Cory Doctorow: "The Coming War on General Purpose Computation"

I've been doing my best to get away from ranting about the shrinking sandbox that is today's direction in personal computing, and how it is changing our relationship with technology - and the quality of our individual rights - for the worse. I'm making myself sick of the topic, let alone anyone who actually reads this blog on a regular basis. "Yes, I get it," you say. "Computers are being turned into mere content consumption appliances, and computer users are being turned into mere content subscribers. Can we move on, now?"

I couldn't agree more, and how I wish it were so.

Alarm bell that I am, however, I feel compelled to draw your attention to the keynote speech (The Coming War on General Purpose Computation) recently given by blogger and boingboing.net co-editor Cory Doctorow at 28C3, the Chaos Computer Congress, in Berlin on December 26. You can either watch a video of the speech or read a text transcript.

The speech gives a good rundown on the threats posed by current computing trends -- as well as today's copyright battles -- in a less pedestrian vein than the rants posted by Yours Truly.