So today I'll be covering InstaLinux, a really neat custom distro building site. Adobe's release of AIR 1.5 on the Linux platform. And a quick guide to setting up smartd I found on Linux Journal.
So, first on to InstaLinux.com. This little tool is probably the neatest thing I've seen in my course of using Linux since Mint started improving upon Ubuntu's already rock solid operating system. InstaLinux.com is a site that I found out about while reading through some magazines at the bookstore the other day while enjoying what will probably be one of my last Gingerbread lattes for the year. It's a site that allows you to pick what distro you want to use, then you can customize what packages you want to be included on the ISO. It's basically what you usually do when you get your distro installed, stripping unused packages and bloat, installing your usual packages and customizing your configuration files, but it does it BEFORE you download the ISO. I highly recommend you at least take a look at it as the concept behind it, if nothing else, is really innovative and if adopted by the distro's themselves could be a very useful tool to have on their sites.
Next I would like to highlight Adobe AIR 1.5. A platform that is going to sort of (or hopefully sort of) turn into the next JRE (but better). AIR allows developers to simplify their development process so that they only have to create one application for one "architecture" (AIR) and Adobe handles the rest of the leg work of making it work cross platform because as long as the host machine has AIR installed, the application will work and only need to be made once, not 2 or 3 times like is often the case today.
Finally I'll hit on Linux Mint 6 briefly. Now, not to say that I think it only deserves "briefly" it certainly is more deserving than that, however, it's about 2 minutes to 4PM and I want to get this article done (it's like a dead week for tech news so finding the articles took most of the time today). However, I digress. Linux Mint is basically a fork of Ubuntu that takes Ubuntu, adds all the nice little packages everyone usually puts in their system, strips out some of the bloatware, configures Gnome a new way and adds a new GUI theme plus a lot, lot more. They just released their next version, version 6 and I'm going to be downloading it today at some point and giving it a test drive, I'll write a review of what I think later today or tomorrow.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Oops
Sorry, I probably should have said this BEFORE the Christmas break, but I wasn't intending to post anything all of last week because I was off work and hence didn't have a lunch break to make a post during (though I suppose I could have done posts anyway...o well). Anyway, I just wanted to apologize for not telling everyone. I'm writing today's lunch hour report right after I finish this one.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
The Lunch Hour Report: Humor Edition
Today I would like to start off with the article that inspired this post, that would be the article on Aegisub titled "If Programming Languages Were Religions". While at times mildly inaccurate, I found it to be really quite funny and also true in some respects. I highly recommend you read it, enjoy it and take it with a grain of salt if you're offended by humorous religious comparisons.
Another great read today (though a short one thanks to the joys of my friend "WebSense" content filtering in my office, I can't actually read the entire article, rather I got the small blurb and some of the links given in the slashdot article, but it seems like an interesting read no-the-less. It was recently uncovered that Microsoft was hiding the fact that their Xbox360 consoles scratched game disks and not only did they hide it, they put a disclaimer in the manual (according to the slashdot article) that told the user if it got scratched, the user was at fault, not Microsoft. It comes as no surprise to me that Microsoft would try to hide something like this, but the fact that they had 3 other possible solutions but rejected all of them in favor of a small print section blaming the user for a defective product is just inexcusable. I was thinking of buying a 360 myself soon, and some day maybe I still will, but I think the PS3 just got bumped up on the priority list (right below a Wii) by a few points lost on the behalf of Microsoft.
And I'll close us out today with an article from the ComputerWorld blog. Apparently Cisco is in the process of getting screwed because they decided not to read past the lines of the GNU/GPL license agreement that said, you could re-distribute this software in your own way. They are being sued because most of their routers run an operating system that is either built using or designed around some form of open source software. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but Cisco unfortunately failed to realize that using GNU/GPL licensed software means you can use it how you want, but the source needs to be available to anyone who wants it, including any changes you made to it for your own purposes. So, basically, the fact that they won't give anyone the source code to their routers and other products means they are in violation of the license agreement they acknowledged when they first started developing their products.
Another great read today (though a short one thanks to the joys of my friend "WebSense" content filtering in my office, I can't actually read the entire article, rather I got the small blurb and some of the links given in the slashdot article, but it seems like an interesting read no-the-less. It was recently uncovered that Microsoft was hiding the fact that their Xbox360 consoles scratched game disks and not only did they hide it, they put a disclaimer in the manual (according to the slashdot article) that told the user if it got scratched, the user was at fault, not Microsoft. It comes as no surprise to me that Microsoft would try to hide something like this, but the fact that they had 3 other possible solutions but rejected all of them in favor of a small print section blaming the user for a defective product is just inexcusable. I was thinking of buying a 360 myself soon, and some day maybe I still will, but I think the PS3 just got bumped up on the priority list (right below a Wii) by a few points lost on the behalf of Microsoft.
And I'll close us out today with an article from the ComputerWorld blog. Apparently Cisco is in the process of getting screwed because they decided not to read past the lines of the GNU/GPL license agreement that said, you could re-distribute this software in your own way. They are being sued because most of their routers run an operating system that is either built using or designed around some form of open source software. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but Cisco unfortunately failed to realize that using GNU/GPL licensed software means you can use it how you want, but the source needs to be available to anyone who wants it, including any changes you made to it for your own purposes. So, basically, the fact that they won't give anyone the source code to their routers and other products means they are in violation of the license agreement they acknowledged when they first started developing their products.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Lunch Hour Report: Windows 7, DOSbox and XBMC
First off, I'll start by apologizing for being late on the post. I got stuck in a meeting so I'm having to take my lunch hour later than normal. Now, on to the news.
Lets start off with Microsoft and Windows 7. If you're reading this post, you likely are away that Microsoft is planning to release Windows 7 sometime near the end of next year, but today I found some benchmarks for it, and they look promising. Supposedly the speed is "head and shoulders above Vista SP1." Even though I still hold that I'm a linux guy, this is kinda interesting because as much as I don't like some of the things Microsoft does, or some of it's policies, on the tier of things that I don't agree with the policies of, Microsoft falls below some other companies, namely Apple and their lock down on the iPhone apps.
Next, I want to show you something very cool that I found today on LinuxJournal.com. I found an article while browsing their collection on setting up DOSbox, a nifty little program that's similar to WINE, in the respect that it emulates a Microsoft environment for the purpose of running apps native to that other OS, but this one, unlike wine, is designed to run DOS programs. In the tutorial in the article, they show you how to install it and set it up to play the original Duke Nukem game. I have DOSbox installed on my laptop which is running Ubuntu 8.10, but I've never actually installed any useful applications on it. I saw it in the apt repositories one day and said, "Hey, that's neat, that might come in handy some day", so I installed it. Now I have an excuse, that game was one of my childhood favorites, within the ranks of Sonic 2 and Kirby's Dreamland in my book.
Finally, I'm going to take a look at Xbox Media Center (XBMC). This little program is something I stumbled upon back in the days when I was in the process of modding my Xbox, chipping it, new hard drive, Linux OS and XBMC. I loved the application on the Xbox and when I found out that they ported it to the x86 platform under Windows, Linux and Mac I was very happy. So, it's not really anything new really, but it's something worthy of mentioning if nothing else. I haven't yet installed it on my laptop, but it is running on my Desktop which right now runs Windows XP SP3 and it runs absolutely flawlessly. There are a few features that I can't use just because of my hardware setup on my desktop, but overall, the look and feel of application is great. Very professional looking and it makes a great alternate for anyone who wants a media center PC and has a Vista version such as Business that doesn't come with the media center built in or if you're running a flavor of linux and don't want to put up with some of the hassles of some of the other media center applications (even if some of them are a bit more feature rich when they run properly).
Lets start off with Microsoft and Windows 7. If you're reading this post, you likely are away that Microsoft is planning to release Windows 7 sometime near the end of next year, but today I found some benchmarks for it, and they look promising. Supposedly the speed is "head and shoulders above Vista SP1." Even though I still hold that I'm a linux guy, this is kinda interesting because as much as I don't like some of the things Microsoft does, or some of it's policies, on the tier of things that I don't agree with the policies of, Microsoft falls below some other companies, namely Apple and their lock down on the iPhone apps.
Next, I want to show you something very cool that I found today on LinuxJournal.com. I found an article while browsing their collection on setting up DOSbox, a nifty little program that's similar to WINE, in the respect that it emulates a Microsoft environment for the purpose of running apps native to that other OS, but this one, unlike wine, is designed to run DOS programs. In the tutorial in the article, they show you how to install it and set it up to play the original Duke Nukem game. I have DOSbox installed on my laptop which is running Ubuntu 8.10, but I've never actually installed any useful applications on it. I saw it in the apt repositories one day and said, "Hey, that's neat, that might come in handy some day", so I installed it. Now I have an excuse, that game was one of my childhood favorites, within the ranks of Sonic 2 and Kirby's Dreamland in my book.
Finally, I'm going to take a look at Xbox Media Center (XBMC). This little program is something I stumbled upon back in the days when I was in the process of modding my Xbox, chipping it, new hard drive, Linux OS and XBMC. I loved the application on the Xbox and when I found out that they ported it to the x86 platform under Windows, Linux and Mac I was very happy. So, it's not really anything new really, but it's something worthy of mentioning if nothing else. I haven't yet installed it on my laptop, but it is running on my Desktop which right now runs Windows XP SP3 and it runs absolutely flawlessly. There are a few features that I can't use just because of my hardware setup on my desktop, but overall, the look and feel of application is great. Very professional looking and it makes a great alternate for anyone who wants a media center PC and has a Vista version such as Business that doesn't come with the media center built in or if you're running a flavor of linux and don't want to put up with some of the hassles of some of the other media center applications (even if some of them are a bit more feature rich when they run properly).
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Lunch Hour Report: HP and Linux, Google and SMS and Japan with renewable energy
Looks like HP has finally given in to the will of it's users and is now offering up computers with Linux preloaded on them. Nice move for HP, seeing that they were the last one of the Tier 1 computer companies to make the move. Reportedly, "The problem was HP was a house divided when it came to shipping a Linux desktop." Seems like the people who knew the technology, the developers, wanted it. But those people who were more in the management side of things didn't want to touch the idea. Seems like they finally got their heads straight though and I'm glad to see that the people who know the technology are finally starting to impact the products that this company makes, maybe they'll actually start producing decent computers.
On another note, it looks like Google has enabled it's users to now send SMS messages via gChat. An interesting feature that I foresee putting a dent in the profits of the cell phone companies. With phones like the G1 and others now starting to use the Google Android OS, the gChat program will start to be more and more common on cell phones and if techno-wise people, like myself, are as smart as I think we are. I see people taking advantage of this and canceling their text messaging service, or at least lowering the number of texts that they pay for per month because of this new feature...Now, if only they would unblock gChat and Gmail at work, I would be all set and I could actually reach some of my friends about that thing we were doing tonight when I get off work.
And Finally, East Japan Railway Company has developed a method of converting the energy of all it's passengers walking in and out of terminals, into electrical power to power electronic billboard signs. Now, I don't normally refer to myself as a tree hugger or "greenie" or what have you, but I do promote self sustainability, this is just one great example of a country doing that. Now, if only the US companies would take the same initiative that JR East has and start developing these things for themselves rather then waiting for the government to require them to take action and do it.
On another note, it looks like Google has enabled it's users to now send SMS messages via gChat. An interesting feature that I foresee putting a dent in the profits of the cell phone companies. With phones like the G1 and others now starting to use the Google Android OS, the gChat program will start to be more and more common on cell phones and if techno-wise people, like myself, are as smart as I think we are. I see people taking advantage of this and canceling their text messaging service, or at least lowering the number of texts that they pay for per month because of this new feature...Now, if only they would unblock gChat and Gmail at work, I would be all set and I could actually reach some of my friends about that thing we were doing tonight when I get off work.
And Finally, East Japan Railway Company has developed a method of converting the energy of all it's passengers walking in and out of terminals, into electrical power to power electronic billboard signs. Now, I don't normally refer to myself as a tree hugger or "greenie" or what have you, but I do promote self sustainability, this is just one great example of a country doing that. Now, if only the US companies would take the same initiative that JR East has and start developing these things for themselves rather then waiting for the government to require them to take action and do it.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
New Ideas: The Lunch Hour Report
I'm going to start posting every day from 3PM to 4PM on a topic of my choosing. It will still fall within the scope of the blog, but this will be a guaranteed post every day. I'll be making it during my lunch hour, so I've named it "The Lunch Hour Report".
Saturday, December 6, 2008
SongBird 1.0 Review
Earlier, we saw the release of SongBird v.1.0 and a lot of people were extremely impressed with the RC1 release and so when the final release came out, I made use to download it as soon as possible and I've been using it ever since. In a nutshell, this application has got to be the best music player I have ever used in my entire life. I used to be a pretty die-hard Winamp (windows) and Xmms (linux) user but with the maturing of SongBird, it has officially taking the number one spot on my list of music players. It has a full load of features, from basic music library organization to streaming audio. Thanks to it's ability to accept plug-ins just as easily as Firefox does, it can be expanded to do just about anything else you want as well. Most notably, it has plug-ins to add album artwork from Last.FM and there are even plug-ins to give you twitter feed access and a web browser right inside your music player. Now, this isn't to say it's without faults. It's not the fastest loading or lightest playback application around and it also doesn't yet have support for ripping or burning CDs, however, they are expected to be implemented in future releases and I'm sure there will be a number of 3rd party developers making plug-ins to add these features in this release. So, if you're interested in giving it a shot for yourself, it's available cross-platform from GetSongBird.com, make your own opinion on it and let me know what you think of it by leaving a comment at the end of this post.
I will also make a note that it's currently not available on the Ubuntu/Debian app sources and the getsongbird.com site only offers it in a tar.gz format for the linux platform so it can be used on multiple distros. If you want the .deb package for it, point your browser over to this post on Ubuntu Forums where you'll find a link to the deb package made by a third party, I used it, worked fine.
I will also make a note that it's currently not available on the Ubuntu/Debian app sources and the getsongbird.com site only offers it in a tar.gz format for the linux platform so it can be used on multiple distros. If you want the .deb package for it, point your browser over to this post on Ubuntu Forums where you'll find a link to the deb package made by a third party, I used it, worked fine.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Linux Hits the iPhone
Gotta love this video. I still have personal issues with [Cr]apple and and their pricing and strict limitations on the iPhone and most of their products, but I will say that they come out with some really slick devices sometimes. I'm just glad to see that Linux finally made it to the iPhone...now, if someone could take this idea and try to drop android on it, we would be all set.(See boot video below)
iPhone Linux Demonstration Video from planetbeing on Vimeo.
iPhone Linux Demonstration Video from planetbeing on Vimeo.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Google Calendar Now Supports iCal
So, in a googlemac blogspot post Google announced today that they would start supporting iCal to synchronize it with google calendar. And, while that is a great thing for all the iCal users, I have one question...why do you still not support two way syncronization with google calendar through Mozilla Thunderbird without installing a third party plugin, yet you support it with iCal, a program that is used by only a niche market of people who can afford a Mac?
Either way, I'm not bashing Mac or Google for this, I just want to know why it's so difficult? Is there some mechanism that makes syncing iCal easier than Thunderbird? Come on Google, you have software that is free for the public to use, so start supporting those who continue the trend of free software use by Thunderbird users the same pleasure that the rich Mac users now have.
Either way, I'm not bashing Mac or Google for this, I just want to know why it's so difficult? Is there some mechanism that makes syncing iCal easier than Thunderbird? Come on Google, you have software that is free for the public to use, so start supporting those who continue the trend of free software use by Thunderbird users the same pleasure that the rich Mac users now have.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Steam Linux: Updates
So, I found some info on Arstechnica today that helps re-enforce my claim from the other day that Valve is on the way to porting the steam platform (and with it, the games) to the open source platform of Linux. This could be a huge boost for the popularity of Linux as a gaming OS, as the argument for many people not making the switch is poor game support on the operating system. Now, before I continue, I'm not making the claim that Microsoft should be shaking in their boots (but you know they are). However, I will say this, and that is that with this, comes Valve's virtual stamp of approval that the Linux platform is now a viable desktop operating system that has the potential to be a new market for them and considering the influence that Valve is in the gaming community, that could push some of the other gaming companies to start following suit and publishing more games on the Linux platform, and if nothing else, that should start giving Microsoft the chills and the hair stand on the back of their necks if not but just a little bit. So, to say the least I'm very happy about Valve's decision to do this and I wish the best of luck to them in this undertaking, it's not small task to port a game over to run on a new platform, let alone the mammoth empire of a gaming ecosystem that Steam has become, but I'm excited and can't wait to see what the future holds once this becomes official.
Imagining the Tenth Dimension
Found an interesting video on Youtube today, actually, I found it through my digg feed, but you know what I mean. The video is called "Imagining the 10th Dimension" and it shows a very interesting concept that personally, I had never considered before. The idea that there are not a mere 3 or even 4 dimensions, but that there are a whopping 10 possible dimensions. It gives a great graphical explanation of how it works and it's really fascinating to think about. While I was watching that, I found another video that was in the related sections on the page that went to a video titled "Why Stop at Ten Dimensions?" which is an interesting v-blog from the author of the "Imagine the Tenth Dimension" blog. Props to him for elaborating very well on the topic of the tenth dimension and why you almost certainly have to stop there unless you can imagine the possibility of there being existence beyond the beginning and the end of all matter and the universe.
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