Planet LinuxSA

Romana Challans: links for 2008-09-06

timelady — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 04:36:54 +0000

A Softer World: 339

i love this comic so much!!!!

(tags: comics whimsical philosopy)

Tim Riley: "It’s one of the biggest challenges in the digital age: When you can bombard people with everything,..."

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:47:06 +0000

“It’s one of the biggest challenges in the digital age: When you can bombard people with everything, it’s tempting to do so. That’s why taste, restraint, and editing are so important. Sometimes it’s about throwing out the 35 bad shots and revelling in the one great shot.”

- Capture attention with only the cream of your crop.

Romana Challans: links for 2008-09-05

timelady — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:43:48 +0000

Stephen Fry Blog Archive Happy Birthday to GNU

(tags: ping.fm)

Michael Davies: Google Chrome

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 03:00:42 +0000

Google Chrome sounds awesome!

Launching tonight.

Rusty Russell: Welcome Arabella Lilly Russell, into a complex world

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:59:00 +0000

At 10:58am Adelaide time, on the first day of the Southern Hemisphere spring, Arabella was born as planned, 10 weeks premature and 1.06 kg (37 ounces). Pink and wiggly, and spending at least 6 weeks in hospital.

As some of you know, Alli and I are separated: she left me 3 months ago. I came to Adelaide for Arabella's birth, then I'm going back for a couple of weeks to pack up the farm, then returning to Adelaide because Arabella is here. I hope we manage to raise Arabella OK despite our split.

Romana Challans: links for 2008-09-01

timelady — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:32:25 +0000

Folders4Gmail – Userscripts.org

You love Gmail, but you miss folders to sort your emails? Organize your labels in a folder-like hierarchy with the Folders4Gmail userscript.

(tags: gmail useful software scripts mail)

Glen Turner: Windows: customer service, we've heard of it

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 01:03:39 +0000

Extended family. Marvellous when you need your child picked up from school when someone schedules a work meeting for after 2pm. A nightmare when they tell you they've paid for a virus scanner, and now their computer doesn't work.

So I have sitting before me a computer with Windows Xp Media Centre and a paid-for copy of "Windows Xp AntiVirus 2008" installed. Hmmm.

First things first, let's get that credit card cancelled. Although quite what a bank is doing allowing that transaction in the first place I don't know. Maybe the Falcon was sleeping.

Now let's boot from a Linux CD designed for recovery of Windows systems (like Trinity Rescue Kit), mount partitions read-only, and see what we have. Three partitions: Acer tools, a Windows recovery partition, and the user data. The recovery partition looks useful. Looking closer, some files have modification dates after the infection. Better write off that approach then.

Ask the teenage owner for the original Windows disk -- the one I told them not to lose. Being a teenager, they've lost it. Grrr.

OK, let's order a new operating system. Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit seems to be the equivalent current operating system. Order it, about $150. Get an e-mail from EYO, that excellent online seller: it can only be sold with a motherboard. The software I am permitted to purchase: $350. For comparison, the computer cost $700 when new.

Choices are clear: indulge in a little fraud and order the OEM version with the cheapest possible mainboard; order the much more expensive version; or give up Windows as a bad joke and install Ubuntu.

The obvious choice is Ubuntu. What I am stunned by is just how much Microsoft's customer service sucks to a customer they've let down so badly. No wonder people who have enough money buy Apple. No wonder that Ubuntu is the choice of technical hobbyist.

In the coming months we'll see how Ubuntu goes with your average highschooler.

Glen Turner: Scarfing old kit

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:28:22 +0000

I like to teach computing. Some demo kit is useful. Those old 5.25in hard disks are big enough to show people what a splindle, cylinder and track actually are. It's easy to see that moving the disk head is going to take a lot of time.

When teaching networking an old hub is useful. Every port see every bit, so it's easy to drop Wireshark into the middle of a connection and have it decode the protocols. Also useful for teaching networking is some old thinnet coax with AUIs and drops -- nothing shows quite so clearly why we moved to structured cabling and hubs.

I show people an old 1RU hub. Most people have no idea what professional networking equipment looks like.

Also useful is dynamips and dynagen, emulators for the Cisco 7200 hardware, a classic router. You need to know how Cisco IOS works, and dynamips is a painless way to built a small network and get that experience. Juniper has olive, which does something similar and is well worth a look by those familiar with IOS just to see another take on what a router command line should look like. If Juniper has any sense it will release Olive formally, since people's fear of their different (but far superior) configuration technique is one of the factors limiting Juniper's penetration into non-ISP businesses.

If people have a stack of old USB floopy drives around I'd love to scarf four of those. Nothing would show more clearly how the various RAIDs work.

Romana Challans: links for 2008-08-31

timelady — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 11:11:45 +0000

KDE 4.1 Released | Kubuntu

KDE 4.1 has been released and packages are available for Kubuntu 8.04, the Hardy Heron. These packages install to /usr/lib/kde4 and can be installed along side your existing KDE 3 installation.

(tags: ubuntu news linux kubuntu kde kde4 instructions install howto)
KDE 4.1 RC 1 Released | Kubuntu

KDE 4.1 RC 1 has been released and packages are available for Kubuntu 8.04, the Hardy Heron. These packages install to /usr/lib/kde4 and can be installed along side your existing KDE 3 installation.

(tags: kubuntu kde4 download)
b43 - Linux Wireless

The b43 drivers (bcm43xx in mainline kernels, b43 and b43legacy in wireless-2.6 and 2.6.24 and later) are drivers for the 802.11 B/G family of wireless chips Broadcom produces. The choice of which driver your card uses depends on the revision level of the 802.11 core. This number is read by driver ssb, and the correct choice for your device is made at that point.

(tags: broadcom wireless wifi linux)
Ubuntu Unleashed: Howto: Install The Official Google Gadgets in Ubuntu Linux!

Google Gadgets for Linux are compatible with those written for Google Desktop for Windows and the "Universal Gadgets" on iGoogle. Therefore, according to the company, "a large library of existing gadgets [is] immediately available to Linux users, [and] gadget developers will benefit from a much larger potential user base without having to learn a new API".

(tags: ubuntu linux google desktop gadgets)
Berroco® Fashion Yarns for Knitting and Crochet

knitting patterns!

(tags: patterns pattern library knitting knit howto free knitting_patterns)
9621 Michaelpalin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Michaelpalin is named after British comedian Michael Palin. The asteroid is one of many main belt asteroids named after famous personalities. It is the fifth in a series of six asteroids carrying the names of members of the Monty Python comedy troupe(via john cleese on twitter : @JohnCleese . No, really truly!)

(tags: asteroids astronomy montypython michaelpalin space cool celebrity)
Obama's Nomination Acceptance Speech

Not for a veyr long time, has there been a statesman making speeches like this. If this man deliveres on just half of what he claims he can, the world is richer for it. How could anyone go with mccain and not claim racism or politics of fear???

(tags: politics history)
Mozilla Labs » Blog Archive » Introducing Ubiquity

Today we’re announcing the launch of Ubiquity, a Mozilla Labs experiment into connecting the Web with language in an attempt to find new user interfaces that could make it possible for everyone to do common Web tasks more quickly and easily.

(tags: cool programming internet web video tools firefox web2.0 toread extension projects webservices plugins development plugin semantic ui mozilla future mashup extensions text interface addon browser ubiquity labs mozillalabs quicksilver)
Welcome to Creative Mums

Creative Mums is an Australian wide network of mums. Creative Mums supports mums & mums to be in starting up or running their 'creative ' businesses or practicing their artistic profession with raising children in a balanced way.

(tags: motherhood creative sahm support digital web)
40+ Eye-Opening OpenID Sites and Services

penID has gained major traction as the single sign-on standard. Its biggest benefit being tremendous reduction in the number of login names and passwords that you have to manage. In addition, great time savings when registering at new sites. i run my own openid server off my website, which is fantastic convenience!!

(tags: openid security login passwords convenient secure)
Most Desired WordPress Hacks: 11 Common Requests and Fixes

Throughout this article, we’ll be focus on many WordPress Theme hacks, ideas, tips and useful tutorials you need to have ready in hand when developing WordPress websites.

(tags: howto blog programming webdesign webdevelopment wordpress css PHP code tools tutorials design tutorial tips list blogs resources webdev tricks resource tweaks themes blogging plugin hack hacks)
Etsy :: Search Results

gorgeous magic yummy items - this is the search for penguin bags. let me say - WANT!!!

(tags: bags handmade penguin etsy brilliant art creative)
Cloud computing: A catchphrase in puberty | The Register

It's been called a lot of things: utility computing, grid computing, distributed computing, and now cloud computing. You can come up with any CTO-friendly name you like, but they all mean the same shit: Renting your quickly depreciating physical assets out because your software company is out of ideas for computer programs. Hmm, interesting take on the new buzzphrase!!!

(tags: google programming cloud engine humour computing green hosting Amazon app technology humor funny architecture)
In Anticipation Of An Actual Phone, Android Releases A New SDK

This SDK is still not the 1.0 release. (It is version 0.9). There are still bugs and some features that had to be removed because of security reasons, such as support for GTalk and Bluetooth. (That won’t do). But those should return once the bugs are fixed

(tags: sdk api android mobile google)
The FCC Approves HTC's Dream Phone, The First to Run Google's Android Platform | Android, FCC, HTC | geeksugar - Technology, Gadgets, & How Tos.

So, it looks like HTC's Dream — aka the first cell phone to use Google's awesome-looking Android platform — is going to become a reality: the FCC has approved it!

(tags: android phone google htc)