Linsux.org

Many of you out there in Free Software land wonder: how is Roy Schestowitz such a rock star in the FOSS community? Is it his persistence in keeping the public informed of the evil doings of Microsoft and Novell? Is it his positive encouragement of supporting the various venerable Free Software technologies?

No, I believe it is something more than that. The man is a literary craftsman, and weaves the completely true, terrifying world of illegal monopolies. Also, he’s a brilliant web designer to boot. He pulled back the veil against Mono, Microsoft’s evil sabotage technology for the Linux desktop. With his watching eyes and calming demeanor, Mr. Schestowitz is keeping the Free world Free.

But now you, a mere nooblet in the world of Free Software, want to write like the Shakespeare of our time. So, as a common service to humanity, I shall demonstrate how to construct a Boycott Novell-calibre article with utmost precision. Let’s look at the example below to gleam a better idea of how to do this.

icrosoft MVP Miguel de Icaza is promoting Silverlight once again by stating that his patent-encumbered project might enable access to Olympic content. The real solution is for the Olympics to use standards instead of serving Microsoft [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. What de Icaza is doing here is simple; he keeps regulators away from Microsoft^*. We wrote about this before, particularly when Microsoft came under fire for Silverlight and US regulators stepped up. The Novell/Microsoft patent deal had similar ramifications in Europe (harming Samba’s case). Needless to say, Novell is behind de Icaza, so it is not just his personal infatuation with Microsoft. Novell’s tactless PR Director [1, 2] is endorsing de Icaza’s message:

The first thing to acknowledge is the sources. Roy Schestowitz uses the best sources in the world to compose information for the Free Software world at large…himself. Who better to trust than this revolutionary that has shaped online journalism into an artform. So, let’s replicate this in an example below.

Today, Microsoft found itself in hot water [1, 2, 3, 4] because of the overwhelming evidence linking it to the murder of Joe Bluff, a well-known Vala programmer and Free Software evangelist. [1, 2]  The evidence?  A blog post from a familiar face. Microsoft TechNet employee Darrel Jarvis, .NET Proponent and Microsoft Shill, announced on his blog today that .NET would have “a killer feature”[1] and would “slay Vala” [1]

As you can see, the links are only hypothetical, there’s no real reason to panic. But look at what I did. Assuming that most of the links are different, I pointed to other articles in which I reported on, for reference. This neatly gets new Free Software initiates up to speed on the goings on of the enemy, thus saving them from accidentally installing Microsoft-encumbered technologies on their hard drives. Information is our only weapon against the FUD those corrupt corporations pump out.

The second important aspect is to pick your information wisely. For example, the following statement

Novell has contributed 25% of all Linux kernel code, and heavily funds Free Software desktop environments with usability fixes and field studies.

Can easily be corrected to state the following:

Ever since the Microsoft-Novell Deal back in 2004, Novell has polluted the Linux kernel with numerous lines of patent-encumbered code, even allowing Microsoft to port a driver to it. Furthermore, their Mono contributions have forever ruined Free Software desktops.

These kinds of statements make Roy’s articles the go-to for the complete truth on what really happens in the Linux community.
Finally, realize that no BN Article is complete without a work of political art attached. Realize that these conform to all copyright laws, and don’t violate a single policy. It’s the best way to accentuate points.

There, that ought to keep the M$-Shills away. I can’t program or develop anything to save my life, but I CAN CONTRIBUTE.

The following things do not yet exist, but I can’t help but wonder why. I think if they did exist, perhaps Free Software users would have a little more pull online.

This list might expand a bit when I think of other software.

1. A Free Software Search Engine

Peek, the Free Software Search Engine

After the recent hullabullo about Ubuntu switching from Google to Yahoo/Bing as the default search provider, this lead me to wonder: What if someone were to just create a FOSS search engine that indexed Free Software/Open Source-friendly websites, as well as free content licensed under the various Creative Commons licenses? Suppose it also indexed OGG Theora videos using a bit of HTML5 code? I tell you, the benefits are endless, as it would nicely tie together all the major FOSS communities together.

By the way, that’s just a mockup because I was bored.

2. OGG Theora-Based YouTube-like video sharing site

It’s no secret that a lot of people are upset at YouTube for various reasons. Whether it’s the poor implementation of the DMCA takedown notice procedure which is severely misused, or the fact that complete freedom of speech is blocked from YouTube, or the fact that the supported HTML5 codec is only h.264. Whatever your reason, YouTube currently is flawed when it comes to Free Speech, Free Software, or Creative Commons content. So why not just start from scratch and make something new?

3. FOSS Social Network

This idea in particular intrigues me. We already have identi.ca, and quite a lot of work has been put into OpenSocial. However, there is no FOSS centric community that has a functionality similar to Facebook. Granted, social networking platforms DO exist, and with some tweaking could even plug into identi.ca in a similar way that Twitter plugs into Facebook. Mugshot used to be a FOSS network by Red Hat, but it’s not around anymore.

So, in my bored state, I’ve begun some very rudimentary coding using Adventure Game Studio. Mainly because I’ve spent a lot of time prepping myself for the Air Force. When you’re on a diet and have nothing to do all day but exercise, you might as well put your brain to good use.

So, without further ado, some screenshots of my slowly-coming-along game. It’s called “No One Likes You”, and is about an emo kid that gets abused and hated on by everyone. Awkward dialog options, a satire of society, and a whole lot of fucked-up humor.

Some screenies:

And here, we see the updated icons and interface.

But yeah, things are coming along nicely. Maybe if I finish it in time, I’ll get it out to everyone.

It’s been a long time since I posted on here. I keep meaning to, but then I don’t. I’d like to make this a more regular thing. We’ll see how that goes. Work these days is ridiculous. We’re thrown more and more stuff. That’s what we get for showing we can handle it. Undoubtedly, everyone has already seen that the new site software is up. That was a bit of work, but it is up. We’re still having growing pains, but I think we’ll get past it and the community will grow stronger.
I’m still trying to finish this damn C++ class. I have learned there is no way in hell I could ever do programming as a job or continue to take classes. I think I could enjoy it as a hobby but not because I have to. Once this class is over, I’ll take a break and then I’d like to learn some C#, but just for fun. I also don’t believe that working with computers is something I’d ever want to do. I don’t mind do it as a hobby, but I can already tell I’d hate having to mess with them. Therefore, I have changed majors. I’m now pursuing a B.A. in International Relations. It was between that, History and Political Science. I opted for the I.R. degree with a minor in History. I think that might help me in the job market a little better. I’d still like to get a Ph.D. in History, eventually (and I’m talking 10 years of more down the road). While researching the field of I.R., I came across the idea of being a Foreign Service Officer with the State Department. This is a very intriguing prospect for me, and I think I might look more into it when my time with the Air Force comes close to an end. I may also look at getting a law degree and working in international law, but that’s a few years away. I still have 5 years left in the Air Force.
I’ve gotten back into reading, and watching T.V. much less. And, for me, watching T.V. consisted of about 4-7 hours/week. Now, it’s virtually nonexistent. In fact, I’m going to be getting rid of my cable at the end of this month. No reason to pay for 200+ channels when 1) I don’t watch it and 2) even if I did, there’s never anything on. I’m mostly paying to watch people try to sell me things (Do we really need that many commercials?). The few shows I watch, I usually end up missing one or two episodes during the season so wait until it comes out on DVD, anyway. No reason to pay for this crap. It’s a waste of money. I think I might also switch to DSL because 90% of the time, I don’t get near the speed I pay for.
I’m also trying to get back into writing. It was one of the few things I felt I was actually good at and had a natural gift for (or whatever you want to call it). I’m not sure why I stopped. I’m actually going to take a creative writing class as an elective. I’m not really good at anything else, as far as I can tell.
So, an interesting bit of news happened. The Democrats lost the Senate seat that was held by Ted Kennedy since 1962. They’re not too happy about it. I think it’s a sign that people are a little ticked off. I think the midterm elections will be interesting. At least, I hope so. All I remember during the presidential race was talk of change. President Obama has been in office for a year. Where is the change? All I’ve seen is the continuation of the same policies that the last administration had. The few things that he has tried to change have been met with a vast amount of disapproval from Americans. Congress is a joke, these days. I’ve thought about running for Congress, one day. If I were elected, I’m pretty sure it would be a one-term sitting. I’d make a shitload of enemies in Washington who, I’m sure, would do their best to make sure I didn’t last more than 2 years. Maybe I should run for the Senate. At least then I’d have 6 years to piss people off.
Well, I think that’s all I have, for now. I’ll try to post more regularly. I’d like to post about things, other than computers, that interest me. The site is a good place for my computer ramblings. I’d like to make this a good place to talk about different shit, such as politics, books, writing and the degrading of American culture and Western Civilization, as a whole.

The following has everything to do with my YouTube trolling, and the new year.

Overly Dramatic Public Service Announcement

I’d really like if our admin could fix video embedding. That would be great.

So, some of you may have heard about the upcoming machine from A-Eon, also referred to as “Project X” and Hyperion Entertainment’s “Most Ambitious Project”

So, what do we know about this machine? Quite a lot, actually.

The first thing to bring up is that Hyperion Entertainment, the company behind developing the AmigaOS 4.x series, now has the sole legal rights to develop and distribute Amiga products, as well as continue development of AmigaOS.

“Hyperion Entertainment CVBA is pleased to announce that on September 30, 2009, it has reached a comprehensive settlement agreement with Amiga, Inc., Itec LLC and Amino Development Corporation, Inc., to bring all ongoing litigation and worldwide pending procedures between the parties to an end.

As part of the settlement agreement, the Amiga Parties acknowledge that Hyperion is the sole owner of AmigaOS 4 without prejudice to any third party rights.

Within the framework of the settlement agreement Hyperion is granted an exclusive, perpetual, worldwide right to AmigaOS 3.1 in order to use, develop, modify, commercialize, distribute and market AmigaOS 4.x (and subsequent versions of AmigaOS including without limitation AmigaOS 5) in any form, on any medium and for any current or future hardware platform under the exclusive trademark “AmigaOS” (Amiga operating system) and using other associated trademarks (such as the “BoingBall” logo).

Hyperion will continue development and distribution of AmigaOS 4.x (and beyond) as it has done since November of 2001.”

The name of this machine is the AmigaOne X1000, which reflects the name of the original Amiga 1000 (the first Amiga ever shipped)

The specs are fairly ordinary at first until you look closely:

Custom case with Boing Ball

ATX Formfactor

CPU: Dual-core PowerISA™ v2.04+ CPU (Meaning PowerPC hardware)

Co-processor: “Xena” XMOS XS1-L1 128 SDS

Audio: 7.1 channel HD audio

Memory: 4× DDR2 SDRAM slots

10× USB 2.0

1× Gigabit Ethernet

2× PCIe x16 slots (1×16 or 2×8)

2× PCIe x1 slots

1× Xorro slot (giving access to “Xena”)

2× PCI legacy slots

2× RS-232

4× [[SATA 2] connectors

1× IDE connector

JTAG connector

1× Compact Flash

Up until this point, I had never even heard of a “Co-Processor”. What is Xorro and Xena?

Xena:

“Capable of eight concurrent real-time threads with shared memory space, at up to 400 MIPS (about 6 68060s worth), Xena gives the X1000 a very flexible, very expandable co-processor. The uses are endless; control hardware, DSP functions, robotics, display – even SID chip and console emulators. “

Xorro:

“To accompany ‘Xena’, we have ‘Xorro’, a new slot using an industry-standard PCIe x8 form factor to give access to the ‘Xena’ IO. This will be the route to Xena’s 64 IO lines, which are dynamically configurable as input, output, or bidirectional. ‘Xorro’ will allow bridging Xena to external hardware for control purposes, to internal systems, or to other Xcore processors. This last point is worth more exploration; XCore is a parallel processing architecture, and if you want more power, you can simply chain more XCores together. Reference boards have been made with up to 256 cores, offering a theoretical 102400 MIPS.”

Additionally, they’re using an XMOS chip. What the heck is that, you ask?

“XMOS has developed several core pieces of technology including a multi-threaded multi-core processor; an interconnect switch that can route messages between cores, and a link that can be used to interconnect switches and carry traffic using a transition-based protocol.”

I just want to say, ever since Ars Technica did a review of AmigaOS4, I knew I wanted it. I’ve heard nothing but good things about the Amiga platform, and I’m glad to see that it’s slowly but surely continuing on.

Fucking sexy.

I’ve noticed a disturbing trend lately. Can you guess what it is?

Thaaaaaaaaaat’s right! Another chapter in the showdown between David “Lefty” Schlessinger, and the retarded minions of RMS. This time, instead of just discriminating against women, the Anti-Mono GNU zealots also discriminate against gays.

One of their comments:

aren’t he and Bruce Byfield a cute couple, though? They really ought to consummate their gay marriage with 40 grams of viagra each.

Er, what?

Then, Bruce Bryfield jumps in

I’ll ignore the effort at insult and go directly to your implication:

I do not support Schlesinger’s position, or the efforts of Boycott Boycott Novell, any more than I support Roy Schestowitz and Boycott Novell. Do a search, and you can find at least two instances where I make that clear.

I can interact with Schlesinger because he doesn’t become rabid because I don’t support him, and that he is able to read in context instead of indulging in intellectual bungee-jumping towards conclusions. But the interactions are on the basis of agreeing to disagree.

Everyone who opposes him would do their position a lot of good if they acted the same way. For all I know, the owner of this site may have a legitimate grievance against Schlesinger. But his obsessive posting and reposting of the same material is tiresome and counter-productive.

The same freetard comments back:

I find it homophobic of you that you classify implied gay love as an “insult”, Bruce.

Fly high, Lesbian Seagull!

So it seems that the freetards are finally playing this game.

I will just point out that I went and commented as well, as was shot down with this:

What’s so heinous about implying they have a relationship together? You claim to support gay people Shane….. But.. You attack him for pointing out a happy gay couple? Hypocrisy +1

Mother fucker. As someone that is

1.)  Appalled by this sort of behavior.

2.) Somewhere in the spectrum of gay. (I mainly date transgendered people)

3.) An LGBT activist in Central Illinois

I find it really fucking childish and offensive. How far will Free Software advocates fall to “prove a point”

Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Tim Minchin’s work.  I stumbled upon him by accident while bored at work one day and have been absolutely mesmerized by the guy’s playing.

I’ve been playing piano for roughly 25 years.  It has always been one of my favorite instruments, but in the last few years I’ve felt like I haven’t really gone anywhere with it.  I’m a fan of Ben Folds, but I’ve never felt especially inspired by his style.

Mr. Minchin has reminded what fun the piano can be.  That and I like songs about blow up sex dolls.

So yeah, I’m a day late and a dollar short for bringing this up just now, but Linsux.org has gone through some major changes. What changes, you ask?

-Sexy blog aggregation

-Spiffy IBP forums, with new community modules.

-Upcoming work on new staff-produced content.

-A logo that looks like utter sex. The good kind. Yeah.

Anyways, a lot has happened as we attempt to shift our capabilities to a very community-centric approach. As one forumer put it (and I love this) “It’s like Linsux is the Anti-Slashdot!”

That’s fucking awesome in my opinion.

My last post was about installing Ubuntu on two computers for two co-workers of mine.

Both co-workers have since switched back to Windows.    One of them even managed to remove network manager and somehow slow the system to a fucking crawl.

Can’t say that I’m sad that this is over.  After weeks of solving their problems I am tired of dealing with their computers.