Why Linux is 1 Percent of Computers

So Ubuntu 9.10 launched today, and it feels like a system meant for non-computer people now more than I've felt it be in the past 4 releases of using it. The Software Center or whatever it was called makes program installs so nice, no pop-up about post-installation man-db's and such.

While reading through comments about your generic "Lol linux sux win7 is better", I came across once again the comment of "If it's so great why is it only ~1% of computers?" Then the thought finally hit me, more than it did in the past year.
Go to Best Buy, Staples, etc. and look around at computers. What do they come loaded with? Windows. Walk down the street. What's that billboard for? Windows. Watch the TV. What's that a for? Windows (or Mac). See a pattern? The reason for all this time that Windows is the majority over Linux is because of marketing (and because you can't really market Linux because it's free).
Imagine if you flipped on the TV, and the first ad you see is for Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE, whatever it may be. Would you feel a little want to install it or use it? Maybe. Imagine you walk into Best Buy and every computer comes loaded with Fedora 11 or Ubuntu 9.10. Would you use it? Of course you would, because it's already there.
Those are the reasons why Linux use is so low. There is no multi-million dollar ad campaign behind. Best Buy isn't wanting to put it in the computers because there's no profit in it. They don't get money for it.

(tl;dr Windows is more popular because of large ad campaigns, Linux is free, and because your average Joe doesn't venture from the norm.)

"Racism's Over, RIght Guys?"

I know the title seems very odd, but just bear with me.
I've just been reading over a commentary article on CNN about how Obama has handled his presidency for this getting closer to November 4th, when he was elected president. I was intrigued at how much the race card has been played over the presidency over the past few months, usually surrounding the health care debate. Here's a few lines from the article:
" Rather than bringing people together, those who run Washington have demeaned Americans for participating in the debate! House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls them un-American. The [resident dismisses their arguments as "bickering". Worst of all, the race card is being played in an attempt to shut down legitimate debate.

While I did not support Rep. Joe Wilson's decision to shout out during the president's address, I was appalled to hear him called a racist for daring to disagree with a black president. I know Joe Wilson. I had the privilege of visiting Iraq and Afghanistan with him. He is no racist."

Back when Obama was running for president, I was on a trip in D.C. with some friends. We got to talking about the election. Every other person in the group seemed to be supporting him. When they asked me who I was supporting, I gladly said "I'm supporting McCain."
To them it seemed to at that point I had put on some sort of Klan paraphernalia. They called me a racist, called me an idiot for supporting him, and said that I hated black people (the group talking to me was 50% black and 50% white).
It seems that many counter arguments from people de-evolved from talking about his "change" that he will bring (Hey guys, newsflash: Change does not always mean good change. Also any new president will bring some sort of change) into playing the race card. If you don't like Obama, you're racist. You don't like what he's doing? You're racist. Don't like his cabinet? You're racist. Don't support government run health care? You're even more racist.
It's 2009, people. This isn't the 70's, 60's, or the damned 50's. It's the 21st century. Hell, it's almost the 10's. I don't wanna sound racist, but don't you think racism has died away, and shouldn't truly be a reason for someone not supporting or liking something? We've elected a black president, we have blacks in many positions in the government and in important jobs. We're not the cross-burning, segregating redneck people that we were when it comes to race. We've become civilized people when it comes to that. And the fact that it becomes a shield behind which the Democrat party comfortably sits is appalling.

I might update this post a bit more tomorrow, it's 10:30 PM and I need some sleep.

Mal Fort

I would first like to announce that Mario in the Lylat Kingdom is now on deep freeze. It has existed since 2007, and now has somewhat sickened me to see it sit there with so few levels created, not even enough to fully complete the land of Meteo. So yeah, unless something miraculous happens, MITLK is dead.

So now is time to announce a new project: Mal Fort
Mal Fort, meaning Strong Evil (in French), is a hack about the overthrow of the fierce dictator of the land of Maeronia, where this hack takes place.

Right now, I have little to offer storywise, but expect updates on story, and screenshots!

The King of Pop's Dead

My blog today was just going to be on Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon dying, and how my summer is going. Then I got back back from a hike and checked out #smwc (SMWC's chat room) which had "R.I.P. Michael Jackson" in the topic. I thought it was some joke they did, so I checked out AOL to reassure myself, but I was wrong. The main headline was "Michael Jackson Dies at 50." I was very shocked. So me going to sleep last night consisted of me putting my iPod on and listening to a Michael Jackson album I have on it. This was pretty sad news.
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So...let's get back to being happy. The blog had a slight remake, changing the banner and putting a BG in (though I'll probably integrate my blog with my website, so expect another makeover in a few days).
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My birthday is in a few weeks. I'm so psyched, though I really had no idea what to ask for.

Terinal Tip Of The Week (5/11)

I was trying to decide if I should do a recurring blog post every week devoted to some subject, so I guess I'll try an Terminal tip-related post every Monday!

Get all the audio you want off Youtube:

Before you start this trick, you need to download a nifty little script that'll download Youtube videos:
Youtube-dl
Also be sure you have ffmpeg.

First, find the youtube video you want.
For example, let's use this link to the song Americana, by Offspring.

now that we have the video we want, type into terminal

youtube-dl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU-vs5YtH1Q

this will download the video to your current location (which by default is your home folder)

now that we have it downloaded, now it's time to convert it to an MP3!
Type into terminal:

ffmpeg -i OU-vs5YtH1Q.flv -f mp3 Americana.mp3 (I would personally rename the video to something simpler before converting, like song.flv)

And after all of that, you should have the song you want. I would probably use this to get any good sound bytes I find on Youtube, but I guess that's just me :)

I'm So Very Tired

I guess I should get in the habit of posting here at least once a week, whether it'd be my random thoughts, hack updates, or just posting for the sake of posting.

I ended up getting AT&T U-Verse set up in my home yesterday, along with upgrading the internet. Took until today until I could get a wireless signal to my room, though...

I never posted about the game systems/games I recently got over spring break and before that, so here it goes:

Over spring break, I went on my usual trip to New Orleans to spend time with my dad, see relatives, etc. My dad and I ended up stopping at the flea market in Harahan, since we needed to kill time before dinner with my bro. I ended up finding an Odyssey2 (wish I could get superscripts on this thing) for aroun $20.00 . The great thing about it from a collector standpoint was the fact that it was still in the original box, styrofoam, everything. It even still had the pamphlets, booklets, and full, in case, games for it. I got it, since I had brought $30.00 with me. That was probably my best investment (this beats out the boxed Master System by a little bit).

Also got a Sega CD for $50.00 at Luna. Still haven't gotten games for it, because all the SCD games at the store sucks.

I guess that'll do it for this blog post. Hopefully the next post is an MitLK update :D

I Should Be Doing English Work Now, But Meh

I guess I suck for not posting here in a while. School has been such a bitch to my free time, so I'll take some of my English work time to post. It's simple poetry analysis anyway.

I've recently been learning Japanese on my own, with the inspiration of it coming from my friend Mei, who is half Japanese and is always doodling Kanji on her arm (hope she doesn't find this :P).

I realized in speech class how nervous I get in front of ~30 people. I seem to always make pauses.

EDIT ON 5/1: I know I said brb when writing the post, but then after my dinner, I started working on my English homework, which took the rest of the night (not really, I just kept getting distracted).

School today was boring as usual, though I finally got back my results from my persuasive speech in Speech calss. I ended up with an B+, which was a lot better than I expected to do.

Got KSSU, Pokemon Platinum, and Sonic Chronicles last weekend. Haven't gotten a chance to play SC, but I must say, I'm impressed by Platinum. I'm the kind that didn't see any reason to buy Pokemon games after Crystal came out around 2000 (though I got Leaf Green for my 11th birthday, I never played it much). The only thing that actually motivated me to buy Platinum was that it was available at Luna Video Games when I went in, and there was nothing else there to buy, so I got that.

Anyway, I'll probably update this blog more, and give it a less depressing layout :P

Happy New Year, etc.

Merry new year to everyone! There are just a couple things I wanted to jump into

I'm finally back to my good ol' laptop. The charger for it went out, and I was suck with an older laptop, which I had luckily installed Xubuntu onto the day before the problem started.

Clear Channel, the radio giant, cut 9% of its workforce this week, and San Diego was deeply hurt by it.

The Clear Channel building lost around 50 people from its staff.

Xtra Sports 1360 has 1 person left on its staff
Many other stations lost staff.
Rock 105.3 got hurt pretty bad by it. Jay, the producer, was cut. Boy Blunder/Producer Rick was cut from the station, who had been there since around 2004. The Mikey Show lost 2 of its on-air crew, Sean and Zeth, which really sucks, because I'm a big fan of the show.