http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5184612/posts/summaryFri, 13 Oct 2006 18:10:31 +0000http://www.thinkingmonkey.comBrian DeSpainBlogger115http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5184612/posts/summary/116069439220239015Thu, 12 Oct 2006 22:57:00 +00002006-10-13T11:10:30.990-07:00I was thinking about the relationship between company culture, hiring and promoting practices and company success. Specifically I was thinking about two contrasting examples - Google and Enron. The differences between the two in hiring practices and culture are profoundly different. Let's see how those differences played into each companies successes and failures. One of the standard practices http://www.thinkingmonkey.com/2006/10/its-culture.shtmlBrian DeSpainhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5184612/posts/summary/112742194235759085Thu, 22 Sep 2005 20:43:00 +00002006-10-07T12:09:28.130-07:00Recent Google moves have left quite a few analysts wondering "What are they doing." The four billion dollar secondary offering, buying up unused dark fiber on metropolitian markets to a recent job opening that you will provide leadership on product vision and execution of projects that enable using Google's search and advertising technologies to enhance users’ Television viewing experience. http://www.thinkingmonkey.com/2005/09/google-network.shtmlBrian DeSpainhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5184612/posts/summary/115922399522757291Mon, 25 Sep 2006 22:36:00 +00002006-09-25T15:39:55.260-07:00One of the most consistent criticisms of the free software movement has been about the license. The license is too vague - the license hasn't been tested in court. This last point seems quite strange to me. Most software license agreements are not "tested in court." In fact if you are going to court to enforce your licensing terms - you on one level have already failed. However in Germany, D-Linkhttp://www.thinkingmonkey.com/2006/09/gpl-win-in-germany.shtmlBrian DeSpainhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5184612/posts/summary/115558662586290826Mon, 14 Aug 2006 20:16:00 +00002006-08-15T11:42:22.296-07:00This Information Week Story has the greateast software programs of all time as mediated by Charles Babcock. On of the most interesting about the article is his approach to greatness. Simplicity and over impact on the computing world. The list is pretty sold, and one I sorta agree with. I hate to do this but I am gonna sum up his list right here. Unix - Specifically BSD 4.3 which you can find in http://www.thinkingmonkey.com/2006/08/greatest-of-all-time.shtmlBrian DeSpainhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5184612/posts/summary/115566573137689523Tue, 15 Aug 2006 18:08:00 +00002006-08-15T11:15:31.470-07:00Well it's only taken 12 years for Sun to do but it looks like they are finally open sourcing Java. Recoginizing that open source is pretty much the only way Java is going to survive the next ten years, Java has slowly weeded it's way through the numerous intellectual property minefields contained in Java. Currently they are soliciting developer feedback on type of license to be used. I would http://www.thinkingmonkey.com/2006/08/free-at-last.shtmlBrian DeSpainhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5184612/posts/summary/115505036433821405Tue, 08 Aug 2006 15:02:00 +00002006-08-08T11:43:25.116-07:00Apparently open source software has gotten too complex. At least according to Microsoft. This particular type of FUD has a familar pattern. Microsoft finds someone who used to use Linux, but no longer does as "Linux was (whatever Microsoft wants them to say)." Microsoft then has the partner repeat whatever talking points they want to mention. In this particular market it's the ISV marketplace http://www.thinkingmonkey.com/2006/08/microsoft-fuddites-at-it-again.shtmlBrian DeSpainhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5184612/posts/summary/115455100233051238Wed, 02 Aug 2006 20:32:00 +00002006-08-02T13:36:42.346-07:00The Explainer is a column on Slate that is usually good at explaining annoying minutia or trivia. This latest column fails short of the mark. The column cover how the MPAA finds people who share on p2p networks such as bittorrent, heres' their factual error "At this point, the security firm will have the screen name and the IP address of the person they suspect of trading copyrighted material. http://www.thinkingmonkey.com/2006/08/common-internet-myth-12-ip-address.shtmlBrian DeSpainhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5184612/posts/summary/115273815252658733Wed, 12 Jul 2006 20:48:00 +00002006-07-12T18:02:24.066-07:00After spending a few years dening that alternative office suites and formats even existed, Microsoft has realized they need to get ahead of the issue and actually listen to their customers. If Open Office has done one great thing, it's to force Microsoft off their asses to begin to compete again. Market share like MS Offices' breeds complancy which is why nearly every Office from 97 onwards lookshttp://www.thinkingmonkey.com/2006/07/ms-open-source-wake-call-your-market.shtmlBrian DeSpainhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5184612/posts/summary/115030862025183702Wed, 14 Jun 2006 18:07:00 +00002006-06-20T17:37:54.696-07:00I have posted quite a bit about the network neutrality debate. In this post I have decided to handle some of the problems with the terms being thrown around by the telcos and cable companies paid pundits. These individuals often are using deliberately misleading langauge to skew the debate. It's time to control the language of the debate, since many of the opponents of net neutrality often lie http://www.thinkingmonkey.com/2006/06/net-neutrality-debate-terms-decide.shtmlBrian DeSpainhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5184612/posts/summary/114995697004812630Sat, 10 Jun 2006 16:11:00 +00002006-06-10T11:23:16.206-07:00The telcos are at it again. This time they have a paid pundit going on how network neutrality is literally going to end life as we know it. Your phones won't work. Emergency services will shut down. Cats and dogs living together! From his article, "Suddenly, the TV image goes pixilated, and then dark. The phone call drops. You hear yelling from your teenagers' rooms. But that's not all. Across http://www.thinkingmonkey.com/2006/06/stupid-internet-stupid-lies-is-more.shtmlBrian DeSpainhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5184612/posts/summary/114919428646158959Thu, 01 Jun 2006 20:26:00 +00002006-06-01T13:38:06.523-07:00File this under - ok it's about time. Macromedia has confirmed through Emmy Huang's blog that flash player 9 will be released for Linux with an emphasis on performance. Flash has it's place, games and rich web apps that can run effectively on the desktop. One of the lead enigineers on the effort is guy named Mike M. his blog with the latest updates can be found here.http://www.thinkingmonkey.com/2006/06/flash-9-player-for-linux.shtmlBrian DeSpainhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5184612/posts/summary/114901709410058459Tue, 30 May 2006 18:56:00 +00002006-05-30T12:24:55.776-07:00While this might seem like a pretty minor announcement, what makes this announcement newsworthy is the approach that Google took to port it to Linux. The Picasa Linux port was made with Wine and generated over 100 patches to Wine itself. So in other words Wine got extended in order to quickly move Picasa to Linux. This seems to be a back ended way to help Linux run Windows applications withou http://www.thinkingmonkey.com/2006/05/google-releases-picaso-for-linux.shtmlBrian DeSpainhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5184612/posts/summary/114848733728842776Wed, 24 May 2006 16:03:00 +00002006-05-30T10:31:36.686-07:00Microsoft continues to push those rock up the hill only to have them fall back down. In this case it was an objection that Microsoft allow it's media player to be un bundled or competing players to be embedded in the system. At the same time the South Korean Fair Trade Commission fined MS $34 million dollars. Microsoft appealed and then lost. An appeal is continuing to the South Korean Supreme http://www.thinkingmonkey.com/2006/05/south-korea-antitrust-body-rejects.shtmlBrian DeSpainhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5184612/posts/summary/113250801991033910Sun, 20 Nov 2005 17:30:00 +00002006-05-26T16:08:40.370-07:00I just started a network of blogs about three months ago. It's time consuming to find authors etc - I am not certain exactly how people are going to scale this to a business model but you can bet since Weblogs Inc has been sold, you are going to see a ton of these blogging businesses starting up. Well to monetize the blogs I used everyone's favorite contextual advertising, Adsense. I recently http://www.thinkingmonkey.com/2005/11/dhl-strikes-out.shtmlBrian DeSpainhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5184612/posts/summary/114842870358491023Tue, 23 May 2006 23:50:00 +00002006-05-24T08:56:13.773-07:00How free software thinkers are portrayed in the media has been a long standing grip. Part of the problem is that the grandfather of free software, Richard Stallman, is not photogenic. Then again not many geeks are really photogenic - I have met Stallman, Linus, Bruce Perens, Alan Cox so I know of what I speak. I am talking about the continual bias that creeps into the popular media about open http://www.thinkingmonkey.com/2006/05/how-media-portrays-free-software-not.shtmlBrian DeSpain