Join Dr. Bill as he examines the wild and wacky world of the web, computers, and all things geeky! Hot Tech Tips, Tech News, and Geek Culture are examined… with plenty of good humor as well!
This guy has developed an MS-Paint (nearly EXACT clone) as a web application!
He says: “A near pixel-perfect copy of Microsoft Paint in HTML, CSS and JavaScript, using the ‘canvas’ tag as specified by WHATWG and supported by Safari 1.3, Firefox 1.5 and Opera 9. This web app is not authorized by, supported by or in any way affiliated with Microsoft.” The programmer is Christopher Clay. Hat’s off to you, dewd!
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Dr. Bill Podcast – 65 – (12/02/06)
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Your weekly prescription of tech news and tech goodness! Listen to all the podcasts of the Techpodcasts Network! Lot’s of great e-mails! The “Expedia” “.COMMM!” done for the Doctor! No matter where you get the podcast… you need to visit the Blog! Our Geek Culture for the week… a parody song about Vista being a year late! Me and Vista down by the Schoolyard?? Based on the Paul Simon song, “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard.” “Vees-ta” or “Viss-ta?” Microsofties make up your mind! Baily, Bailee, Bayley… but really it is “Bailey!” Web sales and “Black Friday!” Late Christmas shoppers make the last Saturday before Christmas the biggest shopping day! How to compile the CentOS Linux kernel! The Doctor hints at a secret! What could it have to do with the new release of the Democracy Player? Hummmmmm…. The new version of the Democracy Player uses less RAM and is very cool! Open Source coolness in the Democracy Player and the Broadcast Machine:
Player:
https://www.getdemocracy.com/watch/
Server:
https://www.getdemocracy.com/broadcast/
“Cranky Geeks” and DL.TV and something else?!?! Linux for Christians!?! What Ichthux Linux is… and where to get it. E-Sword.net and a free Windows Bible search tool and Strong’s Concordance, and more! All FREE! On Linux there is Bibletime. The Evil SCO legal case and how it is dying out! Hooray! SCO is a bunch of turkeys! Geek Software of the Week! The Doctor can’t find the GSotW Drumroll! The Doctor will get it together! Wildfire Instant Messaging Server and the Spark IM Client! Recording all the activity from e-mail and IMs… yuukkk! The end of another exciting Dr. Bill Podcast! Write me: DrBill AT TheComputerCurmudgeon.com DOT COMMMMMM! Send your questions!
You gotta look into these two Open Source projects if you are into Instant Messaging, or need to set up an Enterprise-wide IM Server where you work!
“Wildfire is a leading Open Source, cross-platform IM server based on the XMPP (Jabber) protocol. It has great performance, is easy to setup and use, and delivers an innovative feature set. Wildfire is an enterprise instant messaging (EIM) server dual-licensed under the Open Source GPL and commercially. It uses the leading open protocol for instant messaging, XMPP (also called Jabber). Wildfire is incredibly easy to setup and administer, but offers rock-solid security and performance. Use Wildfire in your organization as a more secure and feature-rich alternative to the consumer IM networks. Or, replace your existing EIM server with a more open, easier to use, and much less expensive solution.
Spark is an Open Source cross-platform IM client optimized for businesses and organizations. It has a simple but powerful user interface, leading feature set, and uses the open XMPP (Jabber) protocol. Spark is an Open Source, cross-platform IM client optimized for businesses and organizations of all sizes. It includes enterprise-class features such as built-in support for group chat, telephony integration, and strong security. It also offers an exceptional experience with user-friendly features like in-line spell checking, group chat room bookmarks, and tabbed conversations. The plugin architecture allows you to build plugins (Sparkplugs) that quickly and easily add new features tailored to your specific business needs. Spark is centrally managed from within the Wildfire administration console, making it easy to provision, update and manage all clients on your network.”
The Judge in SCO “Anti-Linux” case, which is so full of lies and evil as to be ludicrous, has put SCO’s case on “life-support!”
Judge leaves SCO’s case vs. IBM on life support (updated)
“In a hearing held on Thusrday, US Magistrate Judge Brooke C. Wells handed IBM another significant victory in its fight against SCO. Groklaw’s eyewitness reports indicate that it was a rough day for SCO, with Judge Wells ruling that the company would not be able to add any further claims to its case beyond what it revealed in its final disclosure. According to one eyewitness, IBM’s counsel accused SCO of “sandbagging” when it came to complying with court orders. The judge agreed, directing IBM to draft her order on the case. The end result is that SCO is left with the evidence generated prior to the close of the discovery period. The company will be unable to introduce new evidence via expert reports, making it difficult—if not downright impossible—to introduce baseless new allegations or further change its story.”
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….
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:
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!
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!
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.”
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Dr. Bill Podcast – 64 – (11/25/06)
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Our Post-Thanksgiving Podcast! Wild and Wooly… and here for your listening pleasure. Better audio this week… and a promo for the Techpodcast Network! The Doctor turns 51… we think. Wikis in the Enterprise. Wikipedia not Wackypedia! Yeeesh! Wikis where I work? We’ll see. Corporate command and control! Are wikis anarchy? And so it begins! FUD as peanut butter! Microsoft fear, uncertainty and doubt about Linux! Seattle is near Redmond (what a revelation!) Microsoft is STOOPID! (Surprise!) What has Steve Ballmer been smokin’? The Microsoft Office Switch o’ Death! Get the excellent OpenOffice.org office suite! M$ verifies a legal copy… what if it fails? (As it has been shown to do on occasion.) Infinite Mario Bros.! A Java based web version of Mario for your pleasure! The Doctor is not a gamer. (But you knew that.) The Geek Software of the Week! A user sent us a drumroll! We’ll add the cymbal later… WAMPserver! What LAMP is, and what WAMP is. A letter with a question from a user… what about the Grisoft AVG 4.1 to 4.5 “upgrade?” Here’s how to do it! “Repairing” is “upgrading.” The Doctor’s recommendation for doing a backup on your systems. Backing up from one system to another, or to a USB or Firewire external hard drive using DeltaCopy. If you are nuked, this won’t help. How important is YOUR data! Thanks to Scott Redmon for the new Christmas header! No Geek Culture this week… except for a little Weird Al and “What About the Pentiums!” The Doctor rocks out of the show!
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!”
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!)
