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"Disruptions By NICK BILTON MARCH 16, 2016 Share This Page Photo Credit Ellen Weinstein For a glimpse of what teenagers are into these days, all you have to do is visit Abbot Kinney Boulevard in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles. On weekend nights, the half-mile shopping drag is packed with style-conscious kids who traipse past coffee shops, ice cream parlors and boutiques, often while taking selfies."

[The market for open-source software-uncopyrighted, freely reproducible computer programs-is not well understood by economists. A central source of surprise is that innovation can thrive in a market without traditional intellectual property (IP). But as we argued in a 2005 unpublished paper, "Perfectly Competitive Innovation," as a matter of theory there is no reason to believe that monopoly power through IP is needed for innovation. The market for open-source software is the poster child for this perspective.] ...

"New research suggests that streaming is boosting vinyl sales - but a lot of records being bought aren't actually getting played. "

"New research suggests that streaming is boosting vinyl sales - but a lot of records being bought aren't actually getting played. "

"A startling fact is that there are in excess of a billion people who have some type of disability. That represents approximately 15% of the world's population with a physical, sensory or mental limitation that interferes with their ability to move, see, hear or learn. 350 million people in the world are partially sighted or blind. "

"OS X is a solid operating system for those who enjoy Apple's vision of the ideal desktop. It offers access to pro-level applications that many industries rely on. Yet it isn't always the most practical operating system for the casual end user. In fact, in some cases, it's completely overkill."

"You don't have to look very far to get head-bangingly upset about the current state of medical and scientific research. Pfizer (maybe) hid evidence that Zoloft use by pregnant women caused heart defects in babies. GlaxoSmithKlein paid $3 billion in fines for a) generating a fake journal article"

"You don't have to look very far to get head-bangingly upset about the current state of medical and scientific research. Pfizer (maybe) hid evidence that Zoloft use by pregnant women caused heart defects in babies. GlaxoSmithKlein paid $3 billion in fines for a) generating a fake journal article"

"In her Texas Linux Fest keynote, Joan Touzet talked to us about how to improve our open source communities. Joan's talk was a series of stories about communities who have faced a crisis and then rose above it."

" More good reads linus keynote Linus Torvalds: Security is never going to be perfect Why did you start using Linux? OS X versus Linux: Which is more practical? on IDG Answers If I buy a Chromebook and can't get to grips with OS can I convert to windows? In today's open source roundup: Linus vents his frustrations about people who design "new and improved" interfaces. Plus: Ten Linux dream jobs. And five open source alternatives to Gmail"

[The power of answering 'why?' ... I urge all of you who are parents, teachers, youth leaders, or any other role where you get to interact with children and youngsters not to shy away from explaining the difficult concepts. ...

"Think back on your career and the managers you have had. I am sure that you have had good managers and others who were maybe not so great. When I ask people to list what made the good managers "good", most of the examples they give me are to do with behaviour, or style." [# ! Via Alfred Hankell's http://www.scoop.it/t/women-on-the-go]

"The global trend toward democratization of the last two decades has been accompanied by the resurgence of various politics of "identity/difference." From nationalist and ethnic revivals in the countries of east and central Europe to the former Soviet Union, to the politics of cultural separatism in Canada, and to social movement politics in liberal western-democracies, the negotiation of identity/difference has become a challenge to democracies everywhere. This volume brings together a group of distinguished thinkers who rearticulate and reconsider the foundations of democratic theory and practice in the light of the politics of identity/difference.\nIn Part One Jürgen Habermas, Sheldon S. Wolin, Jane Mansbridge, Seyla Benhabib, Joshua Cohen, and Iris Marion Young write on democratic theory. Part Two--on equality, difference, and public representation--contains essays by Anne Phillips, Will Kymlicka, Carol C. Gould, Jean L. Cohen, and Nancy Fraser; and Part Three--on culture, identity, and democracy--by Chantal Mouffe, Bonnie Honig, Fred Dallmayr, Joan B. Landes, and Carlos A. Forment. In the last section Richard Rorty, Robert A. Dahl, Amy Gutmann, and Benjamin R. Barber write on whether democracy needs philosophical foundations.\nThis is an excellent yext for someone interested in models of the public sphere. While all the authors are proponents of the deliberative model of democracy (as opposed to, for instance, the liberal, interest-based, technocratic, communitarian, or civic-republican) many of them place their arguments in the context of other models. So, the book reads like a symposium of like-minded people, rather than like a rally of true believers.\nAlmost all of the essays are accessible to a generalist, but several really stand out (especially those by Benhabib, Fraser, and Young)."

"The impact of technological change on culture, learning, and morality has long been the subject of intense debate, and every technological revolution brings out a fresh crop of both pessimists and pollyannas. Indeed, a familiar cycle has repeat itself throughout history whenever new modes of production (from mechanized agriculture to assembly-line production), means of transportation (water, rail, road, or air), energy production processes (steam, electric, nuclear), medical breakthroughs (vaccination, surgery, cloning), or communications techniques (telegraph, telephone, radio, television) have appeared on the scene. The cycle goes something like this. A new technology appears. Those who fear the sweeping changes brought about by this technology see a sky that is about to fall. These "techno-pessimists" predict the death of the old order (which, ironically, is often a previous generation's hotly-debated technology that others wanted slowed or stopped). Embracing this new technology, they fear, will result in the overthrow of traditions, beliefs, values, institutions, business models, and much else they hold sacred. The pollyannas, by contrast, look out at the unfolding landscape and see mostly rainbows in the air. Theirs is a rose-colored world in which the technological revolution du jour is seen as improving the general lot of mankind and bringing about a better order. If something has to give, then the old ways be damned! For such "techno-optimists," progress means some norms and institutions must adapt-perhaps even disappear-for society to continue its march forward. Our current Information Revolution is no different. It too has its share of techno-pessimists and techno-optimists. Indeed, before most of us had even heard of the Internet, people were already fighting about it-or at least debating what the rise of the Information Age meant for our culture, society, and economy."

does Kurtopia need someone to mow the lawn?

no, but we do need someone to take our throm-dib-u-lator apart though

""This is a deeply thought-provoking book about the dramatic changes we must make to save the planet from financial madness" - Naomi Klein. Opening with Oscar Wilde's observation that "nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing," Patel shows how our faith in prices as a way of valuing the world is misplaced. He reveals the hidden ecological and social costs of a hamburger (as much as $200), and asks how we came to have markets in the first place. Both the corporate capture of government and our current financial crisis, Patel argues, are a result of our democratically bankrupt political system. If part one asks how we can rebalance society and limit markets, part two answers by showing how social organizations, in America and around the globe, are finding new ways to describe the world's worth. If we don't want the market to price every aspect of our lives, we need to learn how such organizations have discovered democratic ways in which people, and not simply governments, can play a crucial role in deciding how we might share our world and its resources in common. This short, timely and inspiring book reveals that our current crisis is not simply the result of too much of the wrong kind of economics. While we need to rethink our economic model, Patel argues that the larger failure beneath the food, climate and economic crises is a political one. If economics is about choices, Patel writes, it isn't often said who gets to make them. The Value of Nothing offers a fresh and accessible way to think about economics and the choices we will all need to make in order to create a sustainable economy and society."

[Here's a quit extensive synthesis of "The Penguin and the Leviathan," in my opinion a wonderful book for anyone who is interested in improving and transforming our economic and political institutions. Human motivation is a subject that 'makes me tick'. I really enjoyed reading "The Penguin and the Leviathan", not only because it paints a much nicer picture of "human nature" than the one used by the free marketeers, but also because it gives a glimpse of a future, higher form of society that will be much more based on human cooperation. I think it is important to see that the seeds of this future society are very much present today. ...]

agreed! thanks for this share... the book's on my wishlist.

"This site is about using the principles of Open Source software development to shape the world and the society we live in. I propose that wherever possible work is organized using these ideas and mechanisms. Whenever something is needed by an individual or a group, they will start a project and make it happen, no matter whether it is a children's playground in their neighbourhood or a law affecting the region they live in. This way, work is done by those who need the results and they are motivated as in open source projects."

"LibrePlanet is an annual conference hosted by the Free Software Foundation for people who care about their digital freedoms, bringing together software developers, policy experts, activists, and computer users to learn skills, share accomplishments, and address challenges facing the free software movement"

[... It has been sixteen months since I retired - or thought I was retiring - from my monthly column. A lot has happened since. First, my company was purchased by Seagate, and I am now part of the Seagate Government Solutions organization. That, of course, now changes what I write about in this column a bit as I am now a vendor, but I am still going to deal with the big issues facing storage and data movement. I will do my best to continue to not mention vendors unless I am referencing things that are in the news. Secondly, this will not be a monthly column - I'll likely post something every few months. And lastly, I want to thank those who have written in and asked me to keep writing. Thank you! The topic this month is going to be rootkits, which are nasty security issues that I think we all need to start thinking about, as well as what to do about them. ...]

"The Linux community, and the technology world in general, were shocked by the news of Ian's Murdock tragic death a couple of weeks ago - and rightfully so. Ian's legacy and vision as the founder of the Debian project not only influenced many others who went on to start their own distributions, but also were the means to create a rock-solid operating system that many individuals and businesses of all sizes have used for more than 20 years."

" y Ernesto on February 26, 2016 C: 41 News A new study has shown that music piracy is still rampant in the United States with 57 million people between the ages of 13 and 50 accessing music through unauthorized sources. Interestingly, however, these pirates also spend significantly more money on CDs and paid downloads, more than their counterparts who only consume legally."

"Anybody who has been paying attention to the net over the last week or so will certainly have noticed an abundance of articles with titles like "How to hack any Linux machine just using backspace". All this press does indeed highlight an important vulnerability, but it may not be the one that they think they are talking about."