Rant – Page 4 – Mike's House

New blogging capabilities

So I have this new blog, y’see?

And when I post, it get placed nicely at the top of my posts – just like in the past.

But now I have more abilities, capabilities, and when I post, it fires my post over to my LJ as well.

So go ahead and update your bookmarks/favorites/blogrolls/binary address files with my new address: [www.miketheman.net](http://www.miketheman.net).

I expect to be a little more active soon, as now that I have a proper blog.

Also, here’s a nice little clip of our dear Michael Richards, aka Cosmo Kramer of Seinfeld infamy, losing his mind. Continue reading New blogging capabilities

Come to the Dark Side….

Or is it “into the light!”
Depending on your perspective, of course.

Yesterday I decided I was going to go down the path of the “righteous”.
I was reading about Windows Vista and it’s release delays and the new features and the latest “to protect your rights” DRM crap.
I read about pricing models – how they are now increasingly difficult to understand.
i read about Office 2007 and how that is becoming the basis for life everywhere and you can’t live without it.

And then I said to myself – I’m going to try an alternative.

For sooooo many years the home computer market has been awash with a single operating system (I’m not counting MAC’s as they are proprietary hardware and REALLY expensive) that could be installed on an i386 chip architecture (for the uninitiated – “Pentium”).

But now, the dawning of a new age has arrived, bringing with it a wide variety of full-featured operating systems, and all absolutely 100% at no cost.
Spend as much as you want getting custom hardware to tweak your system out – just make sure it’s Linux compatible.

So yes, I have installed Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft on my main desktop machine here at home.
It took a while, and is still incomplete.

For your average desktop user, who uses Internet (Web & Email), office-style apps and a few kinds of games, this OS is perfect. It runs well on really low-end hardware and I’m running it on a much more than low-end. 🙂

I think that this is slowly becoming one of the more user-friendly operating systems, and I must say that although I absolutely love sticking it to “Big M$”, it’s nice to not have to.

Let me know if you’re interested in more details.

Another take on a not-so-old idea

So I’m reading the official Google blog and I come across a link and an article about award money for making a movie.
Apparently, to promote ingenuity, they are offering cash for making cool videos.
So I check out what they’re saying and see this.

Now, I’m trying to figure out, how do I take something someone else came up with and make it bigger and better and make money off it? I mean, is seems to have worked quite well for big ol’ Billy boy, so I want a cut of the action too. If you come up with a cool idea, don’t tell me the idea. let me know about the idea once it’s public, and gets lots of exposure, so then I can rip it off and make something artistic about it.
Oh, and make some money.

And then, I find a cool new thingie happening over at Boeing. Now, consider the application of this kind of system on light, low-flying aircraft. And then have that aircraft fly somethwere close to an experiment area like the one in the abovementioned clip. I’d like to see some Air-to-ground lights display and I’d really love to be watching the news the next morning and hear how the newsanchors try to spin this ridiculous tale of mishap into something about terrorism.

And then I come accross this article that makes me wonder a bit.
The compnay involved has a suspicuosly familiar name – anyone who saw T2 might remember – and he’s calling the thing “HAL“!!!
So, what’s going to happen is that this thing is version 1.0, and the next one might be a “smart” one with a small CPU and some AI programming to keep it going. Then they’re going to develop a larger skeleton, give it a brain and name it version T-100. And you all know how the story ends, don’t you?
They send one back to the past and make it governor of California! Wait a minute…..

A quick chat transcript

10 minute chat transcript of an interesting conversation with someone pretty insightful.

[28/10/2006 12:20] miketheman: everyone wants something, needs something, urgently, now now now, and who gets to handle it?
[28/10/2006 12:21] friend: God? he is the one getting all the requests? doens’t he?
[28/10/2006 12:22] miketheman: yeah – but he’s got a lot of minions that he employs to handle things, and he MUST have some good infrastructure and request tracker system – and anyways, when was the last time you heard of him actually delivering?
[28/10/2006 12:24] friend: he has no tracker system or that shit. The guy consistently makes a bad job, and his delivery is a question of faith.
[28/10/2006 12:24] friend: i.e. that your solution lies in faith – you need to make everyone religious
[28/10/2006 12:24] friend: or to worship you.
[28/10/2006 12:25] miketheman: so what you’re saying is that I need to make everyone worship me so I can then treat them with indifference and never really listen to what they need?
[28/10/2006 12:26] friend: exactly – or at least burn them from time to time, make them die in wars and plagues..and here comes the good part…
[28/10/2006 12:27] friend: the idiots will keep calling you again and again for help no matter how bad you did…
[28/10/2006 12:27] friend: it’s an amazing start-up
[28/10/2006 12:27] miketheman: Is there any hope? A light at the end of the tunnel, that is NOT an arriving train?
[28/10/2006 12:28] friend: I hope so.
[28/10/2006 12:29] friend: Really.

Take two…..

What a wacky week and weekend.

When was the last time that you actually had fun for an extended period of time?
Last week was weird but fun.
Starting Saturday night, where Yos’s acting school threw a pre-Purim party which was wild and fun. Plenty to drink, good music fun people, and a great time. Went home at 3:30am
Anyways, Monday, no big deal. Off to work.
Humdrum day, and the company sponsors pizza for all! Yay!
Tuesday early, I have a game with Elon, in which he usually wins, but his day shall come. I’ve recently taken up playing squash again, and it’s been 3 years since last I played in the IAF. It’s a wonderful workout.
After the game, home and shower, and JJ comes by, and we headed out to my folks in Betar for a Purim festive feast. Plenty of alcohol, all around, and there were tons of people there, and we all had a great time. As the day drew to darkness, we (JJ an’ me) headed back to J’lem, to meet up with Yos&Iris, the dynamic duo, to head downtown to continue drinking, which we did at great length and quantity.
I LOVE TEQUILA!
Downtown, the Stardust. A hole in the wall, packed to capacity, and a rap battle is going on inside, and there’s no room to breathe. Met Sarah and Ronen there, but no room to move. So we headed accross the street to the Praha, a Czech/Russian place, where we drank some more.
Eventually Sarah calls us and tells us that there’s room in the Stardaust, come on over! We do, grab our seats, and to our dismay, the only music playing is bad rap & hip-hop instead of the usual rock & metal we’re used to.
Order another round of drinks, and after a few more, the music improves. A mix of ’60’s to ’90’s rock and traditional Israeli folk music. So we dance, and sing (scream?) along with the tunes, and drink some more.
At about 4:00am we totter out into the pouring rain to head on home. Iris hadn’t drank all evening, so she drove. We got home, and sweet sleep. JJ spent the night on my couch.
Wednesday, just chilled, hung out and worked on clearing some HD space. Wednesday night, hang out and drink some more.
Thursday, back to work, where everything was a mess, and spent half the day fuming at issues. Thursday night, working overtime, the night manager ticks me off when she tries to get me to leave (territorial control freak). I stay until I’m done, and leave around 1:45am.
Friday morning, I have a game of squash versus Jeff from work, and we have a good hour and a half of games, until we’re both exhausted. Headed home, relaxed.
Friday night, the Dynamic Duo and I head downtown to Bohlinat for drinks.
Did I mention that I love tequila? Started off with a Tequila Sunrise, then moved on to Cuervo shots, and many of them. Nadav joined us, taking a break from his studies (physics? why??). Yos had some Absinthe to start woth, then the Duo had frozen margaritas.
We eventually tottered out at 3:00am to find a cab back to my place, where we commeneced to watch Jackass: the Movie. Iris fell asleep, and Yos’n’me had a lot of fun watching it drunk.
Finally, they decided to leave, and stumbled out. Apparently, the margaritas were too strong for Iris, and she passed out downstairs, twice. Yos freaked out, and called me, I got them a cab, and they made it home all right. Irirs was fine, except for a few bruises.
Saturday, noon, we all headed over to Iris’s folks for lunch, which is always fun. Had a nice time, relaxed, practiced juggling with Yos, and headed home to chill for the rest of the day.
What a fun-filled week!

I hope yours was just as eventful!

Later.

Gahhh….

Another day, another dollar, and the world spins on.
Last night a friend from work came over with his computer, to get some assistance installing a new motherboard. Doing that and installing a new OS took a while, but saving his data was a real bitch. He eventually left, leaving me to work on it until 6am. I’m still not done with it, but I’ll probably finish it soon.

Later.

PS- This is my first post using PocketLJ on my PalmVx, in a coffee shop called “Aroma” in Jerusalem.