Farm News 05-05-07
Sunday morning, after chores, raining
Ducks and Geese
Bebe goose, operating on alert condition RED, is following her two goslings around the yard, accompanied by Sarge and Beth, protecting them from all dangers, especially someone who might be bringing them food and water. Ducklings tend to follow their mothers, goslings tend to lead their mothers.
Old Beth had a nest of eggs, too, but, as she always does, she left the nest as soon as she heard little goslings calling and took up the duties of wise old auntie. I don't think I will leave eggs for Beth to hatch in the future, hers can go into the incubator.
None of the ducks have hatched anything. It looks like many of the mothers were snatched from their nests in the night by a predator, for the population seems to have declined. It's hard to tell for sure now that they are scattered around hidden in their nests. Runner type ducks have to be about the worst mothers in the world of poultry. At least a dozen ducks were sitting on nests and not a one has produced babies.
Book Report
Palestine: Peace, not Apartheid, by Jimmy Carter
This book was a bit disappointing. Carter accurately put forth the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, generally, but he completely ignored one factor: the support given to the Israeli settlers by American evangelicals. Pat Robertson and friends have made several trips to Palestine to express their support for the settlements. Carter, and anyone else with sense, knows that the settlements are the number one barrier to peace in Palestine. Carter gave no reasons for the US acceptance of increasing the number of settlements, though pressure from the religious right is an obvious part of it.
The evangelicals think that it is necessary for Israel to annex all of Palestine before Jesus can return. Being good believers, they are trying to help God accomplish this goal. Blessed are the peacemakers.
Why Open Source Software?
I have been claiming that open source software meets William Calvin's six requirements for a Darwin Machine. Why doesn't intellectual property software belong in that collection? I think I've finally figured it out.
When someone wants to adapt an open source program to a special problem, they often create a fork, they modify the program and give the modified product a new name, calling it a fork of the original, creating a new species, so to speak. Intellectual property software doesn't do that. Microsoft hasn't created a dozen different flavors of Word, they simply add features they think will improve its sales.
Intellectual property software cannot increase the number of programs specifically adapted to a certain environment, slowing the development of complexity in the overall collection of software. Searching SourceForge for 'word processor' give 1011 hits. Some of those hits are for add-on components to existing word processors, but many of them are for separate programs for word processing.
To subscribe, unsubscribe, contribute stories, complain or send a gift subscription, send an email to FarmNews@GeezerNet.com . The editor reserves the right to steal ideas submitted, rewrite submissions, and sign false names to them whenever it strikes his fancy to do so.
Ducks and Geese
Bebe goose, operating on alert condition RED, is following her two goslings around the yard, accompanied by Sarge and Beth, protecting them from all dangers, especially someone who might be bringing them food and water. Ducklings tend to follow their mothers, goslings tend to lead their mothers.
Old Beth had a nest of eggs, too, but, as she always does, she left the nest as soon as she heard little goslings calling and took up the duties of wise old auntie. I don't think I will leave eggs for Beth to hatch in the future, hers can go into the incubator.
None of the ducks have hatched anything. It looks like many of the mothers were snatched from their nests in the night by a predator, for the population seems to have declined. It's hard to tell for sure now that they are scattered around hidden in their nests. Runner type ducks have to be about the worst mothers in the world of poultry. At least a dozen ducks were sitting on nests and not a one has produced babies.
Book Report
Palestine: Peace, not Apartheid, by Jimmy Carter
This book was a bit disappointing. Carter accurately put forth the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, generally, but he completely ignored one factor: the support given to the Israeli settlers by American evangelicals. Pat Robertson and friends have made several trips to Palestine to express their support for the settlements. Carter, and anyone else with sense, knows that the settlements are the number one barrier to peace in Palestine. Carter gave no reasons for the US acceptance of increasing the number of settlements, though pressure from the religious right is an obvious part of it.
The evangelicals think that it is necessary for Israel to annex all of Palestine before Jesus can return. Being good believers, they are trying to help God accomplish this goal. Blessed are the peacemakers.
Why Open Source Software?
I have been claiming that open source software meets William Calvin's six requirements for a Darwin Machine. Why doesn't intellectual property software belong in that collection? I think I've finally figured it out.
When someone wants to adapt an open source program to a special problem, they often create a fork, they modify the program and give the modified product a new name, calling it a fork of the original, creating a new species, so to speak. Intellectual property software doesn't do that. Microsoft hasn't created a dozen different flavors of Word, they simply add features they think will improve its sales.
Intellectual property software cannot increase the number of programs specifically adapted to a certain environment, slowing the development of complexity in the overall collection of software. Searching SourceForge for 'word processor' give 1011 hits. Some of those hits are for add-on components to existing word processors, but many of them are for separate programs for word processing.
To subscribe, unsubscribe, contribute stories, complain or send a gift subscription, send an email to FarmNews@GeezerNet.com . The editor reserves the right to steal ideas submitted, rewrite submissions, and sign false names to them whenever it strikes his fancy to do so.
posted by The Geezer at 9:29 AM
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