Planet Georgia

Brad Peters: August 2008 Screenshot

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 02:13:16 +0000

As promised, here’s my desktop (click for larger view)

XFCE with compositing, Conky and Avant Window Navigator

Michael B. Trausch: Fontconfig totally rocks.

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:01:52 +0000

So, I was romping around a little bit today, and I noticed this page on the Ubuntu Wiki talking about Fontconfig. There is, posted there, an example for a file ~/.fonts.conf, which makes little fix-ups to font rendering all over the place.

I removed a decent chunk of the file (pretty much all the aliases), but I am rather happy with it. Before now, I didn’t know it was possible to have some fonts render themselves in an anti-aliased fashion. Quite awesome.

Justin Burris: Courses

noreply@blogger.com (Justin B) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:28:21 +0000

So this semester I'm taking

Data Structures
Logic Circuits and Microprocessors
Theoretical Foundations
Intro to psychology
Intro to statistics

I'm really looking forward to these classes. Here's hoping I make an A.
Not to forget however that the Android phone is due to come out October/November.

I'm pretty psyched!

Michael B. Trausch: Upgraded to WP 2.6.1, and on little kids and bathrooms…

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:49:18 +0000

I upgraded the blog to WordPress 2.6.1. I kinda got sick of the way that I was doing the upgrades before, so I made some changes to the layout of my filesystem so that in the future I can just do the following to upgrade to future releases:

$ wget -q -O- http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz | tar -xPf -

This (tar) command is for FreeBSD, I am not sure if the -P flag is necessary using GNU tar or not. It was necessary for FreeBSD because what I did was created a symlink “wordpress” in the directory, pointing to itself, and FreeBSD’s tar refused to extract into a symlink without the -P flag.

So, when the next release comes out, I just run that command again, and do the database upgrade, and it should be all good. So far, in updating from the last major release I was running, I haven’t had to make any changes (that I am aware of) to my theme or anything ‘cuz it seems to work just fine. We’ll see if it stays that way in the future… I am kind of attached to my theme.

On a side note, little children trying to wash their hands, cute as it might be, seems to usually be messy. He managed to get the water all over the counter. Grr.

Michael B. Trausch: The Palm wasn’t cutting it…

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:44:19 +0000

Well, I took the SIM card out of the Palm this evening, because the damn thing keeps locking up and is as unstable as an any early computing device without any form of memory protection. Unfortunate, because I really liked the Palm. There is the possibility that I may be able to install different software on it, though, assuming that any free software stack that might run on it gains support for the phone component. Perhaps it will then be useful and stable, both of which are kind of important to me. I don’t terribly mind the lack of stability, except that every time that the thing locks up, it is next to impossible to boot up again for several attempts, and then on top of that, I lose text messages on occasion.

So, for now, I am back to using the Motorola W490 that I originally got when we switched to T-Mobile. It is at least nice to be able to switch phones in 30 seconds, when things like this happen.

Brad Peters: Linux FTW!

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 19:36:24 +0000

Been geeking out the past few nights setting up an old Dell Dimension desktop as the new home fileserver. I decided to install Ubuntu Server edition on it to keep things simple. Within about an hour I had a working machine using LVM and a Samba server installed. It’s easily accessible, and I’m pondering opening up an SSH port to the outside world so I can get back to it. I also installed Lighttpd (my first experience with it) and I have to say it was pretty painless. PHP, mySQL and Cacti are all running happily, and I’m a happy geek.

On my desktop, I decided to try to play with compositing a bit. I installed XFCE (which is what I’m now using at work), turned on compositing effects and installed Avant Window Manager. I kinda like the little dock. It stays out of my way and is very functional. I also have an XFCE panel to the right, which is handling the system tray, time and main menu. I’ll post a screenshot of it shortly.

Something else amazing also happened this past week. My wife, Bethany, decided that she wanted to try Linux out. After a little guidance, she installed Ubuntu herself using Wubi, and has a pretty Gnome desktop complete with compositing and AWN as well. After about two weeks, I’m going to bug her with some questions and repost them here. So far, she seems to be enjoying it a lot, especially the fact that she can change the look of her desktop anytime she feels like it with ease. Score one for Ubuntu!

Ubuntu Podcast: Ubuntu Podcast Episode#5

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 07:25:44 +0000

Show Notes

Intrepid Alpha was released Thursday Aug 14th
- Latest xorg is available
  - much better support for hot-pluggable input devices such as tablets, keyboards, or mice.
  - most users will be able to run without an “/etc/xorg.conf” file.
- Encrypted Private Directory
  - You can always encrypt whole drives or partitions
  - But what if you just want to encrypt a folder in your home directory?
  - And don’t want to encrypt and decrypt continiously?
  - This new feature will encrypt a directory with your regular login/password and decrypt it whenever you login.
- New Guest user session switching applet
  - Creates a temporary password-less user account with restricted privileges
  - it cannot access any regular user’s home directory,
  - cannot permanently store data.
  - useful to lend people to do quick email check or surf the web
- Updated Network Manager
  - Managing 3G connection
  - no need to login to set up a connection
  - Managing PPP and PPPOE connections (which is used by lots of DSL providers)
- Other interesting Intrepid news
  - Tomcat6 had been uploaded to intrepid and is waiting for testing. It should be available for Intrepid
  - Current behavior when RAID fails is for the system to boot to a recovery console.
    - Server team is adding an option that would allow administrators to specify that the system should instead boot in the degraded RAID state.
    - This would allow systems with redundant disks to get back up and running without requiring human intervention.

Free IT Athens working with Clarke County School District to provide up to 2,000 computers to students and families who can afford them
- Athens is about an hour NE of Atlanta
- Very much needed in county where 80% of students qualify for free or reduced price lunches
- Pilot program involved 130 used computers
- 600 more to be refurbished in the fall
- 1200 more next year

Empathy is a set reusable IM widgets, that could possibly replace Pidgin in Intrepid
- Not meant to be cross-platform like pidgin
- Has voice and video support
  - Some folks who tried it out said Empathy works flawlessly with Google Talk users.
- Its uses the Telepathy framework in Gnome
  - Telepathy supports real-time unified IM, voice, and video communication over DBus
    - DBus is the way applications talk to each other
- Can also use libpurple, the libraries the pidgin uses, for networks that aren’t implemented yet.
- No final decision has been made yet!

How To Forge has a slick 2 page how to on installing openVZ on Ubuntu Server. Talking about more virtualization, this is an awesome way to run multiple environments.
- We spend lots of time talking about vmware and virtualbox (like last week), don’t forget to try out openVZ
- openVZ is in the repos
- Ubuntu Florida LoCo website ran on OpenVZ until Aug, and will soon be running there again.

How To setup DHCP server on Ubuntu Hardy Heron in 3 simple steps!

Intrepid Ibex theme not getting that great of a response form the UI. This seems to be a common trend with a lot of bloggers on the Alpha releases of Ibex.
- Remember, nothing is final yet!

Ubuntu Love Day Manila 2008 - On August 23, 2008, the Ubuntu Philippines LoCo, with University of the Philippines Department of Computer Science and Engineering, will hold an event for sharing experiences, learning, and meeting fellow enthusiasts
- Invited 6 resource persons to share their experiences with Ubuntu in different areas of interest:
  - The Ubuntu 30 day challenge - Aileen Apolo (Google)
  - Ubuntu on virtualization and integrating to a Windows Network - Wallen Tan
  - Ubuntu: Saving lives (and then some) - Charo Nuguid
  - Choice is Good! Welcome to the Exciting, Productive and Wacky World of Ubuntu Derivatives - members of UP Linux Users’ Group (UnPLUG)
  - Ubuntu and the OLPC XO-1 - Rowen Remis Iral (OLPCPH)
  - Kubuntu & KDE: Contributing to an International Software Project - Juan Carlos Torres (KDE Project)

Ubuntu attracts the lion’s share of LinuxWorld’s smaller crowds!
- Each Ubuntu presentation and training session throughout the three days of LinuxWorld was heavily attended, especially compared to similar sessions elsewhere where relatively few attended.
- Even though attendance was a bit sparse during this year’s LinuxWorld Conference & Expo when compared to previous years, the Canonical booth — where the latest Ubuntu Linux software was being shown off — still managed to draw a crowd.
- Cancellation of Ubuntu Live might been a good thing
- LinuxWorld had people who use many different distros, Ubuntu got exposed to them, not a self-selected group

Show Notes Intrepid Alpha was released Thursday Aug 14th Latest xorg is available much better support for hot-pluggable input devices such as tablets, keyboards, or mice. most users will be able to run without an "/etc/xorg.conf" file. Encrypted Private Directory You can always encrypt whole drives or partitions But what if you just want to encrypt a folder in your home directory? And don't want to encrypt and decrypt continiously? This new feature will encrypt a directory with your regular login/password and decrypt it whenever you login. New Guest user session switching applet Creates a temporary password-less user account with restricted privileges it cannot access any regular user's home directory, cannot permanently store data. useful to lend people to do quick email check or surf the web Updated Network Manager Managing 3G connection no need to login to set up a connection Managing PPP and PPPOE connections (which is used by lots of DSL providers) Other interesting Intrepid news Tomcat6 had been uploaded to intrepid and is waiting for testing.nbsp; It should be available for Intrepid Current behavior when RAID fails is for the system to boot to a recovery console. Server team is adding an option that would allow administrators to specify that the system should instead boot in the degraded RAID state. This would allow systems with redundant disks to get back up and running without requiring human intervention. Free IT Athens working with Clarke County School District to provide up to 2,000 computers to students and families who can afford them Athens is about an hour NE of Atlanta Very much needed in county where 80% of students qualify for free or reduced price lunches Pilot program involved 130 used computers 600 more to be refurbished in the fall 1200 more next year Empathy is a set reusable IM widgets, that could possibly replace Pidgin in Intrepid Not meant to be cross-platform like pidgin Has voice and video support Some folks who tried it out said Empathy works flawlessly with Google Talk users. Its uses the Telepathy framework in Gnome Telepathy supports real-time unified IM, voice, and video communication over DBus DBus is the way applications talk to each other Can also use libpurple, the libraries the pidgin uses, for networks that aren't implemented yet. No final decision has been made yet! How To Forge has a slick 2 page how to on installing openVZ on Ubuntu Server. Talking about more virtualization, this is an awesome way to run multiple environments. We spend lots of time talking about vmware and virtualbox (like last week), don't forget to try out openVZ openVZ is in the repos Ubuntu Florida LoCo website ran on OpenVZ until Aug, and will soon be running there again. How To setup DHCP server on Ubuntu Hardy Heron in 3 simple steps! Intrepid Ibex theme not getting that great of a response form the UI. This seems to be a common trend with a lot of bloggers on the Alpha releases of Ibex. Remember, nothing is final yet! Ubuntu Love Day Manila 2008 - On August 23, 2008, the Ubuntu Philippines LoCo, with University of the Philippines Department of Computer Science and Engineering, will hold an event for sharing experiences, learning, and meeting fellow enthusiasts Invited 6 resource persons to share their experiences with Ubuntu in different areas of interest: The Ubuntu 30 day challenge - Aileen Apolo (Google) Ubuntu on virtualization and integrating to a Windows Network - Wallen Tan Ubuntu: Saving lives (and then some) - Charo Nuguid Choice is Good! Welcome to the Exciting, Productive and Wacky World of Ubuntu Derivatives - members of UP Linux Usersrsquo; Group (UnPLUG) Ubuntu and the OLPC XO-1 - Rowen Remis Iral (OLPCPH) Kubuntu #38; KDE: Contributing to an International Software Project ...

Jon Reagan: The Ubuntu Artwork Circus

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:48:34 +0000

It had been decided to create a new theme after each Long Term Support release, meaning that starting with Ubuntu 8.10, a new theme will be released, and there will be no new theme until after the next LTS release in 2010. During that period of time, the theme is fixed to be more appealing and complete. This upcoming release, 8.10, has a new theme, which you can see the development of here.

Unfortunately, the new theme is not recieving a warm reception from most. Many are dissapointed with the new theme, and would like to see another more radical theme, such as a theme called Wall-Light, which has several builds already in the works at gnome-look.org (download the GTK, then drag ‘n drop GTK theme in appearance window). The theme decision has been debated, and it has even been said that it is not the final version that will be used. This release’s theme is ever more important, since Mark Shuttleworth’s call for Linux to leapfrog Apple in the interface category. Besides being a large part of the interface, the theme also forms the first impression new users will have of the operating system. Many users have voiced frustration over the past theme, called Human, but it was generally accepted by most new users as a very attractive, clean theme. Introduced in 2006, it is now at the end of it’s life cycle, and a new theme, called “NewHuman” is being developed. The question of whether or not the current theme in the alpha is still up for debate, as not much communication has been made regarding the current theme, and theme fixes have been included in the current theme, hinting that this theme could form the Ubuntu 8.10 default theme.

There was even a theme competition that was due to be set up in the DeviantArt community, but that seems to have made very little progress, and apparently has not been approved. Why the Ubuntu Artwork/Canonical folks would not take advantage of such a valuable resource is beyond me. The Wall-Light theme was originally proposed there as well, drawn up as a mockup for a proposed theme. In retaliation of the new theme in the Intrepid alphas, an Ubuntu Brainstorm idea (more like 4 of them) has been brought up and has so far received over 600 votes to incorporate a theme such as Wall-Light. Interestingly enough, the first comment states that the theme will not be final, although no recent sources have been given, especially since new fixes to the current theme have been made.

In my opinion, the artwork team and art decisions should be made more open. At least a confirmation that the current theme will or will not be the final theme would be sufficient, but yet we do not even have that. Several months of quiet on the matter, and people are still wondering whether or not the theme that is present in the alphas will be the ones their friends will see when first logging into Ubuntu. The theme also holds a larger importance, as it holds a part in Mr. Shuttleworth’s goal of creating a Linux interface better than Mac OS X. From the evidence, it looks as if only time will tell whether or not the current theme will stand as the default, but certainly there will be plenty of griping from the community until there is closure on this issue.

**UPDATE**

Apparently with the latest alpha release, the dark theme is gone, and the hardy heron theme is back! This could mean a new theme is in the works.

Justin Burris: IE png transparency fix

noreply@blogger.com (Justin B) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:40:26 +0000

Okay, so after spending a few hours trying to fix this bug, I ran across this blog post which had the cleanest & best working fix I've found.

If you've struggled with this, check this ~~guy~~ gal out!

Sorry for the gender mishap there

Nick Ali: My Current Man-Crush: Apple Keyboard

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 04:56:59 +0000

Since I have the occasional man-crush (see Weechat and Weechat on 21″ LCDs), I thought I’d share my latest one.

A little backstory first. My workstation at the office was initially an IBM box, 2 gigabytes of RAM, 2.5GHz or so, single core. It worked fine for a while. Then everyone was upgraded to Core 2 Duo machines, with 4 gigs of RAM, Nvidia video cards…with CentOS 4.5.

Eh.

Now, CentOS is a fine server OS, but for a workstation? And RPMs? We won’t get into that. Plus we had to run XP in VMware, so we could use Outlook. Why not use Outlook Web Access you ask? Apparently the version of Exchange we were running didn’t support reserving resources or rooms when creating appointments from OWA.

Some lucky people got Ubuntu 7.04 or 7.10 instead of CentOS. Still, dual head set up with Nvidia was a bit tricky. And kernel updates would cause VMware to gag, creating headaches for our internal IT department.

So what was the solution?

Everyone got a Mac.

Not just any silly Mac. The new Mac Pros. 8-core. 16 gigs of RAM.

Now you may ask “Nick, why on earth would you need that much horsepower? Rendering video? Some super awesome scientific application?”

No.

I look at Java code all day. Need I say more?

Seriously, between running Eclipse, VMware, and four Tomcat servlet containers, I am very happy to have 16 gigs of RAM.

But the best part about the Mac? The keyboard.

I don’t know how to describe my fascination with it. The aluminum is beautiful. The keys look like cheap plastic, but they are perfectly slick. No need to press hard, making it easy for me to type fast.

Typing on its low profile almost makes it seem like I’m gently drumming my fingers on the desk.

Yeah, the ridiculously priced Optimus Maximus is all the rage today, but the Apple keyboard simplicity reminds me of the old school clickity IBM M keyboards.

After a couple weeks of using the Apple keyboard at work, I decided to get one for my home desktop. It worked pretty well out of the box, except some of the function keys required pressing the Fn button simultaneously.

Of course, the Ubuntu wiki came to the rescue and had a fix.

Jon Reagan: Ubuntu Run by 11% of US Businesses!?

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:33:01 +0000

The VAR Guy is reporting that some Ubuntu marketing material at LinuxWorld mentioned that Ubuntu is being run by 11% of US businesses, which was determined by a recent IDC report. As the VAR Guy mentioned, that does not mean that all of those 11 percent of businesses are running full Ubuntu stacks on all of their machines, but rather are a variety throughout the mix, with some in deployment, and some machines in testing. This is yet another example of Ubuntu being more widely accepted in the business world as a viable option.

Ubuntu Podcast: Ubuntu Podcast Episode #4

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:55:54 +0000

We recorded the podcast from the IBM conference center in Atlanta on 8/9/2008. Jim, Josh, and Nick discuss the upcoming Atlanta Linux Fest 2008 as well as what’s new in the Ubuntu community. There is a high res .avi download encoded in xvid, as well as the streaming flash, .mp3 and .ogg audio formats. I will try to post a lower resolution video for those with lower bandwidth, but I wanted to get this out.

Show Notes

Atlanta Linux Fest plans
- Multimedia on Linux
- Dual-Boot your College PC and make it more useful!
- Gaming
- Symphony
- Lunch: Pizza
- Hands-on:
  - breakout sessions
  - one-on-one trouble shooting.

Ubuntu on subnotebooks
- At OSCON, Canonical had Ubuntu running on Atom-based subnotebook.
  - Atom is Intel’s line of CPUs for ultra-mobile PCs, smart phones.
  - The CPUs are smaller than a penny.
  - Notebooks ran Ubuntu Netbook Remix
  - Touchscreens are becoming prevalent, so the finger-friendly UIs will be interesting

Big week of applications going into the repos

IBM partnering with Canonical (see here and here) to make IBM Open Collaboration Client Solution (OCCS) availabe the repos.
- Notes is their email platform
- Smyphony is a fork of Open Office.

Alfresco - enterprise content management system being put into partner repos. 100% open source.
- There are two editions: Alfresco Enterprise Edition and Alfresco Labs
- The repos will have Alfresco Labs, which is the bleeding edge, GPL
- Alfresco EE is certified on various systems, has professional support, partners and consultants can provide services, subscription service

Ubuntu 8.04 wins Best Desktop Solution at Linux World

Ubuntu restaurant
- vegetables only restaurant in California.
- Website features a video interview with Nelson Mandela and has an Ubuntu logo on it.
- The video is also included in the Examples folder of all Ubuntu desktop installations

Ubuntu has become “noobified”? It’s a dated article, but still relevant.
- Somehow, being easy to use is bad: “but Ubuntu has become so watered down as a Linux distribution that I can only classify it as having been completely n00bified”
- He is used to Fedora: ” I use it 99% of the time while at the University (the other 1% is with Windows), and have had a Fedora Linux server sitting in my office for three and a half years.”

We recorded the podcast from the IBM conference center in Atlanta on 8/9/2008. Jim, Josh, and Nick discuss the upcoming Atlanta Linux Fest 2008 as well as whatrsquo;s new in the Ubuntu community. There is a high res .avi download encoded in xvid, as well as the streaming flash, .mp3 and .ogg audio formats. I will try to post a lower resolution video for those with lower bandwidth, but I wanted to get this out. Show Notes Atlanta Linux Fest plans Multimedia on Linux Dual-Boot your College PC and make it more useful! Gaming Symphony Lunch: Pizza Hands-on: breakout sessions one-on-one trouble shooting. Ubuntu on subnotebooks At OSCON, Canonical had Ubuntu running on Atom-based subnotebook. Atom is Intel's line of CPUs for ultra-mobile PCs, smart phones. The CPUs are smaller than a penny. Notebooks ran Ubuntu Netbook Remix Touchscreens are becoming prevalent, so the finger-friendly UIs will be interesting Big week of applications going into the repos IBM partnering with Canonical (see here and here) to make IBM Open Collaboration Client Solution (OCCS) availabe the repos. Notes is their email platform Smyphony is a fork of Open Office. Alfresco - enterprise content management system being put into partner repos. 100% open source. There are two editions: Alfresco Enterprise Edition and Alfresco Labs The repos will have Alfresco Labs, which is the bleeding edge, GPL Alfresco EE is certified on various systems, has professional support, partners and consultants can provide services, subscription service Ubuntu 8.04 wins Best Desktop Solution at Linux World Ubuntu restaurant vegetables only restaurant in California. Website features a video interview with Nelson Mandela and has an Ubuntu logo on it. The video is also included in the Examples folder of all Ubuntu desktop installations Ubuntu has become "noobified"? It's a dated article, but still relevant. Somehow, being easy to use is bad: "but Ubuntu has become so watered down as a Linux distribution that I can only classify it as having been completely n00bified" He is used to Fedora: " I use it 99% of the time while at the University (the other 1% is with Windows), and have had a Fedora Linux server sitting in my office for three and a half years."

Nick Ali: DebConf Video Streaming

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 06:36:32 +0000

There will video streams from Argentina at DebConf8. Two will be streaming live talks, one will do replays.

Check it out here: http://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf8/Streams

Michael B. Trausch: On ACTUALLY reading things.

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 04:07:15 +0000

Roy Schestowitz often posts two kinds of links: highly underrated, and highly overrated. However, he posted an article a few hours ago that has me wondering if he actually reads some of the things that he posts. The article, Another Reason to avoid Mono: Security, is entirely misleading.

The problem is actually within Windows Vista. Some people wrote programs in Java and for the CLR that are able to compromise security on systems running Windows Vista. Software can be written in many languages, with or without compilation to bytecode. One could use C to create software, which executes directly on the processor underlying the system. One could use C#, Java, or any other .NET language, and have that software JITed for the underlying hardware before execution (or after some profiled execution). One could use a language like PHP or Python, which uses some form of bytecode internally, but only compiles the program when you attempt to run it, distributing the program in source-code form (and so basically, the program is interpreted). As long as the language is versatile enough to access certain types of system resources, allocate memory, and bind to portions of the system, you can write software in just about any language.

So what’s the problem here? The problem isn’t Java or .NET. Both of them are just environments for code to run within, at their most basic levels. For the unfamiliar, both of them start out with source code. You then process—compile—that source code into bytecode. For Java, it’s compiled into JVM bytecode, and for .NET it’s compiled into CLR bytecode. The bytecode for both Java and the CLR both permit calls into system native code—that is, code that is written in C or some other system-level language and isn’t controlled by the virtual machine that houses the bytecode of the compiled application. For example, one can invoke native Win32 APIs from within a .NET application (which has the effect of tying the application to Windows) or one could invoke native routines from the C library on a GNU/Linux system. You can take some of the functionality away from the environments by prohibiting them from invoking these native routines, and thereby increase the security of the environments by ensuring that every last action they perform is capable of being audited, but until there is an operating system that doesn’t use any native code at all that is meant for general-purpose usage, this will always be an issue.

Now, that having been said, I am not sure that it is possible to write any operating system in a way that is backwards compatible in the slightest if it is done purely in bytecode. You certainly cannot implement a POSIX system on a system such as Java or the CLR. That’d mean no more UNIX systems. I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

But in any event, the real problem is this: Windows is, once again, the issue. Read before writing, and scrutinize the information that you read. Look for what the issues are.

I can understand that Roy has issues with Novell. Lots of people do. I can understand that Roy has issues with just about anything that comes from Microsoft. Guess what? So do I. But, I don’t let blind dislike or hatred blind me from things that are damned useful, and I try very hard not to tell untruths about things based on things I don’t know or didn’t truly read.

Do I think that the CLR may be insecure? Absolutely. Everything software is, somewhere, if it is large enough. But I think that the advantages of easily written, managed code, combined with a good programmer that is competent and isn’t greedy for infinite resources, far outweighs the potential of defects in the CLR. Particularly when using an open-source implementation that is capable of being patched far more quickly than anything that comes from Redmond.

Nick Ali: Disappearing Chairs at Bookstores

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 03:58:13 +0000

Over the last couple of months, I’ve visited quite a few big chain bookstores in Wichita, Atlanta, and Orlando.

I see a disturbing trend.

The big soft comfortable chairs are disappearing.

Thats not completely true. There are still a few around the magazine sections, but none in the rest of the stores.

Well, except within the in-house Starbucks, Seattle Coffee or whatever.

Is this is a business decision? I should have asked a clerk. Maybe they don’t want people coming in, sitting down, reading, and then leaving. Instead, people will stroll through the stores, make a quick decision to purchase since there is no way to spend any significant time with the books, and leave.

Or maybe its to steer customers to the coffeeshop, where the bookstore surely gets a kickback.

Too disturbing for me.

Nick Ali: The Crackberry Whores

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:09:25 +0000

The Crackberry Whores, originally uploaded by boredandblogging.

Sitting at a cigar store, enjoying a stogie, just not enough for the guys.

Michael B. Trausch: Have I told you lately how much Banshee rocks?

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 04:46:50 +0000

Well, probably, but I have to say it again.

Of course, I used to listen to Internet Radio all the time. I kinda fell out of the habit of doing so, because a lot of the way that I use my computer changed, and so I stopped listening to music all the time while I was working. Part of it was that my speakers were giving me a hard time, and part of it was that there was just too much going on.

Well, anyway, when I started listening to music again recently, I’d started using Banshee’s 1.x releases, including the alpha and beta releases. Now, you could easily listen to Internet Radio by using the “Open Location” menu option, and I’d just done it that way. But with Banshee 1.2, they re-added direct support for Internet Radio. So now, you can add and save your stations, and it doesn’t come with the annoying list of pre-sets that the 0.1x releases had, which became out of date eventually given the fluidity of the Internet.

It’s wonderful. I am listening to lots of music that I haven’t heard in a long time, on a wide variety of stations. This makes me really, really happy. I cannot imagine using any other media player, now that Banshee does pretty much everything. I use it for listening to podcasts, I use it for listening to Internet Radio and my locally stored music—and this is kinda funny—but I am finding that if I had the money to support the habit, I’d purchase music a lot. I’ve heard several songs in the past week that if I had the fundage, I’d buy, because I haven’t heard them in a long time and I’d love to have them in my local collection. Oh, well, that’s life—maybe someday, everyone will wake up, DRM will go away, and people can openly buy things no matter what system they choose to use.

Robert J. Caskey: Don't Count on Using AT&T DSL With Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Rob J. Caskey) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:34:31 +0000

You sign up via phone, give them your credit card number, high-tail down to th store and buy yourself a DSL modem, hook it up, use the temporary user name and password to get online, and then go to set up your permanent user name and password. ActiveX, insert a CD, what? That's right, you can't register for a service you are already paying for unless you are running Windows. "What if I get on my Mac (I didn't tell her this Mac was purely hypothetical, I don't got one)." "I think there is a separate devision in our fee-for-service support that does that. "Is there anyone else I can talk to?" After another 15 minutes on hold I get a new tier -2 support tech, but at least this one has some common sense. She calls billing to verify I am who I claim to be. Fifteen minute wait. In the end her and Billing decide the only information they have that they can verify me by is my street address. After that I can hear her mutter to herself and can tell she is running through the ActiveX applet on my end. I tell her a username and a throw-away password, the last 4 of my SSN, set some awesomely secure security questions "favorite pet? That's going to be KlekZ3~x04!?," and then finally I have the DSL username and password.

So the moral of the story is if you are persistent, don't believe anything the AT&T folks say, are highly technical, and are OK with someone else agreeing to the TOS on your behalf, hey it's easy, it just takes 53 minutes.

And what should AT&T do? Either fix their system so that you can sign up without ActiveX and without browser sniffing and without a special CD that I highly doubt contains a Linux setup guide, or provide a free on-site tech to come out and set up the account since they want to ensure it is done on hardware and software that meet their specifications, which is not enumerated by the person you call to sign up, and which should play no roll in the business agreement between me and my ISP.

Anyone Billionaires at Canonical want to take up these kinds of things for the cause? Wanna talk about reasons why this year isn't the year of Linux on the Desktop? Here is one, there are thousands like it. Four or five people full-time (because this kind of work is boring as dirt, trust me, I just spent 53 minutes doing it) helping sympathetic individuals file appropriate help-desk tickets within their organizations and passing out kudos and warnings to deserving individuals might go a long way.

Joshua Chase: Ubuntu Podcast #3

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:11:54 +0000

Nick had to do the show solo and pulled it off nicely. I was on vacation but will be back for show #4. Great job Nick, aka (boredandblogging), very informative. Some highlights, Mark Shuttleworth throws the gauntlet on Linux desktop, Ultamatix, Launchpad 2.0, and Ardour.

Check it out here!

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Ubuntu Podcast: Ubuntu Podcast Episode #3

joshua.d.chase@gmail.com — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 20:41:00 +0000

Josh is on vacation this week, down in Destin, probably having way too much fun.

Show Notes

Alpha 3 released, Alpha 4 comes out August 14th
Mark Shuttleworth talk at OSCON got huge coverage: basically, Mark throws down the gauntlet: Make Desktop Linux Better than Apple
- In 2 years, can the Linux desktop go from stable, robust, and not so pretty…to just blowing by Apple?
- Journalists and bloggers are asking: Is it possible? Apple controls the whole stack, Linux/Ubuntu can’t
- Journalists and bloggers are asking: Is it possible without someone taking charge?
- Will be interesting to see what the ArtWork Team can come up with.
- 8.04 was supposed to have some cool new themes, but it got pushed.
Ultamatix, successor to Automatix released - it basically installs applications and commonly-used audio and video codecs.
- Some of the applications might not be free or might having licensing issues
- Or sometimes no one has gotten around to putting them into the repositories yet.
- AX was very controversial. When it started out, made it easier for new Ubuntu users. But it would tended to cause people lots of pain eventually during upgrades.
  - Matt Zimmerman, Ubuntu CTO, said “I cannot recommend the use of this program, and systems where it has been used cannot be supported with a clean and official upgrade path.”
  - Matthew Garrett, who was on the Ubuntu Technical Board at the time, took a look at AX: “In its current form Automatix is actively dangerous to systems - ranging from damage to small items of user configuration, through removing user-installed packages without adequate prompting or warning and up to the (small but existing) potential to leave a system in an unbootable state.”
  - They were asked to work with Ubuntu developers, but not much progress was made.
  - Eventually Automatix got sold off and there was no release for 8.04
- Ultamatix - Not done by the AX people
- Ultamatix creator says he tried to fix the problems that Automatix had -
- Its been pointed out that Ultimatix uses apt force-yes options:
  - from man pages of force-yes: “This is a dangerous option that will cause apt to continue without prompting if it is doing something potentially harmful. It should not be used except in very special situations. Using force-yes can potentially destroy your system!”
- It seems like when people are reviewing it, they are not looking under the hood. Specifically, a certain linux.com article which was a rave review of Ultamatix.
Linux pre-installed on 2.8% of machines sold in the UK since Vista has been released.
- Might not seem like a big deal, but its big news since it jumped from .1%
Full Circle Magazine #15 is out.
- Pretty cool magazine, kinda like Linux Format
- Only available online in PDF format
- First issue came out June 2007
  - The Ins and Outs of Directories.
  - How-To : Separate Home Partition, Create Your Own Server Part 7, Using GIMP Part 4 and GRUB 101.
  - MOTU Interview - Mathias Gug from Server Team
  - Also gets translated into several languages
Launchpad 2.0 Out - Its where a lot of Ubuntu-related projects are hosted.
- What is LP?
  - Hosting service for open source projects
    - share code
    - file bugs
    - translations
    - New 2.0 release include:
      - APIs to access LP data without going through the web interface
      - code reviews
      - mailing lists
      - integration with bugzilla and trac, which are pretty common and widely used apps for filing bugs
- Some other big name projects like MySQL and Zope
- Source code for it has been closed so far, at OSCON, Mark Shuttleworth said code would be released in the next 12 months.
- Good thing of having only one Launchpad is being able to file bugs properly. Say someone files a bug in Ubuntu that is really in MySQL, its easy to assign the bug over to MySQL.
- Once open sourced, you’ll see lots of different Launchpads pop up and the collaborative nature will become tougher.
Ardour screencasts - Ubuntu UK team is in the process of doing a 13-part series on mixing a podcast with Ardour:
- So far discussed:
  - setting up environment
  - arranging tracks
  - adding music, cool effects like fading in and out
  - compression
  - filters

If you have problems listening to the ogg or mp3 on the webpage, please try downloading it.

Josh is on vacation this week, down in Destin, probably having way too much fun. Show Notes Alpha 3 released, Alpha 4 comes out August 14th Mark Shuttleworth talk at OSCON got huge coverage: basically, Mark throws down the gauntlet: Make Desktop Linux Better than Apple In 2 years, can the Linux desktop go from stable, robust, and not so pretty...to just blowing by Apple? Journalists and bloggers are asking: Is it possible? Apple controls the whole stack, Linux/Ubuntu can't Journalists and bloggers are asking: Is it possible without someone taking charge? Will be interesting to see what the ArtWork Team can come up with. 8.04 was supposed to have some cool new themes, but it got pushed. Ultamatix, successor to Automatix released - it basically installs applications and commonly-used audio and video codecs. Some of the applications might not be free or might having licensing issues Or sometimes no one has gotten around to putting them into the repositories yet. AX was very controversial. When it started out, made it easier for new Ubuntu users. But it would tended to cause people lots of pain eventually during upgrades. Matt Zimmerman, Ubuntu CTO, said "I cannot recommend the use of this program, and systems where it has been used cannot be supported with a clean and official upgrade path." Matthew Garrett, who was on the Ubuntu Technical Board at the time, took a look at AX: "In its current form Automatix is actively dangerous to systems - ranging from damage to small items of user configuration, through removing user-installed packages without adequate prompting or warning and up to the (small but existing) potential to leave a system in an unbootable state." They were asked to work with Ubuntu developers, but not much progress was made. Eventually Automatix got sold off and there was no release for 8.04 Ultamatix - Not done by the AX people Ultamatix creator says he tried to fix the problems that Automatix had - Its been pointed out that Ultimatix uses apt force-yes options: from man pages of force-yes: "This is a dangerous option that will cause apt to continue without prompting if it is doing something potentially harmful. It should not be used except in very special situations. Using force-yes can potentially destroy your system!" It seems like when people are reviewing it, they are not looking under the hood. Specifically, a certain linux.com article which was a rave review of Ultamatix. Linux pre-installed on 2.8% of machines sold in the UK since Vista has been released. Might not seem like a big deal, but its big news since it jumped from .1% Full Circle Magazine #15 is out. Pretty cool magazine, kinda like Linux Format Only available online in PDF format First issue came out June 2007 The Ins and Outs of Directories. How-To : Separate Home Partition, Create Your Own Server Part 7, Using GIMP Part 4 and GRUB 101. MOTU Interview - Mathias Gug from Server Team Also gets translated into several languages Launchpad 2.0 Out - Its where a lot of Ubuntu-related projects are hosted. What is LP? Hosting service for open source projects share code file bugs translations New 2.0 release include: APIs to access LP data without going through the web interface code reviews mailing lists integration with bugzilla and trac, which are pretty common and widely used apps for filing bugs Some other big name projects like MySQL and Zope Source code for it has been closed so far, at OSCON, Mark Shuttleworth said code would be released in the next 12 months. Good thing of having only one Launchpad is being able to file bugs properly. Say someone files a bug in Ubuntu that is really in MySQL, its easy to assign the bug over to MySQL. Once open sourced, you'll see lots of different Launchpads pop up and the collaborative nature will become tougher. Ardour screencasts - Ubuntu UK tea

Jon Reagan: Theme Fix in Ubuntu 8.10

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 17:54:40 +0000

A recent fix has been made in the Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex system. In the past, form fields, documents, and any other space was filled with a darker-colored background. Now, in the updates, the form fields and documents all now default to the more pleasing white:

So, you may be asking — So what?

It shows that this theme is being developed further and further, and could be the theme used in the final release. So far, I like it! It blends well with the applications, and it is also easy on the eyes.

Brad Peters: Dear KDE 4.1

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:40:19 +0000

I tried to give you a fair chance. I installed you on both my work and home machines and used you for a few days, but sadly I’m afraid this might be the end of the road for us, dear KDE. While we’ve been through a lot together, a lot has changed since the 3.5 days. I really don’t want to get into it, but it’s probably for the best that you know why I’m parting ways with you.

You’ve just become too blingy for your own good. You’re not Windows Vista, nor will you ever be, so why try to keep up? While on my higher end desktop you performed OK, you seemed quite sluggish on my work machine. It’s not the latest and greatest, but it seems to run KDE3.5 just fine. Dolphin, your file manager is terribly slow. When I right click for a context menu, there shouldn’t be a 5 second delay in showing it to me. I’m sure there are options somewhere for me to turn that off, but I never had to deal with that before on this box using Gnome or KDE3.5.

Crashing the main GTK application I rely on for work is not a good way to make inroads with me. Granted, you only did this to me on my work box, but regardless it’s something that I cannot soon forgive. There are some other nagging issues, such as when I run a script or program from your “runner” (Alt-F2), you’ll execute it, but when you’re done you whine that you now can’t find the executable. Neat trick, and I’ll file a bug on it if one hasn’t been filed already.

You’re sluggish, I’m sorry to say. That new bling has come at a price, and that price (at least right now) is performance. Yes, my work desktop has integrated graphics, but should that really matter to you? It just seems like you went for the bling and left performance for another day. Unfortunately, these things combined will leave me with no choice but to find something else until a later release, when hopefully you’ll be back to a level where I can use you daily.

Jon Reagan: KDE 4.1: The Best Linux Desktop Ever

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:14:52 +0000

A while back I posted that KDE 4.0 was my perfect desktop. Now, I have one better.

I am running Kubuntu with KDE 4.1. I haven’t used it for more than an hour, but so far it is AMAZING! I really didn’t expect such a change in a point release, but things have really improved. The usability and applications are working much better, and also have a lot more “bling” to them.

Congrats KDE Team!

Michael B. Trausch: PS1 heaven

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:09:01 +0000

No, not the PlayStation. PS1, the shell prompt variable. This prompt should work on any system that has the lsb_release utility installed. If you don’t have that installed, then you can change the OS_RELEASE variable to match whatever system you’re using, by hand.

Append the following to the end of your ~/.bashrc (if you use GNU bash, anyway) and you’ll have a pretty cool looking prompt (IMHO, of course):

prompt {
    local WHITE="\[\033[1;37m\]"
    local GREEN="\[\033[0;32m\]"
    local CYAN="\[\033[0;36m\]"
    local GRAY="\[\033[0;37m\]"
    local BLUE="\[\033[0;34m\]"
    local BROWN="\[\033[0;33m\]"
    local RED="\[\033[0;31m\]"
    local RESET="\[\033[0m\]"
    local KERNEL_VERSION=`uname -r | grep -o '[0-9][0-9]*\.[0-9][0-9]*\.[0-9][0-9]*'`
    export OS_RELEASE=`lsb_release -is`\ `lsb_release -cs | awk \
'{ print toupper(substr($0, 1, 1)) substr($0, 2) }'`

    export PS1="\n${CYAN}\D{%A, %Y-%b-%d} ${BROWN}at ${CYAN}\D{%H:%M:%S}\
 - ${RED}\u${BROWN}@${RED}\h - Linux\
 v${KERNEL_VERSION}\n${OS_RELEASE}${CYAN}:[\j]:\W> ${RESET}"
}

function pcmd {
    printf "\033]0;%s@%s - %s - %s\007" \
        "$USER" \
        "$HOSTNAME" \
        "$OS_RELEASE" \
        "${PWD/$HOME/~}"
}

prompt

case "$TERM" in
    xterm*|rxvt*)
        export PROMPT_COMMAND=pcmd
        ;;
esac

Michael B. Trausch: Police have major potential for suckage.

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:53:06 +0000

YouTube - Critical Mass Bicyclist Assaulted by NYPD

I have seen and heard a lot more about police doing infuriating and unlawful shit like this a lot since around 2005. It seems that it just happens more often.

What the hell is wrong with police officers these days? You can’t just knock someone off their bike—if a mere citizen did that, they’d be charged with assult posthaste and dealt with through the legal system. I’d like to know what has happened to this police officer, but I am willing to bet that he’s not been charged yet. Hell, police in 2006 police charged Neftaly Cruz of Philadelphia with Obstruction of Justice for taking a picture of police action with his cell phone.

The law makes provisions for those who are attacked by mere citizens and defend themselves, but what about when you are attacked by the law? What is the defense? You cannot simply defend yourself when you’re assulted by a police officer, because it is “more” illegal to hit an officer of the law than it is a mere citizen—somehow, the law thinks that their lives are instantly worth more, even when they give up their rights by violating the law themselves. Now, I am not saying that all police are bad. But when police are bad, there is no adequate defense against them unless there is some sort of public outrage at the situation, and even then there’s no guarantees.

The fact that things like this continue shows just how “free” we are as a nation, and the fact that the law is often in the favor of police (who provide “security”) just demonstrates it even more. It’s really pathetic.

Oh, and speaking of lack of freedoms, Microsoft wants to prevent the use of alternative bootloaders on systems that have Trusted Computing Modules in them. What the hell? I am quite glad to not have that junk on my system. I don’t generally like the “trusted” computing module thing, and while I can see some nice things possible with it (such as the ability to put GnuPG keys in it and have hardware-accelerated encryption), using it to lock out other software and systems is grotesque to me. There has to be a way to enable interoperability… after all, secure standards are those that a third party can be completely aware of and yet unable to break. In any event, it’s another reason to not use Microsoft’s operating systems.