The Inevitable

So I work as a webmaster. Good stuff. I sent out emails, upload photos/content to the website, manage the files etc. Nothing flashy or fancy or mind blowing, just the basic stuff that HAS to be done for the work to continue.

Today it happened. Every admin and geek knows about it. I was waiting on it (even though I have been kicking myself for not being more active about it), and now it’s done.

Windows virus. Spyware. Adware. Trojans. Rootkits.

All over one computer in particular. I don’t know how it happened, or why, but it did. I spent a few hours this afternoon attacking the bugs and sorting the issues out. A defrag. and password reset is also in order. My solution at home looks a little like this:

Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 7.10
Release: 7.10
Codename: gutsy

(lsb_release -a)

Why do people both with such nonsense and silly software? If I could, I would change it all in an instant, but I cant. This makes my life a million times harder.

-Eddie

Collaborative File Editing

At my office, we are working on a project which requires massive editing of our excel sheets and in the near future, we need to revamp our system of file management. In the short term however, we are looking to edit these excel spreadsheets ASAP, a feature missing in the Standard Office instillation. Specifically, I want to roll Gobby out into the networked computers and use that to edit the files, and increase productivity. This is one of the big reasons why I fell in love with GPL software and why I am so frustrated with the work computers.  However, I see a big problem with FL/OSS projects in general.
I can never google the files supported by the program.

I can find bug reports, the list of  libs associated with the instillation, etc. However, I can’t find which files are, and aren’t supported by the programs. Specifically:

Are Excel and word documents supported in Gobby? If so, I will Gobby forever. If not, what are my options.

Thanks!

-Eddie Martinez

Microsoft Publisher Alternatives

What can be used instead of publisher?

I am specifically trying to go from .pub files to .pdf

Saving as rich text doesn’t work, the images are lost in the text. Open office can save from text to pdf but how does the file get from .pub to open office in the first place. The office has one imac mini, and 2 windows computers. The program does not have to be software libre, just free as in beer. Perhaps a small standalone program, without too much fluff, but anything will work.

Thanks!

/me laughs out loud

This article has to be one of the worst piece of garbage I have ever read. This is neither a good piece of journalism, a strong and logical personal opinion, or a LEGAL basis for doing using proprietary software

This is the fact that to play a DVD or use WMA/WMV files I have to install codecs that are technically illegal to use.

Why is it illegal to use, Mr. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, IF THAT IS YOUR REAL NAME? Why does your article bitch and moan about this point without asking any hard hitting questions? Does it have something to do with restrictive licensing, the fight for open formats and free software? Giant media corporations who consolidated their power while manipulating politicians/the law to protect their backward ass way of ‘entertaining’ the masses? Region encoding?

Mark Shuttleworth said something along the lines of “I would love to work with Microsoft but I can’t because of their current stance on DRM.” Okay, so this quote is close to anything he said, but you get the general idea.

Free software is great in isolation, but as soon as you have a situation where you’re trying to integrate it with modern proprietary file formats, the idea falls apart at the seams.

Well this is true, but you forgot to ask why again! Proprietary file formats are defective by design. How can you expect free software and non free software to have a tea party and pass cookies while Microsoft spreads FUD about GLPv3 and Gobuntu is getting rolled out? Software doesn’t work in that real. There will never be a lolcats picture that says ‘Im in ur Linux, playing ur .mp3s. I don’t think I know anyone that WANTS to support proprietary garbage, non free file formats or DRM. It’s more than just licensing costs, which themselves are a major issue.

For me, this is a pretty good reason to keep giving my money to Microsoft (or Apple, I’ve started giving money to Steve Jobs lately) rather than making a switch to Linu

This line takes the cake however. LET’S GIVE OUR MONIES TO LARGE CORPORATIONS WHO RESTRICTED OUR CHOICES FROM THE START, FOR THE PURSUIT OF MASSIVE WEALTH BECAUSE THEY WILL ALLOW US THE GIANT BENEFIT OF ALLOWING US TO CONTINUE TO USE DRM. Give me a fucking break. Are you serious. ‘Thank you masta, for not beating me’ is how I read this. Look at the massive failure of Windows Vista, of trying to use old Windows file formats (we ALL remember the nightmare that was the WordPerfect file fomat), of the recording industry suing it’s fans because the fans wont pay them enough.

No thank you. I refuse to perpetuate the cycle of broken software and outdated business models.

-Eddie

FUD

Microsoft wants attention. And possibly to win over the minds of those who only half understand patents/Intellectual Property/copyrights.

In all seriousness, who would they sue?

Linux cant be shut down, it is free/editable software and no one in our community takes M$’ claim seriously.

-Eddie

Did I mention I love the RIAA?

In response to this release from them.

One point I notices right away was this quote: “Moreover, our focus on university students is not detracting from our continuing enforcement efforts against individuals using commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP) accounts to engage in this same behavior. Indeed, we have asked ISPs to participate in the same new process that we have implemented for university network users.”

Isn’t that a conflict of interests? Since when have the lawyers of major record labels been in the business of regulation of the Internet. Although everything is fair is corporate business though. I don’t see a trade group having real legal status to sue people however. Is this being done in civil court, where the admission of evidence is weaker? This is why civil court cases, such as the O.J. murder trials differ from criminal murder trials. Anyone see the issue here?

Later:

Suckers Intl. Has Gone Public…

Microsoft wants photo DRM

I’m not even going to blog about this one, seeing as how obviously bad of an idea this is. Instead I’ll just quote Dillinger Four.

“I’m so sick that we’re surprised/ Everytime we’re shown that power corrupts/ Thump our chests at the man on the screen/ Cursing the green/ Tell ourselves that enough is enough…

Another day/ Another dollar/ Another way to live with a life so intolerable”

-Fireside Chat from the album Situationist Comedy

“We’ll take what’s left and we’ll sell it/ As little souvenirs, of what before was here/ You know once we’ve done it and we’ll do it, we’ll do it again”

-Music Is None of My Business from the album From God.

Great band, terrible company.

why?

In… 6 hours, a subsection of the paper on stem cells is due to my Biology group with my work. My particular topic is the argumentation for/against stem cell research, from a moral and academic perspective. Those two sections are the most common viewpoints and arguments, though the topic can be analyzed existentially, biologically, philosophically or from a Utilitarian viewpoint, among others.

In doing my research I stumbled across a company: StemCells, Inc. Aside from the obvious creepyness of this company, I couldn’t help but wonder what they were all about. The Inc. states that they are a company, and yes, they are a corporation. Their goal is to develop stem cell technologies, patent and trademark them, lastly entering into contracts with third party companies. Proprietary humans, this is exactly what we need.

I support stem cells on a purely academic level. If you look at the number of stem cells being left to die or killed because they are not needed for research (federal funding is a problem), or simply stored infinitely… Compare that to the potential gains and it seems like a pretty solid deal. True, nothing HAS come of stem cell research yet, but I’m a pollyanna idealist, so I’ll pretend otherwise.

Here is what is troubling me, a line from the company info:

An important element of the Company’s stem cell discovery program is the further development of intellectual property positions with respect to stem and progenitor cells.

….WHAT?!? No! Bad company! NO Intellectual property! Further research shows a heavy interest in IP, copyrights, licensing right etc.

Simply put, this company is evil. It’s not their fault.

The United States Supreme Court ruled in Dodge vs. Ford (1926? I forget the date) that corporations have no LEGAL RIGHT to be ethical in any way shape or form. In fact, their primary and sole obligation is to increase the stockholders’ profit. Ethics are then, illegal. This ruling is the basis of modern capitalism, the structure to which Microsoft, ATI, and countless companies adhere.

Of course my problem is not Capitalism or money (actually I prefer a mixed model form of economy) but companies such as this. Companies which use DRM or other such forms to restrict culture. A company which pays lip service to human growth/advance and looks at their bottom line at the end of the end. There is a good scene in Fight Club about this where one of the main characters (the one who WASN’T brad pitt) is explaining his job.

Simply, he does a cost/benefit analysis of his company’s exploding tires, and considers the interest of his company above the lives of humans. Scary stuff, but real people do it everyday. Life doesn’t have to be a movie for a company to destroy human life.

The fact that Stem Cells Inc. literally does cost/benefit analysis with human life is just scary. I don’t know if I can support stem cell research anymore, quiet frankly.

“The Company also intends to pursue a series of non-exclusive agreements whereby third parties would have access to the Company’s cells for use in gene discovery and use, drug discovery and screening, and diagnostics. StemCells has outlicensed some of its technology to BioWhittaker, Inc. and Stem Cell Technologies, Inc. for research purposes.”

Yea…. give me a break.

-Eddie M. Disgruntled scientist

Free(dom)

In a conversation about non free file formats (Can’t use PowerPoint to do my bio presentation. Sorry…. Can I use Open Office?) with one of my lab partners, she became understandably confused. I noticed a look of dispair rising exponentially as I talked; NFF, DRM, license types etc. can be a bit much at first glace, so I let it slide. Her interruption however, was a slap in the face: “I just don’t get what it’s all about..” Is that how we look as a community to the general population? Geeks rambling on about 2 lines of text in a license or 6 lines of code in a program that we hardly think twice about, until it crashes?

Obviously this is a gross exaggeration of the conversation, as we have moved past that a society in whole, and my arguement is based on an account of my life. 1) Overexaggeration, 2) Story. 2 logical fallicies in one sentence? Wow, if Red_Herring wasn’t already taken, I might consider that as a nick. Actually though, RJ posted a blog that got me thinking quite a bit. In particlar, one sentence stood out:

Well the big appeal to getting a fancy shmancy Mac is the looks and OSX.

Here, we see more of the underlying fundemental issues come into play. Most people, what they are looking for in a computer, is not a super stable, editable, free software. They are not looking for quality or angsting for a quick fix to a pesty bug. “M$ has a majority market share in the new desktop PC marketplace”, Bug #1. Well no, they dont own desktop PCs. They don’t dominate the OS market either. It’s much simpler and evil then that.