Online Oprating System

Imagine having your desktop with you wherever you go what ever computer your at. All your files, bookmarks everything are always only a computer with internet away from you, and in today’s world that’s not far at all. One day we’ll wonder why people carried their computers around with them.

Welcome to eyeOS. See more blogs about eyeOS here and here

Springboks Triumph

After Scoring 8 trys and winning 55 22 against England, the Springboks are looking ready for the world cup

Computer Added Stone Design

Ever since I was a boy growing up on a farm covered in rocks, I’ve wondered about the possibility of using a computer to calculate a pile of rocks into a stone wall.
Geometric Reassembling

The process would work something like this:

• Each rock is scanned 3 dimensionally and marked to identify top and bottom
• Rocks are tagged and stored with an easy access and identification system
• The 3D rock images are placed in a database
• The parts of a building design that could use stone construction are rendered into a 3D image
• A computer programe analyzes the rock 3D images and calculates the best sequence to fit into the design with options to have: bigger rocks nearer the bottom smaller at the top, have stones in a flat lying position, 5mm mortar gap, etc
• The builder would then use an onscreen display during construction.

Some development is taking place, see link,

Microsoft

There’s nothing wrong with Microsoft, and Windows Vista is a great operating system.

I think everyone should download a pirate copy,

(opinions expressed are not those of the author)

Why use Ubuntu?

Ubuntu is a solid general purpose operating system. It is the closest you can come to getting an operating system that is more stable than Windows or Mac, more customisable than Windows or Mac, and supportive of all the same standards as Windows or Mac.

If you go with Windows, you are supporting a company convicted of monopolising and will be paying heaps of cash for the operating system, virus software, malware protection, and any productivity applications you might want to use.

If you go with Mac, you pay more for the hardware, more for the operating system, and are still vulnerable to security issues. Apple suppress security issues rather than letting them into the open so they can be fixed (see George Ou).

The skinny is Windows and Mac are both preparatory, Linux, is open source. Ubuntu is based on the Linux kernel. It is freely available, free to customise and, thanks to the Linux Foundation, will remain so.

If you want to give it a go, you can download the LiveCD image at ubuntu.com or try Ubuntu Studio, the new multimedia flavour of Ubuntu. If you do not have broadband, you can ask for a free CD to be shipped to you (no charge for the shipping): shipit.ubuntu.com

juiced up computer

Imagine watching TV on your computer full-screen, crystal clear and because it’s via the Internet you can choose what you want to watch when you want to watch it, or instead of plugging your TV into a freeveiw box you plug it into your laptop. Welcome to Joost

I remember reading an article in time magazine, how television and the Internet were not quite ready to get married, that was before Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (founders of Skype and Kazaa) created Joost.

A few days ago I got an invitation to try out joost, and it looks good. It’s only the beta release, (test version) the selection is not that great, but the big studios are signing up. This could be a bad thing?

Listen to the radio702 Joost podcast.

Go Open source

While I was browsing the interweb I found Go Open Source. A program played on South African TV about, amongst other things, open source development and Mark (I’ve been in a Shuttle)woth. There is a lot of talk about Linux and Open Source Software lately.
I’ve grown up using Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Programs, for many years there never really was an alternative. using Microsoft became like a habit I figured everything out about how to use everything Microsoft, so why change? stick to what you know hang on to the security blanket.

Then what happened? Linux Ubuntu arrived and started tugging at the security blanket, charmingly threatening to take it away and offer better things for free. It’s convincing, and I’m starting to let go of that blanket. So, Ubuntu Linux made me cheat on Microsoft. Ubuntu Linux even moved in with me and Microsoft.

I can’t completely let go of Windows just yet… It still has its perks. To mention one: Autodesk’s AutoCAD, but although Microsoft has the lead at the moment open source development is moving at a phenomenal speed, new linux distributions and applications are released almost daily. There is a real sense of community, and a determination to fix bug #1.

Ubuntu Studio, the new multimedia flavour of Ubuntu, built for the Linux multimedia enthusiast and professional, still in the development stage, but when it’s up and running I believe will mark the end of the beginning of the Microsoft domination.

Dell’s announcement to sell pre-installed Linux computers , not just any Linux but Ubuntu, that has its origin in South Africa, is great news and a step in the right direction.
It leaves me with a question, how do Microsoft employers sleep at night?

Walking Proud

Change is not an unusual thing, the world is changing all the time, but the end of the 1980’s was different. Whole ideologies began to transform, by the early 1990’s the world had redefined itself. The Soviet Union dissolved and with it went the cold war status quo, that had some how been keeping things the way they were.

It was at this time that South Africa began to rebuild itself. Its not difficult to know why the old South Africa fell apart, it could have continued to fall apart until there was a total blood bath and the greatest show ever to be seen on CNN. Instead there was tremendous emphases on reconciliation and rebuilding a new South Africa. How it took place is what makes it a fascinating story.

Everything that took place in South Africa, from the very beginning, in one way or another, lead to were South Africa is today. There were many characters, coincidences, meeting of people, merging of ideas, opening of agendas, to some it was the end of the road, to others it was only the beginning.

To understand what happened we need only study the people that were there. I’ve just finished reading the Louis Luyt Autobiography “Walking Proud” and it is one of the best books I’ve read. It gives an inside view of South Africa in its most volatile era. I thought it was about rugby.

After all that!

The people at Microsoft were so proud when they finally got to release their new version of OSX called Vista, after five years and 50 million lines of code, and that 3D cascading thing it does. Along came Ubuntu Linux, an applicationan called Beryl and pissed all over their parade!