Play your gitar on your MTV...

indexed

News: Indexed is a Webby Award Honoree!

You mean they actually give me money to do this? Cool!!!

The biggest cyber-drug pusher on the block

I read Bruce Schneier for two reasons. His sense of humor tickles me just the right way. His sense of cyber-reality offers a clear technology compass for the terminally confused such as myself. So I was piqued by his Commentary on Vista Security and the Microsoft Monopoly.

While Bruce was talking, referentially, about the possible death of Microsoft...

Monopolies eventually overreach themselves and die. Maybe it's finally Microsoft's time to die. That would decrease the risk to the rest of us.

I was struck by a low-level, gut feeling response to some of the phrases offered in the cited articles and analysis.

Demerjian's interpretation of these two developments?

These two actions by Microsoft are proof of

what I suggested three years ago.
Microsoft has lost its ability to twist arms, and now it is going to die. It can't compete on level ground, so is left with backpedalling and discounts of almost 100 times.

The emphasis is mine. Losing the ability to twist arms then reducing the price of the 'product' to ~$3.00 USD is tantamount to the neighborhood pusher giving away the first 'hits' of crack cocaine - to get the users hooked (into buying the expensive drug over and over again.)

(From John Quarterman's article...)

As Dan Geer has been saying for years, Microsoft has a bit of a problem.

If you fit Microsoft's somewhat convoluted definition of poor, it still wants to lock you in, you might get rich enough to afford the full-priced stuff someday.

Microsoft wants the poor guy-on-the-street-user to try the "free" ($3.00 USD) sample in the long range hope of addicting him. Then when the addict returns Microsoft will wring out the 'full-price' for the next fix.

Sadly the real poverty in this case is not strictly economic. Microsoft has built a culture of ignorance in the users of its products. Microsoft turns right around and plays off of this ignorance poverty to continue to enslave innocent every day folks.

$0 is less than $3.

Sin-Yaw Wang of Sun Microsystems reminds us that $3 US is too much for good software.

Note to self: Don't do that again...

I had a craving, a need, for three of the four main food groups; salt, fat, sugar and chocolate. So I bought one of those "King Size SNICKERS" from the vending machine in the breakroom. (There are no real healthy snacks anywhere on site so us hunter-gatherers must resort to extreme measures.)

I knew when the BAR slipped from the spiral delivery system and BANGED in the bottom of the 'customer retrieval chute' that perhaps I was getting more than I bargained for. Lugging the thing back to my office I set it on the table behind me and I tried to ignore it. Alas, the allure was too great.

Peeling back the wrapper I took the first glorious bite. Chocolate, caramel, peanuts and nougat...ahhhhh. And then the torrid addiction kicked in... I just couldn't stop myself. Bite after BIG BITE until in a frenzy I had consumed the entire candy bar.

Hi, my name is Papa and I am a chocoholic...

And this bar would have fed a nomadic tribe of south american cocao growers for a week! It was HUGE! And now...it is gone. The sugar buzz remains but the chocolate elation is just flowing away. I feel so dirty, so ... jones'd. So I just sit here and stare at the wrapper, wondering if perhaps there is just one more little chocolate crumble stuck in the folds.

Change. Spare change...can you spare a fellow the price of 'KingSizeSnickers'?

I must be ... BRILLIANT!

I stumbled across these words of wisdom from Doc Searls ...

Searls First Law — The more you know, the worse you look

... according to the law I must be well on my way to... looking really good?

Powered by ScribeFire.

A reverse survey meme sorta thing...

I asked Platicus over at Sandwich Flats to interview me with this 'reverse survey meme sorta thing...' So here are my answers to his 5 questions...

1. What is your favorite movie ?

The Samurai Trilogy is a film trilogy directed by Hiroshi Inagaki and starring Toshiro Mifune as Miyamoto Musashi and Koji Tsuruta as Sasaki Kojirō. The films are based on the novel by Eiji Yoshikawa, about the famous duellist and author of The Book of Five Rings.

2. What fictional character would you most like to
meet, and why ?

Lord Toranaga: Blackthorne is taken to Lord Toranaga, the daimyo in control of the territory in which Blackthorne and the Erasmus first landed. Toranaga quickly realizes that Blackthorne and his ship present a great opportunity; not only in his dealings with the Portuguese, but also in his struggle with his main rival, Lord Ishido, over future control of all of Japan.

Lord Toranaga is the ultimate Bad/Good guy. While maintaining absolute command he relinquishes control. He is self-effacing, offering to dance the 'barbarian' dance. He is as well versed in the arts of humanity as he is in the art of war. He is both sentimental and callused. He knows how to move the human pieces around the cosmic chess board without letting his opponent know his true intent.

3. Who is the funniest person you know ?

Robin Williams - Not for Mork or for most of his film work but rather for those few spontaneous sessions where he is able to draw upon his wealth of historical and literary knowledge. His ability to combine Shakespear-esque verbiage with gang-banging street yo's leaves me laughing to the edge of tears. (Special Note: Robin Williams must be acknowledged for his fearless comedic film work in The Birdcage.)

4. Do you believe in extra-terrestrial life ?

Yes, we puny humans cannot be the only sentient beings in the universe.

5. What is your ultimate meal ?

My wife's fresh-from-the-oven hand-made bread with a little butter, cool pure water and a sun warmed apricot picked fresh from my grandmother's orchard.

In considering this question I might have reflected on the many great meals that I have enjoyed at my grandmother's table, at my father's table and the many excellent restaurants that I have had the privilege of attending. While all were great meals in the context of this question they spoke to my appetite and not to my hunger. Were I truly hungry I would eat almost anything. Were I truly hungry and had a choice then I would want bread, water and fruit.

Here are the rules if you want to keep it going:

Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to
pick the questions.

You will update your weblog with the answers to the
questions.(And let me know that you answered) If you
don't have a blog, but would still like to play, I can
send you the questions, and you can answer 'em in the
comments.

You will include this explanation and an offer to
interview someone else in the same post.
When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will
ask them five questions.

WordFlashReader - NFTFOH*

Now that I am getting this laptop settled I am interested in re-acquiring some of my favorite applications. WordFlashReader (WFR) is high on my list.

WFR uses Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP <-- Classic geek joke, that.)

WFR represents, in my view, the perfect marriage of computer technology and human capabilities. Beginning in 1986 I complained that PCs were slow and incapable of meeting the demands placed upon them by their human owner/operators. Silly me, I expected multi-tasking from my 8088 based computer. (Anyone remember GeoWorks?)

WFR is actually a very simple program. It takes text files as input and presents them to the user one. word. at. a. time. at a variable speed which can be very FAST! One description of WFR suggests that it 'infuses' the words of the text directly into your brain.

It turns out that when I read using conventional methods I tend to do a lot of extraneous thinking at the same time. I am trying to cognitively 'understand' what the author is saying at the same time I am trying to input their written words. Often I am trying to relate what is happening in the story I am reading to what is or has happened in my life. Or I am projecting or 'second guessing' the story on a sentence by sentence basis. I end up trying to tell the story my way while I am reading the author's words.

As a point of reference I can still do a great deal of what I just said when WFR is presenting at 270 WPM (a little over 4 words per second.) This is a good speed to start with. It allows me to become focused. Once I begin to feel 'in the groove' I will begin to increase the speed to 329 or higher. It is at this speed that I become aware that I cannot 'afford' to divert my attention with extraneous cognitive thought processes. I am sure that this is roughly the same as other 'speedreading' techniques. Remove the noise from the information input process and let the brain run at its speed when acquiring data.

As a personal test I have set about 'reading' Emanual Kant's The Critique of Pure Reason. For the purposes of this test I am allowing WFR to present at 967 WPM. My intent is to simply have the entire work impressed or infused in my psyche. I do not actually expect to quote or even reflect on any given passage. Once this first 'read' is complete then I will run WFR at a slower speed. My hypothesis is that once I have it as a foundation at high speed I will be able to cognitively process it at a lower speed.

Side note: Ulysses by James Joyce is well suited to this 'streaming' in part I believe because of Joyce's stream-of-consciousness style.

* NFTFOH

Not For The Faint Of Heart

Don't get me wrong, I love PERL but... you have to really love PERL in order to get WFR running (under Linux).

Blue Monster

[Added: On further reflection it really does look like me...and my wallet.]

Blog Lineage and YOYOW

Frank Paynter at Listics pointed me toward Elayne Riggs at Pen-Elayne who then pointed me at a Daily KOS article. Elayne thought so highly of the article's content that she quoted a significant portion of it.

Before I go, I'd like to urge folks to read the entire entry from "mapantsula," a professor at Virginia Tech and an atheist, in response to some nonsense from Dinesh D'Souza.

The 'entire entry from "mapantsula,"' is indeed an articulate, thoughtful and heartfelt perspective. It was written by an individual who has, in my opinion, wrestled long and hard with the issues of God and faith.

While mapantusla's expressed views and (non-)beliefs do not coincided perfectly with my own I was impressed by the establishment of his/her personal position. Even more important, in my view, was her/his clear and concise articulation of some very difficult theological and philosophical issues.

Blog Lineage and YOYOW

As you can see, I took the liberty of using a common blogging technique, 'lineage citations', to establish the validity and veracity of this posting. Such a formal lineage helps the reader to better appreciate the message. To better put the message in context. To better understand the message by situational or circumstantial associations. All in all, citing other people makes my message that much more accessible.

As a long standing proponent of Personal Responsibility I am obliged to follow YOYOW. This is, however, a personal choice that I cognitively make. While there may be some moral high ground here, I am not legally obligated to 'sign' every post. This brings me to the subject acknowledged by Elayne at the end of her post...

My only qualm with it is that this person has chosen to remain anonymous; while I certainly understand why, it tends to undercut his or her credibility a bit.

Being such a strong proponent of YOYOW I find myself in the very uncomfortable position of suggesting that I am 'not seeing the forest for the trees' in circumstances like this. I fall victim all too quickly to the praise/blame game and end up unwilling or unable (in other circumstances) to receive the value of the message.

I once advocated setting up an anonymous bulletin board so that co-workers could express anything that they felt called to share. Rather like a graffiti wall. My boss was livid - absolutely nothing written in such an anonymous environment would be of any value what so ever.

I am sure that had such an anonymous board been put up the boss would have been subject to some much deserved and undeserved criticism. As well the company might have received some positive and negative views. My question then and now is; Are people fearless enough to say the difficult things that need to be said? Would a line worker run the risk of losing his job to offer a criticism that is valid but sure to rile the big boss man? I believe that open and anonymous forums are necessary to overcome these types social stonewalls.

Dell XPloits the new VISTA

When POS means something different than Point-of-sale... [Link]

(Written on "Linux on a Laptop")

Top 10 things you need to know and 1 you need to do

Ten things you didn't know about open source

By James Archibald

20 April, 2007

1. Open Source predates proprietary software.

2. Apache kept the Web flat and free

3. Open SSL kept cryptography available to everyone

4. Open Source helped free the human genome

5. Microsoft loves open source

6. Altruism is not the only reason why people contribute to open source software

6. Online communities can actually get things done

7. The most important freedom: the right to for

9. Open source can still change the world

10. Open source needs your help (whoever you are)

One doesn't have to be a programmer to be able to help out on open source projects. To begin you can help by just trying it out. Recommended programs that can be run off a Windows system include the Open Office office suite and the Firefox Web browser. There are a number of "live" CD distributions of Linux that can be tried out without affecting your CD, such as Ubuntu. Open source development happens through forums and participation in a forum can help. If you encounter a bu in an open source application, reporting it can also be helpful to the developers. Another way for bilingual non-programmers to help is in translating the text of the program.

Hey! My children need $3 XP and Office too! NOT!!!

A product sooooo bad they cannot even give it away?

(Written from "Linux on a Laptop")

Again?!?!?! Microsoft shows just what contempt and avarice it has when dealing with the people who are the foundation of its great wealth: us, you and me. When is M$ going to offer us $3 XP and Office? HA!

art

heart

earth

farther

warts and all!

Filling the gapingvoid...

Hugh asked... how well does open source currently meet the needs of shareholders and ceo's?

Plain and simple: Open source does not meet the needs of shareholders and CEO's.

Shareholders and CEO's are driven by one thing; profit. There is no sense doing business, or investing in business, if said business does not turn a profit. If this were not the case then there would be a huge market for rat holes so that money could be thrown down them.

I believe that Sun Microsystems has the right approach to Open Source software. Here I am referring to OpenOffice. I believe Sun acquired OO for two reasons. First and foremost was to "stick it" to Microsoft. Second was an incredibly savy move; ingratiate themselves with the greater Open Source community. (Something that Microsoft has never attempted to do.) Sun may even realize a small profit from its commercial version of StarOffice.

Sun's real victory is the inroads it has made into the overall 'office suite' arena. Without leveraging the open source project, supporting it, nurturing it, Sun would still be trying to make do with an inferior MS product.

victims as villians

I believe in the balance of humanity. I can say that I have faith in the balance of humanity. I believe that historically there is significant evidence of this balancing process. I cannot suggest to you exactly how this balance is achieved.

Pretty heady stuff, Papa. What is your point?

A victim is characterized as such because they have suffered from or entered into a relationship with an insult or injury. No one will refute that when my daughter fell and broke her arm she was the victim of an accident. No one will refute the feeling of pain that she felt as a result of the injury. (My daughter was properly treated by trained professionals and has recovered fully from her injury.)

She was not treated as a villain because she recognized the balance of the situation; gravity cannot be denied, literally or metaphorically. She accepted that in a real world circumstance if she did not maintain proper balance she would be subject to the laws of physics as we know them. In this case the infraction resulted in the insult to her arm.

Imagine for a moment the result if my daughter had railed against the laws of physics? How would she have been treated by her peers or even unknowns in the community if she had attempted to lay a claim of culpability on gravity. How quick might we all be to paraphrase the Bard and say, 'I think she doth protest too much!' Then were she, or a band of "interested" anti-gravity types, to continue on lambasting the celestial pull would overall sentiment begin to sway away from such a claim?

It is so easy to speak of the simple laws of physics, a falling child and an injury. Where might the balance be in a complex social circumstance involving the vague precepts of propriety and grievous insults? Certainly the insult is real. Of that there is no question. Then a groundswell of sentiment calls into question the veracity of the victim's claims. A counter swell speaks in support. And when the smoke clears the victim is seen as the villain. The original insult is not lessened just that the balance of humanity has prevailed.

Let me be clear on this point; I am not qualified to judge the specifics of any given circumstance. The only observation that I make here is that the larger perspective, the greater community with an unspoken voice, has re-established the balance of humanity. Further, let there be no doubt that being a 'victim as villain' hurts perhaps more than did my daughter's broken arm. Yet I, as a concerned father, and we as a concerned Internet community cannot prevent the rightful process of balance in humanity or the downward draw of gravity.

419 Fraud Letter I would prefer to receive...

Here is the type of letter I would prefer to receive from the 419 scammers...

Person:

My name is Imagonna Scamya. Instead of wasting my time and yours I will come right to the point; send me your money. I have no intention of promising any return on your 'investment'. In fact I can guarantee that you will receive nothing in return for your contribution.

Please note the efficiency and simplicity of this approach. There are no convoluted steps. There is no reason for guilt or shame. Conversely there will be no reward for your participation beyond my personal enrichment which after all is the primary objective here.

Thanks for your timely response.

Please make all checks and money orders payable to Imagonna Scamya.

Respectfully yours

IS

Open Source Top 10 Must-read

10 reasons for enterprises to use opensource

And my favorite of course is...

1. Opensource makes you responsible. When you choose the components yourself, you don’t have a vendor to scream at. Or, as is often the case, a whole heap of vendors to scream at, each merrily pointing all known fingers (and a few unknown ones) at everyone else. While you fume and stew.

Personal responsibility in all aspects of computing. YOYOC = You own your own computer.

Slackware Linux & IBM Thinkpad R51

The IBM (Lenovo) Thinkpad R51 (2888-47u) is OK. While it is well engineered and fully functional it is not out standing, over the top, the be-all-to-end-all of laptops. Perhaps that is why this one was lovingly referred to as a 'Stinkpad' by its previous owner.

The Lenovo site says that this R51 model OEMs with the following...

P M 1.5GHz, 256MB RAM, 20GB 4200rpm HDD, 14.1 XGA(1024x768) TFT LCD, Intel Extreme, 8x-3.3x DVD, Wireless upgradeable(MPCI), Modem(CDC), 10/100 Ethernet(LOM), UltraNav, Secure Chip, 6 cell Li-Ion battery, WinXP Pro

Emphasis in this case is mine because I want to acknowledge that this laptop is very well engineered (OEM) for WinXP Pro. Special note of this will be taken during the installation of Slackware.

Why Slackware? It is simple.

Simple and Slackware on the same line??? Get real... Slackware's installation, albeit a bit Console&NCurses, does not insist that it knows more about how I want this installation to go than it does. Other distros that I have worked with in the past would take off flying and I would end up with a dual-boot, multi-partitioned, multiple file system, three headed monster. Slackware leaves me in control of an involved installation by not making all the critical decisions for me. It is that simple.

This is not a Slackware installation tutorial ( Here is a very good one posted on BitBenderTech. )

There are a couple of points that I want to make clear. First is that careful measures should be taken to preserve the 'OEM Partition'. In addition to just being a good practice in general this partition is the "resale value of the laptop". The next person to own it may not be a Linux fan but would be willing to pay more if it had Windows on it.

The second point that I make when installing Slackware on a "work" system is to install EVERYTHING. A "work" system is not a user/customer desktop/laptop setup or a production server configuration. A "work" system is the computer that I maintain as a resource. It has everything on it so that I don't have to install it later if my experimentation takes me into a new area.

So far we have...

1. IBM/Lenovo R51
2. Root ( / ) partition and swap partition. (And the preserved OEM Partition.)
3. FULL installation of Slackware 11.0

With the normal installation settings (most are DEFAULT, the rest are clear choices) this is a vanilla install of linux.

When the system comes up I have a fully functional laptop running Slackware 11. I always take a moment to create at least one user account [Papa] as soon as I can so I don't have to work in the system logged in as root.

If I didn't do the network configuration during the install I can configure the network connection using the 'netconfig' command and then restarting* the system gives me network access.

Logging in as 'Papa' gives me a fully appointed and a 'working' secured system. Issuing the 'startx' command gives me a fully functional windows GUI, no extra configuration required.

So now we have...

1. IBM/Lenovo R51
2. Root ( / ) partition and swap partition. (And the preserved OEM Partition.)
3. FULL installation of Slackware 11.0
4. 'netconfig' + 'reboot' gives us ethernet connectivity
5. 'startx' gives us windows GUI
   

What is left? What is missing?

Any laptop is just an expensive desktop if it can't me mobile. In order to be functionally mobile a laptop has to be able to connect wirelessly. The R51 (2888-47u) does not have built-in wireless capability so I rely on a wireless PCMCIA adapter. Here I had to choose carefully. I chose Proxim LAN Gold ORiNOCO 11a/b/g ComboCard. Which did not work vanilla right out of the box.

WHAT?!?!? Then why choose that one? Because there are open source drivers for it that do work very well. I went to MadWifi and downloaded madwifi-0.9.3.tar.gz. Using my favorite file manager 'mc' I extracted the source to a working folder. Once inside the folder I did a 'make'. When it finished compiling I did a 'su -' to obtain root privs and then did a 'make install'.

Rebooting the laptop with the Proxim PCMCIA card in the slot and I have an 'functioning' wireless device. In order to make it operational it requires a bit of configuration. In a followup article I will detail that configuration as well as 'Simple, Quick & Dirty reconfiguration for mutiple network sites'. For now just a teaser to show how few CLI commands wireless connectivity requires...

root@laptop: ~# iwconfig ath0 essid MyWifiNet key s:asciipasswordgoeshere
root@laptop: ~# iwpriv ath0 authmode 2
root@laptop: ~# ifconfig ath0 192.168.1.100 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
root@laptop: ~#

So to sum it all up...

1. IBM/Lenovo R51
2. Root ( / ) partition and swap partition. (And the preserved OEM Partition.)
3. FULL installation of Slackware 11.0
4. 'netconfig' + 'reboot' gives us ethernet connectivity
5. 'startx' gives us windows GUI
6. Wireless connctivity
   

Obviously I have glossed over some of the steps. (I have given up trying to write for first-time Slackware/Linux users.) This brief overview is to show that with an absolute minimum of work I now have a fully functional and well appointed IBM Thinkpad R51 running Slackware 11.

Articles to come...
KDE Tweaks for Thinkpad
Simple, Quick & Dirty reconfiguration for mutiple network sites

* "Restarting" or 'reboot' is one way. The system could also be 'init 1' and then 'init 3' depending on the user's comfort level.


-30-

Compliments not given

I am guilty. I don't know how to give compliments well. Oh, I know the mechanics but I just don't know the etiquette. It always seems that there is a sudden deafening pause after I attempt to give a compliment - an uneasy silence during which I don't know what to do.

Mostly this is due to my other failing, not knowing how to properly receive a compliment. I attribute this to a complex internal dialog that occurs just after the complimentor offers their critical praise.

1. Fear: Why am I being singled out?
2. Quid pro quo: What do I owe in return?
3. Buttered-up: Somebody wants a piece of me?
4. Contempt: Discounting the veracity of the complimentor.
5. And the worst, Denial: Dismissing the compliment with "I am not worthy."

Now hopefully you are not subject to the same dialog. But I have learned that as I am "normal", if I have these feeling then most, if not all, folks have them to some degree or another. So what do I do to resolve this dilemma for myself? I practice the following mantra until it just rolls off my tongue...

"Thank you"

No dialog, no second guessing, no judgemental gymnastics. If any of the possible "piece-of-me" issues arise subsequently I will deal with them as wholly separate transactions. Until then I will just focus on accepting the compliment.


On now to the giving of compliments. I don't give them often because of that deadly silence that always seems to follow my attempts. In that uncomfortable moment I am plagued with an entire set of new issues.

1. Discomfort: Complimentee is embarrassed
2. Dismissed: Complimentee says/thinks, "Yeah, what ever."
3. Undermined: Complimentee says/thinks, "Yeah, but its not as good as it could be."
   
4. Redirected: Complimentee says/thinks, "You should see so-and-so's work."
5. Oblivion: Complimentee stands silent, not knowing how to receive a compliment.
   

So my resolve is equally straight forward and simple. My part of the compliment is the giving. That is all I can be responsible for. So, I am just going to start giving compliments. I am going to practice until I get it right. Then I am going to practice it until I make it a habit.

You look marvelous.

Addendum: Ironically, in the past if I was sure that the message would be delivered correctly I would be more inclined to give the compliment to a mutual friend, to be delivered second hand. Interesting how a 'second-hand' compliment means more in the community and is easier to accept.

If you can't run with the big cyber-dawgs...

GigaOM - AMD gives us a tech reality check

Earlier today, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced that it is cutting its revenue forecasts, for the first quarter of 2007. “Revenues declined sharply quarter-over-quarter … due to lower overall average selling prices and significantly lower unit sales, especially in the resale channel,” AMD said. AMD will cut costs, and slowdown hiring. AMD pre- announcement can’t be dismissed lightly. You can expect more companies will make such statements during this earning season, underscoring lack of demand.

... <Churchlady> Could it be.... Vista? </ChurchLady>

While the GigaOM article does go on to name, "...,wireless handsets and most categories of consumer electronics" it speaks quite clearly to the PC markets. And as we all know the PC market is driven by the latest and greatest offering from Microsoft. In this case Vista. Which apparently no one is rushing out in droves to buy. Consequently AMD is taking it on the chin.

I have said it in other quarters for other reasons but it applies here just as well, "When you lay down with cyber-dawgs you end up with digital fleas." Sorry AMD, perhaps you should reconsider what porch you sleep on.