Related link: http://osdir.com/Article3823.phtml

Like it or not people strip DRM from their iTunes music files. Howard Wen has anonymously interviewed lead developer “FutureProof” about how Apple’s DRM works, how to rip it out using JHymn, how they build on the work of “DVD” Jon Johansen, and how to upgrade to that new iShuffle safely.

In this age of email, IM, Video Chat, VoIP, forums, wiki, weblogs and such, why does Google need an Open Source Programs Manager within bus-riding distance of their offices? Do others still work like it’s the 80s?

I’ve bemoaned this to myself on several occasions, but this instance really got under my skin this morning: Google, the ‘internet/web’ people, want an Open Source Programs Manager according to craigslist.

This position will involve travel but can be satisfied by candidates located in New York, Kirkland, Wa., Santa Monica or Mountain View, Ca.

Seriously? The entire job takes place over the interwebs except for the boring part of talking to legal/brass. Why would you only want someone who’s capable of the bottom 20% of the work?

Seriously look at these requirements:

* BS in Computer Science, or equivalent experience.
* A proven track record opening software in large organizations.
* A thorough understanding of open source/free software licensing issues.
* Technical speaking experience.
* Strong interpersonal communication skills.
* Strong project management skills.
* Experience working with the technology press and online journalists/bloggers.
* Experience with Sourceforge, Tigris and Savannah and able to properly leverage them.

Geography is not that big a deal with this job and yet you’ve probably eliminated 90% of the best candidates. Including me. And that’s what really cheeses me off. Your best candidates “leverage” the internet.. they’re not slaves to geography.

How can Google of all companies not understand working collaboratively over the internet?

I live in a little slice of heaven and have considered moving a couple of times, but get pulled back by the idea of raising my kids in a nice little town, being twenty minutes from some of the warmest beaches in the world (in the summer that is), and generally resisting the idea that companies really want someone close rather than someone passionate and good at what they do.

Wouldn’t you rather hire that kind of person over someone who can catch the bus to work?

Related link: http://www.giantrobotprinting.com/commies/

Billy Gates’ recent comments about intellectual property reform activists being communists made me laugh and then it made me mad. I’m over it now… (what else would a monoploist say?) so I’ll just wear the commemerative T-Shirt. It came today.

No doubt it will rise ire with friends who know me as a Righty, but while I support free unencumbered enterprise I don’t equate that with permitting overarching abuse of intellectual property laws at all. In fact, it’s just the opposite.

Related link: http://osdir.com/Article3501.phtml

In this month’s mocking toast To Evil! Danny O’Brien laments the holiday habit of trying to hide one’s evilness from Father Christmas, but finds those evil proprietary software people can’t help being who they are. ‘…let’s see whose been evil and not so evil down there in the chained world of proprietary software. That sorry place, where slipshod users cannot hide their sin, distracted as they are by demons only the unfree suffer: the draconian wiles of restrictively-licensed media companies, the constant hammer of pop-up ads and malware, and - most dread of all - closed-source software with hard-coded integer limits, running on AIX.’

Related link: http://www.canada.com/news/story.html?id=7d5a65b1-8260-44c6-8354-ff4a1ef5d39b

Bill Gate’s ‘puter crashed during a presentaion at CES. While I admit to loving to hate Microsoft this is too rich an irony to pass up passing along.

Despite suffering through an embarrassing computer crash that prompted jokes and guffaws, Bill Gates promised that Microsoft Corp. would help consumers stay plugged into technology, during a keynote speech Wednesday.

…while promoting what he calls the “digital lifestyle,” Gates showed how vulnerable all consumers - even the world’s richest man - are to hardware and software bugs.

During a demonstration of digital photography with a soon-to-be-released Nikon camera, a Windows Media Center PC froze and wouldn’t respond to Gates’ pushing of the remote control.

Later in the 90-minute presentation, a product manager demonstrated the ostensible user-friendliness of a video game expected to hit retail stores in April, Forza Motor Sport. But instead of configuring a custom-designed race car, the computer monitor displayed the dreaded “blue screen of death” and warned, “out of system memory.