Daniel Hardy

Dell Puts Ubuntu Machines on Main Page

“I took a screen shot of it.. because many of us thought that Dell would put the Ubuntu Machines 2000 pages deep into their site.. and only have it there to appease linux users. In fact, they are putting the Linux boxes on the main page of Dell on the rotating script.” – TheFounder

This is truely amazing! Linux is being pushed by a major vendor. Other vendors like HP have tried sell Linux machines in the past but none of them have made a push this strong. Dell has been in trouble for a while and perhaps, although unlikely, this will help revitalize their sales.

read more | digg story

Virtualization of Windows

With a little help from my friend Jon I was able to successfully virtualize Windows today. I have spoken in a previous post about Innotek’s Virtual Box. For this little project I decided I would use it again. Everything went off with out a hitch. I was even able to find an easy way to install Virtual Box’s Guest Additions brought to you buy Google.com.

The final piece of this puzzle is one I am not looking forward to. The software needs to be registered with Microsoft and I have heard they are not very friendly towards users who virtualize their operating system. Because I am using a previously registered copy (off my old computer) I will have no choice but to call their tech support to get this situation resolved.

Ever Wonder Who Funds All the Web 2.0 Companies?

Ever wonder who funds all the Web2.0 companies such as Digg.com and Facebook.com? Well these guys are responsible for several good ones, Greylock.

New look and feel

Well I decided I would launch my new look and feel. It still has several small problems and I haven’t got a chance to go through it with Microsoft Internet Explorer (one of the perks of using Linux ;) ). Never the less let me know what you think. Also keep and eye on the site as I am going to be adding several subtle features.

I finally found it!

Since I made the jump to Ubuntu there was only one program that I have really missed, Notepad++.  I used Notepad++ for all of my coding from XHTML to PHP with CSS in between.  Granted I am no where near a master coder but I had grown a custom to its lightweight nature, great language highlighting and most of all the ability to fold the code.   I tried running Notepad++ in Wine for a while but there are several problems with that.  The biggest of which is Wine makes it difficult to access network folders.

When I initially made the jump I spent several days trying out various programs but never found one I liked.  Since then I have been doing all my coding with gEdit.  It has worked but doesn’t provide the best highlighting and has no support for folding.

Today I was missing Notepad++ and thought I would go out and look at it’s site again.  Low and behold I completely missed a key piece of text in all my other visits.  It turns out Notepad++ is based on Scintilla, a GTK+ application.  I quickly checked the repository and was able to successfully install it in a matter of minutes.  It is fairly similar to Notepad++ but with out all the shine.

Overall I am not a happy man, funny how such a silly thing can really lift my spirits.

Charisma follow up

Recently I recieved my first comment on a post (thank you Bill Brown it is nice to know that someone is interested) and some great questions where raised about my views on charisma. Because the questions raised such good points I felt it would be nice to explore the topic a little more in an attempt to overcome the objections and perhaps raise more questions.

The first objection was the idea of “effort” not being accounted for. In this case the point of the article is that charisma overcomes the need for effort. It is also important to note that effort is extremely valuable and for most people with out charisma, it is the only way to find success. But again, the post was to explore the idea that charisma can trump most hurtles with little effort.

The second objection is much more complex. I think Bills point about attributes in the Aristotlian sense when applied to a “human” are extremely accurate depending on how you define a human. In this post I was not discussing a human as a make up of chemicals and minerals but instead was referring to the concept of the metaphysical “person”. It is my believe that all “humans” have various attribute ranges. These ranges allow one person to become an expert at one thing while another person can never pass a novice level. How these ranges are utilized is greatly impacted by external forces such as socialization or experience. The result of these utilizations creates the “person.” In short we all have the same attributes but different levels. Where we end up in the range is determined largely by external forces and the level we achieve creates the “person.”

Again I want to thank Bill for raising such a strong question and taking the time to comment. I look forward to hearing if this makes any sense to anyone ;)

Is DRM doomed?

Right now as I write this I am watching an interesting fire storm occur on one of my favorite sites, Digg.com. It appears that the DRM protected HD-DVD has been cracked and users are generously sharing the key. These users are posting all over the internet, and in an attempt in hiding their coveted protection (which was supposed to be virtually unbreakable) they are being taken down at the request of the manufacturer.

One user who had a blog post with the numbers was dugg to the front page only to have digg.com permanently bury the post and the user. Others have sprouted up in an attempt to fight the system.

In a matter of a few seconds you can watch things come up only to vanish as they are buried by digg.com. It seems for everyone that gets buried three more show up. Perhaps this will be a key piece to ending DRM, perhaps not.

Either way I think that it is a strong demonstration of how the public is getting pretty sick of being told what they can and can’t do with things that they are supposed to own. I can only hope that it will be the start of the end for DRM. Unfortunately only time will tell.