Preaching to the Flock

I've heard a lot of buzz about Flock, the social networking browser. Today I saw that version 1.0 had been released, so I decided to try it out. As it's not packaged for Ubuntu yet (although GetDeb has a previous version, so there's hope), I decided to try it out on my Windows laptop.

Wow. It's brilliant - the first thing I've found with full Blogger integration, as well as built in functionality similar to Facebook Toolbar for Firefox. It doesn't yet support every single social network, but it does support a fair few.

It's really good - I'd certainly recommend it if you use the web for social networking, blogging or similar things. As a serious web browser, I think Firefox is probably better, but for those things, Flock rules! I'm probably going to keep using both.

Blogged with Flock

A few reflections on Google's Open Social...

I've now had the time to reflect on what Google's Open Social means, and look at some of the posts on Digg about it, and the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that this is going to completely change the social networking landscape. Before, I was a bit uncertain, but now that MySpace is participating, all the major players except for Facebook have signed up. Despite the fact that Facebook is on the up, MySpace alone still outnumbers them. I believe that Bebo is also quite large, and Orkut is big (it's just not popular in the US and Europe, in India and Brazil it's huge).
This puts Facebook in a difficult position - a new industry standard for designing applications has sprung up almost overnight, and they're the only major player not using it. This means that in terms of applications, they're likely to become increasingly sidelined unless they adopt the new standard.

As a supporter of Free and Open Source Software, I'm all for Open Social. Proprietary walled gardens just lead to problems with interoperability. For instance, instant messaging is a pain because every provider has their own protocols and they don't generally interoperate - that really gets my goat! If your friends are all on MSN, you have to use MSN to talk to them, and if one is on AIM, you can't talk to them. Imagine if e-mail worked that way - it'd be a nightmare.

Time will tell as to whether Facebook chooses to participate or not - word is that they have been approached by Google to discuss it.

Interview with gOS Founder: "Linux For Human Beings (Who Shop At WAL*Mart)"

gOS is an extremely functional operating system that hits the sweet spot of the “online desktop” cliché with professional quality, utilizing Google Applications in a easy to use and graphically rich environment.Check out this article from Digg. I love the desktop - the way the shortcuts are arranged in a toolbar on the desktop is great.

read more | digg story

Google Reveals "Open Social": APIs to Create Aps for Any Social Network

Details emerged today on Google’s broad social networking ambitions. The new project, called OpenSocial, goes well beyond what we’ve previously reported. It is a set of common APIs that application developers can use to create applications for any social network.Awesome! I like Facebook, but they aren't really open enough for my liking. Any network that chooses to participate in this will immediately gain a load of new applications, and they can be written using plain old HTML and JavaScript., instead of Facebook Markup Language. I bet there's a lot of panic tonight at Facebook, straight after Microsoft bought a share in them...

read more | digg story

Gutsy is go!

As you may have gathered from the title of this post, I now have a fully working install of Kubuntu Gutsy! I thought I'd give it one more go, and I managed to resolve the issue about the internet connection!
It turned out that my router was to blame. Apparently, D-Link routers don't work well with Linux - when you connect to it, it should forward you to your ISP's DNS, but instead it directs you to the router. Not quite sure I understand it, but I've resolved the issue by using Open DNS and changing a few text files.
I'm very relieved that I've got Gutsy working. Feisty was great, but there were reliability issues with it - it wouldn't display the splash screens for when it was loading up, and sometimes it would get stuck when closing down. Also, there's lots of goodies in Gutsy I wanted - Iceape, Thunderbird 2, Pidgin, etc. But most of all, I wanted a better wireless experience. There are two reasons Gutsy is better in this respect than Feisty:

1. Feisty had a driver for my wireless card, but it didn't support WPA, so I had to blacklist it and use ndiswrapper to run the Windows drivers, which was tiresome.
2. Gutsy has the 2.6.22 Linux kernel, which apparently is the first to feature a brand new wireless stack, making it much more reliable.

So far, my hopes in this respect have been borne out. Gutsy has flawlessly logged onto the wireless network every time I've used it and not dropped out yet, whereas Feisty was a bit troublesome - you'd have to spend ages trying to connect, then the connection would be prone to dropping out.

Now, that does mean I have to spend ages putting back all my applications, but I think it's well worth it for a more reliable wireless connection and more up-to-date software, don't you?

Check out whose Digg submission is popular!

Don't ask why, but my Digg submission about Tesco selling PC's with preinstalled Ubuntu has become popular! Only my second submission at that, too!
I guess I was lucky - I first picked it up on Planet Ubuntu (a blog I subscribe to), and while it's not a hugely hot topic (nowhere near the size of the Gutsy release ones!), it currently stands at 268 diggs! Not bad!

Tesco, Every little helps

An article I found on Planet Ubuntu, which I've Dugg:

Tesco are selling computers with Ubuntu pre-installed. However much I dislike ‘Tescopoly’; I am impressed that they are selling these systems, and may even get one myself. They state under ‘Features’ that it comes with 6.06, which in some ways is a shame, although it is the current LTS release

read more | digg story

Gutsy is here!

As all Linux users are no doubt aware, today Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon arrived! Of course, as I mentioned earlier, I can't get it to work properly on my laptop, but I might try upgrading from Feisty rather than a fresh install, to see if that makes a difference. Hope so, I really want to use Gutsy!
If it doesn't work, I might get a new Dell with Ubuntu preinstalled - I'd like to try running a different distro on the old one (probably Debian Etch), but at £329 for a fairly basic one they're a bit more than pocket money. Still, I can always call it a Christmas present to myself, and I really want to support Linux on the desktop. I also really like Dell as a PC maker - I think their laptops have a nice, chunky feel to them that is different to a lot of other laptops - while my Philips X58 is a great laptop (and works really well with Linux, which is frustrating as I have to stick with Windows for it as I use it to play the Sims 2), it feels very fragile in comparison with my old Dell workhorse.

What I've been up to...

On Sunday I compiled my very first application from source - the Dillo web browser. It was surprisingly easy once I knew how to do it. Now I want to start rolling my own Deb packages for Ubuntu.
In other news, I've tried the release candidate of Ubuntu Gutsy, and I wasn't able to get Firefox to connect to the Internet. This is an issue I had with Edgy, but it had been sorted out in Feisty. This means I won't be able to upgrade from Kubuntu Feisty to Kubuntu Gutsy. Shame - there's a lot I wanted in Gutsy, such as the new improved wireless stack, plus it supports my wireless card out of the box (which Feisty doesn't). Oh well, hopefully the next release (Hardy Heron) will work with my laptop. I've been considering buying a Dell laptop with preinstalled Ubuntu once they change over to offering Gutsy with it, as it'd be easy to change it to Kubuntu (just install the kubuntu-desktop meta-package).
I've come down with a really nasty cold - too ill to go to work today, couldn't even stand to look at a computer screen till this evening. Spent the afternoon watching Scrubs Season 5 on DVD - one of my favourite sitcoms ever! I've also got into The IT Crowd recently - but I'm starting to worry that Moss is a bit too much like me!

Finally!

After what seems like ages, I've finally finished putting all my CD's onto my iPod Video. I'm now just waiting for it to sync with my Last.fm profile before I go to bed. For some reason, it's incredibly slow today - I guess a lot of people must be using Last.fm at the moment.
Strange quirk - the Last.fm application is submitting the same plays of a track over and over again, every time I sync it. The only way I can think of to stop it is to delete the play history. Any ideas, anyone?

I, Row-Boat

I just had to say about the brilliant story I read on the train today, I, Row-Boat by Cory Doctorow as part of The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 20. I imagine a lot of you will get the reference to Asimov's I, Robot. It's all about an AI rowing boat that meets an artificially uplifted coral reef (althought that explanation really doesn't do it justice), and it's well worth checking out - you can read it here.
In other news, I've added the Ubuntu 7.10 countdown to this blog - sadly I don't think there's a Kubuntu one, so the Ubuntu version will have to do. As regular readers will no doubt be aware, I had some problems with the alphas of Gutsy, but I'm really hoping that they've been sorted out - what I will do is once it's been released I'll download a copy of Ubuntu and see if Firefox works OK (as that was one of the problems I had). If it works fine, I'll download Kubuntu and install it, otherwise I'm going to stick with Feisty for now. I really want it to work OK, there's a lot of things in Gutsy that I'm really pleased to see.

All change again...

Yes, I've made more changes to the layout, mainly by adding the new Last.fm Tasteometer (well, knowing how much I love Last.fm I had to get it as soon as I knew it was available, didn't I?). If you're on Last.fm (apparently it will also work if you're on MySpace and enter your URL for that) feel free to compare taste.
Speaking of Last.fm, I've spent the last few days buying CD's of acts I've discovered through Last.fm - namely The Knife, Killing Joke and Kyuss. While it's sometimes completely off the wall, it's generally pretty good in terms of recommendations.
In other news, a friend of mine knows someone who is starting a bouncy castle business and needs a website done, but can't afford to pay someone to do it, so I've offered to do what I can. Obviously, at this stage I can't do anything too fancy, but that's not the point - I need the practice and it'll help someone out, so it's worth doing, and they don't really need much at this stage - I imagine it'll just be some text, a few hyperlinks and an e-mail address to contact them, and maybe a few photos. But it's a big step - the prospect of actually doing a website that's going to be put on the Internet is scary (yes, I know I'm already doing this blog, plus I'm on Digg, Facebook and Last.fm, so I'm hardly underexposed).

More reading

Just a quick post, this one, to say that I've finished reading Infinity Plus - The Anthology. A bit more fantasy-oriented than I usually like, but I did like three stories in particular - Faithful by Ian McDonald, Bear Trap by Charles Stross, and The Arcevoalo by Lucius Sheppard.
As I mentioned previously, I've now got The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 20, so that's what I'll be reading on the train to work from next week. At home, I'm still struggling with Black Man - the trouble is, what with so many demands on my time at the moment, it's hard to find the time to sit down and read it.

Globalisation Institute - Brussels' most popular think tank website - Unbundling Microsoft Windows

Globalisation Institute - Brussels' most popular think tank website - Unbundling Microsoft Windows
Have a read of this article - an influential think tank in Brussels has recommended that it be made illegal to bundle operating systems with computers.
Gets my vote. A few advantages:

• Mac OS X available for any computer (not that I'd want to use it, but there are many people who would).
• More choice for consumers - most people use what is preinstalled and don't investigate any of the alternatives.
  
• Microsoft might actually get off their arses and produce a decent OS.
• More OS providers might make use of Live CDs/DVDs (for those unfamiliar with Live CD's, they are common in the Linux world and are essentially an operating system that can be run from a CD or DVD without installing anything. Kubuntu, my OS of choice, boots into Live CD mode, but then you can install it from within this mode). These would allow people to try an OS before they install it. I'm sure that even diehard Windows users would like the chance to be able to try a new operating system before they make a decision to install it.
• Users of free and open source software needn't pay for a copy of Windows when they don't want to use it.
  

So, there is my opinion. I've already dugg this - here's a link if you want to do so as well.
While the EU is somewhat bureaucratic, sometimes they get it right. I hope this is one of those times.

Finished!

I've finished working my way through the first exercise book for my course - took just over a month. Not bad going! Of course, there are things that haven't stuck very well - I particularly found cascading style sheets difficult to understand (mainly because the effect was very subtle) and forms and tables are also a bit fuzzy, but overall I think I did OK.
I'm going to go back and work through the exercises again just to reinforce everything I've learned. I've also started making a couple of example web pages to get some more practice, and as I mentioned previously I've taken to hand-coding the hyperlinks on this blog.
I'm really eager to do well on this course so I can start looking for a job in web design (probably as an HTML programmer). This course is, of course, only the step 1 course - there are three further step, and the guideline salary goes up a LOT as you progress through the steps. I am now confident I'm going to be able to go all the way up to step 4 - I've already got a load of books about JavaScript, Java, PHP and MySQL so I'll need to have a read of those once I'm a bit more confident with my HTML skills.
One thing I think sounds very interesting is Ajax (short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). It's often used to create web-based applications and is very likely to become increasingly common as these kinds of things become more popular. I think I'd really enjoy working on something like that - as a Linux user I know that you can't always get the applications you'd like for your operating system of choice, but web-based applications allow you to bypass these limitations.
I already use Goowy from time to time and I think things like this are the wave of the future - as long as you have a compatible browser, they allow you to use whatever operating system you like. In fact, Linux has a serious advantage here over Microsoft Windows - as it has a much smaller memory footprint and runs faster, your computer will perform much better using the same applications.
As much as I'd love to see Linux become more popular than Windows on the basis of the desktop, or applications, or the other features I love so much, I think this is how Linux will eventually overturn Microsoft's dominance of the desktop operating systems market. Ultimately, the man in the street doesn't care that much about operating systems, he cares about the applications he's used to. At present, many of these are Microsoft products due to consumer apathy - things like Outlook, Word etc. As people move towards using more than one computer, more and more people are interested in using web-based applications - there are many people who grew up with web-based mail services such as Hotmail and have NEVER used an e-mail client (I do, namely Mozilla Thunderbird, but that's mainly because I like the GUI and it works well with my Googlemail account - I like being able to access my e-mail at work or on my PDA or phone if I want to) and applications like Google Docs are also becoming popular. Once these kind of products become dominant, I think Microsoft's stranglehold on the desktop OS is all but over - if people can get the same applications in Linux, but achieve better performance using the same hardware, and using an OS which is free (in the free as in beer sense), then demand for Linux will increase and OEMs will start preinstalling Linux more and more.
In my humble opinion, Vista (I don't know about OS X Leopard, having never used a Mac and having absolutely NO intention of ever doing so, unless I was given one or won it, in which case the first thing I'd do is install Kubuntu) is the last gasp of the "big" OS. The future will be dominated by smaller, more streamlined OS's such as Linux (but not exclusively, I'm sure that the likes of OpenSolaris, FreeBSD etc will also have a higher profile than they do at present).
Don't get me wrong - I think it's likely that Microsoft will be around for a long time to come, but to me Vista marks the beginning of the decline. Unless they streamline their next OS a lot compared to Vista, they are likely to face decreasing market share over the next decade or so.
If you disagree, please feel free to add your comment - but keep it nice and polite! I've tried to avoid rampant OS advocacy so please also refrain from this. And anyone who says "Get a Mac" will suffer my wrath!