Mundo Gutx0: Japonés guitarrista tocando pieza clásica

Mundo Gutx0: Japonés guitarrista tocando pieza clásica

Why Linux needs a mentor program

Imagine you're a new Linux user. You ordered an Ubuntu CD weeks ago and forgot about it. You're surprised it actually comes in the mail. You slap the shiny disc into your PC and cross your fingers. The installation is quite slick. You're impressed by the splash screen and attractive desktop. Wow, you think you're hot stuff -- a Linux user. But the euphoria fades as you realize there's a problem with your modem. Now what do you do?

This is what happened to one of my coworkers, who called me to get help with his system after he installed Linux. After we worked through his modem problem (he had the wrong port selected), he asked me a lot of questions about Linux. Some of the answers could have been found in a good Linux FAQ, but not all of them. A question about menus in Ubuntu stumped me because I run Gentoo, but I was able to do some research and had the answer ready the next day at work. Since then, I have continued to give him Linux help and advice while he gives me excellent programming tips. It's a win-win situation.

The whole experience made me wonder why there isn't a formal Linux Mentor program. The Linux community has spawned message boards, newsgroups, HOWTOs, FAQs, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels, and Linux User Groups (LUG) to provide help to new users -- but most of these resources provide little or no direct human contact. While LUGs let new users mingle with Linux experts, new users have to wait for meetings to get face-to-face help. Why isn't there a system for teaming up Linux newbies with a more experienced Linux user to help them through the transition?

Another person can add perspective and context to any situation or goal. It's the old, "If he can do it, so can I" phenomenon, where a goal becomes more tangible simply because someone else reached it. To a new Linux user, a mentor is the person who is not only knowledgeable about Linux, but also representative of someone who uses Linux successfully.

Informal mentoring of the kind I provide to my coworker goes on all the time and, under the right circumstances, can be very successful. The question is, how can the community facilitate the mentoring process and make the experience better for both parties?

The first thing someone should do is create a "Linux Mentor" Web site that helps users find mentors. A mentor's profile on the site should include:

• Geographical location: New users should be able to find mentors who live close to them. Users may be able to talk with mentors over the phone or using voice over IP, but there's still no substitute for face-to-face contact. If a mentor and new user live in the same area, they can meet in person when necessary. This also makes it much easier for a mentor to help a new user troubleshoot hardware.
• Hardware configuration: All hardware has quirks, whether it's your wireless adapter in combination with Linux or your misbehaving video card on Windows. Unless you've worked with a piece of hardware, you're not likely to know its quirks and how to work around them. A mentor should be able to use his experience with hardware problems to help new users, or to recommend new Linux-compatible hardware when a user's existing hardware is unsupported.
• Mentor rating: Users should be able to rate mentors and provide opinions much in the same way that people rate books and movies on Amazon.com.

Ideally, a new user would be able to find a mentor who lives nearby, has a similar hardware configuration, and a high mentor rating. The mentor should also have to take a test to demonstrate Linux knowledge. The site could feature training and certification programs for mentors.

My coworker is a happy Linux user now. One has to wonder, though, what would have happened if things hadn't gone well? What if he (like a lot of people), encountered a problem with Linux and didn't know where to turn -- except back to Windows?

The Linux Mentor program would provide a unique avenue of support to frustrated users in need of a patient and understanding hand. By mentoring users, not only will Linux gain more brain and market share, but we will sow the seeds for future generations of mentors. I still recall my mentor, Chris, guiding me through installing Red Hat 5.2 and KDE 1.0. If it weren't for his enthusiastic help, I'm not sure I would be running Linux now, much less mentoring others.

I know the Linux community is made up of good, kindhearted people. Sure, we may occasionally squabble over petty technical details -- but underneath it all, most of us have the same goals and values. We want to promote freedom, openness, and the evolution of Linux and open source software. Sometimes we get so caught up in the technology, we forget about the people that actually make use of it. The Linux Mentor program would reflect those values, not in some abstract way, but in a concrete way by helping other users with their day-to-day problems.

Ubuntu 5.10 Released

Ubuntu 5.10 Released The Ubuntu team is proud to announce Ubuntu 5.10. This is the official Ubuntu 5.10 release, and includes installation CDs, live CDs, and combination DVDs for three architectures. Ubuntu is a Linux distribution for your desktop or server, with a fast and easy install, regular releases, a tight selection of excellent packages installed by default, every other package you can imagine available from the network, a commitment to security updates for 18 months after each release and professional technical support from many companies around the world.

Application You Should Know: Wordpress

Want to start off saying that Wordpress is useful only for people with one or more websites on one or more servers with php/mysql. Wordpress is a backend for blogging websites that seems to have more uses than I can imagine. Simply put, its a blogging application, written in php using a mysql database. However, Wordpress has many more uses than just that. Because of the easy customizability of the look of the site, I can strip names, dates, and titles from posts if I’d like. I could build a site with only one post in each category, such that it looks like a normal website, and simply use Wordpress as a way to edit and keep the files online updated. Not only does Wordpress save you the trouble of html editting or some such nonsense all of the time, but it means I can build a website for someone else with Wordpress, get the look all set, and then all they have to do is use wordpress (not really needing to know any html) to add to the website or change the existing content. This site works off of Wordpress, not only because its easier to keep up to date this way, but because now, if I want to change the look of my website or so on, all of the posts are ’safe’ in my database. Of course, Wordpress is more open-source software, and definitely worth a look.

Acer 2312 TravelMate

Like I had posted before, I recently bought myself an Acer 2312 TravelMate notebook. It's time to rave about the machine. The 2312 comes equipped with 256 mb DDR memory, which coupled with its 1 mb L2 Cache and 1.4 ghz processing power is pretty fast. It has a 15" TFT screen. You get a DVD-reader-CD-writer drive and a 40 gb hard disk. The hard disk is not 7200 rpm BTW. The battery easily lasts two-and-half hours. I have tested this and it is true. The 2312 comes with Linpus Linux pre-installed. The much taled "limited functionality" refers to the absense of X. And, while I desperately promote the use of the command line, it is hard to function without X. Also, I did not recieve the install CDs for Linpus Linux. The machine is very light and you can easily work with it on your lap for an hour. After that the heat would make your trouser burn! All in all, it's the pretiest of all the notebooks in the market. Comparing it with Compaq-HP and Zenith. The most eye-catching feature of the 2312 is it's curved keyboard layout. 2312 comes with a modem, an ethernet port and in-built wireless. It neither has bluetooth not infrared, btw. The amazing thing about the screen is its stability. It does not flicker, easily runs at 1024x768 at 75 hz. Awesome! Most of the laptops in the market can only achieve 60 hz and at 1024x768, they ensure your eyes are well lubricated :) If you plan on using an external mouse, that is, you are uncomfortable using the mouse pad, please note that there is no PS/2 or serial port in the 2312. You do have three USB ports and so you can use a USB mouse. I have successfully got Ubuntu 5.04 Hoary working on my 2312. No hassles anywhere except in getting the wireless working. Here is what finally got the wireless working: I am using ndiswrapper 1.2, which was the last stable release. Don't go for the latest test release. To install ndiswrapper, 1. make distclean 2. make 3. make install 4. ndiswrapper -i location-of-the-driver.inf-file (you can use the driver as provided on the cd 5. ndiswrapper -l 6. modprobe ndiswrapper 7. ndiswrapper -m 8. iwconfig In step 5. it is small 'L' and not 1 or I. When you run iwconfig, you should see wlan0 listed, which would mean your ndiswrapper is working fine and you can now configure your card :) To do that go to System->Administration->Networking If you chums need any help on your linux, look me up :)

Yet Another Course

Today I started a five day course which will, I hope, result in me becoming an accredited PRINCE2 practitioner. That’s Project Management, for the uninitiated. The course work is pretty demanding but if I pass the 3 hour written exam on Friday I’ll be very pleased indeed. I’m told that the exam results are currently being processed in about 8 to 12 weeks, so I’ll have a bit of a wait. I hope it’ll be worth it.

Built-in Samba Settings on Solaris

The latest Samba at present is 3.0.5, though if you don't wanna build and install from Source code, you can use built-in Samba on Solaris. Samba 2.2.8a is provided by the following 3 packages : SUNWsmbac SUNWsmbar SUNWsmbau At first check these packages are installed on your Solaris systems. % pkginfo | grep SUNWsmba Then, if you want to use SWAT, you need to 1. add the following line to /etc/inetd.conf swat stream tcp nowait.400 root /usr/sfw/sbin/swat swat 2. add the following line to /etc/services swat 901/tcp 3. then use your favorite browser and access to the host like http://yourhost:901/ The default root password is same as UNIX root password. And using SWAT or manually editing /etc/sfw/smb.conf like below example, You should create smb.conf to start Samba server. [global] coding system = EUC client code page = 932 # for Japanese code page workgroup = WORKGROUP netbios name = SAMPLEHOST interfaces = x.x.x.x # your Samba server IP address encrypt passwords = Yes hosts allow = y.y.y.y # permitted host to access [product] comment = share directory path = /share read only = No After that, setting Samba user password by # /usr/sfw/bin/smbpasswd -a username You can access share directory from Windows box.

What makes Linux so popular among IT geeks?

With the recent operation crackdown on pirated copies of Microsoft, several establishments have opted to use Linux based operating systems. Of course, there were so many complaints from users, especially those who were more familiar with windows. I came to visit a popular Linux group forum, KLUG and i noticed that some of its users really hates windows OS or sounds like they hate it..or im not sure if its just a show off. Now the question, why is it that if we talk about linux, we associate it with IT experts, geeks, hackers and computer whiz people. Sometimes, the qoute "I know Linux" is another term for "I am an IT expert". Well, each operating system has its own features and vulnerabilities. Some may choose one from another, it really depends upon ones expertise and strategy in managing its own network. Some may prefer Windows because its friendly, easy and has a strong tech support. Or others may prefer Linux, because it is open source, free, reliable and has less vulnerabilities. But in my opinion, there are reasons why IT geeks prefer to show to all thay they prefer Linux. Aside from its technical features, psychologically these are also be partly their reasons. 1. Linux is unfriendly to a user who has limited IT knowledge. Which means that MAJORITY of us doesnt understand it. So if you understand it, and knows how to use it, then you can be consider as the FEW WHIZ out there. Sometimes beng with the few, is what makes us feel special and extraordinary. 2. Linux is more of a CLI instead of GUI, which makes it unpopular to ordinary users. 3. Linux is open source, which makes it basically free to download and to use. So if you are a linux expert, then "free from licensing" is your war banner to all companies out there. Others may argue that Linux is better, or Windows is still the best, i think its just the same. Those software were developed to make our work much easier, effecient and productive. Expertise depends upon the features you need to squeeze out from an OS. All i can say, why windows is much popular, it is because they have the most brilliant minds in marketing. They can mask and hide the vulnerabilities of their product through features available. But in fairness. Windows has some features in which are really good and easy to manage.

Opera is free!

Opera announced renunciation of registration fees: Opera Software today permanently removed the ad banner and licensing fee from its award-winning Web browser. The ad-free, full-featured Opera browser is now available for download - completely free of charge This is a good news because another cross-platform free web browser has appiared in the computer world!

Look who's working overtime!

The latest internet security report by Symantec Corp. is out and guess what it claims? The report, covering the period from January to June informs that phishing attacks have increased from 2.99 million messages a day to 5.7 million. Of the 50 malicious code samples taken in the period, 74 percent represent cases exposed a persons confidential information. This is a startling rise from 54 percent mentioned in the last report. Equally startling is the mention of spam. It accounts for 61 percent of all email traffic. Bot networks, or zombie armies as they known otherwise, have shown a 140 percent increase in the first half of 2005. You better be afraid. 'Coz them spammers and phishers and hoopla-hooping junkies are trying out and working hard on creating new and innovative methods to not just act funny but also make you suffer financial loss. The report suggests that malicious code written today is to ensure that there is financial gain for the attacker rather than just having a laugh at your expense.

Recommended Reading: The Success of Open Source

It’s easy to construct arguments that open source software can’t succeed. Why would people work for free to make something that they could get paid for? Who will do the dirty work? Who will do tech support? How can customers trust a “vendor” that is so diffuse and loosely organized?

And yet, open source has had some important successes. Apache dominates the market for web server software. Linux and its kin are serious players in the server operating system market. Linux is even a factor in the desktop OS market. How can this be reconciled with what we know about economics and sociology?

Many articles and books have been written about this puzzle. To my mind, Steven Weber’s book “The Success of Open Source” is the best. Weber explores the open source puzzle systematically, breaking it down into interesting subquestions and exploring answers. One of the book’s virtues is that it doesn’t claim to have complete answers; but it does present and dissect partial answers and hints. This is a book that could merit a full book club discussion, if people are interested.

Jimbo's Problems: A Free Culture Manifesto

Jimmy has been warming up for his Wikimania Keynote on Larry Lessig's blog, talking about 10 things that should be free. The idea for this list comes from Hilbert's problems. In 1900s Mathematician David Hilbert posed 23 problems, 10 were announced at a conference, the full list published later, very influential. He notes that all of these things were obvious, suggested or proposed by others.

10 Challenges for thee Free Culture Movement

1. Free the Encyclopedia!

Mission is to create a free encyclopedia for every person on the planet in their own language. For English and German, this work is done (of course there could be be quality control, etc.). French and Japanese in a year or so, ton of work to be done globally. Will be done in 10 years time, an amazing thing when you consider minority languages that have never had an encylopedia.

2. Free the Dictionary!

Not as far along, but picking up speed. A dictionary is only useful when it's full of words you don't know, unlike an encyclopedia. Needs software development, such as WikiData. It is structured information, for cross reference and search.

3. Free the Curriculum!

There should be a complete curriculum in every language. A much bigger task than the encyclopedia. Need not just one article about the Moon, but one for every grade level. WikiBooks isn't the only one working on this project. The price of university textbooks is a real burden for students. The book market doesn't take advantage of potential supply of expertise. Not hard to imagine 500 economics professors writing instead of one or two to create a better offering than the traditional model.

4. Free the Music!

The most amazing works in history are public domain but not many public domain recordings exist (even in classical music). Proper scores are often proprietary derivative works (such as arrangements for a modern orchestra). Volunteer orchestras, student orchestras could provide the music for free.

5. Free the Art!

Show two 400 year old paintings. Routinely get complaints from museums saying there is copyright infringements. National Portrait Gallery of England threatens to sue, a chilling effect, but they have no grounds. Controlling physical access keeps people from getting high quality images "I wouldn't encourage you to break the law, but if you accidentally take a photo of these works it would be great to put it on Wikipedia for the public domain.

6. Free the File Formats!

Proprietary file formats are worse than proprietary software because they leave you with no ability to switch at a later time. Your data is controlled. If all of your personal documents are in an open file format, then free software could serve you in the future. Need to educate the public on lock-in. There is considerable progress here and continued European rejection of software patents is critical.

7. Free the Maps!

"What could be more public domain than basic information about location on the planet?" -- Stefan Magdalinksi. FreeGIS software, Free GeoData. This will become increasingly important for open competition in mobile data services.

8. Free the Product Identifiers!

Hobby Princess blog Huge subculture of people making crafts, selling them on eBay, but need competition from distributors.

Increasingly, small producers can have a global market. Such producers need a clobal identifiers. Similar to ISBN, not ASIN (proprietary to Amazon). Suggests the "LTIN: Long Tail Identification Numbers" would be cheap or inexpensive to obtain (has to have some cost to fend off spam). Extensive database freely licensed and easly downloadable to empower multiple rating systems, e-commerc, etc. The alternative is proprietary eBay and Amazon. Small craft producers should be able to get a number and immediately gain distribution across them.

9. Free the TV Listings!

A smaller issue, it may seem. But development of free software digital PVRs is going on. Free-as-in-beer listings exist, but this is tenuous. Free listings could be used to power many different innovations in this area. Otherwise we will be in a world where everything you watch will be DRM'ed -- so this is important.

10. Free the Communities!

Wikipedia demonstrates the power of a free community. Consumers of web forum and wiki services should demand a free license. Otherwise, the company controls the community. Similar to a feudal serf, company maintained communities have a hold on communities. Are you a serf living on your master's estate, or free to move? Social compact: need to have Open Data and Openly Licensed software for communities to truly be free. Wikicities - for profit, free communities - founded by Jimmy and Angela. Free licensing attracts contributors.

He will be adding more on Larry Lessig's blog over the coming weeks.

Q&A:

He also highlighted the Frankfurt Wikireader, a nicely bound collection of Wikipedia pages about Frankfurt, donated by Qoop.com that provides on demand printing. They are also talking to Lulu.com. 80% of the remaining format errors in this version have already been fixed. Books can be constructed on the site for re-use or constructed on the fly. Open standards to allow multiple vendors.

Call for #11 to be: Free the Search Engine! Agrees, says he will move it to #4. There are efforts, but it's a huge challenge.

Call for #12: Free the Science! Jimmy says the data itself should be under a license, says it could be #7.

On #9, can't ignore the fact that most people are locked into mainstream media -- not just by offering an alternative model, but engaging the mainstream model and reforming it.

One commentator suggested that work needs to be done to simply unlock existing public domain archives (e.g. Geneology) and bring it together in one place. Jimmy says that this could be accelerated through community effort and some software development.

One great question: where do you get money for it? I'm talking free as in speech, not as in beer. People said the same about Free Software, but the business model emerged. Answers.com has a business that leverages Wikipedia information and is in line with their goals. It's not up to us to answer the question of what happens to the candle makers with the invention of electric lighting.

Not a big advocate of increasing government spending on free software, because of the risk of control. On the other hand, there is an enormous amount of software development by governments that we can't leverage. European Space Agency can't release images under free license, unlike NASA, which makes no sense at all (they are talking).

If we had 1 million pounds a year as a budget, what would we do?

Someone gives the example of Andrew Rasjei running for NY Public Advocate and his support of municipal wireless. He notes that he is speaking as an individual in commenting on a political issue: He thinks that municipal wireless is a really bad idea. Could be free as in speech, not controlled by the municiple provider. He does support opening more spectrum. Thinks it will kill innovation. (Ross' off the cuff scoff: Jimmy, this is simply wrong, the lack of competition without muni wireless and the level of innovation built upon the infrastructure far outweights the risk -- bring communications back to the public trust).

Someone from the human rights activist community suggests that many of these constructs are either US or European or a developed Japan. But these freedoms are not so free in places like China. Jimmy says that while Chinese Wikipedia is growing. Have a tension between our radical openness and the need that some people have for privacy. Some people want to edit anonymously, a difficult issue because such open proxy anonymous editing can also be used for damage.

Mitch Kapor: Two kinds of open source licenses: GPL or BSD, which results in different ecologies. Wikipedia is a GPL license, which prohibits certain activities. If all open source was GPL, it was 1/10th or 1/100th of what is now. How could the ecology evolve? Jimmy: They made the decision early without too much thought. Not clear to me what business models are being precluded by our license.

On media models... Everybody tells jokes, but we still have professional comedians. Will see hybrid models, but I can't predict them. People thought that IBM would die with the PC revolution, but they adapted and made most of their revenue from it. Some won't adapt, some will get involved with community models (e.g. OhMyNews as a for profit community media model). Will be harder to control information as the means for leaking is expanding.

Someone wants to do an Emergency Medicine Handbook, there are tough problems with medical reference information that suggests a specific action. A much higher ethical responsibility. With an article about Thomas Jefferson, if we get it wrong, nobody dies. But this is the same issue as textbooks, there are many experts who would like to share if they had a platform. Physicians do things differently in different hospitals, implicit and localized knowledge, but could be shared with the right mechanism.

Someone challenges the Jefferson comment saying Jefferson had a black mistress and it was publicized a few years ago that the offspring sued the family. With a Tsunami happens, the water rushes out before it comes in. So people rush out to see it, but one little girl could say "wait a minute, I read somewhere that this could be a Tsunami," and save the village. You never know where life-saving information could come from.

FLOSS Business Models

One of the constant themes since the free software movement has hit the mainstream is how the can you make a software business successful when you don't charge per se for your software. This is a nonsensical argument on several levels. First off the philosophy of the Free Software Movement doesn't prohibit you from selling your software! They only require that you make the program and it's source available. Strangely people make the rather silly assumption that by making your software available freely you will undercut demand for the commercial version (ie the one that costs money). This is one of the strangest calculations I have seen people make in regards to the free software movement. For example here's a telling quote from the open source section of Wikipedia Making money through traditional methods, such as sale of the use of individual copies and patent royalty payment, is more difficult and sometimes impractical with open-source software. Yet there is no real explanation why this is often said, nor anything other than anecdotal evidence that it is true. Nothing prohibits the GPL model from selling individual licenses. When a corporation or individual purchase a piece of software they are not simply purchasing a single license, they are also purchasing access to support and the help desk and most importantly upgrades. Software acquistion costs represent a tiny fraction of the cost of ownership of software. Most companies when purchasing a piece of software look at the after installation support and integration costs. They look at the support costs. They look at the help desk costs. The above article seems to bemoan the relative lack of FLOSS companies operating in todays markets. But the challenges facing any FLOSS software company is no different than any closed source company. Indeed, it seems to me that starting a closed source software company is an inherently riskier proposition especially when chasing customers in today's markets. For example for a corporation to buy a piece of closed source software from a relatively new vendor is next to impossible as the risk that vendor will go out of business is far too high. Source code escrow will be required at least along with 2-3 years of financial data. Perhaps even a completion bond. With an open source company may have these same challenges as well but availability of source code acts a risk mitigator for the CIO considering purchasing the software. Indeed if I were starting a new company and my market required selling to companies larger than 25 million in annual sales, I don't see how any approach other than an open source one gets you in the door. Getting source code out of escrow with a company in bankruptcy (a very real concern for any start-up company these days) is next to impossible. The simple fact is that there is almost no difference between an FLOSS company and closed source company. They face the same challenges for adaption in the market. The FLOSS company has the advantage that they can use the open source nature of the company as a marketing tool to acquire customers, mitigate risks for their customers. Let's face it. Starting a software company is a risky proposition. Many of them are bound to fail. Being an open source software company just makes it easier to succeed.

gcc 4.0 patch instructions

Dear All, I have decided to patch the gcc 4.0 and finally produce a clean release of the introspector for popular usage. The code will be available as a replacement for some files in the gcc-4.0.0 source. I am working on the patches right now, so dont expect it to work yet. Of course you can get the prerequisite packages and test them. Here are the steps that I needed to do to prepare the introspector: Install and build the gcc 4.0 * wget ftp://ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de/pub/gnu/gcc/gcc-4.0.0/gcc-core-4.0.0.tar.bz2 * mkdir gcc-4.0.0/introspector/ * cd gcc-4.0.0/introspector * ../configure --prefix=/usr/local/introspector --enable-languages=c o For now we will only use the c language * make We should have a basic gcc there. Now we go into the gcc subdir, patch the files from the cvs * cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/introspector login * cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/introspector co -P gcc-4 Add all those files to the gccgcc/ * cp gcc-4/* gcc-4.0.0/gcc/ Also, we want to get the raptor and redland libs * Raptor o wget http://download.librdf.org/source/raptor-1.4.5.tar.gz o tar -xzf raptor-1.4.5.tar.gz o cd raptor-1.4.5 o ./configure o make o make install * Redland o wget http://download.librdf.org/source/redland-1.0.0.tar.gz o tar -xzf redland-1.0.0.tar.gz o cd redland-1.0.0 o ./configure o make o make install * Redland Bindings o wget http://download.librdf.org/source/redland-bindings-1.0.0.2.tar.gz o tar -xzf redland-bindings-1.0.0.2.tar.gz o ./configure o make o make install