moving parts of the kasper clan

In case you’ve been living under a rock, or working at some large, silly corporation that develops only for Internet Explorer, Opera has just released version 8 of their excellent web browser. You can check out what has changed yourself–I won’t bore you with the list.

Again, in case you’ve been living under a rock, or working at… somewhere less than clueful… Opera is a standards-compliant browser, is feature-rich, fully skinnable, has an excellent e-mail program, does lots of Really Cool Stuff (TM), and in general, is the browser that I normally try to make Firefox mimic when I occasionally switch back and forth between it and Opera. The things that Firefox does well are largely things that Opera has been doing and doing well for quite a while. And, I LOVE the community and general feel behind Opera!! The graphic above (the graphic currently found on Opera’s home page) exhibits this nonchalant, cool attitude that is so refreshing to see in a company.

This is definitely not intended to be a bash on Firefox. I love Firefox, and am the biggest advocate of Open Source that you’d ever want to be caught in a torrential downpour with. And honestly, that’s not entirely the point of this brain-dump.

I’ve been using Opera for Linux for years and years (don’t remember how long, but it’s been quite a while). And I’ve always used the free version, because, well, quite honestly, if I don’t have to spend money, I will not volunteer myself to. And Opera has been getting better and better and better and… you get the idea.

Wellsir, I believe that I have reached an epiphany today that brings me to a different point in the road. You see, today I invested $39 of my not-easily-given-up money into buying a license for Opera.

And it wasn’t being sick of seeing the advertisements that show up on the free version of Opera that made me do it. And it’s not that I couldn’t have found a cracked registration key so that I wouldn’t have to see the advertisements. And it’s not that I think it’s the only viable web browser for Linux (every browser for any platform has issues).

So why did I, a Very Outspoken Open Source Advocate (VOOSA, heretofore) actually pay money for software (Opera in this case) when I could have shunned this as Communist behavior and confined myself to using/supporting only a fully Open Source solution (Konqueror or Firefox, namely)?

I came to the realization today that:

1. Opera (the web browser) is a very, very good product. It certainly fills the needs that I require in the product. It’s actually the best browser I have ever used for any platform, in fact.
2. Opera (the company) is committed to Linux as a platform to develop for. I am a member of the opera-linux mailing list and am VERY impressed with the community around this product and the quick and capable responses from Opera developers to the Linux community.
3. Opera (the company) has been committed to Linux as a platform for longer than I can think of any other company being. If I recall correctly, they were releasing their browser for Linux way back when Netscape 4 (3 even??) was the only other alternative for Linux.
4. Opera (the company) is exactly the kind of company that we as Linux users should be supporting!!! This is what we keep asking for, right? Companies to take the Linux platform seriously–to develop products for Linux, to support products for Linux, to be involved in a community that takes Linux seriously, etc. That’s what they’re doing! And in my book, they’re doing it REALLY well and should be supported in their efforts.

So, I feel very good about having put my money where my mouth (and keyboard) are. And, I’d encourage you, my fellow VOOSA, to do the same. Show companies like Opera that we appreciate their products and support of our Open Source platforms. Don’t join the frothing crowd of lunacy that would tell you that you should never have to pay for any software. Maybe in another hundred years when we’ve all joined the Borg, perhaps, but not in the reality which we presently occupy. Currently, you have to make money to stay in business. And how will companies be motivated to continue to develop for our Open Source platforms if they can’t make any money from their efforts?? You think they’re doing this because they’re stupid or charitable? Maybe. I think not likely though–and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that–it’s a part of the society and reality we live in.

What is wrong though, I submit to you, is if we refuse to put our money where our mouths are and encourage companies to develop for the Linux (or FreeBSD/NetBSD/*NIX) platform by allowing them to be profitable by doing so.

We’ve all worked really hard to create this beautiful thing in Open Source desktops.

Wouldn’t it suck if we never succeed at seeing it reach critical mass because we refuse to show the companies who are developing for our desktops that it’s worth doing so?

I just got finished reading through the eReader version of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, The Illustrated Screenplay on my Clie.

I shall now make some observations and predictions about this movie and the future events in my life surrounding it.

So…

stand back.

1. I am going to hate this movie.
2. I am going to watch it anyway, for several simple reasons, including:
   • It will be the hottest thing in the way of movies this year.
   • George Lucas had me at Episode IV back when I was knee-high to an R2, trying to tune in the unpaid channels on my parents TV with dials, leaving me with the dis-satisfying experience of watching C3-PO and R2-D2 walking the sands of Tattoine with all kinds of wavy static, distortions, and such.
   • My kids will force me, against my will, to take them to go see this movie.
   • The neighborhood kids will make fun of me if I don’t go.
   • I might not be a real geek if I don’t go, and at this stage of my life, I don’t think I could handle the resultant identity crisis.
   • I believe that there’s a law that says you can be arrested for not going to the newest Star Wars movie in America.
3. Watching this movie will be even worse than reading the eBook in that it’s like watching a train wreck in slow motion, but the train wreck involves people that you really really care about and have invested 15+ years of your life into knowing about and caring about.
4. This movie is the center of the entire series, and the absolute worst movie of the series in terms of the story. Therefore, this entire series is an absolute blight on the story-telling history of man and it is ONLY because the third and most important and worst of the installments has been made last that George Lucas can get away with getting 2 entire generations addicted to his movie-drug and making untold gazillions off of their addiction.
5. The reason that this, the third, movie is the worst movie of the 6 is that I saw it coming 15+ years ago, and I didn’t have the foresight to avoid the whole thing like the plague. At the very least, I saw it coming 5+ years ago (whenever it was that Episode I came out). “It”, by the way, here is a word that means “this poor, innocent, mistreated, manipulated, blind, stupid child is going to be maligned, mislead, perverted, and altogether turned into something horribly evil and I, George Lucas, am going to suck you into it so bad that you won’t be able to help yourself watch the whole thing take place before your eyes and pay me for the privelege of having suckiness dumped on your head and tears running down your face and an overwhelming urge to go watch the whole series at once and waste another 20+ hours of your life.”
6. This movie will be wildly successful, despite my blog.
7. There’s more, I’m sure, but I’m just too tired and depressed to put the words to electrons now

Curse you, George Lucas, for being smarter than me!!

Incidentally, I have just played Nikkfurie’s The a La Menthe around 300 times in a row now, so I think it might be a halfway-decent song.

So, I just spent a good couple of hours with my lovely wifey watching Ocean’s Twelve, and I can recommend it for your viewing pleasure, and thanks for asking. I will say, however, that the first twelve minutes of the movie (pun intended) had me cringing. It sure seemed to me that the movie starts off trying to use as many cliches as possible, and doing so many of the things (The Whole Ten Yards, anyone?) that are done in sequels, which totally and completely ruin the movie, for me at least. One of the most offensive of these aforementioned “things” is the frequent use of the title of the first movie interspersed in the characters’ dialogs. *twitch*

But I can definitely say that the movie gets better. I loved the first movie and bought it (or was gifted it at some point, I don’t remember). I don’t think this sequel is as good as the first one, necessarily, and I think it is not as discoverable as the first one was (I mean, come on–did anyone see anything leading to that ending?), which leads to disappointment in the audience (audience being me). But it was not nearly as horrible as I had thought it would be–what with mentioning “Ocean’s Eleven” more than 5 times in 10 minutes at the beginning of the movie and all.

Overall, I thought the story and dialog was smartly written, and it was enjoyable as always watching George Clooney and Brad Pitt work together. Their dialog and timing was one of the most enjoyable things about the first one, and even though the sequel didn’t seem as crisp in this area (and perhaps it’s because you’ve already seen it exhaustively in the first one). The camera work was pretty well-done, I thought, and I liked the use of freeze-frame moments throughout. I though the opening sequence which ended with Brad Pitt being freeze-framed as he jumped out the window was hilarious. Also, even though the 12-times-repeated long-camera-shot-to-closeup sequences were painful to watch, I think they did get their intended point across as to the thoroughly depressing state of the characters at that point. Not too shabbily done. =:)

Ooh. Before I forget, my favorite song from the movie wasn’t on the soundtrack. It’s the song from the scene where Night Fox is dancing his way through the lasers–you know, the really cool techno French song. Anyway, I found it here, thanks to this thread. Long live the revolution, baybee. Long live Google. =:)

I found this ExtremeTech article looking at where the state of the state is for online music. I was very impressed with the approach they took in the article. Most reviews like this are completely Microsoft or Apple-centric and ignore the fact that there is a large user community that refuse (or can’t afford) to use these two operating environments.

Flexibility
Where can you play your downloaded songs? Does the service offer playback support in digital media adapters (DMAs)? Can you play your tracks on other PCs on your home network?

Portable Device Support
Can you play your downloaded tracks on your portable player? Are there restrictions as to which players are currently supported?

Platform Support
Does the service require a specific web browser (i.e. Internet Explorer)? Can you listen to downloaded tracks on non-Windows platforms? We used a system running Xandros OCE 3.01 with the Xine and VideoLAN (VLC) media players installed.

I also appreciated the candor and truth regarding the How We Got Here bit at the front of the article….

When cassette tapes became popular in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, the music industry did the now-familiar Chicken Little dance about its way of life being destroyed. The industry quickly co-opted that threat, turning albums on cassettes into a very lucrative business. In the mid-80’s, CDs promised superior quality at lower prices, but we wound up only getting the better quality. Consumers never got the promised price break—album prices continued to climb. Those chickens would come home to roost soon enough.

It’s funny thinking about it, but I spent an inordinate amount of my youth consumed by music–listening to the radio, requesting songs, taping my favorite songs off the radio, making “mix” tapes, asking friends to copy their tapes to my tapes, etc. But I digress….

The article is very smartly written, and the criteria used for measuring the online music stores are nicely thought out (not just the currently popular artists, but using a much broader measuring stick). And, after viewing the brief analysis of the current offerings, I am disgusted to see that nobody is even allowing non-Microsoft/Apple users to be participants in the online music business model, as none of the services reviewed allow the user to use the Firefox browser in Linux. This has certainly been my experience outside of this article as well. If I want to “legally” listen to online music, I am expected to be running either Windows or MacOS, and most probably I am expected to be using IE (you remember IE… the browser that “everybody” uses that has more security holes than swiss cheese).

I guess that’s my rant for the moment. I would GLADLY use iTunes (in specific, but others if they offered the same service) if only Apple would consider me a first-class citizen and provide me with a way to use it from Linux. As it is, we of the non-Microsoft/Apple persuasion are being ignored in the worst possible way with regards to the legal online music scene. And my question is this: what can be done to change this sad state of affairs? I’m guessing that most users (myself included) simply walk away in disgust from every purveyor of online music and find our own way of getting music to listen to.

The thought in the retail world is that the worst kind of problem to have is to have a customer who does not tell you that he/she is upset and never coming back to your store. You’ve just lost money (both now and forever) and you don’t even know it. I wonder why this does not translate over to the online music industry? Surely there are thousands (at least) of non-Microsoft/Apple users who would like to be treated like real people and allowed to give companies their hard-earned money for the privelege of listening to music legally?

Are we not being loud enough?

Where does the problem lie and how do we fix it?

Why can’t companies get a clue and treat Linux like the popular alternative that it is?

I finally figured out how to do this, YAY!! This forum entry has more details, and I’ll blog more about it later, especially once I get all of my filters set up. For the time being, I only have my kde mailing list e-mails being filtered.

Hmmm. Cool!! This means that I don’t have to set up filters in all the possible e-mail programs that I want to use (the list contains Kmail, Opera M2, Thunderbird, and evolution currently).

Oh, and as another aside… I simply cannot speak highly enough about Justin and vortexhost.com. I dealt with another web hosting company before and was totally frustrated from their support. If you’re looking for a REALLY good, inexpensive web host, you’d do well to check vortexhost.com out.

More later….