Ghost Software

I'm having another Microsoft day. Yay me!

Here I am, installing Windows again. Why does it have to be an all day event? Beyond the Blue Screen of Death, undecipherable error messages and the most annoying Genuine Windows (dis)Advantage, I finally got to my software update.

The fun part is that Windows is asking me to install two updates for Office 2007. I don't have Office 2007 install. What's the deal? Same thing with SQL Server 2005.

Looks like I have ghost software on my machine.

Been a while

I haven't posted in a while. I was on vacation, so please forgive me. However, I'm back at work, but then, I'm expecting my baby boy in about three weeks, so there may be silence for a while again.

There has been many minor events in the world of free software, but nothing earth shattering. My only frustration is ISO and their handling of the OOXML appeals.

Also, some of you may have heard that Viacom is suing Google over YouTube. Viacom is the owner of MTV, Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks. The suit has been ongoing ever since Google purchased YouTube. Viacom's claim is that YouTube is a haven of illegal movie uploads. To prove their point, Viacom has asked the judge that Google hand over all their user accounts as well as a list of all the videos they watched. The idea is that Viacom wants to demonstrate that copyrighted videos are more popular than non-copyrighted videos.

I think that it's only fair that Viacom attempts to protect their copyright. However, I cannot accept Viacom's request for identifiable user information. This means that Viacom would not only be able to know which videos are more popular on YouTube, they know immediately know who are the copyright infringer.

On one hand, it's true that whoever illegally uploads and whoever watches a copyrighted video on YouTube may be breaking the law. On the other, it's setting up the Internet to become a corporate police state.

In my opinion, Viacom is simply playing dirty to win the lawsuit against Google — a rather short-sighted strategy to control their copyright-catalog. It's the type of corporate action that pits David against Goliath — David being Google, the good guy.

Though I don't foresee this backfiring too much in Viacom's face, I'm of the opinion that Viacom will loose more than it will gain from this lawsuit even should they win.

On a personal note, I've aquired a mayhem device, also known as a video camera. Of course, the first victims of my mayhem device was the pets. The following video is the result.



Of course, it has been posted on YouTube ;). You may notice I've used copyrighted music. I would like to claim Fair Use.

Hope you have a great day!

Firefox Adoption

I was intrigued by this article from PC Pro in the UK about the trailblazing pace of Firefox 3.0 adoption. It turns out that just after 10 days, the number of visitors using Firefox 3.0 is outnumbering those using Firefox 2.0. Wow! Talk about success!

Just for the fun of it, I looked at my (completely unscientific and scewed) site stats. It turns out that the number are very similar for me. Before June 17^th, it turns out that Firefox 2.0 was already in the lead, followed by Firefox 3.0.

Here are the stats over a 32 day period:

Before June 17^th:

Firefox 3 52.87%
Firefox 2 45.98%
Firefox 1 1.15%

On June 17^th and after:

Firefox 3 62.00%
Firefox 2 38.00%

For the sake of comparison, here's how Firefox fared between the other browsers.

Before June 17^th:

Firefox            85.29%
Internet Explorer  11.76%
Mozilla             1.96%
Safari              0.98%

On June 17^th and after:

Firefox            86.21%
Internet Explorer   8.62%
Opera             5.17%

So, what conclusions should we draw behind these stats?

Well, to begin with, I don't think my site counts as a solid benchmark of Firefox for two reasons. I think it's fair to say that a lot of my visitors are like-minded and a lot of my regulars are friends and family. Most of them will be using Firefox.

The only surprise is that Firefox 3 was already ahead of Firefox 2 on my site 16 days before the release. This is most likely due to me encouraging my friends to try the latest beta.

I'm happy to see that Firefox is going to strong on my site — and not all of those visits are from people I know.

Beyond that, I'll let you draw your own conclusion.

Have a great day!

Thank you Microsoft!

Microsoft is considered by many open source advocates to be the arch-enemy of Linux and free software. I think it's fair to say that Microsoft fears the success of Linux and the free/open source movement. They are doing their best to make compete. However, free software is not their traditional competitor.

Because GNU/Linux is free (as in speech), and is freely (speech & beer) available to anyone, they cannot buy it out and close it as they have done with some past competitor. Because free software is developed by a (tightly or loosely knit) community that may or may not receive corporate sponsorship, they cannot hinder the development. Because the software is free (as in beer), they cannot compete in terms of price. Even Internet Explorer is more expensive than Firefox. Though it may be a 'free' download, remember that you must buy Windows to have Internet Explorer. Thus, as part of what you pay in Windows, you also get Internet Explorer. In other words, Internet Explorer is just another (unfortunately inseparable) component of Windows — not a free download.

Finally, Microsoft cannot compete in terms of freedom. Their End User License Agreement (EULA) determines what you can and cannot do with their software. In the free software world, the license protect both your freedom to use the software, and the freedom of the software.

So, how is a multibillion dollar corporation to compete against the penguin and the likes? FUD is their answer. FUD stands for 'Fear, Uncertainties & Doubt'. Or, in Microsoftspeak, 'Get The Facts.'

In the hopes of driving people away from Linux and free software, Microsoft created a site called getthefacts.com. The site is a direct attack on free software. Though the so-called 'facts' presented by Microsoft are an assault on both intelligence and reason, I think that the biggest looser of the site is Microsoft and a major victory for Linux. For starters, I think that any reasonably intelligent person understand that asking a Honda salesperson what they think of the Ford Focus over the Civic will not get them an unbiased, objective answer. Why should it be any different with Microsoft?

What MSFT may not realize is by setting up getthefacts.com, they have provided immense exposure to GNU/Linux and the free software movement. The website presented free software as a true competitor and alternative to Microsoft products. Folks that had never heard of Linux before are now becoming aware of it thanks to Microsoft. Furthermore, IT directors who rely on Microsoft to keep them up to date with the industry are kindly informed of alternatives to Windows and Office.

For this, I say Thank You Microsoft. There is nothing like corporate backing to promote free software. After all, it's time that Microsoft catches up with the market, and joins the ranks of Novell, IBM, HP, Apple, etc who are all users and backer of free software.

Control Panel for the Eee PC

This week, I wrote a small Eee PC control panel that takes advantage of the wonderful eee kernel module. The control panel runs in the background and is available through the system tray. Pointing on the icon gives the general status of your Eee PC. A click on the icon will bring up the actual panel. From there, you can control the fan, the front-side bus (overclocking) and the voltage (from what I can understand).

Obligatory screenshots:
The system tray icon & tooltip

The control panel


The control panel is written in Gtk+, and works great on my eeeXubuntu. I would assume that it works fine on the default Xandros install or even (K)ubuntu. From start to end, the control panel was created on the Eee PC, proving that it can be used to get actual work done.

For the convenience of Debian or Ubuntu users, I've create a deb package. Otherwise, a tarball is available with a pre-compiled version of the control panel as well as the full source code. Of course, it's all GPL ;) Please copyleft.

eeectl.deb
eeectl.tar.bz2

Before you install the control panel, make sure you install the eee kernel module available at http://code.google.com/p/eeepc-linux/. Detailed installation instructions are available at http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:overclockfsb.

This is a first for me in many ways, so please forgive any stupidity or ignorance on my part. I've used Gtk, Glade and GkSu APIs for the first time, and I've created my first .deb package. I'm more than willing to learn from any guru who may find improvements to my little application.

Of course, usage of the Eee PC Control Panel is entirely at your own risk. Though I use it on my own machine, I cannot be held responsible if you fry or brick your little machine.

Hope you enjoy!

(Before you ask, there is no Windows version, nor do I intend on creating a Windows version. For starters, I'm not willing to buy a Windows license for my Eee PC. Someone else can take care of that)

Poking a bit of fun at Windows Vista

I was googling stuff while preparing my next article, when I came upon these two hilarious YouTube videos.

The first one shows how desperate Microsoft is to sell Vista to the enterprise market. The next is just too plain hilarious.

Hope you enjoy!