DISCUSSION: A Sad Case of Divorce (not): My Very First Korean Konundrum

Andrew Holmes · 11-04-2006, 11:16 AM

This thread is to discuss the article titled:
A Sad Case of Divorce (not): My Very First Korean Konundrum

Quote:

Sometimes, life deals you a bum hand. Your grades were too low, so you couldn't go to college. At breakfast, no milk for your cornflakes. Or you drop the toast; have you ever noticed how the butter side always hits the floor? Your apartment is too small . . . the list is endless, and there's no need to go further and get personal, amusing though it would no doubt be . . . If we gave up after encountering each little problem in our lives, we would all be a bunch of pointless non-achievers, doing nothing because we have no self-confidence and are getting nowhere. There would be no innovations, no new things to make our lives anything but misery and drudgery. The butter side would always hit the floor and we would never learn anything; and our own refusal to learn would effectively be making us stupid. We would still be pulling our own ploughshares instead of using a tractor.

vharishankar · 11-17-2006, 07:10 AM

Wow... excellent article. I really appreciate your writing style and the way you convey your emotions so perfectly to the audience. Kept me gripped all the way in spite of its length. Good job!

Andrew Holmes · 11-24-2006, 11:16 PM

Hi Hari,

Thanks for the appreciation; the next Korean Konundrum will focus on multilingualism under KDE/Linux and how to implement SCIM to change the text language in word processors - and a few of the problems I have encountered.

I think the point is a valid one. The original XP Pro disc was pressed in Malaysia, the installation is entirely in Korean and I have little idea how "safe" any of the following installations were. Text boxes and menus are all in Korean unless I install something which I know will be in English.

And I suppose that in the end, there is a message in all of this. When an OS moves from one area of language preference to another, the underlying software should not change any of its functionality - the only necessary change should be the language packs, which are essentially "text" rather than "software" (in the sense of things which can or cannot be executable) and in an age when whole OSes can be transferred rapidly via the Internet, why oh why can I (or anyone else) not simply opt for whatever my own language preference is and have it installed in a flash? What's the problem?

This is all part of the licensing disease which has struck so many (particularly American) businesses; even music now comes with a "licence", it's just pathetic. These businesses want to restrict the flow of their proprietary software across borders. Haven't they ever stopped to think about the consequences of this? When you can't have the computer running the OS of your choice using your own language preference, this poses an unacceptable security risk when that OS is the target of almost all of the viruses and malware out there, and as I put it in the article, that effectively meant that Microsoft had left me no choice: either Linux or no security on my PC.

Hmm . . . I can feel a rant coming on . . . time for some more coffee . . .

See ya,

Andrew.

dugu · 09-22-2007, 04:44 PM

Great article. Really enjoyed your writing skills

10x

javaunixsolaris · 12-04-2007, 03:44 PM

The bedroom is so cold lately. She's always blue and if I push the wrong button she goes right to sleep. I'm getting a divorce from Windows.