Rogers cell phone billing = confusopoly

I got my bill yesterday and if you look and the underlined printing I subscribe to their 6 Gigbytes service for $30. I also pay $17.50 / month for 200 minutes of day time cell use. What concerns me is that extra data usage bill of $25.04.  It doesn't make sense to charge 100 times more per MB just because I didn't pre know how much data I was going to use.
Can Rogers make money from irritating their customers?  Do people still buy when they are confused about the billing?  I am tempted to phone and cancel the service. What do you think? Is Rogers practising confusopoly? Should I cancel the service? Thanks for listening to my rant!

What is real and what is manipulation?

As I tie into the solar radiation I experienced 46 years ago (only one more revolution till the age of Aquarius) I keep wondering what is real. It has been almost 40 years since Nixon took the US off of the gold standard and the monies we use today to exchange services indicate more and more that we are using fiat currencies. Without the Canadian dollar as a medium for exchange, what can we do? (Please comment on buzz because it is nice to have a social discussion). To me reality is:

• food, water, air and shelter.
• Gold is real, but not easy obtainable or standardised.
• Land and buildings are real, but not easily transferable.

Having been a contrarian stock investor, the stock markets seem to have taken on the air of a gambling casino, and the pillars of greed and corruption go unchecked, virtually without bounds in our major financial institutions, and within the general fabric of society, but salt is real and more and more important.

Today I teach computers at the church in Hythe hoping more people will adopt open source because proprietary formats tend to lock people in. Even Microsoft's famous manipulation scheme -embrace -extend -extinguish hasn't allowed it to control the instant messaging market. In fact Microsoft 4 days ago adopted Jabber, but they will probably use it like facebook does --only allow instant messaging between their own domains so it is not much different from msn. Gmail with their open federation policy is the best instant messaging platform. I remember 6 years ago when I switch from hotmail to gmail wonder if Google was doing this as a manipulation scheme. I guess maybe because my heart is evil I have a hard time trusting the good people have to offer. So far, Google has been the best, biggest company promoting openness. They even offered up libvpx (webm) which I have been enjoying for it's video chat abilities. Even youtube which is own by Google allows for webm. I guess I want to thank the 100's that have taken the leap of faith with me into open software and open codecs and even those that just use the open encyclopaedia -- wikipedia. I do feel that when people get a taste for openness they will have a a hard time going back to vendor lock-in even with a 60 day trial or like Simply Accounting which now offers 1 year without payment (at least the student version I installed on Friday did) Moving data out of Simply into another accounting program can cost you a lot more. If my life becomes a conduit for truth and not just one companies version of how to manipulate people to make money, then I will die a happy man.  Information is meant to be free. Thanks for commenting / linking!

The Unity Interface in Ubuntu 10.10

My Nephew Mathew came over with his Dell Inspiron mini 10 so I thought I would upgrade him to Ubuntu 10.10. By default, the netbook edition installs the Unity interface, so I set about to teaching him and educating me on how to use the Unity interface.
The first thing you will notice is the Unity Launcher -- on the left side of your desktop.  It shows a stack of applications icons, one for every application that is running or the applications you want to have quick access to. It replaces the Start/Applications menu and the bottom panel / task manager. It seems to be easy to get used to, at least Matthew was up and running without an issue.

The Good:

• The Unity dash can be access using the Ubuntu button in the top left
• The Software Center recommends software you should buy or just get for free.
• You just need to install Mediubuntu and Flash and 99% of the Internet works.
• Google video chat works with just a couple of clicks (Matthew likes phoning with his laptop, I am hoping I didn't teach him a bad thing)

The Bad:

• Clicking on the "File Manager" doesn't launch Nautilus, but a rather a simple file browser which isn't as useful, but one more click on the top right side makes it okay by loading Nautilus.
• Firefox and OpenOffice don't put their menus in the top global menu bar (top panel)

The Ugly:

• I can't figure out how to add stuff to the Unity Launcher (I am trying to add the Educational submenu)
• The Broadcom wifi chipset crashes when I installed the B43 proprietary driver. It reminds me of 9.10 when the Huwai 3g radio didn't work.

Fanbox is learn from Facebook -- Web marketing 101 -- Spam

I got 3 emails this week that looked like this.  All had a name of a close friend in the from area.  Like this one has the name of Gerry Beckett.  But if you hover your mouse over the friend's name you will see that it is not from your friend at all in fact he doesn't even know that he has sent you this email. If you click reply it will not even go to him.  If you want your friend to know that www.fanbox.com has trick him in giving up his friends forward the email to him. I get upset with people when they intentionally do this to people who are just innocently clicking links to see what the computer will do next. This is how facebook got their user base not too long ago. Remember getting his email? Here is hoping you delete your facebook and your fanbox account.  Or better yet never click on the email you got from @yourfanbox.

Is facebook doing the right thing?

No, In the mind of Facebook, locking in users by holding their data captive is equally legitimate to actually making them want to stay, and it means more power for them. The problem is very simple. They own every piece of information about you that either you or your friends knowingly or unknowingly submit to them. They control who can see every bit of it, and they control how you can access it. You can bet when you delete something, it isn’t actually gone, that when you set something to private, there’s nothing to keep it that way, that when you want to see anything on Facebook, you’ll have to do it the way Facebook wants.
Buzz on the other hand allows you to keep your data as well as generating a discussion with  your friends about the topic. You can post data and share it just with your friends as well as mute some parts of a friends feed.  To me that seems the right mix between privacy and the enjoyment of other's people's pictures. Time will tell if Diaspora will be able to do a better job.

Wake up to Cell Phone or Email?

Almost every morning for that last 20 years I have incorporated into my morning routine a glance at the cell phone to see if it is on and working. Now I have replaced the cell phone checking habit with a glance at my gmail's inbox / chat list.  Gmail's Call Phone Option makes email and phoning all in one place and with my eyes getting dimmer I need every advantage I can get. Remember F11 for full screen or hold down control and press + to make the font bigger.  It is also nice to be able to video chat with your brother when he gets up in the early morning, just like me.  Ed, when you make video calls, you can click on the top left corner of the video window and it will  become full-screen, to make it small again click the top left corner again.  If clicking doesn't work press alt F4 or you can setup keyboard shortcuts.  Cnet has a good video on the subject.
Happy Videoing.  Remember Jabber is Open Source so any domain (not just gmail) can do this. Now if I could only get rid of my morning cup of coffee.

Where has all my Hard Drive Gone? Baobab to the rescue.

This Eee PC comes with only 4 Gigs of hard drive.  I let Jesse use it so he could jabber with family ad friends when he was in Turkey. Back at PRBI now and a desktop suites him fine.  It left with over 1.5 gigs of hard drive free and came back with 0.1 Gigs -- not even enough for an update.  What to do? Gtalk for help. Lets see who is online.  My other nephew Craig pointed me in the right direction -- Baobab. Baobab is a disk use analyzer. It quickly showed me that my home folder had 1 gig of data and that most of it was under .mozilla and .thumbnails.  I guess this laptop was used to view over 18,000 photos in Turkey.  Each image viewed in F-spot had a thumbnail of it stored in .thumbnails/normal, in fact over 1/2 a Gig in that folder.  WOW Each image was only 128 x 96 but every 4K file adds up.  I just moved them all to trash and emptied trash.  Thanks for Craig for helping me out with computers! Ubuntu is people helping people.
This is what BAOBAB looks like.

A look at voice in the future.

With voice phoning to any number now included in Gmail, one can easily envision the death of ten digit numbers for quick access to other people's voices. A lot of companies want to expend their communication profile to include voice, but which one will win?  Companies like Google, Microsofts 's MSN, Yahoo, and Ebay's Skype, etc, realize they can make money with real-time interaction and more money with Voice and Video communications. The only open phoning protocol is Gmail's use of the XMPP. So that is why Google and others, that federate with Google's Gmail, will win.  The black horse in this race is Facebook who uses the same protocol, but they don't federate with other domains, but if they do than this point is mute. This Jabber technology will become the bases of future voice communications .  WHY?

1. People change phone numbers and you are not automatically updated. In Gmail the cloud backs up your personal contacts and in Google / Buzz is used to search for new businesses / people.
2. Phone Numbers belong to Operators/Countries (travel overseas for a month and your phone number belongs to someone else -- your email account is much more personal. i.e. I can log into Gmail via my android, my computer or a friend's Iphone.
3. With Jabber you can control who can call you. On regular phone you are often the victim of unwanted calls.
4. Your Instant Message presence indicators can relay info like "do not disturb" or how you are feeling or what you are selling. 

Use Ubuntu - Think about people not just about money.

As I sit here installing Ubuntu on my friend's Sony laptop, her words "you have never done me wrong" keep ringing in my ears. So instead of fixing her Windows issues, I put Ubuntu on it. I am worried about her simply accounting and game familiarity integration. Change is harder as we get older and maybe that is why I am nervous. How much faster will the computer be? I usually find Ubuntu to be twice as fast as Windows. What repositories should I install? I guess I should install WINE, just in-case.
Maybe Ubuntu gives us too much freedom or is there just too many options. It takes me 2 hours to do this. If i fixed windows $80 x 2 = $160, but it is Ubuntu $25 x 2 = $50 Or maybe I should just charge my normal rate, after all it will be better for them and the world.

No long distance charges, Use: voice.google.com

I wonder how many new gmail users there will be this week? A lot of people want to save money on long distance phoning. Gmail is the only video conference service that allows it's users to use another domain other than gmail. A lot of my friends use the hythe.ca domain. Voice, chat and emailing isn't a issue. Most people now days can't remember back to when email between AOL and Compuserve and other domains was not possible. I do. This is why I take people off Hotmail, yahoo and Skype and put them on open Instant Messaging / Voice and Video systems. Happy Communications.

Google helps out with Open Communications

http://www.google.com/chat/video

Google joined forces with the jabber community and have enabled audio and video inside the browser.  Up till now you had to install Empathy or Pidgin in Ubuntu to get video working. This will go a long way in easing the computer interface. You can just save the google-talkplugin_current_i386.deb file then when you click on the file, it should open the deb file package manager. After the installation just restart your browser.  ENJOY

Ubuntu 10.04.1 Released

Ubuntu 10.04.1
It saves you about 300 Megs of updating, but it still doesn't have everything you need to talk and share your Ubuntu desktop. For that you need to install

gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse
FFmpeg
Telepathy-core

 Now, you can video chat with all your jabber friends, even if they are using Apple or Microsoft software.  The other option is to install the google-talkplugin.deb
Enjoy

Using a data plan to phone via link2voip helps Canadian keep the sanity.

Have you ever wondered why your cell phone looses all it's minutes each month? It looses all it's data also.  Having a plan that saves unused minutes to next month would be normal.  If I leave gas in my truck at the end of the month it is there when I start the truck next month. The gas company didn't poke a hole into my tank and drain it. First they make you pay for x amount of minutes, they make you guess also, then if you don't use what you thought you would the cell company pockets that.  I guess I am looking forward to alternatives. I did find that installing sipdroid on my Android allows me to phone via my data plan. It works through link2voip

Who knew browsing had this much risk?

Have you ever wondered why piracy is rapid in our culture?  Answer: We try to catch up to the big companies in making or saving monies. Look at this website image and see if you can spot the manipulation. The RED comes via my pen.
In order to click on that BIG "GO" button you must first sign that you will not compete with the company and second give up your IP rights. But who reads the 4 pages of fine print just to see a picture from a friend.  At least with facebook you only have to give your life away once.

Empathy 2.31.5 now has popup dialog boxes.

After getting Voice and Video in Ubuntu 10.04 via the Open XMPP protocol, I was happy; but, end users just couldn't figure out how to double click on the person's name to answer the call and connect, so my exhilaration faded.

But now a new day has arrived, Empathy finally gained an option to automatically present incoming events rather than just making the status icon blink. Can you spell "EASE OF USE"? The notifications bubbles now contain more buttons allowing you to quickly accept or decline incoming events. Now my relatives and I can talk openly.

Empathy 2.31.5 now has popup dialog boxes.

After getting Voice and Video in Ubuntu 10.04 via the Open XMPP protocol, I was happy, but, end users just couldn't figure out how to double click on the person name to answer the call and connect, so my exhilaration faded.

But now a new day has arrived, Empathy finally gained an option to automatically present incoming events rather than just making the status icon blink. Can you spell "EASY OF USE"? The notifications bubbles now contain more buttons allowing you to quickly accept or decline incoming events. Now my relatives and me can talk openly.

How to Rip a Cd

Did you know that ripping CD's is now part of Rhythmbox Wow! Life is getting to be too good with Ubuntu default install. So after you stick in your CD and start Rhythmbox you will see a CD like icon (shown in the picture in yellow) under the Devices folder.  After clicking you then decide if you want to rip all the tracks and if all blanks are filled in right. By default Rhythmbox uses Sound-Juicer 160kbits/s and ogg format.  The file is then stored in your Music folder under Artist and then Album.  Previous to Ubuntu 10.04 we had to do ripping in grip.  This is nice, but I find that clicking on Jamendo and then download is the easiest way to get the best music out there.

Internet media has gotten it's first leaves -- WEBM

At this time of year a lot of us farmers are looking at our land and seeing if the Cotyledon leaves are what we envisioned 3 weeks ago. Beans to me are the most interesting because their seed shell rises above the ground almost like saying

"I am the best, I am the tallest, I get the most sun."

This epigeal phenomena is happing with the Internet. Ogg and other Open Source formats have been under ground developing their cotyledon leaves and now they are ready to say I am better than proprietary formats. Sure it took till 2010, but now Firefox, Opera and Chrome are all supporting webm Sure harvest is still a year or 2 away, but the leaves that will stem from this will be a great harvest. I am already telling all my clients, "Make sure your website is HTML5"

Open Source Communication -- I like it.

Starting at 10am and were done by 4pm
Notice the rear window is not in the truck and we are talking behind Marcy's back.
Alan: Your truck doesn't have a pane in it . . . No pains in that truck.
Marcy: Its a convertible.
Ed: You don't have to wash the back window
Alan: Open Source communication.

We all can enjoy Open Communication.

Ubuntu and Nerd TV

I started watching The Big Bang Theory TV and low and behold Shelden likes Ubuntu

Cossfest 2010

Great People great work at www.cossfest.ca Great time in Calgary, Alberta
javascript:void(0)

Using Empathy for Remote Desktop Support

With Ubuntu there are lots of people that what to help YOU succeed, so if a friend is good a doing something why not share your desktop with him and let him help you. All you need is the default install of Ubuntu and a gmail account. (any jabber account will do).

Ubuntu 10.04 Released and Ubuntu 10.10 getting even better.

People helping people is what it is all about not criticising others for being able to manipulate the market via a pre-installed OS. Good thing the EU now allows for browser choice, but I still think companies rule the world more that politics. Example. Greece now works for the IMF.

Ubuntu 10.04 Released

I know it is hard to get excited about an Operating System because it's forta is to be unnoticed.  This release has more social networking tools built in then any that came before. In fact Jesse (my nephew) needed to be able to phone home while in Turkey this month so I through Ubuntu 10.04 on an eeepc 900 and got him to sign into his gmail account in Empathy and we were talking.  Empathy has remote desktop built in so when he was waiting for his plane in Grande Prairie we could talk and I could show him how to install and configure the other programs he wanted.  All done via default install and all done via open source software.  Ubuntu 10.04 is awesome.  Everything for under $200 doesn't hurt a school boys budget either.

Sierra Wireless usb 306 and Ubuntu 10.04

Installed Ubuntu 10.04 on a Acer Aspire 3680 this morning. He needed Telus's USB Stick to work. So I clicked on "New Mobile Broadband connection" and clicked on Telus and it worked. Great I better install Xiphos since he is a preacher.

How to print your Ipad document.

People are figuring it out how to print from an Ipad. Sure this might seem archaic to you, but you haven't lost all your hair trying to find a print driver for this Apple device.

Rogers Internet Coverage-- 21Mbps in Yellow 300Kbps in Red

More info about Rogers new service can be found at:
http://www.rogers.com/web/content/internet-mobile/hubplans
http://www.itworldcanada.com/blogs/cooltools/2009/12/03/rogers-rocket-hub-roundup/52578/
Basically $35 / month for 3 Gigs $5 more per Gig after.

CLEVER IDEAS WORTH KNOWING

 Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. 
If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.. I didn't know that! 

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminium foil. 
It will stay fresh much longer and not mould!

 
Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. 
Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

 
Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. 
It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking. 
To really make scrambled eggs or omelettes rich add a couple of 
Spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up. 
For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting. 
Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste 
Of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.   
Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!!  Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm! 
                                                   Reheat Pizza 
Heat up leftover pizza in a non-stick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm.
This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

 
Easy Deviled Eggs 
 Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up.
Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg.
Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

 
Expanding Frosting 
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size.
You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving. 
                                           Reheating refrigerated bread 
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in 
A microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food 
Moist and help it reheat faster.

 
Newspaper weeds away 
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, 
Put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and for- 
Get about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not 
Get through wet newspapers.

 
Broken Glass 
 Use a wet cotton ball or Q-t ip t o pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily. 
                            No More Mosquitoes 
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away. 
      Squirrel Away!  

 
To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it. (Wonder if this works with rabbits?  Sure gonna give it a try)

  

              Flexible vacuum 
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings. 

 
Measuring Cups 
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. 
Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such
As peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

 
Foggy Windshield? 
 Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!
                                    Re opening envelopes 
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

 
Conditioner 
 Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.

 
Goodbye Fruit Flies 
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever! 
 
 
Get Rid of Ants 
 Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed! 
 (This will definitely try!!!)
                    INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS 
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material .. I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. Well .... the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit.You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free ... that nice fragrance too. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box ... well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long-time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!?! Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that. So, I thought I'd share! 
Note: I went to my dryer and tested my screen by running water on it. The water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water and a nylon brush and I had it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it .. the water ran right thru the screen! There wasn't any puddling at all! That repairman knew what he was talking about!

First Day with my Android

Having been a smart phone user for 20 months, I kind of knew what I was expecting when I bought the Nexusone. I was blown away. Like Craig Illustrates  If the Iphone represents one step in options up a ladder the Android represents 20 steps.  I can now:

1. See my voice mail as text on the screen.
2. Translate my voice into other languages and
3. Sync music without having to use Itunes. 

All of which Apple users can't do. Plus, I am not sure if Apple users will ever get these apps.  Anybody want a useless Iphone?

DD-WRT and D-Link DIR-615C1

I have been waiting for dd-wrt to offer support for D-Link DIR-615 for quite a while. The dd-wrt site still says D-Link Routers still don't support the dd-wrt software, but, I know they do. At least it works for me.
 
Three caveats though. 

1. You need a hex editor like ghex2 to edit the binary file to 00AP81-AR9130-RT-070614-02.
2. You need to have Hardware version C1
3. You need to put the router into recovery mode by holding in the reset button while you plug in the power.

DD-WRT Supported Routers

Ubuntu and Telus and Huawei --Internet

All three organizations want to do the same thing for people --help them use the Internet. So why is Telus's tech support being so hard headed? It is not a hard thing to connect the Huawei e182e USB stick that Telus sells to Ubuntu. You just plug it in and enter Telus's APN setting numbers which is sp.telus.com or isp.telus.com if you need to tether. The stick preforms decently at a speed 6 mbits/s and the ping rate was 42 msec. Huawei says the stick is capable of 21 Mb/s that is faster then the fastest ADSL connection (15Mb/s). for more info visit islandlinux.org Ubuntu 10.04.1 and Ubuntu 10.10 have these settings built in.

So your setting screen should look like this.

Facebook -- a "how to" in manipulation.

We stopped at Hood River on our journey home and being from Canada we are experts in all snow related games. So, we converted our friends into watching curling; because it is a lot like football we can argue over the best rock to throw. The weird part about watching the Olympics on TV is the length of commercials. The house sometimes has 8 rocks in play before the commercials end. Wow, that is worst than watching telemarketing. We take turns in muting the channel in order to keep our sanity. Mind you, facebook takes the cake in my opinion. It displays targeted ads that keep getting better and better at manipulating their users. Having a good understanding about psychology helps me avoid getting strangled by the facebook ad machine. Even the way facebook tells all your friends that so and so has became a friend of so and so seems to me a rude way to make money. I find the best way to revolt is to not use their service. Buzz on Gmail does everything facebook can do without the manipulation so, for me it is a no brainier. Join together with me and start using www.twitter.com and www.gmail.com until facebook cleans up their act.

Cheering for the Open Source Community!! We have almost won!

Well, we finally made it to LA to watch the LA Kings and the San Jose Sharks fight it out. Sports in a lot of ways brings out the best and worst in humans. The best because teams have to learn to help their team-mates and worst because they have to try to hurt the opposing team. The quality of the players are enhanced via the competition factor. Without M$ and Apple fighting with us Open Source advocateors we might become lackadaisical in our code. :

NOTE When you use
proprietary software, you
become a customer of the
company that is selling you its
product. When you use Open-
Source software you
automatically become part of a
community, whether you want
to or not. Allow me to boldly
suggest that you donate to the
Open-Source community. The
amount you donate is
irrelevant; the fact is that as
conscientious members of this
worldwide community we
ought to encourage Open-
Source growth.

I sometimes push people into using Firefox and Open Office before they are ready to make the switch to Open Source and before they realize why Open Source is better for the harmony of the world. Here in LA right now we see a police following a car to the impound lot and a beggar on the other corner. Force and rules don't always make people turn out better. Some beggars intentionally weave their way into traffic hoping to get noticed more thereby getting more monies and a better life. I have chosen, in twenty ten, to give people who use Ubuntu higher priority on my help scale because they can improve the world we live in easier. Go, GO you M$ and Apple lovers and help us Open Source people sharpen our skills.