Month: May 2009

Google Chrome Developer’s Take on Linux Development

I can’t say I disagree with them…

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/05/hands-on-google-chromium-browser-alpha-for-linux.ars

I think Ben Goodger sums up Linux development quite nicely…

First of all let me generally comment that this entire situation is a clusterfuck.

More precisely…

“There isn’t dominant consensus around toolkit and HIG, there seems to be variance in commonly used software as to how it’s constructed and what it matches, and I’ve not heard anyone glow about how they can create the coolest looking UIs with GTK.

I have to say I agree whole heartedly with Mr. Goodger. I use Linux a lot and have done a lot of development one it. And every time I develop something for Linux I’m amazed at the lack of any kind of standards. Don’t get me wrong I understand that happens when no single entity controls an operating system, which is one of Linux’s greatest strengths in my book. But it’s a pain in the ass for developers.

For instance there were several sound sub systems common on Linux (ALSA seems to be the most common now). You couldn’t know what system any user would use so you ended up having to throw in code to support multiple systems.

This problem is still alive and well with graphical interface. You don’t know if a person is using KDE (based on Qt) or Gnome (Based on GTK+) or maybe even some other completely different system. I generally use Gnome (no flame wars please) and I don’t like installing a bunch of libraries I don’t need so I steer away from Qt based applications. The same goes for many KDE users they don’t want to install the GTK+ libraries. Hence you either have to say tough shit to some users or support both libraries.

This kind of cluster fucking is all over in Linux which is one of the things I hate about it. Don’t get me wrong overall I love Linux but not when I have to write code beyond the command line for it.

It’s nice to see even the geniuses at Google are having a pain in the ass time with it. Yes I know it’s petty but it makes me feel better when a company full of super geniuses have the same problems I do.

Musical Side Note, Alestorm’s New Album Released

OK this has nothing to do with my usual topics but I love this band so I thought I’d drop note that Alestorm’s new album titled Black Sails at Midnight is out. For those landlubbers who don’t know Alestorm is a pirate metal band.

I’d link to their website but it’s on myspace.com which isn’t getting any links for me. Instead I present to you the Amazon MP3 store (don’t worry it’s not a referral link, I ain’t making shit off of this) link to the album so you can preview it.

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Sails-At-Midnight/dp/B0026ZZG4W/ref=dm_ap_alb4

So go forth me mateys.

Because Somebody Mentioned it at Work

I’m glad to see the NRA-ILA alert on this so called “gun tax” rumor that has been floating around. I’ve received no less then four e-mails about this in the last month or so and really had no easy way to reply to people it’s nothing to be concerned with. Well now I have the small bite size piece of text…

http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Read.aspx?ID=4925

This alert is dealing with the onerous SB-2099 which supposedly will require everybody to report all their guns on their income tax return. Well this little hitch was proposed and shot down nine years ago. It’s dead and buried. So please stop worrying about it and stop spreading it around.

For Those Anti-Gunners Saying Amendment Two is for Militia Only

You may want to stop using that argument. Let us take a look at the United States Code regarding the militia. Specifically who the militia is composed of…

http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/10C13.txt

In case you don’t want to dig through the code here is the part that matters…

(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied
males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section
313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a
declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States
and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the
National Guard.

(b) The classes of the militia are –
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard
and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of
the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the
Naval Militia.

So there are two classes of militias in this fine country. The first consists of the organized militia which would be our military forces. But the second is the unorganized militia which consists of all able bodied males above the age of 17 who are not enrolled in the organized militia.

Of course the second amendment states quite clearly that “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” In the entirety of the United States Constitution “the people” refers to the citizens. But I digress this post is to point out the fact that the anti-gunners don’t actually know what they are arguing.

Wisconsin Bans Rail Guns for Hunting

One of my friends from across the boarder (Wisconsin) sent me something funny…

http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10431620

The Wisconsin DNR has thought ahead. Way ahead. They have recently changed the wording for their law dealing with usable weapons for hunting.

From the story…

Now, hunters can legally use firearms including air guns, handguns and guns fired from the shoulder. But advisors for the state Department of Natural Resources argued those definitions were too loose and could include things like electromagnetic weapons.

This is depressing because I really wanted to take out the rail gun and plasma cannon hunting this season. Alas I guess neither will get to see any action. Such a sad story.

The Hoplophobe Travel Guide

Via Snow Flakes in Hell…

http://newledger.com/2009/05/guns-in-parks-the-hoplophobes’-travel-guide-to-the-united-states/

Now that all the scary people such as myself can carry their legal firearm in national parks (come February 2010) a travel guide has been made for those of you who are deftly afraid of guns.

Source: http://www.snowflakesinhell.com/2009/05/29/travel-guide-for-hoplophobes/

Possible Oil Price Manipulation? No Shit?

The feds are investigating the possibility that oil prices are being manipulated…

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/05/gas_prices246.html

I don’t think there really needs to be an investigation on this one, it’s pretty obvious. What’s next? Will the feds investigate the possibility that water is wet?

Source: http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2009/05/28/feds-probing-possible-oil-market-manipulation-oh-wait/

Jealous Countries want United States to Relinquish Internet “Control”

Another thing that irritates me is the fact that the rest of the world apparently things the United States should relinquish control of the root DNS servers. I’ll drop this link to a slashdot.org story for reference…

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/28/1734243

For those of you who are unfamiliar with how the Internet works I’ll give a brief explanation of the DNS (Domain Name System). Each website is located on a computer which has a number associated with it called an IP (Internet Protocol) address. For instance the IP address of this web site is 74.200.243.253 (actually that’s wordpress.com’s IP address which hosts me). Typing that address in would take you to wordpress.com

Of course numbers aren’t really useful to human being when it comes to associating things. Because of this we designed a system to translate names to IP addresses. When you type in www.google.com what is actually happening behind the scenes is your browser is asking a DNS server to return the IP address of www.google.com. Once the browser gets the IP address it accesses Google though the IP address.

So the DNS is pretty much a phone book for the Internet. And the master servers (called root servers) are the rulers of the roost. They are controlled by ICANN via contract from the United States Department of Commerce.

What many other countries are saying is since the Internet is a multi-national entity that the United States should give control of the DNS to some third party (usually the United Nation’s name is dropped). This is a case of pure jealously and idiocy.

The Internet is an evolution of ARPANET. ARPANET was created by the United States Department of Defense as a project to create a communication network that would survive a nuclear strike for the Soviets. Anyways through much work and finagling this evolved into the Internet that we know today.

This bring my first argument against surrendering control of the DNS over to some other entity. America invested the initial capital and research into the creation of the Internet. We then opened it up for everybody to use. Now being it was a government project apparently different rules apply to it. Because when a corporate creation becomes a world wide de facto item (like Microsoft Windows) no other government calls for it’s release to a third party. Releasing the DNS root servers to international oversight would be like Microsoft releasing the source code for Windows to international oversight. Yet nobody calls for that because it’s understood Microsoft put the initial capital and research (i.e. they bought DOS from a third party and rebranded it after some small adjustments) into Windows so they own it.

My next issue is this, the Internet is not censored. It’s an open means of communication which anybody can use, even an opinionated ass such as myself. This is accomplished for one main reason, the United State’s right of free speech. I can imagine the second some other entity such as the United Nations got control over the DNS censorship wouldn’t be far behind. For instance the United Nations is very anti-gun so I’m sure pro-gun sites would get axed. Being they have a lot of clout with the United Nations I’m sure the European Union could get a resolution passed to ban any negative talk about the Lisbon Treaty as well. Pretty much the bastion of free speech that we know of as the Internet would become akin to what China does with the Internet.

Problem three with the United States relinquishing control of the DNS is the fact that there is nothing stopping any other entity from starting their own root servers. The DNS is incredibly dynamic and anybody can setup a DNS server. Hell your network and work probably has one. If Britain wanted to control a DNS server they could most certainly set one up and use it. Nothing is stopping them. So instead of bitching they could try setting up their own system and force their citizens to use it.

Finally the system currently works. I’m a big fan of the idea that if something isn’t broken don’t fix it. The Internet works incredibly well at the moment so why the Hell should we do something drastic like rework the DNS? All that will do is break something and we’ll be fucked bad.

European Union Sues Sweden

Proving once again the European Union was a bad idea…

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/05/eu-sues-sweden-demands-law-requiring-isps-to-retain-data.ars

The European Union passed a law requiring ISPs to retain customer data “long enough to help police but not so long as to cause privacy concerns” (now THAT is some grade all bullshit). Sweden has not enacted this policy (probably because they have a little common sense left) so the European Union is suing.

I don’t know what they are going to get out of suing a member of their own union but like most things The Union does this is a pretty stupid idea.

And now for a side rant. If you just wanted the news article you can stop reading here. This side rant involves comments made on slashdot.org which I’ll link to in a bit. The actual rant is more to do with fanatic atheists though. First the link (do note because of the craptacularness of the comment system this may not take you to the actual thread I want, but hey I’m trying)…

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1247565&cid=28121785

What about this irritates me? Simple we have atheists who want to blame everything on religion. Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against atheists or atheism in general. Just like I have nothing against Christianity, Judaism, Islam, or any other form of religion or lack thereof. But I do have a problem with the zealots in all of these groups who try to blame every other religion (yes I’m calling atheism a religion in this case) for the world’s problems.

Being I visit technology sites I get exposed to far more zealot atheists then any other type of zealot. They love nothing more then highjacking a conversation and using it as a soapbox to preach their faith (yes faith, because these people have a faith there is no deity/deities). At least on slashdot I’ve never noticed this behavior with any other religious group so these guys get pointed out.

Now the reason these guys piss me off. They are blaming religion as the one and only factor for terrorism in the world. These people are claiming if it weren’t for religion all would be well. Guess what guys you’re being hypocrites here. You are pretty much saying your group is so morally superior that if all other groups ceased to exist the world would be perfect. That’s hypocritical because that’s what all extremist religious people say. If you don’t want to be associated with religion and religious people STOP ACTING LIKE THEM (them being specifically the extremist zealots).

Anyways I just needed to get that out of my system.