WINDOWS 7 IS HERE, ARE YOU BUYING? NOT ME!

When I got my Toshiba Tecra laptop in the 90's it was a used one that came with Windows 95.  I didn't know  an operating system from a penalty shot.  I was happily buying and selling stuff on Ebay when a virus crashed my OS and ruined my hard drive.  Then I got lucky.   I was at a dinner party at a neighbour's house and  when I told him my tale of woe he said. "I don't use Microsoft, I use Linux".  I found out that viruses really only affect Windows operating systems which got me pissed off at Microsoft.  So I bought a new hard drive and Dan helped me install Linux RedHat on it.  Since that fortunate meeting with Starfish Systems I've never bought any Microsoft software as my little punishment for failing to fix the critical security issues that every subsequent OS sold by Microsoft has.  My latest computer is an IBM Thinkpad on which I'm running Linux SuSe 11.1. 
There are some simple and some complex reasons why I think it makes sense to stay away from Microsoft products not only for an individual with basic computer needs but also for business people who want to be practical with the technology budget. 
The first 3 reasons are 1) security 2)security 3)security. Microsoft OS's are vulnerable to security breaches and MS Office has them too I think.

The next one is  4)cost saving.  Windows is expensive and so is MS Office.  Also, the software is so massively memory hungry that hardware upgrades are often required.  Linux is free and much, much leaner so older computers with smaller hard drives and less RAM are fine.
Finally, reason 5) is more philosophical.  Linux is a community resource that grew up on the internet by contributions from users.  It's shareware.  The source code is open.  So when one needs technical assistance, it can be found free on the net.  But when someone needs a techie guy for hands on help, the money goes to a local independent technician rather than to a Microsoft pro and shareholders.  The nature of open source is for the technology to remain in the community and on the net rather than waiting for the next big corporate sales event.   There will never be a next big Linux sales event because it's always in the public domain and there's no advertising.  Yet Linux is bleeding edge technology that holds its own or beats the Windows software for virtually every application because so many developers worldwide are working on Linux without corporate control.  Try OpenOffice for example.
It's not actually my aim here to just bash Microsoft. Besides it doesn't matter anyway.  Microsoft has a strangle hold on the OS market and I think on office software as well.  But what this blog might do is to provide just a little more exposure for the open source community.
Microsoft is the empire and Linux is the resistance.  It can't win the war and never will.  Even Mac, isn't making any serious inroads into the Microsoft marketshare.  Ironically,  I no longer want Linux to be mainstream.  I like being in a local club.
I know that the latest versions of Windows are better...aren't they....Microsoft says they're great....but haven't they always said that?
Uh maybe I'll get a Mac when I get my inheritance.

I'll leave you with one more little warm and fuzzy note.
Virtually all new computers in the world come with Windows installed as a native operating system.  So Microsoft sells a version everytime a computer is sold unless it's a Mac, pretty much.   So there's a Windows "tax" built into every computer.  One has to pay for this even if one will never use it.  This $200 or whatever it is makes computers too expensive for most third world people.....Even a cheap computer with a $200 OS is out of reach for most.  But there's a better way!  Because Linux is free by nature of its GNU license, it can make computers affordable for poor people worldwide.   It's free on the net.  This makes it possible for someone earning $200 a month in Africa to own a new $99 computer because he doesn't have to buy Windows.  Any old computer will do....just add Linux and boom you're on the net and you're in business!  A whole village in Africa can share one computer and each person can have his own private user account.  And it's legitimate...no software piracy temptations.
One laptop for every child or destitute senior or small business person is a reality.

Migrating to a new computer environment is not easy and most never do it.  But it's pretty nice in here. 
Julian.

CLIMATE CHANGE ISN'T KILLING CANADA BUT WE STILL FEEL YOU KNOW....GUILTY

Those who say global warming is a long term trend caused by burnt fossil fuel emissions are saying collectively that the science is complete, that we know the facts, and now it's up to humans to stop burning fossil fuels so the planet can be saved....is that all there is to it?

Not so fast my fair weather, bicycle riding friend.

Most of us in my post WWII generations remember our childhood summers as warmer and the winters colder. Virtually all of the winters in southern Canada in the late twentieth century seemed warmer to me than in decades gone by. But is that impression or an indication of actual climate change in the form of global warming?

We'll get into the science here because it is important. But the main thrust of this writing is to expose and rant about the lemming mentality of the global warming, fear mongers who have an apocalyptic view about something they predict will occur several decades or centuries into the future.

Confucius say “forecasting can be difficult....especially the future”.

Scientific facts exist as we all know but many so called facts fall into the category of statistical data and we all what that means....lies , damned lies and statistics!

Dr Timothy Ball Phd. on anthropomorphic global warming.

"Believe it or not, Global Warming is not due to human contribution of Carbon Dioxide (CO2). This in fact is the greatest deception in the history of science. We are wasting time, energy and trillions of dollars while creating unnecessary fear and consternation over an issue with no scientific justification."[6]

Of course no one knows exactly what the future will hold for us and our little green planet. Predicting what kind of cataclysmic events will occur several decades into the future makes for entertaining and harmless rhetoric.

The New York Times has reported that 4 major warming or cooling trends were occurring at different times in the last 100 years.

Several recent reports on global climate state that the world has been cooling for the past 8 years.

I think that overfishing the oceans is probably more dangerous to human health than the the risk of acidification of the seas from co2 in the atmosphere.
But even if the global warming fear mongers are right, what can we do about it as Canadians? Those of you who are wringing your hands, gnashing your teeth and crying in your beer about the Hummer driving, air conditioner buying, suburban dwelling commuter types should remember that if Canadians were to stop burning fossil fuel right now, virtually everyone in the country would freeze to death by springtime, and the rest would be be dead the next winter or when all the wood runs out.  A sobering thought isn't it?  Yes my friends, most Canadians don't live in Vancouver!...Most Canadians live in places where exposed skin freezes in 10 minutes.  We'd be burning the furniture in oil drums the first night without oil.

Al Gore and his “An Inconvenient Truth” scenario, as entertaining as it is, isn't truth either.

The future is uncertain and predicting it is fun and sometimes useful, but it is, at best, an inexact science. Doom and gloom sells but I'm not buyin' … I'm not drinking the Koolaid. Nothing is what it seems. Things are complex.

It's all part of the green shaft and this is a fun area of R&D as well

This doesn't mean that I'm not “green” my faithful reader. Yes I drive a diesel car, yes I ride a bicycle to work, yes I recycle my beer cans.....hey I'm so damn green I'm glowing green and it's not a recent fad, this is how I live. Of course we should all conserve fossil fuel. Not just to “save the planet", but to save money. In beautiful British Columbia we need to conserve electricity because it's crushingly expensive to build new dams.

Are we headed for hot desert conditions or is the next ice age nearly upon us. As a freezing Canadian, I'd welcome a little warming...it would certainly make life easier in many ways in this country. Maybe our red wines would improve! Perhaps we won't all look south for our winter vacations. Perhaps we'd burn less oil. But wait. Is that a good thing? We sell oil as a nation and we need the money. So now my friends, we are going to find out just how green we are in Canada. I say that oil gets cleaner as the need grows. The oil that one buys and burns gets cleaner depending how short the supply becomes! Seeing as how there's a reaction for every reaction, it's likely that warmer countries wouldn't welcome any increase in temperature. But I'm not nearly as concerned about other countries, although I wish them well, as I am about Canada. When tar sands synthetic crude is the only oil available, it'll be the cleanest oil in the world.

And since Canada is the new Saudi Arabia, and I feel as though I've won the lottery just being a Canadian, I'm definitely not going to ruin the moment by feeling guilty about burning and selling and investing in Canadian oil!

“Saudi Arabia!” you scoff.

That's right folks. Which country has the worlds 2^nd largest oil reserves? Which country is the world's largest supplier of fossil fuel to to the world's biggest customer, the USA? Yes my incredulous friends, the answer to these questions is us...Canada.

Despite the fact that it comes naturally...I'm not going to feel guilty about being oil rich.

Climate change isn't what's killing this planet. Back in the 70's I heard this expression. What's killing earth are the 3 c's cars, cows and chainsaws. Cars because of air pollution, cows because the rain forest is being cleared to raise them and chainsaws because that's the tool being used to clear the rain forest. It's catchy, and sort of true but more complicated than it needs to be. What's killing this planet can be summed up much more succinctly by a phrase that is the title of a forty something book, The Population Explosion.

Written in 1968, the same issues we're discussing now were on the table then.

Dr David Suzuki and my high school biology teacher were talking about the greenhouse effect in the 1970's!

Hey everyone needs money. A scientist first has to create or identify a problem and then lobby for money to research the solution...nice work if you can get it.

If the seas rise then many millions of people, tragically, will lose their homes. But since we're quoting, what about this. “The wise man builds his house upon the rock” Take this literally.

In Richmond, a city/suburb, neighbour to the south of Vancouver, there are no basements.

“Why? You ask.

Because the entire city is built on a peat bog/ delta/floodplain that is below sea level and therefore surrounded by a system of dikes. Its a mini Netherlands.

It used to be all great farmland but real estate demand has placed millions on land that would fill up like a giant bathtub just like New Orleans if the dikes couldn't hold back a rising sea.

In Bangladesh, if the sea rises one meter, 32 million people will be displaced....that's nearly the entire population of Canada.

Too many people living in too small a place is nothing new. But now the planet is really filling up. In order to make room for all those people more and more people are living on land that is less and less stable, and more and more money is being spent to create infrastructure to service these areas, all over the world, that are more or less vulnerable to flooding, over heating....or over cooling as maybe the case. To provide all this, more and more oil is being consumed.

I still say this is good for Canada, a place with lot's of oil, lot's of space and by world standards, almost no people!