Michael Jackson is dead? To be frank, I didn't know that he was still alive. Either way, it doesn't bother me at all. Yes - I grew up with his music, yes I kinda liked some of it. So what? Are they going to make a big fuzz if, say, Garth Brooks meets his (not mine) maker? Will they throw a big party for every current, former or future dude or gal that is or was able to make noise? What was sooo important that the media catches rabies about it? Have we lost control? The perspective to what is really important? Like Google OS?

Well - yes, this was a joke. But another great example how the media gets involved (and most likely paid). They fly the banner of Internet imperialism and countless, well, "specialists", feel important enough to publish their (limited) opinions.

Google attacks Microsoft.
Google OS to be supported by countless manufacturers.
Why Google OS is better ...

I personally don't know what "OS" stands for. Since Google's "thing" is based on Linux, it's most certainly not an "Operating System". Maybe OS means "Other Sh**" - it would fit Google's pattern. So - once again, I scratch my head and ask myself: Why am I different? What have my parents done wrong? Is there a blue pill that lets me see with other peoples eyes?

If stupidity would squeak, the lubrication industry would have to increase their capacities by a Googol (not Google, you dummy) factor. But, for the time being, I have to live with the fact, that I am obviously different. For one thing, I run Linux on all of my desktops, servers, laptops and net books. I do have a Microsoft laptop to verify that my work is usable with, hrm, Internet Explorers. I open it, click through a gazillion of questions (Your computer is unsafe, install this and that, updates available, install that and this ...) open IE, get through the Internet Explorer 8 greeting (Welcome to Internet Explorer 8..) for the 50st time (It doesn't seem to remember) until I can finally access whatever it is I am currently debugging. I close the laptop and, well, that is all I do with Windows. Win95 / XP / Vista .. I don't even know which Windows version I am using. And I don't care.

I am not an OS junkie. I just don't care. I am with Linux since 0.94, I grew up with it, developed for it, made money with it, I know it inside and out. I like the free (as in freedom, not as in "free beer") philosophy and I have anything I want. Well, no, it doesn't support itunes. Since I still use my trusty old Nokia (about 2 weeks stand-by time on one battery, 3 times better reception, bluetooth, infra-red, no camera, no fancy stuff) I don't need i-whatever.

Ibook, iphone, itunes ... , i don't care.

I am most certainly not sticking stupid thingies into my ear to listen to whatever they sell as 'music' nowadays. If I want to listen to (my kind of) music, I sit back, light a smoke, crank the speakers up and well, I am different.

For the time being, I dropped CNN and other "news" from my reading list to avoid further stupidity "Jacko" contamination. Wired gets a "caution flag" because of their unprofessional Google OS hype.

Alright folks, that's it for today. After all, I do have a job (and a life)

Michaela

This was quite a week. Lot's of work and, on top, I had to migrate this website to a new server (the old one was up since 1998). But if I think it was a tough week - what about Jammie Thomas-Rasset? She was sentenced today to pay 1.9 Million Dollars for the sharing of 24 songs. Well - bad luck. People are simply bored, ignorant or simply to lazy to move their asses off their recliners to stand up and fight for what they think ought to be right. So - they just ignore the law (it's more convenient) and some, in this case our gal, Jammie, gets to pay the ticket.

The German legislature passed a law that allows the Federal Police to simply block access to websites containing "indecent" material. No judge will have to be bothered and there is no public oversight worth mentioning. For the moment, "indecent" is limited to child pornography. But my German compatriots are flexible with such terms and politicians have already suggested to include "killer games", "online gambling" and, yes, "peer2peer networks" into the list of "indecencies" that deserve to be shielded from public access. After all that knowledge transfer to China, it seems, that China has transferred some of their knowledge back to Germany.

What else went wrong this week? My "Decipiatur" service is a web-anonymyzer that is used (most of the time) from China. It is also used to access, well, guess - right. Porn. This week however, it has been used extensively to access political information. Since I don't run logs on this server (for obvious reasons) I am unable to say where those people came from. However - since a lot of those request pointed to information in "Farsi" I think it's fair to say, that at least few of them are accessing "Decipiatur" to communicate from or to Iran. You go guys. Use my server to post all you want. At least you are doing something.

And - you poor Germans out there: If you want to see the "web"-world un-bothered, un-filtered and without blocked access: You are welcome to use my "Decipiatur" service as well. It wouldn't be the first time that America keeps the candle in the window for all the .... huddled masses yearning to breathe free.