Posts
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Revolution of the heart
Music has alwas been a steadfast front line means of expressing what the heart seeks, especially during turbalent times of change in our world. Often it is resisted with a passion by the atatus qua while other times it is the leading edge of the change. But because the heart is is the deepest symbol of what we are thinking, feeling, and desiring, the interior change we may be experiencing is best expressed by art and music specifically. So when humanity is at the crossroads of social upheaval and (r)evoolution, is it no wonder music is one of the main vehicles to mobilize and agitate change?
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Wikidot Platform Released as Open Source under Affero GPLv3 license
31 January 2007: Wikidot Inc., developer of the popular Wikidot.com platform has freed the code for its flagship product under the new GNU Affero GPLv3 license. The company has freed both its current Wikidot product, and the new Wikidot/2.0 product under development.
Wikidot Inc. founder and General Manager Michal Frackowiak explains, "our users want access to the code, and we want our users to get involved in the project. We believe that freeing our software is great for our community, and great for our business." The Affero license gives users the right to modify, share, and even resell improvements to the code. Michal explains, "it's like the GPLv3 but also requires service providers who extend our Wikidot code to share their improvements".
Wikidot.com is growing popular with smart users who use its wiki functionality to build creative sites, quickly. Pieter Hintjens, founder of iMatix Corporation and CEO of Wikidot Inc., explains, "it used to take weeks to build a website. With Wikidot my team can make new rich sites in a matter of hours. It's all about doing more with less."
Through pure word-of-mouth, Wikidot now ranks as one of the most popular wikifarms, and is growing at the rate of 500 users a day. Michal Frackowiak concludes, "we deliver a quality product and a very reliable service. Our users are our best sales people."
Software is available free of charge to everyone at wikidot.org.
About Wikidot Inc.
Wikidot Inc. is a privately-held corporation based in Delaware, US, with an operating office in Poland. The firm was founded in 2007 by Wikidot.com founder Michal Frackowiak and a group of private investors. For more information see www.wikidot.com/company.
About Wikidot.com
Wikidot.com offers users the ability to create websites using 'wiki' technology as used in Wikipedia and other products. Wikidot.com offers freedom from advertising, and free hosting for its users' websites. The company makes revenues from opt-in advertising and add-on services.
Wikidot Inc. founder and General Manager Michal Frackowiak explains, "our users want access to the code, and we want our users to get involved in the project. We believe that freeing our software is great for our community, and great for our business." The Affero license gives users the right to modify, share, and even resell improvements to the code. Michal explains, "it's like the GPLv3 but also requires service providers who extend our Wikidot code to share their improvements".
Wikidot.com is growing popular with smart users who use its wiki functionality to build creative sites, quickly. Pieter Hintjens, founder of iMatix Corporation and CEO of Wikidot Inc., explains, "it used to take weeks to build a website. With Wikidot my team can make new rich sites in a matter of hours. It's all about doing more with less."
Through pure word-of-mouth, Wikidot now ranks as one of the most popular wikifarms, and is growing at the rate of 500 users a day. Michal Frackowiak concludes, "we deliver a quality product and a very reliable service. Our users are our best sales people."
Software is available free of charge to everyone at wikidot.org.
About Wikidot Inc.
Wikidot Inc. is a privately-held corporation based in Delaware, US, with an operating office in Poland. The firm was founded in 2007 by Wikidot.com founder Michal Frackowiak and a group of private investors. For more information see www.wikidot.com/company.
About Wikidot.com
Wikidot.com offers users the ability to create websites using 'wiki' technology as used in Wikipedia and other products. Wikidot.com offers freedom from advertising, and free hosting for its users' websites. The company makes revenues from opt-in advertising and add-on services.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
A consortium of experts
I am organizing a consortium of experts from a variety of web, networking and marketing technologies. A catalogue of services will be built and based upon my consultation with clients, various options can be submitted from the client to choose from. This catalogue of services will a standard offering from my consultation services and will be made available to clients visiting my website at www.cyberbpace.com. if you would like to become part of this project or if you would like to start a group here, contact me at robert@cyberbspace.com
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Radical Change...
You never change something by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. -- Buckminster Fuller
But how do we build a new model? As individuals? ???
It cannot be done by individuals alone, but must be started by the individual by the way they choose to live. A collective consciousness needs to be forged through sharing of ideas, a sharing of lifestyle change, and a sharing of love. The New Testament Church demonstrated it can be done, but there has to be a return to the communist model they used, where all things were shared and no one was in need. Jesus' statement that we are to love one another even as he has loved us, can be compared with Karl Marx' maxim To each according to their need, from each according to their ability.
The biggest obstacle lay within us, we must find a way to uproot, greed, selfishness and hatred - transform these instictual based drives with higher soul powers which promote altruism, sharing, kindness and being empathic towards one another. The powers of the soul lay within the spirit which makes up humanity as a whole. It really escapes definiton or categorizes, as t is a power we have barely come to know. Some have been able to use in tremendous ways such as the many mystics, saints and gifted psychics have demonstrated in the past.
Meditiaton and discipline are requrements of this interior change, but this should and must be transfigured to the way we live as well. The The masters of Christian meditiation, and the desert fathers and mothers pratice an even deeper form of meditation through contemplation. Contemplation is when the soul merges perfectly with this spirit and with God. It must be be putin daily practice. In the Eastern traditions, this is called Dharma. The noble goals of selflessness or 'no-mind' or mindfulness does stop with the individual ,as if these were forms of escapism. No, instead they are practices which if properly nurtured increases wisdom , charity and a ggreater sensitivity to suffering - which in turn produces a greater desire for social justice.
But how do we build a new model? As individuals? ???
It cannot be done by individuals alone, but must be started by the individual by the way they choose to live. A collective consciousness needs to be forged through sharing of ideas, a sharing of lifestyle change, and a sharing of love. The New Testament Church demonstrated it can be done, but there has to be a return to the communist model they used, where all things were shared and no one was in need. Jesus' statement that we are to love one another even as he has loved us, can be compared with Karl Marx' maxim To each according to their need, from each according to their ability.
The biggest obstacle lay within us, we must find a way to uproot, greed, selfishness and hatred - transform these instictual based drives with higher soul powers which promote altruism, sharing, kindness and being empathic towards one another. The powers of the soul lay within the spirit which makes up humanity as a whole. It really escapes definiton or categorizes, as t is a power we have barely come to know. Some have been able to use in tremendous ways such as the many mystics, saints and gifted psychics have demonstrated in the past.
Meditiaton and discipline are requrements of this interior change, but this should and must be transfigured to the way we live as well. The The masters of Christian meditiation, and the desert fathers and mothers pratice an even deeper form of meditation through contemplation. Contemplation is when the soul merges perfectly with this spirit and with God. It must be be putin daily practice. In the Eastern traditions, this is called Dharma. The noble goals of selflessness or 'no-mind' or mindfulness does stop with the individual ,as if these were forms of escapism. No, instead they are practices which if properly nurtured increases wisdom , charity and a ggreater sensitivity to suffering - which in turn produces a greater desire for social justice.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Music, the Cosmos and life
22 Jan 2008,
Way back in high school. one of my music teachers described music as the resolution between dissonance and harmony, as between noise and silence. If a musical work does not include periods of silence balanced between sound and noise, it cannot be expressive of the ideas which a composer may be trying to express.
The cosmos is much like that, if we are to believe the astrophysics and the the physics of chaos theory.
It only follows then, that all life is an act of balancing, and human life which is conscious of itself must find ways to 'intentionality' of balance. The dissonance in ones life, the various mishaps, misfortunes, and grief seeks after resolution which is more than a biological function of survival. Consciousness is able to transcend the baser instincts of survival. Life, instinct and consciousness progresses into a harmonizing whole.
Way back in high school. one of my music teachers described music as the resolution between dissonance and harmony, as between noise and silence. If a musical work does not include periods of silence balanced between sound and noise, it cannot be expressive of the ideas which a composer may be trying to express.
The cosmos is much like that, if we are to believe the astrophysics and the the physics of chaos theory.
It only follows then, that all life is an act of balancing, and human life which is conscious of itself must find ways to 'intentionality' of balance. The dissonance in ones life, the various mishaps, misfortunes, and grief seeks after resolution which is more than a biological function of survival. Consciousness is able to transcend the baser instincts of survival. Life, instinct and consciousness progresses into a harmonizing whole.
Monday, January 21, 2008
US Military Escalation in Pakistan Gets Underway
Date: January 7, 2008
Tom Hayden, Liberty Tree Board of Advisors
The US government is considering direct military intervention in the tribal areas of
Pakistan, risking an escalated conflict with Pashtun nationalism in the name of crushing
al Qaeda. An essay in last week's Washington Post, a front page story in today's New
York Times and reports from the Real News Network all confirm that a decision to
intervene is near. The Times confirms that as many as 50 American personnel, whether
special forces or CIA, already operate clandestinely inside the Pakistani border.
Democrats have called no hearings nor raised significant voices of opposition to the
unfolding plan. In New Hampshire last night, Sen. Barack Obama repeated his endorsement
of unilateral US military intervention in Pakistan if "actionable intelligence" exists.
His Democratic rivals did not dissent.
The consequences of the possible escalation are extremely unpredictable. The alleged
al-Qaeda militants are embedded in complex tribal networks in a remote mountainous area.
Military action could inflict severe casualties and damage to these traditional
communities and inflame anti-American sentiment across Muslim Pakistan. It might
accelerate the disintegration of the US-backed Musharraf dictatorship which currently
possesses nuclear weapons. Musharraf and the Pakistani military have steadfastly opposed
direct American intervention for the past five years.
Speculation is rife that US support for the ill-fated return of Benezir Bhutto to
Pakistan was based partly on an understanding that she would endorse and legitimize an
expanded US presence in her country. If neither the American embassy nor the Musharraf
regime could save her from death at a public event, it is unclear how successful American
special forces will be in the wilds of South Waziristan.
There is virtually no public discussion of the implications of American support for a
military dictatorship that imprisons Pakistani lawyers while harboring anti-US jihadists.
Instead of enforcing the existing Leahy Amendment [1997] which bans military assistance
to human rights violators, the US has spent approximately $10 billion in five years
supporting the Musharraf regime, alienating a majority of Pakistanis, and lending
credence to the claims of Muslim extremists. Having contributed to, or at least failing
to have prevented Pakistan's fall into chaos, "senior officials" quoted by the Times
now are blaming al-Qaeda for plotting all along to achieve "the big prize, creating chaos
in Pakistan itself."
It is ironic that Democrats like Obama, whose campaign was built around questioning the
intelligence justifying the Iraq War would now be arguing for a preventive war in a
sovereign country if evidence gathered by intelligence sources is merely "actionable."
The further irony is that the "war on terrorism" is escalating without meaningful
discussion or dissent in the midst of the most open and democratic of American processes,
the presidential debates.
Congressional hearings and questioning by the presidential candidates might stall,
circumscribe or prevent the escalation. An alternative policy of reducing US military
assistance to Pakistan and demanding the full restoration of civil liberties there, while
seeking diplomatic de-escalation in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Palestine is
being ignored in the march towards a wider quagmire.
More info:
TOM HAYDEN is the author of Ending the War in Iraq [2007], and a member of the Liberty
Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution's Board of Advisers.
http://www.libertytreefdr.org/democracyNews.php#news63
Tom Hayden, Liberty Tree Board of Advisors
The US government is considering direct military intervention in the tribal areas of
Pakistan, risking an escalated conflict with Pashtun nationalism in the name of crushing
al Qaeda. An essay in last week's Washington Post, a front page story in today's New
York Times and reports from the Real News Network all confirm that a decision to
intervene is near. The Times confirms that as many as 50 American personnel, whether
special forces or CIA, already operate clandestinely inside the Pakistani border.
Democrats have called no hearings nor raised significant voices of opposition to the
unfolding plan. In New Hampshire last night, Sen. Barack Obama repeated his endorsement
of unilateral US military intervention in Pakistan if "actionable intelligence" exists.
His Democratic rivals did not dissent.
The consequences of the possible escalation are extremely unpredictable. The alleged
al-Qaeda militants are embedded in complex tribal networks in a remote mountainous area.
Military action could inflict severe casualties and damage to these traditional
communities and inflame anti-American sentiment across Muslim Pakistan. It might
accelerate the disintegration of the US-backed Musharraf dictatorship which currently
possesses nuclear weapons. Musharraf and the Pakistani military have steadfastly opposed
direct American intervention for the past five years.
Speculation is rife that US support for the ill-fated return of Benezir Bhutto to
Pakistan was based partly on an understanding that she would endorse and legitimize an
expanded US presence in her country. If neither the American embassy nor the Musharraf
regime could save her from death at a public event, it is unclear how successful American
special forces will be in the wilds of South Waziristan.
There is virtually no public discussion of the implications of American support for a
military dictatorship that imprisons Pakistani lawyers while harboring anti-US jihadists.
Instead of enforcing the existing Leahy Amendment [1997] which bans military assistance
to human rights violators, the US has spent approximately $10 billion in five years
supporting the Musharraf regime, alienating a majority of Pakistanis, and lending
credence to the claims of Muslim extremists. Having contributed to, or at least failing
to have prevented Pakistan's fall into chaos, "senior officials" quoted by the Times
now are blaming al-Qaeda for plotting all along to achieve "the big prize, creating chaos
in Pakistan itself."
It is ironic that Democrats like Obama, whose campaign was built around questioning the
intelligence justifying the Iraq War would now be arguing for a preventive war in a
sovereign country if evidence gathered by intelligence sources is merely "actionable."
The further irony is that the "war on terrorism" is escalating without meaningful
discussion or dissent in the midst of the most open and democratic of American processes,
the presidential debates.
Congressional hearings and questioning by the presidential candidates might stall,
circumscribe or prevent the escalation. An alternative policy of reducing US military
assistance to Pakistan and demanding the full restoration of civil liberties there, while
seeking diplomatic de-escalation in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Palestine is
being ignored in the march towards a wider quagmire.
More info:
TOM HAYDEN is the author of Ending the War in Iraq [2007], and a member of the Liberty
Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution's Board of Advisers.
http://www.libertytreefdr.org/democracyNews.php#news63
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