The new era of computer desktops

So I’m writing this entry on a 5 year old computer which is freshly installed with the shiny new Ubuntu 10.4 Linux operating system, using the even shinier, and still somewhat new Google Chrome browser. Which is all techno-babble for, “the latest and greatest in stuff that doesn’t come from Microsoft”.

And it’s all very VERY impressive. This new operating system is so slick it is the first one of its kind to equal what windows can do in terms of putting something in the hands of ordinary users that can be used, and in some respects do better than anything they have done. Ubuntu is really something my mother could use, and be happy with.

Why does this matter? Well there are lots of technical reasons why this is a milestone, but in my mind the biggest one is the fact that a lot of very vocal people over the last decade said, it couldn’t be done (this being a Linux desktop that anyone could use as easy as Windows). For me though, the even bigger reason is the cultural change this milestone is going to bring about to the worlds masses that use a computer for either work, or for personal use; which is to say, everyone.

To this day, the great technical unwashed masses use Microsoft for everything they do in their online lives, with the big exception of mobile stuff. Thanks to Apple, the iPhone has shown everyone there is another world out there that is exciting and fresh and hip. Apple’s marketing team has been hard at work though getting this message out for quite a number of years though through their series of television advertisements which have become culturally iconic. Justin Long, who plays Mac, and John Hodgman who plays PC, have become popular and parodied and sustaining in their comedic roles as the two friendly rivals on opposite sides of the computer technology fence. It was really a stroke of brilliance on Apple’s part to take the technology out of the tech, and put in it’s place personas that we identify with, and remember. This has been why the last 5 years have seen the rise of the Mac against the backdrop of the Windows behemoth.

So with Ubuntu now adding a new range of hammer and chisels to the mainstream with which to start chipping away at Microsoft’s monopoly, I see real change on the personal computer horizon. We’re still a long way from the days when there isn’t one all mighty powerful company running the global PC show, but a number companies that compete on the grounds of innovation and features for a user base that pays a very modest fee for their personal computing choices. However, like the Berlin Wall, it had to be chipped away one piece at a time over a long period of time before it wasn’t there any more. I liken the fall of Windows to the fall of the Berlin Wall because they both start with an ideology change in the minds of the masses, which takes root and grows, and eventually leads to action, which results in a downfall.

I’m not in any way saying that Microsoft is an evil regime, though many do and probably for good reason. My personal stance is, Microsoft just want to make a lot of money which they do through market dominance. I leave it to the courts to decide if what Microsoft does is done in a legal or good or bad way. However I do believe that we the masses are being screwed by Microsoft because they want to keep prices high for tech goods that are now so ubiquitous and necessary they should be cheaper than peanuts. The only way Microsoft really holds onto its dominance is by holding people to ransom to keep us locked into their business. Which is what they do with a lot of open standards that could free consumers choice; Microsoft buys off companies and governments to make them stay on their side of the fence. It’s legal, but really, it’s not right.

Today I see another avenger of justice on the desktops of ordinary people, and for the first time believe that one day I’ll live to wake up to a world where Microsoft isn’t on every computer everywhere I go.

Andy.

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The internet is here to stay, and that means so are MMO’s (MMORPG’s, MUSH’s, MUD’s, and any other M*&^’s you can think of). You’d think then that with the internet being as mainstream as electricity and shampoo that everyone would know about MMO’s. Right?!

Wrong!

Just the other day I was chatting with a really close friend – who just happens to be a girl, but which shouldn’t be an indicator that I’m about to say something sexist – about World of Warcraft. I was telling her that my troll hunter spoke with a Caribbean accent and had three fingers, which for some reason caused her to break out into hysterical laughter. I was a bit baffled by this to be honest, because my troll hunter (who just celebrated his 5th birthday yesterday – yes WoW turned 5) has always had an accent that makes women melt, and only three fingers ever since he was born (generated).

So I took it upon myself to educate the young lady about the vast and untameable virtual worlds that occupy vast spaces on the internet. Their history spanning back to the dawn of the network digital age, and their breadth extending across the globe to all corners of the real world. MMO’s were the first addiction digital addiction of the true gamer geek, and shall be the last. They shall stand the test of time and always be with us. You could almost argue that MMO’s are the one true purpose of the internet. After all, the perpetuation of MMO’s has spurred the development of virtual realities; virtual realities are the purpose of the internet. Worlds within worlds; realities within realities; mirror images of mirrors.

Very eloquent stuff, but she didn’t get any of it. In fact she started yawning at the half way point, and then got up and walked away at the end. Needless to say it totally went over her head, and she forgot about my troll, his accent, and how many fingers he had, like so much useless yesterdays news.

Really it showed me that being a gamer geek is really like having a special set of genes that make you that kind of person, just like for being tall, or asian, or a midget. If you have the gamer gene, you’ll get it. If you don’t, then about all you’ll get is bored, and frustrated at the weird person who won’t shut up about his troll.

Which makes me wonder why some geneticist doesn’t go look for it, and then offer it in a box of pills for money.

“Do you suck at gaming? Need to impress a boyfriend who leads a double life as a troll? Then buy IGOTGAME capsules and show them you’re not a totally pussy!”

I should do marketing for a job!

Andy.

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Left the house t-shirt @ SplitReason.com

So I came across this t-shirt looking for gift ideas for Christmas for the close mates, a couple of who just happen to be World of Warcraft players! I had to laugh. This shirt is a nice parody on the Acheivements system that the new expansion has introduced so the WoW gamer will definitely recognise this, possibly as much for the reality as for the game feature.

Like just about every WoW gamer with an account that hadn’t been touched in a lot of months, I took myself out of retirement to try the new expansion and see what it was like. Seeing if a game lives up to its hype is always something that I look forward to with a thrill, it’s when you find out if you’ve got something good in your hands, or you’ve been sucked in by the wonder bra effect. The danger with a game being too good is that you all too quickly can lose track of time and your life. Fortunately though, my time as a hardcore gamer has been and gone, much like a two year period addicted to herion. Now I can enjoy a game without the worry of giving up days and weeks at a time exploring it’s landscapes with the intent to kill anything that moves. But you know for every one casual gamer like me, there’s probably two hardcore cases that will become allergic to sunlight, and make a WoW widow out of their significant other!

You’d actually think it should be a warning they put on the side of the box!

Andy.

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People are funny; but doubly so when they are on a chat forum typing away in the complete safety of a physical location far far away from the virtual place you exist for that moment in. Face to face people are mostly polite, respectful of others feelings and conform to – some kind of – social norms. However take away this face to face element and put people behind a computer and let them say what they will without having to look you in the eye, and that same respectful person will most likely turn into a right prick quite deserving of a kick in the nuts. Well a portion of them anyway.

I don’t know what it is in the human condition that removes the social centers of etiquette when you can’t see the person you’re talking to, but instead must abstract an image of them in a virtual environment. It could be that you don’t have to follow any social pretense of conforming to rules of social conduct. Or perhaps there is no need to worry about having to deal with the repercussions of upsetting someone who is in the same room and may call you out. Maybe there is a another center of the brain that becomes active in a virtual setting that operates in a very different way from the I-can-see-you social part. It seems age exacerbates this behavior and compounds the effect of etiquette loss, turning young people into trash talking little monsters.

Whatever it is, I hope they find a drug to cure the really bad cases of this, because I had to spend some time in a virtual community tonight, and the amount of abuse some of the people there were handing out, I happily would have thrown a few of them into a volcano. Oh stop being so sensitive, I hear you say! Well yes, you’re probably right, maybe I should just let all the trash talking slide off me like water off a ducks back. But you know, doesn’t that seem like it encourages bad behavior? So I’m actually endorsing trash talking by not taking a stand.

Where will it all end? Today, trash talking in online forums; tomorrow, chaos and the end of the world! This is how wars start you know!

Andy!

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There was a computer game that I came across when I was 16 years old on the C64 called Crystal Hammer. It was this really cool game that looked like it was from the same family as Tetris, and if you don’t know what Tetris is, then you really weren’t into videogames at all, in which case I feel sorry for you, and think you had a cheated childhood. Anyway, Crystal Hammer had this absolutely wicked intro tune, that I used to leave on loop and dance around my bedroom to. I loved it so much, I even filled both sides of a blank 90 minute cassette tape, just so I could listen to it when I wasn’t allowed to have the computer on. It was this intro loop that made me realise, that I was definitely an electronic music lover, and techno-head.

I’d completely forgotten about it, until some bizarre moment this afternoon when I was at the computer doing some work stuff, and the thought came into my head – CRYSTAL HAMMER! Well after a quick search, Google turned up that site, which had the original game mod (computer music file), to download. Seriously listening to that intro loop again for the first time in something like 20 odd years gave me so many happy flashbacks of being 16 again, I haven’t stopped smiling in three hours.

Nostalgia is a funny thing; back there in the day, we were always looking forward waiting for everything to be different, and now in the future, we look back and wish we could have the good old days back again.

Ah you know, bring back the 80’s, and big glam hair! And parachute pants, and…

Andy!

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