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Here, would everybody like some positive Linux news for a change?
The Indian government launches the FOSSEducation initiative.
The details are there in the link, but I'd just like to point out a few phrases in the article which, as an American, just taste good to say out loud for a change.
"...Gujarat State Education Board(GSEB) to give 50% weightage to Open Source and Linux in Computer subject across all streams (Science, Commerce and Arts)."
A state education board setting a mandate of FOSS/Linux at least half the time! US education boards are still haggling over whether we can teach evolution or not.
"Ministry of Human Resource Development"
You know, as opposed to a "tech czar" in the US, who isn't even an engineer (Robert Cresanti has a BA and a JD), and whose chief concern seems to be making sure nobody listens to music or watches movies without paying.
"the National Mission on Education"
You know, as opposed to "No Child Gets Ahead Left Behind".
"The goal of the project is to replace the use of commercial tools in Indian science and engineering education at the college level"
Isn't that funny? I don't hear anybody in India screaming "Elitist! Elitist! Elitist! Burn the elitist witch for wanting people to learn!" I don't see Indians waving their hands going "But I barely know how to turn a computer on!" I'll bet more than 8% of Indians can tell you what a browser is!
Update And in case you were thinking India is an exception,
Linux Laptops Bestsellers in Germany.
Brazil schools go Linux, 26 thousand computer labs
8/22/09 Meanwhile Corporations are now detaching from the USA.
9/7/09 Meanwhile Russia trains 60 thousand teachers in Linux. What ever happened to that country that wanted to stay ahead of "the Rooskies"?
10/15/09 Meanwhile France - the whole country - is running on open source. Top to bottom, side to side, through and through.
Oh, and Uraguay has given every student a Linux computer. Remember that favorite target of American trolls, the OLPC? It went through anyway! It's getting affordable Linux laptops into children's hands anyway. Americans bitch and moan, Uraguayans progress.
10/27/09 While America continues to decline.
12/28/09 And Alternet asks (finally!) "Are Americans a Broken People?" I mean, how obvious is it anymore?
1/16/10 And even Croatian school textbooks are pro-FOSS - with features on Ubuntu, OpenOffice.org, and a ten-page manual on the Gimp! While America collectively bitches about how hard it is to use.
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In the spirit of Douglas Adams' The Meaning of Liff, this is the little list of words I've come up with to describe aspects of Linux life. They don't have to make sense - I'm just being silly.
"adminland" n. "ad-min-land"
The console. The black text terminal you get by hitting Ctrl-Alt-F[2-6] and return to the desktop from with Alt-F7. For myself, it's a natural environment on my own machine. For the rest of the household, it's that weird thing that dad does to your computer from over your shoulder when you're having a problem. I've gotten so good at adminland, that all anybody sees is sudden black, a flurry of flying text, and the desktop again with the problem fixed.
"Appleshock" n. "app-el-shock"
The surprise of unzipping a received file which you expect to be from Windows and instead it's from an Apple user. Oh, yes, there are alternative systems out there, aren't there? So now instead of dealing with spaces in file names or all-uppercase DOS-isms, you're dealing with folders that begin with a double-underscore and duplicate files with a dot in front of them for no apparent reason.
"bootpanic" n. "boot-pan-ick"
The sudden realization that you have to struggle to remember the passwords to the machine you're booting, because it's been running for so long. At least one thunderstorm + power blink per year gives me bootpanic on at least one machine.
"decrappifier" n. "de-crap-i-fye-er"
Any script you bang out in anger to solve some stupid problem that shouldn't happen, regarding the output file of a program. Examples include fixing the bloated output of ABIWord when you save to HTML, converting "smartquotes" and "smartdashes" in a file saved from the web to normal ASCII, stripping the usable text out of a Microsoft ".docx" file, and so on and so on. Always saved with a name like "de-*expletive*-izer.sh", with no comments. Months later, you stumble upon these kinds of scripts and have no idea what they do.
"distromacy" n. "dis-tro-mass-y"
The diplomatic politeness with which you treat another Linux user's distro choice when discussing Linux in a face-to-face meeting, after having experienced the thrill of meeting another Linux user in real life. "Oh, you use Linux too! I'm a __! Oh, you use, ah, use _. Yeah, that's a good one too." Later when walking away and out of earshot you remark to your significant other marveling how anybody could use a crap distro like that.
"grepwords" n. "grep-words"
Any word-based game, e.g. Scrabble, Jumble, crossword puzzle. I cheat by using the 'grep' command and some regexp-foo on /use/share/dict/words to turn up all possible words fitting certain letters and space lengths, which actually turns the word game into a hearty regexp puzzle instead.
"McMove" - v. "mick-move"
From the command line, trying to move a file with 'mv' only to accidentally fire up Midnight Commander by typing 'mc' instead. I do this all the time, the keys are right next to each other. And I hate Midnight Commander, I can never remember how to exit it. On at least one machine I've gone so far as to remove the Midnight Commander package and alias mc to mv in .bashrc.
"mntveto" v. "mount-vee-toe"
To override any Linux distro's own eccentric scheme for mounting removable media. Look, Linux distros, bloody-well put the floppy in the /mnt/floppy/ directory, the CD in the /mnt/cdrom/ directory, the thumbdrive in the /mnt/usb/ directory. Alright? By definition, removable media is going to travel from machine to machine, so being able to quickly find the files on a (usually unfamiliar) machine should be a priority. Yet there are 1000 Linux distros with Borg-like consistency in where they put everything else, and yet all 1000 of them have to come up with their own unique, zany little scheme when it comes to mounting removable media. Stop it, you're not funny!
"mousephony" n. "mouse-fo-ney"
The ungodly noise you can produce by catting /dev/mouse to /dev/dsp (the speakers) and then wriggling your mouse around just to hear the squeals and static. Only works on desktop boxes, and only certain machines. If you're really brave, you can produce some infernal growling static with /dev/urandom going to your speakers. An activity for the extremely bored and braindead. (By the way, you stop this with Ctrl-C. You're welcome.)
"schrodinpackage" n. "shrode-in-pack-age"
Any package which you never use but keep installed anyway because some other program on your system might need it. Removing it might break the system, or it might not. Or it might only stop you from doing something you only rarely ever do, but will be nonetheless distressed when you can't do it any more.
"tabslap" v. "tab-slap"
To quickly close a newly-opened Firefox tab whose web page is threatening to crash Firefox. Misbehaving Flash and Javascript are the chief targets for tabslap.
"user" n. "uz-er"
How I pronounce the Unix standard major directory "/usr/", as in "user share", "user local", etc. Yes, I know that "/usr/" actually is an acronym for "unix system resources" and when I found that out, it struck me as daft. It's the user directory - things that users need go in there!
"VDADD" n. acronym: "Virtual Desktop Attention Deficit Disorder"
The tendency to abuse Linux's multitasking muscle by having way too many programs running in multiple virtual desktops or consoles. You end up flipping back and forth reading a line here, editing a line there, watching another five seconds of a video clip, and eventually coming to Emacs with a window-full of code open and asking, "What was I going to do with this?" Having multiple windows open on one desktop doesn't have the same effect, since it's all there at once where you can't forget any of it.
"Windowwart" - n. "win-dow-wart"
Any misfeature which was stupid design the first time it happened on Windows, and is carried over to Linux just to make Windows immigrants feel at home. Should we also install a clutch pedal in all cars with automatic transmissions so that stick drivers will feel at home when they switch to automatic?
Sanity checks:
Midnight Commander - by dumb luck, I happen to have F9-F12 hotkeyed to open my most commonly used programs; F10 is what I have Fluxbox opening Firefox under. So I have to exit MC via menus.
Mounting - I can recall at least /mnt/removable/, /mnt/media/, and /media/, plus some distros name the media's folder sda1, and I also remember /mnt/thumb/ once. Add to that the other variables - some distros automount, some don't, some require root, some don't, some even pop open a program automatically, which may or may not be the program you were intending to use right now.
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Uh, in case you've missed it, Google has released Similar Image Search, a function which allows you to find images similar to the one you're looking at.
And for those of you saying "That's like TinEye!", well, no, since TinEye performs real-time image analysis with an uploaded image and is designed to uncover cases where an image was copied and filtered and reused. Sorta.
The part where my mis-aimed fame comes in? Apparently, one of the favorite ways to test it that most people think of first is to type in "XKCD" - and lo, there in the second result is the parody image I drew for a closing sig on a blog post a year and a half ago. Next thing you know, I'm getting tons of hits.
Oh, well, I think I'm still in the clear, unless Randall Munroe has a copyright on all stick figures or something.
But while everybody's looking for stick-figure comics similar to XKCD, well, I do have a steady webcomic to offer. One that explores the hidden frontier beyond stick-figures! Imagine a universe where people have shapes! Where women have boobs and faces have expressions! Yes, it's all possible with the miracle of modern vector editors...
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Like rocket scientists and brain surgeons, programmers have an aura of intelligence about them. Over and over, I tell people I work at home in computers and instantly they mentally add 50 points to my perceived IQ. Well, if I was all that smart, I wouldn't need a spell-checker to tell me that I just misspelled "perceived" (i before e except after c, dammit!).*
Well, the secret is, intelligence doesn't get you nearly as far as you might think. Eric S. Raymond danced around this point in How To Be a Hacker. There's other traits that are even more important than intelligence. These are:
Patience. Number one. People think that there's some heavy wizardry going on when I soak up a new platform in a week. What they don't see is the part where I start out
- (a) Googling,
- (b) following false leads,
- (c) scouring the library and bookstores,
- (d) plowing through the reading of thick manuals for ten hours per day,
- (e) fumbling around trying it out, making at least ten stupid mistakes per minute along the way,
- (f) swearing at the computer, the documentation, and myself,
- (g) finally crufting together a demo app or two and convincing myself that this proves that I understand it.
Confidence. The mantra is "Other people have learned this, therefore, nothing stands in my way of learning it, too."
Curiosity. A certain amount of technology smarts comes from simple monkey-level fascination with your shiny new toy. If you're not interested in it, you'll learn the basics by rote and not understand the "why" behind it. If you're really intrigued, you'll pull all-nighters playing with the new technology, getting it to do tricks for you. New ideas pop into your head and make you giggle and run to the keyboard to try them out. This, then, is the real talent - being like a little kid wanting to run around exploring stuff. It seems that you either hang onto that as you grow up, or you don't.
Memory. Lots and lots of technical detail. Computer skills will quickly overflow your memory buffer. Some ways of coping I use:
- Written notes. Studies show that even if you never re-read these notes, writing something down helps solidify it in your mind.
- Bookmarks. My rule is, any page that solves a problem I had gets bookmarked for later reference in case I have the same or similar problem again.
- Docs. This is what manual pages are for - not for learning raw, but as a post-learning refresher. I can't tell you right now the option to sed to make it take two or more 's///' statements in a single run, but I know I've used it before and can find it again in a second.
- Keeping old code. I have programs that I'll never need to run again, but are worth keeping because, should I have to solve a similar problem again, I can read over my old code to re-learn how to approach it.
But anyway, the more you remember, the less you have to look up.
Blogging! Similar to the point above, when I make a "HOWTO" post, I'm doing it just as much for me as for anyone else. This is especially true for graphics techniques. Besides this, there's a technique called "second person learning", whereby you teach yourself something more thoroughly after explaining it to someone else. And of course, blogging culture encourages the sharing of information, so you get responses in the comments that will teach you something new as well.
* Or when sounding like a or in the sentence: "Neither leisure, seismic protein seized the weird, foreign height."
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Bruce Byfield has an interesting list of rebuttals for GNU-Linux myths. Yes, we've all dropped this anvil before, myself included (in only my second post on this site!), but we need to keep dropping it again and again. So here's a few thoughts to add to the points raised:
1. The problem of cross-distro compatibility.
To add to that point: Big business needs to meet some actual Linux users and watch them for a day. For instance, I run Slackware, so packages made for my system are few and far. That doesn't bother me in the least. I regularly grab Debian DEB and Red Hat RPM packages and convert them. I get source tarballs an compile them. If something needs a library, I'll find it soon enough on my own. What I'm saying is, Linux users require much less hand-holding than the users of other platforms. Make it for any Linux system in any form, and we'll handle it from there.
3. Hardware support.
I actually *would* go so far as to say that GNU-Linux supports more hardware than Windows because it retains backwards compatibility. And I'd bang on that point, too, because the way our civilization treats technology like a disposable tissue is stupid and wrong. Computers with at least a decade of use left in them get thrown out every day. I'm not talking about settling for ancient functions, either; there are brand new, cutting-edge distros out there right now that will happily run on a computer that originally came with Win 98 installed.
At this time, all of my desktops are rehabilitated Win-98-era boxen. On which I play modern games, emulate systems never intended to run on a computer, produce graphics artwork including the latest in 3D graphics, draw a web comic, program Flash, and generally get more power bang-for-the-byte than about 95% of the owners of computers bought this year. No sweat! Thanks to my computer recycling, I bet I could start selling carbon credits.
6. "Polish" on applications.
You know, I'd like to know where this so-called "polish" in proprietary software is, because I haven't seen a lick of it anywhere. Proprietary software makes you go through contortions to accept an EULA and then to keep it updated; FOSS practically installs and updates itself. Proprietary software has Aero as its flagship desktop; FOSS has Compiz. Proprietary software has Internet Explorer and Safari - very nice in Safari's case, but FOSS has Firefox. And I'll put on my favorite fantard hat to state yet again that Gimp is 100% SUPERIOR to Photoshop, ESPECIALLY in the interface. And if anybody wants to complain about the Linux command line, they can compare it to DOS, thank you very much. "DOS meets Bash" would be the "Bambi meets Godzilla" of software comparisons.
FOSS invented polish. The only way proprietary software pulls ahead of FOSS is (a) in games, which are artistic studio productions with huge budgets to rival Hollywood blockbusters, or (b) by patenting features, which just goes to show that they can't win a fair fight and they know it.
7. Tech support.
To add to the points already raised: Hire some! There are people out there who make Linux support part of their resume. Their numbers are growing. And in this economy, may I urge those of you looking to pick up an extra buck to offer whatever GNU/Linux/FOSS/Lamp services you can offer for hire? Your knowledge is probably worth more than you think.
In closing, pardon us Linux-myth-debunkers for sounding like broken phonograph records. The trolls never sleep, so we can't either.
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I've been having tremendous guilt over Doomed to Obscurity lately. I've gotten busy with work this week and, inevitably, I've just been rushing the strip out with whatever tired joke I have on hand at the moment, producing a very phoned-in entry.
Until I saw 40 Comics Strips for Web Designers and realized that I'm not doing so bad by comparison. Two or three of those show me up, the rest give me hope that even when I'm doing mediocre I'm still in the race.
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With only about a month and a quarter publishing history and being up to number 20 as of now, I'll take all the notice I can get. So here's a review of Doomed to Obscurity for ya'all to contemplate.
Even though the review is tepid and basically stands me with my nose in the corner, I am nevertheless completely accepting of it. It is quite fair, and it is actually showing me that I'm right about where I thought I'd be at this point. Let's treat it like the performance reviews I used to get in CubicleLand and respond to each point with action items:
- Page features: I intend doing a lot more with the page, as time permits. I do want to add an archive listing and add the date and strip number to each post.
- Not hitting the same note as XKCD. Good. Nothing against XKCD, but I've got my own muse to follow. Ditto other popular strips. Some I get inspiration from, but this is definitely going to be my own show.
- Not enough "omph": This will improve over time. Right now I've been frantically introducing characters and sets. I can't unleash the funniest material until I at least have a universe that makes sense. Even after a character's onstage, the first few strips they're in have to have too much exposition woven in. Kind of like a TV show pilot, only with a strip that just launched New Year's Day '09.
- Artwork: Heck, you ain't seen nothing yet! But I do very much hope to get syndicated (hint to independent weekly papers: I'm cheap and desperate!) or otherwise published, so I'll be careful not to use too much in the way of gradients and complex detail, with an eye towards how it will look in print, if ever.
So overall I'm jazzed to even get any notice at this early stage. Now, what would really put the candy-cane in my stocking would be if a site like WebSnark or The Comics Curmudgeon picked me up. In fact, if the CC's own Finger-Quotin' Margo abused me like the stern Dominitrix she is, that'd make my week.
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Some of you, when you hear me complain about spam, might have asked "WHAT spam, Pete?" Well, if you have to ask that, then that's a good thing. It means I'm doing my job.
But you do catch a glimpse of them before I delete them, if you click the 'last comments' link. This shows all last comments from all posts, and since I typically leave comments open on all posts indefinitely, much of the comment spam is in posts that are months or years old.
Here's a little gallery of screenshots I've saved of some typical examples. If you see these on your site, you know them now for what they are!
Chinese, I gather?
Never trust anybody with two first names.
But are they geeks?
Some kind of graphics site, posts only in the graphics tutorials.
This one always posts "thanx".
Apparently W0rld-of-W4rcraft g0ld is big business. And yes, I'm deliberately munging the name to ward off search-guided bots.
A bunch of them in the gaming articles.
NOTE: If you're a legitimate person who has posted any of these, you're welcome to explain yourself here. I could have made a mistake deleting posts sometimes. Some people might have poor English skills or just be unclear on the concept.
I'd also like to say that I'm not against leaving a link to promote your own site along with your comment, if you're an actual commenter. That's why I leave the URL field in the comment box. It's common Internet practice.
But there's a right way and wrong way to do it. To paraphrase a Supreme Court Justice when asked about porn, "I can't define a spambot posting, but I know it when I see it."
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Just when you were all wondering if I'd abandoned the dang blog, I'll carry on my Christmas tradition of posting a list of online games and toys that I found interesting this year. Because at least I got Christmas off work!
Gallery of Computation - I love these Flash demo sites. This one has a huge gallery of experiments and explorations in Flash programming. Navigate through this swoopy spacey interface to surf the demos.
Logo in your Browser - Yo dawg! We heard you like Logo, so we put some Logo in your browser so you can hack while you surf! Sorry, it wrote itself. I tried to stop it.
Light Bot - A very unique game. You have to program a bot to walk and hop around, turning on lights on squares to complete each round. To do this, you drag and drop little icons for commands and execute all at once. Also has two functions you can program. Challenging at higher levels!
Texas Hold-Em - Since you hear so much buzz about it - knowing how to program a gambling game site is a good meal ticket for a freelancer - you might as well learn the game. This version was easy for me to learn, although I still regard Texas Hold-Em as "Poker for Dummies".
Sittin' At a Bar - Nothing special about this one - just your typical balance game. Done to promote a song single. With a song you can't get out of your head. Seriously.
Orbs - Has won my award for most innovative useful Flash toy this year. This application lets you compose a simple music loop using a few instruments in two styles and an interface that is so easy, your cat could probably use it. A blessing for somebody like me who has no understanding of music whatsoever. Uh. Anybody know a way to download these as .wav files?
My own Orbs creations:
Super Mario Flash - It's Super Mario in Flash. Compared to the 1000 other attempts out there, this one actually succeeds.
Untangle - A very original game where you move nodes to make the strings connecting them not cross. A lot more challenging than it sounds!
And while we're at it, before my work drags me away from my own site again, Eric over at Binary World has launched a web comic, making him the zillionth acquaintance to have done so while I still sit here pondering how to start mine.
Happy Holidays, you crazy, wonderful blogosphere, you!
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