From the Bureau of Ruben Has Been Blogging Too Much About K-On we have this poll by the Otaku no Podcast folks over who people's favourite characters are.
The results are encouraging, it seems I'm the only one who has voted for Mugi-chan, which means she's mine by default :3! Of course I'm also dismayed at the same time, as this implies she didn't receive any votes before I came along, when the others did! Fight Mugi, fight!
While Lance Ulanoff does respond to all my @replies on Twitter like a gentleman, and while I'm deeply envious of his awesome name, I have to say I haven't disagreed with one of his columns as vehemently as this one (Stop Using Windows XP, Please). So much so that he made me look up how to spell vehemently.
In his latest column for PC Magazine, Lance argues that Microsoft wants the stragglers on Windows XP to move up to Windows 7, and that he agrees. He claims that Windows XP is a legacy operating system that's past its time, that critical software such as Internet Explorer will no longer be supporting it, that Windows 7 has critical features missing from XP, and that staying back on XP may end up costing customers more, not less.
Firstly, I am not suggesting Windows XP isn't an ancient operating system, at least in terms of modern contemporary computers. It was released in 2001 into a 32 bit market and where having an 80 gigabyte hard drive afforded you bragging rights with your nerdy friends. It also appealed to the juvenile Fisher Price sensibilities of consumers by wrapping the interface in ugly shades of blue and green. And no, I don't see any irony in that, so shaddup.
I've been saving a post on how some journalists frustrate me with their attempts to discuss computer security, but for now I'll say that legacy software isn't necessarily a bad thing, in fact often times it can be better. Software that has been in the field for many years will often trump new software simply by virtue of the fact there have been more real world test cases. This is the logic behind business decisions to generally eschew versions of Windows until a service pack has been released.
Even despite Windows 7's perceived security benefits, Windows XP is more mature and runs more current Windows software, especially in the enterprise. Why should customers have to buy new machines to run Ultimate versions of Windows 7 with its Windows XP virtual environment to run their Windows XP code, when they can run Windows XP?
… because it's Good Enough™
Even if Windows 7 was as saccharine sweet as most journalists and bloggers and journalist bloggers seem to suggest, that doesn't change the fact that for the majority of consumers Windows XP does all they need it to. With previous versions of Windows there were real and perceived advantages in usability and stability, this time around the operating system is the browser.
Yes Windows 7 has more features, some of which may be genuinely useful such as BitLocker. For enterprise customers though they most likely have their own tools for achieving the sort of things these built in tools accomplish, or there are superior tools available (TrueCrypt, Firefox). Computer nerds and power users care about such enhancements, but they represent a tiny fraction of the user space. Home users couldn't care less.
Given the current economic climate when budgets are stretched tighter than the plot of a harem anime (you sinister okaku, I know you know what I'm talking about!) its also understandable why people would be reluctant to move from something that works.
Finally, despite all the aforementioned sweet reviews, Windows 7 is not a fast operating system by any stretch of the imagination. From my own experience I can attest that XP not only boots faster (especially on older hardware) but is more responsive and has a Windows Explorer shell that makes sense. Menubars are great!
Rather than getting frustrated and blaming users for continuing to demand a ten year old operating system instead of their current baby, Microsoft should be taking this as a sign that their customers don't want what Windows 7 is.
A classic user case is my father who's been using Windows in a corporate setting since Windows/286. He doesn't care about translucent menus or circular start buttons, he wants a system that will run his suite of Windows applications without getting in his way so he can get his work done quicker and go home to his shiny new MacBook so he can mess around with photos and music.
I've been saying for years here that if Microsoft were gracious in defeat they'd admit they've lost the high end market to Apple and the power user market to Linux, and instead focus on releasing a bare bones, minimalistic, thin operating system that would allow them to further lock in their corporate customers with their Windows software and allow home users to use the Internet without worrying about anything else. In a way, Windows XP's continued dominance in light of Vista and 7 is proof of this in action anyway.
Sorry Lance, you're a nice guy, and I certainly wouldn't be caught running Windows XP any more (well okay, that's a lie, I have it in a VM on my Mac), but as it stands the case simply isn't compelling enough for most people, and I can't say I blame them.
By the way if you're looking for an easy to use and far cheaper desktop alternative: PC-BSD or Sabayon Linux. Just saying ;).
This barely qualifies as a post, but I'm simply far too excited to contain myself. Having had DSL just provisioned today, this is what I've been able to do:
Thank you, and goodnight!
Look out world, I'll be blogging more nonsense again!
Having lived with tethered internet and one of those misleadingly titled Open Network dongles, this morning our new modem arrived. We connected it up and… we have DSL! After a two month hiatus, we've now returned to the 21st century.
Given our home line is with Optus we went with them for the DSL, but we paid a larger deposit (or whatever it was) so we're not locked into a contract. Our attempts to have service provisioned with Internode and TPG were fruitless, but mysteriously Optus had us online within two days.
Not knowing anything about Aussie telcos I can only assume they were able to pull strings that resellers couldn't, I don't know. Maybe I need to get a bloke called Andrew or Alex to explain this! In Singapore we always had direct cable so all this reseller stuff is foreign and weird and strange and all that.
Maybe we'll churn after this billing month (a term I just learned, makes it sound like your ISP has stomach problems), but for now we're just glad to have something! Once again I can blog nonsense on a more regular basis ^_^.
For those interested or who have nothing better to do, I first discussed the problems with provisioning internet at this address back on the 14th of September. We'd been trying since August.
Don't look now but… I was just looking at my dock before and I realised I use more Oracle software now than Apple software. Don't worry though, they didn't force my dock to be horizontal, I only did that so I could take a better screenshot. If you have it on the side, it would have taken up more space.
Does this mean I'm more of a lackey for Ellison than Jobs?
UPDATE: Maybe I spoke too soon!
As with my social life, I seem to instinctively pick things that aren't "cool" in computer science. Or so I've been repeatedly told :P. Here's a list I was typing on my phone over the course of this morning.
| What’s Cool | What I Prefer |
|---|---|
| GNU/Linux | FreeBSD, Mac OS X |
| OpenBSD | NetBSD |
| bash, zsh | tcsh |
| elinks | links |
| emacs | Vim |
| mutt | [Al]pine, TBird |
| Rijndael | Twofish |
| Triple DES | Plaintext |
| Eclipse | NetBeans, TextMate |
| git | Mercurial |
| Gnome Terminal | LilyTerm |
| Nautilus | emelFM2, Thunar, ROXFiler |
| OOo, Google Docs | Gnumeric, AbiWord |
| Google Reader | Bloglines (but I caved in!) |
| PathFinder | Finder |
| Licence qualms | TrueCrypt |
| IPv6 | Not compromising privacy |
| Konqueror (KDE 3.x) | Dolphin (KDE 3.x) |
| xterm | urxvt |
| Xmonad | dwm |
| Apache | Lighty |
| Ubuntu | Sabayon, Fedora |
| Chrome | Firefox, NoScript |
| Photoshop | The Gimp |
| Illustrator | Inkscape |
| LaTeX | DocBook (for plain text) |
| QuickTime X | QuickTime 7 Pro |
| Ruby On Rails | … erubis? |
| Svelte Apple keyboards | Buckling spring Unicomp |
| Android | iOS |
| iPads | Old ThinkPad X40 |
| QBASIC | QPascal |
| C#.NET | Borland C++ (back in the day!) |
| Praising Windows 7 | Hating on Windows 7 |
| Windows Aero | Windows "Classic" |
| Tumblr | Extra blog entries |
| Client-side JavaScript | Server-side processing |
| Beautiful, premade blog themes | Self made, terrible blog theme :) |
| Lady Gaga | Marian Call |
| Akiyama Mio | Kotobuki Tsumugi (pictured) |
| The Pocket Tiger | Minori |
| C.C. | Kallen |
| Chocolate | Vanilla |
| Blond | Black, brown |
| Drunkenness | Calm lucidity |
| Loud | Quiet |
| Clear days | Overcast days |
| Blog posts with a point | Blog posts… like this |
Are there any things you use or prefer over a so called "cooler" alternative?
Because then the ink would spill everywhere I suppose.
As I was walking through Officeworks this afternoon trying to ascertain if they sold waffle irons with phones attached, it suddenly struck me that the free and open source community are missing out on something huge. Or I'm missing out on their discussion on this huge thing. I could have phrased that better.
While I tend to life a third of my life in the super evil Apple world where Steve Jobs dictates to me what applications I can run in my Terminal and which exact machine I can buy, the other two thirds are spent in FreeBSD and my current Linux distribution of choice because FreeBSD just doesn't work on my ThinkPad "netbook" that well. Funny thing is, both Fedora and Debian refuse to suspend properly on it, but Gentoo derived distributions work flawlessly. Go figure.
In the case of FreeBSD and Linux, I can deeply respect the enormous effort and perseverance of advocates for open s/standards/drivers/. Closed binary blob drivers will probably be a fact of life for all of us for the foreseeable future, but the situation is certainly better than what it was a decade ago ago when I was in early high school and couldn't even use my crappy Winmodem in my Red Hat Linux partition, much to the delight of my computer teacher who was a Redmondite. Our school had a perfectly serviceable Notes installation, and instead of moving off it to something simpler, more affordable, more open and ultimately more secure, they became an Exchange shop. Well not a shop, a school. But the school did sell uniforms and books, which I suppose also made them a shop.
Getting back on topic, we have people who refuse to back down on their convictions for this general trend away from binary blob nonsense, even if I tend to think of myself as more of a pragmatist than an idealist.
Oh yeah I remember now. Whether it comes to standards for office documents, communications or for graphics drivers, open is better and we all benefit, even us using super evil operating systems like Mac OS X.
However, there's still one area that is in desperate need for standardisation, and it has to do with jaffle irons. I should be able to put a standard piece of bread, a slice of cheese, a few pieces of onion and a ridiculous amount of avocado into any jaffle iron and have it make me a gosh darn jaffle! Who's with me? Yui totally is :).
The other thing is printer cartridges.
The other thing is printer cartridges. Yes I just said that, I wanted you to feel the full impact of this mofo of a statement. Yes, I said mofo. Apparently its a term cool people use, like The Game and Converse Shoes and Box Socials with their loud music and their wild hair and pocket octopuses. High five Larson :).
CUPS (developed in part by that super evil closed Apple Inc… hey, that's a pun) and other open printing systems have allowed free and open source access to printers without using closed, universally terrible software that printer manufacturers otherwise force upon hapless Windows and Mac users. That's great for controlling these ink to paper dispensing devices, but what about the ink itself?
RANDOM THOUGHT: With the exception of Apple and precious others, why do hardware makers always make terrible software!? Even Logitech which otherwise makes beautiful hardware that's fun to use can't make a .PreferecePane that doesn't crash on me or look like it was designed by Newt Gingrich. I have no idea why I said that guy's name, for some reason it was just the first one that came to mind. Like A Boss.
Every manufacturer has their own ink dispensing and delivery systems, their own little cartridges to store their precious fluids or toner powders, their own colour spaces, their own everything. Even different printers made by the same companies will have wildly different little tanks of the stuff. Photo cyan AND cyan? Really?!
Why can't we have a standardised colour space, standardised cartridges, standardised ink densities and chemical compositions, standardised packaging with clear instructions, and standardised cartridges? Yes I said that one twice, I was trying to make a point, get off my case!
I know why such standardisation won't happen, and unless you're as daft as a ship (no wait, that's draft) you do too. It's because in the United States they spell it with a Z. That's right, we can't even standardise on the spelling of the word standardise! We can't even make up our minds on whether its "free software" or "open source software" or "free and open source software" or "free, libre and open source software" or "FOSS" or "F/OSS" or "FLOSS" or "FURIOUS THE MONKEY BOY" or or or… someone call me a cab, I'm off to the Apple shop.
Printers are the gateway drug, the one the dealers at HP Sauce, Lexfark, EPSOM SALTS and Canonball let you shoot up with at a very reasonable prices, so then later you come crawling back for inks that gram for gram are more expensive than saffron or palladium, and glorified paper with gloss on it that costs more per surface area of paper than the paper money you part with in order to possess it. The printers aren't the things making these companies money, its the ink and its the toner and its the paper and its the drugs, foo.
RANDOM THOUGHT: Isn't saffron spelt with only one F? The spell checker told me otherwise, but it doesn't look right. My spelling sucks.
Much like when people claim Google is an "open company" when their primary cash cow algorithm is the most closed, guarded secret since 11 secret herbs and spices, printer companies will not surrender to a standardised method of packaging and utilising ink. It's a fact of life, and frankly now I'm depressed imagining a world with such standardised ink vessels, because I know it won't happen.
I wonder if Mr Stallman or De Raadt have an opinion on this? They'd probably refuse to use such things outright. Torvalds and McKusick and Watson probably have no problems using them because a free version isn't available… and they want to be able to print things!
Have they standardised on those printer ribbon things from dot matrix printers? When I was growing up we had an EPSOM SALTS dot matrix printer and it made really cool sounds. Before I started school I used to draw obscure pictures in KID PIX and get it to print just to see if I could make it play a tune, then refine the picture.
Turns out people had already done that, but I thought I was being super badarse at the time. Perhaps it explains much of my social awkwardness. No Laura I can't go to your birthday party, I'm making music with a dot matrix printer. Stupid nerdy childhood.
This afternoon I chanced upon an email from the folks at VMware.
For a limited time, get unparalleled reliability for less than $10 and spend the $40 you save on dinner and a movie instead.
While their offer of a $10 upgrade from Fusion is incredibly enticing, I would suggest they reconsider their assertion that we could spend the money on "dinner and a movie" instead. That would imply nerds like me can get a date! Clever use of the term "unparalleled" to have a little dig at their competitor though, I'll give them that.
Why?
Why did the EFA retweet my post about Ned Flanders, and what does he have to do with the proposed National Broadband Network (Wikipedia)? Read on my friend!
During an impassioned discussion on security and the NBN at this year's EggNOG conference (sorry Andrew!) Arbor Network's Roland Dobbins asserted the internet fit the critera of a failed state and urged that the NBN be designed in a more secure fashion. If we don't he fears we may be responsible for creating a "cesspit".
As Ry Crozier reported in IT News Australia:
"Jonathan really likes it when I mention his name in posts for absolutely no reason."
Well that was clearly the wrong quote.
"If the network isn’t defensible and there’s not an active push to impose law and order, there’s a danger [the network] wil [sic] become a cesspit and fail," as it had in China and Russia where criminal hacking had taken the place of litigation in the West as part of "legitimate" business strategies, he said.
I first read that as a "cesspit of fail". That colourful language would have been way cooler, and probably would have soften up the audience of nerds in attendance. While we're on this subject, it has always bugged me that attendance has a double T. Why does it need it? Even Mr. T only needs one, and if I brew a cup it only needs one. Except for green tea, they often need two.
"We have to take positive action," he said, believing that an unmanaged network could rapidly become unmanageable, insecure and then un-securable.
I read this and my nervousness centre started up. I was shattered. These Rolling Stones lyrics doing anything for you? No? Okay then. The problem with security, as he rightly points out, is its much harder to patch an insecure system than it is to actively design a system with security in mind from the beginning. This I can completely understand and appreciate.
I suppose the thing that worries me is what he means by "positive action". To be blunt, it sounds ever so slightly Conroy-eque. Take these recommendations, implement them, and don't ask questions otherwise… you're against positive action!
We could read this as a cynic and assume his company has some magical new software or system to make the NBN more secure, or that he'd be able to offer his services for making it more secure for a fee. I know Singapore networking folks but I'm a complete AusNOG virgin so I wouldn't know. Frankly, its hard to judge his intentions, or the intentions behind Orewllian-ly titled "positive action".
The point I made on Twitter and got retweeted for this afternoon by the EFA (HOW COOL IS THAT!!!!1!!!one!!!) was the idea of inventions. Why did my iTelephone autocorrect that word to that? Even if such a plan was founded on good intentions, as Ned Flanders said to Marge when the residents of Springfield rebuilt his destroyed house only to have it collapse as a result of faulty workmanship: "I can't live in good intentions Marge!".
I would be more than happy to be proven wrong about this, but talk of this nature creeps me out.
