slashdot linked a reply to Larry McVoy (Bitkeeper Creator) from RMS - RMS skillfully points out that it doesn't make sense for Larry to alienate the community that he wants to market Bitkeeper for him. I don't often agree with RMS but when he writes something so short there's little room for religious overtones.#

last week at gene expression, razib wrote about how there are different kinds of democracies, using "islamic democracy" as an example, that a very, very different the liberal democracies of the Anglospheric/American/Western world. it's interesting.#

scott, of scott on writing, gives advice to those who are interested in writing for a technical website. he puts a lot of emphasis on getting answers from editors and stick to them - like everything, it doesn't matter if you did something for someone really good if it's something they never wanted in the first place. scott also links a neat weblog entry from scott hanselman about how to give a successful MSFT presentation, and it really gives advice about good presentations in general#

at peerfear, kevin wonders about ways to handle badges on weblogs better. it's getting to the point where there is an obscene amount of batches and blog sidebars a starting to look like boyscout vests. funny, and insightful.#

do you write songs for your cat?#

from the erosblog, bacchus offers his opinions on polyamorous relationships. he links lilith's note of the day, a blog that talks about one woman's poly lifestyle, which has interesting posts about how to [mess up] relationships and how marriage is more than a piece of paper, and need not be a piece of paper at all - interesting, in the personal sort of way.#

richard tallent thinks about tim bray's recent post on resources and what they really mean. do they "identify" or "locate" pieces of information? or something else? must they always talk to to information? he struggles with identify a common framework to wrap something that is inherently unstable up in. so this branches the discussion into: what are URIs NOW? ( richard says they are "references with temporal context" ) and what should URIs be in the future of the semantic web? (richard does not ask this question, but it seems like this is the question people are generally asking when they talk about URIs)#

adam curry links this very strange optical illusion that looks like it is moving, except it can't be because there's no animation capability in jpgs. weeeeird.#

anil dash offers to kick microsoft's font team in the balls for a mere eleven dollars for creating such crappy user interfaces for the font system. rants are the best.#

charles miller tells us the real purpose of corporations: ''the modern corporation exists as a means by which people can get involved in risky ventures, and then be protected from having to pay their debts by the government if the venture fails. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Libertarians.''#

brian hess reviews the new tomb raider movie.#

kevin, at lawver.net, shares memories of his strange childhood home and his strategies for getting girls back in those days.#

russell beattie links someone who is blogging gencon, the roleplaying conference, (and who links the great Norton I, Emperor of The United States - russell writes that he has fond memories of playing D&D but doesn't think he could "get into" a game these days because he cares too much about real life. i feel the same way, part of me would like it, but part of me would hate it because i'm a bigot who thinks i have better things to do.#

ted leung offers an interesting story about how adam bosworth inspired his team and help his career. it's interesting to think of people who did great things to help you but never knew it.#

kim is starting to read a really good book that i recently read - From Dawn to Decadence. it's the best history book i've read. i can't wait to read more from the author, Jacques Barzun.#

mpt identifies weblogging system by their URIs and gives more advice on how to make your URIs usable.#

from slashdot is the article in which bill gates says the 5 percent of windows computers crash twice a day and that updates will start costing money. good for him.#

jeffrey zeldman links a beautiful website#