[linux-audio-user] [OT] The 99th Monkey Nut

Last Tuesday 30 November 2004 15:51, Rob was like: ingredients = specs recipe = code I think it's quite a good analogy actually. Food and Medicine are similar to software in that they suffer from Patent Abuse. The law on ingredient disclosure has tightened up due to pressure from vegetarians/vegans/people on other restricted diets. Before then it was only vegetarian / wholefood producers that bothered to list everything. How many of you non-veggies have ever read the ingredients list on your toilet cleaner? I think making the release of a certain level of specification a legal requirement , enough for compatibility purposes, would be cool. I know, dream on ... I realise the argument goes nowhere with anyone who has never bothered with ingredients lists or restricted diets. The difference is that food & medicine are a necessity & human right and therefore you can justify a more aggressive approach. It can yield results, especially in conjunction with a few 'good cops'. It still won't make you any friends. ;-] The point that I'm really trying to make is that things do change. It's been a long haul as far as vegetarianism is concerned, but it all started with a small bunch of nutters with no more leverage over food producers than we have over hardware manufacturers. At no point have we tried to make eating meat illegal, although we do seem to have banned hunting for sport in this country and frankly that's a bill I never thought would get through the House of Lords. It only takes a relatively small group of dedicated and vocal practitioners to change the law. It's known as The 100th Monkey effect. Anyway, I'm using a big contentious issue as an analogy and it probably won't bear much deeper discussion. FTR: Eat what you like, I know I do. :-) cheers tim hall is powered by organic fair-trade coffee, rice and vegetables. http://glastonburymusic.org.uk