bad Microsoft is starting to worry about losing some market-share to it. And what's the secret of Linux? It's almost 100% free... All the source code is available for almost everything so anybody can make their own versions or fix bugs or just learn from the ideas of others. It sounds like a ridiculous concept in the fast-paced high-tech industry, but I think it shows that consumers are not happy sitting around waiting for these big companies to get off their asses and give them something they want.

Linux is based on the concept of Open Source. It means that every piece of the software is free for the taking. Anyone else can use it, change it, redistribute it, or whatever. All as long as it stays free forever. The whole concept of something free still being of great value is a little difficult to swallow these days. And that's just why this is so interesting to people. For more info on this, check out the Free Software Foundation. They have been a long-time leader in this field.

But where is this all going? What does it mean for the future of the world as we know it? Maybe nothing. Or maybe something. Maybe it will eventually help change the way we view ideas and how we treat property. Maybe it will contribute to the eventual development of a universal utopia. Or maybe not. Maybe the world will still end as scheduled and none of this has any bearing on anything.

It's been awhile since I've written about these things. The computer industry is still chugging along. More announcements have been made. More companies have continued to grow. Still more companies have been taken over and the lifetime work of countless people has been merged into the amorphous inhuman blob known as modern business.

Likewise, in the world, large countries, such as the United States, have continued to act like bullies with no appreciation for other cultures and real history. We're so young and we act like we know everything! And then on top of that, we get all pissed off if anyone tries to point that out to us.

I don't know if I really believe anything strange is going to happen at the end of this year. I'm trying to piece my feelings about it all together... The recent world events involving Yugoslavia have me pretty worried. This is not a simple issue. I don't see how bombing the country to oblivion will do anything besides make us look even more like the bad guys. I do realize that the dictator we're attacking is entirely evil and cold-hearted (at least that's what the news tells me), but can't we just send in some ninjas and kill him? I guess that sort of thing is considered uncivilized. You're supposed to be up-front about your aggresive actions. You're supposed to drag out the problem for weeks and increase the possibility of killing a bunch of innocent people trying to make their way through life. Makes sense to me.

But why am I so confused then? Why does it make my stomach churn to think about somebody else in the world pushing a button that drops a large explosive onto the ground below, causing the destruction of some real part of lots of lives? Why does every day I am alive make me less able to stomach the violence around me? What sort of revolution has to happen before everyone gets fed up with it all? Is it going to take violence to end it all? Do we really just need to just say fuck it and start over again with a new slate? I fear that may be the case.

But I'm not ready to give up just yet. I am still looking for a real-world solution that might help to bring the world system out of its current rut. What's sort of funny is that I believe I am personally more able to understand world issues than the whole US government. I spend a lot of time talking about how the US is full of stubborn bullies that try to take on all the world's problems. Then I do the same thing... heh.

What I do recognize is how the gap between the rich and the poor is increasing. Isn't that exactly what caused the problems of the past couple of centuries? Isn't that what eventually led to the revolutions that created the current governments? Isn't that just the problem? A further problem now is how the world economy seems to work on a roughly capitalistic level. So, that means that as the rich in America continue to get richer and richer and the poor get poorer (as an obvious result of the changing distribution of money), the poor in other countries also continue to get poorer and poorer relative to the US (and the other industrial world leaders). To the credit of the US, we do tend to try to fix everyone else's problems. I assume it's in response to the guilt we feel about how we treat everyone. The problem is that we don't really do anything that will really help for any length of time. We help by sending food and medical attention, but that only helps the people today... what about the countless generations of the future?

American companies move their factories to second and third world countries, leaving thousands of their American brothers and sisters without jobs. And why? So they can help out their southern neighbors and spread some of the American mega-wealth down there? Hah! So they can make even more money by exploiting their workers to a degree that American law won't allow? That's more like it! And how is it legal for these American companies to treat the citizens of other countries so? How is it that they can perform disgusting acts of greed and cruelty and the world economic power known as NATO does nothing to

go to the next chronicle or
go back to the beginning or leave me a thought of your own