Example 1: Automatic Counter Loop provided by LOLCODE
HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
I HAS A VAR
IM IN YR LOOP
UP VAR!!1
VISIBLE VAR
IZ VAR BIGGER THAN 10? KTHXBYE
IM OUTTA YR LOOP
KTHXBYEAnd since that was kind of funny, RJ posted a great link in IRC today that had me crying I was laughing so hard. Read What would happen if you bought 25 bottles of Nyquil.
Yes, this is a howto on how you should post your Ubuntu related howto. We can all agree howtos are great, however posting them to a blog that not everyone may read, or at least they may not read it today or this year. That is why the great people within the Ubuntu Documentation Project suggest that you should post it to the Community Documentation Wiki. In order to do so, you must first create an account on Launchpad. Once you have created your account, you are ready to begin editing the wiki pages as well as creating new wiki pages. And just in case you aren’t sure about editing a wiki page, you can always send your text that you would like added to ubuntu-doc (AT) lists.ubuntu.com.
Now time for some howto howto 
Planning
Writing
Editing and Creating Wiki Pages
If you have any questions or comments about editing the wiki pages, please do not hesitate to contact the Ubuntu Documentation Project by the email provided above. Also for good measure, it might be a good idea to subscribe to the Documentation mailing list. You can also catch most of us on IRC in #ubuntu-doc on the Freenode server (chat.freenode.net).
And finally, once you have it posted, feel free to blog about your new creation and link to it here so everyone may enjoy it that is reading today. Thank you for your cooperation and we look forward to the many great howtos you all have brewing inside of you.
Until next time…
Let’s get the Ubuntu Planet back on track here and tell all of the great readers about:
We apologize for any inconvenience and return you back to your regularly unscheduled programming.
PS: SABDFL didn’t really steal the hubcaps….
Yes, we know the Americans love this race…Oh wait, they used to love this race. It used to be #1 in the US as the most watched sport at any one time, now it is barely hanging on to the top 10. Nascar’s Dayton 500 took that over, and slowly the F1 racing is making its way in. Anyways…
The race has been exciting, a little upsetting, and at the same time, it proved points I made on the Ubuntu marketing list a couple months back that someone checked me on and said I had no clue what I was talking about. Well, the Linux car crashed, that sucks because I have always liked the driver Roberto Moreno. The good thing though, never once did they mention Linux on TV, so there was no “and Linux crashes.” I did see the penguin for all of 2 seconds just under the air intake scoop though, so there are a bunch of screaming kids asking their parents to take them to see “Happy Feet” now
Rain just moved in and they threw the red flag, hopefully they will get it going because I would really like to see either an Andretti win it or I would like to see Danica. Danica came from now where, back in like 20th place and then all of a sudden she was in third.
So, to Bob, Roberto, and Tom, sorry it ended this way, maybe next year you can do it right and get greater support. Truthfully, hopefully, you won’t go with the Indy 500 though, the race sucks, nobody is watching anymore. Right now the Tennis matches are on TV, the French Open, and they are much more interesting. Time to rethink and rebuild!
OK, so everyone knows that Dell announced (well Direct2Dell) that they will be releasing the new Ubuntu machines today at 4pm CST, Chicago Standard Time
Well, I have seen post after post about how people are getting ripped off by going with Ubuntu and not Vista. Well lets just break this down…
Dell E1505n
I couldn’t find E1505n anywhere on Dell’s website, let alone anything n-series based. If it is there, then Dell’s search sucks. What I did find was the Inspiron E1505 which is Vista based. This laptop starts at $748 USD on their website, and Direct2Dell said it will sell for $599, a $149 difference. I think I am wrong with this one since I couldn’t find their “supposed n-series” stuff, except for desktops. So if this is the case, then the laptop looks to be a great deal!
Dimension E520n
The E520 starts at $649 for a Vista edition. This same system with Ubuntu will sell for $599, only a $50 difference. OK, maybe we are getting ripped off….wait a second…Read the last paragraph for my thoughts on this one.
XPS 410n
The 410n starts at $899 for the Vista edition. This same system with Ubuntu will sell for a whopping $849, another $50 difference. Is there a trend here?
Well, The 2 desktops show a $50 difference between their Vista counterparts. So that is why I think my price on the notebook is flawed, if it isn’t, then I would buy up as many as I could for that price.
OK, so only a $50 difference between the Vista edition and the Ubuntu edition. Ummm, wtf? Well, we are all used to seeing Vista on the shelves for $100+, and aren’t used to seeing it for say $15 or even less per license. Yes, Dell gets that kind of deal from Microsoft, so when you actually purchase a Dell machine, you are really paying for the hardware and not the software when it comes to the consumer based machines. So you really aren’t getting ripped off, wait a second, you aren’t getting ripped off at all. You are getting a great machine with the world’s greatest operating system (yes, I am waiting for the flames from the Vista fanbois)
Now, is this $50 difference going to be enough to cause someone to say, “Hey, check out Ubuntu on this Dell, it is $50 cheaper so I am going to buy it!” I am 50/50 on this one actually. I spent a couple of months working in a field survey class for one of my degrees not to long ago, and my task was to examine and attempt to understand the way consumers purchase goods. Well, I went between Best Buy, CompUSA, Fry’s Electronics, and Circuit City (all of these stores are electronics, computer, audio/video type stores in the US). The one thing I found is that Best Buy outsold them all. Why? Easy, they offered all of their discounts at the register, yet they were still more expensive in the long run compared to the others. The others would sell the same item, but would give your money back in mail-in refunds. So lets say the item retails at $400, Best Buy will sell it to you right now for $300, but the other competitors will sell it to you for $250, but you have to wait on average 2 months to get the $150 back from refunds. People want it now and they want it cheaper. That is the one advantage I see to this deal, even if it is $50. $50 lets you get off your computer for the evening and take your significant other out for a night on the town 
UPDATE: Nicholas hit a great point in the comments that I for some reason didn’t hit. Thanks Nicholas!
Aaron Seigo, of KDE fame, was recently filmed while down in Brazil for FISL 8.0. It is a quick 5 minutes, but in those 5 minutes I heard him speak about the differences in proprietary and open source software that I haven’t heard many people hit on. I will say this, he is correct and it is sad. I have never thought about it the way he put it, which was great. I can attest to what he is saying as well. When I helped run a tech company in Chicago years ago, we had used accounting software such as Quickbooks and Peachtree. Well after the years of upgrading our software, we went back to look at previous years accounting information to try and create some custom reports for potential investors. We were shocked that these latest version couldn’t open, or better yet, wouldn’t open the old databases. If I remember correctly, either Peachtree or Quickbooks stated we could purchase another application in order to convert the old data to the new format.
On another note, my father was talking about a database his company uses to provide potential customers a quote on specialized equipment. It is an old Access database, from the 90s. I guess his company just received new laptops with Office 2007 and none of his salesman can access, let alone create, any proposals. So now, they have to downgrade. And to play fairly, they have to get a bunch of new Office 2000 (or 97 can’t remember) licenses for these new machines. So their new upgrade costed them double than what they projected. This is insane.
Anyways, Aaron did a great job bringing it to light and said it very eloquently. Great job Aaron!
