I’ve always wondered about the twitter craze and why it took off, but never got around to signing up. When Identi.ca burst on the scene I signed up (it’s Canadian so I supported it). Most of the people on it were from twitter and other similar sites, so it was not a new crowd. They quickly scrambled to gather as many “friends” as possible, and almost overloaded the system with comments like, “this is just an other twitter clone”. Well Duh. After following and posting unnecessary comments for about a week now, I can honestly say I still don’t get it. It’s like having a bunch a people in a room all blurting out the the first things that comes into their heads. Or worse they push their cyber agenda, hog the airways and promote their blogs (I put my fair share of plugs in too). It just seems that credibility is measured by how many people are following your posts, just like in school the one with the most friends wins. Many users post the same banter to numerous micro blog sites at once, like why? It’s becoming an acceptable form of spam to tell the world you’re going to lunch or that Plurk (whatever that is) is down. Reminds me of the old text chat rooms but with a lot less flamers. Now to be fair under the deafening noise of mundane posts there is conversations going on and information being passed, but any IM client could do that. I chat (sorry micro blog) with a friend in Pristina and we exchange quick notes on what going on. The time zone difference is such that we don’t engage live, so we really we could do this by email, it’s not like we are wasting paper. For now I probably will not cancel my Indenti (@REM) account, and maybe I will have that eureka moment where I suddenly see the infinite micro blogging universe and understand the meaning of it all. But I don’t think so, still if you want to guide me on the path to the meaning of micro blogging send me a “dent” and help me change my mind.

775.18.07.08

A new Microblog was unleashed upon the masses yesterday. A Canadian Company based out of Montreal released the first open source Micro Blog service. Indenti.ca is first to be based on the open source laconica code and conform to the openmicroblogging protocol and the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. What it really means, is users are free to shape the user experience to suit their needs, to share and create new and unexpected ways of communicating. Admittedly I have never used Twitter or any of the other micro blogs, I just never saw the purpose, they were just Gtalk on a party line. However I was weak and I subscribed to Identi.ca, username REM (original Eh?), maybe with some help I’ll have that eureka moment and see the utility of it all.

193.03.07.08

Wordle is a java app that creates “Word Clouds” from Blog posts, links or text you past into the app. Wordle is a just one of those things that is fun to use and addictive. I had fun pumping in all kinds of links and text and playing with the output changing colours and layout. After your finished generating your very own cloud, you can print or save it to a gallery for everyone to view. Wordle was created by Jonathan Feinberg who works at IBM and you can try out his creation here

533.01.07.08 (happy Canada Day everyone)

Nova Spivack is the founder of Radar Networks and Twine.com. Twine is described on their information page as, a new service that helps you organize, share and discover information around your interests, with networks of like-minded people. You can use Twine individually, with friends, or with groups, teams and communities. Powered by semantic understanding, Twine automatically organizes information, learns about interests and makes recommendations. The more you use Twine, the better it gets to know you and the more useful it becomes. I’ve been using it in beta for several weeks now and think twine has some exciting possibilities, it should be open to the public in July, check it out..

962.30.06.08

To take a tour of Twine click the link..

Blog Networks: Like MyBlogLog for Facebook

Written by Sarah Perez / June 30, 2008 6:35 AM full article via Read Write Web

Blogs just got a whole new audience: the casual reader. There has been some concern as of late that mainstream web users don’t really read blogs, but a new Facebook app called “Blog Networks” aims to change that. The easiest way to describe this app is by calling it MyBlogLog for Facebook (as the headline says), but besides the ability to build a community around your blog, the two apps are rather different. If anything, Blog Networks may have the power to reach an entirely different demographic than MyBlogLog, whose community made up of a lot of blog owners and serious blog readers. The Facebook app, on the other hand, will appeal to casual readers by providing them with an easy-to-use blog directory and a simplified feed reader. …. read full article at Read Write Web

884.30.06.08 Technorati Tags: facebook, social media, internet, social media,

I blogged about electronic menus in restaurants in an earlier post” E-Menu’s no waiter required” , but this video from BBC gives you a visual perspective on what it would be like to eat at one of these restaurants.

585.30.06.08

My wife is working 8.5 time zones away, in a remote location of the world. We agreed that when she left the family would use one of the social networking sites to communicate and share photo’s, videos and what not. Once my wife was in location, the family ran around and took pictures, made quick video clips and I must admit felt pressure to use all the features that the social networking site made available to us. When I asked the kids if they had communicated with their mother I got, “yup sent her a picture or a video” or “I’m not sure what to send”. At the other end my wife who has little patience for tech that doesn’t work, was frustrated because the slow connection made viewing the media a tedious and un-enjoyable experience. The result was she just stopped using it and started making excuses on why she wasn’t online. We started sending her email, concentrating on the words that described our day, just short notes that let her know what was going on in our world. We now have exchange a few emails every day, sometimes attaching small pictures of email quality, giving glimpses of our activities. We are now using the internet to communicate effectively, not being consumed with the need to populate a social networking site with media. Email allows us to communicate with feeling and clarity, the social networking sites just took to much energy to run and we were distracted from the primary reason of the communication. The message got lost in the media. Email is the perfect vehicle for expression for the low bandwidth locations, which much of the world still copes with. It respects the 8.5 time zone difference but is still almost instantaneous communication when we both manage to be on line at the same time. Email also strips the message bare, there is no hiding it in a cute video. While media intensive social networking sites have their purpose, I think that for most people they are the SUVs that plying the highways of the internet.

560.28.06.08

On June 11, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute kicked off the “Tetherless World Research Constellation” with a panel discussion and keynote address by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. The panel was rounded off by James Hendler, Deborah McGuiness, Wendy Hall, Nigel Shadbolt and Nova Spivack. The Tetherless World Research Constellation will look at the emerging field of “Web Science” and explore the research, legal, social and engineering principles that underpin the Web. I watched the web cast and thought I would give a really quick over view from my reactions to discussions. The first thing I noticed was that there were two distinct groups that comprised the panel. Berners-Lee and Spivack comprised one group that had a vision for the future of the Web and were willing to go for it. They didn’t necessarily want to dissect the web but just wanted to make it work better. The remainder of panel members had a more plodding, linear and academic approach. There was a lot of good discussion on the philosophical and social engineering aspects of the Web. The interplay between the social need to build a Web presence and the social need to visit that presence, in essence was creating micro cultures. There was even a moment of job protectionism as one of the audience asked if “Web Science” should fit under his “Computer Science” division. But, the comments that caught my attention were on the use of data on the web and the social benefits of the web. The use and combination of Web data in unexpected ways was essential for the Web to evolve and secondly there is no evidence that the web has enhanced or detracted from society or democracy, it was still too early to tell. We have to let new ideas and collaborations happen on the web, finding new ways to connect incomplete thoughts. The concept of using the crowd to solve problems should be tempered by asking the question, who are the people in crowd. I’m sure many of ideas and thoughts tossed around during the panel discussion will generate future posts, but for now I still need to give them some thought.

485.18.06.08

I finished reading Nicholas Carr’s book “The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google” a few weeks ago and it continued to roll around my mind. While I think the concept of cloud computing will be a reality in the future, I have some reservations about how much we understand its impact on society. In the book Nicholas Carr compares the jump to cloud computing as revolutionary as the shift that happened to the world with the advent of electricity. He parallels the shift from individual power generation for factories to centralized power generation by the utility companies to the practice of storing all your data and personal software on your individual computers and the use of server farms to store your data and provide the software as a centralized utility. The analogy is a strong one, right now all our social networking information and web based mail accounts are stored on line, the use of software like Picasa and ZOHO are on the leading edge of the cloud computing front. The term Cloud Computing gives many of us the impression that the data and software will exist virtually, but in reality it has a ground location housed in large server farms dotted around the globe. These farms are susceptible to Murphy’s Law the same as any other piece of equipment and the policy whims of the company that owns them. As computer technology and applications take another leap forward, our understanding of how this will affect our daily lives has not been defined or fully understood. Governments are starting to look at the internet as the Wild West that needs to be tamed and laws enforced. Security and anti-terrorism concerns will continue to evolve and will force these server farms to give up their secrets. Net neutrality is under pressure from big corporations who are practising internet throttling through Deep Packet Inspections to control traffic and cater to larger paying customers. With all this uncertainty, we just do not understand how these issues will affect the security and privacy of the data that the average user stores in the clouds. The Big Switch by Nicholas Carr is a good read and while I felt he belaboured the electrical utility parallel just a little, it provoked me to think, that is what any good book should do. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Internet culture and trends.

794.12.06.08

Internet Throttling has been in the news quite a bit lately, with Bell Canada being sued by Quebec’s consumer watchdog for the practise. Bell has been practising the voodoo art of Deep Packet Inspection, throttling peer to peer file sharing during peak hours. This heresy was enough to drag 300 pasty skin net citizens to surface and protest in the light of day on Parliament Hill. Bell for its part has said this was necessary to prevent speed slow down for about 700,000 customers. Now this might have been easier to stomach if they had been actually rolling adequate funds into infrastructure, being proactive rather than reactive, and the fact Bell had not just introduce a pay for movie down load service. On one hand Bell claims traffic congestion and on the other hand they roll out a movie down load service, something smells. But really what should have all internet users concerned is the use of Deep Packet Inspections (DPI). This refers to the ability to inspect the contents of the bit of information called packets that flow around the internet and drill into the packet to tell whether it is email from me or a video that originated at youtube.com. This technology is commonly used for traffic shaping, but can also be used to collect specific information and reassemble that information right down to individual email traffic. Now anyone that is surprised that internet traffic can be monitored and recovered should shake their heads. But what is discouraging is that it is creeping into every day business society and being used to boost profits rather than provide adequate services.This does not bode well for the consumer or net neutrality. My last point is for us the consumer, if we treated forests like we treat our internet resources, Green Peace would be ramming our laptops with their ships. With the explosion of bandwidth hungry applications we continued to eat up the capacity of the Internet, we have depleted our net resources quicker than we ever managed to do on terra firma. Video and file sharing, movie down loading continue to eat up bandwidth, content rich social media sites all make demands on the infrastructure of the internet. Youtube has 10 billion videos viewed monthly, social media sites and networking site have multi millions of members and we as consumers have to start asking how much of it is necessary and serves a positive purpose. Most of what we do on the web has no social or personal enriching component and is centered around voyeurism or semi-anonymous self expression. These fads far out way the positive use of the internet and consume much of the available internet resources. We as consumers may have to start controlling our appetites for online media, before big ISP’s start doing it for us, by hitting our wallet.

916.10.06.08

Our Brain is hardwired to want to be part of a group, our desire to cluster in social groups is driven by need to belong, to contribute and be surrounded with like minded individuals. This is evident in the multi-channel universe, with specialty TV channels that cater to every taste. We now only watch what interests us, we are shielded from dissenting views and opinions, if we don’t like it we just switch channels. Splinter the multi channel TV universe in an infinite number of slices and you have the social networking universe. You can now belong to or make any group that fits your interests and beliefs. Social networks on the net can become as tightly tailored as the group desires, pruned down to exclude all impurities of ideas that do not fit. Many of these groups fulfil positive social interaction between the members, becoming a web based community of like minded individuals that transcend geo-political borders. The purity of thought and discourse within the group without the needless chatter of distracting issues further empowers the social network. But here is where the rub from the dark side happens, when groups get together, they tend to radicalize their views, feeding off of each other and gaining support as their ideas become more rigid and less open. This continued inward spiral of radicalization of ideas and views continues to grow as the group becomes smaller, less pluralistic and more exclusionary. The selectivity of social networks allows us to cherry pick the parts of culture and ideas that we agree with, discarding and ignoring those we don’t and becoming less likely to reflect the realities of modern social norms. As we speed ahead to provide the tailored service to each niche group in the social network universe, we may be speeding up the fragmentation of national cultures and identities. And if you think that is too much of a leap, then consider that we may be fooling ourselves into believing that social networking is the next best thing for business because the only people we talk to about it already belong to our social network and will agree with you.

945.26.05.08

Canadians Online

Data gathered from IPSO Reid survey Ipsos Canadian Inter@ctive Reid Report

Wireless Internet access in Canada has reached an all-time high, growning to 26 % of all Canadians Users. British Columbia leads the way in connectivity in provinces followed by Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. 78 % of all Canadians users have internet access at home and 85% of those have high-speed connections. Canadians average 14.3 hours per week online. Interestingly more adults (51%) than teens (37%) agree with the statement that the Internet is an important part of the day, and adults are more likely to click on website advertisement by almost 2:1 ratio. Teens still visit Social Networks more often then adults, 76% of teens participate in live chats at least weekly making it the most performed activity on the web by that age group. The predominant online activity of most Canadians is sending or receiving email, with more than nine-in-ten Canadians (97%) identifying themselves as email users. The most popular online activities include using a search engine (84%), visiting newspaper, news or information websites (75%) and conducting online banking (70%). Surprising to me over half of Canadian internet users listen to radio stations broadcasted over the Internet (53%). Online social networks and communities appear to the hottest segment of the internet, in 2007, 37% of online Canadians visited a social network and 29% placed a profile on one. Younger Canadian Internet users are twice as likely to have visited an online social network or online social community site (63% for 18–34 year olds vs 29% for 35–54 year olds). Lack of interest is the number one reason given by Canadian adult Internet users who have not visited an online social network in the past (63%). This should be something that Social Network designers should take notice of, the site has to accomplish something to get and hold adult attention. Especially in view of the statistic that on average Canadian adults spend 19 hours online while teens spend just 13 hours online a week.

883.25.05.08

This is a copy of the text found on th online-consultation for CTRC ( Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) and moderated by Nik Nanos, CEO and President of Nanos Research. If you want your say in how the CRTC will regulate and shape on line media in Canada, this is your chance. to view the complete survey follow the on line consultation link.

following text is reproduced from the “New Media Broadcasting Online Consultation“

Canada’s Broadcasting Act has certain goals for the broadcasting sector: among other things, it should be predominantly Canadian, offer diversity and reflect national values and culture. In 1999, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) decided that it did not need to regulate broadcasting on the Internet. Since then, Canadians have increasingly turned to the Internet for broadcasting content including radio and television programming.

The CRTC recently published Perspectives on Canadian Broadcasting in New Media, which describes how Internet and mobile platforms (such as cellphones and personal digital assistants [PDAs]) have emerged as ways to listen to music and watch video entertainment. This activity is possible because of Internet technology that allows a variety of providers to create and distribute broadcasting content.

As a result of recent changes in technology and consumer behaviour, the Commission is asking for comments on what kinds of issues it should explore in a public hearing about Canadian new media broadcasting. The feedback from this consultation will help shape the hearing, highlighting Canadians’ values and priorities.

The consultation consists of 3 questions that you can post comments to:

1. What is new media broadcasting?

Defining “new media broadcasting” is important. On the Internet, a wide variety of new media broadcasting content providers have emerged, along with new ways to distribute content from traditional and new providers.

The Commission’s main focus is on professionally-produced content similar to what is available on television and radio. What issues and relevant questions will help the Commission in defining the scope of new media broadcasting?

For example:

• How are the various kinds of content found on the Internet similar to, or different from, traditional radio and television content?
• What specific types of new media broadcasting services and content require particular attention?

What do you think?

2. Should the creation and promotion of Canadian new media broadcasting content be supported? If so, how?

Broadcasters and television distributors all contribute toward the creation and promotion of Canadian content.

Cable and satellite television companies, for instance, contribute a portion of their revenues to a fund that helps finance Canadian television shows. Both radio and television broadcasters are required to show a minimum level of Canadian content or spend a certain level of their revenues on Canadian content. Radio stations pay a portion of their revenues toward the development of new Canadian recording talent.

Given that the Internet is global, and consumers can increasingly get access to the programming they want, when they want, from whatever provider they want, what issues and questions should the Commission explore to support Canadian new media broadcasting content?

What do you think?

3. What other issues should be considered?

The CRTC is also charged with ensuring the broadcasting system is technologically innovative, takes into account regional and linguistic needs and concerns, and provides services to all Canadians.

What other questions should the Commission explore in a public proceeding examining Canadian new media broadcasting?

You can read my comments as REM091 at this site and you will have to sign up to complete the survey, the online consultation can be found here

004.21.05.08

I purchased MS office 2007 for my daughter a few months ago and swore it would be my last time. The reasons for buying the program were the usual, compatibility with college, work and because we’re conditioned to do so. I loaded it on my machine just because I could, but I only use about a 1/10th of the programs capabilities, I give word and powerpoint a workout but don’t use all the features, never use excel and have no idea what one note does for me. I write essays, articles and reports and usually make an accompanying presentation and store all these on a memory stick. MS office takes up 400 MB of hard drive space, consumes most of my computer processor power to run and cost a bunch of money. I’m not just picking on MS Office, I’m sure WordPerfect is the same. These programs have become bloated with code to meet the needs of every user and every situation. They require huge processing power and hard drive storage space that drive up the cost of the computers we use and tie us to proprietary operating systems.

I think it is time to switch not only programs, but also the concept of office Apps. With on-line apps maturing into full fledged office suites they offer some very appealing incentives. Most are free or have some ad placement, they can be accessed from any computer, you can save files in any major traditional office suite format and if you bundled them with flikr, picasa, google maps, skype and youtube you can have full fledged social media publishing system. They require little if any hard drive space, don’t require a uber-powerful computer to run on and because they are web based, don’t care what operating system you are running. Sites like ZOHO and Google Apps are good places to start if you want to see what some of these online apps can offer. If your not quite ready to put you faith in the cloud computer, try Open Office.org the best free office suite available, it will do everything you need and then some.

172.18.05.08

I listened to a radio show called the “Search Engine” on CBC radio today (full story here), the segment that got me going was on a new internet search company called Rushmore Drive, a black centric search engine. At first I was upset that were now going to divide the net into cultural segments that reflected the people that frequent these pockets of the WWW. But when I started to write this post I realized that it is not any different than the social networks that already exist, demographics play an important part to each one of the existing networks on the web. Technology does not change human nature, it just gives them different mediums to express their views and build social networks with similar individuals. People need and want to cluster around social networks that reflect their views, interests, needs, race, religion, profession or fears. It is all very nice to believe that the internet will make us all one big homogenized global society, but the opposite is happening. These cluster tend to radicalize and develop extreme views as people piggy back on ideas of other members of the social network and are not tempered by dissenting voices. We are cultural sheep; we wait to see where our herd is going and we follow along, silently in most cases. It’s just sometimes we all get caught up in the hype of the global community and the hope that people will change to be as they wish them to be and we become blind to the fact that people do not change, they are as they are, nothing more.

for further reading on a similar topic try Social Networking the new group think

105.16.05.08

The slow food movement was founded in Italy by Carlo Petrini in 1986 and went international in 1989, boasting 85000 members in 130 countries. Slow Food hopes to reconnect people with the pleasures of food and the diversity of recipes that follow the cycle of the seasons. The slow food movement focuses on local and traditional dishes with ingredients that respect the surrounding ecosystem. The principles of “Good, Clean and Fair” guide the eco-gastronomy. Slow Food hope through their efforts to raise awareness that modern food production is a major cause of pollution and destruction of the ecosystem and to promote sustainable clean agriculture. When you sit down for one of the slow food inspired meals you will feel the connection all the way back through the circle of preparation, growing and harvesting and know that all the steps supported sustainable food production. For a listing of slow food members in Canada follow this link.

920.11.05.08

I had an old brother lazer and a couple of ink jet printers plugged into a desktop machine so my wireless network would have a print server. I just got fed up with running a extra machine to provide life support to my printers and went out and bought a Lexmark X4875 wireless printer. The X4875 scans, copies, prints (photo quality), has a two sided option that works and was on sale for 99$ cdn, who could argue with that. The best is yet to come, to my great surprise the printer was easy to setup and worked without a hitch right out of the box. There was no fiddling with settings, grunts of frustration, nothing, within mere minutes it was spewing test sheets and what ever else I could throw it’s way. I have no idea how much the cartridges will cost but I’m sure they will be dear, payback for the easy setup. But the real reason for this post is that I am always mildly surprised when technology works as advertised, you know it is a rare thing and it shouldn’t be. All this talk about Web 2.0 and intuitive technological advancements and still you almost never have anything work right out of the box, and if you do read the instructions you need lemon juice to expose the hidden setup hints to get it working. It just seems that in the industries rush to include every conceivable feature in the product (most no one will ever use), we forgot that technology and software no matter what its used for, should be easy to use and work as advertised, without the need for lemon juice.

045.09.05.08

I finally got to play with the ASUS Eee PC, what a great piece of kit. It booted up quickly and I could get right down to the business of surfing the web and checking my email. The office suite that comes with the Eee PC is Open Office.org and is up to all the tasks that should be thrown at this type of machine. The screen was bright and clear (I only used it indoors), and web cam had a nice clear video picture. The key board took a few minutes to get use to, I’m no speed demon on a key board and don’t intend to write any novels on the Eee PC so it was more than comfortable to use. The linux desktop was clean and simple to navigate, quite nice actually. I looked at the 8 Gb model with the linux OS, it met all my expectations of the perfect machine to log on to the Net while I sip a coffee at my local WiFi cafe. All I look for in a portable internet machine is cheap price (most important), quick and easy access to my mail, ability to do research and type a few short articles on word processor, the Eee PC met all those requirements with ease. I think when I get home I’m going to start hunting for all the spare change hidden in the house to fund my next purchase, at 399.99 cdn It’s not a bad deal.

092.05.05.08

The rise in military technology and its resultant civilian spin-off has dramatically affected the way states view and support Collective Security Agreements. We have come to see new technology more as a solution to our problems then as a tool. The fusion of media and global communications has shaped our perception of events globally. Traditional State responsibilities are no longer seen as paramount, for Collective Security to remain relevant these relationships need to be re-examined in light of a modern globally interconnected society. The rapid advancement of military technology is fuelled by the belief that through new, sophisticated and lethal technologies we can insure military superiority and victory in war. This was a solid, if untested theory of the symmetrical warfare concepts during the cold war, the solution was simple, the side with the most devastating technology won. If both sides had equally devastating technology we had achieved a balance of power. While this is not a new concept and the arms race has been going strong ever since humans first picked up a club from the ground. The pace and scope of technological advancements have increased exponentially and we are still trying to map out the latent effect on Global affairs. The theory of collective security; “an attack against one was an attack against all” worked well during the cold war. States controlled the message and the message was, we were all in it together, no one country would be left untouched. Total destruction was just that, and collective security agreements helped deterred any one from the thoughts of total war. This détente established a Balance of Power between the two great cold war super powers and every one settled down to a good arms race. Just like in the cold war, the post cold war period conflicts are confined to limited wars. The difference is now they are not state on state being manipulated by the superpowers, but identified by the war on terrorism and concepts of humanitarian intervention in a hegemonic world order. Limited wars don’t affect all states equally and without the threat of mass destruction hanging over their heads, the “all for one, one for all” cry has lost some of its appeal. During the cold war, military technology was driven by the need to dominate the ever escalating arms race and maintain the balance of power. In contrast the post cold war military development is driven by the belief that through a technologically superior military we can dominate the asymmetrical conflicts that now dot the globe. These concepts shape the perceptions of western population of a dominate and omnipresence military capability. In Democracies the “Global Media”, has brought war to the dinner table, war now must be won quickly, humanely and with limited national casualties. We expect technology to be the answers to the political and ethical problems of contemporary conflicts and we have locked ourselves in the cycle of using technological advancements to offset threats to our society. The embrace of these technologies by the civilian population has given rise to regional, social and ethnic networks. The use of videos and emotive language by both the global media and special interest groups can sway public opinion away from supporting a State’s military operations, even if it is contrary to the needs of global security. Collective Security Agreements are base on traditional relationships between states and that a single state is not as strong as a group of states acting together. The post cold war shift in security issues from State on State warfare to combating non-state actors and humanitarian intervention has disrupted this balance. The globalization of public information has increased the demands by citizens to solve conflict on a non-violent level. The fear of the conflict coming home to their country makes most states reluctant to become involved in some else’s limited war. Most states consider these types of operations too costly economically and not in their best interest politically. The pursuit of a single stream of technology as a solution to collective security will not work in the modern networked society. There is an essential need to move away from a military centric approach, to an “all source” technological approach, using political, economic, social as well as military networks to convey a unified strategic message. Technologies can be used to influence and defeat the will of the adversary, control public opinion and ensure international acceptance without resorting to military force. We need to understand that technology and its use shapes the values of society and those value shifts in turn affect the development of technology. With each technological advance we must also have a corresponding advance in the social understanding of how best to use the new technology and its potential impact on global interaction. Collective security is affected by these same value shifts and for Collective Security to be effective in the future we need to start influencing the use and development of new technologies to meet the Collective Security vision of tomorrow.

883.30.04.08

For some time I have been thinking about switching my laptop to Ubuntu but always manged to find an excuse why I shouldn’t. The first excuse I used was that my wife used my laptop and she needed to have MS office. But I solved that when I bought both my wife and son laptops and since my daughter already has one, that excuse is now gone. I have always like open source software and run many of their programs on my machines, but have always remained tied to work compatibility and this limited my ability to switch to Ubuntu. Work now has a blackberry leash for me and gives me a laptop with their software loaded, so that excuse is gone also. I recently tried Ubuntu’s live CD version 7.10 and was both impressed and disappointed, the system was great, reminded me of OS/2 (way back when, OS/2 Warp was the best OS before its time), but disappointed my wireless connection wouldn’t work. I logged on to Ubuntu’s help site and was promptly given instructions on how to solve the problem of my Broadcom network adapter. After some copying and pasting and running of command lines it all worked, but it just seemed like too much work and it should have been done automatically on install. Now that version 8.04 is out, called the “Hardy Heron” (who the frig thinks up these names) I wonder if the problem with the broadcom adapter is fixed without having to go through all the copying and pasting stuff. My laptop is an old Gateway 6021GZ with 2 GB of Ram and Ubuntu promises to extend the usefulness of it for some time into the future. I tried Vista on the families new laptops, I can tell you I do not like what Vista offers, it just seems likes I’m begging the OS to do things I want and waiting, it’s so sloooow, I’m forever clicking on windows allowing normal functions to progress. So, I am still questioning the switch mainly due to compatibility issues with my wireless card and I have a Lexmark X4875 wireless printer and can’t seem to find out if it is supported. Bottom line, I will continue to sit on the fence and look over at the greener grass on the Ubuntu side, but I’m not quite ready to climb over, just yet.

050.30.04.08