Showing headlines posted by Sander_Marechal

You need to run a job at midnight when system usage is low, or you need to run jobs daily or weekly, but you would rather be sleeping, or enjoying life in some other way. Other good reasons for scheduling jobs include letting routine tasks happen automatically, or ensuring tasks are handled the same way every time. This tip helps you use the cron and at capabilities to schedule jobs periodically or at a single future time.

When Microsoft announced the first of its patent interoperability agreements with Novell in November 2006, one of the major claims made in favor of the patent covenant agreement was that it would give customers peace of mind and ensure that they didn’t have to worry about issues such as intellectual property infringement. Eight months, several further patent deals, and a new version of the GNU General Public License later, and the promise of simplification for customers is a hollow one. In fact, Microsoft’s patent covenants have arguably made things more complicated for Novell, Linspire, and Xandros Linux users.

The problem with the tech media (conventional media and tech blogosphere) is that they are way too deep into proprietary software and hit based economic models. This has resulted in way too many misinterpretations about open source. I am writing this post today because I saw another article based on the misunderstanding of the term open source. Alexander Wolfe, of the Information Week, makes a claim that too many Linux distributions are responsible for the open source mess. Lemme state here at the outset. There is no mess in the open source world. It resides only in the imagination of the media which couldn’t grasp the open source approach at all.

James Bottomley is really on top of things (sorry -- we had to say it) when it comes to Linux. The CTO of SteelEye Technology is also on the board of the Linux Foundation. In that capacity, he helps smooth the transition of disparate Linux organizations into the still fairly new Foundation. As such, Bottomley's obviously got some insight into Microsoft's continued patent deals with Linux distributors. He said Redmond would have to "sue its customers" to pursue its contention that Linux infringes on Microsoft's patents -- an unlikely scenario.

The Nintendo DS is an excellent gaming device, but that's not all you can do with it. The machine's"hackability" makes the Nintendo DS a great platform for running open source software and even Linux, if you want to run a slimmed down version of Linux. In fact, several nifty open source applications can turn your Nintendo DS into a rather useful all-around computing device. DSOrganize is, despite it's name, is not just an organizer, it's an application suite including nine useful tools. And to run Linux, you can use the aptly named DSLinux.

A few months ago I was in Chicago to take the Redhat Certified Engineer exam. One of the nights I was there (5 day course) my brother calls me in a panic begging me to come fix his computer. I of course tell him that I’m in Chicago at the moment and not sure what I can do to help. At that I can hear his heart sink, so I ask him what the problem is. He starts into this sob story about how he has a paper due in the morning but he can’t get logged into his computer. Apparently his wife dropped something on the keyboard and the number row no longer works, which limits him from logging into his machine. He is, by my suggestion, using Ubuntu on his home machine so I know I can save the day.

Compulab has introduced a fanless PC, roughly the size of a paperback book, that consumes a mere 3 to 5 watts of power. The "fit-PC" comes with Linux preinstalled, and is intended to fit where conventional PCs won't, according to the Haifa, Israel-based company. he module has a 500 MHz AMD Geode LX800 processor, and is equipped with 256 MB of DDR RAM and up to 512 MB of NAND flash.

PCLinuxOS (PCLOS) is one of many GNU/Linux systems belonging to the family of Desktop distributions. Its aim is to be a friendly and simple to use operating system. It was forked from Mandrake Linux (Mandriva at present) in 2003. It’s now a fully independent distro, although it does take advantage of a few of Mandriva’s technologies.

Earlier this week, just less than a couple of months after their seemingly-friendly deal, Microsoft betrayed Linspire. There are more questions to be raised and implications to discuss. Microsoft has disavowed any GPLv3-licensed software. Ubuntu will be moving toward the new toolchain, which is GPLv3-licensed. Linspire needs Ubuntu, which is the core on which it builds its products. If Linspire carries on adopting Ubuntu as its codebase or even falls back (some would say “forward”) to Debian, any “patent indemnification” will then be rendered moot.

The Thimbleberry Inn's executive chef, Guillaume Portes, was sensational. He took the modest kitchen of this even more modest inn, and using local produce and game, and with a flair for the dramatic, created a menu that drew local, regional and even national attention, in ever widening spirals of epicurean and gastronomic success. Now, fresh back from a guest appearance on a cable cooking show, Guillaume received a call from a publisher, asking if he would be interested in writing a cookbook: "Everyone loves your food. You're a genius. If you write a cookbook we could sell millions."

[An allegory for your amusement—Sander]

Last month, Novell decided to push the limits of developer empowerment and perform an elaborate experiment in innovation by liberating the company's entire Linux engineering team for one full week of free hacking. To gain an inside understanding of Hack Week, we spoke with several Novell developers who shared their experiences and provided fascinating details about their unique projects. We also had an opportunity to discuss Hack Week with Novell's chief open-source strategy officer, Nat Friedman, who served as worldwide MC for the event.

Ooma's guiding principal is that in order for people to finally embrace VoIP, it has to use the existing phones in the house (not PCs, mics and headphones), it has to offer cooler features than plain old phone service, and above all, calls have to be free. Ooma hopes to make its money by selling a $400 Linux-based gateway device (shown below) that plugs into the customer's broadband connection and existing land line connection. For calls to non-users, VOIP services like Vonage typically must rely on the land line networks of other operators and that costs money--goodbye free calls. Ooma says it's found away around that problem.

Most people in the free software world know two things aboutApache. The first is that its name derives from the fact that it was a“a patchy server”, built out of patches to the earlier NCSAHTTPd Web server. The other is that in terms of market share, Apache knocks Microsoft'sIIS into a cocked hat. Unfortunately, neither of these statements is true.

One of the best things that has happened to Linux enthusisasts the world over is the confluence of two big players one in the Linux arena (Ubuntu aka Canonical) and the other in the PC hardware space (Dell). And the end users have already started reaping the benefits. Dell has released device drivers for the conexant internal modems (a.k.a. winmodems) for their E1505n and 1420n machines.

Ying Huang posted a new version of his hibernation patches that utilize kexec noting two changes,"1) the kexec jump implementation is put into the kexec/kdump framework instead of software suspend framework. The device and CPU state save/restore code of software suspend is called when needed; and 2) the same code path is used for both kexec a new kernel and jump back to original kernel." Andrew Morton noted that he was still interested however didn't intend to merge the patches right away.

In our house, the refrigerator door is where we post the family calendar, showing our family and friends' birthdays, school terms, and important events, along with public holidays. We create the calendar using a nifty command-line program called PCAL, which produces a standard one-month-per-page calendar with each day in a separate box. It resembles those mall-stall calendars, but the important dates in our family's life are highlighted.

One Course Source has announced its first annual open source conference, set for Oct. 3-4 in San Diego, Calif. The organization says the "One Course Source - Open Source Conference" (OCS-OSC) aims to "[address] the growing demand for alternative technology solutions that cost-effectively support and sustain the corporate IT environment". They are currently seeking Open Source professionals in the San Diego area to present topics on their area of expertise as it relates to Open Source technologies in the corporate IT environment.

Linux vendor Xandros has bought privately owned open source email and calendaring provider Scalix for an undisclosed sum. Scalix president and CEO Glenn Winokur will stay through the transition only and become a member of the Xandros advisory board. Vice president of finance Walter Lim will also leave the company; the sales support staff and the staff of engineers - a total of about 13 people - will all stay on with Xandros, told Xandros CEO Andy Typaldos.

Subscription-based computers have never proved very popular but now a California-based outfit has come up with a new twist: a subscription-based environmentally friendly computer that will cut electricity bills. CNet reports reports that the Zonbu will sell for $99 with a $12.95/month subscription charge. The company say that the deal is better than it looks because the 15-watt PC can save up to $10 a month in electricity compared with a standard 200-watt PC.

Capetonian Ian Gilfillan is the author of Mastering MySQL 4 and an authority on database management. But, as Vincent Maher found out, he also has a philosophical side that helps rather than hinders him. Vincent first met Ian at the Digital Citizens Indaba last year where they co-presented a panel with Mike Stopforth. Last week he interviewed him for Tectonic.co.za.