So Richard Stallman (RMS, father of the free software movement) publishes some guidelines about booking him as a speaker.  The “rider” is excessive in it’s detail and that is pushing several people to poke fun at it.  Before you jump on that bandwagon, try writing down your requirements in the same level of detail and see if it reads the same.  Write every preference, situation and detail you can think of, colored through the lens of your staunch beliefs.

That said, does it sound so odd anymore?

So I have a long history with UserLand Frontier, a scripting and database environment that runs on the Mac and Windows.  I spent some time in 2004 as a product manager for UserLand, trying to shepherd the Radio UserLand blogging tool in the fledgling community.  I wrote my fair share of UserTalk scripts for UserLand and myself and shipped some nice code–at least for my skill level.  I worked with some great people with big ideas and even met some big people with great ideas.

One of those people was Adam Curry, long time Radio UserLand blogger, podcaster and former MTV V-jay.  Adam still uses the software and it’s cousins (OPML Editor by Dave Winer) to produce a website and RSS feed for his regular podcasts.  That’s an oversimplification, but for the few readers of the weblog, it will have to do.

Adam’s looking for some help with Frontier–the core of what has become many similar products–to make it run on a new platform and a new environment.  He’d like it to run under Linux for a few simple reasons, mainly to prevent vendor lock-in and give him control of his future PC environments.  I get that.  He’s reached out to the community that’s left looking for someone to take on the Herculean task of creating another “cousin”–Frontier on Linux.

While I know the source code structure and have a basic understanding of how it works, I’m not fluent in the kernel programming environment.  But, since I’m an architect for technology and some of that knowledge will carry over, I’ve decided to approach this problem from that direction.  I’ll jump in the pool again with both feet, trying to architect a direction forward.

Sometimes it’s easier for people to point out a mistake in someone else’s plan than to come up with one on their own.  Maybe my plan will get some people thinking and sharing and finding a way forward.

PS–I’m doing this for fun.  Let’s all have fun together! 🙂

Harold Ramis (Recruit): “What happens if I don’t get on the bus?”

Sean Young (MP): “Aww, you look like a sensitive, intelligent guy.  Don’t make me have to shoot you.”

John Candy: “I hope this is the mess hall–How ya’ doin’ Eisenhower?”

So I’m super excited about MW3. 10 short days away and from what I’ve read, there’s plenty in it for me as a normal player like me. I’ll be picking up a pre order midnight for sure!

Dave Winer: “I don’t ever want to be in a position where to participate in a community you have to support an undocumented API that’s implemented by a single vendor. I’m sure by now we all understand why that is too fragile a foundation to build on.”

via Scripting News: The RSS community wakes up.

John Gruber: “Apple’s priorities — simplicity, beauty, excellence — are becoming the industry’s priorities. You don’t have to be a former Apple employee to get on board this train, though.”

via Daring Fireball Linked List: The Apple-Fication of Everything.

Tammy is having some fun with Siri, the built-in assistant in the iPhone 4s. Today’s discovery was that she could ask it to ‘call my husband’ and Siri asked her to confirm it was me. It even offered to remember that in the future! Tonight I’ll show her how to post to her blog using Siri and email…

From the WWDC closing session, 1997.  Watch it all to fully appreciate the passion, but around 16:30 in the video, you’ll hear Steve talk about the future of data access, something we will all know soon as iCloud.