On the Net and the Web this year, we saw one kind of revolution after another: the Web helped elected a governor, saw the spread of new kinds of messaging communities like ICQ and Hotline, the rapid spread of politicized movements like OS and Free Software, the storming of the digital world by retailers and big cornporations, and oh yes, we were shocked by the sudden and highly pornographic appearance here of the Kenneth Starr report one day. But it's easy to be online for days and not quite grasp what's going on out there, which is a full-blown constitutional crisis. The differences between the old and new information cultures have never been more clearly defined than by Linda, Monica, Ken, Bill, Sam, Cokie and the members of the House Judiciary Committee.

When I put out my call for Geek Christmas Gift ideas, I had no idea what I was in for. But after the storm of email that followed was washed away, I was left with a list of toys that any geek would be excited to give or get this year for whatever holiday it is you celebrate this time of year. Hit the link below and read the list if you're curious.

James Moyer has submitted a piece that I'm interested to see what everyone thinks of. It basically describes creation of a formalized guild of programmers that would be advance ethical coding. Particularly related to privacy issues. Read it and speak your mind.

Techno-blabber aside, media is more and more about two groups of people -- those at home with a keyboard, joystick and mouse, and those who aren't. An MIT professor looks at what the little devils are up to. Forget the blockheads crowing about the end of civilization and culture. On the Net, kids are redefining what creativity and culture are.

As is my habit, whenever I go outside, I tend to go see movies. And when I see movies, I tend to post reviews here. So I saw A Bug's Life last night. If you wanna know what I thought about it, hit the link and read my ramblings.

This Thanksgiving, I was far from home, visting with two young geeks who set across the country with $10 extra bucks looking for good computer jobs. On Thanksgiving eve, they helped me to my first online gaming kill, thus inspiring me to recount the many ways in which I give thanks for geeks.

Kirrily 'Skud' Robert who is both a female, and a geek has written a response to a recent flamewar on Slashdot that discussed the presence (or lack of presence) of both sexes in the geek realm. Hit the link below to read what she has to say.

The bad news about the new Netscape-AOL-Sun conglomerate is that the battle between individual expression and freedom and corporation domination and greed on the Web just got a lot uglier. We're getting the one thing the world needs the least: another giant, powerful and synergistic information hydra. We don't, as journalists are saying, finally have some competition for Microsoft. We just have another Microsoft.

And the good news? There isn't any:

Been meaning to write this one for a while, but you know how time is. The following is an account of a...misadventure had by myself, OctobrX and Rob Walker of VA Research while at the Atlanta Linux Showcase (which was great, BTW). None of the names have been changed, because, well, no one's an innocent these days. Click below for the story.

Vote For Me and I?ll Set You Free -- Some of you have said loudly and repeatedly that I don't belong here. So herewith, an exercise in Interactive Media Democracy, Unprecedented in the Western World! Vote your media. Keep the Jerk or Get Rid of Him, a Slashdot Poll:

Jeremy Lee has written an excellent piece called Open Source and change where he talks a bit about he social implications of the movement that we all know and love. This is definately worth your time.

Washington journalists and pols now have a new Internet nightmare to worry about along with hackers, pornographers, peverts and techno-terrorists. He did it from way outside the system. Jesse Ventura and his "geek squad" have given the Internet its first election victory, and politics might not (we can only hope) ever be the same. How he did it:

Christian Reiniger of the new Linux Game Development Project has written up a nice piece that you might want to read if you want to see more games on Linux, and how this new project will aid that. The way I see it, the apps are coming, and in many cases, already here. We just need the games.

Here is a summary of the Transmeta patent for those that do not have the time to read it fully. Click below to read more.

Linux and the Open Source Software movement evoke an intensifying struggle between corporatism and individualism. The Web seems to be the battleground for what is shaping up as a whopper of a confrontration for control of the Digital Age

Welcome to Slashdot, wherein a technologically challenged media critic comes nose to nose with an army of Linux Geeks and lives to tell the tale...

This week's chronicle from Silicon Valley by Jean-Louis Gassée (CEO of Be Inc, and a Linux user) is rather interesting. He points out that Apple's testimony is unexpectedly strong evidence in favour of the DOJ, even though it relates to events occuring back in the 1980s (see below). Jean-Louis points out that the foundations of Microsoft's domination of PCs and Macs had been layed even before the Mac came out in 1984. Apparently the DOJ is so sure it will win it has started probing Silicon Valley experts as to what remedies would be effective. Dividing Microsoft up into pieces has apparently been discounted since Microsoft could effectively continue building apps into its OS by hiring more people to the OS division. The favorite contender is to force Microsoft to licence the Windows source code to three of its competitors. To me, this is ineffective: Microsoft could convincingly claim that its three competitors did not write the code and do not understand it as well (so you should rely on Microsoft for support) and make sure this is true by sending the final builds to the competition as late as possible. My sysadmin and I had a discussion which resulted in an alternative remedy: Win32 and the Windows kernels should be GPL'd with Microsoft losing all its rights as original copyright holder. This would prevent Microsoft from integrating other stuff into the kernel because they'd lose any unfair competitive advantage (think proprietary APIs) by doing so. If you'd like to support this idea, write to Joel Klein! As usual, Babelfish is your friend.

Microsoft is not going to wait for the outcome of its trial with the DOJ before attacking Linux. The battle scene is France, where Microsoft's new (expendable?) regional director Marc Chardon has just issued an open letter to his clients. Click below to read the translation of the Linux-section (it's in French) and some commentary.

Bruce Stephens has written in with a writeup on something he considers pretty cool- perhaps you'll agree. It's about something you may not have heard of:ANDF. Looks interesting for the hardcore.

Alan Cox has submitted a piece he calls "Cathedrals, Bazaars and the Town Council". It addresses a lot of really important issues for those involved with distributed software development. It's definitely a must read.