Black Friday Film: What the Bill Gates-Backed Monsanto Does to Animals, Farmers, Food, and Patent Systems

Black Friday Film: What the Bill Gates-Backed Monsanto Does to Animals, Farmers, Food, and Patent Systems: "

Richard Stallman at 2009 Munich protests against patents on pigs

Summary: Monsanto Patent for a Pig — the full programme

WE wrote about Monsanto’s patents before [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] and here is a 1-hour programme about the subject.

Monsanto Patent for a Pig (Pt.1 of 5)

Monsanto Patent for a Pig (Pt.2 of 5)

Monsanto Patent for a Pig (Pt.3 of 5)

Monsanto Patent for a Pig (Pt.4 of 5)

Monsanto Patent for a Pig (Pt.5 of 5. End)

We have more coming soon because wallclimber works on something. █

"

Googsystray: Unified Google Services Notifier [Windows, Linux]

Googsystray: Unified Google Services Notifier [Windows, Linux]: "

Googsystray is a Google Voice, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Reader and Google Wave checker application for Windows and Linux. The idea is to be able to keep track of all that stuff without having to keep a bunch of browser tabs open, or constantly checking them.

It notifies on new messages, alerts, etc., and provides basic services quickly (Reading or sending a new SMS message, or marking an email read, for example.)


Installing it in Windows is as easy as any other application, just download the installer.

To install Googsystray in Linux, firstly make sure you have Python and pygtk installed, then download the .tar.gz archive and extract it. Open a terminal, navigate to the folder where you have extracted Googsystray, and run the following command:

sudo python ./setup.py install

Then, go to the bin subfolder from your googsystray folder, and double click the googsystray file.

To configure Googsystray, right click it's icon on your systray and select 'Preferences':

To open an unread message, left click the service icon (Gmail, etc) in your systray (notification area). And finally, to quickly see what's new, right click a service icon.

[via gulp]

---

© www.webupd8.org 2009. | What's New on the World Wide Web

"

EU About To Grant US Unlimited Access To Banking Data

EU About To Grant US Unlimited Access To Banking Data: "An anonymous reader points out a blog post reporting that on Monday The EU Council is set to give US intelligence services full access to SWIFT banking data, despite a unanimous call by the European Parliament not to do so. "The move of SWIFT the data server to Switzerland would be an excellent opportunity to stop the nearly unlimited access of US authorities on EU bank transactions. But EU justice and interior ministers are apparently keen [on agreeing to] a deal as soon as possible, on 30 November. Why 30 November? Because one day later, on 1 December 2009, the EU’s Lisbon Treaty will be in force and would allow the European Parliament to play a major role in the negotiations of the deal with the US. A deal one day before will be a slap in the face to democracy in the EU. ... [W]hile the US will be able to access EU banking data, no access to US banking data by EU [authorities] is being foreseen."

Great Links to Open Textbooks

Great Links to Open Textbooks: "

The Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) is a combined effort to develop and use open educational resources (OER) and in particular open textbooks in community college courses. An open textbook is defined as:

a body of educational content that is openly available over the web, by mail, or in a book store with a copyright that allows copying and distribution or, with the most open copyrights, allows modification of the content and even sale.

CCCOER Open Textbooks provides a growing list of links, covering a wide range of subject areas, to “OPEN and free textbooks that may be suitable for use in community college courses“. In some cases, the links also lead to useful podcasts and videos.

This is a great resource. On my first quick look, I found a comprehensive guide to using OpenOffice 3.o!

"

Create & Deploy Servers & Sites In A Snap With Turnkey Linux

Create & Deploy Servers & Sites In A Snap With Turnkey Linux: "

Hardcore work on the computer requires a serious dedicated setup. You can of course run your programming stack on your gaming machine, but that hardcore gaming or hardcore development would suffer. You need a dedicated setup for thorough work of any kind.

Usually such situations involve setting up a server or using virtualization. Both of these processes involve some technical know how and most of all – a considerable amount of time.

We previously covered how you can create a Virtual Machine from the operating system you are currently running, so that you can easily carry along the installed software and settings from your computer to any other computer or vice versa. Today let’s look at another alternative that spares you a lot of trouble of messing around with configuration files.

It is called TurnKey Linux.

TurnKey Linux is different from your regular Linux distributions. Unlike most distributions, Turnkey Linux offers a turnkey solution and lets you download TurnKey Linux appliances according to your needs that are ready to run. The components are called appliances.

There are tons of really good open source software and we have previously shown you plenty of them here on MakeUseOf. However beyond regular day to day use, many open source software power the backbone of plenty of commercial establishments. Apache Web server is a great example, which is used on the majority of servers on the Internet today. Turnkey Linux gathers many such Open Source software and makes them available as turnkey appliances.

So what exactly is a Turnkey Linux appliance you might wonder? Well, let’s put it this way, an appliance is a combination of a base operating system and software, serving a specialized purpose. As an example, let’s say you want to start an online community site. phpBB is an excellent php application that you can use for the said purpose. You would start by getting the hardware, then install PHP, MySQL, set them up to work together and then finally install phpBB.

However, using Turnkey Linux’s phpBB appliance, all you need to worry about is getting some hard disk space that you can put on the World Wide Web! You can just as easily use your own computer, provided it would stay online.

In Turnkey Linux’s case, the appliances are created using Ubuntu 8.04 as the base system and bundling all the required software along with it. There are plenty of appliances to choose from. Almost all of the popular commercially used open source applications have been covered and are available as separate appliances. There are appliances for web development, issue tracking, content management systems (excellent for creating your sites), others for setting up a variety of servers and a whole lots of others.

The appliances are available as bootable ISO images as well as VMDK file to use with your Virtualization software. There is also a “Launch to Cloud” option which uses Amazon EC2 and lets you launch your server in a snap. You can also find a Amazon EC2 tutorial in Turnkey Linux’s documentation, if you would like some help with EC2. The details page also lists the various software that you will get with the appliance, so you can easily see if it is what you are looking for before downloading.

Using the turnkey Linux appliance is as simple as it can get. Depending upon the method you choose to download the appliance you can either burn the ISO image to a disk and then boot from it, or use the VMDK image with VMware or Virtualbox. The appliance and bundled software are preconfigured and ready to use, you wouldn’t have to do anything other than to boot the system and use it!

Take Turnkey Linux for a spin if you are thinking to setup a Linux server of any kind, or perhaps a dedicated development environment or site. Let us know what you think of it? Which appliance did you use?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

Related posts

• The Best Freeware To Do An Easy Wordpress Auto Install (20)


• Speed Up Your WordPress Blog With PHP Speedy (18)


• iWeb – Build A Quick, Easy & Beautiful Website [Mac only] (32)


• How To Use Your Domain Name As An OpenID Login (21)


• How To Install Wordpress Blog Locally On Your PC (23)

"

A function to output a man page as a pdf file

A function to output a man page as a pdf file: "$ function man2pdf(){ man -t ${1:?Specify man as arg} | ps2pdf -dCompatibility=1.3 - - > ${1}.pdf; }

Tested on Fedora 12. This function will take a man page and convert it to pdf, saving the output to the current working directory. In Gnome, you can then view the output with 'gnome-open file.pdf', or your favorite pdf viewer.

• View this command to comment, vote or add to favourites


• View all commands by vargasmas

by David Winterbottom (codeinthehole.com)

"

Pedobear is older than I thought

Pedobear is older than I thought: "

Captcha fail

Picture by: buzzboyz198302 Submitted by: buzzboyz198302 via Fail Uploader

"

Issue 31 is out and about

Issue 31 is out and about: "

The 31st issue of everybody’s favorite Ubuntu magazine is out! With 9.10 Karmic Koala just about a month old and the next release, Lucid Lynx, already on the horizon and in the news, take a look at what else is going on.

This month, we’ve got:

• Command and Conquer.


• How-To: Program in Python – Part 5, The Perfect Server – Part 1, and Universe of Sound.


• My Story – The Conversion.


• My Opinion – Windows 7.


• Review – Linux Mint 7.


• MOTU Interview – Andreas Wenning.


• Top 5 – Subversion Clients.


• Ubuntu Women, Ubuntu Games and all the usual goodness!

Download it here: http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-31

"

Openness as the Foundation for Global Change

Openness as the Foundation for Global Change: "

What do you do after Inventing the Web? That's not a question most of us have to face, but it is for Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Heading up the World Wide Web Consortium to oversee the Web's development was a natural move, but valuable as its work has been, there's no denying that it has been sidelined somewhat by the rather more vigorous commercial Web activity that's taken place over the last decade.

Moreover, the kind of standards-setting that the W3C is mostly involved with is not exactly game-changing stuff – unlike the Web itself. So the recent announcement of the World Wide Web Foundation, also created by Sir Tim, has a certain logic to it.

Here's that new organisation's “vision”:

On Open Enterprise blog.

"

30,000 UK ISP Users Face Threat Letters For Suspected Illegal File Sharing

30,000 UK ISP Users Face Threat Letters For Suspected Illegal File Sharing: "Mark.JUK writes with this excerpt from ISP Review: 'Solicitors at ACS:Law have been granted approval by the Royal Courts of Justice in London to demand the private personal details of some 30,000 customers suspected of involvement with illegal file sharing from UK broadband ISPs. The customers concerned are 'suspected' of illegally file sharing (P2P) approximately 291 movie titles, they now face threatening demands for money (settlement) or risk the prospect of court action. It's noted that 25,000 of the IP addresses that have been collected belong to BT users.'

"

New Trojan Steals World of Warcraft Passwords

New Trojan Steals World of Warcraft Passwords: "

Antivirus company Sophos warns that a new trojan is on the loose, packed in an email that promises photos of sexy girls (don’t they all).

The malicious campaign is widely spread out, mainly through emails with the subject line “Do you like to find a girlfriend like me?” with an attachment called “my photos.rar”. Of course, the attachment actually contains a trojan horse called Troj/Agent-LVF which tries to steal login info for popular MMORPG World of Warcraft.

The email in question contains the following text, written in inexplicably bad English:

“Wish to have a boyfriend

Be able to protect me, take care of me

Intolerable lonely night and would like to have your care.

do you Willing?

This is my photos.”

If you receive this email, delete it. If you think your computer is infected with the trojan, you can find more information about it over at Sophos.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Talaj

---

"

We Serve Vegetarians / Shirley on vi.sualize.us

We Serve Vegetarians / Shirley on vi.sualize.us: ""

November 27, 2009

November 27, 2009: "

"

Deviant Linux? Normal Microsoft computer?

Deviant Linux? Normal Microsoft computer?: "
This was on a mailing list and thought I should publish it here for posterity.

(Tech Support | California, USA)

Caller: 'I need to report a very serious computer crime! The local university
is running an illegal computer system!'

Me: 'Could you please repeat that'

Caller: 'The local university is running an illegal computer system! They've
hacked it!'

Me: 'How could you tell they'd hacked it'

Caller: 'Well, when it booted, it didn???t say Windows or Microsoft or
anything! It said something about Deviant Linux, I think, and the main
screen looked nothing like my good, legal Windows screen at home!
I think they hacked that, too!'

Me: 'Do you mean Debian Linux'

Caller: 'Yes, that! Is it some sort of computer mafia or something'

Me: 'Uh, no, it's just a different operating system. Nothing to worry about.'

Caller: 'But it's illegal! It's not Microsoft, not even Windows! They're on a
normal Microsoft computer, so they're breaking the law! I think they stole
my identity when I came in the building! I'm calling the FBI!' *hangs up*

"

How to Fix Your Relatives' Terrible Computer [Tech Support]

How to Fix Your Relatives' Terrible Computer [Tech Support]: "

Drop your bags, grab a drink, and grab the XP CD—it's time for the holiday ritual of fixing up your relatives' computer. Here are some tips and downloads to keep handy while you're cursing all the auto-starting crapware.

Photo by Justin Marty.

For this guide, we're going to do a bit of assuming. We're assuming the relative with the busted computer is running a Windows system, and has an internet connection that works when the computer does. We're assuming all the physical pieces of the computer work—hard drive, memory, disc drives, and anything else that's crucial. We'll also assume the computer's in one of two states: Failing to boot and needing an OS re-installation, laden with unnecessary system tray/startup applications and/or spy/mal/ad-ware, or just needing a little optimization.

Computer won't boot, needs a re-install

The problem: Turning on the computer results in a message that states Windows can't boot because something is missing (a boot loader, an important file, etc.) or something is wrong. There are many variations on this message, but they all say basically the same thing: You will not be getting into Windows.

Quick-fix triage: Load the original XP, Vista, or Windows 7 (Really? Broken already?) CD or DVD in the system and boot the system from there, which might require hitting a key to bring up "boot options" or pressing a key when asked to "Press any key to boot from CD." Wait for the CD to load—it may seem like it's installing, but it's just loading a mini-system for installation and, in this case, repair. Follow the prompts to repair an existing installation, or, in the case of Vista or 7, ask it to repair the startup process.

What you'll need:

• XP, Vista, or Windows 7 installation CD/DVD: It may be from a computer manufacturer and not look like a Microsoft-obtained, holograph-packed disc, so look around a bit. If it's a 'System Restoration' disc, be sure that you can boot from it and install a full copy of Windows from it.
• USB thumb drive: At least 1GB in size.
• External USB drive or blank DVDs: For backing up important files.
• Ubuntu Live CD or Knoppix Live CD: Both are Linux distributions, but we're just using them because they run on most kinds of hardware without installing, and can transfer the files you need to your backup media. Ubuntu should work; if it doesn't, give Knoppix a go. You can use the free tool UNetBootin to transfer the ISO you downloaded to a thumb drive, which is necessary if you're backing up to DVDs, and recommended in any case to speed things up.
  

  If that doesn't work, and you really feel this system can boot again except for some silly error, try creating an Ultimate Recovery CD, as detailed at the How-To Geek's home away from Lifehacker.

  If that worked, hooray! If not, soldier on to the next step.

  Back up the files: Have your USB hard drive or blank DVDs handy, and remove the Windows CD/DVD from the computer if you tried to use that for a fix. Stick your thumb drive with the Ubuntu (or Knoppix) image into a USB slot, then boot up the computer. You may have to hit F12 or another key to boot from USB, or change a setting in the BIOS (which you can access by hitting a key—written in that fast-disappearing text—at boot-up). You'll be asked to choose a language, then hit the option to "Try Ubuntu without any changes." After some loading, you'll arrive at an Ubuntu desktop.

  Move your cursor to the "Places" menu, and check to see that your USB drive (MyBook, in my case) or blank DVD is showing up. You should also see the hard drive Windows is running from. On an XP or Vista system, there's usually just one, but on Windows 7, there are two—a "System Reserved" (fairly small) and a larger, main drive. Check to see that you can open and access those files as well.

  Ask your relatives which files and documents are important to them. When doing my own tech support work, I usually back up the entire 'My Documents' folder (with 'My Music' and 'My Pictures' included), their Outlook or (yes, sometimes) Outlook Express email data (explained here), and their Firefox profile or, more likely, their 'Favorites' folder for Internet Explorer (C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Favorites in XP, or C:\Users\Username\Favorites in Vista or 7). In any case, always ask, and make sure there isn't any software they can't locate a license for.

  When you're ready to back up, simply open your USB drive from the Places menu, then open your main Windows drive, and drag files to copy from your Windows system onto the backup medium.
  

  If you're burning to DVD, head to the Applications menu in your temporary Ubuntu system, mouse over the Accessories sub-menu, and select 'CD/DVD Creator' when it pops up. You'll get a folder you can drag files you want to burn into, then hit 'Write to Disc' to burn them.
  

  When you're all done backing up files, head to the menu with the power icon next to it (labeled "Live user," most likely) and select "Shut Down." You'll eventually be prompted to remove your live CD or USB stick—do so, and swap in the Windows installation CD or DVD. Turn off the system, then turn it back on. Follow the instructions to install Windows on the system, erasing whatever partitions or data exist on there at the moment (assuming you're sure the important stuff is backed up).

  Clogged with crapware

  The problem: The computer boots up ... eventually. Programs open very slowly, the hard drive seems to click and whir endlessly, and messages, reminders, and pop-up windows jump onto the screen every few minutes.

  Quick-fix triage: If you don't suspect there's anything actually malicious and infectious on the system—that is, you're fairly sure they've been running and updating an anti-virus and anti-malware client—grab a copy of Revo Uninstaller Portable (direct ZIP file link), and run it off the USB stick you brought with you.

  Click the "Tools" button, choose the Autorun menu on the left, and look through the items on the right. Uncheck the stuff that's really unnecessary—most of it, really, unless they constantly use a printer/scanner or run an antivirus app—and remind your host to un-check the toolbars and "helper" apps offered when installing things.

  If things are much better now, and you don't imagine that malware is an issue, you're all done. Otherwise ...

  What you'll need: Mostly a small batch of software, recommended by this author and the How-To Geek. You can run these once and remove them, or run them off a thumb drive, in some cases. The last download is one you'll keep installed on the system.

  • Revo Uninstaller Portable: Completely, utterly removes the programs, toolbars, and other junk apps that aren't needed.
  • SuperAntiSpyware: For cleaning (you guessed it) spyware.
  • Malwarebytes (or its portable version): For the clingy cookies, add-ons, and apps that try and do unauthorized stuff.
  • CCleaner Portable: For freeing up hard drive space and clearing out temp/cache files that bog down the system index.
  • Microsoft Security Essentials or Panda Cloud Antivirus: The former for a system that's got enough horsepower to be adequate, the latter for a system that's light on resources.

  The fixing process? It's nothing special, actually—just run the quick-fix triage in any case, removing the auto-run apps that bog down system resources, and then run these secondary apps, generally in the order they're listed. Keep Security Essentials or Panda Cloud Antivirus installed (not both!), and, while you're being helpful, back up this computer's pictures, music, and important documents.

  Tuning up and bomb-proofing

  Maybe everything technically 'works,' but watching your relatives open emails in Outlook Express and browse on Internet Explorer 6 is just, well, painful. Here are the steps we recommend to get things moving:

  • Run the basics of the 'clogged with crapware' section: The one involving Revo Uninstaller and startup programs, under the 'quick-fix triage' sub-section, and installing either Microsoft Security Essentials or Panda Cloud Antivirus.
  • Install Firefox and make it the default: Be sure to use the bookmark and setting import from Internet Explorer. You could even go with Google Chrome for even tighter security and speed, if your relatives wouldn't mind the abrupt shift in look and feel.
  • Set up their email in Gmail: Gmail has made it much easier to import email accounts, whether they're AOL, cable company, or other defaults that just stuck around. You can make a simple switch in the settings to keep your relatives receiving and sending email from their same address (or multiple addresses). Save their Gmail password in Firefox, but make sure they know it, and they'll even get some new-fangled email portability.
  • Physically clean the beast: Stop by the local office store, grab a can of compressed air, and clean out the 'dust bunnies', especially if you can hear the exhaust fans over the mid-day football.
  • Replace cruddy programs with superior alternatives: Gina's 2008 recommendations still hold up, but we updated them a bit, and made them super-easy to install in one shot, with our Lifehacker Pack 2009. Or use Ninite for a similar one-click awesomeware package.

  ---

  That is, at least, how one Lifehacker editor is fixing at least one relative's computer this long holiday weekend. What's your own 1-2-3 process for being the holiday software savior? Share your success stories in the comments.

  Unless you're writing 'Buy them a Mac.' In which case, take your truly helpful comments elsewhere, and prepare to get banned.

"

Pandora

Pandora: ""

Improve 'apt-get install' And 'upgrade' Speed [How-to]

Improve 'apt-get install' And 'upgrade' Speed [How-to]: "

Axel is a command line application which accelerates HTTP/FTP downloads by using multiple sources for one file. For example, some FTP sites limit the speed of each connection, therefore opening more than one connection at a time multiplies the allowable bandwidth.

What if we could use a bash script to use 'apt-get' with Axel so the 'apt-get' download speed would increase dramatically? Well, you can, thanks to Matt Parnell who has created a bash script which does just that. The script works with any Linux distribution which uses 'apt-get' (Debian, Ubuntu, etc.).

Before using the script, you must install Axel:

sudo apt-get install axel

Then create an empty file called apt-fast and paste this:

#!/bin/sh
#apt-fast by Matt Parnell http://www.mattparnell.com , this thing is FOSS
#please feel free to suggest improvements to admin@mattparnell.com
# Use this just like apt-get for faster package downloading. Make sure to have axel installed

#If the first user entered variable string contains apt-get, and the second string entered is either install or dist-upgrade
if echo '$1' | grep -q '[upgrade]' || echo '$2' | grep -q '[install]' || echo '$2' | grep -q '[dist-upgrade]'; then
echo 'Working...';

#Go into the directory apt-get normally puts downloaded packages
cd /var/cache/apt/archives/;

#Have apt-get print the information, including the URI's to the packages
apt-get -y --print-uris $1 $2 $3 $4 > debs.list;

#Strip out the URI's, and download the packages with Axel for speediness
egrep -o -e '(ht|f)tp://[^\']+' debs.list | xargs -l1 axel -a;

#Perform the user's reqested action via apt-get
apt-get -y $1 $2 $3 $4;

echo 'Done! Make sure and check to see that the packages all were installed properly. If a package is erred, run sudo apt-get autoclean and try installing it again without the use of this script.';

elif echo '$1' | grep -q '[*]'; then
apt-get $1;
else
echo 'Sorry, but you appear to be entering invalid options. You must use apt-get and one of apt-get's options in order to use this script.';
fi

Then use the terminal to navigate to where you created the script and run this command:

chmod +x apt-fast

For easier usage, you can move it to the /usr/bin folder.

Now, instead of using: sudo apt-get install PACKAGE_NAME, use sudo apt-fast install PACKAGE_NAME or upgrade or dist-upgrade - it also works with those operations.

I must say I have obviously tested the script and indeed, it works really fast. I don't know if it's 26x faster as the author claims, but the speed improvement, well, let's just say you won't need to measure it to notice the difference!

Special thanks to Mahdi for suggesting this script!

---

© www.webupd8.org 2009. | What's New on the World Wide Web

"

Using eBox As Windows Primary Domain Controller

Using eBox As Windows Primary Domain Controller: "

Using eBox As Windows Primary Domain Controller

eBox Platform is an open source small business server that allows you to manage
all your services like firewall, DHCP, DNS, VPN, proxy, IDS, mail, file and printer
sharing, VoIP, IM and much more. These functionalities are tightly integrated,
automating most tasks, avoiding mistakes and saving time for system administrators. This tutorial shows you step by step how to use eBox as Windows Primary Domain Controller.
At the end of it you will be using eBox Platform 1.2 for users and shared resources
management on your Windows domain.

"

Harald Sitter (apachelogger): Ubuntu One KDE Tech Preview

Harald Sitter (apachelogger): Ubuntu One KDE Tech Preview: "As all my dear groupies probably have noticed, I started working on getting Ubuntu One a KDE frontend.

First results are now available as a tech preview.

The Ubuntu One KDE client is a small application that lives in your system tray (the thing next to your clock). It notifies you when a new transfers from or to the Ubuntu One server have been started and when they are finished.
Additionally it will show up whenever there is a problem with the connection.

You can get an impression of what it does from the two prototype sceencasts

• http://aplg.kollide.net/screencasts/ubuntuone-kde1.ogv
• http://aplg.kollide.net/screencasts/ubuntuone-kde2.ogv

What can you expect from this preview?

Crashes, startup failures and missing functionallity, as to be expected from a tech preview.

Please note that this preview is directly based of a prototype, so the internals are most likely to change a lot.

Still here?

Ok.

You can get the client from a special PPA. Just add the source lines and install ubuntuone-client-kde. Before you do anything you need to run the GNOME client (ubuntuone-client-applet) at least once to obtain authentication from the Ubuntu One server, then you can just quit the GNOME client and start the KDE one (you need to start it with --nofork or it will not work).

I have also create a screencast showing all that.

Once authentication is implemented an the client works properly I'll take a look into implementing Dolphin integration (most likely via a kio slave, due to lack of other options). Meanwhile the Desktop CouchDB Akonadi resources get finsihed. So we will hopefully have meaningful integration into the KDE Platform by the time Kubuntu 10.04 LTS gets released.

Interesting times lie ahead!

"

Start another X session in a window

Start another X session in a window: "$ startx -- /usr/bin/Xephyr :2

You might have Xnest (older) rather than Xephyr.

You can experiment with other desktops eg:

startx /usr/bin/start-kde -- /usr/bin/Xephyr :2

You can start X on a remote machine (although I'd recommend vnc for anything slower than a LAN):

startx /usr/bin/ssh -X gnome-session -- /usr/bin/Xephyr :2

Or just start another X session locally talking to the remote backend:

• View this command to comment, vote or add to favourites


• View all commands by bhepple

by David Winterbottom (codeinthehole.com)

"

This Is How Kiwis Trim The Top Of Their Hedges

This Is How Kiwis Trim The Top Of Their Hedges: "

New Zealanders do it with a crane people… with a crane. It makes perfect sense now. (more…)

"

Google Offers Named OpenIDs

Google Offers Named OpenIDs: "

I love Google — and I’m not just saying that because they deliver 90% of our traffic and more than half of our OpenID signups, I swear. But I am a little bitter that their OpenID support has two major flaws which cause us a great deal of ongoing pain:

1. Google’s OpenIDs are domain specific. The very same gmail account, if you sign up on 5 different OpenID enabled websites, will result in 5 different random hash OpenIDs being generated. While this is probably OK in the general case (though still an exceedingly rare behavior among OpenID providers), it’s incredibly aggravating for us because we like to let users map their Stack Overflow, Server Fault, Super User, Meta, and Careers accounts to each other. This is a huge PITA when there is no common per-user identifier between those 5 sites. We have a workaround in place but it is not pretty.
   
2. Google’s OpenIDs are random hashes to the server. This means I have no idea if you used crazyman45@gmail.com, hellaleet@gmail.com, or lovezwafflez1@gmail.com to sign up with us. It is literally impossible for me to help you figure out which one you need to use to log in. All I can tell you is, “you used a gmail account”. Which one, I have no idea. And neither do you, apparently.
   

While there is certainly an argument for privacy to be made here, it sure would be nice to have the choice between a random per-site hash OpenID like …

https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=aitoaxleeuzwdizb1g2_wvnob5pwvx

And a stable, readable OpenID like …

http://www.google.com/profiles/your.name.here

Well, the good news is, now you can! Google just gave us a fantastic Thanksgiving Day present in the form of Google Profiles supporting OpenID. And with a Google Profile, you get to pick a named URL of your choice!

So, if you’d like to add a named Google OpenID to your account, here’s how.

First, log in as yourself. Go to your user page and look for the “add openid” or “change openid” link. (Note that we support up to two openids per account and you can change them at any time.)

Since you’re already logged in you are adding a new openid. Enter your Google Profile URL in the area where it says “manually enter your OpenID URL”, and click Login.

You’ll get redirected to Google where you can OK the use of your OpenID by our website.

You’ll get redirected back to us, and we confirm that yes, indeed, you do want to add this OpenID to your account. (In case you’re wondering, this confirmation is required — otherwise clicking a single evil link could automatically and silently add a new, rogue OpenID to your account effectively owning you.)

Now you’re back on your user page — note the newly added OpenID on my account. And if I want to change it, I can just click “Change OpenID” any time I want.

The only thing that throws a monkey wrench into this process is when you have a single OpenID provider and that provider either changes their string format, or goes belly-up. Don’t worry, both cases are fixable, but it requires emailing us. Still, I highly recommend having two different OpenID providers associated with your account at any given time.

Kudos to Google for rolling out named OpenID support in the form of Google Profiles. While you can of course continue to use the existing Google OpenID support, if you plan to use multiple ’stack sites (or Stack Exchange sites) I assure you that your life will be much easier if you pick a stable, named Google OpenID rather than relying on the default random hashes.

"

Moving Decimal Bug Loses Money

Moving Decimal Bug Loses Money: "mario.m7 writes 'Poste Italiane, the Italian postal service, suffered yesterday from an abnormal computation in ATM and credit card operations, since the decimal comma was not taken into account. The whole sum was therefore multiplied by 100, resulting in a 115,00 Euro transaction being debited as 11.500 Euro! Thousands of accounts are deep in the red and locked (link pumped through translator), so that no more operations are possible. Poste Italiane is gradually recovering the problem, fixing the error and re-crediting the sum debited in excess. Consumer associations have offered support to clients in case this lasts longer and cause damage.'

CATS WHO STARE AT

CATS WHO STARE AT: "

CATS WHO STARE AT GOATS

coming soon to a theater near you

u iz mah kid.

Picture by: Jill! Caption by: rick9 via Poster Builder

» Recaption This!

» View All Captions

"

Death of the black box EULA

Death of the black box EULA: "

Computing’s greatest accomplishment of this decade will likely go unremarked in the popular press.

I call it the “death of the black box EULA.” (Picture from the blog Fortunes Pawn Luncheonette, December 2007.)

Free software wounded it in the early 1990s. The Internet stabbed it again. But it was open source, in this decade, that struck the fatal blow.

Users under 25 may be unaware of what I am talking about. Let me explain how the scam worked.

1. I have this black box. It does tricks. I sell you the tricks it does with fancy TV ads or in glossy magazine spreads. You want my black box. You want it bad.


2. I will let you use a copy of the black box, but I will not sell it to you. I will take your money but you are not buying anything.


3. All this is covered by an End User License Agreement (EULA), written in a form of elvish. You signed it when you ripped open the black box.


4. The EULA states that the box may not work. The EULA states the box may do nothing. Regardless, I keep your money.


5. The EULA says you can’t look in the black box and try to fix it. You can’t even see what’s inside. You might steal it. Maybe I will talk to you on the phone about it from India.


6. Here is another black box. It fixes the first one, makes it better. It’s more stable. You need an upgrade, maybe a new computer, but you really, really want this black box. Seen the ad?


7. Wash, rinse, repeat.

The black box EULA is descended from licenses IBM wrote in the 1950s, when computers filled great rooms and the value of calculating, say, the pay-outs for a horse race were worth a fortune.

Software was unstable then, even more so than now, and without the EULA companies like IBM might have been sued out of business by angry customers. The computer revolution may never have happened without the black box EULA.

Companies like Microsoft brought the black box EULA into the 1990s intact. Even though PCs were very reliable, even though software storage had become stable, and even though the creation of software was no longer a black art, the black box EULA remained.

The black box EULA made Bill Gates a billionaire 50 times over. It made many other people wealthy too, rich beyond their wildest schemes.

But the black box EULA was always hopelessly one-sided. It was unfair to customers. And lawyers could provide no help — they had written the black box EULA and were sworn to uphold it.

So folks like Richard Stallman struck a blow against wealth and said software should be free. Not only free but visible so you could see it, smell it, kiss it, touch it. Fix it, improve it. And they wrote their own license, which they dubbed copyleft.

The war against the black box EULA was on.

The free software folks won applause, but the people who needed complex black boxes were skeptical. They knew you couldn’t just give stuff away, that software writers need to eat, too. Even if Linus Torvalds was happy with hamburger while the customers ate steak, a way was needed to get him a hamburger. And a beer.

This is what I have now spent a half-decade covering. Open source is a transformation enabled by the Internet, born of righteous indignation, and driven home by hard-headed businessmen and women on both sides of major transactions.

So now you have an alternative to the black box. The makers of black boxes know they can’t hold customers to their EULAs forever. They have to compete with free. The eye of Gates has fallen. The age of men has begun.

The black box is now encased in plastic and steel. You can return an iPhone to the store. The EULAs are still there, and they retain their legal weight, but they no longer control the market.

It’s a good time, at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, to look back from these heights and see what has been accomplished.

The black box EULA no longer has the power to cloud mens’ minds. It is dead as a controlling force in the software world. You can open the box, see what’s inside. You are free to tinker with it, to freely connect with it, and you no longer think of it as a black box that holds all light, but as a physical product, with a warranty.

There are obligations on both sides. It’s a fairer and more just software world. It’s worth celebrating this Thanksgiving.

Happy Turkey Day.

"

Open Letter to Microsoft

Open Letter to Microsoft: "

Dear Microsoft Corporation,

I wish to recommend a very talented individual who would be a great asset to your company. You were just about to hire him a decade ago, but he did not have the required work permit.

The person at hand would be a valuable addition to Port 25, your evangelisation efforts, and also to your relationship with developers. In turn, it would also unburden the GNU/Linux community from the need to explain that it does not really stand for Silverlight, .NET, and mockery of Dr. Richard Stallman.

So please, if you have vacancies left at the moment, I urge you to hire a man called Miguel de Icaza. You won’t regret this.

Sincerely,

Roy

NB – this is not a satire or a cheap shot; it’s serious and it’s possible.

"

Senators Ask EC To Let Oracle-Sun Deal Go Through

Senators Ask EC To Let Oracle-Sun Deal Go Through: "An anonymous reader writes 'The European Union has managed to do something that US Presidents often find difficult: to make 59 US Senators from both sides of the aisle agree on something. A group led by John Kerry (D) and Orrin Hatch (R) has sent a letter to the European Union, asking it to wrap up the investigation of the Oracle-Sun merger and let the deal go through. Interestingly, the letter emphasizes the damage the delay and uncertainty are doing to Sun.' The article paraphrases a Gartner analyst, who points out that the Senators' letter 'comes from a US point of view and doesn't take into account how the EU operates.'

"

Joset Anthony Zamora: Tips for Reading Soure Code

Joset Anthony Zamora: Tips for Reading Soure Code: "

Reading time is longer than the writing time and most programmers will lose focus along the way (some even fall asleep) especially if they are reading monstrous legacy code. There are several reasons why, in no particular order,

1. Procrastination

Programmer: [Wandering mind… Facebook… Twitter…] “Oh man, I have a brilliant idea, I’m going to read more on that… I’ll set aside this crap first and try to come up something innovative.”

2. Impatient

Programmer: “I hate this crap, ugly legacy code, it sucks! Can I just have the documents and rewrite everything from scratch?”

Project Manager: “Unfortunately, the source code is the only document we have.”

3. Interruptions

Team mate: “Hey! Can I have 5 seconds from you? I’m getting a NullPointerException, this is weird, I had everything initialized!”

Programmer: “Are you sure? Hold on, let me check that, you might have some methods returning null.”

4. Discontented -

Programmer: “What is this elementary code? This isn’t challenging, I want more challenge!”

etc.

You need to know what your goals are before reading the code. Start by asking these questions to your self and if you find out that you are losing focus along the way, just ask these questions again, it will help you get back on track.

1. Am I going to fix a bug?

2. Is this code implementing an API?

3. Am I going to add a new feature?

4. Am I just being curious to know the logic behind the code and nothing special?

Often times, you will be able to grasp the logic behind the code by running the program first. Consider the diagram below.

INPUT -> PROCESS -> OUTPUT

Being able to understand the INPUT and the OUTPUT, the PROCESS part will follow easily.

"

wxPropertyGrid (ver. 1.4.9)

wxPropertyGrid (ver. 1.4.9): "A property sheet control for wxWidgets.


About this version

This release fixes a serious rendering regression. Everyone using wxPropertyGrid 1.4.8 is recommended to upgrade.
"

Repositioning the KDE Brand

Repositioning the KDE Brand: "

KDE has changed over the past 13 years. The application framework has grown, matured and gone cross-platform, as have the applications. Strong growth in our community has created an increasingly diverse and large set of high-quality applications.

In the process, KDE's identity has shifted from being simply a desktop environment to representing a global community that creates a remarkably rich body of free software targeted for use by people everywhere.

KDE is no longer software created by people, but people who create software.

To be able to communicate this clearly in our messaging, it is necessary to reposition the KDE brand so that it reflects the reality. We therefore also need distinct brands for the products we produce. Read on for details of our repositioning of the KDE brand.

read more

"

4 Useful Google Wave Apps

4 Useful Google Wave Apps: "

Like most everything Google does, they give you the core product and let other people create the tools to use it; Google Wave is no exception. If you would like to read more about Google Wave, Joshua did an outstanding job in a couple earlier posts. Read them here and here.

Below are the most popular desktop applications and plug-in for Google Wave. Now keep in mind, Wave is very simple and doesn’t have a lot of bells, whistles and blinky lights, so the applications don’t really have a lot to work with just yet. I am sure later on, more apps and more features will be available.

1. Waver

Waver is an Adobe Air app, making it the only cross platform app of the bunch. It offers the same basic functionality as going to the site, just in a smaller stand alone window.

Using the two buttons and the search bar, you can manage your contacts, view lists of Waves, create new and reply. There is a search bar just like in Gmail and the same types of search shortcuts.

All of these are pretty much just like you have on the site. The main difference, is you only have one window, whereas the Wave site has multiple panes.

2. Google Wave Add-On

The Firefox add-on is what I use most frequently. It is very basic and more of a notifier/shortcut link than anything.

The add-on resides in the statusbar. When one of you have a new or updated Wave in your inbox, it will display the unread count. To get to your Wave inbox, simply double click the icon; that’s it.

In the settings menu, all there is to adjust is the intervals when it checks for updates, the timeout and your username and password.

3. Waveboard

Waveboard is a Mac only desktop application. It is another simple application that allows you to access your Waves in an identical stand alone screen. There really isn’t any noticeable difference between the web app and Wakeboard aside from the Growl-like notifications. An iPhone app on the way.

This application is a lot like using the next one on the list.

4. Fluid

Fluid (Mac only) isn’t specifically a Wave desktop application, however is does give you all of the same functionality you would get from going to Google Wave’s web page.

If you would like to read more, here is a post from last spring that will explain it a little more in depth.

In a nutshell, Fluid allows you to “separate” a web page from your browser and turn any web app or web page into a desktop app. It even adds a Dock icon. By doing this, the new “application” functions like the web application, but doesn’t need a browser.

As you can see, this will give you all of the functionality of Google Wave, because it IS Google Wave.

Conclusion

All-in-all, these applications are pretty simple. Not because they aren’t doing exactly what you need them to do, it’s because there isn’t a lot to spice up yet. I can see things getting very interesting later on when more people start adopting and defining clear uses for the infant collaboration tool.

What do you think the future applications will need to offer to make your Wave-ing easier?

image credit San Diego Shooter

4 Useful Google Wave Apps originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

"

How to Enable Photoshop Save For Web Feature in GIMP

How to Enable Photoshop Save For Web Feature in GIMP: "MakeTechEasier: 'However, as good as it can get, there are several handy and useful features Photoshop that are not available in GIMP and one of them is the Save For Web feature...Luckily, GIMP supports plugins and there is this plugin available for this purpose.'"

10 Teacher Development Task for Web 2.0 Tools

10 Teacher Development Task for Web 2.0 Tools: "Over the last couple of months I've been busy travelling round a bit and doing some face to face training and workshops. As part of the materials for these workshops I created a number of tasks for teachers which I hope will help develop their ability to use technology and to evaluate and create materials using web based tools. I've decide now to share those tasks so anyone who wants to use them to train other teachers or to develop their own skills can take advantage of and make good use of them.

Capturing the art shark http://www.flickr.com/photos/artolog/1693491849/

There are ten tasks and they can be done in any order, except for the tenth one which should be last. Please feel free to use and share these tasks and by all means leave any comments or suggestions for improvement. I will also be hosting a teacher development week using and discussing these tasks and the related tools from 7th to 15th December 2009 on the SEETA Moodle site: http://www.seeta.eu/ so by all means come along for that if you want to share ideas and learn a bit more together.

10 Tasks to help teachers develop their use of learning technology

• Task 1
  This task explores the use of TokBox, a synchronous and asynchronous video conferencing and communication tool. In this task you will look at and evaluate some teaching materials I have created using the tool and see how you can use it to create your own materials.
  Go to task
  
  
• Task 2
  This task explores the use of Voxopop, a tool for the creation of web based audio discussion threads. In this task you will see how other teachers have used the tool and have the opportunity to participate and contribute to an online audio thread.
  Go to task
  
  
• Task 3
  This task explores how Forvo, the web based pronunciation dictionary, works and what it can offer teachers and learners. In this task you will explore some of the entries and have a chance to add your own example pronunciations to the dictionary.
  Go to task
  
  
• Task 4
  This tasks explores the design of Listen and Write, a tool for the creation of web based dictation activities. In this task you will be able to try a dictation exercise and see how autonomous learning is supported through the design of the tool. You will also have the chance to create your own activity.
  Go to task
  
  
• Task 5
  This task explores the use of ESL Video, the web based video activity creation tool . In this task you will be able to examine and compare three different video activities to see how the tool can be exploited. You can then attempt to create your own activity based around a video clip of a bank robbery.
  Go to task
  
  
• Task 6
  This task explores the use of 280 Slides, a web based tool for creating online presentations. In this task you will see how you can use the tool to add video or images to presentations and so create video based learning activities or multi media presentations.
  Go to task
  
  
• Task 7
  This task explores the use of Dvolver, a very simple tool for creating animated movies. In this task you will be able to watch a video created using the tool and then evaluate its potential and limitations whilst creating your own animated video.
  Go to task
  
  
• Task 8
  This task explores the use of Wallwisher, a web based 'sticky notes' notice-board. In this task you will be able to look at how the notice board has been used to share a range of web 2.0 tools and also have the opportunity to contribute your own favourite site to a notice-board to see how it works.
  Go to task
  
  
• Task 9
  This task examines the use of Wordle, a web based tool for creating graphic representation of texts based on word frequency. In this task you will learn how to create your own graphic image based on a news article and explore some potential uses for the tool.
  Go to task
  
  
• Task 10
  This final task looks at Penzu, a simple tool for keeping a web based journal. In this task you explore how to create your own journal and then create your own reflective journal entry based on the work you have done in the previous task.
  Go to task

I hope you find these tasks useful. Please do leave a comment or suggestion for improvement or any recommendations for links or other examples of materials created using these tools.
Best

Nik Peachey

"

The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody

The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody: ""

Every Line Is A Child Of Mine

Every Line Is A Child Of Mine: "

"

Improve your online community in five easy steps

Improve your online community in five easy steps: "

I get a lot of people contacting me for help with their online community. Most of the time, they are unhappy with the amount of activity taking place – they want to see more. Most of the time, I see the same (or at least similar) problems. Therefore, in this article I want to outline five ways you can easily improve your online community.

1. Make the community prominent.

Don’t hide your online community behind a link. Bring it right up to the front page. Anything less, and you aren’t giving your community the respect it deserves. If you are serious about your online community, prove it by giving it serious exposure.

Show that you value the opinions of your members by featuring their content alongside your own editorial content – you are equal partners in this.

This goes further than just proving your commitment to the community. It puts the community in front of eyeballs. A lot of the time, visitors won’t even notice a link to your community – so put it where they can see it if you want them to join and get involved.

2. Keep it simple.

You don’t need fancy features and a glamorous site design. Most of the time, these are simply distractions. Keep things simple. There is nothing wrong with basing your community solely on a forum. You don’t necessarily need a full range of ’social networking’ features. People need to be able to communicate – it’s as simple as that. They can do this with a basic forum.

Fancy designs are often just an ego stroke for the organisation that commissioned them. Remember, an online community isn’t about you – it’s about your members. Strip everything back and keep it basic. Your community may not look glamorous, but it will be far more likely to contain activity and member engagement.

3. Tell me why.

I come across a lot of online communities that don’t explain or outline their purpose. As crazy as it sounds, there are a lot of people building communities without actually making it clear what the purpose of the community is. Sometimes this is obvious from the name – but even then, I need to know why I should join your community rather than one belonging to your competitor.

Ensure that all visitors to your site know why they should be joining and getting involved in the community. Keep it short, simple, snappy and accurate.

4. Be active.

As a community manager, you need to be active in your own online community. You can’t be a matchmaker unless you get to know members of your community. You can’t learn from your members if you don’t know who they are.

Lead by example – get stuck in and enjoy the community. If you aren’t active or if you aren’t enjoying being active, your community has a problem. Fix it.

5. Build relationships at home and away.

Some people who contact me stress that they are highly active in their community – in fact, sometimes they are its chief contributor. Of course, a community isn’t a community if there is only one person doing the talking. If this is happening to you, it’s an indicator that you need to be more proactive.

Just because you’ve built an online community it doesn’t mean people will flock to it. You need to get out there and find members. Fortunately, that’s never been easier. Your potential members are out there writing blogs, telling the world what they are doing on twitter, and networking on Facebook.

Don’t stalk these potential members, and don’t spam them. Get to know them. Comment on their blogs, provide value. It’s all about what you can do for them – not the other way around."

Suspicious Fail

Suspicious Fail: "

Picture by: zz_coolgal Submitted by: zz_coolgal via Fail Uploader

"

Joost Is Now Officially Dead – Assets Acquired By Adconion Media Group

Joost Is Now Officially Dead – Assets Acquired By Adconion Media Group: "

Adconion Media Group announced this morning that it has acquired certain key assets from Joost, the ill-fated online video service started by the infamous Kazaa and Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but it’s likely a firesale that isn’t bringing any returns to Joost’s investors.

Last June, Joost announced a change in its business strategy to focus on providing white-label video platforms, and Adconion says it plans to pursue this strategy. Notably, Adconion recently announced its first long-term licensing partnership as the exclusive display and video ad-serving solution for the Goldbach Media Group in Europe.

We had earlier put Joost on death watch, not in the least when its UK offices were dissolved and there was virtually no one left to comment on that story. It’s also worth noting that this morning’s news comes a mere two weeks after it was announced that Friis and Zennström had settled its lawsuits against eBay, the investor group that was purchasing Skype from eBay, early Joost backers Index Ventures and the online video company’s former CEO Mike Volpi.

On a sidenote: Index Ventures also happens to be a major investor in Adconion, having led its $80 million Series C round raised back in February 2008.

In a statement, Adconion CEO Tyler Moebius says about the Joost purchase: “Video is a top priority for our company, and through the acquisition of the Joost assets we will be able to provide advertisers, content owners and website publishers with an end-to-end global video platform and cross-channel video and display ad-serving solution.”

Moebius added that the company would be contuining to operate Joost.com, providing clients with a destination site to showcase and distribute their branded entertainment content.

Prior to the acquisition, Adconion offered targeted distribution of content, including video and TV commercials, to audiences around the world via Adconion.TV. Through the Joost acquisition, Adconion.TV will add to its library of professionally-produced video content available for targeted pre-roll ads across 2,000 publishers. Adconion claims to reach nearly 300 million unique users on a monthly basis.

As for Joost, here’s how Michael Arrington so eloquently put it when the company said it would be refocusing its business last Summer:

Here’s what I learned from Joost’s failure – celebrity founders, celebrity CEOs and tons and tons of cash can be a recipe for disaster. Applying yesterday’s solutions to today’s problems isn’t an interesting business. And finally, knowing when to throw in the towel and just return what’s left of capital to investors is an important skill as well. That way everyone can move on and focus on real value add opportunities. There’s no room for Joost in the consumer online video space, and there’s almost certainly no room for them in white label video, either. Time to call it a learning experience and move on.

And the two Scandinavian entrepeneurs who co-founded Joost are now definitely moving on, having regained a stake and board seats in the new Skype and ready to launch a ‘new breed’ of online music service.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

"

National Geographic Offers Stunning Natural Wallpaper [Wallpaper]

National Geographic Offers Stunning Natural Wallpaper [Wallpaper]: "

If you're a wallpaper junkie and nature lover, National Geographic's International Photography Contest is a great source for well-shot, fresh, decently high-resolution images to adorn your desktop with.

The long-running magazine has an extensive wallpaper-focused photography section, but as Web Worker Daily points out, those shots max out at 1280 pixels wide. That's fine for some monitors, but on most modern laptops and widescreen displays, that's pixel-stretching territory.

Over in National Geographic's photography contest section, however, the submitted shots can be downloaded at 1600 pixels wide, making for some fairly nice desktop wallpaper. Better still, the shots are numbered and formatted in fairly algorithmic fashion, so using the auto-download features of John's Background Switcher or another automatic wallpaper changer makes it very easy to get a fresh look on every boot-up.

International Photography Contest 2009 - Desktop Wallpaper [National Geographic via Web Worker Daily]

"

Debian looking at development freeze by March

Debian looking at development freeze by March: "The Debian GNU/Linux project is looking at a development freeze in March next year for its next release, Squeeze, the project leader Steve McIntyre says. A freeze means that no new features are incorporated and only bug fixes are done. The release does not take place until all RC (release critical) bugs are squashed. McIntyre was hopeful that this would translate into a release sometime by the middle of the Northern summer. 'It would be nice to have things done before we head off to New York for"

Bing Cashback Can Cost You Money

Bing Cashback Can Cost You Money: "paltemalte writes "Microsoft and various retailers have teamed up to bring you cashback on purchases made via Bings price comparison feature. There is a little snag though — it seems that when you have a Bing cookie living in your browser, some retailers will quote you a higher price than if you come with no Bing cookie in your system."

"

How to Create a .deb package from Source files

How to Create a .deb package from Source files: "If your build from source is successful, you can make a Debian (Ubuntu) package (.deb) for future use or can distribute to other users:

Install package tools: sudo apt-get install checkinstall

CheckInstall keeps track of all files installed by a 'make install' or equivalent, creates a Slackware, RPM, or Debian package with those files, and adds it to the installed packages database, allowing

Adobe AIR 2 Beta for Linux Released

Adobe AIR 2 Beta for Linux Released: "Adobe AIR 2 beta (runtime and SDK) has been simultaneously released for Windows, Mac, and Linux. AIR 2 builds on the success of AIR 1 by giving developers new capabilities and even tighter integration with the desktop.

New Features in Adobe AIR 2 beta

• Multi-touch support - Track multiple touch points simultaneously.

• Gestures - Applications can listen for multi-touch events.

• Open files with default application

• Improved security.

• Support for detection of mass storage devices.

• Drag and drop support for remote files.

• IPv6 support

• Improved cross-platform printing

• Consumes less energy than its predecessor (version 1.0).



... just to name a few.



Check out the full Release Notes for the details as well as Adobe AIR 2 Developer FAQ to learn more about this release.



Currently, Adobe AIR 2 beta support is available for Fedora Core 11, Ubuntu 9.04, and OpenSuSE 11.1 . AIR 2 beta doesn't support 64-bit Linux yet. However, 64-bit support is expected to be provided as an update to AIR 2 beta for Linux.



It is for the first time that Adobe has simultaneously released a product for all the three platforms namely Windows, Mac and Linux.



You can download Adobe AIR 2 beta from the following page.

For more news, tips, and reviews on all things Linux, Open source and Free software, visit Linux Help blog.

"

Make all GUI stuff show up on the display connected to the computer (when you're logged in via SSH)

Make all GUI stuff show up on the display connected to the computer (when you're logged in via SSH): "$ DISPLAY=:0.0; export DISPLAY

If you have multiple displays or monitors the DISPLAY environment variable will tell X where to send the output. This is very handy for setting up a mediacenter at home. You can plugin the computer to the TV and then ssh to the computer and set the DISPLAY as above, then run your program and it will show up on the TV.

• View this command to comment, vote or add to favourites


• View all commands by sb

by David Winterbottom (codeinthehole.com)

"

New Bios attack renders anti-virus useless

New Bios attack renders anti-virus useless: "A new form of attack that installs a rootkit directly onto a computer's Bios system would render anti-virus software useless, researchers have warned.

Alfredo Ortego and Anibal Sacco of Core Security Technologies explained that the attack is possible against almost all types of common Bios systems in use today. The researchers devised a 100-line Python script that could be flashed onto the Bios to install a rootkit. Because the Bios software activates before any other program on a computer when it starts up, normal anti-virus software would be unable to detect it.

'We tested the system on the most common types of Bios,' said Ortega. 'There is the possibility that newer types of Extensible Firmware Interface Bios may be resistant to the attack, but more testing is needed.'"

All 193% of Republicans Support Palin, Romney and Huckabee

All 193% of Republicans Support Palin, Romney and Huckabee: "

What happens when enterprising Americans watch Fox News and use Twitter simultaneously? Constant hilarity, that is what, as you can see from this fun “info-graphic” on the Fox News, which explains how Sarah Palin’s supposedly strong 70% support from GOP idiots is still no match for Huckabee’s 63% support, or Romney’s 60%. What? [Twitter of 'Keventhepang']

"

"Microsoft To Pay Content Providers to 'De-index' from Google"

"Microsoft To Pay Content Providers to 'De-index' from Google": "It is no secret that Microsoft is doing whatever it can to eat away at Google's immense market share of the search market, with Bing being its most ambitious effort yet. Well, it seems the battle just got a whole lot dirtier, as The Financial Times has uncovered news that Microsoft has approached several news content providers, offering them money if they 'de-index' their sites from Google."

Earth Pulse 2010 - Vital Statistics Interactive Map

Earth Pulse 2010 - Vital Statistics Interactive Map: "National Geographic recently released their Earth Pulse State of the Earth 2010 features. Earth Pulse is comprised of essays, photo galleries, links to additional resources, and an interactive vital statistics map. The Vital Statistics Map allows users to view mapped displays twenty different sets of statistics. The data sets cover topics including population change, population migrations, and resource consumption. Users can select two data sets to compare on one map.











Applications for Education
The Earth Pulse 2010 Vital Statistics Interactive Map could be useful for lessons in environmental science as well as geography. Data sets displayed on the map could be the jumping-off point for student exploration into the reasons for the things they see on the map. For example, students could investigate why mutton and goat are consumed at a higher rate in North Africa and Australia compared to North America.

An Ecosystem Is Born: LinkedIn Opens Up API

An Ecosystem Is Born: LinkedIn Opens Up API: "

As rumors continue to swirl around LinkedIn’s possible IPO, the professional social network is steadily adding useful features that help transcend the platform’s technology into other applications.

LinkedIn recently launched two-way integration with Twitter and also rolled out a plug-in to pull in your LinkedIn contacts within Microsoft Outlook. And today, LinkedIn is opening up its API to start letting developers make applications that tap into LinkedIn’s social network.

While LinkedIn is releasing 11 different APIs, they fall into three distinct categories. First, developers will be able to let users easily access their information, profiles, connections and messages via oAuth login. The second functionality is to give users the ability to make actionable decisions about information, but letting them message their LinkedIn contacts, post updates, accept contacts and more. And the third piece of the puzzle is search. So developers will now be able to embed LinkedIn search in other applications. The social network’s search engine was re-launched last year and has done over one billion queries in this year alone.

Over the past year, LinkedIn has made select business development partnerships with technology companies for integrations, such as IBM, Microsoft, Research In Motion, and Twitter. While these partnerships created additional channels for LinkedIn’s platform, the opening up of the social network’s API is no doubt going to expand its presence across the web, perhaps representing a new level of growth for the social network.

LinkedIn has already tested the API with several developers and applications are already going to be launching in the near future. Twitter, MySpace and Facebook client TweetDeck will be integrated with LinkedIn in its next version. From the client, you’ll be able to see a stream of updates from your contacts, view profiles of contacts and comment and message contacts directly from TweetDeck. Posterous, Box.net, and Ribbit will all launch LinkedIn integrations in the near future as well.

LinkedIn’s VP of search and platform products, Adam Nash, told me that over the past year, the network has received 4,000 requests from developers to integrate LinkedIn with their applications. Nash says that this is the first step for LinkedIn to become an open ecosystem and there are future plans for additional APIs to be released down the line.

50 million users strong, LinkedIn could expand its already powerful growth with development of third-party applications. It’s a no-brainer for LinkedIn to open up its API. As Twitter’s platform has shown, an open ecosystem produces innovative and sometimes, extremely popular, products around a product. And it doesn’t hurt to have a loyal developer community as well.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

The Definition of Evil: Microsoft's Search Wars Hurt Us All [Search]

The Definition of Evil: Microsoft's Search Wars Hurt Us All [Search]: "

Microsoft may pay Murdoch to delist from Google. If it happens, it sets a bad precedent. Imagine if all the world's content is exclusive to some engines and we have to search them all to find what we want? Hell!

This started when Microsoft and Google paid for access to Twitter's millions of tweets and Bing paid Facebook and Twitter for access to their pages. Think about this perspective, if you ran Fox the WSJ and other major content makers, wouldn't you think that your content is worth more than all those 140 character posts? Right, you would. And if those sites are charging 100s of millions and up, for their content, wouldn't you ask for a lot more? You probably would, and if you're Murdoch, the most powerful man in media, you'd probably get what you want. Pulling out of Google would be just another part of Murdoch setting up his paywall. But it's going to set a nasty precedence for the rest of the short tail of mega media companies to get a lot of Google's cash. Maybe a lot of these companies value Google's help in promoting their stuff, but it never hurts to ask for money, especially when media and publishing are super duper hard up on cash these days, in general. I'm not an investor in big media or any tech companies, so its not a problem to me, in that way. But it is a problem to me as a guy who lives and works through search engines.

Microsoft is just being evil again. Now, this isn't typical Microsoft bashing — someone has to fight Google. And in a way, you have to hand it to Microsoft. They're the underdog here fighting a Google that grows in power every day, and their Facebook content deal won't likely be matched by Google any time soon. But this is so typically Bad Microsoft, because they've cleverly short cut the straightforward fight for marketshare by features and gone for a deal-based solution to the problem. Like the PC and OS fight in the 80s they're competing with business tactics instead of quality. (And Bing is great, so I'm not making a complete 1:1 comparison to Windows.) We're sort of left with—instead of a David and Goliath—a Clash of the Titans situation with pieces of rock and lighting falling from the sky and crushing us. Microsoft fails to see/care that the fragmentation that Microsoft is trying to achieve is not only going to hurt Google — it is going to hurt YOU AND ME.

This is the Microsoft we know from the last century, before great underdog products like Xbox and Zune. This is from a company who's CEO recently told us that sales are more important than critical acclaim, preferring profit over better product. And this is a company that gets in its anticompetitive digs when it can: For example, in Internet Explorer, it's really hard to set Google as your default browser, not being listed in the alternative choices to Bing. Yet, in Google Chrome, it's easy to set Bing as the default search.

Again, imagine that half of the top 500 media companies are delisted from Google. And imagine that Google stoops to this strategy and buys out the other half of that 500. Now imagine you have to search for something and now have to type it in twice because who the fuck is going to remember (no one) which search engine covers which content? *

People, I'm telling you, this is bad news. People talk about net neutrality like it's only about the data's prioritization over the pipes. But what good is equivalence in data speed and prioritization if you can't find it in the first place?

*the fix for all this is that we'll use search engine aggregators, which is just another layer of bullshit to sort through.