Category: The Undefined Remainder

Geeky stuff. Internet, Games, Free Software, Sci-fi etc.

Το τέλος του Internet;

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“Οι σχεδιαστές της υποδομής του internet σκέφτονται νέα σχέδια συνδρομών που θα περιορίσουν περισσότερο την δικυακή εμπειρία, εγκαθιστόντας “πλατινένια”, “χρυσα” και “ασημένια” επίπεδα πρόσβασης στο Internet που θα θέσουν όρια στον αριθμό των downloads, media streams η ακόμα και στα μηνύματα e-mail που θα μπορούν να σταλούν ή να παρθούν”

Κάπως έτσι είναι η ελεύθερη μετάφραση ενώς ανησυχητικού νέου που ανακάλυψα καθώς κοίταγα το [tag]digg[/tag].

Το άρθρο είναι άκρως ανησυχητικό διότι προβλέπει ένα σκοτεινό μέλλον για το Internet’ ένα μέλλον όπου η πρόσβαση στα δεδομένα ορίζεται όχι απο το τι θέλεις να δεις εσυ, αλλα απο το ποιός έχει πληρωσεί περισσότερα λεφτά στην εταιρία που σου προμηθέυει την υποδομή.

Αρχικά μου φαινόταν πολύ άποιαστη ιδέα, όταν το είχα διαβάσει τότε το Νοέμβριο. Τα μεγαλομανή σχέδια ενώς υπερπληρωμένου Διευθυντή, αλλα απ’οτι φαίνεται είναι πολύ σοβαροί στα σχέδια τους και πολύ φοβάμαι οτι εαν όντως η Αμερική ξεκινήσει ένα τέτοιο σχέδιο, η υπόλοιπη Ευρώπη δεν θα είναι πολύ πίσω.

Η μόνες μας ελπίδες είναι οι εξής έτσι όπως το βλέπω.

  1. Ο κόσμος να ξυπνήσει γρήγορα και να αντισταθεί σε μια τέτοια κίνηση πριν είναι αργά. Η απάθεια και ο σταρχιδιμός είναι πολύ επικίνδυνες αυτήν την περίοδο μιας και απο την στιγμή που θα μπούν οι “αλυσίδες” θα είναι πολύ δύσκολο να αφαιρεθούν.
    Εαν ο κόσμος δεν δείξει στην κυβέρνηση οτι οι νόμοι δεν βγαίνουν για να συμφέρουν τις μεγαλοεταιρίες αλλα τον ίδιο, οι πληρωμένοι και μισθωμένοι πολιτικοί δεν θα το σκεφτούν καν.
    Δυστυχώς εαν πάρω σαν παράδειγμα την αντιδραστικότητα του μέσου Αμερικάνου (και Έλληνα) τότε βλέπω τα πράγματα λιγο χλωμά.
  2.  Ο υπόλοιπος κόσμος να μην ακολουθήσει το παράδειγμα της Αμερικής. Καλά για την Ελλαδάρα δεν έχω και πολλές ελπίδες αλλα χώρες όπως η Σουηδία, Ινδία και Νότια Κορέα ίσως αποτελέσουν το λαμπρό παράδειγμα. Η Κίνα που ειναι η ανερχόμενη υπερδύναμη δυστυχώς, με τις πολιτικές που έχει θα κάνει κάτι ανάλογο με την ίδια την κυβέρνηση στα ηνεία.
  3. Εαν κλειδωθεί το κλασσικό Internet να δημιουργηθεί ένα εναλακτικό, ένα alternet ας πούμε που θα είναι πραγματικά ελεύθερο. Ίσως κάτι τέτοιο να είναι ήδη εφικτό μέσω, ας πούμε, του Freenet αλλα δεν το βρίσκω πολύ δύσκολο οι νέοι μας “υπερκράτορες” να κλείσουν απλά τις ανάλογες “πόρτες” ωστε να το κάνουν πιο αργό και απο την καθυστέρηση όπως θα κάνουν σίγουρα και με τα P2P δίκτυα.

Αν και εταιρίες σαν το Google και την Amazon αρχικά φαίνεται να αντιστέκονται σε αυτή την κίνηση, δεν νομίζω οτι θα κρατήσει πολύ. Άλλωστε μεγαλοεταιρίες είναι και πάντα περισσότερος έλεγχος είναι στα δικά τους συμφέροντα.

Δεν ξέρω για εσάς, αλλα εγώ δεν θέλω να αρχίσω να πληρώνω περισσότερα για λιγότερα μόνο και μόνο επειδή οι εταιρίες δεν βρίσκουν λόγο να μην το κάνουν. Δεν θέλω να με αναγκάζει κανείς, έμμεσα, να δω αυτά που πιστεύει οτι θέλω να δω, σύμφωνα με ηλίθια γκάλοπ και “think tanks” και ούτε να είναι ελεύθερος να κατασκοπεύει τις δραστηριότητες μου για να μου προτείνει καλύτερες διαφημίσεις.

Πραγματικά το νέα αυτά μου προκάλεσαν μια μίξη αηδίας και φόβου. Το “Γκιμπσόνιο” μέλλον φαίνεται όλο και κοντινότερο…

ΥΣ: Φαίνεται οτι η κοινότητα στο digg δεν το πολυπιστεύει αλλα δεν ξέρω.. Προτιμώ να το σκεφτώ και να δημιουργηθεί λίγος ντόρος τώρα, παρά να το μετανιώνω μετά.

Αρχικό άρθρο | digg story

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Firefox Myths? You'd wish

Db0

Found this on the [tag]digg[/tag] and I’m really starting to get tired. So I’m calling BS and FUD

Debunk numero uno
Debunk numero duo

This guy has been posting (trolling) the same thing on every forum under the sun and he has been called on it countless times. He also posted under different aliases and names in order to give credibility and how he has been unmasked.
Only on digg he has posted the same story 3 times, one for each change he made to the article.
Now check this debunk out and notice the comments. Pwnage? I think yes!
People have actually been following him across the internet just to debunk his posts.
I’ve seen this “firefox myths” thingy pop on forums as a sig and had to put a “countersig” in order for the other guy to see the light, it’s like a god damn virus.

Too bad that it already has been dug more than a hundred times, it seems people are desperate to rain on [tag]Firefox[/tag]’s parade and are clutching at straws.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that FF has it’s own share of problems (Insert personal rant about memory hogging) but it is FAR better than IE against spyware and its extensions kick absolute ass. I’m sure I don’t need to go on, there are countless other sites to read about FF.

However it is also free (as in speech) and it gets better by the month if not by the week. It is something that gives me, the user, power to do what I want and not what the developer wants.
For example, if for some reason the mozilla foundation one day decided that firefox should have feature A that a said percentage of users found cumbersome, a new firefox would be able to be created (under another name obviously) that didn’t have it.

Firefox also does not have an agenda as IE has (promote MS Windows due to inability to work in other OS) and it will always be free (as in beer).

Anyone who uses FUD to downplay a product that has these values deserves to be called on it. If on the other hand Firefox was worse than IE, although I admit I would still use it because it is free (as in speech) I would also have no problem for other to criticize it’s existing weaknesses.

Read Firefox “Myths” | Now Read Firefox Fables | (don’t) digg story

PS: Actually, don’t read the myths page. It’s full of ads which is the real reason he’s trying to promote clicks on it, even through trolling.

Χρόνια Λίγα και Κακά

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Μιλάμε αυτή την πρωτοχρονιά περασα κα-τα-πλη-κτι-κ-α έτσι; Απίστευτες κραιπάλες, ποτά και χωρός μέχρι τελικής πτώσεως και μετά όργια στο καπάκι για να στρώσει η επόμενη μέρα

Ε, ποιον κοροιδεύω; Σκατά κατα κόρον. Παρασκευή μέσα, Σάββατο μέσα μέχρι το βράδι που πήγα στο σπίτι του γκόμενου της αδελφής μου και κέρδισα 4 έουρο στην εικοσιμία και μετά μια βόλτα απο λαδάδικα που κέρδισα άλλα 5 απο την ηλιθιότητα του πορτιέρη. Κυριακή μέσα. Δευτέρα μέσα. Τώρα μέσα…

Και γαμώ ε; Ποιός στην χάρη μου.

Και τι έκανα καθώς καθόμουν μέσα με τον άπειρο χρόνο μου; Έβλεπα Lost και έπαιζα Wesnoth. Τρελό κάψιμο δηλαδη. Κάτι μου ήρθε σε μια φάση να ξεκινήσω δικό μου campaign στο [tag]Wesnoth[/tag] αλλα μόλις καθόμουν στον υπολογιστή βαριόμουν. Κλάιν. Λιγο στην δουλειά σήμερα μου ήρθε έμπνευση αλλα κλάιν again.

Γιατί τόσο μέσα; Έ έξαφανίστηκαν όλοι. Οι μισοί στα χωριά τους, οι 2 στρατό, ο ένας με την γκόμενα δεν έμεινε και κανείς…η τουλάχιστον έτσι κοροϊδευω τον εαυτό μου για να δικαιολογήσω το γεγονός οτι και εγώ δεν έκανα ιδιαίτερο κόπο να πάρω τηλέφωνα (Ντάξ πήρα μερικά αλλα μετα απο 2-3 απογοητεύτηκα). Δεν με πήρε και κανένας, οπότε…μέσα.

Ξεκίνησα να παίζω και Dofus την προηγούμενη εβδομάδα αλλα το βαρέθηκα σε χρόνο DT και τώρα προσπαθώ να πείσω τον Άγγελο να πάιζουμε μαζί.

Πάλι καλά που δεν με βρήκε ο νέος χρόνος μόνο μου δηλαδή

Vampirefreak? Moi?

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The last few days have been…interesting. Things have been turning up for the better and I couldn’t be any happier.

First a new road opens in my professional career, and just at the right time for my current psyche. You see, I’ve started to get bored and drudgerous which for me isn’t so good. Then as I was thinking of ways to spice up my life, my sisters comes and offers me an option I had previously turned down (at a time where I was happy with the way things stand). This time however it just clicked. Even my sister was taken aback for a while after I said “Great idea!”. She was prepared for a convincing argument and failing that, some good old fashioned name calling.
So I’ve talked to a few people and it seems that within 3 months things will be quite different. We’ll see…

I’ve also registered over at Vampire Freaks (VF Henceforth) which was a result of recent developments in my relationship tab.
However I’m neither a “vampire freak” nor a goth or anything like that. au contraire, I’m actually quite the happy-go-lucky guy with a perpetual smile on my face. I did make an attempt at a melancholy theme (and I even danced a bit at X-cel club this Saturday, just for the kicks) but my registration is mainly just a means to an end.

What I came to understand about VF is that it is a ego-boost galore. The fact that you can see who has rated you makes that the rating system complete off-base. People use it both as a bribe and as a threat. If you dare rate someone with anything other than 10, you’d be sure not to get a 10 yourself (and let’s not even dare contemplate what will happen if you rate them under 7). If someone rates you as a 10 on the other hand, he most likely ask you to rate them a 10 as well as a thanks, in effect throwing all unbiased voting to the wind. That’s why in the end, all the rating you see are over 9.5 even on truly ugly people.

As a result of my VF registration I also took the WoD [tag]test[/tag] and the result amazed me.
I mean, mages ARE my favorite WoD type but I didn’t try to be rated as one. I just answered the questions truthfully and what do you know….

You Are A Mage

…amazing!

Napoleon Dynamite

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A while ago while surfing the blogosphere I saw this movie mentioned. It immediately caught my attention because I was a big geek at school and I always had a special place for nerd movies.

(spoiler)

Well, this one was nothing I was anticipating. The protagonist was a total looser, as was expected of course, but for the whole movie I kept waiting for things to change for the better, you know, in the classic Hollywood legacy.

They didn’t.
And that’s the beauty of the movie. It’s a movie about boring people having boring and all too mundane lives. The movie made me cringe at times from the way Napoleon was reacting to situations. I mean, I was a nerd but never of that magnitude.
In the end however I couldn’t help but cheer for the underdog.

This movie is a true “In your face” film against all those classic Teenage movies or Hollywood tripe like “The Revenge of the Nerds”. Although I was surprised on how boring it was at times, after it ended I couldn’t help but liking it (the 80s pop music helped immensely as well.)

I don’t think this movie is for everyone but it is worth watching just in case you like it.

Ubuntu

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I’ve finaly brought Ubuntu where I want it. I now have [tag]amaroK[/tag]-svn, Firefox 1.5 and nothing has crashed for a few days. I seem to be on stable footing finally.

For the last few days I’ve been tweaking the Smart DJ in order to make it work as I want it to. I’ve converted all my .mp3 collection to .ogg, I’ve vorbisgained everything and had the script analyze everything.
I got it working after a few tries but it still brings some pretty stupid matches now and then. Until I know how its tempo/style slider works I don’t think I’ll be able to use it to its full potential.

However I have written a small guide for Ubuntu here that I hope may help someone.

Junkie of the Old Republic

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These past three days I’ve been hooked in front of my computer screen in a marathon of gaming I haven’t taken in a while. The source is of course knights of the Old Republic 2 which I took from the local video club on Friday as I was sitting bored.
What started as a way to pass the idle time ended up in a full blown activity that held me home even on Saturday night. I mean, I actually played from 4pm to 8 am on Saturday and then from 4pm to 1am on Sunday which amounts to 25 hours within two days, and that’s not even counting my Friday and Monday sessions…ugh!

However I don’t expect to be hooked for much longer, my short attention span will take care of that for me. If I haven’t finished it within the week (which I fully expect to do) I will probably get bored with it.

Monday was not so much of a gaming session (although I played for a full 4 hours as well) as a restore session on my PC. After failing in my tries to copy the game without needing a no-cd patch I ended up restoring my windows partition from the ghost image I took after I installed and everything seems fine now. I still didn’t make the perfect image with both Alcohol 120 and CloneCD but since this is just a single player game I don’t care as much.

B-day

Db0

Well, I’ve finally turned 1/4 of a century. I don’t feel too old.

It seems however that my lj writing has taken a break for a while. I just don’t feel like writing at this point.

This Monday I send SMS to various people I know to come over at the [tag]X club[/tag] where I’ll be hanging out tonight. Today most of those canceled 🙁 Still, If at least one or two show up things should be fine. I also plan to drink a lot (at least for me)

Happening this last month:

We finally solved the problem with the AD at work. The security policies had been corrupted and we restored the default ones. Pericles and I have become friends and go and eat crepes together.

I’ve once again failed at romance. A girl I thought was mine, changed her mind in the last minute. At least she continues to talk to me…

I’ve played F.E.A.R and finished it. I Started playing UFO Aftershock and I’ve already grown bored with it (Although I still like it a lot).

I used duct tape to fix my broken [tag]firestaff[/tag] (duct tape rulez!) and started double-twirling which is much fun. Unfortunately the weather screwed me up and unless I find a place big enough to use (or risk freezing to death) I won’t be twirling for a while.
Here’s some (not-so) nice pics as well. I turned one into my avatar as well 😉

I’ve formatted and reinstalled Ubuntu from the start. I got tired of stupid crashed and bugs. Still experiencing those. I’m waiting for Fedora 5 now.

That’s for now

Still Migrating

Db0

The migration process on my workplace is continuing. I am still writing down things as I go here. I’m still not doing much so it doesn’t have much activity but there are some worthwhile things to check out, mainly the guides.

As I said, I write things as I go and when I set-up something new from the ground up, I take the time to create a step-by-step guide of how I did it. This way for log may actually be useful to anyone who cares to read it. Until now I’ve written two guides, one to set up a [tag]jabber[/tag] server on SuSe ES with AD authentication and an related one on how to set up conferencing on that server.
After being asked permission, by the guys of ejabbber, to copy the text of the second guide on their servers, I decided to release all of them under a creative commons license.
This is a great way to save time for anyone who wants to copy and modify them. They won’t need to contact me to get permission anymore.

Doomtown

Db01 Comment

W00t! I'm playing doomtown once more.
In the past few days I've been converting some of my other gaming buddies, Σιδέρης and Αργύρης mainly, to play Doomtown.

Doomtown is my favorite CCG of all time and I was very disappointed when it was canceled due to lack of sales. This story is outside the scope of this journal so I won't re-iterate it but you can get the gist of it here.

Anyway, the guys are excited with the game and really like the great mechanics. I've searched eBay for stuff and found some Ashes to Ashes starters for them, one took the Agency and the other the Texas rangers and even though the decks are not very strong we managed to have some good games. The other day we had a five player games. It didn't finish but it was fun and the two new players were interested in playing as well.
Now I've just bought a box of Ashes to Ashes starters to split with the gaming buddies (and unfortunately the shipping cost were much more than the actual cost) and I'm going to buy 6 more starters to give to anyone that is interested in playing.

Sweet.
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