On Structures

We recently launched the Open Source Pledge, and the response has been very positive, particularly from developers, but also from foundations, companies and the press. But yesterday, David Cramer pointed out a perplexing sentiment some people express — that developers of Open Source software ought not to be paid. @dmb on Slashdot, 25 Oct 2024...

Today, we launched the Open Source Pledge. Virtually all companies use Open Source software 1, making the Open Source ecosystem crucial to virtually all of the technology we use. That Open Source software is created and supported by maintainers. But the companies that use Open Source software almost never pay the maintainers anything. This means...

The ability to vote in parliamentary elections should be granted based on long-term integration into one’s community and country, yet we unjustly deny many people this right simply because of the place they were born in, leaving them with no say in policies that directly affect them.

There are bad apologies, and good apologies. I think an effective apology is one that communicates our feelings accurately to the person we have wronged, and that enables them to forgive us for our transgression so that the relationship can be repaired. The best resource I know of for figuring out how to make a good apology is a 2009 literature...

Postcodes in the UK are pretty specific — a postcode such as “SE1 6AD” will often identify one or a few specific buildings, unlike countries where a postcode represents an entire neighbourhood. This leads to an interesting question: how short can you get an address and still have Royal Mail deliver post there? To figure this out, I decided to...