http://www.mindblowingidea.com/thehighlyunreliabletimes.html The Highly Unreliable Times has just launched! I just put up the sight on 06/30/07 so please send in any and all stories and information you can about Microsoft, Mac, and Linux. Thanks!
Archive for June, 2007
The Highly Unreliable Times Official Launch!
Saturday, June 30th, 2007Posted in *Nix, Survival, Uncategorized | No Comments »
HP Windows Vista Home Premium Paperweight Special
Friday, June 29th, 200706/28/07 I responded to a call about not being able to get e-mail on a Windows Vista Home Premium PC on dial up. It was using the new Vista version of Outlook Express. I believe it’s called Windows Mail. She was using dial up so it should have taken the Windows Mail program a while to verify the user name and password but as usual with a virus or Trojan it just plain didn’t try to connect to the server and put up an error immediately. I asked the woman how long she had used this computer. She said it was about a week old from Staples. She preferred the HP to Dell because she could return it to Staples and the Dell she would have to send in. She tried to install Norton Antivirus but it didn’t work. I tried to do a System Restore but of course that didn’t work. So I ended up (with her permission) just deleting everything and using the HP Recovery Wizard to restore everything. (note that this uses Linux) On most HP systems with XP it usually takes about 10 – 20 minutes for it to copy the image back to the drive and then another 20 – 30 minutes to reinstall the programs but instead with Windows Vista Home Premium it took over 20 minutes to restore by my watch. It also took about 45 minutes to an hour for Vista to decide to stop restarting and let us in after asking us questions about setting it up and benchmarking our system for DRM. I figured we would be good to go when it finally started back up and I had installed good antivirus software and set up the internet connection and mail. I installed Thunderbird and set up Junk Mail settings. She liked Thunderbird and saw it as more like outlook than Windows Mail. So what did we have after we were done? Well basically we had a Web TV. The amassing thing was all the computer was good for was browsing the internet and e-mail. You can’t watch videos if they are not in a special Microsoft format (I didn’t even expect to play DVDs before I started), you can’t type and print with spell check, you don’t have any office programs except maybe Works. (which doesn’t work) I expected real player to play videos but it required me to sign in and would not let me because it had an error connecting to the server. So now we have a paperweight. I quickly installed OpenOffice.org and taught her how to use it. Then I installed Mplayer and could play those videos. So what was the result? The computer was super slow. When trying to play Dell’s Linux_101 video it played the video slower than the audio even though the video was on a CD. This computer had 1 GB of RAM and a new Pentium. It should have had no problem playing anything. During the initial start up when Vista was benchmarking the system to see how much power the computer had it decided that it would use most of the power for trusted computing and DRM. This is why it was so slow. I stuck my PCLinuxOS 2007 disk in and rebooted. The dial up did not work but everything else did and I could play the movie nice and smooth even in Live Mode and everything was already installed and it only took about 2 – 5 minutes to boot. It had all the programs she needed pre-installed. She is currently thinking about switching but I was there from 8 PM to midnight so I thought bed was a good place for me. If she wants to go to Linux I will install a Linux compatible external Dial Up Modem and she will be set to go. I know Microsoft wants the consumer to pay for an upgrade or extra software after words by pulling features out but this was ridiculous.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p9IU4zp7mU Here is the reason for all of this.
Posted in *Nix, MS-SHADYiness, Uncategorized | No Comments »
The Microsoft XBOX 360 Display Model Paralyzes Wall Mart in Lewiston Idaho!
Tuesday, June 26th, 2007Update 06/27/07
Originally I assumed that the XOBX 360 was taping into the Wall Mart network. Thomas during the show talked about RF signal interference. I don’t see how a Wall Mart half the size of a Costco Warehouse could have all of it’s systems affected by WiFi interference. The biggest red flag for me is that most cell phones won’t even work in the store normally because of all the florescent lights and other interference. Another red flag is if it was interference the whole store should not be affected but just devices within 50 feet of the unit. I mentioned how the machine was shielded by the metal shelves that are below, above, behind and beside the unit. The main cash registers for the store are on the other side of the shelf and should not be affected by this interference. So that pretty much only leaves one other explanation. The XBOX 360 must have tried to use the network to connect to and manage all printers and network devices it could. Normally you would think it would share these devices with the rest of the network but in this situation it would seem that the XBOX 360 itself would become the printing and file server for the entire store. The network probably is not configured to use an XBOX 360 as the server so it probably just didn’t know how to compensate with the XBOX’s network dictatorship.
Original Post:
Today 06/25/07 I went into the Wall Mart in Lewiston Idaho and looked at the video game displays in the electronics section. I noticed the XBOX 360 was not on. I said out loud in a sarcastic tone Owe, the Microsoft XBOX 360 crashed again. The lady at the counter behind me said We can’t turn it on, she explained that if they turn it on all the computers and printers in the store including cash registers stop working. I asked her if it was hooked into the network since it was just a display model that was plugged in to power and the TV. She told me the WiFi and Bluetooth got access to the network and rendered it useless. From what I understood the XBOX 360 was getting access to all the devices on the Windows network and controlling them. What I didn’t understand was why it was not sharing them? If I can get more answers on whats going on here I will tell you, but for know we can safely say that the XBOX 360 is great for taking down businesses that use Microsoft networks with WiFi or Bluetooth devices. I also informed the woman working at Wall Mart about how if you move an XBOX 360 that is running it will put a ring in the disk and ruin it and possibly ruin the XBOX itself. She hadn’t heard of this but many proud XBOX 360 users have told me this.
Posted in *Nix, MS-SHADYiness, Survival | No Comments »
Upcoming Changes.
Friday, June 22nd, 2007This change is effective immediately: When broadcasting on TruthNet Radio (Tuesday nights at 7 – 9 PM Central Standard Time), 9/11 will no longer be discussed, period. Only two exceptions will be made.
- If it is about the first responders, medical care, and raising money for said medical care.
- If it’s about any members of the 9/11 “Truth Movement” migration away from Microsoft based systems. Their sites can be plugged during that time, but that’s it.
So why is this being instituted? If there are certain theories deemed “too extreme” by a good chunk of those who question the official story, then I see no point in discussing the topic at all. Now does it mean I’ll go all Art Bell on everybody and only have on those who support the official story talking about how it’s true, etc. etc…? No. The topic will not be discussed on the program, period! End of subject. Once people get their heads out of their rear ends and stop calling each other liars (there is a difference between being a liar and being opinionated and wrong) then maybe that will change (not very likely right now though). I would like to thank my co-host Justin for his professionalism throughout the last show and Killtown for being willing to talk about his adventures in migration-land. 🙂
Upcoming Podcast.
I’m figuring out the logistics of it at the moment (how to set it up and everything else). Justin pretty much has figured out how to record Skype calls on his end, so that would be great (don’t know how it would work now since I’m running Debian 4 at the moment… hey, it’s stable, and I like it!). It’ll likely be through TalkShoe! 🙂
New Forum
I’ve wiped out phpBB. It’s easy to set up, but riddled with holes that allow more spambots to come in than hookers trying to murder Fidel Castro. So needless to say, that’s gone now, and Simple Machines Forum is being used instead. We’ll be launching officially this Monday, so don’t worry about all those links that don’t work for the forum. They’ll be changed soon enough.
Next Issue of THE *NIXED REPORT!
The CD-ROM will be made available soon via lulu.com. Of course, the first issue can be read online for free as well. I am looking forward to this taking off.
All in all, not much to report on at the moment, but I do have plans on writing one article a day (even Saturday and Sunday), even if that means a weekly wrap-up, etc. Finally, more research needs to be done in preparedness and survival. After the horrors of Hurrican Katrina (and some people being trapped in a sports stadium), I think it would be a great idea if people knew how to survive any form of disaster whether it’s simply a fact of being lost or if it was a nuclear disaster (explosion).
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Thank You Dad.
Sunday, June 17th, 2007It’s that time of year again. People are out shopping even at this hour to find a last minute present for their dad. I was probably one of the few today who did not buy anything. No, not even a card. The best gift I can offer this moment are my own words, despite the flaws in writing from time to time. The entire theme of this post can be summed up in three words:
Thank You Dad.
My whole life, I’ve been trying to figure it out all out. I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do, because I felt that I was good at nothing. I felt lost, confused, and useless. The attempts to become one of the cool kids in high school didn’t pan out. I felt so alone in a sense, and it took me over a decade to finally figure out what I wanted to do in life. Some say that you do not choose, but are chosen instead. In a sense, both paths are correct. Allow me to explain.
When I was younger, my Dad had finally been stationed at an Air Force Base that was not overseas. It was a little bit closer to home in Leeton, Missouri. He had been stationed at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. He wrote us letters, and my sister and I would occasionally write back. I came up with a very goofy idea: create a fake Newspaper to amuse him with. It was all stupid back then, even the title (Newsie News…. I laugh at it even today). That should have been the first hint as to where I should be in life.
Another hint, which came later in my life, was during all the big news of the Microsoft Anti-Trust suit. The Justice Department appeared to be going after them, and like the naive fool I was, thought that the Government didn’t like them, because they got too big for their liking. Then my Dad threw a monkeywrench (some call it reasoning) into my thought processes. It wouldn’t happen for the next several years, but the gears were turning in a very slow manner. He pointed out that Microsoft was not allowing for a level playing field for true competition occur. They were using unfair tactics, and he had a computer that ran Windows 95 at the time. He used some of their software, but he was far from stupid. He recognized when a corporation was no longer playing fair, and in many cases, when a corporation never played fair at all.
In the later years of high school, I gave Mandrake a try on my HP Pavilion N5310 notebook computer only to find that I was simply not ready yet. This was during the hoopla with Windows XP and the horrid Product Activation. I eventually got a Dell Inspiron 8100 notebook with a full gigabyte of RAM in it. It had XP Professional on it, and I liked it quite a bit. However, my curiosity got the best of me, and I bought a copy of SuSE 8.1 Personal, which worked surprisingly well. Future versions were problematic, but for the first time, I realized that it was in fact possible to use an alternative Operating System. I ran the Mandrake 9 series to find out that it was pretty decent, as well as Fedora Core 1 and 2 (later running 4, and I think 5 and 6, but my memory is a bit muddy at this point) before my angry sister proved that after the one year warranty expired, problems would magically appear (she smashed the LCD screen, rendering it useless, causing me to convert the system to a Desktop). I later replaced that Dell with a Compaq Presario R3000 series notebook, which wasn’t as good, but it did the job. That was when I joined the Alternative Media after watching OutFoxed and realizing that FOX was not the only problem (hint: all major news corporations are the problem with the mainstream media today… they don’t serve the needs of local communities). I ran into the wrong sort of people who gave me false praise, but I recovered a year later and realized that they were never really friends in the first place (please don’t ask… I’d rather not get into it, except with this: when the FBI becomes involved over an Internet radio show that happened several states to the south of the person who had the complaint, you start realizing that at the very least, both sides of the story should be had, because involving a federal agency was a bit much). After months and months of delay, I finally brought the first issue of THE *NIXED REPORT online magazine. I’m gathering stuff for the second issue, and look very much forward to a more polished magazine.
It’s all thanks to my Dad, who ultimately got me to think for myself. He was the one when after getting mad at me and yelling at me, would discuss the situation later, and calmly I might. When he took my sister and I grocery shopping while we were visiting, he asked us what we wanted. He valued our opinions, and even when he wasn’t interested, he still listened when we talked to him and would offer insights and advice. While at times a prankster, he was also very brilliant, and still is to this day. You know you’ve done something right in your life when you’re hired by Boeing after retiring from the Air Force. Of course he works for a different company now, but he’s doing pretty well. He had dedication and most importantly, discipline.
Dad, it took me all these years to realize that it were it not for you, I wouldn’t be doing what I am doing now. I wouldn’t be doing a radio talk show for TruthNet Radio, nor would I have a new co-host starting this Tuesday. I wouldn’t have an online magazine that catered to a wide audience. I wouldn’t be useful to this country and this world.
Thank you Dad, and may your Father’s Day be a happy one, even if it doesn’t render you a million dollar ticket.
Posted in *Nix, MS-SHADYiness | No Comments »
GPLv3 might just be a little bloated with Anti-tivoization.
Wednesday, June 13th, 2007I agree with Linus Torvalds here.
Well apparently TIVO and Linus Torvalds don’t like the Anti-tivoization in GPLv3 and this causes a problem. GPLv3 makes it so Microsoft can’t use Linux without giving their software away to the Open Source community and keeps them separate which might be a good thing or it might not but Linus Torvalds seems to think that there is a problem with the license too. So TIVO is afraid because they use LINUX and according to GPLv3 they would have to make their whole system open so that people could re flash the hardware and change it and improve it. TIVO wants control. This sounds similar to Microsoft to me. Anyway there are a lot of articles out there about why Microsoft and SUSE’s partnership isn’t bad but what they seem to miss is that you have to pay for SUSE Enterprise and that SUSE will lose money because they are paying Microsoft all kinds of money all the time. They got a one time payment from Microsoft for sealing their intellectual property but what good is that in the long run? I say people have their priorities wrong. We still need open source and we still need it separate from Microsoft. Microsoft is charging rent on Vista. Imagine if they charged rent on SUSE Linux as well? I know Microsoft want’s to copy Linux’s business strategy because it’s a winning one.
By putting Microsoft’s software in SUSE and paying Microsoft for it they are hurting other distros because everyone will move to the more stable than Vista SUSE that they can still use Microsoft software on. Microsoft will sell SUSE software. This is not good at all. This is why I think we should split these companies up or fuse them together for good by making Microsoft agree to GPLv3. If they can clean up GPLv3 so that it only achieves this and every thing in GPLv2 then I think we will have a winner. We need to take out the Anti-tivoization. What do you think Linus? I think that GPLv3 should not hinder TIVO but that the Linux community should find a way to hack the TIVO. I mean the Linux community has found ways to hack other machines like the XBOX. And if Microsoft says Linux is a cancer then why are they fusing themselves with it? the new GPL would absorb proprietary software for the better! I say clean up GPLv3 and put it out!
The FSF is even talking about having two licenses and that could get harry. Leaving the GPLv2 and v3 out there. I think this is a big mistake and so do others. Lets just have one good GPL that protects everyone from Commercial companies and proprietary software.
The Full Story
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS5304340445.html
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Will Howard College in Big Spring, TX Choose Vista or Linux?
Wednesday, June 13th, 2007I think all teachers owe it to their students to teach them how to use the best software despite the fact that the teachers don’t want to learn a new OS. I understand the need to know how to maintain Windows systems but as far as using Microsoft based software to do your work when there is a free solution that is free of Viruses, Blue Screens of Death, and DRM is beyond my comprehension.
I don’t want to badmouth this college because many colleges go threw this every year but I do want to make them aware of this problem. I hope that soon all colleges will be teaching Open Office, GNU cash, and Linux. Why people think Linux is only good for servers I don’t know. I have just been informed that they have used NetWare for 10 years at this college and are thinking about switching to the Linux side of Novell because of the machines they have. You can also send a direct link to this post to other colleges if you agree.
Posted in *Nix, MS-SHADYiness | 4 Comments »
New Co-Host Justin Breithaupt / Microsoft forcing Rent Payments and KVM on Schools!
Tuesday, June 12th, 2007I am pleased to share my experience working with computers. Here is a short list of experience I have. Running my own Computer Business since 2003. Just finished college with degrees in Computer Programming, Computer Repair, and Support. I have worked with computers for many years but I bought my first one about 7 – 8 years ago so I will say I have 8 years experience. I went from using DOS systems in grade school, to using Macs in High School, To using Windows 98 at home on my first super fast 333Mhz AMD 3D Now! computer with 512MB of ram. Man I remember when they never thought we would get past 1 Ghz. Look at us now. Anyway a friend from Microsoft showed me the ways of Linux. I thought it was too hard at first. But after my college explained it to me in detail in class I got it. I’ve been using Linux for about 6 years and have dropped Windows about a year and a half ago. I love testing out new distros and checking out www.distrowatch.com.
I enjoy what I do and I don’t believe that Microsoft is doing anything that is productive for other people. I believe Microsoft is self centered and focused on making money. I believe that if Microsoft gets a monopoly on all desktop computers and Linux does not win we will loose our freedoms as a nation. I also believe that Microsoft’s influence threw money has had a negative affect on all the branches of our government; from the Judges that turned their heads when Microsoft stole software multiple times to the TAXES being lowered on the big corporations and raised for the workers all the way to the illegal aleans getting social security and welfare so that they can work for the corporations in the USA. I do believe Microsoft benefits from all of this. My goal here is to clear up the Lies spread by Microsoft and inform people of the truth.
Did you know that now you do not own your copy of Windows Vista that you either bought from a store or got with your computer legally? According to the new user agreement Windows is just on lease from Microsoft and they reserve the right to allow you to use any software at any time that they decide you should use. They also hold the right to keep you from using software. They could make Windows Vista expire every 3 months and charge people rent to access their own data if they wanted to. It looks like Microsoft is finding a way to take advantage of their customers. You can’t listen to your music on too many computers in your house or it just won’t play, you can’t watch your DVDs without paying for extra software from Microsoft that use to be free. This is what we will be talking about. Over 500,000 people have had problems getting their legitimate copy of Windows to register.
I just chatted with someone at a College in Big Spring, TX. He told me that they pay rent on Windows Vista. I will update this page when I get more information from him but for now here is what he told me: One main problem that we are finding out as a school, with the new Microsoft Agreement when you load Vista, especially on laptops, if they don’t consistently stay connected to the Internet, the registration disappears and you have to re-register the version of Vista about every 3 months. They call this the new KVM licensing program. You can spend extra to get the permanent licensing, however, when you work for a school in a rural area, money is an object. He said he would try to call in next week. So what is KVM? Well click here to find out. It’s a way to control your PC. So is Microsoft punishing you if you don’t stay connected to KVM by making you re-register your computer every 3 months? You tell me? KVM over IP as described in this article is Remote Control over multiple PCs!
This reminds me of those Future cars that they talk about on the Discovery channel and have already invented that will stop and shut off if you are doing anything dangerous. The way these cars work is if you are going over a certain speed and you come within a certain distance of an object your car turns off, your seat belts come on, and air bags deploy. Doesn’t sound fun on the interstate when there are people behind you! Then there is the computer that looks at your face to see if your tired by monitoring blinking. So if you get something in your eye will the car stop because you blink too much? Hmmm maybe if they put that kind of effort into figuring out how paralyzed people could steer the car by looking where they want to go they would actually come up with a good thing? The cars protect you from yourself and other drivers. OK? Well if it only had 500,000 instances where it went off by mistake and caused crashes you could see how it compares to Microsoft.
If you want to get started with Linux go here: http://www.mypclinuxos.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=3&Itemid=17
Anyway stay tuned every week. We are thinking about pod casting shorter non live shows. Hopefully we can just do more Live shows. We will see. Let me know if you have any questions or comments.
My personal home page is www.mindblowingidea.com
Posted in *Nix, MS-SHADYiness, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Open Letter to Jason Weber
Thursday, June 7th, 2007Greetings Jason,
How are doing? I’m pretty sure your very busy and all as an executive for Microsoft, especially when threatening other developers when they are only trying to have fun programming software and improving the experience for other developers. I am writing to you with one simple question, which will be the premise of this entire open letter.
How do you sleep at night?
I’m very curious. Considering that there is very heavy competition from the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) communities, I find it very curious that you are threatening somebody who was considered an MVP. Yes, I’m speaking of Jamie Cansdale, an individual who is clearly very talented, and from the type of behavior you have displayed towards this individual, one who is apparently to be feared by anyone inside of Microsoft Corporation. Do you not want talented developers to grow a community centered around Windows platform development, or is your confidence in your own developers so lacking that you have chosen to bully another individual who had the gall, no… the audacity to show some actual talent in creating software that enhances quality of software development itself?
Now considering that there are great alternatives to many of the products that your company releases, it does puzzle me as to why an innocent developer such as Mr. Cansdale would pose such a threat to your company.
- Microsoft Windows: GNU and Linux. Need I say more? Wait, I think I will.
- Microsoft Office: OpenOffice.org, which has the ability to export directly to PDF.
- Microsoft Internet Explorer: All kinds of browsers.
- Mozilla Firefox and any derivatives thereof.
- GNU IceWeasel.
- KDE’s own Konqueror.
- Any browser using the Gecko rendering engine!
- Microsoft Windows Media Player: All kinds of competition here!
- VideoLAN Client (VLC).
- MPlayer
- Windows Live Messenger: Pidgin.
Now there is certainly more I can add to the list, but I’m sure the point stands. Now wouldn’t it make more sense to leave Mr. Cansdale alone in the light of such a reality? After all, your company does have some serious competition facing it, and you really don’t want him to start developing software that is licensed under the GNU General Public License, would you? If he were to do such a thing, it would be mainly because individuals such as yourself pushed him into doing so.
I am truly curious. Inquiring minds would like to know.
When you look in the mirror when you wake up in the morning, what do you see?
Do you see somebody who has truly succeeded in life? What does your conscience tell you? Do you have one? Do you know what one is? Do you see a monster in the mirror?
Is Microsoft that much of a religion to you that anybody outside of your church can not improve upon your own products without your wrath? Or is it true that the only people that employees of Microsoft are here to help is Microsoft itself? Do you truly care about developers, or is that so if and only if they are employed and under the complete control of Microsoft? Finally, are you aware that your actions along with the actions of the legal team may very well steer people away from Microsoft based development product solutions? Do you think for yourself, or are you merely following orders? You should truly be ashamed of yourself.
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Former Microsoft Insider Speaks Out
Tuesday, June 5th, 2007He is considered a maverick where he works. Despite the environment being a Microsoft shop, he still manages to run Free and Open Source Software. After being inspired by Richard Stallman’s message of Free Software in which people can modify it freely and compiling his own Linux kernel, he discovered for himself that he was free at last. He states that GNU and Linux are superior to Microsoft Windows, Office, and Internet Explorer. Here’s where the irony comes into play: In the mid 1990’s, he worked for Microsoft.
Read the rest of the article here, and feel free to comment on it.
Note: If you are commenting for the first time, you’ll be under moderation, but only once. After one time moderation, you’ll be allowed to freely post comments whenever you like.
Posted in *Nix, MS-SHADYiness | No Comments »