All these years, you see, I thought I was living the life of one who... truly Believes... in the Way of Macintosh, the Way of the Apple II, the Way of... it matters not which Way I thought I was going. For it has been REVEALED to me -- I was... MISLEAD!
All this time, you see, I've been promoting "free" software, "shareware," even the EVILLE Gin-Uuue Pub-lick License. Though it was not until years later that I was drawn into the EVILLE FOLD of Richard Stallman's ways.
But I digress.
See, brethern and cistern, I thought that I had returned from that PATH of EVILLE, away from the GPL, away from the CANCER known as LINUX... only for it to be REVEALED that I WAS NOT SAVED!
No, today, I had a... shocking realization. I looked at my computer, at the logo that is etched in it as much as the CLAWS of SATAN had touched it -- and there I saw it -- the Apple.
This humble Apple is no humble Apple as it may seem.. it was a temptation from the GARDEN of EDEN! The Deville, Torvalds, must have sent it to me, to tempt me -- there could be no other way!
And although this Apple bears only one color -- it pretends to be WHITE, the color of all that is holy and good -- I realized, in my childhood, that the Apple of those days had SIX colors. SIX!
And let us think about this some more, the SIX COLORED APPLE.
My first computer, it was an Apple, the "Two Plus" they called it. (two is SIX divided by THREE!) this "Apple TWO Plus" bore a HUUUUGE Apple upon it. And above it.. there rested TWO MORE APPLES, EACH bearing the six-steeerip-ed Apple. Do you know what this put upon my machine?
This bore before me... three six-strpied Apples.
And do you know what this makes?
Six-striped Apple here. Another six-striped Apple here. And another Six-striped Apple here.
SIX SIX SIX!! THE NUMBER OF THEE BEAST!!!!
Indeed, when I looked upon my floppy disks, I found the Mark of Thee Beast -- MICROSOFT!
ALL OF THIS HAS BEEN AN EVILLE CABAL TO BRING ME INTO HIS GRASP!
And even now, I am tempted to return to the land of three Apples, with their salaciously tempting new iMac... pray for me, brethern!, that I do not FALL into HIS HANDS.
This bit of unsavory legislation has changed names so many times now that I have a recommendation for its name: BFPT.
The "PT" stands for "parlour time"... mad props to alt.music.nin for that one.
Say, if you live in the U.S., PLEASE write or call (or both!) the officials that supposedly represent you in the U.S. Senate and House of Representative. If we all just sit here on Slashdot and bitch about it, nothing will happen. But if even 1000, 2000, 5000 of us called our representatives, that'd make a BIG difference. The more the better, so please call!
This is from a fellow whose book I will be reviewing in the near future:
" 'The record industry should stop blaming its customers for decreased sales. Had the industry cut a deal with Napster, it might have avoided the ungovernable chaos of decentralized peer-to-peer services now taking over the Internet,' writes Siva Vaidhyanathan, a cultural historian, media scholar and author of a book on copyrights."
Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times, is an (as I said) excellent book by Robert W. McChesney, is a comprehensive story of how giant corporations are taking control of the mass media. It's not quite the same as having to be to get an ad-free slashdot, but it seems quite related to me. Here's a description:
"Rich Media, Poor Democracy addresses the corporate media explosion and the corresponding implosion of public life that characterizes our times. Challenging the assumption that a society drenched in commercial information "choices" is ipso facto a democratic one, McChesney argues that the major beneficiaries of the so-called Information Age are wealthy investors, advertisers, and a handful of enormous media, computer, and telecommunications corporations. This concentrated corporate control, McChesney maintains, is disastrous for any notion of participatory democracy."
It lays bare, among other things, the myth of the "free" (NOT as in beer, or speech) market, and an analysis of the Internet and its potential direction (McChesney doesn't think it will set us free). And so on. It's damn good.
Let me put it this way: I attended a workshop with McChesney and John Nichols (editor at John Nichols (The Nation, The Capital Times) at RadFest 2001. Nothing at that conference got me more riled up than listening to their discussion about media megaconglomerates. Ohhhh...
Media, and media ownership, is rapidly becoming what Linux was to me two years ago. It affects more people more directly than free software does -- although I have not abandoned free software. Just wait... I've got somethin' up my sleeves for that.:-)
As many/.ers know (or may know a bit of), the first year of my marriage was less than fun. My mom dies two weeks after we get hitched. Three and a half months later, *I* almost died! That, of course, is Slashdot history. I'm doing a LOT better now...:-)
Rob: My only advice to you is to love her, respect her, and, have fun! It will be a lot of work, quite possibly more work than you've ever done for anything in your life. Hopefully, things will go well, and you'll pull through the hard times. My investment banker always talks about having a "long term perspective". That's true for marriage as well as investing.;-) Keep the long term in mind, stay the course, 1000 points of light (pixels?), etc.
This is (as the subject says) another example of the Microsoft FUD War. Only this one is far more directly targeted than MS's previous shots.
I was covering the FUD War for a while.. check out "Anti-American Communist Cancer/Virus: Microsoft vs. the GPL", which is over on linuxppc.org. Previously, they were targeting the GPL specifically, Linux by extension (and sometimes directly). This time, though, they've far outdone themselves. Bravo, Steve, Bill. Bravo.
It is astonishing and frightening to watch how fast things like Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's "Brave New World" are coming true. The USA P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act, among other things (like an utterly submissive Congress) are making this happen at a record pace. Let's hope that promoters of Open Source aren't dubbed "terrorists" and tried in secret court -- which is now possible under the latest residential order...
This is from Declan McCullagh's Politech mailing list:
"Nine states (NY, Michigan, Ohio, NC, Kentucky, Louisana, Maryland, Illinois, Wisconsin) have settled with Microsoft and agreed to a modified version -- details to come -- of the DOJ's agreement inked last week."
Foo. I'm not surprised, considering Jim Doyle... I've been less and less impressed with him following 11 September. I definitely do not support his gubernatorial race now!
I will definitely be calling Doyle's office tomorrow! I hope he's with the "attackers" rather than the "soothers." It totally makes sense that Illinois would go along with that.. I mean.. it's.. Illinois... </obligitory Illinois Slam>
I don't know this out of direct expereince, but a fried of mine who has a lot of experience disassembling machines says that it takes a very long time to disassemble the new (2001) iBooks. One site says it takes three hours to do this.
Since I don't have one, I can't verify this. But it may be worth thinking about if you want to speed up the CPU.
-- haaz, who has two pretty-easy-to-disassemble (Wall St.) PowerBook G3s.
I have been taking a class at my local junior college called State and Local Government, and I must say, it's been an eye-opening experience for me. Among the many things it has done is shown me some ways that a concerned group of people can affect what laws are passed and how things are talked about.
Another thing it has shown me (and I already believed his) is that it is often easier to make changes happen at the state and local (S&L) level than at the federal level. Part of this is because the S&L gov is usually very close by.
Madison, Wisconsin, my town, happens to be the state capitol, which is practically around the corner. It is relatively easy to contact my state representatives (assembly reps and state senators), and even easier to talk to the Madison city council and county board reps.
My point: Why don't we try and get an effort together to lobby or local governments to switch to open source servers? We don't need to go for full desktop implemenatation right away, maybe not even for a long while. But look at all the razzing that IIS is getting. If you tell a local gov rep this, and about how they would be saving the local gov (reduce expenditurs) money, personell time (money) and Internet traffic (money) by using OSS servers, they just might listen.
I'm planning on doing this in Madison, and was actually going to ask Slashdot for some help in doing this. But why don't we start talking about it now?
I have been covering Microsoft's FUD War against the GPL, Linux, and open source software. Currently, it's a collection of links to articles about their efforts, although one news story that I wrote does contain a minor (and hopefully funny) editorial.
The FUD War coverage is at:
linuxppc.org/fudwar/.
Cheers,
It doesn't surprise me that those sites (Napster?) would be common initial pages for many people. I would imagine that most don't know how to reset their browser's default pages. Personally, I change them as soon as I get a browser.
But my real question is: do people respond to advertisements on those sites? I don't. I never do. I am _this_ close to implementing a filtering system so I don't have to see them anymore. That goes for sites like Slashdot, too, btw.
Yeah, I just finished "The Truth"...
on
Thief of Time
·
· Score: 2
...when "Thief of Time" came out. As a potential journalist, I loved "The Truth"!
Also, did anyone reading "Thief of Time" get the theme song to Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate stuck in their head? I did... "dum-dum-dum *dum-dum-dum!* dum-dum-dum..."
The 22" Apple LCD monitor originally listed for $4000. At the last Macworld Expo, the price was cut to $3000. At WWDC, it has come down to around $2600. Not bad. That's almost 50% off what it was at first.
Look at one before you bash it. It's a thing of beauty, true beauty. Everything from the case to the pixels to the colors. Beauty.
They have introduced my dream monitor, a 17" LCD, also with a beautiful case. Unlike many computer users, I do appreciate what the plastic around my machine looks like. My wife has a grape iMac. I have a blue and white PMAC G3. My PowerBook G3 has a beautiful case as well.
Did you notice a theme there? The color grey is not involved. Neither is beige. There is no beige on our desks!
Adding the 17" LCD to my desktop would enhance the look and feel I'm trying to give my desk -- and I could get rid of my big, hot 17" CRT monitor. And the price isn't too bad. Getting that monitor would be an investment, an investment that I'm sure I would be loving it for years.
Apple has introduced something that no other computer maker has been able to reproduce: style. For years, Apple machines have been distinctive. The only time they weren't was around 1995, with the Performa line of low-cost and relatively bad boxes. It's no surprise that Apple was hurting the most when they tried to emulate the "standard PC case" design. And it's no surprise they're doing well now that they're back on the path of stylistic innovation.
It's not for everyone. But for those of us who appreciate it, it's a little breath of fresh air that we feel every day we see one of these fine pieces of work.
Apple should do that as we have helped sell a lot of Apple hardware, and we have helped keep older Apple hardware in use, even when company mandates have said that the unit should be moved to/dev/null.
Apple's hardware guys love us; their software guys are often a wholly different story. Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
I recently got a new machine. It might be better t say "new" machine, as it's not a Power Mac G4. But it still is under warranty, and had not been taken out of the shrinkwrap. My "new" machine was a Blue & White Power Mac G3 (Blue G3), and it has been perfect for me. It's got USB and ADB (Apple Desktop Bus, for keyboards, mice, etc.) ports, plus FireWire (no SCSI, alas), three PCI slots, a relatively fast processor (which I'll make faster once it's out of warranty), decent video card, etc.
The great thing about it for me is that it can use almost all of my existing peripherals (USB 3-btn mouse, ADB Kinesis keyboard) without requiring special PCI cards or funky adapters. It seems blazing fast to me (says the man who still loves the 200 MHz PowerPC) 604e that it does everything I need to do perfectly. SSH, web, e-mail, an occasional game. It's great! Server functions never slow it down. Honestly, I don't need a G4.
I am not the only person using "old" hardware. Look at the winning responses to our Mac OS X Celebration Essay Contest, and you will see people that could take LinuxPPC and install it on a Power Mac 7200 (75 MHz PowerPC 601), and turn it from something that took up closet space into an effective AppleShare (netatalk), Samba, web server, or firewall.
That said, a lot of people are installing it on their dual processor G4s and PowerBook G4s. A lot of people. The responses that mentioned these machines said "I want to unleash my machine, so I'm installing LinuxPPC." So, Linux actually has driven new hardware sales. It also helps old hardware that's in the closet at the moment, as it can run on machines that Mac OS X never will run on.
You can definitely say that it is a benefit to everyone, regardless of how new or how old their hardware is.
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
Right. That'll happen. We'll just roll over and die because, ohmygoodness, someone else made a UNIX variant for the PowerPC!
This actually is a major step in the right direction for a vision that I have: the unification of UNIX on the PowerPC.
This is Serious, so pay attention.;-)
Look at the platform right now. We have approximately five major OSes on PowerPC: Mac OS "Classic", Linux, BSD (which includes OS X, NetBSD, etc.), and AIX, IBM's UNIX.
I honestly don't know the status of AIX; if someone could inform me, I'd appreciate it. I do know that a majority of the PPC machines that we running AIX are now either in the closet, landfill, or are running Linux/PPC.
BSD will soon rise on PPC with OS X.
The "Classic" Mac OS is the dominant player for consumer PPC systems. "Classic" (OS 7.x - 9.x) already runs under Linux/PPC, and may actually run better there than under OS X. (Unconfirmed; this is just what I have heard.)
Now, the PPC makes up a sadly small portion of the market. But it's not going to go away. The TiVo is a Linux/PPC box. The briQ is a LinuxPPC box that'll fit in a drive bay. OS X hopefully will help Apple a bit.
That said, we have a really good processor that's got three major OSes. Classic runs under just about everything, though BSD seems to be a sort of exception. Though that has/will change with OS X... (see how complicated it's getting?)
Let me just cut right to my Vision:
Global Compatibility for All UNIX Systems* on the PowerPC.
* currently in use.
It would help us if we could run an OS X app under LinuxPPC. It'd help them if they could run a LinuxPPC app under OS X. Apparently NetBSD can now run our apps, which makes things like Netscape (which we port; news on that soon), Applixware (guess who got that on Linux/PPC?), and Loki's PPC games theoretically possible to use under NetBSD.
Now, can we go the other way? NetBSD apps under Linux/PPC? Is there a point to that? Shouldn't you just recompile and be done with it? Good questions, all of which need answers.
The two platforms I would really like to get talking are OS X and LinuxPPC.
If we could run OS X apps, perhaps with a native Carbon layer, or with a cleverly coded system to catch Carbon calls, and have Aqua calls go to X (as in X11...too many X's!!), that would be a major breakthrough for us.
Perhaps they will soon be able to or already can run LinuxPPC apps on OS X. If we have that going both ways, there's a tremendous upside:
It unites the PowerPC platform without falling on one OS, one company, to unite us.
Look at the rest of the world. What are they running? Windows.
There's a ton of Linux/x86 people now, too, which is good. But they're not Linux/PPC users.
We can better face Windows, the x86 platform, and the many disconceptions about the PowerPC if we have a united platform.
Together we stand, divided we fall.
Those words never rang truer to me.
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
We recommend trying Debian/PPC. It's a project that we support through hardware donations, and we support the Debian effort. Go that way. It's tested, well-known, and it's... Debian. That says a lot, but hopefully it says good things to you.
Good luck!
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
I do believe that we have discovered another task for the soon-to-be-non-profit LinuxPPC: port to the PS3. Hire some qualified personell, get 'em all PS3s, a few G4s, e voila..
This is assuming that the PS3 would use PCI and perferrably Open Firmware... unlikey, I think.;-) But you never know!
My obligitory comment: "If they want a 'supercomputer on a chip,' talk to Apple marketing..."
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
Call me old fashioned, a Luddite, whatever, but, if there are things that have built-in radio transmitters that could track me wherever I (or really, it) is, I wouldn't buy it or use it. (Assuming I knew it had it, of course.)
I like my privacy. I like my anonymity. Yes, I don't have it to a degree -- I run a personal diary-type web site -- but there are certain things that I don't need broadcast.
Back when I got hit by that drunk back in March 2000, the only reason my wife couldn't find me was because I wasn't able to answer the phone at home. Let's say I had one of these devices that would reveal my approximate location.
what would it mean, knowing that I was still technically in Savannah, Georgia, but... how could it say where specifically? The coordinate given was not my house. It could be anywhere. What use is that?
Even so, I don't want it. Scott McNealy may unfortunately be right, but there's a lot that we can do to protect ourselves and our privacy. I'm actively doing that.
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
The comment from an anonymous user called "My two cents, or the story of how I met my wife" is actually from me, Jason Haas, of LinuxPPC and Slashdotfame.
My comment, because of a browser fuckup, wasn't recorded as being from me. (I guess Konquerer doesn't like Slashdot's cookies!)
If you're wondering, the AC who posted that is me. The article I tried to link to in the comment was the Slashdot coverage of what happened to me back in March 2000. (I'm much better now!)
And all I wanted to do was tell the story of how I met my wife, which was due to the net!:)
So, please, look for my story. It's a good one.:-)
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
Linux is as threatened by OS X as...
on
OS X on x86?
·
· Score: 2
...I can't think of what.
On PowerPC, Linux isn't "threatened" by OS X. Look at the vast array of devices running Linux/PPC. There's the TiVo, Total Imact's briQ, and Apple machines ranging from the Power Mac 7200 (PowerPC 601 @ 75 MHz) to the PowerBook G4 (PPC 7410 @ 400/500 MHz).
OS X is targeted at very specific audiences, most of whom are different than Linux's audience. You can't run OS X on a TiVo. It might be made to run on the briQ (somehow). And you can't run it on any Apple machine prior to the Power Mac G3.
If OS X was released for Intel, it'd find a home (possibly a small home), but it wouldn't totally annihilate Linux. It also won't do that on PowerPC.
People aren't looking at what OS X could do for LinuxPPC. Instead, they're obsessing over what it may do to Linux. And that is not what we should be obsessing over.
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
Slashdot Mirror
Coincidence du jour: InfoAnarchy has just posted a review of Siva's Copyrights and Copywrongs. Check it out!
Dear friends,
... shaken man.
... MISLEAD!
I come to you today, a
All these years, you see, I thought I was living the life of one who... truly Believes... in the Way of Macintosh, the Way of the Apple II, the Way of... it matters not which Way I thought I was going. For it has been REVEALED to me -- I was
All this time, you see, I've been promoting "free" software, "shareware," even the EVILLE Gin-Uuue Pub-lick License. Though it was not until years later that I was drawn into the EVILLE FOLD of Richard Stallman's ways.
But I digress.
See, brethern and cistern, I thought that I had returned from that PATH of EVILLE, away from the GPL, away from the CANCER known as LINUX... only for it to be REVEALED that I WAS NOT SAVED!
No, today, I had a... shocking realization. I looked at my computer, at the logo that is etched in it as much as the CLAWS of SATAN had touched it -- and there I saw it -- the Apple.
This humble Apple is no humble Apple as it may seem.. it was a temptation from the GARDEN of EDEN! The Deville, Torvalds, must have sent it to me, to tempt me -- there could be no other way!
And although this Apple bears only one color -- it pretends to be WHITE, the color of all that is holy and good -- I realized, in my childhood, that the Apple of those days had SIX colors. SIX!
And let us think about this some more, the SIX COLORED APPLE.
My first computer, it was an Apple, the "Two Plus" they called it. (two is SIX divided by THREE!) this "Apple TWO Plus" bore a HUUUUGE Apple upon it. And above it.. there rested TWO MORE APPLES, EACH bearing the six-steeerip-ed Apple. Do you know what this put upon my machine?
This bore before me... three six-strpied Apples.
And do you know what this makes?
Six-striped Apple here. Another six-striped Apple here. And another Six-striped Apple here.
SIX SIX SIX!! THE NUMBER OF THEE BEAST!!!!
Indeed, when I looked upon my floppy disks, I found the Mark of Thee Beast -- MICROSOFT!
ALL OF THIS HAS BEEN AN EVILLE CABAL TO BRING ME INTO HIS GRASP!
And even now, I am tempted to return to the land of three Apples, with their salaciously tempting new iMac... pray for me, brethern!, that I do not FALL into HIS HANDS.
YOU SHALL NOT GET ME YET, GATES!
repenting now, sir,
This bit of unsavory legislation has changed names so many times now that I have a recommendation for its name: BFPT.
The "PT" stands for "parlour time"... mad props to alt.music.nin for that one.
Say, if you live in the U.S., PLEASE write or call (or both!) the officials that supposedly represent you in the U.S. Senate and House of Representative. If we all just sit here on Slashdot and bitch about it, nothing will happen. But if even 1000, 2000, 5000 of us called our representatives, that'd make a BIG difference. The more the better, so please call!
There's so little difference between the Dems and the Repugs I'm not at all surprised that they're planning on doing the same thing.
This is from a fellow whose book I will be reviewing in the near future:
" 'The record industry should stop blaming its customers for decreased sales. Had the industry cut a deal with Napster, it might have avoided the ungovernable chaos of decentralized peer-to-peer services now taking over the Internet,' writes Siva Vaidhyanathan, a cultural historian, media scholar and author of a book on copyrights."
Check the story out over over here.
Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times, is an (as I said) excellent book by Robert W. McChesney, is a comprehensive story of how giant corporations are taking control of the mass media. It's not quite the same as having to be to get an ad-free slashdot, but it seems quite related to me. Here's a description:
:-)
"Rich Media, Poor Democracy addresses the corporate media explosion and the corresponding implosion of public life that characterizes our times. Challenging the assumption that a society drenched in commercial information "choices" is ipso facto a democratic one, McChesney argues that the major beneficiaries of the so-called Information Age are wealthy investors, advertisers, and a handful of enormous media, computer, and telecommunications corporations. This concentrated corporate control, McChesney maintains, is disastrous for any notion of participatory democracy."
(That was from bn.com.)
It lays bare, among other things, the myth of the "free" (NOT as in beer, or speech) market, and an analysis of the Internet and its potential direction (McChesney doesn't think it will set us free). And so on. It's damn good.
Let me put it this way: I attended a workshop with McChesney and John Nichols (editor at John Nichols (The Nation, The Capital Times) at RadFest 2001. Nothing at that conference got me more riled up than listening to their discussion about media megaconglomerates. Ohhhh...
Media, and media ownership, is rapidly becoming what Linux was to me two years ago. It affects more people more directly than free software does -- although I have not abandoned free software. Just wait... I've got somethin' up my sleeves for that.
-- haaz.
Hey, Rob, congratulations!
/.ers know (or may know a bit of), the first year of my marriage was less than fun. My mom dies two weeks after we get hitched. Three and a half months later, *I* almost died! That, of course, is Slashdot history. I'm doing a LOT better now... :-)
;-D
;-) Keep the long term in mind, stay the course, 1000 points of light (pixels?), etc.
As many
In fact, my wife and I are expecting a little something...
Rob: My only advice to you is to love her, respect her, and, have fun! It will be a lot of work, quite possibly more work than you've ever done for anything in your life. Hopefully, things will go well, and you'll pull through the hard times. My investment banker always talks about having a "long term perspective". That's true for marriage as well as investing.
Good luck, and have fun!
- Jason, a.k.a.
This is (as the subject says) another example of the Microsoft FUD War. Only this one is far more directly targeted than MS's previous shots.
I was covering the FUD War for a while.. check out "Anti-American Communist Cancer/Virus: Microsoft vs. the GPL", which is over on linuxppc.org. Previously, they were targeting the GPL specifically, Linux by extension (and sometimes directly). This time, though, they've far outdone themselves. Bravo, Steve, Bill. Bravo.
It is astonishing and frightening to watch how fast things like Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's "Brave New World" are coming true. The USA P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act, among other things (like an utterly submissive Congress) are making this happen at a record pace. Let's hope that promoters of Open Source aren't dubbed "terrorists" and tried in secret court -- which is now possible under the latest residential order...
This is from Declan McCullagh's
Politech mailing list:
"Nine states (NY, Michigan, Ohio, NC, Kentucky, Louisana, Maryland, Illinois, Wisconsin) have settled with Microsoft and agreed to a modified version -- details to come -- of the DOJ's agreement inked last week."
Foo. I'm not surprised, considering Jim Doyle... I've been less and less impressed with him following 11 September. I definitely do not support his gubernatorial race now!
I will definitely be calling Doyle's office tomorrow! I hope he's with the "attackers" rather than the "soothers." It totally makes sense that Illinois would go along with that.. I mean.. it's.. Illinois... </obligitory Illinois Slam>
I don't know this out of direct expereince, but a fried of mine who has a lot of experience disassembling machines says that it takes a very long time to disassemble the new (2001) iBooks. One site says it takes three hours to do this.
Since I don't have one, I can't verify this. But it may be worth thinking about if you want to speed up the CPU.
-- haaz, who has two pretty-easy-to-disassemble (Wall St.) PowerBook G3s.
I have been taking a class at my local junior college called State and Local Government, and I must say, it's been an eye-opening experience for me. Among the many things it has done is shown me some ways that a concerned group of people can affect what laws are passed and how things are talked about.
Another thing it has shown me (and I already believed his) is that it is often easier to make changes happen at the state and local (S&L) level than at the federal level. Part of this is because the S&L gov is usually very close by.
Madison, Wisconsin, my town, happens to be the state capitol, which is practically around the corner. It is relatively easy to contact my state representatives (assembly reps and state senators), and even easier to talk to the Madison city council and county board reps.
My point: Why don't we try and get an effort together to lobby or local governments to switch to open source servers? We don't need to go for full desktop implemenatation right away, maybe not even for a long while. But look at all the razzing that IIS is getting. If you tell a local gov rep this, and about how they would be saving the local gov (reduce expenditurs) money, personell time (money) and Internet traffic (money) by using OSS servers, they just might listen.
I'm planning on doing this in Madison, and was actually going to ask Slashdot for some help in doing this. But why don't we start talking about it now?
-- haaz.
I have been covering Microsoft's FUD War against the GPL, Linux, and open source software. Currently, it's a collection of links to articles about their efforts, although one news story that I wrote does contain a minor (and hopefully funny) editorial. The FUD War coverage is at: linuxppc.org/fudwar/. Cheers,
It doesn't surprise me that those sites (Napster?) would be common initial pages for many people. I would imagine that most don't know how to reset their browser's default pages. Personally, I change them as soon as I get a browser. But my real question is: do people respond to advertisements on those sites? I don't. I never do. I am _this_ close to implementing a filtering system so I don't have to see them anymore. That goes for sites like Slashdot, too, btw.
...when "Thief of Time" came out. As a potential journalist, I loved "The Truth"!
Also, did anyone reading "Thief of Time" get the theme song to Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate stuck in their head? I did... "dum-dum-dum *dum-dum-dum!* dum-dum-dum..."
The 22" Apple LCD monitor originally listed for $4000. At the last Macworld Expo, the price was cut to $3000. At WWDC, it has come down to around $2600. Not bad. That's almost 50% off what it was at first.
Look at one before you bash it. It's a thing of beauty, true beauty. Everything from the case to the pixels to the colors. Beauty.
They have introduced my dream monitor, a 17" LCD, also with a beautiful case. Unlike many computer users, I do appreciate what the plastic around my machine looks like. My wife has a grape iMac. I have a blue and white PMAC G3. My PowerBook G3 has a beautiful case as well.
Did you notice a theme there? The color grey is not involved. Neither is beige. There is no beige on our desks!
Adding the 17" LCD to my desktop would enhance the look and feel I'm trying to give my desk -- and I could get rid of my big, hot 17" CRT monitor. And the price isn't too bad. Getting that monitor would be an investment, an investment that I'm sure I would be loving it for years.
Apple has introduced something that no other computer maker has been able to reproduce: style. For years, Apple machines have been distinctive. The only time they weren't was around 1995, with the Performa line of low-cost and relatively bad boxes. It's no surprise that Apple was hurting the most when they tried to emulate the "standard PC case" design. And it's no surprise they're doing well now that they're back on the path of stylistic innovation.
It's not for everyone. But for those of us who appreciate it, it's a little breath of fresh air that we feel every day we see one of these fine pieces of work.
Apple should do that as we have helped sell a lot of Apple hardware, and we have helped keep older Apple hardware in use, even when company mandates have said that the unit should be moved to /dev/null.
Apple's hardware guys love us; their software guys are often a wholly different story.
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
I recently got a new machine. It might be better t say "new" machine, as it's not a Power Mac G4. But it still is under warranty, and had not been taken out of the shrinkwrap. My "new" machine was a Blue & White Power Mac G3 (Blue G3), and it has been perfect for me. It's got USB and ADB (Apple Desktop Bus, for keyboards, mice, etc.) ports, plus FireWire (no SCSI, alas), three PCI slots, a relatively fast processor (which I'll make faster once it's out of warranty), decent video card, etc.
The great thing about it for me is that it can use almost all of my existing peripherals (USB 3-btn mouse, ADB Kinesis keyboard) without requiring special PCI cards or funky adapters. It seems blazing fast to me (says the man who still loves the 200 MHz PowerPC) 604e that it does everything I need to do perfectly. SSH, web, e-mail, an occasional game. It's great! Server functions never slow it down. Honestly, I don't need a G4.
I am not the only person using "old" hardware. Look at the winning responses to our Mac OS X Celebration Essay Contest, and you will see people that could take LinuxPPC and install it on a Power Mac 7200 (75 MHz PowerPC 601), and turn it from something that took up closet space into an effective AppleShare (netatalk), Samba, web server, or firewall.
That said, a lot of people are installing it on their dual processor G4s and PowerBook G4s. A lot of people. The responses that mentioned these machines said "I want to unleash my machine, so I'm installing LinuxPPC." So, Linux actually has driven new hardware sales. It also helps old hardware that's in the closet at the moment, as it can run on machines that Mac OS X never will run on.
You can definitely say that it is a benefit to everyone, regardless of how new or how old their hardware is.
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
Right. That'll happen. We'll just roll over and die because, ohmygoodness, someone else made a UNIX variant for the PowerPC!
;-)
This actually is a major step in the right direction for a vision that I have: the unification of UNIX on the PowerPC.
This is Serious, so pay attention.
Look at the platform right now. We have approximately five major OSes on PowerPC: Mac OS "Classic", Linux, BSD (which includes OS X, NetBSD, etc.), and AIX, IBM's UNIX.
I honestly don't know the status of AIX; if someone could inform me, I'd appreciate it. I do know that a majority of the PPC machines that we running AIX are now either in the closet, landfill, or are running Linux/PPC.
BSD will soon rise on PPC with OS X.
The "Classic" Mac OS is the dominant player for consumer PPC systems. "Classic" (OS 7.x - 9.x) already runs under Linux/PPC, and may actually run better there than under OS X. (Unconfirmed; this is just what I have heard.)
Now, the PPC makes up a sadly small portion of the market. But it's not going to go away. The TiVo is a Linux/PPC box. The briQ is a LinuxPPC box that'll fit in a drive bay. OS X hopefully will help Apple a bit.
That said, we have a really good processor that's got three major OSes. Classic runs under just about everything, though BSD seems to be a sort of exception. Though that has/will change with OS X... (see how complicated it's getting?)
Let me just cut right to my Vision:
Global Compatibility for All UNIX Systems* on the PowerPC.
* currently in use.
It would help us if we could run an OS X app under LinuxPPC. It'd help them if they could run a LinuxPPC app under OS X. Apparently NetBSD can now run our apps, which makes things like Netscape (which we port; news on that soon), Applixware (guess who got that on Linux/PPC?), and Loki's PPC games theoretically possible to use under NetBSD.
Now, can we go the other way? NetBSD apps under Linux/PPC? Is there a point to that? Shouldn't you just recompile and be done with it? Good questions, all of which need answers.
The two platforms I would really like to get talking are OS X and LinuxPPC.
If we could run OS X apps, perhaps with a native Carbon layer, or with a cleverly coded system to catch Carbon calls, and have Aqua calls go to X (as in X11...too many X's!!), that would be a major breakthrough for us.
Perhaps they will soon be able to or already can run LinuxPPC apps on OS X. If we have that going both ways, there's a tremendous upside:
It unites the PowerPC platform without falling on one OS, one company, to unite us.
Look at the rest of the world. What are they running? Windows.
There's a ton of Linux/x86 people now, too, which is good. But they're not Linux/PPC users.
We can better face Windows, the x86 platform, and the many disconceptions about the PowerPC if we have a united platform.
Together we stand, divided we fall.
Those words never rang truer to me.
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
saint,
We recommend trying Debian/PPC. It's a project that we support through hardware donations, and we support the Debian effort. Go that way. It's tested, well-known, and it's... Debian. That says a lot, but hopefully it says good things to you.
Good luck!
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
I do believe that we have discovered another task for the soon-to-be-non-profit LinuxPPC: port to the PS3. Hire some qualified personell, get 'em all PS3s, a few G4s, e voila..
;-) But you never know!
This is assuming that the PS3 would use PCI and perferrably Open Firmware... unlikey, I think.
My obligitory comment: "If they want a 'supercomputer on a chip,' talk to Apple marketing..."
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
Call me old fashioned, a Luddite, whatever, but, if there are things that have built-in radio transmitters that could track me wherever I (or really, it) is, I wouldn't buy it or use it. (Assuming I knew it had it, of course.)
I like my privacy. I like my anonymity. Yes, I don't have it to a degree -- I run a personal diary-type web site -- but there are certain things that I don't need broadcast.
Back when I got hit by that drunk back in March 2000, the only reason my wife couldn't find me was because I wasn't able to answer the phone at home. Let's say I had one of these devices that would reveal my approximate location.
what would it mean, knowing that I was still technically in Savannah, Georgia, but... how could it say where specifically? The coordinate given was not my house. It could be anywhere. What use is that?
Even so, I don't want it. Scott McNealy may unfortunately be right, but there's a lot that we can do to protect ourselves and our privacy. I'm actively doing that.
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
The comment from an anonymous user called "My two cents, or the story of how I met my wife" is actually from me, Jason Haas, of Linux PPC and Slashdot fame.
:)
:-)
My comment, because of a browser fuckup, wasn't recorded as being from me. (I guess Konquerer doesn't like Slashdot's cookies!)
If you're wondering, the AC who posted that is me. The article I tried to link to in the comment was the Slashdot coverage of what happened to me back in March 2000. (I'm much better now!)
And all I wanted to do was tell the story of how I met my wife, which was due to the net!
So, please, look for my story. It's a good one.
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.
...I can't think of what.
On PowerPC, Linux isn't "threatened" by OS X. Look at the vast array of devices running Linux/PPC. There's the TiVo, Total Imact's briQ, and Apple machines ranging from the Power Mac 7200 (PowerPC 601 @ 75 MHz) to the PowerBook G4 (PPC 7410 @ 400/500 MHz).
OS X is targeted at very specific audiences, most of whom are different than Linux's audience. You can't run OS X on a TiVo. It might be made to run on the briQ (somehow). And you can't run it on any Apple machine prior to the Power Mac G3.
If OS X was released for Intel, it'd find a home (possibly a small home), but it wouldn't totally annihilate Linux. It also won't do that on PowerPC.
People aren't looking at what OS X could do for LinuxPPC. Instead, they're obsessing over what it may do to Linux. And that is not what we should be obsessing over.
Haaz: Co-founder, LinuxPPC Inc., making Linux for PowerPC since 1996.