Tech

I'm thinking that Amazon has an issue with their database and the photo isn't matching up exactly to the description.

I got tired of the Update Manager in Ubuntu complaining that I had software packages to update and I sort of wanted to play with Ubuntu One so I started the 2 hrs process of updating from 9.10 to 10.04. The first thing I noticed after the update was done was that there was a "communication" app on my toolbar that allowed me to all of my Facebook, Twitter, and chat accounts. It also had a section for Ubuntu One which I set up and will play with later.

My biggest issue with Lucid Lynx was that they changed where the gadgets were on the windows. Why? Because it's gnome and they want to make our life easier that's why. Of course they never asked us, they just assumed Apple style that they knew what was best. Below is a picture of the old window border (gadgets on the right) and the new window border (gadgets on the left). Below that is a command line string to put your new border back to the way it's been for thousands of years.

To set the gadgets back to the top right had corner paste this into a terminal.

gconftool-2 –set “/apps/metacity/general/button_layout” –type string “menu:minimize,maximize,close”

Readwriteweb did an article on Facebook wanting to be your one login. Their point was that people use it for posting their photos, instant messaging, "email" and just about everything else. The problem was the article's title was Facebook Wants to Be Your One True Login and of course Google indexes this with the words Facebook and Login together. Now when people type in "Facebook login" into Google they got the article referenced above instead of the Facebook login page. This would not be a problem for anyone with more than a half a working brain because they'd immediately notice that the Readwriteweb site looks nothing like Facebook and would then conclude that they were not in fact at the Facebook login page but a completely different page (hence the strange non-Facebook URL)! Unfortunately not everyone on Facebook has half a working brain (thanks Myspace for falling out of favor, now they invaded Facebook) so the comment thread that ensued was quite hilarious.

Here are a few comments to the article. Notice that these freaks of nature really think they've landed on the Facebook login page but can't figure out how to log in.

I did NOT hand pick these, I'm just going down the line one after the other!!!

• ok cool now can I get to facebook
• The new facebook sucks> NOW LET ME IN.
• when can we log in?
• I WANT THE OLD FAFEBOOK BACK THIS SHIT IS WACK!!!!!
• just want to get on facebook
• please give me back the old facebook login this is crazy.................
• I just want to sign in............
• I just want to log in to Facebook - what with the red color and all? LOLLLOLOL!!!!!111
• wtf is this bullshttttttttttt all about. can i get n plzzzzzzzzz
• What is going on? You are totally confusing me. Knock-knock. Anybody there? Let me in. Katherine
• IAM NEW AT FACEBOOK NOW WITH CHANGES IAM LOSSSSSSSSST!
• All I want to do is log in, this sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
• This is such a mess I can't do a thing on my facebook .The changes you have made are ridiculous,I can't even login!!!!!I am very upset!!!

Keep in mind that these fine people are not on the FACEBOOK site at all but are on the Readwriteweb site reading an article about Facebook. There's more...

• Can we log into face book? This is crazy I want to get all my info off and be done with this. I recently moved from MN to SC Myrtle Beach and facebook was a great way to keep in touch with family and friends but this is getting to be to difficult.
• i need the old facebook this new one is very bad bbbbbbbbbbuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
• What have they done now. It's not simple enough for me to figure out.
• Seams like all of the comets i read agree with me you people messed up royal i was enjoying facebook now i am thinking of getting rid of it all

• Quit this crap and let me sign in!

• this sucksssss how do i get on my screen?
• Looking good
• bring me back old facebook
  this is sheet

It isn't until about the 80th post that a few people start realizing that this isn't Facebook. Here's the original URL if you want a laugh.

Facebook wants to be your one true login

A friend and I were googling my name to find the oldest reference still on the Internet. Things seem to disappear after a while and it appears that I've been erased before 1997 but the positive outcome from this exercise was to find a spoof of an old newsletter I contributed to. In that newsletter was a quasi-german warning message which I've remembered but missed. With a tear in my eye I share it with you now. If you speak German, pretend you don't or you may miss the message.

There's a new category at The Man, the Myth, the Legend and it's all about Green tech. When I started writing up this article I realized what better category on this site but a Green one since the entire website is shades of green anyway! It's under the Tech menu and is simply labeled Green. At this point there's a blog and a list of websites (one) that I think are nice. As a matter of fact the one site that I posted in the link section is the reason why I've gone through the trouble of making a Green category to start with - it's inhabitat.com and I just discovered it (like Colombus discovered America!) so now that I know it exists the rest of the world can start going there now.

There will eventually be a lot more content in this section as I get time and get more involved in it. For now enjoy self-powered street lights and wearable habitats!

We have the Amtrak Acela that's capable of 150 mph but it hasn't exactly caught the rail world on fire because the states it passes through limit it's speed to just above what a normal Amtrak train could do. In addition to that the Federal Railroad Administration dictated ridiculous changes to the design in order that it never be competitive to other forms of travel. It was a failure from the design stage on. Of course they'll say that doubling the weight of the train artificially makes it safer for the passengers but we know that doesn't make sense because the builders of it are the same companies (bombardier and Alstrom) that have been building the famous TGV trains for 30 years. If anyone knows about safety it's these guys.

In their defense the Amtrak team just bought what was basically a proven TGV design and had planned on running it on upgraded rails. The FRA changed all of that and made them modify the design in case it came in contact with a Freight train. I don't know about you but I don't think that adding weight to a passenger train traveling at 150 mph is going to make the situation that much better if it ends in a head-on collision with a freight train – I really don't. The best practice is to just give the passenger train right-of-way which never happened. In addition to that the extra weight has shortened predicted equipment times between failures from 400,000 miles to 20,000. The Acela can not succeed no matter how hard Amtrak tries.

With President Obama's 10.5 Billion dollar shot in the arm high speed rail looks more promising even if it will be state owned and local. It's not a perfect situation but at least we're taking one step forward. I was sure that California would be the first to have a high speed train but $2.5B just went to Florida which has already purchased the right-of-way from Orlando to Tampa. Eventually they want to have high speed rail from Pensacola to Miami and most other major cities down both coasts. Two and a half billion dollars doesn't build much but it will get them started.

Florida's first train will only do 120 mph but also will only cost $3.5B so they only need to raise 1 Billion dollars.The trip between Orlando and Tampa will take less than an hour which will make it faster than driving. See Florida's high speed rail site.

If you're curious about how the nearly bankrupt California is faring check out their High Speed Rail site. Their proposal is a lot more agressive and will cost a great deal more but with the amount of people living there will be in greater need.

Washington, the greenest state in the Union has Rapid transit as well in the form of buses that get to their destination in exactly the same amount of time as the old ones, are uncomfortable to ride on (irritating regenerative breaking), stop half as often, have very little room because of a horribly inefficient design where bikes are lined up not unlike a bike rack, the drivers are rude, the stations are extravagant when a platform and shelter would have sufficed, are NOT in the same places as normal bus stops making transfers difficult and it only cost us $34,000,000. We love you WA but why do you have to be so stupid?

Sometimes I don't know why people do what they do outside of the fact that they can. Here's a Youtube video of someone who got Mac OSX to work on a Nokia n900.

Intomobile has a new first hand experience video of the Access Linux platform.

LG unveiled their new GW990 Smartphone and guess what OS their using - Intel's Moblin! As if my articles about Nokia going Linux, the flood of Android phones, Palms WebOS and the Access Limited wasn't enough LG which is a very large manufacturor of phones is going to be selling a phone using Moblin - a Linux OS. This phone will use Intel's Moorestown chipset which basically means it has an Atom CPU not unlike what's in my Netbook. It has a 4.8 inch, 1024x480 display, and boasts about 4 hours of talk-time and 300 hours of standby period. A 4.8 inch screen and a netbook cpu in a phone? After Google released the 1Ghz Nexus One phone I thought we'd plateau for a while. I don't know how big this thing is but it would seem that having a screen 1/2 inch bigger than my Nokia n800 (and 1.3 inches bigger than an iphone screen) would make for a phone that's quite large.

I don't have a lot of information but they've not said whether they're bringing the phone to the US or not. Does ANYONE (and I mean anyone including Microsoft and Apple execs!) have any doubts that Linux will dominate the future smartphone market?