One Person Can Really Change the World

Is the future written in stone? Can a person really change the world?

We start off with several interesting things that came out of reading feeds, which builds up to our theme for this post.

First off, this sparked some discussion over at the Philippine Linux User's Group mailing list. Fortune's Microsoft Takes on the Free World is the news of the week:

"Microsoft claims that free software like Linux, which runs a big chunk of corporate America, violates 235 of its patents. It wants royalties from distributors and users. Users like you, maybe. Fortune's Roger Parloff reports."

So is it saber rattling? Linux watch asks, "Microsoft v. Linux: FUD or not?" Here's a snippet from the article:

At least one attorney, Tom Carey, a partner at Boston law firm Bromberg & Sunstein and chairman of its business department, said he thinks this IP threat to Linux and open source might have some teeth to it. "While we all got a lot of amusement out of SCO's bumbling around in the dark on a botched breach of contract/copyright infringement action, the prospect of Microsoft suing for patent infringement is another matter altogether," Carey said. "Patent protection is often much stronger than copyright, and the complexity of sorting through all these patent claims will end up consuming many person-years."

Saber-rattling? maybe. maybe not. Still it would be a great time for our legislature to consider the pros and cons of Software Patents and for standardizing on open standards, whenever possible.

(added) Linux.com has an interview on the whole thing from The Benevolent Dictator himself, Linus Torvalds:

Can you get a list of which ones? Before that, it's just FUD, and there's not a whole lot I can say or do. Is there prior art? Are they trivial and obvious to one skilled in the art? Would we need to work around them? We don't know, because all I've heard so far is just FUD.

If MS actually _wanted_ us to not infringe their patents, they'd tell us. Since they don't, that must mean that they actually prefer the FUD.

Heroes fans, do not worry! Comic Book Resources has this interesting tidbit: we'll still have our weekly dose with the new Heroes: Origins spin off which begins after the series goes on haitus for summer.

The-Future-is-not-written-in-stone Heroes Revealed has a video teaser for next monday (this is the one that NBC played after last Monday's ep and they also one that came from Canada).

video is from user infelt and you can find his youtube post: here

Philippine Commentary is all about Senator Trillanes, Sir! When all the ballots are counted and he goes to the Senate, let's see how much change he can do and i do hope he doesn't waste his time going after impeaching pGMA.

See, we've got bigger things to do.

Moving on, Placeholder has a quote From the Black and White Movement asking if Cayatano was a victim of sinister cheating or incompetence. This is my hypothesis: his rise and possible fall could be tied to his war with the First Family. While I did vote for the guy--- largely due to the fact that he is young. And my other reason was (same as my reason for voting for Trillanes), as someone always raising a ruckus, let's give him an opportunity to prove his worth.

However, given the trend being showed to us by exit polls and by what looks like defeat for Pacman, and other Administration candidates on the local level and given that the Senators are mixed of the old and the new--- could it really be a sign that our people are voting not because you are for whom but because they really want results? It's a working hypothesis.

Until more data come in, my guess is as good as yours.

Yesterday, Gregory posted a comment and pointed me to Jim Paredes' blog: Writing On Air. I have to agree with what Jim Paredes wrote:

Writers have described life in the Philippines as ‘magic realism’, the same way Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ sees life in Latin America. The child in us lives in a mythic, magical world where we expect a handsome prince to save us at the last minute, or that things will get better with the wave of a magic wand, without any need for us to change.

I have news for us: Things will not change, not until the party wears out and a more responsible archetype takes over who will want to clean up the mess we’ve made.

I think we already know it that things will not change without cleaning up our own act... as a people, we just haven't accepted it. We've spent countless days analyzing, figure things out since way before EDSA and beyond. And we've spent endless moments critiquing and blaming others for our lot. The answer really is in our own hands. People need to and are starting to leverage their own success. We just have to get out and work.

Where all roads lead is 2010--- that's a lot of time to do a lot of work in nation building or fail once more.

Speaking of changing the world, I hope Filipinos do get this one. David Pogue wrote in his blog entitled "Discovering Modern Marvels":

"What struck me most was how many of these inventions came from small-time individuals who don’t even work in the fields you’d expect — medical breakthroughs by parents of patients, for example. It was truly inspiring. It was readily apparent that these poor souls had spent a crazy amount of dollars and years trying to bring their ideas to light, but you can’t change the lesson of the day: that one person really can change the world".

Indeed: "one person can really change the world". To borrow Angela Petrelli's words (see whoever said TV would rot your brain?), "Can you be the one we need?"