Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Kitty!
Whitney and I just adopted a new kitten. He is a 3 month old buff tabby named Ralphie. We were originally going to change his name (almost named him Gizmo) but we decided to leave his name the same. He is a little bit sick right now so he doesn't look as lively as he did the day we went in to adopt him but he is still adorable. You can find pictures of him at the usual place.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Gizmo Pumpkin!
Here is the Gizmo Jack-O-Lantern that I made for James when he came down for the LAN party. Very time consuming to make but looks great!
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| From Halloween Pumpkins |
They finally did something that wasn't idiotic...
Microsoft just revised their licensing terms for Vista to allow unlimited reinstalls of the OS. You can read the posting here. It's good to know that if enough people raise their voice even the arrogant Microsoft is capable of fixing the errors of its ways.
Shame on you, Microsoft!
As most people probably know by now, a new Microsoft Windows release (Vista) is just around the corner. It has been delayed countless times, stripped of all the features that would have made it worth owning, and then split up into so many versions that purchaser confusion will probably be endless. I have used the beta version of it and there is really nothing about it that makes me want to come running to it. To make matters worse, I read this article today. The EULA (end user license agreement) for this operating system is utterly vomit-inducing and blood-curdling. How arrogant can this company get? Buying Vista would be something akin to buying a personal Hitler to strip away your computer usage freedoms. How STUPID do they think we are? It is insulting to me that they would even try to pull this kind of crap. They think they can tell us that once we shell out $300 for their software license that it can only be transferred ONE time before we have to buy another one? What about the people like my father and I that do significant upgrades to their machines several times during the lifespan of their operating system? Do they think that they can tell developers that the only way they are allowed to perform testing for Windows platform is to actually buy a PC or buy the most expensive version of their new OS ? How can they tell someone that they aren't allowed to run their software in an emulated environment? Seriously, who the hell do they think they are?
It's ok though, because the time is riper now than ever for Microsoft's competitors to actually start taking pieces out of the big M$ pie. Mac is gaining converts faster than ever, and desktop linux distributions are FINALLY usable by someone who isn't a computer genius. I have Ubuntu running on my laptop right now and it is pretty dang slick, not to mention FREE. It was incredibly hassle free to get running and I would say most people could convert to it with just a little help. Microsoft is about to learn that eventually you can piss people off enough to part with familiarity in exchange for respect and freedom. People don't want to be treated like criminals or little babies and they are only going to take so much of it before they wave goodbye. More people would have switched to something like Mac or Linux already, but they didn't want to invest time in learning something new or buy new software or find free alternatives to the software they already know and love. It is purely a matter of convenience. Windows has already become so deeply penetrated in personal computing that it persists as the most dominant creature despite being the crappiest of the three major players right now. But what will happen if enough people finally say, "you know what? I am tired of this garbage! I am tired of being infected with viruses and spyware. I am tired of being so vulnerable. I am tired of things constantly breaking. Most of all, I am tired of being told so many things that I am not allowed to do just because some company wants even more money from me"? What will happen then? People will switch to another operating system (probably Mac OSX because it is still easier to use than Linux by far and Apple is becoming very popular).
You know what I see every day at my university? I see Macs and Linux boxes everywhere. Do I see Windows as well? Most definitely, but I also see a lot of other systems. I remember years ago when only the geekiest of geeks were running Linux and only the most uninformed were running macs. Windows was everywhere, and despite its problems it was everywhere for a reason. Linux was just too hard to use, and macs just plain sucked. Now, almost all of my professors are running macs, and about half of my fellow peers are running Linux (keep in mind I am a computer science student so this high number is not representative of the entire student body). Does this mean Microsoft is about to crumble to its doom after the release of Vista? Unfortunately not, but I think there is one thing Apple could do to help wake Microsoft up and take a huge chunk of their market share along with it.
Right now hardware is the only thing that stands between me throwing Windows XP out the door and using Mac OSX. If I didn't have to actually buy Apple's stupid hardware to run their OS, I would be using their operating system as my primary this very instant. Most people I talk to right now have the same sentiment. Hatred for windows is growing but a lot of PC savvy people don't like the idea of forfeiting their hardware flexibility. I like to be able to build a machine from scratch and have control over every single component that is inside it. I do not want to buy a stock system from the store. New macs run on intel processors so architecture is no longer an issue. I have tested a hacked version of OSX on my laptop so I know that it is capable of running on regular PCs. So why has Apple not opened up their operating system to run on any PC? If they were to do that right now, they would have flocks of people buying their operating system. Sure they would probably lose a huge portion of their hardware business (which is the only reason I can think of that would explain why they haven't done this already), but if they want to become a dominant player in this market I think it is something they might have to do (and I hope they do it because windows needs to go to hell already). I guess we will just have to see what happens. All I know is that Microsoft is really getting on my shit list with the way Vista is turning out to be and I have this feeling that I don't want to be tied to it anymore. I have found myself recommending alternatives to Microsoft software a lot lately and I am certainly not going to recommend Vista to anyone. A lot of people ask my boss about Vista and whether or not they should upgrade to it when it comes out, and right now our answer has been to wait a while before diving in. Maybe we will end up changing our answer to "get Linux" or "get a Mac". If enough computer servicing and consulting companies end up making such recommendations to their clients it will start to have an impact as well because people value our opinions. The only downside to people switching from Windows is that it might put me out of work because I won't have anything to fix.
It's ok though, because the time is riper now than ever for Microsoft's competitors to actually start taking pieces out of the big M$ pie. Mac is gaining converts faster than ever, and desktop linux distributions are FINALLY usable by someone who isn't a computer genius. I have Ubuntu running on my laptop right now and it is pretty dang slick, not to mention FREE. It was incredibly hassle free to get running and I would say most people could convert to it with just a little help. Microsoft is about to learn that eventually you can piss people off enough to part with familiarity in exchange for respect and freedom. People don't want to be treated like criminals or little babies and they are only going to take so much of it before they wave goodbye. More people would have switched to something like Mac or Linux already, but they didn't want to invest time in learning something new or buy new software or find free alternatives to the software they already know and love. It is purely a matter of convenience. Windows has already become so deeply penetrated in personal computing that it persists as the most dominant creature despite being the crappiest of the three major players right now. But what will happen if enough people finally say, "you know what? I am tired of this garbage! I am tired of being infected with viruses and spyware. I am tired of being so vulnerable. I am tired of things constantly breaking. Most of all, I am tired of being told so many things that I am not allowed to do just because some company wants even more money from me"? What will happen then? People will switch to another operating system (probably Mac OSX because it is still easier to use than Linux by far and Apple is becoming very popular).
You know what I see every day at my university? I see Macs and Linux boxes everywhere. Do I see Windows as well? Most definitely, but I also see a lot of other systems. I remember years ago when only the geekiest of geeks were running Linux and only the most uninformed were running macs. Windows was everywhere, and despite its problems it was everywhere for a reason. Linux was just too hard to use, and macs just plain sucked. Now, almost all of my professors are running macs, and about half of my fellow peers are running Linux (keep in mind I am a computer science student so this high number is not representative of the entire student body). Does this mean Microsoft is about to crumble to its doom after the release of Vista? Unfortunately not, but I think there is one thing Apple could do to help wake Microsoft up and take a huge chunk of their market share along with it.
Right now hardware is the only thing that stands between me throwing Windows XP out the door and using Mac OSX. If I didn't have to actually buy Apple's stupid hardware to run their OS, I would be using their operating system as my primary this very instant. Most people I talk to right now have the same sentiment. Hatred for windows is growing but a lot of PC savvy people don't like the idea of forfeiting their hardware flexibility. I like to be able to build a machine from scratch and have control over every single component that is inside it. I do not want to buy a stock system from the store. New macs run on intel processors so architecture is no longer an issue. I have tested a hacked version of OSX on my laptop so I know that it is capable of running on regular PCs. So why has Apple not opened up their operating system to run on any PC? If they were to do that right now, they would have flocks of people buying their operating system. Sure they would probably lose a huge portion of their hardware business (which is the only reason I can think of that would explain why they haven't done this already), but if they want to become a dominant player in this market I think it is something they might have to do (and I hope they do it because windows needs to go to hell already). I guess we will just have to see what happens. All I know is that Microsoft is really getting on my shit list with the way Vista is turning out to be and I have this feeling that I don't want to be tied to it anymore. I have found myself recommending alternatives to Microsoft software a lot lately and I am certainly not going to recommend Vista to anyone. A lot of people ask my boss about Vista and whether or not they should upgrade to it when it comes out, and right now our answer has been to wait a while before diving in. Maybe we will end up changing our answer to "get Linux" or "get a Mac". If enough computer servicing and consulting companies end up making such recommendations to their clients it will start to have an impact as well because people value our opinions. The only downside to people switching from Windows is that it might put me out of work because I won't have anything to fix.
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