Pathetic. Flat. Out. Pathetic.

Is Microsoft SERIOUS?!

Aparently the EU has more balls than the US Courts when it comes to Microsoft... Now that Microsoft stands to be fined $2.4M/day for non-compliance with the EU ruling, rather than comply, MS has decided to to cry to the US Federal Government that Europe is not treating MS "fairly". Wah. Boo-freakin'-hoo. Microsoft has been getting away with charging brick-and-mortar old-economy markups for products which cost virtually nothing to manufacture and distribute for twenty years. Microsoft, a company with a market capitalization nearly thirty times that of General Motors($282.93B v. $11.88B respectively as of 20060331), is finally getting a little resistance and it just can't take it.

I'm just sick of it. And I'm sick of the fact that the market (end users, enterprises, governments, et cetera) is perfectly content to go along with Microsoft's vision of how the technology world should be. Microsoft has become the government and the government has become Microsoft's bitch.

I hope the EU has the balls to keep standing up to MS and make 'em pay. I have absolutely no sympathy at all for Microsoft as a company. Microsoft has managed to leverage its market dominance (built on second-rate products and slick marketing) into obscene profits which no one seems to question seriously. Microsoft is a bully and a despot. It is so ridiculously wealthy that it, aparently, cannot be stopped. Even the Federal Government of The United States of America, aparently, lacks the power to end Microsoft's exploitive and predatory behavior.

Isn't that funny? The US Government has no trouble spending hundreds of billions of Dollars and sacrificing thousands of lives in pre-emptively overthrowing the governments of sovereign countries for, at best, questionable cause, but it can't seem to put a solid case together to end Microsoft's extorsive reign.... No, the US Government actually goes to bat for Microsoft.

I'm just sick of it. "Be fair." ...my ass!

Ponytails and sandals... Oooh! Scary!

Peter Quinn's interesting take on IT Dress Codes misses some of the point, methinks.

I don't deny that costumes can have a significant impact on how one is perceived. Certainly, if I showed up in a gorilla suit for a job interview... provided the job did not involve WEARING a gorilla suit... I would most likely not get the job. ...But... Sandals? Ponytails? Please.

Dedicated F/OSS developers do their work irrespective of whether corporations or governments "buy" it. They do it because they love it. They do it because they can. If their product has merit, their clothes should be of no consequence. If all they have to offer is their appearance, well... they'd better make that count, I guess.

As a member of the "sandal and ponytail set", I think that Mr. Quinn, a politician and bureaucrat, is failing to see that it is exactly that the "sandal and ponytail set" refuses to conform which enables them to do what they do; to make the innovative and universally enabling strides they do. If you've ever heard the expression, "If you give them an inch, they'll take a mile," you should readily understand that the people who are expecting conformity are the people who would, if faced with an IT problem immediately turn to their Microsoft or Oracle VAR and ask how much money will it cost. First they want you to cut your hair... then they want you to wear "proper shoes"... then it's khakis and Oxfords... then you're going to meetings and "networking" means something different... before long, you're a droid with nothing innovative to offer. You're one of them. Feh!

Given the choice, I'd take a "sandals and ponytail" gig over a "suit" job any day.

At the risk of seeming elitist...

First, read this: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/24/tuttle_centos/

UPDATE:Well... it seems there's another episode in this saga. Poor Jerry Taylor just can't seem to let it lay. What recourse does one have when his town is run by a PHB?

Now, I have known many people in my life who have been ... well, let's just say they're not the sort of people whose first solution to a problem is to reach for some high-technology implement. My father, for example... great guy, means well, smart, thoughtful, but not the most high-tech fellow to come down the street. This is not necesarily a bad thing. I just means that some of the things I talk about with him may not click, and that, if I have found a novel use for some technology in my life, he is likely to be less-than-enthused about adopting it in his life. He is not, for example, an avid computer user. This is fine, as long as he recognizes that he is not an authority in the IT field, which he does. My dad is content to write things on paper, and if he needs them typed, he calls me.

Tuttle, OK. City Manager Jerry Taylor seems to need a lesson from my dad in the technology department. I mean, here's a guy who claims to be an IT authority (fron one of his threatening letters to the CentOS crew: "I am computer literate! I have 22 years in computer systems engineering and operation.") and does not recognize... is not even able to READ this test page.

As a Systems Administrator, myself, I have resisted the urge to carry a legal pad, pencil and cheap calculator with me for desktop support calls. The idea is that if the user has made an error which plainly lays bare his or her incompetence on a level which far exceeds remediation, then the computer should be replaced with a new "Desktop System"... one which more closely tracks the user's skill, and more importantly, interest.

Jerry Taylor, City Manager of Tuttle, OK, you are deserving of a new Desktop System. This system is both highly sophisticated and very easy to use. Of course, you will have to provide your own connectivity to the outside world, bu the same is true for your old Desktop System. You new Desktop System provides many of the same functions as your old one, but in ways which will likely seem more familiar and friendly to you, including:

• calendar
  
• word processor
  
• spreadsheet
  
• storage
  
• text editor
  
• an image management system
  
• music player

This system seems to be more his speed.

My new Compaq laptop

For the longest time, I've ranted and raved about never wanting to buy a computer with MS Windows on it.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a Linux user. I have run a MS-free household since at least 2003, and I've been personally MS-free since oh.... 2000. The last PC I bought with MS Windows pre-installed was my old Sony VAIO (PCG-FX120). Not exactly a top-op-the-line machine, but certainly better thana poke in the eye. I never booted the machine with MS Windows on it. I never even gave it a chance to show me the EULA. RedHat 7.3 went right on there.

Well... the old VAIO's been around the block a couple times. It's original 10GB HDD quit in 2003. I replaced it with a 40GB. That died this past Friday. It makes me sad. I didn't really have anything irreplaceable on there... it's just that I've had that machine fivever. I've gotten very used to it. Admittedly, its behind the times. 700MHz P-III... yikes. Still... it has value.

Anyway, a couple weeks ago, I decided it was time. I needed a laptop with a little more guts. Preferably an AMD-64... Well... I came across this Compaq at Staples... it was a special buy kind of thing... a Turion... nice box, great price... BUT... they wouldn't clear my check. I was all ready. I was at the register. I wrote out the check. They wouldn't clear it. I had the same problem at Borders a couple years ago. I told 'em to keep the laptop.

I stopped at Best Buy. Now, I don't think Best Buy has technically competent sales staff. Every once in a while one of their salespeople surprises me... but for the most part, if it ain't on the Best Buy website, they don't have the answer. Anyway... they had a similar Turion laptop... but a widescreen model. I hemmed a bit... I hawed a little.... I went for it.

Nice machine.

Like my old VAIO, the Compaq Presario V2570NR did not boot with MS Windows on it. Fedora Core 5 Test 3 went on initially... Package management proved to be a bit of a nightmare, so, I opted to reinstall the OS... Fedora Core 4 Good stuff. The Broadcom WiFi card works great under NDIS-Wrapper. The manufacturer-suppled driver for the ATI Radeon XPRESS 200M video card works well. The DVD+/-R/RW drive works great. The display is lovely. The keyboard is passable. The touchpad is a little wierd under FedoraCore 4. It has the Vert and Horizontal Scroll areas... which are... a little tougo to master. Also, the buttons behave wierdly... when I click-and-hold, the click does not register...only when the button is released, does the click register... this makes dragging virtually impossible with the touchpad.

On the downside, HP has refused to unsell me MS Windows. It's not that I want the money. I really don't care about that. I'm cheesed off about the fact that MS gets a sale rung up because I bought this laptop. I don't want MS's software... keep it. I'll ship it back and you keep the money. I want Microsoft's marketshare to be accurately reflected.

I wish one of the major laptop OEMs would grow a pair and offer either a "no O/S" laptop or a Linux-preloaded laptop. Dell? HP? Gateway? Lenovo? Get on the stick, dudes! If, by the time I need to make another laptop purchase, the major OEMs haven't gotten the message, I'll just have to buy a non-major unit.

Anyway... I don't know how this unit performs under the pre-installed MS Windows XP-Home... I'm guessing it doesn't know what to do with the 64-bit CPU. It's nice under FC4... I'll switch to FC5 in a couple months.

Nice unit for the money (sub $1000)

In the beginning....

Back in the days when the word "Computer" still meant "A room full of equipment" to most people, I got my start playing with them... although not the "room full of equipment" kind... more like the "only marginally more than a game console" kind.

Those were the heady days of the Atari 8-bit home computer. Ah, the old 8-bit days.... I remember....

**FAST-FORWARD TWENTY-FIVE YEARS**

So here it is, 2006... Computers are now simultaneously passe and mystical... ubiquitous and disquieting.

After an awkward and uncomfortable stretch in the MS Windows world, I'm tickled pink to have my joie du calcul back, working in the GNU/Linux world.

So what is this blog all about? Well... back when I was an MS Windows SysAdmin, I got a laptop from my employer... it was one of those ultra-thin, ultra-light laptops. It was pretty tiny. I was a pretty big guy.. closing in on 300 pounds... Our controller walked past as I was setting the machine up, typing on the tiny keyboard... he said I looked like a bear on a tricycle.

So... the name of this blog, "The Technological Tricycle" is something of a callback to that.

What I hope to achieve with this blog is not terribly lofty... Just technophilosophy, the occasional review, and the rare howto.


Enjoy!