Randomness Redefined

I read all the time and I like to share what i find online. I have been meaning to do this for some time so here goes:

Windows Got Ya Down? Try a Remix (via WIRED)

First up we have an article from WIRED about the uses of P2P networks such as Bittorrent to provide ‘mods’ of your favorite flavor of Windows such as XP. These modes are made independently and are not endorsed by M$ over at the Cube of Redmount. The authors of these mods claim that they are not pirating windows, but improving it.

There’s a lot of extra space on a standard Windows XP CD, especially if the downloadable disk images (the standard format for distributing pirated operating systems) are designed to be burned to DVD. That leaves room to add a whole library of complementary software — even multiple versions of Windows.

The Super WinPE Ultimate Boot CD 2004 Pro, readily available on file-sharing networks like BitTorrent, offers seven different versions of Windows XP on a single DVD.

In addition to two Chinese variants of Windows, the Super WinPE disk includes dozens of boot-time utilities for troubleshooting system snafus. One is an experimental “pre-installation environment” that uses a “mini-Windows XP” for system scanning and file recovery, similar to the popular Knoppix LiveCD version of Linux.

I have not tried any of these but the idea of running XP from a CD like Knoppix appeals to me and I know that I am not alone there so I might check into that at some point. If your curious click on the article title and give it a read.

Barring None, Geek Camp Rocks (via WIRED)

Next up, we have an article that i am including just for sheer randomness. Apparently, the man behind the huge tech publishing company, O’Reilly Media. They do make some really awesome books and I would love to own more of them, but since i am poor I spend most of my time over at O’Reilly Net to keep up to date on some really interesting, and well geeky stuff. At any rate, he hosts a camp over year that is over a weekend and he invites a select few people to attend this event called Foo Camp. This is an inside joke for the IT community that refers to the use of Foo and Bar IE FooBar as variables, etc. Well, apparently those who never get invited decided to get together and form their own camp on the same weekend called, you guessed it, Bar Camp. Both events provide free WiFi and AC power for lap[tops and their are conference rooms that people can gather together and discuss whatever issues they are interested. Sounds a bit like a turf war to me but my inner geek wants to head to one myself.

One Device to Rule Them All (via )

This article discusses the possibilities that come from having a device that would be both a cell phone and a computer and there is some discussion about some of the various marketing possibilities that could arise from having such a device. It looks like there is one company already in place to provide these services called Amp’d Mobile and they will be selling combination devices and providing broadband quality multimedia content.

Armed with almost $70 million in venture capital, Peter Adderton, the company’s caffeinated CEO from Australia, believes the future will be composed of mobile entertainment at 60 mph, and the market will be driven by the audience with the most insatiable appetite for it.

I guess we will have to wait and see what happens with all of this. this has been a shorter entry than I thought it would be. now I’m off to return a PC that I have been repairing and then I’m off later tonight to the SMSU to MSU change over. I will talk more about what happened later on. Peace!