Some choice bits from around the Web about technology, politics, and community development.
- Using Python to create UNIX command line tools — “If you work in IT, as a UNIX Sysadmin, a software developer, or even a manager, there a few skills that will set you apart from the crowd. Do you fully understand the OSI model? Are you comfortable with subnetting? Do you understand UNIX permissions? Let me add to this list the humble command line tool. By the end of this article, anyone involved in IT at any capacity should be able to create at least a simple command line tool.“
- Clinic with two doors, a symbol of two-tier care — “Both doors ultimately lead to the same area of changing rooms and scanning equipment. The same technicians perform PET scans and MRIs on the same machines. The employees are warned, in a written policy, not to tell the patients about the other door.” A stark illustration of what’s wrong with health care in the United States.
- Drumbeat: what will we do in year one? — This looks interesting. Drumbeat is a Mozilla project to “enable internet users to understand, participate and take control of their online lives.” It seems to be in the midst of bootstrapping itself. Not only does it seem to be a worthwhile project, but also interesting to watch a nascent project getting its footing. “Since I posted last, year one plans for Drumbeat have gotten even more solid. We’ve updated the way we’re describing Drumbeat and agreed on a set of initial goals. Also, a slate of ‘bootstrap projects’ is taking shape and early work on some of them has begun.”
- DVD Customers Are Not Movie Pirates — The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Fred von Lohmann counters the recent PR offensive from the movie industry against (a term that’s in increasingly bad taste) “piracy” of programming: “instead of catering to customers who want an inexpensive, convenient way to watch new DVD releases at home, Hollywood wants to force them to wait. Three major motion picture studios have declared war on Redbox, the company that is behind the red, automated DVD rental kiosks popping up in front of Walmart, McDonald’s and other retail destinations and around the country… Copyright law does not give movie studios the power to delay DVD rentals, so these studios have resorted to pressuring wholesalers to cut off Redbox’s supply, a tactic that has landed the studios in court.“
Enjoy your Tuesday. Have some links that might be of interest? Feel free to post in the comments.
