z33.org … sharing the love one nibble at a time.

Cory Doctorow makes a solid point about DRM and your consumer electronic devices in this article posted on BoingBoing.

The media device you buy today will not be the same device you have next year. Companies like Microsoft and Apple, eager to make headway in the digital media market, cave to content producers, and regularly remove features from products at their insistence. EULAs grant these vendors broad powers to make those modifications without the need for further consent from the devices owner. Do you *really* own your media device or computer? You own the hardware, but the software that makes those devices do useful things isn’t yours.

Make it your software!

Don’t like what your hearing? Install Linux on your computer (try fedora or ubuntu), or Linux for your iPod.

I’m not sayin’ it’s the best content in the world, but damn they know what hyper-text is all about.

There is one thing *every* open source user can do to help improve the software they use–file bugs. Don’t let those bugs go unreported! Get to know bugzilla (it’s really very easy to use) and file you favorite bug or feature request. Yes, file your feature requests too. Ever think, “Man, this oughta do that”? Well, tell the developer! S/he (well, honestly just he) might think it’s a great idea, shake his dead chicken over his keyboard and you get your feature!

One more thing. When filing bugs, don’t skimp on the details. Be clear and don’t assume anything. Someone is going to be reading your bug report in a void. Here’s a couple examples:

Bad Report:

Better Report:

I guess the last thing to mention is where the hell to post these bugs. Well, it depends no where your software is hosted. Many open source projects are hosted at Source Forge, in that case you find your software’s project page then hit the “Bugs” link and follow the instructions. Okay that was a bad example on my part because Source Forge doesn’t use Bugzilla. Many other’s still do.

Gnome Bugzilla

Mozilla (father of Bugzilla)

and lots more.

End diatribe.

This

    /************************************
    *                                   *
    *          Add one to i             *
    *                                   *
    ************************************/

    i=i+1;

made me laugh.

(Source)