For those of you who don’t believe that Linux is making an impact on the PC market, you obviously haven’t been watching the actions of Microsoft. Every time a country announces they will switch their government computers to Linux, Microsoft is there literally begging them reconsider (by begging, I mean showering them with incentives). When it became clear that the Open Document Format (ODF) would make serious waves in the office software world, did Microsoft adopt it for their office suite? No, they created their own crippled version and swindled under-the-talbe deals ISO officials to get it passed off as a “standard.”

Now, the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) program, which had the noble goal of trying to provide laptops to children in third world countries equipped with educational software running a customized version of Linux, has come under Microsoft’s scope. They knew what it would mean. Generations of young people would grow up not using Microsoft’s products. They could not allow this. They found it so damaging, so dangerous, that they’re practically giving Windows XP away (notice I said practically — they still intend to turn a profit) to what’s left of the project developers (apparently after the moral few were weeded out) to ensure that windows will make its way into every shack in the developing world.

Now these children will have laptops running bloated, battery hogging, soon to be no longer supported, security hole-filled software with little to no educational value (as you know Windows XP does not come with any office software or much else for that matter).

Thanks Microsoft. Once again you’ved managed to leave a bad taste in my mouth.

A man asked the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace): “Who should I honor the most?”

Prophet: “Your mother.”

Man: “And then who?”

Prophet: “Your mother.”

Man: “And then who?”

Prophet: “Your mother.”

Man: “And then who?”

Prophet: “Your father.”

Another good video from MobLogic about the reaction to the acquittal of the police officers who fired 50 shots and killed Sean Bell, unarmed man, on the morning of his wedding.

Click here to watch.

Here is an interesting video from MobLogic about a gay rights activist from Iran:

Click here to watch

The other day I noticed that my weather widgets on my Nokia n800 and my KDE desktop at my library no longer work. As far as I know, they all connected to weather.com. So, did they do something to their site to call all these weather widgets to break? I’m sure the one on my Freevo box is broken as well, although I haven’t checked. This is undoubtedly the biggest problem with resting the successful functionality of your applications on commercial companies.

Update: It seems Liquid weather for Superkaramba also supports Accuweather, as does the Mac OS X widget, but that still involves dependence on a particular organization.

I almost missed this one from the April 16th democratic debate:

OLBERMANN: Can you clarify…which hypothetical Middle East conflicts would incur massive retaliation by this country and what constitutes massive retaliation?

CLINTON: What we were talking about was the potential for a nuclear attack by Iran. If Iran does achieve what appears to be a continuing goal of obtaining nuclear weapons. And I think deterrence has not been effectively used in recent times. We used it very well during the Cold War when we had a bipolar world. And what I think the president should do and what our policy should be is to make it very clear to the Iranians that they would be risking massive retaliation were they to launch a nuclear attack on Israel.

I always knew Hillary was a Zionist, but it seems she’s even more willing to start World War III than Israel itself. And how many average citizens living in Israel truly feel the way she does? What would even warrant an Iranian attack on Israel? Are we forgetting that a nuclear disaster for Israel is also a nuclear disaster for the Palestinians, the very people Iran has sworn to defend?

It seems in Hillary’s efforts to please the Devil, she’s lost all reasoning ability. It’s amazing that she’s so eager to perpetuate the bigoted depiction of middle eastern people (and nations) as mindless ogres who would attack and kill anyone if given the chance.

Meanwhile, Iran has accomplished more calculated strategic victories in the past four years than any country with interest in the region. Senator Clinton, if you insist on bullying a smaller country and labeling them an enemy threat, at least take the time to know your enemy.

“[My energy policy] will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East,” said republican presidential candidate John McCain.

The “again” implies that it has been done before, and the fact that it is his energy policy that will prevent it indicates that it was done in order to get oil. It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together.

I’m sorry, but what did Rev. Jeremiah Wright say that was so wrong? The only reason Americans are upset is because he spoke the truth. He aired America’s dirty laundry, and the US media saw an opening to attack Sen. Obama.

“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”

Amen, brother. Amen.

As Islam continues to flourish despite the misguided efforts of people like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, she continues to throw salt in our game (hating to see us succeed and do good in the world). She will fail. From the IIC:

“Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Dutch critic of Islam, will publish a fictional children’s book about a twelve-year-old Muslim boy who faces many difficulties after befriending a Jewish girl. It is unclear as to what her motivation is for advocating such false and bigoted views that Muslims are opposed to Jews, when it is clearly stated in the Quran that Muslims and Jews come from the same “Family of the Book”. The Quran also speaks highly of Abraham and Moses, insisting that they were righteous Prophets of God.”

She can spread hatred as much as she wants. We must continue to spread love.

Ever since I purchased my Nokia n800 last year, it has become an integral part of my life, much to the chagrin of my wife. It is described by its creators as an “internet tablet.” Along with the n800, some of you might have its predecessor the Nokia 770 or its heir apparent, the Nokia n810. This blog post includes all three, and any other device that might fall into this category (although I can think of none).

The operating system, Internet Tablet OS 2008, is a Debian GNU/Linux based distribution with a customized GTK-based graphical interface. Beyond surfing the web, here are some of my common uses for it:

1. Media player (mp3s, videos, podcasts, mostly using Canola)
2. Sync/backup using a wireless GRsync connection.
3. Server maintenance - It is Linux after all. I can SSH into my remote server and make updates, security changes, restart services, etc.
4. HTPC control - I run a Freevo box in my living room. I currently don’t even have a keyboard attached to it, but I can wirelessly use my n800 for any tasks not accessible with the remote control
5. Alarm clock - Yes, I sleep with my n800, and it wakes me up in the morning.
6. PDA - I use the calendar program to keep track of tasks and do a three-way sync with my Google calendar and with KOrganizer.
7. Thin Client - Using a handy graphical program called kerez, I can setup an SSH connection to my desktop PC, forwarding the X server all with the click of a button. Then, I can remotely start an application and run it within my n800.

Those are just some of the less obvious uses. With a fully functional web browser, anything accessible on the web is pretty much fair game. It also behaves as an internet phone using Skype and has a built-in camera for video conferencing (currently only through Google Talk or Gizmo…not sure when the latest Skype version with video support will be released).

What more can I say? I think I’m in love with my Nokia n800. I call her “Kia” for short.