Related link: http://osconblog.osdir.com/node/view/10

What I thought was going to be one of the more lively debates/sessions here at OSCON was a moderated session with Tim O’Reilly, Eric Raymond, Simon Phipps, Bruno “biggest JUG” Pres, from Brazil, and as it turned out Brian Behlendorf.

Tim played the voice of reason asking each participant for their views, and really, Brian’s was the one that, while we’ve heard it before, showed the frustration present in dealing with Sun around Java.

As it turned out the debate was very mild and calm, Simon Phipps disarmed the panel by saying outright that Java isn’t open source yet. But one suggestion from the floor shook the panel, and all agreed that it was a valid possible solution to making Java open source while making all parties happy.

The video captures the moment.

Related link: http://osconblog.osdir.com/node/view/9

Last evening at OSCON was the SCO Moot court. An entertaining and informative look at just how both SCO, and IBM lawyers may state their cases in court.

Over the course of the moot court two real-life lawyers stepped into SCO and IBM’s shoes and stated their cases expertly in front of the certainly biased crowd. Myself included.

There were many scoffs from the crowd while listening to points made by our ‘acting’ SCO lawyer that sounded, of course, outrageous to those in attendance. However, it was not all good news and cheer basking in SCO’s foibles.

Herein, is video of our SCO lawyer, whose name escaped me, who volunteered to do the job reluctantly. He only did so after many disclaimers that he was only doing so for our benefit. Reading between the lines, he wanted us to know that he thinks SCO are a bunch of snakes just like we do. So, if are are at OSCON and you do see this gentleman give him a pat on the back for doing such a good job playing the bad guy.

Related link: http://osconblog.osdir.com/node/view/5

One of the most hotly debated, kicked around, confounding, blood-pressure raising, and generally exciting topic for the Java conference at OSCON is the question of Open Sourcing Java. Will they? Won’t they open source Java?

Oh, you think I mean Sun? No, no, this is Starbucks country.

Presenting: “Talking to Non-Geeks: Why, oh Why, Won’t Starbucks Open Source Java?” - The Movie*

Enjoy!

*This is the sequel to the original Talking to Non-Geeks - the Movie.

Related link: http://osconblog.osdir.com/node/view/2

I got into Portland for OSCON a bit early. Three days early. So armed with my digital video camera I went out to talk to the locals to see what they knew about Open Source, Perl & PHP.

Hilarity ensues.

Related link: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/10/wireless_ipod/

I may be the one Mac owner without an iPod, but that’s about to change. So far I’ve always viewed the device as looking good, and having wicked good storage, but now thanks to some enterprising Romanians who’ve hacked it into a Rendezvous-enabled, wireless device… I’m in!

… a small two-man smartphone software company based in Bucharest. Best known for its Symbian Series 60 software, Simeda recently introduced a small piece of file discovery software for wireless Pocket PCs which implemented Apple’s Rendezvous service. Now they’ve gone a step further, and begun to make the iPod truly social.

In a bundle that hooks a Pocket PC up to an iPod - with the iPod as a USB slave device - the entire contents of the yuppy’s music hoard can now be shared with the rest of the world: via streaming or file transfer.

Mmmmmm. File transfer.

I’m not thrilled that it takes a PocketPC to make this work, but what a conversation piece!