No, your eyes are not deceiving you, I finally have a new omnibus links post. I’ve meant to write one a lot sooner than today, but time and my todo list have been busted for conspiracy to deny me the time and energy to do quite all the things I want to get done.

And yes, you are seeing a new hackergotchi on my posts on Ubuntu Weblogs and the Ubuntu Universe, as well on my About page here. Since I finally got some pics of me that I don’t hate I decided it was time to make a new hackergotchi that reflected two of my loves: Mac4Lin and the Los Angeles Dodgers. As I write this the Dodgers are a mere four wins away from locking up their trip to the post season and they’re 8 wins away from repeating as the champions of the National League West.

Some of these links are a tad old, but as I went through the items I’d flagged in Evolution (there’s no way I was including 70 links in a pair of posts, let alone one post) there were a few things I’d found early last month that I really did want to share.

• Panji Nushantara: Digsby: All in One IM Client for Linux (soon). Not everyone loves Pidgin, and Panji has info on a multiple IM client that’s currently available for OSX and Windows. the good news is that the Digsby devs know we’d like a Linux version and they’re hard at work on a native GNU/Linux version. They even have a page you can use to ask them to let you know when Digsby for Linux is available. With Pidgin getting replaced as the default IM client for Ubuntu 9.10, and I’m really not thrilled with what I’ve seen of Empathy so far, there’s a good possibility that Digsby may become a favorite IM client for fans of the penguin.
• directhex: Vive la différence. The person responsible for getting Moonlight easier to install for Ubuntu users has a great post about “Free Software”, including links to how a few others define that term. A must read, and I apologize for not getting the link posted before Saturday’s Software Freedom Day.
• Panji Nushantara: 2.6.30 Kernel on Jaunty Jackalope and Karmic Koala’s Kernel on Jaunty Jackalope. As always, the 9.10 version of Ubuntu Linux will include an update to the Linux kernel. Alpha 6 of Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala has just been released (see below), but since it’s a really bad idea to install testing releases on computers you use every day, especially alpha versions, Panji has given us a pair of posts on how to update your kernel to the newer version while still running Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope. I haven’t made the upgrade myself (see the above mentioned conspiracy charges) if you’re interested in making the jump yourself I’d love to hear your responses to it. Just remember the very important disclaimers about what can go wrong if you apply this upgrade. If you make the jump and your computer breaks please don’t come crying to myself, Panji or even Nanci. If you do we reserve the right to use those three words we hate using almost as much as you hate hearing: told you so.
• Colin Walters: Pay no attention to the processes and X Windows behind the curtain… Colin, a Fedora user whose posts are syndicated on Planet GNOME, gives us a nice preview of GNOME 3. There’s quite bit of geek speak in his post, but there’s also a nice glimpse at how GNOME 3 will make being a GNOME user even better than it is now.
• Scott James Remnant: Making a splash. One of the biggest pains in working with the Mac4Lin dev team is that every time Ubuntu rolls out an upgrade there are a number of things that break until we can get the components upgraded. This is the reason getting a Mac4Lin 1.0 Usplash created has been such a royal pain in the arse, and Ubuntu 9.10 includes a major change. They’re dumping Usplash for the boot splash screen, the first splash screen you get when you boot a computer into Ubuntu, and they’re replacing it with xsplash. Scott looks at the matter, including why the change is in fact a good idea. And yes, once I get 9.10 installed on my system (hopefully soon after it reaches beta status) I’ll see about getting a xsplash screen created for Mac4Lin.
• Stormy Peters: 3 ways our awesome habits get us into trouble. Currently the executive director of the GNOME Foundation, Stormy has long been a great source of information, especially on security issues within GNOME. This time Stormy looks at three habits that it’s great to develop if you don’t already have them, but she also points out “gotchas” that can turn on us if we’re not careful.
• Stormy Peters: Stacks of books are disappearing. If you love books you may be aware that libraries around the world are changing, and not always for the better. Stormy looks at the problem and why libraries are no longer the great resource they used to be.
• Dustin Kirkland: Encrypted $HOME Now Offered at Installation. I’m not one of them but some users make a point of encrypting the data on their hard drives. It’s a good idea, but in Ubuntu’s past it’s been a bit of a pain to do it. Ubuntu 9.10 has given users the ability to encrypt their home directories as a part of the install process since the fifth alpha came out earlier this month.
• André Gondim: New Ubuntu Screens Installer. Installing Ubuntu 9.10 will no longer be the rather boring experience it’s been in the past thanks to new installer screens that will finally let you know about some of the programs that are getting installed with the OS. André is kind enough to give us screenshots of the ten new information screens.
• Matthew Helmke: Drowning out what I want to hear. While not a tech post, Matthew has written a must read article on how to present your viewpoints, whether the subject be technical, religious or political. This is an article that should be bookmarked at the very least, and printing it out for future reference wouldn’t be a horrid idea.
• Stefano Forenza: LifeHacker’s Ubuntu Wishlist. LifeHacker has some things they’d like to see in Ubuntu, and it turns out the Ubuntu devs are already working on the first item. It turns out that LifeHacker has some very nice words for Mac4Lin, and Jono Bacon has written a very well thought out response to LifeHacker’s wishlist.
• Kees Cook: uninstall sun-java6. The vrms meme that’s been going around the ‘net has brought out an important reminder that there’s a very good open source replacement for Sun’s Java. I need to look into that to see if I could kick some non-free software on my system to the curb. And yes, I know I have two versions of Java installed. There’s a good reason I did that but I don’t recall what it was at this point.
• Jono Bacon: The Art of Community Available for Free Download. Jono wrote a great book about how to build a community of like minded people. While it’s not explicitly a tech book it does look at things that Jono discovered in the open source community. Now you can get a free PDF of the book, although Jono does recommend buying a printed copy of the book (and not just to put some money in his pocket). Whether you pay for your copy or not he asks that you write a review of it on Amazon.
• Christoph Haas: Tired of Nagios and Cacti? Try Zabbix. If you run network monitoring software, or even think you may want to run some, Christoph found an open source app that you should definitely consider.

There are a few more things I definitely want to post before I hit the Publish button. First off, as I mentioned above, the sixth alpha version of Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala has been released. It’s likely to be the last alpha release, and I’ll try to post when it gets it’s first beta release, but feel free to start taking a look at what’s coming in the new release. The devs are working on a countdown banner that I’m hoping to add to the sidebar here once they have a version that will play well with WordPress.com blogs.

On a lighter note, if you saw the Emmy awards last night you know that the show was taken over temporarily by Dr. Horrible. If you missed it then thank the good people over at the SciFi Wire because they have the video posted so we can enjoy it.

That’s almost it for today but I have one more thing to post that deserves a post all of it’s own. I trust tomorrow’s first day of fall brings you some decent weather.

• Stuart Langridge: IE6’s backlash. A short, sweet message to web designers.
• Dave Neary: Migrating to Linux: Tip 1: Do DHCP and DNS first. Moving your computer network to Linux isn’t as painless as we’d really like, but Dave points out why we should do one thing before anything else.
• Michael Rooney: Setting up a fingerprint reader with ThinkFinger in Ubuntu 8.10. Remembering passwords is so 20th century. If you’re lucky enough to have a fingerprint reader on your laptop it’s easy to get it working in Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex).
• TualatriX: UbuntuTweak 0.4.5 released! Among the goodies and fixes in the new version is the ability to catch error messages, ad well as the ability to change your panel logo or even revert it back to the default logo. But that’s not all in the update, so check out TualatriX’s post and screenshots.
• Jordi Hernandez: Gloobus-Preview 0.03 RELEASE. Jordi is working on a coverflow-like app (from Mac OSX) for Linux, and while it’s still early in development you can help make it better by giving feedback on how things are going so far.
• Debian Package of the Day: localepurge: Automagically remove unnecessary locale data. For every locale you have installed not only takes up extra space it also makes your system install needless extra loacla when you install new packages. You may only need this app once every good while, but you’ll be glad you have it.
• Michael Rooney: Lightweight personal finance just got easier with wxBanker in Jaunty! If you’re looking for a native GNU/Linux app to help you manage your finances (like a lite version of Quicken and it’s ilk in Windows) you may have heard about wxBanker. People who have looked at it like it (here are some screenshots) really like it, and I may have to check it out myself. It may end up replacing GnuCash, which really doesn’t seem as easy to use as I’d prefer.
• Martin-Éric Racine: Roadmap to a better FreeDesktop: ridding us of the Firefox filth. Martin-Éric looks at Firefox and Linux web browsers, including why users put up with the bloat that seems to keep fining it’s way into Firefox releases. Personally I hope Epiphany devs read Martin-Éric’s post and gets to work making the official GNOME web browser better. As a person who switched to Epiphany to get away from (IMO) the boneheaded decisions the Firefox3 dev team have and are making, I really wish Epiphany was easier to use than it is.
• Jon Beebe: How does Ubuntu make you productvity? Jon is looking for people who would be willing to write articles for the Ubuntu Productivity blog.

Before I head off to take care of some things I want to congratulate the Debian team on Saturday’s release of Debian 5.0 “Lenny”. I look forward to seeing the improvements in Ubuntu 9.04 (which, like all Ubuntu releases, is basen on Debian), and if you can’t wait Julien Valroff has packages in his personal repo. I wouldn’t recommend using his packages unless you know what you’re doing because they may cause some conflicts and other issues in your system.

• Stefano Forenza: Has Torvalds finally won? The father of Linux once said that he’d have won if Microsoft ever makes an app for Linux. Some people might say that the availability of a beta version of Moonlight, GNU/Linux port of Silverlight, means Torvalds got his win. But Stefano isn’t so sure.
• Jono Bacon: Governments And Free Content Policies. The current website for president-elect Obama used to protect their content with a traditional copyright. But not anymore. Jono has the details, if not the scoop.
• xkcd: xkcd store. You love reading the strips. You may even have some of them on your fridge or the wall of your cubical. Now you can slap it on your clothes. If you order by the 12th you’ll get it by Chrismukkuh Eve if you’re in the States. If you’re in the EU they’ll try to get it to you in time, but you need to order soon.
• TualatriX: Ubuntu Tweak became Brothersoft Editor’s Picks! Congrats to the gang at Ububntu Tweaks for their latest, and very well deserved, honor. And he says the next version “will come soon.”
• Uwe Hermann: Playing Starcraft on Linux using Wine. I wasn’t sure how big a deal this is until I mentioned it to a Windows-loving roomie and big-time gamer, and he was impressed. That tells me that I need to post a link to the story, especially since it’s a tutorial.
• Dr. Horrible News: DVD Launch on Amazon! Earlier this year we had the joy of enjoying a three-part video written specifically and produced for the web by Joss Whedon and company. The DVD is finally coming on the 19th of December, and it will include “Commentary! The Musical!” I can’t wait. Amazon also has a behind-the-scenes clip you can watch for free. Now if we could only buy a CD or tracks without having to go through iTunes. Do I need to have Jayne Cobb have a talk with Joss about it?
• Biella Coleman: FLOSS Manuals. I’m going to cheat here and tell you that Beilla has a very short post about an easy way to get manuals for a wide range of free and open source programs. You definitely want to go get the links from her. And my little blurb about her post is longer than her post is, but she’s got the links you want.
• Nick Ali: Linux Basics Classes at Micro Center. If you need a nice introductory course to using GNU/Linux you better get to MicroCenter and reserve a seat. Nick’s got the date and links.
• MJ Ray: Do Your Shop Photos Leak? Do you take pictures with a digital camera and then post them online? You may be sharing more information than you realize.
• Mozilla Developer News: Firefox 2.0.0.18 users to be offered a free upgrade! Firefox 2.x will soon reach the end of it’s support, and the Mozilla devs are giving users one more chance to use their upgrade mechanism to get Firefox 3 without having to manually download and install it. Although this is one user who is damned sorry to see Firefox 2 reach the end of its security updates, and I can’t promise it won’t be used from time to time. The interface is still better than Firefox 3’s because it doesn’t need remove-ons just to keep the default behavior that Firefox users have been using for so long. And Firefox 3.1 is going to bring the need for even more remove-ons. Sometimes I hate Mozilla devs with the heat of a thousand nuns because of some of the add-ons they fold into the base product. What the hell happened to using add-ons to add new behaviors rather than removing them?

• John Goerzen: Web Design Companies That Understand Technology. How many sites have you seen with lists of what you should use in order to see the site as designed? Note to web designers: If I have to have a specific web browser, fonts, etc. to see a site you designed, you did a crappy job and should have to pay us.
• MJ Ray: How to Check Web Shops for Basic Security. With all the stories of identity theft coming after someone bought something on, or provided personal information to, a web site, MJ has a list of things you should do to make sure your information will be secure. This article should be required reading for anyone using a web browser, regardless of which web browser they use or why.
• Jono Bacon: On Feedback. Most tech developers love getting feedback from the user community. It’s not always pretty, but it is vital if you want to create a program users will want to keep using.
• DesktopLinux: “Moonlight” ready to shine. Are you ready to try the Linux port of Microsoft’s hopeful Flash killer? Not only is it getting close (devs say it will be here “very, very soon”), the devs are already working on Moonlight 2.0. Personally I’ll check it out, but I still hate sites that make me add a new plugin just to enjoy their content, especially since Flash has been around for so long and is already embracing the Linux community. Microsoft’s Silverlight? Only thanks to third party programmers, which is not the same.
• Jono Bacon: Announcing the Ubuntu Hall Of Fame. We’ve got some rock stars in the Ubuntu community. To find out who you have to read Jono’s post.
• Mackenzie Morgan: Tis Better to Dup Than to Convolute. I’ve gone to report some bugs and found some very similar bugs already reported. Should I report the bug again or not? Mackenzie gives some most excellent guidance on the matter. And yes, if you’re using software and find a bug please don’t assume someone’s already reported it. It’s better to end up with a duplicate bug than to leave an issue unreported. Never filed a bug before? It’s not so hard.

Paul Mummer posted a quote that I had to mark to post, even if it wasn’t so germane to that last link.

With shallow users, everything is a bug.

Sorry about this coming so late today. I was working on the docs for Mac4Lin 1.0 and trying to get things ready for what I hope will be a second release candidate. The good news is that we’ve fixed the bug that kept the GTK themes working on Ubuntu Intrepid, and we’ve gotten some updated Mozilla themes that seem to work really well, and I believe we could see a second RC before Thanksgiving.

/me crosses his finger, toes, eyes, etc.

• Julian Saraceni: Three reasons why Windows 7 won’t kill Linux. Some people are looking at the news coming out about the next version of Windows and are getting pretty excited. Julian, not just being a penguinista, shows three reasons why Linux has no doubts about surviving when the boys and girls in Redmond roll out the next upgrade. LinuxWatch.com also points out that netbook devs aren’t worried either.
• Miguel de Icaza: Moonlight Updates. The devs who are working on the Linux port of Microsoft’s Silverlight is getting close to having a testing release that we can actually use, and Miguel has info on that and the progress on Moonlight 2.0.
• David Thomas: Are Game Developers Finally Seeing the Linux Light? Could we be close to getting some new games ported to Linux? I won’t spill, but David has some good news.
• Emma Jane Hogbin: Screen casts: now with fade transitions. PowerPoint and pro video users have long had the ability to use fades between scenes, and Emma shows that the tool is becoming available to screencast producers, although it’s not as quick and easy as we’d like. Yet.
• Miia Ranta: Using sudo with graphical apps is bad, mmmkay? If you are, Miia has links that you need to read. Today, if not sooner.
• Tom Dryer: Installing and Setting Up Avant Window Navigator. You’ve decided you want this particular dock on your desktop, but you’ve already upgraded to Ubuntu Intrepid and you’ve heard people are having problems with the combination. Luckily Tombuntu has a guest tutorial that will be just what the doctor ordered.

If you need a smile, there’s a Matrix spoof video that’s been making the rounds of several blogs lately that will turn that frown upside down. I first saw it thanks to a member of the Ubuntu MA LoCo this morning and I’m still loving it. Just make sure you wait for the very last line.

Speaking of remembering things, make sure you hug a veteran today. And our other heroes.

• Emanuele Gentili: nUbuntu 8.10 Alpha Release is out. nUbuntu is an Ubuntu-based security distro, and if you’re willing to help test it you can snag the alpha.
• Northsider: Ubuntu Logo. Firefox fans have been putting the logo everywhere, including in the middle of some oats in Oregon, but a user of the Ubuntu Forums has stumbled across a pic of the Ubuntu logo in an unexpected place.
• Steven Harms: Creative open sources their driver. Creative Labs has released the source code for their X-Fi driver under the GNU GPLv2. Good on ya, Creative!
• Mike Hommey: Another tool to mount virtual disk images. There’s a new tool for mounting virtual disks, but the news isn’t as good as you might think.
• Behdad Esfahbod: Improving Login Time, Part 2: gnome-settings-daemon fixed. The GNOME devs are working on getting the boot time down and they’ve posted a progress report. Warning: A lot of the post is technospeak so you may end up asking if any of the post is food.
• Ara Pulido: Are you running Hardy? Join us in a new testing day! Not everyone is upgrading to Ubuntu Intrepid since Hardy is a long-term support (LTS) release. If you’re one sticking with Hardy there’s an Ubuntu Testing Day on Monday and the devs would love you to join them in testing some new ISO images.
• Linux-Watch.com: Microsoft breaks HotMail for Linux users? Linux users are having trouble using and creating new HotMail accounts. Could Microsoft be showing it’s noncompetitive side again?
• Dustin Kirkland: VP-Elect Joe Biden is responsible for Open Source Email Encryption? We all know that Al Gore supposedly invented the Interweb, and it looks like the Obama campaign used Ubuntu (which I meant to blog a while back), but it looks like Senator Biden actually had a hand in getting open source encryption tools in widespread use.
• John Goerzen: Search for Backup Tools. A member of Planet Debian takes an other shot at looking for backup software. If you’re looking for some you should read his post, which provides some nice info on the options available. And while you’re at his blog you should definitely read his post about “memorable moments.”
• Vincent Tunru: Ubuntu from your flash drive – easier than ever before. If you find yourself wanting to use a flash drive for carrying around your documents you may also want to put your preferred OS on it as well. You may not always be able to use it (you can’t boot from it on computers at the Boston Public Library, for example) but it will be very handy for those times when you can use it.
• LinuxDevices.com: Voting-machine firm sued for GPL violations. Those silly folks over at PES (a subsidiary of Diebold) have been sued for including the Ghostscript Postscript interpreter without complying with the terms of the GPL. Woops!

An Intrepid update

Using the intrepid-proposed repository, I’ve finally managed to get not only WINE and my video card working properly under Intrepid (thanks in part to updates to not only the Nvidia 96 legacy drivers but also jockey, which is the new front end for managing drivers), they also put out an update to gnome-pilot that let me properly sync my PDA again. I had been having to kill gpilot-applet and gpilotd not only to be able to sync my PDA but also after syncing to keep gpilotd from going crazy with my CPU.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

A little over a week ago I posted about a security update from SecondLife that made it harder for hackers to access your inventory and Linden Dollar balance. It turns out that they have another oopsie that was pushed out Monday evening.

If you tried to log into SecondLife since Monday evening you already know that you need to get the new viewer to log in, whether you use the officially released viewer or the release candidate viewer. You now need version 1.20.17 of the viewer or release candidate five of viewer version 1.21 to be able to log in.

Exactly what wet wrong this time? This is what they said on the SL Grid Status Report blog:

We recently updated the Second Life server and viewers to enhance the communications code. All transfer operations are now restricted to files that the user has expressly chosen, and specific directories that the viewer uses for transferring data. For the safety of all Second Life users, we are releasing this updated viewer to all Residents.

Potential vulnerabilities had been identified in those message communications directed at a Second Life viewer over the previous protocol. By taking advantage of this vulnerability, while extremely difficult technically, a malicious user could potentially use the viewer to access files on the victim’s computer. We currently have no evidence of this vulnerability ever being exploited.

I apologize for not posting this sooner but I was away from my computer for most of yesterday. It works out well, though, because yesterday they notified the readers of the grid status blog that there is currently problems rezzing objects, and they’re still working on getting the problem fixed. So if you try to rez something and can’t, they already know about the problem and they’re on the case.

The JIRA Public Issues Tracker was offline this morning, but they’ve managed to get it back online so you can once again report bugs in SecondLife and see the bugs others have reported.

While you’re in SecondLife make sure you stop by DollyRock and pick up a set of their very cool Halloween Stockings as well as their Halloween Freebie. The freebie is a very cute, and very sexy, Halloween outfit, complete with a hat. The hat does come with some straight black hair, but if the hair doesn’t work for your avatar (it doesn’t for me) at least you’ll get a sexy outfit to celebrate All Hallow’s Eve in.

Yesterday Mozilla rolled out a security and stability update for Firefox 3, including fixes for two Critical bugs and they also fixed “several stability issues.” Firefox 3.0.2 is compatible with the JAWS 7.10 screen reader (Windows only), which is good for people with vision difficulties, and is now available in even more languages.

Updated 7:39a Saturday, 27 September: Late yesterday Mozilla did a whiplash-causing quick turnaround and pushed out Firefox 3.0.3. It seems this new version is solely to fix bug 454708 – storage-Legacy can throw when calling ConvertToUnicode, which is geek-speak for being unable to retrieve saved passwords or save new passwords, according to the release notes. I’m curious to hear how this slipped past the tester’s notice, especially since the update came less than 48 hours after 3.0.2 came out. I’ve already gotten the notice that the update was available from Mozilla. (Remember, I use their code rather than Ubuntu’s package, although the Update Manager told me they have the update as well.)

Full details on the update are available in the release notes, as well as on Marco Zehe’s blog. Users of Firefox 3 should have already been notified of the update through the Automatic Update mechanism, and if not you can force an update check via Help > Check for updates… Ubuntu users should also be receiving the update via the Update Manager soon if you haven’t gotten it already.

For users of Firefox 2 remember that Mozilla will no longer support Firefox 2 with security and stability updates after 12 December, so if you’re among the minority that hates the changes in Firefox 3 with the heat of a thousand nuns you only have a few months left of updates before you’ll be using an obsolete program.

• Ubuntu Productivity: Fix: Ubuntu .drmc permissions error on login. If you get an error while trying to login that says your “$HOME/.drmc file is being ignored” there’s a fix that isn’t a major pain in the rump. Unfortunately too many users are experiencing this problem, and hopefully we can get the fix committed for Ubuntu Intrepid.
• Nicholas Deschildre: The Stockholm airport to sponsor Ubuntu Brainstorm. This is a definite win for open source software, and for Ubuntu Brainstorm in particular. I won’t spill any of the details here, you’ll have to read Nicholas’ blog for more info.
• Frank Taylor/Google Earth Blog: The Conflict Between Russia and Georgia. Google Maps/Earth doesn’t have a lot of data for people to refer to regarding the recent (current?) fighting in Georgia. (No, not the one with Atlanta.) It turns out Google doesn’t show a lot of info because they simply don’t have it to show. Luckily Frank found some links to information that he was kind enough to share with his readers.
• Shawn Wilsher: Protect yourself now if you use Gmail. I thought I had posted this when I came across it elsewhere recently, but it looks like I posted it to an answer on the Ubuntu Forums. If you use Gmail (for anything) you need to change one little setting to protect you against man-in-the-middle attacks (where someone can steal your info between your computer and Gmail’s servers). In this day and age I’m surprised I haven’t seen this type of security precaution talked about more, especially with how easy it is to cover your six.

And with that I’m going to call it a post. Have a good weekend, y’all, and try to make the most of it. There is only one more weekend before Labor Day weekend, and you know what that means.

Before I get into today’s links I want to apologize for my sister’s post about Debian’s birthday showing up on the Planet, with my picture on it nonetheless. I’ll let her know that anything tagged Ubuntu goes to the planet with my name on it so she may want to refrain from using that tag. Although it saves me the work of making sure readers of PUU know about tomorrow’s Debian Day celebration. (I’ll make sure she fixes the spelling in the post title, as well.)

• New York Times: Ruling Is a Victory for Supporters of Free Software. A federal appeals court rules for an open source programmer and also gives Creative Commons a win. John Lily from Planet Mozilla also covers this story and includes a link to a response from Creative Commons CEO Lawrence Lessig. (Full Disclosure: All articles on this blog, whether by myself or by Nanci, are covered by a Creative Commons license, as the left sidebar shows.)
• Steven Rose: Intrepid Ibex for the cautious. Another post form Steven (yes, I made sure I spelled it his way rather than my son’s way this time) has great information for anyone wanting a sneak peak at the new features in Ubuntu Intrepid without the risk of running an alpha version of an operating system. I’ve started using the PPA he lists (as well as Steven’s PPA) and I have to like I’m liking what I’m seeing so far. Except for the possible change of the default IM client from Pidgin to Empathy. I looked at Empathy and feel Empathy is much easier to set up and use.
• Bob Lord: Banks still act like phishers. After reading Mary Hammak’s  comment on my post about Bank of America and Bob’s post I’m wondering if I need to try to do more to protect my personal information. This isn’t a Chicken Little thing, it’s a pull-your-head-out-of-your-arse thing.
• Daniel Stone: ryan farmer is a spammer. Here’s a guy that thinks there’s nothing wrong with whining about a problem and not taking the time to bother with a little something many of us like to call “facts.” He (Ryan, not Daniel) also gave some of the Ubuntu leaders the gift of being signed up for spam lists, but he won’t take the time to allow someone questioning his so-called-facts on his blog. But then he was caught breaking the Ubuntu Forum house rules and then had the audacity to whine about it rather than fess up. What a maroon. The moral? People always pay attention when you least want them to.
• Atul Varma: Tab Navigation: Tradeoffs. Atul looks at a change coming in Firefox 3.1. I’m not sure how I feel about it from reading Atul’s post, but I wanted to let you guys (and gals) know that the Firefox 3 changes haven’t stopped just because Firefox 3 got uncaged. It may be a great change, but once again get ready for your browser to tell you that the way you use tabs is evidently the wrong way. (That came out a lot more pissed than I meant it to.)
• Eddie Martinez: The Myth of the Operating System Install. Every OS, whether it’s Windows, GNU/Linux or OSX, has basically the same install process. Yes, there are different details, but if you read Eddie’s post you’ll see that the basic install process of, say Linux, is no more difficult than the install process of, say, OSX. To borrow a favorite phrase from Adam, Jamie, Kari, Grant and Tory, the myth of the hard/stupid OS install is BUSTED!
• Jussi Schultink: Testing Firefox QT. KDE users rejoice! FIrefox 3 is getting a native build rather than forcing you use a web browser that’s made for a different desktop technology.
• Jorge Bernal: Is Ubuntu the new Linux? I’m not sure what Shoes is, but I’m glad they’re cross-platform (OSX, GNU/Linux, Windows). And thanks for reminding me of the proper way to refer to GNU/Linux. Please tell me Tux isn’t unemployed now.

/me checks my feeds one more time

Yep, that’s a lid. I hope everyone enjoys National Relaxation Day, and I hope you all have a great weekend. I know my weekend got better when I found out I can see my beloved Dodgers play the Brewers on national TV when their game Sunday is the TBS Game of the Week. Go Dodger Blue!