Eric, over at Shoulders of Midgets has a very nice little piece on what is, and what isn’t an operating system. For those who want the short version: it’s not Word.

It reminds me of what someone said in response to Sun’s “The Network Is The Computer” slogan: “The computer is the computer; the network is the wiry spaghetti-like bit that comes out the back. Apologies for any confusion caused…” (anyone know who, by the way?)

Rainbow!

Well, I was sorting out my bookmarks the other day and came across a folder of things I meant to look at from the balloon race, so I thought I’d share them with you. I’ve put them into alphabetical order by sort-of-subject… you’ll get the idea (I hope).

Art, Design & Photography

• Chris Charles – photos I can imagine hanging on my walls…
• Hexapus Doodle Book – blog of cartoons, some touching, some arty, some a bit creepy!
• Jan Peter Thompson – student designer with some interesting projects.
• Munkeybars – designer Patrick Barba’s portfolio.
• Phase Six creative – Canadian design consultancy.
• Richard Wild, photographer – very interesting arty photographs that kind of remind me of Helmut Newton at times.

Computing

• 8 bit hero – gaming, 80s style.
• 48k awards – oldskool celebrity pixel art.

Environment and living

• Green upgrader – an excellent blog about living a more eco-friendly lifestyle.

Games

• Reverse Breakout – it will melted your brains…

Humour

• Coin Stack Challenge – well, it made me laugh.
• Survive animal attack – cute cartoons with an educational message. Well worth ten minutes of your time.
• Top Ten Literal Album Covers – why? Just why? Did nobody have any better ideas? A great site celebrating the record biz’s lack of imagination…
• Top Fourteen Oddest Celebrity Childrens’ Books – and boy are some of these odd!!!
• Your parents are lying to you – top “facts” parents tell children that are as fake as a nine-bob note…

Management

• Synyx – leadership and management development.

Shopping

• Cheap Bargains.org – does just what it says on the tin.
• Sell Student Books – second-hand textbooks for sale. What a great idea!

Travel

• Scuba Diving in Egypt – been to Sharm-el-Sheikh, can recommend it, and this looks a great site for info if you’ve never been.

Web

• Dave Keen – developer for hire, with a nicely designed site.
• Internet Alphabet – nice A-Z of web sites. Worth printing and pinning on the wall!
• Simple Content – a nice looking site promoting their CMS product.

I’ve got more but I got bored. Maybe next time

It’s always nice, when using a new operating system in a virtual machine, to have some apps to look at in it.  So I thought I’d compile a list of some, where to get them, and the usual suspects: OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Thunderbird and Opera.  Here, then, after a quick scan through my bookmarks is all that I can find.  Use and enjoy. (more…)