Windows for just $3

Makes me wonder, why they would even attempt to sell Windows for just $3. The reason might be obvious, simply Microsoft is plagued by nightly fever dreams of thousands of kids in developing countries running Linux? The package will include the basic Windows XP Starter Edition, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 and other as-yet-unnamed educational software applications. The $3 Windows pack will be available later this year, and it will be sold exclusively to governments.

This might be an attempt to get Windows running on the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project. The OLPC XO Children's Machine has its own specially-developed Linux-based platform called Sugar. The XO project has embraced open-source ideals, and is touting OSS's advantage as a teaching tool. According to the OLPC camp, if kids get a Linux-based machine they'll be more likely to hack it and learn how to write code. Also, wiki-based textbooks will give the kids more incentive to write.

My question is why would anyone choose the $3 Windows , which will be so much limited in features (example no network printing, etc) and chunked down to Linux? So it comes down to Free, flexible/powerful Linux and $3 Windows edition. The new estimated cost of the OLPC is $175.

Other related project include the Classmate PC by intel.

the coconut song

Ubuntu 7.04 Out!

Ubuntu 7.04 is released today, and available for download.

Don't know if it will bring any major changes, most of the comments on the forums point out the same. Hope to upgrade the Ubuntu at home, when I get back; will find out then. I still feel Fedora is better.

Who is the killer?

Seems we have a killer or force of killers who are killing, "god haters" and "drug addicts" in and just out of jail. The last episode a guy was found dead in the harbour (previous "koafaa" came down from the sky in jail). According to official sources, he was set free from police on 13th. Amazingly this guy managed to be invisible since then and appeared dead in the harbour. Its a good thing he was found, if he was not then we know what would be the case. Yes, obviously the police will be the direct pin point. So he had to be found. Some of the reports and views say if police was really the culprit, why will he even be "found". Yes, I agree. Why will he be even found if they were behind it? He won't. Thats the basic logic. I think that logic is not so hard to figure out, even for the police and MDP. I guess its a good thing he was found, if not we won't have faith in police anymore :P Yes, we would be scared for our friends and family if they were ever taken to police?

As for MDP, we know how they are. They are always looking for an excuse to anger the people and over throw the government. I think they are also too desperate to come to power. I don't think that should be the objective. There are better ways to deal with these things in a more mature way. Just by saying "golaaboa faibaa" is not solving any problems. MDP surely lacks good leadership, and people like former AG and Zaki (ex minister) are not the right people to be trusted. Its a different story that Abu Sufiyaan converted to Islam and contributed immensely to Islam but Munavar and Zaki are not those "Abu's". Under the ex AG there has been so much unjust done, and I am not ready to accept him. As for Zaki, I don't think I should say anything more.

Point being neither of the parties are doing any good to the people. The whole objective is to rule over the country and gateway to more money. Getting fed up of these fights and killings now. We need a change, and the changes we are witnessing is not set in the right directions. I mean talk about MDP, they brought out people like Mavotaa Shareef and Karnel Nasheed as MDP leaders. Come on guys, were you joking or what? No hope at all. I'd rather call MDP, DVP (Dhivehi Viyafaariveringe Party) so for me there is DRP and DVP. The whole objective of both, "money "and "power", the people come after (for the sake of votes).

The people we pay from our tax; and to whom we trust our lives with is the other story. More than trust presently we fear the police and army. Why? I don't know, maybe obvious reasons. No need to go into details but the fact is the public view is not what it should be. Maybe they lack the "good" and "honest" leadership too. Who are there to "protect and serve the Maldivians" not just to "protect and serve , blank blank". I know I'd be attacked back for saying this, but won't be anything new to me. Its just my view, and I think no one can take that freedom away from me, unless I am too found missing, then DEAD! Next, some will tell me "who cares about politics". Its no longer politics, its about peoples lives and our kids future in this country, if you ask me not to care about it...or ignore them, then what should we care about? Least we can do is voice out our concerns and views.

Now back to the original question. "Who is the killer". You and me. We are killing our own people. Each of us should be responsible for these killings, agree or not.

SMS alerts from Google Calender

Its really a nifty feature, now we can receive SMS alerts from Google Calender. Its a nice feature, and its really cool since it even works for a small country such a Maldives. Presently this feature only works for Wataniya subscribers. You can even import the calender from your outlook or iCal into Google Calender as well.

You can set up an appointment and Google will send you a reminder alert before the appointment or you can set birthday reminders, etc. Here is a tutorial on GoogleTutor

What happened to FoxPro?

FoxPro formally known as FoxBase, now Visual FoxPro use to be a very famous database programming language. From late 1980's to late 1990's Fox was one of the dominant database tools for the PC market. Same applied for Maldives. Even today we find some of Fox based applications in use here in Maldives.

So what happened to this tool? My obvious guess is Microsoft killed it. Most of you might not agree with me, but thats my view. I think FoxPro would have done far better if it was not bought over by Microsoft from Fox Software. Though I won't say it would still have dominated like it used to. The reason for the bought over of Fox was obvious. Borland and Microsoft were competing for the development tool market back in early 1990's. Borland bought Ashton Tate (and, therefore, dBase) this resulted in Microsoft buying over Fox Software (taking FoxPro under Microsoft). Microsoft already had Access and VB under them, and continued to promote Access more then FoxPro until today (After all FoxPro was the step son). At that time it was rumored that Microsoft made this move cos they wanted Rushmore engine (which was the power behind FoxPro). Till today FoxPro lives, but not as famous as it use to. It use to be part of Visual Studio, but now taken off it too. Access still is part of Microsoft Office and continues to be popular database tool.

Maybe one reason it failed was, It was too complex for end users, but not robust and powerful enough for real programmers (compared to the other databases that developers can choose from). What ever the causes were or is, FoxPro was a major application development tool in the early days of computing of Maldives, it should be respected for that. I don't know how many more FoxPro developers are still there in Maldives (still continue to use it)? I guess I can still think of one guy, one of the best FoxPro guys I've known.

So it went from Fox to VB, now we are evolving to the web based application days. I wonder what tools will be the most dominant. But obviously the flat database days are over and SQL Servers are here to stay.

300 USD and a ticket.

I was watching TVM while having dinner. I don't know which program it is, it was on since 10:15 tonight. It was a panel of people talking about health issues in Maldives. To my shock, one gentle man who had gray hair (not sure who he is), my guess is he is from the ministry of health. This guy was trying to say, the Maldivian health authorities are far better then our neighbors. He is saying that others are very commercial where else we are not? daaa! yeah? I did not know that.

The next point that kept bluffing about is comparing health services today and 27 years ago. What the fuck? What is the point here? it is obvious , things should improve with time. The question here is has it improved to the level it should have? The moment we are sick, we spend all our earnings and go to India or Singapore depending on the financial capabilities of the individuals. And yet they try to tell us, its good. I know the guys there try and do their best, but there is so much for improvements. I guess the equipment is one weak area. If we can raise money for brand new Volkswagen's for police, layout state of the art fiber network just to watch the traffic and etc. Why can't we afford to spend more money on our health services? Even if they took it like a business, still I feel its more then feasible to spend (invest). Even if we get the best of the doctors, its not enough. We need to invest on our health sector and make it a priority then it is now. Not in anyway saying its bad, but I am saying its not as good as it could have been.

Maybe there is hidden agenda behind it, right now if a poor guy is sick they can apply for 300 USD and the ticket from the Presidential welfare fund? This is very common, why? The end result is good, the government help us, they even give us the money to send us to India for medicals. Yaahoo! lets keep voting for them. Now I leave it up to you to do the calculations.

Processing

I have been experimenting around with processing over the week end. Its an amazing language, just the type of language for artists. This is also the type of language that makes me think, if I gave better attention to math classes and had a more creative mind.

Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and sound. It is used by students, artists, designers, architects, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool. Processing is developed by artists and designers as an alternative to proprietary software tools in the same domain.

Here is screen shot of todays trial and errors.

Oppression

There is times when I am really frustrated, angry and even depressed. I guess its part of being a human. Its good to open up and share things or express your views. Though some people don't like it when it's expressed, I guess its your own freedom to express your view in a limit (meaning you can't over do it too, since you should respect others too). Anyway there is always no easy justification. Blogging maybe the new means to express personnel view and share things. There is always two sides to things, but just cos of minor bad points it should not be stopped. A few years back people hid under anonymous names and under the umbrella of one name, expressed their views. Negative or positive. Those days have been changing slowly. But yes we still do get those anonymous cowered commenting and publishing things. It can't be stopped too, they are also a group of people with their own views and justifications. Anyway I would say now its more open, and its more valued when you express your view WITH YOUR OWN REAL NAME, maybe in your own blog or someone else's. I know a few will stand up against this statement and will comment under anonymous names, I do understand that, and thats the reason why anonymous commenting is allowed too. I like it when it happens, we all should take these positively. This helps us to better understand others and also give others a chance to criticizes us. It should never be discouraged. But its always much better if you are open and come out of the shadows , unless YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO HIDE.

Anyway I do feel like dumping a lot of things at times, as i have said before. I wish thats always possible, some times we are bound by NDA's (non discloser agreements), morals and ethics (how ever we may define it). Now I know they say one mans meat is another mans poison too. So the views always differ, thats again understood. I wanna say out somethings tonight too, but I am bound by some things. Anyway its nothing really political even though the title may give such an impression. Any hows, while I was listing to this song by Ben Harper, it was something close to what was going in my mind. "Oppression"

Oppression
you pray on us when we sleep
oppression
you chase after the tired the poor the weak
oppression
you know you mean only harm
oppression
you reach out with your long arm

but oppression
I won't let you near me
oppression
you shall learn to fear me

oppression
you seek population control
oppression
to divide and to conquer is your goal
oppression
I swear that hatred is your home
oppression
you just won't leave bad enough alone

but oppression
I won't let you near me
oppression
you shall learn to fear me

oppression
I don't see how you sleep
oppression
for your bleeding conscience I weep
oppression
you may have the dollar on your side
but oppression
from the gospel truth you cannot hide
and
oppression
I won't let you near me
oppression
you shall learn to fear me
oppression
I won't let you near me
oppression
you shall fear me

American Idiot an Indian Idol?

I don't really watch the show, but seems there is a new thing happening in the American Idiots show. Sounds a lot of racist Americans don't like this kid named Sanjaya (half Indian, American), who is still in the show. I totally agree with those guys, who think he should be out. Well they had this fear even before that the Indians will take over American idiot. For this reason they had a plan; the plan was to have another show for the Indians, "The Indian Idiot". Seems this did not stop the invasion, and Sanjaya is backed up by the high-tech Indians and have come up with a way to keep him on the show.

I say, lets leave this American Idiot title and make Sanjaya "The American President". Yes, Sanjaya for 2008. Anyway here is a little diagram to show the connectivity of both shows.

I am a PC, I am a Mac and I am Linux

Recently Apple, started a new ad campaign on TV and on its web site. It was really a nice concept and entertaining. Here is a link to it on youtube. I can tell you its a must see.

Now Novell decides to put a little spin to the ads. Here is the Linux version of the ads. Both the ads are very entertaining and educative. ;)

Death of Slashdot?

Ok! the question; is Slashdot dead or dying?. Not so sure, but honestly speaking for me it is. I visit digg almost everyday, but hardly I even visit slashdot once a week now. It use to be like everyday, but thats changed. Has digg taken over slashdot?

I first posted about this in Jan 2006, since then its almost more then a year. Well I don't know about the rest of the world, but I think digg has finally taken over. Reasons? Maybe many, not just one or two.

Magnificent shot !!!

Before I start, I would like to apologize to anyone who might get offended. Flickr, we all know about it, its one of the best portals to share photos. Amazing place with so much content. We find so much talent there. Even Maldivians, loads of them. Namely I like works by photographers like Ahmed Zahid.

I don't know if its me , or my limited exploration of flickr that brings me to conclude this. The comments really suck, or its just how artists comment. Its always "Amazing", "Beautiful", "WOW" and "Magnificent" . Or maybe there is others? I love the people there. They always encourage you or fill you with positive comments. Which is damn good, I mean it. I really do. But as there is good art, is there not bad art too? Or maybe not. Art is just art? I won't know.

A few years back, there was this painting which we saw. There was a comment, "haadha eyhen kahalaey". I did not know what that meant. I was not an artist or am, so for me it was just a painting. Anyhow the comment struck me. Later I asked the person who commented, what it meant. According to him thats how you comment art. Like "hmmmm", "its so different", "its unique" , "not all will see this", etc.

vakaruge hits digg main page

http://www.vakaruge.com was on digg's main page tonight with this post.

The Browser War

Started with Netscape and MSIE (MicroSoft Internet Explorer) about 10 years ago. Today here I am looking at stats of my weB LOG. Took the last 100 entries and guess what Firefox is leading. I assume mostly fellow bloggers are the people who read my blog. Next assumption is these people are frequent users of the internet, I mean not like our grand parents and them. No offense. Anyway to cut the chase I think IE has lost the war. Despite the fact that IE comes with the dominant OS (Windows) still most prefer Firefox or an alternative?

Maybe I might not be very right here, since I am concluding this based on my logs

Portuguese and Maldives?

Don't flatter yourself by thinking that we were ever ruled by Portuguese. I am not a historian but I refuse to believe that Portuguese ruled over Maldives for 15 years or so. According to the lessons at school, they even raped our woman, etc. hmmm! where did that white DNA go? I mean raping woman for 15 years and no results or after effects? maybe they were infertile or something?

So the bad guy, Andiri Andirin was suppose to be a black/brown guy? Hmmm! I thought the Portuguese were white skinned? so next you'd tell me it was one of the black Portuguese guys? come on! He was also called Kalhu Mohamed (dark Mohamed). "Mohamed" why? There is a theory that he was actually Maldivian born. Also it was said that the rule of 15 years, was under the name of Hassan IX (the Christian convert king of Maldives). So is it not likely that the fleet was from India (Gova) led by Maldivians? Not really Portuguese. There is no official record of Portuguese ruling over Maldives in any of the official documents of Portuguese.

As always we just want to make belief and change history and hide the dark chapters of the Maldivian History. The next funny part is up until 1950's there was a street named Andiri Andirin magu. There was no such street named after the "hero" savior Mohamed Thakurufaan, until the 1990's.

Sometimes I feel that this Thakurufaan's were pirates . I mean the boat they sailed was called "kalhu oh fuhmi", The black pearl of Maldives and caption Jack Sparrow. We never know. Even the recent history that happened in my life time has been altered, so why can't these events as well. At school we were forced to study the history events like "rannamaari" and when we were kids we were told stories like "foolhu dhigu handi".. But yeah, nice and entertaining stories. Thanks.

Change?

Past few years, I've worked on Linux as my desktop OS (operating system) at work and home. Now things has changed. Nothing was planned. My work changed, I no longer work for an IT department. As of now I work for a marketing team dealing with products and services. Which is kinda exciting and different. Anyway point is, I took the chance to step outside the circle in which I have been for so long. If you ask me, I'd tell you its good, very good (now that goes to my current team). I do miss the old gang, I had the opportunity to work with some of the best.

So coming back to the point, "Linux". At work now I use Windows, why? One reason being that I won't be allowed to install Linux. Thats how it should be too. Every place has standards (or at least they should). I don't need to develop, run services or do any system administration work. So thats the reason. Right now its mostly just word processing, presentations, visio diagrams, emails, and maybe browse for research purposes. So Windows is ok, not that I like it (I don't even have a choice). I do feel very limited at time with Windows, maybe since I am used to Linux. But working with it, is again a good experience. To understand how things really work rather than assumptions or observations. The lack of tools is a major problem. When I want to work with maybe lists and files, etc its just Excel. I don't think working with VB based macro's is as much fun as lets say, awk, sed or perl. Doing some things becomes too complex. But I am trying to adjust as needed. Again, this is not by choice. Its sometimes like forced labour.

With the same wave of change, at home too I've switched to full time Mac OS X. Been like almost 3 months now. I love it. Apples; you just fall in love with them. Yes, I have better user experience than Windows in terms of GUI (graphics user interface) and I've got the good old UNIX tools and power. So its more like an all in one box. I would say one can customize a Linux desktop to get a close feel of Mac OS, but I guess it won't be like the real thing. Mac's are too damn sexy, its the best how I can put it. After all sex is sex, but its a different thing when you have sex with Angelina Jolie. Anyway what I can tell you is some people think mac's are for pro's or for designers. Which is totally NOT right. Its "THE" true "human OS", designed for "humans". Getting things done is easy; only condition is "know how to read English and click". You don't need to click 20 times and do "fill in the blanks", score 100% in multiple choice questions, restart the machine 3 times before you can setup GPRS via Bluetooth, share internet or setup a web server. Its just a few seconds, before you can get even those done. For the applications; I have MS Word, and the rest of them like FireFox or Photoshop. Its just amazing .

So again, what about Linux? What about it? I still have my passion for Linux and have a Linux box at home too. I guess its a better development platform and a good server environment. The desktop is rapidly improving and its impressive. But maybe my usage of Linux has declined over the past few months. Basically reason being the change of field maybe, and that I am on kinda break from it all (what ever that means). But that did not stop me, I tried but... anyway I've started another blog (http://mvlinux.blogspot.com/) too; just about Linux as main focus. Objective being a sort of a log to keep track of evolution of Linux here in this country plus kind of a help for others (I hope, maybe..). You can say maybe because of "guilt". hehe. Whatever you consider.

UK - Pixels , Russia - Millimeters

Most of us remember the Million Dollar Homepage, The UK guy who sold pixels on his web site to go to university. But a million dollars, hmmmm? Anyways lucky smart guy. Well I found a Russian version of the concept, this time a girl is trying out here luck. The difference is not pixels, but millimeters and on her body. So you pay her for the ads that you want to put on her body, costing is per millimeter. The name of the site is I Sell Body

Crazy?

Maldives Ice Skiing Association

Come on. Why not? No offense but , we do have a Maldives Racing Association too.

8 Things Employers Need to Know About Geeks and Intelligent People

I read this post a couple of days back, and really liked it. Again tonight I came across it, and just had to post it here. There was no way, I just had to do it. :)

#1. Let them work when they want
Geeks work almost every moment they are awake. They are online before they go to the office. They are home working after the office closes. They work weekends. They are even sometimes working in their dreams. Employers should understand this and more importantly appreciate it. Don’t force geeks to work 8 - 5 if there is no real need other than “company morale.” Meetings are one thing (, so is socializing with coworkers, but a relaxed office schedule will do wonders for the contentment levels of your employed geeks.

#2. Let them work where they want
Geeks prefer to have a couch around to nap on if they are tired. Some like no windows, others want to stare out into a city or landscape. At home, geek’s offices are usually more lived in, more comfortable and enjoyable than anywhere else in the world. This is because they love what they do, and they do it so much of the time they need to be comfortable where they do it.

#3. Let them control their lighting
There is nothing more annoying than working in bright crappy fluorescent lighting if you prefer to work in the dark, or vice versa. Geeks usually have sensitive eyes from staring at CRT monitors for too long. The last thing you want is your geeks to have headaches. Most geeks aren’t very pleasant to work with when they have headaches.

#4. Let them wear headphones
Geeks are experts in the arts of “focus.” Focusing takes removing all unnecessary distractions from your environment and creating a state where nothing else is going on but what they are working on. The harder the problem they are trying to solve or the more creative they have to be, the more they need to focus. Headphones, or simply a lack of ringing phones and talking sales people allow geeks to focus much easier.

#5. Do not expect them to wear a suit
Geeks find arbitrary activities that lack real and meaningful purpose, a waste of time and energy. This includes attire. Most companies today are aware of this and even practice casual dress so as to make everyone more comfortable, but geeks are a special case. “Suits” (the kind of person) usually represent a business man who lacks most things other than a nice smile and great negotiation skills.

#6. Do not make them participate in company events (unless you are sure it is geek-friendly)
Most geeks will not be jumping up and down with joy to attend a company party to celebrate the local football team, unless of course there is beer, and they can hang around and talk to each other about geeky things. Keep this in mind when planning company events. Geeks like to have fun, just not the same kind of fun as your typical non-geek.

#7. Do not hold a lot of arbitrary meetings that could have otherwise been handled through email or IM
This one is important. Like I said, geeks need to focus to be happy and able to focus. Nothing is more of an interruption than someone walking into their space unexpectedly and saying “hey do you have a minute?” The answer is usually going to be a disgruntled “Sure.” The truth is geeks are fine with attending planned meetings (and will happily be there if the meeting is really a necessary one for them to attend in person), but are usually most happy communicating through email and IM. These forms of communication are most appealing to geeks because they do not interrupt you, and polite geeks will even respond with a quick “hold on a sec, I’m in the middle of something.” Email and IM are recorded, searchable records of conversations. They are efficient and to the point. This also makes geeks happy. Geeks can discuss anything through email and IM and will usually be more willing and thorough with their response. Face to face meetings are important, geeks know that, but I would guess that 90% of conversations and meetings held face to face, would be more efficient and end with happier people, if they were held in a recordable, written, virtual space.

#8. Do not make them do anything other than work
This one isn’t completely accurate all the time. Geeks are team players, but they are also easily insulted by being given a task below their level of expertise or outside of the scope of their position. They’ll do it, but they won’t be totally happy. This includes: answering phones, taking out trash, going shopping for company supplies, and “filling in” for a sales person.

So there you have it! Employers, take note!