Recent Posts

701

Living Room / Re: Google sues the U.S. government

« Last post by zridling on November 03, 2010, 03:16 PM »

Actually this is a bidding procedure issue. The department bought Microsoft licenses without giving anyone else a chance to bid on the software. For me, government shouldn't be paying any corporation -- Google included -- for proprietary software. It's a waste of taxpayer money in this age.

702

General Software Discussion / And So The Exodus Begins – 33 Developers Leave OpenOffice

« Last post by zridling on November 02, 2010, 05:24 AM »

[via Digitizor]
Happy to see the Oracle cancer excised from one open source project as developers are fleeing OpenOffice. Long live LibreOffice!
http://digitizor.com...eave-openoffice-org/

After Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems, OpenOffice.org fell into the hands of Oracle, as did a lot of other products. So, last month a few very prominent members of the OpenOffice.org community decided to form The Document Foundation and fork OpenOffice.org as LibreOffice, possibly fearing that it could go the OpenSolaris way. They invited Oracle to join The Document Foundation and to donate the brand “OpenOffice.org.” LibreOffice was chosen as a temporary name until Oracle agrees to donate the brand. Oracle was not pleased and asks those who founded The Document Foundation to leave OpenOffice.org citing “conflict of interest.” As Oracle had given them no choice, they left OpenOffice.org along with 33 other developers.

LibreOffice has already got backing from Google (ChromeOS), Novell (openSUSE),  Red Hat (Fedora), Canonical (Ubuntu), et al. Mark Shuttleworth had even said that it may replace OpenOffice.org in future Ubuntu releases. So, the future looks bright for LibreOffice and The Document Foundation.

____________________________
It's nice to know a corporation can't kill an open source project.

703

Living Room / Re: Am I the only one who finds the new Apps-based world boring?

« Last post by zridling on October 22, 2010, 08:30 AM »

Apps-world may bore me, but they can get expensive very fast ($400!):

expensive app

704

Living Room / Re: Welcome to Hell... iHell that is...

« Last post by zridling on October 21, 2010, 05:30 AM »

Yea, but can I make a phone call with it?  

Steve Jobs, feeding them candy. Natalie Merchant anyone?

705

Living Room / Re: Postcard to our past selves.

« Last post by zridling on October 21, 2010, 05:26 AM »

Edvard, you must have studied Philosophy. Lots of time-tested wisdom in your post. Thanks for sharing.

706

Living Room / Re: Desktop Linux: The dream is dead

« Last post by zridling on October 18, 2010, 09:26 PM »

Not a bad article, but its author, Strohmeyer, makes the same mistakes others make:

Linux = Ubuntu
. . . . . . NOT! Equating Ubuntu as the sole representative of "Linux" is rookie writing.

Linux desktop must "compete" with Windows/Mac
. . . . . . Huh? It's effing FREE. It's a hobbyist's [desktop] OS.

Linux doesn't run Flash, DVDs, do video streaming, etc.
. . . . . . Strohmeyer hasn't used Linux in a long while, it seems. It does NOT run MS Office, but he left that one out.

Linux basically has no chance to rival Mac OS X, much less Windows
. . . . . . Didn't know anyone was actually "selling" boxes of the Linux OS on store shelves. Even Dell hid their few Linux PCs very well on its site. Yet Strohmeyer admits that Linux (kernel) is embedded everywhere, including most mobile devices. (But it's still a failure if he says so.)

It's essentially a troll article from its topic headers:
-- "Dream Is Dead"  "Missed Opportunities"  "Linux Failed on the Desktop"  "End of the Road"  "[Linux] Desktop is Dead"

__________________
Where Strohmeyer is right is that the browser assumed the primary role of computing over the OS. But he's a few years late to that insight. I continue to be amazed at the passive/aggressive hostility toward a free OS -- that various people and companies maintain on their own -- found in the professional media. Lighten up, use what you want. He sounds like a Mac guy since he didn't mention Microsoft's dominance on... uh... the desktop.

707

Living Room / Re: Postcard to our past selves.

« Last post by zridling on October 18, 2010, 09:01 PM »

"Stay out of jail."
"Oh, and don't go bankrupt."

708

General Software Discussion / Re: Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat)

« Last post by zridling on October 15, 2010, 12:27 AM »

Thanks for sharing this, Deozaan. I make no secret about the fact that I've never been an Ubuntu fan, Vishnu knows I've tried. As you find, the best thing is to drop in once or twice a year and see what's changed.

Under both openSUSE and Fedora, I haven't used -- nor needed to use -- the command line in 25 months as of yesterday. Is that a good thing? For newbies to Linux it is.

709

Living Room / Re: I have a very hard announcement to make

« Last post by zridling on October 13, 2010, 09:02 AM »

Been there, done that App -- several times. One thing that I sought after my last failure was to simplify every part of my life possible -- from how I live to how I eat to what I drive to what are my necessities: TV no, Internet yes. New things no, maintaining old equipment yes, and so on.

Good luck, and hope we hear good news from you later.

710

General Software Discussion / Goodbye OpenOffice, Hello LibreOffice

« Last post by zridling on October 11, 2010, 01:44 PM »

Since Oracle acquired Sun, it's shown aggressive hostility toward open source software by flooding the software landscape with patent lawsuits. With the acquisition of Sun came its more overt corporate control of OpenOffice. Not content to have a corporation control such a large open source project, the Document Foundation has forked OpenOffice into LibreOffice, which is "a better match to the values of our contributors, users, and supporters, and will enable a more effective, efficient, transparent, and inclusive Community." Among other things, their first goal is to clean the kludge in the code and improve its auto-update feature.

Linux distros are already updating their repositories with the LibreOffice beta, and it's only a matter of time before OpenOffice dies a well-deserved death.

711

Living Room / Re: The Internet by 2020?

« Last post by zridling on October 11, 2010, 01:11 PM »

I'm curious if there will still be many traditional desktop computers in use in ten years.

...This 24" monitor is starting to feel squeezed.
...Maybe a 42" would be better.
...I'll need to get a job.
...Suddenly this 24-incher feels just right.

712

General Software Discussion / Re: The Great Software List Site Gets a Big Update

« Last post by zridling on October 08, 2010, 06:40 PM »

Sorry kyrathaba, I retired that site and domain back in 2008. I had said all I wanted to say about software at the time. And by then I was deep into Linux, where the distros and various window environments provide a pool of ready made software upon installation. Happy with what I found, and combined with various online apps, I gave it up. I have a blog (http://www.thegsblog.com/) but haven't written anything there for almost a year.

For an archive, go here:
http://web.archive.org/web/ and input:  http://www.anova.org/software/

713

Living Room / Re: Who's suing whom in the telecom industry?

« Last post by zridling on October 07, 2010, 02:38 PM »

Justice, what's the source of your graphic? I like it far better. Looks like Nokia is this year's winner of the Jerk prize. And Renegade, you left out an audio file of screaming, wailing, and gnashing of teeth!

714

Living Room / Who's suing whom in the telecom industry?

« Last post by zridling on October 07, 2010, 03:39 AM »

Love this site, Information is Beautiful. Here's a rundown thanks to the Guardian:


http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/

715

Living Room / Re: New image format for the web

« Last post by zridling on October 04, 2010, 11:10 PM »

Images and photos make up about 65% of the bytes transmitted per web page today.

______________________________
Anything to speed things up is good. Google should continue to focus on this kind of thing and tell Eric Schmidt to STFU and quit freaking everyone out with every interview he does.

716

Living Room / Re: Am I the only one who finds the new Apps-based world boring?

« Last post by zridling on September 29, 2010, 06:25 PM »

A simple solution for boredom.
Find something to do that does not involve computers, television or any other way of electronic entertainment. That way you will not get bored.

-rxantos (September 29, 2010, 12:02 PM)

Indeed. I have many other interests that take me away from the computer, but what is becoming boring (for me) is that content is being tunneled toward "services" through ubiquitous ads. If AdBlock didn't exist, I'd go insane.

As of instant communications:
1. We are fomenting a culture of instant gratification. Which is never good.
2. We do feel we have time to think things over before sending a response. Thereof responses tend to be emotional instead of rational.

-rxantos (September 29, 2010, 12:02 PM)

That's a keen observation.

I think that what Zaine is complaining about is really part of the bigger issue of the internet becoming more standardized and controlled and its evolution resulting from the appearance of truly handheld internet enabled devices - smartphones, iPod Touches, tablets, etc

-Darwin (September 29, 2010, 08:47 AM)

Yea, one big reason I don't care so much for mobile computing is that I could spend as much on a mobile data bill in one month than I spend in an entire year for internet access on my desktop! Standards are fine as long as they are open standards, the kind that made it possible for the internet to flourish. But what corporations (and many governments) are doing when they fight against basic data privacy measures, support ACTA, and against the ability to take my data and business elsewhere without losing it, my big wondrous online world suddenly gets a lot smaller, more legalistic, overwhelmed by ads, and locked in by insane TOS agreements at every turn.

717

Living Room / Am I the only one who finds the new Apps-based world boring?

« Last post by zridling on September 29, 2010, 05:34 AM »

Where "software" was once fun, interesting, and useful, now it's retreating into fenced-in arenas governed by Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, et al. Software has morphed into browser apps and extensions, most of which seems intent on connecting us to -- and fencing us into -- distinct corporate portals built solely for their profit by making my internet experience is limited by the products they want to sell me. And mind you, corporations do not share my views of liberty, but instead are intent on restricting what search terms I can enter, what search results I will get, what words I can use according to their almost religious Terms of Service "agreements," and on top of it all, they get to view, share, sell, or lock me out of my online data at their pleasure. As a result, it's 2010 and I'm bored (and boring, I know). I have dozens of sites I visit daily, but most of them evoke a "meh" at best.



I want knowledge,
I want intellectual liberty,
I want no restrictions on my curiosities,
I want creativity, not [endless] legal controls,
I want productivity, not merely connectivity.

718

Living Room / Re: Hilarious video, for those old enough to appreciate it.

« Last post by zridling on September 22, 2010, 09:33 PM »

There's something to be said for old tech: if done right, it can last centuries. Title/deed documents, contracts, constitutions, etc. are best put to something more permanent than the latest document file format! And a good typewriter might last you decades rather than the latest upgrade cycle for say, Apple's gadgets.

719

Living Room / Re: Awesome photos

« Last post by zridling on September 21, 2010, 03:07 PM »

Great collection, indeed. Thanks for posting. I have neighbors in their 80s whom I talk to often and they're informative to say the least.

The Boston Globe also has great pictorials:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/

720

Living Room / Re: Wikipedia Book Creator

« Last post by zridling on September 16, 2010, 11:02 AM »

I'm impressed. I know someone who could use this right now in their job. Thanks!

721

Living Room / Re: Is Antenna Climbing the Scariest Job Ever?

« Last post by zridling on September 16, 2010, 10:58 AM »

Now that brought back some memories.... I was and still am afraid of heights (it could take me up ten minutes to get myself psyched up), but once up there and working you couldn't beat the view.

-majorspacecase (September 16, 2010, 05:37 AM)

You are CRAZY man!!

722

Living Room / Re: Is Antenna Climbing the Scariest Job Ever?

« Last post by zridling on September 15, 2010, 11:19 PM »

More crazy climbing at the 2:15 mark:
http://www.youtube.c...ture=player_embedded

723

Living Room / Re: Is Antenna Climbing the Scariest Job Ever?

« Last post by zridling on September 15, 2010, 11:18 PM »

Dumb question: Why not pack a parachute to get to the ground quickly?

724

Living Room / Is Antenna Climbing the Scariest Job Ever?

« Last post by zridling on September 15, 2010, 11:10 PM »

Check out this incredible Point-of-View tower climbing video in full screen mode before it gets taken down!
http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=gQv-o5Kgbko



I lose my stomach just watching it! (via The Online Engineer blog)

725

Developer's Corner / Kirk Wants a New Programming Language

« Last post by zridling on September 14, 2010, 12:58 PM »

Kirk has a good rant:
http://kirkwylie.blo...amming-language.html

Dear Lazyweb and Programming Language Inventors:
I want a new programming language. Although I seldom code these days for OpenGamma, I've wanted a new programming language for quite some time. I don't want an extreme language (in syntax or constraints); I don't want a purely experimental language; I don't want a faddish language. What I want is what Stephen Colebourne coins a "journeyman language." ...a journeyman language is a programming language designed for journeyman programmers. And those guys are the hundreds of thousands of men and women working on business applications and systems programming every day.

___________________________
As usual, the comments are informative.