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Last week was the first gathering for the Open Source community in Kuwait. I was kind of hesitating to go, as usual, but being an open source believer I gave it a shot. Two things really caught my eyes. The guy from KuwaitNet talked about the company experience, and how they completely have taken Windows out of the picture. Even the secretaries use Linux, I’d love to see that. Firefox and Thunderbird for browsing and email client. OpenOffice for office applications, though I wasn’t very impressed with it when I tried it. By doing this however, the guy demonstrated how the managed to cut down costs by thousands of dollars. Something really worth looking into isn’t it?

But isn’t Linux that old scary black screen with small text, and can only understand command lines from users. You need to do mounting for everything you attach, and complex procedure just to plug a USB device? Well this was the second BIG surprise. Ubuntu is the release of Linux that will change your whole idea about it. It has features that I don’t even recall from Mac nor Vista. Maybe they exist, I am not sure. But to see it in Linux is a big jump. I found this video link while browsing some blogs today. Watch it on YouTube and tell me what you think. Now ofcourse this is not everything. One has to consider stability and availability of softwares on it. I should give it a shot and see. Maybe it can run my PC better than Windows, who knows.

UPDATE: Just as I posted this article, I came across this site. The site is an Open Source contest, hosted by Sheikh Ali Jaber Al-Sabah. The content is about creating the best project using OpenOffice, and Open Source tools. It’s a nice step to encourage and educate the public about the open options they have. Registration is open for all, no location or nationality restriction. Registration is open until 15th May this year.

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A while back, I posted the Bye Bye Windows article, which got the most views and unique comments so far. The problem I had was that suddenly, my computer went on restarting every few minutes. I had no time to update, backup or do anything. Even Check Volume for errors could not finish successfully for most of the time. I am still looking for Leopard release of Mac Book Pro to move away from Windows, however for people who will keep using Windows, I got my part of the story to share for end user benefit. After several attempts of restore, and update, Windows Error Reporting finally gave back useful hints. I think they had it with my Send Error every few minutes so they decided to help me out. The problem turned out to be a conflict with my ATI Radeon X600 PRO video card. There was an optional update on Windows Update that was more crucial than all other critical updates, at least to me, and possibly other thousands of users around the world. Getting the update, after knowing it was tough by it self, since my PC kept restarting all the time, until I managed to get it right, and after then everything went fine.

This is awkward however. I had this PC for almost two years with no such incident, not that obvious at least. Why all of a sudden it started hammering me? Was it something I installed? Not manually definitely for the past few weeks. Checking the logs I noticed that one week back, Windows had two automatic mass critical updates, and logic conclusion is that, only those updates must have caused the problem. I had a habit of disallowing automatic updates, but using Firefox seems to have kept me safe so I let it go this time, and this was the result. The problem is, the only critical updates are Microsoft security patches, and Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), which is an anti-piracy program for Microsoft products. Question mark on why is that marked as critical, big question mark. They even give you an option to show you why this is useful upon installation! Anyhow, the problem is that, those critical service affecting updates are not marked by Windows as critical, but rather as optional, which most people will ignore. Specially those who has Windows set on automatic update. Right now, I switch it back to alert before install. I suggest all users to check all updates before installation, and see what they might affect. See also if there are related optional updates that might be needed.

The funny side of the story is, once I restored my PC to a working state, and had automatic Windows update disabled, Windows started threatening me that your computer might be at risk. Well I prefer to be at risk rather than safely offline!

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Last year, Browzar was released and marketed as the world’s most privacy maintaining browser. The basic idea behind this light weight browser is that it does not keep track of your browsing history, stored files, cookies or anything else. What it claims is that it deletes all it’s user history once you close the browser window. There is no need also for installation, you simply click the file and you are ready to serve the net. The small size of the browser comes from the fact that it’s heavily based on the Internet Explorer engine. Ow, yes that means it uses ActiveX, and along comes every security hole that goes with it. So if you ever heard this browser is more secured, it probably is a false statement. Privacy and security are two different things here. Privacy means disallowing people to see your browsing habits, while security means stopping unauthorized access to your login accounts, or system resources. The company behind Browzar makes its revenue from the ads that are delivered with search results, which some call it very annoying.
I have not given this browser much testing, but I can see now it’s tab based. GHacks wrote about how unsecured this browser is, and how it is promoting fake privacy features. The writer points to the slashdot post highlighting a possible issue when logging to Gmail from IE and Browzar consecutively. Looking at the scenario however, and trying it my self, I do not see any problems with that case at all. Every time you close your Browzar window, it clears all your session caches, history files, cookies and all. There have been reports however that the browser is being treated as malware by malware removal softwares. The reason behind this is that Browzar does redirection on web searches to online advertisements. The browser anyhow could be helpful if you want to go to a public place and use the net. Just take the small browser with you there, run it (no installation needed remember) and you are done. I wouldn’t recommend it for personal continuous use however for several reasons:

1. It is still based on IE, so it’s not secured and probably has all the same bugs in it.
2. It is not widely adapted, so you are likely to face problems with many sites
3. Using your home PC, I think you would be more convenient with the cookies enabled. After all, it is a technology for the good of the web.
4. If you can, you would probably prefer to get rid of unnecessary ads.
5. You cannot do any custom settings like Proxy, custom homepage and similar stuff.

Their theme is very nice however, iPod taste so obvious in it.

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That’s right. The great old classic game, The Dig is not forgotten at all by Lucasarts as many people might think, not even after 12 years. You can tell so from the lawsuit Lucasarts are filing against Digg.com, saying that the name is confusing with their 12 years old point and click adventure game, which was not a big success even. Lucas have also turned down the offer by Digg to trademark it’s name. The funny thing is, Dig.com is a registered domain for Walt Disney Interactive Group, and they had nothing to say about it! I find it awkward Lucas are revisiting the name after 12 years just for the sake of a lawsuit. This is either a UTube inspired similar lawsuit case, and if so, it’s a real shame on Lucas to follow that way just to make few bucks. Who the hell would remember The Dig game today, and instead of searching for it would think there is a domain for it, and that domain is misspelled as Digg.com. The other possibility is that Lucasarts are planning to revisit The Dig again! Since Lucasarts have republished the classic adventure games for sale, said they are getting back to adventure games, even if in 2015, they are probably either considering a second episode, or a movie based on the game. After all, there have been some thoughts about making movie of the game. All in all, it is still very funny how Lucas ignores the customer cries for years, promise only to come back in 2015, when they know many people are going to Digg.com to read about the dozen years old game, yet they still do nothing but file lawsuits about it. More on the news also from International House of Mojo.

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International House of Mojo writes that classic adventure point and click games from Lucasarts are now available in Australia and New Zealand for sale at $7 each. The games, Sam & Max Hit The Road, Full Throttle, The Dig, Curse of Monkey Island and Grimfandango, are now runnable from CD, no installation required. The games run on Win98SE, ME, 2000 and XP. The games are available from Game Planet New Zealand with international shipping as well. As much as I would like to get my hands on Grimfandango, I am still hesitating to pay a single dime for Lucasarts. Not only because they abandoned the adventure games, not because they don’t even want to give away the license for them, but because I have tried to buy the Mega Monkey Bundle previously,which includes all four parts of Monkey Island. Putting the order was a not easy at all by it self, and when I got it, Monkey Island 1 & 2 ran on my PC without music. After all the ScummVM and others I’ve tried, I only managed to run MI 2 with music. When I contacted the Lucas support team, which was at the time under Yoda theme, I explained the problem I am facing and that you sold the game when Window XP is the dominant platform, there was no warning message it may not run properly on new platforms. I received a silly reply from them saying:

“Thank you for your message,

Unfortunately, this DOS program is not officially supported for use with Windows XP, due to changes made to the Windows operating system with Windows 2000 and Windows XP, in addition to the release of new audio technology and faster processors which can also adversely affect this and other old DOS games. Windows XP does not provide a TRUE DOS environment. DOS titles were designed specifically for this type of environment.

At this time, there are no plans to provide any updates or support for these older DOS based titles in Windows XP.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

May the Force be with you,

Jason
LucasArts Technical Support”

Very interesting isn’t it? Why didn’t they say that when they offered the mega package you wonder, and more, what’s the point of offering the package anyways? It’s like offering all Amiga games in one package for $10, but you have to have a running old Amiga! And what makes it even worse, is the stupid “May The Force Be With You” quote at the end! They are like making fools of their customers. I fired them back an angry email with no reply ofcourse, they got their money, let go the customer! Anyways, this game now is Windows XP supported (as they claim), and for people who didn’t play the old games, like my friend who will reply to this post before I even publish it!, $7 is really worth it.

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You have something to say, say it in the face. This is the message the Linux community is giving to Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. Since Microsoft made the deal with Novell, Steve Ballmer has been making silent claims here and there that Linux are violating Microsoft’s intellectual property, and that Microsoft should be paid for those license. Now, the Linux community is not afraid and is challenging Microsoft and Steve Ballmer to Show Us The Code. As they state in their site: “Publicly pledge your support for Microsoft showing the public the code within Linux that violates their intellectual property by May 1st, 2007″. ShowUsTheCode are saying basically, that if by the appointed date, Microsoft can show the part of the code where Linux is violating their intellectual property, this will allow Linux developers to address the issue and modify the part of the kernel or operating system. If Microsoft however cannot prove anything by the appointed date,  being a bluff will be a word that will hunt ballmer you for the rest of your life. More on Slashdot.

I am not really fully aware of all the details of the story, and how the Microsoft-Novell agreement does make Linux violating the intellectual property, but that call today made it clear. Linux are not afraid, and even if there are property violations, they are going to address it, and Ballmer’s dream of a world FREE of open source OS is not going to happen. I believe that’s why Ballmer didn’t want to go in the face in the first place, he doesn’t want them to resolve the issue, and rather wants to make Linux pay Microsoft shares. I will be waiting eagerly for that 1st May.

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As the web keeps providing idiot-proof ready made designs, some people tend to still have lousy web interface. That some includes me, so I decided for the sake of my visitors health to try a new design. Hope you like it! Thanks goes to Patricia Muller for her Connections Theme.

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