Callum’s musings on the world at large…
I’ve just discovered the volume control on the Gnome Desktop under CentOS Linux. Look at this, it’s a thing of beauty…
On my tablet I’ve got three audio ports. I’ve got a mic port, a headphones port, and a headset port where I can plug in a standard mobile phone headset. On Windows, you mute or unmute the system, that’s it. Under Linux I can control the volume and mute each port individually.
A small and insignificant detail perhaps, but a glorious example of Linux’s beauty…
At long, long, long last, after many, many, many painful hours of trying, I have finally connected wirelessly from Linux. So this post is the very first to come to you from my apartment, on Linux, how very exciting indeed! 
This post is the very first to come to you courtesy of Linux on my tablet! It is running, the revolution is no longer Microsized! I’m very excited!
There are one or two things I still need to sort out, like wireless internet access for example, but these are in the pipeline. The excitement is almost too much for me. At last, my computer actually runs quickly. My entire installation took all of 2.8Gb including all the applications! Windows uses something like 20Gb on my other partition, admittedly with more software, but not 10 times as much software!
I think I’m in love…
While reading about the politics and history of Burma on Wikipedia (new window) I came across an interesting fact about a company called Fortinet. It is reported that their software is used to censor the internet in Burma and restrict access to information of which the military dictatorship does not approve. Fortinet suggested they were “investigating” the situation saying their software may have been sold by a third party. Meanwhile, the Burmese government reports on their web site that representatives from Fortinet came and gave a presentation in Burma!
As a small sidenote, I call it Burma and not Myanmar because Burma is the name given to the country by those who do not recognise the ruling military junta (according to Wikipedia).
It leads to interesting questions about the business of censorship. Is it morally repugnant for a government to censor its population’s access to the internet? I think most people feel it is. Is it morally repugnant for a company to censor it’s employee’s access to pornography? I’d suggest most people feel it’s not. What about an ISP censoring its customer’s access? That’s probably more of a grey area. At what point do you draw the line?
Is it morally repugnant to produce content filtering software? Is it morally repugnant to produce guns? Where does the responsibility lie? With those who produce the device or those who use it?
It’s that time of year again, but do you know what the Easter Bunny is doing for the other 364 days of the year? I’ll show you…
Many thanks to Dr Jamesonian Kendallosis for this contribution…
Fergus (new window) in his new technologically equipped state of mind, having spent the last week almost exclusively playing with his web site, told me about a sweet little web site called Pandora (new window).
Pandora is from the Music Genome Project. They have analysed the music of over 10′000 artists based on a system of music gene mapping that they’ve created. So you tell Pandora the name of a song or artist that you like, and their system will automatically find other songs and artists that you will probably like. These are then played to you in the form of a custom radio station.
You get a free demo, registration takes 6 seconds and is free, then you can create and save up to 100 different custom radio stations. It’s a great way of finding new music, and a fantastic way to listen to music that suits your mood.
Thanks bro…
Do you have something to hide? Are you sure…
I just stumbled across a great little program called TrueCrypt (new window) which allows you to encrypt files, thumb drives or even entire hard disks. You can even create hidden encrypted drives within your main encrypted drive, so, should you be forced (literally or otherwise) to hand over your password, you can safely give someone access to only the first encrypted drive. There is no way for them to know if the second hidden drive exists or not. For more info check this link (new window).
I think I might have to encrypt my thumb drive, just for the hell of it…
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