hroughout my career I’ve always had many eggs in the basket. I’ve usually had multiple jobs and I was never fired; I always succeeded in job interviews (since 2003), except the ones with Google, which came to me three time (I never approached them regarding a job). One thing I’ve learned over the years is that one must choose a job one enjoys, otherwise it’s a chore. I never accepted a job that I disliked. I have been working in two jobs simultaneously several times (simultaneously as in overlapping months/years), sometimes on top of already being a full-time Ph.D. candidate/student. I still work two jobs and I very much enjoy both; it’s like leisure as there is a sense of achievement. Besides all of this, as a hobby I maintain some sites that promote freedom; I was never paid for this. This is part of my reading of material; it’s like a learning experience which also proved beneficial to many others — those who share interests with mine. Being enthusiastic about freedom comes very naturally.

After many years wanting to be running an independent business on the side I’ve decided to start creating a professional site. The original idea was to come up with a new name (and domain), but after much consideration I came to the conclusion that giving visibility to a new name and new site would be a lot of work. As this new blog post from Forbes correctly indicates, reputation matters a lot when seeking business. That’s why I decided to stick with my surname and in the coming days/weeks there will be a formal announcement regarding my third job, in which the work capacity cannot be guaranteed (depends on clients). The focus is affordable scientific computing solutions that put the client in control. In essence, it is about spreading free/open source software and charging for the scarcity, which is skill and (wo)man hours. There is nothing unethical about it.

Together with some friends (I shall add people to the appropriate pages), a new logo, CMS theme, and a soon-to-be redirection (dupe of index.htm will ensure all the older pages remain accessible), schestowitz.com will soon have a sort of relaunch. The site no longer attracts about 3,000 visitors per days like it used to (back in the days when it was regularly updated), but we shall see if it takes off not just as a personal workspace with a lot of informal pages. I remain very much committed to all my jobs; starting something as my own ‘boss’ will just be something on the side.

ACK IN 2004 I started this “Web Log” (yes, back when the term “blog” was somewhat of an unprofessional word, so I tried to avoid it). I posted at a pace of several posts per day for the next couple of years, but it slowed down when Techrights began to occupy more of my time (I’m approaching 15,000 posts over there). Anyway, the previous post was post #1500 and it is an important milestone now that I resume regular activity in this blog, which is one in about half a dozen that I run (most of them no longer active). In the coming days I will write more about the use of Free software in research and I shall also try to produce some technical screencasts if time permits.

The command-line access still reigns in the back room

LMOST anything which can be done from the command-line can also be done using a GUI, and vice versa. The question is, which can be done more flexibly and quickly? There is no “correct” paradigm as both are necessary under different circumstances, depending on the nature of the task and the learning curve involved.

Are you a GUI person? Or do you consider yourself to be a command-line guru? A combination of both paradigms is probably the best one can have; it is abundantly clear that some tasks do require a GUI to be carried out efficiently without much training. Standardised syntax and GUI usually ensure that skills are transferable, too.

Personally, I am a GUI person around 95% of the time. I still use the command-line interface on the desktop (e.g. “ffmpeg2theora -p preview –sync ./Desktop/file“) but especially for quick server operations (e.g. “tail -n600 /var/log/httpd/thelog-error_log” or “/etc/init.d/httpd restart” or “vim etc/mime.types” or “/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -s [IP] -j DROP“). SFTP with a graphical user interface is still a lot better for certain types of file management tasks. It is impossible to say very generally if a GUI application which accomplishes task X is better than a command-line counterpart. It very much depends on the circumstances and the skills/training. So, to rule out the command-line and calling it arcane or unnecessary is a foolish thing to do.

One of the merits of the command-line is verbosity. It is a merit, not a design flaw or built-in drawback, especially in specific circumstances. I use the command-line interface for little scripts which are better off run manually and in stages because things may go wrong in the middle and easily cause trouble. For instance, here is what I run when a new version of WordPress comes out (3.0.1 in the examples below):

cd
wget http://wordpress.org/wordpress-3.0.1.zip
unzip wordpress-3.0.1.zip
cd ~/wordpress
rm wp-config-sample.php
rm -rf wp-content/
cp -r * ~/public_html
rm -rf ~/wordpress

There is a lot that can go wrong in any of these stages and failure to achieve the task perfectly may mean a broken Web site with little information as to what went wrong or how to fix it.

The bottom line is, do not dismiss those who favour the command-line. These are usually the people who keep the servers you connect to running.

Photo from around 1984

R. GLYN MOODY HAS JUST TAGGED ME, which means that I became a (flattered and willing) victim of an endless chain:

The rules that apply to those whom I tag are:

• Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged.

I last did this a couple of years ago, so I’ll reuse four and add three more.

1. I never tie my shoes these days. Whether it’s sneakers or something more formal, I tie the laces just once and then use the shoes as though they were flip-flops.
2. As s child, I wanted to play the trombone
3. I worked at Burger King for a year (as a teenager)
4. I nearly always use the computer while I eat
5. I sometimes wonder if technology does more harm than good to us homo sapiens
6. Nothing bores me more than lectures about knowledge that will never be applied for good cause. I fall asleep easily at such talks.
7. I’ve begun abstaining from many things that emit radiation, no matter what self- or corporation-appointed scientists say about the long-term impact

I pass on this chain to:

1. Mary Jo Foley
2. Russell Ossendryver
3. Matt Cutts
4. Matt Mullenweg
5. Matt Asay
6. Matt
7. Michael Larabel

Are we human are we just animals?

‘ve covered here before some incidents (or widespread phenomena rather) such as use of Africa as the garbage dump for poisonous artifacts, disposed of by the western world. People are supposed not to know about this, or at least not to care.

Some years ago I was seeing protests from animal activists, whose signs also showed living monkeys with their skulled stripped. “It’s all for science,” the researchers would say and now comes this article from the CNN.

Other strocities include the testing of bad or experimental drugs in Africa where it’s wrongly assumed that life is cheap. People get treated like statistics; if a few die as a result, then “the experiment is compete” rather than a “murder is committed.” Business can be ruthless.

Not so long ago I saw some articles about the police using laws that were devised against “terrorists” to battle animal activists.

The only animals out there are often pretentious people in suits — people who put money before human life. Those are people to whom everything is to be exploited. This is just sad.

I hurt my back quite badly yesterday, which is a shame because I typically do some exercise on Sunday (still a four-times-a-week routine). Yesterday I could barely do a thing at the gym and I just left early. And now I just have some spare time, so let me spill my mind out about a variety of topics that come to mind.

Behind the Interview with Richard Stallman

A few days ago I attended the talk delivered by Richard Stallman just a 10-minute walking distance from my home. It was a brilliant talk that would be enjoyable to all those who think alike. A video will soon be available on the Internet and if there’s no Ogg Theora version available, I will produce one.

Some time ago I did an interview with Richard Stallman and it taught me a little more about the trouble that has become terminology too. There were some interesting conversations predating this, but I won’t bother blogging them at this stage.

Digg? Digg!

Well, not exactly. I can hardly recognise that Web site nowadays. The technology sections are quite vacant, including the GNU/Linux slash UNIX section. It’s like talking to an empty church sometimes. A group of stalkers/trolls still mod every comment of mine down, systematically. There are at least 4 of them. If they are not paid to do this, then they really need a life. Urgently.

Digg is committing suicide too. It won’t intervene to improve quality. It became a link farm and it’s no longer a tech site. I say this as one who left over 14,000 comments in that site (the most among about 2 million registered users). I spend some more time in FSDaily nowadays. Readers there seem to like my writings and I am still active in Propeller too. Both sites are very polite and ‘clean’, unlike Digg. Unlike Slashdot. Once the sites grow they get polluted by companies and trolls. A shame really!

Law is Relative

This old article, Net news ‘threatens court cases, caught my eyes a few months ago. I thought it would affect Groklaw a lot, but no quite so. As PJ told me, “It’s about UK cases, which we don’t cover. I expect it’s about the Paul McCartney divorce.” Ah well…

I suspected I would hear this, but the US could get ‘infected’ by such precedence. Think along the line of s/w patents in the UK. There’s solidarity. Gordon ‘Bilderberg’ Brown (or “Clown” as Stallman called him in his talk) cannot be trusted by anyone but businessmen.

Snubbing Those Whom You Speak About

This one is priceless, but a bit out of date by now. Recently, a couple of open source/Free software topics were covered in Webcasts that I had come across. Believe it or not, only users of proprietary operating systems (Mac OS X and Windows) were allowed to view these Webcasts, one of which was discussing the GNU GPLv3! No shame?

It remains a bit worrisome for a a couple of reasons:

• Reason 1 is that that you are analysts who concentrate on open source software, which the Webcasting facility of chose is inherently incompatible with.
• Reason 2 is that you host a very important discussion about Free software while at the same time shutting out those who probably care the most and are also affected the most.

I can envision more of these faces and voices that say that open source is not ready because “you can’t do Web stuff” and I continue to worry whenever I see ‘us’ doing this to ourselves. This isn’t an isolated incidents, so I chose to speak out. I won’t name the companies or the persons involved.

Please understand that I am not against proprietary software. I use Flash and I used to be using MATLAB when I programmed more frequently. I do, however, use GNU/Linux on all my PCs and situations such as these make it unnecessarily more cumbersome. Let us set an example by ensuring that we don’t ‘pull an iPlayer’ on our peers. Sam Varghese wrote a good article about this topic when ZDNet released videos of Linus Torvalds speaking. They used Flash (version 8+ required) before Adobe made version 9 available for Linux (there was never a version 8). Essentially, Linux users were not able to very the founder of Linux. This is more serious than failing to provide something like Ogg for Richard Stallman or Eben Moglen to view their own interviews because then it’s a matter of philisophy, not just practicality (technical limitations).

<43>Security Firms and Scare Factor

Most O/Ses come with already-known issues. This includes Vista, of course. Leopard too.

Some researchers use the ‘Eee hype’ to draw more attention to flaws in a GNU/Linux distributions. Linux flaws are interesting for the same reason that “man bites dog” is more interesting than “dog bites man”.

Migration Pains and Reviews

Reviews take a long time to write properly because it involves preparation and learning. I do wonder sometimes if assessing an O/S (entirely) takes far more time than reviewing an application. Moreover, what makes me trust reviews is breath of comparison. Reviewing a distro means nothing unless the reviewer has tried many other options, which few people have. I love the reviews from Susan at TuxMachines (she now writes for linux.com as well). She last published a good review/comparison of tiny distros just hours ago.

GNU/Linux and Free Software Difficult to Use?

When assessing GNU/Linux, people tend to forget the need to install drivers, basic additional software (e.g. office suite) and AV software in ‘that other platform’. Giving a barebone installation in both case would make a good benchmark. If only more journalists, for example, came from a *NIX background and then put Windows to the test for a long period of time (giving time for malware to take over the system, maintenance to be required and startup to slow down considerably).

Platform Discrimination

Alexa should make its toolbar available to GNU/Linux, i.e. not Internet Explorer-only. This has gone on for years despite many requests from Linux/Firefox users. The A9 access route (via Firefox) to Alexa is no more. Microsoft eliminated it after a deal 1.5 years ago. What does it all mean? Sites that are less about Webmasters and more about Free software tend to have low Alexa ranks. For what it’s worth, Schestowitz.com is ranked 5188th in Netcraft and BoycottNovell is at around 3900th. It’s nothing to sneeze at, but it works in favour of a crowd of administrators, as opposed to Webmasters. It’s biased. It’s population-dependent. Just like those stupid ‘Web surveys’ which purport to show that GNU/Linux has a low installed base. In Boycott Novell, for instance, about 40% of the visitors use a Free software distribution. Such sites never enter those so-called ‘surveys’ and pie charts that deceive.

Android

Lovely name, Google, but no product yet. Just making a set of specifications and giving a glimpse at manufacturing doesn’t mean it’s up there on the shelf. I personally dumped cellphones back in 2003 and I find it hard to believe that I’ll get back to them (health implications not even being a factor). I hardly ever use even my PDA nowadays. My life is simpler and I go more by instincts, not a prescription of tasks.

As much as I love Android, I’ll have to admit that the design from HTC is not pretty, but fortunately it’s just a platform and many more Android-powered phones will come (HTC in 2008Q1/2). Other people expressed similar thoughts about this design.

Installation is Easy in Free Software Platforms

Get used to something you like and stick with it. Don’t mind the rest.

Many of the fear-mongering persona complain about ‘fragmentation’ in installers. However, since all front-ends are so intuitive, there’s almost no way to be confused. With repositories, everything is also centralised. Additionally, there is the command-line which is more universal (yum/apt-get/others), so people needn’t even be instructed what to click and look at on the screen (“climb up the stair, go left, open door, cross the street” versus just a postal address).

As many articles have recently been stating, package management in GNU/Linux is still vastly superior compared to counterparts. It’s only myths that change perceptions and expectations.

It’s All About Choice in Free Software

Can’t ‘covert’ a friend by liberating his/her PC? You’re probably talking to the wrong person then. Don’t waste your time.

Some people are a lost case because they resist change — any change for that matter — from the very start. Find those who require your help rather than look out for those whom you want to change.

2 quick points worth clarification, regarding choice:

1. If it weren’t Ubuntu on the desktop, it would be another Linux, e.g. PCLinuxOS.

2. GNU/Linux is not just a desktop platform. Many different companies control different areas (some are bigger than a niche). Ubuntu has good presence in only one among many areas. MontaVista controls another, along with Wind River. SGI is strong in HPC. Red Hat is almost analogous to Ubuntu in a sense and it became synonymous with GNU/Linux-based enterprise-level servers.

Not sure which distribution to choose? As many people would say, “try both.” Try three. You can’t try too many, but never make blind choices.

There’s no better/best desktop environment (the same goes for distros). People are different. Try both and see which one you like better. The Portland project will lead to better convergence, so moving from one to another will be even easier. The whole argument about fragmentation is overblown.

Apple

There’s something about Apple vanity (as a company, nothing to do with Mac users) that is worrying. With Google’s AGPL snub it seems like Google could use some good toppling too. They sit on a high horse or a throne as long as they thrive and expand. They need to be reminded where they came from. They thrive in faith.

GNU/Linux is actually growing on the desktop. Apple and GNU/Linux don’t fight. They mustn’t. They both grow — together. If tensions arise, it’s probably to do with use of specific programs or means.

Debunking lies is fun too. Here’s a good way to debunk the myth that no progress is made by Free software on the desktop:

“According to DesktopLinux.com’s just completed survey, the number of Desktop Linux users has more than doubled in the past year…”

Apple is growing at fantastic rates as well. We all ought to let Apple grow and diversify the desktop market. Nobody needs to kill anyone. There are plenty of XP escapees to share. UNIX and GNU/Linux can live in harmony. Most Free software is POSIX-compliant.

You’re still reading? Good. The ramble goes on then.

A variety of articles were written recently in response to other articles from the ignorant (legacy-defendant) press. Some people really really want you to believe that if a computer does not run Windows and Microsoft Office, then it’s worthless. The perception that these two cash cows are indispensable is what kept them going. The desktop as it used to be no longer needs to serve quite the same set of roles and tasks. Some company wants you never to know this and thus move on though.

Watching Out for Greek Bearing Gifts

What do you know about the NSA? Do you trust it near your software and hardware? If you are not American, do you know what the NSA mean to your country’s national security?

On the one hand, the NSA likes GNU/Linux for its security, but on the other hand, the NSA adds some assembly code to Linuxes it touches and it already puts back doors in other O/Ses (that’s a fact). SELinux without the NSA would probably be more trustworthy. The “Security” in “nSa” is “national security”, i.e. eavesdropping, not “computer security”.

For those who do not know, back doors have been there in Windows since Windows 95 or Windows 98 (see articles around the Web). Those who want to have privacy ought to go for Free open source platforms. Not all sources of distribution are reliable though. That’s why nations ought to build their own and keep everything transparent for validation by their citizens, i.e. the end users. More eyeballs = shallower level for bug detection… and back doors (deliberate bugs).

Google’s High-end Secrets

Google has developed some really nice software, but being the freeloader that it is, it rarely shares it.

Seriously now, it was about a year ago that Google released a free open source piece that enables scientists to share heaps of data over a fast network. It’s all based on technology Google is itself using to keep the datacentres synchronised. Thanks for sharing, Google. Google, to its credit, does some good things too, including:

1. Summer of code funding
2. Offering jobs to *NIX admins
3. Project hosting
4. Patches for Apache, Wine, etc.
5. Assorted ports of its software to GNU/Linux
6. Development of new FOSS tools and promotion of P/Ls like Python
7. Role as a poster child (good publicity for GNU and its power)
8. Not-so-discriminatory organisation of information (Microsoft tweaks and censors its own for selfish interests)
9. Weakening of one abusive monopoly

I had several interviews with Google in the past, but I doubt I’ll ever work for that company. It’s a nice brand, but it typically just buys most of its software (other companies) and sticks it’s valuable labels on them. That’s not inspirational at all.

Why Schneier is the Ace of Security

In a recent video interview from Australia, Bruce Schneier talked about perceived risk and real risk. Indeed, this is similar to the recent upgrade to OOXML for ‘security reasons’ (why actually patch bugs when you can disable old file types?)

It’s amazing how often fear is used to justify action, or impose action upon others.

Site Secure

Security-wise, this Web site has been fine for a while, but various nice upgrades took their toll and broke some RSS feeds that I am unable to fix. Sorry to those who lost contact with the feeds. Please do come back by changing the URL in your newsreaders. The good news, as far as the blogging software is concerned, is that I began ‘templatifying’ my theme. It’s not finished yet and there are many rough edges at the moment. I could never be bothered to fix them under pressure of time. I’ll get around to it one day. Maybe.

Ubuntu Subculture?

It’s funny when Ubuntu gets its own set of links and own Web sites that are dedicated to just this one Free software distribution. Ubuntu can be seen as just a set of changes to a vast amount of code. It’s not a GNU or Linux replacement. It’s like this distribution has evolved to become its own phenomenon. Some people in TuxMachines are very pissed off about it (“why so many Ubuntu links?!?!”).

There’s life beyond Ubuntu, which I’ve occasionally used and still use since 2004/2005. Exploration is key, and it’s fun! Savour the choice.

Mobile Linux

Researchers have already indicated that initiatives like LiMO and Android will ensure Linux’s dominance in the long term. The iPhone is a stunning gadget as well, but it remains to be seen how it can harness third-party developers to make it evolve quickly. It seems to be doing fine. Damn, if only it was more open for hackers and tinkerers…

All Your Consoles Are [sic] Belong to the GNU

They used to say that the biggest winner in this ‘console war’ is IBM, which delivers the chips to all 3 major players. But now, GNU/Linux runs on all 3+ units (XBox/360, Wii, PS/3). In 2 cases, Linux even takes advantage of the ‘free razor blade’ (where units are sold at a loss). It’s Tivo saga all over again!

Low-cost PCs

gPC is interesting, but its development team might be too small.

It’s wonderful to see companies taking advantage of the flexibility and choice in Free software (enlightenment and Web apps in this case). They show that nothing should be accepted blindly. Best of luck to them. By the way, they sell these PCs not only in Wal-Mart, but also in smaller shops, so if you don’t like Wal-Mart, you can still get this PC for the same price elsewhere (ZaReason for example).

Intel

I hate Intel. My brother in law (actually my only sibling in law) works for them, but what can I do? He is a great person, but Intel’s management is greedy and merciless.

The more important thing for Intel to worry now are the courts around the world. Intel was bribing companies to avoid AMD products (a form of kickbacks). We’re talking about a convicted felon (in Japan) where even the CEO has allegedly destroyed E-mails (evidence). Maybe when the economy collapses some people will return to their senses and find this lost word called “morals”.

Mass-downloading

I finally have a nice backup mechanism for all the articles that I read and pick. It’s all automated.

Many of these links that I have to press releases and articles just go 404 after a while. For research purposes, that’s just detrimental. That’s why I thought I should start hacking on some automated way of saving and properly filing all pages that I cite (like a crawler). wget to the rescue! Simplicity wins. Less it more.

BillWatch

Some months ago I was given access to the contents of a site called BillWatch. It’s gone now. It’s a shame that the site is no longer out there. It contains a lot of knowledge about Microsoft that is also tightly compressed. It also teaches me a lot about the way things were when I was 16, so I’m catching up with history. I’ve been using the quotes database recently, especially when posting to COLA (USENET). Needless to say, everything I write there is free to use, distribute, and so forth. The goal is to raise awareness, not receive attributions. It’s reassuring to see that dissemination of information is successful and it does have an impact that benefits people’s freedom and brings justice.

Last but not least, I hardly care about Linux (as a kernel) or about money. Some people just get it all wrong. Money is a tool, not a goal. Money can help people reach fulfillment (the real goal in life), but it’s not always necessary. As for Linux and GNU, these are nice ‘tools’ for getting some breathing space and operating with less suppression imposed from above. Noam Chomsky had something very interesting to say in an old video about a person’s needs for a sense of independence, freedom. It’s natural, It’s innate. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs probably fits nicely, as well.

Here ends the ramble, which characterises my general writing style on the Web (I have little patience for polishing text). Enjoy the week to come.

So, Microsoft has decided to tell us that it ‘innovated’ a touch screen and then copied some existing software (even from Linux, as shown in the video below). Some people will still refuse to believe that great ideas comes from open minds, not large companies that thrive in mass marketing.

It is worth adding that Linux supports touchscreens very well and they can be aligned horizonally, for work or for play.