The "SOPA" and "Protect IP Act" are threatening to destroy the freedom of the Internet by giving goverment the power to blacklist entire sited from the Internet due to the actions of others. The bill is angled in such a way that it makes sites such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, MySpace, YouTube, and thousands more easy targets for complete blacklisting. Wait, what? Yeah. The bill would give the government the power to effectively block all access to any site they want, given it somehow allows al... (read more)

I'm sitting in Barnes & Noble Cafe, working on my computer, and I've begun to notice something; people ask for their coffee in varied and interesting ways. "I need a... venti caramel latte. And gimme a grande mocha." You'd think it was some rude customer demanding these drinks, but no, it was a generally polite woman, probably in her lower to mid thirties. "I want a grande peppermint mocha, and she'll take a tall hazelnut latte. No whip." Again, reading it after the fact seems like it'd be... (read more)

Haha, okay, so that's what you'd think if you follow elementary and Microsoft. So before anyone accuses elementary of somehow retroactively stealing this from Windows 8 after it comes out, here're some things to keep in mind: Launchpad project registered: December of 2010 (meaning it had been thought up and approved before then). OMG! Ubuntu! article: March 2011, when it was already fully functional and implemented in a full OS. Microsoft shows it off in their OS: September 2011 (using the ... (read more)

I'm a frequent reader of OMG! Ubuntu!, a popular Ubuntu-centric blog that's goal is to provide Ubuntu news to "regular" users. Today, they posted an article detailing some recent changes in the alpha version of Ubuntu. Looking at each new item, I thought, "Hm, okay, interesting. Some good design here," and so on. Almost all of the changes I was mostly indifferent to, aside from one: the new Software Center icon. This icon looks like nothing in Ubuntu. In fact, it reminds me of a lot of open s... (read more)

I've been working with elementary and the community for quite some time now, and I've gotten a pretty good feel for the individuals that make up the awesome team. Not only that, but I know the direction of the project as a whole, and I help keep things on track. Heck, that's why I'm part of the team to begin with. I've invested countless hours of my time into helping to craft an incredible open computing platform. So when it receives criticism, I take it personally. Criticism is great; it hel... (read more)