oddeyed's Blog

Israel

I’m in Israel! I’ll post more upon return!

Computer World: I have something to say.

There is no perfect operating system. It seems that no one else will admit this so I’m gonna have to go ahead and say it. There isn’t. I hate to say it, but Mac OS X isn’t perfect, Windows, we all know, as NEVER been perfect, and Linux - well, I’m using Ubuntu as my benchmark here, and despite my never-ending fanboy status, it isn’t perfect. In fact, none of them get close enough to be ahead of the other.

Mac OS X - OK - lets start off with the ‘goods’. Stable. Secure. Fast. Lighweight. Good wealth of available applications. OK, this sounds like it’s got it all right? Wrong. Mac OS X has one big problem (and a few mini ones). The big one first - hardware support. It is, truly, not up to scratch. While it may be acceptable due to the fact that OS X is only SUPPOSED to be run on the computers Apple say it is, it is still a big barrier to it become perfect. Some other niggling little problems: un-customisable (and closed-source), too simplified and thus not suitable for power users, and its also expensive. Really expensive.

Windows up next - I’m gonna make generalisations about my experiences from 3.1 up until Vista - I have no experience of 7. Goods - Huge amount of available applications, good hardware support (mainly due to its monopoly) and good 3rd party ‘community’ (in terms of hardware and tech support). Oh and good for games too, both the others fall down at that hurdle. Bads - here we go. Unstable, insecure, slow, Internet Explorer is ABYSMAL, its uncustomisable (again, closed-source) and the third party often churns out awful stuff too - hello WindowBlinds 2 hours startup. Slightly less importantly - its ugly, and not too easy for beginners.

Linux now (again, I’m using Ubuntu here). Goods - fast, lightweight, highly customisable, secure, idiot-proof (hello sudo), GNOME is easy to use, it can be really purty, and there is a good amount of software available - but just not enough. While ‘Secret Mayro Chronicles’ is great, it does not constitute a real gaming experience. This is not due to its own problems, its design makes it perfect for games - its just its obscurity. Because Linux is practically unheard of, it falls into disuse by developers, and video creation software, music creation software, games, desktop software, word processors, and lots more is not available. The same goes for hardware support - because its free, they can’t pay for licensing, and all the support for many Wifi chips, music players, phones and bluetooth devices is all done by guesswork.

So I guess in conclusion, Linux comes closest, but until it gets out of the current obscurity and lack of support, it will never be a serious contender for perfection. Oh and BSD/Solaris/anything else users - I didn’t mention you because to be honest, you have the same problems that Linux has, and most people don’t even know you exist - more so than Linux.

I suppose now is when I get viciously hated…?

Mozilla what are you up to?

http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/#feature-vsie

A bit random - but it says on this site (in the comparison) that IE supports ‘modern Web pages and technologies’ - no it doesn’t. It refuses to comply with the Web standards because Microsoft have a monopoly. Pages just don’t look like they’re supposed to on there. The only fair thing to put on that comparison would be ‘Displays web pages and supports plugins such as Macromedia Flash’.

Silly Mozilla, complementing IE when it doesn’t even deserve it.

Schoolio

I have finished school and have learnt a few things already.

1. Its a lot more fun to do nothing when you are procrastinating.
2. Computer games are ludicrously fun.
3. There is only so much you can do of doing nothing.
4. Chess is difficult.

Well, at least I’m done. :)

Gravity Bone

Get Gravity Bone. It’s an epic first person… well… charlie’s review was better, take a look.

charliewilson:

Hey,

I recently found out about THIS. It’s called Gravity Bone and it’s epic. So epic, it doesn’t deserve to receive the FPS moniker. No, there’s no gunplay in Gravity Bone, just good old fasioned gameplay. And what gameplay it is…

Little Brother

Its an excellent book, with a hard driving plot, and really believable characters. Of course, the fact that it is on such an interesting (to me anyway) topic as all the internet liberties is just the icing on the cake to me.

It is terrific, and you should read it (I think its released Creative Commons so you can read it online for free, but get the novel its much better that way).

The main point is that I did not care about things like internet and civil liberties, as I was of the body that believed as long as we were law abiding then we would be fine. Of course, I now realise that any government that will put in place laws infringing our liberties (terrorism legislation/patriot act anyone?) will have no qualms arresting the wrong person. Anyway, if a technology can find a criminal with 99% accuracy, about 99% of the time its wrong (Don’t believe me? Its sound maths, Google the False Positive Paradox).

I now do care, alot, after reading the book, and its a fantastic read. It totally changed my perception of government, and it is quite scary (in the sense that its so possible). So basically: read it.

Omegle

I came across something really wonderful today. Its called Omegle. You’d except it to be dangerous, dodgy, and creepy, but I don’t think it is.

A simple paradigm: You click ‘Connect’ and it puts you in a chat with someone, somewhere. Doesn’t matter who, doesn’t matter where. They don’t see your name. They don’t see your IP. They don’t know who, what, how, or why you are. They can ask if they want, doesn’t really matter as you can simply say ‘I’d rather not tell you’.

I have met a few people, from Finland, and Turkey. They are friendly, and we just talked about basically nothing. But it was cool to know that two completely random strangers just met, talked, and then parted ways again. We might even find each other again one day, and not even know it.

Obviously never meet up with/give personal details to some randomer you find. But it is good fun. Try it out, you never know what (or who) you might find…

Omegle is here

Heh.

Look at me, posting about my life again. Well isn’t that something.

New blog name - oddeyed. I’ve decided after reading Little Brother that its a bad idea to openly display my name. I’ll tell you all about THAT later.