My excuses for letting this languish – work mainly. Of course, not just the “Oh please Lord, let me keep my paycheck” kind – but also the hard toil that comes from fighting the Lich King in the cold tundra of Northrend night after night! On top of that, I’ve been trying to get serious about learning guitar and have been taking lessons. Haven’t quite mastered barre chords yet, but I’ve manage to accumulate plenty of callouses.

But yes, in case there are those that still wander into this corner of the Net, yes I’m still alive – and looking to get back to writing this blog again soon.

I’ve had fun with WordPress – but after listening to Leo Laporte and John C. Dvorak tout SquareSpace on their podcasts, I’ve been thinking about giving it a try, if for no other reason than it’s something new and shiny. No respectable gnome can resist that!

Be back soon!

Well, Biceling can certainly tell you the things he often has great zeal for.  One look at the banner on the top of this page and you can tell he’s played a lot of computer games, including World of Warcraft.  Not only that but he has a passion for all sorts of stuff which he likes to talk about on this blog: Windows, Mac, Linux, iPods, and other fun “techie” and “geeky” stuff.

For other people, the things which they have great zeal or passion for could be their home, or their car, or their job.  Still, for other people, it could be making money, or writing free and open source software.  Or it could be playing sports.

All these things are certainly enjoyable, but the problem is, they only provide pleasure for a season.

Solomon wrote about this in Ecclesiates:

I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; 
I refused my heart no pleasure. 
My heart took delight in all my work, 
and this was the reward for all my labor.

Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done 
and what I had toiled to achieve, 
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; 
nothing was gained under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 2:10:11 (NIV)

Understand, Solomon was the richest and most prosperous king Israel had in its entire history.  He had everything, and I mean EVERYTHING: wealth, fine food and wine, mansions, power, and hundreds of wives and concubines.  And yet Solomon was miserable.  Though he had great wealth and possessions, and passion for many things such as knowledge, wisdom, and great works of art and architecture, in the end they all ceased to provide the satisfaction they once did.  There was “nothing gained under the sun”, but rather a feeling of emptiness.

We may not be as blessed with riches and possessions the way Solomon was, but we do tend to try to fill the void in our lives with things that we think will make us happy.  But are these things really that important in life?  I’ve heard the pastor at my church make the following point, which I’ll state a little differently: when you are on your death bed – the last thing in the world you going to want at your side is your computer where you can admire your Level 60 Paladin with his “Tier 3″ armor set.  Nor are you going to care about any of your possessions or your money.  Usually, it is at the time close to death when we really see what is really important in our life, and that is our relationships, that is, our family, friends, and loved ones.

Even still, our relationships with other people are not perfect.  For one thing, life is short.  I have been blessed in my life to have a great and loving Mom and Dad, and a terrific sister and brother.   But you know what?  They’re all getting old, and they won’t be around forever. 

Sometimes a relationship can go bad, resulting in friend or a spouse leaving you.  Sometimes people that you know will lie to you or treat you badly.  While it is important to have relationships other people, you still can’t completely put your trust in them.   As God’s word says:

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”  Romans 3:23 (NIV)

Friends, there are a lot of fun and cool things I have enjoyed, such as computers, games, technology, music.  And though I am not married, there are many times in my life that I thought such a relationship might make me happy.  Yet I have come to learn in my life that such things are utterly  meaningless and worthless compared to a relationship with God, through his Son Jesus Christ.  God will never leave you.  He will never grow old and die.  His love for you is perfect, and he always knows what is best for you.   And he will be around for you long after all your prized possessions on Earth have turned to dust.   And with God, you don’t need to worry about the details of your life, no matter how tough it gets.  Jesus Himself said it best:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

 And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’   For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.“   Matthew 6:25-33 (NIV)

With Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, you have no need to worry about food, clothes, and all the various things in life to make you happy, because Christ is the ultimate source of your happiness.  He is the most important person in my life, and I hope and pray he is the most important person in yours.

Do you know Jesus Christ as your Savior?  Then God bless you!  But if you don’t, and you’d like to learn how to have a personal relationship with Him, then I urge you to read this article which I have also linked at the top of this page: How to Get to Know Jesus Christ.

May God bless you all and be with you this week!

“Hey Biceling, how come you don’t have any cool graphics and videos on your site?”

“Hey Biceling, isn’t that just the default WordPress theme?”

“Hey you little runt, what’s the matter with you?  Arent you gotta dress up your site some more?  Take look at Instapundit, now that’s a real site!  Are you gonna get ads on your site like they do?”

Oh, go get your own blog, you big ape! 

Yeah, I’m still working on the decor for this blog, whenever I can get the time.  Doesn’t help that I’m a lazy gnome, either.  I like computers, but when it comes to other things in the tech world, I’m kinda like my Dad (sorry, Dad!).  It took me long enough just to figure out how to use the Contacts list on my cellphone.  At least I’ve managed to upload a nice picture of myself.  And I kinda like this new theme!  The header could still use some work though.

Hope you all have been having a great week.  There’s more neat stuff coming to this page soon in the next few days, so stay tuned!

Anyway, manchicken didn’t like the fact that I linked to a certain article on his blog using the word “zealotry”.  He felt that I was “marginalizing” his viewpoint to make it seem like it was less important than my own.  First of all, I apologize to manchicken if the way I linked to his page seemed disrespectful.  Certainly, I do not think his viewpoint is unimportant, otherwise I wouldn’t have linked to it.  In fact, I encourage everyone to read his article right now.  Also check out the Free Software Foundation website and read up on free software.  There are a lot of people in the Linux community that believe as manchicken does, and I don’t mean to just pick on him.

I’ve read a number of manchicken’s posts on Planet Ubuntu.  He is actually a contributor to the KDE version of Ubuntu, called Kubuntu.  Although I disagree with much of manchicken’s views regarding free software, I highly commend him for his work on Kubuntu.  In fact, do you have an old computer lying around that you don’t use much anymore?  Why not head over to the Ubuntu website and download Ubuntu 7.04?  It won’t cost you anything to try it out, and it might breathe new life into your new computer, especially if it is old enough to still be running Windows 98 (which is no longer supported by Microsoft).

While my post yesterday mostly tackled the zealotry of Apple fans, I tried to temper my arguments to Apple lovers everywhere by pointing out that there is zealotry in the Linux world too.  And while I certainly didn’t intend to be dismissive of manchicken’s article, I still think it is an example of zealotry.  Not that zealotry is necessarily bad, though it can be.  It may be zealotry for a cause: the spread of free software everywhere, but it’s still zealotry.  And unfortunately, I fear that this zealotry is hurting the Linux movement, and is keeping Linux from reaching it’s full potential.

You see, many people in the free software movement do not believe Linux is just another product.  They believe that it is important that Linux stays completely open source (free as in “freedom”).  There are some Linux distributions available like Linux Mint, that not only contain open source software, but also contain some parts that are closed source and proprietary.  These are things like video drivers and multimedia codecs.  These proprietary pieces of software may still be free as in “price”, but they don’t include the source code.  And that is what free and open source software is all about: being free to modify the programs you run and free to distribute your modified programs with the source code.  Don’t get me wrong.  I think open source software is COOL.  At work, I often use two GPL-licensed open source programs: WinMerge and 7-Zip.  I wish a lot more software was open source and protected under the GPL.

But most people using a computer don’t care as much about using open source software as they do about simply using software that works.  And while Linux Mint certainly isn’t 100% open source, I’ve personally found it a lot easier to use than most other Linux distributions, including Ubuntu.  Unfortuately, many people in the Linux community do not like distributions like Linux Mint, even if they are easier to use.  And they fight any effort to bundle proprietary codecs and drivers into more popular distributions like Ubuntu.  This often makes Linux quite frustrating to use, as there are often no equivalent open source drivers or codecs.  To get the drivers and codecs that people need to make their computer run as they want, they often have to download them separately.  Granted the new “Restricted Drivers” page in Ubuntu 7.04 makes this somewhat easier, but I still had to download packages manually to get MP3 support fully working in my copy of Ubuntu (after consulting the instructions on the unofficial Ubuntu Guide web page).  The entire Linux desktop experience could be made a lot easier for many people, if more Linux developers were willing to bundle proprietary software with Linux to fill in the “holes” that free software doesn’t yet cover.  To most people, Linux is just another product, and if they find Linux is too much trouble to put up with, then they will gladly pay to use Mac or Windows.

And that is sad, because to be quite honest, for an operating system that was mostly built by volunteers (albeit with a lot more corporate backing now), Linux is an amazing operating system – especially since it doesn’t cost you anything to try it out.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t have anywhere near the commercial software development support that Windows or Mac has, so trying to find the programs you want that work the way you want can be quite frustrating (especially if they are games).  And although Ubuntu is very easy and quick to install these days, configuring it to your liking afterwards often requires spending a lot of time searching through the online forums for help with problems, unless you want to use Automatix, which is not officially recommended by the Ubuntu developers (I won’t dive into that controversy!).

Maybe Microsoft’s insistence on putting WGA, Trusted Computing, and Digital Rights Management into their software will annoy the public so badly in the future that they will get fed up and leave Windows in droves.  Maybe Apple’s overpriced and restrictive hardware will be the last straw, and all PC users will flock to Linux.  This little gnome would be happy as a clam if it happened, but right now, he’s just not seeing it.

Like I said, zealotry is not necessarily a bad thing, but I think it’s definitely hurting Linux.  It may also hurt Apple to some extent as well, but not nearly as much.  Although it is pricey, the Mac is a really cool and easy computer to use.

So is there a time when zealotry is good?  Well certainly, but I think that subject really should be devoted to it’s own post, which I’ll put up later.  In the meantime, try out Ubuntu, my friends.  You may be surprised by what you see, and although it is isn’t perfect, you may prefer it a lot more than I currently do. 

Take care! 

A friend of mine sent me the following link to a parody web page, which presumes to unveil Apple’s latest invention: the iProduct.  WARNING: This page contains some offensive language, which is rather annoying to ol’ Biceling, because the page would be just as funny had they left out just a few choice words.

Now, I, for one, like Apple, and I appreciate a lot of the neat products and ideas they’ve created over the years.  I have an iPod, and I enjoy learning any news about Apple’s Mac OS X operating system.  Leo LaPorte’s MacBreak Weekly is quite a hoot, and the great Maha Rushie himself is an avid Mac user.

Still, I can sympathize with much of the sentiment in the article.  Mac (and Linux for that matter) seems more of a cult sometimes than simply another product.  Personally, I have little use for zealotry when it comes to consumer products.  I’d rather just use the product that suits me best.  Right now, on my PC that happens to be Windows Vista (although I also have another PC where I run Ubuntu Linux from time to time).  People always ask me, “Why don’t you switch to Mac?”, and I answer, “Because I don’t really have any use for it right now.”  They look at me like I’m an axe murderer. 

Note I’m not saying Macs are completely useless – not at all.  It’s just that the choice of a operating system is really a personal one.  Not everybody is the avid PC gamer and hardware enthusiast that I am.  Not everyone cares if you can’t buy a Mac that has a NVidia GeForce 8800 GTX in it.  Mac users like to use their PC as an appliance.  They don’t care if they don’t have the freedom to change out every single component of their computers like I do, and that’s fine.  But everybody has their own preferences and criteria, and I certainly have mine.

And yes, I know of the evils of Microsoft, of their support of the Trusted Computing initiative, their support of Digital Rights Management (DRM), their laughable claim of Linux violating patents, and other such antics.  But really, I’m not worried about such alleged claims of Microsoft taking over the world.  There are other dangers in the world that are much more important to be aware of.  Besides, Microsoft is being kept in check.  Apple is not going away any time soon, and neither is Linux.

And that’s one thing I do admire Apple for – ever since Steve Jobs returned to the company, it has really turned itself around and put a lot of pressure on Microsoft.  I LIKE seeing Bill Gates get upset at the Apple TV ads, and I love seeing Steve Ballmer sweat over Linux (and believe me folks, Microsoft is scared of Linux, or they wouldn’t be making claims of patent violations that they won’t dare elaborate upon).  As long as Apple and Linux keep turning up the heat, Microsoft will have to work harder to make sure they don’t lose me as a customer.  After all, although I enjoy using Windows, I also enjoy reading news about Microsoft’s competition.

No doubt most of you have heard about Microsoft’s new MP3 player, the Zune.  I currently enjoy my iPod.  Why don’t I buy a Zune?  For the same reason I don’t buy a Mac: I have no use for one right now.  I don’t want a MP3 player with wireless capability.  The place where I work will grudgingly allow the prescence of iPods, but wireless network devices are forbidden.  And DRM is annoying enough on the iPod.  I don’t want to deal with it on the Zune, where it is much stronger.  Guess what?  Despite Microsoft’s entry into the market with the Zune, the iPod is still number 1.  Why?  Because many other people like myself don’t like annoying DRM features and don’t want useless wireless features that could keep them from using their MP3 player at work.   This is an example of choosing a product simply on the basis of whether it has the features you want or need, and not on the basis of politics or zealotry.

And choice is what it’s all about about anyway, right?  I say to Apple, keep up the good work, and keep giving us other choices!  And even if I never buy an operating system from you (might would help if you’d allow me to buy Mac OS X without having to buy Mac hardware with it), then keep making Microsoft sweat!  For that matter, have you all seen the video of Steve Jobs demonstrating Apple’s new Leopard desktop?  I can’t wait for Microsoft to copy it so that I can use it in the next version of Windows. 

And welcome to all of you!  It’s a pleasure to have you all here at Biceling’s Blog O’ Stuff, even if the only reason you’re here is that all the World of Warcraft servers are down and Lost doesn’t come on TV until tomorrow night.  So what will this new site be about?  Well, those few of you who actually know Biceling in real life know how scary he can be when he starts talking to himself (especially when he refers to himself in 3rd person), so he figured he’d try talking to all of you in this blog instead.  And I’ll be talking about all kinds of things that strike my fancy… computers, PC games, maybe console games… (oh, don’t get me started on those right now!), Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac, music, and maybe even news and politics, if I’m feeling adventurous.

And although I’m not an ordained minister (just a silly little gnome mage, remember), I’ll also be sharing my love of Jesus Christ and what little insight I can from God’s Word.

 So, once again, welcome!  And I hope you enjoy the site!