Not Tetris 2
September 10th, 2011
Not Tetris 2. To quote the author:
It's got all the upsides of Tetris and all the downsides of physics
Available for Windows, Linux and MacOS X, and well worth a look IMHO.
[Via The Tao of Mac]
Putting on a carnival show
December 11th, 2008
The organiser of the Helios Project, an initiative that promotes the use of Linux by schoolchildren, received a fabulously clueless letter from a local teacher by the name of Karen who had:
"…observed one of my students with a group of other children gathered around his laptop. Upon looking at his computer, I saw he was giving a demonstration of some sort. The student was showing the ability of the laptop and handing out Linux disks. After confiscating the disks I called a confrence (sic) with the student and that is how I came to discover you and your organization. Mr. Starks, I am sure you strongly believe in what you are doing but I cannot either support your efforts or allow them to happen in my classroom. At this point, I am not sure what you are doing is legal. No software is free and spreading that misconception is harmful. These children look up to adults for guidance and discipline. I will research this as time allows and I want to assure you, if you are doing anything illegal, I will pursue charges as the law allows. [Emphasis added]
Two thoughts:
- I think the first line of the first comment nailed it: "Absolutely goes to show the mindset billions of dollars of PR money will buy."
- The very best line came later in the email: "I am sure if you contacted Microsoft, they would be more than happy to supply you with copies of an older verison (sic) of Windows and that way, your computers would actually be of service to those receiving them…" Wanna bet?
As it turned out, this wasn't the end of the story: Karen got in touch to discuss the matter and is having Linux installed on her PC this weekend. Even so, to my mind it's not an entirely positive outcome to the story: I'd like to know more about why, exactly, Karen was so "tearful [and] frightened" that she was on the verge of going to law to protect her privacy. Did some idiot post her contact details on line and tell Linux supporters to explain the error of her ways? Was it that she ended up having an uncomfortable discussion with her school's principal when he or she started receiving enquiries about the story?1
[Via Memex 1.1]
- In fairness, it may also simply be that Karen is not used to being talked about online by total strangers and reacted badly to being the centre of attention for a bunch of total strangers, some of whom – if a few of the comments on the linked article are anything to go by – clearly have a few issues of their own with public schools/teaching unions. ↩
Comments Off
Apple vs Microsoft
July 8th, 2008
And how would Linux fit into that picture?
I think the Linux equivalent would be a pile of knobs, switches, LEDs and a soldering iron, with a post-it note enscribed with the phrase "man 1 soldering_iron". ;-)
[Via Bifurcated Rivets]