Peng’s links for Saturday, 14 November

14 November 2009 — BostonPeng

That’s right, I’m finally getting another links post written. I’m sorry it took so long. I’ve been trying to run down some bugs, and when I haven’t been on bug hunts things have been simply crazy here in Boston.

I’ve got a couple of things from early this month, but I ended up dropping some of the article I noticed last month because they’re just to old to post. I promise to try to do better and do what I can to get at least a post on every week.

  • Alan Pope: A Question of Perspective. There are definitely some complaints about Ubuntu 9.10, and not just the things I wrote about last month. One user even calls the new release a “total fail.” That’s overly harsh IMO, and Alan reminds us of some very important facts about the upgrade.
  • Jordi Mas: gbrainy 1.20. Back in June I mentioned this great open source version of those brain training games you see advertised for the Nintendo DS. There’s a new version out and it’s even better than it was before with six new games. It’s available in most major GNU/Linux distros (although it may not be up to date), and there’s even a version for running on Windows. Sorry, Mac users, you need to run an emulator to enjoy it, but at least you don’t need a DS any more to have fun while training your gray matter.
  • Martin Pitt: My desktop backup solution. Backing up your system regularly is important, as we all know. Martin didn’t like any of the packaged backup solutions so he came up with his own. He walks us through it, and it’s so simple even my technologically-challenged (late-)wife could have used it.
  • Vincent Untz: GNOME 3.0 in September 2010. Vincent has the announcement for the new version of GNOME, as well as what it means for users of GNOME 2.30. Andre Klapper has some links to more info.
  • Panji Nushantara: How To Change Windows Key Logo to Ubuntu for Free. It may be a minor detail, but why do GNU/Linux users have to use keyboards with logos for that closed-source OS from Redmond? We don’t have to any longer, thanks to System76.
  • Ara Pulido: Ubuntu Testing Team. Think that testing software is a piece of cake? Think it’s too hard? Ara has news for you either way, and yes, even you can help test the next version of Ubuntu. ;)
  • Martin Owens, Karmic Art, What the Paintbrush is Saying. Martin has found some great Ubuntu-themed artwork on deviantArt. Check them out, and if you have any you’ve created why not share them as well?
  • Risto H. Kurppa: Smile – a great photo show software for Linux. Not only is it easy to use, it gives some damned nice results.
  • Miguel de Icaza: The future of Moonlight. Miguel has some updates for us, although it isn’t a software update just yet. If you think you even might want to enjoy Silverlight content Miguel has some good news for you.
  • Aurélien Jarno: Thought of the day. It’s a short post, but if you want to see a new feature in a software app you should take the time to read it.
  • Colin Watson: Tissue of lies. Some knucklehead has posted that there will be a service pack for Ubuntu 9.10 in this coming spring. (Ubuntu releases new versions every six months, not service packs.) I’m passing it along, not to give the asshat more “ink” but to make sure our readers know it’s just a bunch of malarkey.

2009 National League West Champion Los Angeles DodgersThat’s it for today. Before I go I want to congratulate Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp and second baseman Orlando “O-Dawg” Hudson on winning Gold Glove Awards this week. Congrats also go out to outfielders Kemp and Andre Ethier for receiving Silver Slugger Awards this week. I have to wonder if Juan Pierre would be getting honored if only Manny hadn’t been the team’s primary right fielder this year. There are still some awards to be handed out this week so hopefully we’ll have more good news for Chavez Ravine before the month is out.

    Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source, Tech, Ubuntu/Kubuntu. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , . 4 Comments »

    MLB grants Silverlight it’s unconditional release

    7 April 2009 — BostonPeng

    Last year I displayed my severe displeasure for Major League baseball’s decision to use Microsoft’s Silverlight technology for their online video, a move that essentially cut GNU/Linux users out unless they wantedto jump thorough a number of hoops. Last night I was reading some news from Cnet and I got some delightful news. It turns out that back in November MLB decided not to continue to use Silverlight technology for their online videos, going back to relying on Flash technology that a very large majority of computer users already have installed.

    It seems that MLB realized that to install Silverlight a user needs to have administrative privileges, something most users won’t have on their work PCs. There were also a number of glitches that made viewing the video content from Netflix (and I assume MLB) even harder.

    All in all it’s a nice win for fans to start the season with, regardless of which team they root for. To make things even better, while fans in Boston have to wait an extra day for the start of the season thanks to some rain in the area yesterday, I saw this morning that the team I root for started off their season with a win yesterday. Hopefully we’ll get another win in the home opener next Monday.

    For more on why MLB found Flash to be a better solution for their online video you can read the article I found last night from Cnet’s News.com. I love being abletoread the news on my PDA. 8-)

    Posted in Baseball, Microsoft, Tech. Tags: , , , . 2 Comments »

    Peng’s links for Friday, 13 Mar

    13 March 2009 — BostonPeng

    [Corrected the first link. Thanks to Nick and Keba for pointing it out. -Peng]

    I bet you guys thought I wasn’t going to post any links this week. I’ve actually been snagging a bunch of links into a gDocfile so I can share them without clogging up my feed reader with unread posts. Unfortunately there are a bunch of them, so rather than give you the link with my thoughts on each I’m just going to copy and paste the links for you. Feel free to follow any and all links that tickle your curiosity.

    Whew! That should give you some things to read over the weekend. 8-) I know some of the articles are from late last month, but that’s how long I’ve been grabbing these links and I wanted to make sure you guys had seen them.

    Have a great weekend, and don’t forget to let your favorite open source devs know you appreciate all their hard work. And speaking of hard work, I have an idea for a promotional vid or two, and if all goes well I may have some footage for you guys to check out sometime in the next month or so. See y’all next week!

    Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Open Source, Tech, Ubuntu/Kubuntu. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 3 Comments »

    Peng’s links for Thursday, 12 February

    12 February 2009 — BostonPeng

    It took a bit longer to get this post written, but while the post is longer than I wanted it to be I have some links I just saw this morning so you only need to read one post to get them all.

    • Russell John: UNIX Time 1,234,5667,890! I meant to blog this a lot sooner, but this weekend will see the above number as the total number of seconds since 1 Jan 1970 UTC/GMT. Russell has more info and a simple way to find out when that milestone will be reached in your area. (For those in in the Eastern time zone it will be tomorrow night at around 6:30 pm. Read Russell’s post if you want the exact time.)
    • Thomas Thurman: More on themes, and why Human’s slow. In my last links post I had a link to a post by Thomas about why the Human theme (Ubuntu’s default theme) takes so long to draw theme elements. Thomas has a followup with some info that themers should make sure you read.
    • Jun Auza: Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackalope” Wallpapers. Jun has some user-created wallpapers for the next version of Ubuntu. I’m not thrilled with all of them but I like yoyovlt’s wallpapers, although I’m not 100% in love with either of them. I do love checking out the user-created materials for new versions of Ubuntu.
    • Aaron Toponce: Ubuntu Codenames. Aaron makes an important point about our love of referring to versions of Ubuntu by their nicknames (Hardy, Intrepid, etc.). After reading it you’ll understand why I have started referring to versions of Ubuntu by their version numbers (8.04.2. 8.10, etc.). Please remember that the numbers after the decimal point are always two digits, and there is no such creature as Ubuntu 8.1. Ever.
    • Justin Scott: Better Safe than Sorry. Justin found two posts from the developer of Adblock Plus about extensions development. Whether you create extensions for Firefox or not they’re definitely worth reading.
    • Mark Lee: Awn/Awn Extras 0.3.2 Released! There’s a new version of Avant Window Navigator and Mark has screenshots and the rather large list of changes to the new version, as well as a link to the best location for Ubuntu users to get the updates. The AWN devs are working with other Linux distros to get their packages updated as well. After using testing packages for some time I have to say that AWN is just getting better with every release. Of course you need some sort of compositor to run AWN, but if you can’t run Compiz for some reason you should check out xcompmgr. That’s how I ran AWN while I was waiting for updated Nvidia drivers after I upgraded to Ubuntu 8.10.
    • Dion Almaer: Will the real WebKit please standup. It turns out that there doesn’t seem to be a single definitive WebKit (which was news to me) and that means that something built for WebKit doesn’t necessarily mean it will run on everything that runs WebKit. Just the thought of it makes my head hurt and makes me love standards even more.
    • Stefano Forenza: Ubuntu saw from the eyes of a Mac user. Stefano found an article from November (which I may have linked to before, now that I think of it) that gets into some pretty nice detailed comparisons between OSX apps and Ubuntu apps. The author knows about Mac4Lin, although it doesn’t look like they used it.
    • Nick Ali: Ubuntu Training in the US. You can now take training courses on Ubuntu within the United States. I see this as only helping the spread of our favorite GNU/Linux distro, and GNU/Linux in general.
    • Miguel de Icaza: Moonlight 1.0 goes live. Miguel has info on the official release of Moonlight 1.0 (which I had already blogged back in December) as well as info on how Moonlight 2 is coming along. Also check out the interview with Miguel over at DesktopLinux.com.
    • Mackenzie Morgan: Malware Terminology: Trojans, Worms & Viruses. Someone recently wrote an article on writing a virus that will effect Linux (thanks, knuclehead) but Mackenzie points out that his terminology is wrong. She also has a nice clarification of the three terms in her title.
    • Aaron Bockover: Announcing Moonshine, the project never formerly known as Pornilus. Moonshine, a project based on Moonlight, makes it easier for GNU/Linux users to enjoy Silverlight content without having to deal with codec hassles. A pretty nice project, although it’s Firefox-specific at this point. Hopefully that will change for users of Epiphany and Opera on Linux.
    • Ingo Juergensmann: Automatically restore files from lost+found. Ingo wrote a couple of scripts for getting files that found their way into your lost+found folder.
    • LinuxDevices.com: Real-time Linux gains accelerated graphics. The Open Source Automation Development Lab has come up with a way to get even accelerated graphics with even lower latency in the Linux 2.6.26 kernel.

    Whew! I just did once more check through my RSS feeds and didn’t see anything more to pass along at this point. It’s a good thing, too, because I need to update some screenshots for Mac4Lin to reflect some changes in version RC2 (an internal release, so it’s not available to our users and testing community) so we can get a smidge closer to releasing version 1.0. It’s taking a while to get Mac4Lin 1.0 out, but I think you will all find it worth the wait.

    Posted in GNU/Linux, Mac4Lin, Microsoft, Open Source, Ubuntu/Kubuntu. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , . 3 Comments »

    [UPDATED] Moonlight got easier for Ubuntu users

    10 January 2009 — BostonPeng

    [Updated to include instructions for getting the PPA's OpenPGP key. -Peng]

    Last month I mentioned that version 1 of Moonlight, the open source port of Microsoft’s Silverlight software, reached both beta status and finally it’s official release (download the Firefox plugin here). Of course I still had one problem. Since I moved from Firefox 3 to Epiphany I couldn’t use the plugin for Firefox.

    I posted a question on the Ubuntu Forums yesterday asking if anyone had gotten it to work with Epiphany-Gecko, and a mere nine hours after I asked my question I got a response from directhex. He has a Personal Package Archive (PPA) on Launchpad that has packages for Moonlight for users of both Ubuntu Hardy and Ubuntu Intrepid. (The PPA is now labeled the badgerports PPA so don’t be concerned if you find that prominently displayed and not his name.) He did warn me that

    (tested quickly on AMD64 Intrepid; minor focus problem w/ right-click menus on Epi; packages may not have built yet on the PPA – be patient)

    I added his PPA to my sources and checked for moonlight-plugin-mozilla, which had been built for a little over 12 hours, and once I restarted Epiphany I see under about:plugins that it’s installed, although it didn’t work that well for either MLB.com’s video content or for the popup player from a local classic rock radio station’s 70′s specific HD radio station. I was able to see that Silverlight is there on the MLB site, but the local radio station’s player acts as if I didn’t install Silverlight at all. I’ve let directhex know about the issue, and it seems it may be an issue of the sites requiring Silverlight 2, and Moonlight is currently at version 1 compatibility.

    Running on Ubuntu, or possibly any recent Debian-based distro, and want to give it a try for yourself? You can snag Moonlight from directhex’s repo and be assured that if he updates his package you’ll get the update notification from the Update Manager. Just add this line to your /etc/apt/sources.list

    deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/directhex/ubuntu intrepid main

    then update your package list with

    sudo apt-get update

    And finally add the moonlight package

    sudo apt-get install moonlight-plugin-mozilla

    Updated 20 October: Thanks to Dale’s comment I realized that I needed to include the information on getting the OpenPGP PPA key.  Before you run the install command you need to get the PPA’s key so Ubuntu will know that the files in the archive are authenticated. If you go to the main information page for directhex’s PPA you’ll see a link to get technical details about the PPA. Click that link and you’ll see the line to add to your sources.list Below you’ll see information on getting the signing key, as well as a link to info on how to actually get the key for apt to use. Instead of making you go through all of that hassle I’ll summarize it here and you will have the steps for use on any Launchpad PPA. Look at the numbers under where it says Signing key and either copy or make not of the part after the slash. In this case the line is 1024R/23DC003A so you want to use 23DC003A. Now open a terminal and run this command

    sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 23DC003A

    replacing the text after --recv-keys with the information you copied from the PPA’s details. Once that’s run go ahead and update your package list and you’ll be ready to install Moonlight without any arguments from apt about an unverified source.

    Once you’ve installed the packages restart your browser and visit your favorite site that has Silverlight content and enjoy the fact that you’re no longer shut out from Microsoft’s newest proprietary technology. Directhex has a test page that he always uses, and it works for me, plus it has some very cool content for you to test your new plugin with.

    Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Tech, Ubuntu/Kubuntu. Tags: , , , . 2 Comments »

    Peng’s links for Thursday, 4 December

    4 December 2008 — BostonPeng
    • 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?
    Posted in GNU/Linux, Mozilla, Open Source, Ubuntu/Kubuntu. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments »

    Peng’s links for Tuesday, 2 December

    2 December 2008 — BostonPeng
    • Richard Hughes: PackageKit and Pango are now friends. When Pango comes across a document specifying particular fonts that you don’t have it can now ask if you want to install them.
    • Herman Bos: From Evolution to Thunderbird (Part II). Last month Herman decided to go the opposite direction from me and move from Evolution to Thunderbird and he’s given us an update on how things are going. Personally I like how Evolution is working for me, although I wish it were easier to theme so I could get it working better with Mac4Lin.
    • Mackenzie Morgan: Compiz? Emerald? Metacity? What’s the Difference? This has got to be one of the most asked questions Ubuntu users get (apart from what’s the difference between GNOME and KDE) and Mackenzie gives us a great article on straightening out confusion. In fact her article should be required reading (or at least really easy to find) for all Ubuntu noobs.
    • Dustin Kirkland: Tux on a Groom’s Cake. Dustin read an article about Ubuntu bread (he has the link) and was reminded of the groom’s cake at his wedding. We should get one for the next Ubuntu release party.
    • Miguel de Icaza: Moonlight 1.0 Beta 1. The Linux port of Microsoft’s Silverlight is finally available for beta testing. Now Linux users can enjoy the content that silly webmasters put up using Microsoft’s proprietary attempt at dethroning a very popular proprietary web media format, Adobe’s Flash. He also has a link to a page of sites you can test Moonlight out on, although Major League Baseball isn’t one of them. I tried watching some of their Silverlight video content and got stuck at “Loading…” forever so I’ll have to check it out on one of the sites they link to. He also has a nice article on Moonlight’s media stack that has some good info on Moonlight’s media rendering.

    Before I put a lid on today’s post I need to point you over to a writeup about a new Ubuntu reference coming out in January. Even better? It will also be available in what looks to be a free PDF version. Thanks to this week’s Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter for the heads up.

    Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Mozilla, Open Source, Tech, Ubuntu/Kubuntu. Tags: , , , , , , , , . Comments Off

    Peng’s links for Thursday, 20 November

    20 November 2008 — BostonPeng
    • 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.

    Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source, Tech, Ubuntu/Kubuntu. Tags: , , , , . 1 Comment »

    Peng’s links for Tuesday, 11 November

    11 November 2008 — BostonPeng

    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.

    Posted in Entertainment, GNU/Linux, Open Source, Tech, Ubuntu/Kubuntu. Tags: , , , , , , . Comments Off
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