the indian wind along the telegraph lines
kurt von finck's blog
I’m not a fan of Windows or their installation “wizards,” but this one I’d like to see ship on all versions of Vista.
I’d also like magical pixies to leap out of my monitor and spray me with rum and pennies. And that’s probably more likely.
Thanks, Mac-arena!
There’s a new topic category here at mneptok.com, Ubuntu. Why the change? For a couple of reasons.
First, I’ve been a user of (and fanatic for) the Ubuntu distribution of Linux for about a year. I use Ubuntu more than any other alternative OS, and so perhaps that merits a special category.
However, the big reason is that I am now not only a user and fan, but also an employee of Canonical, Ltd, the parent company of the Ubuntu project. They have presented me with an offer which I have accepted. Please, no comments on who got the better end of the deal. Don’t scare Canonical off. 🙂
I’ll be working for them as Senior Ubuntu Systems Support Analyst starting May 1. I’ll be one of the senior staff overseeing worldwide support operations. This means training, mentoring, and managing junior staff, designing and implementing support options, and yes, answering requests for support via phone and e-mail. In a young, dynamic company no one gets to sit on a “that’s not in my job description” throne. I expect I’ll be doing a lot of work I don’t even have on my radar right now. And that’s exciting.
The support offices are in Montreal, Canada, and we’ll be moving there in the next few months. Must renew my passport, get a work permit and visa, pack up the house, sell the house, and drive back across the continent. Oh, and get two cats and three cockatiels across that continent, too. Whew! This is going to be … hectic.
Canonical has been a pleasure, no, a joy to work with thus far. Jeff Bailey (to whom I will report) and I have had long phone conversations that basically tell me I’ll be working for someone whom I both respect and genuinely like. Speaking with Jane Silber, Canonical’s COO, was every bit as reassuring. It’s nice to find employment with a company that meshes nicely with your own personal ethics and character traits.
I’ll report what I can about what it’s like to work for the company responsible for the best Linux distro on the planet, and give the morbidly curious a peek inside the sausage factory; however, don’t expect NDA violations from this quarter. If you want rumors about what’s going to be in Edgy Eft, go read Slashdot.
Now, I’m off for a dinner on the town with Kristine, and to start explaining to my body that it is going to have to re-acquaint itself with what winter really is. Good thing I kept all my winter garb when I moved to Oregon!
Viva los Ubuntistas! Viva la revolucion!
It’s not a good practice to be late. Showing up an hour behind schedule to pick up your prom date usually results in your promexperience being somewhat less than optimal. But there are ways to soften the blow, like having a good excuse or calling to tell someoneyou’ll be late. A key factor in not having your reputation permanently sullied by tardiness is to not make a habit of it. If you’re pereniallylate, you’ll get labelled a flake. If you’re usually on-time, when you’re late people will tend to empathize with you.
That having been said, two popular OSes announced slips in their release dates this week. Ubuntu was supposed to ship their “Dapper Drake” release in April. The new release date is June 1. Microsoft was supposed to deliver Windows Vista in Q4 this year. That release will now happen in January.
As similar as these stories sound, they show a marked difference in corporate style. And that difference makes an impact on how the public views the tardiness (for that is what it is) of the releases.
Ubuntu has prided itself on a clockwork release schedule. Every six months a new version of Ubuntu Linux comes out of the Canonical, Ltd. cooker and is eagerly gobbled up by the masses. Thus far, the release schedule of Ubuntu Linux has all the drama and unpredictability of a Prussian forced march. In short, Canonical has a reputation for release reliability. So people were shocked when Canonical CEO MarkShuttleworth proposed a six week delay on the official mailing lists. And this week that delay was confirmed and made offcial.
On the other hand, Microsoft first told consumers Vista (codenamed”Longhorn” at the time) would be ready in 2003. Then they slipped that to 2005. Then they slipped to 2006. And this week the date slipped to January 2007.
In the interest of full disclosure, I’m a Linux user and I have no love for Microsoft. But I’m not a zealot. I’m not an apologist.
But dang, the difference here is night and day.
Ten years ago Forbes magazine couldn’t write a negative article about Microsoft if they tried. MS was the Golden Boy of American business. But this week Daniel Lyons writes:
Microsoft can’t afford to screw up like this. There are free alternatives to everything Microsoft sells, like the Linux operating system and the Open Office application suite. Rivals like Novell, RedHat, Sun Microsystems and, yes, IBM are pushing those programs big time. Given Microsoft’s delays I can’t believe open-source stuff still hasn’t caught on for desktop computers. It’s amazing, but people will wait months and months for products that are so complicated that no ordinary person can figure out how to use them.
It’s one thing when competition buries you because they’re simply better. It’s another when your own ineptitude helps make your competition better. And Ubuntu is looking better than anything out of Microsoft these days.
It seems that people that use networks where the admins use SmartFilter are now unable to read Boing Boing. Because of “nudity.”
Insanity. Complete, utter, insanity.
So I decided to make things a little more difficult for SmartFilter and their users, and submitted this to BB.
Are you in the UAE, Qatar, or on a corporate network that uses SmartFilter? Say goodbye to mneptok.com. I’m about to be censored.
And don’t shout at me, shout at the people who decided to put you behind SmartFilter. Make them re-think their policy. Take your business elsewhere. Or use TOR. Maybe that will get you an Internet uncensored by machines.
Yes, dear reader(s), it has been more than two months since my last post. Just haven’t had anything all that exciting to report, nor have I felt the blogging jones.
The Christmas holidays are pretty much a non-event in our home, so it was laid back with a Chinese dinner with friend Ben. The Oregon winter is in full effect, with rain interspersed with periods of just mist, and an occasional dry day or two. Life is deliciously quiet. That may change soon, but that’s a topic for another post.
What has stirred me from my blogotorpor is a tag from friend Scot. Usually these would get bit-bucketed immediately, but Scot rarely replies to this stuff, so coming from him it’s extremely rare. And he’s on the friends A list, so … here we go …
Four shows I enjoy
Four jobs I’ve held
Four places I’ve lived
Four places I’ve vacationed
Four cool toys
Four web sites I visit daily
Four places I’d rather be
Four bloggers I’m tagging
There it is, by the command of the shacker.
Stay tuned. I promise not to be such a dilletante in the future.
Our kitchen sink faucet melted down last weekend, and as we await our free replacement parts we’re forced to used the dishwasher to clean our dishes. Usually we don’t use it, as there are only two of us in the house.
Last night while setting the options for a wash cycle on the machine, in my head I saw:
–no-water-preheat –no-prewash –no-heat-dry
File under “You Know You’re A Geek When.” *sigh*
Evolution threw me this little koan today.
I also like the term “Evolution Error.” I’ve met a few of those people.
As if Africa doesn’t face enough problems (massive population explosion, rampant AIDS, widespread poverty, endemic hunger, and ethnic rivalries blossoming into genocide, to name just a few), here comes the world’s richest company telling Africans the biggest barrier to their technological literacy is not cost, but training. That’s right, even though a Windows XP license will cost you a year’s salary, it’s easier to use! So spend that year’s salary! It’s more important you have a GUI installation wizard than you feed those kids!
You know, there are times that words fail to be able to adequately describe my feelings. But I can honestly say I am not surprised. Is it really surprising that Microsoft will ignore the well-being of a continent to protect their market share? It isn’t to me. But until recently I just thought Microsoft was an avaricious corporate behemoth cranking out inferior product and using their dominant position to quash competition. Now I realize they are that, but more importantly, they are bad for humanity.
Think about that. Microsoft is actively trying to get the poorest people on earth to part with what little money they have so that they may become indoctrinated into the Windows monoculture. They would rather see the least fortunate among us pay the equivalent of a year’s salary for an XP license than surrender a small bit of market share.
This is not just aggressive. This is not just monopolistic. This blatant disregard for the welfare and well-being of the least fortunate of your fellow human beings has another adjective to describe it. Evil.
Please think about that the next time you have a software choice to make.
Off to Florida for a week to help Mom with her new computer.
Back in June she gave me a chunk of money for my birthday, which I promptly spent buying her a new Mac Mini. She is currently using an x86 machine (PII 450) that she purchased back in 1999. It runs WindowsXP, no SP2, no updates since XP was installed. And knowing the guy that installed it, it might not even be a legit copy of XP.
Since Windows is too big a security risk for the average user to handle, a Mac running OSX is the way for her to go. She was here for my birthday, and we spent some time setting it up, playing with iPhoto, messing with Mail.app, exploring her .Mac membership benefits, and otherwise learning OSX. The Mini was ready to plug-in and go when she got home.
But she resists change. And so, I fly to Florida to spend another week of Mac boot camp. And deprogramming the “millions of people run Windows with no problems” platitude. My response? “Millions of people smoke cigarettes and live to a ripe old age. Why are you so glad I quit?”
She seems excited, though, which is good news. And I think when she realizes how little she was doing with Windows, and how there are far more resources on the Internet than e-mail from her children, she’ll be even more excited. One can hope …
Oh, and anyone want to buy a PII 450 desktop with CentOS pre-installed? It’s only been driven lightly by a little old lady. E-mail me if you’re interested.
In the previous story I mentioned that the Opera web browser, made free (as in beer) last week, lacked a good GNOME skin to provide Linux users with a native look and feel. That is no longer the case.
Opera has the ability to use custom skins to change the UI, and there is a vibrant community of modders that make all kinds of skins. Now, I could sit around whining about the lack of a GNOME native skin, or do something to rectify the situation. So last week I created a skin that provides a consistent, familiar, usable, and clean GNOME UI for Opera. Last night I posted it to the official Opera skins repository. You may preview it here, or, if you are using Opera, you may use this install link.
Due to a PEBKAC problem the skin is currently named incorrently on the site, but Opera staff will be recifying that this week. And my thanks to Brian, Jorunn, and others at Opera ASA for providing feedback and guidance.
And wow, more than 1.5K downloads in the first 24 hours. Awesome.