AFI - Miss Murder (Director's Cut)

Hardcore punk or just Wicked Awesome? You be the judge. Read more!

Lillix - Sweet Temptation

I'm not much of a music person. I come from the 80's era of hairbands and air-guitars. I like most music and recently, while researching whether or not to subscribe to Yahoo's music I came across this video

Now I can't get enough of Lillix and their upbeat, hip, cool, blow me over music. Suddenly I find myself listening to a lot more Avril Lavigne and Pink. Who'd a thunk-it. Read more!

Well It's About Time - 98 and ME Finally Lose Support

Today, July 11, 2006, marks the end of support for Windows 98 and Windows Me.

Some (ZDNet) think this is finally what Linux needs to get a leg up in the operating system game.

I don't buy it. Linux has had a long time now to step up to the plate and compete against Microsoft. As a software engineer for more than 12 years now, I appreciate the concept of Linux and open source and believe they have done a lot of good in the programming world. But in the user world, where people want applications that include internet access, games, video/image editing tools, etc., Linux, i.m.h.o. doesn't stack up. If it did/does, why hasn't it made a bigger footprint in the last 5 to 10 years?

The majority of my colleagues, it seems, take the Linux road because, simply put, they are anti-Microsoft. They complain about the size and security. They will argue that Microsoft has played to corporate giant and single-handedly held Linux back. Words like anti-trust and monopoly get tossed around and I get that.

Microsoft is large and probably did enough to hold Linux back. But let's be honest. If Linux was going to make a run, it should have been able to do it over the past 5 years as more companies were willing to sell PC's with Linux installed. Also, Microsoft kept delaying the release of their new OS - Windows Vista. Still, Linux lags behind.

As for the security, I place the majority of this on the user. Case in point:
I finally replaced my Pentium II, 350mhz, 320mb memory, Windows XP Professional machine with a new PIV, 3.2 ghz, 2gb memory, Windows XP Professional system. My old Pentium II served me well for 8 years. Bought in 1998, it went from Windows 98, to ME, to 2000, to XP. Never having to re-format just simple upgrades. I kept my anti-virus programs up to date and made sure I had tools to handle spyware and adware. I avoided the programs that teenagers love (limewire, Ka-Zaa, etc). Not one problem, except that it simply became to slow over time to keep up with my daily tasks. Is that due to the failure of the OS or because technology has advanced so much over the past 8 years making things like disk space and memory much more affordable, that software companies now create programs that require more resources? I'll go with the latter.

For me, the bottom line is, give me something that works, is user friendly, has a wide variety of applications and doesn't require me to "tweak" it via the command line. The average user doesn't know anything about bash, vi, config files, or compilers.

Linux is loved in the "Tech" world. When will it be loved as much in the "real" world?
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