Tuesday, January 22, 2008

One Size Fits All

Well thats what the box of Nitrile gloves said... Now I have purchased Nitrile gloves before I use them for working on electronics and machinery (and when using cleaning chemicals) to protect my hands hand usually they fit perfectly usually however I only by a few (a small bag full) at the local hardware store. But instead of buying a few gloves at a time I decided to get a box of them from the local chain drug store and save some money. The gloves were tight on my hand and a few times just split in two because they were so small. If you are familiar with Nitrile gloves you know how tough they are and yes I thought that splitting in two was impossible too. I went back to the drug store to get another box larger ones the clerk at the store just looked at me like "It says one size fits all".... Microsoft reminds me of the clerk at the drug store "well it's one size fits all."

Technology is, be it gloves (yes gloves are a technology) or computers is never a one size fits all. Clothing is another technology that is like that, Communists in China mass produce a large quantity of drab blue uniforms for every good little citizen to ware. In America, and other free countries we can wear what clothing we want as a from of freedom of expression. I can by the clothes I want and if I so choose to I can customize them, try that in a Communists country...

I have seen a number of posts on the internet from some dolt(s) claiming that Linux is Communism. And make a leap in logic stating that because it is from Communist Finland it is Communist. I have to wonder if that person is using Windows I assume that they are. I also assume that they are of the thinking that because you are not charging money for it that it is not capitalism. That does not have anything to do with communism or capitalism, if you were in say Communist Russia and you wanted to have a TV you would have had to buy it and it would have cost a lot of money (rubles) out of reach of many people of the time. And you would not be able to watch what ever you want on that TV only State approved TV. Much like DRM and Windows only allow you to do what they approve.

Finland is not now nor has it been a Communist country, it is a Republic. For those of you old enough to remember "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." Yep there is that word Republic. Next time someone tells you that Linux is communism and Finland is a communist country you can have a good laugh. Tell them to look up Finland on the Wikipedia or CIA World Fact book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finland#Government_and_politics

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/fi.html#Govt

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0933874.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Bug Labs

Sorry I am late getting this out...

Bug Labs ( buglabs.net ) is not taking orders yet but has prices listed for the bugbase, GPS, Digital Camera, Accelerometer, and Touch Sensitive Color LCD.

I my self would love to have one. I would keep it with me in the car on trips and use it's GPS to contribute to Open Street Map ( www.openstreetmap.org ) . I drive a lot so I could contribute a lot of data.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

gOS Hibernate and Suspend

Using the Hibernate works good I have been using it almost every day along with the Suspend function. Some web pages will crash when the computer is backup; the web pages that I seem to have had problems with are ones that have an auto refresh.
If your the only user on the gOS computer or your default login is USER then I would recommend the Hibernate function as apposed to shutting every thing down. It saves power and makes startup much quicker.


Both Hibernate and Suspend have worked all but one time for me that's not bad when my Mother got her new Macintosh* it had a glitch in OS X 'sleep mode' and would not wake up or it would wake up but not go back on line. I am using Hibernate every time I go to bed and every time I go to work that works out to be about twice a day. I don't have much to compare it to at work our computers are just on or off and my other computers are running BOINC (SETI@home and Malariacontrol.net) , so they are on all the time. At work I use use Puppy Linux a liveCD so it is only on when I use the computer.


Next is Suspend it is used the most on this gOS computer, If say for example I go have lunch or I go to watch a little TV because I know the minuet I get back I want the computer up and running so I can check my email or head over to Makezine.com.

*This was a long time ago and the problem has been long since fixed (by Apple).

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

New Years Resolutions

8New Years Resolutions don't have to be things like "go on a diet" or "quit smoking" after all what are those of us with no vice's ;-) supposed to do?

My News Years Resolutions are to:
  1. Learn Tcl/Tk by the end of the year.
  2. Contribute to FOSS and GNU projects (at least one, but it will probably be more)
  3. Help some one getting started with Linux, UNIX, BSD or something like that.
  4. Try to complete my Ghost in the Shell collection ( not likely but if I have the money)
  5. ...