Bad Writing

The picture is the logo for Flattr a micropayment system.

My writing is really bad. I think it was John Michael Greer who offered that there is a certain amount of bad writing that writer have to get out before good writing can commence. Maybe it wasn't him, but this blog is one place I can get some of my bad writing out of the way. It's embarrassing to think of readers. But I'm very appreciative of Comrade 27 for taking what I write as possibly containing a little sense. I am trying to learn how to make some sense.

Recently among other things I wrote about the vision of Steve Jobs. Jobs takes design as primary and therefore favors integration over fragmentation. In a fragmented way I tried to take the side in favor of fragmentation. But Jobs's success is good evidence he's right about fragmentation, at least so far as too much fragmentation is untenable. So my point isn't against design, but rather it's not the only necessary thing.

I'm using Ubuntu as my Linux distribution of choice. A big reason for that is I'm not very computer savvy and Ubuntu is very well put together for people like me.

One doesn't have to be technically inclined to know that free and open source software FOSS, sometimes FLOSS, free/libre/open source software is something significant when it comes to computers and computing. Discussions of FOSS can be very broad and deep and I can't keep up, except to say that there is a moral core to the philosophy--morality meaning the ways we treat others. The FOSS community makes a distinction about free; their meaning is free as in speech not as in "free beer." The point being that "free" doesn't necessarily mean "no cost." Indeed there are commercial aspects to some of the distributions of Linux.

Mark Shuttleworth is associated with Ubuntu much like Steve Jobs comes to mind with Apple. In September Shuttleworth responding in part to criticisms about Ubuntu not contributing enough code to the kernel and core GNOME infrastructure wrote a blog post about what he views as Ubuntu's contribution to the Linux community. His answer really boils down to design.

Clearly both Mark Shuttleworth and Steve Jobs are serious businessmen and both see the importance of design. Jobs's rant on his call was about Google, but he was talking about bets about different business approaches. Shuttleworth's business play with Ubuntu represents an even clearer difference between Apple than Google.

It's not hard for me to imagine Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, talk about winning the whole shebang along with Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison and the like. It's harder for me to imagine Larry Page and Sergey Brin the founders of Google talking that way. And certainly, at least in the context of Ubuntu, I can't imagine Mark Shuttleworth talking about winning in the same way other executives do. There's a different game at play concurrently with the old game.

Weeks back I began writing about social currency sometimes called Whuffie. Online social currency is an idea that lots of people have been trying to work out for quite a long time. I think often about what sort of incentives would increase online collaboration.

Recently I noticed that the New York Times is suing Kachingle. Kachingle's tag is "Social cents for digital stuff." In short it's a way for users to direct microdonations to online creators. My reaction to the take-down order by lawyers for the Times made me smile. I appreciate those who tilt at windmills because I so often do. Afterwards, I berate myself for being so foolish; still I do believe there are battles that ought to be fought even when winning is unlikely. Kachingle hasn't a chance.

I think the idea of Kachingle is stellar nonetheless. Flattr is a somewhat similar service to Kachingle. The premise with Flattr is that you have to give to get. So each month you load a small amount of money into an account and then you may click on Flattr buttons people have installed next to their content. At the end of the month the money you've uploaded is split among the people whose Flattr buttons you've clicked.

In RhythmBox the music player that comes installed with Ubuntu releases 10.04 and greater are three music stores. Ubuntu One is Ubuntu's store. Magnatune is a store that allows unlimited downloads for a monthly subscription fee. And Jamendo operates a pay scheme that bears resemblance to Flattr.

I had thought I'd seen Flattr buttons on artist pages I'd discovered through Jamendo, but I was probably mistaken or confused. I have seen Flattr buttons on blog posts by developers of applications. I thought I'd seen enough Flattr buttons that it would be worth loading a small amount of money so that I could Flattr people. Alas, once having the money loaded I'm having a hard time locating Flattr buttons I want to click!

I suggested in an earlier post that a pure reputation currency might be something that Microsoft could implement. My thinking was there are Microsoft users everywhere. There are lots of people online whom I'd like to Flattr, the problem is that none of them have signed up for Flattr. I'd like to be able to Flattr anybody I want. So while I'm keen on Kachingle, Flattr, Jamendo and other sorts of services that allow positive feedback to online creators the lack of a very widespread way to do so is a real drawback. I can't remember where, but I saw Mark Shuttleworth interviewed and he was asked whether Ubuntu was considering a service like Flattr. He said they were. But of course on the desktop Ubuntu has a rather low penetration.

Someone is going to figure this out. When I first came online in the late 1990's I thought it would be nice to have a little block of "stamps" on the desktop that people could purchase in a block and then drag a number of stamps onto a site that one wished to support, or were prompted to in order to see the rest of an article. Obviously I hadn't thought it through, but my point is that if I've always wanted a way to support online content with micropayments that surely others have too. Payments aren't quite the same thing as a reputation currency, but when they are transparent counters, as Flattr and Jamendo's are they are quite related to one.

Whuffie doesn't need to be free as in "free beer," but perhaps sometimes it is just that. And Whuffie ought to be in my opinion free as in speech. I do think people want to give credit to the creators of stuff we appreciate. Some sort of ubiquitous online currency would create incentives. Some of the incentives might be perverse, but surely not all.

Everytime I read Shuttleworth being questioned about whether Ubuntu is profitable yet, I hear an impatient "No." As rich as Shuttleworth is I'm sure money matters. Yet I suspect that if Ubuntu got lots of reputation points from users that sort of recognition would matter a lot to him too. Ubuntu as a business isn't just about winning in a zero sum game, but about creating more winners. I admire the vision of Steve Jobs, but the game he excels at of winners and losers is not the game I believe will succeed in the long term. I want to root for the business players who are creating public goods not just more stuff. The game that's being played makes a difference to the design.

Update What do I know, but saw this piece about the announcement of the Mac Apple Store and how Microsoft has got to make an app store like yesterday. A micropayment feature like Jamendo would be radical. Okay, I know it won't happen, but I still think Microsoft is well-positioned to be a leader in micropayments if only they wanted to be.

Rambling about My New Computer

My Internet connection has been down almost all day. I called my Internet service provider, and after jumping through those hoops talked with Kevin and then Jackson oh and one other. They all had East Asian accents and I think I might have understood them better if they'd introduced themselves with their real names. How strange it is to have to adopt a name for work. The end result after going through resetting the modem was that “an Internet outage is suspected.” It's still out and unsettling how much this affects my mood. (The Internet has returned after more than 24 hours down.)

When my old computer died in an electrical storm I borrowed a little Dell Mini 9 (similar to the new model 10) which was running a version of Linux tweaked for Dell. One of the tweaks was to connect it to Yahoo services. I was used to using the Chrome browser so I basically ignored the set up with Yahoo. I figured the loan would be temporary, but in the end it took me a couple of months to get a new computer. The new computer I got is running Lucid Lynx the new version of Ubuntu Linux.

There were somethings I don't much like about the Dell netbook. Among them is the keyboard, particularly the small right hand shift key. My biggest problem is one inadvertently closing windows. But there are many things I like very much and chief among those was its portability.

With visitors here this summer, I bought a modem and wireless router. Part of my thinking was to keep my computers unplugged from the phone lines too. Wireless has turned out great. With the little netbook I can share photographs and messages directly with my father in the living room. Also using Readability I can share articles online whereas before I would print them out for my father to read. Readability is a free tool that renders Web pages looking something like pages in an e-reader.

My friend graciously offered to sell me the Mini and I quickly accepted. Now that it's mine I installed Lucid Lynx Netbook Remix on it this weekend. I'm not very tech savvy and was startled that the install went smoothly. I've discovered that the influx of newbies often grates on the nerves of old Linux hands. I wasn't online when newsgroups were invaded by the hordes of newbies discovering them via AOL, but that culture clash lasted long enough that I got at least a flavor of it. As a Linux newbie by way of Ubuntu the clash tastes about the same. I'm always in awe that people take the time to help people out on forums, so I appreciate the Linux aficionados who do. One post I read asks users to consider not what Linux will do for you, but what you can do for Linux.

What it anything I can do is probably a ways off in the future. I've vaguely imagined that I might be of some help to friends in Uganda who might use Linux. Various flavors of the operating system have real advantages for particular situations. A good example is using Linux on old computers, or low power computers like netbooks and low power computers, like my new one. And of course there's the issue of malware and Linux being less susceptible than Microsoft Windows machines. But none of my friends in Uganda have actually expressed any interest in Linux.

The truth be told Ubuntu in its current release is very easy for a simple folk like me. I did have a problem getting Skype to work on my new computer. Something that came out of that problem was finding that most things are easily discoverable within the operating system itself. The thing to do is look. It's not surprising that computers running Linux are thought a good choice for old folks who don't ask much of their computers except email and the Internet and Ubuntu works without much of any user adjustment. I'm old and I don't ask much more than that, but I also have a habit of breaking things through careless curiosity.

One feature of Linux of which I was afraid was using typed commands. I've run across a few reasons to do so, as well as articles that provide a lists of commands just to show newbies around. LinuxCommand.org is a good example of the many wonderful Linux education sites. At one point in the terminal I was prompted: “John's password.” It's such a simple thing but in the context of a dialog, the prompt made me think: “This computer has a voice!” Its voice is curt and efficient, or pleasant and willing depending on ones point of view. And to me the “sound” of it was the latter.

I'm very happy with the System76 Meerkat Ion computer I bought. But had I been confident about installing an operating system I would probably have bought a Zotac Mag a very similar computer for a lot less money, but is shipped without an operating system. One market for these NetTop computers is for home theater set ups, something I know nothing about. At Amazon the Acer Aspire is comparable and comes with Windows 7 installed. It's amusing to see reviewers say that the first thing they did with the Acer Aspire was to ditch Windows7 and install Linux.

My sister may want a computer and I am thinking the Zotac Mag may be a good choice. But I suspect that she'd lean towards the Acer with Windows7 because Linux sounds so scary. Linus Torvalds, the guy who got the whole Linux juggernaut started, said that Linux has become so bloated that it's "huge and scary." That kind of "scary" is different from what my sister might feel and I certainly felt deciding to go Ubuntu while knowing that I'm a computer ignoramus. At least part of the "bloat" comes from making it not scary for the likes of me.

What I've learned over the last few weeks is Ubuntu Linux is not scary. I've also found that a Nettop with an Atom processor and Nvidia chipset is a very capable machine. Sure folks who are into gaming won't find it adequate, but for a general-purpose home machine, it really rocks.

Photo: scanned souvenir--left over--ride ticket from The Big Knob Grange Fair, a favorite community tradition.

Music Set

System76 did return my email Monday afternoon. The email didn't get me any closer to solving my problem with a mic and headset, so I asked more questions. I will await further response.

I really have no idea to what extent System76 actually is a customer relations company. They may actually put some parts together for their product line up. My impression from their online pages is that the business would be classified primarily in the customer service bundle of business operations.

Certainly I'm pretty naive about all things computer. Part of having a Linux operating system is figuring out how to do stuff with the help of other users. I think that's a great thing, but can be intimidating. I looked over the System76 followers at Twitter and noticed there was only about one woman per page listed. I also noticed that over half the male followers have beards.

LinuxChix is an organization formed by women in the Linux community in 1999 with two guiding rules: Be polite. Be helpful. Surely sexism is a part of reason that LinuxChix is needed. But some of the problem is just that computers depend on computer science, something too few of us know anything about. Sometimes clear answers in jargon are mistaken for rudeness.

In most cases it seems that computers operating Linux are the obvious choice for educational settings. I'm in contact with some small organizations in Uganda and with some of the issues that have come up with computers running Windows, it would seem a good choice there too. I'm keen to become at least a little competent because I'm interested in education and service organization where Linux and open source software make a lot of sense.

System76 states that they want to serve the educational market. I think that's very smart and very much needed. That Linux can seem intimidating looms large as a hurdle to overcome for greater adoption in educational settings. Clearly school librarians and other IT specialists play a big role. But simply having more teachers choosing computers running Linux will make a big difference.

I want to be happy with my choice of computer. Right now I can't figure out why my mic or headset for Skype calls don't work. In order to provide support System76 needs to know what the computer is. All their documents say to click on the System76 Driver to find this information. When I did that I get a message that the System76 Driver is unsupported and instructs me to report the bug. In my email response the sales representative told me "that's normal." In his email there was nothing responsive to the issue that I can't get the mic or headset to work.

I bought a computer running Ubuntu because I believe in the significance of open source software. System76's aim to sell computers in the education market is something I'm aligned with; I want to see more teachers and students using Linux. The only possible reason my personal experience is the least bit interesting is how it relates to the broader adoption of open source software. It's a case of "if I can do it anyone can." The point is, I'm not interested in making System76 look bad, rather curious whether a company like System76 can make an average customer like me think Linux is a reasonable choice.

I'll give System76 one point for responding within a working day to my email. Since the response didn't address the problem, no more points. I feel like subtracting a half point for calling a system message to report a bug "normal," but I won't. So a 1 on a 1-5 customer satisfaction scale so far.

Looking around the various software on computer I turned my attention to music. I rarely listen to music on my computer, so I'm rather behind the times when it comes to all the stuff one can do with music. I did have iTunes installed on my old computer, so I wanted to try out the Rhythmbox music player installed. It's easy, even I can figure it out. I'm not so sure about the music store yet, mostly because I'm saving my pennies.

All that put music on my mind. I went up to my house and sat among my meager cassette and CD collection. I still like to make mix-tapes. Who will listen to mix tapes nowadays? The other day I had listened to an old mix tape a friend had made long ago and enjoyed it so much. So I looked up at my tapes and started pulling some down to listen to various cuts. The tapes are from a certain time in my life, something like 20 years ago. I had a blast listening.

I started out with "Carmelita" a song Warren Zevon wrote, but the rendition I played wasn't Zevon's but Dwight Yoakum on vocals and Flaco Jimenez playing accordion. The next song I played was Rodney Crowell singing John Hiatt's "She Loves the Jerk." A theme seemed to be emerging: Life is hard and love hurts. I'll list the songs I listened to at the end of this post. But before I do I'll go right to the last song I played before bed.

It was "Set" by Youssou N'Dour. I was blown away not having heard it for years. I opened the liner notes and read the English translation of the lyrics:

Set (Clean)

Have a clearmind
Be pure in your heart
Be sure in your actions
One day all the world's musicians will meet
Music has no frontiers

One day the Americans
Will find a new vision,
And the Russians too
Will see life in a different way
For there are too many weapons
And war is terrible

I have a vision of all Africa
Being united one day

Give me your hand
Give me one chance to know
What do you think,
For the future?

The young people are crying
Because the older ones are frightening them
That's what makes me sad
They are crying because
They have no hope

Gulp, I'm going to listen to my old tapes some more. Who knows maybe I'll even figure out how to put some of my old music on my computer.

Here's the song list:

Carmelita - Dwight Yoakam
She Loves the Jerk - Rodney Crowell
Holding Back the Tears - K.D. Lang
I Want Your Love - Chris Isaak
You - Maxi Priest
Belefonte - Joyce (Moreno)
I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - Al Green
I Can't Get Next to You - Al Green
You've Got Me - Etta James
Got You On His Mind - The Subdudes
Set- Youssou N'Dour

Photo credit: Henryk Kotowski Creative Commons cc Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

New Computer

Early in June my computer was destroyed by a lightning strike. We're up on a hill and the place seems a lightning attractor. Generally the electric grid is well grounded as is our household electric system, but the grounding of the telephone system seems less so. Following instructions my DSL modem was connected directly to the computer rather than through my surge protection. This is not the first computer I've lost by errant electricity over the telephone lines. In fact, the computer lost was a 10-year old Dell Desktop running XP that a friend gave to me to replace the computer previous to it lost in just the same way, which had replaced another lost in a lightening strike. I will add that all of these computers were used longer than what many people consider the useful life of a computer, something around three years.

A dear niece got married here at Thistlemoor in late June, so I was panicked by not having a computer to coordinate with all the out of town guests. A friend lent me a Dell Mini NetBook computer which was a great help. Also knowing that young people would bring their computers and that the World Cup games would be going on I finally got a wireless router for the house. This has the added advantage that my new computer isn't plugged in directly to the phone lines which I hope will prevent lightning from destroying another computer.

The Dell Mini uses an Ubuntu operating system. I had often thought that I should be running Linux, but I was afraid of it because I'm not very technologically adept. But using the Mini was easy. I really liked that it booted in seconds, quite a contrast to my ponderous XP machine. Writing on the Mini was a bit hard. I finally did adapt to the small keyboard, but I found that I too often accidentally closed windows and couldn't figure out what I was doing. It's very frustrating to loose writing, so I just didn't blog.

I think NetBooks are very cool computers. My friend is going to allow me to buy the NetBook from him. I'm happy about that because it makes it easy to share the Internet with my father. I have found Readability a great tool. Just clicking on a bookmarklet turns a Web page into a more readable page. It's great for the small screen of the Mini and it's great for my father who is not accustomed to the Internet because it removes the clutter from the page. I'm looking forward to having both a DeskTop computer and a NetBook.

Thinking about getting a new computer, something that immediately came to mind is computers are for rich people. I needed something inexpensive. I was impressed by how good the Mini was with its Atom processor, so I looked at Atom desktops which are often called "NetTops." I bought a Meerkat Ion NetTop from System76. I wish now that I had added at least more memory when I ordered it, but money was tight.

Decision making is odd. I saw the Meerkat Ion early on in my search of possible alternatives and thought it very good. I later discovered a computer by Zotac which is very similar to the Meerkat Ion for essentially half the price. I decided against buying that because I had to install an operating system on it and I feel tech-challenged. Part of the selling points of the System76 computers is their customer support. I'll discover if System76 customer support is actually worth anything more than frustration because it appears the machine System76 shipped to me is not configured correctly.

The invaluable Dave Winer posted recently Throwing out software that works. Among the topics in that piece is how Apple's IPad is setting back the development of NetBook computers and the role that corporate filters play in preventing users from getting the products they really want. I wanted my new computer to have Linux installed and I was surprised to discover how hard it is to buy a computer without Microsoft software installed here in the USA. I found this especially odd considering how excellent Ubuntu on the Dell Mini is. I understand that neither Microsoft nor Apple is happy about Linux, but I think that the difficulty of buying a computer without Windows7 installed really has more to do with suppressing NetBooks than Linux.

One option of a place to buy a computer available to me is Best Buy. I had a very unpleasant run in with a salesman there a few years back when buying a computer monitor that cost less than $100. The argument was over my reluctance to pay over $40 for an extended warranty for it. The clerk just wouldn't let the subject go, and all in the rude tone common among those who fancy themselves as geeks. It's one thing to say how great you are, but quite another to imply or say outright that the other is not so great. Online I've read many horror stories about the dealing with Best Buy which have added to my prejudice against the store. I was really pissed off in reading Microsoft trains "Linux assassins". There are many interests who benefit from keeping inexpensive computers rare. I can't quite put my finger on why I'm so irritated by the anti-Linux learning module Microsoft crafted for Best Buy sales associates, but it's a safe bet I won't set foot in a Best Buy store ever again.

The Meerkat Ion is manufactured by AOpen a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer. The unit itself appears to be made in mainland China. It wouldn't surprise me one bit that System76 purchases AOpen computers through at least one middle man between it and AOpen. Anyhow computers in their line up are made by various manufacturers, so the value System76 adds is not in design and manufacturing but in the customer relationship end of things.

Business consultant Umair Haque talks about thin value, that is profit which leaves "others worse off, or, at best, no one better off." Thin value is possible by marginal profits from the marginal losses of others. What Haque advises that businesses instead of being concerned with thin value that they turn their attention to the creation of meaningful value, so-called thick value, that is, sustainable and meaningful value. In looking at System76 it's clear the company is trying to do well by creating thick value for customers. Linux and open source software in general is a good example of thick value and System76 sells computers only with Linux installed. Providing customer service through among other means at Ubuntu Forums. The company is also active on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

With so much of their business out in public view most of what I've seen about System76's customer support is positive. But I also note customers complaints that they don't always respond to email. The system shipped to me has problems related to System76 Drivers not being properly installed, so I wrote them an email rather than address the issue at Ubuntu Forums. I regret that the computer wasn't sent to me in working order, but am quite interested to see how System76 responds.

The last computer I bought--the one before the cast-off Dell a friend gave to me--was purchased at CompUSA. A month or so after purchasing it the computer developed a hardware problem. I took it into the store only to get a harangue that it was a virus and not a hardware problem. I was pretty sure it wasn't a virus because in setting the computer up fresh out of the box it was infected with a worm which took me on a long slog to remove it and then to learn how to secure my computer. After keeping the computer for a week they called me to pick it up. The hardware problem had not been fixed. I took it back again and with much grumbling they took it back. It didn't work any better the next time I brought it home, so on the third time they sent the computer back to the manufacturer to be fixed. I was without a computer for about a month. That's bad enough, but how I was treated was the most discouraging part. Indeed all the incentives for business is thin value. I was happy that the repairs were made under warranty and without additional cost, but the trips to and fro were not cost free to me.

System76 doing better than CompUSA is a pretty low bar, but here's hoping they make that leap. Of course I would like the response to be much better than that. Clearly I've got a vested interest here, but I've got an interest in a detached sort of way too. The question is whether System76 walks the walk of creating thick value for their customers or merely talks the talk.

I discovered that I miss blogging. I can't imagine that anyone missed my blogging, it's just something that adds to my life. Still I hope that with a new computer, and especially that it runs Linux that I'll become more computer literate. This blog and a few others I have need some attention to make the more accessible if anyone stumbles upon them. It's nice to be back and posting.

Photo credit: System76