I run into some things on Stumbleupon, some are helpful, some are funny, most are ridiculously stupid.

I stumbled onto Stallman attacking the XO Laptop, the $100 laptop for school children in less fortunate countries.

The XO Laptop uses "Free Software" like Linux, and a stripped down desktop manager called Sugar, and "Free" drivers for all the hardware in it except for one device, a wireless chipset, that is the defining feature in the device. The chipset allows the laptop to connect not only to the internet, but to other networked laptops and devices in the "cloud network", it's a really cool feature of the laptop that really makes it 10 times as useful as it would be without it.

Why was Stallman attacking such a device?

It requires about 100 kilobytes of firmware to make it work, you see, and that makes the whole laptop evil, unless you delete the firmware file and make the laptop kind of half functional, then Stallman "Can't endorse the device".

Now don't get me wrong, I like "Free Software" when it works, and it often does get you 90% of the way there, but I'm willing to wager that not many Linux users have "only Free Software", if you want a smooth experience, you'll also have Java, Flash, codecs for proprietary formats, binary drivers (the only ones worth anything) for your video card, possibly firmware or Windows drivers for your wireless, and if you're like me, Wine and/or Cedega for Windows programs and games that have no equivalent on Linux.

Why do these programs have no equivalent on Linux?

Well, if you look at the immediate cause of the problem, it's because very few people use Linux, and many people don't use Linux because the typical distribution, say Debian or Fedora are all but useless to them out of the box. It's not very much fun reading a million pages of documentation to get something running, unless you're just using it for a hobby.

A PC that doesn't have much hardware support, and won't let you play music, games, or youtube videos is not an attractive proposition, when Windows or the Mac can easily do all of this out of the box.

It's also why most people are using Ubuntu, which makes it very easy to get a functional PC, without nagging or being real preachy about it.

The "Free Software Only" mentality, or the perception of it anyway, amongst Linux users (it's really only a few unfortunately prominent people like Stallman) is hurting Linux's credibility as a good, modern operating system.

Stallman also wants people to refer to Linux as GNU/Linux, even though this really is inappropriate, unless we start naming the OS out of all of it's parts, rather than the sum. To get a Linux system working, it takes software from dozens of projects, and probably a dozen major ones, the GNU project played a part, but probably not the most important one.

The most appropriate way to name a Linux system, is to call it Linux, as the entire userland can and has been ported to several other kernels, including Solaris through Nexenta, FreeBSD through Debian kFreeBSD, and Darwin through the GNU on Darwin project. Users want one word to call the OS, not a paragraph, and so the GNU/Linux deal is essentially spam that some projects have unfortunately bought into.

And furthermore, Richard Stallman doesn't only use "Free Software", I'm sure that he drives a car, cars have an onboard computer, and I doubt the ROM that runs that computer is under a "Free Software" license, a lot of supermarkets and restaurants run IBM's AIX or Microsoft Windows, so I'll suppose he doesn't eat either.

Televisions have software to run them, so I suppose he's not watching TV, video game consoles have proprietary operating systems and software, so no consoles either.

If Richard Stallman is so worried about 100K of firmware in his laptop, he must also use an analog thermostat and an oven and microwave with analog controls for the food he can't buy.

For that matter, since every DSL and Cable modem I know of uses proprietary firmware, how does he get online?

For that matter, he shouldn't turn his monitor on, because it has an internal ROM with a proprietary menu driven OS.

People like him scare all the companies writing good software away.

It really angers me how apathetic the companies writing this software are, and how most are ignoring Linux because of loudmouth schnooks like that.

Trust me, you don't want a system that is all "Free Software", the GNU project endorses a Linux distribution called Gnewsense (ironically rhyming with nuisance), based on Ubuntu, but with all "non-free" modules you probably need stripped out. The OS is slow, and broken, and can't do much, therefore very few people are crazy enough to actually use it, and I bet you probably hadn't even heard of it til now.

Now assume for a minute that the Free Software Foundation had actually been competent enough to get their HURD kernel to work, and Linux had never been, HURD would have forever been this half-implemented OS with drivers for whatever the few dozen people working on it happened to have in their computer, and only the bored "elite" would use this "hobbyist" system.

If GNU/HURD was a real OS, and there was no Linux, I'm sure the FSF would do nasty things with it, like they do with GMediaServer, which if you didn't read that one, they got patches to enable an XBOX 360 transfer mode and wouldn't incorporate them.

You do not want them making your kernel, unless you want them putting in blocks or omitting features to let things like your hardware work.

There's no danger of that though, I'll quote Wikipedia cause the truth is sometimes funnier than anything I could come up with:

"Development on the GNU operating system began in 1984 and initially made good progress.....Development of the Hurd has proceeded slowly.....the Hurd is still not considered suitable for production environments. Development in general has not met expectations, and there are still bugs and missing features"

Free Software as an ideal is fine, Free Software Only as a philosophy is laughable and stupid, and has proven itself time and time again to not work.

If Stallman really wants to "save the XO Laptop from Windows", he's going to have to start by showing the OLPC project that Linux promoters are not all kooks, or else they'll keep on using what works.

Other really stupid and/or offensive things Stallman says in that article:

1. He equates having children use Windows with giving them heroin, crack cocaine, or LSD.

No Richard, those are what we call REAL problems, I've never seen Windows users in the corner, shaking and saying "I need my fix man!!!".

I've never seen Windows kill people, so this is what we call a shock statement, one which trivializes drug problems, making Stallman unethical and ignorant.

2. Porting the Sugar Desktop to Windows is a bad thing that shouldn't be done.

Because Richard is the leader of the "Free Software Foundation", which promotes using the software for any purpose, oh wait...

So you're anti-Microsoft, more than pro-Free Software, Richard?

Sugar is probably the biggest reason the XO is not regarded as a "real" computer, an Ubuntu variant with a real multitasking window manager such as Enlightenment (like OpenGeu) or FluxBox (Fluxbuntu) quite possibly could have saved it. I used Sugar on my own PC for five minutes before getting rid of it. It just makes the whole system feel like some kind of a toy that happened to be built by computer geeks that don't understand how human beings function.

Now the choice is doubling the laptop's price for the "One License Per Child" Windows version, or getting stuck with some bizarre nightmare of pictograms.

3. Hints at abandoning the XO for their "insolence"

Even though they still offer and promote Linux, giving people the choice is a bad thing, even though Free Software is "all about choice".

So Stallman, please continue to ignore the practical benefits of a Linux system:

Stable, secure, well performing UNIX clone. And it doesn't cost anything.

Those are the benefits a typical user sees.

And focus all your effort on trivial and stupid crap:

Non-Free drivers.

I'm happy when a company makes Linux drivers, period, I may get angry if they do something wrong, but there's no reason to not use software with the "only" reason being that the company that made it is protecting trade secrets and the device works just as well for you in any case.

If companies didn't make kernel drivers for their products, very few devices would work well in Linux, if they even worked at all.

Practically all functional drivers on Linux are written by the company that built the hardware, chipset makers like Intel and AMD release those drivers under GPL license because they want their hardware to be popular and just work, Intel is not competing with anyone on their boards for onboard functionality.

Companies like Nvidia, for now, have no proper incentives to do this. For the time being, ATI's hardware is way behind them, and their drivers are a joke (Latest Radeon can't make it through GLXINFO without segmentation fault).

At least in the short term, ATI is the next best thing to no competition, it remains seen what ATI does to fix this. It is quite possible that the development of a "Free Software" driver will be protracted and end up the same or worse than their binary-only one.

But the bottom line remains that the FSF is equally "unethical" to Microsoft, just on the other end of the dial.

So remember, at least some people are using Linux because it's practical, not because they approve of the FSF's "terror" practices.

I made an attack at this breed this evening. Though it's been a popular breed, I think it's not the best now. Thick, creamy and bitter sweet, it's not my favorite compared to hong xia (red prawn) aka 101 I had a few rounds during the peak season! With red-orangey flesh, it's creamy, sweet and easy on the palate. It was one I can eat a lot without feeling too sick of it. Hong xia gets my vote this season. 

hong xia (red prawn) aka 101

D24

Foto Sepredi

The article is heavy on drama:

Microsoft, makers of most of the computer software in the world, tried to kill it with words, and Intel, maker of most computer chips, tried to kill it with dirty tricks. Of course, they don’t admit to being attempted murderers. And when I introduce you to Intel’s lovely spokesperson, Agnes Kwan, you’ll realise how far their denials go. But the truth is the two mightiest high-tech companies in the world looked on Negroponte’s philanthropic scheme and decided it had to die.

Well, of course Microsoft and Intel wouldn’t take the project sitting down. Are they the real reasons behind it’s inflated price tag and lagging orders? Or was it unrealistic expectations from Negroponte, with his millions of expected sales in the first year? Or was it simply the wrong audience? Negroponte courted Microsoft for a long time and repeatedly talked about Windows support on the XO, only to have Microsoft spokespeople say, “Sorry, not yet.”

Intel targeted communities in which some degree of infrastructure and a reasonable educational facilities already existed; Negroponte wanted everyone to have an XO, regardless of whether their basic needs were being met. Intel partnered with local OEMs to create jobs and customize their Classmates for specific regions. OLPC tried to compete with the Dells and HPs of the world.

Did Negroponte create an exploding market and inspire powerful companies to address unmet needs? You bet. Did the big boys really do him in or did the XO simply fall prey to bad management and a flawed strategy?

read more | digg story

I just read this article on PC Pro about a low-cost computer based on Apple II computer. It seems that the same team that developed the XO-1 is now focused on building a new computer that will be "loosely based on Apple 2 machines, first unveiled over 30 years ago, and the team are actively recruiting enthusiasts of the retro computer to help with development."
Will this support Microsoft OS? Hope not, or it will become, sooner or later, a dead project like what's happening with the OLPC project. Until there, let's wait...

In 2001 Information Technology Minister Arun Shourie dismissed his [Negroponte's Media Lab] efforts as "pedagogically suspect" and wanted more accountability.

... in 2006, his project was again rebuffed by India's then-Education Secretary, Sudeep Banerjee

"Our primary school children need reading and writing habits, not expensive laptops," says Arun Kumar Rath, India's Education Secretary.

After being ignored by previous and current ministers, Negroponte has realized the way to get around India is thru the Ambanis.  A distinct departure from OLPC's typical distribution model that relied on partnerships with governments, the move is a lesson in the reality of Indian politics.

The Ambanis are not purely altruistic in their approach. Like that other mega-corporation, Microsoft, Reliance realizes that more consumers using digital appliances today will most likely mean more customers to sell their services in the future. This is just an investment to building their future customer base.

On the part of OLPC, this is a very astute move. It addresses two issues that have dogged the startup. Firstly, it provides a partner with a vested interest that is closely aligned to its intent of getting as many laptops out there as possible. Secondly, it provides access to the logistical and distribution strengths of Reliance to help it scale up to the challenge of getting hundreds of thousands of laptops out to rural areas. This second weakness was very apparent in OLPC's missteps as it was overwhelmed by orders around Xmas 2007 that resulted in month-long delays. Hopefully if OLPC can provide the laptops, Reliance can get them to the schools.

To add to the confusion, there are several comments to the BusinessWeek article that seem to infer that the Reliance/OLPC relationship is not a formal one but just the work of some interested individuals. Satish Jha (who was identified in the article as the ‘head of OLPC India) commented

"To the best of our understanding, Reliance has not even suggested that they are supporting the OLPC initiative in India. OLPC does not have any partnership with Reliance ADA either. Its is some interested folks working for Reliance who are supporting one project for OLPC in India."

Regardless, there is always the argument that India needs better basic school infrastructure and teachers who actually attend schools to teach instead of new technology.  If the OLPC laptops are truly targeted at the poor in rural schools and the lower middle class urban areas, then the bigger challenge is training teachers in those schools to use the laptops effectively. Teachers lack adequate training to support the existing curriculum. Adding a layer of technology - especially one that is most likely not readily found at home or at the nearest Internet café - will only make it harder to train them. In addition, the project needs to avoid falling in to the trap where hundreds of laptops wind up as a status symbol in the hands of more affluent students in urban schools.

Even as we speak, the OLPC folks in India are holding an OLPC India Day In addition to OLPC in India, there is news that other vendors and the government is also going after the low cost PC space. One hopes that in this technology race, that the needs of the poor student are not left unaddressed.

Click here, for an in-depth discussion thread on the OLPC project in India

The announcement

Recently, Portugal had singed up for 500,000 Intel Classmate laptops, which the Portuguese Government, not so genuinely named it Magalhães - The First Portuguese Laptop!. This little toy was announced, by our Prime-Minister José Sócrates and Intel's Chairman Craig Barrett, as if it was the first and unique world low-cost computer for school children. What a coincidence, is was not! Besides its older competitors, this baby as already 4 months old! But I'm sure the Portuguese already knew that. Wrong! They didn't, as a matter of fact, they have no idea, so the Government can cheat its people and say whatever he wants, because no one will say the opposite. And to help the party grow, the media can give a little hand, or two!

Propaganda: The not so Portuguese Laptop!

As I was reading the first news, before watching any video of the event, I got preplexed by the propaganda again used in favour of the world biggest corporations. The truth is that several toys like Magalhaes based on the Classmate PC reference design are already being sold in several countries, with other different names, which turns Magalhaes an obselete mediatic announcement! Even though, the Portugues Gorvenment went through and decide to announce it as a brand new thing, cheap, made in Portugal, and with a Portuguese name, so it could be very nationalist, and appeal to the patriotic history of Portugal! What a great idea to a government that is lately under fire: better than make genuine portuguese computers, is to import the technology, the idea, the machine itself and assembled it in a portuguese factory, and then publicy it big, so that everybody believe that this is a real portuguese computer! F**k, they are good!

It smells like capitalist spirit here!

500,000 is such a big number that kills any possibility of the OLPC computer, the XO-1, to enter in Portugal. This will certainly make our educational system worse. I have no doubts of the betterness of the XO-1 comparing to this other competitors like Magalhaes aka Classmate PC. For those who have doubts, please watch this precious video by Alan Kay.

Intel and Microsoft can't stand by watching another company selling stuff that isn't their stuff. Their machines with their operating systems. Because, even if it runs any Linux OS, it is most probably that XP will be used. Microsoft cannot accept children to be grown familiared with any other OS than Windows, or in the future, as adults, they won't buy it! So, in their view, children are Microsoft's future, so they must use Windows (and other Microfost's Software). They just won't accept! This marketing machine is just to strong! Combining this capitalist strenght with the weakness of our politicians... Bingo!

This is how big corporations like Intel and Microsoft, with a little help of the developing countries' governments, brutally assassinate big projects that could improve the life of millions! At the end, this is all, others may say, a perspective. Ok, I accept it. It surely is a perspective but, am I wrong? Isn't that the truth? I know it will be difficult not to buy one for your children, and I totally understand your point but, besides that, just think about it and beware of further government annoucements.

How I been making these post on DC & DMV, you would think that I was from there. Im not that up on X.O. like that but Im a lover of good music, so I can let yall know that this is a dope artist and his music speak in volumes. This is a nice tape bringing that "Real Hip-Hop" in the best way! Well worth checking.

Tracklist and download after the jump.

01. Intro
02. Lick Shots
03. Shimmy Ya / Uptown Zoo
04. Rid’n (RMX) (ft. Wale)
05. Tru (ft. Mirror Image)
06. Street Love
07. Do That At
08. Lies
09. All You
10. Pimp Harder
11. Still On The Block
12. On Top
13. Feel Me
14. Duck Down / Ust
15. The Life
16. I Need You
17. Who
18. Uptown Anthem
19. Outro
20. Stolen [Bonus]

DOWNLOAD!

Tabik alias angkat topi setinggi-tinginya kepada Departemen Pertanian Malaysia yang tak jemu-jemunya menyilangkan durian bagi dunia.

Paling tidak sejak tahun 1934 sudah lebih dari 190 varitas duren dilemparkan ke pasaran. Varitas yang didaftarkan ini biasanya diberi nama imbuhan "D" - durian. Tetapi para penjual durian di Singapura lebih lihay dengan memberi nama durian mereka nama lokal agar lebih membuat "ngeces".

Setelah kehebatan durian Sultan varitas D(durian) D24, menyusul varitas D197 alias durian Cat Mountain King alias "Durian Butter", maka pedagang durian di Singapur me-launching jenis yang pernah dibudidayakan pada tahun 1970 yaitu D100. Padahal dulu jenis D100 jarang dilirik.

"Tahun 2005, penggemar durian keedanan dengan D24. Hanya sedikit yang mengenal duren Mao Shan Wang. Akibatnya saya hanya menjual Mao Shan Wang cuma delapan dollar per kilogramnya. Tahun 2006, durian Mao Shan Wang mendesak posisi D24, mangkanya sekarang harga di Rajah Kunyit alias Mao Shan Wang menjadi  naik daun," kata Goh penjual durian dari kedai 717 Singapura.

Lantas bagaimana memilih durian yang baik.  Pertanyaan yang membuat saya tersipu sebab 1001 teknik dalam satu malam sudah saya terapkan kalau membeli durian di Jakarta dan sekitarnya, tetap saja saya kedodoran. Padahal baru sekedar mengejar "durian yang tidak masam, tidak hambar" - sulitnya setara dengan mencari KTP tanpa bayaran extra.

Padahal kita belum bicara durian yang manis tetapi berserat, manis sedikit pahit beralkohol, atau durian dengan tekstur selembut alpukat.

Semua ilmu sudah dikeluarkan dari mengendus-endus tubuhnya dari bawah sampai ke atas, memutar spiral, melihat bentuk yang sedikit lonjong, ujung duri yang besar, menengok batas kamar pada pantat durian yang harus nyata, mengocok durian semua terpaksa tekuk lutut dihadapan pedagang mirip pemain bulu tangkis kita berhadapan dengan pemain China.

Akibatnya jujur saja saya "hampir-hampir" hanya makan durian selama di Singapura, itupun perburuan dipersempit dengan mengunjungi Fair Price di kawasan Ang Mokio Hub. Disana cukup lengkap koleksi duriannya disertai harganya. Dijamin tidak bakalan diakali pedagang, apalagi dengan cara lunak memaksa nada membeli lebih dari yang dibutuhkan.

Saya menunggu kapan menikmati dan terutama memiliki foto durian D100.

1. Wireless Internet Connection

The wiki page doesn't make reference to how to setup WEP wireless connection, it only mentions WPA (NETWORKING) so I had to do a bit of research: How to connect to wireless (WEP) in ubuntu?
turns out that the following does the trick:


iwconfig eth1 essid "mySSID" key mywepkey
sudo dhclient eth1

Now I had to figure out how to add this to a startup script so that it would automatically connect to my wireless router upon boot up: Automatic Wireless Connection (At Startup)?
All I had to do was add the following to /etc/network/interfaces

# Wireless Connection
iface eth1 inet dhcp
wireless-key hex-key
wireless-essid ssid

auto eth1

where hex-key = my WEP hex key & ssid = my routers wireless SSID

2. Mouse Problems

The Customizing Ubuntu for XO wiki page explains how to fix the tap-click issue and sensitivity, however the sensitivity issue I am having is that my mouse is too insensitive, My mouse pointer FLY's across the screen when I move my finger, so instead of using the wiki's recommened:
xset m 1/4 0
I am using:
xset m 25/20 0
and it is much better now.

3. Screen Saver

The first thing I noticed was there was no screensaver installed, when I went to Settings > Screensaver Settings, I got the following error:
I was able to install xscreensaver, but I got another error every time I made a change to xscreensaver's settings "Directory does not exist: /usr/share/backgrounds" a quick google search and I found a solution: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xscreensaver/+bug/129769
sudo apt-get install screensaver-default-images
Fixed :)

Part 2 of my setup woe's comming soon...

Big homie dropped by the spot to let of a few copies of the mixtape that he had left and you all know my strict no download policy, so I felt blessed recieveing a copy of the mixtape. I havnt taken it out my CD changer YET!!! From day one when I met'em a little while ago, he was making noise...now, another level. FOREAL though, if you can...download or find that hard copy. DC STAND THE FUCK UP!!!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

X.O. MYSPACE

or

X.O. BLOG

shits serious.