Month: November 2006

OK, so there are tons of Linux distros out there, and they all have some “claim to fame,” but a Linux distro just for Christians? Okaaaay….

Ichthux: Linux for Christians

Here’s what the site says about the distro:

“Ichthux is an operating system aimed at Christian users. It is based on Kubuntu in order to provide the best desktop environment of the moment, together with Christian programs and settings.”

The current features of Ichthux Linux are:

based on Kubuntu 6.06.1 LTS “Dapper Drake”

bibletime with multi-language support, using Frank Ruehl rich Hebrew font

kio-sword for Bible study integration into Konqueror

several Bibles installed by default for English (KJV), Spanish (SPARV), French (LSG) and Hebrew (WLC)

Christian console tools: verse, bible-kjv

a Christian emoticons theme by default in Kopete

kdict with the Easton and Hitchcock Bible dictionaries

culmus Hebrew fonts

improved default settings for a better Christian experience of the computer desktop

I must say, interesting! There seems to be no end to the “Open-ness” and flexibility of Linux and Open Source. Creative folks in the Open Source community can meet any need with it. Very nice!

digg this story

The newest version of Democracy Player (released today) is much faster and uses WAY less RAM. If you don’t know, it’s a video player / RSS app that’s free and Open Source for Windows, Linux, and OS X. It is an IPTV application that “democratizes” the video blogging field!

read more | digg story

There are times when you need to get down to the “nitty-gritty” and compile the kernel in Linux… here’s a “step-by-step” on how to do it in CentOS Linux.

How To Compile A Kernel – The CentOS Way

“Each distribution has some specific tools to build a custom kernel from the sources. This article is about compiling a kernel on CentOS systems. It describes how to build a custom kernel using the latest unmodified kernel sources from www.kernel.org (vanilla kernel) so that you are independent from the kernels supplied by your distribution. It also shows how to patch the kernel sources if you need features that are not in there.”

Web sales were down some on “Black Friday” according to the bean counters. Let’s see how they do on what the media has deemed “Cyber-Monday” (today.)

Web Sales Down on ‘Black Friday’

EBay was the online winner this “Black Friday,” data published on Saturday showed, but overall Internet traffic growth was well below last year’s even as bargain hunters tracked down sought-after toys and electronics on the Web before “Cyber Monday.” Overall traffic to the Nielsen/Net Ratings Holiday eShopping Index, which tracks more than 120 online retailers, rose 12 percent on the Friday after Thankgiving over the same day last year, according to the online audience measurement firm. That is significantly below the 29 percent growth in overall traffic to the index from 2004 to 2005 and more in line with 11 percent growth seen from 2003 to 2004. EBay Inc. had the most Web traffic on “Black Friday,” one of retail’s busiest days, with 7.5 million unique visitors, according to the data. Amazon.com was in second place, with 3.4 million unique visitors, followed by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. with 3.2 million. There is no way to determine what percentage of Internet users are actually making Web purchases.”

OK, so we know that “LAMP” is Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP, and that it is the basis of all the goodness on the web (OK, so I am a mite prejudiced!) Anyway, what if you what to install a “LAMP-like” project, but you are restricted to a Windows server? Ouch! (Those evil corporate “soul-less minions of orthodoxy!” See the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Episode, “In the Cards” for the quote reference! Grin!) Well, now you can! With “WAMP!”

WAMPserver for Windows

The latest version gives you a simple, guided, “one stop” install system for:

Apache 2.0.59
MySQL 5.0.27
PHP 5.2.0
PHPmyadmin 2.9.0.3
SQLitemanager 1.2.0

on Windows! Wow! And, it gives you a cool control center for settings, etc. (See the image below.) Gotta love it! (By the way, this WILL install happily on Windows XP as well as Windows Server!)

Our friendly neighborhood graphics guru, Scott Redmon, has done it for us again! Check out the cool Christmas header! I love the Santa with attitude! Thanks, Scott!

Imagine Mario Bros. with the game maps always changing with a random pattern… you could play forever! Now imagine that you didn’t have to buy a game, or a console! (A big difference from all the folks that are standing in line for the Wii and the PS3!) This on-line game is written in Java and was part of a contest to write a Java based video game.

Infinite Mario Bros.

Controls:
Use the arrow keys to move Mario around.
Press A to run faster and to pick up shells.
Press S to jump.
Press F1 to toggle Scale 2x scaling.

Interesting from both a programming and gaming point of view!

So, obviously you should pay for a legitimate copy of anything that you install on your PC, but how many of you have had bogus “errors” of improperly authorized Microsoft products? That is, it it is a real, purchased package, but it fails authentication anyway. Well, if that happens with Office 2007… you are hosed, dewd!

Office 2007’s “secret kill switch”

“Microsoft’s battle with pirates, which started as early as 1975 with Bill Gates’ infamous ‘Open Letter to Hobbyists,’ continues on in 2007, as the company has built a feature into Office 2007: Reduced Functionality Mode. While Microsoft has been fairly coy about whether or not this feature exists in the latest Office release, a new Knowledge Base article on their site confirms that it will apply to all Office 2007 products. Reduced Functionality mode is triggered whenever Office 2k7 fails activation. This can happen when the program is initially run after installation, or if it fails a subsequent check following an Office update. Once the switch is thrown, Office continues to run, but with the following restrictions:

You cannot create new documents.

You can view existing documents. However, you cannot edit them.

You can print documents. However, you cannot save them.

Despite what some media outlets are reporting, the Reduced Functionality Mode is not new. It already applies to Office 2003 and even Office XP versions. While the approach undoubtedly has at least some impact on piracy, the process is not 100 percent foolproof: some legitimate users have reported problems with the activation process.”

So, remember, “just say, ‘NO!'” to Office 2007! Use OpenOffice.org! Free, excellent, and no “kill switch” to contend with!

Microsoft is now saying that only Novell SUSE Linux customers are free from infringing on their intellectual property. Riiiight!

Novell disputes claim by Microsoft on patents

“In a twist that underscored the unlikely nature of their alliance, Novell Chief Executive Ron Hovsepian publicly distanced his company Monday from Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer’s statement last week that the open-source Linux operating system contains patented Microsoft technology. ‘Importantly, our agreement with Microsoft is in no way an acknowledgment that Linux infringes upon any Microsoft intellectual property,’ Hovsepian wrote in a letter to the open-source community, posted on Novell’s Web site. He added, ‘When we entered the patent-cooperation agreement with Microsoft, Novell did not agree or admit that Linux or any other Novell offering violates Microsoft patents.’ Responding to a question about the Novell deal at a conference in Seattle last week, Ballmer said that Linux ‘uses our patented intellectual property’ and that one result of the pact was to be ‘appropriately compensated’ for that intellectual property. Novell’s Suse Linux is one of many varieties of the open-source operating system, created by worldwide communities of programmers. In his remarks, Ballmer said that, because of the Novell deal, ‘only a customer who has Suse Linux actually has paid properly for the use of intellectual property from Microsoft.'”

FUD, or “Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt” is what Microsoft wants to spread about Linux, because they know it is their biggest true competitor. They are evil. Don’t be swayed.