Ian Murdock’s Weblog

I dropped my cell phone a few months ago, and it ended up with a large crack across the LCD, which to me became the perfect excuse to finally get that Blackberry I’ve always wanted. However, given the uncertainty about the outcome of NTP v. RIM, I decided to hold off on my purchase till after the hearing last week, which was widely expected to provide some closure one way or the other as to whether RIM would be allowed to continue its service in the U.S. Unfortunately, there was no such closure to be found. So, I have a quick question to those more in the know than I: When the media talks of a “Blackberry shutdown”, I assume they’re just talking about a shutdown of the push email service, not a shutdown of all access to the Blackberry network? In other words, if Blackberry is shutdown, I presume I’d still be able to access the web etc.? Or would my brand new Blackberry become little more than an expensive paperweight?

I’ve just returned from Istanbul where I spoke at Özgür Yazılım ve Açık Kaynak Günleri 2006 (Free Software and Open Source Days 2006). I was last in Istanbul in 2004, and as then, I had an amazing time. Photos will be appearing in my Flickr photostream over the next few days. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to show me around and otherwise entertain me, especially Boran Puhaloğlu, Sinan Tunalıoğlu, Nazlı İpek Mavuşoğlu, Çağıl Uluşahin and Haldun Bayhantopcu.

Geoffrey Moore: “Taking the shuttle from the train station I met a European executive and his wife who commented to me about how odd America’s denial of evolution and preference for intelligent design seems to a European sensibility. […] Today, as I participated in a series of economic workshops, I was struck by an ironic reversal: In the world of economics, it is the U.S. that believes in natural selection, and it is Europe, specifically the EU and its leading countries, which clings to an outmoded ideology of intelligent design.”

Dave Winer: “[H]ow long before Iger gets Amelio’d?”

Larry Murdock: “Blogging is a better way of disseminating one’s thoughts than sitting on the bench in front of the County Courthouse whittling and shooting the breeze with a couple of old-timers.”

Dad’s been forwarding me interesting bits he reads on the web with his own insights attached for years, and I finally convinced him to put these kinds of things in a blog so the rest of the world can enjoy them too. Dad’s an excellent writer and is one of the most creative, articulate, and intelligent people I’ve ever known (though he seemed remarkably stupid between about 1987 and 1991, when I briefly knew more about the world than he did). I owe him a lot.

Jean Quatremer: “For a long time we have been talking about the French social model, as opposed to the horrible Anglo-Saxon model, but we now see that it is our model that is a horror.”

Steve Jobs: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Steve Jobs: “Remembering you are going to die is the best way to avoid the fear that you have something to lose.”

It’s with those of us who can agree with both of the previous points of view, despite the fact that they come from different ends of the political spectrum. Yes, even in the age of the blabocrats, there are moderates still out there. Lots of us. We just don’t yell as loudly as the blabocrats do.

David Brooks: “Most of the policy ideas advocated by American liberals have already been enacted in Europe: generous welfare measures, ample labor protections, highly progressive tax rates, single-payer health care systems, zoning restrictions to limit big retailers, and cradle-to-grave middle-class subsidies supporting everything from child care to pension security. And yet far from thriving, continental Europe has endured a lost decade of relative decline.”