I have been hiding under a rock the last month. Seriously, I have had many projects take precedent over other recreational activities... such as blogging, and yes, I have been missing writing on here, which incidentally only my mother and my two fans read regularly. I guess I felt like I needed a vacation from my routines.
It's funny because I really do enjoy writing, and was at many times the last month, motivated to write, but I just couldn't seem to find the time to sit down and really write something.
I am currently writing this post from a laptop (yes, the infamous iBook laptop), that has died more than one horrible death since I bought it some time in 2003. The last time I tried playing with this machine, I had it up and running for about 10 minutes, before the video all scrambled up.
Then, thanks to a post at Low End Mac, someone posted a how-to turn an old iBook with a dead video card into a server. "Ah!", said I, "I found a new use for my little old laptop that has given me so much grief over the years" -- at least almost the entire life of this blog.
So one Friday evening, I pulled out the old iBook out of the storage closet, plugged in the battery, and soon found out (after wiping a corrupted hard drive), that the video had fixed itself autonomously without me having to perform any Voodoo rituals. I set up an OSX server and played with it for a few days, but I was a little leery about putting any sensitive information on my "new server" without a sensible backup, as the hard drive has been known to die on me spontaneously.
So I wanted to find a use for this old derelict, yet without any worry about losing any critical data. So what was I to do?
After some thought, the answer came clear to me -- and it was something I have wanted to do for more than 7 years, yet was not feasible until this point.
Which was install Linux, and use it for kicks and giggles. So last week, I downloaded a disk image of Ubuntu Edgy Eft (which is the last version to support Power PC), and rather quickly, had it running on my old 800MHz iBook in very little time.
Why? Because I can.
By now, you should have noticed the Flickr link on the sidebar. I finally broke down and signed up. Actually the true reason I signed up was because I had a couple pictures on Yahoo! photos that were going to get deleted unless I transferred them to a new service, as Yahoo! was going to discontinue offering their photo service.
Now that I have signed up for a Flickr account, everybody who had used it has now migrated to some other service. It seems that I am receiving a some invites to join the latest flavor of the month: Facebook.
Showing posts with label Linux. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Linux. Show all posts
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Soup-Up The Engine in Your iPod
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I love what the iPod has offered, but I was hoping that the iPod would have some better software. I know it was initially designed to be a digital music player. But us techno-geeks want more. I was hoping the iPod would have technologies that would have it more resemble the Newton or a PDA. Maybe Apple is currently developing those technologies, but they won't tell us.
I enjoyed the address book, calendar and games features that come stock with the iPod. Unfortunately, the games get stale rather quickly, and you cannot edit the address book or calendar entries on the fly. When I am about, I would love to put an appointment straight into my iPod calendar, or entering a buddies' new cell phone number. Having Linux on your iPod opens up a whole world of new possibilities. I have not tried the software, so I cannot endorse the product, yet.
Regardless, it's very cool, in a geeky sort of way.
Friday, August 27, 2004
Browser Wars: Episode III - Revenge of Mozilla
There are countless people who feel that a holy war is being fought right here, on the internet. Their opinions are as varied as they are subjective, and are usually based upon a bias toward a brand. Others feel that they should have a choice as to what software they should be allowed to run on their computer; they feel that their right to choose has been stolen from them. Even others feel that information is something that should belong to everyone, and it should not carry a price. Of these people, their opinions of their adversaries are so fierce and jaded, that they actually consider the competitor (and those who use the offending software) agents of evil. Individuals and marketing schemes continually attempt to convert users of one platform to another, which can only be compared to missionaries infiltrating a primitive culture with the sole intent of converting "ruthless savages into believers of Christ". One leader of a company is perceived Godlike, the other is considered the Devil. But nobody really knows which side is the right one, because in fact, no right side exists. It is a war that has no real purpose, and there is no end in sight.
This is a battle that has been raging since the introduction of the personal computer, or at least, since the internet had been used for recreational purposes. In actuality, software piracy has been a problem since the mass production of computers and software, which arguably began sometime in the late 1970's. Back then, software piracy, the protection of electronic intellectual property (ie. music), and related lawsuits weren't headlining news -- as it is today. Why now, rather than then? My guess is that the computer industry wasn't as profitable as it is today, as well as our reliance on digital technology has increased. Twenty years ago, nobody even considered putting commercial audio or a motion picture on the computer; that's what VCR's and stereo systems were for. A person already had specialized items for these media. It didn't matter anyway as the computers of the past were too archaic, slow, and didn't have the capacity to store large media.
It only took about ten years before computer entertainment and mass media began to converge. Computers were slowly becoming the digital entertainment center of a household. The progress was in fact so slow it was hardly noticed. Computers were being shipped with CD-ROM drives and multimedia speakers years before anyone had any real use for them. It wasn't until the rising popularity of the internet that brought the computer on par with satellite television, digital music and digital video as kingpins of the entertainment industry.
Whose idea was it to bring mass media to the computer? It was likely software companies and computer manufacturers. It was likely a marketing scheme in an effort to sell more computers and increase profits. We, as consumers really have no need for blazing fast computers with broadband connections, complete with hundreds of gigabytes of storage to hold all our digital movies and music. It's a false need. Even computers that are ten years old have the capability of connecting to the internet to share electronic mail or surf the world-wide web. We just want bigger and faster computers because we are spoiled consumers and we must have everything now. We are too impatient to wait 15 minutes for a digital file to download from a dial-up modem. The general populace would rather download a movie or audio from a peer to peer client rather than pay for it. It's not the fact that it's free, nor is it the fact that it is stealing; we can afford to pay for these items. It is just that we, as a population, are greedy and impatient. Why should anyone pay for something if it is readily available for free?
The entertainment industry is of course, enraged. They are claiming that they are losing billions of dollars per year due to internet file-sharing. These accusations are not much more than that -- it is difficult to prove that they are losing profits. Let me explain:
The numbers the entertainment industry have been using to argue that they have been losing profits is the year they made the absolute most: 1999. This, uncoincidentally is the same year the NASDAQ broke 10,000 -- it's highest value ever. The economy was better than it ever had been before. Computers were flying off the shelves and every first-world citizen (who could afford it) jumped on the internet bandwagon. So what happened in 2000? It's called the "tech bubble burst". Recession. Investors lost trillions when their dot-com stocks withered to nothing overnight. Now it seems that the entertainment industry is blaming the file-sharing phenomenon for their lost profits, instead of putting the blame squarely on the poor state of the economy. The arguments are both subjective, and would be difficult to prove the case that it is in fact the poor economy that can be attributed to poor sales in record shops. But just watch: once the economy recovers, music sales will be up again. It would nonetheless help if the recording industry would support acts that are talented and have the ability to write good songs for a change.
I actually did not want to discuss the "David versus Goliath" scenario of the recording industry suing the general public, as it has been discussed to death on every imaginable internet site for the last four years. This will be another jihad of the internet, and will continue for years to come.
File sharing on the internet is a bit like Pandora's Box; once it has opened, you will unable to close it again. Computer programmers are an intelligent and resourceful bunch, and they will always be trying to outsmart, outwit, outfox, and out-hack the competition. The recording industry will try to devise more complicated mousetraps in order to copy-protect their songs (and/or video), and programmers will always find a way to get around the obstacles in their way. The war could go on for years, but I would put my money on the hackers as the ones that will eventually wind up victorious. Hackers have noses like bloodhounds when it comes to obtaining encrypted, confidential, or copyrighted information. They are the ones who believe that information should be free and shared with everyone.
Zeropaid.com is a website dedicated to file sharing on the internet. They feature resources on multitudes of peer-to-peer software for any major computer platform. What intrigues me most about this site is not the software itself, but all the news coverage they feature on the legal battles between the entertainment industry and software development corporations, or teenaged kids who can't afford a lawyer. The spin Zeropaid puts on their news makes if feel like there is a crusade to defeat the Evil Galactic Empire and restore freedom to the galaxy. I find it rather amusing.
There are of course, other things you can do as a computer consumer if you believe that there is some sort of electronic "holy-war" taking place over cable modems across the world. If you wish to participate in the battle against "Big Brother" (whomever he may be), then learn to program. I would suggest learning to program in as many languages as you can, and try your hand at becoming a software developer. Learn what "open-source" means, and use such software whenever possible.
For nearly every major (branded) computer application that you deem invaluable on your computer, there is likely a free, open-source, program the does virtually the same thing, and is being developed by scores of programmers worldwide.
The most indispensable computer program that everybody needs is an operating system. Even that version of Windows that came stock with your PC came with a price. Microsoft and Apple love to make their consumers buy new, upgraded versions of their operating system every few years. The new OS usually has a few new features, but it is rarely worth the price you pay. Unfortunately, the new programs and the new games normally only operate on the most recent versions of the operating system for which it was devised, so often it seems like there is little choice but to keep your operating system current. In actuality, with all the security risks, spyware, and viruses that are spread throughout the internet, it is in a computer operator's best interest to keep all their software current.
If you are tired of security holes in your operating system, and sickened by viruses and worms, if your computer has had it's modem hijacked, then you must understand how frustrating it an be to be a computer user. There are alternatives.
Linux was originally developed by Linus Torvalds as an open-source clone of the UNIX operating system. You must imagine that writing an operating system is not an easy task, thus he had difficulty solving some programming problems. So Torvalds placed what he had managed to program on the internet in an effort to see if others could help him finish writing the operating system. The response was immense. Linux soon became a fully-functioning, stable, freely distributed operating system based on the UNIX kernel.
Red Hat Linux is a popular commercial version of the Linux operating system. There are even versions of Linux that operate on old hardware, breathing new life into seemingly obsolete machines. It may be an alternative choice for those who cannot yet afford a new computer.
Mozilla is an open-source web browser that is every bit as powerful as Microsoft IE. It is absolutely free, and is highly customizable. For instance, you can install skins to alter the appearance of your browser. If you are looking for a highly capable email client, Mozilla has those too. In addition, Mozilla runs on every major computer platform (Windows, Mac and Unix). I found this image on the web, and fell in love with it. I just had to show you.
"That's all fine and dandy, but Microsoft Office is the industry standard for word processing and spreadsheet applications, and I need those for my career," you say. Ask anybody and they will tell you Microsoft Office is an incredibly expensive program, and business owners usually fork out a healthy sum every couple of years in order to keep their programs up to date. Enter OpenOffice.org. OpenOffice is a fully functional office suite that does about everything that Microsoft Office does -- absolutely free. And it is being developed for every major computer platform. It is also my understanding that OpenOffice has the ability to read and write Microsoft Office files. What isn't there to love about this program?
Long live open-source software. As long as computing power is in the hands of the programmer and not the corporations, we will always have alternatives than to give our money to Corporate Big Brother.
As I close this lengthy post, I thought I might tell you a little about The Stone SouperComputer. A number of years ago, a friend of mine told me about this article in Scientific American about a couple of professors who needed a supercomputer to do some physical modeling for their research, but it was not in the budget to purchase brand new machines. So these professors built a Beowulf supercomputer using obsolete PC's. It cost them next to nothing to build, as hundreds of old desktop computers were donated to them. I hadn't visited the Soupercomputer homepage in quite some time, upon my last visit it had been brought to my attention that the Soupercomputer went offline just over one year ago. I find these gentleman an inspiration when creative thinking allows a problem to be solved efficiently and at minimal cost. What a great idea for a bunch of silicon that was destined for the landfill.
This is a battle that has been raging since the introduction of the personal computer, or at least, since the internet had been used for recreational purposes. In actuality, software piracy has been a problem since the mass production of computers and software, which arguably began sometime in the late 1970's. Back then, software piracy, the protection of electronic intellectual property (ie. music), and related lawsuits weren't headlining news -- as it is today. Why now, rather than then? My guess is that the computer industry wasn't as profitable as it is today, as well as our reliance on digital technology has increased. Twenty years ago, nobody even considered putting commercial audio or a motion picture on the computer; that's what VCR's and stereo systems were for. A person already had specialized items for these media. It didn't matter anyway as the computers of the past were too archaic, slow, and didn't have the capacity to store large media.
It only took about ten years before computer entertainment and mass media began to converge. Computers were slowly becoming the digital entertainment center of a household. The progress was in fact so slow it was hardly noticed. Computers were being shipped with CD-ROM drives and multimedia speakers years before anyone had any real use for them. It wasn't until the rising popularity of the internet that brought the computer on par with satellite television, digital music and digital video as kingpins of the entertainment industry.
Whose idea was it to bring mass media to the computer? It was likely software companies and computer manufacturers. It was likely a marketing scheme in an effort to sell more computers and increase profits. We, as consumers really have no need for blazing fast computers with broadband connections, complete with hundreds of gigabytes of storage to hold all our digital movies and music. It's a false need. Even computers that are ten years old have the capability of connecting to the internet to share electronic mail or surf the world-wide web. We just want bigger and faster computers because we are spoiled consumers and we must have everything now. We are too impatient to wait 15 minutes for a digital file to download from a dial-up modem. The general populace would rather download a movie or audio from a peer to peer client rather than pay for it. It's not the fact that it's free, nor is it the fact that it is stealing; we can afford to pay for these items. It is just that we, as a population, are greedy and impatient. Why should anyone pay for something if it is readily available for free?
The entertainment industry is of course, enraged. They are claiming that they are losing billions of dollars per year due to internet file-sharing. These accusations are not much more than that -- it is difficult to prove that they are losing profits. Let me explain:
The numbers the entertainment industry have been using to argue that they have been losing profits is the year they made the absolute most: 1999. This, uncoincidentally is the same year the NASDAQ broke 10,000 -- it's highest value ever. The economy was better than it ever had been before. Computers were flying off the shelves and every first-world citizen (who could afford it) jumped on the internet bandwagon. So what happened in 2000? It's called the "tech bubble burst". Recession. Investors lost trillions when their dot-com stocks withered to nothing overnight. Now it seems that the entertainment industry is blaming the file-sharing phenomenon for their lost profits, instead of putting the blame squarely on the poor state of the economy. The arguments are both subjective, and would be difficult to prove the case that it is in fact the poor economy that can be attributed to poor sales in record shops. But just watch: once the economy recovers, music sales will be up again. It would nonetheless help if the recording industry would support acts that are talented and have the ability to write good songs for a change.
I actually did not want to discuss the "David versus Goliath" scenario of the recording industry suing the general public, as it has been discussed to death on every imaginable internet site for the last four years. This will be another jihad of the internet, and will continue for years to come.
File sharing on the internet is a bit like Pandora's Box; once it has opened, you will unable to close it again. Computer programmers are an intelligent and resourceful bunch, and they will always be trying to outsmart, outwit, outfox, and out-hack the competition. The recording industry will try to devise more complicated mousetraps in order to copy-protect their songs (and/or video), and programmers will always find a way to get around the obstacles in their way. The war could go on for years, but I would put my money on the hackers as the ones that will eventually wind up victorious. Hackers have noses like bloodhounds when it comes to obtaining encrypted, confidential, or copyrighted information. They are the ones who believe that information should be free and shared with everyone.
Zeropaid.com is a website dedicated to file sharing on the internet. They feature resources on multitudes of peer-to-peer software for any major computer platform. What intrigues me most about this site is not the software itself, but all the news coverage they feature on the legal battles between the entertainment industry and software development corporations, or teenaged kids who can't afford a lawyer. The spin Zeropaid puts on their news makes if feel like there is a crusade to defeat the Evil Galactic Empire and restore freedom to the galaxy. I find it rather amusing.
There are of course, other things you can do as a computer consumer if you believe that there is some sort of electronic "holy-war" taking place over cable modems across the world. If you wish to participate in the battle against "Big Brother" (whomever he may be), then learn to program. I would suggest learning to program in as many languages as you can, and try your hand at becoming a software developer. Learn what "open-source" means, and use such software whenever possible.
For nearly every major (branded) computer application that you deem invaluable on your computer, there is likely a free, open-source, program the does virtually the same thing, and is being developed by scores of programmers worldwide.
The most indispensable computer program that everybody needs is an operating system. Even that version of Windows that came stock with your PC came with a price. Microsoft and Apple love to make their consumers buy new, upgraded versions of their operating system every few years. The new OS usually has a few new features, but it is rarely worth the price you pay. Unfortunately, the new programs and the new games normally only operate on the most recent versions of the operating system for which it was devised, so often it seems like there is little choice but to keep your operating system current. In actuality, with all the security risks, spyware, and viruses that are spread throughout the internet, it is in a computer operator's best interest to keep all their software current.
If you are tired of security holes in your operating system, and sickened by viruses and worms, if your computer has had it's modem hijacked, then you must understand how frustrating it an be to be a computer user. There are alternatives.
Linux was originally developed by Linus Torvalds as an open-source clone of the UNIX operating system. You must imagine that writing an operating system is not an easy task, thus he had difficulty solving some programming problems. So Torvalds placed what he had managed to program on the internet in an effort to see if others could help him finish writing the operating system. The response was immense. Linux soon became a fully-functioning, stable, freely distributed operating system based on the UNIX kernel.
Red Hat Linux is a popular commercial version of the Linux operating system. There are even versions of Linux that operate on old hardware, breathing new life into seemingly obsolete machines. It may be an alternative choice for those who cannot yet afford a new computer.
Mozilla is an open-source web browser that is every bit as powerful as Microsoft IE. It is absolutely free, and is highly customizable. For instance, you can install skins to alter the appearance of your browser. If you are looking for a highly capable email client, Mozilla has those too. In addition, Mozilla runs on every major computer platform (Windows, Mac and Unix). I found this image on the web, and fell in love with it. I just had to show you."That's all fine and dandy, but Microsoft Office is the industry standard for word processing and spreadsheet applications, and I need those for my career," you say. Ask anybody and they will tell you Microsoft Office is an incredibly expensive program, and business owners usually fork out a healthy sum every couple of years in order to keep their programs up to date. Enter OpenOffice.org. OpenOffice is a fully functional office suite that does about everything that Microsoft Office does -- absolutely free. And it is being developed for every major computer platform. It is also my understanding that OpenOffice has the ability to read and write Microsoft Office files. What isn't there to love about this program?
Long live open-source software. As long as computing power is in the hands of the programmer and not the corporations, we will always have alternatives than to give our money to Corporate Big Brother.
As I close this lengthy post, I thought I might tell you a little about The Stone SouperComputer. A number of years ago, a friend of mine told me about this article in Scientific American about a couple of professors who needed a supercomputer to do some physical modeling for their research, but it was not in the budget to purchase brand new machines. So these professors built a Beowulf supercomputer using obsolete PC's. It cost them next to nothing to build, as hundreds of old desktop computers were donated to them. I hadn't visited the Soupercomputer homepage in quite some time, upon my last visit it had been brought to my attention that the Soupercomputer went offline just over one year ago. I find these gentleman an inspiration when creative thinking allows a problem to be solved efficiently and at minimal cost. What a great idea for a bunch of silicon that was destined for the landfill.
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