Dismantling Microsoft - one small brick at a time

This little essay is specifically written for my family and friends who own computers, especially the ones that still run Microsoft's Windows. 

My close family and friends have long been aware of my lack of respect for Microsoft (and most would laugh out loud at such a monumental understatement). 

It's true, I do dislike Microsoft for their disgusting corporate behavior.  I also dislike the junk products they sell. But above all I dislike the mountainous piles of outrageous fibs they tell about those products, including their continuing practice of bribing or coercing others to tell lies for them. It's shameful that they do it, but equally shameful that we've allowed it to happen for so long.  

Whenever someone asks me why I feel so strongly against Microsoft I ask them why they don't.  Seriously, what's to like? There are so MANY reasons to dislike the company, it's hard to even know where to begin. But, if the world is ever going to get free of this abusive, school-yard-bully of a monopoly, begin, we must.

The first roadblock I've run into, when explaining to people why they should consider using alternatives to Microsoft products, is getting them to understand why it's important.  Nowadays especially, with so many problems in the world, people tend to feel that the software on their computers is a very small thing to bother about.

Many people just view their computers like another appliance, they bring it home, plug it in and never bother to learn about taking care of it.  No matter how many years they own it, its inner workings remain a mystery to them.

If you are one of those people, perhaps you should think about that a little more.  Think about the many ways our computers have become the keepers of our lives.  They are often where we store our most personal files, like precious photographs, our creative writings, and letters and messages from our friends and family. A great many people even store financial and tax information on their computers, as well as do their banking, bill-paying, and purchasing online.

On top of all that, hospitals and pharmacies, schools, many government organizations and public services have gone digital and can be accessed, online, from our personal computers.  Many historical documents have been, or are in the process of being, digitized. Some of the world's greatest libraries, museums and universities have also gone digital, with the results being made available to everyone with an Internet connection. 

Through our computers, combined with access to the Internet, more information is now available to you and I than ever before in the history of the world. I'm not talking about People Magazine, and Hollywood gossip-type information.  I'm talking science, history, geology, great literature and art, archeology, technology of all sorts, including full MIT course lectures (for free), available to all of us online, and that's just barely scratching the surface. 

Pretty powerful stuff, don't you think?

So, do you still view your computer as just another passive appliance? Or do you now see it, combined with an Internet connection, as an extremely powerful tool for communication, creativity, research, education, and entertainment?  If so, let's take that a step further.

Who do you believe should have control over that powerful piece of technology that you are using? Who should be responsible for the safety of your personal files, and who should be in charge of the security of this amazing doorway to the world? 

The answer to all of those questions is: You, my friend. Not Microsoft, not some third party software like Nortons or McAffee, not your Internet provider, your neighbor, your grandkids, or the Geek Squad from Best Buy.  Nope.  Only you.

Now, when explaining these things to folks who ask me for help with their computers, this is the point where they look at me with exasperation tinged with a bit of nervous fear.  They tell me they don't have time to learn "all that computer stuff." They say they don't understand any of it. They also say, when they've tried to learn, they found so much conflicting information that they didn't know what to believe, so they just shut it all out.

Now, the majority of people I interact with on a day to day basis are around my age, and, like me, they didn't start using computers until late in life.  These are not stupid people, they are generally well educated and well-respected in their chosen professions. A great many are very talented, creative people; artists, musicians, and writers. Several are deeply involved in volunteer work, striving to make the world a better place. Some I've known for decades, some I just met this year, but they all have one thing in common, at one time or another they were afraid of their computers.

Here's how I've helped some of those folks get past the fear.  I tell them to take a good look at me (just scroll back up to the pictue at the top of the page and take a gander at that goofy face).  Does that look like a particularly bright person to you?  I happen to know that woman quite well (because she is me) and I can tell you, first hand, that she's not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. I promise you, if SHE can learn how to handle a computer, ANYone can. 

The whole point of this little essay is to get people, ordinary computer users, to at least TRY to learn more. Which brings us all back to Microsoft. Once you begin to delve into the many ways a Windows computer needs to be cared for and maintained, the more you'll begin to understand the world's growing dislike of Microsoft products. It's more than a trend, it's a natural progression. Familiarity will, indeed, breed contempt. 

You'll also begin to see why Microsoft prefers their customers to be uninformed and fearful. Truly knowledgable users won't become return customers, which is why I strongly encourage you to make the effort to learn.

I personally believe that someday we'll all look back on Microsoft Corp. as being one of the greatest scams ever perpetrated on the world.  I think they'll go down in history books right along side the likes of Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, old Charlie Keating's Lincoln Thrift, and Madoff. The worst part will be how foolish we'll all feel for having allowed it to happen for so long.

It's time for computer and software users to to step back and take a long hard look at the alternatives to Microsoft products.  Those who do take the time will learn that malware infections, like viruses, trojans and worms (oh my), don't happen on other operating systems.  They only happen on Microsoft Windows, they can only spread on Windows...yes, all versions. 

Other systems don't have registries that can get infected, corrupted and bloated.  Other systems don't need defragmenting, their file systems are more efficient, they don't require restarts for every little thing, they are easy to set up and a dream to maintain. 

Oh, did I mention that the best alternative to Microsoft is free?  You can pay for support if you need it (this is a great choice for businesses), but there is a whole community of free support as well, and the software itself is always free of charge. 

It's called "GNU/Linux"...it's what runs on my computer and I highly recommend it.... 

Download a new operating system for your existing computer
here: Ubuntu

Buy beautiful and affordable Ubuntu computers here: Eight Virtues
and here: Za Reason

Or, if you have the money to spend, buy an Apple

Kicking Windows to the curb will make the world a better place for all of us.

Facebook, Arghhh!

What is Facebook good for?

It seems to be a convenient place for large families to gather and share pictures and events and family news. That's actually a very nice thing for them.

The thing is, I honestly don't think I'm related to anyone on Facebook. Even if I did find a long lost relative, what would I say to them? What if they're as grumpy as I am? (Scary, eh?)

I really don't think I'm a good candidate for Facebook, but personal friends and business acquaintances have been nagging at me for well over a year now to develop a better online presence. Everyone says Facebook is the place to begin.

So I finally gave in and found the abandoned Facebook account I'd signed up for a long while back. Spent most of today "tarting up" my facebook page and trying to tame the visual chaos.

My impression of the whole experience? Facebook feels like a huge, crowded room where everyone is talking over each other, all clamoring for attention at once, sort of like a madcap Shriners convention organized by the Marx Brothers.

I'm more of a one-on-one kind of conversationalist. Seriously. Just give me a quiet corner and a couple of interesting people to chat with and I'm good.

Put me in a noisy, cluttered, crowded room and I'll probably go hide under the nearest potted plant, or run screaming out the door and down the street.

The most frustrating part was trying to control the "Friend" thing. Argh.

I am very picky about who I call friend. The title of friend is a serious honor that I never bestow lightly. So, when faced with a flood of pictures of friends of friends and friends of friend's friends, my first reaction was: "Who the hell ARE all these people?" as I spent an hour X-ing out all those pictures of total strangers, one by one, as well as all their total-stranger friends...of friends...of friends...of friends...

(sigh)

And what is the "Wall" all about? I spent all morning uploading images for picture albums, and had my home page all arranged, neat and tidy. But the "neat and tidy" only lasted until someone posted a message on my wall. Eeeek!

I hit the "hide" button several times. I had to wonder if people know that I'm hiding them. If so, will they be mad at me? I really don't want to hurt anyone's feelings...but, wouldn't it be nicer if those messages could be cleared off and archived someplace to the side?

Oh well, I guess it's just a matter of personalities, and mine's a bit edgy sometimes. I apparently need to work on sweetening up my anti-social disposition.

Maybe tomorrow...

Edubuntu Artwork

Jill's Edubuntu Artwork

I was notified last Saturday that one of my designs will likely be used as the default desktop for the next release of Edubuntu. IF that design is approved for the final CD package, it will be seen by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide when they install the Edubuntu software.

What a nice project to be part of! Even though I only participated in a very small way, it was a lovely experience and I thank the Edubuntu Team for making this newbie feel so welcomed. I hope to be able to help even more in the future. I also hope others will find ways to support this wonderful project...maybe pass the links below along to any teachers or school administrators that you may know.

The Edubuntu team of developers are amazingly dedicated people with strong ideals. Because they always strive for excellence I consider it an honor to have my design chosen.

The next official release is due in October of 2007.

What is Edubuntu? Here are a few excerpts from their website, with more links at the bottom:

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"Edubuntu is a Linux distribution for education, designed for a teacher or network administrator to setup a classroom quickly and easily. It is a complete operating system built on Ubuntu and includes educational applications bundled in addition to the office suite, web browser, communication and productivity tools.

"Ubuntu" is an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others". The Edubuntu Linux distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to schools, through its customised school environment. The current version of Edubuntu is aimed at classroom use, and future versions of Edubuntu will expand to other educational usage, such as university use.

The Edubuntu community is built on the ideas that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit."

The Edubuntu Manifesto:

The team behind Edubuntu makes the following public commitment to its users:

• Edubuntu will always be free of charge, and there is no extra fee for the "enterprise edition", we make our very best work available to everyone on the same Free terms.
  

• Edubuntu includes the very best in translations and accessibility infrastructure that the Free Software community has to offer, to make Edubuntu usable by as many people as possible.
  

• Edubuntu is released regularly and predictably; a new release is made every six months. You can use the current stable release or the current development release. Each release is supported with security updates for at least 18 months.
  

• Edubuntu is entirely committed to the principles of free and open source software development; we encourage people to use free and open source software, improve it and pass it on.
  

Here are links to learn more:
Edubuntu Home Page
Edubuntu Community
Ubuntu
Ubuntu on Dell
Here Be Dragons (Bio and blog of Mark Shuttleworth - Founder of Ubuntu )


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"You think you're an Artist, or something?"

I shared a room with my older sister, Gayle, when I was a kid. She started working as an artist very young, and was doing professional portraiture in oils and pastels when she was still in high school. An area of our bedroom was her work studio, with an easel in the corner by the window and her art supplies on the dresser. The smell of turpentine and fixative and paint are a big part of my memories of those years. Of course, I wasn't supposed to get into her art supplies, but I had a problem remembering that part.

I remember picking out a few sticks of pastels from the big pastel box and adding some festive little "touches" of my own to one of her portraits-in-progress. I'm pretty sure I only did it once...such activities carried consequences, as one might imagine. I also enjoyed smooshing her kneaded erasers into interesting shapes, or giving them to my dog who thought they were real treats...sort of like doggy chewing gum. Yum.

Mostly I loved sitting for hours looking through her art books. I especially liked the lesson books that showed the tools and step-by-step processes needed for different styles of painting and drawing.

My own first attempt at drawing (at age four, I think) hadn't been much of a success. Oh, the nice crayon colors were bright enough, and I thought it was quite good, myself. But it seemed that my mom wasn't as impressed with my contemporary, non-representational, 2-dimensional, abstract design skills as I was, so she made me wash it off the living room wall with a bucket of hot, soapy water. I might note here that crayons in those days weren't as "washable" as they are today, if one scrubbed hard enough to get the crayon off, the wall paint came with it...yikes! It was at least another 25 years before I painted on a wall again (hey, I finally got permission!).

I tried my hand at abstract design again at some later point (oh...maybe only a week or two later, but when you're a kid, time isn't something you consciously measure), using a white chenille bedspread as a canvas and black shoe polish as the paint....oooh! Pretty! I think that was when I decided that I really liked the look of black on white. Though, once again, mom was less enthusiastic than I'd hoped.

My attempts at creativity didn't meet with much enthusiasm in school either. Sheeesh, every body's a critic, ya know? Adults just seemed to get themselves in a waddle over the silliest little things, and my little "doodles" were generally frowned upon.

One teacher in particular always seemed to take things personally. She'd shake the paper with the offending drawings in the air and roar, "You think you're an artist, or something? Well, young lady, not in MY classroom!". Eventually I figured out that drawing little cartoon portraits of my teachers on my spelling homework might be unwise. Teachers were apparently overly sensitive about that stuff.

As the school years moved on I was asked that annoying 'You think you're an artist, or something?' question a lot. There never seemed to be a safe answer. If I said 'yes', I was being "smart" (as in: "Don't get smart with me, young lady!"). If I said 'no', I was then asked what I "thought" I was doing...which invariably led into dangerous, swampy territory. There are no safe answers to such slippery questions when you're a kid. That's when I decided that the only possible answer to any question a teacher might ask was, "Um...I dunno." If you say "I dunno" often enough, teachers will eventually supply you with answers. THEN you'll know exactly what they want you to say the next time they ask (though sometimes they seemed to find that annoying too).

Teachers always did seem a little flighty and unpredictable to me.

My 5th grade teacher once remarked - after giving back a math test that she couldn't grade, because I'd turned all of the numbers into little people (and houses and trees and animals) instead of proper answers - that it would be great if I could just focus all of that creative energy into Something Useful.

Hmmm, turning doodles into Something Useful??? Holy cow! What a concept! What a challenge!

And that's what I've been doing ever since. Attempting on a daily basis to turn my lowly doodles into something useful. Do I always accomplish that? Once in a while it happens, yes.

So...do I think I'm some kind of an artist, or something? Uh...I dunno. The truth is that what I do most likely falls into the "or something" category, but it's always fun.

One small business One BIG challenge

One small business can be One BIG Challenge! But two can handle it if they stick together.

by Jill Christine Carpenter

Between September of 1998 and March of of 2002 I contracted with a mid-sized publishing company that developed educational materials for school districts across the country. My job was to provide illustrations for the reading and English "passages" or stories they gave me. During those years I did a total of 1,523 drawings, and learned to handle reeeeally tight deadlines without ripping my hair out (although banging my head on the wall several times a day did leave one small bald spot as a reminder).

One day in late November, 2001, I received an email from one of their on-staff writers. Her name was Stacy Mantle, and she said that I was assigned to illustrate some of her stories. I had no clue at the time that this person would be any different from the usual parade of contract writers I had worked with during those years. Believe me, I had seen a LOT of them come and go. Only a handful ever showed some personality and real creativity. Most seemed like cookie-cutter, corporate drones that merely put words on a paper in order to get paid. I used to call them "Prissy-Missies" (yes, even the guys). To be honest, much of the writing I had been given to illustrate was painfully dry and boring. It was often a chore just to find one passage worthy of an illustration, much less three or four. The sad part was that these projects were destined to be used as teaching aids for elementary school children. I felt compassion for those children on more than one occasion.

But Stacy proved to be very different. Her stories were as fun to read as they were to illustrate. Her emails were animated and full of humour. She actually responded in helpful ways when I had questions, was cheerfully open to ideas when I had suggestions, and always willing to work with me to make the projects fun and interesting. As a result the things that we worked on together seemed to have just a little more sparkle and polish than the norm.

Over the next few months of working together and emailing regularly, it became clear that we had found a creative...something...I don't know what to call it, can't really think of a good word to describe it. I just know that our email conversations were rowdy and funny, full of practical jokes, sarcasm, argumentativeness, and general craziness. The truth is that we are both brats at heart...though, for the record, Stacy is MUCH more of a brat than I am (just kidding :o).

Those crazy emails proved to be fertile grounds for unbridled and outrageous creativity. Wild ideas often flew back and forth snowballing as they went, until one day it hit us that we needed to take those creative moments and turn them into real projects. By late spring of 2003 we made the decision to work towards building a business of our own.

Could we do it? Would our rowdy temperaments and quirky personalities allow us to get along well enough to maintain a long-term business relationship? Did we have what it takes to make a business out of just our combined (slightly wacky) creative skills? The answer is yes, because above all else we had each developed a strong appreciation and respect for the other one's creative talents.

What other assets did we have to start out with? Erm...well, we had very little, actually. Just our creativity and work skills, a little money (emphasis on the word "little"), some basic business experience, a few rag-tag computers, some office supplies, an unflagging (and VERY appreciated!) support system of family and friends, and a lot of enthusiasm and faith.

We hoped that would be enough to get us started, but we still wondered if we could hack the highly competitive, dog-eat-dog world of entrepreneurism. There was only one way to find out, and that was to take the plunge...

Gulp!

...and so we did. In January of 2004 we formed an official partnership. During the following two years we had LOTS of interesting adventures. Some we would have definitely preferred not to have had, but we got through them just fine. Stacy and I learned some great lessons during our first two years of partnership, mostly about the value of teamwork, friendship and trust. We also learned that we had the toughness of spirit and determination of will to keep moving forward no matter what obstacles were thrown in our paths. We may not always be the speediest horses on the track, but we can make it a mighty entertaining race, and we never, ever give up.

Above all we learned to appreciate our greatest strength as a team; our sense of humor! Laughter kept us afloat many times, like a bright-colored buoy that kept our spirits from sinking. Our ability to laugh also helped us to stay focused and sane (well, focused, anyway).

Oh yes, and we also learned the value of keeping records of absolutely everything, and of having a first rate attorney, and an accountant that has our best interests at heart. Yes, Virginia, they do exist, we know this because we have them (and we'll happily recommend them to others if we're asked).

There has never been a day during these last two years that has been easy by ANY description, but there HAVE been many, many moments that were gratifying and filled with a grand sense of joy and accomplishment. Those times were what held our little enterprise together, even during the toughest struggles.

One of the hardest lessons we learned was that some who want to do business with us may not have honest intentions. You might think the most dishonest ones would be easy to spot (and avoid), unfortunately such people don't come along wearing a "Beware of me, I'm Evil" sign on their foreheads. Nope, not every crook will wear black and hold you at gunpoint to steal your wallet. Some of the worst culprits actually know how to look and act quite benign and personable.

The really difficult cases are people who are not overtly rude, but who sweetly manipulate or abuse your company's production processes in a sly and calculated way that ends up costing other people time and energy, without bringing any benefit to the business. Such people often have their own secret agendas, and actively look for wedge points in every procedure, to give themselves more influence than they might otherwise have (or deserve).

This type of activity is much more insidious than mere rudeness or overt sabotage, because neither the behavior nor the damage it causes is apparent to casual observers. Though as we found, the customers are bound to notice what's happening, eventually.

Stacy and I know this scenario well, as we had the misfortune of doing business with such people for a while. Happily, we had the gumption to make a stand and take action before it was too late. We stuck together and refused to be bullied or threatened, then picked our little business up, dusted it off and kept on pluggin' along. We had to make some changes, and in some areas we had to just start over from scratch, but we refused to get discouraged.

Once we broke away from that horrible situation we found that the atmosphere was SO much less oppressive. Creativity was no longer stifled and communication became more relaxed and open. In fact everything became easier, and opportunities began to open up that now have us busy and productive once again.

That old creative spark is back in full force, and it feels great! In fact, looking back, we actually feel gratitude towards those unsavory folks that made our lives miserable for a time. They helped us to find our strengths and to believe in ourselves more than ever.

We know, of course, that our gratitude wasn't exactly what they wanted. But thankfully, that's all they got away with. :o)

I, for one, am also grateful for finding such a great business partner. Thank you, Stacy, it's been an honor and a joy to work with you! Looking forward to many more years of partnership.

(However, this doesn't mean I'll stop arguing with you about anything and everything, m'kay? :o)