Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Apple now bigger than Big Brother : Good Morning Silicon Valley





Remember the Ad? Apple was the champion of freedom and choice in a world dominated by Big Blue, aka
IBM. The Corporate Entity known as IBM was stifling freedoms and forcing the world into the beige box of conformity.

Now we have this article from "God morning Silicon Valley", Apple is now bigger the IBM and this is the result



Apple, or perhaps we should consider calling them "Big White" has replace Big Brother with their brand of oppression. Now some may think, this is just another Anti-Apple Screed, think about this:

Apple has perfected the closed system. You to change your iMac, your iBook in anyway, you can, it's called 'buying a new one'. Yes everything is in one, try and put in a bigger hard drive. You want to mod, no way.

You want to hack your iPhone like you did the AppleTV, sure you can, and then Apple will screw you royally with a firmware update that won't simply remove all the hacks and third party apps, but stop it from working. Nice.

Oh and remember when you could install Linux on your iPod? Not any more.

Have a rumour? How about an inside tip? Want to post it on your blog? Expect a "Cease and Desist" letter from Steve Jobs.

What about IBM? They have embraced open source and Linux. As well, they have released Lotus Symphony, an open source Office Suite based upon Open Office. As well, this will be tied into their Lotus Notes platform with release 8.0. Again, another example of how the world is beginning to embrace Open Source while Big White remains closed behind walls of its own system.

1984 won't be like 1984?

Thursday, October 11, 2007

The Ontario General Election
Meh


Says it all.

The result was as to be expected, the Liberals won, the Conservatives lost and the NDP hung in there.

I heard the final speeches on election night and they were interesting. The first leader to speak was Dalton McGuinty, the once and present Premier. I thought this was odd since usually the winner waits until everyone has conceded the election before speaking. His speech was as exciting as he, in other words dull. In fact all he did was repeat what he has said over the past 28 days, with the exception of talking about his family.

John Tory was next and he gave words of congratulations to Dalton, to Kathleen Wynne and then said the usual stuff defeated politicians say. If I can translate: "we lost, it was my fault, let's get drunk". Okay so maybe not.

Howard Hampton spoke last and just kind of rambled on, talking about people he knew.

The dullest election, the Seinfeld election is now history. Meh.


Although let me rant, the sad part of the entire election was the inability of the electorate to support the referendum. People stayed with the status quo and I think part of the reason was a lack of information. I mean, what did we know about the difference? Practically little. I don't understand why this was not covered more and why information was not given prior to the election. This was not a campaign this was a practical constitutional change, one that required more thoughtful discussion and information.

As for the Green Party; so close, so very close. Next time, for sure.

Thursday, October 04, 2007


Free Burma!


Don't let the events of Burma disappear from the collective radar of North America. What's more important, the democratic struggle of an oppressed people, or the custody problems of Britney Spears?

Some of the News today:

Junta steps up Propaganda

More Arrests

Amnesty International

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Voted


Before complete and total election ennui set in, I decided to go and register at the nearest Elections Ontario office. Since we had just moved to Brantford, we needed to get our names on the list of electors. While registering it was also advanced poll day, so kill two birds with one stone sort of thing.

While this must be going down in history as the dullest election ever, I mean my mail box is not even filled with pamphlets, it is still important to vote. If for no other reason, vote in the Referendum. It's a decision that could alter the way we vote by allowing us to not only vote for one person, but for a particular party. It's a concept that is due in Canada.

So for no other reason, get out the vote.

Monday, October 01, 2007

Participate and Blog



Free Burma!


for a Free Burma.

For more information go to the Free Burma Blogsite

One Blog Post for Burma. October 4th.