I finally got some time to read through this interview of Linus Torvalds today. He's known to have an aggressive sense of humor, sometimes funny, sometimes stupid and gratuitous, he's aware of that and that's how I justify my respect for the guy. That and seriously, the Linux kernel is pretty pretty pretty good. I have a remark to make on something he said, I'll try to address this in a hopefully compatible tone.

Linus Torvalds, let me try to explain this to you. It's been really bothering me too, but I'll explain why until a few months ago I was lugging around a 15"4 laptop for over half a decade and why I now shlep around a 14" laptop, still way over 1kg.

When setting out to buy a computer, most people must pick the most adequate machine for their needs and budget, many cannot afford to have 2 computers, or even 2 "recent" computers. So it becomes a sane option for many to get only one computer, if possible a portable one, with a big enough screen to not go insane after a couple of hours of work. We can't all afford a computer just for traveling.

Those that lug around big heavy computers don't specifically do it in order to inflict pain upon themselves nor just to cause you confusion. It's a bit like those who don't travel first class, those who drive crappy cars, and while I'm circlejerking here, it's just like those who die of hunger (why do these people not think of buying food ?). To help you understand, here's some news: not everyone earns millions of dollars every year, and some people only travel once in their lifetime (buying a computer just for that occasion isn't very eco-friendly).

There's this other reason that to me is very important, sadly there are very very few people who follow this through. This is the more serious part of this post.

Some people do not want to buy computers that include a license fee for a product they will not use. For example, I think Apple does indeed make very nice hardware, but it's too difficult to buy one without paying for a MacOS license, and worse, this is the case even in countries where tying is illegal. (I almost got thrown out of la FNAC and Darty just for asking "how much without Windows and Norton ?")

Some people care about this stuff, I am one of them. I'm proud to have never paid for an OS license that I don't use. I will go out of my way to find such a computer, and more importantly if I can't find a computer without an OS license, I won't buy one. Hence I lugged around my old 15" 4kg 7 year old computer as long as I could.

I don't believe that "celebrities" should feel obliged to set examples, it's a stupid idea and I'm sure you agree. That said, it would be nice if you could point your famous middle finger to Apple and other computer manufacturers for doing everything they can to make sure the Free Software and Open source communities pay a mob tax on almost every computer that runs GNU/Linux.

Linus Torvalds, you could even go further, you could start a new foundation to help out those poor bastards. And you should call it the "1 kg per laptop" project. Instead of trying to understand these people with heavy computers, you could just help them buy lighter ones. Problem solved and you're welcome.

:]

Yesterday (or still today in certain time zones) was Data Privacy Day.. I was made aware of this by a doodle on DuckDuckGo.

Of course I opened a new tab and rushed to see what the search engine that I used to use before they became evil had drawn for the event... And well, funny story, Google has totally avoided the subject and instead put up a doodle celebrating the 125th birthday of the biggest recorded snowflake.. p.s. please install Chrome.. Like WTF right ?

As you may know, if you have a Gaccount (Google account), Google has changed their terms of service so that now everything "G" is unified, and what you do in Youtube directly impacts the adverts in your emails, and things you search for.. . etc etc.. And all this with the magic wandish words like "simple", "easy" and "yada yada".

So why has Google omitted Data Privacy Day ? Maybe because data privacy is irrelevant in a system where your personal data lives across over 60 different services.. .. Perhaps I am wrong and it is just an innocent obsession with snowflakes..

BTW, this does not affect you if you do not have any account with Google, so for those rare people out there, bravo. : ]

The new year dead birds mystery has been shortly followed by a other mysterious events. Indeed the streets of London have been invaded literally overnight by Christmas trees. They seem to have just fallen from the sky.

If you are reading this there are chances you already know how to use the Interweb, when you are given an address (url, webiste link, etc) you know how to get there the proper way. However, so many people, and I mean many many many just get it completely wrong. So I thought maybe an image could help explain.

As you can see, when you have the actual address for a site you don't need to use a search engine to find it, you already have it, you may enter it in the "address bar", that is the bar on top circled in green. That is one of its main uses, the other being that it indicates where you currently are. Would you lookup in the phone book a number you already have ? So why do that with an URL ?

LOLOMG !FAIL.. I'm sure this door was put there because it was cheaper than a window...

Edit note:
As youtube removed this video (like so many others). I had to find it again (because it's been re-posted since of course), this time they can remove it all they want..

i found this while looking for an imaginary movie that would have been called "Bombay the Hard Way" but apparently it doesn't really exist : ]

Maybe if things where really like this i'd become a jesus worshipper

My real problem is that there are more of these

In a small village in france a saw a sign.. the funny part is that it was "translated" to english so that some of the tourists could understand .. . .