All posts by Harry Underwood

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About Harry Underwood

Website designer, blogger. Columbus, GA. #LGBT #p2 #wordpress

Thoughts on Yahoo Messenger (for PC and Mobile)

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OK, so with Yahoo’s upcoming Messenger 7.5, the company that has an appetite in buying every company under the sun (they just bought del.icio.us, even though they already have their own social bookmarking service……whuh?) is now actually trying to compete with someone other than Google: Skype, the thrilla from Scandinavia that has claimed over 3 million casualties worldwide (OMG, and a video to testify to the mayhem! I’ll show it to you all as soon as I can find the URL). Unfortunately, neither Skype nor the present VoYM can work for me under these conditions, as both I and androgynism found out on Friday.

What exactly to expect from Messenger 7.5?

1. Interoperability with MSN/Windows Live Messenger

2. Net2Phone: the (supposed) Skype-killer.

And probably not much else.

And then I go on a long rant…

OK, its downhill from here….oh, and try out Songbird!

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1. My laptop can no longer be powered thanks to the AC outlet having stopped functioning. We had been having problems with that for a long time, which is why this doesn’t come as a surprise to me.

2. I’ve emailed my sisters in Columbus concerning the urge to drop out completely. I wonder if Connie’s come across it yet.

3. A feeling of absolute lockdown/out has effectively blocked my view of any further pursuit of an education here in Atlanta.

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In the meantime, if you have some time to spare, check out Songird, a media player that is designed in an Itunes-like aesthetic; surfs the Web for audio files to play (unlike ITunes, which locks you into Apple’s music store); and is built upon Firefox. Give it a whirl, but since its a beta release, it’ll be a bit buggy.

Why Linux won’t “conquer the desktop” (for the next decade)

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I don’t think most people these days know that Linux is only a kernel.

I mean, sure, its great that GNU/Linux (that is, GNU *plus* the Linux monolithic kernel) has been ported to so many devices and hardware platforms, but I think that that’s probably the (or a) basis for the reason(s) why you won’t be hearing about a single “killer desktop distro” coming out of the GNU/Linux platform anytime in the near future.

Because GNU/Linux was not made for the common desktop from the onset, we’ve only seen a recent spate of GNU/Linux distributions which have been aimed for that particular audience, which is currently dominated by Windows and Mac OS X (both of which have long scored with hardware. UPnP, anyone?). Plus, because there is such a plethora of distributions already (which should go without saying for the desktop-oriented distros, such as Ubuntu), desktop users will have a hard time figuring out exactly which one they would want to try out. After all, probably the vast majority of Windows users aren’t geeks who will take time to even install software at any rate (like my oldest Sis, although its understandable since her ex-husband lent an HP Pavilion to her and because it has only a tiny bit of RAM).

Frankly, if there is going to be a large-scale collective movement of the GNU/Linux operating platform to the desktop/laptop, they’ll have to withdraw from the longstanding stereotypes and barriers which have hindered such efforts in the past. I’d actually say that the Desktop/Laptop GNU/Linux distribution which could make the largest killing on its target area will look, act, and feel alot more different from the present-day Ubuntu.

Maybe its Symphony OS? Or what about ELive?

Maybe even one that natively uses Sun’s Looking Glass Project?

I dunno….give them a few years to develop and we’ll see.

Colleges

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from a conservative viewpoint.

Hmm, interesting light to put technical education in, no?

So, exactly how many types of colleges are there?

There’s the Liberal Arts kind, which appeals directly to the intellectual, while there’s the Technical kind, which appeals to the professional.

Er…wait a minute….is that technical or vocational?

Then the institutes of technology (a.k.a. polytechnics) cover three distinct areas: science, engineering, and (actual) technology.

OK……what am I missing?

Linux folks want a native Photoshop from Adobe

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As shown here.

And Steve Vaughn elaborates on this, mentioning this memorable little paragraph:

“GIMP? It’s good, and it’s getting better, but unless Adobe takes a wrong step, I don’t see it playing a major role on professional desktops.

Some would argue, of course, that since GIMP is free software, it will eventually play a larger role. I still don’t see it.

As Rizzo said, and I’ve seen and heard now, Photoshop really is a platform, not just an application. When you’re buying into an entire system, as the graphics business clearly has, the upfront cost of a single application doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in the buying decision.”

So here’s what I say to that:

Photoshop is a platform, not just your run-of-the-mill POCS. In fact, *anything* from Adobe/Macromedia is a frickin’ platform.

The reason why Adobe is stuffing its ears full of cotton, acting like its in its own little world when walking on Linux territory, is because GIMP/any-only-for-Linux-apps are only made for Linux users, and won’t be allowed any breathing room for serious development and usage as a result. Meanwhile, almost everything that is made by Adobe and Macromedia will be natively ported to Windows and Mac OS X (with a trifling few bits thrown to Linux like scraps from a table).

So why can’t you all, the GIMP developers, simply allow for the porting of GIMP to Mac OS X and Windows? Not only will it pose an FOSS challenge to the dominance of Photoshop, but it will also allow for a far wider range of users to participate in the improvement of the GIMP platform, just like any other cross-platform venture such as Mozilla, Limewire, Azureus, etc. This will benefit Linux users in the long run with a more accepted, higher-powered platform that will be *better* than Photoshop.

Of course, such may be seen as giving a further advantage to the “enemy/ies”, but open source is all about building a serious, non-proprietary platform for any piece of software.

Plus, I’m certain that more folks will hear about Linux via GIMP as a result.

MAJOR EDIT: Just Googled the website. They actually DO have ports to Mac and Windows!

So, um…why isn’t the GIMP platform popular on Windows and Mac?!

http://www.gimp.org/windows/

OK, back to business

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I was going to keep this on ice until next month…

But anyway, I’m back to business on LJ, and with a month’s accumulation of news. And oh, the many things which could happen within a month, too (search on Google News)!

1) Google and “The Great Firewall of China”

2) Google using Ubuntu for their servers.

3) China in Africa

4) Wazobia, new Linux distro from Nigeria

5) Beijing sponsors Red Flag Linux

6) “.Mac” for Ubuntu

7) New Warner Robins community on LJ

8) R.I.P. Coretta Scott King

9) Sir Tim Berners-Lee gets a blog

10) CBC gets a new, BBC-ish graphical setup

11) Jack Abramoff and Washington’s new clothes

12) Father Gerry is released for treatment in Miami

13) China is so rich that it can’t keep count!

14) I’m through with Oglethorpe; heading back to Warner Robins for freshman redux at MSC.

YES. That last one is a DEFINITE.

I’m sorry, but in the last semester of this utter failure of a freshman year, I have not had any money left to pay for books (NOTE: there are only 13 people on this campus who are paying their entire tuition, and I’m most definately NOT one of those 13). Plus, the Registrar, Financial Aid Office, and Business Office all gave both me and my mother much unnecessary grief in regards to financial aid, classes, and majors (I was sent on a merry-go-round by the first office to the second and third just to cancel a single class just last week).

I’m sorry, but this year is pretty much over.

I’m transferring out of this school with my high school transcripts rather than my college credits (I only received 5 from last semester). Possibly Macon State (public, so it’ll take my HOPE in full).

Finally, I simply cannot stand the liberal arts core curriculum, but then again, this IS a liberal arts college. Pretty much, the only reason why I came here in the first place was because this school sent me the most letters and responses. I was aiming for other, less feasible schools, such as the University of Western Ontario, CSU Monterey Bay, and others, and randomly so.

So I realize that I’ve made a terrible mistake in coming here at all.

I’ll be back in WR tomorrow for my b-day weekend.

Hopefully, I won’t have to see Atlanta’s shitty roads as much in the coming months.

Peace out.

Next post on won’t be until March

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Which would account for the long period since the last post on here, don’t you think?

Well, not much to update you all on. Switched back to Windows after Ubuntu half-crashed on me (dunno what happened to it, and have decided to put going back to it off for the time being). Furthermore, I’ve found out that LiveCDs don’t do jack shit for persuading a dude to switch to Linux. I tried with both KNOPPIX and Gentoo, and both didn’t even load right (Gentoo didn’t load at ALL).

So, not dealing with those for the time being. Maybe its something wrong with my hard drive…but, anyway, I’ll try out LiveDVDs from now on.

Also, some good news: DivX has just released the beta of their browser plugin, so I’m suspecting that otaku will be having a heyday over this.

Also, I read about such amazing things as Mac OS X on x86, Peercasting, Ben Franklin’s 300th b-day, and the community which has grown around Google Talk.

But, digitally, I’ve dwelt in deafening silence for the past month or so.

I’ve finally reconciled with Bittorrent as far as anime archives are concerned; however, I owe such primarily to uTorrent, a lightweight app that, while not having been open-sourced (as of yet, according to the developer), does serve as a Bittorrent solution which needs no installation in order to make it work: just click the icon, run the executable, and raise it/lower it to the botom right of the taskbar. I’ve wondered if this could be a viable idea for Debian-based Linux distros who want to create and run apps with little to no problems without having to install them directly into the bedrock of a Debian-based system. I dunno…

Y’know, I guess that it would be a good idea to hold off on updates to this blog until the spring or something, since the winter is when things close up, die, hibernate, go quiet, slow down, and so forth. I mean, honestly, I don’t feel like updating this blog for the time being. Even in Warner Robins (how’re the folks in Atlanta doing?), we’ve had alot of hail and rain (both of them in sequence yesterday, along with a tornado watch for Central Georgia), among other things. So, I’ll return back to the sabbatical that I’ve been taking from blogging, IM, and other general pursuits until February/March or somewhere around that time.

And speaking of which, lordsathien, the possibility for FWA is still standing, although the clouds are kinda bleak…Mom’s still fretting over college payments, although I’ve decided to seek a job of some kind at Cox, who’s now our ISP (yay). If it goes through with them (I’ll be asking them when I come back on the 16th), then FWA’s a go-go.

So, this Winter Solistice season, we can only hope, pray, and wait for things to happen.

Hell, I don’t even know what I’m blogging about right now. This blog is on ice until February/March.

Peace until then. You know where you can find me (if you have Google Talk, of course).