Alec Saunders SquawkBox

I just wanted to remind you of the first ever Ottawa BarCamp, to be held this Saturday.   Bitheads has generously offered the use of their cool facilities on Carling avenue at the Westgate plaza, and an exciting agenda has been taking shape (see our wiki ) in the BarCamp tradition of a participatory conference.   Some of the ‘best and the brightest’ involved in Ottawa’s Web2.0 scene will be attending, as well as some special guests from out of town.

We have a really nice reminder of the event for each of the participants, thanks to the generous support of our sponsors - but supplies are limited, and will be provided on a first come - first served basis.   Remember, this is a unique opportunity to meet, and share in discussions with smart, passionate techies in the Ottawa area.   If you have something you want to demonstrate or show, make sure to bring it along.   We will have WiFi access and have reserved time and projectors to support software demos, and the like.

Pls check our wiki for the latest information on the event. 

To properly "prepare" (ie. have a couple of beers, and meet some new friends) for the Saturday sessions, we have arranged to meet Friday evening for drinks and conversation at the Fox & Feather (main floor) on Elgin street, from 7:00pm onwards.   We hope to see you there! 

Barcamp begins at 8:30 Saturday morning.

Ouch!  Paul Thurrott slams Windows Vista for broken promises, and suggests that Bill Gates should step down.  My contention that the February CTP was not feature complete, and Microsoft is far from shipping Vista is also confirmed:

Back in early December 2005, Microsoft promised that it would ship a feature-complete version of Windows Vista internally by the end of 2005 and then deliver an updated version to testers in early 2006. That milestone slipped from December 2005 to January 2006, and testers didn’t get a so-called feature-complete Vista version until February 2006. However, that build, and a subsequent interim build 5342, are not feature complete. In fact, there are many, many features missing from these builds that will apparently show up in future builds.

Among these missing features are the various Vista Ultimate Extras (features and services), including a Texas Hold-em game that was developed by the people behind Windows Calendar and Sidebar, Virtual PC Express, Media Center support for the Xbox 360 Media Center Extender, automatic hard disk defragmentation, themed slideshows, Windows Movie Maker HD, and so on.

Makes you wonder if they really can ship in Q1 2007.

Yesterday, Reporters Without Borders released a copy of the verdict in the case of Chinese dissident Jiang Lijun, who was sentenced to four years in jail in 2003 on a charge of subversion, supported in part by email evidence provided by Yahoo! to the Chinese government.  Here is a PDF translation of the court document, and the press release from Reporters without Borders. 

Concurrently, the brouhaha over Skype’s joint venture in China, TOM Online, and their decision to filter text, continues to grow.  Niklas Zennstrom yesterday confirmed that TOM Online "filters" text, while offering the statement "One thing that’s certain is that those things are in no way jeopardising the privacy or the security of any of the users."

Skype Journal’s Phil Wolff wrote a lengthy list of questions for Skype.  The whole issue hangs, however, on what "filter" means.  Does it mean a client-side Net-Nanny like system which prevents access to certain types of content, and/or prevents the sending of certain kinds of text phrases, or is it something more insidious which eavesdrops on actual conversations?  Russell Shaw assumes it is the former, while Aswath Rao details how the latter could be built. 

Zennstrom himself seems to be saying that TOM Online does not eavesdrop on users conversations. One has to ask, however, how long it will be until the Chinese government insists? 

As odious as it is, Skype, Yahoo!, and others are right to continue their engagements in China.  Indeed, they have a duty to continue to provide Chinese citizens with all the technology that citizens of modern democracies have, and cooperate minimally, but as required, with the authorities.  One cannot police the thoughts of a billion Chinese citizens forever.