Learning Ubuntu made easy

Good documentation has helped keep the two-year-old Ubuntu project among the most popular Linux distributions. To complement the traditional venues for help, such as FAQs, HOWTOs, bulletin boards, and mailing lists, Ubuntu uses interactive forums such as Internet Relay Chat to conduct training classes for new users.
This is the site I should have posted yesterday from Gari.
AlaskaJoe

Create a Windows installation CD in 30 min (for dummies)

Create your very own personalized and unattended Windows installation CD, integrate your favorite software and make it install automatically during Windows setup. The best 200 freeware programs are available so that you can enjoy Firefox, CCleaner, Skype, WMP11, Java 6, etc. since the first boot of your operation system. Video tutorials!
Its got it all! Check it out
--MissM


read more | digg story

http://ubuntuclips.org/

Thanks to Gari (KoffeeBeanz) for this link:
This site is for everyone who is new to Ubuntu. Here you will find short video clips that highlight Ubuntu's features and demonstrate how to complete common tasks using Ubuntu.
This is a very nice web site with lots of info if your thinking of trying a Linux distro. I think Ubuntu has it right, this is the first time I had everything working on a Linux distro and didn't have to call someone for help. (like Jack or Gari or Greg)

Remember Ubuntu has a live CD (The OS plays from a bootable CD) You can try it before you click on the icon to start the installation, that is on the desktop. I have noticed for the latest version you need at least 256MB of memory.
Enjoy a new experience try Ubuntu!
AlaskaJoe

Sony settles rootkit suit: $1.5M to states, users file for refunds

I know a lot of listeners, hosts and bloggers live in California and Texas. So I thought this settlement info might interest those people.

Sony settles rootkit suit: $1.5M to states, users file for refunds
Sony BMG this week settled a lawsuit brought by California and Texas over the infamous XCP "anti-piracy" spyware trojan. The media giant got off with a slap on the wrist for the long-running rootkit debacle, which affected nearly 5 million CDs -- Sony will pay a total of $1.5 million to the states, and a smaller sum in customer refunds.
[snip]
Link to AP story. Link to previous BoingBoing coverage.

Boing Boing: Sony settles rootkit suit: $1.5M to states, users file for refunds

--MissM

Skype worm spotted

I figured you ought to know about this. Not that I think you are so silly as to click on unsolicited files, but you have friends, family and associates who probably need to be reminded of this.

Details are still sparse, but the message with the executable attached is apparently disguised as a security upgrade and looks official enough to fool at least a few folks. I imagine it's enough to know that Skype can be an attack vector and that one needs to look out for it.

Jack

Peter Coffee's 25 Killer Apps of All Time

Whether or not you agree with him (and I don't) this is a very interesting list. It's also interesting to see how few of these applications are still in widespread usage. Things do change over time, evolving, at least.

Enjoy,

Jack

Gifts for an Eight-Bit Holiday

Many of us remember those old machines. They were primitive and limited, but they opened our eyes to previously unthinkable horizons.

MIT's Technology Review has a partial list of reproductions and emulations of those old machines, along with some modern-day ones meant to teach younger people about computing. Some are kits, some are complete machines. At the very least, reading this 2 page article will whet your appetite for the reproduction machines. It did mine.

Jack

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 12-17-06

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 12-17-06. You can listen live every Sunday from 10AM to 1PM Pacific thats 1PM to 4PM Eastern. If you prefer, you can download the same file here via ftp.

Kernel Developers: GPL-Only Modules in 2008

As you will read when you click on the link above, there are a lot of Linux kernel developers who want to do away with proprietary "binary only" modules being introduced into the kernel. This is in the interest of free software purity. To be free software, the source code must be available to the user and there are currently a LOT of drivers and other modules for which source code is not available.

Linus Torvalds opposes this, but will not stand in the way if that is what the developers want to do. Linus' position is that doing this is just another restriction on users, which has a lot to do with their reasons for developing Linux - to avoid restrictions on what they can use their computers for.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I side with Linus on this, but could live with it either way.

Jack

Alan F. Shugart, 76, a Developer of Disk Drive Industry, Dies

Thanks goes to patterson for this article. Since this is a NY Times article you either need a free registration or butmenot to read it. Sorry about that. It is worth the effort.

I've owned both Conners and Seagates, by the way :-).

Skype's free call plan to charge annual fee | CNET News.com

Well, I guess its official. Skypeout will no longer be free after 12/31.

Skype 3.0 for Windows

Official release. Version: 3.0.0.190. Release date: December 13, 2006
File name: SkypeSetup.exe File size: 19 MB
Skype A full year of unlimited calls to any phone in the US and Canada for $14.95
Make phone calls right from your computer.
PC to PC will always be free, We don't know what will happen to the free PC to phone calls we get now after the first of the year.
AlaskaJoe

Boing Boing: Milblog project gives hundreds of laptops to wounded US soldiers

I thought this was a geeky way to honor U.S. Soldiers, and that it would interest all (3 of us? ;)) who read the blog :)
--MissM

Ad-hoc charity group Valour-IT ("Voice-Activated Laptops for OUR Injured Troops") has donated more than 700 laptops loaded with voice-recognition software to US soldiers who've lost the ability to type due to lost limbs or severe hand/arm injuries. They expect to have delivered 850 or more by Christmas. A number of blogs authored by active duty military and vets worked together to raise awareness on the project. Mark Glaser at PBS Mediashift blog says,

It started last year when Army Captain Chuck Ziegenfuss injured both his hands and wanted to get back to blogging. His blog readers pitched in for Dragon Naturally Speaking software, and he and another blogger, FbL, put together Valour-IT and have raised more than $330,000 with two online Veteran's Day fundraisers fueled by milbloggers.

Boing Boing: Milblog project gives hundreds of laptops to wounded US soldiers

IT Confidential: Microsoft Is Mired In Vista, Report Says

I really don't know if this story is based in fact or not. If it is, Microsoft itself considers Vista as a problem without equal and one requiring "outside the box" solutions. Some of those given in the article are said tongue in cheek, but others are apparently reasonable reactions to an extreme problem.

Veeeeery interesting.

Jack

Microsoft answers IP questions posed in LXer open letter

LXwe sent an open letter to Microsoft after Steve (quiet as a mouse) Ballmer said that Linux definitely infringed on MS' intellectual property. Microsoft spokespeople have provided answers to the questions and the link above will take you there.

Personally, I did not find much substance to the Microsoft answers and so conclude theie reply is merely a continuation of a FUD campaign.

Jack

France plans open source centre of excellence

Last week, I read an article saying that Europe loves open source, but no one is using it, meaning that very few organizations or even departments had made the jump away from proprietary software and operating systems. It rang true, too!

The exception to that is the French, who are moving to Linux and free software at a noticeable pace. The reason is that using proprietary software drains such a significant amount of money from French coffers and transfers it out of the country. The "freedom" of open source is a secondary, but still counted, aspect of the deal.

Whether or not this "center of excellence" for free and open source software will yield any solid results is beside the point. What really matters is that the French are taking things seriously enough that they wish a repository of knowledge regarding building, deploying and using free software to be close at hand. Obviously, they intend using it enough to justify it's existence.

Jack

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 12-10-06

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 12-10-06. You can listen live every Sunday from 10AM to 1PM Pacific thats 1PM to 4PM Eastern. If you prefer, you can download the same file here via ftp.

Zero-Day Tracker

eEye has started a page to track zero-day exploits. They have an RSS feed and I have subscribed. If you have trouble keeping track of these things and which ones affect you and those you support (which I definitely do) this is a good one. I also found it well enough done that I did not have to wade through all sorts of extraneous data to get the drift of the problem being discussed.

Jack

Windows Trojan masquerades as Vista hack

It's the first major attack against Vista and (fittingly, to my mind) it targets pirated copies of Vista. Legitimate users have nothing to fear from this one.

This short blurb at The Register has links to more detail, should you desire that.

Jack

Security bulletin; Update available for buffer overflow in Adobe Download Manager

The link is to an Adobe advisory about their Download Manager software. Originally thought only to crash the Adobe application and/or Internet Explorer, it has been found that the flaw does allow malicious code to be run. A simple upgrade in the software will fix it.

If you are using the Adobe Download Manager on either Windows or the Macintosh, this is one to take note of.

Jack