64-Bit Linux Adobe Flash Player: Surprisingly good
(Nov 20, 2008, 14:33 UTC) (67 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
Cyber Cynic: "Talk about a change in priorities! When Adobe decided it was time to start work on a 64-bit Flash Player, they didn't release the first test version on Windows or Mac OS X. No, they released it on Linux and Solaris. Wow."

Mozilla Revenues Hit $75 Million - Hello IRS
(Nov 20, 2008, 14:03 UTC) (85 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
Netstat -vat: "Mozilla Chief Wrangler Mitchell Baker today reported Mozilla's financial position which shows 2007 revenues of $75 million up by 12 percent from 2006 revenues of $67 million. Though Mozilla is on the upswing, Baker's report shows some areas of potential future financial concerns."

Take Five
(Nov 20, 2008, 13:33 UTC) (205 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
Realeyes Technology: "Jazz fans will recognize the title of this post as one of the most famous jazz pieces ever written. It was composed and performed by the Dave Brubeck Quartet and was part of the album Time Out, which contained several pieces in unusual time signatures."

Sun Wrestles Itself With StarOffice 9
(Nov 20, 2008, 13:03 UTC) (225 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
Linux.com: "StarOffice 9 reminds me of the classic Monty Python skit in which Graham Chapman wrestles himself. Although StarOffice is being aggressively presented as an alternative to Microsoft Office, it seems to be equally marketed and bundled to compete against OpenOffice.org, the free software project that is sponsored by Sun and that shares a common code base with StarOffice. The trouble is, the differences between the two have diminished with each release, until, with StarOffice 9, you have to wonder who the potential customers might be."

O'Reilly Webcast: Everything You Wanted to Know About Drupal but Were Afraid to Ask
(Nov 20, 2008, 11:33 UTC) (405 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
O'Reilly Media: "Join us for this free live webcast:
Everything you wanted to know about Drupal but were afraid to ask; Presented by Jeff Eaton and James Walker, authors of "Using Drupal"

Hardening The Linux Kernel With Grsecurity (Debian)
(Nov 20, 2008, 10:03 UTC) (467 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
HowtoForge: "Security is based on three characteristics: prevention, protection and detection. Grsecurity is a patch for Linux kernel that allows you to increase each of these points."

Mounting Xen Virtual Machine Storage on Physical Hosts
(Nov 20, 2008, 08:33 UTC) (517 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
SearchEnterpriseLinux: "In the event that something happens to a Xen virtual machine (VM) that prevents you from starting it, it's a good practice to have the virtual machine storage back end mounted in the Linux file system of the Xen-based server. By doing so, you'll be able to repair the VM quickly and painlessly. In this tip, I'll cover how to do this for physical devices that are used as storage back ends."

Ulteo Unveils the First Open Source Virtual Desktop
(Nov 20, 2008, 08:03 UTC) (799 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
Ulteo: "Following its commitment to desktop virtualization solutions, Ulteo, an Open Virtual Desktop Infrastructure company, announced today that they were releasing the first installable version of their Open Virtual Desktop solution for enterprises."

Phoronix 2008 Linux Graphics Survey
(Nov 20, 2008, 07:03 UTC) (614 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
Phoronix: "This year we're hosting the survey again to allow the development community to get a better understanding of the video hardware in use, what open-source and closed-source drivers are being used, and other relevant information."

Bash Cable, Dish and Local TV Listings Script For Linux Or Unix
(Nov 20, 2008, 05:33 UTC) (459 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
The Linux and Unix Menagerie: "For this week's Monday Linux/Unix bash shell script continuation, we're following up on our script from last week. If you liked that one, please revisit last week's cabletv.sh script, as this one introduces some features which (while nice) introduce a bit of extra run time. This week's improvements include making the script output more readable..."

Authenticate Linux Clients with Active Directory (Technet)
(Nov 20, 2008, 04:03 UTC) (716 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
LWN: "Microsoft's Technet Magazine has a lengthy article on authenticating Linux clients with Active Directory. "Originally, Linux (and the GNU tools and libraries that run on it) was not built with a single authentication mechanism in mind. As a result of this, Linux application developers generally took to creating their own authentication scheme."

Book Review: C Programming: A Modern Approach by K. N. King
(Nov 20, 2008, 02:33 UTC) (1003 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
Free Software Magazine: "A good starting point for learning is K N Kings popular book "C Programming: A modern approach", published by Norton, which has just reached its second edition and hence worthy of a new review."

Tip: Simple Regular Expressions For Reviewing Log Files
(Nov 20, 2008, 01:33 UTC) (837 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
LinuxPlanet: "LinuxPlanet Classics: With a few simple regular expressions you can quickly search your logfiles for problems, nasties, and even good news. These regexps are also useful for all kinds of text searches"

On Feedback
(Nov 20, 2008, 01:03 UTC) (369 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
jonobacon@home: "This has been something on my mind for a long time - how can we see the great many interconnecting lines between different parts of community. In effort to make progress this area, I have worked closely with my team to build some metrics to understand our community."

iBGP: Synchronizing the Internet
(Nov 20, 2008, 00:33 UTC) (498 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
LinuxPlanet: "Last week in our classic Networking 101 series we learned about Border Gateway Protocol, the networking protocol that powers the Internet. This week Charlie Schluting leads the dive into iBGP-- Internal Border Gateway Protocol-- to learn how to connect all those BGP routers together, and how to route between thousands of computers without going nuts."

Good (Linux) Things on the Horizon
(Nov 20, 2008, 00:03 UTC) (1296 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
Jamie's Random Musings on Video IM: "We seem to be in a particularly good period for Linux at the moment. We've recently gotten the Mandriva 2009.0 and Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex releases, and both of them seem to be very good. There will be a number of new releases coming in the next few weeks, as well:"

Bash One-Liner Script To Produce Somewhat-Fancy Output Of Who's Logged In
(Nov 19, 2008, 23:33 UTC) (792 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
The Linux and Unix Menagerie: "Today we're going to shoot out a quick one liner script that can come in handy from time to time. It doesn't fall under the "necessary" category (or, maybe not even the "useful" one ;), but it's nice to have for those times when you just don't feel like doing any extra typing or expending the effort required to separate the wheat from the chaff on a screen full of garbage output."

First Interplanetary Internet Test Completed
(Nov 19, 2008, 23:03 UTC) (562 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
NASA: "NASA has successfully tested the first deep space communications network modeled on the Internet. Working as part of a NASA-wide team, engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used software called Disruption-Tolerant Networking, or DTN, to transmit dozens of space images to and from a NASA science spacecraft located about 20 million miles from Earth."

The Green Penguin - Where Does Your E-Waste Go?
(Nov 19, 2008, 22:33 UTC) (485 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
Linux Journal: "What happens frequently is that a less-than-reputable outfit will pack your e-junk onto a container and ship it off to a developing country with lax environmental and labor laws, where it will wreak havoc on the environment and poor people."

Book Review: American Nerd
(Nov 19, 2008, 22:03 UTC) (450 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
Slashdot: "This book seemed to have potential, particularly since the image of nerds has changed in recent times. Once objects of derision and schoolyard bullying, nerds are now acknowledged as having a place in society. The Lord of the Rings became a multi-million dollar movie trilogy, the internet is now used by an incredible number of people, and computer games are no longer seen as being 'just for kids.'"

Why Free Software is a Con-Trick
(Nov 19, 2008, 21:33 UTC) (1527 reads) (3 talkbacks) (feedback)
Open...: "The key to a con is not that you trust the conman, but that he shows he trusts you. Conmen ply their trade by appearing fragile or needing help, by seeming vulnerable."

Will Flash Ever Be a Standard?
(Nov 19, 2008, 21:03 UTC) (1202 reads) (4 talkbacks) (feedback)
Linux Developer Network: "Yesterday, I caught wind of some good news. It was the kind of good news that is immediately good for me and ultimately good for Linux. It was announced by MLB Advanced Media, major league baseball's online division, that video on MLB.com would no longer be delivered via Microsoft's Silverlight format but instead with Adobe Flash technology."

kerneloops.org Records its 100,000th Oops
(Nov 19, 2008, 20:33 UTC) (796 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
LWN: "Today, just a few days short of the first anniversity of the project, the kerneloops.org database of oopses and warnings has passed the 100.000 stored oopses/warnings."

Patent Hassles for OpenMoko
(Nov 19, 2008, 20:03 UTC) (1049 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
LWN: "When users asked about what was going on, the answer that came back was: "The short story is that we are in a protracted battle with some patent trolls. Google for Sisvel."

Will Microsoft Build Native Mac and Linux Tools?
(Nov 19, 2008, 19:33 UTC) (1070 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
Builder.au: "If the future is in Microsoft's online services why isn't the company building native tools for Mac and Linux developers?"

Answers Trickle Out as Spammer Networks Remain Compromised
(Nov 19, 2008, 19:16 UTC) (1116 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
Washington Post: "At about 4:30 p.m. Eastern time last Tuesday, the volume of junk e-mail arriving at inboxes around the world suddenly plummeted by about 65 percent...But when McColo was taken offline by its Internet providers, so too were all of the botnet control servers located there, security experts said."

Microsoft, Novell See Profits in Partnership
(Nov 19, 2008, 19:03 UTC) (481 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
InternetNews: "Two years ago, Microsoft and Novell inked a landmark deal on patents and Linux-to-Windows interoperability. According to Microsoft and Novell, it's a deal that has shown dramatic momentum in its second year, with a triple digit percentage increase in customers for a total tally of more than 200 customers."

Reiser Seeks to Appeal - Says Lawyer 'Hates Me'
(Nov 19, 2008, 18:33 UTC) (999 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
SFGate: "Hans Reiser, the computer programmer who admitted to strangling his estranged wife, is trying to appeal his conviction and sentence on the grounds of ineffective assistance from his lead attorney."

Unplugging The World's Biggest Spam Host-- Temporarily
(Nov 19, 2008, 18:16 UTC) (1147 reads) (1 talkbacks) (feedback)
A number of stories have been published in the past few days about McColo getting shut down. Reportedly, worldwide spam volumes dropped significantly. McColo then got back online briefly, but was again disconnected due to public pressure.

Unjustifiable Criticism of Richard Stallman by Linus Torvalds
(Nov 19, 2008, 18:03 UTC) (2842 reads) (6 talkbacks) (feedback)
Free Software Magazine: "A recent attack piece against Richard Stallman was written by Linus Torvalds on the eve of Obama's election. Black and white by Linus Torvalds."

iPhone Applications for the Linux User
(Nov 19, 2008, 17:33 UTC) (724 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
Linux.com: "The iPhone and iPod Touch haven taken the mobile market by storm. Apple's AppStore is full of interesting applications that take advantage of the two devices's capabilities. But what's in there for Linux users? Sadly, GTKPod and Amarok cannot yet transfer files on an iPhone with the 2.x firmware upgrade, but there are other interesting ways your iPhone can interact with your Linux desktop and even servers."

Should You Use Twice the Amount of Ram as Swap Space?
(Nov 19, 2008, 17:16 UTC) (3071 reads) (6 talkbacks) (feedback)
NixCraft: "Now, many admins (both Windows and Linux/UNIX) follow an old rule of thumb that your swap partition should be twice the size of your main system RAM. Let us say I've 32GB RAM, should I set swap space to 64 GB? Is 64 GB of swap space really required? How big should your Linux / UNIX swap space be?"

SECURITY: Liability for Software When Life is at Stake
(Nov 19, 2008, 17:03 UTC) (795 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
BoycottNovell: "With roughly 320,000,000 zombie PCs out there, how can any sane person put Windows in mission-critical settings like a hospital? Well, that's just what some people do."

Exciting Features For Ubuntu 9.04
(Nov 19, 2008, 16:33 UTC) (2872 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
Phoronix: "If all goes according to plan, the first alpha release for Ubuntu 9.04 (the Jaunty Jackalope) will be released tomorrow. It's not even been one month since the release of Ubuntu 8.10, but this first alpha release will show early signs of what we can expect to see in this next Canonical-sponsored release..."

The Extremely Vocal Desktop Linux tinority
(Nov 19, 2008, 16:16 UTC) (1108 reads) (13 talkbacks) (feedback)
IT Wire: "Neither Ubuntu nor any other brand of Linux is ever going to make it as a mainstream desktop operating system. Listen to a roar of protests from some of the millions of Linux desktop users around the world. Very loud they are but in the scheme of things their numbers are tiny - they are a tinority."

5 Reasons I Like Linux (And 5 Why I Dislike It)
(Nov 19, 2008, 16:03 UTC) (1536 reads) (4 talkbacks) (feedback)
Shantanu's Technophilic Musings "Light on Resources: I must say that Linux is what still keeps my more than 3 years old laptop running in a prim condition with the latest and greatest of everything from technology stand-point as well as eye-candy stuff."

Dell and Staples Launch Computer Recycling Program
(Nov 19, 2008, 15:33 UTC) (610 reads) (1 talkbacks) (feedback)
Direct2Dell: "Beginning today, any Dell-branded equipment can be dropped off for recycling at any of 1500 Staples stores in the United States for free recycling."
Link fixed--ed.

The Linux Licensing Labyrinth
(Nov 19, 2008, 15:03 UTC) (588 reads) (1 talkbacks) (feedback)
LinuxInsider: "The land of open source software is awash in an often confusing array of various licenses and rules regarding what is and is not allowed once someone has written a piece of code. It's enough to scare some vendors away from FOSS altogether, and that can be a problem when it comes to creating open source drivers. Fortunately, some vendors are coming around."

GNOME.Asia Summit 2008 Report
(Nov 19, 2008, 14:33 UTC) (386 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
17Lamp.net: "The first ever GNOME.Asia Summit was held at the Beihang university, Beijing, China, from October 18th to 19th, 2008. The GNOME Foundation was the organizer of GNOME.Asia Summit in collaboration with Sun Microsystems, Beijing Linux User Group (BLUG) and China OSS Promotion Union (COPU)."

Linux Mint 6 RC1 ScreenShots and Review
(Nov 19, 2008, 14:03 UTC) (1308 reads) (0 talkbacks) (feedback)
Linux Dynasty: "I must say Linux Mint seems to always impress me with every new release. In this release Linux Mint has brought to us a new software manager called MintInstall, which allows you to browse the Mint Software portal offline, see screenshots that are available per package, and much more. Linux Mint has also brought you MintNanny, which allows you to control what domains are blocked."

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