A friend of mine, James Laslavic, started a new group on facebook. He describes it as this,

After the billionth invitation to join the trillionth “We hate the New Facebook” group, I started to wonder if there were any groups for people like me that felt like the redesign was a measurably huge improvement.

On Digg, I posted a comment in response to an article that linked to one of the anti-redesign groups that explained why I felt the New Facebook was better. My comment got almost 170 diggs almost immediately and several other people commented to say that they agreed. Here’s what it said.

The new Facebook is a return to being organized and clean. What you call the “old Facebook” is actually more like the “Facebook wearing a MySpace mask.” Anybody who misses the days when Facebook provided an actual alternative to the super chaotic, cluttered mess of MySpace should be happy with the new Facebook, and all the people that are happy with the “old Facebook” should just admit that they like MySpace more anyway. While all the popular kids pat themselves on the back for opting for incredibly bloated profile pages that take an hour to decipher and scroll through because of having a trillion applications littered throughout, the rest of us will have our cake and eat it too by separating the actual profile page from the apps page with the clever/obvious/overdue use of tabs.

However, I agree that they should let each user choose which layout they want since your choosing to keep using a MySpace clone does not affect my choosing to go back to something that tries to be less hectic.

P.S. Anybody who actually thinks that dividing content into a tabbed layout is maze-like is being silly. Tabs are good. MySpace is not.

So last night, I got yet another invitation to join an anti-redesign group, and that was the last straw. I opened up Illustrator and Photoshop, tried to make a clever banner, and started a group called The New Facebook is Way Better.

I’m actually not crazy about Facebook. It seems like most people are on the site more than me. I’m just frustrated by all the people saying they hate the redesign because to me, it’s clearly better, and maybe it’s because I’m a full-blown Digital Arts and Communication major that it bugs me to see so many popular kids decide to worship a terrible design and bash a good one just to try to be hip and rebellious.

I hope you will join and help us be more visible. And if you’re one of the people that joined any of the anti-redesign groups because a friend sent you an invitation, I hope you’ll reconsider (bonus points if you get the person that sent you the invitation to reconsider as well).

-All written by James Himself. I myself joined the group and just wanted to get the word out. I have sent out an invite to all my friends on facebook, if five join from me I get to be a police officer! C’mon people join! (But, only if you think the cause is right.)

Yes, this is for you.

Owens, Shane
English 10 Honors
Mrs. Falkner Per. 4
09/14/08

I’m the kind of person who’s idea of a good day is to sit in front of a lit screen, then crawl back to bed. I guess this all started with the introduction of the non-proprietary operating system called Linux. Before then I was a normal kid; I played five sports, I went to school dances, and I even kept my room clean. Not that changing my lifestyle completely is a bad thing, it’s actually better in my mind. I mean, if I kept on the same train I was going on, I would just be the same as everybody else. I would continue to work in high school and get a normal desk job after college. Now, with all the acquired skill I have gained writing programs, as well as having the knowledge to fix other peoples computers, I might have the opportunity to work without having to work just doing what I like to do. Isn’t that what we all dream of? Doing what you want to do, and getting paid for it? Might I add that some of the highest paying jobs have to do with dealing with computers? But all these chances wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for James A. Laslavic.

*Part I added for the people in my Writing Responce Group that thought their computer was a Windows. Yeah, they seriously did…*

Five years ago my sister, Kendra, became friends with a kid named James Laslavic. James was a person that knew a lot about a bunch of things. One of the many things he had knowledge about was the open-source operating system called Linux. Linux is an operating system. An operating system is what basically speaks to the computer, it’s like Windows XP, or MAC OS X, or others that you might be familiar with. Basically, it’s an open source (Free and anyone is allowed to edit and pass along the changes) operating system that has a ton of different flavors including things like Gentoo, Ubuntu, Fedora, Slackware, along with the other hundreds upon hundreds. The thing most people like about Linux is that everybody contributes. When there is a problem, you don’t wait on the phone for seventeen hours, you have the right to fix it. Chances are people have the same problem as you and it will be fixed within minutes to hours.

I never really knew that much about James, all I knew was that he was a friend of my sister. One day my mom was kind enough to give my sister and I rides to places where we needed to go. My sister needed to go to James’s house for a school project and I needed to go to one of my overly-repetitive water polo practices. First stop was James’s house. My sister gets out of the car, forgetting the project she was going there to do. My mom and I ride off and around four blocks later I saw she forgot the project. When I walk in to deliver the project to them, the door was open and they were upstairs in his room. I walk in greeted by a large 30 inch monitor presenting a thing called Linux. I was quickly drawn to the screen. I asked what it was and James spent 10-15 minutes explaining what it was. I said, “How can I put that on my laptop?” James, being a computer consultant told me he could come over and install it on my computer free of charge. I sat around all week, waiting for this thing he called Linux to be installed on my laptop.

James came over to my house and put a CD in my computer. He partitioned my hard drive to two segments so I could dual boot, Ubuntu(Linux) and Windows XP. While doing this, he didn’t just install and get out. He explained to me why and how it works. He installed the basic programs which made it look nicer, etc. all explaining his preference and the reasons why he likes these things. Most people that would do such a thing would just install what they need to install and leave. James was different; he was more of a teacher. He taught me the basics, gave me a door to open and I opened it. As odd as it sounds he changed my life in those three hours he installed Ubuntu. After I got used to Linux, I moved away from depending on Windows, I started to only use Linux. Sooner or later, Windows became my backup. After a while I didn’t need to go to James about Linux questions, I just figured them out on my own.

James introducing me to Linux was a gift. He taught me a skill, which turned into a hobby, which eventually turned into a lifestyle. Not only did I learn about Linux, but it opened my eyes to electronics in general. I’m not a hard headed person that only learns about one thing, and that one thing only. I have my mind open to anything in the field of electronics. Not only was I interested into Linux but, I had my mind open to things like, creating custom firmware patches for gadgets, providing computer services to the nice people of Coronado, hosting my own blog and website, and so many more interesting things to me. It’s just amazing that after a couple of hours in front of my computer would change my life drastically. I might grow up, and work devolving something towards the Linux kernel, or something. Who knows? The only thing I do hope, is that I do something that has to do with computers, I don’t care what it is. I just really hope that it’s not something I don’t like to do.

James completely changed the person I am today. Five years ago, there is no way I would think that sitting and learning about Linux and other things involving electronics would be more fun than going to the beach or participating in other silly shenanigans. I’m glad to know that I’m spending my time on something that will help me in the long run, not worrying about the latest style of clothing or how to impress the ladies. Not only did Linux change me as a person, but I’m proud to say that I use and learn more and more about Linux everyday. Linux introduced me into many other things that define me as a person today, and towards the future. I hope to continue using Linux and learning about computer for the rest of my time on this earth. Hopefully I’ll participate in the Linux/Open Source community sometime. Overall, Linux and electronics define me as a person, which never would have happened unless I walked in on James on his computer which led to the install of Linux on my own computer.

So, that’s about it. Be nice in the comments…Neil…Also, James, I’m expecting a Dig. XDXDXD

I think I’ve stepped through the door to high school. I mean, a test everyday of the week? Seriously. I don’t want to sound like I’m whining, I mean. I like school and learning, but srsly? I’m sure I’ll get used to the “routine” and it’ll be all honkey dory. I’ll just sit it out. But, hey I’m learning.