Article
Carver said it cost the district about $2,500 per school to migrate to Linux, compared with the estimated $100,000 it would have cost to upgrade their Windows infrastructure. In addition, buying more Microsoft Office licenses would have cost the district $100 per license, she said, whereas OpenOffice was free. (... they have 7 schools, so $17,500 vs $100,000 )
You pushed too hard , Mr. Gates.
Windows is too finicky in the licensing department. The price too high. Upgrading from Win98 to WinXP , for example, absorbes the Win98 license, you're not allowed to use that copy on another older machine.
You pushed and pushed, cut off any attempt to save money by the user, demanded more and more, actually removed features from windows (remember how dos used to have a basic interperter , the old qbasic ? now it's gone ? ) You made alliances with hard ware venders so that when people upgrade windows (not buy a new copy , thats always priced out of everyone's sight ..but absorb the current liscense so it can't be reused on another machine) they have to inevitably buy more hardware as well.
Now someone else has come along and noticed "Hey , we can put linux on some old clunkers, network them together , it performs just as well as windows and only costs 20% what windows would cost..."
You pushed too far... and for one california school district, the wave collapsed. They moved away from Windows and started on Linux.
Is this the beginning ?
Dell is now stating they will offer the option to pre-install Linux on their new low end computers in the near future. When you think about it , they don't have a choice, do they ? The hardware requirements for Vista are insane (3ghz clock speed, 3gig ram) , and of course Microsoft isn't going to sell Windows XP anymore, they're going to forbid the sale of it to get everyone on Vista. And if you're selling low end computers... Vista isn't an option. Won't run on the hardware.
This is only the beginning. Microsoft brought this on themselves.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Linux Commands
Dell is promising to start selling low end computers with linux pre-installed , which means my company , which has adamently said "we don't support linux and NEVER !!! will ! " will probably receive rather different marching orders from our biggest client in the near future.
Gonna jot down a few useful linux commands here , just to get things rolling.
Most version's of linux will have a "desktop" running. That is to say menus and buttons and pretty little icons you just click on , just like windows. You need to get to the terminal application , which is the equiviliant of a dos prompt in windows.
On Gnome it's Applications > Accessories, Terminal
In the Terminal , these are some useful commands. I ran them on my Ubuntu 6.1 linux box.
Dos : IPCONFIG
Linux : ifconfig
Second line down gives the ip address.
dos : PING
Linux: ping
dos : TRACERT
linux : tracepath
Again. Control-C to halt it.
DOS : arp /a
linux : arp
Yup, thats the mac id on the back of my router, and thats the routers ip address. Good for those customers who say "Oh I don't have a router" but yes they do . "I you mean this linksys thing ? I forgot about that ... "
Yes m'am.
Dos : telnet
linux: telnet
Telneting to yahoo on port 80, in effect using the telnet command to imitate a browser. If it works ("connected to www.yahoo.com") then you know there's no fire wall sitting on port 80, their browser is messed up. If it doesn't ... hopefully the firewall throws a pop up that you can read identifying it. If it rolls over and dies with unknown error, tcp/ip is shot. Control - close square bracket to end, as it says above ("Escape Charactar is ...")
Those are all the dos commands I've ever used at work in 5 years of trouble shooting , so that will probable do us fine.
(edit)
Yeah I forgot netstat. But when i tried it on linux the read out was ten pages long. Forget it ! Not worth the hassel of a customer wading through that !
Gonna jot down a few useful linux commands here , just to get things rolling.
Most version's of linux will have a "desktop" running. That is to say menus and buttons and pretty little icons you just click on , just like windows. You need to get to the terminal application , which is the equiviliant of a dos prompt in windows.
On Gnome it's Applications > Accessories, Terminal
In the Terminal , these are some useful commands. I ran them on my Ubuntu 6.1 linux box.
Dos : IPCONFIG
Linux : ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:11:5B:1F:83:A6
inet addr:192.168.2.3 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::211:5bff:fe1f:83a6/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1492 Metric:1
RX packets:110531 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:88421 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:102228257 (97.4 MiB) TX bytes:12372057 (11.7 MiB)
Interrupt:185 Base address:0xc400
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:583 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:583 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:58547 (57.1 KiB) TX bytes:58547 (57.1 KiB)
Second line down gives the ip address.
inet addr:192.168.2.3
dos : PING
Linux: ping
PING www.yahoo.com (69.147.114.210) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from f1.www.vip.re3.yahoo.com (69.147.114.210): icmp_seq=1 ttl=55 time=39.4 ms
64 bytes from f1.www.vip.re3.yahoo.com (69.147.114.210): icmp_seq=2 ttl=55 time=36.2 ms
64 bytes from f1.www.vip.re3.yahoo.com (69.147.114.210): icmp_seq=3 ttl=55 time=85.9 ms
64 bytes from f1.www.vip.re3.yahoo.com (69.147.114.210): icmp_seq=4 ttl=55 time=34.5 ms
--- www.yahoo.com ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 15263ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 34.554/49.064/85.919/21.352 ms
Unlike the dos ping , it doesn't stop after 4 pings, you must control-c it to halt it.
dos : TRACERT
linux : tracepath
Again. Control-C to halt it.
1: 192.168.2.3 (192.168.2.3) 0.234ms pmtu 1492Oddly enough there are two line 1's, the first one is the local computer, the second is my router.
1: 192.168.2.1 (192.168.2.1) asymm 2 8.205ms
2: gw03.slnt.phub.net.cable.rogers.com (66.185.90.145) 9.943ms
3: gw01.slnt.phub.net.cable.rogers.com (66.185.93.193) 8.937ms
4: gw03.etob.phub.net.cable.rogers.com (66.185.83.198) asymm 5 12.846ms
5: gw02.mtnk.phub.net.cable.rogers.com (66.185.80.185) 14.413ms
6: igw01.ny8th.phub.net.cable.rogers.com (66.185.81.13) 32.634ms
7: no reply
8: ge-0-0-9.p815.pat2.dce.yahoo.com (216.115.98.109) 36.734ms
DOS : arp /a
linux : arp
Address HWtype HWaddress Flags Mask Iface
192.168.2.1 ether 00:17:3F:67:96:02 C eth0
Yup, thats the mac id on the back of my router, and thats the routers ip address. Good for those customers who say "Oh I don't have a router" but yes they do . "I you mean this linksys thing ? I forgot about that ... "
Yes m'am.
Dos : telnet
linux: telnet
telnet www.yahoo.com 80
Trying 69.147.114.210...
Connected to www.yahoo.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
telnet> Connection closed.
Telneting to yahoo on port 80, in effect using the telnet command to imitate a browser. If it works ("connected to www.yahoo.com") then you know there's no fire wall sitting on port 80, their browser is messed up. If it doesn't ... hopefully the firewall throws a pop up that you can read identifying it. If it rolls over and dies with unknown error, tcp/ip is shot. Control - close square bracket to end, as it says above ("Escape Charactar is ...")
Those are all the dos commands I've ever used at work in 5 years of trouble shooting , so that will probable do us fine.
(edit)
Yeah I forgot netstat. But when i tried it on linux the read out was ten pages long. Forget it ! Not worth the hassel of a customer wading through that !
Rising STD rate sparks online dating sites
Article
You know , I always thought those dating sites were a scam. You know, you pay to sign up , you get a date , she cancels at the last minute, later you find out it's the company secretary making those dates and cancelling them...
Apears I was wrong. This guy got lucky and actually found a date. A real one.
CNN) -- When John got divorced after 12 years of marriage, he took a deep breath and launched into the dating scene.
LOL !!!!!
You know , I always thought those dating sites were a scam. You know, you pay to sign up , you get a date , she cancels at the last minute, later you find out it's the company secretary making those dates and cancelling them...
Apears I was wrong. This guy got lucky and actually found a date. A real one.
CNN) -- When John got divorced after 12 years of marriage, he took a deep breath and launched into the dating scene.
"And wham, with my very first girlfriend, I caught herpes," he says. "You feel betrayed and all of a sudden separated from the rest of the world. I thought at the time that the girl who gave it to me and I were the only people in the world who had it."
LOL !!!!!
Brother Bob
My brother Bob (not his real name) finally pushed his luck too far. He was told by doctors to ease up and stop leading such a stressful life (he owns his own business) or within six months he'll take a heart attack and die.
A day or two ago he took a mild heart attack.
I met him at the bus stop today while he was on the way to the hospital for tests. He looked ok , but complained he could only walk a short distance and then had to sit down , and couldn't stand for long periods of time ( just like me)
I'm jealous. I'm the only one supposed to be sick here, but now there are two of us.
Next in line is my wife, I think. You should see how her face turns red sometimes, and she eats way too much salt and is getting stress headaches already. My Mantra to her is "No salt for you , lady" but she never listens.
No one ever listens. They all think they're invincible and the rules don't apply to them.
I hate that.
(edit) Note to family members : he brought his cell phone with him , you know the number. He thinks he'll be out tonight, but I told him he's probably in for a few days.
A day or two ago he took a mild heart attack.
I met him at the bus stop today while he was on the way to the hospital for tests. He looked ok , but complained he could only walk a short distance and then had to sit down , and couldn't stand for long periods of time ( just like me)
I'm jealous. I'm the only one supposed to be sick here, but now there are two of us.
Next in line is my wife, I think. You should see how her face turns red sometimes, and she eats way too much salt and is getting stress headaches already. My Mantra to her is "No salt for you , lady" but she never listens.
No one ever listens. They all think they're invincible and the rules don't apply to them.
I hate that.
(edit) Note to family members : he brought his cell phone with him , you know the number. He thinks he'll be out tonight, but I told him he's probably in for a few days.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
11 Days of Ubuntu
Started the mp3 player going on my Ubuntu box. I figured I'd see how long until it crashes.
That was 11 days ago. It's still playing.
I flip to ubuntu now and then to do some writing. I have all the applications and notes and everything open and right there, ready to go, always on. Always open.
11 days. Still open. Still works. Still playing. Still able to edit the story I'm writing.
So...I'm gonna confirm all these stories about Linux and Unix systems that just keep on trucking forever ... getting walled up because no one ever goes in there until it's time to move and then someone says "Hey ,where's the print server , we gotta move it ?" "Duh ..I don't know ... I just push the button and it prints ... See ? Still printing ... " "Nvm we'll trace the wires...hey ...they just go into the wall here ! "
Finally got the ftp server working in linux. Access control will kill you if you're not careful. Now to move some real music over and let it play that for ever and a day.
That was 11 days ago. It's still playing.
I flip to ubuntu now and then to do some writing. I have all the applications and notes and everything open and right there, ready to go, always on. Always open.
11 days. Still open. Still works. Still playing. Still able to edit the story I'm writing.
So...I'm gonna confirm all these stories about Linux and Unix systems that just keep on trucking forever ... getting walled up because no one ever goes in there until it's time to move and then someone says "Hey ,where's the print server , we gotta move it ?" "Duh ..I don't know ... I just push the button and it prints ... See ? Still printing ... " "Nvm we'll trace the wires...hey ...they just go into the wall here ! "
Finally got the ftp server working in linux. Access control will kill you if you're not careful. Now to move some real music over and let it play that for ever and a day.
Iranian conservatives, reformers denounce president's words on nuclear program
Article
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faced a new round of sharp criticism at home Monday after he said Iran's nuclear program is an unstoppable train without brakes. Reformers and conservatives said such tough talk only inflames the West as it considers further sanctions.
*Boom*
One american war plan overflew your reactor. Dropped a single bomb. Blew all your nuclear ambitions all to heck.
What do you do ?
Send an army into Iraq ?
You did that once before. I read about it in the news. I beleive it was a million man army , but only every third soldier actually had a gun , and the gun only had three or four bullets. The idea was the army charges forth , when the guy holding the gun dies one of the other two unarmed soldiers picks it up and continues on.
Of course these so called soldiers have never actually fired the gun for real , bullets are expensive you know.
But I digress.
You're going to send a million soldiers into Iraq. Presumably on foot since you dn't have that much transportation. And the americans , with their planes and helicopters and well trained troops with unlimited ammo who have fired their guns many many times ...
*Boom*. One million Iranian corpses on the ground. Couple of thousand american casualties.
Now what do you do ?
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faced a new round of sharp criticism at home Monday after he said Iran's nuclear program is an unstoppable train without brakes. Reformers and conservatives said such tough talk only inflames the West as it considers further sanctions.
*Boom*
One american war plan overflew your reactor. Dropped a single bomb. Blew all your nuclear ambitions all to heck.
What do you do ?
Send an army into Iraq ?
You did that once before. I read about it in the news. I beleive it was a million man army , but only every third soldier actually had a gun , and the gun only had three or four bullets. The idea was the army charges forth , when the guy holding the gun dies one of the other two unarmed soldiers picks it up and continues on.
Of course these so called soldiers have never actually fired the gun for real , bullets are expensive you know.
But I digress.
You're going to send a million soldiers into Iraq. Presumably on foot since you dn't have that much transportation. And the americans , with their planes and helicopters and well trained troops with unlimited ammo who have fired their guns many many times ...
*Boom*. One million Iranian corpses on the ground. Couple of thousand american casualties.
Now what do you do ?
Friday, February 16, 2007
Ubuntu Update (Linux)
This is a screenie (screen pic) of my desk top on Ubuntu , that is , the screen you see when you've finished logging in. The top left are some menues (applications, Places , System) and some icons for common applications.Rather like the start menu on windows, but they moved it up there instead.
Bottom are currently running applications ( such as a music player and the firefox web browser) top left , is your date and time , and the exit.
So , what do I think of ubuntu ? After having it a few days.
If you're just a simple user, doing some word processing or spreadsheeting or what not , it's great. The stuff works "out of the box" with no modifications required. Under the applications menu, at the bottom , is add/remove programs, and this lists a large number of applications out on the internet that you can install just by pushing a button and typing in your password. (The list has obviously been vetted so you're safe from virus's, and nothing happens unless you enter your password, so there is no such thing as a automatic install , or a drive-by install, such as what plagues windows so badly. )
Once you get past the standard user packages however (if you ever do , what I've described is enough for half the users out there ) and start trying to get cute, then you run into problems.
You are sitting on Linux, after all, despite the nice friendly desktop environment (It's called Gnome) , and you try to run an FTP server or share files or anything like that , you're now in a world of hurt. There's forums to go to for help , but you're going to need technical knolwedlge to partake in that. I'm still struggling with my FTP server , access rights problems are preventing me from uploading / downloading to it.
I remember my old school days, and one job, where we had to telnet into a Linux or Unix server ... guess what ? Terminal , off the Applications >> accessories menu, does exactly that. If you're a student (or are raising a student) who's using unix / linux routinely, throwing ubuntu down on a $300 refurbished computer is probably a wise investment. (ps : was out and about a few days back ... went to a computer store to get my kvm switch , best investment I ever made ... saw the price on some refurbushed computers. A system with the same stats as my old clunker thats running ubuntu runs 239$ Canadian, no monitor)
My opinion on ubuntu ?
The actual operating system is quite stable on my old clunker. The free packages , some of them are great , some of them are dogs that should have been shot, totally useless. Well, they are free, what can I tell you ? Uninstall it and move on to the next one.
Would I go back to windows ?
Thats a toughie.
My answer is that my current set up is probably the best you can get in the modern world. Two computers sitting side by side on your desk , and a kvm switch to switch the keyboard / video / mouse back and forth. The windows machine runs your store bought applications (like World of Warcraft) that no one puts out on linux. And the linux machine is for getting real work done. In my case , trying to write a novel.
what was that I said ? Why the linux machine for work ?
Bottom right , see those three squares ? Those are "work area's" , screens with applications open. You can open two or three text files in one, a browser or two in the second , two or three more text files in the third , and at the click of a mouse switch between them. One for writing , three or four for notes, a browser or two for looking things up , and everything can copy and paste back and forth. The "work areas" are a (currently) Linux only feature that renders this hobbiest machine into something that serious work gets done on.
That and the total immunity to virii.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
My Home Network
I no longer have a home computer.
Now I have a home network. Two computers with a kvm switch (keyboard video mouse, to switch your keyboard, monitor, and mouse back and forth between the two at the touch of a button. ) One is a winXP machine with a gig of ram and 80 gig hd and 2.5ghz speed, one is running Ubuntu Linux with half a gig of ram , 40gig hd , and 1gig hz on the clock. Both are connected to my wireless router (through wires)
So I can switch back and forth between the two at the touch of a button. Winxp runs my world of warcraft, and ubuntu I do my writing and blogging on.
I have ambitions of getting an old laplink cable to get my old win3.1 laptop into the loop , and picking up a wireless lap top and connecting wirelessly to the network as well.
Why ?
Because I'm a computer techie. Because it's my job. Because if I'm looking for work and I can say I run a home network with three wildly different operating systems (or maybe four) and several different ways of connecting to each other and I got it all working ... I'm more or less guarenteed to be hired on the first interview.
As for what work the network usefully performs ... none really.
such is the life of a techie. Get your really cool high end computer running ... and then all you do is play games on it all day. Ah well....
Now I have a home network. Two computers with a kvm switch (keyboard video mouse, to switch your keyboard, monitor, and mouse back and forth between the two at the touch of a button. ) One is a winXP machine with a gig of ram and 80 gig hd and 2.5ghz speed, one is running Ubuntu Linux with half a gig of ram , 40gig hd , and 1gig hz on the clock. Both are connected to my wireless router (through wires)
So I can switch back and forth between the two at the touch of a button. Winxp runs my world of warcraft, and ubuntu I do my writing and blogging on.
I have ambitions of getting an old laplink cable to get my old win3.1 laptop into the loop , and picking up a wireless lap top and connecting wirelessly to the network as well.
Why ?
Because I'm a computer techie. Because it's my job. Because if I'm looking for work and I can say I run a home network with three wildly different operating systems (or maybe four) and several different ways of connecting to each other and I got it all working ... I'm more or less guarenteed to be hired on the first interview.
As for what work the network usefully performs ... none really.
such is the life of a techie. Get your really cool high end computer running ... and then all you do is play games on it all day. Ah well....
Linux Vs Vista : How Does Security Stack Up ?
Article
However, some computer security experts contend that Windows Vista
offers little to make computing more secure. They suggest that rather
than wait for a half-baked new Windows operating system, consumer and
enterprise users would have far better security with Linux.
..
Let me explain Linux security, as a ubuntu user.
1- I went to the applications menu, I selected add/remove, I got a
huge list of programs. I picked one, I hit install.
It asked me for my user id and password for performing an adminstrator
task , then it installed the program.
If I'm a system administrator , and I don't want my users installing
software , guess what password I DON'T give them ?
Then there's the chmod utility (Change Mode)
If you dump a file on a linux machine, it automatically gets an owner
, and it gets read write privilidges. That means someone owns it
(typically the user logged in at the moment who dumped it in there)
and it can be read and written to.
Execution privilidges, the privilidge to be run as a program , are not
granted by default. The user must manualy go in and use the chmod
utility to grant the file execution rights.
So , for example (this happened to me on windows) the browser (it was
internet explorer of course) goes to a web page, and without so much
as a by your leave or a say so , downloads an executable program and
runs it. On windows, if you're lucky , your fire wall catches it
trying to access the internet , and you start screaming "where did
this file1.exe program come from ? And why is it sitting in the
internet temporary files folder ? " At which point you swear off ever using the internet explorer again , because while your firewall caught it red handed, it self erased after it did it's little deed.
On Linux, such a downloaded file doesn't have execution privilidges.
It cannot run , unless you open up a terminal window and use the chmod command to give it execution privilidges.
Ok , lets talk about a virus on linux. First off, how do you catch a virus ?
Someone inserts a floppy and runs a program.
- sorry , you're not a system administrator. Not allowed to install new programs. Not allowed to run anything but programs already existing on the disk.
Someone emails you a cool program and demands you run it.
- sorry , but the chmod command acts as a filter to stop that. Either you're technically savvy and therefore quite suspicious when someone says "run this program now " and thus you know better, or you're technologically illiterate in which case you havn't a clue as to the existance of the chmod command and you won\'t be able to do it without calling a system administrator, who's first words are going to be "thats a virus. don't run it"
How does security stack up on linux vs windows ?
With no virus scanner , you must be the system administrator , and you must be blind stinking drunk and deliberately looking for trouble , before you can catch a virus in Linux.
With full fire walls and virus scanners and spam protection and what not , on windows , you have to click on one email sent by a friend that says "look at this cool site I found !" and you've just infected the entire office network.(assuming it's all windows)
However, some computer security experts contend that Windows Vista
offers little to make computing more secure. They suggest that rather
than wait for a half-baked new Windows operating system, consumer and
enterprise users would have far better security with Linux.
..
Let me explain Linux security, as a ubuntu user.
1- I went to the applications menu, I selected add/remove, I got a
huge list of programs. I picked one, I hit install.
It asked me for my user id and password for performing an adminstrator
task , then it installed the program.
If I'm a system administrator , and I don't want my users installing
software , guess what password I DON'T give them ?
Then there's the chmod utility (Change Mode)
If you dump a file on a linux machine, it automatically gets an owner
, and it gets read write privilidges. That means someone owns it
(typically the user logged in at the moment who dumped it in there)
and it can be read and written to.
Execution privilidges, the privilidge to be run as a program , are not
granted by default. The user must manualy go in and use the chmod
utility to grant the file execution rights.
So , for example (this happened to me on windows) the browser (it was
internet explorer of course) goes to a web page, and without so much
as a by your leave or a say so , downloads an executable program and
runs it. On windows, if you're lucky , your fire wall catches it
trying to access the internet , and you start screaming "where did
this file1.exe program come from ? And why is it sitting in the
internet temporary files folder ? " At which point you swear off ever using the internet explorer again , because while your firewall caught it red handed, it self erased after it did it's little deed.
On Linux, such a downloaded file doesn't have execution privilidges.
It cannot run , unless you open up a terminal window and use the chmod command to give it execution privilidges.
Ok , lets talk about a virus on linux. First off, how do you catch a virus ?
Someone inserts a floppy and runs a program.
- sorry , you're not a system administrator. Not allowed to install new programs. Not allowed to run anything but programs already existing on the disk.
Someone emails you a cool program and demands you run it.
- sorry , but the chmod command acts as a filter to stop that. Either you're technically savvy and therefore quite suspicious when someone says "run this program now " and thus you know better, or you're technologically illiterate in which case you havn't a clue as to the existance of the chmod command and you won\'t be able to do it without calling a system administrator, who's first words are going to be "thats a virus. don't run it"
How does security stack up on linux vs windows ?
With no virus scanner , you must be the system administrator , and you must be blind stinking drunk and deliberately looking for trouble , before you can catch a virus in Linux.
With full fire walls and virus scanners and spam protection and what not , on windows , you have to click on one email sent by a friend that says "look at this cool site I found !" and you've just infected the entire office network.(assuming it's all windows)
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Copyright group seeks to boost MP3 player prices with new levy
Article
Canadian music industry representatives are reopening an old debate about MP3 players that could see the average price of the devices climb by as much as $75.
Rip off !
An MP3 player ...is a player, not a recorder. It plays tunes. If I hook it up to a speaker and hit record, it records at the lowest crappiest audio resolution so that it just sucks and no one wants to listen to it.
The fact that I can copy files to it is irrelevant. Why ? Because I cannot keep those copies. They get deleted when i get tired of those songs, and replaced by new ones.
As far as usability goes, it's the equivilant of a cd player. Only with the record companies demanding they get paid every time you change the cd .
The complaint that you could transfer the files to another computer ...well I could carry the original cd over to another computer and play it there too. And they could make a copy of that cd ?
(edit)
Besides. Hard Drives crash eventually , and you lose all the data on them, all the songs. The only way to keep them is to burn them to a cd. And guess what ? We in canada pay a premium on our cd's to be permitted to do that , a premium that goes straight to the big record labels.
In the end... the mp3 files are ethereal vapourous things..easily lost and destroyed. The only way to hang onto them for long periods of time is to burn them to cd's , and the record companies are already getting paid for that. To get paid for anything else is double dipping.
"Digital copyright under the past few years has always been dictated by the big labels, which adopt the perspective that fans are thieves and that the lock 'em up and sue em strategy is the only way to go."
It is the only way to go.
You have to understand. The big lables are hard on new artists. They usualy make them sign contracts whereby they wind up getting nothing on a per cd basis and the company keeps every dime, except perhaps some retainer they pay the artist. So , you see it on TV all the time, new artists are encouraged to get their own record label as quick as possible or they'll never see a dime.
Where does this leave the big record labels ?
It leaves them with very old songs, a scribbling of new songs from new artists before the artist break off to their own labels, and not uch else. And let me tell you , I already bought up a nice library of CD's of all the oldies I need , and I listen to them any time I want.
So anything these record labels can get from internet and mp3 products is found money.
Lets face it. How many times to you want to pay for Theme From Mahogany ?
My theory is that Digital Rights Management must fulfill three functions.
1. you pay for the song once , and once only. In your life time.
2. You listen to it any time you like , on any device you happen to own, as long as it's for private viewing / listening only.
3. None of this having to buy your songs again whenever a new medium comes out (record lp's to cassette tapes to cd's to mp3's )
These rules, however, are ant-ethical to a business that has a vast library of old songs everyone has a copy of already and few to no new songs coming in. So it's sue sue sue , for them, it's really their only income.
Canadian music industry representatives are reopening an old debate about MP3 players that could see the average price of the devices climb by as much as $75.
Rip off !
An MP3 player ...is a player, not a recorder. It plays tunes. If I hook it up to a speaker and hit record, it records at the lowest crappiest audio resolution so that it just sucks and no one wants to listen to it.
The fact that I can copy files to it is irrelevant. Why ? Because I cannot keep those copies. They get deleted when i get tired of those songs, and replaced by new ones.
As far as usability goes, it's the equivilant of a cd player. Only with the record companies demanding they get paid every time you change the cd .
The complaint that you could transfer the files to another computer ...well I could carry the original cd over to another computer and play it there too. And they could make a copy of that cd ?
(edit)
Besides. Hard Drives crash eventually , and you lose all the data on them, all the songs. The only way to keep them is to burn them to a cd. And guess what ? We in canada pay a premium on our cd's to be permitted to do that , a premium that goes straight to the big record labels.
In the end... the mp3 files are ethereal vapourous things..easily lost and destroyed. The only way to hang onto them for long periods of time is to burn them to cd's , and the record companies are already getting paid for that. To get paid for anything else is double dipping.
"Digital copyright under the past few years has always been dictated by the big labels, which adopt the perspective that fans are thieves and that the lock 'em up and sue em strategy is the only way to go."
It is the only way to go.
You have to understand. The big lables are hard on new artists. They usualy make them sign contracts whereby they wind up getting nothing on a per cd basis and the company keeps every dime, except perhaps some retainer they pay the artist. So , you see it on TV all the time, new artists are encouraged to get their own record label as quick as possible or they'll never see a dime.
Where does this leave the big record labels ?
It leaves them with very old songs, a scribbling of new songs from new artists before the artist break off to their own labels, and not uch else. And let me tell you , I already bought up a nice library of CD's of all the oldies I need , and I listen to them any time I want.
So anything these record labels can get from internet and mp3 products is found money.
Lets face it. How many times to you want to pay for Theme From Mahogany ?
My theory is that Digital Rights Management must fulfill three functions.
1. you pay for the song once , and once only. In your life time.
2. You listen to it any time you like , on any device you happen to own, as long as it's for private viewing / listening only.
3. None of this having to buy your songs again whenever a new medium comes out (record lp's to cassette tapes to cd's to mp3's )
These rules, however, are ant-ethical to a business that has a vast library of old songs everyone has a copy of already and few to no new songs coming in. So it's sue sue sue , for them, it's really their only income.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Do You Ubuntu ?
Finally got off my lazy butt and decided to install a version of Linux on my old computer. Not my good machine, or The Dell (sometimes with scorn ) as I call it , but the old second hand box I purchased way ...way ... back at the beginning of this blog that gave me issues. PROBLEMCHILD is what I named it.
So I downloaded the ISO , thats a disk image , and some special software to burn it to a cd, and discovered I was out of cd's. Sigh.... off to work the next day , pick up some cd's on the way in , work all day , go home..forget it go to bed.
get up , ,play a little world of warcraft...ah ..might as well get something useful accomplished today , burn the iso to the cd ( I used a really slow setting to make sure there would be no data corruption) and then switched all the wires over to my old computer. (I'm using the same monitor and mouse, and internet connection, so only one comptuer goes at a time)
Why did I choose the Ubuntu version of Linux ? Pure chance really , I just picked one at random from a list and it claimed to be reasonably friendly.
First problem came during the installation. The software switched me to 800 by 600 for my screen resolution , and you could just see the tips of some buttons at the bottom right. Presumably the very last , very right most button was the next button , and I could just barely click on it... so I did manage to install Ubuntu, but this bit about screens too large for my screen resolution would continue to plague me throughout the day.
Since I'd long planned on installing linux , I'd used ProblemChild as a kind of test bed , and downloaded limeware and sharebear and all sorts of programs I knew would infect my computer with trojens and virii, so I chose the install option to completely wipe out the system and install Ubuntu fresh.
The installation went off without a hitch, and after a reboot I was looking at ... some kind of windowed environment strange to me. Apparently it was called the Gnome Desktop, you clicked on menu's and double clicked on icons much like in windows, except that everything was laid out a lot differently.
Bonus #1 : It comes with an office suite : A word processor , a spread sheet , a database, a power point look alike. And these arn't the 30 day trials have your credit card ready that came with my dell, these ones you keep forever , keep your money in your pocket.
Bonus #2 : It can install other applications from the internet. The list is extensive and all you do is double click on one. I tested it out with a second spread sheet program called gnumeric, and it installed all by it's self without me having to know anything or do much at all.
So we're talking tons of clean ,non virus infected software free of charge
Bonus #3 : I'm writing this blog entry on firefox 2 , which came with Ubuntu , and seems to be working fine.
Note to self : get a video box to switch the monitor back and forth at the flip of a switch , I already have two keyboards and two mice ....
Drawback #1 : World of Warcraft doesn't run on Linux. :(
Looks like I'm going to be running two systems...now to just make switching between them easy.
So I downloaded the ISO , thats a disk image , and some special software to burn it to a cd, and discovered I was out of cd's. Sigh.... off to work the next day , pick up some cd's on the way in , work all day , go home..forget it go to bed.
get up , ,play a little world of warcraft...ah ..might as well get something useful accomplished today , burn the iso to the cd ( I used a really slow setting to make sure there would be no data corruption) and then switched all the wires over to my old computer. (I'm using the same monitor and mouse, and internet connection, so only one comptuer goes at a time)
Why did I choose the Ubuntu version of Linux ? Pure chance really , I just picked one at random from a list and it claimed to be reasonably friendly.
First problem came during the installation. The software switched me to 800 by 600 for my screen resolution , and you could just see the tips of some buttons at the bottom right. Presumably the very last , very right most button was the next button , and I could just barely click on it... so I did manage to install Ubuntu, but this bit about screens too large for my screen resolution would continue to plague me throughout the day.
Since I'd long planned on installing linux , I'd used ProblemChild as a kind of test bed , and downloaded limeware and sharebear and all sorts of programs I knew would infect my computer with trojens and virii, so I chose the install option to completely wipe out the system and install Ubuntu fresh.
The installation went off without a hitch, and after a reboot I was looking at ... some kind of windowed environment strange to me. Apparently it was called the Gnome Desktop, you clicked on menu's and double clicked on icons much like in windows, except that everything was laid out a lot differently.
Bonus #1 : It comes with an office suite : A word processor , a spread sheet , a database, a power point look alike. And these arn't the 30 day trials have your credit card ready that came with my dell, these ones you keep forever , keep your money in your pocket.
Bonus #2 : It can install other applications from the internet. The list is extensive and all you do is double click on one. I tested it out with a second spread sheet program called gnumeric, and it installed all by it's self without me having to know anything or do much at all.
So we're talking tons of clean ,non virus infected software free of charge
Bonus #3 : I'm writing this blog entry on firefox 2 , which came with Ubuntu , and seems to be working fine.
Note to self : get a video box to switch the monitor back and forth at the flip of a switch , I already have two keyboards and two mice ....
Drawback #1 : World of Warcraft doesn't run on Linux. :(
Looks like I'm going to be running two systems...now to just make switching between them easy.
Internet Explorer 7
Ok , I work in tech support, and IE7 (internet explorer 7) has been forced down everyones throat. The complaints are ...
1) No menu
2) Cannot surf at all at all at all
3) problems with active x especially flash.
Knowing how wrong i was about the google toolbar , i decided to d/l and install IE7 before actually comlpaining how terrible it is.
1 - no menues.
This beef is correct. If you look at the pic I put up at the top of this article, however , you can see that some tiny menu's have been added at the top right , including a tools option that can turn the menu's back on, and you're off to the races wth the same options as before.
2) Cannot surf at all at all at all
I'm writing this post on ie7 . Seems to work great. Tried a number of web sites, no problems.
3) problems with active x
Went to www.flash.com , and ran the flash demonstration for flash 8 , it's still running in the back ground in another tab while I type this.
Other
- yah gotta know when I next go to work everyone is swiping that screen shot , and maybe putting it up on the tech pages. :)
(edit)
Oh yes, the control key bypasses the pop up blocker just fine on this thing.
and I had to remove my google toolbar, because it's got one installed by default and REFUSES to ditch it, and thats just redundant.
Friday, February 09, 2007
WOW: Letter to Auberdine
Wow = an online multiplayer game that apparently 8 million people in the world playcool, I can upload a pic of my charactar. I do hope face tenticles arn't a detriment to me finding a guild to join . :)
So I got this letter to deliver to Auberdine, which is across the sea. So I run back to Azuremyste, the beginning area , and meet a hunter at the docks who says oh yes, just catch the boat it takes you right there. Catch the boat , get off at the other end , turn the letter in end of quest.
While I'm there anyways ....
There's a griffen point in Auberdine, so go talk with the Griffen master. Then go back to the dock ,which has three ships not one, and take the boat to Darnassus , which is the capital city of the elves. Fish for a while waiting for the point ... humm...need to buy up my fishing I"m almost at the level cap for it.
Catch the boat to Darnasuss, catch the griffen point there. Now I have two griffen points so I can fly between them without waiting for boats. Fly back to Auberdine , and now there's no griffen between auberdine and Exodar , so I have to catch the boat. Oh well, started in on catching flight points. It's a big world and you can't run around everywhere.
Catch the boat back ... oh yes , fishing.
The fishing trainer is way way WAY back at the newbie area , when you first come out of the little vally where brand new charactars level from first to sixth level. And there are no griffen points there.
Hike it all the way back there , stopping three times to mine copper. I'm about ten levels to high for this area so I can practically reach out and touch the hostile monsters here and they wont attack me, a design feature to a) keep from annoying me when I have to cross a newbie area, and b) keep from annoying the newbies whenever a high level goes through and is forced to depopulate the area because everything keeps attacking him. Nothing attacks nothing, and the newbies now complain I'm robbing their copper mines because they have to fight the monsters to get there and I don't !
*sigh*
You just can't win no matter what you do.
Get to the fisherman , buy up my fishing , and then use the heathstone to teleport home.
Oh yes, screen shots, I can take a pic of my charactar and put it on my blog now. Cool.
Zoom the camera around a bit until I get a good shot , take the pic. Copy and paste it into windows media , which interestingly enough shows it upside down. Do another screen shot of windows media showing the image , and paste it into Paint. Do a cut on that because I just want my charactar , not the whole screen , copy and paste (again !) into paint. Then use the rotate function because it's still upside down ! Then save as a jpeg, and export it to my blog.
Whew ! What a complicated process !
And so thats' what I look like at level 15 with some ok dokey but not too impressive level 15 equipment.
I think I took longer to mess with the screen shot than do the actual quest, fishing side trip and all. :)
I hate the Google Toolbar !
Ok. I do tech support all day , and I keep getting this same problem over and over. Customer has the google toolbar, the menu option "manage add ons" is gone (useful for removing tool bars) And the address bar is gone so they can't surf properly , they're forced to go through google for everything.
I hate that , so I go to my rarely used internet explorer 6 , install the google toolbar.
My home page is my streaming music page, the only web page I ever use IE on. Other than that I'm a firefox kind of guy.
First , open and close internet explorer (IE) ten times. Does the home page change ?
No.
Does the address bar change ?
No.
Does the Tools Menu change and manage add ons disapear ?
No.
Hmmm...... might have to get more aggressive here.
start surfing about with the address bar , deliberately mispelling things , daring google to interfer with me when I'm not using it.
Works great. Google leaves me alone when I don't use it, the address bar is still fully functional.
Hmmmm.....
Those callers have spyware or something. It's gotta be. The tool bar aint doing nothing to my browser.
But just in case, I'll leave it on for a while and see how it goes.. just for testing purposes.
*sigh*
I hate that , so I go to my rarely used internet explorer 6 , install the google toolbar.
My home page is my streaming music page, the only web page I ever use IE on. Other than that I'm a firefox kind of guy.
First , open and close internet explorer (IE) ten times. Does the home page change ?
No.
Does the address bar change ?
No.
Does the Tools Menu change and manage add ons disapear ?
No.
Hmmm...... might have to get more aggressive here.
start surfing about with the address bar , deliberately mispelling things , daring google to interfer with me when I'm not using it.
Works great. Google leaves me alone when I don't use it, the address bar is still fully functional.
Hmmmm.....
Those callers have spyware or something. It's gotta be. The tool bar aint doing nothing to my browser.
But just in case, I'll leave it on for a while and see how it goes.. just for testing purposes.
*sigh*
Blogspot Update
NONONO I don't want to update ! I like my blog just the way it is ! What do you mean you're forcing me to update ?
Whats this button over here ? Hmmm... pictures , I can now do pictures on my blog (I stole this one from google, who presumably stole it from nasa).
Interesting ... maybe this upgrade isn't that bad after all...
I hate You Tube
www.youtube.com
Click on link for "Rock Me Amadeus"
"This video has been removed due to terms of use violation."
What ? but thats my fave ! Try another , and another !
Half my book marked You Tube tunes give the same message.
I'm seriously beginning to hate this site, I really am. Especially with no way to download a video and keep it to yourself. Thats just annoying.
Click on link for "Rock Me Amadeus"
"This video has been removed due to terms of use violation."
What ? but thats my fave ! Try another , and another !
Half my book marked You Tube tunes give the same message.
I'm seriously beginning to hate this site, I really am. Especially with no way to download a video and keep it to yourself. Thats just annoying.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Free Audio Books
Project Gutenberg is a project set up to put out of date books in electronic format, so those old tarzen novels
that the author died and no one really owns the copy rigths any more never die kind of deal. The advent of the
mp3 player that hangs around your neck and has massive storage capacity brigns us to the part where you actually
get audio books ...read aloud by someone so you can listen to them while you go to work or do the laundry or
such.
And who records these books ? Who sits there and over the course of a month reads a whole freaking novel into
a recorder for the benifit of their fellow man.
Well, yes, there are a number of volinteers that do exactly that. But there is also a new age alternative.
Computer speach. A computer reads the text out loud.
Tarzan of the Apes
The above link leads to a free copy of Tarzen of the Apes. Read by a computer, in mp3 format. My first impression was that the computer voice was incomprehensable , but after about 2 min I was effortlessly makeing out the words, and it was just like listening to someone with a weird accent. Once you got the accent down pat it was no problem at all. After about 20 minutes I stopped noticing the flat droning computer voice and instead closed my eyes and had a picture in my mind of what was happening in the story, I didn't even hear the computer voice anymore.
The ear adapts, and darn quickly if my experiance is any indication. And a computer generated narrative is going to be a lot cheaper to deal with than an army of volinteers that have to constantly cross check each others work. I think this whole computer reading text thing is going to take off like a rocket personally.
that the author died and no one really owns the copy rigths any more never die kind of deal. The advent of the
mp3 player that hangs around your neck and has massive storage capacity brigns us to the part where you actually
get audio books ...read aloud by someone so you can listen to them while you go to work or do the laundry or
such.
And who records these books ? Who sits there and over the course of a month reads a whole freaking novel into
a recorder for the benifit of their fellow man.
Well, yes, there are a number of volinteers that do exactly that. But there is also a new age alternative.
Computer speach. A computer reads the text out loud.
Tarzan of the Apes
The above link leads to a free copy of Tarzen of the Apes. Read by a computer, in mp3 format. My first impression was that the computer voice was incomprehensable , but after about 2 min I was effortlessly makeing out the words, and it was just like listening to someone with a weird accent. Once you got the accent down pat it was no problem at all. After about 20 minutes I stopped noticing the flat droning computer voice and instead closed my eyes and had a picture in my mind of what was happening in the story, I didn't even hear the computer voice anymore.
The ear adapts, and darn quickly if my experiance is any indication. And a computer generated narrative is going to be a lot cheaper to deal with than an army of volinteers that have to constantly cross check each others work. I think this whole computer reading text thing is going to take off like a rocket personally.
The Great Hero
WoW = World of Warcraft, an online game I play with , apparently, 8 million other people in the world.
Get back to town after finishing a few quests, and I look around for more quest givers. Questing is an art form. Some people want to do quests as efficiently as possible , wtih as little running around as possible. I've always considered that to be a mistake. The more running around you do , the more copper veins you run into to mine. Also the more random monsters you wind up killing and thus getting more experiance. Oh I don't take it to extremes, if ther'es three quests all in the same cave I'm not running back and forth three times, but I been known to decide I'm only carrying two or three quests at a time and ignore quest givers until I'm done.
Quest giver wants me to go all the way back to Silvermyste island to visit the fisherman there. I was just there and escorted his daughter to him. Didn't feel like going again . Skip that quest.
Some Draenie wants me to learn the language of the Stillpines, hairy owl headed humanoids who inhabit this area. What the hey. Why not. Read the book , click on the totem... some ancient Stillpine spirt apears and gestures for me to follow him. Oops...off and running , not quite quite what I expected. Up the hill... to another totem planted in the ground. click on this totem , and another Still pine ancestor apears, slaps some kind of ghostly wings on my shoulder , and jumps off a cliff. Well..wings, maybe I can fly..Jump off and gently float to the ground ..careful to go in exactly the directino he went in ..and across the river to another totem. This ancestor grants me water breathing and tells me to head down river, and I do , finding yet another totem , this one buried under the water at the mouth of the river.
The last totem was the coolest , since that ancestor transforms you into a big panther, and you get to run across the island at speed, with all your vision blurred as if your in the spirit world. Actually I think you were because there were no monsters or cats or whatnot to ambush you the way they usually were. All the way west... to the bristlepine owlkin. Who, it is now explained to me, are actually evil. They're capturing the weak little stillpine children and putting them in cages and committing horrible acts against them. Go forth and slay !
Well, not that bad a quest. Kill the evil ones, they drop keys, keys open the locked cages of prisoners, you got a quota of eight prisoners. It was a little disturbing when I got to the end to see the first cages respawning fresh prisoners...it was quickly obvious I would never free them all no matter how long I stayed, but hey , This is a multi player server with like 2000 players.. quests like this have to respawn rapidly. I'll just put in my required eight rescues and pretend I rescued the lot of them. it's called Role Play. Heh heh heh ...
I wonder if they're ticked at me for stopping to mine copper half way through the quest ?
Get my bag limit , and race home , from whence this quest had begun to the quest giver, a still pine owlkin in town. He directs me north along the road to the Still pine hold (seen it before and ignored it) , and so I trudge down there.
Copper vein just off the road. Go mine it , a cat attacks me. Kill the cat, and some blood elf assassin sneaks up in stealth and tries to kill me. Beat him off , and ANOTHER cat tries to have me for lunch. Just as I'm beating it to death with my club... a guard on patrol along the road steps in and kills the almost dead cat, basically robbing me of my victory rather than actually rescuing me.
I hate guards.
But now I think I know why the price of copper is so high . :)
down the road to the Stillpine Hold and talk to old cheify. Yes, you are the prophisized hero ! Now don't bother me just look around town for people to help. *Sigh*
Some skinner believes that THE BEASTS OF THE APOCOLYPSE have arrived and if I really am the hero I should easily be able to go kill them. Off to the east to their nest, which turns out to be a piece of crashed ship with cages everywhere and these crab like really vicious aliens that look like someone swiped their general design from the aliens movies. Start in on killing them. How many do I have to kill ?
oops... I need 10 hides... and they don't drop a hide every time...its random.
Almost 12th level , 20 of these guys will definately put me over the mark and I'll run back to town for new spells and a run at jewelcrafting and stuff.
I think this one quest a night biz when I get home from work is working out ok.
Get back to town after finishing a few quests, and I look around for more quest givers. Questing is an art form. Some people want to do quests as efficiently as possible , wtih as little running around as possible. I've always considered that to be a mistake. The more running around you do , the more copper veins you run into to mine. Also the more random monsters you wind up killing and thus getting more experiance. Oh I don't take it to extremes, if ther'es three quests all in the same cave I'm not running back and forth three times, but I been known to decide I'm only carrying two or three quests at a time and ignore quest givers until I'm done.
Quest giver wants me to go all the way back to Silvermyste island to visit the fisherman there. I was just there and escorted his daughter to him. Didn't feel like going again . Skip that quest.
Some Draenie wants me to learn the language of the Stillpines, hairy owl headed humanoids who inhabit this area. What the hey. Why not. Read the book , click on the totem... some ancient Stillpine spirt apears and gestures for me to follow him. Oops...off and running , not quite quite what I expected. Up the hill... to another totem planted in the ground. click on this totem , and another Still pine ancestor apears, slaps some kind of ghostly wings on my shoulder , and jumps off a cliff. Well..wings, maybe I can fly..Jump off and gently float to the ground ..careful to go in exactly the directino he went in ..and across the river to another totem. This ancestor grants me water breathing and tells me to head down river, and I do , finding yet another totem , this one buried under the water at the mouth of the river.
The last totem was the coolest , since that ancestor transforms you into a big panther, and you get to run across the island at speed, with all your vision blurred as if your in the spirit world. Actually I think you were because there were no monsters or cats or whatnot to ambush you the way they usually were. All the way west... to the bristlepine owlkin. Who, it is now explained to me, are actually evil. They're capturing the weak little stillpine children and putting them in cages and committing horrible acts against them. Go forth and slay !
Well, not that bad a quest. Kill the evil ones, they drop keys, keys open the locked cages of prisoners, you got a quota of eight prisoners. It was a little disturbing when I got to the end to see the first cages respawning fresh prisoners...it was quickly obvious I would never free them all no matter how long I stayed, but hey , This is a multi player server with like 2000 players.. quests like this have to respawn rapidly. I'll just put in my required eight rescues and pretend I rescued the lot of them. it's called Role Play. Heh heh heh ...
I wonder if they're ticked at me for stopping to mine copper half way through the quest ?
Get my bag limit , and race home , from whence this quest had begun to the quest giver, a still pine owlkin in town. He directs me north along the road to the Still pine hold (seen it before and ignored it) , and so I trudge down there.
Copper vein just off the road. Go mine it , a cat attacks me. Kill the cat, and some blood elf assassin sneaks up in stealth and tries to kill me. Beat him off , and ANOTHER cat tries to have me for lunch. Just as I'm beating it to death with my club... a guard on patrol along the road steps in and kills the almost dead cat, basically robbing me of my victory rather than actually rescuing me.
I hate guards.
But now I think I know why the price of copper is so high . :)
down the road to the Stillpine Hold and talk to old cheify. Yes, you are the prophisized hero ! Now don't bother me just look around town for people to help. *Sigh*
Some skinner believes that THE BEASTS OF THE APOCOLYPSE have arrived and if I really am the hero I should easily be able to go kill them. Off to the east to their nest, which turns out to be a piece of crashed ship with cages everywhere and these crab like really vicious aliens that look like someone swiped their general design from the aliens movies. Start in on killing them. How many do I have to kill ?
oops... I need 10 hides... and they don't drop a hide every time...its random.
Almost 12th level , 20 of these guys will definately put me over the mark and I'll run back to town for new spells and a run at jewelcrafting and stuff.
I think this one quest a night biz when I get home from work is working out ok.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
WoW : Snapdragon Quest
WoW = World of Warcraft, an online game I play with , apparently, 5 million other people in the world.
Log in , pull up my quest list. What do I need here ? Four more Infected NightStalkers, one more snap dragon. The snap dragon is a flower. Sheesh , I'm reduced to gathering flowers for people. Oh well. Start on the south side of Azuremyste Island and work my way around. It's actually the long way but you encounter a lot of mountainous territory that way. Which means you encounter a lot of copper veins, and I mine copper and turn it into rings and stuff.
Ah , the peace of fishing. After a fairly extended search , find copper, battle various wild monsters that seem to have mistaken me for lunch, I reach a quiet spot and cast my fishing rod in the water. It's pretty relaxing because you don't have to look at the screen , you can just close your eyes, and when a fish yanks on the line it makes an odd splash I've leanred to listen for, so you can actually fish with your eyes closed.
enough fishing , time to move on ...there's a barrel over there washed ashore , walk over and click on it, and get some "refreshing spring water". More importantly , some text comes up on the screen showing I have just discovered a new area, so I get a few experiance points for that.
Huh ?
Wait a minute. I'm behind Exodar, the city at the edge of the island, there isn't anything behind it. I check my map. Yup, big picture of Exodar at the corner of the map , no room for anything else.
Hmmm.....
Walk deeper into this new area. Find a mountain path and start going up. Then I get more xp for discovering "Wildwind Path" or somesuch. Definately had somethign to do with winds.
Well, maybe there's a snapdragon up here somewhere, it's a plant , it coudl grow anywhere, right ? I only need one more.
Up , and up , and up I go on this path. Mostly empty , i swear it must be an unfinished part of the game. No creatures no plants , nothing.
Then I start seeing torches lining the path. Maybe it's an impotant quest for some warrior or paladin or something ? Only they come up here ? Spot motion up ahead. A Wind Elemental, level 44, which is bad because I'm only 11th and can only take out things , maybe , 14th or so tops. But I can see it's all green (friendly) so It's safe to continue. Start seeing lots of wind elementals. And a big stone with symbols marked on it.
At this point I figure it out. I'd seen that stone before. When I tried out a shaman on the Hoarde Side , the shaman had quests to come to such stones , talk with some super elemental , and learn a few more spells. This wildwind path must be the Shaman's Air totem quest area.
Which was hilarious to me , since I in fact was a shaman. And the Air totem quest I wouldn't see until I was like 30th level. Guess I wouldn't be hunting around much to find it. It's right there , hidden behind exodar on a winding mountain path.
A little farther I find a girl in a cave , (Draenei) and a super elemental. Both talk to me, but don't say much beyond hello , meaning they have quests hidden up but I don't qualify to hear them. I loot the copper vein near by while watching all these air elementals... floating on the air ...actually way out away from the mountain floating on the air. Looks pretty, but prettiness only buys you a minute or two of me being impressed and then I decide it's time to wander off , kill more monsters, complete more quests, and generally get on with leveling my shaman.
All the way back down the path. By this time the water barrel washed ashore has re-apeared (respawned we call it) and I loot it again for more water. Walk three steps farther , and freeze in terror.
No no nooooooooahhhhhhh nooooo ! Murlocs.
Murlocs are the Dark Side of Artificial Intelligence. They're not just computer monsters you have to fight and kill, they're SMART computer monsters. Someone put a lot of effort into the artificial intelligence that runs them. If they're badly injured they'll run away. Usually into a pack of other murlocs, and then they , and the whole pack , will run back at you , and suddenly you're fighting five murlocs , not one. Or... they'll pull out a healing potion just when you think you're going to finish them off , and suddenly be back at full health , and you gotta start all over on them.
And they always apear in groups , usually villages, on the shore of a sea or lake , and there's always a wandering patrol, so while you're busy fighting one murloc, another one , or even a patrol of two , will come up behind you, and suddenly you're swarmed under again !
I really can't express how much I despise murlocs.
Truely I admire the work of the programmer who designed their intelligence... but the murlocs themselves i could do without the first hand experiance of that programming.
Back track a bit and find a way up the mountain and around the murlocs, I'm not going along that beach if I dont' half to.
Further inland find the road and follow it along the north end of the island, to some more mountainous area where I mined a little more copper. Fought a few Infected cats and got my bag limit on that. Along the road and it turned south , and I wandered off the road away from the mountains and it's copper and into the woods. Finally located the last snapdragon plant, hiding under a tree. Truck it back to the road avoiding the cats that think I'm lunchmeat , and finally make it home to turn in my quests.
I figure I'll use half the copper to raise my jewelry skill , and half I'll sell on the Auction House for simple cash. I need some equipment and the stuff I want is pricy. At least I don't have to go hunting for flowers anymore. End of snapdragon quest.
Log in , pull up my quest list. What do I need here ? Four more Infected NightStalkers, one more snap dragon. The snap dragon is a flower. Sheesh , I'm reduced to gathering flowers for people. Oh well. Start on the south side of Azuremyste Island and work my way around. It's actually the long way but you encounter a lot of mountainous territory that way. Which means you encounter a lot of copper veins, and I mine copper and turn it into rings and stuff.
Ah , the peace of fishing. After a fairly extended search , find copper, battle various wild monsters that seem to have mistaken me for lunch, I reach a quiet spot and cast my fishing rod in the water. It's pretty relaxing because you don't have to look at the screen , you can just close your eyes, and when a fish yanks on the line it makes an odd splash I've leanred to listen for, so you can actually fish with your eyes closed.
enough fishing , time to move on ...there's a barrel over there washed ashore , walk over and click on it, and get some "refreshing spring water". More importantly , some text comes up on the screen showing I have just discovered a new area, so I get a few experiance points for that.
Huh ?
Wait a minute. I'm behind Exodar, the city at the edge of the island, there isn't anything behind it. I check my map. Yup, big picture of Exodar at the corner of the map , no room for anything else.
Hmmm.....
Walk deeper into this new area. Find a mountain path and start going up. Then I get more xp for discovering "Wildwind Path" or somesuch. Definately had somethign to do with winds.
Well, maybe there's a snapdragon up here somewhere, it's a plant , it coudl grow anywhere, right ? I only need one more.
Up , and up , and up I go on this path. Mostly empty , i swear it must be an unfinished part of the game. No creatures no plants , nothing.
Then I start seeing torches lining the path. Maybe it's an impotant quest for some warrior or paladin or something ? Only they come up here ? Spot motion up ahead. A Wind Elemental, level 44, which is bad because I'm only 11th and can only take out things , maybe , 14th or so tops. But I can see it's all green (friendly) so It's safe to continue. Start seeing lots of wind elementals. And a big stone with symbols marked on it.
At this point I figure it out. I'd seen that stone before. When I tried out a shaman on the Hoarde Side , the shaman had quests to come to such stones , talk with some super elemental , and learn a few more spells. This wildwind path must be the Shaman's Air totem quest area.
Which was hilarious to me , since I in fact was a shaman. And the Air totem quest I wouldn't see until I was like 30th level. Guess I wouldn't be hunting around much to find it. It's right there , hidden behind exodar on a winding mountain path.
A little farther I find a girl in a cave , (Draenei) and a super elemental. Both talk to me, but don't say much beyond hello , meaning they have quests hidden up but I don't qualify to hear them. I loot the copper vein near by while watching all these air elementals... floating on the air ...actually way out away from the mountain floating on the air. Looks pretty, but prettiness only buys you a minute or two of me being impressed and then I decide it's time to wander off , kill more monsters, complete more quests, and generally get on with leveling my shaman.
All the way back down the path. By this time the water barrel washed ashore has re-apeared (respawned we call it) and I loot it again for more water. Walk three steps farther , and freeze in terror.
No no nooooooooahhhhhhh nooooo ! Murlocs.
Murlocs are the Dark Side of Artificial Intelligence. They're not just computer monsters you have to fight and kill, they're SMART computer monsters. Someone put a lot of effort into the artificial intelligence that runs them. If they're badly injured they'll run away. Usually into a pack of other murlocs, and then they , and the whole pack , will run back at you , and suddenly you're fighting five murlocs , not one. Or... they'll pull out a healing potion just when you think you're going to finish them off , and suddenly be back at full health , and you gotta start all over on them.
And they always apear in groups , usually villages, on the shore of a sea or lake , and there's always a wandering patrol, so while you're busy fighting one murloc, another one , or even a patrol of two , will come up behind you, and suddenly you're swarmed under again !
I really can't express how much I despise murlocs.
Truely I admire the work of the programmer who designed their intelligence... but the murlocs themselves i could do without the first hand experiance of that programming.
Back track a bit and find a way up the mountain and around the murlocs, I'm not going along that beach if I dont' half to.
Further inland find the road and follow it along the north end of the island, to some more mountainous area where I mined a little more copper. Fought a few Infected cats and got my bag limit on that. Along the road and it turned south , and I wandered off the road away from the mountains and it's copper and into the woods. Finally located the last snapdragon plant, hiding under a tree. Truck it back to the road avoiding the cats that think I'm lunchmeat , and finally make it home to turn in my quests.
I figure I'll use half the copper to raise my jewelry skill , and half I'll sell on the Auction House for simple cash. I need some equipment and the stuff I want is pricy. At least I don't have to go hunting for flowers anymore. End of snapdragon quest.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Premediatated Bundling : A Microsoft Tirade
Article = no article , this is my personal opinion.
The people at microsoft like to say that the Internet Explorer is part of the operating system, there's no way to remove it. This is why they push it on everyone , and you need to inconveniently download Netscape (or any other alternative browser) if you want to get away from it.
This is crud.
The operating system , windows, is not a rock that fell from the sky and you take it or leave it, it is a made thing , a manufactured item. If you manufactured the OS such that the browser is part of it and cannot be removed, then it is the same thing as saying you committed bundling with years of premediation. (it takes years to make an operating system).
Think of it in non computer terms.
lets say someone got a lock on the Television Market, and his brand of TV is the only brand out there. There are no competiters you have to go to him , or nothing. Lets say that there are a dozen or so video game consols, game machines you plug into a TV and play, and each game machine has a different library of games.
Lets say our Tv manufacturer wants in on the action , and so the latest TV he produces has a built in game consol, and suddenly lacks the usual jacks where you would plug in another manufcturer's game console.
He has now used his monopoly on TV's to get a monopoly on game consoles. Not because his product is any better, but because of foul play , deliberately locking out the competition rather than competing with them. I'm sure you can see how totally unfair this is , mostly to the consumer who's games wont run on the new TV and when the old tv breaks they're out of luck.
And the TV makers excuse for all of this ? The Game Console is Part of the TV , it cannot be seperated. Nonsense, this is a made item , that just means you planned this stunt years ahead of time.
The catch is , what do you do about it ? They're the only TV producer around ?
What do we do about Microsoft, they're the only OS around ?
Well, they're not.
Get off the microsoft wagon. Get an old junker of a computer, and get Linux, the "hobbiests" operating system. And we start all over again.
Oh , why do we care about browsers ? Netscape lost that war a long time ago ?
Because Microsoft just put out a fire wall as part of the opeating system, muscling out many security companies. And now they're working on an anti-trojen program called Windows Defender, same deal. These programs are inheritently inferior, often vastly inferior, to the ones they replace. But they are being rammed down our throats with little choice in the matter, much to the detriment of the consumer.
And now Windows Vista comes with Internet Explorer 7 , which will not show half the web pages in the world, and there's no way to put an older browser on Vista , so it's forced on you and now the whole flipping world must pay to rewrite their web pages because Microsoft can't be bothered to follow standard HTML coding practices.
I'm not moving to Vista.
I'm moving to Linux.
The people at microsoft like to say that the Internet Explorer is part of the operating system, there's no way to remove it. This is why they push it on everyone , and you need to inconveniently download Netscape (or any other alternative browser) if you want to get away from it.
This is crud.
The operating system , windows, is not a rock that fell from the sky and you take it or leave it, it is a made thing , a manufactured item. If you manufactured the OS such that the browser is part of it and cannot be removed, then it is the same thing as saying you committed bundling with years of premediation. (it takes years to make an operating system).
Think of it in non computer terms.
lets say someone got a lock on the Television Market, and his brand of TV is the only brand out there. There are no competiters you have to go to him , or nothing. Lets say that there are a dozen or so video game consols, game machines you plug into a TV and play, and each game machine has a different library of games.
Lets say our Tv manufacturer wants in on the action , and so the latest TV he produces has a built in game consol, and suddenly lacks the usual jacks where you would plug in another manufcturer's game console.
He has now used his monopoly on TV's to get a monopoly on game consoles. Not because his product is any better, but because of foul play , deliberately locking out the competition rather than competing with them. I'm sure you can see how totally unfair this is , mostly to the consumer who's games wont run on the new TV and when the old tv breaks they're out of luck.
And the TV makers excuse for all of this ? The Game Console is Part of the TV , it cannot be seperated. Nonsense, this is a made item , that just means you planned this stunt years ahead of time.
The catch is , what do you do about it ? They're the only TV producer around ?
What do we do about Microsoft, they're the only OS around ?
Well, they're not.
Get off the microsoft wagon. Get an old junker of a computer, and get Linux, the "hobbiests" operating system. And we start all over again.
Oh , why do we care about browsers ? Netscape lost that war a long time ago ?
Because Microsoft just put out a fire wall as part of the opeating system, muscling out many security companies. And now they're working on an anti-trojen program called Windows Defender, same deal. These programs are inheritently inferior, often vastly inferior, to the ones they replace. But they are being rammed down our throats with little choice in the matter, much to the detriment of the consumer.
And now Windows Vista comes with Internet Explorer 7 , which will not show half the web pages in the world, and there's no way to put an older browser on Vista , so it's forced on you and now the whole flipping world must pay to rewrite their web pages because Microsoft can't be bothered to follow standard HTML coding practices.
I'm not moving to Vista.
I'm moving to Linux.
Vista : Now we've broken everything
More Windows Vista Problems for Korean Firms
Some MP3 players are experiencing glitches with computers on which Microsoft’s new operating system Windows Vista has been installed. MP3 players acquire music files by connecting to the computer, but the new operating system fails to recognize some players
Ok... so ... xp would work on these mp3 players but not vista ? so ... backwards compatability was simply thrown in the trash and instead you made up a hit list of people who pay you to make their stuff work and people who don't ? Have you considered putting out a simple "standard" way of connecting to any mp3 device ? Noo.... can't do that. No money to be made there ....
Meanwhile, some financial institutions and Internet portals are working on their websites to make them compatible with the new OS, as Internet banking and electronic payment services were found to be unavailable on computers that operate Windows Vista.
So... standardization is completely out the window here, you just make any changes you like to the new OS and it's up to the whole wide world to adapt to your lead.
Any other industry would be sued on the spot for sabatage. Especially since you forced your new browser down everyones throat and it doesnt' work on half the computers out there. What is this business about a 2am security patch not just patching security , but deciding to toss the old internet explorer and install a brand spaking new broken and non-working right out of the box internet explorer 7 ? Sheesh ! I'd sue you but I turned that stuff off long ago and was never victomized.
Some MP3 players are experiencing glitches with computers on which Microsoft’s new operating system Windows Vista has been installed. MP3 players acquire music files by connecting to the computer, but the new operating system fails to recognize some players
Ok... so ... xp would work on these mp3 players but not vista ? so ... backwards compatability was simply thrown in the trash and instead you made up a hit list of people who pay you to make their stuff work and people who don't ? Have you considered putting out a simple "standard" way of connecting to any mp3 device ? Noo.... can't do that. No money to be made there ....
Meanwhile, some financial institutions and Internet portals are working on their websites to make them compatible with the new OS, as Internet banking and electronic payment services were found to be unavailable on computers that operate Windows Vista.
So... standardization is completely out the window here, you just make any changes you like to the new OS and it's up to the whole wide world to adapt to your lead.
Any other industry would be sued on the spot for sabatage. Especially since you forced your new browser down everyones throat and it doesnt' work on half the computers out there. What is this business about a 2am security patch not just patching security , but deciding to toss the old internet explorer and install a brand spaking new broken and non-working right out of the box internet explorer 7 ? Sheesh ! I'd sue you but I turned that stuff off long ago and was never victomized.
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