E-Scribe News : a programmer’s blog

About Me

PBX My name is Paul Bissex, and e-scribe.com is my consulting business. I build web applications using as much open source software as possible. From September to June I teach web design and other important non-photographic professional skills to photographers. In the '90s I wrote technology commentary and reviews for magazines, newspapers, and web publications, including Wired, Salon.com, FamilyPC, the late lamented Web Review, and the Chicago Tribune. Feel free to email me.

Book Project

I'm co-authoring a book, "Python Web Development with Django", with Jeff Forcier and Wesley Chun. It will be published by Prentice Hall in July 2008, but is available for pre-ordering on Amazon now.

Colophon

This site is built on a fresh trunk checkout of Django, running on Python 2.5.1, served by Apache and mod_python. The database is SQLite. The operating system is FreeBSD, on a VPS hosted at Johncompanies.com. Comment-spam protection by Akismet. Vintage topo imagery from the Maptech archive.

Pile o'Tags

ajax apple blogs browsers business design django ebay fp fun google hardware haskell intellectual property iphone javascript linux media mobile open source os x oscon oscon2007 palm php programming python rails rants reading risks ruby site spam textmate the well tips vcs web development web frameworks webservers wmassdevs

Stuff I Use

Akismet, del.icio.us, Django, dpaste.com, Emacs, FreeBSD, Freenode, jQuery, LaunchBar, MacPorts, Markdown, Mercurial, OS X, Postfix, Python, SQLite, Subversion, TextMate, Trac, Ubuntu Linux, wmii

A Django site.
(Finally!)

Copyright 2008
by Paul Bissex
and E-Scribe New Media

Stallman Inside

I bought a new Netgear wifi router for the house today, to replace a crappy old D-Link that didn't really work with either my MacBook Pro or my new iPod touch.

A business-card-sized slip of paper fell out of the box when I opened it. It was a little GPL/LGPL notice, with a URL for downloading source. Digging further through the included paper I also found a three-panel insert with six-point type that has the full GPL text on one side and the full LGPL text on the other.

People who buy more hardware than I do may be more blase about this, but I'm not used to seeing the open source and consumer worlds overlap with such tangible manifestations. In the end I'd say I'm more of a MIT/BSD guy than a GPL guy, but as an open source advocate in general I was glad to see it. I half expected to see a little Richard Stallman action figure in there too.

Sunday, February 24th, 2008
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1 comment

Some related posts: Songbird almost-0.2 • Eudora goes open source • International Freedom From Stupid Software Patents Day • Neelie Kroes vs. Microsoft • Why Tucows bought Kiko • Goodbye, SCO • Xiph, Ogg, FLAC, et al. • Songbird, open source competition for iTunes • Hopeful news from the USPTO • Burn all JPEGs?
• Comment from Steve, 3 weeks later

As a Free Software Advocate I have to say I am pleased, but a little Stallman action figure would be cool :)

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