Category: Linux/Open Source

  • Linux USB Device Support Database

    I usually have been putting bookmarkable things on delicious, not my weblog, but I just wanted to say that this USB device support database gives great information about supported USB devices (and how to make them work). The secret is to sort them by date in order to show devices that have the most recent…

  • Bloggers Report on Linux Laptops

    While doing research about linux support for my T43 laptop, I discovered something cool. The linux-laptop site lets users add stories about how they got their hardware to work on linux. Nice, right? Now that I’ve looked some more, I see that these “stories by users” are not being hosted on the linux laptop sites…

  • Taking a Risk with Ebay

    I did something today I thought I never would do: I bought a laptop from ebay! It’s scary, and the biggest stumbling block turned out to be the ebay seller’s failure to fully identify itself on ebay. Turns out the company does have a web presence , but I had no way of knowing that…

  • Preparing for Fedora Core 5

    In February I’ll be buying a laptop and slapping Fedora Core 4 on it. Unfortunately, it seems that FC 5 will be officially released in March, which means that a month after installation, I’ll have to install again from scratch. The FC solution is to create a separate partition for /home, leave user data on…

  • Dell + linux + laptop

    Some resources: Dell linux community forum Dell Laptop yahoo group Jarod Wilson MythTV How to page (for FC4) and TV Tuners for linux laptops

  • Dealing with Non-Packaged Applications

    A power linux user ardently defends linux’s usability: I.a.1.: Dealing with non-packaged applications There is still the problem of applications not included as packages of your current distribution. Finding software is still much easier than on Windows, because you can look for it on Freshmeat or SourceForge or on Savannah, that is, on centralized repositories.…

  • Ubuntu Everywhere!

    A man who gives away Ubuntu CDs in his Austin neighborhood–and people assume he’s a beggar! It was only after the morning rush that people actually seemed to read my sign and asked me what it was all about. Many judged that I had been hired by someone to do this thing I was doing.…

  • Wireless for the Linux Laptop (Part 3)

    Kernelnewbies, a site to explain linux kernel stuff for people. Here’s a faq page. Pardon me for being dense, but how do I decipher the numbering system for kernels? Aha, here’s a good reference guide. I’ve become slightly more optimistic about getting wireless support for a linux laptop. First, I think I understand my previous…

  • Linux Wireless: The Helpless Fury (Part 2)

    (For casual readers: the post below describes my journey to make linux wireless networking work. The level of detail is not interesting, but I just wanted to illustrate how mired one can get in irrelevances just to troubleshoot one problem. If you are interested in linux usability, this level of detail might drive you crazy…

  • Open Usability Projects

    Strange I haven’t seen this before: openusability, a group of folks who do user testing of open source projects. Lots of linux-based projects, so I guess it goes with the territory. Here’s a ruby-based book collection desktop application, Alexandria. YAML, a data serialization method for data structures that can’t use tabs (python for example). I…

  • Ndiswrapper and Linux: Woe is Me! (Part 1)

    People trying vainly to get linux boxes connected to a wireless router shudder with horror when they hear this word “ndiswrapper”. That’s apparently the only lameass way to connect linksys wireless adaptors in linux. Here’s a good tutorial about how to do this. Here’s a step-by-step set of instructions and a comprehensive list of drivers…

  • Software for Free/Software to Buy

    Photoshoppish keystroke shortcuts for gimp. Cool. It’s funny. I’m not a bigtime graphics creator by any stretch of the imagination, but I’ve been using the gimp version of windows for about a year or two. At first, it was a bit of a struggle, but now it’s becoming almost effortless. I haven’t really tried to…

  • glsa-check and linux Security

    Recently, I’ve been busy trying to build a gentoo web server. I’m going to be more pro-active about fighting zombies this time. Here’s a post about my security questions Perhaps the most interesting thing about the response is hearing about glsa-check, a way of determining which ebuilds are absolutely necessary from a security point of…

  • Managing Plone Setups with Subversion

    Great post by Matt Rohrer about how to install and maintain plone using Subversion. Lots of tips. Version control with subversion for nonprogrammers. By Keith R. Fieldhouse. More tips on checking in/out with subversion by Limi. Still More tips by Tom Lazar and specifically on plone’s quills. Jens Klein on how to check out plone/collective…

  • Engineers or Lawyers?

    From a roundup article Grant Gross on the Grokster case (scheduled to be heard March 29) “The question really boils down to, will America’s technology companies be hiring more engineers, or will they be firing engineers and hiring lawyers instead?” von Lohmann said.

  • OpenWRT

    Openwrt, linux firmware for extending the capabilities of a wireless access port.