Coolstuff
Women in computing, democratize software development, build a more useful web and other cool ideas.
Women in Computing
The Enchantress of Numbers: Ada Augusta Lovelace - Learn about the woman who helped make computing machines a reality.
Association for Women in Computing - Bestower of the Ada Augusta Lovelace Award. DC Chapter
The National Women's Hall of Fame - Maybe you will add your name to the list of women in computing history!
Digital Divas - Are you a digital diva? Site by and for women professionals on the web.
DCWebWomen - Washington, DC women web developers.
Geek Girl - Geek grrls are cool!
Digital Eve Don't think I'm a PHP snob either: DataGridGirl is a fascinting site devoted to ASP data grids.
Open Source
opensource - Defining what open source means, what roles does open source play in software development.
OSDN - Open Source Development Network.
Both software patents and recent legislation attacking the traditional rights of fair use and the spirit of the copyright law (to promote artistic and academic endeavor not stifle it) are troubling.
DMCA Protection at U.S. Border
A Call to End Copyright Confusion
and the EFF call to action.
Building a Useful Web
webstandards.org - advocacy for web standards
Save The Web
Help save the web from the introduction of destructive technologies. Unless these are fought, the web may end up a useless sewer of garbage.
Keep Deep Linking Alive
Deep Linking is Good Linking (I will tell you if all other sites or the law allows prohibiting deep linking, I will prohibit it too. No one is going to prohibit me from linking to their pages without my preventing them from linking to mine. This is why any legal support for this absurd concept is dangerous to the web. BTW I will not link to your site or any page on it if I discover that you prohibit deep linking---don't even ask.) Very frigtening for the future of the web is this article on WIRED: ""I can envision a time when all the major commercial websites won't let you link to them without a licensing deal. This is a bad precedent for Joe or Jane Smith who wants to put up a little web log page about his or her hobbies or community. Will average folks be able to link out to a search site or a news wire page in a few years?"" (BTW which is a deep link, showing how useful it is). It has been suggested that sites be technically enabled to prevent (actually redirect or ignore) deep links. This sounds like a reasonable solution along the robot exclusion line. See the proposal (another deep link BTW, which would have been difficult to refer to by a laudry list of written navigation instructions, "go to his home page, click this link, scroll down to...).
Keeping the Internet a Reliable Global Public Resource: Response to New.net "Policy Paper" - A response to the attempt to undermine the domain name system.
In my opinion, software that:
Causes users to lose control over site navigation or interrupts normal site navigation.
Modifies site content or creates additional links using site content.
Prevents or modifies the display of site content.
Superimposes alien content over site content.
is unethical and dangerous to the future usefulness of the web. These practices may eventually prove in the courts to be a violation of copyright law, but for now have no legal precedent for guidance. They are highly unethical and present a grave threat to the existence of the web because they breaks any trust that users have that they are seeing the content as authored. Moreover, software that substitutes its own advertising links violates the user's intent and expectation they are supporting the site they are visiting.
No Web Patents - prevent patents from tangling the web. (There is an interesting parallel to the development of open source and patents to be found in the history of the Daguerreotype and the Talbot Calotype patent war. The process for making daguerreotypes was given freely to the photographic community. The discoverer was compensated by the government in exchange for granting open rights to the process. On the other hand, Talbot had many investors who he rightly did not want to shortchange. Thus he fought to prevent use of his process by those who had not purchased rights. This prevented his process from becoming the popular and dominant photographic process of his time. His business venture failed despite and probably because of the attempt to "lock it up." Look them up in any photo-history if you want to know more. )
Electronic Frontiers Foundation
Help democratize web development and other stuff.
If you do not know what The Elements of Style Strunk and E. B. White are then you need to know. Don't believe those who tell you Elements does not fit in the "modren" world that runs at "net speed" or some garbage. Or that Elements is "too formal" for the "creative spirit" because Elements provides basic truths about effective prose that are timeless. Elements is not an excuse for dry, uncreative writing or a guide for pedantic grammar police (have you ever read any of White's works?).
|
