*Nixed Blog

It’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.

I 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.

Greetings 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.
• PCLinuxOS
• Ubuntu
• Red Hat
• Debian
• Gentoo
• BLAG
• Knoppix
• Wolvix
• gNewSense
• MINT
• 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.

He 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.

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