Jonathan Schwartz's Weblo...
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Here are two related articles that I came across at digg.com. It's probably not new, it's been awhile, but - oh well.

The first one is from Jonathan Schwartz's Weblog about litigation. It would appear, and according to the other weblog - Pamela Jones - that it is a comment about Microsoft litigation. Sun is making a stand that the open source community, Linux users, is the way to go. With the litigations occurring from MS, they are playing a dangerous field by threatening the customers. The most likely - and obvious - way is that they can, and will leave you.

It was also implied, according to Pamela Jones' little insight, that it appears that based on Mr. Schwartz's words that Microsoft had pressured them to sue Open Source/ Linux users. A mistake since they were turned down. This appears to a mistake that MS often has done over the years - and one they have not learned from. Like when they tried to get Minix to sue Linus/Linux for the name, or the fight against Google not too long ago.

Besides nothing yet has occurred from the allegations that MS has placed on Linux users. If MS was serious about suing them, they would have already done so by taking the Open-Source users to court.

Personally, I think they're just using this as a scheme or way of dealing with the fact that they have not sold that much for their Windows Vista. And although I have recently purchased a laptop that has Vista in it... I've installed Ubuntu in it, because I was not that happy with Vista - takes up too much memory, slows down after awhile, and still not compatible with a lot of applications.

Dell's Linux

I was recently informed that Michael Dell actually used VMWare Workstation, and he uses it to run Ubuntu. VMWare Workstation is pretty much used to run OS systems, really useful if you don’t have a burner handy.

After roaming around digg.com, I came across this article and find that Dell, Inc. is considering from a list of choices on what to install in their Dell computers and then releasing them to the public. I wouldn't mind whichever Linux OS they use, but I am curious about Novell/SUSE, openSUSE, and RedHat. Fedora I have learned a fair bit from other people, and Ubuntu I have used a few times.

I have not used a Dell before but I have no doubts that future buyers will find it interesting. These days there are more people converting to Linux and I really don’t see the numbers dwindling anytime soon – especially with the prices rising for Windows Vista. Compared between an overpriced OS and freeware, there’s no doubt that people will be more willing to accept it. I am amazed by how popular Linux has become, and I hope that Dell will be successful in this new venture.

Music

This small article was amusing. You can play it smart by keeping your share smaller than 1,000 songs. However, it is surprising that people have over 1,000 songs in their shares. It makes me wonder just what songs that they have, and if they know every one of their songs - for all you know, you may a copy of that song already in your share and just forgot about it. As for the computer alerting you whether or not you want it overwritten - there are ways to bypass that and still have the copy of that song in your drive - the part about the song having a 1-2 second difference in the illegal copy (like the song being 3:41 and then the next copy being 3:39).

Now what makes people want to do the whole illegal download, thing? Well, there is the obvious part about it – price. No one really wants to take money out of their pockets or bank accounts just to buy the CD.

Another part is accessibility and convenience. Picking and choosing what songs you want in your CD/computer/iPod. With the CDs, you may like one or three particular songs in there, but the rest is just crap to your ears. When you download, you can pick and choose what songs you want, and which ones you do not want – just click on the song, and there you go! Furthermore, the song is right there in the internet, why go all the way to the store when you can download it?

Aside from CDs, people can also download software and movies. There are some who download games, but I don’t know much about how that exactly works – as far as I know, there is this mod-chip that you can now buy for your DS that allows you to download whatever game you want and play it. Now for the software and movies, the same can be said for the CD reasoning – price, convenience, and accessibility. The prices for products like Microsoft and Macromedia are expensive, so you can see why people would rather download the over $100 software. Yes, you could buy freeware instead, but people are fixed into the belief that they would rather have these products. And for movies, they are mostly available on the internet weeks before they are released to the public. The quality is very different from the real-deal, but most people don’t care.

Poor Russian teacher...

It is sad and sort of irritating. The school teacher is prosecuted for using illegal software, and chances are he did not know it was illegal! Even if he did know about his wrongdoing, you cannot really blame him. He lives in a rural town, 1,000 miles away from Moscow. A poor community, therefore they probably had slow computers - at best. And sure, you can say why did they not just use OpenSource programs like Linux for their OS and OpenOffice as a substitute for Microsoft Word and Excel? Well, if even students at State did not know that these programs were available, can you blame a rural community? They are miles away from another city/town, and they are probably hard-pressed enough if they could even afford an internet connection to download these programs.

Well, now that this occurred, there is one good thing to come out of this event - people will surely know that this town exists and there will be sympathizers coming to their town and offering them donations. Publicity can be helpful.

CAPTCHAs

This short article is amusing. As we know, site administrators use CAPTCHAs to prevent automated scripts from performing certain functions. What this article is about, is more tuned into preventing certain people from doing things - such as logging onto the internet.

It's more rooted into entertainment than anything else. Honestly, I doubt people would take kindly to this proposal of preventing people from participating on the world wide web. However, people should try it out - it's amusing to see what happens if you purposefully log the incorrect word into the sentence that the site provides. If you choose to the wrong word, it take you to another page that says that apologizes, but will not welcome you into the internet. And then suggests that you read certain books - the dictionary, English Grammar for Dummies, and How to Spell Like a Champ.

Ubuntu 7.04

I admit that I have yet to try Ubuntu in my laptop, and I have never once thought about trying to put it in my Desktop – I hardly use it anyway, so why bother? However, I have been tempted all year staring early January to try and switch to Linux. The main reason for wanting to try Linux is because my brother and his friends often discuss Linux.

Linux is an OpenSource, from what I have gathered since discovering about this OS, and it is generally free aside from those that actually charge you to use their system. The free ones that I do know about is Ubuntu, but the person who wrote the article prefers Kubuntu – I’m not sure what the general difference is between the two, because I do not know anything about KDE. I have tried to install Ubuntu only once and that was a few weeks ago to my laptop. Unfortunately it did not bode well, because my laptop’s disk drive is not operating up to par. Since then I have not tried Ubuntu, but I should at some point because of my curiosity.

Now then, the article discusses the new version of Ubuntu and the writer merely discusses the new changes that it brings – mainly the appearance of the OS and being able to migrate from your old OS to the theirs along with a newly designed help center for new Ubuntu users (something I should check out if and when I finally install it, hopefully by then I have gotten my laptop’s CD/DVD drive fixed).

For those that do enjoy Linux, you may want to check it out. But overall there’s no need to. Linux is all well and good, but there’s no hurry to get the system because Linux constantly improves their system every so often. A new one should be coming around sometime soon.

Internet problems...

Apparently, Comcast is having difficulty in managing its internet service if they are going around calling their customers and warning them about overusing their internet. It is understandable, but being a business should not give them the freedom in dealing with it in such a horrible way. Just calling them once or twice and warning them off, then unexpectedly cutting off their internet without telling their customer on what day their internet will be cut off. It is a bit rude and unprofessional.

Moreover, the part about the customers calling customer service and the representative not even knowing what is going on is absurd! That is what I call horrible service. The company should have given a notice to them, and now the result is having customers unexpectedly having their internet cut off for a whole year. Comcast could have stated a limit, which they did not do, instead of losing more customers to other companies who are willing to host them.

It is a good thing that I am not under Comcast or this could have happened to me. Then again, I hardly download any content that is larger than 1GB, but I cannot say the same for my brother. Movies, TV shows, and music are constantly exchanged over the internet these days and there is no sign of it stopping anytime soon. If we were under Comcast, I am sure we would have been within that group of people that suddenly lost their connection.

If Comcast is doing this, I’m sure that Yahoo! DSL would be more than willing to take their customers – even though their high-speed internet is not as fast.

Universal Default Clause...

The Universal Default Clause is clearly something to worry about if you have trouble paying your bills. I don’t think I knew about it until recently when my mother paid for one of her credit bills late. The interest rate was absurdly high when the next bill rolled around, and when she called the credit card company they told her about the clause. Ever since then, she has been reading all the fine prints before applying to any credit card company. It is always a safe bet to read any contracts before signing for anything, even if it appears inconsequential.

What I did not know about in this Universal Default Clause is having a trigger for “having too much debt” and applying for a car loan or a mortgage loan. That is really horrible for people who are having difficulty paying for their bills. There are factors to consider about why they would even do such a thing – like the fact that they currently don’t have the finance availability due to a loss of a job, or something serious as that.

Analytics

Google Analytics is ideal for business owners and webmasters. Of course, people who simply partake in websites like blogs could benefit in it, but it’s not entirely profitable. It’s helpful for tracing just what, exactly, visitors like about the website based on what they are looking for – colored photographs versus black/white – and in which state/country the visitor comes from as well as which pages they most often look at. It is always useful to know what your customers/visitors enjoy most out of your website so you can focus more on that aspect of your website.

After seeing the site, and knowing about this offer from Google, I feel like I wish that I had it beforehand when I was actually more into website making than anything else. It would have been useful back then so I know what visitors focus on when I was making the website, but I have long since given up on that hobby. Still, I could always just use Google Analytics in the current blog we’re doing or anywhere else I feel like. So far I simply placed one into blogspot.com.

Gmail As a Personal Nerve Center

I came across this at dig.com while scanning for possible blogging material. This was quite an article and I have been thinking along the lines as the writer. Making Gmail as the hotspot of your internet use that can range from a simple e-mail tool to a news update, blogging tool, Calendar, etc has been something that could always be a possibility but I have never delved into the thought until now. Gmail has so much potential aside from being an IM and e-mail tool with all that storage space that it can surely handle.

One of the possible outcomes that caught my interest was the Calendar, blogging and the real-time news update. He also mentioned something that I haven’t known before – Twitter. Looking at the site, it seems lively but the main reason for twitter is for consecutive updates to post on the main page of what people are currently doing right at that moment. I am positive, however, that there are other uses for Twitter as he says – he mentions that he uses it from time to time to check if anyone updates it for more informative uses such as current news.

Overall the innovative way that he uses his Gmail is what I find fascinating. I may actually try it out and, as such, I actually saved the article into my Google toolbar. It’s true that the new Google toolbar has a Gmail function that you can take advantage of. I’ve actually begun doing that as of this moment.

Hack Attack: Add music and movies...

The Hack Attack article is useful to some extent, but I found it lacking for some strange reason. Maybe it’s just me, maybe not – who knows?

Adam Pash’s article makes a few good points. iTunes is limiting with its “lock-in…to one music library” and there should be alternative methods that can be used so you don’t remain within that one, single music library.

Floola seems like an interesting alternative as is the Winamp iPod plugin that I have been hearing about. However, I doubt that I really will try it out – perhaps someday but so far I can’t be bothered to care. The interesting thing that I found about Floola is how you can add music from any computer and how you can manage your music. You can manage your music via iTunes, though it takes longer, but at least it can be done. Unfortunately, iTunes can’t add music from any computer – I found that out the hard way. Thank goodness I managed to fix that problem.

Everything else is only mildly interesting like how you can get a myPodder for downloaded podcasts and a Pod Player to play your music if you don’t have your iPod with you. It was nice enough to read, but nothing too exciting. I haven’t really use podcast via iTunes, although my boss frequently visits the site. I only visited the place once or twice but it was only amusing to watch the videos available to watch in there. As for Pod Player, I don’t see the need – I almost always have my iPod in hand so why would I need it? If I don’t, oh well.

Lastly, there is the CD to MP3s with CDex. I haven’t used it before; instead I chose to use Easy Ripper, another freeware that can also convert music CDs. There are other available softwares available, but I suppose the author simply mentioned one because it works for him.

What I found strange was how he mentions all these applications from all types yet he doesn’t mention one for videos, only music. With the current iPods available, it would be safe to assume that there are people with the video iPods. However, he hasn’t mentioned one and I wonder if it’s because he would be hesitant to suggest within the article.

Overall the article was informative and the suggestions welcome. But I have gotten used to iTunes, and I have found my own ways to make it work for me and my iPod. Floola and Pod Player sound interesting enough and may actually be better to use, but after months of using iTunes I have learned to live with it. Others, however, may find the article worth their while.

New Tiny MacBook

The new tiny MacBook is still in development but what is released so far is semi-interesting. The notebook is smaller, lighter, and I would think tougher in exterior to prevent most accidents – like spilling water, accidentally dropped, etc.

The ones familiar with the new MacBook mention the missing optical disc drive. This is something new and I am quite at a loss as to why. Are they planning something new, possibly revolutionary in placement for the missing disc drive? Or do they simply think that it is no longer needed? After all, more people are becoming increasingly aware of the flash drive and that is possibly what the ones in charge with the MacBook are going for.

It is mentioned that the new MacBook is expected to have an onboard NAND Flash. With this there is no longer needs for a USB interface and treats the flash memory as part of the system’s disk drive. Apparently this way you won’t have to go through all that trouble just to eject your flash drive from the system. Of course I was told by my brother that Ubuntu Linux works that way in their latest version, all you have to do is unplug your flash drive from the computer/laptop and your data is still safely stored into your USB device.

There will be some things that people will find odd like the fact that there isn’t an optical drive, but there are ways to get around that. With the new technologies available, there really isn’t a complete need for optical drives because of external hard drives, flash devices, and the internet. However, I am sure that people find something disconcerting about the new MacBook like the fact that without the optical drive, people will wonder just how exactly they can download their games – at least those unavailable for download online. The Mac is not the best system to use for gamers in general, because some gaming companies just don’t make it for their system.

I am not sure if Japan will be completely taken with the new MacBook, but at least it will be compact and holds something new for the consumers to enjoy.

The Pirate Bay, Featured in Vanity Fair

The article featuring the Pirate Bay is kind of interesting, but not as amusing as I thought it would be. It's interesting to note how they came into the business. To think that just because of a friend and some shows that were freely available via the internet, a mega-site as famous as the PirateBay came into existence.

It makes sense why I haven’t heard about Pirate Bay until just recently, seeing as they started off in 2003 and haven’t truly made any remarkable debut until 2004 – 2005. I think the only time I can remember where I have visited their site was not until… last year, in fact. Their site is now known to have one of the largest filesharers and users, their content filled to the brim with actual content that could be said to be a copyright infringement.

And it probably is true, at least most for most of them. As I recall, the files that they carry can be downloaded via bittorrent. Bittorrent is a peer to peer protocol that distributes large amounts of data (like music, games, movies, etc.). Though bittorrent is not new in the internet world, at least the program is now being well-used since suprnova.org has been closed as of December 2004. Moreover, what’s hilarious about the article and what is commonly known of the owners of Pirate Bay is their continuous run-in with the police.

I particularly enjoy what’s said in the link to Vanity Fair’s article. How the movie companies are finding it difficult to combat piracy, and then the mention of the electronic companies joining the piracy fleets. It made me come to the realization of how people manage to design the technology in order to play the files in their home computers.

These days file sharing is one of the most common things around – people all over the world are not only sharing music and movies, but TV shows as well. There is no need for packages, only an internet connection and something as handy as the bittorrents to get the latest files. I don’t believe there will be an end to this at all even if the police brings a site down, because another site will rise up.

Optical Chips Coming in 5 Years...

After reading this article, it seems promising but there are always complications in some form or another. Every new design and gadget will usually promise this or that and come off as being a huge let-down to the masses. But I’ll give this discovery the benefit of a doubt.

They do admit that so far, there are complications with microphotonic devices and will be trying their best to fix the flaws that they have found. A few things to look forward to once the technology hits the stores is that with the new optical components in the computers, the computers should be faster in receiving signals. It would open up a whole new field of possible technology that could be created and discovered. With faster processing, people will hardly have to wait for pages to load and downloading files and whatnot can be faster than ever. Sweet! Movies, games, music… just think about it!

However, I doubt that this will come out in the five years that they say it will. There’s too much research that needs to be involved, trying to contain and integrate polarized light sounds difficult. It will probably come out, perhaps 8-10 more years rather than the five.

But when it does come out, I hope that I have enough money saved up to get myself one…

The Meizu or the M8 as it is known around the internet is quite similar to the Apple iPhone. For one thing the M8 sports the same thinness as the iPhone, something that a lot of consumers usually look like, simply for the sake of managing to fit the phone in their purse, pocket, etc. Other features that make the M8 shine brighter than the iPhone is the fact that the M8 has a larger screen resolution than iPhone. Squinting has never been a problem, after all there are other phones out there with a smaller screen, but if you’re going on the internet, I would hate spending the time scrolling around just to read a simple sentence or finding that elusive link.

Yes, the iPhone is more well-known in the US. Yes, the iPhone has iTunes and a multi-touch screen. However, the M8 has a more common Operating System with its Win CE, and of course the fact that the M8 has TV-out functionality – recording capabilities, all right!

Prices have not yet been announced with the Meizu M8, but chances are it will be far cheaper than Apple’s iPhone. If I had the money right now, I would most likely be lining up for the M8 rather than the iPhone. But since I don’t, oh well.