I wish I was a (software) hacker... (leads into wikipedia)

Ok, i wouldn't mind being able to do either (software or hardware) but after trying to teach myself perl then floundering through a c++ course (and ultimately dropping it) i have come to the conclusion that i was not meant to write code (hell, i have a hard time making bat files or hand writing html, a bit of a red flag).

What made me think of this was wikipedia and my inability to throw something together to interface (is that the right word?) with wikipedia. If you have actually read/clicked through on any of my other posts you will see i am a huge wikipedia fan, mainly because its easy, and uptodate and reasonably accurate (for technical things, forget the softer topics). I like to have a bunch of links in my posts but i hate making the links (lazy) so i was thinking wouldn't it be sweet if there was some site/service/script/etc where i could write something up then have it automatically make a link to every word/phrase it found in my posting that was in wikipedia?! The first problem that comes to mind would be words that were incorrectly linked, like " SD" being linked to "abbreviation for Small Dogs" (bad example but you get the idea). I am sure there could be some sort of checker, like a spell checker that asks you about each word/phrase. oh well, if anyone out there knows about something like that let me know.

Gore's gotta chance...

I will never forgive (or totally trust) the american voting process after the 2000 presidential election and the monkey (aka our esteemed king president) that it allowed into office but a new election is commig and people are talking. There are rumors about Hilary not running for president in the next election and it is thought that McCain might run again (not my first choice but my how past events have lowered the bar). All this makes me think that now is Gore's time to shine, the US is now leaning towards voting democrat (not because the dems have done a great job, more like its because they are the only alternative), many are finally starting to think alittle greener, and the war is not popular, Gore seems to have improved on his showmanship, all of which is in Gore's favor. The problem is Gore seems to have lost interest in running again, and who could blame him? Still, its a shame, I think he would stand a good chance, but he would be inheriting quite a mess. I don't think he would be able to do much for Iraq and would probably be severely critisised no matter what he did in/for Iraq but he could do so much in other areas like patching the runined relations with a countless number of countries, and improving the US's environmental policies, etc.

Games drive innovation?

I came across a YouTube link while browsing through digg about Starcraft+WINE+Linux+Touchscreen, while the link was interesting on many different levels to me (the least of which was the gaming aspect) it lead me to check up on the WINE app list which i have not even glanced at in at least a year or two ( WINE has been around a loooong time, but has got to be one of the slowest efforts in software development today [though to its credit i would guess its also one of the most difficult development projects too]). I went to their site and looked over their different lists (their quick and dirty lists are ordered Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze) and was immediately struck by the apps listed... they were dominated by games?!

Since 1995 (when i first started *trying* to play with slackware [not being a computer guru then or now it wasn't super easy, but got better once i learned about USENET and transferred to a techy school that ran on Unixes and had killer tech support) i have heard many a person chide Linux for not having more games. Yeah, there are lots of little simple games and a few slightly more advanced games but i would say than many gaming nutz aren't super into tinkering (which Linux *required* back in tha day, now, not so much), hence the popularity of game consoles, they are cheap, and just work, tinker free. But i digress, here was a fairly large list of complete win games that were running fine on Linux thanks to WINE. Seeing all those games, I would guess, with a fair degree of confidence, that at least some of the development of WINE has been due to a push from the gaming community.

Side thought. While i don't think the gaming community as a whole is super savvy (the "gaming generation" is be default more savvy than their elders but not much more than their peers) i do think that gaming has propelled many a person into the realm of computer literacy and guru-ness. I look no further than one of my best buddies and my brother as proof. When i met my friend he didn't seem to be much into computers (i was just learning too, thanks to a mutual friend of ours) but he started with games, and from there upgrading memory, tweaking DOS (slimming down the autoexec.bat and config.sys files to save memory from hungry/unnecessary TSRs), and investigating DBL Space vs Stacker (or maybe that was just me, this was 10+ years ago). Then there was my brother, for the life of me i couldn't get him to get interested in using the computer, there was no " killer app" for him. But then he got his own computer, no biggie but soon after he started learning about gaming, installing games on his system, how to circumvent copy protection, install hard drives (for those really large CD games [this was when a Pentium 120 Mhz with a 200meg hard drive [which dwarfed my 486 dx2 66 w/ 40meg hard drive]).

The point? not entirely sure, i guess that gaming can drive innovation, or at the least foster computer literacy because unlike me, i would say the "coolness of different operating systems, interconnectivity, etc" isn't much of a draw for most people, and thats where gaming comes in.

Melding of WebTop Offices with DeskTop Offices?

Nope, not yet at least. I remember hearing about how webapps would take over the world during the dot bomb years, it sounded kinda like commie talk to me (Take my software apps away from me? Never!) but years later I now view it as complementing destop apps, not replacing them. I just finished reading a bit about the AJAXy Office and different ajax/web applications available out there. Google pretty much cleaned house, not surprising but they might have glazed over some other webapps that might have google beat.

Anyway, these AJAX apps are fine, and for collaborative working i agree with the AJAX Office author, desktop apps can't touch the web apps but the superiority stops there. These webapps ( Web Applications) have a ways to go, but to me thats not a problem, i would prefer a streamlined (possibly minimal) program that i could access from anywhere *IF* i could seamlessly use the documents through my desktop app. The examples that come to mind are syncing web calendars with outlook/thunderbird or my PDA/smartphone, or editing my web doc from a webapp or a desktop app without having to download/upload the doc/spreadsheet. I could see Microsoft doing something like this with office and their MS Live site, or niftier yet, Open Office working like this, very nice. oh well, for me, the big thing is a nice calendaring app (think Google Calendar meets 30 Boxes) that would sync with Outlook and my PDA, this would be *veeery* useful for me.

Biodiesel/Ethanol & BioFuels in General

I just finished reading yet another article about the caveats of biofuels this one dealing with the water required.

No one seems to get it.

I had always thought alternative fuels involved forward thinkers by default, apparently I was wrong. For things like " Biodiesel" people are talking about growing more soybeans, and for Ethanol growing more Corn (or sugarcane, trees, sugar beets, etc.) all of which are very short sighted means of implementing otherwise wonderful technologies.

I see energy potential everywhere, in sewage treatment/animal production and methane ( biogas), to plant waste (even including things like the paper napkins your throw away) and ethanol production, to Biodiesel and used oils (from within the food industry to animal processing to oils that could be extracted from waste products). The idea of growing more soybeans (which would certainly further strain the worlds already strained water supplies) for Biodiesel or more corn etc for ethanol when there is soooo much plant waste tossed away daily, it all seems ludicrous to me.

*OF*COURSE* growing more soybeans and corn is the easiest/cheapest route (or so many say) but those are very very shortsighted ways of thinking about it. More research needs to be done regarding the production of energy from energy rich waste that people produce daily. I am not saying we can't grow any crops for energy production but there is so much waste that should be tapped before we bother growing more crops.

Wired News: The Eternal Value of Privacy

I have *really* not been in the mood to post but this article in Wired News: The Eternal Value of Privacy spoke so much truth in a time when it is so needed I had to say something. It has a ton of really good points but the line I liked the best was:

"Too many wrongly characterize the debate as 'security versus privacy.' The real choice is liberty versus control."

A Young Bush Appointee Resigns His Post at NASA - New York Times

This is insane, Bush's religious zealotry is oozing into every influential facet of our society. Yes this guy resigned but geeze, just think how many of his lackeys are still out there disconfiguring and undoing all the progress that the US has made since its inception. Yet another reason to want him impeached.

Bush, lawmakers donate funds tied to Abramoff

President Bush and numerous House Republicans give back contributions given by Abramoff. Does something about that not seem *totally* twisted!? I mean, would bank robbers that gave the money back to the bank get off? OR jewel thieves that gave the jewels back? yet politicians (all of them) seem to get away with bloody murder. I wouldn't mind knowing *which* charities the money was actually given too... yes yes, two democrats have been implicated (one not so sure about) and they should be buried along with all the corrupt Republicans. But what bothers me even more (if thats possible) is that these funds helped create a republican majority (not to mention what Delay has been doing in his Texas redistricting scam) maybe we should hold elections, now, for all the Abramoff recipients and see who gets voted for.

Catch 22

Interesting, (and frustrating) the lack of non-academic literature out there outlining the *failures* in development vs. the literature out there that glosses over failures. Almost all organizations, when they submit writings on how projects went, polish and pretty up the outcomes to the point that the project is almost unrecognizable. No one is going to write, “our project was a total waste of time and money and here are the reasons why” but that is exactly what they need to do, so that others can learn from their mistakes instead of duplicating the mistakes over and over again. Or taking on the same idea with the thought that “hey it worked for them, so it should work for us” when in reality it didn’t work for them it just got polished so much that it looks like it worked. I suppose it all has to do with funding, you aren’t likely to get more funding if you past projects have failed.

Unchecked power…

It amazes me, again and again, how much power congress gave Bush; and amazes me even more how he continues to abuse (and surpass) the vast powers he was given. The checks and balances (like congress balancing Bush's irrational decisions) seem to have fallen apart, and that is made apparent by the recent revelation by the NY Times (who i am still on the fence about them holding this info for a freak'n year... though releasing it now does help make a case for being careful about the Patriot Act) that Bush has been spying on American citizens without any foresight! Its disgusting, and not just vaguely reminiscent of KGB stories I have heard (when I lived and worked in the CIS) of the Soviet government spying in its own people (yes, that was an emotionally charged statement, if they [the present administration] can use statements like “they are going to attach us” then I can make a comparison to the KGB). Are we at the “KGB level” no, of course not, but we are closer that form of government than we have been in a long time.

Using emotion instead of reason

Everyone using fear and referring to emotional statements like starting *every* answer to whatever question with "after 9/11", "well the enemy slaughtered our people" etc... seems weak. Do they have to use all these emotional words (instead of facts and legitimate reasoning) to state their cases, are their cases that weak?

Agents' visit chills UMass Dartmouth senior: 12/ 17/ 2005

And there you have it folks, you wanted a paranoid government that makes you "safer" (though lets not forget the administration flunked in its addressing American security at home). Like the idea that your own government might be spying on you, and your school work? Bravo Bushies, you got what you voted for, unfortunately have share the burden of your mistake as well.

ACLU: Protesters placed in terror files

This is why i want to laugh when i hear the government say they won't abuse thier increased (though this does not seem to be something they couldn't do before) powers of "law enforcement" Gazette.com

Misquoting Jesus?

I think the title (which is the title of a book, not mine) is interesting by itself but its even more thought provoking to hear this interview (Windows streaming media, sorry) with Bart Ehrman about his new book "Misquoting Jesus" on The Diane Rehm Show. While i think his intentions were more to show the real (and not dressed up) history of the bible and its "evolution" (sorry, couldn't resist) I think many hard core christians really took offence. Many of the callers seemed to be slightly (though mostly polite) disgruntled christians, but there were some other agnostics that called in too. While I loath sitting down and reading books (what can I say, I'm an ADD poster child [NOT a book hater]) I can't wait until this comes out on audible.com (if it comes out).

Perilous Times: Free Speech (or the lack there of) in Wartime

I have not had a chance to read this book but I saw an interview with the author. In the book he reviews/recounts the folly of wartime censorship in past wars and relates it to the present (patriot act etc). I could have told you that many of the measures/laws that have come around recently are the results of hysteria but this book seems to do a good job of showing how we haven't learned from (many) past mistakes.

Green McCain?

I just saw John McCain on Letterman, he used it as a soapbox, but hey he is politician. He spent the first part preaching about how global warming is real (a stark contrast to most of what his party has said) and how we need to do something about it by increasing the use of hydrogen, fuel cells, wind, etc. It is down right odd hearing this from a republican, but McCain is pretty much a centrist so I guess it makes sense. I will admit that I trust McCain more than *anyone* in the Bush administration; with all the public appearances he has made I think it’s pretty obvious he will run for president. Depending on who is running on the democratic ticket I would consider voting for McCain, mainly for his fiscal responsibility and Green views.

Criminal?

So, Sony has irresponsibly installed software that is potentially more intrusive than many malwares but the DOJ has said nothing... about this, they have repeatedly given opinions about filesharers but big business media? Nada as of yet. Is it just me or does that seem a "wee bit" hypocritical?

Yeah! Del.icio.us Post button *finally* works correctly with Opera

I had been using another bookmarklet/javascript that required me to login every time I wanted to post a bookmark to Del.icio.us, it was a total PITA and I am surprised I stuck with del, but I did and patience paid off! Their new button/bookmarklet make it about as simple as it could possibly be!

Art mimicking life?

Here is an interesting bit about video game violence. It makes a point i hadn't really thought about, games are getting more violent (duh) but many of the figures are police/government/military and they carry out all sorts of carnage the likes of which would never be legal in the real world... yet. Looking at our government now, and all the lobbying they are doing for increased governmental powers, extension (or making permanent) wartime provisions (patriot act), etc, one has to wonder if life isn't getting to be too much like art.

WiMAX for the developing world?

Yeah yeah, "they don't need computers they need food!" in a perfect world development would take place in logical steps at the same time complementing other development efforts... but thats not the real world. In the real world you have things like (something I learned about that continually miffs me) Oxfam Australia, Great Britain, US, and a few others I think all in Phnom Penh; all doing different projects, vying for money with serious overlap in spending (Com'on guys you could at least share something like administrative costs) and you also (more to the point) have development taking place at different stages in the same area. Computers are a case in point. When I was working with a Dairy Coop in Eastern Europe I initially thought that "bringing computers etc to these areas is not what these people need", I stand by what I said even now but that’s not the whole story. You can't force something on people, and many times they are going to want what is new and cool (to varying degrees), I didn't think my village needed computers when I got there but after a year I tried setting up a project using old computers (cheap), Linux (yeah you can get pirated windows easily but it was the principle of the matter, an NES emulator, and some game pads and start a gamming cafe. Why?! Well I noticed in many developing countries these computer cafes are not really used for the internet much at all, maybe IM and a bit of email but that’s it, the main cash cow is games. In the rural areas kids would love to play even simple NES games and pay a few cents an hour to do so; I can already hear the "gasp, you are going to get them hooked on games?!" but consider the alternative, smoking, drinking, or just being bored (I saw all of the above, yeah even some under 12 year olds) playing games would not only generate income for someone, it would give the kids something to do, and also get them familiar with using computers (even if it is only for games, my brother almost refused to learn about computers until he got into gaming, now he can build his own computer from just parts).

Enter WiMAX (bet you thought this was going nowhere eh?). This has more importance in say some of the pacific islands that are mentioned in the article but still. Wireless internet access! I remember (another small story) hearing about the explosive growth of cell phones in Africa (considering the poverty) and was disgusted but then a friend who had been pointed out that the infrastructure was often so bad that regular land lines could not be reliable maintained, also some people had made a living in some villages of having a cell phone like a phone booth and charging people for use who would otherwise have to travel to the nearest town, nice!

Still, many people, especially in developing countries, don't understand the internet and teaching things like email would be lost, on the older generations in particular but one "killer app" I have seen for the internet in developing countries is VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). This is just a fancy way of making phone calls over the internet on the cheap and I have seen many many times even in Europe (though usually the people using the services are working there calling home) people making cheap long distance calls to call home. So. You are in a place like Moldova, in a village a few miles away from the nearest town, which only has one internet cafe, if you get something like WiMAX one savvy individual in each village (within range) could setup a VoIP connection. Something like this could be built upon giving kids lessons on how to use computers and Email/IM etc (essentially getting them hooked but I can think of worse addictions) then charging for use; even setting up simple gamming during non-peek calling times.

The moral Right?

I am constantly frustrated by all the righteousness I hear coming from the right. My frustrations tend to be more with the religious conservatives but many times they are one in the same. I see things like John Stewart vs Bill O'Reilly (who i know says he is not a "conservative" [but he walks the walk and talks the talk as far as i am concerned) and get really annoyed with this righteous "rightness" (though at times I think they spout this stuff just to get a rise out of people, unfortunately it works) but then I see headlines (and there have been a bunch of them lately) like Tom DeLay, Robert Ney, Kenneth Tomlinson and Bill Frist. These are not "small potatoes" or fringe parts of the party... Sigh.

Oh by the way, when O'Reilly called the Daily Show audience something like "uneducated stoners" they actually took offence and did some research, apparently its the other way around, Billy's audience tends to be more the slack-jawed trogladite variety (that is, DS viewers were more likely to be able to answer current political issues)... Surprise.

What will the Ubergeeks do?

I was just watching a TWIT episode and re-noticed (I also noticed at this at DEFCON [no I wasn’t there, on video]) that most of those geeks have ThinkPads.  Among the tech elite IBM’s ThinkPads are pretty much renowned as the super notebooks.  I had an old thinkpad, a tiny one (Can’t remember the model, but one of the ultraportables) that took all sorts of beatings and was at least 4 years old by the time I hocked it and I can attest that it was nice.  But now, ThinkPads are not IBM products, that division was sold to the Chinese manufacturer Lenovo.  So, what is the super tech savvy geeks notebook of choice now? I use a Dell now, not because I love them, or even because I think they have great hardware (its ok) but they have unbeatable warranties/support.  I managed to get a 5 year warranty (stringing together student discounts, special offers, etc) for my Dell and have had to deal with customer service twice, and they did a pretty good job (or a great job if you compare it to average company’s customer support). I would rule out Sony because they have so many proprietary hardware issues (that’s not to say they don’t have some sweet offerings out there), and rule out AlienWare just because their systems are some of the few that *don’t* make the thinkpad prices look outrageous (i.e. very expensive), narrowing it down to… not sure.  Chances are I would go with a Dell again, for the warranty.  I am not the biggest fan of notebooks because if something in them breaks I can’t just replace it like I can in a desktop, so I am extra dependant on the manufacturer; plus, most people carry their notebooks around thus increasing the chances they break. One possibility would be a Mac, not so much for the hardware (and for the record I doubt I would bother with getting one at this point until they switch over to Intel) but for the OS. I notice lots of techies (the ubertechies [yes, I love the word "Uber", thank you Germany!]) use powerbooks now. I doubt it is because of the hardware, yes, the powerbooks shame most intel notebooks in terms of slick looking design but battery, speed, etc are lacking but the OS thats a different story. OSX is essentially a new UN*X flavor and has the power of UN*X, with more mature applications than say Linux (and of course that is debatable, but since many Mac apps are paid they seem to be more polished).



Anywho, I was just curious.

The penalties for copyright infringement vs. shoplifting

This is a straight copy/paste from slashdot:
"awesomeO4001" wrote in to mention a post to Karl Wagenfuehr's blog where he compares and contrasts the penalties for copyright infringement vs. shoplifting. From the post: "...from what I can tell, the penalties laid out for downloading one season of a TV show with BitTorrent are much harsher than if you actually stole a DVD set of the same show from a government store...For stealing the DVD you could face no more than up to 1 year imprisonment and up to a $100,000 fine; for downloading the same material you could face statutory damages of up to $3,300,000, costs and attorney's fees"

Wussy Dems

I am torn, sink to the obnoxiously boisterous level of some of the right (not all of them) and hop up and down and demand the fall of the Bush dynasty or do what they (the Democrats) are doing now... nothing. There is some trouble in the Republican party (or trouble for some rather large players in that party) and it looks like the Democrats are just blankly looking at each other and saying, "hey, I guess its our time now (No one else is in line)" I will admit that I am sickened when I hear politicians standing on their soap boxes making lofty/insulting demands but I wonder if much of the republican party didn't get where it is using Jesse Helms smear type soap boxing (the Bush campaign questioning McCain's sanity after being an POW is an embarrassingly obvious example, against one of their own). it MUST be said that the Democrats are where they are in part due to Clinton's fall from grace, he gave the right just the fodder they needed to push "morality" (while Clinton is an amoral husband i do not think it affected his politics). Oh well. I think all these Republican legal fiascos could so easily be used to the lefts advantage but #1 They are dragging their feet #2 It might not even matter if they didn't drag their feet, the American people's ability to forget (things like Iran contra affairs, chubby intern affairs, and inevitably exposing CIA operatives) is uncanny.

"Too bad" & "I wonder how high up this goes?"

Good G*d! What'da week. Well, now there are even more from the right under scrutiny (thats putting it mildly in the case of Delay and Libby); it amazes me that a person that surrounds himself (bush) with people like that is still trusted so much (at least by the right, though at sub 40% approval ratings he is hurt'n). I wonder if the seeming smear campaign stops at the "libby level" or goes higher up?

Anyway, one thing i was kinda cheering him on for was Harriet Miers; but his "base" ended up chasing her away even before she got to the hearings. Not like i thought that she was the best out there (far from it) but it was more a case of "It could be worse", but with a ~40% approval ratings i am not so sure he should even care about the far right, yes they are incredibly loud (read: Rush Limbaugh/Howard stern loud) and just try to appease all those who are brining his rating down. In truth my one real regret is that these events didn't come out before the election.