Acts of Volition

Having looked at music formats and instant messaging protocols, this final installment of a short series on open formats covers what may be the most ubiquitous of digital file formats: office documents. Spreadsheets, presentations, desktop databases, and the common text document hold most of the …

I wrote last week about the catch-22 of open audio formats. Online music isn’t the only domain in which open formats are emerging, nor is it the most significant. The world of instant messaging (IM) is another case where open protocols have emerged to compete with their proprietary predecessors …

We’re all familiar with the MP3 file format. As far as most people are concerned, the format implies free music. The software required to play MP3 files is usually free as well. That said, neither of these things necessarily follow from use of the MP3 format.  •  What most people don’t realize is …

Matt Round writes on his weblog about how strange it is that many wedding photographers retain ownership of negatives (or high-res originals, in the case of digital photography) and charge clients for additional prints. Indeed.  •  The photographer who’ll be documenting my upcoming nuptials …

Thomas Friedman has published an editorial in the New York Times Magazine entitled It’s a Flat World, After All. While the article lays on the technology utopia cheese a little thick (wireless internet will save us all, etc.), he hits on a critical point: the political and economic dominance of …

A minor epiphany this weekend, courtesy of my friend Peter Rukavina and a post on his weblog about cowboys. Peter writes:  •  “  •  It’s how the web changes how we think about the world that interests me.  •  I think that some of the ways the Internet is organized (decentralized, ubiquitous …

A few years ago, I started a small petition on this site for the release of the Northern Exposure television series on DVD. I am mocked to this days by my friends and co-workers, and justifiably so, for having undertaken a cause of such massive dorkitude.  •  Since then, completely unrelated to my …

George Orwell’s 1984 seems more pertinent and alive than ever upon a recent reading. Chapter 9 of his great book includes excerpts from a fictional manifesto of rebellion by the primary enemy of the ruling party, Emanuel Goldstein. Some of the excerpts are quite striking (in a “now-more-than-ever …

Earlier this month, those of us at silverorange retreated to a beautiful cottage on the north shore of Prince Edward Island to take stock of the year past and plan for the year to come.  •  Dan James, the CEO of silverorange, has posted his keynote address from our summit. Don’t be fooled, though …