Google

So, everyone knows me as the technology guy:

My techie friend's know me as the Linux guy. My Linux-y friends know me as the KDE-head and all around software genious.

So A lot of people have asked what I think of Google's big announcement. Google Chrome OS.

Well, I think it's horrible. I honestly think it's awful and google needs to review their motto ("don't be evil").

"Well that's a bit extreme!" You may say. Let me tell you why I think this.

• It's a shitty web browser they're using to make a shitty Operating System.


• They've been deciding to go against products it was a huge advocate of: Firefox, Ubuntu, OpenID, Open HTML5 video , etc



• They're reinventing the wheel: They start with the linux core, but the rest of Chrome OS is going to be written from scratch. Why? They're not using the X.org graphical system. Google is wasting everyone's time, especially it's own.



• It steals thunder away from wonderful products: Ubuntu Netbook Remix has finally become stable and is a million times better than any dumbed down version of Linux or Windows that has ever been shipped with a netbook before. Google is going to kill desktop linux if it succeeds.



• Technical: This is another thing they should have used Qt for, but didn't



• Total loss of privacy: They want to move everything to the Cloud. For those less technical, that means they want to keep all your files and information on their computers where you use the internet to access it. They want total control over your computer life so they can better serve advertisements to you.



• Google is an advertisement company: I just remembered this. Notice how everything they do is free, yet they're still filthy rich? That's because they make revenue via advertisement services. You want to advertise? You want your website to make money? You sign up for Google's adsense as either a host of ads or customer of advertisement delivery. Advertisements are evil by nature, which goes against their motto.



• Have you realized how dependant we are on Google already? I try, but find it hard to use anything but Google for search, every web browser has it as default. Youtube is where you get your 15 seconds of fame. Adsense is how you make money on the internet. Blogger (for those of you on facebook... my notes are automatic copies of my blogger entries.), shit I'm using google right now! (Looks around to see if men in black are here to take me away)

This general move to the Cloud is frightening. Richard Stallman may be a sexist, psychotic freak, but he made a good point to warn against the universal move to putting applications and personal info on the internet. All of these services require you to agree to an End User License Agreement (EULA) of some sort. Have any of you bothered to read them?

Life is Exciting

As usual, it's been a long time since I last blogged. What's up with me? Well, my summer is totally awesome. It could be better, but that'd require I get the car fixed.

The 525i BMW is coming along steadily. If it would stop raining long enough for me to feel like working on the thing, it'd be done. The o2 sensor didn't seem to come off for my dad, but i'd like to spend a day doing it myself. I hate watching other people do work, and like even less having my father watch me do something. I don't know why, I just don't experiment or test things. If I'm by myself I try things out and learn more than watching.

Lena is wonderful. She's trying again to give up biting her nails. Her nails look so pretty all done up, I'm not used to it. We never seem to get very sick of each other. The summer gives us more than enough space, I could stand seeing her a little more often. In any case, I'm sure I could spend the rest of my life with her.

My birthday is nearing. 21. Woot, I can drink without anyone getting all weird on me! I'm not into getting drunk or partying, but a little drink now and then will be nice. I already re-upped on my driver's license. I needed a new card. I can't wait. I'm gonna have a little steampunk themed birthday soiree. Probably get some pizza, go in the pool, and watch steamboy. I've got a playlist all ready for it.

I've been listening to a lot of my Chromeo, Michael Jackson, and clubbing music compilatons. Bouncy summer music. Oh, and I liked MJ before he died. I'm not a wannabe fan. On the top of the list of music I've been into is the Air Gear anime soundtrack.

I've gotten re-obcessed with Air Gear. Kinda like how I got back into .hack, only better. I picked up the DVD set of the anime, mostly so I could have the english dub and the japanese sub. The english translation is really good, it's such a funny show with such good music. I rollerbladed over to barnes and noble's from my house yesterday. 4 1/2 miles each way.

I now know what second wind is like.

I picked up 4 of the Air Gear manga. Evan turned me to the manga via online scans. The story apparently is still going, and in japan is twice as long as where the anime stops. It is so much cooler, in depth, and the story is more beleivable. In general, the books are, again, better than the show, as with all things. I'm hooked.

Life is good. It's good to be working; playing; loving. Good to be alive.

The Future

Spring has taunted us.
March does this to us every year.
We are always surprised by it to.

We'll have 60 degree weather, birds singing, sky blue, for a whole week. The following week brings a cold front and snow. It is so annoying. It's like candy corn near Halloween: You think "ooooo I love these things!" and the instant you eat one you're disgusted by that horrible amnesia you had. Those things are gross.

It's bound to warm up sometime though. I've had a feeling all along that this winter is not going to extend into April. It's gonna be shorter this year. (Not just because of climate change)

I've been thinking about what I'm gonna wear and do this summer (New England spring is too short lived to considered a real season).

First thing is first, Emma is getting a new computer downstairs. No ifs ands or buts about it. Once Kubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) is released, I'm loading it on the computer I picked up, and I'm bringing it home. She needs something to replace her hunk of junk.

Wheels. Unfortunately, not a car. I wont have the money for a vehicle for a while. The moment I get money I'll have to spend it on a housing deposit and school books. BUT! I'll get to break out my rollerblades. This is one wonderful thing I look forward to each year. I'm thinking of trying out something new this year too.


Action skates! This sounds dumber than it is.
I really wanna try it. If they work well, they'll be a small, optional, and detachable solution to rushing off to class or getting around quickly.

I'd only need one pair of footwear instead of two. That means less carrying shoes in a bag.

I should be picking up a new pair of brown converse sometime before the snow melts (unless I can find my beat up ones).

I'm gonna get a new hat and a pocket watch too.

I've gotta work work work to get money in my bank account AND have fun this summer. Oh boy do I need to work work work.

Two Amazing Open Information Projects

Project Gutenburg & Librivox

These two are going to save me some money on future classes' books.



Click to enlarge...


This is amarok playing a philospphy book (via the librivox script that you can add supereasily within the program) and giving me the wikipedia info as it does music artists.

OMFG, this is great.

Review: Kubuntu Intrepid Ibex

Woot. So the new version of Kubuntu came out.
Kubuntu 8.10, the "Intrepid Ibex"
This release prominently features KDE version 4.1 and all the goodies (and ported applications) that such a KDE4 release entails.

So what does this mean to the layperson?
Well, let me run through and review it all for you.

***

So, once I get Kubuntu, I put the disc in and rebooted (making sure it booted from the DVD/CD drive).

In a minute or two, and I was up and running with a complete Linux desktop without installing a thing. It surprised me because it got th trackpad on my laptop right this time. It never used to. The mouse was insanely slow to drag across the screen on previous releases.

Straight away, I noted how gorgeaus this release is. I wish there was a bit more Kubuntu branding, say like replacing the kde symbol with the kubuntu one for the menu, and a Kubuntu wallpaper, but Its beautiful nonetheless.

Things faded in and out, and I think users will be a bit less tempted to think that the install icon on the desktop is double click becasue it's inside of a widget. People expect widgets to act like the web, and that here means single click.

Well, the first thing anyone does on their computer, is to go to the internet. I found the web browser easily, as it was labeled so in the favorites menu. VERY SLICK. I went to look up a video, and I was prompted to get flash from adobe.

Oh, no I thought. Remembering this from the past. My worries were for nothing though. I could see ubuntu listed in adobe's download site, but the word's DEB and APT might be a bit foreign to the normal user. However, APT said it wasn't supported, so I chose deb and opened it with the installer. That makes sense. So at the very least, if the layman knows that Kubuntu and Ubuntu are sister operating systems, they'll be okay.

Or not. Adobe's package didn't work at all. So, being a more adept user (pun intended), I went to add/remove programs. I did a simple search for flash. Not there. being an expert, I'd open up Konsole and type "sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree", but that is riddiculous. Yes, you can find it in Adept Manager, but Add/Remove programs should have something so vital to everyday internet usage.

Overall, Konqueror could start on a web page. That would be nice. It should stop trying to be a swiss army knife, and just stick to web browsing. The address bar doesn't search for the closest web site like firefox (not by default anyway), nor are there live bookmarks. These are both essential to me and tie me to firefox. So I go off to find it. I install it and am now littered with Ubuntu's Package manager and add/remove programs. I do not have Ubuntu, I have Kubuntu, why are you giving me all this crap? I know to just remove synaptic and ubufox, the layperson? nope.

Firefox blends in pretty well with Kubuntu, but the scrollbars go wonky a lot. Also, the MIME types don't work, so I save my files before opening them.

Widgets are great, but everyone I know keeps removing the taskbar trying to close a program that hasn't opened yet.

Networking is a big thing this release, but Knetworkmanager is a major step backwards in usability. I've seen Celeste give a usability report, but no one seems to have listened.

The Package manager, or the real name of Add/Remove programs, is Adept. Adept was good, but the installer was slow and it was generally... okay. Now, however, it is a beacon of prettiness in programs, fast, responsive, and easier to understand.

The file manager, dolphin is great.

Pop a CD or usb drive in and it shows up non-intrusively in a little widget. That is so damn nice.

Kopete is ugly, has msn issues, and should have an easier way to set up gtalk.

K3B, though still a kde3 application, is the best cd burning program ever.

Amarok is still the stable old 1.4 series, but the 2.0 RC is available to those who want it. It is still the "killer app" for almost everyone I know using or intending to try linux.

Kmail and KDE PIM are wonderful for productivity.

Openoffice is great, but kind of old. 2.4? 3.0 is out!

Utilities and usability are out of this world.

The Virtual keyboard is nice for those with just a touchscreen (though I'd perfer it to be a plasmoid I can embed in a panel) or for those of you who thought the apple slim keyboard plus linux was a good idea (keyboard dies, hub and keys, the instant you try to do something usb on my system).

GetNewHotStuff is the most badass feature this release. Katapult, the badass feature in previous releases is missing. this could've been remedied by changing the shortcut key for krunner from alt f2 to alt space and making an amarok catalog plugin for krunner.

I don't know why I need klipper cluttering up my system tray, but I can't copy/paste without it. The next version of KDE will have systemtray icon hiding like in windows, so this wont be an issue in the future.

I'm very happy about the inclusion of KGrubEditor.

64-bit still sucks a little. The 64-bit flash plugin beta is available to help fix this, but skype is still 32-bit.

This came out shortly after the release of the new penny arcade game, and I intent to play that on this new release. (needs to do some 64-bit trickery though.)

Annoyed with Ignorant music listeners

I am very passionate about music, which makes me upset to see people misunderstand 2 very important things.

1. (only) 80% of Rap is crap.

People don't understand this, but it's true. At some point, there was a distinction made where someone said, "I'm going to make good rap" and other people said, "I like this gutter we're following."

What most rap does, is they take a huge sample of a song and repeat the quiet bits to rap inside of. My generation and generations before us are completely unaware of the beautiful music that these people are stealing. These artists are stealing from sixties, eighties, ninties, heck even songs from the turn of the century (that's 2000+ for those thinking turn of last century.)! Not 8 years old and Kanye West is already remixing Harder, Better Faster Stronger. And a side note, "You can be my black Kate Moss tonight"? Pick a black woman, don't be racist, or pick a better rhyme idiot.

There was a kid humming Beethoven's 9th symphony in middle school one day, I asked him about it. He got all indignant about it and matter-of-factly told me it was a rap song, apparently a happy birthday kinda rap. This kid had no idea of the classic being ruined.

I'm all for remixes, but people don't know that there's song being sampled. It's not called Beethoven's 9th (Birthday remix). They get so confused when they hear the real song. Don't remix a song and say you're "sampling" it. When you sample a song, it's subtle and something you'd have to look through a song to find. Good examples of sampling can be found at Palm Out Sounds' Sample Wednesday feature. That is blatant stealing. Some things are kosher, like using tainted love for Rihanna's SOS, but R&B usually is pretty good at the fine line. Most stealing sounds just damn stupid.

Most rap is unoriginal, uninspired, and filled with expletives and grunts (whats the difference?). Why do so many rap "stars" slur, mumble, and talk sexist? Morons.

A couple examples of "Good" rap:
Jurassic 5
Solillaquists of Sound
Del tha Funky Homosapien as the spectar haunting the Gorillaz
etc.

2. "Techno" is a word warped more than any political term

"I hate techno, I mean anyone can repeat something a billion times" - I heard that today and I wanted to scream about the gorgeous music I have on my computer, about the metaphors and interesting questions about having the songs "Human after all" and "Robot Rock" on the same album, about a gagillion other things. I wanted to explode.

People lump a huge plethora of electronic music genres into one word, "techno". This is so wrong it just shakes my very core. Let me lay it out for you, okay?

House:
It is a mostly repetetive form of simple music whose intentions are the dance floor. Often a simple phrase or vocoded (voice's percussion is kept, but the melody is replaced by synthesizer/keyboard input) singing accompanies the melody. This has mostly been shaped by France the past few years. Daft Punk anyone?

Trance:
It is a complex and elegant genre with similarities to classical music. Extended scores and flowing soundscapes that build tension and release it to epic proportions. This is music that rewards the listener. This has mostly been shaped by the group, Infected Mushroom.

Hardcore:
It is a complex and somewhat hectic form of music noted for it's fast bass, often piano, and sped up vocals (it accentuates the natural warble in singing). This began in the early nineties (circa '94) and is most know to the "raver music". Lots of DJ somethingorothers.

Downtempo:
Um... DJ Shadow is a good example, hard to explain other than repeat the name.

Europop:
Basically Pop music, with many elements from House music. Eiffel 65 is a good example.

ETC:
Every genre or type of music has a gagillion combination and/or subgenres.
Heck, the most notable electronic music, musicians are hard to classify The Prodigy and Basement Jaxx, though Prodigy started out more hardcore and Basement Jaxx started out more House, both are now hard to classify as anything other than "Electronica" or "Electronic Music".

Jp Vs US : Jet Set Radio

I bought Jet Set Radio as my first Dreamcast game, and I absolutely fell in love. The game just emits this aura of style and awesome. I've beaten it, COMPLETELY, with all unlockable characters (including Potts the dog) and all graffiti souls.

Just a couple months ago, I decided to buy the Japanese version of the game. It was merely for collectors reasons, but partly bragging rights. I've been noticing the stark differences already. Some of the music in the game is different.

The Japanese only tracks are:

Dunny Boy Williamson Show by Deavid Soul

Many Styles by O.B. One

I love that first track, It plays in Shibuya.

The American levels aren't supposed to be included. I haven't gotten that far, but the largest clue of that being true, is that Combo and Cube are some of the first unlockable characters. What's even weirder? Cube looks different in the Japanese version. Instead of a black top and black pants, she wears a long sleeve flames shirt with a grey shirt on top and rolled up jeans.


This is really neat. I love this game so much more than the sequel.
Owning the Japanese version of a game coming from a time where all consoles were region locked and the games did differ... is really cool.