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Plan9 from Bell Labs

01 Apr, 07

I kid, I kid. I have no intention of changing operating systems, at least until Linux finally is ready for the Deskop. Plan 9 still is nice, though!

Much is foul in the state of computing today. Proprietary software is used throughout the industry as well as on the majority of personal computers. The promised Linux Desktop revolution, announced since years, has not happened so far, and people are beginning to doubt it ever will happen.

This madness must end.

No longer can we use proprietary software! Be it the proprietary operating system we use, or closed source drivers, protocols that are neither open nor standardized, or even embedded firmware in devices.

No longer must people get away with “I use Mac OS X because it’s userfriendly”, when large parts of their OS are completely closed and locking them in.

No longer can “Well, I use Windows XP, but it’s ok, I run Cygwin under it!” be tolerated, lest we all lose our GNU-given freedom.

No longer can we just watch the proliferation of patents, software or otherwise, spreading like a cancer and trying to smother our liberty.

We must stand up and fight! We must retake our freedom! We can not stand and watch as the walls grow closer, not wait until they suffocate us!

Today I’m doing the first step towards my personal free software freedom. And this freedom can not, it must not depend only on some license, or development model considerations. Licenses are manmade. The Tao of Operating Systems is bigger than that.

I’m switching to an Operating System that is pure in itself, whose radiant beauty enlightens the galaxy of computing. One which treats all resources equally, in its infinite wisdom. One which uses the only true encoding - UTF-8 - everywhere. One whose name is funny, and not some ego boosting thing (say what, Linus?).

UNIX may be dying. BSD may be dead. But from the ashes of sockets and ioctl rose the phoenix that is Plan 9.

Replacing a tried-and-true installation of Windows XP with an equally able setup of Plan 9 is easy. You just install Plan 9 — there is no need to bother with backups, partitioning, or selecting packages. After an installation procedure taking some twenty minutes, you reboot into a new, blissful existence. Plan 9 is the Tao, and the Tao is Plan 9.

I want to take this opportunity to ask everyone of you, my readers, to get yourself a Plan 9 installation/live CD. In the month of April, set yourself the task of converting at least five computers from a proprietary, egoistically named, or user-friendly Operating System to the salvation that is Plan 9. Do not try to reason with the unbelievers you encounter, for you will encounter them, and they shall not be swayed from the path of darkness. Only through force can you rescue them from this downward spiral, the lefthand path, the path of usable systems and working devices. By the sword you shall spread the righteousness and glory of the path of light. Plan 9 is the Tao, and the Tao is Plan 9.

Go forth, and spread it.

Remember: The open source zealot’s blood is the seed of Freedom’s tree. This is madness, you say? Madness? This is Plan 9!

Screenshots of my new Plan 9 system will follow as soon as I get my screenshot file working.

Plan 9 is the Tao, and the Tao is Plan 9.

More Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia

06 Jun, 06

Prayer vigil targets Devil’s Day

The “Ambassadors Ministries”, a Dutch evangelical organisation, have started an initiative to hold “a violent day of worship” to counteract the forces of evil. The over 2000 Christians in the Netherlands will be joined people in 23 further countries.

The funny thing is - if nothing spectacular happens on this day, as one would expect, they can claim their little conjuration worked. Just like other religious groups will no doubt use any event happening today to further their own agenda.

In other news, I will make the sun rise tomorrow. Don’t miss the show!

Could Gravitomagnetism lead to a GUT and artificial gravity?

26 Mar, 06

Very interesting experiments regarding gravitomagnetism might lead to a unified theory of quantum mechanics and general relativity. I’ll just link the papers and quote the abstracts, you can read a ‘real’ article at rapidnewswire.com:

Local Photon and Graviton Mass and its Consequences

We show that the presently accepted value of the cosmological constant and a correspondingly small graviton mass leads to considerable gravitomagnetic fields around rotating mass densities, which are not observed. The solution to the problem is found by a graviton mass which depends on the local mass density to ensure the principle of equivalence. This solution, derived from Einstein-Proca equations, has important consequences such as the correct prediction of the dark energy density in the universe solving the “cosmic coincidence” problem, a prediction of the Higgs mass in line with present estimates and a correction term for the Cooper-pair mass anomaly reported by Tate among many others. Perhaps the most interesting results are that the vacuum energy density is then proportional to the energy density of matter in our universe; and that coherent matter can be used to engineer the vacuum. Similar results were obtained for the photon mass which is then proportional to the charge density in matter. For the case of coherent matter the predicted effects have been experimentally observed by the authors.

Experimental Detection of the Gravitomagnetic London Moment

It is well known that a rotating superconductor produces a magnetic field proportional to its angular velocity. The authors conjectured earlier, that in addition to this so-called London moment, also a large gravitomagnetic field should appear to explain an apparent mass increase of Niobium Cooper-pairs. This phenomenon was indeed observed and induced acceleration fields outside the superconductor in the order of about 10^-4 g were found. The field appears to be directly proportional to the applied angular acceleration of the superconductor following our theoretical motivations. If confirmed, a gravitomagnetic field of measurable magnitude was produced for the first time in a laboratory environment. These results may open up a new experimental window on testing general relativity and its consequences using coherent matter.