http://alastairotter.com The revolution will be downloaded Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:15:53 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en A few months ago I discovered the 750 words concept. The idea is simple: Every day you write down 750 words on anything that comes into your head. It doesn't have to be well thought out, or even well-argued. You don't need to spell check it and you don't need to ... http://alastairotter.com/2010/07/750-words-to-clear-the-head/ Just about everything Apple does suggests the company lives in a parallel universe. It's only in this imaginary world, where normal standards don't apply, that someone like Steve Jobs could get away with accusing Adobe of not being "open" enough. In a public letter yesterday, explaining the main reasons for Apple excluding ... http://alastairotter.com/2010/04/the-parallel-world-of-apple-where-open-is-not-always-open/ [caption id="attachment_101" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Restrooms or Restroom's? Even consistency doesn't seem to matter here."][/caption] Welcome to the brave new world of online media. A world where anyone with an Internet connection can be a journalist and bloggers are the new media rock stars. A world where readers can immediately deliver their ... http://alastairotter.com/2010/04/would-you-like-an-apostrophe-with-that-maam/ Ubuntu 10.04, aka Lucid Lynx, is now out in beta and after using it for almost a week it it's worth looking at some of its highlights and lowlights. Bear in mind that this is a beta release so the final release could be a lot different to what we ... http://alastairotter.com/2010/03/ubuntu-lucid-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ Patent threats from Microsoft against Linux are not new. But now that bastion of proprietary software appears to have a new, more insidious, strategy in its quest to undermine open source software. It is now getting its partners - companies that want to and need to be on its good ... http://alastairotter.com/2010/03/microsofts-sneaky-patent-strategy/ Taken By Trees has a new album out which mixes Pakistani Qwaali music with Swedish pop sensibilities, an unlikely but mostly successful combination. East of Eden is the follow-up to 2007's Open Field from Taken By Trees, a project of Victoria Bergsman, ex-frontwoman of The Concretes, and includes the ... http://alastairotter.com/2009/09/song-of-the-day-taken-by-trees/ Despite widespread opposition the South African government has signed into law the Films and Publications Amendment Act 3 of 2009 (PDF). Published in the Government Gazette on August 28, the act is a wide-reaching amendment that is ostensibly designed to clamp down on the publication of child pornography but in ... http://alastairotter.com/2009/09/film-and-publications-act-media-independence-under-fire/ Today I announced that I am closing Tectonic. It's been a lot harder to do this than I ever imagined it would be. I made the decision to close Tectonic some time back but have managed to stay the final execution for as long as possible. But eventually I could put ... http://alastairotter.com/2009/07/closing-tectonic-and-moving-on/ I started this blog more than a year ago with intention of using it a base to talk about all of the projects I work on, about the things I do, think and see and the plans that I have. Embarrassingly, in the 18 months since I started it, I ... http://alastairotter.com/2009/06/getting-back-into-the-habit/ In just under three weeks I will be be moving on, again. For the past 18 months I have been the chief-sub of Business Report, the South African national business daily newspaper owned by Independent Newspapers. On top of this I was running Tectonic and doing my best to keep ... http://alastairotter.com/2008/04/time-for-another-change/