5 posts tagged “ubuntu”
I've been disgruntled all week at the hype surrounding the recent apple announcement, and at all the iphone early adopters being pissy on message boards and tech blogs.
I found this from digg, and it made me smile. this guy is right. I'm going to go back to listening to my last gen ipod, go back to playing with my antiquated compaq notebook running ubuntu linux (which I think I might like better than osX now anyways), and laugh at not being out an extra couple hundred bucks.
A bit of advice for all those who rushed out to be the first on their block with a new iPhone and are now bellyaching because Apple reduced the price:
Get a life.
What rock have you folks been living under? Have you bought an airline ticket recently? Or have you ever haggled with a rug salesman? Or bought a case of wine on sale at the local liquor store that sold for 20 percent more the week before?
As the generation that has grown up on eBay, Priceline and day-trading on Nasdaq, you should have developed at least a rudimentary understanding of markets -- willing buyers and willing sellers and all that.
And fairness -- what's that have to do with anything? If Apple suddenly discovered that it was losing money on the new iPhones and suddenly raised the price, would you have volunteered to send a check?
I've got some news for you: Steve Jobs is not your friend. The reason he's a billionaire and you're not is that he's brilliant at selling you gadgets that make you feel so cool you're willing to pay way more than it costs to make them. His only mistake last week was letting you in on his little secret.
original link here.
a few friends of mine bought themselves the t-mobile dash (t-mobile's answer to the motorola Q and the samsung blackjack) and I'm wondering if they jumped the gun a bit? engadget has the scoop on the new t-mobile wing.
Well, it's finally done: T-Mobile Wing née HTC's Atlas / Herald has lifted off. Obviously there are absolutely no surprises here for anyone who's been following this launch, but the thinner- hotter successor to the MDA comes out swinging with Windows Mobile 6 (Professional), quad-band EDGE data, Bluetooth, a 2 megapixel camera, WiFi, myFaves, a 2.8-inch QVGA display, microSD slot, soft-touch finish, and new and improved QWERTY keyboard. It'll be available tomorrow for $300 (with service agreement); stick around for some high res photography sure to tide you over until then.
links to the original stories here and here.The T-Mobile Wing is a Windows Mobile 6 phone, alright -- and the specs aren't anything to write home about, especially not for $400. 200MHz CPU, EDGE data, QVGA display. And yet we find ourselves mysteriously attracted to the T-Mobile Wing. It's nigh-sticky soft-touch finish, it's thin profile (for a WM QWERTY slider, anyway), it's divinely clicky d-pad and keys, it's rubbery keyboard that we just didn't think HTC could make any better. Check out the pictures, decide for yourself; but if you're a T-Mobile customer, if you're willing to plunk down this thing is kind of a no-brainer.
the reviews seem rather average-to-good.. about as much as you can expect from a pda/smartphone. my problem? windows mobile. it sucks. go ahead, roll your eyes.. it's clunky, slow, and lacks any sort of fluidity. that's one of my major beefs with microsoft products in general, there's no fluidity to anything. the INFERIOR java-based OS on my shitty sidekick 3 is more fluid and user-friendly (not as in easy, as in intuitive) than WINDOWS (and don't get me started on the razr, awful phone).
I'm not the only one who thinks so either, many in the blogosphere agree that windows mobile is a lackluster operating environment for mobile phones, and it's adoption rate came about in the same fashion as its parent OS, windows (way to fight capitalism, folks).
now see, I want a smartphone.. badly. my sidekick 3 is keeping me right until I can get something more powerful, but I'm not going to dance with microsoft anymore than I have to (like with my desktop, which I think will become a dual-boot machine sooner than later). thankfully ubuntu, gnome, and intel have come to my rescue.
from ars technica
Ubuntu CTO Matt Zimmerman has announced plans for a mobile edition of the increasingly popular Ubuntu Linux distribution. The Ubuntu development community will be collaborating with Intel to make Ubuntu a viable platform for net-enabled mobile and embedded hardware devices. According to Zimmerman, detailed planning for the Ubuntu mobile edition will begin at the upcoming Ubuntu Developer Summit, and an initial release is planned for October, to coincide with the release of Ubuntu 7.10, codenamed Gutsy Gibbon. Canonical, the company that supports Ubuntu development, is looking for mobile developers to work on the project.
This announcement comes only one month after the GNOME Foundation, the organization behind the desktop environment used by Ubuntu, announced its own plans for a mobile and embedded initiative. Ubuntu is closely aligned with the GNOME development community and will likely work with GNOME developers to bring together a disparate assortment of mobile computing development projects to make GNOME a more robust and cohesive solution for embedded environments.
A number of prominent hardware and software companies are already adopting open-source Linux and GNOME technologies for mobile and embedded products. Nokia's 770 and N800 web tablet products, the One Laptop Per Child project's XO laptop, FIC's Neo1973 mobile phone, and products that use the Access Linux Platform all leverage various GNOME components.
Intel recently unveiled a plans for a new line of low-energy mobile processors that will supposedly facilitate construction of inexpensive mobile computing devices with exceptionally long battery life. Codenamed Silverthorn, Intel's new processor is said to be one-seventh the size of conventional processors and can operate on one-tenth of the power consumed by conventional processors. Intel CEO Paul Otellini claims that Silverthorn chips will cost less to produce than any Intel product since the 286. Otellini believes that mobile devices built with its new processor and with support for WiMAX will change the way that people use mobile computing devices. At a meeting with analysts, Otellini showed off a new mobile device prototype running Ubuntu.
soon I'll be able to synch a smartphone running ubuntu with my notebook and my desktop. life is good. I think linux (especially with dell set to start selling desktops pre-loaded with ubuntu) might actually make some ground as a viable 3rd place alternative desktop and mobile platform.
now if we can only get people to stop thinking apple was so "cool".
I'm not sure if it's because I've REALLY gotten into computers again (thanks to installing and configuring ubuntu as the ONLY operating system on my cheap little notebook) or if its because I watched "hackers" in its entirety on youtube (in 11 parts, mind you)...but I felt the need to finally read this book..
I picked it up saturday at the barnes n noble in south center... right after browing the "music" and "linux" sections.
from wikipedia
Neuromancer is a 1984 novel by William Gibson, notable for being the most famous early cyberpunk novel and winner of the so-called science-fiction "triple crown" (the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award). It was Gibson's first novel and the first of The Sprawl trilogy.
Neuromancer tells the story of Case, an out-of-work computer hacker hired by an unknown patron to participate in a seemingly impossible crime. The novel examines the concepts of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, genetic engineering, multinational corporations overpowering the traditional nation-state and cyberspace (a computer network called the matrix) long before these ideas became fashionable in popular culture.
Gibson also explores the dehumanizing effects of a world dominated by ubiquitous and cheap technology, writing of a future where violence and the free market are the only things upon which one may rely, and in which the dystopian elements of society are counterbalanced by an energy and diversity that is perversely attractive (and provides some of the book's appeal).
Neuromancer is considered "the archetypal cyberpunk work", and its winning the Hugo, Nebula, and Dick Awards legitimized cyberpunk as a mainstream branch of science fiction literature.
The book appeared on Time magazine's list of 100 all-time best English-language novels written since 1923.The novel has had significant linguistic influence, popularizing such terms as cyberspace and ICE. Gibson himself coined the term "cyberspace" in his novelette "Burning Chrome", published in 1982 by Omni magazine. It was only through its use in Neuromancer, however, that the term Cyberspace gained enough recognition to become the de facto term for the World Wide Web during the 1990s.
..but I've been too busy having fun with my new operating system. my notebook is running completely by under ubuntu linux, there isn't a shred of windows touching my machine. I told myself that if I could successfully migrate all of my activities from windows to linux, then the switch is permanent. the only thing thats keeping this from being 100% is the shady support for WPA encryption for my wireless drivers, and I'm using WEP right now (I know, horrible.. but better than nothing right?). More to come... and more posts to come. I swears.
for a good time go here.
...and hopefully there's no going back.
last week the latest version of the world's most popular linux distro, ubuntu, was released upon the world. demand for this release was so huge that its servers went down.
cory doctrow, writer for boingboing, has only been using ubuntu for almost a year now.. and his testimo
so for the past few days I've been making a mental checklist of all my online and computer activities. I need a P2P client (soulseek compatible), I need an audio recorder/editor (multitrack preferred), I need a torrent client, and an ipod interface. everything else, as it should, is stock with the operating system. there's openoffice, theres the GIMP (open source version of photoshop), video/audio codecs, dvd and cd ripping and burning software, the works.
if this works, will it delay my planned mac purchase? possibly. I've been planning on getting a macbook pro, but I can get a lenovo thinkpad with comperable parts for about $500 less, and thinkpads make perfect linux boxes.
