Linux Kicks @$$
Mood:  chatty
Now Playing: "Andrea" - MxPx
Topic: computers
So, want to throw off the oppressive yoke that Bill Gates has on you? "yeah!" you say enthusiastically, "but I don't want a Mac. No one makes programs for them and they are VERY expensive." No problem! Linux is cheap; free, in fact! Well, the computer isn't free, but it CAN be cheap. Let me explain...

As you have learned in either a HS or College level economics class, it's bad for a company to have a monopoly. Why? Because they don't have competition therefore they get lazy and stop trying to hard. Internet Explorer, for example, hasn't has too many major updates since Netscape bit the dust. Well, since Windows has pretty much been unchallenged for 14+ years, they feel that they can do whatever they want. This includes having a bloated OS and programs that hog all of your memory. I have 512 Mb of RAM and Windows complains if I have too many Office applications open.

Enter Linux:

This humble OS was born from the mind of Linus Torvalds. His basic mission evolved into desgining an operating system that was completely free. This doesn't just mean free in the monetary sense. He wanted the license to be as open as possible so that you could install it on as many computers as you wanted. Did you know, for example, that it's illegal for you to put MS Office on more than one computer with one disc unless it's a multi-license disc? Not so with Linux! You can install it on the computer of everyone who lives on your block and you can't get in trouble with the law.

Because Linux isn't as bloated as Windows, it can typically run on an older machine. You can go all the way to a 386 with 64 Mb of RAM if you want. If you want to have an AWESOME computer, get 4 GHz 1 GB RAM and put Linux on it. You'll be amazed at how cleanly and quickly it runs.

Now, Linux comes in different flavors, called distrobutions. They are known by those who are really into Linux as "distros". Some examples are Debian, SuseLinux, Fedora, and SELinux. Each has different good things and bad things. Some are better for sound and others for servers. Since they are free you can try them all until you find the right one for you.

The best thing about Linux is that most distrobutions come with free license programs that do everything that Windows programs do. For example, there is OpenOffice that does the same thing as MS Office. There is a spreadsheet, a word processor, a powerpoint-clone, and an email/calendar program. There are other numerous examples - basically, anything that Windows can do, MS can do better. Certain things are built into the operating system, such as CD burning (which was only added to Win with XP)and you can do cool stuff such as tell a file to burn to CD as soon as it downloads off the net.

Finally, you have the advantage and cool power of running programs from the command line. It's one of those things that you have to try to know what I'm talking about.

But, there ARE some disadvantages. First of all, not all hardware works with Linux. They are trying their hardest to make hardware work with it, but Windows has an advantage. You see the hardware manufacturers tell Microsoft how to make Windows work with their software. The other disadvantage is that it's hard to get help if you need it because most people aren't using Linux yet. But you can find a lot of info on < href=www.google.com/linux>www.google.com/linux or in IRC chatrooms.

So you want to try out this awesome OS? Not so fast! You see, unless you have two hard drives (in which case you could have one OS on each drive and pick the one u want when u boot up) you can only really have one OS. So having Linux means erasing Windows. Now you're like...well...what if I don't like Linux? Well, it's ok because there's a version of Linux just for you. It's called Knoppix. Knoppix is a version of Linux that completely runs off of the CD instead of installing it. This allows you to try out Linux without the commitment of losing Windows. The only thing is that you can only save to floppy or USB. Then if you like it you can tell Bill Gates where to stick Windows. You can get Knoppix here -> www.knoppix.net

PS - Linux tends to be very friendly on being used in different languages - much better than Windows

Think twice before posting those pictures!
Mood:  chatty
Topic: The Web
I've posted pictures of myself before, and I never thought of this. So, in the future beware of posting a picture of yourself online or THIS could happen!

Affirmative Action
Mood:  chatty
Topic: News
Here at Eric's Binary World we believe in equal opportuinity for all, therefore, here is a wonderfully funny page making fun of Kerry's "tendency" to flip-flop.

http://johnkerryads.websiteanimal.com/

Quotes!!!!
Mood:  chatty
Now Playing: "I Be" - GRITS
Topic: Quotes
Once again I empty my profile quotes into the blog so that I can put more quotes on my profile.

"Never forget the ABCD Law. It's bigger than Maxwell" (gasps from students) - Prof Pollock

"ABCD Law is like religous law - accept it with blind faith." - Prof Pollock

"Women should be obscene and not heard." - John Lennon

"It was the big MS marketing juggernaut and money spent up the ying-yang...We were thinking 'Geez, how are we going to compete with this?' Fortunately, the products sucked beyond our wildest dreams" - Ed Colligan at Palm 1996

"I want a bag of rice, 1lb of meat, some rice, and 28 boxes of Viagra" - lyrics to Viagra by Oro Solido (Merengue band)

America The Audiobook
Mood:  chatty
Topic: books
I recently started listening to The Daily Show's new book about America. So far I've finished the first chapter and I find the book to be hilarious. Not only is it funny, but it's funny in a smart way. I found myself thinking that if I wasn't such a history buff that I wouldn't find nearly half as much stuff funny. It's definitely worth checking out. I'll probably write some more about it when I finish the book.

The Evils of Computer Simulation
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: "Warp Factor Five" - Bleach
Topic: School Stuff
Now I feel for the guys who recently simulated the entire universe from "just after" the big bang* (apparently a few hundred thousand years out is no biggie compared to the age of the universe - and any engineer will agree) until present day. That simulation involves a TON of variables. Even on a mainframe computer equivalent to 20 or 30 times the best Alienware computer, it took a week for the simulation to run. It then takes another few days or so to interpret the results. When I read the article they hadn't gone through the results yet. So, what if it turns out that they are wrong? They'll have to painstakingly go through all of their code and assumptions and then run it for another WEEK! So it could easily be on the order of a few months before they have a working simulation.

I'm currently doing a simulation that is nowhere near the magnitude of theirs. I'm just simulating a Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT), which may sound daunting to the uninitiated, but is really pretty simple. Well, it's supposed to be simple. I've been at this simulation on and off for a few weeks not, trying to get it to work. It's really annoying because each time I change something and want to see what the result of the change is, I have to wait about 5-10 minutes. Then, if it's not right, I have to figure out what I'm doing, make a change and try again. It's quite annoying.

In comparison, I really miss my Java programming class. Every time I tried something new I would compile it and in less than two minutes I had a few errors that I could work on or if I happened to get it right, the program would run. Not only that, but a Java program, at least on the level of what we were doing, is a piece of pie.

Well, the simulation is giving me errors now, have to go deal with that.

---

*= I'm not arguing in favor of the big bang, it's just what they are researching. I think I have some posts about this, just not the time to go through my 500ish posts to find it...not right now anyway

Help Superman, Lois has been taken Captive by Lex Luthor!
Mood:  sad
Now Playing: Superman Theatrical Release I Theme Song
Topic: movies
It is a sad month for Hollywood. Last week Rodney Dangerfield died and, in my opinion, the SNL tribute was great. Now, Superman is dead: Christopher Reeves died yesterday. He was a Cornell Alum and, during his Senior year here, he was able to convince the dean to let him spend his Senior year at Julliard and still receive a Cornell Diploma. His roommate at Julliard was none other than the up and coming Robin Williams. According to all of the news reports, they were the best of friends. He graduated from both schools and became an actor. He was in some 1970s Soap Opera where he got picked up for the 1978 Superman movie. He starred in many more movies, some of then great and some flops. In 1995 he was thrown from his horse and was paralyzed. Once he established that he would survive, he began acting again. He was in a 1998 ABC remake of Rear Window which he directed. I saw it, and I thought he did a really awesome job. Most recently he was, appropriately, the advisor to young Superman in Smallville on the WB in the US.

He was 52.

"The one true superman has been taken from us but your red cape will fly again"
Steve Harley

Here is a link to the BBC news story on his death.

Benefit of Re-viewing Movies
Mood:  chatty
Topic: movies
I was watching Pulp Fiction again after watching Kill Bill Vols 1 & 2 and it seems to be that Bruce Willis uses a Hatori Hanzou sword when he fights Zed and the shop owner. If Quentin is setting up a Tarantino-verse, (and after all Vincent Vega is the brother of the crazy Vega in Resevoir Dogs and he was even going to make a movie call the Vega Bros that was a prequel to both) then how does this make sense? I mean, Hanzou swords aren't a dime-a-dozen.
*****SPOILER WARNING: If you haven't seen Kill Bill you may not want to read on ************
Well, here's my theory: when Bill goes to warn his brother about The Bride coming to kill him, he angers Bill by saying that he pawned his sword. At first I thought he was just saying that to hurt Bill because it seems that sometime in the past they had a fight. On his sword it says, "To my brother, the only other man I ever loved" so I thought he was saying this to spite Bill. Afterall, when the girls are fighting the sword is there for The Bride to use. Here's my revised timeline. The movie makes it seem as though The Bride shows up that night. Whether she shows up that night or later on, we still don't see what he does in the meanwhile. I content that his character had indeed pawned the sword to the owner of the store in Pulp Fiction. Afterall, PF takes place in LA and KB must be near there because Bill flees to Mexico. So after Bill warns him, he goes back to the shop. The owner is dead and his sword is lying there since Wallace's men would have had no need for the sword and wouldn't know what it was worth. He picks it up and then dips out.

Wow
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: random
A lot of people just have gone home for Fall Break or something because, for the first time since school started, I can see from the top of my buddy list to the bottom. That includes all of the group titles - because I have people very oragnized on my list. Real topics to come soon...q;o)

Terrorist Technicalities and The Presidential Debate
Mood:  chatty
Topic: News
According to this BBC news story, an Indonesian Embassy in France was the target of a bomb attack. Whether it's a terrorist attack in the most recent sense of the word (Al Qaeda-ish) or just a civil act of terror is currently unknown. But I was wondering about a technically based on material I've seen in movies, tv, and books. In my understanding, an embassy is technically the territory of the country it represents. This is why one can take assylum in an embassy because technically they are no longer in the country that the embassy is in. So, since I don't know for sure if this is true or to what degree it holds, let's assume that it's true. Does this mean that the terrorist attack was against Indonesia or France? You may think it's trivial, but it really isn't. If, hypothetically, Indonesia doesn't care about terrorism and it's an attack on them, then it doesn't matter. On the other hand, if an attack on France, then it doesn't matter what Indonesia thinks about terrorism, it depends on what France thinks. If anyone knows the answer, I'm very curious to know.

In other news, all of the Tv News pundits are calling Bush the winner of tonight's debates. I think that Kerry was the winner. Kerry was more eloquent and made better points. Bush was always jumping the gun, interrupting Charlie Gibson, and gave a bunch of gibberish answers. I'm not quite sure what they are basing Bush's win on. Maybe they feel sorry for him and want to say he won to even things out in the polls. Maybe that want to prove that there isn't a liberal bias in the media. Or, maybe it's because they focused on all kinds of random things like how he stood, what he did with his hands and his jokes. Frankly, I didn't like his jokes, I felt that they were a little disrespectful to the format. I also thought that most of the questions posed by the audience favored Kerry. So maybe they were rewarding the president for not doing poorly considering the questions he was given. At any rate, I don't agree with them at all.