And I promise what the title of this post says. I was turned on to it by Squall. And, now that I have it running, it's the most fun I've ever had with a computer. Including free porn.
Beryl, Compiz and Xgl
First there was Xgl, an OpenGL implementation for XWindows and X.org (etc...) and for a time it was good. But it wasn't being utilized (unless you count screen savers, which I don't). Then came Compiz and, while it's a fantastic implementation of OpenGL for the Linux desktop (thank's Novell!) there wasn't too awful much you could do with it (I can hear the complaints now...). Then came Beryl. "And on the 42nd of Juvembtober he grabbed a beer and ejoyed his work."
Beryl is the coolest goddamned thing I've ever seen for a computer. Ever. Better than the internet (well, maybe not the internet, but definitely better than the intrawebs). I'd love to be able to explain this in my usual flowery way with big words that don't make sense to 80% of the unwashed asses but I can't. Words fail. So I'll let YouTube do it for me:
That's only a little bit of what it can do. Three hours fucking around with it and I've only played with maybe half. Aero can kiss ma ass (could from the start, but yeah). Aqua, I love you and you're easy to use, but I like Beryl more.
Thank you Linus
Let us give thanks to that which started it all. To the tiniest of programs which runs the largest of computers. To the innocuous little guy that keeps everything running, never stopping, never complaining, and only rarely panicking (usually due to some stupid BKAC (think PEBKAC) error). That fantastic monolithic creation called the kernel and it's creator, the Helsinki Hellian (I don't know either...), Linus Torvalds. I tip my hat to you sir for showing the way and ignoring the people who said it couldn't be done, shouldn't be done or wouldn't be done. We (now this is where you all put fingers to brow) salute you. Semper fu, tarry on.
Gryyphyn, out.
20070427
Fink Ployd (aka. From the Middle of Fucking Nowhere)
So, here I am in MOFN (middle of fucking nowhere), also known as Wyoming. I'm on a road trip with my mom, heading for the hills and relaxation. It's been a while since I've taken a vacation and I'll tell you, it's very welcome.
We're almost to our destination, a fantastic little town called Steamboat Springs in the northern part of Colorado. So far on this trip I've used Pai (my Macbook for those not in the know) to write a spreadsheet, listen to music, watch a movie and take a cool picture (which I'll apparently have to load later. DA isn't playing nice... :( ).
We were in the stretch between Evanston and Rock Springs when Queen came on. I didn't think about the song until my mom looked over at me and said “Waynes World!”. We just couldn't help but sing the refrain WW style. God, we're such nerds...
We've listened to everything from Ozzy to Queen to, now, the Stones. I asked her at one point “what the hell did people do on long trips when all there was was the occasional AM radio station?” I've never had to deal without music on a trip. Now I'm a little spoiled. I have a laptop with a DVD drive and a ton of battery life (I'm on hour 5 right now, after the music, movie and everything else). We truly are the most fortunate generation to come so far.
We're old enough to remember what values are. We know what 'the look' is. We know that when someone says “no” they mean it and, if they're older, you damn well better listen. But we also get the most benefit from technology. I've grown up with computers, almost from their mainstream inception. Our level of education (for those of us who aren't extremely freaking lazy) is higher than it has ever been. We're catching up to the eastern countries, something that hasn't happened before.
The new generation, on the other hand... lazy bunch of fuckers. They don't know how to spell and rely on Windows to do it for them. They don't know how to add, they have calculators for that. They get away with murder because their parents are too lazy and/or self-absorbed to punish them. They get pampered because mommy and daddy are indulgent pricks. And I'll be damned if I've seen many that know what work is.
Now see, this is what happens when I get time to write. I bitch and complain. My whole point for this entry is I'm having a good time, I'm relaxing, and I fully intend on not doing a lick of work while I'm here. Have a nice day everyone! Burn some incense, make some tea, sit under a shade tree with your significant other and enjoy being alive. They're rare moments and we should all embrace them when we have the chance.
Dumb fucker of the... how long has it been now?
It's fun to laugh at people. I laugh at myself all the time. But there's just some people who make your muscles hurt with all the laughing at them.
We recently lost one of those. Joseph Barbera, beloved creator of many cartoons I grew up with like The Flintstones and The Jetsons, passed on to the great drawing board in the sky. I honestly thought that everybody in the world knew who he was, even if it took a little prompting by mentioning a cartoon he worked on (we all forget things)...
But this person... so help me... One of my coworkers looked at me and said “What movies was he in?” Blank stares all around. “Well was he in TV shows?” Again with the looks. “Well if he wasn't anything important like an actor then why do you care?”
This caused two reactions, anger being the first. How could you not know many kids' secondary heroes? The man basically invented the SatAM genre for hell's sake! The second reaction was contemplative. Has our society really bred people to not care who someone is unless they're the ones on the screen? Don't we care anymore about the people doing most of the work? Cause I'll promise you right the fuck now that the actors do only about 25% of the work on anything. The months, sometimes years, that go in to pre- and post-production for something like that are what really makes it happen.
Author's note: The title... yeah. Apparently after six hours in a car Pink Floyd becomes 'Fink Ployd'... blame my mom!
Gryyphyn, out.
Section-9
We're almost to our destination, a fantastic little town called Steamboat Springs in the northern part of Colorado. So far on this trip I've used Pai (my Macbook for those not in the know) to write a spreadsheet, listen to music, watch a movie and take a cool picture (which I'll apparently have to load later. DA isn't playing nice... :( ).
We were in the stretch between Evanston and Rock Springs when Queen came on. I didn't think about the song until my mom looked over at me and said “Waynes World!”. We just couldn't help but sing the refrain WW style. God, we're such nerds...
We've listened to everything from Ozzy to Queen to, now, the Stones. I asked her at one point “what the hell did people do on long trips when all there was was the occasional AM radio station?” I've never had to deal without music on a trip. Now I'm a little spoiled. I have a laptop with a DVD drive and a ton of battery life (I'm on hour 5 right now, after the music, movie and everything else). We truly are the most fortunate generation to come so far.
We're old enough to remember what values are. We know what 'the look' is. We know that when someone says “no” they mean it and, if they're older, you damn well better listen. But we also get the most benefit from technology. I've grown up with computers, almost from their mainstream inception. Our level of education (for those of us who aren't extremely freaking lazy) is higher than it has ever been. We're catching up to the eastern countries, something that hasn't happened before.
The new generation, on the other hand... lazy bunch of fuckers. They don't know how to spell and rely on Windows to do it for them. They don't know how to add, they have calculators for that. They get away with murder because their parents are too lazy and/or self-absorbed to punish them. They get pampered because mommy and daddy are indulgent pricks. And I'll be damned if I've seen many that know what work is.
Now see, this is what happens when I get time to write. I bitch and complain. My whole point for this entry is I'm having a good time, I'm relaxing, and I fully intend on not doing a lick of work while I'm here. Have a nice day everyone! Burn some incense, make some tea, sit under a shade tree with your significant other and enjoy being alive. They're rare moments and we should all embrace them when we have the chance.
Dumb fucker of the... how long has it been now?
It's fun to laugh at people. I laugh at myself all the time. But there's just some people who make your muscles hurt with all the laughing at them.
We recently lost one of those. Joseph Barbera, beloved creator of many cartoons I grew up with like The Flintstones and The Jetsons, passed on to the great drawing board in the sky. I honestly thought that everybody in the world knew who he was, even if it took a little prompting by mentioning a cartoon he worked on (we all forget things)...
But this person... so help me
This caused two reactions, anger being the first. How could you not know many kids' secondary heroes? The man basically invented the SatAM genre for hell's sake! The second reaction was contemplative. Has our society really bred people to not care who someone is unless they're the ones on the screen? Don't we care anymore about the people doing most of the work? Cause I'll promise you right the fuck now that the actors do only about 25% of the work on anything. The months, sometimes years, that go in to pre- and post-production for something like that are what really makes it happen.
Author's note: The title... yeah. Apparently after six hours in a car Pink Floyd becomes 'Fink Ployd'... blame my mom!
Gryyphyn, out.
Section-9
20070409
Fuck AIM and the jackass who wrote it
First, this won't be in my usual format as I'm still working on another big piece.
AIM is a piece of crap, as is AOL. It's not user friendly if you know how a mouse works rather than just how to use it. You can't upload your own pictures like you can with every other IM client I've ever used. And god forbid you want to keep your running processes down because it requires three.
Here's the message AOL: bite my pasty white ass. Let the big kids make the useful stuff. You can stick to being one of the last, sorry companies offering dial-up for damn near the same price as cable service and cram the second worst application ever conceived right up your pretentious ass.
Gryyphyn, out.
AIM is a piece of crap, as is AOL. It's not user friendly if you know how a mouse works rather than just how to use it. You can't upload your own pictures like you can with every other IM client I've ever used. And god forbid you want to keep your running processes down because it requires three.
Here's the message AOL: bite my pasty white ass. Let the big kids make the useful stuff. You can stick to being one of the last, sorry companies offering dial-up for damn near the same price as cable service and cram the second worst application ever conceived right up your pretentious ass.
Gryyphyn, out.
20070319
Quickie...
Just a quickie for everyone: I'm working on a full-fledged article right now. Couple things to think about while you wait:
Linux would not exist were it not for Linus Torvalds (no shit, right?) But it also wouldn't exist were it not for Richard Stallman and Bill Gates too. I can't wait for the flame war this one might start...
I've said many times, thanks to Squall, that Emacs isn't a text editor, it's an operating system. But I saw something new recently, that it's a thermonuclear word processor. Just kinda funny.
Last, if you want to see what the spurning thoughts for this article were, go to here:
http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html
and here:
http://codev2.cc/
Gryyphyn, out.
Linux would not exist were it not for Linus Torvalds (no shit, right?) But it also wouldn't exist were it not for Richard Stallman and Bill Gates too. I can't wait for the flame war this one might start...
I've said many times, thanks to Squall, that Emacs isn't a text editor, it's an operating system. But I saw something new recently, that it's a thermonuclear word processor. Just kinda funny.
Last, if you want to see what the spurning thoughts for this article were, go to here:
http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html
and here:
http://codev2.cc/
Gryyphyn, out.
20070306
Fanfiction
20070305
20070227
Ethics and OSS/FSS
A friend of mine,who shall remain nameless as I haven't received his permission to use it, sent me an email recently asking about the ethics of using closed-source modules in Linux (at least that's what the root of the question was interpreted to be by me). Things like PDF reader and MP3 decoders are considered closed-source programs and are normally charged for. Doing things like cracking codecs is technically illegal. I say technically because it's what the law says. But is the law always right?
Below is my reply but before you get to that I ask you to consider this: do the people that create and enforce our laws really have our best interests in mind or are they protecting those who can already protect themselves? I don't know about you but I don't have the money to cover my ass should certain companies find out I'm using their software without paying for it. I can't afford to pay for the software in the first place, that's why I'm using it 'illegally'. So does that mean that I'm supposed to be denied the right to utilize media that's created by, or directly uses, the format/program in question?
My reply
The debate that you're referencing is more than just legality or OSS vs. closed-source or proprietary programs. The point that you raise is the same standpoint that the FSF (Free Software Foundation) clings to, that all, or most at least, software should be free. The problem isn't in the paying for software, it's in the price, I think. It's not fair that a company like Microsoft charges exorbitant amounts of money for their software. Charging for your work is ethical, overcharging for it is morally wrong and illustrates the social ineptitude of people who call themselves entrepreneurs.
People like Bill Gates they want to capitalize and monopolize on the success of an idea and the work of others. Bill Gate's couldn't program a robot around a corner. His idea was to invade, control and capitalize on a market that nobody else had thought of as a private quarters sanctum. He wanted to build something that the business public would use. Then, once he got the market penetration he thought he deserved, he capitalized on the idea and made everybody sign blood pacts with him so he could charge shitloads of money, all the while knowing that things only worked with his idea and he could therefore get away with it. Pro: The hardware's cheap. Con: The software is ridiculously expensive.
Then you have people like Steve Jobs. First, he let a businessman control the overall finances of a company he built. Second he hired people who could do what he wanted. Third he hired more people who could build what he envisioned. Then he sat in on the design meetings and gave his input. Steve knows how to produce a product that the public wants, that will work and continue to do so for a long time and that the public will embrace emphatically. iPod wasn't a fluke, it was a well thought out design. OSX wasn't an operating system, it was truly a work of programming art that was designed to be easy to use, effective and as near flawless as you can get as an OS. Then he went out to all of these companies and said "here's our product, come work with us" and offered everything as a package deal at a reasonable price. But he didn't say only work with us, he just said "here's what you have to do for us and we'll work exclusively with you", not "do this and work only with us or fuck off". The hardware's more expensive but the software is dirt cheap in comparison.
Next comes Linus Torvalds (praise be!). First, he wasn't designing a product, he was designing something for the sake of it and for himself and a few close friends to use. The idea wasn't to build some money hogging conglomeration and market it as his own. He simply built the core, the foundation on which everything else is built, and told the whole world to use it if they wanted to. All he wanted was for people to give him credit for the work he did. He wasn't going for fame or money, just for fun (coincidently that's also the name of his biography). He let everyone else use it, gave and took credit where credit was due and let anyone who wanted to work with it work with it with no real restrictions. Hell, he even said change it if you want, just let me and mine test it if you want everyone else to use it. Nobody else did that.
The main differences between the three ideals here is the ego. Bill is all ego, all money, all acclaim. Steve is egotistical but doesn't suffer from nepotism like Bill and wants to make a profit, just not rape our wallets. Linus is at the opposite end of the spectrum and follows his ideals without charging, realizing that his work is just a piece of the puzzle. Steve and Bill want to make money while Steve and Linus want to make stuff that works well. But Bill doesn't want to play nicely with others, not everyone can afford a Mac and pretty well none of us are so disconnected from the world that we can rely solely on Linux (don't take it like the insult it seems to be).
Bottom line: using closed source applications isn't unethical, it's just breaking the law. Anyone who said the law is always ethical needs to be beaten to death with the smart stick because they've already been hit enough with the dumbass bat. Also there's companies out there, namely Novell with their SuSE product who offer the binaries (not the source code, thus making it closed source instead of open source (code)) for use on Linux and other non-Windows/Mac systems. The binaries are freely available from the openSuSE project (http://www.opensuse.org).
I highly encourage you to follow the link that's in the title of this entry. It's the preamble for the GPL (General Public License) that governs the use of open source software. While it's not used for all open source software the spirit in the preamble doesn't change for the most part through the different iterations of the different GPL licenses (yes, there's quite a few different GPL versions and license levels). Let me answer my earlier question: I shouldn't be denied enjoying the different things out there, be they movies, music or on-line readables. Just imagine if you had to pay $15 just to read my blog for a year. Would you? Cause there's no way in hell I'm that entertaining and if you think I am I know a really good psychologist...
Also I think that of the three Steve Jobs really has the right idea. I know how hard it is to make stuff like this and I don't want other people using it without my permission. But I wrote all of my stuff with the GPL in mind and gave everyone permission so long as the gave me my credit, though none of it was good or useful enough to charge for.
DF of the week
There's a new show out called "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?" This is a fantastic show, especially if you like to watch people make asses of themselves on national television. And it's nice to see kids get the ego boost from realizing what we won't tell them: that they're smarter than most adults.
Farewell unwashed asses.
Gryyphyn, out.
I'm having an ethical issue within myself. What are your thoughts on using restricted formats on Linux even though it is not legal? I do of course (every proprietary format I can think of) but I'm not sure if it's right. On the one hand it is wrong that everything (most web functionality it seems) is built around a restricted format (streaming wmv, mpeg, etc.) so only certain OS's can legally use them and I want to say to hell with the "man". But on the other hand I'm not entirely against restricted formats. If I was an artist who made a living of selling my music I wouldn't want it obtainable legally for free. If someone comes up with a piece of software or format it's their prerogative if they want to restrict it or sell it (I'm not against non-free software, people put their hard work into it). My personal belief is that all information and data should be free (this is different than a piece of software), but the majority of multimedia formats is not (should multimedia be??). So you are left with: a) pay out the ass for microsoft or mac, b) use the formats illegally anyway and tell everyone to go to hell, c) refuse to use non-free formats and miss out on most of the webs multimedia goodness.
Thoughts?
Below is my reply but before you get to that I ask you to consider this: do the people that create and enforce our laws really have our best interests in mind or are they protecting those who can already protect themselves? I don't know about you but I don't have the money to cover my ass should certain companies find out I'm using their software without paying for it. I can't afford to pay for the software in the first place, that's why I'm using it 'illegally'. So does that mean that I'm supposed to be denied the right to utilize media that's created by, or directly uses, the format/program in question?
My reply
The debate that you're referencing is more than just legality or OSS vs. closed-source or proprietary programs. The point that you raise is the same standpoint that the FSF (Free Software Foundation) clings to, that all, or most at least, software should be free. The problem isn't in the paying for software, it's in the price, I think. It's not fair that a company like Microsoft charges exorbitant amounts of money for their software. Charging for your work is ethical, overcharging for it is morally wrong and illustrates the social ineptitude of people who call themselves entrepreneurs.
People like Bill Gates they want to capitalize and monopolize on the success of an idea and the work of others. Bill Gate's couldn't program a robot around a corner. His idea was to invade, control and capitalize on a market that nobody else had thought of as a private quarters sanctum. He wanted to build something that the business public would use. Then, once he got the market penetration he thought he deserved, he capitalized on the idea and made everybody sign blood pacts with him so he could charge shitloads of money, all the while knowing that things only worked with his idea and he could therefore get away with it. Pro: The hardware's cheap. Con: The software is ridiculously expensive.
Then you have people like Steve Jobs. First, he let a businessman control the overall finances of a company he built. Second he hired people who could do what he wanted. Third he hired more people who could build what he envisioned. Then he sat in on the design meetings and gave his input. Steve knows how to produce a product that the public wants, that will work and continue to do so for a long time and that the public will embrace emphatically. iPod wasn't a fluke, it was a well thought out design. OSX wasn't an operating system, it was truly a work of programming art that was designed to be easy to use, effective and as near flawless as you can get as an OS. Then he went out to all of these companies and said "here's our product, come work with us" and offered everything as a package deal at a reasonable price. But he didn't say only work with us, he just said "here's what you have to do for us and we'll work exclusively with you", not "do this and work only with us or fuck off". The hardware's more expensive but the software is dirt cheap in comparison.
Next comes Linus Torvalds (praise be!). First, he wasn't designing a product, he was designing something for the sake of it and for himself and a few close friends to use. The idea wasn't to build some money hogging conglomeration and market it as his own. He simply built the core, the foundation on which everything else is built, and told the whole world to use it if they wanted to. All he wanted was for people to give him credit for the work he did. He wasn't going for fame or money, just for fun (coincidently that's also the name of his biography). He let everyone else use it, gave and took credit where credit was due and let anyone who wanted to work with it work with it with no real restrictions. Hell, he even said change it if you want, just let me and mine test it if you want everyone else to use it. Nobody else did that.
The main differences between the three ideals here is the ego. Bill is all ego, all money, all acclaim. Steve is egotistical but doesn't suffer from nepotism like Bill and wants to make a profit, just not rape our wallets. Linus is at the opposite end of the spectrum and follows his ideals without charging, realizing that his work is just a piece of the puzzle. Steve and Bill want to make money while Steve and Linus want to make stuff that works well. But Bill doesn't want to play nicely with others, not everyone can afford a Mac and pretty well none of us are so disconnected from the world that we can rely solely on Linux (don't take it like the insult it seems to be).
Bottom line: using closed source applications isn't unethical, it's just breaking the law. Anyone who said the law is always ethical needs to be beaten to death with the smart stick because they've already been hit enough with the dumbass bat. Also there's companies out there, namely Novell with their SuSE product who offer the binaries (not the source code, thus making it closed source instead of open source (code)) for use on Linux and other non-Windows/Mac systems. The binaries are freely available from the openSuSE project (http://www.opensuse.org).
I highly encourage you to follow the link that's in the title of this entry. It's the preamble for the GPL (General Public License) that governs the use of open source software. While it's not used for all open source software the spirit in the preamble doesn't change for the most part through the different iterations of the different GPL licenses (yes, there's quite a few different GPL versions and license levels). Let me answer my earlier question: I shouldn't be denied enjoying the different things out there, be they movies, music or on-line readables. Just imagine if you had to pay $15 just to read my blog for a year. Would you? Cause there's no way in hell I'm that entertaining and if you think I am I know a really good psychologist...
Also I think that of the three Steve Jobs really has the right idea. I know how hard it is to make stuff like this and I don't want other people using it without my permission. But I wrote all of my stuff with the GPL in mind and gave everyone permission so long as the gave me my credit, though none of it was good or useful enough to charge for.
DF of the week
There's a new show out called "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?" This is a fantastic show, especially if you like to watch people make asses of themselves on national television. And it's nice to see kids get the ego boost from realizing what we won't tell them: that they're smarter than most adults.
Farewell unwashed asses.
Gryyphyn, out.
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