Today I stepped down as an associate to Canonical and followed Schpenke's lead with regard to the new Local Community team management.
We are working on an unofficial support team project to help aid Ubuntu users in Dallas.
Updates!!!
Well... For those who follow my blog, you will know that I officially resigned as of 12:15am. I do know that inquiring minds ask: "Why?" I will hotlink to the reason why below.
Personally, it goes against the philosophy that Canonical has bound with Ubuntu... "Humanity to others" or if you want to put it to the old Christian philosophy "Do unto others as you would unto yourself." But when you form a committee that says which teams can be "approved" or "denied" for things like team webpages, mailing lists, or even free CD's on the release of a new copy of Ubuntu, you encroach on the humanity of another person. Schpenke couldn't agree with it and I followed suit with him. We removed ourselves from our posts with just the Canonical website being the only pending issue as the site is constantly down or being on servers that are requiring repairs.
The next question is probably "What happens to Ubuntu Dallas then?"
As for the Dallas Team, Schpenke and myself have resigned as leaders so that is pretty much done. We are looking for someone in Dallas to step up to the plate and be Canonical's contact for the Dallas folks. JJNova owns the rights to the IRC Channel #ubuntu-dallas so we'll have to see what happens with that. I own the offtopic channel, but I will pass my rights to the new leader once one is found. I will hope that the Dallas Team grows in to a stronger entity, but I am honestly more fearing that the Dallas Team may be choked on development with the idea that a LoCo management committee is the one to be judge jury and executioner to anything team related.
What do I plan to do? I will combine my efforts with Schpenke and dare2dreamer for an effort to advocate free and open source software to the Dallas area. We will sing more of a tune to Linux, but we will not shun those who use a different distro than Ubuntu and even other operating systems such as OS X and Windows. The big difference is that we will opt to be a more social group not afraid of new folks joining our ranks.
To leave with a funny post, I will leave with two things during the hours of separation.
- dare2dreamer felt we could easily be cool geeks as most of us know how to have a good time, bathe (not to reek of geek funk), and most of our ranks have seen women naked (read: not in pornography).
- During the name generation process, I had suggested "Lyceum of the Technologically Apt"
Love is a touchy subject in this modern day and age. For some, it is the the foundation of great romance. For others, it is the fallen ruins of their lives. Imagery of love can be seen with examples like "high school sweethearts" or divorce statistics. Love is not always about happy thoughts or sex as popular media portrays it, but rather there are also "dysfunctional" forms of love that the modern day press would rather avoid. Princeton's WordNet defines love as "a positive emotion with regard or affection."
Love itself is not a spontaneous concept, it requires "pillars" to even begin. Trust, friendship, and courage are strong in creating the foundation of love, but when one falls... the other crumble into dust. Trust is the mutual ability to confide between two beings. A powerful value, as it builds the value of friendship. Friendship is a communal companionship of two beings. Courage is the human ability to stand tall in the face of a challenge be it physical or mental in nature. This step building of the foundation leads to love and continually, love evolves becomes stronger. At the same time, the foundation of love builds itself stronger and stronger.
Sadly, love is not "simple" to comprehend as it is a complex emotion not easily defined in a concrete dictionary manner. Humans are one of the only beings that have such a concept, though there are aspects of the concept that are uniquely primal. Things such as impressing mates with gifts as a display of pride or affection are much like how some animals build and embellish nests as a work of pride to show how able they are to provide for their mate. This muddles the concept of love to one that is materialistic in nature. In the modern day, you hear about how a "strong" male must be able to roll in a large income, be able to be a provider, and most of all shower his mate with gifts of significant monetary value. In a personal definition, love is not one that can be defined by material possessions. If anything, it'd be absurd.
Another facet of love is one that is abusive. One where the feelings are one-sided and destructive to the will of another. This relationship is one where one is lead to believe that the love is there, but they do not realize the magnitude of destruction. What is perceived to some as possibly a BDSM relationship could be the loss of humanity in the victim. Sadly, the victim may not be able to make the call of when enough is enough or their abuser may even kill them from the abuse.
But what about the "cliches" that we are so used to seeing in the movies? Epic things like "true" love and all of those powerful values. To offer an interpretation of "true love", let's clarify that it is a romantic form of companionship that transcends all material bindings. The reality is that we confuse "true love" with "perfect love". "Perfect love" is one that must have physical or material conditions which must be fulfilled or the relationship cannot continue further. With things like divorce that permeate American society, it's apparent that "perfect love" is a popular form rather than the heroic ideal of "true love". Things like money, physique, or other factors can be "calculated" with a highly volatile concept like love. That is confusing.
Let it be know that love is something that is either "true" or "perfect" but there are so many more variables that muck up the concept even more.
Some who know me remember that one of my first jobs was working in an anime shop in town. The one thing I loved about that job was the availability of the Japanese niche items. Sure, they were odd but there wasn't anything similar in America. One item I remember remarkably was my lost Inu Yasha keychain pocket watch, as it looked like an old vintage pocket watch with a leather-like cover made of plastic and the watch was a digital one. I like intricate things and well I was looking for phone charms because I am going to be hopping over to T-mobile soon. I couldn't find any interesting ones until I ran into Strapya World off of a Google search. They have all sorts of straps and charms as well as other knick-knacks of Japanese culture. The most unique of things being pure solid gold Chinese animal zodiac charms (at $279.99 each) and the Ghost Detector charms.
I kept searching through and through for something characteristic of me for a good while. I would find this set of unique LEGEND Cross Pendant series of charms and order one of each. Strapya World is interesting as they make limited runs of the charms and then they are sold out. Some of the designs do return if popularity is shown, like the one where you pry open a preserved clam for a pearl that's been trapped in a metal pendant cage! My girlfriend spotted it for about 400 Japanese Yen (about $4) for it, but I could why it'd be so popular as a romantic gift. I ended up getting her a cute Stitch one (from Disney's "Lilo and Stitch" fame) and the price was more than fair for all the charms I got. I'll give everyone an update when the charms come in.
For a good while, someone passed a rumor to Ars Technica about the possibility of the newest update (I think it's 10.3, correct me if I am wrong - Zero) will brick unlocked iPhones. Of course, there were skeptics as it was possibly Apple propaganda, but well, it would be confirmed yesterday by Ars Technical here. This is interesting as many proponents of the hacking community even laid claims that Steve Jobs was "one" of "them" from his past and making blue boxes to make illegal free phone calls. If Jobs is "part" of the hacker creed then one would assume he would not lay a hand on the community, right? Well, apparently fame has some part to due to the fact that Ars Technica has confirmed that the new update will brick unlocked iPhones. The official statement from Jobs in the article can be roughly paraphrased as "The corporation is going to undo your work, but have fun fighting back".
There are a few legal critics that have commented that Apple's stand on making expensive paper weights in defense of the corporation (bricking) and even voiding warranties on any third party programs even being installed is possibly against the law as cited by Slashdot. It really has to make you wonder though if the corporations can just buy their way out of any laws. Knowing Apple who's basically in bed with AT&T, they will no doubt fight to protect the phone's proprietary lockdown (in America) and limit its use on T-Mobile USA and other local American based SIM networks. I even dare to ask the legality of them voiding warranties for something as simple as unlocking the phone, as there was a law or legislation that had passed saying that unlocking cellular phones is a protected right for consumers for 5 years (with 2009 being the final year) and then the policy is up for debate for renewal or to challenge it. Rendering of the warranty also applies not only with unlocking your phone, but installing third party applications. Want that Tetris or NES emulator on your iPhone, but later your vibrate module dies... Apple just says "Sorry, you installed games that do not come with the iPhone, so SOL on you." In this case... Software wouldn't kill a vibrating motor and I could definitely see an issue with that logic.
On a personal observation, what will this battle bring to the table? The iPhone itself isn't subsidized like the RAZR2 or Blackberry Curve with discounts, you're paying the whopping $399 (and via Apple's store, the 4GB is no longer for sale). I could understand the reason for the fight to lock down the phone for the full ride of the 2 year contract, but you're not getting $250 off of the purchase price or $500 in rebates for a 2 year hitch. You buy the iPhone for $399, then with a Windows or Mac with iTunes you then unlock your phone to purchase a contract plan with AT&T. Those who wish to use it outside of AT&T have to rely on programs that perform a "jailbreak" on the iPhone and then after that fact, the phone is then exploited to install a third party program to give the iPhone the ability to install programs onto it. From there you're able to load the exploit to unlock the phone for private use with your provider of choice. I mean, in retrospect, you don't see Apple fighting to keep the AppleTV from being able to load a full OS X system on it and other off label uses for it. I will say one thing... I look forward to the ending of this story with Apple killing unlocked iPhones.
Well... Where do I start with this? And it's not a discussion about life elements or anything of that sort. This is actually a bit of a video game review and rant. Some of you all know that I like some of the oddest games out on the market... Some of these are even so mind numbingly painful that they could cause severe damage to a person's psyche due to pure insanity. I know that my dear friend Noirsword gives me the sigh when I go off on how much I love the sadistic difficulty of a game. Once could call me the royal ass clown who makes some of the "hardcore" Japan-o-phile gamers look like petty thugs because of liking some of the weirdest games that barely make it to the US or never jumped ship to America.
A while ago, there was a title on the Nintendo DS that got lots of flack for being so lacking on many factors. The graphics sucked, the bird's-eye view perspective blew ass, and hell the music was absolutely dreadful! I am talking about the American "limited" release title Tenchu: Dark Secret, the translation of the Japanese Tenchu Z: Dark Shadows. The game could be a lot better, I will admit... even better if GameStop/EB wasn't ripping the title at $29.99 (better than the original $34.99), but my local Fry's Electronics had the Japanese Tenchu Z for $19.99. Which I am a bit reluctant to buy the Japanese one as my comprehension of Japanese is a bit basic at best... Nothing like going "What the heck am I supposed to do?" when I don't know if a mission says "kill all enemies" or "defend your area" from my limited Japanese vocabulary.
The gameplay mechanics could be significantly better as small commodities in the Tenchu games are missing, such as the grappling hook or even the simple third-person view. It is a bit unrealistic that the jump can get you over most walls. The graphics are sadly dated and could have been refined better. The great part about the game is that you can build and craft your own ninja tools and weapons, provided you have enough provisions. The wi-fi comes into play with the crafting items as you can sell your gear to friends or people on the internet at whatever price you wish to make a spot of profit. The crafting should have been implemented a long time ago as I remember the early Tenchu games (without cheating) buying supplies and tools got EXPENSIVE! You can assemble high grade traps and equipment if you're lucky which have even more effectiveness, if you're lucky.
The comedic value is more in chaining up combos of traps. Why? You apparently get kill image scrolls from that. What's so cool about it? It's more from the fact that the images are pretty funny, if not down right cheeky. The problem is... well, is chaining up traps to earn some of the high level scrolls. It's not as easy as it sounds in theory. some of the enemies like the bears have very erratic patterns that are unpredictable to plan for, with the novice in mind. (From the GameFAQ boards, it seems that the bear is one of the easiest to get the high end kill scrolls from). All in all, there are no "built-in" cheats known so far and it is a little frustrating to even some of the casual gamers.
I am one of the few who missed when games were pretty hard to the point that you wanted to just fight the system and just play a game to the end because it was just so involving. Tenchu comes close, but sometimes it's more frustration rather than inspiration for greatness. I would like a revival of games like Thunderforce V, Lufia or any other game that just plain sucks you in because of purely addicting game play. I mean, I love RPG's and FPS games, but those entertain for so much and then become somewhat bland when you're burned out from them. With games trying to rest too much on the laurels of past wins (see Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core et al), it muddles the fire of inspiration. Instead, you get rehashed plots or half-baked game play. I hope that more and more people see this light, because gaming is stagnating in many vectors while you have folks in the PC and Nintendo realms pushing for the limit.
I can still remember when I was age twelve when I got my first computer. It was a first Sony Vaio desktop with a Pentium I with MMX processing chip sporting 166mhz of power with 32mb of RAM. It had Windows 95 and did the job for a good while for me until the machine quickly became obsolete due to all the developments in the digital world. It wouldn't be until I hit age 16, that I would be able to feed my tech-hungry self with the expense from my part time job to build my own machine. This new machine would be affectionately known as The Beast v2 with a Athlon Thunderbird 1.17ghz and just 256mb of RAM. I would mainly use it for music mixing and some LAN party gaming but that was really it... well until the poor thing hit the dust from my sister browsing sites of questionable origin attracting odd malware.
This would lead to my stage of form and function... I wanted a machine that was small, but strong. Shuttle's XPC format was finally getting good steam from many of the overclockers on the web, so I figured "Why not?" I would get a little machine and build it with lots of recycled parts from The Beast, but yet I was underwhelmed... Maybe it was the fact that I didn't have a DVD burner or even a budget that could afford the best RAM and processor. But with the machine, it served its purpose as a gaming and internet machine. The shame with this machine was it would have some failings that would cause it to lose its value quickly.
I would end up getting a Mac mini from my last iteration of The Beast just malfunctioning as something to allow me to do my academic work on and just plain function. I was rather pleased with the experience, but much like The Beasts before... This machine was just underwhelming due to it lacking wireless, bluetooth, a big hard drive, strong processor, and appropriate RAM. As newer and newer updates came out, the machine just became more and more sluggish. Apple would earn the ire of my anger for revising the Mac mini with a faster Intel based chip and much more robust features just a year after I had bought mine... Once the slowdowns got purely unbearable, I had to find another means to try resuscitate The Beast to live once more until I could afford a proper machine to do my computing on.
After some time in the dark... I would just crack open the holding cell for The Beast and just try to do what I could to revive the machine. I got sick of how slow my Mac got and just savored the one thing I missed most... Computer games. After some fiddling, I got The Beast back online and I could resume the life I had before the Mac... but that time would be just a bare year after the constant pestilence from virus or malware attacks. This was right around when I would begin my conversion to Ubuntu Linux. Until a very serious private life event would happen...
On moving back home to my parents, I couldn't afford to drop a wi-fi card into The Beast and on the relinquished laptop was Windows XP Media Center Edition. So I had to buckle down and just use that to get by, as I was a bit leery of the support of Ubuntu on my laptop. A lot of folks actually had laptops similar to spec as mine which had no problem with the last release of 6.10, that was reassuring. I would cut the life support on XP as it just couldn't live properly on just a 1.73 ghz Celeron with just 512mb of RAM. On switching, it's been a rather pleasant experience which I have not regretted.
With regard to my future aspirations, I just want to own two more laptops so that I can be versed in all the vectors in questions. I know many of my friends and family own Windows machines and there are a few that own Apple machines. I just would like to have one of each, just so I can field questions or just take whichever one suits my applications properly... For a Windows laptop, it'll primarily do computer games and device modifications as I have found most device modifications and updates just don't cater to the Linux or Apple crowd. I miss Guild Wars and then I have had a few unlocking opportunities for Motorola's that I have missed out on a quick $25 to supplement my income from lack of a Windows machine. Then there's also the desire for a second round at Apple with a MacBook. I would probably seek to get one with a fully loaded set of specs but I doubt it'll be within the line of a MacBook Pro budget. I would probably fall into the iPod crowd just to see what all the jazz is about as I have never owned one really. The laptops will probably be purchased with time, so I will probably stew over the choices before dropping serious coin on the decision. The hardest part will be making a choice between the Windows or Apple machine first. I know that this purchase will probably not happen until possibly next year, so I can wait on that... Especially considering the floating rumors that Apple will incorporate the iPhone and iPod Touch interface with the new MacBooks which would be quite a novelty to try out.
Dear 419ing Nigerian Scammers,
With some of us trying to making quick cash by getting rid of our old possessions, your scamming tricks are highly unappreciated and not wanted anywhere. Be it eBay or any other place where we are trying to sell our wares because it wastes our time. Everyone knows "Time is Money" so quit wasting our time. It was bad enough on eBay when you would fraudulently win with a ridiculously high bid and then try to pay with that same tried and true method you use. Oh..? You forget what that is..? Let me refresh your memory.
You start by saying you have significant interest in our item and will do anything to have it. Afterwards, you then fabricate a story that you are "out of the country" or that it's for your cousin in "Europe" or "America"... Just there's
one caveat, your listed address is somehow in Nigeria. Oh... what's that? You don't have cash, but you'll draft out a bad cashier's check for payment? Oh..? You want me or other sellers to send you the items first? Talk about trying to trying to pull a fast one... Sorry, not everyone is that foolish to give away their possessions for you for free.
Another bone I need to pick... Your overly flower stories are just beyond the vocabulary of average Americans. Do you honestly think that Jim-Bob from Nantucket is going to give two shits that you're the "Exalted Minister of Witch Doctor Affairs" from some royal family that has a name which is a pain in the ass to pronounce? Even more so, that your spelling and grammar are HORRENDOUSLY awful?
Why don't you take your games and STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM CRAIGSLIST LOCAL SELLERS. You want to scam someone, keep it on eBay. I'm trying to sell my shit locally so I can pay off my debt and bills and don't need your messages wasting my time and I don't think that others would appreciate their time wasted. I will wait for the day that the UN condemns your country for your vile practices of making a dollar, euro, or yen off of some gullible sap.
Regards,
ZeroXR
I am sure that many of you who do read my personal misadventures with technology know that I have not had a great time with AT&T which got bought up by Cingular. (Zero's Note: Even more so if you personally know me, I am sure you may have heard some of my horror stories.) In turn, Cingular dropped the whole AT&T/Cingular moniker to just plain Cingular. That would put me in a schism as Cingular refused to respect AT&T's customers and well I would be forced onto Cingular's plans from an interesting bind that pretty much put me between a rock and a hard place.
The fact after I was mailed a "voucher" to redeem as in incentive, they somewhat had me miffed as a customer. They offered me the same things like a new customer would get... I didn't understand why. (I'll get into that later) I liked the fact when AT&T and Cingular were two separate entities as AT&T did not play in the games of deceptive practices. With the change to play in deceptive pricing games, Cingular, no... the "NEW" AT&T won't provide good deals unless you tack on extra services and other services that not only cost more, but are also needlessly useless. The sales associates are one to fast talk you into contracts without labeling the intricate details... Things like AIM/Yahoo/MSN messages are $0.15/message if you do not get a text message plan or the $175 breakage fee per line if you decided a few months out that they didn't suit your needs. Don't expect too much help from their Customer Service lines, they are absolute garbage... I have gotten nothing but disrespectful agents who don't seem to care about the reputation of a cell phone company that is quickly failing in reputation. I mean, they lost their JD Power awards in the cell phone category for "Best Customer Service" and "Fewest Dropped Calls" for crying out loud!
I thought my anger with AT&T was already at the limit, until I found... this CSR dialog book that was leaked by The Consumerist. If they "deem" that you're just a leech for their resources, the reps flag your account with a tag of LTV1. Here's what the term LTV1 is defined as:
What is LTV?
Life Time Value (LTV) measures the subscriber's overall value to the company (based on revenue, account plan, on and off-network and data usage, length of service, etc . ). LTV1 accounts are customers who create a negative profit for the company. In most cases, these customers actually cost the company money each month.How are these customers different from EON customers?
LTV1 customers are unprofitable to the company for one or more of the following reasons: revenue, account plan, on and off-network and data usage, length of service, etc . EON customers are unprofitable solely for their excessive off-network usage. EON customers are in direct violation of AT&T's Terms and Conditions and must change their calling habits to be eligible to keep their AT&T service. Keep in mind some EON customers may be LTV1 based on their off network usage as this is one of the factors used to determine LTV.Why are we changing the way we handle LTV1 customers?
To contribute to our Revenue goal, we are no longer going to save LTV 1 customers. Small percentages (less than 5%) of our customers, through a variety of factors, do not produce revenue for our company though they may be good customers in other aspects. This decision to change the way we handle these customers may allow the remaining 95% of our customers to take advantage of even greater discounts on equipment or rate plans when upgrading their service.Definition from the AT&T/Cingular CSR handbook from The Consumerist
These terms also affect iPhone users, for example, that connect to wi-fi hotspots more than 150 times a month and other gray-area zones they can flag them as LTV1 or even nip the account in the bud while charging you a breach of contract fee. The fact of the matter is that they also have no retention strategy for customers of the old AT&T before the merger/buyout is absolutely ludicrous. Their only "offer" for people who's contracts are about over are to try to push you to a device that does not have any extra discounts. You get the same price as a person who would walk into a retail store to sign for new service. I mean, the incentive upgrade I got mailed was seriously misleading... as it claims you get these two particular music phones for free, but unless you go into the store, you find that anyone gets your "incentive upgrade" for free as well! Talk about raining on a "feel good" parade, eh?
I am looking more and more into moving to T-Mobile as their plans are far less expensive and their options and plans are a little more clear cut than AT&T's seriously misleading offers, options, or plan tiers. With the fact that many of my friends who are on T-Mobile have had nothing but great things to say about T-Mobile... I feel a little more at ease with putting my trust in them. The creepy factor of AT&T reporting to the mother ship and the feds without a legal warrant puts me at an uneasy state, much like Big Brother is watching or spying on my every word or text message.
I know once my contract comes to an end, I'll be looking into a T-Mobile BlackBerry Pearl in midnight blue a bare basics myFave's 300 plan, unlimited mobile to mobile, and unlimited messaging. The sad part... it will cost less than my current plan does now. I will say this... The end is near for AT&T's deceptive practices according to a new bill that's being debated by the Senate. Check it out: The Cell Phone Consumer Empowerment Act of 2007
If you believe in the ideals of the following bill, get your state senator on board to vote for it! End the dinosaur practices that are plaguing another next generation service!
Met with brandonperry of Ubuntu Dallas and we discussed things with regard to our Software Freedom Day loss of venue site. About late 7pm, Schpenke, ExxonValdeez and Maczimus popped in #ubuntu-dallas and we got the gears moving. For now, here's what we have established.
Papers/Lectures/Workshops
- I will be doing a "workshop" on helping a family get out of close-source software
- brandonperry may do a lecture on Mono/C#
Venues
- The Central Dallas Library location is dead due to loss of location
- Many libraries require a 2 week notice period before booking venues
- Tempest Teas in Dallas was suggested
- Tempest Teas does cater to meetings/venues
- The location on Lovers may be the ticket.
Members of Ubuntu Dallas,
In light of Schpenke's announcement that we have lost our Software Freedom Day site... We need to agree on a new location to hold our event. We have SEVEN DAYS to decide on a new location and I would like to hold a special session meeting to see if we can drum up serious discussion on a meeting site. At this rate, the event may not even be that big... but I would hope we can maybe attract curious on-lookers or even fellow Linux users.
I would like to call a special session meeting at Java and Cha Co. in Plano for a second go-around for a meeting. If you can make it out, please let JJNova or myself know in the channel #ubuntu-dallas on irc.freenode.com ASAP. Time is seriously of the essence.
JJNova: If you find out who all is coming for sure, just toss me an e-mail and let me know.
[Ubuntu Dallas Special Session Meeting Details]
Location: Java and Cha Co. (Plano, Texas)
Date: Sept. 8, 2007
Meeting Start Time: 6:45pm - 7:00pm
Topics: SFD, Venue location
Address:
1820 Coit Rd #138
Plano, TX 75075
Site Details
Serves coffee, tea, boba/pearl teas, cookies and other misc snacks.
Free wifi with an item purchase
Plenty of power strips to plug in
