BushidoHacks.com

20080826

Dems leave Linux users in the dark

As much as I support Barack Obama for President, the Democratic National Convention Comittee screwed the pooch by choosing to use Microsoft Silverlight instead of Adobe Flash for their video needs. The decision is in conflict of an article the DNCC called The 2008 Democratic National Convention: The Most Technologically-Savvy Event Of Its Kind.

Silverlight does not allow Linux or UNIX users to view online video like Flash, Windows Media, Quicktime, or Real can.

So why only support Windows or MacOS? No other software is bias against the users' operating system software preference. If the Obama website supports Flash video, why doesn't the DNCC?

This is why I refuse to do any programming on Microsoft IIS, ASP.Net, or SQLServer. (That and I don't know jack about ASP.Net in the first place. I mean, come on? $300 for software or free? Which would you pick if you were a poor starving college kid?) If that is going to affect my job search, then good! I'd rather do programming the right way (Apache + PHP + MySQL), rather than the easy way.

At least the DNCC got one thing right: Using an open source CMS called Silver Stripe

In short, Silverlight = BAD, SliverStripe = GOOD.

In terms of Joe Biden as VP, while I do not agree with his stance for supporting RIAA or MPAA, at least he is not Carly Fiorina who nearly destroyed Hewlett-Packard a few years ago with her ability to micromanage. If McCain has 7 houses from marrying his trophy wife, and Fiorina has 5 private jets (two she had to give back) that she bought by showing 5000 HP workers pink slips, what are the chance that McCain will NOT become the next president of the United States? Nearing 100%. Ask anyone working in the Tech industry, especially in Silicon Valley (San Jose,CA), who Carly Firornia is and they'll likely say she makes Hillary Clinton look like a saint.

In terms of technology, I believe that any politician who plans on making any technology decisions and has a bias against hackers needs to read "The Conscience of a Hacker", at least one technical book (i.e. HTML for Dummies), and needs to under stand the workings of email, cell phones, and the Internet. We don't need anymore Ted Stevens-like senators who don't know jack about technology but are put in charge of a Senate Committee responsible for Comererce, Science, and Transportations just so they can be spoon fed what the NTCA tells them and prays to God that no one finds your emails (cough!MattBlunt!cough!)

Labels: linux, microsoft, politics, shovelware, software

posted by Bushido Hacks 8/26/2008 09:52:00 PM (0) comments top

20070502

Digg gets HD-DVD pwn3d!

I used to look up to Kevin Rose back when he was on TechTV, but this news about Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson taking money from the HD-DVD promotions group and the MPAA is like finding out Barry Bonds took steroids.

In response to this stab in the back, here's the number that the MPAA tried to censor from public knowlege to crack their crappy overpirced coasters.

09-F9-11-02-9D-74-E3-5B-D8-41-56-C5-63-56-88-C0

Shame on you, Kevin. To hell with you , MPAA.

What numbers will the MPAA try to censor next? pi? e? The speed of light in a vaccum?

UPDATE
Kevin has quickly appologized for today's actions.

Labels: foia, fud, hack, movies, news, physics, rage, shovelware, websites

posted by Bushido Hacks 5/02/2007 12:04:00 AM (0) comments top

20070406

PUNDIT FIGHT! - Click!

In the Red Corner, Bill O'Rielly. In the Blue Corner, Geraldo Rivera.
TWO MEN ENTER! ONE MAN LEAVES!

What? A happy ending?! This is so lame! I was hoping they'd both suffer strokes.

Labels: fud, politics, shovelware, thevirus, wtf

posted by Bushido Hacks 4/06/2007 11:53:00 PM (0) comments top

20070127

A new year, a new ride

The ride of any nerd is of course the computer. Today, I begin one of the first steps in a journey that only a few people I know have done: build their own computer.

I bought a PC case, BLACK. Being a Linux nerd, I don't need to worry about things like Windows Vista which, all bias put aside, is really rediculous.

I went to the office supply store this weekend to pick up some supplies, and lo and behold there was the display for Vista already out there. Oh to have one of Adam Sessler's writers on hand to cut Vista up with a razor-like wit.

Big "whoop dee fricken doo" about Bill Gates. So don't bother metioning him if you are one of the three people who actually read this website.

Anyway, back to what I want to talk about. So I'm looking at the Vista display and the discription is as dismal as the Slashdot niche had imagined. Vista comes with less than what XP has as the big technology conglomorates still believes that proprietary software will work like the Bush Adminstrations plans for Iraq. (I'm not a hippie. I support our troops, but you don't need to be a dirty hippie anymore to see how those things pan out.) So while small businesses get the shirt ripped off their back for an operating system that two days from its release will have a billion problems, I'll still be using my current version of XP and current distro of Linux until I have all the pieces of my new ride assembled.

What's really going to burn the post-Gates Microsoft Corporation is that sales for their operating system will be less than what they were 10 years ago when Windows 98.

Labels: diy, linux, mod, shovelware, tech, windows

posted by Bushido Hacks 1/27/2007 07:46:00 PM (0) comments top

20061120

PS3 Do Not Want

Man, this was PAINFUL TO WATCH!

I was watched XPlay, read Maddox's Latest post, read Penny Arcade's review, and Slashdot even the business and technical aspects of the PS3. Then I saw it first hand myself.

The PS3 is not just a train wreck, it is a train wreck with a chemical chlorine spill at 3AM that kills everyone in the nearby town in their sleep.

The Business men say that the PS3 is a finanical loss. The game critics were floored by several of the games because they sucked so bad. Being an OpenGL programmer, the horrendous use of glOrtho (the function that controls camera angle and viewport) is enough to make me vomit!

You hear me! VOMIT!

I've never used such a word in my blog in the two years it has been online in such a literal context. The graphics in these games make me want to cry, and I'm a casual gamer who plays less than two hours of video games per week.

I mean, AWEFUL!

Vehimate (sp) words can only describe the PS3. It hurts so bad.

On the other hand, this proves that proprietary SHOVELWARE and overpriced five-minutes-ago technology suggested by the salarymen at Sony in order to "bring in a profit" ONLY TO HAVE IT BACKFIRE because more money went into advertising than supporting the programmers who make the games.

EVERYONE AT SONY SHOULD BE FIRED! NO EXCEPTIONS! And if they are not fired, the need to be struck down with the wrath of God.

The winner this fall: Wii and Xbox 360.

Labels: games, IBM, OpenGL, PS3, shovelware, tech, Wii, wtf

posted by Bushido Hacks 11/20/2006 04:56:00 PM (0) comments top

20040624

OK, PDA RE-reloaded - Click!

For a little while, I have decided to reload my PDA once again only with GPE. What a mistake!

GPE uses that god-awful GNOME interface. You can't hold down your stylus and hope that a menu appears.

However -- and there's always a however in life (850 KOA's website is much better now. I listen to Reggie in St. Louis on the Big 550 KTRS)--, GPE does have its perks.

If you like to play games, GPE is your kind of environment. Tetris and Lights Out out are good (Lights Out is the shiz-nit!), but alot of the other games suck very badly.

GPE also had much better handling of time syncronization, something GNOME, KDE, and OPIE have trouble with. For example, I'm typing this at 8:20AM, but I'm using KDE right now and the clock reads 2:50AM. Keep in mind I am in St. Louis not Tokyo. GPE also has better lighting than OPIE. Fortuantely, the OPIE guys are working on a patch to increase their lighting.

Battery support in GPE is excellent. It recognized the battery jacket, and after 24 hours undocked, there still is power because it shut itself off after 3 minutes. Turning it back on, well...I press the power button but I'm looking at the colored blocks on the screen, I'm not impressed. Thus, I have to pop the PDA out of the Jacket, an take the main battery out, put it back in, put the jacket back on, eject the CF and SD cards (SD still not supported yet. Come on! GIVE US SOME DAMN SUPPORT HERE!), press power (vibe! That's normal.) Wait for Tux, wait for the GPE logo (which is like 10 minute later. It took a lot shorter with OPIE), wait for X to load (X is another good thing about GPE. OPIE doesn't have X embedded, but they should.), then Log in.

OK, there's the other problem. Logging in. OPIE did not have logging in, and if the next release of OPIE did come with Logging in (which I recomend, since PocketPC use to have it), it would let me log in with only ONE PROFILE! I attempted to delete the second profile, but when I logged out as root, it wanted me to create a second profile. I don't want to make a second profile, damnit! I want to be root! So I created a second profile against my will. (DAMN YOU GPE!).

Sometimes the well built apps in GPE crash unexpectedly, and sometimes the entire PDA shuts off. (Oh, crap!) There is also NO SOUND! And no support for the HP fold away keyboard compatiple with my h5450. (My PDA's not fat, it's just loaded with love. (OK, ladies, enough with the "Aww"s))

2 out of 5

Back to OPIE for now.

Labels: brick, fubar, handhelds, mod, shovelware

posted by Bushido Hacks 6/24/2004 07:58:00 AM (0) comments top

20040618

PDA Reloaded - Click!

OK, there is no way to convert a Pocket PC from Windows to Linux on a Linux Terminal...yet. So I went to a windows PC to reload Linux on my PDA. Handhelds.org is still lacking, but Opie is not. Seeing that I have the CF jacket for ny HP H5450 and a CF card reader that will take the packages. So, for now, transfer the packages to a CF card, via CF card reader, then plug the CF card into the PDA.

Note, this is for the packages, not the system. It's good to use my PDA again. Now If only I can get the damn WLAN to work! There are settings to change the configuration but it aways loads the programmers settings. I figured that out because my router's name IS NOT okuwla.