YALB

Some Random Linux Observations

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:02:38 -0700

Ubuntu is the only Linux distro I know of that has its alpha
releases slashdotted and dugg...which is a real shame; I think there
are more that deserve this treatment from linux media sites.
Different Linux distros and desktop camps should recognize their differences as providing choice instead of being something that makes them different.
They all have the same goals...to get people using open source software
and to provide a great experience for the user. Differences are always
looked down upon. Choice is usually a positive thing. We should be
positive.
When designing a new car, automobile manufacturers don’t
build it first and then draft it out on paper. Likewise, Linux architects should not write the code first before creating a draft or set of goals
(whether it be a paper draft, documentation, or QA test cases) that visualize where you want to go. A visual goal is better than written or said one.
For
every Penguin Pete, there is a Ken Starks. There are times when one
outweighs the other. The nice part is that in the Linux community, the
Ken Starks have a longer lasting impact and touch more lives.
The Linux Desktop will never be “finished” and for that I am VERY glad.
Programmers should be more like the code they write...without bias, structured, and incapable of “talking down”.
Every distro ships with at least one thing broken.
Every distro ships with at least two things broken.
Every distro ships with things broken.
If Linux were a dog, it would NOT be purebred.
People
can get excited about Linux because they can take part in it. People
can’t get excited about Microsoft because they can’t take part in it. It’s the difference between playing in the game and being on the sideline wishing you were in the game.
Categorizing something divides; why are we categorizing Linux and developers?
Linux fits well into big business, but big business does not fit well into Linux

By no means are these meant to point fingers...they are just observations. Do you share some? Do you have more to provide? Please, let me know what you’ve seen in or out of your Linux community.

Apple Denies Linux Access To Its Movie Trailers

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:01:25 -0700

Apple has decided to block streaming content from http://apple.com/trailers/ for Linux users. I say this because tonight I went to view a few of the upcoming movie trailers and was told to “Get the Latest Quicktime” in order to watch and I was denied the ability to watch them.

I hit the forums to see if others have the same problems that I have and I’ve found that many people have begun reporting the problem from around May of this year. Not being one to give up, I decided to test things a bit to see what apple.com was doing.

I installed the useragent switcher on Firefox and switched my agent to Windows Vista and IE7. I then watched headers as apple once again denied me despite my agent being accepted by it. It seems that it is looking for an actual install of Quicktime on your system (I can’t tell you for sure, I just know that useragent isn’t what it is sniffing for).

How does one circumvent? Pretty simple. When you are given that denied message “Get the Latest Quicktime”, go to View >> Page Source. Look for a URL that ends in .mov. Copy that URL and paste it into a new tab. That’s it, you’re now watching the trailer.

I want to thank Apple for being exclusionary to Linux users when you benefit so greatly from Open Source software. It sets a great example and shows what is really important to you as a company...and that is forcing your software onto everyone similar to Microsoft.

UPDATE: I wanted to let everyone know my platform since everyone seems to think I’m silly enough to blog about this without installing the proper codecs. I use PCLinuxOS 2007 as my main workhorse distro. The apple trailers site worked for me previously until I recently checked it. I’ve updated this
to current and have all codecs installed (w32codecs, mplayer, xine,
gstreamer, etc.). I have uninstalled, reinstalled, and tweaked
everything I can think of tweaking to get this working. Nothing thus
far works. I should note that this is with Firefox 3 and I’m not sure
if that has anything to do with things.

KDE: Right Click, Extract Here

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:42:59 -0700

I’ve been hunting for a post on how to have KDE “extract here” like Foresight Gnome edition does (it’s really handy to one click extract archives). Post after post found via Google did nothing at all to help me out. Most tried to have you read how to do this manually by creating your own service menu and they would use xterm to extract. I wanted to use ark...mainly because it’s there and it’s a gui.

Then I decided to search KDE-Apps.org and viola! I found it. A handy little tool that allows you to right click on any archive and “extract here” with Ark. Here’s how to install it.

Continue reading "KDE: Right Click, Extract Here"

4 Little Known Thunderbird Extensions

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 06:59:37 -0700

I recently searched through the mozilla thunderbird extensions website and found 4 extensions that I didn’t know about that actually prove to be quite useful. I use Thunderbird 2.0.0.12 on Foresight Linux and have tested all of these extensions and verified that they work on that environment. Hopefully, they’ll help someone craft a more enjoyable email experience

Search for Sender

If you’re like me, you like to group like items together in your inbox. With this extension, you can group emails from the same sender as quickly as a right click. Really, it’s just a shortcut that places the sender email up into the search box and searches for you. The nice part is, with this extension, you don’t have to type it. Quick, easy, and simple. This has quickly become an extension that I cannot live without.

SyncMab

SyncMab is an extension similar to foxmarks for Firefox. With foxmarks, you keep all your bookmarks on a central server of your choosing so that your bookmarks are the same across all computers you use that have Firefox installed. This is perfect for me since I have a set of work bookmarks and home bookmarks and like to be able to switch back and forth between them. But what about thunderbird? It doesn’t have bookmarks right? Exactly, but it does have contacts in your addressbook! So, you’ll be able to save your contacts to a server of your choosing and then on another computer with thunderbird you can synchronize your contacts by downloading that file using SyncMab. It’s brilliant and allows you to always have the same contacts across operating systems, across computers, and even to maintain multiple addressbooks

Display Quota

This extension will display a small graphic in Thunderbird that tells you how much space you have left in your IMAP mail account and can warn you when you get close to filling up. This might not be too useful for those of you that use IMAP with huge quotas (gmail) but for others, it may be. I have heard that some users do not like the popup that displays for warning on this extension. For those users, Thunderbird has a built in function you can enable:

Open your configuration editor in Thunderbird and find the following keys:

mail.quota.mainwindow_threshold.show - % when quota should show up

mail.quota.mainwindow_threshold.warning - % when quota becomes yellow

mail.quota.mainwindow_threshold.critical - % when quota becomes red

Thanks to goddess-gate.com for information on how to do this.

Continue reading "4 Little Known Thunderbird Extensions"

Microblogging, Status, and Blogging 2.0

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:11:59 -0700

In my previous post, I asked readers how they plugged their blog and/or microblogged, web 2.0 style. Some microblogging readers recommended that I check out Ping.fm. It was exactly the service that I needed; the ability to simultaneously post status updates on twitter, pownce, facebook. I specifically look for services that don’t require that I install anything on my desktop (I like IM much more).

The only problem with this is that ping.fm is in beta stage...and a closed beta at that. So, I began to read various different blogs to try and find any other service that might do the same thing as ping.fm.

During my search, I cam across profilactic.com, which is a central aggregate place similar to friendfeed.com. The interesting part about profilactic is that it plugs into ping.fm and every single user can be part of the closed beta for ping.fm!

This means that you can microblog/status message bebo, blogger, brightkite, facebook, hi5, Jaiku, LinkedIn, LiveJournal, Mashable, Myspace, Plaxo Pulse, Plurk, Pownce, Tumblr, Twitter, and Xanga through one single interface OR through Instant message (there is a ping.fm bot).

Here’s the kicker...profilactic.com supports 186 sites as well as the ability to create a custom site. There are too many to list. Check out their supported sites.

So, you can utilize ping.fm to instant message status updates or microblog and instantaneously have it sent out to close to 200 different sites all at once. This is handy for me since I like to use pownce a bit more than twitter but my coworkers use twitter more. My status updates are still broadcast (on 60 second delay) on twitter through my instant message to the ping.fm bot. Ping.fm also supports the iPhone and has the ability to have custom triggers.

To take advantage of these great services, head over to profilactic and signup. When you’re setting up your sites, you’ll be able to plug into ping.fm (it will require that you signup using the profilactic beta password that profilactic will provide for you during setup). Don’t forget to visit my lifestream and add me as a friend Happy micro/status/blogging!

How do YOU Plug Your Blog to Web 2.0?

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:11:26 -0700

I’ve been drastically neglecting a few areas of my blog. The main one is plugging it into social networks. I’ve been using things like twitter, pownce, and stumbleupon...but I haven’t truly plugged my blog into these services.

Now there are so many...I don’t even know how to plug them all in

Which services are most important? Which ones are you, the reader, using? Thus far, the easiest way I’ve found to manage things is to choose one service like Tumblr or Pownce and aggregate all other services into it. THEN to use friendfeed.com to envelop them into a stream.

I’m curious as to how others are managing things...I’d like to make Yet Another Linux Blog reach a larger audience and I think that this is a good starting point. So if you have suggestions, please let me know

rPath Documentation Status Update

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:11:08 -0700

There are many changes on the horizon for rPath Documentation.

One of the things that team docs here has known for a while is that the rPath wiki is a fantastic tool to leverage for documentation. It’s quick. It’s easy. It allows engineers to contribute directly to the wiki. It allows community members to contribute to to the wiki.

We’ve also known for a while that this tool has a major caveat...and that is that versioned documentation is costly. For example, if we had say version 1.0 documentation of a project at wiki.rpath.com/v1/productname and version 2.0 came out, we’d have to maintain 2 separate documents with the same information in two different URI’s and 2 different name spaces. With each addition of namespace and project version, updates would be more costly and time consuming.

It’s also a bad thing that a user can search the wiki...and have the possibility of getting results from versions that they are not using...possibly information and behavior of products that no longer applies.

Continue reading "rPath Documentation Status Update"

Why the RIAA and ISP's are Stupid

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:52:59 -0700

ISP’s are beginning to bow to RIAA demands and spying on their users. This is odd if you consider them a communications company...like the telephone companies are. For example, do you talk on the cell phone each day? How about a LAN line? What if...AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile (I’ve probably hit about 80% of you) monitored your phone conversations? You’re probably saying, “well, they already do” and you’d be right to some degree...but what if they monitored your line not for terrorism or keywords flagged by the US Government...what if they monitored your line for ANY illegal activity at all?

Say you were remarking to your friend about a deal down at Best Buy that was “a steal”. Told your mom how you “swiped a $beverage” from your buddies house. What if these keywords flagged you as one who participated in illegal activity if you discussed them on the phone? And what if your carriers had a “3 strikes and you’re out” policy? You’d find yourself phoneless based on the topics of your conversation. Sound far fetched?

It may not be. Compare the idea above to what Internet Service Providers (ISP) are doing. ISP’s are bowing to the RIAA (and BPI) and spying on their users...monitoring the topic of your communication and cutting you off if your communications do not live up to their standards. Virgin Media in the UK is the first major ISP doing this...

It seems ridiculous that an ISP can tell you what you should or should commicate about...which isn’t unlike a phone company telling you what to converse about over the phone. But it’s happening.

Continue reading "Why the RIAA and ISP's are Stupid"

Windows 7 - Touching Places it Shouldn't

Wed, 28 May 2008 08:07:34 -0700

If you’ve read some of the recent news on the web, you’ll find at the top of many tech news sites a preview of Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows 7. This new operating system will bring multi-touch technology to the masses. Of course, this is a Linux Blog, so what am I doing talking about Microsoft?

Because this new operating system will be the nail in the coffin for Microsoft. If you think Vista was a downward spiral, think again. Perhaps you’re wondering why I seem to think this will happen. I’ve got a few reasons and I think other alternatives like MacOSX and Linux will fill in the gap that is created by them.

Continue reading "Windows 7 - Touching Places it Shouldn't"

OLPC Mission Has Changed

Tue, 06 May 2008 13:04:48 -0700

Has the mission of OLPC changed so much? I say it has. No longer are the five core principals initially employed when the project started valid. The original Five Core Principles were:

Child Ownership
Low Ages
Saturation
Connection
Free and Open Source

It’s important to quote what is under #5 above:

The child with an XO is not just a passive consumer of knowledge,
but an active participant in a learning community. As the children grow and pursue new ideas, the software, content, resources, and tools should be able to grow with them. The very global nature of OLPC demands that growth be driven locally, in large part by the children themselves. Each child with an XO can leverage the learning of every other child. They teach each other, share ideas, and through the social nature of the interface, support each other’s intellectual growth. Children are learners and teachers.
There is no inherent external dependency in being able to localize software into their language, fix the software to remove bugs, and repurpose the software to fit their needs. Nor is there any restriction in regard to redistribution; OLPC cannot know and should not control how the tools we create will be re-purposed in the future.
A world of great software and content is necessary to make this project succeed, both open and proprietary. Children need to be able to choose from all of it. In our context of learning where knowledge must be appropriated in order to be used, it is most appropriate for knowledge to be free. Further, every child has something to contribute; we need a free and open framework that supports and encourages the very
basic human need to express.

Give me a free and open environment and I will learn and teach with joy.

No longer is it about empowering a generation of children from poorer nations and letting them learn with the ability to help improve the platform they operate on...what it’s now about:

“’The OLPC mission is a great endeavor, but the mission is to get the technology in the hands of as many children as possible. Whether that technology is from one operating system or another, one piece of hardware or another, or supplied or supported by one consulting company or another doesn’t matter. It’s about getting it into kids’ hands. Anything that is contrary to that objective, and limits that objective, is against what the program stands for.’”

...just like a fun toy right? <sarcasm>Let’s drop Nintendo DS gaming systems into their hands...laptops, laptops, laptops...that’s what it is about...because we’re all about getting the technology to the kids. </sarcasm> We’re not about empowering them to learn about computers, networks, and software. We’re not about them learning on a system where there are no limits. As RMS states, "Teaching children to use a proprietary (non-free) system such as Windows does not make the world a better place, because it
puts them under the power of the system’s developer." That developer is Microsoft.

Congratulations go to Microsoft for bringing proprietary lockin to millions of kids worldwide who will no longer be able to take pride in their own contributions the the core OS, who will no longer feel community ownership, and who will no longer be the sole operator of their own open source software based XO.

Our children our the future and what we aren’t teaching them with closed source software is just as important as what we ARE teaching them.

Linux Blog and Blogbridge Link Winners Announced

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:07:40 -0700

In February, I asked for submissions for you favorite linux websites and offered up a link from Yet Another Linux Blog as incentive for those submissions. I’ve selected a few blogs to include not only as a link here, but also as a feature Linux site for inclusion in the Linux Expert Guide at BlogBridge.com.

How it Works

Someone downloads Blogbridge. During installation, it asks them what they are interested in. If they say Linux, the BlogBridge expert guide feedlist is given to the person. This is quite a nice thing for an up and coming blog or even an established one. Congratulations to those selected:

Continue reading "Linux Blog and Blogbridge Link Winners Announced"

Foresight Linux and Conary Part I

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:11:15 -0700

People flat out do not understand anything about Conary. What I hear the most:

Why another package manger? Isn’t there already too many of these out there? Why use Conary when I can apt-get? Apt-get is soooo much better. Dpkg gives you sooooo much more than anything could possibly give you. Conary is still beta quality...rpm and deb are much more developed mature.

If the person(s) asking the questions above actually understood what Conary is and CAN do...they would see this is a very limited view of Conary. Not only is conary a package management system vis-a-vis a system that manages EVERY single package of software on your system...it is also a powerful version control system for software packages and packaging. It’s an enabling mechanism for packaging software quickly and easily.

I’d like to go over some of the things I think are great about Conary...clear up some of the “why is this needed” speak by showing how Conary actually gets things right and the common problems experienced by other package managers that it solves.

Continue reading "Foresight Linux and Conary Part I"

Foresight KDE Alpha-Alpha-Pre-Alpha-Pre Screenshot

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:10:33 -0700

Is that Foresight Linux running a pre-pre-pre-alpha-alpha-alpha build of KDE 3.5.9 I see?

Those of you interested in helping us develop, package, or use KDE are welcome to join us in IRC #foresight-kde freenode. Plans are to build a 3.5.9 Stable version and wait until 4.1 is released to push out a 4.1 version. Of course, we’ll have 4.0.X builds available for testing and fun all the while :) Please, lend us a hand and file those bug reports!

Thunderbird and Lightning .8

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 10:45:08 -0700

I saw that Lightning .8, a calendar extension for thunderbird, had been released and my heart jumped. Had they fixed the memory leak that forced me to abandon it in version .7?

I used to use Lightning for my google calendar in versions before .7...

When .7 came out, it caused Thunderbird to rocket memory usage above 80% which brought my computer to a screeching halt. I figured I’d not use it until next version (and submitted a bug report as well).

Today I downloaded .8 in hopes it would work better. It doesn’t. Memory usage still skyrockets when attempting use the google calendar (provider addon) and the remember mismatched domains add on with it (otherwise you’re unable to connect or get a popup every time you view).

Is it one of these plugins causing it? Is it Lightning? I’m leaning toward the latter...even when uninstalling the extensions, I still get memory usage skyrocketing. Either way, syncing your google calendar with Lightning isn’t a very smooth thing to do if it causes your Linux desktop to screech to a halt.

I guess there is always evolution with built in google calendar support. Anyone else getting these problems?

At work, we use Zimbra for emailing. I use Thunderbird with IMAP as my desktop client. I’ve also seen that as of Zimbra 5.0 RC2, they will have the ability to sync with Lightning. Good news! Now if Lightning would stop leaking!

Why Business Doesn't "get" Desktop Linux

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 16:42:50 -0700

I used to skateboard when I was a teenager. This was during the times when Tony Hawk was in his prime...Powell Peralta was the number one skateboard company on the planet, and Thrasher magazine was the number one choice of reading material.

Most of my friends at that time all rode Powell Peralta boards. The thing is...I was always looking for an advantage...something that could give me a competitive street skating advantage or something that just plainly worked better.

I found that advantage in H-Street equipment. I began riding a naked H-Street board with H-Street Arrow wheels. Switched from tracker trucks to independent and changed my bearings from German to Swiss. I watched Hokus Pokus and idolized Danny Way. I was ridiculed. I was told that I didn’t know what I was doing. I was told that H-Street was no Powell Peralta. A year later, everyone had a Hokus Pokus poster on their wall and were trying to get the gear and equipment I had already purchased.

I’m not saying I’m a trend setter. I’m saying I recognized quality and functionality before most did. Many businesses today are exactly like my friends. They don’t want to change. They don’t recognize quality or something that can give them a competitve advantage (at least not until its too late in most cases).

Why is this? Why is it that many corporations and small to medium businesses cannot or will not take a step back and look at the competitive advantage and cost savings Linux and Open Source software will give their business?

Continue reading "Why Business Doesn't "get" Desktop Linux"

Get a Link from YALB, Become a Featured Site at Blogbridge.com

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:41:17 -0700

I previously blogged about how your website/blog (or one you know of) could be a featured blog for BlogBridge.com. For those of you unfamiliar with what blogbridge is...it's a program that allows you to manage all your RSS feeds that is cross platform.

This 'featured' list is a default list for the "Linux" feed that users can select after installing. If they don't want to add their own linux feeds and would rather use the "expert feed" built in function, they'll download the Syndication list I've created for blogbridge. Sound like something you would like to be a part of?

The response to my initial post was a bit underwhelming...remember, this could be just a blog you read on a daily basis. If you have a linux website you can't do without and it has an RSS feed, let me know about it! If you don't feel like doing that, let the authors of those sites know that they can submit their site. Remember, those I choose will get a direct link from this blog to theirs...which is pretty valuable considering I'm in the top two results in google for search term "linux blog".

So, if you'd like to be considered or would like a favorite website of yours to be considered, please drop me a comment here with link to the site. I'll check it out and announce the selections in approximately 2 weeks.

Foresight Users and Developer Conference 2008

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:41:08 -0700

Are you interested in Foresight Linux or the Conary package management system? Are you located in or near North Carolina...specifically Raleigh? If so, join us April 18th through the 20th for the Foresight Users and Developer Conference!

Even if you're not a Foresight User and are just curious about the Conary System Manager, Software Appliances, or software packaging...it would be a great boon to understanding how these things give Foresight an edge over most distros.

Signup on the wiki page (add your name) to attend and we'll see you there

Installing and Using RealPlayer on Foresight Linux

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 07:39:05 -0800

Last night, I decided to install RealPlayer onto my fresh Foresight Linux 1.4.X install. I've replaced my main workstation with Foresight due to convenience (I use it at work) and I use RealPlayer from time to time for videos and music.

No package exists for RealPlayer in the repositories, so head over to Real.com and download the .bin file. After the .bin file has been downloaded, use the following commands to install:

chmod 755 RealPlayer10GOLD.bin && sudo ./RealPlayer10Gold.bin

In the terminal, it will ask you what directory you'd like to install RealPlayer into. I chose /opt/RealPlayer (you'll have to type it in) because I'd rather have the files installed there than in my home directory, which is where I downloaded the file to. After this, you'll have a shiny, new shortcut inside Applications >> Sound and Video >> RealPlayer. Click on this to launch the program and follow the wizard.

The wizard will setup the Mozilla (firefox) plugins for you but they still won't work solidly. This is because mplayer is overtaking the player duties for real media formats. To change this, gedit ~/.mplayer/mplayerplug-in.conf and change these entries as shown below:

enable-rm=0
enable-smil=0
enable-helix=0

Save and close that document. You're set Restart Firefox and go to real.com and test out the player capabilities.

Installing Openbox on Foresight Linux

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:36:38 -0800

My friend Og Maciel
originally introduced me to Openbox a while back and I've been using it ever since. I love the lightweight feel, the ability to customize and the center around having NO icons on my desktop. I don't feel cluttered when I work! I published a version of this tutorial/how-to on my previous blog that I've retired. It was originally for Openbox 3.4.2 but I've now updated it for Openbox 3.4.6.1. This tutorial is tailored for Foresight Linux 1.4.X but the guide may very well serve other distros as well.
Continue reading "Installing Openbox on Foresight Linux"

Mediawiki: Remove External Arrow from Links

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:34:02 -0800

My main job here at rPath, Inc. is to document our technologies via the rPath Documentation Wiki. For this wiki, we use a Mediawiki Appliance. For those that don't know, the "appliance" I refer to here is a software appliance...something rPath technologies make easy to maintain and create. For more information see the definition of a software appliance here.

Moving on, I was ANNOYED by the fact that you have a small arrow "" that appears beside any image that references an external URL or any link that does the same. This is fine to let people know that links will take them to a different page...but what I was trying to do was to make a PDF Icon have the same link as the URL it was sitting beside:

So in the above image, if one clicked on the PDF icon or the "Application to Appliance: A Hands-on Guide (PDF)" the PDF would download.

Mediawiki doesn't provide a fantastic way for you to do this. However, after some snooping around via google, I found a fairly easy way to make things happen.

Continue reading "Mediawiki: Remove External Arrow from Links"

A New User Guide to Linux Communities

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 08:34:18 -0800

Are you a new Linux user? Fantastic! Welcome to the world of freedom. Freedom of choice, freedom of expression, freedom from vendor lockin. You've made an excellent choice. Now that you've chosen, installed, and are using Linux there are a few things you should keep in mind as you learn the ropes of your new system.

1. Not all Communities are the Same

Each Linux distribution has its own distinct community with their own ideas. Think of owning a vehicle or a certain brand of appliance...along with the ownership of this comes the lifestyle that is reflected by users/owners of the product. The same is true with Linux. Each community will have a different idea on what is important. What is important to you may not be even on the radar of those users and developers of that community. Find one that suits you.

Keeping this in mind, be patient. Ask questions the smart way. Be explicit and tactful. Be precise and direct. Provide more information than you think is necessary...no one will become upset if you provide too much information but they may not answer your question if you have too little.

Continue reading "A New User Guide to Linux Communities"