Monthly Archives: September 2006
The Great Experiment Has Ended
As I watch the unfolding of the new enabling act in the United States, I have wanted to publish angry denounciations of the government and the Fearless Leader, but I have been given pause by the ability of the Fearless Leader to detain indefinately anyone “purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States.” I don’t want to end up like Jose Padilla. But I have to be honest about the situation, and so do you; Americans are living in a fascist state. There, I said it. No, I am not throwing the word around lightly either – it ridiculous to think of the gutting of habeas corpus, etc, etc, by near unanimous consent merely “authoritarian.” No, they are a new “enabling act”, and those who support them are fascists, plain and simple. As another blogger has said: I deliberately chose one the most “extreme” words available because it sets off alarm bells. I am aware that this eruption of American fascism is quite different than classic examples. I am also aware that… Read more
Thirteen Things About The UK
My last Thursday Thirteen (over two months ago) was a list of things I thought I would miss once I had moved to the UK. It is fitting then that I resume my Thirteens with a list of thirteen things I find myself enjoying in the UK that I could not in the US. Grocery Delivery: All three of the big grocery chains here offer home delivery just about everywhere in the country, not just in the metro areas. Very handy for those of us who like to cook but do not have cars. Markets: Community Markets like Queen’s Market in Upton Park and Farmer’s markets like Spitalfields make grocery shopping a real adventure, and cheaper too. BBC Radio: NPR doesn’t begin to approach the level of programming available from “the beeb”. I am particularly addicted to BBC4′s “Book at Bedtime.” Country Parks: The British have a love of open space and country walks that guarantees that just about every little town and burg has a country park. Cheap Travel: There is nothing like being able to hop on a… Read more
Penguin.SWF
I have written before about how the lack of the Adobe Flash player for Linux is one of the hurdles that have to be crossed before Linux will be ready for the wider public. Well, it just so happens that Mike Melanson at Adobe has a blog up charting his progress in doing just that. His first post to the blog (on 24 May, 2006) reads: Welcome to Penguin.SWF. This blog will provide periodic updates on Adobe Flash Player development as it pertains to Linux operating environments. Sometimes, I may even solicit input from visitors about how to proceed on various issues, such as recommendations for preferred Linux APIs (think ALSA vs. OSS vs. ESD) and distribution methods. His blog makes interesting reading, so if you care about Linux on the desktop, you might want to keep an eye on… Read more
Damn Those Viking Bastards!
The Washington Post today is running an article on how the US has slipped from first to sixth place in annual rankings from the World Economic Forum. First, Second, Third and Fourth place are taken by Nordic countries; Switzerland, Finland, Sweden and Denmark respectively. As the article says: …the reason the Nordic countries score higher in the WEF study is that their governments run surpluses instead of deficits, cave in to special interests less often, operate efficiently and spend their money wisely. I love the growing anger that the Post has been showing recently concerning the wannabe oligarchy of American business, and never was it more obvious than in their damning of “The business community’s fantasy is that the United States would soar to the top of the rankings if only we had Ireland’s tax regime, China’s environmental controls, Singapore’s legal system and Chile’s social-safety… Read more
This Is Not The Information Age
For years now we have been hearing all about the “information age”. The promise of the “coming information age” in the late 1980′s, the “digital revolution” ushering in the “global information age” in the early 1990′s, the “knowledge economy” made possible by the new “information age” in the late 1990′s, and now the “economics of the intangible” as the successor of the “information age”. The thing is, there is no such thing as the “information age”, at least not yet. As it stands, we are inundated with data and “input”, but not information. In communications theory information is not defined as data or input but rather as “a difference that makes a difference.” If we are honest, we have to admit that very little of the supposed information that makes up our great Information Age is any different than any other bits of information we may receive, or that those bits make much of a difference to us at all. Data is, by it’s very nature, gormless and feckless. The mountains and… Read more
Microsoft Cranks Up The FUD Machine
Microsoft has brought their Get The Facts campaign off of it’s Summer hiatus, with a Mercer Management Consulting study that claims, among other things, that …businesses that choose Linux over Windows for their UNIX migrations tend to be less rigorous in how they ascertain potential TCO savings. Betanews has an excellent writeup of the paper if you are… Read more
Finally….
We have an internet connection at home, finally. Currently it isn’t much; definately not the 8MB connection I am paying for, but hopefully they will get that corrected eventually….I am definately learning patience… Read more
” Why Desktop Linux Will Not Take off, and Why You Don’t Want It to”
Over at OSNews, Martin Girard has a provocative article with exactly that title. While I won’t steal Martin’s thunder and give away the reasoning behind his article, I will say that in a lot of ways, I have to agree with his analysis. Of course, this brings me back to my central question on this issue; does it matter if Linux “owns” the desktop space or… Read more
Desktop Linux Poised & Ready
I have said before that Desktop Linux is not ready for prime time, but it is making progress, and nowhere is that more evident than at DesktopLinux.com, who have unveiled an A to Z guide to desktop Linux distributions. They believe that you will find something you can use Whether you’re looking for an easy Windows-to-Linux migration distro, one for home use or serious enterprise workstation use, a free one, a commercial one, a tiny one to fit alongside Windows 98 on an old underpowered laptop, or one aimed at educational institutions and given the size and diversity of the list, I am increasingly inclined to agree with… Read more
Dichotomy & Philanthropy
I wrote a rather nasty screed a couple of months ago in which I attempted to go off in too many directions in one post, I have now been called to task by the author. Since Neal was kind enough to reply at length, and not wanting to have this conversation buried in the comments section, I will reply to his comments here. First, let me apologize for my complete incompetence with Trackbacks. Now I have gone from not sending one to sending too many… Neal says: First of all, the purpose of my article was to point out that Buffett contributed a vast amount of good to society by way of his investments. By following his own self-interested code, that, it was never about the money – it was about something else, something loved doing, something so passionate about that wanted to do it all the time.Buffett ended up contributing a vast amount of wealth to the world. To me, it is this accomplishment that should be lauded over and above his philanthropy. It’s not that Buffett shouldn’t… Read more