http://www.1729.com/blog Writings about science, mathematics, computers and philosophy. Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +1200 InplaceCMS http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 1440 everyone needs to know about computer security. Actually I try, but I only get as far as describing the enormity of the problem.]]> copyright, and in particular against unlimited enforcement of copyright, is wasted, because it fails to directly confront copyright as a moral proposition.]]> computing freedom? Is copyright more important than the internet? Is copyright more important than freedom of speech? Is copyright more important than user-generated content? ]]> software patents is to make them more evil than they are, by vastly increasing the number of people who suffer as a result. And that can only happen if we vastly increase the number of people who can develop software.]]> Documentation doesn't seem important at the time when it could most easily be written. When it does matter, it's too late. (Article bonus: a motivational action point at the end.)]]> README files are great. So we should put them everywhere.]]> Extreme, because almost every line of code gets documented with a comment, and Negative, because each negative comment explains what would happen if the corresponding line wasn't there. ]]> Property is all about who has a freedom and who doesn't have that freedom. With physical property the freedom of the owner is protected by enforcing the non-freedoms of non-owners. With intellectual property, the non-freedom of non-owners does not increase the freedom of the owner. There is only a reduction in freedom. Whatever other benefits intellectual property might provide, this reduction in freedom must be counted as a cost.]]> abolish "software patents", or, 2. protect open source software from patent infringement liability. The second option has interesting consequences.]]> inside the freedom zone, and perhaps don't even realise how lucky they are. And then there's the rest of us, who, for own good (or so we are told), live outside the zone.]]> Miski may be important prior art with regard to the Kootol patent and claims made against various internet companies, including in particular Twitter.]]> multiple moral principles. But these different moral principles are not necessarily equivalent. The provocative question is to ask someone who invokes two or more moral principles: Which one of those principles is the more fundamental?]]> 14 moral principles commonly invoked in favour of copyright. So surely copyright must be a good thing? In this article I systematically apply all of these principles to alternatives to copyright, to see how the alternatives fare.]]> optimisation problem, like searching for the peak of a very high mountain.]]> Atheism is generally defined as a disbelief in God, but I find it more useful to define it as a disbelief in the various things that religious people like to believe in.]]> exact thinking. 2. Mathematics can be about two things: it can be about the real world, and it can be about mathematics. 3. Mathematics and computation are almost the same thing.]]> objectionable content posted by users of an application which is itself owned by a user of an application platform or hosting service, the Application Provider needs to provide TakeDown Admin capability to the Application Platform Provider.]]> hypothesis about the interaction between music and emotion, and based on that hypothesis I devise a strategy for the writing of song lyrics.]]>