And then there were three

It's been a rough week work wise but I finally found some time to sit down and write.
As most of you know, I've been into computers for quite some time. I got my first computer about 25 years ago. The idea behind that at the time was to lessen my
accounting and billing load for the studio. A friend set me up with an old 286 MHz with a VGA screen that lit up with orange text on a black background just like a pumpkin on Halloween night. It was strictly a DOS command line interface, type and hope as compared to plug and play. I also had added a matrix dot printer that was so loud it prevented me from holding a conversation on the phone while printing. The damned thing could have punched a hole in the wall if the carriage had been positioned with that purpose in mind. I soon graduated to Windows 3.0 after a while, my first graphic desktop. Of course the icons were as big as golf balls but it got the job done and viruses were virtually inexistent in those days....having no internet helped. A few years later on I purchased my first Mac from my downstairs landlord who set me up me a fast internet connection, in effect bypassing the agony and wait of a dial-up connection. What a difference...! What was a tool now had become also my favorite plaything. Emails, the Internet and Adobe Photoshop occupied most of my time on the box. Why am I rehashing all of this...? Mainly because computing has come a long way.
Still, some basic practices remain the same or have worsened with time. I was a big fan of Apple computers and loathed PCs for years until I found out that the real culprit was Microsoft and their flawed operating system. Enter the third player...Linux. For those who have no clue, Linux is a free operating system for PC computers developed by Linus Torvalds using the same unix base that Apple uses for their operating system, Mac OS X. The only difference is it's free ...like in I don't have to fork out one dinero. And all the applications are free as well. Over 15000 0f them. It will run on older machines giving them a new lease on life. Very good if you believe in recycling to save our dying planet. What's the catch you ask..? Why aren't more people using it..? Well the truth is that Linux got a bad rap to begin with and has suffered from it from the longest time. People will still tell you it's for nerds but in fact, Linux has made such strides in user friendliness that Microsoft is a little worried these days about the competition. Actually, I suspect most of the bad press Linux got came from MS. I stumbled upon Linux about eight years ago and luckily, while on a forum asking questions, I was fortunate enough to meet my good friend Jimmy from Maine who became my main reference for Linux. So here's what I can tell you from years of experience trying out and using Linux on a day to day basis....

Is Linux perfect? No.no operating system is. But usually most problems sit between the keyboard and the chair.I have found that most peripherals like scanners, cameras, MP3 players and printers are detected from the get go without any type of intervention or installation. The same goes for networks. Plus, software installation and removal is a breeze.

Is it hard to learn to use? No. I installed it for my wife's 78 year old uncle and he uses it regularly. Basically, you have the same applications or clones you would use on a Windows system from browsing the web, playing music and writing.

What's the main advantage of using Linux? Linux is community driven by very
passionate people who are constantly making improvements, most of which are under the hood, so that it is maintained properly and up to date. You can also taylor it to your needs in look, feel, and software. And, as I've mentioned before, it's free and will run several months 24/7 before a reboot is necessary.

Is Linux for everyone? No. If you're comfortable with Windows's viruses, error messages, Word crashes, price gouging for software and general annoyances, then by all means ..stay with Windows. You deserve each other.

Can I try it? Of course. One of the major advantages of Linux is that with many distros (Linux distributions or operating systems) you have the option to try it '' live''. Meaning that it will run from the CD or DVD after reboot, without affecting your regular operating system. Thus your system will return to it's previous operating system after ejecting and rebooting without any side effects..

How many Linux distributions are there? A hell of a lot. This has been a brewing controversy in the Linux community for a while. With just about a hundred different Linux operating systems out there, it's hard for the newbie (newcomer) to find is or her way around. Rule of thumb: If you want plug&play, stick with the majors. Any Debian based distro like Ubuntu or my favorite, Linux Mint, will do the the job, and then some.

Who uses Linux? You'd be surprised, A lot of government agencies from Brazil to France have implanted it for their workstations. And, there is an ever growing army of users out there, who once they've adopted it, would rather fight than switch back.


At home right now we have three computers, two very old and one fairly new, running Linux and my old Mac is on OS X. I have yet to find a suitable Linux that will run on my aging Apple computer, but I'm still avidly looking. Computers were about freedom but some companies decided to lock you into a stranglehold. Now at least, you have a choice.....


Footnote: Pic #1 is of my wife's laptop running Linux Mint , the Gnome desktop. Pic # 2 shows my IBM with Linux Mint , running the Fluxbox desktop. I prefer a more minimal and uncluttered zen looking desktop.
This week a ruling came from the Superior Court of Quebec against the RRQ ( a gvt agency) which failed to consider Linux and Open Source software as a serious contender in a recent tender for the renewal of their software needs. You can read it here in French...
http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/Economie/2010/06/03/007-proces-logiciel-libre.shtml

Oil Vey..!

Boy am I glad this week is over. Barring my usual crazy work schedule, I was mauled by a flue virus that rendered my brain useless and turned my sinuses into a mucus production factory. So the news this week appeared worse than ever as I was experiencing flue induced cold sweats....
This out of control oil well in the Gulf of Mexico really got my dander up and resurfaced some terrible memories like bloated floating cadavers in the spring.
When I was 19 and in California on a quest to find the hippie way of life, I experienced first hand the effects of minor oil spills on wildlife. By pure coincidence whilst hitchhiking in Berkeley, I was befriended by an oriental of the same age with very long hair named Donald who played the steel guitar and drove a fake wood panel station wagon always accompanied by his faithful black lab, raspberry. A typical Californian...(lol) Through some friends, Donald found us a place to stay that turned out to be a bird hospital in Berkeley, The Bird Rescue Center. Housed on top of a donated two story warehouse were recuperating birds, mostly water fowl, in huge water basins, rescued from offshore spills. The poor frightened oil soaked birds had to be sedated first and their plumage was gently cleaned in the hope they would survive this ordeal. Some of them did not overcome the shock and it was the saddest thing and a real eye opener to see them slowly die of unnatural causes.
The disaster also brought back memories of one of the darkest moments in environmental fights. Ken Saro Wiwa attracted international attention to the plight of the Ogoni people in Nigeria.
Shell Oil, with the complicity of the military government run by general Sani Abacha, had been unscrupulously exploiting the Niger Delta's rich oil reserves for 37 years decimating the environment and the livelihood of the poor Ogoni people. I saw images of this devastation and it made me sick to my stomach at the time. Saro Wiwa, a poet, was unjustly convicted of treason and was hung with eight of his comrades in November 1995 by the military regime.
You can read the communique from Green Peace here...http://archive.greenpeace.org/comms/ken/murder.html
It didn't happen in anyone's backyard so no big fuss was made about this and that too made me sick to my stomach as well.
Call it the domino effect, the butterfly effect ,who gives a shit.Today, I feel the whole planet is our backyard. So much is riding on how this thing will play out. Already, some people are questioning the whole idea of offshore drilling in light of BP's inability to cap the runaway well. Maybe some good will come out of it. And how did BP they get a license to operate such a platform without having submitted a worse case scenario plan..? Apparently inspectors from the Minerals Management Service accepted meals and tickets to sporting events such as the Chick-fil-a-Peach Bowl game.
Personally, I would cap the hole with debris made of arrogant oil execs, corrupt agency regulators, Hummer owners and the ubiquitous Sarah Palin with her '' Drill baby, drill '' campaign slogan. Polluting a body of water of that size because of willful negligence, should be considered a crime against humanity and as such, should be punishable by at the very least, severe prison sentences to send a loud and clear message. What do you say Mr. Obama..? Are you pissed enough to show you've got the cojones to do the right thing..? We'll see...

Footnote: The picture of three ominous looking silos on the waterfront I took one morning reminded me of the fragility between industrialization and nature and how we always seem to be a stone's throw away from disaster.
Apparently this is not the first time BP finds itself in a row.
http://www.alternet.org/story/147045/why_isn't_bp_under_criminal_investigation?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=alternet

Nut job

No...this title does not pertain to cosmetic surgery in the nether region. So take your mind out of the gutter...pronto. I'll be attacking that subject in another blog down the road...(lol). This is about one of my all time favorite characters. There are a few that I grew fond of and have admired over the years...
Buckminster Fuller, Timothy Leary, Jim Morrisson, Aldous Huxley, Hunter S.Thompson, Jacques Languirand... just to name a few.
What interested me in these people is the fact that they always managed to push the envelope, even in the face of adversity. Not as rich as Bill Gates or as famous as Michael Jackson, they did however leave an indelible mark on society and myself.
One such oddball is Ogle Winston Link. I'll dispense with his bio (you can find the info on the web) but it is important to note that he opened his photography studio after the war in 1946. Winston, during his career, went literally out of his way to immortalize the great steam locomotives of days gone by.
He had adopted this mission and took it very seriously. So seriously in fact that he is credited as being a pioneer of night photography. Funny because his initials are O.W.L. Anyone of us, including professionals who have ever tried great night shots will concur that it's not an easy task...even with today's much improved equipment.
So old Ogle here engineered his own lighting system to capture the metal beasts as they roared into the depth of the night, spitting clouds of white smoke.
Working with slower than molasses film, a camera that was as user friendly as plastic wrapping for CDs and one shot flash bulbs, his images are not only valuable historic recordings of an era but also an ode to steam locomotion.
I was never an aficionado of rail machines like my childhood friend Marc who most probably still has, at the ripe age 56, a complete Lionel train set stashed somewhere. Or my other friend Michel who owns and meticulously maintains, with Q-tips, a train set that takes up a fifth of his apartment, complete and ready to roll. But when I saw Link's images for the first time, I was speechless and quite overwhelmed with the
forcefulness that his pictures reflected, So, if you're so inclined or just curious, you can check out his work at... http://www.linkmuseum.org/ It's well worth the visit.
And if you're into a more direct train experience, you can check out www.orfordexpress.com
They offer site seeing in the Eastern Townships with culinary delights aboard their Lounge car.

Footnote:The picture is of O.W.Link and his assistant with the equipment.
I'm sorry if the blog is shorter this week. My work week made it a tad difficult to find the time to write and publish before my self imposed deadline.

Thanks for the memories

At family reunions, my mother used to proudly comment the family photo album in all it's nostalgic glory. But since the photographic digital age was thrust upon us like a starving vampire on an hemophiliac, we rarely see it anymore. The newest pictures are strewn across the computer landscape and rarely do we huddle next to a laptop to reminisce. What the fuck happened...? Black and white prints were for ever and conveyed more of a feeling than just the pixelized information of a person or a scene.
I still have excellent quality slides that were taken when I was knee high. Of course, I can't show them to anyone, projectors and screens having gone the way of the Dodo thanks to the digital revolution.
In all honesty there are some aspects of digital photography I really enjoy. Apart from the obvious low cost, there is also the availability of the images. Not having to shlep around to get film developed and printed is a big plus. On the other hand, I do miss the days of going to the photolab to pick up my work and talking shop. Somehow however I don't feel the same attachment to digital images as I did to film and prints. We are now literally flooded with images, left and right. They, the big digital camera makers, have made it so simple for the average Joe to capture an ok image, that it often lacks substance and depth. Shoot, shoot,shoot and you might get a good one out of the bunch. I read a quote from a National Geographic photographer who said...'' Film let's me be in the moment where as with the digital camera I'm always reviewing my shots'' . This happens to me all the time with digital....

Accordingly, few people have their images printed, let alone print their own. Maybe it's because they were so easily taken that they don't feel they're worth it..?
Most images stay on the computer until they're emailed or shared in Picassa or other and that's it. Do they back them up on a dvd or external drive? I suspect that '' I'll get around to it one of these days'' is the law of average for most consumers. A lot of pros and a few friends I know are meticulous about safe storage but their livelihood depends on it.
How many hard drives have crashed taking with them precious moments that were digitally captured. I for one have lost two huge hard drives in the last five years but luckily, most of my images were backed up.
Even backups on CDs or DVDs are an illusion of longevity. The U.N. in Geneva stores all documents on negative film for posterity having concluded that the digital mediums present a long term risk.
And what about the equipment....It use to be you would own one... possibly two cameras in your lifetime. And often enough they were passed on to siblings. Today, you're extremely fortunate if you're digital, battery hogging camera doesn't kick the bucket after 3 years or didn't become obsolete as soon as you left the store. With film, hit or miss, when your images or prints came back from processing, there was always some element of surprise, sometimes emotion and true, a lot of times grief if the images didn't turn out.... No more waiting or fuck ups....the image is already captured before you can even completely savor the moment. That is if all your settings are correct, it's not too cold or too hot, your batteries have enough of a charge, your flash card is not filled to the brim and there isn't an electric power station nearby dispensing an electro magnetic field to reek havoc with your camera's internal components.
I dread the day when we'll all be alzheimerishly looking for pictures of family and friends on a crash prone computer with outdated software to relive precious moments that would spur us in our final quest to crystallize who we were.

Thanks Kodak, Canon and Nikon for making the best memories of our lives erasable and irretrievable.

Footnote: This is my favorite family photo. It shows my great grandfather, his wife and their siblings sitting for a family portrait. I recuperated it by chance but doubt that this kind of happy hazard will occur in the future.

Nice planet, we'll take it

Professor Stephen Hawking is probably the most intelligent man on the face of the Earth. He now occupies a chair that was once held by Sir Isaac Newton, one of the most influential people in human history. In a recent Discovery Channel series, he warns about making contact with aliens, claiming they could raid our planet for resources.
Come again....! This seems like a stretch of the imagination, even for my hippie era chemically altered synapses.
What resources are we talking about here..? Oil..? Unless they use kerosene lamps for ambiance aboard their spaceships, I don't think they need this kind of fuel to hop from one galaxy to another. I've yet to hear of a UFO sighting where an ET vehicle ascended rapidly leaving a trail of diesel black smoke.
Water..? Most of our drinking water is contaminated. And the one that's not smells like fish. So unless the extra terrestrials are more of a reptilian origin and like a little low tide stink with their drink...I think not.
Wood..? We still have a lot of that even though we're trying hard to deplete it. Maybe they're into making their own Ikea like furniture or just carvings and candle holders to sell at intergalactic craft fairs.
Very improbable.
Uranium also comes to mind. But since most observers report them as being gray, hairless and androgynous, I suspect that they already have their cosmic hands on ample supplies of the radioactive gold .
Actually, the only resource I envision the space travelers would contemplate plundering are Happy Meals from McDonald's and Nike sneakers. Those, we have in abundance and would gladly turn over... for a price, mind you.
As far as making hostile contact with us, somebody should warn the aliens. We could nuke them five times over. We're sitting on 23,300 (disclosed) nuclear warheads spread around the world. We'd destroy ourselves in the process. But as the great thespian Sylvester Stalone once said...'' Gotta do what I gotta do''.
Besides, we also possess a complete arsenal of bacteriological and viral goodies we could throw at the invaders. H1n1, swine flue, small pox, aids, Ebola and the ever popular anthrax to name just a few. We could conjure up a welcome cocktail that would make them wish they had never set foot on our lowly planet after bleeding from the eyes for days and turning inside out with diarrhea. This would come after our first line of defense will have set the tone for the confrontation. An army of drunken hillbillies wearing I'm with stupid t-shirts and carrying double barrel shotguns loaded with 6 inch nails and broken glass would no doubt repel even the foolhardiest of space conquerors.
So as you can see, I don't loose sleep over this. I'm more worried about what the harm that we humans can do rather than some alien predators taking over what's left of our dismal planet. Professor Hawking did however coin this phrase of wisdom which should remain etched in our collective conscience for future generations.
''We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet''.
Amen to that....!


Footnote: After raking my brain this week to find a suitable picture to illustrate this blog, I settled on the trailer for Mars Attacks! by Tim Burton. Burton produced this little gem to show how Ed Wood, the worst producer to ever come out of Hollywood, would've crafted another one of his scifi duds, with the movie technology available in 1996.

I miss G.W.

I miss Georges W. Bush. This may seem odd to you, even disturbing coming from me. Don't get me wrong. I hated him as much as you can hate anybody. I almost set my alarm to wake up in the middle of the night so I could hate him more, not having enough hours during the day.
But life was interesting, even exhilarating when W was around. It felt like the sixties when anything could happen and it usually did. We were sort of living on the edge not knowing if or when we would be propelled into a nuclear war of epic proportions. He could have gotten up in the middle of the night to pee and instead of flicking the light switch, he could have pressed the Armageddon button and initiated our ultimate demise. The guy was an idiot. Even his handlers must have shit in their pants a few times. I don't really get that feeling of insecurity from Obama. Sure, he also has his handlers, but he's smart and I doubt if he would engage in morally reprehensible acts even when pushed to do so for the good of the nation.

How an idiot like W became president is beyond comprehension. Georges started out being pelted by eggs at his inauguration parade but later on in his mandate, in a short time span of 24 hours, he became the Supreme Commander. GI Joe in the oval office. 9/11 was to G.W.Bush what Casablanca was to Bogart. A starring role and he played it to a tee. If anything, I would certainly have given the guy an Oscar for the performance of a lifetime, considering is limited mental capacities and dismal background.
'' In the role of leader of the free world, the winner is....''

Yes folks, it seems that a dozen or so crazy Arabs with less flying experience than a turkey, armed with box cutters and a scenario straight out from Hollywood, foiled the most protected air space in the world and propelled Junior to greater heights and power than even his dad had ever attained during office. From that day on, the whole New World, armed with sophisticated satellites, ubiquitous spies, military intelligence and an enormous deployment of ground troops, invaded hostile countries and went looking for a six foot Arab who apparently lived in a cave somewhere between here and Pakistan, and who incidentally, popped up in threatening videos every time life seemed to be getting back to normal.

I too fell for the official story at first. But then little bells started to ring left and right. Questions went unanswered and pieces of the puzzle went missing. A couple of web sites sprung up with the same questions. Le Réseau Voltaire for one, started analyzing the attack on the Pentagon. Then came The Scholars for 9/11 Truth. A very in depth look at the official story and how it doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
Then I found this video from The Power Hour, In Plane Sight. What's interesting about this effort to uncover the truth is that it takes photos and videos we've all seen but were too caught up in the moment to really notice anything. What especially got to me in this video is the footage of the second plane hitting the tower.
There are no distinguishable markings on the plane, and guess what...there are no windows.

Kind of odd for a commercial flight don't you think..? I mean... I've heard of no frills flights but this is ridiculous. I hope they were at least offered free peanuts before the crash.
Better yet....These anomalies are confirmed live on TV by a Fox reporter who was there by chance that day.



9 years later, the memories of that fatal day are waning as fast as the interest for Paris Hilton and her sexual antics. I think it would be fair to those who died and their loved ones that we keep lit the flame of truth, so that the real perpetrators of this attack on freedom be brought forward to answer for their despicable deeds.
I once read a quote that resonated even louder after the September 11th events.
"After lying to the electorate for decades, the only instrument of control left to the politicians is fear".

Footnote: My favorite G.W.Bush joke.
You're a photo journalist covering flash floods in Texas. Suddenly, from the bank of a raging river you spot G.W.Bush clinging to a branch and on the verge of drowning. You only have time to either save him and be a hero or snap a Pulitzer prize winning photo.Now here's the trick question.....
Which lens do you use!

Privacy

First off to avoid any confusion, I must admit that I'm biased when it comes to Google. I've always been a big fan of the two founders, what they have accomplished and how they generally conduct business when compared to other big corporations. I use just about anything they can dish at me, especially their string of online applications. They're free, they're great, I use them, So there...!
A lot has been said about Google and privacy. Some people don't even use their gmail application because they're somehow afraid that every email sent is read in the basement of Google's HQ by an army of whistle blowers with a direct phone line to a slew of powerful government agencies. And some also feel threatened by Google's Earth's street view. I think it's cool to see my country house in street view. I was just relieved that I didn't have the contents of my basement strewn across the front lawn for a yard sale when they took the picture. Privacy on or off the web has never been an issue with me. Why...? Simply because I don't lie, steal, cheat on my wife, grow pot, download porn, plot to overthrow the government or live in a glass house where I occasionally hang from the ceiling naked, whilst a 6 foot German dominatrix shrink wrapped in black leather flogs my genitals with a miniature whip.
There are only two intrusions of privacy I really hate and worry about. The first one is being disturbed when I'm naturally evacuating yesterday's food intake, quietly reading a paper. I don't want to answer questions through the door, be notified that somebody called or worse, incited to get the job done quickly so someone else can use the facilities.
The second one, the one that everybody should be worrying about is the credit information that the banks and other financial institutions peddle around behind our backs. In today's bottom line world, this is how we are measured as individuals. Our capacity to borrow and reimburse is paramount and determined by cold, calculating people we've probably never met. They rank us, and will, without prior warning, destroy our credibility at the blink of an eye. Anyone who has ever experienced an error related problem with a credit card company, bank or other financial institution will attest to this. Credit hell..! And worse, to untangle a mess you never created in the first place, you need to have a phone surgically attached to your ear so when someone answers after two and a half days, you can beg them to review your status.
These people have more info and power on us than any government ever will. If you find this a tad on the paranoia side then ask yourself this question...Why did we get a World Bank before we got a World Government..?Big Brother is here. He doesn't want to read your funny emails or watch you when your blinds aren't closed. He wants you to spend beyond your means. Because in a capitalist world, debt is the best known form of subjugation.