• HDCP Sucks: New MacBooks Have HDCP, Gives iTunes Purchases Less Freedom
  "Because copyright protection is all about inconveniencing those who actually bought their stuff legally." -- One more reason to buy fewer movies, and where possible to avoid Apple because they are developing a Sony-like love of following rules regardless of what their customers think.
• Details of Roller setup at blogs.sun.com
  "4 million hits a day with its two SunFire T2000 servers at 97% idle" WOW.
• Brandy Alexander, Ron Sexsmith & Feist
  I prefer Feist's version - I got the Sexsmith version free from Amazon to compare.
• dinosaurs+mice, HPUX+Linux, OOo+google office, aka the Innovator's Dilemma
  Completely agree with Luis. People who dismiss Google Docs as inferior to OO.o are at the same time right (within their own frame of reference) and profoundly wrong (once it's clear that's not the point at all). I use both - OO.o v3 is great for authoring and GD tolerably good for collaboration.

• OpenOffice vs. Google Apps
  Openoffice.org comes out of this comparison very well.
• My Tinfoil Hat
  I agree with Tim; Alex Brown's analysis is cavalier in the omission of the rest of the industry context around the gaming of JTC1, to the point one has to ask oneself why.
• Sun Microsystems Unveils StarOffice 9 Software
  Sun moves into selling Mac software.
• CommunityOne 2009
  Now to be held in New York (in March) as well as in San Francisco (in June to co-incide with JavaOne), this event is getting a life of its own. The Call for Papers in now live, running until mid-December, so get proposals in now.
• Tragic Twitterers tweet goodbye to family life
  Andrew confirms the validity of another phenomenon he's not into with a summary "bah, humbug".
• Jonathan Schwartz's Blog: The Inside Story (Java, Microsoft and MySQL)
  For the folks commenting on my blog about the MSN/Java bundling, I suggest you read this and comment to Jonathan.

I’ve been looking to be able to code a bit of RoR while on the go. From a few devices which I have, N810 has the longest battery run time. So… Google gave me a nice How To from Jon Ferrent, it talks about N800 but it’s the same. I was trying to do all the steps [...]

Two weeks ago I have got my Nokia n810 a Garnet OS install. I did it just because it enabled me to used the Mobipocket Reader ( for Palm OS ). It works, just the fonts are bit dull. Now, to celebrate my toys functionality, I’ve bought some Sci-Fi book, which had a reduced price and [...]

Just been reading some blog on how boeing screwed the 737 and I’ve noticed great logo of the website. It’s not great as a logo ( as I have not clue about the values there ) but as a comparison of the size of aircraft. Hope it’s all in scale. http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/flightblogger/

I have recently moved from Stratford to Poplar. Maan, how I dislike all that packing up and even more - unpacking. Now, I have a bit smaller place but better in overall terms. The only think which I am missing is a place to store my rubbish gadgets. After some consultation with my tribe I will probably go [...]

• Burma blogger jailed for 20 years
  I've run into a few people who are unaware that Burma deserves no place in the free world at present; this story is one of many that should give pause.
• webmink's Bookmarks on Delicious
  Rather self-referential, but if you enjoy these link postings consider subscribing to my delicious feed and/or adding me to your network on delicious.
• Georgia congressman warns of Obama dictatorship
  Someone tell this guy the election is over and take away his smear list.
• Promoting open source chip design in Europe
  "Sun Microsystems Collaborates with Europractice on Landmark Agreement to Advance UltraSPARC CMT for Multi-core, Multithreaded Processor Design in Europe"

• OpenOffice.org Achieves Ten Million Downloads at the End of its Beijing Conference
  That's ten million downloads just from OpenOffice.org directly. Add on Torrents, mirrors and distro repositories and you have an enormous tide of demand for OpenOffice.org 3.0. Just amazing.
• Full text: Obama's victory speech
  Because I know I'll be looking for it again one day.
• Faust 2.0
  The average software end user license agreement is post-Faustian
• Obama Cites Michael Pollan's Sun-Food Agenda
  I'd not noticed this anywhere in Obama's platform so it's very promising indeed. Pollan's assertion that corn has taken control of America's diet through the big agro-corporations and is advancing its genetic supremacy by burning fossil fuels is very credible and can only be fixed by executive action if he's right.
• Turkish Proverb
  So many things around open source happening right now, especially sponsorships and bundling, make this one seem very relevant.

I wrote recently about the Sun Model for open source business, my high-level overview of how Sun is working with open source.

To summarise:

1. remove barriers to software adoption between download and deploy;
2. encourage a large and cohesive community of software deployers;
3. deliver, for a fee, the means to create value between deploy and scale, for those who need it.

I've had a number of comments and questions about that third phase. It can include all kinds of value-creation, depending on the product in question. Here are some examples of delivering value for people who have already deployed and are heading towards scale:

• For Solaris and OpenSolaris, Sun offers subscriptions that include the updates, support and warrantly that allows deployers to get the maximum up-time and performance for the minimum cost. You can get the same results yourself by hiring experts to do the work for you, but the Sun subscriptions save money and time.
  
• For MySQL,there is the same sort of deal with the addition of software features needed only by those between deploy and scale, such as MySQL Enterprise Monitor.
  
• For Glassfish, again, there is a subscription offering that's perfect for those who have taken the decision to deploy and now want the greatest value with the least fuss.
  
• ... and so on, across the portfolio.

Devlievering value can take many forms, and nothing is absolutely forbidden unless is creates a barrier between download and deployment in any way.

...and hardware too

But it would be a mistake to believe Sun's open source strategy is only about software. As has been frequently explained, Sun is a systems company, and the news last week and today underlines that fact by showing two new ways Sun is offering value for those between deploy and scale:

• Systems for MySQL

  Recently, the first database servers optimised for MySQL were made available. For MySQL users who have moved beyond initial deployment and are now looking for high performance servers with rock solid support at great price points, these are excellent. They are optional, but I'd wager most people will save money and create more value by graduating to them for some applications.
  

• Unified Storage

  Today's huge news is the release of the new Sun Storage 7000 Series. These new storage appliances create value by combining open source software with commodity hardware and very clever programming and hardware design to deliver low cost storage appliances with great performance. And the use of open source means the extra access protocols other storage vendors try to charge for are included free.
  

There's plenty more to say on this subject.  For Sun, open source is not a matter of warm statements of alignment while we carry on with the same old business or keep our core products proprietary. I hope it's becoming clear that the Sun Model is a directional matter.

• Obama: Open Source President?
  Fascinating comment from a Republican analyst no less. It's interesting just how impressed by Obama many of the Republican pundits admit to being now that the contest is over.
• Change.gov
  Someone was expecting Obama to win! This is a very promising and professional web site for the transition, worth exploring.
• Sun Microsystems
  New design for the Sun home page looks pretty cool. I like all the download links, and the news feed. Sad to see the links to top bloggers gone though - now what will we all compete for? :-)
• Sun Systems for MySQL - Servers, Storage and Software to Optimize your MySQL Deployment
  MySQL in a box.
• Digging into MySQL billing data from Sun
  Savio dissects the billing data for MySQL and Infrastructure software at Sun that Jonathan disclosed. Great to see the model working.
• New Sun URL goes live
  Yep, http://www.sun.com/ponytail