My A printer just turned 300,000 impressions old! Pretty impressive, huh? Right now it’s at 300,146. This milestone is a great precursor to my own birthday.
Speaking of which, my Mother-in-law just told me I could pick my birthday present from the internet! That’s style! My own parents already gave me my present too: some money for the REI garage sale! Jamie still has some things hidden up her sleeve (or somewhere) that should hit the spot for birthday enjoyment!
Yesterday’s post may bring up the question of why I would even be interested in an OS designed for Windows® users. The answer is that I am a Windows user. “But why?” those anti MS zealots cry. Here is (part of) the history:
Our family’s first computer was a Commodore 64 and I learned enough to run a few games which was all we had on it anyway. I don’t even remember how to run it, but a friend actually has a working unit at his home. The IBM® compatibles came to the scene and we mostly avoided computers for a while preferring the good ol’ books and outdoors for entertainment. We even did our homework with pencils.
I think it was junior high that I got more interested in computing. I was a DOS man, as most were, and could get around quite well. I played around with batch programming and became fairly proficient in Q-Basic building games and “screen-savers”. I put together a computer for myself out of a warehouse full of old ones at my Dad’s work and paid $50.00 for it. It was a 286 with 256k of RAM and a 20 MB hard drive. It even had a low density 3.5 inch floppy drive (if you have no clue what that is, don’t worry, you’ll probably never see one.) along with the 5.25 inch drive. In high school, between bouts of excessive drug use, I became interested in programming with C, though it was short lived. It was around then that I borrowed a dial-up connection from a friend and got lost in the world of online chat for a while.
[This paragraph belongs somewhere in the middle of the former as far as time is concerned] I was an adamant opponent to the Macintosh® computer. A graphical UI? Bleh, who needs it? At this point, my only contact with a Mac was at school (enough said). When Windows came along, I disliked it even more as the cheap imitation of the Mac it was. At least I could still run Windows only when needed as a DOS shell, but that quickly changed.
So what happened? Why didn’t I revolt? I don’t know, I was young and ignorant I guess. The OS I knew was changing…fading away and I went with the flow. I never had money for my own computer and didn’t know enough about any other OS. I didn’t hear of Linux for many more years. DOS was not powerful enough any more and the GUI was an easy way to accomplish tasks and to play those increasingly complex games.
The first “real” computer I bought (after the 286, which I still have even after trading it for a backpack) was an iBook® running OSX. I took the step to a better OS, but realized that I didn’t have the time to learn it. I was working on learning basic web design and with the loads of information to retain just in that field, I didn’t want something that I wasn’t comfortable with. [hanging head] Let’s face it, I’m a DOS man…all washed up. I sold it (made some money too) and eventually bought the laptop I have now.
I bide my time now…watching, waiting and dabbling. Soon, very soon I may be able to leave the OS considered to be so evil for a Linux flavor. I guess I’m getting old, but I don’t want to just rush into headaches. I’m working on my OS Mobile Home slowly and will have more options then. I want to stay open to “better change” while still making sure to manage my time well.
Not much in the way of history, due to my mixed up memory, but there you have it. Something.
I don’t know how long this will last, but Daniel Glazman tipped his readers off to a free download of Linspiretm. Linspire is a version of Linux that is not aimed at geeks. There are several good versions that are made for the average desktop user, but this has a different slant. Linspire (formerly Lindows) attempts to make a version of Linux specifically for the Windows® user.
Typically for Lindows and one month of CNR (their software installer), it would cost $64.95, so this may be a deal you want in on. I’m looking forward to trying it myself once I get home to download it.
I’m not going to complain about it, but has anyone noticed the apparently rampant use of the word loose in place of lose? I been noticing it for months on blogs, forums and websites many of which seem to lack the usual plague of spelling and grammatical errors. Have people forgotten that there are two words that have a similar spelling, or is some sort of fad like l33t and nub? I’m just wondering what’s going on and if anyone else has noticed.
Just in case you were wondering:
Main Entry: loose
Pronunciation: ‘lüs
Function: adjective
Inflected Forms: loos·er; loos·est
1 a : not rigidly fastened or securely attached b (1) : having worked partly free from attachments <a loose tooth> (2) : having relative freedom of movement c : produced freely and accompanied by raising of mucus <a loose cough>
2 : not dense, close, or compact in structure or arrangement <loose connective tissue>
3 : lacking in restraint or power of restraint <loose bowels>
4 : not tightly drawn or stretched —loose·ly adverb —loose·ness noun
Main Entry: lose
Pronunciation: ‘lüz
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form: lost /’lost/; los·ing
1 : to suffer deprivation of : part with especially in an unforeseen or accidental manner <lose a leg in an auto crash>
2 a : to suffer deprivation through the death or removal of or final separation from (a person) <lost a son in the war> b : to fail to keep (a patient) from dying <have lost many fewer pneumonia cases since penicillin came into use>
Definitions quoted from Dictionary.com: Source: Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
I noticed this article on Firefox Security at MozillaZine:
A Microsoft Program Manager by the name of Peter Torr has posted a weblog entry about potential problems with security in Mozilla Firefox. Specifically, he singles out the fact that neither the Firefox installer nor most of the available extensions are digitally signed. By contrast, he notes, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 2 will not install unsigned ActiveX by default. While many will immediately cry, “FUD!”, he’s actually right. Though the infrastructure is there, the lack of code signing in the vast majority of Firefox extensions has led to an environment in which many users simply install extensions without really knowing if they can trust the people behind them.
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Peter Torr’s article, How Can I Trust Firefox?, sparked plenty of comments on his blog and over at Slashdot. This uprising no doubt due to the way he chose to bring up the issue: with a very hostile manner toward the Mozilla Foundation and its enthusiasts and with lack of depth in testing Firefox. The comments covered much ground such as outright flame wars, comparisons between IE and Firefox (which the author does not fail to take part in in his article) and their levels of security, The ins and outs of code signing and certificates, and whether we should trust VeriSign at all.
I think that Peter has raised a valid point about the lack of signing in Mozilla Extensions and in the binaries themselves. I lack all but a very shallow understanding about security, so I can’t comment on the questions: Is it even necessary? Should they use VeriSign? Are there other better methods to achieve this? Will it be too difficult and time consuming to implement? All these questions were raised and possibly answered with the lack of depth usual in comments and I was unable to gain anything other than confusion from them. I do think, though that it’s a good idea to implement some sort of code signing for the binaries and extensions. The extensions already have this capability implemented, but is rarely used. It seems that the folks at MozillaZine agree that this is a positive step, yet many in the community, including Asa (a Mozilla employee) disagree.
Peter’s method, as I mentioned earlier, may not have been the best to convey this constructive criticism, but I wouldn’t even know about it otherwise. Can we blame Peter for a lack of journalistic and unbiased fervor on his blog? I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he is sharing his personal opinion on a personal blog. Just because his opinion may be colored by who he works for is no crime and he makes no secret of it. Let’s discuss it, but give him a break.
I personally plan to use Firefox until I find something better. I love it for the reasons I mentioned in another post and I don’t really like IE. To answer my title question, yes I do trust Firefox and the Mozilla Foundation. I would like to see signed binaries and extensions added in a secure manner, though.
I have spent part of the day today learning math. Contrary to what you might think, this has involved finding some elementary level math sites and learning how to divide. That’s right, I forgot how to divide! For years now I haven’t been able to do long division and yet I have survived somehow. It’s taken for granted so no one offered to teach me and I had no need to go looking…until today. I went to the community college to start the math portion of the placement test (I have to work on it during my lunch break). I figured I should at least learn how to divide again.
I have actually taken math tests without knowing this and done alright, which shows that I have learned a few mathematical concepts. Unfortunately, the concepts are so vague that I take forever dancing around the problem, filling up scratch sheets with possible solutions and allegorical problems that may relate.
Much of math has done this to me (hidden somewhere) and I blame the style in which it was taught (and a lot of a weed known as marijuana). I got so tired of hearing, “It’s like a staircase, you have to start at the bottom and hit all the steps on the way up” (whiny tone added). Why couldn’t they just show me the top of the stairs, or perhaps the next landing and as I climbed, I could see the goal better. Maybe I could even skip steps as my legs grew. Instead they kept yelling, “look at the step!” making me trip over the next one not knowing where I was going.
The problem with math is (more…)
What makes up a good “Operating System Mobile Home”? In my opinion, it’s cross-platform software (preferably open source). There are excellent alternatives to the most popular OS such as the many flavors of Linux, but the problem (for me at least) right now is software. There is software that brings Windows programs to Linux (like Transgaming Technologies’ Cedega and CodeWeavers’ CrossOver OfficeTM), which will be a huge development. Already the functionality is there, but if you don’t pay high dollar for customized builds, the options are quite buggy (I don’t pay attention to gaming software much, so I’m not sure how products like Cedega work). I think it’s much better, if possible, to have cross-platform programs that allow you to move freely from one OS to the other. Especially if it is open source and you don’t have to worry about single user license silliness.
I’m looking forward to trying PC World’s Linux Experiment, but I need programs that will work where I go. For browsing, I have Firefox and now with a Global Inbox, Thunderbird takes care of email. There is one bit of software that still holds me back, though: A good WYSIWYG HTML editor for Linux. In several bouts of searching, I have found only one good candidate and it is still in it’s youth. Nvu is a cross-platform WYSIWYG editor that has lots of promise and with backing from Linspire, I am confident it will soon rival the big names.
Why WYSIWYG and what do I want? Well, I’m working on other people’s websites (for free) and they need a way to update the website if I’m too busy or something. So, number one reason why is for other users who aren’t going to learn HTML. The second reason is, it’s just easier for a lot of things. I mean it’s nice and nerdy to say, “I coded that by hand”, but it’s impractical for me who has other things to do. I often work on the code directly, but for many things it’s nice to just type in what you want to get. This is where templates come in too…that’s what I want and the big thing I’m waiting for from Nvu. A template allows site-wide design and content change with very little hassle and allows people who aren’t web savvy to update pages without messing with essential elements of the page. [On a side note: If anyone knows of a non-WYSIWYG editor that supports templates, please let me know.]
If you are interested in products that will free you up to travel, check out The table of equivalents / replacements / analogs of Windows software in Linux. Of course Macintosh is a good alternative, but I’ll leave that subject to those who know what they’re talking about.
Update 10.46am: Apparently, I can’t see very well. I did check out the html editors on the link above, but it has been a while and I don’t know what I checked out. I noticed that w3C has a free one called Amaya (cross-platform) and IBM has WebShere Studio to buy for Linux. I’ll be checking out Amaya when I get the chance.
Disclaimer: Yet again I boldly go into a subject I don’t know all about, so check out the links yourself for your own opinions. I will gladly accept correction on this article as well.
The Mozilla Foundation has just released Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 to keep up with it’s big brother, Firefox. Thunderbird is Mozilla’s stand alone email, newsgroup and RSS client.
I tried Thunderbird a while ago as an alternative to Outlook, but was disappointed with one important thing: All the email accounts have separate inboxes and I couldn’t figure out how to send all mail to one. I have something like 11 email accounts I have to keep track of, so having to browse through that many inboxes was not what I would call progress. Needless to say, I have stuck with Outlook. Now that Thunderbird 1.0 has been released, they offer a “Global Inbox”, RSS integration and more. The Global Inbox is reason enough to download it and try a complete switch and the RSS integration is an added bonus! It seems to have all the necessary features Outlook does with the usual added abilities that extensions provide. It’s handy import feature should make setup easy, so I’ll definitely be giving it a try with the idea of switching completely.
Official Windows, Official Windows installer
-Quoted from The Rumbling Edge.
Press release:
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - December 7, 2004 - The Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving choice and promoting innovation on the Internet, today announced the worldwide availability of the Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 email client. Thunderbird focuses on new features and settings to help stop spam and prevent viruses, the two biggest problems facing email users today. Mozilla Thunderbird follows last month’s highly successful release of Mozilla Firefox 1.0 that has been downloaded by over nine million users. –more–
News Noticed at: Mozilla.org, The Rumbling Edge and Mac’s Place
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The number Pi has interested me since I watched Pi, the movie which is a fascinating movie directed by Darren Arronofsky about a brilliant tortured mathematician. I like the movie on several levels, but check it out yourself and see what you think.
What’s the big deal about Pi? We know that A=Pi*R^2 which calculates the area of a circle, but what is Pi and what makes it so fascinating? Simply put, Pi is an irrational number that is the circumference of a circle divided by its diameter. The fascinating thing about it is that it never ends or repeats (that we know of) and is a constant. Mathematicians have been interested in these characteristics of Pi throughout history. Pi has been calculated to 1,241,100,000,000 decimal places (that’s 1.24 trillion) by a truly nutty professor.
A good resource on Pi, The Pi Pages has the following quote from the book Pi: A Source Book by: L. Berggren, J. Borwein and P. Borwein:
“The story of pi reflects the most seminal, the most serious and sometimes the silliest aspects of mathematics. A surprising amount of the most important mathematics and a significant number of the most important mathematicians have contributed to its unfolding — directly or otherwise.
Pi is one of the few concepts in mathematics whose mention evokes a response of recognition and interest in those not concerned professionally with the subject. It has been a part of human culture and the educated imagination for more than twenty five hundred years.”
Pi has inspired some interesting and sometimes humorous websites on the internet. At the Pi Search Page, you can search for any number within the first 100 million digits of Pi. There is actually a sourceforge project dedicated to creating programs for calculating Pi. Dr. Math has some great answers to kids’ Pi questions and The Pi Pages are a great place to start for more Pi madness. For people like my brother, there is this page for calculating Pi with your pencil.
Firefox 1.0 is here and ready for download at mozilla.org and getfirefox.com! I’m in the process of downloading it here at work on my 28k connection and will get it at home as soon as possible.
Usefulness (utility) is a big deal to me (probably an obsession) and Firefox focuses on usability. Ben Goodger, the Lead Engineer of the Firefox development team said today:
Our goal for Firefox has always been to create a stylish, usable browser, making as few compromises has necessary - which was largely possible by being free from commercial constraint. When I design new features, I try to think about what people are trying to accomplish, and design the feature so that it helps them as best possible. This has not always been easy. I’ve been very demanding of myself and on others that I work with, trying to exact every last ounce of usability of a given scenario. Some tasks that we have worked on have taken a considerable amount of time, much of that time spent fussing over the tiniest of details, details that in the past (when working on the Netscape product line, for example), we would never have been allowed to fret so profusely over. The result is software that works for the most part exactly as you expect it. All your settings, favorites, passwords and other data are brought in from IE, downloading files is easy and free of superfluous prompting, your passwords are entered automatically and slickly managed, just to name a few. These things are not easy, but the quality bar has to be set high to be noticed, and in that department I think our focus on detail has paid dividends.
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Blake Ross blogged:
Our original manifesto for Phoenix set out a few key principles: make a product that just browses, and browses well; keep the team small and focused; and keep the focus on the user. I am proud to say that we have delivered on that today. Whatever your language, whatever your platform, download Firefox 1.0 now and let us know what you think. We’re listening.
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Congratulations to the Firefox team!
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