Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Just another day

All I got from the previous post on reddit was, basically, "LOL, utopia". Well, the question didn't get too far, and it hit the obvious obstacles.
Without bothering to go into the details I'll just go ahead and say that all current systems are utopias, just not very good ones. They all started from the desire to improve a previous system. We no longer live in the stone age, or in a feudal system, imperial Rome, or whatever. So it's not that utopias are impossible, it's just that the vast majority of the constituents of a system think that the system they live in is some sort of god-given, always-been-here reality, and not something men and women fought and died for in the past, that is to say nothing short of a full blown utopia.
I also went ahead and propositioned the telepathy/empathy thought experiment and most of the reactions were quite predictable in the realm of "OMFG, people will know my deepest darkest secrets, I should lie and make up all sorts of counter arguments rather than admitting that everyone will know the real me, hell, even I don't know the real me". Suffice to say that hypocrisy is here to stay and it won't go away, not even in an imagined world.

Anyway, since it's that time of the year (no, not that one, the other one) I should cast some hopes into the future.



Oh, and I also postulate that the question coming from the guy sitting in the chair is valid for no matter what time period.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Just an idea

I repent, we should stick to whatever the blind forces that govern the world have in store for us.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Eye candy! Yay!

I've just realized that I haven't had a desktop computer in over five years now. Yup, I'm a laptop person, and right now I have four of them. Two died of old age , another by drowning, the last one is still holding up quite nicely, and I can't gather up the strength to bury the others, I keep them around, like half rotting zombies, or something.
Everyone loves gadgets, they call out to the kid within, here's a little toy you can play with as a grownup and not get laughed at. It's great, everybody wins, or do we?
I'll let you in on what has been my gadgety wet dream for the last few months, so I'll give a sort of review/preview based on my nigh fanatic following of the forums and every bit of news I could get about the product.
Lately, and by lately I mean since March 2009, I've had my eye on a little netbook, developed by a new company called AlwaysInnovating, and the moment I saw it I knew it was everything I wanted in a netbook. Small, 9" screen, instant tablet switcheroo, 10 hour battery life, Linux, and the best thing, judging after some nasty personal experiences, it wouldn't turn into a radiator, venting heat like a some sort of a crazed boiler, thanks to its ARM architecture. Perfect I thought.

See what I mean? Oh, and the screen is detachable, lovely, isn't it?
Well... it sort of isn't, so far. I did the reasonable thing and ordered, or pre-ordered, and then waited, and then waited some more. On the forums it is sacrilege to question the delivery schedule of AI, but overall the ones who did get the product are mostly happy with the product, even though some say that the quality control is horrible and one in three has some defects. Oh, and if you tilt the screen a little more than 90 degrees the netbook falls flat on its back, and now the're shipping little pieces of plastic to glue them to the product to counter balance problems. That didn't stop me from still loving and wanting it.
What did stop me was that the 'massive early December shipment' was a massive disappointment in that it hasn't happened yet, and since I had to order through some friend who would then have to send it over to me, I definitely wouldn't get it by Christmas. And in January, I'm not sure where I am going to be, so I had to cancel.
I'll just have to wait till things settle and maybe TouchBook v.2 shows up.

I'm so sad I could cry. I could but I won't because I mend easily, and lo and behold another temptress is on the horizon.


And here we go again...