Ubuntu Tutorials

Lately I’ve been watching the traffic to my site and keeping track of some of the more popular topics. I’ve noticed that a large percentage of my traffic is relating to XGL Compiz on Dapper. For those not aware, I put together a fairly detailed tutorial on setting that up. I plan on posting some updates soon with more details, breakdowns & perhaps screenshots.

I would love to get some feedback on the tutorial itself. Did it work for you? Did you run into trouble? How can I improve it? Please leave a comment if you were able to use it successfully, or even if you only have suggestions for improvement.

I came home from work this evening to find an email regarding my TUX magazine subscription. I originally got the tip about the free online TUX magazine from Aaron and have enjoyed reading it since. I have included the email in its entirety for your information. Upon first consideration I doubt I will continue with a paid-subscription. What do some other subscribers think?

Dear TUX Subscriber,

This week you'll notice a change in TUX. It will move from being a
free digital magazine to a paid one. Your current complimentary
subscription will be extended for 6 issues (expiring after the
January 2007 issue). That being said, this is just a note to let you
know what's happening -- there's nothing at all you need to do
today. Your free subscription will continue to be delivered to you
as you had originally requested.

When your subscription does expire, we will send you a notice
offerring you an opportunity to renew at our paid rate of just
$9.95/12 issues. In addition, since you've been a loyal subscriber,
we'll make certain to offer you a very special gift if you do decide
to renew at that time. Again though, there's nothing for you to do
today. Your free subscription to TUX will continue through January 2007.

We started TUX in 2004 because we felt strongly it was a needed
publication within the Linux community (many of our Linux Journal
readers would write in asking for exactly this, and truthfully, many
of our own staff members wanted to learn more about their Linux
desktops also). We invested revenues from our other publication,
Linux Journal, to make it possible. We've seen it as a labor of
love. Today, however, 15 issues later, we need to turn TUX into a
self-supporting publication and that's why we are asking for our
readers' help.

We promise to put more heart and effort into TUX with this
conversion. In the coming months, you can expect several new topics
and article series introduced by TUX Editor Kevin Shockey.

Please let us know how we can make TUX better for you. We strongly
encourage your feedback and suggestions; please send to
info@tuxmagazine.com.

From all of us at TUX Magazine, we sincerely thank you.

Hello boys & girls.? I got an email coming from a PayPal phisher.? Everyone, do your worst (ie; DDoS, fake-info flooding, etc here).

http://tinyurl.com/fy7jb

Verizon treads into the realm of The Prince by ZDNet‘s Mitch Ratcliffe — Verizon’s changed its customer agreement with wording that could limit or ban class action law suits by customers. You have to act to opt out.

From the article:

NationalAccess and BroadbandAccess data sessions may be used with wireless devices for the following purposes: (i) Internet browsing; (ii) email; and (iii) intranet access (including access to corporate intranets, email and individual productivity applications like customer relationship management, sales force and field service automation). Unlimited NationalAccess/BroadbandAccess services cannot be used (1) for uploading, downloading or streaming of movies, music or games, (2) with server devices or with host computer applications, including, but not limited to, Web camera posts or broadcasts, automatic data feeds, Voice over IP (VoIP), automated machine-to-machine connections, or peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, or (3) as a substitute or backup for private lines or dedicated data connections.

So, in other words, Verizon’s advertised “Unlimited” use is clearly NOT unlimited. You can add Verizon to the growing lists of providers & companies that I won’t be working with. Misleading advertising, over-limited terms of service, “you can’t sue us” agreements and proprietary lock-in are not good for any customer.

When will businesses ever care about the customer?

I came across two great videos hosted over at ZDNet about DRM and the ‘real’ explanation of what it does.

ZDNet Executive Editor David Berlind suggests that CRAP or Content, Restriction, Annulment, and Protection, is a catchier phrase than DRM - Digital Rights Management. Why does he think this technology is crap? Once you've bought music or other content to play on one device, it won't play on any other device because of the proprietary layer of CRAP.

A load of C.R.A.P

He also released a follow-up video on the topic which is also interesting. Too bad the general public doesn’t understand this aspect of DRM.

Digital Rights Management-- or what ZDNet Executive Editor David Berlind calls C.R.A.P. (Content Restriction Annulment Protection) -- has enabled companies like Apple to lock music downloaded through their service into their own devices. Berlind describes an effort to create a DRM standard so content can flow seamlessly between multiple devices.

C.R.A.P that won't go away

Bill Gates demands open source by ZDNet‘s Dana Blankenhorn — “We have to change the way we work,” is the way Nick Hellman, the interim director of HIV projects at the Foundation, put it.

Bill Gates is demanding that AIDS researchers share or open source their results if they’re to get some of the $287 million the Gates Foundation is putting into the search for AIDS vaccines.

From the article:

“The Foundation has recognized that one of the forces slowing medical progress is greed commercial rivalries, bureaucratic rivalries, personal rivalries.”

Hey Bill. Kiss my ass! Let’s take the quote above and remove the word “medical”. Now let’s try again.

“The Foundation has recognized that one of the forces slowing progress is greed — commercial rivalries, bureaucratic rivalries, personal rivalries.”

Tell that to all the developers and companies you’ve left destroyed along your way to the top. You’ve left innovative companies & their technologies dead and stifled everywhere you’ve gone.

Yes, I agree that medical research should be opened up for faster progress but talk about being a damned hypocrite. Shut your mouth. You piss me off.

My first impression of Ubuntu Edgy Eft (after roughly 10 minutes of use) is a positive one. The aren’t too many GUI changes that I’ve seen outside of a noticeable font difference. Some things that I have noticed:

• 2.6.17-5 kernel
• Gnome 2.15.4

It seems noticeably faster as well. I’m going to get back to testing. Anyone with an extra machine should really try out Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft Knot 1)

Jimmy Kimmel takes regular clips and bleeps words that weren’t really bad to make them sound SO much worse. HILARIOUS!
Great compilation of clips on YouTube pointing out unnecessary cencorship.

read more | digg story

Pre-releases of Edgy are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are however recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs.

I’m sorry for not posting this earlier (Yes, its a day old!) Get your copy of Edgy Eft Knot 1 (super-alpha-not-for-production-use) now and help with the testing.

read more | digg story

“Now, according to Paul Thurrott, Windows Vista comes complete with an automatic defragmentation scheduler. The default is for the user’s hard drives to be defragmented at 4:00 AM every Sunday, when presumably most people won’t be doing other work on their computer.”

So, basically, here we are coming on 2007 and the best solution Microsoft can come up with is auto-scheduling defragmentation? They sure do have some great minds over there in Redmond don’t they. Why not use a filesystem that doesn’t require defragmentation. Ooh, right, that would require some sort of innovation. I forgot.

read more | digg story