MySQL conflict!

Houston, we have a conflict! Firestarter Events´ SQL Learning Day down in Irvine which *might* be useful/informative vs the LAMPSIG meeting where I KNOW this month's topic is going to be useful right off the bat!

You might be thinking, ¨a 6 hour conference hosted my Microsoft vs. a 2 hour meeting down in mid-city? Slam dunk?¨ Not so fast! The main reason why it´s a tough call is that the Firestarter event is centered completely around Microsoft technology. This is fine but the top 3 environments I run are all Linux (#4 is my windows XP box). The SQL-DEV track (the one I´d be most interested in) is all based on .NET. I worked in a .NET environment long enough to know I don´t have much interest in spending my free time on it. The SQL-ITPro track, if anything, is the LAMPSIG competitor. So, hence, the quandary.

BarcampLA-5 was pimpin´!!!

My 2nd most favorite saying is ¨Pimpin´ ain´t easy, but someone´s gotta do it!¨ It seems like I´ve been missing out before this weekend but BarcampLA-5 sure was ¨doin´ it.¨

Great event. Every single person I met was very cool, down-to-earth & into technology. I spoke with some great folks & can´t wait to go to the next one. The tracks were so good, that I stayed late on Sunday to catch the SEO talk (which was very informative) even if it made me late for my LAMPSIG Planning Committee meeting. Like I said about SCALE 6X, you know an event is good when you´re having to make really tough decisions on which talks to attend.

Every talk I attended was really great, but the highlights (for me) were:
Travis Savo´s talk on Digital Lifeforms (I´m still trippin´ out on that concept & what they´ve been able to do).
Alex Peake´s presentation on his very cool company & what they´re doing to change the world (really looking forward to collaborating on some things, both musically & on the non-profit tip).
Ethan Bauley´s chat on business models & getting VC funding (really smart, cool cat who I´m so taking to lunch!)
Strom Carlson´s impromptu session on how to DJ 101 was awesome. Matter of fact, I´ve already told all my Morrissey fan friends about where he spins on Saturday nights @ Hully Gully in Downey & we´ll be dropping in on some of his sessions.
ArtLung´s interactive chat on Wordpress was really informative. Everyone there was really helpful & there was a great discussion on what folks were using w/their Wordpress sites.

There were others who were also good & a TON of others which I didn´t have a chance to even visit. I can´t wait ´til the next one & run into some of the cool folks there!

Microsoft Heroes Happen Here

LA kickoff event just happened but I´m going to go see what all the fuss is about in April in Anaheim.

I know I talk a lot of smack about M$, their monopolistic practices, vendor lock-in strategies they employ & how they generally just ¨scare¨ you into buying their bloated, buggy products but having the whole story isn´t a bad thing. I just want to be fully-informed.

EU Fines Microsoft 1.3 BILLION!!!

So it finally happened! They´ve been getting sued by the whole EU for years & finally got fined.

I blogged about it almost a year ago (well, made a small comment on it) but went a bit more in-depth on the historical tip. I talk about it as I run into SO many people that had no idea this was going on. Sure, all the slashdotters knew the 411, but this is something you didn´t even hear an iota of on the mainstream media (they prefer to talk about less-relevant stuff like ´roided up baseball players).

Just remember, the U.S. isn´t holding M$ accountable here in the states for the EXACT same practices they were accused of overseas. It´s not gonna happen, too much of the government´s infrastructure is built on Microsoft products. $250 toilet seat covers are actually sounding like a good investment now...

I might not have time to help out on WINE

With all the goings-ons & the two projects I´ve just realized I need to jump on, I might not have time to help out on the Wine project. Well, I´ll be throwing bug reports at it but I was hoping to get more involved.

I heard about WINE a couple years back when I used to (have time to) play WoW & heard someone had found a way to play it on a Linux box (WoW was only released with Windows & Mac OS X install clients). I tested it out & sure enough, it was definitely playable. Ever since then, I´d occasionally throw something new at it & see if I could finally get fully off the evil empire (tm).

I then met Dan Kegel at a Linux Installfest event. Months later, he gave a talk to SGV LUG on Wine & Zumastor (another pretty sweet project). That´s when I found out he was heavily involved in those projects (as well as leading the Picasa for Linux project). We talked at length at SCALE 6 & I was really excited....then BAM!

Once free time arises, I´ll definitely be helping out more on this wonderful project! :)

Startup Project- LA

So I attended the Startup Project- LA event on 10/23/07 at the V Lounge in Santa Monica hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS). I recognized the place right away since I used to go clubbing there when it used to be called Lush. However, some of the negatives started showing themselves right away. Parking was a nightmare as the nearby side-streets had street sweeping on one side & "parking by permit only" on the other. I finally found a metered spot 4 blocks away but it was 2-hour parking for a 5-hour event, oh well. I went inside, got my name badge & noticed no room to sit (they'd just started setting up some folding chairs). Lastly, the whole event felt more like a marketing ploy. Heck, even my friend, Eric, who'd turned me onto AWS at SGVLUG's Slashdot party (& who's using it extensively) bailed early. I stuck around a little longer than I would've only because I wanted to let traffic on the 10 settle down.

But there's good news. Amazon Web Services is really awesome as cloud computing seems to be the wave of the future. Additionally, it's super, duper cheap to use (1 of the presenters talked about having a $60/month bill, which is amazing to me) & seems to be getting adopted by all types of businesses- not just startups. Everyone I spoke with from Amazon was really knowledgeable, friendly & ready to help me with the solution I'm thinking of providing through my small business (that, in itself, was worth the trip for me). Lastly, the presenters provided interesting & unique ways in which they're using AWS for their varied businesses.

All in all, it was a worthwhile endeavor with a few logistical problems & provided me with a nice learning experience & a chance to network with some like-minded entrepreneurial geeks. :)

LinuxBasics.org Course

The latest Linux Basics course starts Nov 1st. It's being done through a forum format which is very interesting. The previous 2 times they've offered this awesome, free course they've done it through a mailing list format. It's a great course that brings together a wide range of people- beginners through advanced users are all welcome. It's a valuable online resource that I highly recommend to everyone (especially all of those people I'm trying to convert away from the behemoth known as Windows). There's a couple of online books that are used as a guideline, they get together once a week to review & discuss the material & it lasts roughly 4 months.

Whether you're a long-time user & want to use it as a refresher or want to introduce yourself to all the awesomeness, flexibility & power involved in the Linux OS, give it a shot, you might learn a thing or three!

Blog Action Day

Today is National Blog Action Day & the topic is "the environment." This blog will be a two-headed monster.

From a computing standpoint, there's a LOT of things you can do in your home to preserve the environment. Only buy & use "Energy Star Compliant" monitors as they not only use less energy but use that energy more efficiently. All newer monitors have this feature but it's the older monitors that you need to check. Make sure to turn off both your monitor & desktop when not in use. While this is a given, a lot of people don't do this since the energy used isn't that much (but that's changing with beefier power supplies, video cards & cpu's). Make sure to buy & use recycled paper & recycled print cartridges for your printer. Also, utilize the service that most office supply companies provide for their customers & recycle your old print cartridges (heck, you even get like $3 per). Lastly, make sure to take all of your e-waste (old computer parts, electronics, etc.) to valid e-waste sites. Many cities have monthly e-waste deposit days & convenient locations to do so. Check your local listings.

Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" has garnered a lot of attention, an Academy Award & Al Gore, himself, just won the Nobel Peace Prize for it. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for the awesome publicity that this famous documentary & the subsequent awareness that's been produced. However, is it all really well-deserved. There's a boatload of scientists who've been talking about this since the 1970's without anyone even noticing or giving THEM their proper respect. Also, it's a little-known fact that Al Gore's family (not necessarily Al Gore, himself) made their millions on oil deposits off the coast of Colombia. Do you think they did everything "by the book," in an environmental-friendly way in a country far away from the prying eyes of EPA? Yea, didn't think so. All the political pundits think he should run for President in '08. This would be a moot point if he hadn't been robbed in 2000 by George W. Bush & his brother Jeb Bush's (*cough* coincidental *cough*) "Hanging Chad Conspiracy" that occurred in Florida. But we should all take a step back when back-patting all these supposed "green-minded" celebrities...I mean, c'mon, they all drive bigger cars (several of them), have bigger homes (which require more energy to maintain lit & warm) & some even hop in their jets! It's good they're at least conscious about our resources but, generally, they leave a MUCH larger carbon footprint on the environment than the average joe. Don't believe the hype!

European Union (EU) suing M$

The proverbial snowball started rolling down the hill a few years ago. In that story, the BBC talks about some pretty shady dealings in Europe & how they were trying to weasel their way out of sanctions.

While I talked about this a couple months back, it´s only a matter of time before they get smacked down where it hurts (in the wallet!)...the clock is cticking...

Contributing to OpenOffice also

Figured since I´d come clean about contributing to Songbird, that I should also mention the other project I´m contributing my rusty QA skillz to. I mentioned OpenOffice.org (aka OOo) almost a couple months back.

OpenOffice rocks the socks off of M$ Office for MANY reasons. There´s versions for ALL operating systems, includes all the same types of programs as Office &, probably best of all, you can save any file you work on as its Office counterpart (in case you´re, say, sending a resume to a company that uses M$). Oh, by the way, it´s FREE too!!!

Aulterra's Neutralizer

So I first heard about Aulterra's Neutralizer on Fidel's Divine Forces Radio show on KPFK like last November. I held off on purchasing it because I wanted to do some more research on it. Well, the more I read about it, the more I'm amazed. I guess I'm amazed, though not very surprised, because of what the cell phone industry is NOT telling us! I remember back when cell phones started getting popular how you'd hear older folks talk about how "those things are gonna fry your brain" & how everyone dismissed those comments as ignorant & non-progressive. As it turns out, the elders were right & now we're the ignorant ones!

It's actually been researched, ad nauseam, & proven that cell phones DO emit harmful electromagnetic fields (EMF). You can find a nice, concise listing of research done here or do your own Google search like this one. It's clear that cell phone radiation does exist (a scientist in the Radiology Dept. of UC Irvine even tried to disprove it & found that what Aulterra claims is actually true...he's now a firm backer of their project). Aulterra now owns a worldwide patent on the technology to neutralize harmful EMF waves emitted by electrical devices (microwaves, computers, laptops, cell phones, hand-held gaming machines, radios, etc.) Even more interesting is that a laws were passed in various European countries (UK, Spain, to name a few) to disallow children under the age of 13 the use of cell phones as they consider it "child abuse." It's bad enough for us adults but children's brains are still developing &, thus, don't have the protective layer to their brain fully developed yet.

When I combine my professional experience with what I've researched about this, it makes sense. As a previous IT Manager at a dermatology office, it was my policy to disallow cell phone use of any kind (matter of fact, the sign read "please turn OFF all cell phones"). You might think this is harsh but have you ever had a cell phone on around a radio? You'll hear interference/static from the radio. That's because both radios & cell phones emit radio frequencies/waves (RF). The same is true for wireless networks, so having cell phones turned on had the potential of causing interference with our network (it actually happened a couple times until I got real adamant about our policy). So do some research & come to your own conclusions. If I know anything, I know I don't know much...but what I do know is that the science behind the Neutralizer is rock solid.

Micro$oft still trying to monopolize the world

New York is the latest state to ponder a move to open standards for government document formats ala ODF. Sure it's good news that another state is attempting to do "the right thing" for the people- selecting a format that's freely available, which lowers government's IT costs, & doesn't depend on Micro$oft's proprietary, high-cost alternative- but we all know Micro$oft won't let it happen. They'll be out in force, spewing the same misinformation & fear tactics that has gotten similar bills defeated in 5 other states- Connecticut, Texas, Oregon, Florida & California.

Living in California, the video from the California State Assembly meeting is especially disturbing (the comment on that page is very insightful & well-informed). Anyone with half an iota of tech knowledge would see that Micro$soft is just trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes with their nonsense &, yet, the bills just keep on getting defeated. Maybe that's part of the problem, we have ZERO tech experts who actually have any influence on the decision-making process.

Let me give you a price-breakdown to show what's at stake. Office 2007 costs $425 retail. OpenOffice is free, uses various ODF formats (& you can even save to Office formats) & runs on MANY operating systems. That's just for 1 user. The discrepancy becomes exponential when you start factoring in licenses (say your small biz has 20 computers, you need 1 license per machine- 20 licenses- to be able to install w/out breaking the law & each license costs extra). That's a considerable investment for any organization or home user who just wants to make a budget & write letters. So it's no wonder Micro$oft is out in force trying to stop this movement as their overpriced, criminally-negligent monopoly could start to crumble. New York's bill is a bit more watered-down than the previous 5 states' bills which were defeated but all of this begs the question- is government making decisions to finally become financially responsible or do these bills keep getting shot down since noone in a decision-making capacity has any clue how to do it after years of $250 toilet seats?

After Ubuntu, Windows looks increasingly bad, archaic & unfriendly

The article basically states everything I've been trying to say both about Linux & Windows for the last few years...the time is now. The article details the myriad of potential issues a regular, everyday user can face & how Windows handles it vs. how Ubuntu (or pretty much any other Linux distro) handles it. We're talking office productivity, management, disaster recovery, etc.

Matter of fact, I talked about this very same topic 3 months ago. You can download Ubuntu and see for yourself. You can also use my previous article to get you started on how to download & verify your operating system download.

If you like the freedom of free open-source software, the ability to completely customize your desktop environment &, yet, still have a very productive & aesthetically-pleasing operating system, then it's about time you at least gave Linux a chance. But like LeVar Burton used to say "you don't have to take my word for it..."

An arm of the military considering FOSS?

In the article linked above, the Navy is now being mandated to consider open source software solutions. This is a breath of fresh air. Could the government actually be doing something to curb costs & government spending? I hope that this mentality infiltrates the rest of the government since we know that open-source solutions are, and always will be, cheaper for both small & large organizations. I'm sure that the Microsoft lobbyists are out in force trying to stop this since we all know that the government's IT buying power is something astronomical like $250 billion & they don't want to be left out in the cold.

I'm optimistic that once the Navy sees both the monetary & stability benefits of what FOSS can do for them, that it'll spread like wildfire. Here's to government finally making some wise financial decisions.

One Laptop Per Child

I heard about the One Laptop Per Child project in February of 2006 (when OLPC had just opened their headquarters in Massachusetts). All I could think of was "wow, why didn't anyone think of this before?" Needless to say, it was going to be a tremendous undertaking- producing laptops for $100 apiece for the SOLE purpose of handing them out to kids in emerging countries (to start) so that they could have a fighting chance of competing on a worldwide level with more fortunate kids their age (who probably take things like this for granted). The idea behind it is that no kids should be "left behind" by the ever-increasing digital divide- an idea I've championed & kicked around in my brain in terms of what I can do here in L.A. (I actually had a great idea for a non-profit which addresses this same issue for inner-city kids back in 1996 but I've yet to be able to act on it...patience, there's still time & that project of mine can still come to fruition). It's really not very different from the FOSS (free open-source software) movement in that its basic tenet is that access to software shouldn't be determined by age, race, class, gender or socioeconomic status. OLPC just takes it one step further in that its goal is to give a laptop to EVERY child in the world. As you can see from the link above, there's lots of partners that have now gotten involved & the software which powers it is free & open-source & uses open-document formats (ODF) which is also something I'm a huge proponent of.

I've actually had some email correspondence with a couple people that are part of the project in those last 16 months in order to see what I could do to provide my help & expertise. Initially, they wanted people to talk to corporations & educational institutions so I spread the word in my own little way (to other techies, educators, etc. I know). Now that the organization is fully up & running (kids in rural areas who are given these laptops can connect to the world through broadband access which, to me, posed a significant, initial obstacle for getting the project off the ground), I feel like I can be more of a help. It should be noted that these aren't for commercial sale here in the U.S. but OLPC is planning on offering it in the near future.

It's about time I wrote about it in an effort to reach even more people & now that the infrastructure's fully operational, I think the time is right to raise more awareness. So please visit the OLPC website, take a look around & see what you can do- whether you donate money or your time, it's a wonderful program created by great visionaries who are revolutionizing computing as we know it. Now this is a "no child left behind" idea that's REALLY working.

When shady politics collide with IT

The Washington Post is reporting something VERY interesting. From the article:

It no doubt surprised most Americans to learn that between 2003 and 2005 the FBI issued more than 140,000 specific demands under this provision -- demands issued without a showing of probable cause or prior judicial approval -- to obtain potentially sensitive information about U.S. citizens and residents. It did not, however, come as any surprise to me.

This, honestly, doesn't surprise me either. I'm more surprised this was revealed by the Washington Post- one of the most pro-Bush mass media publications in the nation. I'm just glad the truth's finally bubbling up to the top & that I didn't receive one of these mandates during my tenure as an IT Manager. Talk about a moral dilemma, disobeying it due to its unconstitutional nature or having to adhere to it (while hopefully garnering some positive spotlight in the realm of public opinion).

Having secret police and no accountability goes against the very grain of what the United States stands for, and what the Constitution says. Our forefathers explicitly ensured that we would have the rights necessary to overthrow our government if things got out of hand (which it currently has with the Bush administration). The government exists to serve the people, not the other way around. Yet Bush sits there, appoints bipartisan committees on such key matters as this war on Iraq & then doesn't even take their findings into account? I guess we don't even matter evidenced by his "this war started on my watch, but will end on yours" comments. Then again, why should he or other members of his cabinet even care? I mean, our Vice President is the same Dick Cheney who was the Chairman & CEO of Halliburton (which he's still a major stockholder of) which has received BILLIONS of dollars in contracts during the war in Iraq!! When you look up "conflict of interest" in the encyclopedia, you see a picture of Dick Cheney. If it smells like a rat & looks like a rat...

Government, at it again

The Register is reporting that the White House is implementing the need for new patches of Windows (both for XP & Vista) to "run on the secure version of Vista" (so I guess, thousands of people have also bought an insecure version?) Of course, this is a bit of an oxymoron as NOTHING on Windows is secure (or do I need to remind you of the emergency Vista security patch that came out the day after Vista was released, it's become routine for the last 10yrs. or so). Heck, before Vista was even released, there was already a list circulating on the internet detailing ALL of its discovered security holes and how to exploit them (memorable to me was the one detailing yet another virus exploit in Office 2K7 file attachments). However, the White House still feels the need to use and support (since they will be upgrading to this in the White House) Microsoft which practices ruthless anti-competitive practices not only here in the U.S. but also in Europe, where the entire EU seems to be suing Microsoft.

The net result will be identically-configured computers with fewer applications (doesn't this make it a Mac?). The whole reason for using Microsoft is to gain access to cheap hardware and a boatload of software. You can best believe there'll be a ripple effect which affects the common home user- as other large companies follow the government's lead with its $65 billion/yr. IT budget. Every computer purchased in a few years will have these restrictions. Every PC, being relatively similar, will only make it MORE susceptible to viruses (but the hope is to recover quicker). Small things like this (and national ID's, for example) are the beginnings of a monoculture, which is just asking for trouble on so many different levels.

Whatever happened to "land of the free, home of the brave?" I guess Brother Ali got it right in his new song titled Letter from the Government where he switches it to "land of the thieves, home of the slaves."