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Session #3 20141120 Thursday: Much about BeOS history - some on focuses of HaikuOS
We watched video of 1995 History of BeOS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4A0Lc6DI7A
(targeting developers and early adopters)
notable notes and quotes:
Jean-Louis Gassée, CEO of Be Inc. (exApple product manadger)
:
"One processor per person is not enough"
Beos was free us from layers, "sediments", blank slate
..."The linux of digital multimedia".
BeBox hardware made by Be Inc. was using cheaper
processors
but 5 of them
against dominant
hardware
integration
strategies
(ref.2700 dollars in 1995)
The vice-president of developer relations Steve Sakoman:
"The playing field is level" Turning processors on and off
Key feature of BeOS was multutatsking but also
'pervasive multi-tr
eading
'
that allowed for use of multiple processors interchangably.
Preemptive multitasking - dynamically handling processing,
boxing, virtual machine-like/sandboxing.
Multimedia syncing and control was possible
almost a decade before Linux FLOSS media servers (
flow motion
).
Super object-oriented on many levels (translators and add-ons).
Database
-like file system 64bit journalings (so with
"
live folders
"
-
operate like
tagging rather than hierarchical placing
)
Moving stuff around to look like other system
, but being more advanced
(author Dominc Gianpolo later made GoogleFS and AppleFS updates).
M
ultiple desktop
(9) could be at different resolutions.
Multiple audio, video, TV cards possible...
but also
"you still got the power ... so here is your terminal"
Linux influence on queering desktop?
Neil Stephenson
essay
:
"
In the beginning was the command-line
"
(
Be
OS
is batmobile
=
non-conventional engineers
treating developers
BeO
S
would send source code around
as example instead of manuals.
#2 Session 20141118
Tuesday
: user-identity-privacy-security-obscurity
Not possible to be made in industry
Less efficient, telling stories
Resurrecting/reincarnation of BeOs ... as a Queer OS (or was it already)
Commercial failure, conceptual triumph? Haiku = all error messages in BeOs where written as poems
Bulding it from scratch, but in another world.
One element of all that: how to deal with discontinuous identies
/ fragile identities
/ unstable identities
/ erratic identities, and representation thereof
Other models:
At the time when produce possibilities were large no big functionnal corporation powerfull enough yet.
so we started to go on redeveloping queer os
deal with the idea of multiuser.disambiguate one identity to different users. Question of the duration of identities of communication
Identity sharing we would play with the idea of temporary identities by sharing identity info between user in order to create an emerging temporary character.
Reaffirmations through software. Alghorithms that fragment
We should not talk about sex? Genitals are sex, doing sex ... To be queer means many things
Queerness is a non-category?
Doing sex work, having sex = not sexe ...
We need to talk about class, gender
, situatedness, displacement,
... footprints that have to be left on the OS
(of identification, stability, etc.)
Move away from icons/representation
s of consumerism
Foldering/folders ... logic of what gets wrapped into what
Spending time with your OS ... accumulation
Periodical self-destruction, implosion
Obfuscation: Susan Stryker here:
http://obfuscationsymposium.org/participants/
system wide support for standards on the level of the system
translators: communicating while keeping difference
(both within the OS and of it with its outside)
multiple desktops
a sign of queerness would be to have it on an external HD and even like this be faster than the OS installed in the machine
[disposession as a tactic against property-driven performances within an OS
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2013/09/01/book-review-dispossession-the-performative-in-the-political/
]
How to report the self image of personal OS as an image of one's identity
Luka Freli
h
: streaming
project / self-installing OS work
Martino:
"from tale it became myth"
it seems more interesting to deal with "conditions" such as SUPERUSER (that you voluntarily take for certain tasks and then can leave)
sudo without a sudo group. radical sudo
everyone root?
Life-server project
as extereme explicity
productivity
construction of criticality -- is the computer a space that helps construct criticality?
QUEER OPERATING SYSTEM
#1 Session 20141117 presentation by Željko Bla?e
Queering beyond critique - can it be a productive position??
To Who, Why and How?
What is an operating system?
The g
r
ound software
provid
ing
the b
asis
to
interact with user,
play sound,
show
image, text...
Depending on device or computer, you can have special,
niche ones (chips, phoes) to macosx that needs one DVD of data/code
an operating system is depending on the function
it needs to fulfill but also on market elements..
.
When
competing in a market
these commercial one
s
need
(?)
to follow established GUI
metaphors
'Desktop',
"files" and "folders", concepts of
'productivity
'
like "office
tools
"
Interest of Željko:
What
are most basic uses of average user, without turning you
i
n
an
office cl
e
rk
How
coud you change the
dominant
paradigm
s?
Who can learn/benefit from queer position/experience?
http://wiki.ljudmila.org/Queer_OS
FAR HISTORY:
- Back in 19
95
-
B
e
OS
lost the market battle with Windows
95
buy being 2 weeks too late and by Microsoft blackmailing hardware makers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BeOS
It was mumtimedia focused innovative system
but
relying on
established POSIX
system
structure
(inplemented across all variants of UNIX operating systems)
- State of computing and multimedia was miserable for desktop users
(it would only work when you were lucky and very basic things)
while BeOS could do multi-
mp3 play, 3d mapping, crazy stuffs on a desktop.
Hardware was also made for experimentation and hacking
http://mobile.osnews.com/story.php/20869/Planets-Align-Rare-Hobbit-BeBox-Offered-and-Sold/
Felt like
it would change the
IT
world, but: their
best success
in Market
was a
huge cash
compensation
by Microsoft
(away from court)
,
as
they were bullied off
from
the market
...
Their developers went to Google, Palm and Apple - innovating less radically.
RECENT & PRESENT:
Indy developers
still
tr
y
to re-do
BeOS
with free tools
and make follow-up
in
HAIKU
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku_%28operating_system%29
but different expectations, requirements in the mean time
TOT
A
LL
Y
UN
-
PRODUCTIVE!
(in conventional market terms
:)
IT IS A DEAD-END
(no new major software would be produced for it)
P
roblems with hardware
, drivers
and
software
options are permanent
..
but it still
has
a niche charm while being
more ambitious than common OS
es
Niels
- theorist and package maintainer
(
also
comrade helping to resurrect Haiku as Q
ueer
OS)
gave a talk in 2010 on FODEM talking about Haiku as QueerOS
dealing with situation as queer and use it to advantage to
"undermine the monotone machinery of competition."
Basic
pre-
conditions
and also opportunities
:
- we have to give up to be mainstream.
we will remain underdog
- no pressure to serve anyone than yourself
-> missing in Ubuntu now
innovate in a way that is not relevant for the market
This is a problem within FLOSS.
People do crazy stuff, but they get into trouble.
Free software should not only try to emulate what is already out there
Obscure technology ...
(non-)mainstreaming of LINUX
Linux
distros are
trying to
hard to
counter commercial operating systems
with saim aims and similar goals - prevent radical innovation.
A development that is distributed, hybrid
would be more rewarding.
With Linux y
ou can have access to all code,
that is different in proprietary software.
There are many flavors. "Fairtrade", "Industry strength", "Usable"
Difference between Free (gratis) and Free (freedom)
four freedoms:
1. to use it for anything you like
2
.
to study the code/program
3. redistribute copies to your friends
4
.
redistribute copies of your derivated programs
-> are an invitation to look at how software is constructed, as political object, object of culture, not only pragmatically
use that invitation to think differently, not to make something as powerful as something else
Context for Reflection and Production:
Software Studies is one way this field gets thought, discussed.
Mix between discourse and technology.
Why not happy
with it
?
Z: pushed by academics that need
antagonism
...
not always very political,
compromised by funding,
absorbed by
normalcy and pacification of
academia.
N
ot mature a
s
field yet, popular
mostly
in US
,
(exception. Matthew Kirschenbaum = great!)
not though in Europe and not at technical Universities.
It gets normalized. It should be at Tech faculties
,
not only in Humanities where it is a niche now,
too much self referential
An operating system that is coming out of the closet ...
It looks like MacOS9 ?
windowing and docking
BE OS did inovation in hardwarethey would have their
own machines that would run on 5 (!) non mainstream different processors
geek port; hardware made to be experimented with.
same spirit as Raspberry pi
?
Trying to envision things we can think of that we need to have in a Queer OS
if dominant paradigm is not productivity, what would it be?
maybe not safe, productive ... how to queer an operating system
still needs to be programmed & developed
The problem of 'Maker Culture' - most of the time prototyping things that already exist (so mainly modifications, not tinkering with the system)
joined TimeLab in Gent last year, social fabric of community interesting but not politically charged
'Making & Queering' text/manifesto
need to involve other genders, other sex polarities (not just extend to include women)
found peers in
feminist queer theories .. slowly making into a set-up to work critically
difficult to get these peers talk about the makers' production/own work, before producing
narratives on opensource and sharing would be somehow a given, but
how to be critical of makers production
the agenda for the kickertable was different. denormalize the figurines.
maybe less playable, more expensive,
fragile,
mechanically non-resistant etc. but they will have stories.
non-efficient! but they would have stories.
ie I want to make a very specific figure of 1 person, for example because it is not usually represented, or a symbol, or hybridysed.
can a
figurine be a
symbolic figurin
e?
figurine half human & half currency: because
Professional players reduced to their legs ...
to their value on the market. (to figurines?)
"Naiveté"of the relation to production
a new narrative we see within FLOSS too
... how free time/hobby becomes a way to become employable.
Is the tool or practice hidding content?
how can a hackerspace be a place for discourse?
Not only what we develop, but also
how
we develop.
illusion of the "non ideoligical?" What are the Implications of liberal enthousiasm?
not only in situations of scarcity, but also of abundance of ressources.
-> by producing this: being both free and employable
-> not reproducing what is there, but how to break this
ex. moslim woman playing football
first she created it as still figurine, after research on existing gears for moving sports women, she came up with innovative model
About maker Culture: Free Universal Constrution Kit: to connect all
existing construction
toys together
patch, plug things together -
FabLabs culture and working situations:
hidden rules, both machine and socially defined
machines cannot print everything yet, f.ex. physicial with platic; printing dildos was complicated
-> you need to speak language of fablabbers
-> commercial company did not want to print these dildos + mesh up of commercial icons (Mickey Mouse)
companies do not want to take any risk
, they dictate what can and can't be done
also contrary experience: someone getting maybe too much traction ... taking over more subtle, critical discourses by printing sex toys (press)
it is hard to start from scratch
with full freedom
there is always a license somewhere....
Using software can be seen as a human right? And what does that mean for what software is?
it is not just about freedom for artists
ref. human rights vs queer politics
in LGBT
similar to: you have this freedom to use the code because you are an artist vs. you claim the right to use the code
narrative of complete freedom ... what does that really mean?
direction is given by people/machines/context
Conditional freedom of production "illusion of freedom"
there is always a boundary. How explicit that is
and how you deal with it yourself
"Urban manufacturing"
fitting politics into fablabs as modding
the name of fablab still linkek to MIT
, has to fit manifesto
"democratizing manufacturing" is in fact machines making things (buildings)
wiki house: a kit you can modify (?)
but it doen not open knowledge, regulations... you can change the colour...
http://www.wikihouse.cc/
3D printing a house from ... concrete!
http://3dprintcanalhouse.com/
what about a house from chocolate?
how to subvert the idea of multi-user into a multi-identity system
an immigrant sexworker? a queer activist?
disambiguation - other types of identification. What would that mean, if you would be not the same identity always.
graphics ownership of files and...
P.S. the kicker table wants players
what would we do?
Can we do new handles? what textures would we develop? Shapes?
http://www.timelab.org/en/node/379
LINKS:
http://www.desk.org:8080/ASU2/i.QueerOS
(initial wiki notes)
http://www.haiku-os.org/blog/nielx/2010-04-11_haiku_has_no_future
http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php/BeOS#What_BeOS_said_about_technology
#2nd BeOS Engineer (Belgian)
also developer of famous 3DMIX app
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benoit_Schillings
http://8325.org/haiku/
http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/the-dawn-of-haiku-os