Journal Jul 2004
Added more computer resources such as desktop publishing and HID hardware.
Added links to the classic Mac game, Glider, which the author has made freely available, and includes PRO for Mac OS 9 and OS X and 4.0 for OS 6 and 7 and Windows. See the computer resources page for details. Why do I care about Macs all of a sudden? Well, they're not the best deal (price/performance-wise) in computing, but they are pretty intuitive to use, they have a lot of style, and they have a solid fan base for finding support. Plus, they use Mac OS X now, which is based on FreeBSD.
Yes, we have wedding pictures (full album)! It took about a month to trim all of the pictures and write the code, but it's now finished. I used GIMP, vim, and Mozilla Firefox on Win32. Once again, that proves that desktop publishing can be done on free software (of course, not including Windows). Visit the wedding page for details.
Help stop TCPA! The "Trusted Computing Platform Alliance" (TCPA), or "Trusted Computing Group" (TCG), aims to allow only "signed software" to run on TC-compliant hardware, annihilating open-source software like GNU/Linux, OpenOffice, and Mozilla, or anything you may want to program yourself. And your iPod may be next, including your collection (legal or not) of mp3s. This initiative was started by Intel and now supported by Microsoft, and unfortunately (because I otherwise respect them as companies), HP and AMD. The "aim" is to prevent software and media piracy as well as protect users from viruses and attacks, but the group is slowly backing down many benefit claims for users.
Please, please visit Against TCPA or No TCPA!, and also the 'Trusted Computing' FAQ and Can you trust your computer? (GNU.org site) for details. For general digital freedom issues, also please see the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). EFF is fighting for your digital rights and freedom, not corporations.
What can you do to help? Support (use) open-source software like Mozilla Firefox, OpenOffice, and The GIMP, which are excellent, if not better, alternatives to IE, Office, and Photoshop, respectively. Read all the facts, including what is claimed by the TCG. Read George Orwell's 1984. (I haven't yet, but I'm inspired to do so now.) Write to elected government officials. Sign the online petition (for Germany; when it becomes available) on paradome. Spread the word.
For Windows users, get Mozilla Firefox 0.9.2, which fixes a vulnerability in 0.9.1 and below. Still highly recommended over IE, which still doesn't have a fix for at least one known security hole (to date). See my web help page for details.
Past Journal Entries: 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001
2010 Journal Entries: Nov
Common and favorite references and their acronyms:
- Washington Post (WaPo): http://www.washingtonpost.com/ (requires free login)
- Moby's journal: http://www.moby.com/journal/
- Sojourners (Sojo): http://www.sojo.net/ (requires free login)
- Tom's Hardware Guide (THG): http://www.tomshardware.com/
- Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF): http://www.eff.org/
- SourceForge.net (SF): http://www.sourceforge.net/
- My referral link for a free Mac Mini (legit): http://www.freemacmini.com/?r=160454 (why this is here)
