KCLUG September 2008

kclug@kclug.org

34 participants
38 discussions

Making a difference by constant comment.
by Oren Beck 26 Sep '08

26 Sep '08

Every time you are in a computer store or retail outlet that sells computers. Mention Linux in a positive fashion. NOT asking in a whine "whydoncha..." but a calm assured informational stance of: It would be a Really Good Idea to be selling computers with Linux pre-installed. And also a Good Idea to be selling the Linux magazines,books and software. Currently folks around here have to drive X miles to your competitor. Where I spend dollars X on books and magazines etc. Further explaining the potential $ per Linux user they would bring into their store by carrying the Linux items. It certainly is a better use of our energy than some other methods. -- Oren Beck 816.729.3645

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Promoting Linux thru constant advocacy. Let's share our wins and failures- so we can learn from both
by Oren Beck 26 Sep '08

26 Sep '08

This is a personal challenge of a type we all should be doing absent any comment needed to motivate us. It's a simple yet non-trivial tasking. Each time we make the effort to advocate the use of Linux and/or F/OSS projects ends as a win or a fail. With the lesser victory of at least teaching awareness to build mindshare. Thru positive advocacy and showing what advantages Linux and/or F/OSS have to offer. And doing so in a fashion where we abstain from trash talking other models of coding or licensing. Folks- do we want Linux to be associated with "those anti-profit freaks" or a more level headed perception? It's said one catches more flies with one fluid over another. We've all arguably been guilty of that mistake eh? . If I've not been explicit enough? I wish to see Linux and F/OSS displace non-free code for ethical considerations alone. Arguing for or against the ethics of non-free code is off topic in this concept!. Let's *NOT* go there ok? so what's "On Topic?" Posting the encounters where we or someone we know- Advocates a Linux world software for application - and how the advocacy resolves.. Did Linux become a preferred tool? Or did inertia prevail? I trust you see the intent. With that said? Here's one of my most recent tries- first was a friend with a virus wrecked win98 laptop. Damn Small was demoed as able to get him online for email. then we did an overnight run of recovery tools to save the majority of his data. Instead of wiping his drive yet- he's simply not mounting it when he runs DSL in the toram mode. He's a bit hopeful his employer may yet pay for sending his drive to some mythical service. But - We have a newly minted Linux user and perhaps a KCLUG mamber too He's not yet fully comfortable with the Linux way- but in time? -- Oren Beck 816.729.3645

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Re: Offtopic, but they dialed the funny up to 11
by Geoffrion, Ron P [IT] 26 Sep '08

26 Sep '08

doesn't work from my phone, even after my 'intergalactic law violation' Google Docs Sorry, but this browser does not support web word-processing. We recommend you try Google Docs on: Mozilla Firefox: 1.0.5 or higher Mozilla SeaMonkey: 1.0 or higher Internet Explorer: 6.0 or higher All of these are FREE and easy to download and use. Note that Beta versions of some browsers may not be supported. If you are working to fix problems with a specific browser and would like to bypass this check, just add ?browserok=true to the end of the Google Docs url. Please note that it is a violation of intergalactic law to use this parameter under false pretenses, so don't let us catch you at it. And, it won't work very well -- really. ©2008 Google - Google Docs Help - Terms of Use - Additional Terms - Privacy Policy - Copyright Notices Ron Geoffrion 913.488.7664 Sent from my cool Sprint phone. -----Original Message----- From: "Sean Crago" <cragos(a)gmail.com> Subj: Offtopic, but they dialed the funny up to 11 Date: Fri Sep 26, 2008 10:20 am Size: 298 bytes To: "KCLUG" <kclug(a)kclug.org> http://docs.google.com/TeamPresent?docid=ddp4zq7n_0cdjsr4fn&skipauth=true&p… Beautiful explanation of the financial crisis, are of Metafilter. No response necessary/please don't turn this one offtopic post into an excuse to run an offtopic flamewar/troll-thread. Sean Crago Kathmandu

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Offtopic, but they dialed the funny up to 11
by Sean Crago 26 Sep '08

26 Sep '08

http://docs.google.com/TeamPresent?docid=ddp4zq7n_0cdjsr4fn&skipauth=true&p… Beautiful explanation of the financial crisis, are of Metafilter. No response necessary/please don't turn this one offtopic post into an excuse to run an offtopic flamewar/troll-thread. Sean Crago Kathmandu

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Fwd: Reiser FS or ext3?
by Justin Dugger 24 Sep '08

24 Sep '08

Forwarded because I don't pay attention to reply-tos until it's too late. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 1:26 PM, gary hildebrand <wa7kkp(a)gmail.com> wrote: > I have a couple older distros of SuSE -- 6.4 & 7.2 and was wondering if > there is an easy way to do it with a journaling FS? Whenever I'd get a > hit/crash in ext2, it would sorta eat itself up, and then over a period of > time, become unuseable. 6.4 has a wide variety of packages no longer > available on the new distros, and I'd like to have a drive set up so I can > boot it when wanted. Journaling filesystems provide a few main features: fast fsck, data integrity and fast writes. Ext3 is the only FS I know of that allows full data journaling. The rest just journal metadata. Inodes, indirect blocks are write journaled, but the data itself isn't in reiser and XFS. I'm not even sure it's the default in ext3, but I know you can retune ext3 for full data. As for old SuSE kernels, I'm not sure whether they have ext3 in the kernel, or if you'll have to build it yourself. I'm a bit curious, what does SuSE 6.4 have that's no longer available? Justin Dugger

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SQL file systems
by David Nicol 23 Sep '08

23 Sep '08

On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 6:06 PM, Billy Crook <billycrook(a)gmail.com> wrote: > That said, if you need a sql driven filesystem, try fuse-mysqls: > http://sourceforge.net/projects/mysqlfs/ > http://www.linux.com/feature/127055?theme=print > > Storing its data in mysql, you can use mysql's native high > availability clustering to keep multiple instances on multiple > machines in sync, at all times, without scripts, inotify, or a SAN. > Just don't count on any degree of performance. with SQLite being PD and modular, with the SQL layer cleanly abstracted from the storage, it seems like using its storage for a FS would be worthwhile for someone without anything bettter to do. And the FTS3 searchable indexing system; that in a file system would let you have a distro-specific grep that screamed, for instance. What was reiser4 supposed to deliver? If the future of file systems is blurring of file systems or databases, it seems like sloshing code in both directions is a SMOP.

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We seem to be scaring the non-free world of software
by Oren Beck 23 Sep '08

23 Sep '08

http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=1195799 -- Oren Beck 816.729.3645

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Neuros releases OSD2 HD OpenSource Media Platform
by Tom Bruno 17 Sep '08

17 Sep '08

Hello everyone, Recently (as of yesterday) Neuros Technologies has released a new hardware and developer platform coined the "OSD2". The OSD2 is an OpenSource based HD platform. We are working hard to provide Open Source communities with open hardware that users, developers, and commercial projects can change and modify to fit their unique needs, wants, hobbies. A lot of work has went into this unit especillay behind the scenes where we had to fight almost daily inorder to get TI to open up documents, api, and system libraries for their Digial Signal Processor technologies. The Neuros OSD2 HD is an unique class of device in a market full of manufactures and product teams that are set on controlling what their hardware does and how it is used. Neuros is continuing to fight on behalf of OpenSource software and software freedom to remove absolute control from the producer of the product and place it into the hands of you the consumer. We cannot do this without the support of communities, linux users, and users that understand their very freedom of use is under attack by the media blob all around the world. On the technology front the OSD2 is based on Texas Instruments new Davinci hardware that offers HD performance in low cost ARM+DSP cpus. Low power usage, low cost, and abilites to record up to 720P video over Component input make the OSD2 a very unique box amoung all the other similar devices on market. With OSD2 moving to the OpenEmbedded distribution platform and VLC frameworking being ported to control media/DSP features, software avialable for the device will range from file sharing to full blown media experiences. For more information feel free to email me or head to any of these sites. It is a great little box and is still under very active development so if you are into hardware, embedded, or even want to just know more about linux embedded in general this is a great place to start. Currently we are working to bring davinci and OSD2 into kernel.org mainline. You and your support of Open devices goes a long way to help us show TI and other hardware makers that Open Source and freedom are a better life. Links: http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS9949081537.html http://open.neurostechnology.com/content/neuros-osd-20-hd-developer-kits-sa… http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/17/neuros-ships-hd-capable-osd-2-0-set-top-… http://www.boingboing.net/2008/09/16/neuros-open-settop-b.html http://technorati.com/search/neuros?authority=a4&language=en Tom

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Free Software and Open Source. Walking the walk as opposed to merely talking.- RE: Software Freedom
by Oren Beck 16 Sep '08

16 Sep '08

We seem to be in agreement about free Vs non-free concepts in software. The concept I am invoking centers on what each of us is doing. To promote Free and Open Source ideals by spreading usage of such. There is a danger of a discussion such as this rapidly de-evolving into ugly chest beatings etc. I propose something vastly more productive. A simple sharing of our notes. Notes on whatever success or failure we have had. Reports on freeing persons or companies from closed non-free software. MY initial "ready to share" notes start with: A public kiosk at the campground getting about 3-5 unique NEW users a week for most of this summer. With well over half taking one or more of the Linux cd's on a nearby shelf. The kiosk details of note: 400mhz p3 -384 mb ram - 32x cd-rom drive,15" lcd,usb keyboard with usb ports-one free for staff thumbdrives and the other for the optical mouse. Current most usable distro is Puppy 4.0 which has been essentially flawless with the exception of the typematic rate bug. Several total exorcisms of MS from friend's lives- their testimonials are forthcoming. More than a few project managers in my mundane working world gifted with Knoppix and a hard copy print of: http://www.shockfamily.net/cedric/knoppix/ have called me back to say it saved their data and sanity. The related bridges to escaping Closed unfree software is using Abiword and OpenOffice as opposed to MS office. Sumatra PDF as opposed to Adobe. ALL of those used as part of "crash and/or virus recovery" operations. Showing someone that their virus infested winbox can be resurrected. By the Shockfamily document's methods. And then the revelation of Free Software continuing to show that unfree software is not mandatory. It's Tuesday afternoon. 3 guests at the campground have been exposed to a working Linux kiosk this week so far. 3 of 3 took copies of Puppy. Well- Let's hear what you have done lately? -- Oren Beck 816.729.3645

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[Reminder] Software Freedom Day this Saturday
by Billy Crook 16 Sep '08

16 Sep '08

For all you foaming-at-the-mouth freedomites out there, this Saturday is Software Freedom Day. See: http://softwarefreedomday.org/ Show your friends, family, and colleagues that you care about them by celebrating Software Freedom Day with them this Saturday. This is a big one. This September marks the FSF's 25th Birthday. How can you celebrate Software Freedom Day? -------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrade any computers running Windows or OS X to any GNU+Linux distribution of your choosing. Nuke that flash player. Or, next time it breaks, let Adobe fix it for you. rm -rf ~/.ies4linux Switch from IIS webhosting to Apache. Upgrade your home NAT/router firmware to OpenWRT. Become more familiar with SSH and screen. When a website doesn't render in Firefox, it's broken. So call up the company and let them know. Replace vmware with kvm, qemu, Xen, VirtualBox-OSE or any of the other Free Software alternatives. Check out the latest gNewSense (Ubuntu with proprietary blobs removed) from http://torrent.gnewsense.org/gnewsense-livecd-deltah-2.1.iso.torrent It is even more free than Fedora! If you use gNewSense, you basically have zero risk of running proprietary code on your machine. Learn the difference between Free Software and Open Source. Become an FSF associate member. The FSF campaigns to raise awareness of software freedom, and end software tyranny. They are also to thank for most of the core GNU utilities upon which your GNU+Linux system is built. http://www.fsf.org/associate/ Buy your next workstation, or server, with GNU+Linux pre-installed! Even if you prefer to do your own install, you will have assurance that the hardware works, and is validated by the manufacturer. And you will be giving your vote for Free Software. Support the SFLC, who defend software freedom by holding violators accountable, and enforcing free software licenses in and out of court. http://www.softwarefreedom.org/ When choosing hardware, consider which vendors provide Free drivers, or participate in kernel development. Speak with your wallet, and ask "Does this support GNU+Linux?" and "Will you refund my purchase if it doesn't work?" before buying hardware. Stop using proprietary and patent encumbered formats like .mp3, .doc, .xls, .gif, .jpeg, .wmv, etc., and convert your old media to Free formats like ogg vorbis, open document format, png, svg, and theora. If someone "can't open" a free format, don't give them a patent encumbered file. Give them Free Software to open and work with it. There are even versions of most Free Software that users can use without installing to a system, or modifying system configuration so they don't have any excuses not to use it. Support other GNU+Linux users at http://www.linuxquestions.org/ and on your mailing lists. Switch from proprietary network services like Twitter, and Google Reader, to Free Software Solutions like itenti.ca, and Gregarious. Keep an eye out for AfferoGPL licensed Software As A Service sites, and give preference to them. They're gaining steam, quickly.

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KCLUG September 2008