I checked out a two-DVD set called American Roots Music from the public library. It’s really great. It starts with spirituals and work songs, then spends a long time on classic country music before moving through folk, blues, and the early days of rock. I haven’t finished all of it yet (the final two episodes are on Cajun and Tejano music), but it’s really solid exept for the very beginning, which is a touch slow.
Seems there’s been some resolution in the battle between NuSphere and MySQL (here’s an overview of the controvery, if you’re unfamiliar with it). The GPL issues are still to be tested, but the judge agreed that MySQL AB (the company that makes MySQL) have the sole right to their name. I don’t know if it was a legal outcome or not, but I noticed that mysql.org is now safely back in the hands of mysql.com (if you do a whois lookup, you’ll see that ownership has changed back to MySQL AB).
Though I doubt many congressmen [sic] or representatives from my country would know the GPL from a hole in the ground, but Peruvian congressman Edgar Nunez has become an eloquent spokesperson for it and is behind a bill that would require the Peruvian government to move away from proprietary software entirely. Refreshingly enough, Nunez’s main arguments have much less to do with the freedom (as in cost) of free software and much more to do with its intelectual freedom. (here is the letter from Microsoft’s Peruvian manager, Juan Gonzalez, to which Nunez was replying above).