ITC.TN-RobertLaughlin-2008.10.29.mp3
4313 Stephanie Hannon - Why Should Y.mp3
4311 David Ewing Duncan - Evolution.mp3
4302 Larry Downes - The Laws of Disr.mp3
4288 Richard Whitt - Tinkering witho.mp3
4310 Ken Auletta - Googled_The End o.mp3

Worthwhile comments:

... I have decided to just post my nuggets that I have taken away from Robert B. Laughlin's The Crime of Reason.

...

Most entertainment is the celebration of disposable knowledge. In fact, when we are relaxing we avoid useful information. This is why some people do not like my Facebook posts and Twitter updates. They are on these technologies to relax and I am confronting them with potential useful information. (Sorry, but I do not plan to stop. Just unfriend or unfollow me, I am really OK with it.) Let me quote from the book, "Soap operas are enjoyable because their intellectual maintenance costs are low."

All advertising is information you do not want to see. "Advertising is Fun's evil twin brother. The two go everywhere together." If you want to enjoy yourself from free you have to accept advertising.

One would believe that all Google Books scans were freely available.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/podcasts/outloud http://www.newyorker.com/online/podcasts/comment

http://foratv.vo.llnwd.net/o33/rss/Long_Now_Podcasts/podcast-2009-05-18-romer.mp3

Romer notes that business keeps evolving as new companies introduce new rule sets. The good ideas are copied, and workers migrate from failing companies to the new and old ones where the new rules are working well. The same goes for countries. Starting about 1970, China took some of the effective rules of Hong Kong (which was managed from afar by England) and set up four special economic zones along the coast operating as imitation Hong Kongs. They worked so well that China rolled out the scheme for the whole country, and its Gross Domestic Product took off. “Hong Kong was the most successful economic development program in history.

June 13th, 2009

FLOSS Weekly 73: Tim O'Reilly

Hosts: Randal Schwartz, Jono Bacon, and Leo Laporte

Tim O'Reilly talks about open source and the future of web technologies.

Guest: Tim O'Reilly.

Tim O'Reillyis the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media. He works to spread knowledge on past, present, and future technologies though his company. Beyond publishing is recognized as a leading visionary for future technology trends. He is an advocate of open source, open standards, and is pushing for intellectual property reform.

• Brian Berry is the guy.
• At about minute 40 minutes in there's a worthwhile observation about running grass roots organizations. Brian says he's talked to other people running grass roots organizations and they all agree that the biggest problem is finding committed people to work on them. Lots of people want to come and talk to you but that's not what you need.
• Brian sees the future of learning activities as Javascript and HTML 5.
• He would like to see a JS/HTML 5 learning activity framework
• He had not heard of the Lively Kernel
• Nepal's education system, partly as a result of limited resources, is based on rote and passing exams
• As a result, the learning activities must be based on the curriculum.

Resources:

• Continuous Deployment (Timothy Fitz Blog Posting)
• Continuous Deployment at IMVU (Timothy Fitz Blog Posting)
• Timothy Fitz Homepage
• Lessons Learned (Eric Ries Blog)
• Steve Blank's Blog
• IMVU
• Lean Startup (Eric Ries Article)
• SuperHappyDevHouse

"No need to burn a CD. Just run the installer, enter a password for the new account, and click "Install", go grab a coffee, and when you are back, Ubuntu will be ready for you. Wubi is Safe You keep Windows as it is, Wubi only adds an extra option to boot into Ubuntu. Wubi does not require you to modify the partitions of your PC, or to use a different bootloader, and does not install special drivers. It works just like any other application. Wubi is spyware and malware free, and being open source, anyone can verify that. Wubi is Discrete Wubi keeps most of the files in one folder, and if you do not like it, you can simply uninstall it as any other application."

Practical talk based on actually running a business supplying Asterisk-based PBXs to small and medium sized businesses (SMBs). *They* don't care that it's open source.