Waiting for Windows 7

Caught an interesting article about a software tool that lets you strip some of the bloat from Windows Vista.  Which is great, since from what I’ve seen of it, it is some seriously bloated OS software.  I won’t run it.  My XP system is stripped down to optimize for pro audio and video.  I could care less about pretty backdrops, system sounds, etc.  I cringe when I see Vista with Aero, or whatever it’s called, running.

I mean, its cool and all…  eye-goodies.  If your running a general purpose system for internet, music, etc., go for it.  Impress your friends.  But, if you’re doing anything serious… forget about it.

One tidbit in the article gives me hope, though, the next version of Windows will be modular and initial developers will have to write code based on a “minimal” installation of the new OS.  Maybe one day I’ll have a 64-bit OS with more than 4 gigs of RAM without having to deal with bloated eye-goody that I don’t need.

Music Industry Throwing in the Towel?

This morning I read an article about a service that will offer millions of song free for downloading.  All legal.

 Legal?  But, what about the RIAA?  What about all the lawsuits against college students, 10-year-old girls and 80-year-old grandmothers?  What about all the money in settlements that people have paid for downloading music?

This new “service”, QTrax, will offer a song catalog of over 25 million songs from EMI, Universal, and Warner Music… all companies who have sued their fans for “stealing” music.  The new service will use DRM to track downloads and song plays and feed people ads.  The record companies will then reap profits based on this data.  Won’t work with iPods, but, then again, what does except iTunes?

Anyway… are they going to give the money back to all those people they sued?  Don’t hold your breath.

UPDATE:  Oh, well… never mind. 

Electricity Pwned

Sometimes I’m bothered by the fact that many companies adopt network-controllable industrial equipment without understanding the security being taken.  Take, for example, this latest CIA report about hackers trying to extort money from utility companies by threatening to shut down their power grid.

Science fiction, it is not.  So, with that in mind, do electronic voting terminals really make sense?  Perhaps they do, if you’re a powerful politician looking to rig an election from the comfort of your living room.

A fool and his vote are soon parted.

Buying the Presidency

I’m frankly disgusted that politicians are going to spend over a billion dollars to campaign for the U.S. Presidency.  I can’t even begin to explain why.  Well, I could, but why bother?

If you want to learn more about how the Presidential election process functions (and I use the word loosely)… check out these links:

How do Caucuses work?

The Electoral College: How it Works in Contemporary Presidential Elections

2004 Presidential Campaign Financial Activity Summarized

Childhood’s End

I got my first computer when I was 12 years old.  It was a Timex-Sinclair 1000 with the 16kb RAM expansion module.  Little membrane keys and blocky monochrome graphics… I loved it.

I would spend hours learning to program in it’s built-in basic.  I then progressed to a Commodore 64, a couple of Amigas (500 and 1200) and finally, a Windows PC clone.  80286.  Don’t ask me what the processor speed was.  It was slow.  And wonderful.

I was assimilated.

I played games, too.  Boy, did I play games.  Infocom, AD&D role-playing, arcade, flight sim, 1st person shooters… anything I could get my hands on.  Hell, I still miss Elite on the C-64.

Following the latest in gaming technology was a passion for me.  I was hard-core.  At least, I thought I was.  But, doesn’t every teenage boy?

Now, I have one game on my PC.  Quake 3.  I kill a friend every now and then, but mostly I just play a bot.  Gaming no longer holds its sway over me.  Sure, I check out game websites every now and then just to see what’s happening.  You know… check out a few screen shots.  And, I certainly follow the graphic card industry and try to keep my graphics humming.  For other reasons, though.  Not because I want to play the latest 1st person shooter.  (What is that now?)

You see, games are cool and all; but when you can create music or art… Or edit video and create animations.  Or create a cool website or graphic… Or all the other incredible things you can do with computers other than play games… why bother?  Ultimately, it’s just a waste of time.  A diversion.  But, still, I pine away a bit for the good old days of 12 hour gaming sessions trying to get enough experience points for the next level.  Making the kill.  Learning the next spell.

Sigh…

Mainly, I guess I grew up.