| Date (yyyymmdd) | Comment |
| 20090304 |
Been worying about EMP, solar storms and how they will affect our tech-dependant society Of course lately everybody is talking about the recession. If the world would come together as one to re-invent and rebuild the digital infrastructure to make it radiation proof/resistant, it would involve large investments a lot of labor and economic activity. It might me a blessing in disguise and turn the tide of events. Last night I visited a poetry-performance, and the entourage was very politically engaged. After the performance a discussion about the possible positive sides of the recession started. The poets where disgusted by the western mind-set that wants to consume more and more. And they felt that in these times people are lacking community sense. Their hope was that the recession would help people re-evaluate those more important things in life. They also suggested that we should re-invent socialism Last week I got a call from an ex-coworker and friend. We used to work together about 10 yeas age. We talked a long time on the phone. We was always more ambitious then me. But when some close relatives of him died and he became father his attitude toward life changed he told me. I can really relate to that. I met somebody in the pub who was really interessed in the retro computer club. We lives close to the place we want to use a a meeting point. We was more into game-consoles like playstations but also owned a c64, c128. We are slowly compiling a list of people that we can email once we will have our kick off meeting. I didn't do a lot of programming at home lately but I have been testing linux liveCD's of various distributions. The thing I am looking for is out of the box youtube from liveCD without having to install the flash-plugin. Actually the browser is the most important application. I tried to install the newest ubuntu on an old Pc of a friend. I did'nt work and I installed it over a PCLinuxOS installation that did work. Maybe Ubuntu 8.10 is too bloated for the old PC anyway. There are a lot of interesting things going on at distro watch though. The distros keep getting better and more and more flavours are emerging. The BSD's are also moving into the desktop end-user niche. And even openSolaris is doing that, but what is under the hood, doesn't really matter for the end-user experience. And a lot of people are more interesseted in windows 7. The rise of linux and more in general open-source and open standards is slow but steady. Open hardware is also becoming more common. It should not only be a practical decission, but also a principal. I notice that a lot of latin countries are getting more and more active in the linux field. In Cuba the government is even developing it's own distribution called Nova this because of anti-american sentiments. A lot of innovations might come from such country's. And because these kind of projects are becomming more and more global, the whole world will come to their aid for the finishing touches. On the other hand it is sad to see that the OLPC project is turning from linux to windows. Also the revolutionary Asus EEE is getting newer versions with windows instead of linux. Of course I follow the drop in price of the netbooks. There are a lot of interesting bargains. But I really have to be disciplined and set the limit under 200 Euros. The razor book/trendtac is available for that price now. But you can't hook it up to an external screen (cheapest versions). The upside is they have MIPS architecture, low power consumption, don't get warm and won't run windows. I tried it in the shop and it really works pleasantly! Nice to have but I don't have a real application for it. Even my Asus EEE is lying idle in the cabinet, just as so many other stuff. I even have to pick up and old PC of my sisters with all the stuff that belongs to it. I am thinking about preparing a PC for my son. He has an MSX 1 in his room now. But I could make a PC childproof somehow. Than he can watch his favourite DVD's and play those games you get for free in every store nowadays. |