Glyn Moody Article

http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/microsofts-great-besmirching

Of fishhooks and glass shoes...

It was brought to my attention yesterday that I'm becoming bitter and cynical already. And I'm only a spry 20something (I say this because I can never remember how old I am until I think about it, and I prefer not to use the back arrow). And it's true, I'm starting to dislike the people I'm trying hardest to help. The saying goes "Give a man a fish he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat forever." But what I keep seeing over and over is that you teach him to fish and he says "Great, now can I have a fish?" Too many people who are scraping the bottom of the economic barrel are there because they refuse to do anything to help themselves. Too many people on welfare and other aid programs see it as a free handout they are entitled to as Americans, and choose not to make an effort to work or better themselves or society. I've even seen women who go around getting knocked up for the checks, then are single moms with 6+ kids who never help them. The kids haven't got a shot in the world, all so mom can get the child support checks instead of getting a job. So why keep trying to help those who won't help themselves? I do it because of the few who do try, for the few who made a few bad choices, or out of necessity had to drop out of school and work.

It's also March Madness time. I've seen 2 similar commercials, both featuring a glass slipper. One says "It's March, there are no Cinderella stories." The second just says "The slipper." I saw the second one after the huge Davidson win. Davidson is a good team, or I should say Stephen Curry is a good team. He typically scores half the team points. Wisconsin tried to guard him, but that left others open and he was still able to get 31 points. Makes me wonder if there are Cinderella stories outside of sports that people care about? We always love the underdog team; the Giants beating the Patriots, Davidson over Wisconsin, or even the US soccer team.

And I come full circle, back to the people I have immense respect for, those who have been dealt a rough life but still try to better themselves. Kids who try to succeed despite no support at home or just plain genetics. That's why I like helping those in need, at least those who need the help and want to use it as a stepping stone.

I feel bad for laughing, but...

Well, sometimes I feel bad for feeling good. This is one of those times. Since it came out I have been saying there were major flaws in the OLPC. There's no contingency for what happens when they need fixed overseas, or where they end up when the hardware fails. Initially it was a $100 laptop, now it's a $200 laptop. To make things better most of their team bailed on Negraponte, and now this. The keyboard was apparently never stress tested and it's peeling apart. It's a rubber keyboard, so the more it's used the quicker it starts crumbling. And they have no way of replacing them. It makes me laugh, but it's a bad thing for all those kids who need to use it and suddenly don't remember where to press. Brilliant.

More info

And on the 8th day...he blogged

I know, it's been a while since I posted. My bad, I've been working a lot. A lot has happened lately, including several more meetings (oh what fun), lots of eBay sales, the office is looking more office-y, and a possible new job and move to Michiana for me. Jeremy and I are scrambling to get a cluster computer finished before he starts his new job and leaves the area. Comeon, volunteer or cash salary? I vote volunteer, but then I don't have a say.

You know, I can't think of anything better than working for free all day, except maybe having a trust fund so I can work for free all day. And maybe being surrounded by steaks and having to eat my way out. Or being dumped in a pile of marshmallows. Mmm, sugar.

Here are a few new Star Trek theories on physics, all leading to the Trekkie Grand Unified Theory Everything in Totality, Including Redundancy.

Data's Uncertainty Principle, in relation to using a transporter rather than a fax machine:

"If you know the position of Phalon 5 you cannot know the phone number and vice versa. By observing Scotty working you change the way he works and cannot determine what buttons he pushes."

Chekov's Rule, an addition to Data's Uncertainty Principle:

"But there are as many parallel universes spawned as he has decisions, so it really doesn't matter that you don't know which one he pushed because if you guess, one of you will be right in one of the other universes."

Kirk's Third Law of Space-Time, this deals with parallel universes and their calculation:

"The number of parallel universes (n) is limited by the number of configurations of facial hair (h) such that h=n if and only if only each h is unique."

Chicago, Chicago

Well, I spent from 7:00 AM to 5:45 PM in Chicago on business. It should have been about 3 hours to get to the Northwest side, instead it took 4+ thanks to construction and wrecks. Steve and I were exhausted. We went to Bertollini's (?) for lunch and had some good Chicago pasta.

On another note I found a cool program I think I'm gonna use on my Toshiba Gigabeat.

Rockbox

Fox: Such a conundrum

Fox is a truly bizarre station. They've had some good shows: Family Guy, Simpsons, Futurama, and Firefly. But they're also the most biased and downright ridiculous news station I've ever found. They make Al Jazeera seem "fair and balanced." Bill O'Reilly needs no explanation, he is the most arrogant and inaccurate pile of crap in America. The only worse source of information I can think of now is Wikipedia. Sean Hannity is an irritant as well, but Bill thankfully makes him look mild. They slander anyone who isn't a neocon, and have no care for facts.

Now they're comparing Obama to Hitler and Chairman Mao. On what grounds? None, but it is outrageous enough to get picked up by other stations. Then Hannity starts saying Farrakhan and Obama together with more unsubstantiated rumors and hints. This is ridiculous. Fox News has become the TV version of The National Inquirer, but much more hateful.

I feel sorry for those who watch Fox News and actually think they live up to their mantra: "Fair and balanced."

For videos and more I managed to find this while doing research:

http://foxattacks.com/

Now I remember...

I am remembering why I don't like watching TV. I was watching a show on remodelling houses, I like to learn you know, and the lady was so clueless and irritating. She wants to buy a flat panel TV, despite the fact they have several working TVs. Then she goes out and buys it without asking her husband, as well as splurging on several thousand dollars worth of new furniture and fluff they don't need.

If that wasn't enough there was the icing on the cake. There was a commercial for Dixie plates that said if you love your family you won't do dishes, just buy disposable dishes! A throw away society is bad enough, but flaunting it like that and saying that if you love your kids you'll create more pollution is downright ridiculous. If you LOVE them? If you love them you will try to keep the environment nice and not generate unnecessary pollution.

Stupid TV and stupid people who buy into those commercials.

Happy birthday!

So I forgot to say it in my last post, but 3/11 was the 10th birthday of the first MP3 player, the Saehan MPMan. It was a 32mb Flash based device about the size of an iPod. Oh how times have changed.

Also, yesterday was Pi day (3.14) as well as a famous person's birthday: Einstein! He would have been 129 yesterday, so if you see Einstein's zombie say happy birthday.

What's shakin bacon?

I've been prepping for my oral senior comp, which was this morning for the past few weeks. To make a long story short, it was brutal, quite brutal.

I've been working on a couple side projects, including a cluster computer and a mini solid state system.

In other news, WalMart, who had redeemed themselves in my eyes by selling the Everex gPC, has decided to stop selling Linux computers, saying "it's not what our customers want." Interesting, because it sold out within 24 hours, then they restocked and sold out immediately again. To me, that sounds more like overwhelming demand. What if WalMart said that about the Wii. "We sold out, so we must conclude our customers don't want them." Something tells me there's more to the story than they're saying, and I'll lay down all my money ($20) that Microsoft had a hand in that.

Time for more ice cream, it's been that kind of day.