mx’s grotto v5.2.5.1

Adobe CS could end up on Linux, the movie industry is dependent on Linux, and this would drive Linux uptake

Debian for OpenMoko for 2012 announced

Nokia helps port Firefox to Qt

http://identi.ca/markcross

If you can read this - it worked!

Where have we arrived in the course of human history?
Amazon Kindle is probably the start of the most insidious technologies ever created by man?

What is Amazon Kindle?

• It is a universally affordable $400 ebook reader
• Which uses Philips E-ink display
• Books or audio are delivered using EVDO, without a monthly contract

It’s creation will allow man to acquire what most people understand to be God like powers, why? Because the network will:

• Know who you are
• Where you are (via the mobile network)
• What you are reading, viewing and listening to, store and record it for you
• Suggest what you might read, view and listen to

The future editions and competitor products will be:

• Colour
• Play and distribute real time video
• Have touch screens
• Provide digital wallets

What makes the subsequent product types more evil that Amazon Kindle?

• They will come the new “mass media” delivery and recording devices on a global basis providing a one to many medium to replace television
• Each individual will have education individually tailored to their IQ and learning style and everything they have ever learnt via this will be stored in their profile, along with every book they have ever read, film and their movement on the planet
• Each human being will be monitored and profiled, in some way crimes will be predicted as portrayed in the Minority Report because AI will be run on people’s profiles to spot society’s deviants

Excerpt from an SWRDA press release titled the same:

In outlining his skills vision Lord Leitch set some ambitious goals which included:
- 95 per cent of working age adults to achieve functional literacy and numeracy - up from 85 per cent literacy and 80 per cent numeracy today. This means 680,000 basic skills attainment per year against 110,000 today.
- More than 90 per cent of workforce adults qualified to at least Level 2 (equivalent to 5 GCSEs - grades A-C)) - up from 70 per cent today. Ninety-five per cent means 1.7 million more adults with Level 2 and 500,000 people achieving Level 2 each year against 280,000 today.

• What a load of bollocks – define what literacy is?!
• What does it really mean to be literate to a level that is useful for an individual to be useful to a business?

These two whilst being school kid targeted, if you don’t know the subject matter you’ll find them pretty enlightening - without the gift of hindsight!

Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire
by Stephen Dalziel (Author)

&

Kgb Cia
by Celina Bledowska (Author)

• Mozilla Weave the most important announcement for the (social?) web for 2008
• Providing you read history to choosen trusted parties, how disruptive will this become?
• Web directories are about to enter a new era
• Mainstream publishers be aware, the hub of the future is being a trend spotter

& http://labs.mozilla.com/2007/12/introducing-weave/

Face the music - Conjure One and Tiff Lacey (Kaskade Mix)
Lucid Dream 4am Mix - Elucidate

I jest you not, I received this today via a Micro$oft newsletter:

…”

Bill Gates was at the British Library in London on Tuesday to celebrate the launch and made some special announcements. Footage of this event can be viewed at www.windowsvista.co.uk. Earlier this month, at CES in Las Vegas, he labelled the launch as “by far the most important release of Windows ever” and “the highest quality release we’ve ever done”.
“…

The amazon plug:

After years of studying countless winners and losers, the author has come up with a simple idea that explains why some technologies - DVD players, iPods - become huge hits while others - video phones - crash and burn. His big idea is that people are only willing to change when the ‘pain’ of their current situation outweighs the perceived pain of trying something new. In other words, technology demands a change in habits. This simple fact is the main cause of failure for many fabulous inventions. Many companies fall for their own hype and believe that if they build something better, people will automatically beat a path to their door. This is not necessarily the case; as Coburn shows, most potential users are afraid of new technologies and need a really great reason to change. “The Change Function” looks at this trend across many industry sectors, from computers to mobile phone and digital TV recorders, and is invaluable for anyone who creates, invests in, or is interested in, new technologies. ‘every page is a tug at your lapels to see things his way. The world would be a better place if we did.’ - “Wall Street Journal.”

Things are mad out there.
But we are very lucky.

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/10/1553242 

“What does Firefox have to do with social justice? How will the one laptop per child project discourage genocide? How soon will Microsoft collapse? Watch Eben Moglen’s inspiring keynote from the 2006 Plone Conference (Archive.org: mp3 or qt; or YouTube). The video presentation is ordinary, so the mp3 is an equally good format. ‘If we know that what we are trying to accomplish is the spread of justice and social equality through the universalization of access to knowledge; If we know that what we are trying to do is build an economy of sharing which will rival the economies of ownership at every point where they directly compete; If we know that we are doing this as an alternative to coercive redistribution, that we have a third way in our hands for dealing with long and deep problems of human injustice; If we are conscious of what we have and know what we are trying to accomplish, when this is the moment for the first time in lifetimes, we can get it done.’”

IR: …”Second reaction is the link with Mk1. Marxism which identified the condition of people as a consequence of their relationship to the ‘Means of production’.”