Everyone else has a blog...
why shouldn't I?

Vote for MobileOptimized

There's a poll running for various PDA/Smartphone/Palm-based websites. At the bottom is a "Mobile Portals" section. If you like MobileOptimized, please give us a vote. The poll can be found here.

10•14•05 - Why I Use Linux

I just finished reading John C. Dvorak's excellent article about forthcoming Microsoft security softwares. I've always been against paying M$ to fix their own problems, especially since they seem to do such a poor job of it. Think about the irony of Microsoft selling an operating system that is hugely susceptible to viruses, spyware, and other malware, then offering to sell you "security softwares" that will help against these very things. Wouldn't it just make more sense to fix the operating system itself? Suffice it to say that hell will need to freeze over before I buy any anti-virus, anti-spyware, or any other anti-resolve-the-holes-in-Windows add-ons from M$ themselves. I'll stick to other, 3rd party companies for now.

And here's the real kicker... what's Dell or HP's answer if you call their technical support department and they determine you have a virus or spyware? They ask you to restore to factory contents (which involves reformatting your hard drive). Now, considering that there is no perfect anti-spyware software on the market yet, what is M$'s response going to be when their own softwares can't rid your PC of viruses or spyware? They're going to ask you to re-install and format the drive in the process (note: not that this will resolve a boot record [MBR] virus).

So let's make sure the full picture is laid out for us: first you pay around $300 for Windows. After installation, you spend 4 hours of your time getting all the latest updates from Windows Update (let's be conservative and say you're worth $25/hour... so that's another $100.00). Then you pay another say $100 for Microsoft security software. Then you get a virus or spyware. After 2 hours of trying to fix it yourself (another $50.00), you call Microsoft technical support at $75.00 per hour. After two hours (another $150), you're still infected. So they ask you to re-install (and format the drive which wipes out all your personal data). So $700.00 later you're right back where you started. I'll bet this isn't factored into the "true cost of Windows" or their "Get the FUD" campaign. And all this time M$ wonders why people are shifting to Linux in droves. Linux is free. With Linux you could (though aren't as likely to) arrive at the exact same place... re-installing and losing all your data, but at least you didn't flush $700.00 down the toilet on the way.

Riddle me this, though... how is it that an operating system who's source code is closed off to the world remains so easily afflicted (through viruses, spyware, etc) while Linux, whose source code is publicly available to all, remains largely affliction free?

10•12•05 - Moving up in the world

I've been invited to be an associate writer at PalmAddicts. So, for now all my Palm/Treo/GoodLink articles and such are going to be posted there. I encourage you to visit the site. I'll continue to post other, more personal, religious, and/or political items here.

•Home