By Thinking We Make it So

I've been reading the small book Zen And the Art of Happiness by Chris Prentiss. It's the kind of book that you would either really like or really dislike depending on your current circumstances, whether you think the world is generally a good or bad place, and your personal beliefs regarding a supreme being. In this book the Universe (with a capital U) replaces God in that the Universe wants what's best for you. If you can suspend disbelief and go with the flow the book has some valuable lessons.

• Whatever happens is the best thing that could happen
• We choose to be happy (sad)
• We become addicted to anger, fear, sadness or happiness
• Zen is mindful living combined with recognition that our mind makes our reality
• Mindfulness allows for concentration, calmness, simplicity and ultimately happiness.

If you can fool yourself into thinking everything that happens is perfect - you'll be a perfectly happy fool...or maybe the wisest person in town - it's up to you to decide.

Who Cares About Operating Systems?

I just spent a fairly useless hour or so perusing the comments on the article "Windows 7 is the same as Ubuntu". The article appears fairly non-controversial since the author is making the point that for someone who uses a PC to access the web it doesn't really matter what the OS is.

It turns out the article is very controversial based on the 500 plus comments that range from fairly well thought out (but rarely new) ideas about Windows or Mac or Linux systems. It's entertaining to see the bait and hook techniques where someone says the equivalent of Linux (Windows) (Mac) sux and then the flames start to rise...but one comment struck me as pretty right-on.

The author says that while some geeky and sometimes fanatical types spend their time arguing (or trading insults regarding) the merits of an OS, applications, and the GUI - the world goes on and the average computer user could care less as long as their computer does what they want it to do. The author linked to this YouTube video to show how little people know (and need to know) about what's under the hood of their computer.



It's possible that the browser will be the only application resident on a computer in the not to distant future - but users don't care about that, unless it makes their computers faster or cheaper or capable of doing more. Companies that develop stand alone or enterprise applications and their competitors who want to provide applications in the cloud (think Google Docs), care about that - a lot. But users don't even need to know what a browser is - like the guy says in the video; to him the browser is that big e thing he clicks on to get to the web.

How to Pronounce Linux

In case you were wondering how to pronounce Linux this article links to Linus Torvalds saying lee-nooks but lin-icks and lie-nuks is okay too.

Usually the long i sound has the magic e in the word, so we use the long i sound in fine, pine, mine and the short i sound in pink, ring, link - so saying lie-nuks sounds weird to me. On the other hand if someone pronounced linotype as lee-notype that wouldn't sound correct or be in accord with Websters pronunciation since it calls for the long i sound.

I guess it really doesn't matter as long as people understand what you are saying.

Google Operating System Coming Next Year

This is fairly old news since it was announced July 7th, but I was on vacation and missed it. I'd read something about a Chrome Operating system but I thought someone was confusing Google's Chrome browser with an OS...turns out that's not the case and Google really is developing an OS for PC's.

Next year at this time you should be able to buy a netbook with the Google Chrome OS. Netbooks are just the start though since the open-source OS is being designed to work with computers from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. The OS will run using the Linux kernel and promises to provide fast start-up/web access times, no viruses, and computers that always run as fast as when you bought them. The main app installed on the PC will be the browser and there's no slowing down your computer as apps are added since every app you need is on the web in this vision of computing.

Start up and shut down times have become more and more of an issue as Windows has gotten to the point where it can take minutes to boot up and get online or shut your computer down. I'm happy that this laptop with a 2.6.30 Linux kernel and ext4 file system takes 43.5 seconds to power-up and connect to the wireless router (actually a little less since I have to manually select which kernel to boot and enter my user name and password) and about 15 seconds to power down. The Google OS is supposed to be online in "a few seconds" - I assume that's with a solid state hard drive.

As a big fan of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, open-source software in general and someone who's been happy with anything Google I've tried - I'm looking forward to seeing how the free open-source Chrome OS works.

Watercolor

Watercolor
Originally uploaded by Jack Crossen

A photo I took in Northern Minnesota earlier this month.

Bemidji Cafe

Maybe I'm getting crotchety in my old age but I have to admit there's something about this that bugs me. I'm not sure if it's the suspicion that if you have to say your nice it might be because you aren't so nice to begin with or the idea that some place has a corner on "niceness".

I think what actually happens is that wherever you are - you create, what to you is, reality. If you find that wherever you go (or most places you go...or many places you go) the people aren't nice (or are nice) it says more about you than them.

I've been in this cafe and the people are nice - just like a lot of other places.

Heading West Tomorrow

I'm sitting in the Dunn Brothers Coffee on Paul Bunyan Drive across from Lake Bemidji using their free wireless. This is my last day in Minnesota for this summer. It's been fun as usual - the North country of Minnesota is a special place.

This is a picture looking towards Lake Bemidji from inside Dunn Bros -

Usually we make the trip from Washington to Minnesota on I-90/I-94 but I'm looking forward to a trip west on highway 2 this summer. I haven't been along the Montana highline for years and it will be nice to see that big sky unimpeded by mountains or trees. Highway 2 turns into Glacier Park's Going-to-the-Sun Road which gets up to 6646 feet so it isn't all flat land.

Cool Buffalo in Fargo

Butterfly

Butterfly Study
Originally uploaded by Jack Crossen

This is a Western Tiger Swallowtail butterfly that dropped by to see me and Edgar today.

Heart of Summer

Swimming pools are open, families are on vacation trips, kids are at camps, rivers are clear waiting for skilled fishermen, lakes and oceans sparkle beckoning boaters, libraries are cool waiting for summertime readers, lemonade stands appear staffed by young entrepreneurs, sounds of firecrackers pop up in the distance, twilight lingers filled with sounds of play, the days are long and warm. When you are young and out of school summer is a long book full of possibilities - now it's a footnote to days, weeks and months filled with other things.