Fear of Open Source, "I don't want my compeatitors to have my code"

I once emailed a game developing company to thank them for promising not using Damaging Restrictions & Malice (DRM) in their products. I also took the opportunity to list a few benefits of going a step further and releasing their game engines under open source licenses, while retaining the copyrights and trademarks of the content. I will sum up some of them here:
* free (gratis) testing, bug tracking, and even bug fixing by volunteers. Thus increasing the quality of the engine your content runs on
* free (gratis) translations by volunteers. Thus increasing the number of potential customers who want your content. Note that this one requires a little bit of permissiveness in the content's copyright.
* free (gratis) ports of the engine to different platforms by volunteers. Thus increasing the number of potential customers who want your content.
* Additional content created by volunteers. If its good, you can license it to sell so you and the creator profit. If its good and free (libre), you can package it for inexpensive sell, and charge to support it (bundle support for it when they purchase your content). If its good and proprietary and the creator will not license it, it is still likely to make your engine more popular; thus increasing potential customers who want your content. If its bad, then your content looks better.
I skipped little things like free (gratis) or cheep distribution, free (gratis) publicity, etc... I actually figured, because of the manor in which they arrived at the no DRM decision, I wasn't saying anything new to them. This assessment was correct, in their response they confirmed that they'd considered the open source option. They gave the usual reason of Linux is a small market, which I admit is seen as legitimate business decision not risk changing the whole way a successful business is run (I did not initially mention World of Goo to them). And the concern that their code is not pretty enough to be bragged about. I understand embarrassment. They had no other arguments with my reasoning. But they gave a reason not to use open source that I'd never considered before, "The only problem I have with open source for a game that still sells well, is the fact that you effectively hand proprietary code to your competitors."
They got me to thinking, and thinking. I thought about it a long while. I decided, competitors having your code is wonderful. Once you open source your code its no longer proprietary and your competitors cannot make it proprietary. If they improve it, you get the improvements too. If they market it well, your market expands. Its entirely possible that your competitor could take over your marketing, distributions, sales, everything for your engine. Oh, the horror! Should you panic? Nah, just scratch those expenses off your budget. In fact, give your competitors a call and offer them a license to sell your content so you can make a profit from it while simultaneously concentrating on creating more for new games. In fact, the concern of protecting the intellectually property of the content is now theirs also, a little less to worry about. Now you have another company offering support for your engine and content. Are you having a persistent uncorrectable code 18 error? Well you can let them know that "we want customers to be satisfied no matter what the sacrifice. Please give our competitor a call, they may be able to resolve this issue for you." And let your competitor know that you are glad to reciprocate. Most people offering death threats against you will be thrilled at the idea of doing business with you competitor, and visa-versa.

Click here to eliminate pre-installed junk on your computer

Click here to eliminate pre-installed junk on you computer
http://www.ideastorm.com/ideaView?id=0877000000006iiAAA
For a variety of factors like sales, popularity, quality of tech support concerning the offense, and the offense itself, I nominate Dell as the leader of shoving pre-installed junk applications and trial software that nobody wants down their customers necks. But Dell's gone a done something right. They created ideastorm.com . The inevitable suggestion that pre-installed junk needs to be optional instead of mandatory was posted there. Then users added 102,220 points to promote this idea (as of 2009-02-05). If enough people tell Dell where to shove it, they will have to give up the back-room briberies that plague us with pre-installed junk. Other companies are bound to take notice. Dell might actually become a worthy leader in the elimination of pre-installed junk. Hey, it could happen. After all, technically, they even offer Linux now, sort of.
Click the title of this post tell the computer industry where to stick pre-installed junk.

The Internet is not public.

Paul Garrin points out that the infrastructure of the Internet is privately and corporately owned, it has patrolled [electronic] boarders, there is a centralized authority over the Internet, and the owners have agreed to provide all this while having no requirement to do so or to provide it unregulated. All good points, then he says some other stuff. For those who don't know, Paul Garrin is a video artist. He's probably most famous taping police who covered their badges while beating protesters and bystanders, including himself, in the Tompkins Square Park Riot in New York. He also purposed a revolution to create a reverse Big Brother state where citizens use surveillance to continually watch the government.
How is it that these paranoids are allowed to say whatever they want on the Internet?

Inventing a Swear Word

Flash
There I said it. The new F word. Why do flashing website designers flashing insist on filling their flashing pages with useless flashing flash? I'm not flashing talking about adding a flashing video or flashing back ground music. I mean flashing basic information and flashing navigation links. The stuff that's flashing needed to actually use the flashing site. Flash! I don't flashing need to wait while every flashing link brings up a flashing "Loading n%" if the flashing link simply pointed to the plain text of the flashing information I wanted to flashing see. Flash! Flash! Flash! Its not just the flashed up Activision site. Way to many flashing sites are becoming flash based instead of flashing using real words. Forget the flashing fact that me and the average web user can't use the flashing flash site as efficiently as a flashing text based one; do they even give a flying flash if the visually impaired are flashed? Guess who else gets flashed? Flashing anyone who can't read the flashing language of the flashing flash based page. Flashing translation tools are for flashing text based sites. Why the flash do they want to flashing exclude so many flashing people? Stupid flashing flashers!
I'm not gonna flashing include the flashing J word in this flashing post; readers will have to flashing guess what that one is.

Dell joins Carbon Neutral fad

I saw this and just couldn't resist a prank chat. I think my views on the whole carbon neutral thing are summed up well in the following text from the prank.

12:51:59 PM Customer zerothis baud
Initial Question/Comment: ********.***@gmail.com
12:52:09 PM System System
You are now being connected to an agent. Thank you for using Dell Chat
12:52:09 PM System System
Connected with BE_SL_*******
12:52:23 PM Customer zerothis baud
hello?
12:52:49 PM Agent BE_SL_*******
Thank you for choosing Dell's Sales Chat! My name is ****, and I'll be your personal sales consultant. How can I assist your purchase today?
12:52:54 PM Customer zerothis baud
I just wanted to say how great the plant a tree program is! I can plant trees to remove CO2 equal to the amount I produce!
12:54:10 PM Agent BE_SL_*******
Thanks for that. Is there anything I can help you with today?
12:54:19 PM Customer zerothis baud
It's like buying an indulgence, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/indulgence>. As long as I can afford trees or indulgences, I can go right on polluting and sinning! Thanks Dell, you enabled me to be a much more prolific polluting sinner!
12:55:00 PM Agent BE_SL_*******
You're very welcome. Thanks for calling Dell and have a Great Holiday!

Well, the prank could have gone better if the rep, like fish, had been in a more bittin' mood. But the point was to express my thoughts of the program so I'm happy with the result.

Introduction

This blog will be where I post my self indulgent random paranoid driven rantings because I think my opinions are more important than yours¡