Matthew Revell

Dad’s pants in the middle of his roll, dad’s pants in the middle of his roll.

www.dadspants.com

Vimto rocks.

Yesterday, I went down to Microsoft’s Reading offices, with Jono, Stuart and Ade.

Nick McGrath, UK Head of Platform Strategy, and Nick Barley, UK Director of Marketing, had invited us down to discuss how Microsoft and the open source software world sit together. As Microsoft’s UK operation is almost entirely Sales and Marketing, both Nicks are at its top tier.

I wasn’t overly sure what to expect from the day. Only last year, Nick McGrath was quoted in the press trotting out the same old “open source development process creates fundamental security problems” stuff. Nick Barley, who moved to Microsoft from Oracle, was, along with McGrath, one of the main faces of the notorious Get the Facts tour.

Call me cynical but my first thought was that these guys were primarily interested in talking, through us, to LugRadio’s 15,000 regular downloaders. Once we got there, it was clear McGrath and Barley were genuinely ready to listen. A number of times, McGrath assured us that Microsoft wants to “play nicely in the sandpit”. They know, he said, that Linux and other open source software won’t go away. Hearing the phrase “Linux will be around forever”, I came to think the giant was now aware of a future in which it was one of several players and no longer able to sweep aside everything else in its path.

The discussion was friendly and free-flowing. It was almost like being on a first date with a friend of a friend. Your mutual pal has told you plenty about each other, and you’ve probably heard bits from others in your circle of friends. Hey, maybe you even met briefly at a few parties. Now, though, you get to find out about each other first-hand.

We quickly got onto the company’s relaxed attitude to its employee’s blogs. Apparently, provided they don’t break non-disclosure agreements, they’re free to write about whatever they please. (Thinking of the photo of Macs being delivered to Redmond story? See the blogger’s own thoughts on why Microsoft wasn’t to blame.) Microsoft employees, it appears, have a good time of it. Free drinks, free fruit, flexible hours, child care, great food and an office that hands out mice, keyboards, etc without question.

Nick McGrath was particularly keen to tell us about Microsoft’s new drive towards interoperability. “Our customers tell us they want interoperability”, he said. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s customers must be content with interoperability on Microsoft’s terms. Stuart, in particular, made the point that their world of partnership agreements and MS applications reading data from third-party software was a long way from what we think of as interoperability. Nick Barley took the point that true interoperability is all about publishing your interfaces and standards, so that it’s open even to the people you don’t like or make money from.

This was where I began to wonder if Microsoft people really understand why we’re into free software, why having open source and open standards is important to us. They were keen to tell us how Microsoft is changing but, throughout the conversation, they regularly confused open source software with non-commercial software. I got the impression that Microsoft people think we’re into open source because it’s free of charge. The idea of software freedom - as in speech - didn’t really come into it.

Apparently, though, all Microsoft people are given training to ensure they understand the distinction between open source and free software.

Inevitably, software patents came up. How can Microsoft work with the open source community when it continues to patent so many software ideas? Disappointingly, we were given an eloquent defence of copyright, not patents. “Why patent saving as XML? It’s the equivalent of patenting getting water from a tap”, I suggested. The conversation moved on.

The complexity and unfairness of client access licences was another opportunity to highlight some of the frustrations of using Microsoft software that open source software users don’t face. CALs mean Microsoft doesn’t have to charge you three times as much for, SQL Server, for example, we were told. The idea that the server licence fee was quite enough already didn’t seem to wash. Perhaps the fact that the highly capable MySQL and PostgreSQL have no complicated license free structures is responsible for a promised upcoming simplification of CALs.

I was keen to know why Microsoft had, initially, adopted such an emotive approach to Linux. If Microsoft is proud of its products, why not promote them on their merits, rather than campaign negatively against its upstart rival? Seriously, what was the whole “Linux is a cancer” thing? Much as Bill Hilf had during our interview with him on LugRadio, the Nicks agreed that such comments had been less than helpful. Microsoft’s approach to open source software has matured, the guys told us.

McGrath is a Microsoft man to the core; he loves that company. From our meeting, I’d say he understands that Microsoft can no longer behave as though no alternative exists. Nonetheless, he still sees the world from a position of ultimate dominance.

Barley, relatively new to Microsoft, knows that there is a world elsewhere.

I enjoyed the experience immensely. The people we met were genuinely interested to know what the open source community think of them and how we could all work together more closely. They really took note of what we said and were refreshingly honest at times.
Whatever you may feel about their licensing and business practices, it’s hard not to be impressed by Microsoft. However, giants move slowly. They’re aware of the open source community, their labs run more distros than I’ve heard of and their developers are free to open source small bits of software that stand no chance of making Microsoft any money. I think the quote the will stay with me longest, though, is:

“That depends on what you mean by interoperability.”

The Guardian’s media blog reports that Mike Neville is retiring.

Those readers favoured with the mellifluous, flowing accent and Old Norse/Anglo-Saxon-derived dialect of north east England will know who I’m talking about. For the rest of you, he’s the bloke that’s presented north east regional news shows for the past 40 years.

Does anyone still watch local news, though? Growing up in the north east, I was spoilt by relatively high quality local programming. On my university course (yes, I did a media degree), I quickly discovered that the primary purpose of local tv news in the rest of England appeared to be to say, “everything’s going to be okay”. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are blessed with higher budgets and interesting local politics but in almost every English region, local broadcast media does little more than reinforce the idea that “our region’s the best”, whilst still managing to portray it as the dreariest place in the UK.

After six years of the local media in the West Midlands, I’m hungry for local news and other programming that truly reflects the region. If you’re not white, lower-middle class, excessively interested in football and of the belief that them lot over in (insert neighbouring region) are wrong-uns, then there really is little for you in local English media.

Calls to mobile phones are a rip-off. If I’m calling someone, it’s not my fault that they happen to be using a mobile.

Even with a VOIP provider or one of the mainstream discount landline providers, you’re likely to pay around five times as much to call a mobile in the same room as you are a landline in Australia.

DiscountDial offers mobile calls at 5p per minute, any time of day. I’ve tried it and it works. You call their 0844 566 35 35 number, then dial the mobile number. Your usual phone provider bills you the 4p per minute and DiscountDial get a revenue-share. (Number and rate updated thanks to dfear, after DiscountDial put the cost up from 4p).

It may be a promotional offer but it rocks for now.

Via MoneySavingExpert.com.

Before

No hair cut since LugRadio Live 2005 in June.

After

Unexpected result of hair cut.

I’ve started a new blog all about dogs. I often see news stories or information about dogs that I think is interesting, so I thought I’d blog about it.

As most of the people who read this blog are from my Linux life, I thought it best to start something separate.

Dogs Rule.

Ubuntu’s Jeff Waugh was due to come visit us at Wolves LUG on Saturday night. Unfortunately, Jeff’s travel plans meant he had to withdraw at the last minute. Nonetheless, a couple of interesting things came up.

In discussions about who should speak at LugRadio Live 2006, Brazil’s Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil, was mentioned. Aq jokingly named him Brazil’s Minister of Copyright Infringement when Gil was praised for building the right to use sampled music into his country’s copyright legislation.

The Guardian has an interview with Gilberto Gil.

Also, we set the date for the LugRadio recording, in preparation for Season 3 Episode 1’s release on Hallowe’en.

A couple of weeks ago, I interviewed Mark Jeavons, a Wolverhampton-based film maker whose first feature was recently shown at the Cannes Film Festival. I spoke to him about what it’s like trying to make films in a not-particularly-arty place like Wolverhampton and also whether the mix industrial landscape with leafy suburbs had shaped his work.

You can download a twenty minute MP3 of the interview at understated.co.uk/radio/reports/mark-jeavons-interview-120805.mp3

Ogg Vorbis to follow.

I’ve also taken this opportunity to stop the procrastination and move over to WordPress. I’ve been playing with creating my own theme for weeks but have increasingly little time in which to create something. So, yes, this is another default WordPress theme site. Forgive me. My own theme will replace it eventually.

RSS feed is http://understated.co.uk/index.php/feed/

BBC Three’s Mighty Boosh is back for a new series soon. In a tv landscape of tired ideas rehashed by uninspired drones, the Mighty Boosh bothers to try something different and now the BBC is trying something different with the Mighty Boosh. The new series is available as a RealPlayer stream, free of charge, each episode in its entirety. Fantastic.

I’ve been a fan of these guys since their Radio 4 series; people describe it as silliness but that seems pejorative. I admit, though, the tv series isn’t for everyone. It’s not comedy-by-cringe, it’s pure fantasy. Two blokes go on impossible adventures and exchange some of the best dialogue to feature on the box.

Have a look, thanks to the BBC it’s free, so you’ve nowt to lose.