Jefferson on Intellectual Property

If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.

That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property.

- Thomas Jefferson

PGP is 15 years old

Happy Birthday, PGP!

Wow! 15 years! It seems like only yesterday that I discovered PGP and spent countless hours pouring over the documentation to learn all of the command-line options that were required to get things going. At the time, I was totally amazed at how few of my fellow computer geeks could get a handle on using PGP. After all, Windows wasn't really that popular until 95 came out. Almost everyone who used IBM-compatible PCs used DOS, or at least had to know how to use DOS in order to set up their menu program of choice.

One thing I remember doing, probably not in '91 but certainly not many years later, was setting up batch files to use with my mail reader of choice at the time, OLX, so that I could set it to use these batch files as an external editor in order to either sign or encrypt messages for posting on the local BBSs. I'm sure that if I dig around enough, I'll be able to find the 3 1/2 inch floppy that contains my original public and private keyrings. I even remember my original passphrase! Not only that, but I remember what I changed the passphrase to the first time I ever changed it.

Masi Oka

Even though I haven't blogged in quite some time, I have been keeping interesting articles in Bloglines to share with everyone later.

The first article that I'd like to share is a Wired piece on Masi Oka, who plays Hiro Nakamura on NBC's Heroes. So head on over and check it out, and I'll be posting more links that I think you might find interesting.

Blogging Update

It's been a little while since I've updated my blog, and even though it's old news by now, I thought I'd let everyone know that I'm no longer part of linuxworldnet.com. I enjoyed my time blogging there, but I'm sure everyone's noticed that I have a hard enough time keeping up with just this blog, let along three. But it's not all bad news. Martin, aka dadexter, has picked up Minimum Linux, and I'm excited to see where he takes it. And even though there is no official posting to introduce himself, Linux Security has a new contact listed in the "About" section. I'm excited to see where that one goes as well.

To Jon, I enjoyed it while it lasted! I wish I could have stayed longer, but the network deserves more than I felt I could give. By stepping aside, I feel like I'm giving the network a better chance than if I stuck around. Good luck with everything you do! And that goes for my former compatriots over on Linux World Net as well :)

A Voice Within: A message from Kaye

Today, there's a new post on A Voice Within:

Kaye:

Hello to all. This message is from Kaye, Frank's wife. I am sorry to inform you that Frank passed away last night.

Waiting...

The other day, I ran across a blog by a gentleman named Frank, titled A Voice Within. It really struck a chord with me, because I hear the voice too, telling me to wait. I have offered Frank to wait with him until we are instructed otherwise, because I am waiting either way. But maybe the voice is more clear to him than it is to me, and he'll know what needs done before I do. In the meantime, I wait...

Thanks, Ohio LinuxFest!

I took the weekend off from cassieiswatching to spend some time with friends and attend the Ohio LinuxFest and just wanted to thank them for the great time they provided on Saturday. I also wanted to thank them for adding me to the blogroll on their blog. I didn't ask for them to do this, nor did they notify my. And all it cost me was doing what any Linux geek with a blog should have done: added a banner for the fest!

I'll be writing more about the fest over the next couple of weeks, I'm sure, but I'll be doing most of those posts over on Linux World Net.