"Ubuntu Forever, Ubuntu No Limits!" - A Cool Wallpaper for Ubuntu Geeks!

I once remember hearing from a well known radio presenter in my little country saying that, even though he may have a decent voice and a little skill when it comes to "talking" :) (heck ya he does), but there isn't a single day that passes by without him thinking that he had the ability to sing (ya dude really sucked at that :/).

It can be quite frustrating to see the "great work" done by others using artistic talents but for the rest of us who has no such talents... well it is frustrating. For instance, the usual readers of this blog must know by now within a very short period of time I've changed the theme of this site (colors, layouts, logo- if you can call it a logo, etc).

*. At the moment I'm struggling a bit with my adsense CTR, so trying to find a layout that's optimized but I promise you guys as soon as I find that (if it's ever gonna happen :/) I'll leave the site alone :D.

Anyway, as I was saying, just because we don't have such talents doesn't mean that we can enjoy the work of others. In that sense I saw a pretty cool wallpaper/picture created by another Deviantart geek called TKensum which is named as Ubuntu forever! Ubuntu no limits!.

Although personally each and everyday I find it quite difficult to appreciate Ubuntu yet for those of you who likes it... you'll love this little wallpaper (I hope so). I should be thankful to Martin Owens for posting this. Thanks dude.

If you like the picture as I do, Just click on the image and let it load, then save it to your desktop. Or visit TKensum and get it.

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Chinese Prisoners Who Make £470-570 A Day Online, A Sad Story

Selling virtual "goods" online to other gaming enthusiasts is a very popular way to make some money online these days. You don't have to create any website or anything, if you know how to play a popular video game and how to win and collect points then you can sell these points to others who are so eager to "win" and willing to do anything for that (ahh, the dark side of ambition, eh, it's not funny anymore).

You don't have to be an expert, if your gaming "Kung-Fu" is powerful, then even if you're new to this.. you're good to go!. This is what has happened/happening with World of Warcraft (although not the only game where you can "do it").

Basically, there are thousands of players online all over the world, wanting to win. As with any game, you can collect points, etc while you play it and then you can send these collected points, goods to your friends or ... you can choose to "sell" 'em...

... Liu Dali who's a 54 year old prisoner in Jixi labour camp (sent in for " illegally petitioning" for three years) says he heard the 300 prisoners who are forced to play World of Warcraft online who are making about £470-570 per day!. But the sad thing about that money is that, the prisoners don't get any of that money, not even a penny out of it!. Quoting Liu Dali himself...

"Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour," Liu told the Guardian. "There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb [£470-570] a day. We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off." Via: Guardian.

I actually don't know who's to blame for this. Is the prison bosses are more evil than the prisoners? or is it the "usual" other way around?. They say that the game developers don't have the authority to stop theses selling/activities. It's out of their control. Although they could easily disable sending "goods", but that could easily mean the end of their business.

Image Via: Saibel from Deviantart.

There is a religion in my country which says there are basically 10 things (mental conditions) that "control" us. 5 drifts us "below" or towards negativity/hell or whatever the words you're comfortable representing it. The other 5 is what takes us to higher ground, upward. Positive thoughts, love, kindness, etc.

Sometimes I just feel like we're being controlled in such as manner, by a certain kind of individuals who has some basic understanding of these "secrets" and they feed the 5 things that takes us downward. Media, newspapers, "talks", celebrities, porn movies, etc...  they/we feed this dark side of the mind thus creating such complexities until we arrive at the point of not knowing how to be happy until we "kill" all our fellow human beings, one way or the other. 

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Have You Watched the "Free Software Song"?

I saw this song (in video) for the first time few years ago while watching the Revolution OS, a movie which basically exposes the birth of GNU/Linux. Although it was first sang by Mr. Stallman himself, but a lot of different "versions" can also be found such as a Techno version (for the European Gnu geeks :P) + a death metal version by Jono Becon (of course :P).

Anyway the if you want the original lyrics then here it is...

    Join us now and share the software;
    You'll be free, hackers, you'll be free.
    x2

    Hoarders may get piles of money,
    That is true, hackers, that is true.
    But they cannot help their neighbors;
    That ain't good, hackers,that ain't good.

    When we have enough free software
    At our call, hackers, at our call,
    We'll kick out those dirty licenses
    Ever more, hackers, ever more.

    Join us now and share the software;
    You'll be free, hackers, you'll be free.
    x2

It's a pretty cool song and as mentioned before, originally sang by Stallman himself. Here it is in his own words/voice I might add.



Here is the song as in the Revolution OS which is performed by the "The GNU/Stallmans" (Gnu/Stallmans!... wow, that sounded almost like - "Bill-Gatesmens :) )...



And here's the other version sang by the scary Severed Fifth :P (band of Jono Bacon)



Are we deceiving ourselves here?. In a way I feel like, as general PC users (you and me...) we're at the middle of the battle between Hackers and their "enemies", in a way they both seek truth in their own perceptual levels, but at the end it's just pride... fear, is the right word actually, I think :). 

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The Perfect "Con", That Which Really Drifts Me Towards "GNU/Linux"

Life's really funny. How many times have we seen the "forces" that were promised to "free" us end-up being the cause or perhaps the "fuel" that boosts the epicenter at the other end. Gnome brag about GNU philosophy and "seems" so try to look like the guardians of "light". 

But at the same time through their pride and ignorance (not quite true actually... more later) gives the exact opportunity for "others" to easily disappoint people. For instance, I don't know about other and I have nothing against KDE but I've been a bit "close" to Gnome desktop rather than KDE.

To this day I don't have the faintest idea for the exact reason for that, sometimes I suspect that it may have nothing to do with Gnome being close GNU but maybe, just maybe, it could be because it was actually Gnome which was my first "taste" of GNU/Linux!.

I think ;)...

It was with Redhat and before that I've never used Linux. And interestingly to this day, I'm drawn to RedHat related distros (Fedora Core for instance). Anyway all I'm trying to say is, it's not that easy to get around your past and the authority it carries till the very end of your life ;).

The reason I loved Ubuntu when she was still very young is because for some reason, the OS felt solid compared with other distros thus even after using it for few minutes, Ubuntu was able perceive me the idea of confidence. Even after being disappointed with the darn UGLY theme it used to come with, yet I loved it. And the other the most important one, was due to the fact that Ubuntu being a "Gnome based" distribution!. Although I put it secondly but it is actually most prominent factor, for me.

It's/was also very interesting how I "define/d" the idea of confidence or willing to see it others. It actually doesn't matter how solidly the OS is built. For me, the idea/emotion of being comfortable/confidence was always triggered by the OS's ability to "represent" it's familiarity with Gnome.

For instance, in the past I've used many solid Linux distributions such as OpenSuse, Mandriva, Slackware, etc. But none of those great (I meant it :D) distros were able to make me comfortable. I never stick with KDE based distributions (not even with Kubuntu) for that long.

But every time I use Fedora Core which is not the best OS if you're really new to GNU/Linux because unlike Ubuntu or many others, FC also behaves in a very similar pattern to Gnome developers. For example, by default Fedora Core does not allow you to read-write NTFS partitions nor they let you easily install multimedia codes (.bmp image extensions are un-readable, etc) either. Even after such disappointments, yet every time I use FC, I feel comfortable. But that's my personal dilemma. Can we really trust the sense of comfort as a way of measuring "freedom". For instance...

...this is the reason that I loved Ubuntu from the beginning. I came across GNU/Linux, because like everyone else, I also hated the idea of even thinking someone else being in control of my life. But then again, interestingly most of my friends don't give shi* about what's the "idea" behind the OS and how "open" it is etc. They just use it. And heck, some people are seems to be really comfortable around some certain types of "authority" figures :P. Why is that?. Is it because they don't care about some else being in control of their lives???.

I guess that, it depends on the way we define ourselves. For instance, if you're an engineer, then you might be okay with accepting "opinions" from someone else as long as he's anything but who you are. This is the basic idea behind the illusory idea of "community" or "team-work" (also in relationships, I maybe wrong on that one, perhaps).

As long as the individuals in a team belongs to different types in nature, you'll maintain its balance. Problems will rise as long as you start adding more than one type to the group (a second Java developers for instance).

You won't feel threatened as long as you're the only Java developer in your little "group", but when Sam from US arrives :P who's also happened to be a Java expert... things start to get interesting. I sometimes feel like this could be the reason for a lot others not to care much about the "philosophy" behind the operating system that they're using. Because they don't "identify" themselves as "computer related", if you know what I mean.

As said this also helps to maintain a false sense of "harmony". Because this serves the purpose of giving everyone what they want... for some it gives the idea of superiority. For instance, you could open a business, say about computer software. Then you can easily dominate the market by giving what "others want" and in your way you can make small adjustments of your "own" which helps to drift those people your idea of reality which serves the purpose of being right.

But most of the time you being able to "control" that community depends on their interests. The recent Gnome-Canonical clash is an excellent example. The failure of Mark Shuttleworth being unable to "convince" Gnome team to accept his "proposal" is due to the fact that Gnome team consists of individuals who's identity heavily depends on being a computer hacker, which is their idea of not being scared of "life" (I didn't put it in a bad way guys, I'm no better, where do you think these "ideas" come from :P). He threatened them, their identity, thus he WILL not succeed with them. But...

... he as with Microsoft, may succeed with the other-kind of people who are "not closely related to computers", because for those people, computers are just tools... not an identity. This method of deceiving ourselves ignorantly serves the common purpose for both sides. People at one side think they're so advanced and mature because they "control" the people at the other end. But the people at the other side don't give a damn about being "controlled", because as far as they're concerned, they're not.
 

It's like when everyone involved gets just what they wanted (the sense of comfort, at last :P), hah... the perfect con of life.

So in the end, which side is really free??.

Just because I feel comfortable doesn't mean I'm really free. That's pretty much wrap things up for me. Maybe the geeky "Tux" has conned me after all :).

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