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
"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
The way that can be spoken of
is not the constant way.
- Lao Tzu - Tao Te Ching
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...
Got a Google account? Use a Palm? Then go to http://calendar.google.com and BINGO!!!!
intermote, verb, to overlay reader's feelings or emotions on the writings of others.
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).
...
| 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. |
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.
InformationWeek article states
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?
( Wikipedia, Mac 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.
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...
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
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
Yesterday I wrote
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."
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.
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.
PLEASE prove me wrong!!!
Dell will half-heartedly role out a few PCs preloaded with Ubuntu. Any possible market share will be diminished by the lack of enthusiasm displayed by Dell. As a marketing ploy they appealed to the voice of public opinion. When sales tank due to lack of their belief in their product the Dell PR guys will stay away in droves.
When, not if, folks start to have questions about 'how to do this' or 'how to fix that' Dell will throw up its collective hands and say, "Well, you know that Linux is Open Source. Go ask the community how to 'do that' or 'fix this'." Without a clear profit incentive Dell will hardly be willing to invest in the necessary support to get their products over the initial bump. When the first report comes back that Dell isn't standing behind their Linux systems customers will join the PR guys, staying away in droves.
People, the few that actually buy the Ubuntu PC, will then raise such a verbal stink AND POINT THE WAGGING FINGER at Linux and say, "This Linux stuff sux!" Gimme back my warm&fuzzy&bloated&addictive Weendoze.
The whole thing should take no longer than 4 months from the date Dell first ships...
