A few days ago, Microsoft announced that it has released PowerShell under the MIT license for Linux (and Mac OS X). Perhaps surprisingly, this has brought a number of folks out of the woodwork to gripe about Microsoft… releasing something as open source. Microsoft isn’t perfect, not by a long shot, but this is not Steve Ballmer’s Microsoft. This isn’t Bill Gates’ Microsoft. The days when Microsoft and the open source community are mortal enemies are behind us....

Bachelor No. 2 is the album that, if Interscope had its way, wouldn’t have been released at all. Instead, Aimee Mann bought the rights back and released it on her own through her website – a gutsy move in 2000, but it paid off for Mann and her fans. Most of Mann’s albums make me unreasonably happy, but Bachelor No. 2 is wall-to-wall awesome. Let’s start with the opening track, “How am I Different?” It’s a perfect album opener, starting just with acoustic guitar, light drums, piano, and Mann’s voice. After a couple of verses, the music swells and carries you away. I love everything about this song, the melody, the bluesy guitar, Mann’s voice, and the lyrics. “Just one question before I pack, when you fuck it up later, do I get my money back?”

There are two kinds of people: Those who appreciate Leonard Cohen, and those who are wrong. I present as evidence Cohen’s eighth studio album, I’m Your Man. Released in 1988 with heavy use of synthesizers and drum machines/electronic drums, I’m Your Man should sound dated. Indeed, if you focus on the backing tracks for the songs on this album, you’ll notice the distinctive sound of cutting-edge mid-80s technology. But it’s the songs, the lyrics, and the voices that propel I’m Your Man – and Cohen’s voice, the lyrics, and his backing chorus are timeless.

One of the popular responses to the outcry over HB2 has been to suggest that unisex or single bathrooms are the “answer” or a “middle road” (or “common sense”) to avoid conflict over transgender folks using the bathroom that best fits their gender identity. Really, it’s a dodge that doesn’t solve anything socially, and is logistically and fiscally unrealistic. First, I would love it if all public spaces had private, single-person bathrooms....

Here’s a pet peeve of mine, because I see it time and time again: Folks work on software or projects, put in a ton of effort, and then do nothing to promote the project or release. (And, for bonus points, complain that they don’t understand why the project isn’t getting more attention!) This doesn’t mean developers have to do double-duty as marketeers and public relations folks. Well, not if they can pass the torch onto interested contributors who are happy to do it for them, anyway....

Email is a fantastic tool, when used correctly. It almost never is. Rikki Endsley asked me if I’d like to write something for USENIX ;login; logout, and it happened to be right after processing a slew of terrible email: people sending two-line replies at the end of several hundred lines of text, inexcusable top-posting, HTML-ized email sent to lists that reject HTML email (rightly), etc. Practicing a little courtesy when doing email takes a little extra time, but it makes it so much easier for the people who have to read your email....

I think Lawrence Lessig puts his finger on it pretty well with this post about the problems with Apple’s “communication” strategy about bugs/feature removal in upgrades: But the argument I want to advance here is different. It is that in the “hybrid economy” that the Internet is, there is an ethical obligation to treat users decently. “Decency” of course is complex, and multi-faceted. But the single dimension I want to talk about here is this: They must learn to talk to us....

When you think of Linux, one of the first phrases that comes to mind is “Red Hat.” When people look to give examples of successful open source businesses, Red Hat is always (rightfully) at the top of the list. They are one of the few (if not only) companies of size that don’t hold back the good bits (e.g. “open core”) and invest heavily in many, many upstream open source projects....

For years, I’ve resisted installing AdBlock or any other type of ad-blocking software. Not because I love ads, but because so much content is ad-supported (including content I used to write) and there wasn’t a clear way to support “free” content otherwise. What finally drove me over the edge wasn’t an actual “ad” at all, but the affiliate network run by Taboola. You know the ones, you can’t visit many popular sites without seeing something like this:...

If you haven’t heard that Yahoo is buying Tumblr for $1.1 billion (mostly cash), then you’re probably not paying a lot of attention to tech news. Here’s my off-the-cuff predictions: Despite Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s promise, yes, Yahoo will screw it up. A company that can’t seem to get a grip on its own direction isn’t going to be able to execute on integrating a new company with such a different personality and sizable user base without effing it up....