Our guest this last week was John Hlinko, VP at Grassroots Enterprise and one of the people behind StemPAC, a group "against the extremists who have held up the promise of stem cell research". Wired News recently wrote about StemPAC efforts to bring the magic powers of the Internet down upon politicians opposed to embryonic stem-cell research.


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In Vienna, councilor Manfred Juraczka reportedly wants the city to register the DNA of all dogs in the city. This is so dog droppings can be DNA tested and the owner of the offending canine can be punished. "This method offers a multitude of unbeatable advantages" Juraczka is quoted as saying. A similar proposal in Dresden has yet to be implemented.

Our guest on May 14 was Ankarino Lara, Director of Gamespot. We talked about this week's E3 in Los Angeles, a theme we'll continue this Saturday with Phaedra Boinodiris of WomenGamers.com.

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OK, I give up on the LinuxWorld/Sys-Con/Groklaw/Maureen O'Gara saga. I don't know exactly what's happening and I'm not sure who does. Today it was announced that the entire senior editorial staff of LinuxWorld resigned. Still, Mark Hinkle sends PJ his best wishes, and Sys-Con CEO Fuat Kircaali's "view on the matter has changed quite a lot" since the interview which triggered the resignations. Master Dvorak has noted the weirdness though he doesn't mention the phone numbers, addresses, family names and religious info which was published. In fact it seems most critics are focusing on the vitriol of the article, rather than the invasion of privacy. Weird indeed.

Sys-Con Media has apparently fired Maureen O'Gara over the article about PJ at Groklaw mentioned yesterday. It looks like Frank Turner and Dee-Ann LeBlanc can keep their jobs!

What is it with Maureen O'Gara and the personal attacks on PJ over at Groklaw? With O'Gara's latest piece it's clear that the it's gone waaaay beyond professional, with O'Gara openly engaging in ad hominem attacks on the person she thinks is PJ from Groklaw. O'Gara describes her as a harridan who lives in a shabby apartment, which O'Gara provides the address. A number of unflattering mentions of the Jehovah Witness religion are made, phone numbers are provided and photographs of suspected residences are posted.

What is this about? What service is provided to the linux community by posting names, addresses and phone numbers? Why post the address and family names of the man O'Gara believes is PJ's son? Why, when told a women is afraid of threats against her, would O'Gara go snooping around a house 24 miles away and then be surprised when the occupant of the home is a bit "disjointed" when giving personal information to the stranger and later calls the police.

Maureen O'Gara has come under much fire for previous stories, but this one has created a new level of disgust. So much so in fact that James Turner, Senior Editor of LinuxWorld Magazine, has posted a message which (to paraphrase) says "Either O'Gara leaves, or I do". He's not the only one mad about this either, Dee-Ann LeBlanc, Gaming News Editor at Linux World describes herself as "livid" over O'Gara's story.

Our guest this last week was Steven Johnson, who's latest book is Everything Bad is Good for You, How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter. Described by himself and others as a polemic, the book puts forth the argument that today's entertainment actually plays a vital role in the development of an increasingly complex and capable individual. As a whole, we are able to handle more, and more difficult, mental tasks largely because of how popular culture has trained us to be better prepared for this modern world.

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5/14 Update: It looks like Cory likes the book too!

Our guests on April 30 were Chris Hofmann and Marcia Knous who, along with John Hedtke, wrote Firefox and Thunderbird Garage. This version of Firefox is offering a serious challenge to Internet Explorer's grip on the browser market. And Thunderbird is the new standalone email client built on top of Mozilla technology. The book's been generally well received and both Chris and Marcia offer good insight regarding the value of open software.