Archive for March, 2006
Tuesday, March 28th, 2006
LinuxWorld Around the Corner
Literally it’s around the corner in Boston… I’ve been swamped on putting the touches on some of our announcements but can only hint that we have cool things coming out.
Anyone going? Drop me an email if you’re going to be there.
Monday, March 27th, 2006
Tis the season for Linux desktops?
http://news.com.com/IDC+cuts+PC+forecast+on+Vista+delay/2100-1003_3-6054322.html
Appears IDC does not see much value with Vista and only changed their PC market outlook by 0.1 pts on the delay news… this quote could signal just how big the window (no pun intended) of opportunity could be for Linux on the desktop…
“People who need a PC during the fourth quarter will likely buy it without regard for Vista,. I don’t think the majority of consumers are waiting for Vista; there’s nothing must-have about it.” — IDC analyst Richard Shim
Thursday, March 23rd, 2006
GoDaddy.com Going to Windows for Domains… WHAT?
I’m still confused after reading this Redmond release but apparently GoDaddy.com is going to migrate its 4.5 million hosted domains from Linux servers to Windows servers… Migrating domains?? Laughably they cite Windows as a secure platform - this makes no sense. Who migrates DNS servers to Windows?
Well I’m far from a radical or rebel, but my site is hosted at GoDaddy.com and is going to migrate to another, true Linux hosting provider. It just bothers me to see a company bow down for what I would bet involved “sweetened deal” for Microsoft to get anti-Linux press. GoDaddy, you just lost a customer. I know you don’t care, but it sounds heroic to say it with conviction.
So after reading this nonsense, I’m in the market for a Linux hosting provider… any recommendations? I really only need Linux, MySQL, and PHP support. I’d really like to get a virtual server that I can have full control over. Email me if you have any thoughts.
Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006
“More .NET apps in Fedora Core 5 than Windows Vista”
I saw the title and just had to read it. Jon Galloway’s reaction to the latest Fedora Core 5 announcement.
Will Fedora Core 5, the Linux distro supported by Red Hat, have more managed code than Windows Vista? It sure looks that way.
Tuesday, March 21st, 2006
XGL - KDE and Gnome Finally
Ok, so I’ve streamlined my XGL implementation and have it working with both Gnome and KDE. Have to admit the trickiest part was figuring out that you have to compile compiz with gnome support (even if using KDE) to get gnome-window-decorator to compile properly…. then figuring out the load order for compiz to load and then launch KDE/Gnome was fun. All in all not such a bad experience. This time it’s running MUCH faster than when I first got it running on KDE - not sure what the hangup was but I think it’s b/c I’m using a newer source. However, KDE is running slower than Gnome - I’ll chalk it up to XGL being closely tied to Gnome at this point.
With XGL Gnome is running at approx 0.7% - 7% CPU utilization while KDE runs at about 30-40% CPU utilization. Sounds like either a bug or a result of having to use gnome-window-decorator and not one derived from Qt.
I’ll post a walkthrough on how I got setup when I get a free minute (could be a while). Honestly the Gentoo XGL guide was ok… needs some touches. I still need to figure out why I can’t shutdown KDE/Gnome without X freezing…
XGL and KDE -> a rare combo it seems…
Tuesday, March 21st, 2006
Wallace v FSF Case Dismissed, Strengthens GPL Validity
In case you had not heard about the latest pro se attempt to shut down the GPL, the FSF (Free Software Foundation) was taken to court on the argument that the GPL (free) entails price fixing under the Sherman Act in restraint of free trade. Albeit a novel argument, it was not a winning argument as the court basically kicked Wallace out with no possibility to come back. Doubtful he’ll appeal. One great snippet from U.S. D.C. Judge John Daniel Tinder actually bolsters the validity of the GPL:
[T]he GPL encourages, rather than discourages, free competition and the distribution of computer operating systems, the benefits of which directly pass to consumers. These benefits include lower prices, better access and more innovation.
Thursday, March 16th, 2006
Snowbird… 5 FEET in 2 WEEKS
Damn…. for those going to Novell’s BrainShare - I’m absolutely jealous…
Wednesday, March 15th, 2006
Kororaa XGL LiveCD gets Impressive A+
I’m floored by how impressive this Kororaa Gentoo/XGL Live CD is. The clean, Apple-style theme, and polished Gnome setup is very nice all the way through. This LiveCD came out so fast after XGL’s release that I expected a “kinda working”, “buggy” implementation. It’s far from that. I’m able to use all (I think) XGL features and best of all - it’s fast as can be. Now I know it was just me screwing something up when I saw terrible KDE/XGL performance on my Gentoo setup… I’ll have to figure out what I did wrong.
For now though, XGL is very impressive eye candy. Not sure there’s any real… say productivity gain… but it definitely makes it more fun to use multiple workspaces on Linux. One thing I will have to figure out is if we can put different backgrounds on each of the cube faces. First I’ll have to get it working properly. More to come now that I know it was just my error ;-)
Tuesday, March 14th, 2006
Fight WordPress comment spam with Akismet
Just noticed Catherine was having some problems with comment spamming and WordPress… Try out Akismet - it will reduce/eliminate the comment spamming.
Tuesday, March 14th, 2006
Snowbird - 24″ with more on the way…
I’m stuck in NY and Snowbird is getting slammed with snow… I’ve never actually seen “widespread snow” as a condition… My Volkl’s are itching to hop on a plane..
Tuesday, March 14th, 2006
Berstein’s Analyst: HP’s 12 Straight Quarters with “One Time” Charge = Ongoing Business Expense
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/14/hp_charges_tradition/
Wow. Berstein’s Toni Sacconaghi suggests restructuring charges at HP have become ordinary course of business after 12 straight ‘one-time’ charge quarters… wonder if there’s legal precendent on this - and how would GAAP handle it??
We believe that given the size and frequency of HPQ€™s restructuring/workforce reduction charges, the company should look to expense them going forward as an ongoing part of doing business.
We believe that the consistency and magnitude of HP€™s restructuring charges/workforce reductions indicates that they are more ongoing in nature than €œone-time€. Moreover, expected ongoing gross margin pressure due to its portfolio mix shift makes it likely that HP will need to engage in future cost-cutting actions in order to maintain operating margins.
Tuesday, March 14th, 2006
XGL without all the mess
I’m currently downloading Kororaa - a Gentoo XGL LiveCD from bittorrent. I’m interested in seeing how it performs on my system with Chris Smart’s kit. My initial post on XGL performance caused a few notes to appear in my inbox… maybe this LiveCD will uncover something I did wrong. I did notice turning off transparency did wonders on my KDE/XGL implementation.
Tuesday, March 14th, 2006
RHEL 4 Update 3 Brings Many Processors
With the release of RHEL 4 U3, Red Hat now supports up to 64 logical CPUs on x64, IA, and POWER platforms.
https://www.redhat.com/archives/nahant-list/2006-March/msg00049.html
Improved support for larger system configurations with - up to 64 logical CPUs on AMD64 and EM64T 64 bit platforms through a new "largesmp" kernel variant depending on hardware certification. - up to 64 logical CPUs on PPC (and IA64 carried forward from Update 2) with the existing "smp" kernel variant depending on hardware certification. * Technology preview for support of very large system configurations on IA64 (up to 256 logical CPUs) and PPC (up to 128 logical CPUs).
There are also a number of system tool updates including SystemTap and Frysk:
* SystemTap dynamic system instrumentation tool enhancements including technology preview for broader hardware architecture support * Kernel crash dump analysis tool enhancements * Technology preview of the Frysk execution analysis framework, for more information visit http://sourceware.org/frysk/
Monday, March 13th, 2006
XGL on Gentoo
Wish I had seen this before having to figure out the steps on my own… a HOWTO for Gentoo and XGL. You can see my comments below - XGL kills the resources on my Dell Inspiron 8200 - you may have better luck with newer HW.
I like XGL b/c it’s “cool” eye candy, yet I haven’t seen anything yet that is revolutionary or productive… OS X has had these features for a while and X has always had multiple desktops… maybe we’ll see something innovative come yet…
Monday, March 13th, 2006
Linux Kernel Config Archives
This is really cool - a library of kernel archives that shows what’s new or let’s you even compare differences between kernels. Let’s say you’re on 2.6.13 and are wondering what’s new with 2.6.15 and whether it’s worth an update… take a look. It also has all the complete .config files for the kernel version - a great reference.
Saturday, March 11th, 2006
NASA goes open source - compile your own Mission Simulation Toolkit today!
Looks like NASA has caught the open source bug. I haven’t yet read the NASA Open Source Agreement but it sounds cool - NOSA. Looks like you can now download and tweak the bits of Livingstone2 - because everyone needs a little custom AI to handle hardware failures on their spacecraft… wonder what the testing platform is.
Livingstone2/Skunkworks
Livingstone2 is a reusable artificial intelligence (AI) software system designed to assist spacecraft, life support systems, chemical plants or other complex systems in operating robustly with minimal human supervision, even in the face of hardware failures or unexpected events.
Saturday, March 11th, 2006
XGL - What a resource hog…
Tried out XGL with KDE… just to try out transparency and the cool cube desktop movement on my Dell 8200. I don’t have the latest and greatest video card (nVidia 64MB GeForce 440 Go) but XGL really sucked the life out of my KDE - unusable for normal work. It looks amazing - hopefully we’ll see the resource optimizations soon ;-)
Friday, March 10th, 2006
Linus discusses GPL3, sharks, and evil laser beams…
A somewhat humorous article over a Forbes.com that highlights Linus’ stance on the GPL3 - I tend to agree with him. With GPL3 the FSF is taking licensing beyond just code to saying what you can/cannot do with the code from a social (evil vs not evil) perspective. If you’ve ever sat in a philosophy class, you know it’s difficult to even define what evil is.
Take a look, I think Linus’ initial reaction re: PGP signing may have taken too liberal view of what the GPL3 actually says. However, listening to RMS, it’s clear he views vendors like Tivo to be “evil” purveyors of GPL code. I tend to like my Tivo and am somewhat proud that it runs on Linux. I am swayed by Linus’ argument - keep the license focused on code, social pressures can handle the DRM issues.
Do we need an “Evil Tux” with laser beams on his head?
Monday, March 6th, 2006
AJAXPress - Bringing AJAX to Wordpress!
How cool - an AJAX powered Wordpress application over at http://www.ajaxpress.org. The beta, Gentoo user in me wants to try this out asap. Anyone using it?
Sunday, March 5th, 2006
Ebbs and flows… back to a monopoly?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11684785/
AT&T Inc. is buying BellSouth Corp. for $67 billion in stock in a bid that further consolidates the telecommunications industry and would give AT&T total control of their growing joint venture, Cingular Wireless LLC.
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