Linux

Four short links: 6 November 2009 - Barcode Scanning, Downloadable Community Book, Gov Hack Day, Android Kludges

2009-11-06T04:00:41-08:10

Red Laser -- "impossibly accurate barcode scanning". Uses Google Product Search to identify products that you scan using the camera on the phone. I remember Rael and I talking to Jeff Bezos about this years ago, before camphones had the resolution to decode barcodes. The future is here and it's $1.99 on the App Store ... (via Ed Corkery...

Announcing O'Reilly Answers - Clever Hacks. Creative Ideas. Innovative Solutions.

2009-11-04T21:27:12-08:11

We're launching the beta of O'Reilly Answers, and I'm inviting you to be part of it. In brief, O'Reilly Answers is a community site for sharing knowledge, asking questions, and providing answers that brings together our customers, authors, editors, conference speakers, and Foo (Friends of O'Reilly). O'Reilly is at the center of an amazing exchange of knowledge sharing and idea generation, and we want you to join us in changing the world by spreading the knowledge of innovators.

Four short links: 29 October 2009 - Learning Programming, Functional Javascript, Controlling Firefox, Kicking Ass (with SSDs)

2009-10-29T20:56:14-08:12

Anatomy of SSDs -- A teeth-rattlingly technical Linux Magazine article explaining the different types of SSDs (Solid State Disks--imagine a hard drive made of rapid-access Flash memory). Artur Bergman told me that installing an SSD drive in his MacBook Pro gave the greatest performance increase of any computer upgrade he'd performed since he went from no computer to one. This and more in today's Four Short Links.

VMware Cookbook

2009-10-23T23:50:58-08:13

A Real-World Guide to Effective VMware Use

Linux Netbooks: They're Still Out There

2009-10-22T23:49:12-08:14

I found a wide variety of systems with Linux available from mainstream outlets and factory direct, at least here in the United States where I live. While I don't have updated market share figures it's clear, despite claims by Microsoft and their supporters, that Linux remains entrenched in the netbook market and is spreading out from there.

Four short links: 8 October 2009 - DIY Baby Rocker, Unix Systems Glory, Encrypting Ephemera, and Explaining Creative Joy

2009-10-08T12:58:56-08:15

Linux Baby Rocker -- Check out this inventive use of a CD drive and the eject command, combined to create an automatic baby rocker. (via Hacker News) This and more in today's Four Short Links.

The Day The Netbook Died

2009-10-06T23:57:53-08:16

On that Friday, with no warning, the little netbook failed to boot up. I couldn't even get to the BIOS. For the third time a Sylvania netbook I owned had suffered a premature hardware failure.

Linux in a Nutshell

2009-09-23T12:53:02-08:17

Everything you need to know about Linux is right in this book. The latest edition of this popular reference offers a tighter focus on Linux system essentials, as well as more coverage of new capabilities such as wireless network management, DVD recording, and revision control with git. Linux in a Nutshell, Sixth Edition thoroughly covers programming and administration tools, editors, and the shell, and highlights the most important options for using the vast number of Linux commands.

Four short links: 14 September 2009 - NoSQL, Gov 2.0 Videos, Linux Conf, Geodata Grump

2009-09-14T05:26:44-08:18

WTF Is A Supercolumn? -- Cassandra is a NoSQL database, a triplestore that scales superwell. Because it's not the usual relational thing we're accustomed to, the language can be a barrier to learning: ColumnFamily, SuperColumns, and more. This post explains what's what, with examples. (via joshua on Delicious) Gov 2.0 Summit Videos -- When I grow up, I want...

flex & bison

2009-08-14T23:49:51-08:19

Text Processing Tools

Upcoming Webcasts: Git in One Hour - Meet Experts Online

2009-08-14T16:31:12-08:20

In this webcast, Git evangelist Scott Chacon covers the basics of the Git source control system. He'll introduce the audience to Git basics: staging and committing snapshots, viewing the commit log, pushing to and pulling from servers, and creating, switching between, and merging branches. Finally, he'll quickly cover a few more advanced features - code annotation, advanced log options and possibly more, time permitting. Attendance is limited for this August 13th event, so register now! More Upcoming Webcasts - Meet Experts Online: Energy Literacy Entity Framework Tips & Tricks Nuclear Energy: Future Directions Check out our Webcast page for on-demand videos of past webcasts and more upcoming live events!

The Future of CentOS and Criteria For Choosing a Business Distribution

2009-08-06T01:56:07-08:21

The whole time the dispute between the CentOS developers was in the news development moved forward and patches were released. CentOS was never a one man show. It was perhaps in danger of forking or a name change but it never really was anywhere near point of death.

Is Oracle Getting Ready To Kill Unbreakable Linux?

2009-07-14T17:29:08-08:22

Will Unbreakable Linux be pushed to the sidelines by another open source operating system?

Find your Bay Area Linux User Group

2009-07-13T17:27:15-08:23

Our local Linux groups are getting ready for OSCON and have put together a flyer for the Bay Area LUGs. Regions include the North and South Bay, Sacramento, San Francisco, Peninsula, Santa Cruz, and more.

Jono Bacon on the Value of Good Communities - We need to build good relationships across all of open source.

2009-07-09T12:57:33-08:24

Ubuntu has enjoyed fantastic success over the past few years, becoming one of the dominant Linux distributions, and the distribution of choice for netbooks. Jono Bacon's job is to make sure that that success continues, by keeping the huge Ubuntu developer community happy and productive. We caught up with Jono in advance of his appearance at OSCON, the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, and he was more than happy to talk about the efforts underway to not only improve the Ubuntu community, but also bring together other communities, such as Gnome and KDE, to help them work better together. Jono officially works for Canonical, a company founded by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth for the promotion of Ubuntu and other free software projects.

Low End Linux Netbook Prices Continue To Drop

2009-06-29T23:25:58-08:25

It almost goes without saying that you won't find anything that runs Windows at anywhere near these prices. Oh, and no, that doesn't mean that Linux is somehow inferior as Windows fans would want you to believe. It is, however, free of charge.

Version Control with Git

2009-06-15T07:51:03-08:26

Version Control with Git takes you step-by-step through ways to track, merge, and manage software projects, using this highly flexible open-source version control system. Git permits practically an infinite variety of methods for development and collaboration, but its flexibility also means that some users don't understand how to use it to best advantage. This book offers tutorials on ways to use it, as well as friendly yet rigorous advice to help you navigate Git's many functions.

Four short links: 12 June 2009

2009-06-12T10:32:36-08:27

New Media Challenges: Legal and Policy Considerations for Federal Use of Web 2.0 Technology (Center for American Progress) -- report on the issues around Web 2.0 use in Government, which include privacy, security, Public Records Act, advertising, etc. See also It's Not the Campaign Anymore: How the White House Is Using Web 2.0 Technology So Far from the same...

Windows or Linux? A case of machine ignorance

2009-05-21T22:26:13-08:28

Our artist at O'Reilly was spell-checking the text in a drawing and got a strange recommendation. Perhaps Adobe is little behind the times, not recognizing Linux as a word, but where did the recommendation for Windows come from?

Southern California Linux Expo: freedom in a service economy, and more

2009-05-21T22:26:13-08:29

This evening's SCALE blog covers Bradley Kuhn's keynote on Software as a Service, Jono Bacon on security, Red Hat's counsel on patents, and much more (with ample indulgence for my own opinions).

Linux To Regain 50% Netbook Market Share

2009-05-21T02:01:44-08:30

Stephen Lim, the General Manager of Taiwan based Linpus Technologies, made the surprising prediction that Linux will regain 50% market share from Windows on netbooks by next year.

Favorite Linux Book of All Time: Linux in a Nutshell

2009-05-15T20:50:38-08:31

The Linux Journal's annual Readers' Choice Awards take the pulse of the Linux community, allowing readers to choose their favorites in a number of categories, and write-ins also are accepted. This year, more than 6,000 individuals voted for their favorite Linux solutions—one of the biggest turnouts in in Linux Journal history. And Linux in a Nutshell won the award for Favorite Linux Book of All Time. Our thanks to everyone who voted for this book. We think it's a classic and we're glad that you do, too! To see how useful the book is, check out the Linux Command Line Directory.

Data chef: SPSS Tripe Consomm

2009-05-15T20:50:38-08:32

The data chef discusses translation of data from SPSS format, for those who don't have a licensed copy at hand.

A Linux Netbook Done The Right Way: the Sylvania g Netbook Meso

2009-05-15T20:50:38-08:33

In just over two months of use so far I have been very impressed with the Sylvania g Netbook Meso. None of the issues, hardware or software, that I encountered with the original g Netbook, are seen in the somewhat newer model. The Meso has proven to be an upgrade in performance, in reliability, and most definitely in the area of software.

Linux Performance: Different Distributions, Very Different Results

2009-05-15T20:50:38-08:34

I almost invariably get a comment to the effect that all Linux distros are essentially the same: running the same kernel, the same libraries, the same filesystems. Performance should be essentially the same, right? The answer is a resounding no. The performance results of different distributions, even ones running the same kernel version, the same core libraries, and the same filesystem can be very, very different.

Improved Linux Screen Space Management With PekWM

2009-05-15T20:50:38-08:35

PekWM offers an additional solution: window grouping. It allows a variety of different applications to be grouped together in a single window. Most everyone is familiar with tabbed browsing by now. Window grouping takes this one step further. When window grouping is used in PekWM the title bar in the window manager is segmented with each section effectively acting like a tab.

Interview with Infoworld's Paul Venezia on the Terry Childs Case

2009-05-15T20:50:38-08:36

If you are a network engineer, you might want to pay attention to the continuing case of Terry Childs in San Francisco. In this 15-minute interview, Paul Venezia discusses the inconsistencies in the case, and why every technologist should be paying attention to the outcome of the Childs case.

VL-Hot: A Non-polling Alternative To HAL

2009-05-15T20:50:38-08:37

VL-Hot is an automounter which provides an alternative to the HAL daemon that provides some but not all of the functionality of HAL without continuously polling hardware.

How Linux Supports More Devices Than Any Other OS, Ever

2009-05-15T20:50:38-08:38

Greg-Kroah Hartman discusses why he believes the Linux kernel supports more devices than any other operating system ever has, why binary-only drivers are impractical, immoral, and illegal, and how the kernel development process contributes to the inevitable world domination of free software.

How PowerTOP, LatencyTOP, and Five-Second Boot Improve Desktop Linux

2009-05-15T20:50:38-08:39

Arjan van de Ven is a Linux kernel hacker and the author of PowerTOP and LatencyTOP. His goal is to fix problems in the Linux desktop to save power, respond more smoothly, and to run faster. This interview explains how.