Me with my guest badge!

So for those of  you who don’t know or follow my twitter feed, my aunt is a IT Pro Advisor at Microsoft Canada.  You may also know that my opinion of Microsoft hasn’t been the highest (as expressed often in this blog).

The purpose of my visit was to ask successful people how they got to where they are in their field, which holds my interest.  The people were incredibly kind and interesting and really let me pick their brains. Continue reading

In the newest installment of the critically acclaimed Battlestar Galactica, director Edward James Olmos (Admiral Adama) takes the story of Cylons and gives it the 2-hour treatment.  The Cylons, as any connaiseur of sci-fi will know, are robots that Humanity created as servants.  After rebelling, they disappeared for 40 years before coming back to wipe Humanity off the face of the galaxy.  Additionally, they no longer look like robots but have skin and bleed like Humans.

WARNING:  Spoilers abound after the break.  Do not read unless you have seen The Plan or *at least* all four seasons.

Quick rating (before the break):  4/5 if you like Battlestar and want to see things resolved, 2/5 if you are only half-engaged and want more food for thought/questions asked. Continue reading

The latest release of Ubuntu has hit the streets.  The much-acclaimed “Karmic Koala” (Ubuntu 9.10’s codename) is now out in earnest, bringing many usability enhancements as well as technical ones.

Really, there’s not much to say except get it.

www.ubuntu.com

Make sure to use the torrents if you can, just to relieve server tension.

Because I can’t update incredibly often, I’ll use this post to point you to OMG! UBUNTU!, probably the best Ubuntu blog I’ve seen out there.  Regularly updated, OMG! UBUNTU! gives you the low-down on everything Ubuntu-related, including upcoming plans.

So I thought that the news on the Caprica front was that there was nothing new before getting close to the Jan 22 television premiere (I’ve already seen it on DVD, of course).  Not so.

Several new gems have slipped under my radar.  First is my favourite in a series of print ads that are being tested and were subsequently leaked:

What I specifically like about this one is the allusion to the Fall of Man as described in the Bible (refresher:  Humanity, in it’s self-defeating quest for knowledge, commits the only sin possible: taking a fruit (usually portrayed as an apple but it really doesn’t matter) from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (which sounds snappier in Hebrew) after being tricked by the fallen angel Lucifer (aka Satan) who says that it will make them gods in their own right.  This wakes humanity up, allowing them to know what is good but also the potential for evil and permanently corrupts humanity.).  The allusion is an excellent one that I didn’t catch before and I really think that this poster really best reflects that and takes aim at a story that is so embedded in Western consciousness that even if one hasn’t heard it before one understands its significance.

Sorry about going all Eng-Lit geek on you

(more here)

There are also two new promos on Youtube.  Though at first glance they may look similar to previous ones they both have some engaging new content, which I won’t go into for spoiler’s sakes.

And for good measure, a commercial worth watching.

I’m hoping the CBC or CTV or some mainstream network will air it since I don’t have and probably can’t shell out for SPACE, Canada’s answer to SciFi.  It does, of course, comply with CRTC “Canadian Content” regulations (made in Canada starring mostly Canadians) and it would help networks fill that valuable 70% CanCon quotient…  Just sayin’

So I’m a big BSG fan, and can’t wait for the latest instalment in the Reimagined Series, The Plan.  The Plan is the entire series from the perspective of the Cylons and explores what was going on behind the scenes in the Cylon camp.  While the Series gives you – mostly – the Colonial point-of-view, The Plan will be an interesting balance.

Picture after the break.  Contains Battlestar Galactica spoilers.  No peeky unless you know 11 of the 12 Cylon models.

Continue reading

So I was thinking about one particular thing that I wrote about in my review of the GNOME shell, when I said that you should drop the ideas you have about how a desktop should look.  This was how artificial the “desktop” concept is.  Back in the Stone Age we came from the desktop paradigm:  it’s what we understood in terms of productivity.  However, a computer is much different, much more powerful than a desk.  On a desk you have a finite space which contains only the information and objects you put on it.  It doesn’t fetch data, tell you anything, give you opinions or options.  It’s a tool.  A computer is different in that it has the power to fetch information, to move it, and to bring it all together and present it to the user.  It can handle any type of media:  where a desk could only handle text and photos (unless you put a boom-box on it) the computer can do text and photos and sound and video and social interaction through Twitter and other feed-based services.  We need to embrace a paradigm that suits the computer. Continue reading

For starters, throw away all your conceptions about desktops.  They no longer apply.

Also remember that I am reviewing a highly experimental piece of software.  It may look unwieldy but that’s because it has no customization options yet (or at least, no GUI).

And lastly, remember that because there is a whole new paradigm introduced here it may seem that GNOME Shell’s whole concept is flawed.  However, after playing with it I can safely say that I can’t wait for it to arrive and believe it will increase my productivity.

So what am I talking about?  This (click for full view).

GNOME Shell with Google Chrome in foreground

Continue reading

Reading the Ubuntu Planet (a aggregation of the blogs belonging to all the members of the Ubuntu Project) I stumbled across this gem:

Bold Prediction:  Bug 1 will be closed in the next 24 months

This is a reference to Ubuntu’s famed Bug 1: Microsoft has majority market share (“Microsoft has a majority market share in the new desktop PC marketplace.  This is a bug, which Ubuntu is designed to fix.”)

The writer references another writer who identifies (correctly) Linux to be at GhandiCon3 (from the famous Ghandi quote promoting non-violent revolution: “First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.”).  Linux has certainly been ignored.  Then laughed at (“Linux?  Nothing runs on Linux!”).  When Microsoft is issuing Get the “Facts” campaigns and trying to sue Linux supporters into submission (like TomTom GPS), we’re definitely at GhandiCon3 (Then they fight you).  Whether we will win, well, that’s to be determind.  I am hopeful, however, that the Google Chrome OS will go far to helping us win.

Do I think Microsoft will lose majority market share (Note, this is not wiped out) by June 2011?  Not really.  Do I hope they do?  Yes.  Remember, it’s not just Linux that needs to make the dent, but Apple’s OS X (which poses little threat to Linux as long as it stays bound to the Apple Macintosh).  As far as crises that would percipitate this go I see US Antitrust breaking up Microsoft, Microsoft flopping with Windows7, or computer manufacturers refusing to put up with the grief that Microsoft gives them (like defining what a “netbook” is despite not actually making computers, Per-Processor Licensing Fees, and the like).  Microsoft’s market share is dependent on its stranglehold of the manufacturers and if that collapses, Microsoft would collapse (in relative terms, of course).

Until then, the open source community can just keep making the best software they can and wait for GhandiCon4.

Talk About A Bombshell (Which everyone knew was coming eventually, but we pretend to be surprised anyways)

Google, the big little company we all know and love, has decided that a logical extension of their vision for Google Chrome is the Chrome Operating System.  While the original Chrome was marketed as being similar to an OS in how it handled the web, Google decided that the desktop OS is built for an age where people are tied to desktop applications.  Google says that ChromeOS will be a lightweight, fast-to-boot-fast-to-run OS that focuses on getting people to the web.  While aimed at netbooks, it will also be available for desktops and laptops (so presumably not a Moblin-like interface).

While it will be Linux-based (like Android but seperate), ChromeOS will build many things from the ground up.  Now, I probably won’t wind up using ChromeOS (this is purely speculatory with no screenshots or anything) as I like the full-fledged Desktop OS provided by Ubuntu, but because the project is open source and builds on open source projects there will be a lot of new material coming in to the FLOSS ecosystem which will inevitably be picked up by the mainstream Linuxes.

I incorrectly reported on Twitter (based on a misunderstanding of Gizmodo) that it would be able to run Windows and OS X apps.  As far as I can tell, there won’t be apps per say but rather web-based applications which can be run on any operating system from any modern browser.  This, needless to say, makes more sense, though I am dissappointed because geting Win/Mac compatibility in an open source project would mean Win/Mac compatibility for the Linux universe.

So yes, I’m excited.  Can’t wait to see where this goes.  I am a fan of Chrome as a browser (if it only did Flash it’d be my default on Linux – it’s alpha is great) and I’m sure Google will do a great job on ChromeOS

Sorry that today’s post isn’t more substantial, I spent much of the day helping a friend move.

So I’ll leave  you with this video, nay naught but a link (embedding be-eth disabled per request)

To Darkness All

It’s a Battlestar Galactica mashup looking at some of the darkest moments of humanity in BSG.  Spoiler warning.

The name comes from a verse of Caprican poetry quoted in one of the episodes which I am disappointed is not actually in any work:

“From the darkness, you must fall,

failed and weak, to darkness all” (the Caprican poet Kataris)

I just think that line embodies Battlestar Galactica.  I’m currently, by the way, going through a withdrawl as Pushing Daisies (my other series) is over and my next Battlestar fix isn’t until November when Sci-fi (and SPACE) release Battlestar Galactica: The Plan (2 hour movie that portrays the series from the Cylon side), and then that’s all until Caprica rolls out in early 2010 (I saw the Caprica pilot and fell in love.  Be warned, however, that it is very explicit – but not gratuitously)

And yes, I plan on doing something with my Portfolio section.