Linux
gregladen | February 14, 2009If you buy an iPhone from Apple, you don't own the iPhone. No. Apple owns you.
According to this item on Slashdot regarding this item from somewhere else on the intertubules.
So if you buy this thing, you can do whatever you want with it as long as whatever you want is what Apple wants. If you want to do something else with your thing, the Apple Police will come and get you.
Big brother, it turns out, is all about Oedipus.
gregladen | February 13, 2009Earlier today, the Linux Epoch time ... which is the number os seconds since January 1st 1970 when the world was created ... reached this number:
1234567890
gregladen | February 7, 2009From slashdot:
"Microsoft is advertising for a new director of open source strategy, but this one has a specific purpose: fight the Linux desktop. 'The Windows Competitive Strategy team is looking for a strong team member to lead Microsoft's global desktop competitive strategy as it relates to open source competitors.' For a variety of reasons, this move is almost certainly targeted at Ubuntu Linux's desktop success. With the Mac, not Linux, apparently eating into Microsoft's Windows market share, what is it about desktop Linux, and specifically Ubuntu, that has Microsoft spooked?"
figures.…
gregladen | January 25, 2009Lots of important things. For one, it's Amanda's birthday! Then, there is some holiday on that date, can't remember. Labor day or something. Then, the 2009 Readers' Choice Awards for Linux Journal come out!
Between now and then, go ahead and vote on your favorite Linux Stuff. To take the survey, must insall lynx if don't have it:
sudo apt-get install lynx
then type in:
lynx www.linuxjournal.com/content/readers-choice-awards
Or, if you must, just CLICK HERE.
gregladen | January 13, 2009If you are currently using Ubuntu 8, the upgrade to Ubuntu 9 will involve the implementation of Ext4. Ext4 is a super duper very fast file system that will make your computer sing. Sing fast.
If you are not using Linux at all, say you are using WinDoze, switching to Ubuntu 9.04 will make your computer run Two Zillion times faster, and it will not keep breaking and doing annoying things.
But remember, Linux is NOT FOR EVERYBODY. No ...
It is only for cool and smart people. For everybody else, Windows. Because Microsoft is there to help you.
details
gregladen | January 7, 2009Consider Super Ubuntu. It is a version of Ubuntu that includes additional extra stuff that many people install anyway.
Here is a wiki page about it.
And you can download an ISO here. (That web site might make a little noise.)
I have not tried it. If you do, let me know how it goes.
gregladen | December 8, 2008I'm putting the following below the fold because it may be offensive to some. But it's really funny.
Normally I don't like humor that makes fun of PC, because it is usually not funny. But this is Linux humor, and there are some gems. Like the "less" and "more" command joke. Ha!
I totally stole this from Linux Personagerie.
Enjoy.
---------- the fold ----------
Politically Correct UNIX: System VI Release Notes
UTILITIES
"man" pages are now called "person" pages.
Similarly, "hangman" is now the "person_executed_by_an_oppressive_regime".
To avoid casting aspersions on our feline friends…
gregladen | December 7, 2008And the results are at the same time boring and astonishing. I mean, look at this graph:
Never mind the details of the graph. The point is that the two distros, running on an almost identical Linux kernel and using identical desktops and an almost identical X system, are almost identical when run on an identical computer.
Details here if you must know.
gregladen | December 5, 2008IBM launches first Linux-OpenOffice desktop with virtualization features ...
IBM has added a Linux desktop with new virtualization capabilities to its portfolio.
The Virtual Desktop, which bundles Canonical's Ubuntu Linux, Virtual Bridges' KVM-based desktop virtualization software and IBM's Open Collaboration Client Solution, is available now, Big Blue announced on Thursday.
None of the pieces are new. But the bundled solution makes it easier and cheaper for companies to deploy a complete VDI solution on Linux, IBM maintains. IBM's OCCS includes Lotus Symphony, its implementation of the ODF…
gregladen | December 4, 2008and unmounting. In Linux.
Here's the problem. With upgrades to Linux Kernel 2.6 for autoplugging devices, and hotswapping of USB devices, etc., mounting has become more complex. At the same time, the spread of Ubuntu and some other Linux distributions among the wider unwashed masses has lead to the stupification (or perhaps I should say the degeekification) of the Linux User Space.
As a result, things like:
/sbin/mount -o nosuid\,nodev /dev/cd0a /CDROM
just don't cut it anymore.
What you really want is a graphical user interface with dancing hard drives and icons for USB ports and such…
gregladen | December 4, 2008Windows OS last month took its biggest market share dive in the past two years, erasing gains made in two of the past three months and sending the operating system's share under 90% for the first time, an Internet measurement company reported today.
source
In the mean time, Linux grew from 0.71 to 0.83%, and Mac OS X grew by 0.66 percent to reach 8.9 percent.
That's a whopping big change for Linux, percentage-wise.
gregladen | December 2, 2008From Lifehacker:
Windows/Mac/Linux: The long-awaited cross-platform media player Songbird officially reaches its 1.0 release today. The open-source application--built on the same platform as Firefox--promises to bring exciting new innovations to a software jukebox market that has become arguably quite stale. Like Firefox, Songbird is extensible, meaning that users can customize the look, feel, and features of Songbird to their heart's content.
gregladen | November 23, 2008In fact ...
Linus Torvalds can run kill -9 and kill Chuck Norris.
Linus Torvalds doesn't die, he simply returns zero.
Linus Torvalds runs Linux on his wristwatch and toaster.
There is no theory of probability, just a list of events that Linus Torvalds allows to occur.
In the tradition of PZ Myers and Obama vs. Chuck Norris, we now have Linus Torvalds vs. Chuck Norris.
hat tip
gregladen | October 6, 2008The fastest, most efficient file manager in Linux is the set of GNU tools including ls, cp, and so on. But if you want a graphical user interface, you pay a cost in overhead. Considering how important file management is, and how easy it is to screw it up, a good GUI is probably worth the overhead. For Gnome users, Nautilus does the job well, with all the bells and whistles. KDE has its own version and I'm sure everybody who uses it loves it.
But, new fangled file managers also tend to get bloated with features over time. I've been thinking of creating a couple of my own file managers…
gregladen | October 5, 2008Hardware has gotten faster and more powerful, but the damn computers do not boot up any faster than they used to. Well, maybe a little, but not enough. Meanwhile, the primary system people use, Windows, has become increasingly bloated. As a result, it is very difficult, as it always has been, to flip on your laptop to do a quick check of email, the traffic for your commute, weather, etc. In fact, the easiest way to do this today is to fire up your iTouch or your cell phone!
Well, according to LinuxDevices.com, Dell has come up with a kick-butt solution to this problem. They are…
gregladen | September 25, 2008... according to a recent study funded by ... oh, never mind. Funded by Microsoft. OK, skip that, but there is some other interesting tech news.
Here's a piece on how Linux is better than Windows. I don't know where I find these things. Have a look:
Microsoft encourages us to think of Linux... as an also-ran operating systems for nerds. The last thing Microsoft wants us to think about is that there are some spaces where Microsoft is a distant number two and Linux is on top. ... One such is HPC (High Performance Computing).
At HPC's very highest end, supercomputers, Linux rules. The…
gregladen | September 18, 2008
8 Linux Laptop - The HiVision miniNoteby Charbax
For $98 [if you wait until October], you get an ultra-portable notebook with MIPS-based processor, 7" LCD, 1GB flash storage, 3 USB ports, Ethernet, SDHC card reader, WiFi, audio in and out, voice-chat, multi-tabbed Firefox browser support, Abiword word processing, Skype and Linux user interface.
Hat Tip: Joe
gregladen | September 12, 2008In many instances, a well thought-out regular expression can convince most non-technical people in the room that you're a computer genius who's brain possesses more synapses, forming more bridges and firing more rapidly than anyone's ever should.
Oh this is so true. The other day I was working on cleaning up some data with a colleague. We had two simple but common problems with our database, which had a few thousand records, and forty or so variables.
1) We needed to get a subset of data that included means for all numeric values based on a single factor (a factor = a categorical variable…
gregladen | September 10, 2008Your computer breaks. You are a Microsoft user. So you call technical support.
You: My desktop isn't displaying anything but a error message
John: I am sorry to hear that, what seems to be the problem.
You: My screen is displaying an error message.
John: I am very sorry to hear that, I would like you to reboot.
You: I just did.
John: I am very sorry to hear that, I would like you to reboot.
You: Really, why? I just rebooted.
John: I am very sorry to hear that, I would like you to reboot.
You: Can you just tell me problem that might cause that error?
John (long pause): Please hold I must get…