Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

One of the more notable bloggers in Canada is Canadian Cynic. He rightfully nearly blew a gasket when I suggested a few months ago that he might have a few things in common with Kate from Small Dead Animals. Frankly I think he’d deny breathing oxygen if he heard that Kate admits to doing that. But anyway, the point of me bringing up CC is that he has a cool challenge to take on. If you’re reading this, you’re challenged to remain polite for the entire day of Monday (at least while conversing on your blog). The winning “side” gets the respect and admiration of, well, probably the same people who declare victory.

Good luck comrades. And yes, I used the word comrade to ham this up a little.
And if you’re a “progressive” and don’t play nice on Monday, I’ll paddle your bottom.

Hat tip to Wingnutterer

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On Sunday I went on a road trip to Wood Mountain with my pal Jesse, and I picked up my new XO laptop from the OLPC program. It’s so tiny, when I saw the box I honestly thought it was a part, like the box for the AC adapter maybe. Photos and videos will come later this week.

I also bought a huge amount of discount cheese. The wheel of cheese was almost bigger than the XO laptop, but cost about 5% as much. I’ll also eat the cheese, whereas the laptop I will not so much as lick, unless asked nicely.

Service Pack 1 is coming. If you aren’t hiding under the bed (a suitable spot), and are one of those geeks who has actually been saying for more than a year that they “are waiting until SP1 is out before they try Vista,” your wait is nearly over.

Personally, I couldn’t care less that Microsoft’s biggest flop since Windows ME is about to break a bunch of peoples machines even further. Its as if Hostess has announced an update to the Twinkie — Only people with poor taste in food will care. Vista is still years away from possibly being as good as XP or Ubuntu are right now for 90% of computer users out there. I’m waiting for 2012 before I start using Vista. By then the bugs may be out, and the design flaws will be hacked around by computer programmers who aren’t enslaved to Big Media. And by then my copy of XP will be as obsolete as Windows 98 is today. (Incidentally I used a Windows 98 SE laptop to fix up my Data Link watch just the other week though. XP couldn’t do it.)

UPDATE: See this Vista video for a laugh.

In the last few days I’ve talked with various people who found trouble using software or data created in Windows Vista, which was created by Windows XP software. One incompatibility wasn’t the fault of the Operating System (OS), but was the fault of Microsoft. I was unable to make a Microsoft document reader plug-in (that works for some versions of Microsoft Works) function in Word 2003 so that it could understand Works 2003 document files. There are programs and hardware that don’t work in Vista because of new or different security standards in the OS. Some programs and hardware are intentionally disabled, as a Microsoft sellout to content lobbyists, instead of a bow to demands of consumers who pay for Windows on their new PCs.

Speaking with Eric the other day, I learned about a bug in Vista’s Media Player where if you press X to close a DVD movie and not File > Close, then the next time you go to play the disc, you’re confronted with a Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) bug that thinks you’re a DVD pirate, and it blocks you from watching the movie you’ve bought/rented. Apparently it could happen in XP as well, but I’ve never seen it. I never use Windows Media Player to watch DVDs, because VLC works perfectly, and is free.

Vista is actually less compatible with XP than some versions of Linux which run a Windows emulator. Linux developers have been working for years to integrate data produced in either OS, into the opposite system, so people feel comfortable about switching between the two. The world is largely Windows based, with a growing Mac UNIX population, and growing Linux community as well. Linux has had to focus on finding ways to read otherwise unreadable and locked Windows generated information, so I think they may even have an advantage over the Microsoft Vista developers who’ve put interoperability on the back burner.

On Sunday I attended the live broadcast of Cross Country Checkup at the CBC Galleria in Regina where Rex Murphy was interviewing Murray Mandryk of the Leader-Post and a sociology professor [haven't confirmed the link has the professor from the broadcast] from the UofR. It was a very interesting 2+ hours, and isn’t the first time I’ve seen live radio firsthand, but is the first national radio show I can remember attending.

I was asked if I wanted to speak on the program, so I said I might have a comment about poverty and how the budget should (but probably won’t) address the income gap between Canadians. I talked with some politically active students in the crowd, who were there like I was because of an email sent by the University of Regina Student’s Union president Mike Burton.

Sunday, February 24, 2008
On Cross Country Checkup …live from Regina

The Harper government presents its budget Tuesday and several provinces have been angling to make sure it meets their needs. Ontario wants money for manufacturers. Saskatchewan wants more infrastructure …and BC’s lumber industry needs help.

What about you? What are you looking for in the upcoming budget?

Join host Rex Murphy live from Regina, Sunday on Cross Country Checkup

A couple who were in town coincidentally to take someone to the airport, ended up sitting beside me and we talked for a few minutes about the downsides of owning a Vista computer. One of the students I was speaking with had actually encouraged their non-profit organization they worked for to use Linux, but I digress!

You can listen to the entire program (including me near the end of the show) here in podcast MP3 or streaming format. The CBC is great for having podcasts for most of their radio programs, which is great! Here’s what people, including me and the callers, talked about:
Continue Reading »

Imagine being able to recharge your cell phone, iPod, laptop, or even radio/flashlight (torch) with this portable and child friendly generator? Some people have pointed out that a foot pedal design would be far superior, in both durability, and functionality.

It’s being designed for the OLPC project, and those laptops destined for children in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Will your bank work tomorrow? (Yeah yeah, I know it’s Saturday.)

It’s Y2K38, a problem with 32 bits and time in UNIX. And just when you survived Y2K, and hadn’t yet been smote’n by Y2Kyoto.

Fortunately, most Linux systems are Y2K38 compatible, from what I understand of the fix rolled out thus far.

If you’ve just bought a 15 year old UNIX server, you may be out of luck. Just like if you bought HD DVD last week. Ha ha.

If you’re unfortunate enough to have spent money on Microsoft Office, you may find this conversion patch for 2007 documents, to come in handy. Apply it to older versions of MS Office, like Word and Excel.

I’m sticking with free OpenOffice.org, however, so I only have to deal with Microsoft problems at work.

In the final days of the year, it’s usual for the web to get really introspective and navel gaze better than a pop star with an exposed midriff. And in that spirit of looking back (or looking down at ones’ belly button lint), here are some amusing lists to read through.

The most disappointing gadgets of 2007. I’m actually considering buying one of these, can you guess which one based on the categories I put this post into? And in mind bending hypocrisy, the Wired list has some devices on the Worst List, also on the Best List.

Worst employees according to CNN.

Personal sustainability. Does anyone know where in Canada we can have our Compact Fluorescent bulbs recycled, since they contain the toxic metal mercury?

Jon Swift’s 2007 roundup.

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Hat tip to The Galloping Beaver, and Miss Cellania.

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I find it too funny that I have the first, and as I write this only published, comment on Ezra’s new, moderated, blog. Where will his blog be at the end of 2008?