It’s been 3 weeks since I started my (second) summer internship at Mozilla Labs, and needless to say it’s been a blast! I’m continuing my work on Weave, besides helping out with the gamut of experiments that are currently running at the Labs. Weave is going to see some major strides forward in the near future, as we now have our very own Product Manager (Welcome, Ragavan!) in addition to the awesome Mike Connor joining the team

Within the first week of my arrival here, Mozilla made the move to the new office, which is possibly the sweetest workplace I’ve ever seen in my life. Check out selected pictures here.

There’s been the usual slew of intern activities, including, but not limited to: Canoeing, Movie nights, Birthday celebrations, Music discovery, and even a few dungeon runs on WoW

Look for more posts on labsy stuff in the near future. Peace!

I was going through Last.FM’s Best Music of 2008 charts when I came across Nine Inch Nails’ album Ghosts I-IV. What really caught my eye was not that it was 4th in the top albums chart, but that the music was licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commerical-Share Alike license!

In addition to the slew of albums available under similar licenses on Jamendo, it is heartening to see more mainstream music opting for this method of distribution – even Radiohead experimented with it not long ago.

The best way for us to fight the RIAA is by encouraging this type of music distribution, which directly pays the artist. Let’s not forget that associations like the RIAA are chiefly responsible for several draconian laws that plague our society today, and are also the primary driving force behind DRM technologies. Gone are the days where you need large amounts of money to produce and distribute your work of art. As I said earlier, the whole point of technology is to make things cheaper, faster and better for everyone involved, cutting out the middle-man wherever possible.

This holiday season, play your part by going and buying DRM-free music directly from the artist. It’s the least we can do to show that this open form of distribution actually works. My recommendations: Ghosts I-IV and The Raghu Dixit Project. Or sample music from Magnatune and then buy tracks that you like! Alternatively, pick out music from Jamendo and then donate to artists of your liking. A meal at your favorite fast-food restaraunt is all you have to sacrifice for the act