This one won’t be very corporate, or very software-driven.

Yesterday, about 9 miles away from my home, a man who had become so filled with anger and hopelessness rented an airplane and crashed it into a building to address his grievances with the IRS.  I drove by that building twice yesterday.

Before renting the airplane, this man set fire to his house.  I ended up driving by that as well when I went to visit a friend who happened to live in that neighborhood.

These grim monuments filled me with a sadness that I cannot completely describe.  I do not understand what could drive a person, especially a person who had a family, to such a state.  Clearly he had problems, very difficult problems.  I just don’t see the pathway to such destruction.  What a terrible, tragic event.

People are working right now to turn this calamity to some sort political message, which is a shame, because it’s not about politics.  It’s about individual hope and the chasm which lays before someone who has lost it completely.  I can’t speak to the person who did these things.  Clearly he was a troubled person.  Yet there are many who are feeling pain and hopelessness in their lives right now.  People are out of work and struggling to find their place, while obligations apply pressure from all sides.  People overwhelmed by changes around them are lost and confused.  Extreme views abound, and the loudest ones proudly proclaim that the others shouldn’t even be allowed to exist.  Discourse is angry.  Conflict is king.

You may not be experiencing these things in the extreme.  You may just be dealing with the tedium of every day with the drone of the news in the background.  You may be stuck in traffic while some jerk cuts you off to get a whole car-length ahead.  You may be standing in the “10 items or less” isle while a person with thirteen items is in front of you (as you think “Shouldn’t that be ’10 items or fewer?'”)

Please understand that you are not alone.  (If there is anything that can be said in this world it’s that we share it with many, many other people.)  If stress is getting to you, take a break.  I know that’s easier said than done, but it’s also easy to just drive through things when you really need to take a walk or something and clear your head.

If you are overwhelmed by something get some help.  There are many experts that are available who know law, business, medicine and other complex areas who will talk to you and help you do a reality check on what’s going on with you.  Many solutions are simply a matter of knowing how things work.  How could you possibly work your way through something on your own without the right expertise?  You may know someone who is an expert, such as a lawyer, who you haven’t trusted with your concern.  I know someone who thought he was in something way over his head and a call to a lawyer friend helped him see that it really wasn’t that bad and that he had some advantages on his side.  It completely changed his outlook from despair to a problem with solutions, and more on his side than he appreciated.

Spend time with friends.  It’s not always easy to make friends.  When you have friends, it’s not always easy to open up to them.  Yet often we find that friends care.  They can’t fix our problems for us, but they can help us to see that our problems are not necessarily unique and that we may not be using all the resources at our disposal.

No matter how dark things look, there is a way out.  It’s not the way chosen by this troubled man.  It may not be an easy way, but it is a way that you can endure with help.

If you know someone who is troubled, especially a friend, reach out.  You may be the only light they can see.

If you have family, embrace them and be grateful for them and keep them in your life.

No one should utterly without hope.

 BBC News has this report “Google ‘sister’ launches in China” which talks about a new search site in China.  Apparently the loss of Google in China is not a problem.  It turns out they had a complete replacement waiting in the wings which is more in tune with their requirements.  The site is available at goojje.com.

I admit, that I don’t read Chinese, so I took the text on the front page and ran it through Google’s translation tool.  Here’s what it came back with:

“Gu sister born for peace, the sister network of the world will be because of the emergence of a harmonious valley, there are no longer lonely valley sister buddies.”

“Valley sister of a person’s strength is too small, we need your strength, Love Valley, sister, please introduce me to your friends, Gu Jie Yue whether male or female are introduced”

I’m sure that I’m missing something in the translation there.  Of course, the big question is whether or not the Goojje site has the sorts of limitations that Google allegedly refused to do.  You can actually check this out yourself.  Here’s what you need:

1. Here is a page in Wikipedia showing List of words censored by search engines in the People’s Republic of China.  This shows you the Chinese words, in Chinese with the English translations.  Open this in one tab.
2. Next, open goojje.com in one tab and google.com in another.
3. Finally, if you don’t read Chinese, open the Google translation page.

Now you can take a search term from the article (in Chinese) and drop it into each search engine, then view a translated version of the hits to see what they say.  The translated English is typically pretty rough, but you should be able to get the gist of it.  I haven’t done enough comparison to form an opinion as to how one search engine compares to another.  Even with comparison, I would expect that a fairly new search site would have less information than one that had been collecting data for years.  However, I see something that I’m curious about:  I found a site through Google that did not seem to show up as highly ranked on Goojje.  I tired putting the URL, then the Chinese title into Goojje to see if it would find it.  In each case, Goojje appeared to crash and drop my connection for a number of seconds.  That could be a coincidence.

I don’t know what my opinion is on this sort of restriction.  I personally like information to be free.  However, I’ve made agreements to restrict sharing of information for my job as a condition of my employment.  The US puts restrictions on availability of information as well.  As you may know,  Sourceforge.net was recently required to restrict access to their servers to Iran and other countries on “the list.”  Sourceforge was pretty open about the situation and said in their statement that they were responding to legal requirements from the US government.  Seems to me that while such action could keep the “bad guys” from downloading files (thus requiring them to get it from a server residing in any other country, it also restricts access to tools which might be used by people who are looking for change.

We certainly live in interesting times.

In an article, “NZ school ditches Microsoft and goes totally open source,” we see how a High School in Auckland is using an open-source infrastructure to their advantage.  This is really an inspirational tale as it deals with some of the problems that people site about using Gnu/Linux as an infrastructure.  Here are a few things that stand out to me:

1. The school system is very pro-Microsoft.  In fact, the government has a deal where schools have to pay for Microsoft licenses whether they use them or not.

2.  They set the system up about a year ago and have had to do very little to maintain it.  (I’ve had similar experience with working Linux configurations that I have done.)

3.  They have used a “hostile network” approach to security which encourages people to bring in whatever devices they choose and be able to hook it to the network and get things done.  This has brought devices such as PSPs into the system.  (Think that’s not a business-like way to think about teaching kids technology?  How long ago was it when you thought your mobile phone was for making phone calls?)

It looks as though they took the most basic building blocks for a technical infrastructure and used open, reliable technologies to get them done.  What will the kids get from this?  The will see that technology is a “yes, and” world where things have to connect and you may need to deal with requirements that weren’t considered at the time of design.  They’ll have a shot at moving beyond the idea that technology is a short list of tools that you need to know and maybe put some really creative approaches to work.  The faculty at this school really seem to get it.  I hope that people will pay attention to this and follow their lead.

 I was reading news today about malware discovered for the Android operating system (see “Malware: Android Apps Threaten Mobile Security” by David Coursey).  As a Droid owner, who is slowly but surely getting lured into the tool, I’m concerned about the quality of software that I use.

I’m pretty careful when I download software for my PC.  I try to check up on projects and not just grab things that have no track record.  Generally, I look to make sure that it has a project web site with source code and that people are active.  I have heard individuals talk about malware rampant in the open source community, but I’ve not seen evidence of it myself.  I even searched for news.  I figured that news that open source malware was roaming around would be picked up and pretty wide-spread if there was much to report.  Nothing there.  To be honest, that really was what I expected to find.  I find that the open source community is pretty good at policing its own. I don’t think that a true open-source malware project would have a very long life.  Someone would spot it and do something about it pretty quickly.  If anyone has news to the contrary I’d really like to know.  (…please, only real news with sources, not something that you heard from a guy who knows this guy who knows this dude…)

Now back to the Droid.  I have this phone with a Market application which lists all kinds of applications.  As the story above mentions, an Android developer created some 50 fake banking applications designed to phish banking login data from your phone.  I would think that an app like that would set of alarm bells for me automatically.  I receive SPAM emails about such things and I find them pretty obvious.  What was unclear to me as well is whether these apps were included in the official catalog, or in the 3rd party catalog.  The Android application market allows you to turn off 3rd party applications, which are the areas that I might expect the dodgier applications.  I can still get them.  I just have to find and install them on purpose rather than having them on the impulse list.

Bear in mind that even though the Android system is pretty open, the applications that they host are not necessarily open source.  That means that some of the policing that might be done by the community won’t happen for the closed applications (a feature of closed-source, commercial software).  Each of the applications has ratings and comments, which provide some evidence to the user that software might be dangerous, but you have to be at least a little savvy about it.

Google has taken a different approach than Apple on how to handle their applications.  Rather than vetting applications and the selecting whether they should be allowed to be in the marketplace they have made the marketplace pretty easy to sign up for.  Developers pay a fee to include their apps, so there is some level of tracking, unless you sign up with a stolen credit card.  (…and who would do that?)  Google has also given themselves permission to pull your applications and ban you if they discover that it’s bad, but they don’t define a responsibility to monitor and detect this activity themselves.  Here’s a section from their developer agreement:

“Google Takedowns.  While Google does not intend, and does not undertake, to monitor the Products or their content, if Google is notified by you or otherwise becomes aware and determines in its sole discretion that a Product or any portion thereof or your Brand Features; (a) violates the intellectual property rights or any other rights of any third party; (b) violates any applicable law or is subject to an injunction; (c) is pornographic, obscene or otherwise violates Google’s hosting policies or other terms of service as may be updated by Google from time to time in its sole discretion; (d) is being distributed by you improperly; (e) may create liability for Google or Authorized Carriers; (f) is deemed by Google to have a virus or is deemed to be malware, spyware or have an adverse impact on Google’s or an Authorized Carrier’s network; (g) violates the terms of this Agreement or the Market Content Policy for Developers; or (h) the display of the Product is impacting the integrity of Google servers (i.e., users are unable to access such content or otherwise experience difficulty), Google may remove the Product from the Market or reclassify the Product at its sole discretion.  Google reserves the right to suspend and/or bar any Developer from the Market at its sole discretion.”

There’s a few thoughts that I have… and these thoughts are mine as a user of the Droid and of open source software.

1.  I’m much more comfortable with knowing that the source of software is available.  My ability to detect badness in the source is probably limited, but at least I can compile it myself if I want. And my observations combined with others will help sound an alarm for something that’s not right.  I really think that works and works well.

2.  I’m not a fan of a marketplace getting to decide whether an application should be allowed to exist, though I don’t want software to be used criminally.  Apple’s approach is too harsh for me.  I’m undecided about Google.

3.  People should care and pay attention to the software that they use.  I have heard about malware embedded in free closed-source packages, or on “warez” sites, sites that host pirated commercial software that can be downloaded for free.  It’s as bad a habit to just download software from a blinking icon without looking into it at all as it is to eat anything laying on the sidewalk that looks interesting.  The current trend is to treat users as though they don’t and shouldn’t know about the technology that they use and that approach gives them absolutely no defensive instincts against bad guys.  I don’t think that everyone should be an uber geek, but people shouldn’t be so afraid of technology that they let themselves be pushed around into making bad choices.

I’m a fan of my Droid and I’m happy with my choice… but I’m having to think a little bit as I use it and create some new resources for keeping myself safe.  It’s my responsibility to do so.

My daughter is seven going on twenty-seven (at least in her mind).  I’m fascinated at how she views the world.  For example, so much of her media is on demand that she doesn’t ask me to turn off the radio, she asks me to “pause” it.  Apparently I’m not the only one experiencing these sorts of shifts through the eyes of the young.  Check out this article by Brad Stone in the New York Times called  “The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s.”

As I learn to type with my thumbs on my new Droid, I wonder how much I don’t grasp about what technology can do for me (or to me?).  What will be my equivalent of keeping all my information on business cards because it’s always been good enough?

There are legends of Nikola Tesla and his theories on wireless electricity.  Some have claimed that key knowledge died with Tesla which would have changed the face of energy today.  I don’t know about all that, but it seems that there have been some interesting developments in the area of energy without wires.

At the Consumer Electronics Show, a 32″ TV was run with wireless electricity.  It gets me to thinking… is the future not in better batteries or the whole world wired and rather in the elimination these things to begin with?  What if the energy to run cars came from the roads rather than from a battery.  It might not work for all needs, but it would certainly work for many town and highway needs.  What if your gadgets pulled electricity from the environment much as we use free WiFi today?  The batteries just “tide you over” between zones.

I know we’re a long way from this, but it makes you think, doesn’t it?

  Wow!  I just got back at work a couple of days ago and I’m already behind!  This article passed through my email today and I thought it was worth mentioning:

Freescale’s Linux smartbook aims to take bite out of Apple

I’ve used Linux on my laptop for about 10 years now.  I’m pretty mystified at all of the problems that people have with it.  My personal theory is that every attempt to put Linux on a cheap laptop has been accompanied by some weird distribution of Linux that people have never heard of, which is tied to the notebook manufacturer.  I never saw one that came out with Ubuntu or something that was a little more mainstream.  (I know, I used “mainstream” and “Linux” together.  Weird.)

I really would like to see a successful Linux device like this, mainly because I want to own them.  All of my computers run Linux, but they’ve either been home-built systems, or laptops that I am snidely told that I would receive no support on.  I figure I am support.  It would be nice to have something that was intended to be a Linux box from… well… out of the box.

Pundits tend to put the blame on the failure of Linux in that people don’t enjoy open source software.  I don’t know if that’s as true as it might be.  I think of it like sushi.  I know a number of people who can’t handle the idea of sushi.  The idea that there might be raw fish in there somewhere is just too weird for them.  Let alone that there are many kinds of sushi that are fully cooked.  There is also a tremendous amount of peer pressure against using open source software.  Fully grown people will resort to the sort of middle-school-level taunting when you are using something different.  Sometimes when I get one of these people to actually try sushi, they love it.  Sometimes they don’t.  I can’t do much about people who won’t even try it.

I think it also has a little to do with how people learn about computers.  For myself, I love a good tutorial to help me deal with something new.  I find all kinds of helpful information like that online for every major tool that I use.  However, it seems that many people learn how to use their computer from colleagues, neighbors and children.  If those of us who use open source solutions take time to show people what’s available and how to use it, I think that you get more adoption.  If our response is that use of open source software has to be “earned” then I think people will go other directions.  I know that this works because I have a number of people that I know personally who have started using an open source tool here and there because I introduced it to them and got them started.  You don’t have to move them to Linux to do this either.  Many open source tools are multi-platform, so they can start with the tools on whatever they use now and then when the get to Linux it will have something familiar.

Firefox is the only tool I know of that has really taken off with people… though many people still refer to it as “Foxfire” or “that fire browser thing.”  Yet, even as broad as it is, the latest stats that I found showed it at 24.63% of the browser marketshare.  I’m not discouraged by any means.  User behavior has demonstrated that people are more interested in doing what they want to do than showing loyalty to a particular software company.  Look at the number of areas where people have switched to web-based solutions rather than buying desktop software to load on their computer.  (Here’s something with numbers in it.)  To a user most functionality is an icon with results in a window full of software.  As long as it does what they need they way the want to do it, that’s all that matters.

So, I’ll wait and see how this one goes.  I would like this one to work out.  If not, there will be another, and another.  It’s not going to go away.