Octopodial Chrome

The little town of Steamboat, Colo. has switched to free software. Ever onward, Colorado!

John McCarthy—of Lisp fame—writes about the reasons that Marxism was so attractive. Something for us all to learn from.

A comparative study of 3- and 4-year old children & chimpanzees has found that man is altruistic even at a very early age; tots will do their best to help out, even at great cost to themselves, whereas the beasts only help if it is easy.

There’s a rumour going ’round that the Marines are censoring the web, forbidding certain websites and access personal email. I hope that this is false, but fear that it may be true. Perhaps the full story is untold? Still, it sticks in one’s craw something fierce.

Brainshrub argues against the widespread practise of news sites requiring registration. They’re only hurting themselves, after all: how many of us bother to fill out Yet Another Intrusive Subscription Form, and how many of us just skip it? Count me in the latter group most days…

Did you know that it’s a bad idea to taser yourself? I could have guessed, but never thought the tale would be quite so hilarious…

Just found a blog entry on the importance of having friends who disagree. It raises some good points; in some ways I am most indebted to those of my friends with whom I disagree most strenuously. OTOH, my best friends are those most alike whom I think (does that sentence parse properly?). There’s a place for both, methinks: on the one hand there are those who challenge one, and on the other there are those who affirm one. Both are necessary.

An excellent LiveJournal post examines programming languages in terms of sexual relationships. Extremely funny if you know what it’s about; beyond opaque if you don’t. I get it, so I loved it!

Oddly enough for a firm whose name means small & limp, Microsoft were at one point shilling their product with sex. Is anyone really surprised?