dc10 - 0.5

DebConf10

Speakers
Jon Anderson Hall, Esq.
Schedule
Day DebConf Day 1 / Debian Day (2010-08-01)
Room Davis Auditorium
Start time 17:00
Duration 01:00
Info
ID 664
Event type lecture
Track
Language en
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Why is GNU/Linux Like a Player Piano?

One of the first programmable devices was the Jacquard loom, which used "punched cards" to control fabric designs. One of the next main programmable devices was the player piano (pianola) that used a spool of punched paper to control a mechanical device. There are a lot of similarities between Free Software and the Player Piano, and a lot of lessons to be learned about copyrights and patents, including the person who first invented spread-spectrum radio. This talk illustrates these similarities and lessons, leading up to a discussion of the Opus I organ at Trinity Church on Wall Street, perhaps the greatest organ in the world, driven by GNU/Linux.

This is a talk of about an hour's length. I will need an LCD projector and an amplifier with a 1/8" stereo jack to plug into my notebook.

It is a "fun talk", but does have some deep meanings.

Recordings