Ian Murdock, founder of the Debian Project and a principal at Progeny Linux is proposing a new type of Linux Distribution. For those of you who have failed or given up at trying Linux in the past, something like this, combined with modern installer technologies, might just be the ticket. For more seasoned Linux users, this could cut down on the nearly endless job of managing packages installed by default which are not needed in a particular instance.
The essay is short and a very interesting read. See it here.
Jack
Saturday, February 28, 2004
Monday, February 23, 2004
Buffer Overflows and AMD's Built-In Protection Against Them
New Scientist Magazine has a nice one page article on AMD's protection against the dreaded buffer overflow problem which will be built-in to their processors. It's a short read and details both the fix and the problem well enough for the non-geek to get a fair grasp on it.
Jack
Jack
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Hard Drive Noise Reduction
Spode's Abode has an interesting tweak to reduce hard drive noise. I tried it on a Western Digital drive I have that really did clatter and the difference was significant. I used thicker, less resiliant rubber bands for my mounting, though, in the interest of longevity. It's an easy fix and if your hard drive's noise bothers you, it's worth trying.
Jack
Jack
Saturday, February 14, 2004
Technical Advances (or lack thereof) In The Electric Guitar
Web site techcentralstation has a fascinating article on the arrested development of the electric guitar. It seems almost no one wants to advance the state of the art past what it was in the mid-1950's. Music lovers and techies alike might find this interesting. I know I did.
Jack
Jack
Thursday, February 12, 2004
Yahoo Messenger for Linux/Unix
I'm not a fan of instant messenging, really. But it's simply too handy to neglect completely. I use Yahoo Instant Messenger in both Windows and Linux/Unix versions.
There's a problem, though. Yahoo's client program for Linux runs on only a few distributions and only those closer to the cutting edge of development than I'm comfortable with using. As Yahoo is pretty much constantly updating their client and (probably for the best of reasons) won't connect with older clients, I'm out of luck on my Linux boxes.
The "problem" is shared libraries. Updated versions of Yahoo's client use newer versions than are included in most distributions. Both Linux and the GNU software that runs on it are constantly being updated, particularly the shared libraries. Yahoo's programmers (quite rightly) write to the newest proven libraries, while many of us are still running distributions which depend on older versions, and may not tolerate adding in the newer libraries at all. For many of us; upgrading our distributions to keep up with release cycles would be overly burdensome, taking our machines out of production too often and so affecting our work flow.
So, to the folks at Yahoo; Why not offer a statically linked version of your client? Yes, the download would be larger, but those of us who, for whatever reason, cannot run distributions quite so close the the state of the art would be covered. This would almost certainly increase usage of the product to a noticeable extent and it's not a particularly hard thing to do.
Please?
Jack
There's a problem, though. Yahoo's client program for Linux runs on only a few distributions and only those closer to the cutting edge of development than I'm comfortable with using. As Yahoo is pretty much constantly updating their client and (probably for the best of reasons) won't connect with older clients, I'm out of luck on my Linux boxes.
The "problem" is shared libraries. Updated versions of Yahoo's client use newer versions than are included in most distributions. Both Linux and the GNU software that runs on it are constantly being updated, particularly the shared libraries. Yahoo's programmers (quite rightly) write to the newest proven libraries, while many of us are still running distributions which depend on older versions, and may not tolerate adding in the newer libraries at all. For many of us; upgrading our distributions to keep up with release cycles would be overly burdensome, taking our machines out of production too often and so affecting our work flow.
So, to the folks at Yahoo; Why not offer a statically linked version of your client? Yes, the download would be larger, but those of us who, for whatever reason, cannot run distributions quite so close the the state of the art would be covered. This would almost certainly increase usage of the product to a noticeable extent and it's not a particularly hard thing to do.
Please?
Jack
Pamela Jones a.k.a. PJ of Groklaw Interviewed
Pamela Jones of Groklaw fame is interviewed on Wired.com. She's a paralegal who has been collecting facts (as opposed to claims) about the SCO vs. IBM case since May, 2003 and posting them on her blog.
Groklaw is both a good place to learn about Open Source/Free Software's battle against SCO and an example of how to do a huge blog right; something rarely done well. (Trust me on this; I've seen enough of the other kind to know.)
By the bye; I panned the software with which she does the site (Userland Radio) in our review of it. But it's not all bad, as one can see by the fully functional site at Groklaw.
Jack
Groklaw is both a good place to learn about Open Source/Free Software's battle against SCO and an example of how to do a huge blog right; something rarely done well. (Trust me on this; I've seen enough of the other kind to know.)
By the bye; I panned the software with which she does the site (Userland Radio) in our review of it. But it's not all bad, as one can see by the fully functional site at Groklaw.
Jack
Monday, February 02, 2004
Accessibility
Microsoft has done some substantive research into accessibility issues as related to computing. Not just for the disabled, mind you, but for those of us who are aging. It's worth a look for just about everyone. And it probably is a good idea to bookmark the site and pass it along.
Musings on a Linux Desktop
We had Sam Greenblatt from Computer Associates on the show today. One of the topics upon which Sam touched is that he sees a real need for a standardized Linux desktop.
I agree. There simply has to be a standard interface. One of the existing ones has to "win" and become a standard or a new one has to come along and take that place (the third option is some sort of unification of existing desktops and is the least likely to come about). Once this happens, the Linux desktop can (and likely will) take a real place in the world, beyond it's currently [somewhat] marginalized status.
I'll probably end up using the "default" or standardized desktop. Unlike some others, though, I still want the choice of other desktops. What people forget when there's a call for a unified look and feel to the Linux desktop is that it need not mean the end of the other window managers/desktops. Linux is in large part about choice, after all. But the face Linux presents to the average user simply must standardize, lest users spend an ongoing fraction of their time in training, whenever they move to a different machine.
I'm currently using one of the minimal window managers (icewm) in the interest of conserving resources on a low-powered machine. I had Gnome on it and the resources so consumed were sorely missed. Opening windows and apps was painfully slow. Icewm is more of a geek's interface, though, requiring many more trips to the command line than most users would be willing to tolerate. I don't mind that, but my best judgement is that almost every "normal" (meaning non-geek) user would object. Application launching from icons is something they demand and, while lots of that can be done from icewm, it's not easy as it is on the "major" desktops (or on Windows, for that matter). Of course, Linux's normal practice of having 4 separate desktops helps this a lot because one can simply leave the apps open and move to another desktop, thus avoiding the confusion of having a jillion things in the taskbar from which to pick. On older, lower powered machines, that takes a toll, too.
As I write this; I have 17 applications open on the four desktops (on that low-powered machine) and a quick look at top shows 54 processes, with 42 running and the rest sleeping. This is more than I usually have open and the machine is noticeably slowed. Text shows up instantly as I type, but any cut/paste or overtype operations are delayed in displaying. I'll finish up some of what I'm doing soon and close a few in order to get back to more usual operations.
Whether KDE, Gnome, the Sun Java Desktop, the SuSE/Ximian/Novell desktop or some other (IBM is said to have one ready, too) one has to become the standard. Users can switch, should they desire to. But there has to be one which everyone knows and can live with as the default.
Jack
I agree. There simply has to be a standard interface. One of the existing ones has to "win" and become a standard or a new one has to come along and take that place (the third option is some sort of unification of existing desktops and is the least likely to come about). Once this happens, the Linux desktop can (and likely will) take a real place in the world, beyond it's currently [somewhat] marginalized status.
I'll probably end up using the "default" or standardized desktop. Unlike some others, though, I still want the choice of other desktops. What people forget when there's a call for a unified look and feel to the Linux desktop is that it need not mean the end of the other window managers/desktops. Linux is in large part about choice, after all. But the face Linux presents to the average user simply must standardize, lest users spend an ongoing fraction of their time in training, whenever they move to a different machine.
I'm currently using one of the minimal window managers (icewm) in the interest of conserving resources on a low-powered machine. I had Gnome on it and the resources so consumed were sorely missed. Opening windows and apps was painfully slow. Icewm is more of a geek's interface, though, requiring many more trips to the command line than most users would be willing to tolerate. I don't mind that, but my best judgement is that almost every "normal" (meaning non-geek) user would object. Application launching from icons is something they demand and, while lots of that can be done from icewm, it's not easy as it is on the "major" desktops (or on Windows, for that matter). Of course, Linux's normal practice of having 4 separate desktops helps this a lot because one can simply leave the apps open and move to another desktop, thus avoiding the confusion of having a jillion things in the taskbar from which to pick. On older, lower powered machines, that takes a toll, too.
As I write this; I have 17 applications open on the four desktops (on that low-powered machine) and a quick look at top shows 54 processes, with 42 running and the rest sleeping. This is more than I usually have open and the machine is noticeably slowed. Text shows up instantly as I type, but any cut/paste or overtype operations are delayed in displaying. I'll finish up some of what I'm doing soon and close a few in order to get back to more usual operations.
Whether KDE, Gnome, the Sun Java Desktop, the SuSE/Ximian/Novell desktop or some other (IBM is said to have one ready, too) one has to become the standard. Users can switch, should they desire to. But there has to be one which everyone knows and can live with as the default.
Jack
Saturday, January 31, 2004
Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools
Kevin Kelly has a web log of "Cool Tools" to do all sorts of things. It's curious and, to me, a grand diversion from the everyday. This is not earth-shaking stuff; Just a good way to waste a little time and see good ways to go about things. I know this isn't computer stuff, but this one is simply too entertaining to not pass it on.
I check this about once per week, just to see what's happening.
Jack
Hack anything.
Have you ever wanted to tear stuff apart to find out how it works, change how it works or use it in some way Dr. Strangelove would approve of? This is the book for you. I won't tell you more. There's a one page article at
Wired News that does a fine job of explaining it all. I want a copy of this book. (hint, hint)
An FBI agent talks computer security and crime
An article in SecurityFocus by Scott Granneman details a visit to a computer science class by an FBI agent and what this man had to say about computer security. It's a short read; scary and enlightening, at the same time. I recommend it highly. See it here. This is really scary stuff. Frankly; the average PC user has no idea how bad things have gotten.
Here's another story on the same sort of theme by the same author. This one is also worth a read. In fact; I'd take a copy and send it to all the clueless users you run into. See it here.
John C. Dvorak on Linux desktops
John C. Dvorak tells a bit about IBM's version of Linux and their desktop, which they do not plan to roll out for a significant while, and then explains why IBM should scrap their plans and get it out, NOW. See the article at PC Magazine, here. This is a thought provoking bit for those of us who anxiously await either a standardized Linux desktop or a fully suppported one (apart from Sun's Java Desktop).
Thursday, January 29, 2004
The Register
Control-Alt-Delete inventor retires. I had originally thought he had died, but he has merely retired. I'm glad to hear he's good for a few more reboots.
Control-Alt-Delete inventor retires. I had originally thought he had died, but he has merely retired. I'm glad to hear he's good for a few more reboots.
Attrition Security Rant: Anti-Virus Companies: Tenacious Spammers
This is both very sad and very funny. If you are a regular reader of Slashdot you've already seen it, so this is for those of you who don't read /.
This is both very sad and very funny. If you are a regular reader of Slashdot you've already seen it, so this is for those of you who don't read /.
Techworld.com - New Explorer hole could be devastating
Our own Gari (Javabeanz) sent this to me yesterday. Give it a read and then do (or not) what you gotta do. Yep -- pretty scary stuff. I shudder to think what the bad guys can do with this one. As we learned this week our anti-virus is only as good as our defs are. Okay as good as our defs and our brains are. While the worm was a worm to the most casual observer geek -- what caught my attention was not that I had been sent a worm, but that my anti-virus didn't notice it was a worm. I can't believe that folks unzipped it and executed it, but then again, most folks don't first screen their e-mail in a plain-text/source environment like I do. The way I was looking at it made it all to plain what it was -- I never even saw it in a form where I could unzip it, no less execute it.
Sigh -- this is getting less fun by the day. Russian mafia releasing a worm to take over people's machines and create a spam flood with a DOS on SCO as cover? -- sounds like the script of a B movie.
Our own Gari (Javabeanz) sent this to me yesterday. Give it a read and then do (or not) what you gotta do. Yep -- pretty scary stuff. I shudder to think what the bad guys can do with this one. As we learned this week our anti-virus is only as good as our defs are. Okay as good as our defs and our brains are. While the worm was a worm to the most casual observer geek -- what caught my attention was not that I had been sent a worm, but that my anti-virus didn't notice it was a worm. I can't believe that folks unzipped it and executed it, but then again, most folks don't first screen their e-mail in a plain-text/source environment like I do. The way I was looking at it made it all to plain what it was -- I never even saw it in a form where I could unzip it, no less execute it.
Sigh -- this is getting less fun by the day. Russian mafia releasing a worm to take over people's machines and create a spam flood with a DOS on SCO as cover? -- sounds like the script of a B movie.
I've got to get a life, or high speed access, one
I just read my logs and I'm in shock!
Though I am technically within the boundaries of the city of Fort Worth, Texas, in actuality I am in a semi-rural location. The only Internet access we can get is dialup. Oh, satellite is available, but my wife and I cannot currently afford that. The wireless provider we were going to sign up with went bust before we could contribute our fees to them and though they've restarted under new owners (apparently with sufficient funding) we're too poor to do that one, too.
I have a good dialup connection, using Fry's low-cost ISP service. Most of my connections are at 45k or better and occasionally I top 50k. The connection is stable and eminently usable. But high speed is not a term one associates with dialup. Persistence is, at least in my case. I am a dogged downloader, to say the least.
My logs show me that from 1 January, '04, to 31 January, '04, I downloaded 7.1 GIGABYTES of stuff on my dialup! This even though I spent 6 days in the hospital during that time. (Even with the vacation at the quack shack, this is my highest up and download totals for any month, ever.) About half of the stuff I transferred was Linux stuff for my own and my client's use and the rest was Windows executables for installation and test for the show. I also uploaded 704 MB of files in January; web sites and large graphics and CAD files for a client.
Like Microsoft's new offering of Unix tools (which they have decided to distribute for no charge). That download alone was about 200 MB. I have it on file, here, though I've not installed it yet because I'm also installing my Linux boxes again and downloading updates for them.
I've got to do something about this. I've even recently been tossed off an ISP because of the amount of time I spend connected; often 3 full days at a shot. Either that or find something to occupy the time, besides the boob tube and pestering my wife.
Though I am technically within the boundaries of the city of Fort Worth, Texas, in actuality I am in a semi-rural location. The only Internet access we can get is dialup. Oh, satellite is available, but my wife and I cannot currently afford that. The wireless provider we were going to sign up with went bust before we could contribute our fees to them and though they've restarted under new owners (apparently with sufficient funding) we're too poor to do that one, too.
I have a good dialup connection, using Fry's low-cost ISP service. Most of my connections are at 45k or better and occasionally I top 50k. The connection is stable and eminently usable. But high speed is not a term one associates with dialup. Persistence is, at least in my case. I am a dogged downloader, to say the least.
My logs show me that from 1 January, '04, to 31 January, '04, I downloaded 7.1 GIGABYTES of stuff on my dialup! This even though I spent 6 days in the hospital during that time. (Even with the vacation at the quack shack, this is my highest up and download totals for any month, ever.) About half of the stuff I transferred was Linux stuff for my own and my client's use and the rest was Windows executables for installation and test for the show. I also uploaded 704 MB of files in January; web sites and large graphics and CAD files for a client.
Like Microsoft's new offering of Unix tools (which they have decided to distribute for no charge). That download alone was about 200 MB. I have it on file, here, though I've not installed it yet because I'm also installing my Linux boxes again and downloading updates for them.
I've got to do something about this. I've even recently been tossed off an ISP because of the amount of time I spend connected; often 3 full days at a shot. Either that or find something to occupy the time, besides the boob tube and pestering my wife.
Latest worm has professional twist
Well, here's an interesting story about mydoom or whatever one of it's many names you want to call it. From it's first showing it appeared to have a spammer motive. I see some of the experts concur.
Well, here's an interesting story about mydoom or whatever one of it's many names you want to call it. From it's first showing it appeared to have a spammer motive. I see some of the experts concur.
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
I Blew It, Again
On last Sunday's show, I told how I'd installed the 2.6.1 Linux kernel on one of my machines and speculated that the new kernel would make it's first debut in a distribution in Red Hat's Fedora Core 2 in a couple months. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Turns out that Conectiva Linux already has it out in a development/testing version.
Conectiva Linux doesn't get much press here in North America, but is one of the most widely used distributions in South America, having excellent localization for the languages spoken in those parts and being a truly high-quality distro. You can visit them at http://www.conectiva.com and see for yourself.
The version in question is called "Conectiva Linux 10 Technology Preview 2" and has been out long enough to have been downloaded thousands upon thousands of times. It includes the 2.6.1 kernel, KDE 3.2 RC1, Gnome 2.4, OpenOffice 1.1 and a lot more.
My apologies to the folks at Conectiva.
Conectiva Linux doesn't get much press here in North America, but is one of the most widely used distributions in South America, having excellent localization for the languages spoken in those parts and being a truly high-quality distro. You can visit them at http://www.conectiva.com and see for yourself.
The version in question is called "Conectiva Linux 10 Technology Preview 2" and has been out long enough to have been downloaded thousands upon thousands of times. It includes the 2.6.1 kernel, KDE 3.2 RC1, Gnome 2.4, OpenOffice 1.1 and a lot more.
My apologies to the folks at Conectiva.
New virus infects PCs, whacks SCO | CNET News.com
New virus infects PCs, whacks SCO | CNET News.com
I've seen more than a few of these "virii" this afternoon. They were easy to spot as a worm even before the anti-virus companies released defs and then updates to those defs this afternoon.
I expect to read about this in the mainstream press tomorrow.
I hope you haven't caught this one, but if you haven't done a virus scan lately, now's the time to get the updated definations and scan away. If you need to check right away try Housecall.
I've seen more than a few of these "virii" this afternoon. They were easy to spot as a worm even before the anti-virus companies released defs and then updates to those defs this afternoon.
I expect to read about this in the mainstream press tomorrow.
I hope you haven't caught this one, but if you haven't done a virus scan lately, now's the time to get the updated definations and scan away. If you need to check right away try Housecall.
Saturday, January 24, 2004
Another Watergate?
Apparently, Republican Congressional staffers have been reading confidential reports, mail and memos from Democratic staffers and leaking them to conservative journalists. This is NOT the result of a hack, per se, but the result of a misconfigured server. Read more at boston.com
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