chris.bracken.jp

Statically generated site for chris.bracken.jp
git clone https://git.bracken.jp/chris.bracken.jp.git
Log | Files | Refs

commit 9a4920d58a60653b6103321ed12fa6ef5e78f17d
parent 93ccf2e57a95b5379e6ee3b72fca25038bd058ec
Author: Chris Bracken <chris@bracken.jp>
Date:   Mon, 23 Jun 2025 07:56:58 -0700

Publish site

Diffstat:
Mindex.html | 1-
Mindex.xml | 81+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mpost/index.html | 1-
Mpost/index.xml | 81+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mrobots.txt | 3+--
Msitemap.xml | 25++++++++++---------------
Mtags/index.html | 2+-
Mtags/index.xml | 22+++++++++++-----------
Mtags/meta/index.html | 1-
Mtags/meta/index.xml | 81+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mtags/software/index.html | 1-
Mtags/software/index.xml | 81+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12 files changed, 27 insertions(+), 353 deletions(-)

diff --git a/index.html b/index.html @@ -34,7 +34,6 @@ <main id="main"> <section id="posts"> <ol class="post-list"> -<li>2020-05-22: <a href="/2020/05/thoughts-on-licences/">Thoughts on Licences</a> <li>2018-10-31: <a href="/2018/10/decoding-an-elf-binary/">Hand-decoding an ELF binary image</a> <li>2011-05-10: <a href="/2011/05/moving-to-us-letter-of-compliance/">Moving to the US: Importing a Canadian Vehicle</a> <li>2011-05-06: <a href="/2011/05/job-search-search-job/">Job Search, Search Job</a> diff --git a/index.xml b/index.xml @@ -8,86 +8,7 @@ <language>en</language> <managingEditor>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</managingEditor> <webMaster>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</webMaster> - <lastBuildDate>Fri, 22 May 2020 14:55:23 -0700</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://chris.bracken.jp/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> - <item> - <title>Thoughts on Licences</title> - <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2020/05/thoughts-on-licences/</link> - <pubDate>Fri, 22 May 2020 14:55:23 -0700</pubDate> - <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author> - <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2020/05/thoughts-on-licences/</guid> - <description>&lt;p&gt;Software licences are probably the single most boring aspect of software -development, but it&amp;rsquo;s important to carefully consider the terms under which the -stuff I hack on is shared to ensure they&amp;rsquo;re consistent with my values. Despite -my general dislike for all things legalistic, the most unambiguous way to state -those terms is through a licence. So a couple days ago, I tossed LICENSE files -into any of my public &lt;a href=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/code&#34;&gt;repos&lt;/a&gt; that didn&amp;rsquo;t already have one.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;So how did I settle on which licences to apply? Jump on into the DeLorean and -let&amp;rsquo;s set the dial back to the late 1980s.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s 1986 and I&amp;rsquo;ve got a 1200 baud modem wired up to a beat-up 286 with a steel -case that would easily allow it to double as a boat anchor if needed. Armed -with a dot-matrix printout of local BBSes with names like Camelot, Tommy&amp;rsquo;s -Holiday Camp, and Forbidden Night Castle, I fire up PC-Talk. A series of -&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.windytan.com/2012/11/the-sound-of-dialup-pictured.html&#34;&gt;high-pitched squeals and tones&lt;/a&gt; fill the air, then text -flashes across the screen. I&amp;rsquo;m online.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;BBSes were a treasure trove of information, filled to the brim with zip archives -full of downloadable programs, source code, patches for existing programs, and -all manner of text files with names like &lt;a href=&#34;https://insecure.org/stf/smashstack.html&#34;&gt;Smashing The Stack For Fun And -Profit&lt;/a&gt;. You could find everything from how to crack copy-protected -software, to details on phone phreaking, to how to make nitroglycerine from -commonly-available household items. It was through BBSes that I first downloaded -an I&amp;rsquo;m sure &lt;em&gt;totally legitimate&lt;/em&gt; copy of Borland Turbo C++ and took my first -baby steps writing &lt;em&gt;real&lt;/em&gt; programs. No more BASIC for me.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;This culture of open sharing in the online world has had a huge impact on me. -From those early experiences with BBSes to my first forays onto the Internet a -few years later, seeing people openly sharing code and patches and helping each -other solve problems over Usenet seemed almost revolutionary to me at the time. -In some ways, it still does. I feel lucky to have been a part of it from such an -early age.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;The end result is that I try to publicly share all the work I do. So when it -came time to chuck licences on stuff, I sat down to work out a personals ad for -my ideal licence. Aside from enjoying long walks on the beach, it should:&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;ol&gt; -&lt;li&gt;Allow free use, modification, and distribution both of the original -work and any derived works.&lt;/li&gt; -&lt;li&gt;Require that people distributing the work or any derived work to -give appropriate credit.&lt;/li&gt; -&lt;li&gt;Disallow suggesting that I in any way endorse any derived products -or whoever produces them.&lt;/li&gt; -&lt;li&gt;Gently encourage a culture of open exchange and sharing of -information and techniques.&lt;/li&gt; -&lt;li&gt;Be short, clear, and easy to understand.&lt;/li&gt; -&lt;/ol&gt; -&lt;p&gt;On the software side, there were lots of options, but the best matches in my -mind are the &lt;a href=&#34;https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT&#34;&gt;MIT&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;https://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause&#34;&gt;BSD&lt;/a&gt; licences. The 3-clause -&amp;rsquo;new&amp;rsquo; BSD licence has an advantage in that it required written permission from -the author to use their name in any endorsement/promotion of a derived work. -That happens to be what we already use for &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/flutter/flutter&#34;&gt;work&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;On the content side, I&amp;rsquo;ve always posted my web site&amp;rsquo;s content under a &lt;a href=&#34;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/&#34;&gt;Creative -Commons Attribution-ShareAlike&lt;/a&gt; licence. But I don&amp;rsquo;t believe that&amp;rsquo;s -actually the ideal match based on my priorities. Why is it that I&amp;rsquo;ve elected to -use a licence that requires that derived works also be licensed under the same -terms rather than under whatever terms someone feels like, so long as -acknowledgement is given? In the end I settled on the more permissive &lt;a href=&#34;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/&#34;&gt;Creative -Commons Attribution&lt;/a&gt; licence.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;This feels to me a bit like the difference between &lt;a href=&#34;https://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause&#34;&gt;BSD&lt;/a&gt; and -&lt;a href=&#34;https://opensource.org/licenses/GPL-3.0&#34;&gt;GPL&lt;/a&gt; terms, where the latter requires that derived works also be -GPL-licensed. This &amp;ldquo;viral&amp;rdquo; nature has always rubbed me the wrong way: rather -than gently promoting a culture of sharing by example, it legally &lt;em&gt;requires&lt;/em&gt; -sharing under the same terms whether or not you want to.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;Personally, I&amp;rsquo;d like for people to do the right thing and share their work for -everyone&amp;rsquo;s benefit not because they &lt;em&gt;have&lt;/em&gt; to, but because they &lt;em&gt;want&lt;/em&gt; to. If -they don&amp;rsquo;t want to, why should my reaction be to disallow their use of my work? -Isn&amp;rsquo;t that contrary to my stated goals of sharing as much and as broadly as -possible?&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;While I &lt;em&gt;hope&lt;/em&gt; that more people share more of their work, it doesn&amp;rsquo;t bother me -if you don&amp;rsquo;t. If anything I&amp;rsquo;ve written is somehow useful to you, I&amp;rsquo;m glad. Use -your knowledge to help others and make the world a better place, and if you can -find time to do so, share a bit with the rest of us.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;Got thoughts and opinions on licences? Fire an email my way at -&lt;a href=&#34;mailto:chris@bracken.jp&#34;&gt;chris@bracken.jp&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; -</description> - </item> - + <lastBuildDate>Wed, 31 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://chris.bracken.jp/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <item> <title>Hand-decoding an ELF binary image</title> <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2018/10/decoding-an-elf-binary/</link> diff --git a/post/index.html b/post/index.html @@ -35,7 +35,6 @@ <section id="posts"> <ol class="post-list"> -<li>2020-05-22: <a href="/2020/05/thoughts-on-licences/">Thoughts on Licences</a> <li>2018-10-31: <a href="/2018/10/decoding-an-elf-binary/">Hand-decoding an ELF binary image</a> <li>2011-05-10: <a href="/2011/05/moving-to-us-letter-of-compliance/">Moving to the US: Importing a Canadian Vehicle</a> <li>2011-05-06: <a href="/2011/05/job-search-search-job/">Job Search, Search Job</a> diff --git a/post/index.xml b/post/index.xml @@ -8,86 +8,7 @@ <language>en</language> <managingEditor>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</managingEditor> <webMaster>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</webMaster> - <lastBuildDate>Fri, 22 May 2020 14:55:23 -0700</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://chris.bracken.jp/post/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> - <item> - <title>Thoughts on Licences</title> - <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2020/05/thoughts-on-licences/</link> - <pubDate>Fri, 22 May 2020 14:55:23 -0700</pubDate> - <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author> - <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2020/05/thoughts-on-licences/</guid> - <description>&lt;p&gt;Software licences are probably the single most boring aspect of software -development, but it&amp;rsquo;s important to carefully consider the terms under which the -stuff I hack on is shared to ensure they&amp;rsquo;re consistent with my values. Despite -my general dislike for all things legalistic, the most unambiguous way to state -those terms is through a licence. So a couple days ago, I tossed LICENSE files -into any of my public &lt;a href=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/code&#34;&gt;repos&lt;/a&gt; that didn&amp;rsquo;t already have one.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;So how did I settle on which licences to apply? Jump on into the DeLorean and -let&amp;rsquo;s set the dial back to the late 1980s.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s 1986 and I&amp;rsquo;ve got a 1200 baud modem wired up to a beat-up 286 with a steel -case that would easily allow it to double as a boat anchor if needed. Armed -with a dot-matrix printout of local BBSes with names like Camelot, Tommy&amp;rsquo;s -Holiday Camp, and Forbidden Night Castle, I fire up PC-Talk. A series of -&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.windytan.com/2012/11/the-sound-of-dialup-pictured.html&#34;&gt;high-pitched squeals and tones&lt;/a&gt; fill the air, then text -flashes across the screen. I&amp;rsquo;m online.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;BBSes were a treasure trove of information, filled to the brim with zip archives -full of downloadable programs, source code, patches for existing programs, and -all manner of text files with names like &lt;a href=&#34;https://insecure.org/stf/smashstack.html&#34;&gt;Smashing The Stack For Fun And -Profit&lt;/a&gt;. You could find everything from how to crack copy-protected -software, to details on phone phreaking, to how to make nitroglycerine from -commonly-available household items. It was through BBSes that I first downloaded -an I&amp;rsquo;m sure &lt;em&gt;totally legitimate&lt;/em&gt; copy of Borland Turbo C++ and took my first -baby steps writing &lt;em&gt;real&lt;/em&gt; programs. No more BASIC for me.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;This culture of open sharing in the online world has had a huge impact on me. -From those early experiences with BBSes to my first forays onto the Internet a -few years later, seeing people openly sharing code and patches and helping each -other solve problems over Usenet seemed almost revolutionary to me at the time. -In some ways, it still does. I feel lucky to have been a part of it from such an -early age.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;The end result is that I try to publicly share all the work I do. So when it -came time to chuck licences on stuff, I sat down to work out a personals ad for -my ideal licence. Aside from enjoying long walks on the beach, it should:&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;ol&gt; -&lt;li&gt;Allow free use, modification, and distribution both of the original -work and any derived works.&lt;/li&gt; -&lt;li&gt;Require that people distributing the work or any derived work to -give appropriate credit.&lt;/li&gt; -&lt;li&gt;Disallow suggesting that I in any way endorse any derived products -or whoever produces them.&lt;/li&gt; -&lt;li&gt;Gently encourage a culture of open exchange and sharing of -information and techniques.&lt;/li&gt; -&lt;li&gt;Be short, clear, and easy to understand.&lt;/li&gt; -&lt;/ol&gt; -&lt;p&gt;On the software side, there were lots of options, but the best matches in my -mind are the &lt;a href=&#34;https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT&#34;&gt;MIT&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;https://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause&#34;&gt;BSD&lt;/a&gt; licences. The 3-clause -&amp;rsquo;new&amp;rsquo; BSD licence has an advantage in that it required written permission from -the author to use their name in any endorsement/promotion of a derived work. -That happens to be what we already use for &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/flutter/flutter&#34;&gt;work&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;On the content side, I&amp;rsquo;ve always posted my web site&amp;rsquo;s content under a &lt;a href=&#34;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/&#34;&gt;Creative -Commons Attribution-ShareAlike&lt;/a&gt; licence. But I don&amp;rsquo;t believe that&amp;rsquo;s -actually the ideal match based on my priorities. Why is it that I&amp;rsquo;ve elected to -use a licence that requires that derived works also be licensed under the same -terms rather than under whatever terms someone feels like, so long as -acknowledgement is given? In the end I settled on the more permissive &lt;a href=&#34;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/&#34;&gt;Creative -Commons Attribution&lt;/a&gt; licence.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;This feels to me a bit like the difference between &lt;a href=&#34;https://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause&#34;&gt;BSD&lt;/a&gt; and -&lt;a href=&#34;https://opensource.org/licenses/GPL-3.0&#34;&gt;GPL&lt;/a&gt; terms, where the latter requires that derived works also be -GPL-licensed. This &amp;ldquo;viral&amp;rdquo; nature has always rubbed me the wrong way: rather -than gently promoting a culture of sharing by example, it legally &lt;em&gt;requires&lt;/em&gt; -sharing under the same terms whether or not you want to.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;Personally, I&amp;rsquo;d like for people to do the right thing and share their work for -everyone&amp;rsquo;s benefit not because they &lt;em&gt;have&lt;/em&gt; to, but because they &lt;em&gt;want&lt;/em&gt; to. If -they don&amp;rsquo;t want to, why should my reaction be to disallow their use of my work? -Isn&amp;rsquo;t that contrary to my stated goals of sharing as much and as broadly as -possible?&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;While I &lt;em&gt;hope&lt;/em&gt; that more people share more of their work, it doesn&amp;rsquo;t bother me -if you don&amp;rsquo;t. If anything I&amp;rsquo;ve written is somehow useful to you, I&amp;rsquo;m glad. Use -your knowledge to help others and make the world a better place, and if you can -find time to do so, share a bit with the rest of us.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;Got thoughts and opinions on licences? Fire an email my way at -&lt;a href=&#34;mailto:chris@bracken.jp&#34;&gt;chris@bracken.jp&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; -</description> - </item> - + <lastBuildDate>Wed, 31 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://chris.bracken.jp/post/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <item> <title>Hand-decoding an ELF binary image</title> <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2018/10/decoding-an-elf-binary/</link> diff --git a/robots.txt b/robots.txt @@ -1 +1 @@ -User-agent: * -\ No newline at end of file +User-agent: * diff --git a/sitemap.xml b/sitemap.xml @@ -3,36 +3,26 @@ xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <url> <loc>https://chris.bracken.jp/</loc> - <lastmod>2020-05-22T14:55:23-07:00</lastmod> + <lastmod>2018-10-31T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod> <changefreq>weekly</changefreq> <priority>0.5</priority> </url><url> - <loc>https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/meta/</loc> - <lastmod>2020-05-22T14:55:23-07:00</lastmod> + <loc>https://chris.bracken.jp/2018/10/decoding-an-elf-binary/</loc> + <lastmod>2018-10-31T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod> <changefreq>weekly</changefreq> <priority>0.5</priority> </url><url> <loc>https://chris.bracken.jp/post/</loc> - <lastmod>2020-05-22T14:55:23-07:00</lastmod> + <lastmod>2018-10-31T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod> <changefreq>weekly</changefreq> <priority>0.5</priority> </url><url> <loc>https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/software/</loc> - <lastmod>2020-05-22T14:55:23-07:00</lastmod> + <lastmod>2018-10-31T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod> <changefreq>weekly</changefreq> <priority>0.5</priority> </url><url> <loc>https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/</loc> - <lastmod>2020-05-22T14:55:23-07:00</lastmod> - <changefreq>weekly</changefreq> - <priority>0.5</priority> - </url><url> - <loc>https://chris.bracken.jp/2020/05/thoughts-on-licences/</loc> - <lastmod>2020-05-22T14:55:23-07:00</lastmod> - <changefreq>weekly</changefreq> - <priority>0.5</priority> - </url><url> - <loc>https://chris.bracken.jp/2018/10/decoding-an-elf-binary/</loc> <lastmod>2018-10-31T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod> <changefreq>weekly</changefreq> <priority>0.5</priority> @@ -172,6 +162,11 @@ <changefreq>weekly</changefreq> <priority>0.5</priority> </url><url> + <loc>https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/meta/</loc> + <lastmod>2005-08-05T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod> + <changefreq>weekly</changefreq> + <priority>0.5</priority> + </url><url> <loc>https://chris.bracken.jp/2005/07/kekkon-shite-kuremasu-ka/</loc> <lastmod>2005-07-31T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod> <changefreq>weekly</changefreq> diff --git a/tags/index.html b/tags/index.html @@ -35,7 +35,6 @@ <section id="posts"> <ol class="post-list"> -<li><a href="/tags/meta/">Meta</a> <li><a href="/tags/software/">Software</a> <li><a href="/tags/canada/">Canada</a> <li><a href="/tags/howto/">Howto</a> @@ -50,6 +49,7 @@ <li><a href="/tags/retro/">Retro</a> <li><a href="/tags/web/">Web</a> <li><a href="/tags/iphone/">IPhone</a> +<li><a href="/tags/meta/">Meta</a> <li><a href="/tags/travel/">Travel</a> <li><a href="/tags/skiing/">Skiing</a> <li><a href="/tags/mexico/">Mexico</a> diff --git a/tags/index.xml b/tags/index.xml @@ -8,20 +8,11 @@ <language>en</language> <managingEditor>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</managingEditor> <webMaster>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</webMaster> - <lastBuildDate>Fri, 22 May 2020 14:55:23 -0700</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> - <item> - <title>Meta</title> - <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/meta/</link> - <pubDate>Fri, 22 May 2020 14:55:23 -0700</pubDate> - <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author> - <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/meta/</guid> - <description></description> - </item> - + <lastBuildDate>Wed, 31 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <item> <title>Software</title> <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/software/</link> - <pubDate>Fri, 22 May 2020 14:55:23 -0700</pubDate> + <pubDate>Wed, 31 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author> <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/software/</guid> <description></description> @@ -145,6 +136,15 @@ </item> <item> + <title>Meta</title> + <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/meta/</link> + <pubDate>Fri, 05 Aug 2005 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> + <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author> + <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/meta/</guid> + <description></description> + </item> + + <item> <title>Travel</title> <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/travel/</link> <pubDate>Wed, 11 May 2005 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> diff --git a/tags/meta/index.html b/tags/meta/index.html @@ -35,7 +35,6 @@ <section id="posts"> <ol class="post-list"> -<li>2020-05-22: <a href="/2020/05/thoughts-on-licences/">Thoughts on Licences</a> <li>2005-08-05: <a href="/2005/08/look-at-all-the-pretty-pictures/">Look At All The Pretty Pictures!</a> <li>2003-04-01: <a href="/2003/04/site-update/">Site Update</a> </ol> diff --git a/tags/meta/index.xml b/tags/meta/index.xml @@ -8,86 +8,7 @@ <language>en</language> <managingEditor>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</managingEditor> <webMaster>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</webMaster> - <lastBuildDate>Fri, 22 May 2020 14:55:23 -0700</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/meta/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> - <item> - <title>Thoughts on Licences</title> - <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2020/05/thoughts-on-licences/</link> - <pubDate>Fri, 22 May 2020 14:55:23 -0700</pubDate> - <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author> - <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2020/05/thoughts-on-licences/</guid> - <description>&lt;p&gt;Software licences are probably the single most boring aspect of software -development, but it&amp;rsquo;s important to carefully consider the terms under which the -stuff I hack on is shared to ensure they&amp;rsquo;re consistent with my values. Despite -my general dislike for all things legalistic, the most unambiguous way to state -those terms is through a licence. So a couple days ago, I tossed LICENSE files -into any of my public &lt;a href=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/code&#34;&gt;repos&lt;/a&gt; that didn&amp;rsquo;t already have one.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;So how did I settle on which licences to apply? Jump on into the DeLorean and -let&amp;rsquo;s set the dial back to the late 1980s.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s 1986 and I&amp;rsquo;ve got a 1200 baud modem wired up to a beat-up 286 with a steel -case that would easily allow it to double as a boat anchor if needed. Armed -with a dot-matrix printout of local BBSes with names like Camelot, Tommy&amp;rsquo;s -Holiday Camp, and Forbidden Night Castle, I fire up PC-Talk. A series of -&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.windytan.com/2012/11/the-sound-of-dialup-pictured.html&#34;&gt;high-pitched squeals and tones&lt;/a&gt; fill the air, then text -flashes across the screen. I&amp;rsquo;m online.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;BBSes were a treasure trove of information, filled to the brim with zip archives -full of downloadable programs, source code, patches for existing programs, and -all manner of text files with names like &lt;a href=&#34;https://insecure.org/stf/smashstack.html&#34;&gt;Smashing The Stack For Fun And -Profit&lt;/a&gt;. You could find everything from how to crack copy-protected -software, to details on phone phreaking, to how to make nitroglycerine from -commonly-available household items. It was through BBSes that I first downloaded -an I&amp;rsquo;m sure &lt;em&gt;totally legitimate&lt;/em&gt; copy of Borland Turbo C++ and took my first -baby steps writing &lt;em&gt;real&lt;/em&gt; programs. No more BASIC for me.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;This culture of open sharing in the online world has had a huge impact on me. -From those early experiences with BBSes to my first forays onto the Internet a -few years later, seeing people openly sharing code and patches and helping each -other solve problems over Usenet seemed almost revolutionary to me at the time. -In some ways, it still does. I feel lucky to have been a part of it from such an -early age.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;The end result is that I try to publicly share all the work I do. So when it -came time to chuck licences on stuff, I sat down to work out a personals ad for -my ideal licence. Aside from enjoying long walks on the beach, it should:&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;ol&gt; -&lt;li&gt;Allow free use, modification, and distribution both of the original -work and any derived works.&lt;/li&gt; -&lt;li&gt;Require that people distributing the work or any derived work to -give appropriate credit.&lt;/li&gt; -&lt;li&gt;Disallow suggesting that I in any way endorse any derived products -or whoever produces them.&lt;/li&gt; -&lt;li&gt;Gently encourage a culture of open exchange and sharing of -information and techniques.&lt;/li&gt; -&lt;li&gt;Be short, clear, and easy to understand.&lt;/li&gt; -&lt;/ol&gt; -&lt;p&gt;On the software side, there were lots of options, but the best matches in my -mind are the &lt;a href=&#34;https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT&#34;&gt;MIT&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;https://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause&#34;&gt;BSD&lt;/a&gt; licences. The 3-clause -&amp;rsquo;new&amp;rsquo; BSD licence has an advantage in that it required written permission from -the author to use their name in any endorsement/promotion of a derived work. -That happens to be what we already use for &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/flutter/flutter&#34;&gt;work&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;On the content side, I&amp;rsquo;ve always posted my web site&amp;rsquo;s content under a &lt;a href=&#34;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/&#34;&gt;Creative -Commons Attribution-ShareAlike&lt;/a&gt; licence. But I don&amp;rsquo;t believe that&amp;rsquo;s -actually the ideal match based on my priorities. Why is it that I&amp;rsquo;ve elected to -use a licence that requires that derived works also be licensed under the same -terms rather than under whatever terms someone feels like, so long as -acknowledgement is given? In the end I settled on the more permissive &lt;a href=&#34;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/&#34;&gt;Creative -Commons Attribution&lt;/a&gt; licence.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;This feels to me a bit like the difference between &lt;a href=&#34;https://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause&#34;&gt;BSD&lt;/a&gt; and -&lt;a href=&#34;https://opensource.org/licenses/GPL-3.0&#34;&gt;GPL&lt;/a&gt; terms, where the latter requires that derived works also be -GPL-licensed. This &amp;ldquo;viral&amp;rdquo; nature has always rubbed me the wrong way: rather -than gently promoting a culture of sharing by example, it legally &lt;em&gt;requires&lt;/em&gt; -sharing under the same terms whether or not you want to.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;Personally, I&amp;rsquo;d like for people to do the right thing and share their work for -everyone&amp;rsquo;s benefit not because they &lt;em&gt;have&lt;/em&gt; to, but because they &lt;em&gt;want&lt;/em&gt; to. If -they don&amp;rsquo;t want to, why should my reaction be to disallow their use of my work? -Isn&amp;rsquo;t that contrary to my stated goals of sharing as much and as broadly as -possible?&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;While I &lt;em&gt;hope&lt;/em&gt; that more people share more of their work, it doesn&amp;rsquo;t bother me -if you don&amp;rsquo;t. If anything I&amp;rsquo;ve written is somehow useful to you, I&amp;rsquo;m glad. Use -your knowledge to help others and make the world a better place, and if you can -find time to do so, share a bit with the rest of us.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;Got thoughts and opinions on licences? Fire an email my way at -&lt;a href=&#34;mailto:chris@bracken.jp&#34;&gt;chris@bracken.jp&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; -</description> - </item> - + <lastBuildDate>Fri, 05 Aug 2005 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/meta/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <item> <title>Look At All The Pretty Pictures!</title> <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2005/08/look-at-all-the-pretty-pictures/</link> diff --git a/tags/software/index.html b/tags/software/index.html @@ -35,7 +35,6 @@ <section id="posts"> <ol class="post-list"> -<li>2020-05-22: <a href="/2020/05/thoughts-on-licences/">Thoughts on Licences</a> <li>2018-10-31: <a href="/2018/10/decoding-an-elf-binary/">Hand-decoding an ELF binary image</a> <li>2011-04-22: <a href="/2011/04/installing-mozc-on-ubuntu/">Installing Mozc on Ubuntu</a> <li>2007-05-30: <a href="/2007/05/google-reader/">Google Reader</a> diff --git a/tags/software/index.xml b/tags/software/index.xml @@ -8,86 +8,7 @@ <language>en</language> <managingEditor>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</managingEditor> <webMaster>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</webMaster> - <lastBuildDate>Fri, 22 May 2020 14:55:23 -0700</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/software/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> - <item> - <title>Thoughts on Licences</title> - <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2020/05/thoughts-on-licences/</link> - <pubDate>Fri, 22 May 2020 14:55:23 -0700</pubDate> - <author>chris@bracken.jp (Chris Bracken)</author> - <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2020/05/thoughts-on-licences/</guid> - <description>&lt;p&gt;Software licences are probably the single most boring aspect of software -development, but it&amp;rsquo;s important to carefully consider the terms under which the -stuff I hack on is shared to ensure they&amp;rsquo;re consistent with my values. Despite -my general dislike for all things legalistic, the most unambiguous way to state -those terms is through a licence. So a couple days ago, I tossed LICENSE files -into any of my public &lt;a href=&#34;https://chris.bracken.jp/code&#34;&gt;repos&lt;/a&gt; that didn&amp;rsquo;t already have one.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;So how did I settle on which licences to apply? Jump on into the DeLorean and -let&amp;rsquo;s set the dial back to the late 1980s.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s 1986 and I&amp;rsquo;ve got a 1200 baud modem wired up to a beat-up 286 with a steel -case that would easily allow it to double as a boat anchor if needed. Armed -with a dot-matrix printout of local BBSes with names like Camelot, Tommy&amp;rsquo;s -Holiday Camp, and Forbidden Night Castle, I fire up PC-Talk. A series of -&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.windytan.com/2012/11/the-sound-of-dialup-pictured.html&#34;&gt;high-pitched squeals and tones&lt;/a&gt; fill the air, then text -flashes across the screen. I&amp;rsquo;m online.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;BBSes were a treasure trove of information, filled to the brim with zip archives -full of downloadable programs, source code, patches for existing programs, and -all manner of text files with names like &lt;a href=&#34;https://insecure.org/stf/smashstack.html&#34;&gt;Smashing The Stack For Fun And -Profit&lt;/a&gt;. You could find everything from how to crack copy-protected -software, to details on phone phreaking, to how to make nitroglycerine from -commonly-available household items. It was through BBSes that I first downloaded -an I&amp;rsquo;m sure &lt;em&gt;totally legitimate&lt;/em&gt; copy of Borland Turbo C++ and took my first -baby steps writing &lt;em&gt;real&lt;/em&gt; programs. No more BASIC for me.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;This culture of open sharing in the online world has had a huge impact on me. -From those early experiences with BBSes to my first forays onto the Internet a -few years later, seeing people openly sharing code and patches and helping each -other solve problems over Usenet seemed almost revolutionary to me at the time. -In some ways, it still does. I feel lucky to have been a part of it from such an -early age.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;The end result is that I try to publicly share all the work I do. So when it -came time to chuck licences on stuff, I sat down to work out a personals ad for -my ideal licence. Aside from enjoying long walks on the beach, it should:&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;ol&gt; -&lt;li&gt;Allow free use, modification, and distribution both of the original -work and any derived works.&lt;/li&gt; -&lt;li&gt;Require that people distributing the work or any derived work to -give appropriate credit.&lt;/li&gt; -&lt;li&gt;Disallow suggesting that I in any way endorse any derived products -or whoever produces them.&lt;/li&gt; -&lt;li&gt;Gently encourage a culture of open exchange and sharing of -information and techniques.&lt;/li&gt; -&lt;li&gt;Be short, clear, and easy to understand.&lt;/li&gt; -&lt;/ol&gt; -&lt;p&gt;On the software side, there were lots of options, but the best matches in my -mind are the &lt;a href=&#34;https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT&#34;&gt;MIT&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;https://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause&#34;&gt;BSD&lt;/a&gt; licences. The 3-clause -&amp;rsquo;new&amp;rsquo; BSD licence has an advantage in that it required written permission from -the author to use their name in any endorsement/promotion of a derived work. -That happens to be what we already use for &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/flutter/flutter&#34;&gt;work&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;On the content side, I&amp;rsquo;ve always posted my web site&amp;rsquo;s content under a &lt;a href=&#34;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/&#34;&gt;Creative -Commons Attribution-ShareAlike&lt;/a&gt; licence. But I don&amp;rsquo;t believe that&amp;rsquo;s -actually the ideal match based on my priorities. Why is it that I&amp;rsquo;ve elected to -use a licence that requires that derived works also be licensed under the same -terms rather than under whatever terms someone feels like, so long as -acknowledgement is given? In the end I settled on the more permissive &lt;a href=&#34;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/&#34;&gt;Creative -Commons Attribution&lt;/a&gt; licence.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;This feels to me a bit like the difference between &lt;a href=&#34;https://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause&#34;&gt;BSD&lt;/a&gt; and -&lt;a href=&#34;https://opensource.org/licenses/GPL-3.0&#34;&gt;GPL&lt;/a&gt; terms, where the latter requires that derived works also be -GPL-licensed. This &amp;ldquo;viral&amp;rdquo; nature has always rubbed me the wrong way: rather -than gently promoting a culture of sharing by example, it legally &lt;em&gt;requires&lt;/em&gt; -sharing under the same terms whether or not you want to.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;Personally, I&amp;rsquo;d like for people to do the right thing and share their work for -everyone&amp;rsquo;s benefit not because they &lt;em&gt;have&lt;/em&gt; to, but because they &lt;em&gt;want&lt;/em&gt; to. If -they don&amp;rsquo;t want to, why should my reaction be to disallow their use of my work? -Isn&amp;rsquo;t that contrary to my stated goals of sharing as much and as broadly as -possible?&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;While I &lt;em&gt;hope&lt;/em&gt; that more people share more of their work, it doesn&amp;rsquo;t bother me -if you don&amp;rsquo;t. If anything I&amp;rsquo;ve written is somehow useful to you, I&amp;rsquo;m glad. Use -your knowledge to help others and make the world a better place, and if you can -find time to do so, share a bit with the rest of us.&lt;/p&gt; -&lt;p&gt;Got thoughts and opinions on licences? Fire an email my way at -&lt;a href=&#34;mailto:chris@bracken.jp&#34;&gt;chris@bracken.jp&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; -</description> - </item> - + <lastBuildDate>Wed, 31 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/software/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <item> <title>Hand-decoding an ELF binary image</title> <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2018/10/decoding-an-elf-binary/</link>