Cogs can think.

Is Linux for the masses happening? Will Microsoft ever lose significant market share to its competitors?

I have no idea, but I do know that what Aaron Seigo wrote on his blog is something I’m seeing all around me as well. I have seen many people switch to Apple, and, more interestingly, have seen awareness of Linux (and especially Ubuntu) grow almost by the day. Last year, I had a surreal talk (at the DIY shop where I work) with a normal (absolutely non-geek) handyman for a local institution for mentally challenged people about how he used and liked Ubuntu.

Awareness of alternatives to Windows is growing. Whether this will translate into significant market share increases for these alternatives is something else completely, though.

As I was discussing early computing experiences with the guys, girls, and sheep in #haiku, I reminisced about how I went to a friend of mine to play on the MSX together. I was about 7 or 8. I remember little of these times (I generally suck at early childhood memories, too much crap happened afterwards), but the first words coming into my mind when thinking of ‘MSX’ is ‘blue’ and ‘commands’.

And that’s when I stumbled upon this.

That boot screen brought back so many memories of that friend and I sitting behind the TV, MSX connected, doing things (probably playing games). As a result, I now really want to get my hands on an MSX. If not for now, it will be for later, to show my children and grandchildren.

Sometimes, I wonder, what is journalism in this world coming to? What is journalism worth if you can just spout utter nonsense and have people believe you? Steven J. Vaughn-Nichols writes:

Microsoft is putting its own spin on its “re-re-announcement” that it believes that Linux and open source violate 235 of its patents. The company is now sending out a release to some members of the press explaining its position.

Microsoft’s statement opens, “The company’s longstanding preference is to license rather than litigate and Microsoft’s work over the past three years to build a bridge with open source is a result of that commitment. The November agreement with Novell addresses the IP issues in open source while meeting both the distributor’s needs and, more importantly, the needs of the customer.”

While Microsoft professes a preference to license rather than litigate, its record indicates otherwise.

Up until now, there is little wrong with the above. Microsoft makes patent infringement claims, but says it won’t litigate. SJVN then poses his thesis, namely that “While Microsoft professes a preference to license rather than litigate, its record indicates otherwise”. This is a thesis that needs proof. So, what do you expect SJVN to list now? Exactly, a list of court cases where Microsoft sued other parties for patent infringement. This is what follows:

On Feb. 22, 2007, a jury awarded a $1.52 billion patent judgment in favor of Alcatel-Lucent against Microsoft over the Redmond, Wash., company’s use of MP3 codices. This was the largest patent award in history. In the Eolas case, Microsoft was also found guilty in a $521 million patent infringement ruling over how Internet Explorer handled embedded content.

Those are cases against Microsoft. In other words, these cases are not started by Microsoft, and therefore are completely irrelevant to the build-up he wrote. These cases do not prove, at all, that Microsoft in fact prefers litigation instead of licensing (which may in fact very well be true, but that’s irrelevant).

This is just bad journalism, and goes to show what a Linux shill SJVN really is.

I’m enchanted by Björk’s new album, ‘Volta‘.

Three must-haves from the album. First of all, “Innocence”, one of the weirdest songs I have ever heard. This is apparently what Timbaland can do when he’s not held back by uninspired R&B ‘artists’; think a gunshot and a male moan to form a beat. The second must-have is “The Dull Flame Of Desire”, a duet with Antony Hegarty. Beautiful singing, very touching, and an extraordinary ending with ever louder drums. Incredible. Lastly, you just have to experience “Declare Independence”, an unnerving trip, with Atari Teenage Riot-like hardcore beats. The song is dedicated to Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

I’d be surprised if anyone can topple this release. In other words, it’s May and I may have already found my album of the year.

The Girl With The Red Hair. Her character has reached mythical proportions in the folklore of my friends and I.

It all started early last university year, during a course about writing scientific papers. The professor in that course was an asshole, to put it mildly, because all he did was cuss at us and blame us for his own incompetence in teaching us how to write scientific papers. And I can know, because I did just that for two years when I was studying psychology. Anyway, he refused to help anybody with our assignments, except for that one girl. The Girl With The Red Hair. He always helped her. He was always kind to her.

And in an inexplicable way, I was attracted to her.

Fast forward a few weeks into the course. My friends and I were at the university pub, having a few drinks, at a standing table. We were talking about said course. I went into bitching mode, complaining about our teacher, how he never helped us, how he hated us, how fcuking unfair it was that he would not help anyone except for The Girl With The Red Hair. He helped none of us, I said, except for The Girl With The Red Hair!

As the words came out of my mouth, I saw Martin’s face turn pale. I saw Levi’s eyes swivel from left to right, and back again. I saw the faint contours of a smile appear on Marco’s face, after which he made a nodding movement with his head to behind me, to the right. Completely unaware of the historic event about to happen, I looked in that direction.

Only to stare straight into the eyes of The Girl With The Red Hair, who was sitting 1.5m behind me. For all this time.

In panic, I looked back at my friends, hoping they would kill and eat me within the next 1.3 seconds. When I turned my head to see if The Girl With The Red Hair was still there, she was already standing right in front of me. She was about 20-30cm shorter than I was, carelessly holding a cigarette in her right hand. Looking straight into my eyes, she spoke the line which would make her immortal.

“So, what about me?”

And that’s how The Girl With The Red Hair achieved her mythical status. We never spoke with her afterwards, and now we rarely see her in university.

One of my general dislikes is stupid people. I really don’t like stupid people.

I know sometimes circumstances are to blame. When you’re a politician, stupidity is the norm, so you can hardly blame politicians for their stupidity. Kind of like you can’t blame a cat for stealing any food you leave unprotected.

However, when you drive a lot, stupidity is just all around you. My faith in mankind just keeps reaching all-time lows while driving.

For instance. Say you’re out on the highway, doing 140kph. You are the last in a battery of cars. You keep proper distance. The battery is driving on the left lane. Up in the distance, I saw a shimme, on the right lane, you see a big lorry, minding his own business, adhering to his maximum speed of 80kph. About 100m behind that lorry, a lone car is doing 120kph. He is approaching the lorry, but so are you and the battery of cars in front of you. The 120kph-right-lane-driver obviously wants to overtake the lorry. This leaves 120kph-right-lane-driver with two options.

1. He slows down, waits for the faster-driving battery to pass, and starts the overtake when the battery has past, attaching himself behind it
2. He does not slow down. He continues his 120kph, switches to the left lane right in between the battery, causing everybody behind him to brake ferociously, after which all the drivers have way too few metres in between them.

From experience, I can tell you that 90% of the people opt for the suicidal option #2.

Seriously. I hate stupid people.

I am following courses in translation (en-nl and vice versa), and apparently, I’m an unfriendly and direct translator.

Well, whatever. I just ain’t into the custom of putting ‘please’ and ‘kindly’ before and after every verb.

It’s so satisfying to see my mother act al happy when Shenna’s around. Shenna is the daughter of Jolanda, one of my mother’s best friends. Me mum met Jolanda at a sort of support group for breast cancer patients, and ever since, they’ve been very close. Jolanda is much younger than my mother, and, as you have figured out by now, mother of one daughter. I guess Shenna is about 3 or 4 years old.

Both me mum and me dad start radiating when they talk about Shenna, and I can certainly understand why. I’m not that much into kids (they’re manageable alone, but when in groups, it’s just chaos and pandemonium, and I like ordnung), but Shenna is such a happy toddler. It’s contagious.

Other than that, my mother gave birth to three boys. No daughters. They’re not disappointed with that, but when I got older, my father teased me a lot about how they in fact wanted a girl (I’m their third and last child). I can see how Shenna kind of fills that gap sufficiently until the grandchildren arrive.

And since those won’t sprout from my two brothers, that task is up to me. Heaven forbid the day.

Marco and I generally tend to talk a lot of nonsense, and among that nonsense, our favourite topic is cars. For 99% of the time, we disagree; you could call me the Italian, and Marco the German. Marco loves Porsche, I’m an Aston Martin and Ferrari guy. He hates alfa Romeo, I adore the brand. And so on.

One of the interesting questions in automotive is which of the Big Three is my favourite? BMW, Mercedes, or Audi? If we were living in the ’90s, the choice would have been easy for me: BMW. During the previous decade, BMW had such a stunning house style; clear lines, straight angles, sharp edges. This style was best represented by the BMW 3 series Coupe and the convertible. During the ’90s, BMW kicked Mercedes’ and Audi’s butt in the design department (save for the butt-ugly 3 series Compact).

These days, things are much more different. BMW adopted a new design style, which resulted in hidious creatures as the new 3 and 5 series. Instead of the sharp lines of the ’90s, they now resort to some weird mish-mash of lines which seem to go everywhere, without any logic in the whole package. Even worse than the 3 and 5 series is the 1 series, who’s design makes little kids cry. Of course it’s not all bad; the 6 series, especially the convertible, are stunning.

Luckily, the coupe and convertible version of the new 3 series are actually quite nice; it’s impossible for me to understand how the ugly sedan version is related to these two beauties.

As for Audi… Well, for some odd reason, I’ve never been a fan of Audi. I don’t ‘feel’ anything when I see the A4, A6, or A8. I know they belong to the best cars money can buy; well-built, extremely reliable, all that jazz. There’s a reason their ads read “Nothing to prove”. But, I just feel nothing when I see them. No connection. No faster heartbeat. Nothing.

It’s not all bad at Audi, though. For some weird reason, as soon as Audi cuts off the roof of an A4, everything falls into place: sheer introvert beauty. Other than that, Audi makes the very sexy R8, and, of course, the stunning new A5 (seriously, so clean, so beautiful… Love at first sight, for me). Also nice: the new A3. Oh, and please forget the TT (gay hairdresser’s car).

This leaves me with Mercedes. As I have said in the past, Mercedes is on a roll, and not too long ago they revised the C class. Not bad.

Which one to pick? I just don’t know. My heart wants to answer ‘Mercedes’, but I just can’t get over the drug dealer’s image of it all. My mind says Audi, because of the quality, but they need to spice up their ordinary sedans before I can choose Audi. BMW has ruined it for me, until they seriously revise their sedan lines.

I just don’t know. I just don’t.

And so it has happened. The SNP has beaten Labour in Scotland!