testified to a military defensive Egyptian set-up." [reported in the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, Oct. 18, 1967].

Quoting Menachim Begin, while prime minister, addressing Israel's National Defence College on Aug. 8, 1982:

"In June 1967, we again had a choice. The Egyptian army concentrations in Sinai did not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him." [The New York Times, Aug. 21, 1982.]