Blogging Ottinger (tim)

Windows Genuine Spyware? That might be the better name, if we are to believe what the lawsuit alleges. How interesting!

You’ll hear one less frequent complaint from me if Java goes Open-Source. Personally, I’ll believe it when I see it. Will SUN actually let this brainchild leave the nest?

Apparently now Spain Outlaws P2P File-Sharing, whether the files are legally sharable or not? Is it now illegal to share open-source software programs and Linux ISOs?

Slashdot says that WGA will be turning off PCs in the fall maybe. I guess we know who will get a genuine charge out of that. I don’t recommend copying windows, don’t think I am in favor of illegal Microsoft software sharing. Actually, I don’t recommend Windows software at all. I think you should instead legally share Linux software. Since it’s legal and encouraged, you don’t have to put up with silliness like the Windows Genuine Advantage. You would choose Linux if you could only “get the facts”.

The original twelve were baptised as disciples (student followers), then later sent into the towns and cities as apostles (ambassadors)n and finally after a change in lineup they were known by outsiders as Christians (little Christs) when they were at Antioch.

What a life! From apprentice to journeyman to a kind of lesser image of the Master himself, all in a few years. It is amazing how few years of study and preparation they had for the impact they had on the world. Oh, to be sure there were disagreements and problems and issues, but just imagine it.

Or better yet, be it.

Years after most of the world has quit caring, and SCO has become totally irrelevant to both the Linux and Unix markets, IBM’s motion to limit SCO’s claims has been granted. I am totally surprised that this is still dragging on, though I suspect that dragging on is the original intent. At this point, SCO has nothing to lose, so I don’t expect them to drop out. But it is good to see how much of that stupid lawsuit has been eliminated. The commentary on this SlashDot article is interesting as well.

Net Neutrality: This is serious | Decentralized Information Group (DIG) Breadcrumbs

This is really just one of those links I put on my blog so I remember to look at it later, and don’t lose it: Xubuntu - Ubuntu Wiki

Broadcast flag makes it through committee but the war is not over. I know that everyone has the right to petition the government, whether corporation or real, flesh-and-blood citizen. I know that they can lobby and try to get favorable laws passed. But I think that it would be incredibly sad to live in a country that continues to favor old-n-busted business models over consumer choice and creative effort. I hope to not be further embarrassed.

Gimmie from beatniksoftware is an interesting looking toy. It looks like a really nice way to navigate, much better than that Redmond group has ocme up with. There is a little movie that shows how it works. Think about it a bit, see what you think. I don’t know if it’s too nice (ie it will become annoying over time). But it looks interesting.

Why is it that all the UI innovations happen outside of windows? Oh, yeah, because that’s where people are allowed to innovate. Duh.

The rant of the day is the response to Mr. Hilf about M$ v. Linux. Favorite quote:

Let’s see, you mean it is losing steam because Massachusetts has banned Microsoft Office? Because there have been more Linux-related expos this year than any other year? Because Microsoft now uses Linux in their wireless networks? Because the Belgian government has banned Microsoft Office? Because Munich, Germany migrated over 12,000 desktops to Linux? Because Venezuela is also switching to Linux? How about the adoption rate of Linux in China right now? What do you have to say about the heavy usage of Linux in the Armed Forces of the United States?

In my own research, I have found that governments in South America, such as Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Chile, and Peru are switching. European governments making the switch include Kurdjali, Bulgaria; Munich, Germany; Bergen, Norway; Schools and Government Agencies in Italy; Moscow, Russia; the United Kingdom; Canary Islands; Denmark; Barcelona, Spain; Dundee, Scotland; Central Scotland Police; France; Iceland; Poland; and Portugal. In Asia, the big ones are China, India, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.

I’m not even going to list the countless banks that have started using Linux to protect their data. Well, I might mention the fact that China’s largest bank switched to Linux. Actually, I’ll just briefly mention that the Deutscher Investment Trust, a German bank, has also switched to Linux. There’s also the Venezuelan bank, Banco Mercantil (with which I actually had an account at one time), who has made the switch to Linux. And of course, there’s the Indian bank that switched to Linux. Yeah, fine, they’re mostly servers. At least it’s causing M$ to lose money.

The whole broadcast flag thing in on my mind. I don’t like the idea of paying multiple times just to listen to a song. I don’t like the RIAA and MPAA telling me whether or not I can copy TV programs to tape or DVD or a PVR or an MP3 player for my own use. Of course I should be allowed to do that. But mostly, I worry that this is yet another way to convert programming into a “criminal act.” The way this plays out is that the media companies create some kind of copyprotection mechanism, and then they press congress to make it illegal to bypass that mechanism. Then they make it a criminal “state” (not just an act) to be capable of bypassing it.

This is already happening. Don’t laugh. It is the basis of a lot of Digital Millenia Copyright Act litigation.

So what happens when all media players are required to support the flag in a way that consumers can’t bypass it? The consumers can no longer have source code to the players. That means no more open source media players. That means that you can’t write a media player without either paying a lot of licensing (which consumers will not do) or risking criminal trials, fines, and jail time. I don’t think a person should go to jail or even court for recording radio broadcasts, television programs, or the like. I don’t think it should be illegal for me to take a CD that I’ve purchased, copy the songs to MP3, and load them on a personal music player. I don’t think that TiVO or the like should be illegal or hampered with stupid laws that provide no benefit at all to consumers, and helps to make wealthy companies rich at the cost of families.

Here is an interesting article from the Intellectual Property front. I am hoping that something good comes from this.

This really isn’t about hot sauce.

Last week my oldest boy picked up some habenero Doritos. They’re quite good but I did lose interest after a dozen chips. I liked them, but they weren’t “all that” by themselves. I don’t eat many of the Doritos at one sitting anyway (which is a good thing).

I picked up some tonight, and we tried something different. We also picked up some tomatoes (4 roma tomatoes) and some onion, a serrano pepper, and some special ingredients. We tried the chips with homemade salsa and homemade guacamole. Our recipes are very simple, but very tasty. The ingredients above are almost our salsa recipe. We add a bit of lemon, salt, and pepper. It’s quite mild and nice (depending on how chunky you cut up the serrano pepper).

    Homemade Guac
	
    1 Avocado
    2 Tablespoons Fresh Salsa
   Squeeze of Lemon Juice

The salsa is still better with corn tortilla chips or maybe Fritos. Habenero Doritos did nothing for the salsa, and they reciprocated.
The store-bought black bean salsa was okay with the chips, but unremarkable.

The guacamole, on the other hand, formed a truly wonderful marriage with the habenero Doritos. In fact, the combination was a little past wonderful. I now plan to keep these chips on hand as an excuse to buy guac ingredients. I don’t know what else the chips are really good for, but maybe I’ll find a few more interesting uses.

Oh, the chips are not horribly hot. They have a bite, but odds are that you won’t find get much of a burn at all. They just taste really, really good with guacamole.

A year or two ago I was looking at acoustic amps and decided that, based on sound with the way I play, I would like to get a Roland AC60. It is a very small amplifier, but has a great sound. I played a few guitars through it, and am pretty sure that it’s the acoustic amp for me. I don’t need a whole lot of volume (and most places have a PA anyway — I can mic my cab).

When in poland a few weeks ago, I walked out on the square and heard a group of guys playing. There were two acoustic guitars and an electric upright bass. When I got close enough, I found that it was one guitarist had a Ovation Celebrity (shallow-bowl) and the other had a Godin. Both were playing through Roland AC60s. The sound was wonderful and filled the square, and they were skillful players. I stood and listened for a while. I considered buying some of their CDs but they were asking too much, I felt. I don’t know why independent music was so much more expensive than the commercial stuff. I may never understand.

Anyway, my experience with the Godin today makes me think more and more about the Roland. When the time comes, it will be the amp for me.

I went back to the local guitar store and they still had the Godin LGX-SA (the one on the right, the wood beauty).

I started playing with it a bit, figuring out how to get the acoustic pickups kicked in, how to get the Duncan humbuckers engaged, how to mix them. My youngest boy plugged it into a Peavey Classic 30

I wish I were a more skilled guitar player. The sounds coming out of this combination was incredible. The acoustic setting sounded so very much like a steel-string acoustic guitar, and dialing in some humbucker gave it a great crisp, bluesy sound. I did not get to try it with a midi rig, which is a shame. I would like to try plugging it into a midi and this Peavey. I’m not sure how I would control whether I was playing midi or through the pickups. I guess I would need some volume pedals so that I could more easily mix an acoustic amp (maybe the Roland AC-60), the tube electric amp (either the peavey above or my Crate Vintage Club 50 combo), and a nice Midi system. It might be a lot of work.

I guess if I ever have one of these, then the combination of the Godin and my HSS strat would give me about every sound I would ever want from an electric guitar, and it sounds pretty good as an acoustic as well.

My wife has said that I need to replace one car and get her an acoustic bass guitar before I get anymore gear. I guess I need to start shopping for bass guitars and family cars. Any recommendations are welcome. After all, I really want that Godin.

I was a java programmer yesterday for a little while. Mind you, I wasn’t a great one (so many stops to find out how to do things). I barely know any of the libraries and have to have help from a partner or a book. It caused me to revise my thinking a little.

I think now that java does stink, but that Eclipse is pretty cool. In fact, I wonder if Eclipse isn’t such a good coping mechanism that people who use it (and IntelliJ) don’t realize that the language stinks. These IDEs are so much fun, you barely notice that the language is clunky and odd.

Now, hats off to IntelliJ and Eclipse. Excellent work, gentlemen. I’d like to see incorporation of basic java documentation (I need help on the libraries all the time), but otherwise I am completely impressed. If only the C++ tools were nearly as good. Micro$oft has a lot to learn from the guys who understand how to make a good IDE.

Take a look at Ballmer’s Right Hand Man Waves Goodbye to Microsoft at OSNews.com. Now thats Kempin, Taylor, and Gates are leaving. Only a few more to go. Maybe microsoft will be a whole new company now. Only time will tell. And in Bill’s case (humanitarian that he’s become), it looks like a lot of the evil left him before he left; maybe about the time he got married he softened and became more “real”.

Not all Linux people have an instinctive loathing of Microsoft (as I do). Linus Torvalds is famous for saying that he doesn’t think they’re evil, just that their software isn’t very good.

I was actually a big Microsoft fan back in the day. IBM and Microsoft were the power behind the PC and I loved my PC. Then IBM went back on their full disclosure policy and went “evil” by trying to take back the market from the people. Microsoft was smart enough to have maintained control of the OS, and they were able to ride the expanding market. It was Microsoft’s David v. IBM’s Goliath. I remember back in the OS/2 days how the rumor mill buzzed about MS being really smart about distribution and positioning, but their code being quite poor and buggy. We didn’t mind. It was “the enemy of my enemy.”

As OS/2 matured, it was increasingly stable and fast. Sad, but they were shut out of the market very effectively (as were lesser, more ethically favored players, sadly) by Kempin’s evil machinations. When Microsoft acquired better channels for selling software, they were heroes. When they started closing those channels to other vendors and mistreating their partners, then it was clear that evil had a new home. They didn’t want merely to have success, but to own the rights to it.

There were many alleged or proven abuses of power since then, and we found that some of these guys were pretty unsavory characters. This eventually led to the antitrust trial (which, in case you didn’t know it, they LOST). Microsoft had become the evil empire, as IBM had taken over evil from AT&T (who used to be “the death star”). Many people don’t realize that it was not always Microsoft that the industry railed against. Oh, and if you think Microsoft is hardened, I hear that Allen Bradley is twice the tyrant MS ever was.

In the meantime, IBM became a champion of open systems and community involvement. Linux and IBM became very good for each other, and now the ex-evil-empire is our ally against the “jeckle-and-hyde” Microsoft enemy. We don’t know where evil will live next. It tried SCO, but SCO couldn’t sustain it, and imploded.

Maybe we’ll see whether Sun, Microsoft, or RedHat is most able to open their hearts to the community and become heroes, or will clamp down and become the new villian. But for now, clearly it is the end of an age for Microsoft.

There can be a big difference between doing the work of the Church or Christianity and doing thework of the kingdom. Another contemplative bit from dying church.

A national treasure, Botar’s Old Time Radio serves up a lot of great classic shows with a minimum of talk and fuss. None, in fact. I have recently subscribed to the podcast, and have been collecting series that I didn’t even know I would like in addition to Jack Benny (a local hero, btw) and Fibber McGee and Molly, and The Shadow.

I highly recommend Botar as a source for your podcasts, and find it to be great bedtime listening. I am so able to relax listening to the old comedies. When I was a kid, I would stay up and listen to CBS Radio Mystery Theater. I would often fall asleep waiting for it, or shortly after it started. Some of those stories weren’t even good dream-fodder but it is a happy memory.

I also subscribe to others, and it is nice sometimes to get tidbits of history, but I’ve had podcasts where over half the program is general chat and discussion (not even necessarily about the shows). I would like to hear some tidbits of information and history sometimes, but I subscribe for the shows themselves primarily. I appreciated sites like Botar where they just get down to the meat of the matter.

I stumbled upon upon Roblimos analysis of his household’s use of Windows and how it tells two different stories. One is true and relevent and the other is true, in its way, and irrelevant. Of course, his house is a Windows shop — ummm… if you don’t count the fact that he doesn’t actually run Windows in it. Confused? Read and enjoy.

Here is something you might not have expected to read from a Christian publication, but there it is. In a major one. It’s a good reminder that we shouldn’t pretend to have it both ways. Either we have freedom or we don’t, and this writer is standing up for the idea that we should have freedom, and we only have it if it extends all the way to all the people.

Note: as a late entry (post a few comments) I add this link to the wikipedia entry on our first amendment.