Best Rob Enderle quote ever.

For those who dont read the news, Rob Enderle is the principal of the Enderle Group, which is a market analyst firm. Now, the firm may consist of only one guy, and that guy may not be the brightest of people, but that doesnt stop him from landing clients like Microsoft, and spending his time delivering rants that would be considered exceptionally bad trolls on any half decent tech forum.

This excert is from an "article", "reviewing" the Acer Firari.

"One impressive piece of execution is that when you fire the machine up it plays a WAV file of a Ferrari race car revving its engine. That alone is worth the relatively low $1,899 price of admission."
(http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1523503,00.asp)

S74r W4Rz

from boing boing:



This parody of the Star Wars Episode III trailer takes the orginal and adds leet-speek subtitles, translating Lucas's lame, limping dialog into snappy gamer taunting. Laugh-out-loud funny (reminds me of the Jive-to-English subtitles in Airplane!).

Breaking News: GWB has no taste

As much as I hate to link to the "news" agency that is proof of everything that is wrong with journalism today, cnn is running a story on GWBs "iPod One".

some of my favorite quotes:

Not every track is "on-message." The playlist -- regarded by many as a mirror to the soul -- includes musicians who campaigned against Bush, such as John Fogerty. Also on the iPod is the 1979 song "My Sharona" by the Knack, about a man pursuing a much younger woman.

One of that song's lyrics, "Such a dirty mind. Always get it up for the touch of the younger kind," prompted Spin magazine editor Dave Itzkoff to comment: "This wouldn't be consistent with Bush's image as protector of conservative values."

Bush, who quit drinking after his 40th birthday, also listens to recovering alcoholic George Jones, a country singer who sings about heartbreak and drinking. Joe Levy, deputy editor of Rolling Stone magazine, said this indicated "a little bit of taste for hard core and honky-tonk."

The playlist does reveal a rather narrow range of babyboomer tunes. Writing in the London Times, Caitlin Moran noted: "No black artists, no gay artists, no world music, only one woman, no genre less than 25 years old, and no Beatles."

ICANN-gate

Scandle in the closest thing to an internet governament that we have. Of course, CNN would rather to provide us with daily coverage on how the pope is still dead.

http://hasbrouck.org...553.html

IBM Calls for Patent Reform, or The Pot Calls The Kettle Black

from slashdot:
"IBM has called for tighter regulation of patents and a review of intellectual property ownership issues in collaborative software development. The company is one of the largest patent-holders in the United States. IBM executive Jim Stallings said examining patents for prior art should not only be the job of the patent office but that the wider community should be involved. Stallings also called on the industry to stop what he calls "bad behaviour" by companies who either seek patents for unoriginal work or collect and hoard patents."

Wow. IBM of course, are the grand masters of such bad behavior. Although they have been behaving better in recent years, that still doesnt change their status as the greatest block to innovation in the software world.

We Are Morons: a quick look at the Win2k source

from k5

please note, this stuff is normal. The only reason it is of any note whatsoever, is that it is microsoft, and we rarely see this kind of stuff from them.

The following are the results of a few quick greps of the leaked win2k source from awhile back. JZW has a similar compendium, but from the entire pre-moz netscape sources here. enjoy

"Curse words: there are a dozen or so "fucks" and "shits", and hundreds of "craps". Some dissatisfaction with the compiler is expressed in private\shell\shell32\util.cpp:

// the fucking alpha cpp compiler seems to fuck up the goddam type "LPITEMIDLIST", so to work
// around the fucking peice of shit compiler we pass the last param as an void *instead of a LPITEMIDLIST

Some insight into Microsoft's famous daily build process is given in private\windows\media\avi\verinfo.16\verinfo.h:

* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* !!!!!!!IF YOU CHANGE TABS TO SPACES, YOU WILL BE KILLED!!!!!!!
* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!DOING SO FUCKS THE BUILD PROCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are also various references to idiots and morons, some external, some within Microsoft. The file private\ntos\rtl\heap.c, which dates from 1989, tells us

// The specific idiot in this case is Office95, which likes
// to free a random pointer when you start Word95 from a desktop
// shortcut.

The file private\ntos\w32\ntuser\kernel\swp.c from 11-Jul-1991 points at

* for idiots like MS-Access 2.0 who SetWindowPos( SWP_BOZO
* and blow away themselves on the shell, then lets
* just ignore their plea to be removed from the tray

Morons also abound, as in this selection

private\genx\shell\inc\prsht.w:
// we are such morons. Wiz97 underwent a redesign between IE4 and IE5

private\shell\ext\ftp\ftpdrop.cpp:
We have to do this only because Exchange is a moron.

private\shell\shdoc401\unicpp\desktop.cpp:
// We are morons. We changed the IDeskTray interface between IE4

private\shell\browseui\itbar.cpp:
// should be fixed in the apps themselves. Morons!

Microsoft programmers also take their duty to warn others seriously. There are over 4,000 references to "hacks", mostly warnings. These include

private\inet\mshtml\src\core\cdbase\baseprop.cxx:
// HACK! HACK! HACK! (MohanB) In order to fix #64710 at this very late

private\inet\mshtml\src\core\cdutil\genutil.cxx:
// HACK HACK HACK. REMOVE THIS ONCE MARLETT IS AROUND

private\inet\mshtml\src\other\moniker\resprot.cxx:
//
goto EndHack;
//

private\inet\mshtml\src\site\layout\flowlyt.cxx:
// God, I hate this hack ...

private\inet\wininet\urlcache\cachecfg.cxx:
// Dumb hack for back compat. *sigh*

private\inet\wininet\urlcache\filemgr.cxx:
// ACHTUNG!!! this is a special hack for IBM antivirus software

private\ispu\pkitrust\trustui\acuictl.cpp:
// HACK ALERT, believe it or not there is no way to get the height of the current
// HACK ON TOP OF HACK ALERT,

private\ntos\udfs\devctrl.c:
// Add the hack-o-ramma to fix formats.

private\shell\shdoc401\unicpp\sendto.cpp:
// Mondo hackitude-o-rama.

private\ntos\w32\ntcon\server\link.c:
// HUGE, HUGE hack-o-rama to get NTSD started on this process!

private\ntos\w32\ntuser\client\dlgmgr.c:
// HACK OF DEATH:

private\shell\lib\util.cpp:
// TERRIBLE HORRIBLE NO GOOD VERY BAD HACK

private\ntos\w32\ntuser\client\nt6\user.h:
* The magnitude of this hack compares favorably with that of the national debt.

While surprisingly informal, there are limits to how far the programmers go. There are no derogatory references to Microsoft or Windows themselves. Bill Gates is never mentioned. There are no racist or homophobic slurs. I saw only one drug reference.

private\shell\ext\tweakui\genthunk.c:
* CallProc32W is insane. It's a variadic function that uses
* the pascal calling convention. (It probably makes more sense
* when you're stoned.)

Quality
Despite the above, the quality of the code is generally excellent. Modules are small, and procedures generally fit on a single screen. The commenting is very detailed about intentions, but doesn't fall into "add one to i" redundancy.

There is some variety in the commenting style. Sometimes blocks use a // at every line, sometimes the /* */ style. In some modules functions have a history, some do not. Some functions describe their variables in a comment block, some don't. Microsoft appears not to have fallen into the trap of enforcing over-rigid standards or universal use of over-complicated automatic tools. They seem to trust their developers to comment well, and they do.

However, not everything is so rosy. Some of the modules are clearly suffering from the hacks upon hacks mentioned earlier. As someone who struggled immensely trying to get the MSInet control working not long after this code was released, it's a relief to see that the inet code is as bad as I thought.

From the comments, it also appears that most of the uglier hacks are due to compatibility issues: either backward-compatibility, hardware compatibility or issues caused by particular software. Microsoft's vast compatibility strengths have clearly come at a cost, both in developer-sweat and the elegance (and hence stability and maintainability) of the code.

Open Source
It's been widely rumored for a while that Microsoft relies on stolen open source code. The rumor has faced widespread skepticism too. Microsoft has hundreds of millions of lines of code, most of it highly specialized. Hardly any of that could benefit from stealing: it hardly seems worth the legal risk. It's true that early versions of the TCP-IP stack were (legally) taken from BSD: but that was a long time ago, when Microsoft was much smaller.

Searching the code for "linux" and "GPL" finds no references. "BSD" finds only a couple of references to BSD-convention strings. "GNU" finds a lot of references to a GNUmakefile in private\genx\shell, which in turn mentions a "mode for Emacs." This is apparently legitimate: simply using a makefile does not apply the makefile's copyright to the resulting code.

Therefore, a superficial look at the code finds no evidence that Microsoft has violated the GPL or stolen other open source code. Closer examination might turn something up.

Favoritism
It's noticeable that a lot of the "hacks" refer to individual applications. In some cases they are non-Microsoft, such as this case: a Borland compiler came to depend on an existing bug, so their fix worked to preserve some of the bug's behaviour. But just as often these application-specific fixes are for Microsoft's own apps. There seems to be an informal hierarchy when it comes these: Microsoft apps take precedence, then major software companies like IBM and Borland.

It's also interesting to finally see references to the notorious undocumented features, which Microsoft application developers have long been known to use.

private\mvdm\wow32\wcntl32.c:
// These undocumented messages are used by Excel 5.0

private\mvdm\wow32\wgdi31.c:
// InquireVisRgn is an undocumented Win 3.1 API. This code has been
// suggested by ChuckWh. If this does not fix the s 2.0
// problem, then ChuckWh would be providing us with an private entry
// point.

private\mvdm\wow32\wgfont.c:
* This thunk implements the undocumented Win3.0 and Win3.1 API
* GetCurLogFont (GDI.411). Symantec QA4.0 uses it.
* To implement this undocumented API we will use the NT undocumented API

In some cases, the programmers themselves appear to have been frustrated or surprised.

private\ntos\w32\ntuser\kernel\mnpopup.c:
// Set the GlobalPopupMenu variable so that EndMenu works for popupmenus so
// that WinWart II people can continue to abuse undocumented functions.

private\windows\shell\accesory\hypertrm\emu\minitel.c:
// Guess what? Latent background color is always adopted for mosaics.
// This is a major undocumented find...

private\windows\shell\accesory\hypertrm\emu\minitelf.c:
// Ah, the life of the undocumented. The documentation says
// that this guys does not validate, colors, act as a delimiter
// and fills with spaces. Wrong. It does validate the color.
// As such its a delimiter. If...

Conclusions
The security risks from this code appear to be low. Microsoft do appear to be checking for buffer overruns in the obvious places. The amount of networking code here is small enough for Microsoft to easily check for any vulnerabilities that might be revealed: it's the big applications that pose more of a risk. This code is also nearly four years old: any obvious problems should be patched by now.

Microsoft's fears that this code will be pirated by its competitors also seem largely unfounded. With application code this would be a risk, but it's hard to see Microsoft's operating system competitors taking advantage of it. Neither Apple nor Linux are in a much of position to steal code and get away with it, even if it was useful to them.

In short, there is nothing really surprising in this leak. Microsoft does not steal open-source code. Their older code is flaky, their modern code excellent. Their programmers are skilled and enthusiastic. Problems are generally due to a trade-off of current quality against vast hardware, software and backward compatibility. "

I *need* this on windows

http://www.beatniksoftware.com/tomboy/


Totally and completely pwnz all other notetaking software I have seen before.

Plan 9 from The Sahara: Camel Riding Robots

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4430851.stm)

Just when you thought it couldnt get any wierder then the flesh-eating flybots I mentioned awhile back...

How To Install Windows XP in 5 hours or less

(http://diveintomark.org/archives/2003/08/04/xp)

My Windows XP installation has reached its half-life. (You do know that Windows has a half-life, don’t you? Every installation of Windows naturally degrades along a logarithmic curve until it becomes annoying, then unbearable, then unusable. Each successive revision of Windows has featured a slightly longer half-life. Back in the day, Windows 95 would last me about 3 months, while my copy of Windows XP has lasted me almost 9. I’m not bitter; when you realize that you’re measuring on a logarithmic scale, a factor of 3 improvement is really quite impressive.)

Still, the fact remains that my Windows XP laptop can no longer (a) print, (b) sleep, or © change network settings without crashing. This is not multiple choice; it can’t do any of those things. It’s time for a clean re-install.

1. Back up entire d: drive to iMac upstairs. rsync rocks.
2. Find Windows XP install disc.
3. Reboot with Windows XP install disc.
4. Asked for product activation. Curse Microsoft.
5. Search my house in vain for my original, 100% legitimate, retail Windows XP box.
6. Reboot.
7. Search control panels in vain for a window, dialog, tab, or pane that displays my current product key.
8. Search Google for “windows xp get current product key".
9. Find a utility on a cracker web page in Russia that displays the current product key. This is one of the more lame utilities, since most of the good ones allow you to change it. I don’t wish to change it; I actually have a perfectly good product key, I just don’t know what it is.
10. Reboot with Windows XP install disc.
11. Reboot repeatedly as required.
12. Boot screen. Choose between “Windows XP Professional” and “Windows XP Professional". Brilliant. Pick one. The wrong one. Boot into fucked Windows XP install. Hard reboot. Pick the right one. Make mental note to hack boot.ini later.
13. “Welcome to Windows XP. You have no useful programs and no internet access. You have 30 days left for activation. Would you like to activate now?” Yes, I would, but I have no internet access.
14. Unnecessarily loud and cheerful startup noises. Make mental note to turn off all sounds later.
15. Search the “Network and Internet Connections” wizards in vain for some way to set up my Linksys wireless card. Having never done a clean install of XP (I previously upgraded from Windows 2000), and having been moderately impressed by the new wireless networking features in XP, I naively assumed this would “just work". Silly rabbit.
16. Search my house for my Linksys wireless card driver install disc. Find the install disc that came with the old card, that broke and was replaced by the new-and-improved version 3.0 card. Wonder if that will suffice.
17. Fight with the “Add New Hardware Wizard” trying to install the obviously inferior drivers off this disc.
18. Wonder where the “Device Manager” is hiding.
19. Find the “Device Manager". Right-click on the unknown device, “Linksys_Instant_Wireless_Card". Update driver. “Windows was unable to locate a driver for this device. Would you like to search on the internet?” Yes, I’d love to, but I can’t, you moron. Install driver from specific location. Specify WIN2000 folder on old-and-inferior install disc.
20. “This driver is not digitally signed.” OK.
21. “This driver may cause your computer to become unstable.” OK.
22. “This driver may anally rape your mother while pouring sugar down your gas tank.” OK.
23. Nothing. No connection, no internet access, no acknowledgment of any device whatsoever.
24. Reboot.
25. Doesn’t work.
26. “Take a tour of Windows XP!” I am.
27. Reboot.
28. Doesn’t work.
29. Dig out old wired PCMCIA card. Take computer upstairs. Plug directly into switch. cmd. ipconfig. We have an IP address. ping www.google.com. We have name resolution and internet access.
30. Fire up Internet Explorer. runonce.msn.com. No. www.linksys.com. Support. Downloads. WPC11. Windows XP. Linksys.com rocks.
31. Insert Linksys wireless card.
32. Back to Device Manager.
33. Uninstall old-and-inferior driver.
34. Update driver.
35. “This driver is not digitally signed.” OK.
36. “This driver may cause your computer to become unstable.” OK.
37. “This driver may…” OK.
38. cmd. ipconfig. We have internet access.
39. “Add your .NET Passport to Windows XP!” No.
40. Fire up Internet Explorer. www.msn.com. No. www.mozilla.org. Download Mozilla.
41. Realize I should create an “f8dy” user because it will make my life easier later.
42. Create “f8dy” as an administrator. Log out. Log in.
43. Install Mozilla. Yes, I would like to make you my default browser. The world is happiness and glee.
44. “Take a tour of Windows XP!” Sigh.
45. “30 days left for activation!” Click. Yes, I would like to activate Windows over an active internet connection, now that I have one. No, I would not like to register with Microsoft. Yes, I have read the privacy statement and agree to give up my computer, my civil rights, and my first-born child. I wasn’t using my civil rights anyway.
46. Back to Mozilla. Set up IMAP server. Set up SMTP server. Set up LDAP directories. Fiddle with endless settings. Ooh, 1.5 alpha has auto-login scripts in Chatzilla. Make mental note to get on IRC when this is all done and bitch about it to a bunch of Linux-loving hippies.
47. Search Google for “windows xp tweakui".
48. Download TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe. Run TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe. “The procedure entry point GetDllDirectoryW could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.dll”
49. Dig. Dig. Dig. Aha. TweakUI requires Windows XP Service Pack 1.
50. Fire up Internet Explorer again. windowsupate.microsoft.com. “Do you want to install and run Windows Update V4 Control?” Yes. “Always trust content from Microsoft Corporation?” No.
51. “Windows Update has found 39 critical updates and service packs.” Install now.
52. “Service Pack 1 must be installed separately from other updates.” OK.
53. Yes, I agree to bend over, grease up, and accept the End User License Agreement.
54. Wait. Time passes.
55. Wait. Time passes.
56. Wait. Time passes. It is getting dark. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
57. Reboot.
58. “Take a tour of Windows XP!”
59. “Add your .NET Passport to Windows XP!”
60. Fire up Internet Explorer. “Windows Update has found 26 critical updates.” This we call progress. Install now.
61. Wait. Time passes. Reboot.
62. “Take a tour of Windows XP!”
63. “Add your .NET Passport to Windows XP!”
64. Control Panel. Display settings. Use Windows Classic theme. No desktop picture. Blank screen saver. OK.
65. Folder options. Use Windows classic folders. Toggle virtually every View option. OK.
66. Sounds and Audio Devices. Mute. No sound theme. OK.
67. Taskbar and Start Menu. Don’t hide inactive system tray icons. Use Classic Start menu. Customize. Show small icons in Start menu. Expand Control Panel. Don’t use personalized menus. OK.
68. Try TweakUI again. Success.
69. Don’t beep on errors.
70. Disable combo box animation.
71. Disable cursor shadow.
72. Disable list box animation.
73. Disable menu animation.
74. Disable menu fading.
75. Disable menu selection fading.
76. Disable mouse hot tracking effects.
77. Disable tooltip animation.
78. Disable tooltip fade.
79. Disable window animation.
80. Don’t optimize hard disk when idle.
81. Don’t show Help on Start menu.
82. Don’t show Recent Documents on Start menu.
83. Don’t allow web content to be added to the desktop.
84. Clear document history on exit.
85. Disable smooth scrolling.
86. Don’t maintain document history.
87. Don’t maintain network history.
88. Don’t manipulate connected files as a unit.
89. Don’t prefix “Shortcut to” on new shortcuts.
90. Don’t show Links on Favorites.
91. Don’t show My Documents on Start menu.
92. Don’t show My Pictures on Start menu.
93. Use Classic Search in Explorer.
94. Use Classic Search in Internet Explorer.
95. Don’t use intuitive filename sorting.
96. Do use Tab to navigate Autocomplete.
97. Hide places bar in common dialogs.
98. Disable balloon tips in Taskbar and Start menu.
99. Don’t show any desktop icons.
100. Disable all document templates.
101. Auto-login as “f8dy".
102. Quit TweakUI.
103. Delete everything in Start menu. Windows Catalog. Windows Update. Outlook Express. Tour Windows XP. Games. Accessories. MSN Messenger. Make mental note to look up how to completely uninstall MSN Messenger.
104. Set up command prompts. 3 for home. 4 for work. 5 for incoming. 125 width, 3000 height. 125 window width, 57 height. Do not let system position window.
105. Fire up Mozilla. www.cygwin.com. Download and install Cygwin.
106. bash
107. binutils
108. bzip2
109. cron
110. crypt
111. curl
112. cvs
113. diff
114. gawk
115. gcc
116. grep
117. gzip
118. less
119. links
120. lynx
121. more
122. naim
123. ncftp
124. ncurses
125. openssh
126. patch
127. rsync. rsync rocks.
128. sed
129. tar
130. texinfo
131. tidy
132. unzip
133. vim
134. wget
135. which
136. whois
137. zip
138. Copy over old ssh private keys. Test ssh diveintomark.org. Oh glorious king, thy name is ssh.
139. Copy over old Emacs installation. Dig up my .emacs file that makes Emacs bearable.
140. Search Google for “proxomitron". Download. Install. Configure Mozilla.
141. Search Google for “uninstall msn messenger windows xp". Discover that SP1 actually makes this visible in Add/Remove Programs, Add/Remove Windows Components. Delete a bunch of other crap while we’re there. Outlook Express. Windows Media Player. MSN Explorer.
142. www.activestate.com. Download ActivePython. Install.
143. Fire up Emacs. Test interactive Python shell in Emacs. The world is happiness and glee.
144. Search Google for “kerio firewall". Download. Install. Reboot. Boot menu still lists duplicate installations.
145. Fire up Emacs. Open boot.ini. Remove old installation. Add “/noguiboot” flag to new installation.
146. Reboot.
147. Search Google for “apache 2.0 win32″. Download. Install. Copy and paste custom stuff into httpd.conf. Restart Apache service.

That covers the essentials that I need to do my job. The rest can wait.

Best MS Critical Patch thread ever!

Every once in awhile I wonder why I am active on OSNews, and then something like this happens and makes it all worth it. The highlights:

Fairs fair
By Matt (IP: ---.server.ntli.net) - Posted on 2005-04-08 16:05:30

However if these were critical flaws in Mac OS X patched the first post would be "har har told you Macs aren't secure" and the second would be a price comparison between a self-build PC and a Mac of their choice.

Go figure.

Matt

---

next`
By adapt (IP: ---.cssdfw.com) - Posted on 2005-04-08 16:10:53
Then we could discuss why anyone would put something on a mac other than OS X. then a Ubuntu war would rage out for some reason. Then someone will ask a wierd offtopic question about BeOS, then a gentoo user would post about -march and -O settings. an America sucks fiasco would happen then someone would incorrectly blame President Bush for their slow internet connection.and then some gay kid would say how cool mandrake is. I'm going back to Dr. DOS i think.

-adam. :)

---

@adapt
By grj (IP: 216.196.231.---) - Posted on 2005-04-08 16:26:04
President Bush is not responsible for slow internet connections. Former Vice President Gore is. After all he invented it.

---

Linspire Review
By Al Hartman (IP: ---.phila.k12.pa.us) - Posted on 2005-04-08 17:35:31
Golly Gee Willickers!

Linspire is neato!

It has CNR, and LSongs, and LTunes, and it comes with a lot of stuff!

It's real pretty too!

But, it was a little slow on my 486/33...


Replies:

- It forces you to login as root
- Why are they charging for free software?
- Ubuntu/MEPIS/PCLinuxOS/Lycoris/etc is faster, better, cheaper!
- Windows XP costs $550 with MS Office.
- Linspire rips off the OS community and doesn't contribute back.
- Linspire changes the names of the apps.
- why can't I get it and CNR for free?



Ok? There's a whole Linspire Review thread condensed into one message...

LOL!

---

no fun
By junior (IP: ---.demon.nl) - Posted on 2005-04-08 17:43:43
You people are no fun. Pre-empting a perfectly fine opportunity to turn this into a Microsoft bash fest, why don't you.

Shame, shame..

---

Direct comment link Obligatory Jobs bashing...
By vincent (IP: ---.hsd1.fl.comcast.net) - Posted on 2005-04-08 18:21:07
Of course there are the people who are going to say that Mac OSX isn't a real UNIX because you supposedly can't change your window manager, and that the install CD doesn't install the developer tools like GCC by default. Followed by comments that the reality distrotion field hates themeing and once he gets into your living room he's going to keep you from ever redecorating.

I'm actually looking forward to the half-english/half-jibberish comments that simultaniously bash "M$", and the "U$", while wondering why anyone would every use anything other than UTUTO with Fluxbox.

---

(by me)
come on!
By mattb (IP: 216.191.126.---) - Posted on 2005-04-08 18:37:06
You guys are noobs. To take it to the next level, you need the FSF guys to come in and say that Stallman is a cross between Jesus and a character from an Arnold Schwartzenegger movie who is about to come in and pwn the M$ noobs. Finally, some 12 year old genius will step in and explain that this is all part of some cosmic struggle between good and evil, and declaire Jihad on all things microsoft.


seriously, this is the best ms patch thread I have ever seen, anywhere :D

---

(this is the piece de resistance, simply because it doesnt look like a joke)

told ya!
By Switcher (IP: ---.net.rss.rogers.com) - Posted on 2005-04-08 18:37:23
har har told you Window's wasn't secure.

Meanwhile, Mac OS X keeps getting better and better!

Ubuntu: Linux for Human Beings

 

"Ubuntu" is an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others". Ubuntu also means "I am what I am because of who we all are". The Ubuntu Linux distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.
(note: this is proof the sahara bushmen are a bunch of pinkos. any good capitalist knows you are who you are by climbing there on the backs of those weaker then you are.)

Well, I'm once again on ubuntu, and once again loving it. Which is kind of suprising, considering the hell I went through in the install process. Basically, I downloaded hoary, installed it, and couldnt connect to the internet (the PPPd logs said that it was a PAP authentication failure, even though I know the user/pass was correct). Fiddled with it for a long time, and finally gave up. However, I had an old warty cd lying around, so I figured "Hey, why not". Did a base install, then tried pppoeconf again. What do you know, it worked :)

All excited now, I did a hoary dist-upgrade, which seemed to be going ok, so I switched to a virtual terminal and started a few torrents going with btdownloadcurses, and did a bit of web browsing, while going back to the first console every now and then to get through the occasional dpkg --configure screen. All of a sudden, DNS lookup stops on all websites, torrents grind to a halt, and apt cant stat any repos. I wanted to cry. Turns out I had overwritten my generated /etc/ppp/peers/dsl-provider file which I had gone to such lengths to set up. So back to square one.

Went through the entire setup again for warty (which is buggy as hell, they were using an extremely early version of the new debian-installer. also, the boot process took a good 10 minutes at times). after the base system was back on, I did a specific upgrade of pppoe to make sure I caught the question about overriding that damn dsl-providers file (I also backed up all of /etc/ppp), and backed it up on two different partions, and then emailed it to myself just to be sure. (I did NOT want to install warty for the third time)

After I was sure I wasnt going to bork my internet connection again, I did the rest of my upgrades with the -y option. After that was done it was almost 1:30 in the morning, and I had to work today, so I fired up those torrents again, went into aptitude and queued up about a gig of software to download and install, (the important one here: if you just have a base debian system you can usually just go for a "metapackage", which doesnt install anything itself, but depends on a "standard" set of packages. The one I did here was ubuntu-desktop, and made sure to be on the K7 kernel packages.)

When I got up this morning, everything was done downloading. Did a sudo reboot, and what do you know. I had a fully installed, internet enabled hoary.

Now, to some people this may sound like a horror story, I really dont see it that way at all. Without a single google, I was able to install an old version of the os, and end up with a highly customized current version with a trivial amount of work. The fact that it is not only possible, but also easy, really shows the power of debian.

This is the distro to watch folks. Hoary is just comming out the door, but already they are head and shoulders above the other big players, at least for the desktop. The release cycles are synched with the gnome foundation as well, so Breezy Badger will go gold as gnome 2.12 comes out the door. There is already a substancial community surrounding ubuntu, the ubuntuforums are second only to gentoo, the official wiki has a ton of useful information, and ubuntuguide.org is something you can point your mom to when she asks for ogl acceld drivers for her leet new ati vid card so she can pwn noobs in et.

Ubuntu is sponserd by cannonical, which is a company owned by a guy who has more money then he knows what to do with, Mark Shuttleworth (you may remember him as that billionaire who bought his way into space). The ubuntu devs are actually some of the top debian guys, and all ubuntu fixes get rolled back into sid, which makes ubuntu a debian branch, not a fork.

Anyways, ubuntu is a phenomenal distro, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to try out linux. If you go to the official site, they will even ship pressed cds to your door for free (nice to have, but the torrent is faster). Hoary still has some rough spots, so be sure to have your local linux guru on hand if you run into any snags, but all in all its a joy, especially if you know what you are doing.

Question

In the 50s, we had something called McCarthyism, which was basically the governament whipping the people up into a frenzy, to allow them to pass laws that contradicted the very spirit that america was founded on.

Nowadays, americans have something very similar with the Patriot Act. Heres the question:

If McCarthyism was named after the senator that made it happen, will the authoritarian spirit of the Patriot Act be referred to in the future as Bushism?

Personally, I find the thought just hilarious (bush having the many meanings it does...), but as pretty much any hot-blooded young man could be called a "Bushist", I seriously doubt that it will stick. Another one would be to call it "Patriotism", but considering that we call the people who fought and died for the very liberties being taken away "Patriots", I doubt that will stick either.

So, what do you think?

Music: Pete Seeger

The man is truely an inspiration. Here are some of the excets from his mccarthy trial:

In 1955 the H.U.A.C. called on Seeger to give formal testimony regarding his ties to the Communist Party. Seeger found himself at the horns of a dilemma. He could either plead the Fifth and emerge from the hearing relatively unscathed, or he could attack the legitimacy of the H.U.A.C. by claiming that it violated his First Amendment rights. In 1947 the Hollywood Ten, a group of screenwriters accused of Party involvement, employed the latter tactic. The H.U.A.C. slapped them with contempt of court and jail terms.

Although Seeger did not explicitly evoke the First Amendment, he did abandon the Fifth tactic and attacked the committee as un-American. When directed by the H.U.A.C. to answer a question, Seeger responded:

I am not going to answer any questions as to my associations, my philosophical, or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this.

When asked by the H.U.A.C. if he had been a member of the Communist Party, Seeger answered, "I must give the same answer as before." Through the barrage of questions, Seeger retained his position. He would answer no questions he deemed immoral for an American to ask. Occasionally, the repeated pressing of the committee prompted passionate and humorous responses:

I decline to discuss, under compulsion, where I have sung, and who has sung my songs, that I have helped to write as well as to sing them, and who else has sung with me, and the people I have known. I love my country very dearly and I greatly resent this implication that because some of the places that I have sung and some of the people that I have known, and some of my opinions, whether they are religious or philosophical, or I might be a vegetarian, make me less of an American.

Seeger responded to other questions with the terseness of a persecuted martyr. At one moment in the trial, the committee’s chief counsel Frank Tavenner handed Seeger a photograph taken in 1952 that showed the musician dressed in military uniform and carrying a placard reading "Censored." He asked Seeger, "Will you examine it please and state whether or not that is a photograph of you?" Seeger examined the picture and shot back, "It is like Jesus Christ when asked by Pontius Pilate, 'Are you king of the Jews.' " This response clearly grated on the chairman of the committee, Francis Walter (Pennsylvania). He scolded like a cross school teacher, "Stop that."

While Seeger refused to answer questions of affiliation, he offered numerous times to discuss his songs with the H.U.A.C. When asked if he had sung "Wasn't That a Time" in a leftist arena, Seeger responded, "I can sing it, and I don't know how well I can do it without my banjo. Later in the trial, Seeger explained:

I have never refused to sing for anybody because I disagreed with their political opinion, and I am proud of the fact that my songs seem to cut across and find perhaps a unifying thing, basic humanity, and that is why I would love to be able to tell you about these songs.

Seeger offered this proposal, because he viewed his music as self-explanatory, able to stand on its own and appeal to all humanity free of its context. Seeger’s voice was his music. If the H.U.A.C. wanted to investigate him, it would only find answers in the language of the folk song. The H.U.A.C. was displeased with Seeger’s approach — it found him in contempt of Congress. Seeger did not, however, serve any jail time for contempt. In 1962, he won a reversal of his conviction.

In his refusal to discuss his politics outside of his songs, Seeger alluded to one of the most important ideas of the folk song movement: the message cannot be separated from the medium. To most of the singers, the medium was the message. Guthrie maintained that folk songs are "political by definition." A folk song passes through generations orally. Each new generation changes some of the words and makes the song its own. Songs that become "public possessions" are symbolic of socialism, and in direct opposition of capitalism.

Folk History: Woody Guthrie and the CIO Ladies Auxiliary

On one of the Pete Seeger performances I snagged, he tells a pretty funny story.

Pete Seeger is one of the great folk legends. A great musician and protest singer in his own right, he played with Woody Guthrie, who is probably one of the most famous folk singers of all time, and widely considered to be the father of protest music. They played together with the Almanac Singers, who were one of the most important groups of the early 60s. Blacklisted for his political views in the McCarthy era, he is now one of the last of the oldschool folk singers, and in his later years toured singing folk songs from around the world.

Woody Guthrie had very strong ties with the CIO, and at one point the Ladies Auxiliary came to him and asked him to write a song for them. Woody said: "Well, we already gave you Union Maid, what more do you want?" they replied "Well, union maid isnt exactly dignified (it being a parody of a particularily bawdy song of the time), and more importantly, it doesnt have the words "Ladies Auxiliary" in the chorus"

Well, Woody had written many songs in his career. One of his most famous childrens songs he wrote for his daughter, Cathy. It consisted of five or six verses along the lines of:

"Oh mama oh mama, come wash my face,
Come wash my face, come wash my face,
Oh mama oh mama, come wash my face,
Make it nice and clean-oh!"

After hearing the request of the ladies auxiliary, he picked up his guitar, and off the top of his head started singing:

"Oh, the Ladies' Auxiliary is a good auxiliary.
It's the best auxiliary that you ever did see.
If you need an auxiliary, see the Ladies' Auxiliary.
It's the Ladies' Auxiliary"

to the same tune he used for clean-oh.

Whats even funnier is while Ladies' Auxiliary is on many Woody Guthrie compilations, Clean-o is hardly found.

Larry Lessig on Wired

article

Ive heard all this stuff before from him, but it is still an extremely good article. My favorite part would have to be this:

"I got a chance to ask Tweedy about all this before a concert in Oakland, California (that's the weird thing about law professors hanging around Wired - you get to go to the back of the bus). What struck me most was his clarity. He was a man called to a war that he couldn't believe had to be fought. Yet it isn't ideology that drives him. It's common sense.

"Music," he explained, "is different" from other intellectual property. Not Karl Marx different - this isn't latent communism. But neither is it just "a piece of plastic or a loaf of bread." The artist controls just part of the music-making process; the audience adds the rest. Fans' imagination makes it real. Their participation makes it live. "We are just troubadours," Tweedy told me. "The audience is our collaborator. We should be encouraging their collaboration, not treating them like thieves."

He uttered this with the passion of a teacher explaining the most fundamental truths. Words echo in this poet's mind many times before they are spoken. These words had echoed many times before. But when I asked him to explain the extremism in this war, passion faded and disbelief took its place. Commenting on a court decision to ban all music sampling without a license, he said one word: racism. And he seemed genuinely confounded by those who use the courts to punish their fans. "If Metallica still needs money," he almost whispered, "then there's something really, really wrong." He would protest this extremism, he explained, by living a different life. By inviting, by creating, by inspiring music, and by ignoring wars about plastic."

This is an extremely common view amoung non-mainstream artists. Pretty much every (good) punk show I have been to had the artist thanking the crowd for a good show. In the words of the Dropkick Murphys:

"The bands' main goal is to play music that creates an all for one, one for all environment where everyone is encouraged to participate, sing along, and hopefully have a good time. In the true spirit of punk rock we view the band and the audience as one in the same; in other words our stage and our microphone are yours."

Mainstream music? The tripe that plays on mtv or the radio barely diserves to be called music. Honestly, the RIAA will never get another cent from me, nor will bands who charge 30$ an album, and 60$ a show. Their hearts simply are not in the right place, and that is reflected in their music. The best indication a band is going to go sour is if they sign to a Major. And its not like the majors will kill the music, although they sure as hell dont help any. Its more that a band who moves from people paying them to listen to their music to writing music for a corporation so you can collect a regular paycheck is already performing for the wrong reasons.

Al Gore invents Internet TV

from slashdot:

"The SF Gate is reporting that former VP Al Gore is launching "Current" a new CableTV-Internet hybrid. From the article: "Current, the name of Gore's enterprise, hopes to do that by airing a shuffle of short news features, some produced by the network but many submitted online by viewers. Current will also air segments every half hour showing TV viewers what Google searchers are tapping into at that moment -- everything from current events to tourist destinations. It's all directed at a generation that thinks nothing of plugging into more than one media outlet at once." "

Of course, we all know Al Gore invented the internet. (actually, even the NSF will credit him for the internet as we know it today. but the quote is just so great)

Anyways, jokes aside, this is some pretty amusing stuff.

"At first called INdTV, the network now named Current plans to air short- form, fast-paced segments and snippets called "pods'' rather than shows. Tailored for the short attention span, they will be anywhere from 15 seconds to five minutes long."

What is scary is that this is a remarkably good idea for north american youth. Talk about pathetic....

""This is an audience of media grazers, and we decided to create a network that didn't fight that but facilitated that,'' Neuman said. He introduced a snazzy, five-minute video -- "a taste of the tapas bar for young adults we call Current'' -- that offered snippets of video reports from Sierra Leone, the Middle East, the marijuana fields of Morocco"

Treat your audience like they have the attention span of a fruit fly, and you will make a billion.


Anyways, enough of that. Time for more Al Gore jokes. Like, how after creating the internet, he invented the Al-gore-ithm. And we can alwas count on the lovely and talented Jay Leno for providing some humor


and last but not least, futurama

Announcing Car Bot: Thank you all for coming. It is my pleasure to
introduce the host of the Kyoto global warming convention. The
inventor of the environment, and first emperor of the moon, Al Gore.

Al Gore: I have ridden the mighty moon worm!

[Applause]

Fry: Good for him

Paul Thurrott, and why he is classed as an idiot.

My comments on the mental prowess of Paul Thurott were called into question by a friend of mine. Here is a quick dissemination of his recent MSN Search technology. I picked this, because the fact that the competition (google desktop) is superior in pretty much every way is aparent from the beginning.
(http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/msn_search.asp)

"First launched as a public beta in November 2004, MSN Search was long in coming. Rumors of Microsoft's Web search challenge to market leader Google have been brewing for years now. But unlike previous versions of the search tool on MSN's Web site, the new MSN Search was built from the ground up, using new search algorithms, a new Web crawler, and a new indexing engine that the company hopes will set it apart from the competition. Naturally, MSN Search has a long hill to climb: Google, enshrined as one of the IT world's most recognizable brands, isn't going to go down without a fight."

I would like to note that this is the third major revision of msn search technology, and none of them have even been considered by us geeks.

"I spoke about MSN Search (Figure) recently with Larry Grothaus, the Lead Product Manager for MSN Marketing. Grothaus discussed what MSN's plans were for MSN Search, and how the service would likely change over time. Indeed, even since the public beta began last fall, some features have already evolved. "The UI has changed since the beta," Grothaus told me. "One of the things we've added is a drop down [Search] box to give people a little bit more of a vertical ability on their queries." The drop-down box appears as a part of a green button marked as "Search" by default; when you click the drop-down box, other options, such as Web, News, Images, Look up word, Encarta, Stock Quotes, Find Movies, Shopping, and Music appear (Figure)."

Much of this review centers around those things which apparently add value to msn search. I have tried it, and find them about as useful as those tabs along the edge of msn messenger. MSN search has a non extendable, none customizable list that point to microsoft services. Google desktop on the other hand has a fully configurable menu, allowing for you to plug ANYTHING into it (including the msn services). It also allows you to define hotkeys. I had it set up here at work so when I would type in a number and hit ctrl-B, i would get the local bus schedule for that route. When I typed the name of an item in world of warcraft and hit ctrl-T, I would get the thottbot database entry. Microsoft lets you search where they want you to, Google allows for where you want to. Of course, Paul doesnt mention this once through the entire review.

"Arguably, the most amazing feature in MSN Search is its ability to answer actual questions, thanks to integration with the voluminous Encarta back-end. Microsoft calls this feature "Encarta results," and you can access it directly by clicking the Encarta link above the search box. But you can also simply type in a question without directly accessing the Encarta link. The answers you get are surprisingly intelligent."
(please remember, anything msn search can do can also be done by plugging the url into the google deskbar.)

He goes on to list a multitude of questions, and their answers from encarta queries. From what I have seen, the only thing google cant really handle is something like this: "2y^3 + 4y -10 = 9", which is outside the purview of a search engine anyways. Adding the wikipedia to your deskbar should be one of the first things you do, and the wikipedia is widely acknowledged as the best encyclopedia out there. Encarta would probably be in the top ten or so. Once again, using a microsoft solution means that you are forced into the microsoft solution stack. Using the google solution allows you to use whatever you want to, including microsoft technology if thats what you wish.

Here is what Paul has to say about that:
"So what about Google? Frankly, the search leader offers nothing like this. For certain types of queries ("Who shot Abraham Lincoln?"), you can sometimes get a rough approximation by clicking "I'm feeling lucky" but there's no real answering of questions occurring there, of course."

See what I mean?

"Another unique MSN Search feature, Near Me, helps you find results by physical proximity to your current location. It's accessed via a prominent blue button on the MSN Search that's labeled "Near Me," of course. "We determine what's near you two different ways," Grothaus said. "If you go into Settings, you can set your location. [This can be a ZIP code or a plain English location like "Boston, Massachusetts."] If you don't set a location, MSN Search will try to do reverse IP lookup, which is pretty sophisticated. If you travel quite a bit, you can just leave that empty and it will always return relevant search results based on where you are geographically.""

Yes, it is quite unique. The "local" link at the top of google is nothing like this at..... wait a minute! Google has pretty much the same thing, just without the reverse ip lookup (which isnt all that reliable). Once again, Paul continues to hype the crap out of something the competition already has.

"Search builder is another interesting new feature, and if you've ever tried to fine-tune Google search results using that search engine's Byzantine syntax system, you'll understand why. When you click the Search Builder link on the MSN Search page, you're provided with a pop-up window (Figure) that helps you fine-tune a search using simple graphical tools. As you navigate down the choices--site/domains to include or exclude, countries and regions to include or exclude, languages, and so on--Search Builder populates the search box with the exact syntax needed to create the search you're attempting. For example, to restrict a search for Windows XP to Microsoft's Web site, you might type in Windows XP site:www.microsoft.com assuming you knew that was how it worked. But since you're a human being and shouldn't be bothered with that kind of miscellanea, you can use Search Builder instead."

Once again, Paul has yet to read up on advanced google usage. Google has all this and more, just not in a graphical popup. Once again, you wouldnt think so from what Paul says.


"Not surprisingly, MSN Search integrates with MSN Music (see my review), Microsoft's new Web-based online music service. So if you search MSN Search for an artist name, like Collective Soul, you'll see an area near the top of the search results that's called out with two orange chevrons, pointing to a link to the artist on MSN Music (Figure). To the right of that link, the top three downloaded songs for that group are highlighted. And when you click on the artist name or song name links, you're directly to MSN Music, where you can find out more information, purchase a CD, listen to song samples, or purchase songs or complete albums. If you click the "Sample" link next to one of the song titles, MSN Music loads the artist page and the selected song plays back."

Not suprisingly, microsoft doesnt integrate with any of the popular music services already available.


"Using the News item in the Search pull-down box, or the News link above the search box, you can search for news stories. So, for example, if you're interested in the recent election in Iraq, you might type in "Iraq elections." The results are a collection of stories from such places as the Washington Times, TIME Magazine, the Financial Times, and even the US Department of State (ahem)."

Which google has had forever now. I would also like to note that informal /. studies on msn search results show better filtering then google, but obvious attempts to artificially grow their number of indexed pages (for example, an msn image search will only show images from one of six free image hosting sites)

Paul of course, agrees with that statement while saying the exact opposit with
"So how does Google do? Google finds a whopping 74,100 Michael Jackson images, and like MSN Search, it does offer Large, Medium, and Small filtering. But you can't display only color or black and white images, and good luck finding what you want in a list of images that long. On the other hand, more is arguably "better" when it comes to search results, though "relevancy" trumps volume."

Of course, msn relevancy tends to be around that of the oldschool search engines like altavista, while googles relevancy is what put it as the most influencial brand name of last year.

"If you're using the MSN Toolbar Suite beta (see my preview), and I do recommend it over other desktop search products, it won't surprise you to realize that MSN Search integrates with that product as well. If you go to search.msn.com, type in a query and hit Search, MSN Search will display a search results page in Internet Explorer, as you might expect. But it will also duplicate that search up in the MSN toolbar in IE that was installed along with the rest of the suite. Using that toolbar, you can revisit past searches at any time (Figure), which can be handy."

I already mentioned how vastly superior the google deskbar is to the search bar.

"MSN Search is a work in progress, but it already includes a number of features that make it superior to Google. What I don't have a handle on yet is how MSN's search results stack up against those of Google, though I suspect we'll soon see some interesting discussions about that topic. Whether MSN's advantages will translate to more market share also remains to be seen: Google is still one of the world's most well-known brands, and is widely liked and used. And certainly, "google.com" is a lot easier to type than "search.msn.com," though one might argue that MSN's search tools are also directly available from msn.com, which is one of the shortest domain names around. And with its integration with MSN's many other products and services, MSN Search will surely get some traction."

Wow. Just wow. So, in his review of a search engine, the one thing he still doesnt know is how well it searches? His final conclusions center around the length of the domain name? He touts integration with msn services as better then interoperability with ANY web service?

There is two possiblities.

1) He is on the microsoft payroll, is officially part of the Microsoft marketing department, and is lieing to you the same way all marketing people lie.

2) He is an idiot who doesnt know what is available in the world, so he sings the praises of anything microsoft ever does.

that is, unless someone can offer a third possibility. His site is an aggregation of microsoft hype and propaganda from the last several years, and that can be seen by picking pretty much any article at random and reading it with a critical eye.

Cal-Induce Bill Morphs Into Filtering Mandate

From the Freedom to Tinker blog:

"A bill in the California state senate (SB 96), previously dubbed the "Cal-Induce Act," has now morphed via amendment into a requirement that copyright and porn filters be included in many network software programs.

Here's the heart of the bill:

Any person or entity that [sells, advertises, or distributes] peer-to-peer file sharing software that enables its user to electronically disseminate commercial recordings or audiovisual works via the Internet or any other digital network, and who fails to incorporate available filtering technology into that software to prevent use of that software to commit an unlawful act with respect to a commercial recording or audiovisual work, or a violation of [state obscenity or computer intrusion statutes] is punishable ... by a fine not exceeding [$2500], imprisonment ... for a period not to exceed one year, or by both ...

This section shall not apply to the following:

(A) Computer operating system or Internet browser software.

(B) An electronic mail service or Internet service provider.

(C) Transmissions via a [home network] or [LAN]. [Note: The bill uses an odd definition of "LAN" that would exclude almost all of the real LANs I know. -- EF]

As used in this section, "peer to peer file sharing software" means software ... the primary purpose of which ... is to enable the user to connect his or her computer to a network of other computers on which the users of these computers have made available recordings or audiovisual works for electronic dissemination to other users who are connected to the network. When a transaction is complete, the user has an identical copy of the file on his or her computer and may also then disseminate the file to other users connected to the network."

Well, yet another governament legislation made by people who

a) Obviously have no idea of what they are talking about when it comes to the technology they are regulating
b) Obviously have no idea of what intellectual property is and how it has been treated since the founding of america.

This legistlation, like many others, was pushed for by a lobby group consisting of

a) People who do know what IP is, and are maliciously perverting the law so they can make a profit
b) Dont have a clue on how to leverage technology to create a new distrabution paradigm, so instead choose to make all new forms illegal to protect their obsolete business model.

this stuff has happened MANY times before, and each time the corporations have been shot down by the courts. Its only in the last 30 years or so where IP has become synomous (under the law) with physical property. for a full explination of this (and many other related issues, including the importance of the public domain, the purpose of copyright, and why we are heading towards an age where only the rich are allowed to create), read free-culture by professor Larry Lessig. (the book is available as a free pdf download, and is liscenced under the creative commons liscence)

That kind of stuff has been discussed at great length in other places though, and thats not why im laughing so hard right now. There has been a propaganda campeign going on since man discovered how to digitize media, and that is:

Copyright infringement is "Piracy".

What kind of a society do we live in where helping out your fellow man can widely be viewed as the same thing as boarding a ship by force, looting it and anyone on it, killing or enslaving the people on it, then setting it on fire. Thats like saying "Jaywalking is genocide", it just doesnt make any sense no matter how you look at it. I mean, at least if piracy entailed SOME sort of destructive act......

Copyright infringment is theft.

Once again, way off the mark. Theft will result in the loss of property for whoever you are stealing from. There is no loss of anything in digital copying, whether authorized or not. Im not saying copyright infringment is ok, but it sure as hell isnt theft.

Those are the two great lies of the last 20 years or so, that have shaped the view on intellectual property of an entire generation. Here is some of the more recent brainwashing that has caused such massive misconception like what allowed that law to be passed:

Copying is wrong

This seems to only really have a hold in the completely clueless (i.e. the 80 year old white men who tell us how to live our lives). We are standing on the single greatest accomplishment of mankind of (at least) the millenia, and the RIAA have the people making the laws convinced it needs to be tightly regulated. Why? dont think they have thought it through that far, possibilities include things like stemming the free flow of information, clamping down on innovation, and preventing the world from finally working together in the persuit of knowledge. But I really cant say for sure....

P2P is wrong


The only people who actually are able to take advantage of the internet are those who break the law. These people tend to be where the real innovation comes from anyways, one man or small groups of coders who put together something that is so efficient at content distrobution, it would completely eliminate the need of people like the RIAA or MPAA. What does the american governament do? Listen to those who will be out of a job, because their way of doing business is about as efficient as a pair of tweezers compared to Acme Nuclear Powered Lawncutting Machine that is P2P. A machinegun OS is wrong, and any coder who works on such things is directly responsable for each and every life taken as a result of his work. P2P? one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century.

---

Now heres the kicker. Based on a lack of knowledge, and an extended disinformation campeign by people who are robbing us of our future to make a buck, you get stuff like this passed. I would like to point out that now,

Microsoft Domain Controllers will need to have a porn filter. Of course, such technology in a domain controller would be beyond retarded, but now its gotta be there. This is really neither here nor there, a domain controller is definately networking and not os software, but its only real purpose or reason for existance is for very low level network support.

Novell iFolder really really needs a porn filter. This would definately fall outside of the os software exception. Just as moronic.

BitTorrent Trackers need a porn filter. Even though companies using it are going to be the ones deciding what gets put on it, and the "pirates" really couldnt care less anyways, AND the level of centralization is not just in one place, and such things would only slow down the single best P2P implementation so far, etc, etc, etc

True P2P networks (like gnutella) need content monitoring. Such a thing would be completely and totally impossible. Gnutella isnt an application, its a specification. There are no central servers whatsoever. There is no way that is even remotely reliable or efficient to implement filters in a true p2p network.

FTP servers now need filters. This is dumb for the same reason as bt filters are dumb. The "legitimate" users control the content anyways, the illegitimate users will just bypass any form of filtering.

Things like rsync now need filters. Even though it is a technology only used for administering large networks, and wouldnt make any sense to use for illegal content distrabution.

---

See what I mean? In one shot, california screws over any ligitimate usages of p2p, has no effect on illegal content distrabution, with the sole exception of such antiquated networks like Fasttrack (kazaa) or Napster. Not only that, but their definition of a P2P network as basically anything that you can transfer data shows the level of idiocy in the governament. These people are completely incapable of regulating technology.

the "democracy" that is Europe

From Larry Lessigs blog:

"So despite the fact that the EU Parliament has rejected software patents for Europe, and despite the fact that there is not a qualified majority of member states supporting it, the EU Council has now endorsed their draft of the "Directive on the Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions."

This struggle continues to astonish me. There's no good economic evidence that software patents do more good than harm. That's the reason the US should reconsider its software patent policy.

But why Europe would voluntarily adopt a policy that will only burden its software developers and only benefit US interests is beyond me.

They call it a "democracy" that they're building in Europe. I don't see it. Instead, they have created a government of bureaucrats, more easily captured by special interests than anything in the US. "

Larry Lessig is one of those guys that if we got the right people to listen, could change the world.

Those zaney starwars fans, what will they do next?

From Slashdot:

"More than a month before the premiere of Revenge of the Sith, fans are already lining up. Outside Grauman's Chinese Theater, eleven diehard Star Wars fans (i.e. lifelong virgins) are waiting for tickets to go on sale. Unfortunately, it appears that the guys with girlfriends will have the last laugh as the Chinese Theater isn't even premiering the film."

So lets get this straight.

The first one was ok, but nothing special.
The second was good.
The third was a steaming pile of mediocrity.
The fourth featured arguably the most hated character in movie history, Jar Jar Brinks
The fifth featured some of the worst acting in movie history, in Manakin Skywalker

And the sixth? People lining up a month in advance for it. Yeah, that makes ALOT of sense.

'Geek speak' confuses net users

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4413155.stm

What I love is that someone can go out, spend 5 grand on a pc, and procede to learn nothing about it. Maybe it is just the geek mentality, but when I lay out that kind of money for something, I have already spent quite awhile learning about it. If you havnt been living under some sort of e-rock for the last decade or so, and dont know what phishing, spam, or trojans are, yet own a pc on the net, you need to have your access taken away from you, because you are a danger to yourself and others.

TEH PWNAGE!!!!!!111

Last night was one of those great Canadian moments in history. For the first time ever, I heard the verb "ownd" being used on the national news. The next step is to refer to our enemies as "totally n00bish" with "no skillz", and Canadian english will have achieved the level that uber-gamers have been enjoying for years.

The first prime minister to use "I AM TEH PWNAGE" in his victory speech will get my support for life. um.... fo lyfe that is.

Music: With God On Their Side (Bob Dylan)

http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/withgod.html
"Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.

I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.

In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war."

---

Wow. At first this song seems quite sacriligious. It really isnt, unless your religion comes before your faith. I personally find it amoung the most thoughtful, insightful, and critical Christian songs I have ever heard. He isnt saying that God was on any of their sides, but in each case they truley believed it, even when that belief was dispicable. The song is a song about self-rightousness, which is at the core of all faiths the world round, but which I have experienced more from the jeudaic faiths more then any others.

And heres the kicker, the last verse of the song. Bob Dylan, protest singer and the musical embodiment of the liberal 60s, basically says that his tribe is no better then the other eight situations he's already talked about. They believed they were on the side of goodness and justice, claimed Gods support without asking (just like everyone else), and used His name to support their own ends. That is what the whole song builds up to, and I would bet dollars to doughnuts that only a fraction of the hippies listening to this album back in the day had any idea of what he was trying to say.

Study says Linux and Windows TCO are equal

from slashdot
"A new survey by Yankee Group analyst Laura DiDio shows Windows and Linux are viewed as equal by U.S. businesses. In the eternal OS wars, '88 percent of respondents said that the quality, performance and reliability of Windows was equal to or better than Linux.' Companies were also asked to rank the operating systems on security. On a scale of 1 to 10 'companies rated Microsoft's security at 7.6, double the rating in a similar survey conducted last year. Linux's rating was mostly the same at 8.3.' Conclusion? 'DiDio said that most companies -- whether large or small -- rarely take the huge step of replacing one operating system with another. Instead, they usually add a mix of Windows and Linux server software to expand functionality.' Microsoft used last year's Yankee Group survey results in their Get the facts campaign."

First of all, that is a huge shift for the yankee group as you can see here. These are the guys who said linux didnt have a leg to stand on in the fiaSCO that is currently getting sorted out by a judge, who believes pretty much the exact opposit of these expert analysts. In the linux community, a "DiDiot" is a new term coined over at groklaw, to describe someone who presents themselves as an expert and procedes to talk out of their ass. The yankee group are widly considered to be as ignorant of reality as such mental giants as rob enderle or paul theurott.

So of course, after seeing that headline, I figured this has gotta be yet another microsoft funded and slanted "indipendant" studies. sure enough, all it took was a trip over to groklaw to see what pj had to say. As usual, she effortlessly cuts through the FUD, and pwnz didio in her usual sweet manner.

DiDio is nothing more than a microsoft shill. I mean, come on. Indemnification is rarely offered, you can ask for it but a company will only do it if you are a big contract. Linux distrobutions tend to be small companies, and they are just redistrabuting code written by other people, indemnification would be a legal nightmare. HP does it, as does redhat, but something like chainsaw linux is most likely not going to have the resources to offer it.

Laura DiDio's name is rapidly becomming mud. If you dont believe the linux community to have any power, go talk to Darl McBride who believes we killed his business, and were responsable for tearing apart his lawsuit.

QOTD

"You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud"
-Bob Dylan

---

Ok, so heres the deal with the quotes of the day. If I am completely immersed in some of the most provocotive music I have ever heard, expect alot of quotes. There will be more variety once I stop binging, but dylan has one hell of a discography (Ive only listened to about half or so, and thats a good ten albums)

Curiouser and curiouser

9/11 was a long time ago, but there are many things we dont know about it, and the actions of the american governament in response to it.

One thing that has been on my mind about iraq ever since they went in, and couldnt find any WMDs is "Where is the unrefutable proof that GWB had to make the descision resulting in the death of thousands?". Heres a pair of links about information regarding the source of the report:


http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0402-01.htm
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0403-27.htm

Heres question #2: Why in the fuck is this not being reported by the MSM?

What was happening in the world during shiavo-mania

You saw it here first, I said that this Shiavo stuff was pure and simple propaganda. When I wrote that post, I didnt know what they were trying to hide. this is a real interesting candidate. now how many of you saw that on CNN last week?

Have b-movies taught us nothing?

roflmaololololololo


Just what this world needs, flesh-eating robots.

Yet another critical ie vulnerability

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1781171,00.asp

affects ie and outlook in every version of windows (including xp sp2).

I have chosen to take the stand that any family member or friend who wants me to help them with computer related things only gets one visit if they use ie or outlook. That visit will end with firefox and thunderbird getting installed, and strict instructions never to use what are quite possibly the worst browser and email client ever created by man.

How to stop spyware

here is a nice, idiot friendly guide on how to use windows on the net. For the most part, well done, especially for the intended audience. What I just love is that to have a windows machine running properly you need:

Anti-virus software
An additional browser
An additional firewall
Not one, but two anti-spyware apps(my one beef with his article, he should have included microsoft anti-spyware, and configured all three for automatic scans)

something else thats interesting, not only is this completely un nessicary for any other operating system, but every other operating system is more technologically advanced then windows at the moment.

and whats most interesting of all, microsoft has somewhere between 90-95% marketshare on computer operating systems.

The question is: does this make microsoft the greatest salesmen of all time, or is this proof that the general public has the mentality of a pack of lemmings?

Ill let you decide.

Gates' Resolve in Bringing Spammers to Justice

hot off the slashdot press:

"It didn't seem to me like any single company had the stomach to keep after the scum that are ruining the Net for the rest of us. Unless that company is Microsoft. Since the beginning of 2003, Microsoft has filed 96 lawsuits against spammers, and 119 lawsuits against phishers. By any measure, 215 lawsuits constitutes a legal juggernaut. "

I find this truely ironic. The corporate juggernut working through the official channels has done NOTHING to keep spam from my inbox. On the flipside, hacker extrodinare Paul Graham was the one who got so annoyed at spam in his inbox decided to fix the problem. He came up with using Bayesian probability analysis to filter spam rather then the more conventional pattern matching we were doing before.

Just goes to show, it doesnt matter how much money you have, you cant solve problems a fraction as well as a true innovator.

QOTD

"My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards
False gods, I scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off
Say okay, I have had enough
What else can you show me?"
-Bob Dylan

---

Yeah, not only the same person, but another line from the same song. It just so perfectly fits my mood today, I cant help it. I dont remember the last time I found music quite this moving.

And....... he's dead.

Pope John Paul died yesterday. He has been barely hanging on for a good while now, and while the event is worthy of note, its pretty nutty how much has been going on in this neck of the woods.

For those of you who dont know, I am currently situated in Montreal, Quebec. Unlike the rest of Canada, Quebec was locked in (for all intents and purposes) a theocracy for years. The Catholic church ground the canadian french under their heel. The french peasents were told by their priests not to get an education, not to go into the cities, and not rise above the level that they were at, because education and knowledge is the greatest enemy of theocratic rule.

This is were the big division between the french and the english in quebec. If you were french, you were an uneducated slave of catholicism. If you were english, you were a (most likely) protestant merchant, and at the time such people were quite well off. This created a typical class division, which brought with it all the feelings of anger at oppression.

Eventually, the french through off their christian shackles. You still see the backlash to the church at every level of french culture. English curse words are generally obscene, things like body functions and rude words for sexual activities. The canadian french however will swear by sacrilege, words like "chalice" or "tabernacle" are the words equivilent to the english "fuck" or "shit". You also see the french turning their back on the most fundamental value of the catholic church, marriage. There are a great many "conjoins" in quebec, people who live together and are commited to each other, often with children, but not married.

The french of course will not say that. They are unaware of the reasons that things got to the state they were. They blame their problems on "Les Federalists". They are ignorant of the history with the catholic church that had so much of an impact on their culture.

So that is why when I see all the pope worship today, it just boggles my mind. These people were so harmed by this church, to the point where they have no real current identity of their own. Their actions, language, and culture is rife with signs of hatred for the church. But still, you have people walking through the streets singing church songs (and block my bus incidentily), people in tears, people having the audacity to say things like "He is now sitting at Gods right hand" (for those who dont know about christian scripture, christ said that the only hierarchy there will be in heaven is that he will sit at his fathers right. Its hard to believe these people even profess to follow the bible)

In one of the places that has been hurt the most by the catholic church, I seem to be the only one completely indifferent to the popes death. I mean sure, he did some pretty remarkable stuff in his youth. Hitler also did some pretty remarkable things for germany. I see them both as the heads of evil institutions that work against everything I work for in this world. As harsh as it sounds, I will not forgive who the man was just because of what he did for catholics.

Anyways, my annoyances with all this probably comes from having some catholic friends, and having to keep my mouth shut while they go on and on about their leader dieing like it has any relevence for me. I almost died of laughter when I was told that the catholic church needs more conservatism in the next pope. Really. Actually, what the church needs is a nuclear bomb. Vatican city needs to be wiped off the face of the map, and humanity needs to stop trying to arbitor what is and isnt god. Another thing I was told that while john paul should be commended for reaching out to the jews, the muslims werent such a good idea. Oh really? I say. Yes, because "I recognize who jaweh is, but i do not recognize allah.". man oh man oh man. First of all, Allah and Jaweh are a HECK of alot closer than Jaweh and Jehova. Secondly, all three of the "Jeudaic" faiths act in exactly the same kind of way, they seem to revel in death and distruction to those who dont share their beliefs.

Personally, I reject the worldly institution of christianity. I do not believe it follows the lord, and I therefor refuse to follow it. Anything more would make me a hipocrit, and I simply would not be able to live with myself. In all three faiths, they are just different names for the same thing, and that thing isnt god. It is a spirit of superiority and self-rightousness. Its the spirit of the jihad. Muslims are simply the only ones with the balls to come out and call it what it is.

For me, I will not decide who is right and who is wrong for something that my mind is simply incapable of fully grasping. What I do know is I have felt the hand of god in my life more than once, and I will do what I can to follow him. And following him does not involve buying into the idiocies of mankind, be they jew, muslim, christian, or gentile.

America: Spreading irony throughout the world

Old news, but this is just too hilarious. stranger than fiction...

QOTD

"While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society's pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he's in."
-Bob Dylan

Sacco & Vanzetti

Woody Guthrie wrote an album about it, and after about half way through I decided to do some research on it. Heres what I found: The Sacco & Vanzetti Case

Very enlightening stuff. Turns out, persecution of anarchists goes way back in american history. My favorite quote in that article comes right at the end:

Surprisingly, although the Sacco-Vanzetti case is considered the political case par excellence, few accounts have taken the politics of the two men--their anarchism--very seriously and fewer still are knowledgeable about it. As in all great political trials, the figures of Sacco and Vanzetti have been transformed into passionate symbols, symbols that are often rather understood. A full and accurate account of the political dimension--and, in particular, the anarchist dimension--still remains to be written. The importance of the Sacco-Vanzetti case remains not only because it called into question some of the fundamental assump- tions of American society, but because it calls into question some of the fundamental assumptions of American history.

This happens all the time. There is an assumption that if you become a martyr for your cause, that it will advance your cause. I would put forward that being a martyr will do more to expose the injustice of your enemies rather then open the minds of the people. Just a thought, and still not fully formed.

Oh, and The Ballads of Sacco & Vanzetti is a fantastic album.

Music: I am now officially in love with folk

Those who know me can attest to the fact that I hope to a new genre every month or so. Well, the new one is definately folk. Bob Dylan is now one of my favorite artists, and he is what started it. Got some Woody Guthrie, and adore it. Even though Billy Bragg is probably the name that jumps to your mind when you think "Pro Labor Music" (if you are into such things at any rate). Billy, even though he was a giant of his time, was nothing compared to Woody. Still havnt found any van ronk, but also managed to snag some Pete Seeger. and wow. just wow.

Anyways, folk is more than just a genre, it is a full culture, a history, and a way of life (just think punk, real similar in that respect). So far, I am just skimming the surface, but I really cant wait to fully plunge into this incredable world.

The 60s were a great decade for music.

Installing Software: A GNU/Linux VS. MS Windows Comparison

(http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=10165)

Well, first off let me say the article is trash. The author compares linux command line installs with windows gui installs. He should stay consistant, and compare a .msi silent install with the familiar dpkg -i or rpm -i. If we are comparing the setup.exe experience, then it should be done with something like Synaptic, not the cli. The real ironic thing is that in the comments section, I was the first one to say that after a flamewar of about 100 posts or so by win/linzealots. Here is one of my responses to one of the more lucid posters.

(link)

---

I ranted in an earlier post because I was simply overwhelmed by the outragousness of the article.
I have since read over a hundred different post from people commenting. Some just as put out as I was, and some defending linux as a superior system.

the article was comparing apples and oranges, the linux commandline installers with a windows gui one. it depends how you define superior, if you mean easy to upgrade with low memory consumption, then linux is superior due to its almost total use of dynamic linking. if you mean superior as in ease of use, that is what the article was about.

BUT,
what all of the linux users seem to be missing is that in MOST of your arguments you depend on a particular distribution with a particular installer and specific knowledge about how to use it.

what you seem to missing is that ALL the top desktop distros have great package managers. and for the most part, it requires less knowledge to use a linux installer (i cant think of any that dont just answer the standard 10 windows installer questions for you with sane defaults.)

If an average "USER" wants to install software the first place they are likely to look is the internet.

You mean the average WINDOWS user. The average linux user opens his package manager.

That said, most linux software installation is tedius from the web, because there are hundreds of different options for numerous different flavors. It is simply overwhelming and confusing.

Agreed. That is why you just install it the normal way instead of hunting through websites, like you would on windows.

It is made MUCH WORSE by the infamously BAD ATTITUDE of most linux die-hards. I know that is improving, but those of you who love linux and want to truely see it adopted by the world in mass know what I'm talking about.

Dude, I am still a newb. Only been using linux for a few years, and I have yet to run accross this BAD ATTITUDE, at least directed at me. the only time I see the BAD ATTITUDE is when DUMB WINDOWS USERS ask IDIOTIC QUESTIONS that could be answered by a GOOGLE "I FEEL LUCKY".

The author did specifically compare the installation of a particular piece of software using windows typical installation methods versus a specific installation manager on a particular linux distro, and I was happy to learn something new that could assist me in the future with my linux woes, and marked the information in my brain for future use.

I'm not defending the article, as I said it was a bad comparison. If you want something similar, look up how to install .msi files from the command line in windows. The equivilent to the setup.exe process in windows is synaptic, not command line apt.

However he seemed to be implying that that meant all software was easier on all linux distributions. (I know that's not what he said, but I do feel it was implied)

Every once in awhile you will run accross a 0.1, or something pre-1.0 that is simply too obscure to be in a repository. However, these are fringe cases, and many of the linux package managers still handle it gracefully. If you are using one that doesnt though, you will definately be going through a painful process.

But, we are once again comparing apples and oranges. Try installing pre-1.0 software in windows, by doing a cvs pull and compiling it yourself. Remarkably similar. Biggest difference is that windows simply cant handle it out of the box, and linux can.

He made several large assumptions, like how the user knows which distribution to use (or cares). That the user understands about execution context (or cares).
He also made big assumptions in his "rating" system that could have even the odds a bit had he made the assumptions evenly on both sides, like how he knew the exact command to execute from the command line, which I have already said is like giving the full url to a .msi package.

Agreed. He should have compared command line apt to installing an msi via the command line using all the switches for the same sort of silent install you get on linux machines. OR, he should have compared the click-a-thon that setup.exe gives you with synaptic. one or the other, because they are really two different things, for two different purposes. I would say linux wins hands down in both cases having extensively used all four methods, but thats just me.

But unfortunatly what we get from the community is more of the same "LINUX IS BETTER - WINDOWS SUX" crap we have been listening to for years.

Well, theres definately alot of that going on in this thread, but not by me. I dont like windows too much, and I get real annoyed by having to use it all the time at work, but I have reasons for those annoyances that go beyond the great battle of good vs evil you usually get from zealots. But really, its been that way since time immemorial. ITS vs UNIX, MacOS vs Windows, Windows vs Linux, Linux vs UNIX, Boxers vs Briefs, etc.

Now lets talk about non "USERS". He did not elude to how I would change the default installation path, or how to add (or not add ) the icon to my start menue or desktop. Is that easy as well? it is in most windows installations.

Very very very good. You have touched on the reason that windows installations blow so hard. If 99.9999999% of the cases a question will be answered the same way, you do not require the user to answer it every single time. Instead, you allow through ealier intervention to change the way it will work. All that is possible in linux, but it is rarely used, because its only a one in a thousand situation where you would want something like that.

Honestly I don't know. perhaps someone else could enlighten me. But I'll tell you now if it involves editing configuration files you have already lost.

No editing config files, but you use command line switches. I dont remember them, because I have never used them. But since linux documentation rocks, if I ever do need to use them, they are just a man away.

---

*sigh*

Anyways, as much as I think the article was trash, this is a subject that has annoyed me to no end. Its like that "Linux hardware support sux" thing. Yeah, sure, maybe five years ago buddy. Now when I install linux, everything works out of the box. The same cannot be said for windows, I have to go hunting for drivers for every last piece of hardware on my system.

This one however, truely boggles the mind. Anyone who has used apt or portage knows the feeling of hundreds of thousands of applications and libraries at their fingure tips. There is simply no equivilent in windows, and there really cant be because of standard liscencing on the platform. But software installation is one of the reasons I use linux, how can these people possibly be saying the windows click-a-thon is better?

Heres my guess. Mr. Moidib up there installs mandrake. He immediately does the windows user thing, and starts trawling the web for installers. He finds an rpm, downloads it, double clicks, and it says "libfoo.so not found" or something similar. Coming from a non-technical os, having zero administrative or development background, and knowing nothing about the operating system he is on, he declaires it bad, and moves on.

Of course, a quick google search will show that instead of searching through dozens of sites for installers, you can simply configure urmpi with "online repositories" of software. There are many out there, and considering it is mandrake, most of the instructions are so easy a child could follow them. But no, a "typical" user downloads software from web sites. Therefor, anything that makes the process trivial in comparison is "bad", on the sole reason that it is unfamiliar.

I have used so many operating systems at this point that I think I have gotten mast much of the zealotry. For example, something I truely love in BeOS is that a right click on the titlebar of a window sends it to the back. It may not sound like much, but it is truely insane. You want to know what scripting is? It sure as hell isnt bash (or even more laughable, dos). It isnt even perl or python. It is that scripting environment from amiga (archie or something like that, havnt used amiga in ages. been thinking of giving AROS a try though, its a very promising looking amiga clone). Coolswitch? Heck no, its all about expose.

When it comes to software installation, linux really does beat everything else I have tried hands down. I mean how can you compare this:


with the windows installer experience?