On Open Source

I have always been a strong advocate for open-source -- applications, operating systems, protocols. Years ago, it was because commercial, proprietary software was out of my budget ($495 for WordPerfect 4.2!). Open source allowed me to be productive with a computer without having to resort to pirating software. Even today, I would rather spend my money on something else, like a bigger monitor or larger hard drive than a shrink-wrapped DVD of software that, regardless of its features, always includes strict restrictions on its use and complete contractural release of liability for its maker. What was I paying for again? Information should be free, as should the software tools to manage and manipulate it.

For the three answer sites, I decided to pull out the big gun of questions: "Is Obama's Hawaiian birth certificate authentic?" The sites on which the short form resides are either his sites or ones that have ties to him (sorry, factcheck.org is not as non-partisan as they want people to believe). Here are the results I got:

Yahoo Answers -- Yahoo Answers' top response was entitled "Is the birth certificate shown on Obama's site real?" For the sake of this argument, I clicked the link, which took me to a page that listed this as a "resolved question." However, a quick read through the posted responses below that claim showed that the question was not at all resolved, though it appeared to be in the minds of most all of the posters that answered either way.

Answerbag -- Answerbag wanted to know more to find the answer, like the subject -- there was a 'legal' category and a 'birth certificate' sub-category. Then it wanted to know if it was a 'conversational' or 'informational' question. I chose 'conversational' since I was not sure how the information should differ on this subject. Upon submission, Answer bag took me to a webpage that notably was taken up by two columns of Google Ads on the right half of the screen and a column of links to related questions on the left side. However, none of the questions listed fit what I asked. Some of them, such as the one dealing with whether a birth certificate had an expiration date, seemed to be of little value at all, particularly with the answers posted to it.

Askville -- Within ten minutes of posting the question on Askville, I got a response. A very long, well-documented response. Very professionally done. A response that would have taken much longer than 10 minutes to type. A response that clearly was either copy-and-pasted or carefully canned. A response from someone clearly on Obama's side and very likely on his payroll. They followed up with a personal email letting me know that they responded and pleading with me to read said response. After that, other responses started trickling in many derogatory and quite a few to pick apart certain aspects of the first response.

So the question remains unanswered -- Is Obama's Hawaiian birth certificate authentic? The fact that he filed a motion to dismiss and a second motion to delay discovery of evidence that included that birth certificate until after the court ruled on the dismissal has me suspicious in the Berg vs. Obama case (www.obamacrimes.com). I wonder, too, if visiting his grandmother is the only business that Obama will be conductng while he is in Hawaii.

I did, in fact, Google myself. Most of the pages on the first group of results are geneology pages about past individuals with my name. And one with my name that runs a Ford dealership in the NorthEast. No sign of my website, with is .com-ed but hasn't been updated in forever.