Had a fun weekend. Lots of partying, some clubbing with my man Przemek too. Met a lot of new cool people, and I hope we stay in touch. I want to thank Troy for organizing everything. And it was good to see old friends again: Barbara & Nick F., and Rob K. Funny how both venues’ name’s started with ‘C’.
Monthly Archives: November 2009
Hmm… The Future Feels Clean
So do you like it? The theme on the website that is. I decided to go with a variant of light greys, royal blue-purple and amber highlights. It does have a spartan, minimalistic feel but I like it. I considered rebuilding the theme as an ExtJS or jQuery UI powered on. But honestly, this works and IMHO looks pretty good. For a theme that doesn’t use any images. I plan on tinkering with this theme as time goes on, but I think I like this theme as a base. As promised, I will go through this theme, clean things up and release it out in the open once I’m done.
Whats next on my list? Well a good chunk of work, and some partying this weekend to celebrate the coming of the end of the year. 🙂
A Clean Future
The future is white?
Bob, the future has been white since the 60’s.
– Autotainment, Big Ideas
The future has been white for a long time, thanks to the likes of Stanley Kubrick and the folks at Apple. Thats why the theme I’m crafting for this website, is called “Clean Future”. I took the “Open Sourcerer” theme by Alan Lord, and modifying it until it suits my tastes. I’m still debating whether it will look like a glass UI or hand-drawn doodles. Maybe I’ll go all out and create a full AJAX powered UI. We’ll see. I’m sure it will remain white and light grey. And I’ll take it as far as I feel it makes sense to do so. So if anyone has any suggestions feel free to leave them in the comments below. I’ll make the modified theme available once I finish working on it.
As the Year Wraps Up
Less than 37 days or so remain in this year, and so I almost want to look back at this year in nostalgia. A lot of personal growth happened, even if my plans only now are starting to get realized. I discovered the fullness of what it means to be human: love, life, hate, death, joy, sorrow. A million different feelings and it has been quite a ride. I feel better equipped to handle whatever the future brings. And I want to thank all those who I met, got to know and taught me many life lessons. Some were joyful, others painful. Still I can not say I am not thankful. In retrospect, I would of done things differently. But I would not trade those memories and lessons, for anything.
Life happens. Life is messy. Thats the beauty of it.
As for my projects, and my obsession with completing them… Well I am at a stage that I wished I was at back in February. So I feel a little anxious of how long things take. But I’m hoping that I can wrap up this year in this month and in a bit, with some tangible achievements.
Anyways… back to work… there is so much yet to be done.
Tech News – Canonical Bringing Music to Ubuntu, LH Strikes Again & Affero GPL Can’t Fix the Cloud
Canonical Launching a Music Store?
Rumours on the world wild web point to the possibility of Canonical building an iTunes-like music store. Works for U thinks such a move would add another viable revenue stream for Canonical, even if it seems to stretch the resources of the firm. If this music store comes to Ubuntu, I’m sure many users will enjoy using it. And it will help Canonical start a community of artists, musicians and software firms to using Canonical and Ubuntu as a platform for selling content and applications.
The Linux Hater Tries Karmic Koala
No one knows who hides behind the LH mask. Is he an enlightened but disgruntle Linux programmer? Or is the king of all trolls? Who cares! Read up his (or her) review of the “fail” that is Ubuntu’s Karmic Koala. You’ll get a kick out of it.
Kubuntu Needs Documentation Help
nixternal (Richard Johnson) calls for help to improve the sad state of the Kubuntu documentation. If you are a tech writer and enjoy using Kubuntu, please help out. UPDATE: You should know how to use DocBook to help.
Affero GPL Can’t Fix the Cloud
One of the great opportunities and threats for commercial open source is the emerging cloud computing landscape. However Matthew Asslett (451 Group) points out the Affero GPL doesn’t negate the threat of no monetary contributions from cloud providers to commercial open source vendors. Yes it doesn’t. But the licenses were designed to get source code contributions from developers. Business models need to focus on selling value (some scarce resource based on real scarcity not an artificial one) to clients, and some clients will not see the value. There will always be those that get away. The Affero GPL does help “guide” most cloud providers contribute back. If anything the GPL will give more freedom and opportunities for many more smaller players than a few large ones. And that solves many more economic and social problems than anything else.
Writer’s Block – Echoes in the Endless Returns & Totally Unknown Writers Festival
Last week I mentioned that I restarted writing of my novel. Well actually I’ve restarted the writing of TWO novels. Yes, I’m writing TWO novels in tandem. And while it sounds like a bad idea, this can work since I can switch between the novels depending on the mood I’m in. If I’m in the mood for something epic, I’ll continue with A Collection of Shards. If I’m in the mood for something more quiet and personal, I’ll work on Echoes in the Endless. In either case, I’m planning to work on both simultaneously. Also I can not give an estimate of when I will finish writing these books. My previous estimates and personal due dates came and went, and the book writing did not progress.
Echoes in the Endless will look similar to the earlier variants that I started working on. However instead of the majestic huge starships of space operas, I’ve taken a liking to the gritty grim spacecraft of today. I also enjoyed hard science fiction, that involved reality based stories. Yes authors go into great lengths to explain things and it does make stories less “plastic epic”. However these constraints lead to more provocative unconventional stories, and I plan on writing those and not another clone of “Battlestar Galactica” or “Star Trek”. A warning to all readers, neither of these books are meant to be happy. I’m a realist not an optimist so I tend not include pink tinted glasses with my stories.
Finally, I’ve been initially invited to contribute to the next Totally Unknown Writers Festival. Everything is still in the conception stage, however with any luck I’ll read something at next year’s show.
And for kicks, I read the flash science fiction 365 Tomorrows a lot. Here is an awesome piece: EULA by Cesium Artichoke
Update – A Week in Review
This has been quite a busy week in hindsight. I managed to build up my portfolio and work on my professional image. I managed to restart my coding and writing projects. And I’ve finished up on my correspondences. I look back and I’m quite proud of my achievements. I just wish I could move such mountains on a regular basis.
News – Chromium OS is Here
Chromium OS is Here
Google just announced their Chromium OS project. This will act as the open source precursor to Chrome OS. And the folks at Canonical are helping Google build it. Exciting times ahead, especially for netbooks users and cloud computing advocates. Thanks to the 451 Group‘s Matthew Aslett team for posting about this.
News – The Future of Nokia N-Series Phones, IP for Libertarians, Animating the Death Star
Once again, Dorian has dropped off the side of the Internet to work on stuff. So instead of an update, Dorian sends some interesting bits of news he found on the Internet.
Maemo is the Future of the Nokia N-Series
Just when you thought Nokia planned on using Maemo only for their experimental line of phones… future N series phones will run Maemo! This is great news for all the Maemo fans out there. And it looks like this will be happen in 2012. So all you who follow the Mayan calendar, while be able to ring in the new Mayan calendar cycle with nice Maemo-powered phones. 😀
Intellectual Property from a Libertarian Perspective
This is not news so much as a well written article by Stephan Kinsella discussing Intellectual Property from a Libertarian perspective. So if you’ve been following the news concerning the mess that is intellectual property, this article premises that it doesn’t make sense to have it, makes sense. Patents cause the most amount of problems, being so broad in scope. But at the end of the day, it comes down to the question should or should not the owner of a physical property have exclusive rights to their property. The fact it cause loss for a content creator or it is not acceptable behaviour by “society” is a moot point.
Dorian’s thoughts: Thats why all that I publish is under the Creative Commons license. I’d rather just putting things in the public domain. Unfortunately there is a double standard of what an individual’s rights to that of a corporate entity’s, and thats why some restrictions to protect myself are needed. I’d hate to go to court over something I originally published, being picked up by a corporation and then being hunted down by their lawyers for some IP infringement.
Animating the Death Star in Star Wars
Think computer animation is hard nowadays? Then check this video of animating the attack on the Death Star in the old Star Wars. Amazing.
The Totally Unknown Writer’s Festival
Tonight I’ll be going to the Sixteenth Totally Unknown Writers Festival. I highly recommend it, especially if you would like to hear aspiring young and young-at-heart writers in Toronto.
