Cogs can think.

Just as I was discussing the merits of using the CLI to copy over large bunches of files in #haiku, this happened, while copying my photo library to my server using the Finder:

[10:03pm] Thom_Holwerda: what the hell just happened.
[10:03pm] Thom_Holwerda: this has to be the crappiest thing EVER.
[10:03pm] Thom_Holwerda: i was copying my photo library to my server
[10:03pm] DeadYak: huh?
[10:03pm] Thom_Holwerda: the dialog was in the background
[10:03pm] Thom_Holwerda: im typing a msg in this very irc window
[10:04pm] Thom_Holwerda: suddenly, the damn copy dialo grabs focus, shows a msg, but before i can even read it, i already pressed “enter” to send my irc msg
[10:04pm] Thom_Holwerda: WTF
[10:04pm] Thom_Holwerda: and osx has this fetish with standardising on “cancel” :s
[10:04pm] Cube-ness: heh
[10:04pm] pikapika joined the chat room.
[10:04pm] geist: ah yes, reason alone you shouldn’t do that
[10:05pm] Thom_Holwerda: apps should not steal focus goddamnit :(
[10:05pm] geist: well, defaulting to cancel I can totally dig.
[10:05pm] • Thom_Holwerda shakes fist at steve jobs

Goddamnit :(.

It’s quite interesting to see how people responded to the news that Leopard will most likely drop support for PowerPC G3-based Macs. The readme file for the developer preview release states that in order to run Leopard, you need a G4, G5, or Intel-based Mac. Many people responded: the G3 is old, it makes sense for Apple to drop support. You can’t support something forever!

How fast do people forget.

The last G3-based Mac, the 14″ iBook G3 at 900Mhz, was sold 22 October 2003. By the time Leopard comes out, this means your 4 year old laptop, for which you paid a hefty 1499 US Dollars, will be considered obsolete and useless by our friends in Cupertino.

Dear iBook G3 owner, will you please bend over?

The (very buggy) beta release of Safari on Windows has ignited a very interesting discussion: what font renderer does a better job, Microsoft’s ClearType or the method Apple uses?

The deeper reasons as put forward by Joel Spolsky put aside, I think there may simply be a more simple explanation for why the fonts are as they are on both platforms: the overall look. Microsoft tends to use crisper and sharper icons and widgets, with clear lines, whereas Apple uses softer lines, fuzziness, and actual textures.

In the Microsoft design, sharper looking fonts simply fit better, and the same goes for fuzzier fonts having a better place in OS X. While I like OS X’s fonts when using OS X, they look extremely crappy and out of place on my Vista box (when running Safari). I’m sure the same would be the case for Windows’ fonts on OS X.

I watched an interesting part of a debate in the Dutch Lower House today concerning the alarming rise in what we call “coma drinking”. Coma drinking is drinking until you, well, are actually poisoned by the alcohol. It is extremely dangerous, and can result in permanent damage and even death. The really scary thing is that this year, roughly 80… Children were admitted to the hospital because of coma drinking.

The average age was 13.

In The Netherlands, the legal age for buying mild alcohol (beer, wine, Breezers) is 16, while the age for more serious drinks is 18. Supermarkets are only allowed to carry the mild alcohol; the more serious stuff they need to sell in a special mini-store outside of the supermarket itself.

While these ages make perfect sense for me, the problem is that, obviously, older people will buy booze for the younger people. As a consequence, the government is now thinking of actually making it illegal for anyone below 16 (or 18 when it comes to stronger booze) to even posses alcohol. A logical and very good move if you ask me. On top of that, I would propose even stronger fines for people selling/giving alcohol to minors.

This may seem weird for some regulars of my weblog; don’t I advocate the freedom to do what you want with your body when it comes to drugs and alcohol? Sure I do, but that only goes for adults. Anyone below 18 is a child, and ought to be treated as such. That is supposed to be the parents’ job, but if they fail at doing so, the government ought to step up and correct the issue.

I had my first alcoholic drink (Bacardi rum mixed with cola) when I was 14 or 15; and I can tell you, during that time, I didn’t even think about what it meant to drink. At that party, my friends, classmates, and I just drank. It was there for the first time, and nobody stopped and thought about what it actually meant to drink alcohol.

In other words, kids that age haven’t a fcuking clue what alcohol does with your body. I knew alcohol was “bad”, and that it could make you drunk, but when you’re only 13/14/15, you cannot grasp the concept of consequences well enough in order to realise what alcohol does/can do to you and your body. At that party, two or three of my friends vomited because of the alcohol. I only had a few, and besides getting extremely sleepy, little happened to or with me.

Currently, my alcohol consumption is extremely limited. I rarely drink more than once a month, and I think I had my last Martini (my favourite drink) about 6 or 7 weeks ago. When I was 16-17, I stopped drinking for over a year, and currently, I’m thinking of doing that again.

I already am an unpredictable idiot, alcohol or no alcohol.

Long live Mercedes!

This will be in production by 2011.

Having obsessive compulsive characters traits has its upsides. My house is always neat and tidy, my file systems are structured in such a way that it makes little kids cry, that sort of thing. It also has its downsides.

Yesterday, I got all worked up at the household store because they stopped selling my favourite model of longdrink glass. I wanted that model, and none other. Period.

I was forced to buy a different model. I threw the older ones away.

Update: Not at all unrelated, an excellent blog post on the FCC’s prerogative to censor media content in the US (by GNOME developer Dom Lachowicz.

There are a number of things I’d rather not talk about. For instance, ‘in real life’, you won’t hear me talking about computers, OSNews, and operating systems. Another example is how I rarely, if ever, proclaim my deep admiration for Marylin Manson. Or, more specifically, the Mechanical Animals album.

Which may very well be the best album of the ’90s.

Everything fell in its place on this album. It’s glamrock, it’s ’70s David Bowie, it’s the duality between Omega & The Mechanical Animals and Alpha, and so much more. As cliche as it might sound, I consider Mechanical Animals to be one of those ‘mine’ albums; there’s always something new to discover, even after having listened to it for the millionth time. The album is a perfect balance between heavily stylised metal and subdued, contained, almost ballad-like rock. And on each song, we hear a different Marylin Manson.

Lyrically, the album tells stories of alienation, substance abuse, love, and religion. However, it never gets boring. It’s never standard. It’s never predictable. You could say it’s Manson’s response to American society, and that is what scared so many American people and politicians back when the album was released (1998).

The packaging did not help in that respect either; it protrays Manson as a unisex creature; no genitals, and nipple-less breasts. The album got pulled from various stores (up until 2003, Wall Mart refused to sell any Marylin Manson record), and angry mobs even ripped the album out of stores to burn it on the streets. The happenings at Columbine Highschool did not help either; the killers listened to Marylin Manson, and of course, as we all know, people who listen to Marylin Manson go on rampages killing people.

These days, it’s hard to listen to Marylin Manson with an unbiased view. I guess it will be especially hard for Americans to look at Marylin Manson without being influenced by the media’s opinion of the artists; which is sad since Mechanical Animals is an album no self-respecting music lover can just discard as “crap”.

It’s right up there with “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?”, “Jagged Little Pill”, and so on.

The shit hit the fan long ago already, but hey, why not throw some more shit at it?

Hell, I can’t even blame the Turks. They had countrymen killed, and they are trying to act to what they perceive as accordingly.

Of course, there should’ve been an independant Kurdistan since, like, forever, but hey.

About 5200 words.

A new essay?

No, just the GPLv3 final draft. If you need 5200 words to define how users and developers use your free and open source software, then there’s something seriously wrong with your definition and idea of ‘free and open source software’.

By the way, Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger license is only about 1200 words more. Interesting.