Tue, 01 Feb 2005
The most intense thing
I think the most intense thing ever is acting out the entire production of
Dogville whilst listening to
Motherfucker (Redeemer) - Part 1 by Godspeed You
Black Emperor.
posted at: 12:18 | path:
/theory |
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Sun, 23 Jan 2005
Steps to help free software use
Depend on Free Software for daily computer use
The only way you are going to walk the walk is if you become a user.
Gradually began replacing your warez'd copies of commercial software
with Free Software. The next step is crucial to this.
Stop complaining about differences
Linux is not Windows, GNU is not UNIX, The Gimp is not Photoshop,
Macromedia will never be interested in Free Software! Get over it. If
you feel strongly enough about some special feature of a commercial
package, write to the company and ask them to consider releasing their
source code so the community can improve it.
Become part of the community
Accept that you are joining a worldwide community and include yourself
in it. Some examples:
- Join the mailing lists of certian software you like
- Spend time on IRC. irc.freenode.net is a server with thousands of
channels all dedicated to various Open Source and Free Software
projects.
- Learn to identify bugs and learn how to use your distribution's
bug reporting system. If your distribution doesn't have a bug
reporting system, find another distribution.
Remember, you are part of a community. You are not recieving a
commercial package with technical support. You are not allowed to act
like an asshole customer. For example, something like
"Linux sucks,
mine doesn't work!" is very unproductive and will just anger
people who could otherwise help you. Something like
"I'm running
Debian Testing and I'm having trouble with my sound card using the OSS
drivers." is a much better question.
Be humble.
The Free Software community has an incredibly deep history. If you
realize you probably don't know everything about it and that you will be
learning new things at a very fast pace things will go easier.
posted at: 20:40 | path:
/theory |
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Thu, 20 Jan 2005
I thought of this after a rather emotional conflict with a radio group I'm involved with.
When obsolete technology is elevated to the highest priority, it is too
common to regard ignorance as a virtue and not a limitation.
Nostolgia is a very common thing. And nostolgia is quite a good thing to
keep close to your heart. But nostolgia is a particularly human and
emotional charactaristic. When it is attached to machines everything
goes wrong. I recently had to explain to a friend who is installing
Debian GNU/Linux for the first time. He
asked me what is better,
Gnome or
KDE. I couldn't come up with an answer. I
prefer Gnome but I also use Knoppix for a
project of mine and I'm pretty
familliar with KDE because of it. In the end I could only say "know
thyself". Then that kicked off way too many things to think about.
Computers aren't just machines. They are so generic and can perform so
much utility in our lives they have become personal. The complexity of
breaking anything that involves a personal computer down to "is
better than
" is so large it's futile. You can't
possible come to any meaningful conclusions. This argument takes many
forms. I call it a
Sucks vs Rules
argument but the folks on #debian at irc.freenode.net might call it a
poll and thusly a useless question which they deride. So there is no
right answer to our personal computer question because it's so
very personal.
I can make my own conclusions from this. Using information is hard.
Personal computers make that easier but your personal amount of
willingness to deal with certian external factors and the time you are
willing to spend influence it greatly. If you are looking for the answer
to a sucks vs rules question you probably will never find it and you
will have to investigate further or just forget it and stick with
what's cool. Coolness
looks a lot different when it's
obsolete.
posted at: 02:28 | path:
/theory |
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Fri, 10 Dec 2004
Wasting time?
I was watching a documentary of the tour of a band named Lightning Bolt. They
rock quite hard. Then I started falling asleep. Not because it was late, but
because the band was so good live it was just boring to see them recorded
since that meant I wasn't at the show. Then I started thinking about my small
obssesion with technology, especially of the free type. I started thinking
about all the people I want to step up to and just tell them to stop fronting
on the "I really agree with the principals but I'm not using it" style. Then
I thought, "who cares?"
So that's what this is about, who cares, personal expression, the ability to
freak out and not give a fuck so much...a sense of humor. I'm begining to tire
of people without humor in their life. Especially people who have such a grim
outlook on the world that their humor can make a cheery 6 year old want to die.
I say who cares because it's so easy to fall into the trap of alienation when
shit just gets real obscure. Interests go deeper and deeper into speciality
that the whole point of getting into that interest is lost. I'm begining to
think of not caring as a form of letting go. Giving up that power that comes
with feeling compeled to know everything and get involved in every aspect of
a project. That place where it feels better to abandon the whole thing if it's
not possible to understand everything.
Technology is great. People make wonderful, creative things with it but there's
a terminal velocity for technology. And when that speed is reached it's just
impossible to go any faster. Besides, is it even possible to get anything done
when you've reached the fastest speed you're capable of?
Capitalism moves fast. Capitalism brings commercialism. Commercialism brings convenience. Convenience
brings ease. Ease brings function to a form. How is it possible to take
Capitalism out of that equation? I think it's very possible but it's so deeply
rooted in American culture that any creation isn't taken seriously until it's
reached the level of commercialism. Especially with technology, which I'm
caring about less and less.
posted at: 02:29 | path:
/theory |
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