Meme Tagged

My good friend Steven Hudson at Winextra 'tagged' me with this meme...

Initially I was a bit uneasy - then I started looking in the dark corners of my sordid life ... turns out I remembered stuff that even I didn't know. :) Well, most of it is true...

Eight things you might not know about me...

1. As a mini-kid I spent a summer on Kodiak Island, AK with family friends while my parents worked a halibut trawler, The Yukon. (Which was prominently 'featured' in a picture of the great earthquake - in the middle of the street, downtown Anchorage (I think.))
   
   
2. Learned FORTRAN 4 (1970-71) - Wrote a Tic-Tac-Toe program that could not be beaten - best you could hope for was a tie. A special subroutine was called so that 'turns' could be entered in the washing machine sized 'keyboard' interface of the IBM 360 (instead of having to re-run the punch card deck with the new turn.)
   
   
3. Junior Achievement "President of the Year" 1970-71 (Lansing Michigan) - Heady times when rules were made to be bent... Leading was just the willingness to take one more step than the folks standing next to you. (Object lesson: There are no friends in business and there should be no business among friends.)
   
   
4. Summered in Guadalajara Mexico
   
   1972: Worked with Don Pablo Muños, "El Quetero" (The Rocketman") - Speaking Spanish faster than any person I have ever heard Don Pablo showed me the ins and outs of making firework displays, Castillos.
   
   1973: Set up a darkroom in the hotel bathroom. At night processed B&W film and printed pictures. During the day of took photographs of 'Street People' - gritty, grainy, high contrast images of real people making their way in daily life.
   
   
5. Attended the Saturday, January 20, 1973 Counter-Inaugural March in Washington D.C. - No More War! - Caused traffic tie-ups by claiming the van I was driving was stalled at intersections.
   
   
6. Summer of 1975 - Ran away to the Circus Kirk - Three Rings Under The Big Top - World's Largest Brass Band - weeks on end of 18+ hour days, wet tired hungry and very sleepy - and then ran away from the circus
   
   
7. Evening Announcer for WKLA AM & FM in Ludington MI. 'The Captain' offered a late night array of low rumbling 'Barry White' intros to some of the coolest and hottest Jazz ever heard in north west Michigan.
   
   
8. Last and certainly not least, there is a roman numeral after my son's name ... VIII ... which of course means the roman numeral after my name is VII, my father was VI, his father was V, etc.

...from this point on this is a self-appointing meme. If you like the premise please feel free to self-tag and post your 8 things list.

System Administrator Appreciation Day

July 27th, 2007 (Last Friday Of July)
8th Annual
System Administrator Appreciation Day

If you can read this, thank your sysadmin

Advice to employees on the proper use of the System Administrator's valuable time

(In following examples, we will substitute the name "Ted" as the System Administrator)

Here are a few that I 'never' get... :)

• Never write down error messages. Just click OK, or restart your computer. Ted likes to guess what the error message was.
• When Ted says he coming right over, log out and go for coffee. It's no problem for him to remember your password.
• Send urgent email ALL IN UPPERCASE. The mail server picks it up and flags it as a rush delivery.
• When the photocopier doesn't work, call Ted. There's electronics in it, so it should be right up his alley.
• Feel perfectly free to say things like "I don't know nothing about that boneheaded computer crap." It never bothers Ted to hear his area of professional expertise referred to as boneheaded crap.
• When you send that 500-page document to the printer, don't bother to check if the printer has enough paper. That's Ted's job.
• When Ted calls you 30 minutes later and tells you that the printer printed 24 pages of your 500-page document before it ran out of paper, and there are now nine other jobs in the queue behind yours, ask him why he didn't bother to add more paper.

78's, 45's, LP's, 8-Tracks, Cassettes...

T. Colin Dodd in his article ODF: The inevitable format makes two very important observations...

The original data had been misplaced, and when the huge magnetic tapes
that stored the data were found, they were “in a format so old that the
programmers who knew it had died.”

and...

The tragic sense that would have accompanied the loss of this knowledge is echoed in accounts of the destruction of the Library at Alexandria, and probably why book-burnings are seen as a sure sign that a society is unhealthy

While the title of this post is a bit absurd it points to everyday examples of the same problem. Here are a few more that I have encountered ...

• photographic 'slides' - processed film positives (as opposed to negatives) mounted between two pieces of thin glass, bound with black cloth tape. I don't know of anyone who still has a slide projector let alone one that is robust enough to handle these.
  
  
• Reel-to-reel recordings. The old Wollensak hasn't been seen in ages.
  
  
• Super-8 films - both the editor and the projector are in the same place as the Wollensak
  
  
• Opened a box and discovered ... Punch Cards
  
  
• 3.5" Floppies (1.44M - There are still a large number of these drives around. But...)
  
  
• 5.25" Floppies
  
  
• RLL/MFM Hard disks

Technorati Tags: data formats, anchient memories

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Kudzu excuse me for a moment?

Usually I slip, stumble and twist in your calculated cultivated vines.

Today I have been slapped straight and slid onto a sizzling griddle to be served up pink in the middle rare

Life is soooooo good

I need to get a real life...

"...we get baptized in Walden pond amongst a searing mob
because the cleansing blood of Jesus couldn't do a Thoreau job..."

ThankStew

This is why Theater is so important!

Ripped but not torn

He said...

I am doing business as /Message, where I tell people my title is /Messenger.

Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected. -- Gandhi

Proud of the hole I have dug

When I worked with Alcoholics and Substance Abusers (Hi, my name is Bill...) I would sometimes turn to the 'parable' of the man with a shovel who began to dig a hole...

As anyone who has ever operated a shovel can tell you it is hard work. And unless there is a treasure to be found the act of shoveling is just plain hard work. Often it is thankless work. The prevailing belief is that anyone can do it so what is so great about digging a hole. All that leads me to this, the shovel operator quickly begins to positively reinforce his or her own work.

In very real sense we begin to 'own' the hole. We take great pride in the straight vertical walls. We gain a sense of accomplishment as the depth of the hole increases. Once we have committed a significant amount of time to the digging process we don't feel that we can give up 'all that hard work'. So we continue to dig...and dig...and then a stunning realization befalls us.

We have succeeded in digging a hole so deep that we can't get out. Yet because we have such a vested interest in the hole we cannot stop digging. The elation and euphoria of achievement slowly becomes replaced with frustration. Literally the walls begin to close in upon us. Faint light shows down on us from a small opening high above. Only occasionally do we get to see the sun. Depression soon follows.

But because it is the only thing we know, the only thing that has given us meaning and value, we continue to dig.

In many respects I have dug a Linux hole. And while doing so I have thrown dirt in many different directions. I attempted to heap a large pile on Microsoft. I believed that the Redmond Behemoth was a monopolistic blood sucker intent on depriving me of my right to self determination. I have even gone so far as to suggest that Microsoft decided what was best right for me.

I was so busy admiring the depth and verticality of my hole that I missed the fact that I was in so deep that I couldn't climb out. Then someone started to throw dirt down on top of me. Dirt from the heaping pile I had tried to bury Microsoft under.

Ok, now watch carefully because this is important...

Being tasked with the responsibility of maintaining and developing Access2003 databases in conjunction with a IIS server offering .ASP pages that contained ActiveX components and VisualBasic code segments means that I now need all the Microsoft assistance I can get.

The wonderful irony of my 'hole' situation is the dirt that is being thrown down on me feels initially like the insult that I originally threw so freely at Microsoft. It is in fact just what I need. I will stop digging. I will allow my hole to be filled back in and I will eventually be able to climb out. True, I may come up covered with dirt but I will emerge into a day full of sunshine.

Hopefully I can leave my pride at the bottom of the hole.

I am a heel and crust-y sorta guy

My cardiologist rolls over in his BMW everytime he hears me say it but ...

Breakfast is the luxury meal of the weekend. Fried potatoes, half a rasher of bacon, 2 eggs over easy and ... toast. Hot buttered crunchy toast.

Everything else was happily sizzling away when I went to the 'fridge to secure a couple of slices for toast. After rummaging about for a couple of seconds I pulled the limp bread bag from the back of the lower shelf. There, in the inner cellophane (?) wrapper, was the objects of my desire, the precursor to ... toast.

Slithering my hand forearm deep into the bag I latched on to my objective. Wriggling, twisting and turning I withdrew the treasure. Then my eyes lit up! I not only had in hand the prize but... the best of the best. Not one but 2 crusts, heels if you will. Contrary to the expressed tastes of most everyone I know I covet the crusts. More flavor, more texture, more goodness. And when toasted, more substance than those flat pallets of dried bread. I told you I am a heel and crust-y sorta guy. :)

The Incredible Shrinking Internet

I ran Lil'BBS, a Wildcat Bulletin Board, for a number of years. That was in 1988 or so and continued until 1992-ish. In that day and age there were the really "big boys" (multi-line boards) or the mega-services of the age (CompuServe). Mostly it was prohibitive long-distance calls or monthly service changes that separated the digerati from the small town folks like me and mine. So I put up a one-line BBS - I was a big fish in a small town pond.

Then along came that "Internet" thing. Where people and companies had previously established their presence at the end of a phone line they now had to build these cumbersome "website" things. So the fearless started in with fancy fonts and graphics and everything - no more ASCII pictures or console text for them. Others simply opened a telnet port on their BBS system and didn't change a thing. No need to fix what ain't broken.

In the heady days that followed the vast and uncharted wilderness of the Internet would be likened to America's Wild West - vast and uncharted and lawless. Soon there would be thousands of sites - offering content about hundreds of things...oh yes, and sex. Then the following week there would be hundreds of thousands of sites offering content on thousands of topics...and sex. Earlier this morning there were millions of sites offering everything all the time everywhere.

Which is my exact point: now there is only one Internet. Sure, it is everything all the time everywhere but it has become one entity.

Let me offer a slightly different perspective of the same phenomena. In the course of about 20 minutes I can read my e-mail, scan my gReader feeds, double check my social sites and I am done. Then I sit in front of my computer and think that there should be more to this Internet experience. Where once I was enamored with the vast complexity of the net I am now sated by the handful of "feeds" that have distinguished themselves as important in my world (net) view.

It should be noted that my shrinking experience is not a case of 'turn-it-on, read for a bit and then turn-it-off. Rather the Internet is an integral part of my computing environment. I no longer differentiate between my computer and the Internet. To that end I find myself doing less real computing with my personal computer. All this brings me to what I think is a logical conclusion. I don't really need all of this Ghz horse power or the HD resolution to do my regularly scheduled digital interfacing. I could just as easily get by with a device specifically designed for the incredible shrinking Internet.

The preceding ramblings have been brought to you with the Palm Foleo in mind. Now before you good folks go all ballistic because I have lead you down the commercial prim rose path please note that I am not touting Palm. Rather I am acknowledging that to be most effective the tool 'must fit the hand'. If the tool doesn't fit the hand - don't pick it up.

Noh Reservations, Patty Dew

Anthony Bourdain kicks a$$ and takes names. I thought that the Food Channel was going down the tubes when the show No Reservations left. Compared with the pablum that is usually served by the foodie network I thought Tony Bourdain was GREAT. I was televideologically devastated when he abandon the ship and left it to only us rats.

Ah but my faith in humanity was resurrected... The Travel Channel had the good sense to recognize that Bourdain's travels to eat in exotic places were twice as interesting as just the eating as displayed on the Fud Channel.

Enter of all groups... Red Hat - those wacky Linux folks... who in an attempt to show just how well rounded they are... publish a 'Summer Reading List'. Now sure there are some 'nerd' titles... Infotopia and Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software... But I was very pleasantly surprised to see the first book listed as The Nasty Bits by none other than Anthony Bourdain. Oh yeah!

Bonus: Anthony Bourdain sometimes slithers into the blog of his alleged friend Michael Ruhlman and post rants and raves.

Progressive Urban Folk

In my world 'The Saint' is not the fictional character recently portrayed by Val Kilmer and earlier by Roger Moore. 'The Saint' is my wife of nearly 25 years. To have put up with me for nearly a quarter century is proof in and of itself that she has saintly qualities. So when The Saint speaks I pretend to ignore her...while hanging on her every word...


She was listening to Tom Waits'* (Looking for the) Heart of Saturday Night featured on NPR's Barren River Breakdown. Her observation was that she never hears Waits on the radio. Which in turn prompted me to observe that it is difficult to classify Waits' music. What genre does it fit into?

The Saint replied, "Progressive Urban Folk".

I liked the sound of it. Spoke clearly to me of his musical experimentation style (Progressive). His gritty inner-city themes and flavors (Urban). As well as his just plain down to earth, street level raw emotion (Folk). So you can imagine how surprised I was to see him labeled; Rock/Pop.

Any hoooo, I will be sticking with The Saint - seein' as how she's stuck with me all these years. :)

Wear our hearts on our...T-Shirts.

borrowed from NobodyAsked

Thanks Frank

LenovO vs. LenovA

If you Google 'lenova' you are asked if you meant 'lenovo' which is a courtesy extended by the great and munificent Goz. Which would be alright but the Goz then goes on to list a number of entries for 'lenova'. Which prompts me to ask if there is a mass misspelling of the name of the company? Or is it a gender thing; masculine lenovO or feminine lenovA?

Anyone have any insights on this?

Don't even consider Linux!

I have a growing feeling. A feeling that I cannot deny. It is a sense that Linux is suffering. It is suffering from 'Joe-Average-Everyday-Desktop-itis'. And I would like it to stop. So I am pleading with you gentle reader - Don't even consider Linux.

When I came innocent to the Linux fold in 1996 I wanted a better Operating System. I wanted to be unshackled from the bonds of corporate megalomaniacs who insisted that they knew what was good best for me. I wanted stability, security, and a clean fast PC. I wanted to be captain of my own ship, steering my own computing destiny.

By sheer dumb luck I stumbled upon Slackware. I would like to tell you that it was a well researched intelligent decision. I would like to tell you that I made an informed choice. I would like to tell you that I listened to the voice of popular opinion. Nope, I just bought the book and CD-ROM that caught my eye. A book that at the time I could afford.

So when I read the following article from Think Thick it struck a resonate chord with me. Among other things it speaks to the work that a user must do to make the most of Linux. I believe this work is exactly what set Linux apart from the other OSs. In addition I believe that this prerequisite work is what is missing from the 'Joe-Average-Everyday-Desktop-itis' distros that tout themselves as the next great Linux.

Then I came across this excellent article from tuxmachines.org entitled Slackware 12: The anti-'buntu. From the title alone I knew the author had hit the nail on the head. Then I had this great idea. I would respond to the Think Thick '10 Things' article (in RED) with excerpts from the 'anti-'buntu' article (in GREEN). So here goes... (NOTE: You should read each article independently too.)

Confessions of a Linux Fan: 10 Things You Might Want To Know Before Switching Over To Linux

1. The basic installation of most mainstream Linux distributions is very easy, but a first time user might run into trouble when trying to depart from the defaults.

The "setup" script is a simple menu-based utility. The SlackBook, a well-written reference manual and tutorial on how to install and use Slackware, has a good walk-thru of the process (including screenshots). It's quite simple and fast, if you take the setup utility's recommendation and install everything (which avoids the setup utility asking you which packages you want to install).

2. If you want a proper Linux installation, you are going to have to mess around with the partition table.

Before running setup, however, you will need to parition your hard disk, if you haven't already. (I personally prefer to create partitions prior to installing a distro, regardless, using the GParted live CD.) Instead of providing a graphical partitioning utility (like gparted), Slackware offers you fdisk (which is completely command-line-driven) and cfdisk.

3. You will have to learn how to use the command line.

Now it's time to get busy adding a regular user account and configuring the X server. There are two utilities you can use to configure X, "xorgconfig" and "xorgsetup". The former will prompt you to provide quite a bit of detail about your hardware; the payoff is an "xorg.conf" that's extremely well-commented (i.e. the purpose of each section is explained). The latter will do the configuration automagically, but leaves the comments out.

4. All those pretty effects of wobbly windows and cube desktops require some work from the user.

If you're planning on installing the proprietary NVIDIA driver, this is a good time to do it. If you installed everything, you'll already have the needed kernel source. Using "xorgsetup" is the better than using "xorgconfig" if you're going to install the NVIDIA driver. I chose to let the NVIDIA installer write its own entries to "xorg.conf" after running "xorgconfig", and it made a huge mess of the comments.

5. Yes, more hardware works with Linux than with Windows. No, not all hardware works 100% like it's supposed to.

(See #4)

6. If you need/want to install a package not included in the repositories, or install from source, you might need to do some research.

To help you compile programs from source, there's a utility named checkinstall. After running the standard "./configure" and "make" commands in your source directory, you run "checkinstall" instead of "make install", and it will create a Slackware package for you (and also install it, if you choose). See checkinstall's README file for more information. (Although checkinstall was included in the "/extra" directory of the Slackware installation media until the very last minute, it was removed due to some sort of incompatibility. As of this writing, a new version hasn't been released yet.)

7. Most mainstream software manufacturers forget about Linux.

My guess (by looking at my package logs) is that the entire Slackware distro proper consists of somewhere around 800 packages, give or take. (Contrast this with Debian's pool of around roughly 18,000 packages.)

8. Linux is not for the meek of heart.

Compiling from source can sometimes be frustrating, but that's usually the fault of the software developer. For example, Slackware includes a nice bittorrent client named "bittornado" in its "/extra" repository, but doesn't include wxPython, which you need to install in order to run bittornado in GUI mode.

9. Linux is almost entirely virus/trojan/spyware free, but you will still need some kind of protection.

The Slackware article makes no mention of virus/trojan/spyware so I am including the '10 Things' answer...

Protection for Linux usually means a firewall, either installed in your computer, or in a router/hardware firewall. This, of course, implies a little bit more work for the user.

10. Linux assumes that you are an intelligent person.
And then there's Slackware, which is more traditional. Slackware is the oldest surviving Linux distribution; its first version came out in 1993. Version 12 was recently released. As its Wikipedia entry notes, it's got a reputation for sacrificing ease-of-use (in terms of configuration and package management tools provided by the distribution) in favor of letting the end user configure the system and its software by herself.
If you want an easy-to-use Linux distribution that doesn't make you work too hard, Slackware might not be for you. On the other hand, if you want a distro that's quick to set up, and know how to configure it by hand (or aren't afraid of learning to), you might fall in love with Slackware. It's definitely an interesting way to learn how to use Linux. And it's definitely a way to get a stable server up and running in very little time.

So your only real choice is Slackware! And if you are not up for the challenge then please ... Don't even consider Linux!

New Perspectives in Psychology ...just not PC!

Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature

...(Excerpted)...

Human behavior is a product both of our innate human nature and of our individual experience and environment. In this article, however, we emphasize biological influences on human behavior, because most social scientists explain human behavior as if evolution stops at the neck and as if our behavior is a product almost entirely of environment and socialization. In contrast, evolutionary psychologists see human nature as a collection of psychological adaptations that often operate beneath conscious thinking to solve problems of survival and reproduction by predisposing us to think or feel in certain ways. Our preference for sweets and fats is an evolved psychological mechanism. We do not consciously choose to like sweets and fats; they just taste good to us.

The implications of some of the ideas in this article may seem immoral, contrary to our ideals, or offensive. We state them because they are true, supported by documented scientific evidence. Like it or not, human nature is simply not politically correct.

Emphasis mine...

It is about (explicative deleted) time that somebody called a spade a shovel!

My daughter is on mission...

Rosemary, my eldest daughter, is on a mission trip. I cannot say where, only that it is half the world away. She is acting upon her faith. I must act accordingly.

Rosemary is truly away from home. For the first time she is not within emergency driving distance of concerned parents who would come if she called. Though she is with a group of good people she is alone with her God. Alone she can turn only to prayer and faith. Alone she is her own person.

I learned long ago that the greatest gift that I can give my children is to leave them alone. This is not to say that I cease to exist. Rather that I, while being available, allow my children to make their own way in the world. To that end it is I who must have faith. Faith in the knowledge that my children, autonomous, are capable of meeting the world without my heavy hand resting gently on their shoulder.

I must have faith as well that what ever might befall my child(ren) is as it should be. Early in their lives I observed that I could not prevent them from falling off their bicycles. Short of banning bicycles there is no way to prevent the inevitable pull of the Law of Gravity. I realized that my children will suffer at the hands of the world. Let me be clear that I take absolutely no personal comfort or pleasure in this awareness for I too have fallen and have endured skinned elbows and road-rashed knees. I do have some small insight into the implications of 'taking things on faith'.

So it is upon faith that I place my fears and concerns. The mind is a fertile field. In it can grow any number of horrific scenarios. My responsibility is to sow the fields with the seeds of faith knowing that what grows is as it should be - not as I would have it.

I can hear the critics voices, echoing a classic concern, "What if your daughter does not return?" I would be heart broken. A light in my life will have been extinguished. Here the key words are 'my life'. Too often we mourn the loss of a loved one as though it were their responsibility, something that they 'did' to us, something that they 'took' from us. When in fact our loss is a selfish clinging to what we knew not what we know.

It is my daughter's faith that has taken her on mission. She has no real knowledge of God's plan. She can take no solace or succor in personal comfort. She will be challenged in all her senses. Even the very concept of faith that has empowered her to take this bold step will be challenged. She knows that her life and perhaps her death is in God's hands. Who then am I to argue with God? Who am I to question the outcome of my daughter's journey of faith?

If my daughter does not return then my heart will be broken. A far greater catastrophy would be to have my daughter return and learn that her faith had been broken. I would much rather have my daughter wrapped in the loving arms of her Lord than returned to me empty and broken.

I cannot prevent my children from falling off their bicycles... I can only stand by the side of the road and watch.

Bless you and keep you Rosemary where ever you may ride.

Love

- Papa

Curious juxtaposition

Here it is my intent to report a blog phenomena, to faithfully represent these posts as they were actually presented in my reader ... the presentation of two completely different bloggers in proximity to one another.

Great minds ... think!

thanks Frank
thanks Hugh

P.S. Notice their choice of tags.

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	Jul 7, 2007 (9 hours ago) Power, patronage, and popularity from Listics by Frank Paynter The historical situation that is being pointed to is one in which artists have ceased to be attached to some nobleman’s entourage and now form a “class” of their own, a group apart, so that their circle of acquaintance consists of other artists. No longer enjoying aristocratic patronage but unable to look to the bourgeois for comprehension… their poems can be dedicated only to each other. But two further points arise in this connection. First, to the extent that the traditional function of the dedication as a means of seeking “political” protection and hence as an acknowledgment of social power survives here in a new guise, the esthetic dedication reveals to us an interaction, in Baudelaire’s social environment, between the world of art and the world of the “majority” with its “strength” - a majority whose taste, as a consequence of its strength, is what determines artistic reputation. Baudelaire’s Dedicatory Practice Ross Chambers SubStance, Vol. 17, No. 2, Issue 56
	Add starShareEmail (Updated)Mark as readEdit tags: a_people

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	6:52 AM (1 hour ago) mean, mediocre from gapingvoid by hugh macleod
	Add starShareEmail (Updated)Mark as readEdit tags: a_people

We're mad as Dell and not gonna take Vista anymore...

My daddy didn't raise any fools and I am an only child. He said, "Boy, watch which way the money flows. Where it comes from and where it goes." Truer words were never spoken.

That is the very reason I read the Wall Street Journal if I can find one that isn't three days old or been used for wrapping fish. Say for example Joe Average invents a wonderous new technology for storing petabytes of data on the head of a pin. Long before you or I have a chance to see it the WSJ will report on whether Joe's idea will be funded for production. If it isn't then no matter how important the invention the technology will not flourish. (Disclaimer: I am sure that there have been exceptions to this premise. Please leave comments detailing them.)

If the WSJ is a good bellwether for new technology then CRN is the compass of existing technology. CRN are the folks who make a point of watching which way the money is going among the people who are in the existing technology business. Value-Added-Resellers, Technology Integrators, IT Consultants, and Solution Providers are all in the 'channel'. This channel is where the money flows.

All of that leads me to...

VARs Ripping And Replacing Vista For XP At Breakneck Pace

By Edward F. Moltzen, Steven Burke, CRN
6:01 PM EDT Fri. Jul. 06, 2007

Dell Computer isn't the only one warning clients of the pitfalls of moving to Microsoft's Vista operating system.

System builders and VARs, however, aren't just talking about it. They are are ripping the much ballyhooed operating system off desktops and notebooks at a breakneck pace because of the problems that come with moving clients to Vista.

...

"We are ripping it off systems 99 percent of the time," said Jay Tipton, vice president of Technology Specialists, a Fort Wayne, Ind., Microsoft Gold partner.

...

Technology Specialists won't even run the operating system internally on any of its production systems because Tipton does not want his technicians taking time out of their day to "debug Vista." The earliest Tipton sees that ripping and replacing ending is when Microsoft releases Service Pack 1 for Vista. "Hopefully at that time Microsoft will fix all the little gotchas that make the older software not work," said Tipton.

Glen Coffield, president of Smart Guys Computers, an Orlando, Fla.-based retail chain with six stores in central Florida, said his No. 1 service job right now is wiping Vista off sysetms and replacing it with Windows XP.

...

Coffield said that the biggest hurdles facing Vista are hardware and software compatibility issues. Clients don't want to replace all their hardware and software to move to Vista, he said.

...

The big question looming over the marketplace is what happens when Microsoft no longer allows big brand system makers and system builders from offering Windows XP?

"Customers won't buy PCs or they'll bootleg XP unless Microsoft does something to vendors and partners behind Vista," said Coffield. "It's not going to happen. People don't have to buy a new computer. They can get the one they have now fixed."

Sorry, this just has to be said...

Lucy?

Yes, Ricky?

Lucy, you 'splain somet'ing to me, ok?

What is it Ricky?

Lucy, why is it that this Paris Heeltone is guilty of being a deetz an' Lucy she has to serve her full sentence. Yes, Lucy?

That's right Ricky.

An' the guy who was found guilty of lying to the Federal Gov'mint, Meester Scooter Leebbee, he don' have to serve a day of his sentence? Lucy, you 'splain that to me, yes?

*Gulp* Welllllllll Ricky you see here in these United States anyone can come from an under-privileged hotel holding multi-millionaire family and get into trouble. But it takes crooked politicians to get you out of it.

No mo' ToDoCue ... sorry

Tried the Google/FireFox applet 'ToDoCue' hoping that it would serve as a 'ToDo' list that I could integrate into my G/FF Web 2.0 world. No bono ... looked good on the surface but a bit too quirky under the hood.

1. Repeatedly had to login even though 'Remember Password' was checked.
   
2. This is the deal breaker... repeatedly had to check the "Done" check box to make my ToDo items stay done. More over, had to check the done box for the same items on different platforms (with different OSs) - This may be the same problem with a different spin.

Ah well, back to the search for a suitable Web 2.0 ToDo list.

You have the right to remain...

Ludium 2, June 22-23, 2007

A DECLARATION OF VIRTUAL WORLD POLICY made by representatives of law, industry and academia, assembled in full and free convention as the first Synthetic Worlds Congress.

Whereas virtual worlds are places with untapped potential, providing new and positive experiences and effects, we resolve that:

1. A self-governance group of virtual world stakeholders should be formed.
2. A players’ bill of rights should be drafted and should include the right of free speech and the rights to assemble and organize.
   
3. A universal age verification system should be created to support the individual rights of all users.
   
4. Virtual world designers should have freedom of expression">Virtual world designers should have freedom of expression.
   
5. Virtual worlds should include plain-language End-User License Agreements (EULA) to enable all individuals to understand their rights.
   
6. There are different types of virtual worlds with different policy implications.
   
7. Access is critical to virtual worlds, so net neutrality must be maintained.
   
8. Game developers shall not be liable for the actions taken by players.
   
9. Fair use may apply in virtual worlds that enable amateur creation of original works.
   
10. The government should provide a comprehensive package of funding for educational games research, development, and literacy.

Meeting us on the other side

Peter Callesen

Caligraphy in the 21st Century

Tip of the cap to Virtual China

Slackware 12

Slackware ... this is just a taste...

- PCMCIA, CardBus, USB, IEE1394 (FireWire) and ACPI support. This
makes Slackware a great operating system for your laptop.

- The udev dynamic device management system for Linux 2.6.x.
This locates and configures most hardware automatically as it
is added (or removed) from the system, and creates the access
nodes in /dev. It also loads the kernel modules required by
sound cards and other hardware at boot time.

Google Kool-Aid....Ah, refreshing.

Before you go all "JimJonesSlamming" on me there are a couple of mitigating circumstances that should be acknowledged.

1. I have recently taken on a new set of responsibilities (e.g. Intranet Web Master (MS-IIS), MS-Access Developer, Postgresql Database Administrator)
2. I work on several different computing platforms - Servers, Desktops, Laptops, PDAs (e.g. RedHat, Slackware, Ubuntu, MS-Windows XP, MS-Server2003, Palm)

In everyday operational terms I need to have a seamless Information Environment that is not platform dependent. Currently I am composing this entry on an IBM R51 laptop running Ubuntu 7. My main desktop is a well resourced MS-Windows XP-Pro system. With the ubiquity of Internet access I can get to my 'stuff' from nearly any computer that I can log into.

So here is the Google (+FireFox) line-up...

• gMail - the Foundation.
  
• Google Sync - Essential for keeping it seamless.
• gCalendar - the name says it all.
  
• gReader - RSS and news feeds all in one place
• Google Gears - Because I cannot be connected to the Internet every minute of every day.
  
• gNotebook - Handy place to put things worth saving.
  
• gDocs & Sreadsheets - Mature "Office" suite compliment.
  
• Recently I identified the need for a 'To Do' list so I have begun to work with ToDoCue - a FoxFire/Google Add-On. I have to wonder when Google will integrate a ToDO feature of their own.
  
• Google Desktop - Finding it fast when I really need it.

Bonus Add-On: CustomizeGoogle - I have certain reservations about using this applet but not enough to stop me. :) CustomizeGoogle allows me to fine tune my Google experience. True enough, sometimes too much of a Google thing is not a good thing.

I am hungry. - The World

Ethanol demand outgrows corn

Beef and dairy farmers in Midwestern states that produce most of the nation's ethanol are able to feed their cattle with less expensive grains leftover from distilling that fuel. But ranchers in Texas and Oklahoma, which do not have large corn crops or produce as much ethanol, will be harder hit by high corn prices, Moseman said. In addition, hogs and poultry cannot digest the leftover grains from ethanol production, so those farmers will feel the pinch of higher corn prices, Moseman explained.

Along with making livestock feed more expensive, acres that have been dedicated to other crops or set aside for conservation now are being planted with corn, creating the biggest shift in planting patterns in the past century, said Ludwig of the Hale Group.

An annual federal report detailing farmers’ planting plans estimates that corn acres will increase 15 percent over last year. Crops that likely will be supplanted by corn include rice and cotton with which U.S. farmers are not competitive with growers in other countries, said Ludwig.

Farmers also could be induced to set aside less land for conservation or quit rotating crops on their land, sapping nutrients from the soil or causing more erosion, the U.S. Department of Agriculture warns.

Emphasis mine... Cars and cattle... Burgers and Buicks... I am sooooo rich I can feed my car better than ...








Bonus Link: Pew Research: Ethanol Demand Outgrows Corn

Says it all

Thank you Meg.

Coals to Newcastle

Jeremy, responding to Steve Talbott, mentioned caution when advocating 'vocational' education over a 'Liberal Arts' education...

As a long standing advocate of 'Liberal Arts' education I wanted to add the following winnowed from Wikipedia... Liberal Arts

The term liberal arts has come to mean studies that are intended to provide general knowledge and general intellectual skills rather than more specialized occupational, scientific, or artistic skills.

The term liberal in liberal arts is from the Latin word liberalis, meaning "appropriate for free men", and they were contrasted with the servile arts.

Providing 'general knowledge' AND 'general intellectual skills' are the very substance of a free society. When people can think for themselves and act accordingly then true freedom can be achieved. Perhaps more important, as Jeremy points out, is the need in a free society for in depth personal resources that can only be purveyed by and acquired through a 'Liberal Arts' education.

Delivering coal is a skilled trade. Carrying coals to Newcastle requires some small insight.

P.S. Let Marshal McLuhan's medium be the message.

Is 'Good' good?

Bank Shots

When playing pool a well executed bank shot is a thing of beauty.

HOWEVER...

This week we have heard of two 'bank shots' that give me pause to review the legendary record of 'Slick' Willie Sutton. Well chronicled by the very agency that he thumbed his well attired nose at - the FBI retells that story of Willie's famous answer to the all time stupid question, "Why do you rob banks?"

...Sutton simply replied, "Because that's where the money is."

My heart goes out to Cat'sPaw - who might be said to have experienced a 'reverse bank shot' - being held up by the bank.

Then just a few articles down the RSS page I read of David Cushman as reported by The Social Customer ... evidently in the Mega-Cathedrals of Cash I am a lowly poor sinner who should just crawl away and repent.

While I do understand a banking institution's need for responsibility and integrity I do not understand why it is the patron who must bear the burden of grace and humility under fire. If a Bank wants my business then they should take a lesson from my dentist - Dr. Wright knows that if he wants my return business he will make a painful situation as comfortable as he possible can. And I can tell you I would much rather 'enjoy' another root canal than be subjected to the attitudinal scrutiny of another bank teller.

This has been my $0.02, deposited here in the First Bank of Blogaria.

One tear drop rolling down a cheek...

Linspiration...

... drinking the Microsoft Kool-Aide

Microsoft Will Help Deliver a "Better" Linux

by Kevin Carmony

June 14th, 2007

...

But isn't Microsoft the enemy of Linux?

They certainly compete, just like Ubuntu, Red Hat, and Novell compete with each other, but we all have to live in the same desktop computing ecosystem. I'd prefer to use diplomacy and cooperation, than go to war. Linspire plans on working with Microsoft, just like we have with dozens of other partners, to build a better Linux. We will never force anyone to use what we produce. The choice to use, or not to use, the "better" Linux we strive to produce will always be up to you, but I like the idea of finding a mutually advantageous way for Microsoft and Linspire to work together.

...

Emphasis is mine... I have real difficulty (and a very uneasy feeling) when I consider 'diplomacy' coerced by the threat of a promised law suite.

"Money can't buy me love... but evidently it will buy cooperation. Oh well...

Linux FUD ... Make It Stop!

Linux leaders plot counterattack on Microsoft

This 'headline' reported by Reuters is just plain bad press for Linux. Further establishing the "Us vs. Them" mentality that does neither any good.

I wish that Linux folks would just focus on what is right about Linux and Open Source and let the behemoth that is Microsoft die its quiet ignominious death.

Getting up at 10, going to work at 12, UTC

Daylight Saving Time kicked my a$$. More specifically I felt the 1-hour shift this year more than in years past. That and my work with computers, specifically computer networks, has brought the issue of Time to the forefront of my thinking.

While I believe I understand the various arguments for 'adjusting' the clock to accommodate afternoon/evening commerce I still find the practice unnecessarily disruptive. If that extra hour of daylight is so valuable then let us just set the clocks to include it and leave them that way. This back-and-forth is senseless. And it screws up a great deal of computer related technology.

Instead I am personally campaigning for one time, UTC. Coordinated Universal Time. This is a scientific abstraction of physical time. Roughly equivalent to the old standard, GMT, UTC is not strictly speaking celestial (sun in relation to earth) time.

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is a high-precision atomic time standard.

In fairness, while I have been giving this idea lot of mind-time, it wasn't until I read Joi Ito's post "Going UTC" detailing his scheduling problems that I decided to enter into the social-time experiment.

Where to begin?

Community clocks need to display community time. So I couldn't just change all the house clocks to UTC - I would face a time revolt from my wife and children. System clocks on network computers that communicated 'time' with other computers were out for much the same reasons. That left me with my personal clocks. So I started with this laptop... KDE desktop clock reads 5:51 UTC as I type this.

That reminds me, 5:00 UTC is lunch time here. Which brings me to my first important observation about time. Years and years of behavior modification has sensitized me to 'feeling' hungry about the same time every day. This, in turn, brought to light additional time awarenesses. My sense of time is predicated on deeply ingrained behaviors. Behaviors that will not change just because I change my time grid perspective. The bottom line is that I have 50+ years of training to overcome to be able to sense UTC instead of Central Daylight Time.

I still catch myself 'translating' time. If it is 5:57 UTC then it is what time here in my familial community. I liken this experience to learning a second language. I had the opportunity to study Spanish many years ago. Then I was immersed in a Spanish speaking community for two summers. By the end of my second summer I was able to 'think' in Spanish. I was not longer 'trans-literating' everything back to English for processing. I was able to process the Spanish that I was hearing and speaking in-situ.

I look forward to a time when I don't have to translate UTC.

Weekday UTC Schedule

10:00 Morning alarm
12:00 Arrive work
16:30 Lunch
22:00 Arrive home
23:30 Dinner
03:00 Bedtime

(Folks here in Kentucky see that and figure I am some sort of slacker:) )

Takin' a day off... sorta

In addition to showing up for work I have spent every free moment of the last three days doing 'tech' work for the Mystery Theater Festival.

And it was good!

After taking a 25 year vacation from Technical Theater it is good great to get back in. While I did contribute significantly to the Set Design and construction of Picasso at the Lapin Agile it was adjunct to my directing the show. The work I have been doing for MTF is just plain tech. Painting flats, setting scenery, spiking furniture, affixing light switches, hanging paintings, mounting door hardware, and the list goes on. In fact the phrase made popular by POTUS in West Wing comes to mind, "What's next?"

But the real joy, above and beyond paint under my fingernails and sawdust in my... the real joy has been getting to work with people who know how to do Theater. Not people who are learning but people who have 'been there, done that.' My joy comes from a.) being among my peers and b.) being among people from whom I can learn(1). To me this is the greatest reward.

...but today I am takin' a day off...sorta.

Free Knowledge

With the advent of the printing press, radio, television, and now the Internet knowledge has become progressively more available.

But understanding is still at a premium. Hence the need for education systems...

Free knowledge is becoming more readily available through free education in the form of ... Open Courseware

B-b-bout says it all

Thanks xkcd

Silence is golden.

"If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."
- Albert Einstein

Ripped from Editor I&T Weekly

Linux love AND Linux lust

The way that can be spoken of
is not the constant way.
- Lao Tzu - Tao Te Ching

A couple of weeks ago I experienced a hardware 'meltdown' ... my primary system decided to commit seppuku, slit its own CPU and was delivered to the void. With its good digital karmic standing I sincerely hope that it is reincarnated as a cardiac monitor.

Meanwhile as I posted last I received a hulking beast of a system. In that post I attempted to shed light on the 64-bit dilemma - which OS is best suited to the hardware in today's computational environment. I still cannot bring myself to shell out the Microsoft money for Vista so that leaves me scouring the Open Source community for a viable alternative. As detailed in my last I first looked at my first love, Slackware, and its derivatives. No warm and fuzzies to be found.

Then I decided to give the new kids a try. Ubuntu v.7 "Fiesty" - but not without some trepidation. My previous experiences with the "U" was less than satisfactory, inevitably being compared to the established Slack. But all things change - so says the Tao.

As I mentioned in the previous post I stumbled over the "Root" issue initially. Old habits, even bad ones, die hard. Now with that behind me I began to get a feel for the overall U experience. I am allowed to do the things, as a regular user, without any encumbrances - no nagging dialogs about 'do you really want to change the color of your desktop?' Those system administration chores that do require 'authorization' are appropriately challenged. I am not exactly sure but it feels as though the authorization is 'held' so that testing or repeated chores (sometimes) do not require re-authenticating. (Sorry, that was really wordy.)

Now, on to the regular-day-to-day user experience. In a word, "Great!" The true merit of a distro is not the sheer number of applications that are provided but the integration of the programs. How do the programs interact or interrelate? I feel like a kid in a candy store. Where previously I had to go through and 'associate' apps Ubuntu has done a good bit of it already. A handy example is the fact that Evolution already knows to call FireFox for embedded URLs. While this is a simple thing it is a great 'joe-average-user-linux-is-really-friendly' sort of thing.

Bottom line: Ubuntu has broken the "PC Computing = Microsoft" paradigm once and for all.

Exciting developments

Palm w/ USB synchronization - for the first time I have been able to sync my Palm T|X with a linux implementation. I just filled out the setting in the Evolution's Edit|Synchronization Options, connected the USB cable and pushed the button. BINGO! Evolution is populated with my Palm stuff - Ooooooh yeah!

nsplugin-wrapper - Kliz script handled the immediate desire for Macromedia Flash ...AND... even more importantly VMware-server-console (This is HUGE!!!) Being able to display Macromedia Flash in my browser is cool but VMware Server Console is essential to my work. Having to support 2 flavors of Windows (2K and XP-Pro) means that having running instances available on my VMware Server is imperative. Being able to load and run VMware as a third party 32-bit app means that I 'should' be able to load and run other 32-bit apps as well. This is the really HUGE aspect of the nsplugin-wrapper AND the Kliz Script (Thank you!)

BONUS: Extra value hint: sudo bash - but don't tell anyone you heard it from me.

Ubuntu: Young is the new Old.

If you have read any of my stuff you know that in my lexicon Linux = Slackware. Plain and simple, no frills, no flash, just dependable Slackware. I know where most everything is and how most of it works. I know which script to look in to see where things start|stop|restart|status. You might say I feel at home with Slackware.

Then I received a ASUS M2N-MX

- Socket AM2 for AMD Athlon 64 /FX CPU
- Nvidia GeForce 6100/nForce 430
- 2000 / 1600 HyperTransport
- PCI Express X16
- SATA RAID 0,1,5,0+1
- MAX 4 SATA (3Gb/s) support Dual RAID
- Gb LAN
- Compliant with RoHS


Fitted with a...

As computers go this can best be characterized as ... "Smoooookin'!" (* Did I mention the 2 GB of RAM? *)

So I faced a dilemma of gargantuan proportions. What is the best operating system to put inside this beast.

I could very easily load up Slackware 11 (it is running this IBM ThinkPad very well as I type this.) but it is only 32-bit and wouldn't capitalize on the dual 64-bit processors. So the next logical choice is Slamd64 (SLackware for AMD 64-bit) which immediately gives me warm and fuzzies but only honors one of the two processors... so it is off to an immediate recompile and then the hunt for configuration settings and lost functionality. Seems I can never get agpart re-established after a recompile. And did I mention that there doesn't seem to be any real support for nVidia - as in no bundled drivers. Soooooo, it is off to the nVidia web site to see what is offered for MCP61 ... Huh? Linux what? I am sure we have some one working on it...some where, some time... eventually.

There is no joy in Mudville, the mighty Slamd64 has struck out!

So Bill, that Vi$ta sure is looking better now, don't you think? Just order up a 64-bit version and you can make that new computer get up on its hind legs and dance for you. Except ... except one thing... software. I will spend all of my allowance for the MS-OS and won't have anything left for the proggies... if there are any that will run on a 64-bit MS platform. Hmmmmmm....

Pssssssst, hey buddy, you want a good deal on a new Distro. It was only driven by a little old programmer on Sundays to his regular meeting of Codaholics Anonymous.

So on a whim I download this young upstart, all glossy and sparkling. Sorta makes that ol' Slackware look like a console driven, tough as nails, secure right out of the box Linux Distro. And an antique one at that. Even had to load up enough k3b to burn the .ISO to disk. Of course Patrick Volkerding was kind enough to include k3b in the /extra directory on disk 3. So I burned... and fretted. And fussed. And felt that I was about to commit a atrocity - by loading a Distro other than Slackware on this system that held so much potential. And that Distro is...

Ubuntu ... there, I said it.

A 'fiesty' little version of the popular Distro Ubuntu. Version 7 to be specific. Booted from the CD into the suave and sophisticated GUI that Uie is known for. Double tapped the "Install" icon on the desktop and "...away we go!" Smooth as silk and almost as sexy - the install went on without a hitch. Only the very occasional and easy question. Did I want to use the entire drive? Of course. Did I want to choose a particular time zone? Sure. It went on happily humming and buzzing and whirrrrring.

Then it did that curious "What is your name?" thing. This is one part of Ubuntu that doesn't sit well with me. The primary user thing. Instead of having direct access to the root account U makes the first user into the SuperUser, kinda, sorta... the sudo SuperUser. It was only blind luck a couple of versions back that I stumbled upon the 'your password is the password' deal.

I should mention that I do understand about not running Linux while being logged in as root. It really does make sense not to aim at your foot while you are pulling the trigger but... being treated like my teenage son while I am trying to do system management is a bit...well, like I should lighten up on my son.

Ok, so I get over the limited root deal and I begin to explore ... and I find that Ubuntu has discovered almost every aspect of this new system. Without as much as a hiccup. I have a fully functional Dual Core 64-bit computing platform for the price of a download. But wait, there's more... my favorite apps are the default in Ubuntu; Firefox, OpenOffice, Xchat, Gaim (will soon be updated to Pigeon), Gimp.

Now I am not changing my tune... Linux still = Slackware. However, 'fiesty' Ubuntu 7 certainly has changed my perspective with regards to new hardware and technology.

More to follow...

Google ROCKZ!!!! Palm Calendar!!!

Got a Google account? Use a Palm? Then go to http://calendar.google.com and BINGO!!!!

New word: intermote

intermote, verb, to overlay reader's feelings or emotions on the writings of others.

snap shot

Go here, read this man, be uplifted and well fed. Thanks Milton.



don't eat alone: snap shot

snap shot



...



We’re standing on both sides of my eyes,

but not as mirror image or still life

(life has never been still for us).



...

Neo...Post

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.

What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

... just a quick muse whisper

We closed Picasso at the Lapin Agile last Saturday night to an appreciative audience. A fluttering of laughter throughout, a couple of belly driven guffaws and even a heart felt "oh" when the muse surprised a few. Round it all out with a few folks standing in ovation at the curtain call...and you have a very rewarding community theater experience.

Then the wild children partied until the crack of dawn.

I had thought that I might chronicle (blog) the entire 'event' from casting, through rehearsals, to opening night and then beyond. Each time I sat at this keyboard and started I was struck with the intimacy of each moment. Each vignette a prized morsel to be savored and cherished. Each hour spent upon the stage more valuable than the last. I found myself caught up in the drama that is theater. I was in the moment.

Weeks and weeks before I had 'written' the movie that would play in my head. I had mentally created the storyboard that would unfold as the players strode upon the stage. So then the time came to paint with the human brushes the series of still lifes. A long row of canvases, lined up, ready to be dominoed with just a quick muse whisper. There to become the living movie that I had imagined. That is the moment that holds an actor's heart tight, making it difficult to breath.

So delicate are these created visages that I want to protect them. Lest the slightest disturbance would spill them like a tipped glass of wine. Actors living outside of their persons, nearly outside of their bodies. Stripped of their social exoskeletons. Each protective callus softened and pealed away. Until only the newly formed character remains, a new born. Each actor then must endure the bright lights and magnified review of self criticism, naked on the world stage.

Yet when we are in the moment all time stops. Only the play remains. "The play's the thing..."

Then when the last echo of applause drifts away. When the last congratulatory hand shake is a fleeting memory. When the muse, satisfied for the moment, releases the reins ... then the relaxation begins. Actors begin to release their pent up energies and angsts ... they begin to re-inhabit their own persons. They shed their carefully crafted characters and slip back into their mundane lives. Now they are the most vulnerable. Like the butterfly newly emerged from a chrysalis - pliable, waking limp from the long sleep of transformation.

Yet there is one more act to this drama. The last Sunday afternoon performance. It is not open to the public. Seldom if ever do the actors even put in an appearance. Under the harsh glare of florescent work lights technicians do a well choreographed dance, set deconstruction. First the stripping of the props and set dressings, leaving only the underpinnings. Then with surgeon's care the flats and platforms are excised and relieved. One by one stacked against the back wall until the entire show is just a deck of giant wood-framed playing cards. Waiting in the wings to be reshuffled and dealt into a new hand.

Slowly, lonely, the last act is the sweeping of the stage. A sort of cathartic soul cleansing. The push broom shuffle. The last dance number.

That is the moment that an audience longs for, cool water across parched lips.

Microsoft may try to squeeze the Apple

InformationWeek article states

Microsoft Won't Sue Linux Users, Company Exec Says

Despite its claim to own 42 patents used in the creation of the Linux kernel and hundreds more embedded in other free software programs, Microsoft does not plan to take a page from The SCO Group and sue users of the open source operating system, a senior company official said Monday.

Highlighting is mine. I have to wonder if some of those 'free software programs' have found their way into Mac's OS X?

Mac OS X was a radical departure from previous Macintosh operating systems; its underlying code base is completely different from previous versions. Its core, named Darwin, is a free and open source, Unix-like operating system built on top of the XNU kernel, with standard Unix facilities available from the command line interface. Apple layered over Darwin a number of proprietary components, including the Aqua interface and the Finder, to complete the GUI-based operating system which is Mac OS X.

( Wikipedia, Mac OS X)

Highlighting is mine. Pushing users around is called FUD. Pushing Jobs around is called FUDGE. And I bet he won't sit still for any packing.

235 Patents?

I do so hope that the marketing guys at Microsoft will soon take the legal-eagles by the ear out back of the wood shed and whip their collective asses until they are bright red.

Boy oh boy what a stupid move on the part of Microsoft.

Business by intimidation. That smacks of the kind of monolithic totalitarian states that brought so much love like Stalinist Communist Russia or our favorite despot Idi Amin.

So, lets enumerate...

1. Microsoft uses "drug dealer" tactics to addict poverty stricken users.
2. Microsoft uses threats and intimidation - not unlike some dictators.
3. ???
   

...and all they want is a little loving?

Gitcherowndarnednumber!!!

Go here and get your very own integer ... mine is

31 BF 4E FA 92 52 FC 29 92 27 34 19 E9 3E 8E 30

BullyBillyGates and the Temple of Fear

Reaffirmed once again; I B Clueless!

While I cannot say that I liked the Microsoft product I did have a grudging admiration of the Microsoft Empire as a business entity. Until now...

At some point in your presentation billg will say “that’s the dumbest fucking idea I’ve heard since I’ve been at Microsoft.” He looks like he means it. However, since you knew he was going to say this, you can’t really let it faze you. Moreover, you can’t afford to look fazed; remember: he’s a bully.

“What do you disagree with, Bill?” you ask as assertively as you can. He tells you.

Microsoft Memories

Sadly I realize that in a dawg-eat-dawg world you gots to be the biggest DAWG to keeps from being eaten. Well, I guess it couldn't happen to a better bully.

Dell & Linux... today's version

Yesterday I wrote

DELLinux Redux

and today I see that the major players are getting on the bandwagon...

The empire strikes back

Dell's Linux Problem

and to be fair, here is one with a 'pro' spin on it...

Microsoft-Novell partnership hooks Dell

Open Source, Closed Market?

From the play that I just finished directing, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, a high powered salesman, Charles Dabenow Schmendiman, claims to have had another great idea. "A tall pointy cap for dunces!"

So I tried one on an I had another great idea; I will take the freely offered Open Source code for say... something by Mozilla, how about Firefox. I will fully honor the spirit of the Open Source agreement and leave in all the tributes and adulations to the original authors. I will just slightly touch the source ... just enough so that instead of Fire it would be... PapaFox. Then I will release my version into the wild and wait for my share of the estimated $55 Million that Mozilla in enjoying.

So how come Mozilla isn't shaking in its boots over the prospect of PapaFox cutting so deeply into their revenue stream? Huh? Oh yeah, and where is my cut of that revenue stream - why aren't folks beating a path to my door? It is after all their product just slightly repackaged - "No difference."

• Who in their right mind would download from me what they can get from the original authors? They can get a package that they know will have integrity. The package will be up-to-date. In short the package offered by Mozilla is the real deal.
  
  
• So let's say that I could overcome the image issue of PapaFox. Then, in order to really make it mine I would have to substantially alter the original. Now I am not a programmer nor do I play a Doctor on TV but I know a thing or two about programs. They are huge! They are complex!
  
  Who would have the resources to invest in 'bootlegging' an Open Source application? Where is the profit incentive? Oh I know, I could sell PapaFox for substantially less than Mozilla is getting for it....Uh yeah, what is less than zero?

Now, just for the sake of discussion... lets say that I was able to overcome the previous two stumbling blocks... and I was moderately successful in offering a FireFox decendent that I actually made better (than the original) all the while adhering to the spirit of Open Source software. Now, jftsod, lets say that people started to download and use PapaFox.

Mozilla could take any of three paths; 'lawyer-up', 'pump-up' or 'wither-and-die'. When faced with the Cease&Desist order and being the uber-underdog I would laugh in their faces and try my case in the court of public opinion. Should they decide to Pump-Up then the race is on, as it should be. First they can simply re-incorporate my improvements right back into FireFox (all the while upholding the spirit of the Open Source agreement). Or they could 'black-box' engineer the improvements and just leave me out of it. In either case the product has improved and the consumer has received the real value of the exercise. Lastly, of course Mozilla could simple walk away from their product and I would be the heir apparent as the next browser king. Until the next uber-underdog came along.

This last option, Wither-and-Die, is not all that uncommon in Open Source projects. Authors for a myriad of reasons have to let programs go. Some cannot afford to maintain them. Some just lose interest. The real grace of the Open Source system shines through when an interested individual resurrects an program that has lain fallow. They breath new life into it and once again give it to the community.

The Iraq Scenario

Wirearchy offers a 7 stage plane for the US' involvement in Iraq...

Plan A - Attack

Plan B - Beat 'Em Up

Plan C - Clusterf*ck

Plan D - Denial

Plan E - Escalate

Plan F - Failure

Plan G - Get The Troops Out

Ya only left out a couple of points... The 'official offal plan' never went beyond "b"... And the Iraqi people saw right through the charade from the git go... Bush&Cheney never intended to leave so why bother to work up an exit strategy.

DELLinux Redux

Dell and Novell sitting in a tree ChannelWeb Network (CRN Magazine) is reporting this morning...

Microsoft and Novell said Monday that Dell has become the first major system vendor to join their controversial technology and marketing alliance, agreeing to work with Microsoft to distribute SUSE Linux Enterprise Server certificates.

I am guessing here but I bet that this is the 'deal' that Dell had to agree to in order to get out from under the MS thumb for offering PCs preloaded with... er, uh, ... Linux.