freelance tech writer. WYPR radio producer. Ignite NYC community manager. media geek. Williamsborg. wannabe master of cultural forensics. banh mi luster.
Spurred by outrage over the censorship of a video featuring Tom Cruise, an Internet group named "Anonymous" has declared war on Scientology. So far this has allegedly involved Denial of Service attacks on their servers, as well as other means of disruption detailed at Project Chanology. Operation Clambake, leading web source of information critical of the Church of Scientology, does not condone these actions. What do you think? Are these Internet vigilantes doing more harm than good? Or is the information being brought to light in wake of these publicized events justifying the actions?
Looking to make a small edit to a personal web page but don’t know where to start? Haven’t looked at HTML in a few years? Want to teach yourself how to build a web page from scratch? W3Schools has free tutorials covering topics like:
Ever felt curious, but never got around to experimenting with Linux? Now you really don’t have any excuses. Wubi makes it a snap to dual boot Linux on a Windows machine. The Wubi installer acts like any normal Windows program, so you can uninstall it from the Add/Remove section under the Control Panel if you decide that you don’t want to have Linux on your computer anymore. No need to mess around with partitions! Setup is a snap, it took me a click or two to get the installation process moving, and a little bit of a wait while Wubi downloaded the necessary installation files for Ubuntu, the most widely adopted flavor of Linux out there right now. Unfortunately, wireless support for Ubuntu right out of the box is not quite there yet, there were a few solutions that I easily found that required going into the Terminal and putzing about.
Otherwise, Ubuntu might make the ideal operating system for a grandparent or someone with limited computer needs: email/web surfing/word processing. It’s not nearly as susceptible to viruses as Windows and unlike a designer Apple product, it’s free! It even comes with the open source Open Office, which is pretty compatible with Microsoft Office. I haven’t tested it, but Ubuntu should run fine as soon as you install it on a desktop system, and its relatively low system requirements means that it should work fine on older computers.
Wubi is an unofficial Ubuntu installer for Windows users that will bring you into the Linux world with a single click. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other application. If you heard about Linux and Ubuntu, if you wanted to try them but you were afraid, this is for you.
“Our frustrations with machines are not going to be solved with better machines,” Dr. Norman said. “Most of our technological difficulties come from the way we interact with our machines and with other people. The technology part of the problem is usually pretty simple. The people part is complicated.”
Mario spoke with Donald last month. Listen to the segment here.
I’ve been following developments on the Asus EEE since I first heard about it during the summer. I just received mine in the mail from newegg.com.
It’s an ultraportable notebook featuring: a 7" screen, web cam, usb ports, wireless, 4gb flash hard drive. It comes pre-installed with xandros, a linux-derived operating system, open office, firefox, skype, pidgin, and some other programs including games and learning applications geared towards young children.
Best of all, it runs about $400, which is a fraction of the cost of similar notebooks. There are also other models available, including the 2G Surf version which goes for $300, but includes has non-upgradable ram, lacks a webcam, and has shorter battery life and a $500 8G model which has more ram and hd space.
The screen will induce some neck cramps, but adding the fullerfox firefox extension helps a lot. Here’s what it will look like.
Pros:
lightweight (around 2lbs)
intuitive operation system
good build quality
perfect for basic word processing, email, and web tasks
Cons
the keyboard is tiny and takes getting used to
the trackpad button isn’t very responsive
It will take some work, but you can also install XP on it. Notebookreview.com has a guide with detailed instructions (which I haven’t attempted yet). There have even been reports of people even managing to install Leopard. Here’s a video of one with a modded touchscreen interface.
Bottom line, I wish I had something like this while schlepping around NYC a few months ago during the CMJ Music Marathon, it’s barely bigger than a book, isn’t noticeable heavy, has good wifi range (better than my Dell Inspiron 1501), and is perfect for basic productivity: blogging, word processing, web surfing.
It’s easy to get preoccupied with the immediate when you’re in a rush. Taking a step back to experience things more fully often gives perspective and focus that can be lost in the daily grind. Sometimes it’s easy to forget why we do the things that we do. On that note, here’s a quote from former executive editor of Harvard Business Review, Nicholas Carr:
"The scariest thing about Stanley Kubrick’s vision wasn’t that computers started to act like people but that people had started to act like computers. We’re beginning to process information as if we’re nodes; it’s all about the speed of locating and reading data. We’re transferring our intelligence into the machine, and the machine is transferring its way of thinking into us. "
