left boundry
blue taper
         The original Idea of this page was to promote the use of Linux.
      That is no longer necessary at this point in time, since Android IS Linux and it is rapidly becoming the dominant OS in mobile.
    It is causing a global shake up of how computing technologies integrate into society... Linux won, if you want to look at the world that way. 
It won in the supercomputers then in the servers and finally in mobile.  

  I am using the workstation adaptation of AMD X-86-64 technology to get my daily chores done and it lives in aptosid Linux land.  Yes it is just a muscular PC but that today, is not trivial. 
What this page will do for the foreseeable future is prototype the new way of implementing web technologies to make our web site better, faster and I am looking to make it aesthetically pleasing with good design at the core of it all. Does that mean that I go running to some cookie cutter web creation tools that look great while ripping up the roadway with nasty bad code... No I don't think it is necessary to simply cave to expediency with a sameness of web design that will become bland in time. nor does it mean that I will pass up on some great technologies that are becoming available and much easer to use. 

     The video testing page which can change hourly is here
    it may or may not be operational at any one time and is volatile, do not expect it to be functional....
 But on the other hand it may well be, that is after all the goal.     

I have a video here... It is about the use of desktop Linux and why it may not be the most successful application of this operating system for everybody.
It works for us because I took the time and dedication to make it work out for us... it does everything... and better than "The incumbent OS"  I like that term , how nice :-)
but the price was learning it.  With an interest in Linux that borders on passion, for me I know it will go on for the next 50 years because of the scale of its use globally.
And that the changing world is moving away from just the PC... thats fine too since I know were the world is going...  Most people will just go with the flow and use what they are given to use.
Android is a fork of Linux so I understand that well enough to accept it as being the right path.   One way or another Unix, Linux... won (Apple & Mac is a Unix locked up).  And why is that important in all its flavors...  It is not unknowable as the Current incumbent PC OS is.  It means that the world can use it and not be locked out through ignorance of how it works.  The schools that teach Microsoft Windows© just teach how to use it and that is not computer science.... it is becoming a slave to that which you are not permitted to understand...  Thats it, that is what the war is all about in a nutshell.
Its like learning to drive with out any hope of understanding how the car works... forever.  That is why, in the end, Microsoft must and will fail. That is why America is now 27th in computer science in the world.  Addiction to the Incumbent PC OS is not computer science.  It is at best a drivers license. Learning Linux, especially, is a window into the essence of computing if you wish it to be.
below: Linus Torvalds about why Linux itself may never have... The year of Linux on the desktop pc and why that may be irrelevant going forward.

   We use aptosid Linux  It is an advanced rolling release distribution of Linux based on the latest unstable Debian branch called sid.  ( Think "Toy Story" - Sid )
In the context used here unstable is used to refer to the high rate of change of the entire distribution.  All of the software within the kernel, shell, applications and user environment of the entire OS and all of its applications... generally called a Linux Distribution, of which there are literally hundreds of distributions used for many different purposes.
       
    The name "aptosid" - Is made up of two words apto + sid .... apto (to fit or make ready) + sid (Debian Linux, most advanced or unstable state. Packaged and stabilized by the developers of "aptosid" continuously.  The goal is development for the future and on the edge of the future....  Distro version name today is aptosid 2011-03 Πόνος - kde-lite

My Machine is:
 
    Most recent full distro 2011-3 upgrade which happens more or less twice a week, today is 2-03-12: 

Host/Kernel/OS  "Eyland3" running Linux 3.2-2.slh.2-aptosid-amd64 x86_64 [ aptosid 2011-03 Πόνος - kde-lite - (201112312100) ]
CPU Info        8x AMD FX-8120 Eight-Core 2048 KB cache flags( sse3 ht nx lm svm ) clocked at [ 3422.434 MHz ]
Videocard       nVidia G86 [GeForce 8500 GT]  X.Org 1.11.3.901  [ 1920x1080@60.0hz ]
Network cards   D-Link System Inc DGE-560T PCI Express Gigabit
Processes 160 | Uptime 22min | Memory 439.6/7973.8MB | HDD ST3500418AS,ST32000641AS Size 2508GB (36%used) | GLX Renderer Gallium 0.4 on NV86 | GLX Version Yes | Client Shell | Infobash v3.41

The System is very fast and pretty powerful for a desktop workstation with a functional enhanced Google Earth application.
Also It has several browsers types and I am building up the video editing capabilities as a requirement of the new web site build up.

aptosid desktop.
A desktop Linux system as I use it... Your flavor can be what ever you wish it to be.  The machine supports many parallel desktops and dozens of parallel applications working simultaneously, if i need it to, kind of rare to have that need... but it will do it. Routinely though I will have one desktop running 7 or 8 applications all at once because of editing... That is normal.

About Linux (not just the kernel but the entire immense  project in its entirety mostly made up of open source software.  by design and necessity of perfected growth, a meritocracy
The benefit to humanity is beginning to be seen in Mobile (Android), Also in  Supercomputers, Intelligence, defense, NASA and Open Source Software
 (apache) powers most of the internet itself.
Knowledge is power,  truth (wisdom) clears the fog of ignorance or misinformation.
Linux will not be stopped.
             Fact is Linux is of Strategic importance to the US and the rest of the world now.   So Say the DoD and DoJ as well many other countries.
            http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/April/11-at-491.html 

Evolution and developers cutting edge growth is what the aptosid Linux distro is all about:
   A new version of the Kernel...
Linus Torvalds gives 20th anniversary present... Linux Kernel version 3.0 rc1... Just because,
Read,  Linus notes http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/1147415
What does it mean... All of the numbers are just markers whose significance mark progress, nothing more... if 3.0  is just yesterday then now a few months later its 3.0-6.slh.5

Thousands of programs that underly the system are evolving and so too all of the major apps have a continuous upgrade path ... I used OpenOffice 3.2.1 now just a few months ago...
Now it's LibreOffice 3.4.3
OOO340m1 (Build:302) upgrade just a few weeks ago Sept 1, 2011

Unlike computers that depend on upgrades from a manufacturing distributer like Dell, Gateway or Sony and HP to name but just a few.  And running systems with a MS Windows environment were one can wait years for things to happen, (Microsoft® XP is over 10 years old, in terms of computers and time, that is the Jurassic period)
Linux can be, if one choses to do follow a pioneering path running in the future of computing. 
 It really depends on how wants to see the future.   See the future from Windows and you will see the tail lights of Linux in the distance in front of you...
Use Linux and in the rear view mirror...  is the past... in front the future of the technological world that is to be.
 
Below: LibreOffice 3.something or other.
debian-LibreOffice 3.

I take the path that believes the good of it outweighs the not so good...  that is to say I live in a right now world of computing were the future meets the present in application to the real world.

    Linux serves the future by responding to the current needs of its users and true innovation (real innovation by accomplishment). 
    Android in your future phone is a form of Linux.
   
    Linux is a right now thing if you want it to be so...
aptosid -(lowercase is correct) Linux is the opposite of Enterprise grade Linux. (so stable it is dead) that is what Enterprise means.  Super Reliable but dead as a doornail.  Look, many people need that. That is why it is that way, it is bug free because it is locked into itself and nobody touches the code, ipso facto OLD but very very reliable.  Here is an example of a Enterprise Grade Linux

So in the opposite direction of enterprise Linux is something like aptosid... Everyday is a new day. it gets that done via its Rolling Release development methodology.
      What is a rolling release?  Short answer... Instead of testing or release "versions" the distribution, it is built to a live CD or DVD that you make... more like the entrance to a freeway. Once your system is running on your Hard Disk, it gets updated whenever you wish to go through the process of updating it, from the network, with as many of the applications and programs you are running in total. different days different programs and applications as they occur in the real world right now. 
    Both ways of running a Linux are valid and serve different needs or desires. and these are the extremes of the world.

Many people have heard of Ubuntu and its few flavors like Kubuntu... it is another Debian based Linux in a somewhat enclosed environment made to be user friendly to a Windows based user trying to get away from Windows... got to start somewhere if you are to get that needle out of your arm...  Kubuntu (I like KDE) is a very good place to start if you want lots of company and are just a little intimidated by a full blown massive and steep learning curve of Linux.  Make no mistake, LINUX IS NOT WINDOWS.  what you see on the screen has nothing to do with how it works.
Want to learn how to install or test and install or just use Ubuntu Linux... Nixi does Linux (this is about as easy as she gets). 
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX3VOiMBtaA&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL   enjoy

So....
Now its time to explain the number of Linux distributions...  and why this makes Linux so powerful and in the viral sense essentially indefeasible.
Its all tied together at the core and that is just about all that is tied together....  http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Licensing_and_Law/forking.html
But wait... you think Linux XYZ is a fork of something called Linux ZYX or something implying a mess of unrelated Linux's cluttering up the universe.  > 400 plus distros and counting...  well these are versions of.. or specialized variations of ONE Linux standard base...

To this day (yes)  not one virus or malware has survived in the wild with any Linux as a social event.  goes to:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_malware
Period, not one.  I could go on and on about it but what would the point be.   security is very much in the minds of those who code for Linux and it is always in the forefront of seriousness but there is also the aforementioned inherent fact of its reality.  Linux is very secure  So say the NSA and I as well,  even as a desktop user, more so because my desktop Linux makes a statement, even slightly with what is possible.
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Google Earth 6 a good example of a collaborative software being used between a computer and a server out in cyberspace
 
(Note 11-25-2011:  I have successfully compiled the Google Earth 6.0.3.2197 to fully work with non proprietary video drivers )

Google Earth   6.0.3.2197
Build Date       I used the original program that I had built for this computer,  I got it to work on 11-1-2011 using freedom drivers
Build Time        5:16:07 pm
Renderer         OpenGL
Operating System  Linux 3.1-2.slh.3-aptosid-amd64 x86_64
Video Driver   nouveau
Max Texture Size   4096x4096   I am working on increasing the texture size to be competitive with the proprietary nVidia drivers  8192X8192
Server             kh.google.com


Old System with the Nvidia goober code drivers.
Google Earth 6.0.3.2197
Renderer  OpenGL
Operating System:  Linux (3.0-6.slh.5-aptosid-amd64 x86_64) aptosid
Video Driver:  NVIDIA Corporation
Max Texture Size:   8192x8192
Server:  kh.google.com
Here is a picture of the result running as I take a look at Portland OR:
portland.
Portland, OR. in simulated 3D dynamic as one "flying" over it.  The whole world is there to look at and study. From the smallest little nothing island to some of the more hidden places on Earth.
Right down to street level for many. 
Here is a sideways view of a street. As one can see it is a mixture of satellite imaging and a database of known data of an area.  This shot is not quite fully completed in this picture as I caught it mid processing and the texture maps are visible here.
This is powerful technology.
not quite fully cooked.
The house is accurate as it is on a street I know well... soon the whole street will be in 3D.  It is the future of things to come.
Is it proper to have this kind of technology available with this kind of power?   Like all tools it depends on how it is used.
   
That is an entirely different matter way beyond the scope of this page...  In a free society it will be available to all, in a closed one, few will be capable of this.
  
Knowledge is power... using it with good intent and integrity is a problem society will anguish with. And it is most certain that a well educated population is fundamental to an answer that leads to the light and not the dark side of the human condition. 
    The more Mac-d-education that Americans get, teaching the test... the farther the answer will get to a productive and sane future. 
  ( Oh you mean today we have the people educated a few years ago, running the show. ) 
if you look closely you can just see the stupid level rising some in the quality of people who dream of power over others in Washington now...
 Sorry,  I digress.

How accurate is it... Google Earth that is.
NYC.
This was made with the previous version G.E. 5.0 - not bad, one is a picture from the top of the WTC (1985) with Ektachrome and the other is Google Earth a year ago.

current file manager:
KDE
Dolphin
Version 1.6.1
Using KDE Development Platform 4.6.5 (4.6.5)
screenshot below.
KDE File Manager.
 FYI... The horn antenna (in red highlight)  is very likely one I built while at Watkins Johnson Co in the 1970s  A microwave antenna horn 12.4 to 18.0 G Hz
.
A good distro of Linux will have many good applications...
aptosid based on Debian will have about 37,000...  programs and applications that provide all of the things one might want a computer to do.

37,000 --  think I am joking... I am not... http://packages.debian.org/unstable/allpackages?format=txt.gz

The trick is to know what you need and what you do not need OR... A better way to think of it is to understand that just because you can take your ship into iceberg filed waters... do you have the skills to get out of them.  
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Aptosid upgrade in progress:
    Photo of this process which is done below the use of a GUI ( KDE ) which means ( command line is your friend when its needed ).
    no gui upgrading.
    Thats right... you log out of the high level system (KDE) Log in with the command line (bash) as root and shut the KDE process down (leave the GUI not running -- init 3 ) then start the upgrade process by getting updates relevant to your individual system.  Once the updates are loaded you compile them to your machine... actually the machine does this compiling task.
 I have about 1500 applications installed - that is every process that this computer uses to do its running state as a desktop computer.  It just runs.  I do this three times a week.
What is special to Linux is the ability to do this, including the heart of the system (the Kernel) while it is running. This is some powerful stuff.  This is Linux.
   
    aptosid user/member # is 97 (not a power number or anything other than I was there when sidux changed to aptosid and logged in early and re-registered as one of the members)
    my avatar. This avatar was made from a frame of film  Lord of the Ring's using the GIMP  as it appears at left, it was never in any film  it just looks like it might have.
Lord of the rings
     I have been a serious Linux user ever since working at Intel in the mid-late 1997 were I was a configuration guru at MD6 Jones farm, Hillsboro, OR.
    Strangely enough I was hired as something of an expert at Windows® configurations, having worked for a local custom microcomputer configuration company for several years Win95 then Win98 at Intel it was NT3.51 and NT4. and after 18 months plus a few weeks, I left believing that Microsoft was history and Linux was going to master the world.  I still think that is inevitable. We made crash test dummy's of windows computers and recorded the last moments of life as they were stressed to death.
(not that hard to do) Intel made special instructions to the core of their processors that made Windows run better than it otherwise could.  Errata corrections in firmware.

I also was someone who installed many different operating systems for testing... all of them that were usable at that time in an X86 environment.
The Engineers at Intel pointed me in the direction of Linux as something of interest with a real potential future (Red hat Linux 4.x and 5.x) I was hooked good, even though it was not that easy to use *then* but it was reliable.

I taught computer configuration at a local College for a short time afterward.  By then though our electronics company was standing on its own.
And from before, long ago, I share a patent in computing/video technologies from the early 1990's http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?WO=1996008108  When I was with Unilearn and the related company Foresight before that.
  screen-unilearn. unilearn computer editor.(More details  http://www.patents.com/us-5576844.html

Actually I go back to the days of ECM3 and Watkins Johnson Co from 1971,  a world of physics and microwave antennas.
WJ anachoic chamber controls
above: Anechoic chamber test station at WJ 1976ish.  Watkins-Jonson Co. {(Palo Alto and San Jose, CA) and Gaithersburg, Maryland}

I have built thousands of computers and this is were I am, mostly now as a hobby and for our company and friends... I have no commercial interest in computers... we manufacture AC power products, audio and video related electronics and stereo interconnects and speakers. There is something really satisfying in building something that lasts and is someones desired possession.   
    ( Jennifer calls computers "Office Sledgehammers", perhaps she is right...  I like metal forging anyway, if you want to think of it like that... Make a better hammer )

I felt much satisfaction in making something that was great.  Worked on the Space Shuttle (WJ-Rockwell Antennas) 5 years, prototype R&D to delivery fabrication and final test.
And made devices that were sent to the ends of the solar system and beyond.
 
Also spent much time as a film fanatic playing, teaching and doing old school motion picture optical FX while attempting to be an associate producer.
film mike Picture credit: Todd A. Marks - Computer/Video Playback Supervisor
    Above: Yours truly in the early 1980's ( Kind of explains the interest in Xena WP.... well, a little, I really like the production of something out in front of the norm and forward looking storytelling... Watching outtakes of that production... Make me wish I could of been there.  That is what I would call fun, even now, I still like the interaction of all of the complexity of the people who made that.
Lots of hard work went into Xena and a lot of enjoyment in the creative effort, with a great cast and crew.
I also really think a lot about the production qualities of Star Trek the next Generation. however it was far more mainstream... I kind of like the wild not so Hollywood style even though I am something of a film historian of the Studio System of Hollywood's past... sound era 1928 ~ 1960's  I am pretty good at playing "release date - name the studio" of any Hollywood film from any production company during the time of the major studios. They all had their individual style

Computers are ephemeral...  lasting no more than their specific usefulness...  then scraped or becoming outmoded by the next faster versions.  
Don't save your antique Floppy Drive, nobody cares... put them into a museum... but don't hang onto something that will just be dropped like a used worn out shoe (I still have functional 5.25 drives from Teac... going back to 360K... I don't have any use now for these real relics of some distant past.)  Don't look back, can't look back... feel no regret for a time or devices no longer of use with computers... That is a living technology.

The Computers get replaced as needed... as the system grows.  As an authentic fan and permanent user of Linux, I can with some authority say Linux is here to stay and its usefulness is just beginning to be seen by the general population.

Linux was and is the power computing and high performance operating system for some years now... But as a desktop computer for the general public... I am always hopeful.  It is something which is sought by someone looking for excellence and must be deliberately found... and least I forget to mention it is Fun to Learn...

Linux is infectiously fun because of how it is made... made to run and get multiple tasks done in parallel.
something of an extension of its legacy as an independently created but better idea from the land of UNIX... not a Unix but like a Unix
which is were the cloud of yesteryear lived in...  That is the short answer as to why it is now the dominant operating system in all things.
Freedom, powerful, ---http://www.ibm.com/ibm100/us/en/icons/linux/

    Linux in mobile... already dominates and the trend is irreversible now...  The reason is performance and adaptability and developers are willing and interested in it.
I think this is important not because I am personally pleased... (it was inevitable on scientific grounds and Linux is the adaptable one.)  It was always the evolutionary winner based on survivability and dynamic resistance to viral infestation. 

Linux was born as a web based OS, it kept pace and grew in that environment... 

As the general public is discovering, they are likely to discover Linux as a mobile device or in their video system or automobile... an actual desktop is to date, a rarity.  About 3-5% of computer users.
mostly as over-installs of what was once a windows computer that someone was tired of crashing and was willing to learn of something better.

The real power of Linux rises to the top of its capabilities with supercomputers.
IBM Supercomputer IBM supercomputer means a future Linux Computer.

In this realm it has no peer or even faint competition. See this graphic from the BBC {(select OS type (Operating System)} and every one of the top 500 supercomputers around the world is listed.
and almost all will be running Linux or... in decline now, is its predecessor relative, UNIX (takes a while to load... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10187248  )

Other popular Operating Systems for Personal Computer types are essentially a no show...  You see Linux can operate on a PC but that is not were the effort resides... its a supercomputer operating system.  MORE  http://www.top500.org/charts/list/36/osfam

And it should also come as no surprise that its other broad sweep is into all of the other widgets of popular demand like mobile phones, tablets and hand held devices.
this Linux in those markets I think is number one in growth:
 Android, Here is a visual from youtube about activations around the world - nicely done - Droid  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqFpq9WXbJo&feature=player_embedded
 The list is long, go here and see, its easer http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/Linux-For-Devices-Articles/Linux-Mobile-Phones/

I am not an expert in those markets so you might, if you have an interest, is to see this for more information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiMo_Foundation

My point is, Linux is the major Operating System of supercomputing now. and it will also run flawlessly on a PC if one learns to use it.
It is a super secure operating system that as far as most computer users are concerned, should they use it, exceedingly hardened against any virus or other attack natively, due to its healthy diversity as a computer ecosystem and its being born on the internet as its normal environment.  by design, Linux is not prone to getting a virus, its not impossible, just very limited and rare. fact.

It is fast, by design.
It scales up with ease.
Almost all advanced or high performance computing is designed around Linux now.

Such that as this is being written... The Kernel of Linux ( just the Kernel ) is the largest, fastest moving, computer software project on Earth...
Linux Kernel development:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2SED6sewRw

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel

A good distro of Linux including its applications can easily go over 200 million lines of code. Remember as a desktop, has to do everything you can imagine.

Now about the relevance of Desktop Computers...
The demise of the PC desktop at the entry level of computing... and that will be the eventual end of the road for those companies that can't adapt or offer something genuinely innovative and high end at the workstation level.

It is not the main focus of the developers of Linux nor has it had significant market share. Something between 1.5 and 5 percent depending on which voodoo you use to calculate something that is not able to be calculated.  And in the future, the PC is likely to go into decline for the average person. 

More of the general population are using laptops and mobile devices today, actually having a fixed location Personal Computer is as a ratio of those who have a computing device is beginning to decline... barely noticeable but the trend is there.

So whats left. Open Source is changing the world for the better but it does not happen by accident.
nor is just using proprietary software always good enough,  it turns out that in the end much of what make computer universally usable is the Open Source software that is developed
A good example of that is the internet (most of it anyway).  Still there is a lot of improvement needed in support of the concept of open source:
http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/

It is not always possible so I suspect there will be exceptions. From my point of experience and use that really is a short list and were need exists, a way is likely found, in time.

My computers are headed into the future as workstations as they get ever more powerful.  However... the small PC is likely to decline, being replaced by mobile devices which will be dominated by Linux.

Open Source Software defines the world of the server... http://www.securityspace.com/s_survey/data/201109/index.html  ...  it is happening, look at the trends... Linux and Open source software is the future and is dominant now...   Learn Linux and join the future.  Become powerful and control your own destiny by knowledge of what is real.

----------------
Some Applications that are useful:
    A master file manager and desktop system.  KDE, Gnome, and several others are popular.

    Caught while switching desktops... I know, this is conservative stuff for a Linux computer.
    maybe someday I will try some of the really pretty bling...  See just below, the you tube video from NixiePixel.
rotation of desktop
Above:  This system has many desktops as a potential workspaces... caught in mid switch. just a plan cube, nothing fancy... see the video.
More here from YouTube (the cube better than mine) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGY9cwSjZsU&feature=channel

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A little intro about my personal attitude about life:
In a lot of ways I think of my life the same way as the people who work on this version of Linux view aptosid. Everyday is a new day.
Thats about the end of the comparison of course but the relevance of that is important...
    I can be better today than I was yesterday. One cannot change the past but one can learn and change the future.
    I am always trying to be better than I was.  A better person.  Something of a metaphor... of a better world, one person at a time. I can only modify myself, so that is what I will do.
my avatar

    Live the dream of who you would be, if you could choose... then make it happen... It takes time, mistakes will happen...  get over it, pick yourself up and try again.
That is not to say that someday I will be perfected, such is not actually possible... Humans can only try to be the best that they can be and that is different for everyone alive.
Everyone is different.  Everyones goals are different and we each have strengths and weaknesses that should tell us what to do if we listen to our hearts and desires.
And if we know how to listen to what drives our passions... That is the real secret.  What is our inner being telling us and knowing how to listen to it. 
    That is why the Creator of all things gave you an evolutionary brain... however you wish to see that, it is a fact... That is why we learn. Individually, quite fast and at a far far slower pace, collectively.
It is not for me to define how you see the universe. Nor is it yours to define mine. 

Below: My metaphor for constant growth... Determination and a will to know that it can be done.

Getting better evey day.
Snapshot 7-11-11 of of desktop screen.  The clock is automatically linked to the internet so it is always absolute time synced about +-  .1 Sec.

Recognition of someone who lives to be better deliberately and works hard at it every day:
Who is she?  Reneé O'Conner as "Gabrielle", over six years of Xena WP became the role, from an acting point of view... from sidekick bard to awesome mature warrior with a fearless heart. And with great wisdom and skills.  Perhaps the most transformational character in any television series. 
 Real dedication to the role she created for herself and the show.  Both she along with Lucy Lawless ( "Xena" ), another go getter pushing the envelope of effort and skill.
    Really, everyone else with the entire series made television history by pushing the boundaries of what is possible. From a first year 16mm program with little chance to make it... to realizing 60 million a year brought into New Zealand for a production budget to fill the local economy, this program had legs.  And went out with feature film status and a legendary success with dramatic impact rivaling anything ever done in television.  Action series don't normally push story telling like this program did. Or get away successfully with as much latitude in story concept. They broke all the "Rules" successfully.
 Something else drove the success of this seres and it is of no small importance... they had fun (hard work) making it.  
Life should be like that.   If you do not enjoy what you are doing, do something else.
   * Becoming a champion of something does not mean warlike for its own sake or goal in all meanings ...  just the sprite and determination to see a vision of oneself realized requires the mindset of one... And it must come from the heart.*   Reneé O'Conner kept the attitude of transforming to become a better person as something of a life long goal - that is why I admire her and she shares the quest with others. 
It is never easy to stand for something one believes in, to become something special and different, to excel beyond oneself into some new dimension of existence.
but it can be done.  Everyone changes in time, that is a trait of being human...  but to predetermine a direction of that as a goal is somewhat rare.
 
It is a natural human growing evolution ...  I just say it can be made to happen faster, like within your lifetime.  Knowledge is the key. Application of that knowledge is the engine of change.

Why Xena... I like the Idea of redemption...  that somehow it is possible.   The comedy's are all stand-alone and require no history of viewing.  The dramas are a huge arc of change and are interdependent for a good understanding of the story.  Yes, at the front of the story is a violence which is very human and within that there is the possibility of a peaceful self... which by the way was what became of the actors, they all saw it and all of them now see that the staying power of the series resides in the comedy's...  Violence, war and its path are self destructive and wears down the spirit of life...  it wears down the spirit of being human and of civilization, it is a misconception that it generates better anything except the ability to generate war.

    Be different, actually listen to the best thoughts of the past and extend that wisdom to the living world.  If an idea sounds narrow and limiting of someone else's capabilities,  then the limitations are likely coming from within your own sense of what is possible.
 
    ...It takes an effort of will to change initially in a particular way.  From the effort and experience of finding a new path... opportunities thus seen will lead to new possibilities of were that may lead that you may not see until you try.   How will you know when you get there....  There is no final destination,  just the journey.

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Many powerful people and corporations wish humans could be enslaved to old Ideas that no longer have relevance to were we are as humans... or to new ideas without relevance or meaning.   What changed was the way we communicate and the speed at which such change occurred.  It out-paced the attempts to control it by those who would wish to do so and it has outpaced the general society's ability to understand it.  Some clever and powerful interests looking to enslave the human race knew that it would happen and then proceeded to dismantle the education system, as the main focus of attack. 
   
One intellectual U.S. President saw this many years ago and gave fair warning.  { http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWiIYW_fBfY ...  It takes a highly educated population to control effectively a technological democratic republic.  That war over information and most importantly its dissipation around the world is reaching full swing now.  The future is most likely not going to be pleasant, it will not be gentle. There will be massive attempts to control what you see and hear but most importantly how you understand and integrate in your mind these events as they happen.  (thats the education part)  The press will not be freedom orientated as most of the press is now an online thing and that which is on most of TV is already controlled by the major corporations.
    As I said I believe that the war to control you out-paced the previous attempts to control the process itself by those who were attempting to control it.... This lull in the war will be ephemeral in nature and may well be already too late for society to rectify and for a more sane or humane outcome to prevail.  

    The very best you can do in this upcoming period of time is:
1. Survive without violence.   Violence just accelerates itself... 
2. Understand what and why this is happening.   All is not lost as long as even a relevant minority of uncorrupted individuals hold some kind of power within society...  Gee, I'm an optimist.
3. Embrace the future by controlling your reactions to its changes and in some productive way enhance a sense of humanity both in yourself and to those around you.   The last hope is your own.

    And remember this both from history and human behavior. 
All humans seeking power over others are actually seeking domination over others thoughts and actions and they all have self interest as their only interest.  It does not matter how they acquired power.
    The best leaders in human culture seem to have always been reluctant wise people who both never sought power and took it with great reluctance and with a powerful sense of civic duty.
How "Humane" they were depended much on how humane their culture or upbringing was before they took power.  But do notice that whenever in human history such people had power it was always  somewhat self constrained.   And in closing this best offering to those who find it...    The best export the United States ever could of had was the one thing it never exported at all,
  The Bill of Rights...  A country only exists, if it exists in the hearts of its people.  The more corrupt the government becomes the less future it has, the shorter it lasts.  
How many of you seek the "One Ring of Power"  or relish the idea of its possession, if you could.   That idea is altogether the problem.  It is the oldest love in the world.  The love of power.

... It would be nice if we all could try to be better, at being better humans...  It may not be possible, to see it or judge what that would be. I just know it would be a better world.
In the words of Edward R. Morrow  "Good night and good luck"
The enemy of freedom is the absolute corruption of those who would pretend to lead us to the light while sending us knowingly to our doom. 

Some aspect of the society that we live in needs to be trustworthy...  something relevant to the communication of all... 
guess what... something we use is trustworthy,  something important.

Its your computer with an operating system you build...  it is possible to know what is in it...

And more importantly...  you can know how it works if you take the time to learn.

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What is an Open Source Idea?

Something I wrote some years ago as a way to show how powerful an Open Source idea is.

What is this Idea... I think that I can safely call it open community design by collaborative effort for a common goal.
 
 English is a pretty good example of what happens with an open source model. (Open source is not a free for all developmentally, it is a meritocracy, this is just to express the idea of growth by common cause.) The English language is a common wealth concept, always was... it just developed over a thousand years of progressive change to be the worlds most communicative and dominant spoken language with no absolute owner...  It dominates because it works and changes with the culture that speaks it. Not just the English or American culture but any culture that uses it, anywhere in the world.
 
 Is English owned? No.
 Is English developed in a closed and secret environment with proprietary tools? No.
 Is English controlled by powers from on high that dictate a license to use it, or is it demanding of fees to use? No.
 Is English perfected? It is in perpetual development... by its users.
 Do the people who use English self improve the existence of English by constantly improving the manor of its use? Yes.
 Why? English is used for communication between people in multiple modes of use, such as verbal, written and it can be transmitted electronically, Optically and by other means.
 Can you make money speaking English? Yes.
 Do you have to make money to speak English? No.
 Is it a secret to know what the words are and what they mean? No.
 Is it a secret to develop new words for English? No
 Is English breakable... I mean to say, Is it dependable and reliable for its intended purpose? Yes.
 Why? It is Open Source in order for it to be usefully developed by those who would like to use it... It is free to use as you wish to use it.
 Why? Because it makes universal communication possible.
 It is not breakable? ... Not as long as the source code remains open to all to see and keep a community check on it in the light of day, so to speak.

     The analog in Computing terms is Open Source and its largest collective project is this social phenomenon called Linux
 Linux is an Idea made manifest into a way of doing something tangible and in the light of day.  Written in English by the way.

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    In memoriam:  Dennis Ritchie  Died Oct 12- 2011.
    Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie (b. September 9, 1941; found dead October 12, 2011)
          DMR    One of the creators of Unix Worked for Bell Labs when Unix was created in 1969.
           At the white house  receiving National Technology Medals.  In memory of   A BBC tribute

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-          validator W3C     ©2012 Jennifer Crock and Michael Crock jena technologiesLLC20 years of Linux.

welcome to our linux        Feb. 4  2012            Jena Technologies
        Linux page for 2012...   perpetual change here, everyday is a new day.
        
         Note:    Most of the pictures on this page are linked to other sites or You Tube videos made by other people.
             They may relate in some way to the pictures that I am using for backgrounds or is in some other related way.
             Some do not relate to Linux at all, just the picture.  Many links set up in the text. 
          Celebration of 20 years of Linux Worldwide - youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ocq6_3-nEw
      
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