seVen Geeks

Web host.

2009-04-14T23:59:00.001-05:00

The one I use in this instance is excellent at everything they do. Excellent in their service. Excellent in that their uptimes are better than most in their category. In fact they are quite simply brilliant. Maybe not the absolute best in a big market but they are the best for the market they aim for and that is people like me who just want their hosting to work.

But, (isn't there always one of those?) the one single thing they fall down on. The one single thing that shows a total lack of security nuance. The one thing that makes a Linux or UNIX user spit out his or her coffee. The one single thing that I personally could never use and that is they offer telnet as a connection service. That is right. Telnet. No SSH at all.

When I tried to prompt them about this I got some garbled reply about how to use the telnet service. In my reply to that I asked again why they offer the much maligned and insecure telnet over the much vaunted and secure SSH. This time I got an answer and that answer was "telnet comes preinstalled on most computers so we offer that as a service." Or words to that affect.

Now, colour me blue and call me Mandy but that smacks of pandering to their Microsoft Windows using customers and being Windows users this sort of makes sense in a perverse sort of way.

In case you don't get that let me explain it to you. We all know how insecure Microsoft Windows is and we Linux users know how insecure telnet is. So, the fact that my hosting provider says telnet comes preinstalled on most systems and those most systems are Microsoft Windows can you see why their is a sort of perverse irony going on in that? And can you see how it all makes sense in a perverse sort of way? Good. I knew you would get it in the end.

They are really very good and cheap to boot for a casual hosting needing person/company. I guess if your site is getting millions of hits per week then they will not be for you. They offer one, yes, just one, package in the true meaning of "one package fits all" mode but what they actually offer is very very good for the price. But telnet? Come on Web Mania you know better than to offer a telnet service over an SSH one, fix that and you will be by far the best of breed.

Oh and my (preferred by far) hosting company is Web Mania. I will let you Google that rather than give you a link to click on.

Linux support.

2009-04-07T21:06:00.001-05:00

I am thinking about hardware, be it and internal card or external thing. It is becoming rarer and rarer for anything to be plugged inside a tower box not to be working. Sometimes one has to hunt down a driver but that is a rare event too these days. External hardware, especially in the printing area is as bad now as it ever was for us Linux based operating system using folk.

My wife went out and bought a Lexmark 6550 all-in-one printer thinking that Lexmark were like Epson or Brother who either do have a Linux driver for their printers or the PPD file is included with Cups or the foomatic collection. Lexmark however do neither.

On some of their printers Lexmark use some proprietory thing that they have never released the specifications for so that some bright spark in the Linux collective can write a driver. When emailing Lexmark customer service, if it can be called that, and complain about owning what openprinting call a brick then you get a boiler plate replying that basically says we know but we don't care. Lovely.

Avoid Lexmark stuff that is not known to the openprinting database of working printers. Oh and do not bother Lexmark customer service with Linux queries of any kind as they simply do not care and a growing band of users.

Oh it does annoy me!

2009-02-26T00:33:00.001-06:00

For the last 12 or so years I have created a mariad of bash scripts that do all manner of tasks. Some are very simple while others are huge and complex monsters but the underlaying theme across them all is that i have shared almost all of them.

This can and does create problems when other people with less scruples than myself take some script I have done and rework it claiming it is all their own work. Now, given the time span over which these scripts have been written it may be that those people assume the script to be a lost work where the author of has long since disappeared. Even so, that should not mean the original author should not get at least a nod for his original code and even a cursery nod if the idea behind the original and new is used as a basis for the new work.

Instead what I see is various people who simply create a new work either based (forked) off the original script or a new work that is simply a stolen idea behind the original idea. This goes completely against the ideals of the GPL a license I use for all distributed works, but does sadly show the times we now live under where theft, of any kind, is considered perfectly acceptable.

It does bloody annoy me all the same.

A simply attribute that says "this script is based on a script by <blah> called <blah> which can be found <blah>" or even as simple as "the idea behind this script came from <blah> by <blah>". But no, instead there are no such attributes and instead either the idea or actual code chunks are lifted and called their own.

It sucks but is a part of all those aged under 20 who see everything as being free even when it so clearly is not. And that goes for every country on this lump of rock we call Earth. And, it really does annoy me.

Oh dear.

2008-10-08T01:55:00.001-05:00

With some web sites now offering up Slackware build script it is disheartening to see they are including dependency information.

A few years ago an American mate of mine and a bunch of people from another long standing binary only web sites offering slackware compatible packages started to work on improving the information about how slackbuild scripts are done and done properly. After a few weeks it soon became clear they wanted to do more to 'improve' the slackware package management system. One of these 'improvements' was depenancy awareness. My American mate and I dropped out due to this single thing which we could not agree to.

The Slackware author is also opposed to dependency awareness within the SLackware package management system so why on earth are these 3rd party people insisting on adding dependency awareness to their build scripts? Worse. Some of the people offering this crap are now part of the Slackware developement team. Does this mean they are now leaning on the main creator to have this shit part and parcel of the package management system?

What next? Some crap like RPM and apt-get where sources have to be hacked to Hell and back to make them fit in with that distributions layout?

I sincerely hope not. While I cannot see SLackware gaining any more momentum than they have right now I honestly think such a thing would be the final nail in Slackwares coffin. Stop this crap now before it catches on!

Script usage

2008-09-29T01:29:00.001-05:00

This is a bit of a rant as well as being a perplxed question.

I have written and released to the Linux using public at large several scripts via my web site at http://www.jeepster.org.uk. Amongst these scripts was a large one that I created purely for the Linux port of AmiKit. Not once has anybody emailed me to tell me if anyone is using any of the scripts I released. Not to tell of any bugs they may have come across. Not to tell me about of any changes they may have made to any of the scripts. Not to tell me of any additions they would like me to add or that they have added themselves.

I put my contact email address in a README or some such file and even in the script itself so it cannot be said the email address canot be found anywhere.

It is slightly annoying to have written these scripts and released them for others to use/expand upon etc and not knowing if anyone has used them and what their experience using them/it was.

It is, of course, entirely possible that no-one has ever used my scripts, but my web logs show that some of the scripts have been downloaded more than 1 million times so I can safely assume that one of those more than 1 million downloads was used. Can't I? So, why is nobody telling me?

I find this lack of contact somewhat irritating. How can I improve any script if people do not tell me what they want or expect from them? I can go on added features I want to see but for all I know others may see my additions as simply bloat.

Come on all you downloaders of my scripts give me some feedback. Good or bad I d not care!

For crying out loud

2008-09-15T03:24:00.001-05:00

When I read rubbish like this http://www.zenofnptech.org/2008/06/linux-desktops.html I have to question that users ability. From reading his less that truthful rantings one must question which distribution he used. If it was one of the Ubuntu family then I can understand why he writes what he does. My wife and eldest lad both use Ubuntu so I can testify to how unstable they can be, unless, one has a sysadmin around that has years and years of experience, such as myself, who can tame the beast so that EVERYTHING works as it should. Wireless, video, software integration all work just fine as long as one has the ability to tame it, which I do. The same applies to just about every distribution out there.

One has to realise the machines that come pre-installed with MS Windows are setup by professionals so that every piece of hardware that comes with the machine works perfectly. A linux based install however rarely has that luxury. Instead people who try a Linux based distribution usually install it themselves on hardware that was designed for the Microsoft operating system and they wonder why something do not work? Well, do not work out of the box but can be made to work with a little ability in hand. Perhaps, that is the authors reason for writing his FUD? He has a machine designed for the Microsoft operating system and then goes on to complian things do not work out of the box with a Linux based operating system.

For what it is worth i have never, ever, bought a pre built machine. I have always cobbled my own together from hardware bought on a whim and I have yet to find any hardware, wirrten to specifications, that has failed to work. My current machine is an AMD x4 Quad Core Phenon with an nVidia 8600 GT and 4 GIG odf RAM. Sound is via a Creative Audigy LS. My mobile telephone connects via USB and is instantly recognised by the running kernel and udev automatically sets up the devices (yesm two of them, one for the MicroSD card and the other for the internal operating system layout. With a 2.6.x.x kernel and the relevant backend tools installed it all happens automagically. I honestly have never hit the problems that author claims to have hit, no matter what I have plugged into the machine. I do not go out of my way to find only Linux compatible hardware either. I buy hardware I want to use and 100% of the time within a matter of seconds I am using said hardware. So, what he claims is pure FUD aimed squarely at the Microsoft fanboys and girls.

So, I read that rant above, and his others on the same topic, and come to the conclusion it is yet more FUD spread about by paid Microsoft shills. I do sometimes wonder what Mcrosoft are scared of. It cannot be the fact that Linux on the desktop is almost there for normal users could it? It couldn't be that people like the guy above takes backhanders to spread Microsoft FUD, could it? It couldn't be that the Linux Desktop is now so usable that even Granny Smith could use it, could it?

Sure there are things that could be better but that does mean they are broken.

I have to question the authors ulterior motives in writing what he wrote. All I see on page after page is FUD. Pure, unadulterated FUD.

Microsoft are running scared that is for sure and as long as people like that author are willing to help Microsoft spread their FUD then Linux on the desktop will struggle to gain wider acceptance. With more and more box shifters selling machines with a Linux distribution pre-installed Linux on the desktop will make more and more inroads into former Microsoft territory.

Slackware free.

2008-09-10T02:11:00.001-05:00

In times past every single one of the 12 machines in our house had Slackware, or a port of it, in use. Only one of those machines was set up to dual boot MS Windows XP and Slackware, the rest where pure Slackware machines. The dual booting machine is our middle sons machine. He is learning about a Linux based operating system but loves to play the odd MS only game, as he learns and I show him Wine/Cedega and KVM's abilities to play his favoured games on he is finding that he is using the MS side of his dual booting machine less and less. One area that is not yet fully doable on the Linux platform that he likes to play is Silverlight embedded on-line games and it is those, and those only now that Wine/Cedega play his favoured games as they play under an MS operating system, that makes him keep MS around just a bit longer until Mono's Moon shines in a fashion that makes the Silverlight experience not just an MS Windows one. My eldest lad, now 10 years old, started on slackwae 3 years ago and last year he made his own choice to move to Ubuntu "because on Ma's machine it looks easier to administer". So, he too smelled the coffee and after I watched him install Ubuntu so he made no mistakes as he went along he now administers his own machine. My wife has used Ubuntu since 6.x or something and she too now administers her own machine. The rest of the machines are servers that serve up such as email, local intranet, files etc. Each one has a specific task as I still believe in the age old doctrine of one machine, one task. And so it is.

But, I digress...

Slackware, or a port of, was on every one of those machines. That is no longer the case. Over the course of several posts to this and other blogs I have complained and moaned about the direction Slackware is taking. That direction appears to be steered not by the main author, who seems to have less and less influence on his own distribution, but the ragbag of people he has taken on-board to help him maintain the distribution. As their influence, which can be so clearly seen, is foisted on the distribution, more and more problems are cropping up at post install time. The fact that Slackware has become so KDE centric,to the detriment of other Desktop Environments ("DTE") and Window Managers ("WM"), does not warm my appetite either. My personal dislike of KDE/QT is partly the reason I have moved away from it. Sure it includes XFCE4 which is excellent in its own right but as shipped with Slackware it is so bare bones it is almost useless. To get anything close to a nice, useful XFCE4 DTE one must dwnload the XFCE4 goodies, compile them and install them one by one. There are scripts out there to do exactly that but still the process is not something most users, and almost all new users, to the Linux platform do not want to do. It looks like a halfhearted attempt to get another DTE in the distribution. The rest of the Window Managers are old hat now so are not worthy of commentry. No offense meant to those who still use such as Window Maker or FVWM2 etc but they are old hat in todays world of flashy windows and glitzy shiny bits and a bobs users expect to see on ther Desktops.

My distribution of choice is customer driven. More and more of my customers are leaping head first into the X/K/Ubuntu world and because I must support them to maintain my business I had no choice but to use one of the ubuntu family myself. One cannot offer support is oneself knows nothing, or not a lot, about the very thing one is offering support for. So, my hands, and machines, where somewhat tied on this.

It has to be said though that the fact that Slackware, and the ports of, are going in a direction well away from where I think it should be heading, and even further away from its root philosophy, to which I bought into all those years ago and now find myself stranded in a KDE world I have so much disain for, is something I have had to deal with. And deal with it i have by moving away from my most cherished distribution.

I have sat by over the years and watched as new distribution after new distribution have slowly but surely eaten away at the Slackware insall-base. This is especially so on the Desktop but also happened in the server rooms around the world. When Ubuntu came out and with the strides in consumer usage and experience rising with each new release it had and has killing just about all other distributions in the Desktop area. CentOS has the server rooms just about all to itself. As these two have come to dominate those areas distributions like Slackware have become ever more marginal. It used to be said that real Linux users use Slackware but outside the Slackware specific places on the Internet I have no read that for some 5 or so years.

Does Slackware still matter in the current distribution world? Yes, I say it does, but not to any great lengths it held a few years ago. Slackware will always have a userbase, at least for the forseeable future, just like Gentoo, Mandriva etc will. But, it will, like all the others, play a side role as the Ubuntu family slowly, release by release, take over the Desktop install-base. It is also making strong inroads in the server space once upon a time dominated by Slackware.

It is a shame to see such a great distribution fade into a shadow of its former self but that is exactly what it is becoming and that is exactly where its future lays.

Usenet trolls

2008-08-23T02:17:00.001-05:00

They have always been around. Since the dawn of Usenet itself. Well before the term Internet became common usage. They are so easy to spot. Here is a good example of what a troll will say.

"I'm looking for the best Linux distro in terms of user interface that requires none or a minimal amount of command line work. One that has a lot of working applications including a good web browser, office suite, email, games, programs that will playback music (mp3, lossless, ogg, MIDi, etc.,) no hassle drivers for all-in-one printers, will accept external usb hard drives and DVD drives, external usb modem - basically as complete an OS as possible without having to hunt down a lot of drivers and hack the system to work. I had enough of that with the Amiga. I will most likely be running this on a PC laptop without any other OS installed. I don't like crowds on a single computer when it comes to op systems."

Now, all of those things he/she demands have been standard on Linux distributions for the last 3 or 4 years. The fact that he/she covers such a wide range of hardware and software requirements spells out he/she is trolling the newsgroup. If he/she had done even the slightest bit of googling he/she would get the answers he/she seeks. Instead he/she has trolled a Linux newsgroup.

Why is this particular bit of text labled trolling? After all, isn't he/she is merely asking which of the numerous distributions has everything he/she demands? Well, no. For one, he/she asked in a Linux newsgroup. For two, he she covers a wide range of requirements. For three it simply smells foul. For four it has troll written all over it.

From time to time we Usenet stalwarts see posts with content like this and simply ignore the poster. Unfortunately, we have some amongst our number that cannot resist such posts. That particular post will see one of two things happen. One, a distribution war will start. Where a number of people will be sucked in and start saying "this or that distribution is best" without even considering the original posters intents or wants/needs. Two, the poster will never post again as everyone else smells troll too and ignores the original poster.

I hope, in this case that the latter prevails.

old age creeping up.

2008-08-22T04:18:00.001-05:00

It has to be that. I can no longer bother to build all the programs I use and have a need for that is missing from the main Slackware, BLuewhite64, Slamd64 etc distributions. It can only be old age creeping up on me making me think like this.

While there are plenty of faults with Slackware and it's ports this can be fairly and squarely laid at my own door. There are a few slackbuild places on the Internet but even there one needs to get the slackbuild, get the sources, in some cases rejig the buildscript to match a newer version and finally, assuming all it's prerequisite's are met, build the damn thing. I can no longer be bothered with this age old dance just to get some program working.

While I don't like Ubuntu because of its Debian roots my evermore demanding customers are forcing my hand. I have seen first hand the power that apt-get and friends offer the user. Some programs are ancient but they function within that environment. No need to get or create a build script, get the sources and with luck and the phase of the moon end up with a working package that can then be installed.

There are some places that offer Slackware and friends binaries but they are not guarenteed to work.

My time with Slackware and friends, is drawing to a close. As mentioned elsehere i have some 12+ years experience with Slackware and friends. Tons upon tons of notes nutured over the years. Hundreds upon hundreds of bulld scripts. All are soon to be consigned to the dustbin of yesteryear.

Long may SLackware and friends survive. It will certainly be without me.

The feature creep continues

2008-08-20T05:15:00.001-05:00

Once upon a time Slackware users could rely on the maintainer to keep a nice, lean distribution, Amongst these aims was the removal of Gnome2 from the main distribution. There was always room for improvement in this area but that ideal seems well and truly dead with the latest release of Slackware-Current. Feature bloat has crept in. I don't know why this is happening but it is. Since the maintainer gathered a few 'helpers' this feature creep has gathered apace.

In -current there is the latest abomination from the KDE guys, KDE4. Along with the packages for KDE4 they have added all manner of bells and whistles. No doubt KDE4 will properly replace KDE3 in the main body of the distribution at some point in time which is leading me more and more to leave Slackware behind.

I am a Gnome2 guy and watching this KDE4 rubbish force its way into Slackware via the 'helpers' is a cause for crying. My once much preferred distribution is going ghe same way as many others as the feature creep creeps ever forward.

To get a fully working Gnome2 desktop is no harder than getting a KDE one. I prefer GTK2 over the much disliked QT. Yes, this comes down to personal preference but at the end of the day is my distribution of choice cannot or will not offer me what I want to use then the time has come, after some 12+ years of usage, to say goodbye to it.

There are many like myself who do not like some of these 'helper' and are considering moving distributions. Some moved as soon as Gnome2 was dropped, others moved when they learnt who the 'helper' are. More will move as time goes on.

It is a shame but the reality of my work situation dictates how I am viewing the latest developments in Slackware and my situation is to view these developments with the distaste they leave in my mouth.

Bye bye Slackware. You where once, rightly, the best distribution around. You maintained this level of best of breed for many years, but now the time has come to do what many before me have done and say bye bye.

The feature creep continues

2008-08-14T04:05:00.001-05:00

x86_64 Slackware.

2008-08-07T03:37:00.001-05:00

When the realms of the improbable become the realms of now then the time has come to make those hard decisions. There was a time when Slackware was all I saw. None of the other distributions held any level of promise for me. It was all I used, or ever have used. Now though that time of intense personal investment is closing. It hurts to say it. The 2Gb of notes I have collected. The 2Gb of scripts, some large, some small, I have created or collected. The 52Gb of source, build scripts and binary packages I have collected over the years. The 10+ years of general evangelism I have given to it. All will soon be gone.

Yes, I am fully aware Slackware does not have an official x86_64 version but still, why do the various repositories of slackbuild scripts not do x86_64 scripts? It can be achieved in two or three lines with maybe a patch to increase compatabilty and yet these dinosaurs continue to service only the i?86 clones.

Just because Slackware itself stubbornly refuses to get with the times and either do their own x86_64 port or sanction one of the ones already available does not mean these slackbuilds people need to keep their heads in the sand as well.

Given that there are, as far as I know, only 3 x86_64 ports of Slackware the choice of which to sanction is not a hard one. Knowing past issues with application selection (the dumping of gnome2 is a prime example of going against its users wishes) and the arrogance displayed in ignoring the users wishes the choice will not be based on which is the best or a closest match for Slackware itself (Bluewhite64 wins here) but will be the one least used or liked by the users of. Of ccourse the Slackware creator himself will find the creator of whichever x86_64 Slackware port that can display the biggest suck up to the Man himself.

Once upon a time I would only recommend Slackware to friends and family. Not because it was easy to use (it is) nor because it was easy to install (it is) but because of the stabilty it held so proud and rightly so because it always was and has been the more stable distribution out of the 380+ distributions now available. Now i find even my own attraction to it is waning. After some 10+ years of usage I now no longer recommend it to anyone. Not because it has suddenly become somehow unstable but because I think its relevance it waning to an all time low. While distributions like the Ubuntu family exist, and there is no reason to suppose they will disappear, it is easy to see why people coming from their MS Windows system, and with all the baggage that brings with it, are drawn towards them.

Dell, HP and a few other of the big hardware players put one of the Ubuntu family on their systems and those systems sell (apparently they are selling quite well) it is the Ubuntu family that steals the limelight and distributions like Slackware become marginal at best. There will be those who say "So what." I used to have those thoughts as well. But I can no longer say it. For over 10 years I have been a staunch Slackware user but nowadays I find myself looking evermore and what else is available. I am looking to switch distributions because I am sick and tired of waiting for an officially sanctioned x86_64 port of my (once) favourite distribution.

Slackware will not die anytime soon but the writing is on the wall. If they do not bring out their own x86_64 port or sanction one, if not all 3, of those x86_64 ports already out there then that writing may very well come true.

For myself, I have decided that if this sanction is not given by the end of this year (2008) then I feel I have no choice but to move to another distribution. The main part of my work is distribution agnostic but when support is needed then more often than not it is one of the Ubuntu family mentioned. If I want to continue my work then I feel I should use what those i am supposed to be supporting use. I don't care what the AOLS (alt.os,linux.slackware) Usenet faithful say nor any of those who have already made the switch (one can see the handles in the various distribution specific newsgroups and on various forums that have at one time or another posted to AOLS or had some web page somewhere with Slackware specific information on it or posted to some Slackware forum. The time for Slackware on my systems is drawing to a close. I have decided that for myself that close will be at the end of the current year (2008).

I don't expect any Slackware faithful person to see what I am seeing nor do I expect them to agree with me but my decision is my choice to make and I have made it.

The Ubuntu family.

2008-07-19T00:37:00.001-05:00

As i read many news groups, all almost exclusively related to a Linux distribution, as peruse around the Internet it has not escaped my, nor many others, attention that some are starting to refer to Linux as Ubuntu, or one of the Ubuntu family). This is a scary trait that used to belong to Redhat. One would often hear talk of Linux 6 meaning Redhat 6 etc etc.

It is scary because of the sheer number of idiots who use Ubuntu. Most are refugees from MS Windows. Some are refugees from other distributions. The latter should know better but the former is overwhelming them with their talk of Ubuntu being 'Just like Windows'.

I am sure this is the Ubuntu creators aim. To get people to think of Ubuntu are a complete MS Windows replacement. But the reality is that no Linux based distribution currently comes close to MS Windows not least because of the fact that hardware manufacturers do not write drivers for any Linux based distribution. Sure, some of them do but the little guys who churn out thousands of new products every months it is just not a viable option for them. Then we have the bigger guys who try to stick as close as possible to a given standard which may work once plugged into a Linux based system and others that are lucky because a coder on the Linux based platform bought one and decided to write a driver from him or herself which was good enough for others to use. Finally, there are the big guns. Here too, some write drivers, some good, some bad, some simply unusable. Others do not and probably never will. It is this reality, this state of affairs that will ensure adoption of a Linux based solution will not be for everyone. Therefore, the belief of the Ubuntu creator is unlikely ever to fully take hold and yet we still see people who have the mistaken belief that Ubuntu equals an MS Windows alternative. As I said. Scary.

Instead of bleating on about how 'Ubuntu ate my drive. How do I get rid of it and get my MS Windows back?' Or. 'How do I use <insert random hardware> with Ubuntu?' etc etc people should be complaining to the various and many hardware manufacturers that the 'standards compliant' device is nothing like compliant. But they will not. They will instead complain that 'Ubuntu sucks'. Yes, I know it does but in this instance I am not talking in literal terms.

Those of us who have been around the Linux scene for a long long time have seen this phenomenon happen before with Redhat. Then with Mandrake (now Mandriva). Then with <insert a distribution name>. On a slightly different level we saw it with Gentoo. Now it is the Ubuntu family of distributions turn for a year or two in the spotlight while us lot with the nous to use it use what we have always used. We see the same issues hardware wise as every other distribution user does except that when we have some hardware that has no support whatsoever instead of bleating about it or blaming the underlaying distribution for the lack of support we sit and patiently wait for that support to turn up. It may never do so of course. If that worse case situation ever happens then we shuffle said hardware to one of our MS Windows using friends or family member.

Ubuntu is not the only distribution in town and it certainly is not the best. Get over yourself.

ArchLinux

2008-07-05T01:50:00.001-05:00

Once upon a time deep down in my past I used Arch Linux. Back then it was one Hell of a distribution. The people involved were good knowledgeable people. So enamored was I with Arch Linux I created some 300+ PKGBUILDS for it in what was then called the 'community' repo. Over time I left that distribution as it was fast becoming clear that the philosophy upon which it was build was less and less adhered to and more and more we original developers where overlooked in favour or newer souls. Before any nastiness began by haggling over details that affected end users I left. After a short time I returned hoping to return back to those earlier glory days (why is the beginning of anything always the best times?) but alas that was not to be. My return to the fold lasted at most two weeks. This second time around was a sour, very sour, experience so bad I have not been back since.

Arch Linux holds a niche for itself as it clings precariously to the ladder rung it sits on way down there with all the other niche distributions. I was never in it for the glory. I truly believed back then that how things where was how it should be. Unfortunately, that was supplanted with bogus people with bogus ideals that killed the whole experience and stopped Arch Linux from ever moving up that ladder of distributions.

All the good people are gone now which is a shame as they were good people with masses of knowledge between them. Their forums are full of people that, well, lets just say they try. Up at the top I have no clue who is there now. On the back of the 300+ PKGBUILDS I created they have a large and expanding package set. But the quality is lacking. I have no idea, nor care, if the attributes from the original PKGBUILDS are still there is the scripts. It would not surprise me one bit if they have been removed.

Arch Linux was good in the pre 0.3 days. Now it is an also running in the sense that it makes up the field.

Hardware review web sites.

2008-06-29T01:49:00.001-05:00

Does anyone rely on hardware review web sites' output when they have done a review of some hardware?

Some hardware reviewing web sites have been around on the Internet for a long time and some newer ones pop up all the time but the premise of them all is the same. That premise to to give an unbiased review on the hardware before them. However, most all of them are anything but unbiased.

If you take a look at any one of them you can see a pattern emerge from the text written. That pattern usually goes something like this. AMD/ATI send a bit of hardware in for review. On some web sites the hardware is slated as a good thing while other state it is not so good. This follows in every review done by a given hardware review web site. AMD/ATI's main competitor nVidia send some hardware to the same web sites and the exact opposite can be seen. Those who like AMD/ATI hardware invariably do not like nVidia hardware and so it goes for every hardware manufacturer across the hardware spectrum.

Are these people paid shills? Who knows. It sure looks that way.

I have never trusted hardware web sites for reasons stated above. My friends and family follow my lead on this one and do not trust these web sites either.

Once again into the breach.

2008-06-22T01:16:00.001-05:00

And so it goes. Once again the Usenet alt.os.linux.slackware ("aols") faithful were drawn, or rather sucked, into an argument based on Slackware Linux relevance in todays world of ever growing Linux distributions. Some of which are aimed squarely at new users to the Linux distribution experience and have all manner of tools to aid those new users. Is this a bad thing? Well, yes and no. Yes because with every new 'helper' tool created it fragments the market further. No because the more users we get the more prolific our favourite operating system becomes. So, it is a double edged sword.

But, back to the issue raised. Those aols faithful cannot see passed the fact that, to them, Slackware is the only distribution that does the right thing. That, of course, is obvious because aols is, after all, a newsgroup for Slackware users. However, seeing a distributions faults is something we should all readily admit to so we can all aid its creator in making it a better product and if that creator is not open to that help then some 3rd parties can do it themselves, then if people want it they can have it, those that don't want it can leave it alone. The aols faithful however can not, will not or simply do not see any faults in Slackware nor do they think its creator can do anything wrong, bad or poor. Wrong as in the init sequence. Bad as in package choices. Poor as in who he decides should be among his secondhand men or women.

I have said before some of those he deigns suitable to help him are very unpopular people within the Slackware user-base. One or two of them have managed to make former Slackware stalwarts move to other distributions. Of course, not all of them are bad people with zero management skills, just a couple of them are.

The choice of init sequence, while out of step with just about every other major, and minor, distribution not based on Slackware, is something to be proud of. It is simple, easily understood by new users (if they ever look at it that is). While the old timers are comfortable with it. The rest of the Linux distribution vendors moved on to either their own creation or SYSV style inits while slackware stuck to its guns.

The creator of Slackware removed the ever popular Gnome2 from the distribution citing difficulty and lack of time building it. Building it while not the monstrosity it once was is time consuming if one wants a complete working Gnome2 desktop but to cite difficulty as an excuse gave the impression he lacked the skills to do it which of course he does not, but that was and still is the impression people got and are still getting. I have built Gnome2 since Slackware dropped it many times and can testify to the fact that to do it properly one must have lots of time. Time to suss out and build all the prerequisites, which is the bulk of the time used, then the time to build the actual Gnome2 desktop that gels the whole thing together. It certainly is not difficult. Time consuming yes. That abomination (because it relies on QT which is an even bigger abomination) called KDE by contrast is very easy to build, especially the minimal KDE offering Slackware utilises is. Even KDE has external to the project 3rd party programs and library requirements if one wants to leverage the full in all its glory KDE experience. Plus there are many extra programs and libraries that can be added to the base KDE set which enhance the user experience but there Slackware ships only the very basic KDE upon which one can build a more rounded experience.

Apart from having QT/KDE as the main desktop, with many smaller insignificant peripheral window managers available, when each new shiny version ships there are no further issues that I find significant show stoppers. Those, like myself, who like, nay prefer, a Gnome2 desktop , like myself, can do one of 3 things. 1) create ones own scripts, or script, to build it oneself. 2) use one of many 3rd party build scripts to build it oneself and 3) use one of the 3rd party binary sets that are available. So, all is not lost in the continuing QT/KDE GTK2/GNome2 saga for Slackware users.

Personally, I would not care one iota if KDE and QT disappeared off the face of the earth tomorrow. It would not impact on my computer usage in any way whatsoever as I am steadfast in the care I take to make sure I use nothing I use uses QT and KDE. I said at the time when Gnome2 was removed from Slackware that it would result in smaller user base and from what I have seen that is exactly what has happened. Slackware on the desktop is a rare beast to find. Slackware on a server while not the numbers it once was is still there in some areas. In the server market stability is the keyword and once the QT/KDE pairing are removed Slackware remains, as it has almost since its first appearance many moons ago, stable. On the desktop however the number of Slackware installs is ever dwindling.

So, while those in aols 'tilt' every time Slackware's relevance in today's overcrowded Linux distribution market place comes up I have to say my findings is that it is becoming less and less relevant in that market place. The decision to drop Gnome2 was a poor one. The choice of some of the 2nd lieutenants is unwise at best and is having an adverse affect on the distributions current market penetration. Slackware is however an excellent base from which to create something else. Zenwalk is one such example of making Slackware better. If only Slackware's creator would stop listening to his underlings/helpers and his own reluctance to touch his own creation and incorporate some of of the good things Zenwalk has to offer then Slackware's relevance in todays market would show signs of improvement but that is an unlikely scenario to happen as is the chance of the creator writing his own similar improvements.

Is Slackware still relevant in todays market? No. For reasons outlined above, I honestly do not think it is.

(I personally use Bluewhite64 which is a one for one rebuild of Slackware for the 64 bit CPU and after trying all the 64 bit Slackware distributions I have to say BLuewhite64 is by far the best of that limited bunch. I highly doubt I will ever move away from it. Mainly because I am so comfortable with it and at my age learning something different becomes harder with each passing day. I have no QT/KDE stuff installed prefering instead my own Gnome2 builds. I have used Slackware since its first public release. Once I moved into the 64bit CPU world and after rebuilding everything for my own use I tried all of the available 64bit compiled Slackware derived distributions, settling in the end on BLuewhite64.)

I wish...

2008-06-03T02:02:00.001-05:00

That the main, apparently, hardware review web site for Linux users called Phoronix would NOT use that abomination for an operating system Ubuntu as their main, and seemingly only, operating system when reviewing hardware and doing tests.

The reasons for this wish are plenty.

First and foremost is the fact that Ubuntu is not a pure Linux operating system. They, the Ubuntu developers, just like the Debian operating system Ubuntu is based on, patch the hell out of just about every application they provide, including the kernel. This gives plenty of other problems on its own.

They must think that because Ubuntu is well used it is the only distribution worth using. Tthey could not be more wrong. This is a blind attitude that stops many old timers, such as myself, from beleiving anything they have to say on any hardware review. They complain when CPU's and GFX cards cause Ubuntu to spontaneously reboot or lock up or otherwise crash whilst at the same time making it sound like this crashing is a Linux issue when in fact the issue is down to Ubuntu only.

Take their review of the AMD Phenom quad core CPU as a prime example. They tested it and claimed it reboot or locked up or otherwise crashed the system and yet there are many, like myself, who have used the same CPU since it first came out and have not once had a single issue with it. Sure they said that an update to the kernel solved most of the issues they experienced with it but even this 32bit versus 64 bit review of the same CPU says they had problems. The problems they experienced was entirety down to the Ubuntu operating system they love so much. Myself does not use Ubuntu. I would not, ever, go anywhere near it let alone use it. I use a pure 64 bit operating system called Bluewhite64 which is a port of Slackware. Slackware itself is re-known for being a stable, rock solid stable, operating system and because bluewhite64 is a one for one port of it (save for the ia32 stuff) it too is totally stable. Oh! Look at that. Their choice of operating system is the issue. That is so obvious even my 15 month old child could see it and yet they continue to use a known unstable operating system.

The developers and reviewers etc of that web site really should get out a bit more and remove their total reliance on Ubuntu. Then, just maybe, old timers would take the web site more seriously as right now they are considered a joke. This is not to say they do not have some good stuff on there, they do. But, until they stop claiming Linux is unstable with this or that hardware installed when the truth is that it is Ubuntu that is unstable they will continue to make old timers not bother checking hardware against what this web site has to say about said hardware.

Not good.

2008-05-17T02:09:00.001-05:00

Ignoring people is something the Americans are not alone in doing. But, my recent experience with some of our American friends shows that some, but obviously not all, of them are very well capable of doing it.

I use Bluewhite64 Linux. A 64bit port of my all time favourite Linux distribution, Slackware.

Bluewhite64 is a like for like port in that what it offers is identical to that which Slackware offers. Like for like except that Bluewhite64 offers a 32 bit compatibility layer (several packages that allow a lot of 32 bit only programs to run, but not be compiled, on 64 bit systems). Unlike its main counterpart Slamd64 that has a few added in packages, Bluewhite64 is as close as one can get to that unique Slackware experience. As you should have guessed by now I am a staunch advocate of Slackware Linux over all the other distributions, old and new, out there. Now that all my systems are 64 bit (and knowing I could run Slackware 32 bit proper on my 64 bit systems, but chose not to) I spent a not inconsiderable amount of time searching out 64 bit distributions, downloading them and trying them all one by one but every one of them at that time left me feeling that something was not quite right. In the end I found first Slamd64 and while the experience was much much better it too did not feel quite right. In the end I stumbled upon Bluewhite64 and a new love affair with a distribution was born. I never looked back nor have I installed anything else since, though I have tried a few of the newer distributions.

I have mentioned these new kids on the block before on this blog and have, rather reluctantly, mentioned how I think Slackware's relevance today is not a patch on what it once was. Even so I reckon that Slackware and its derivatives and ports will be around for a lot longer yet. Hopefully Slackware's creator will see that these new kids on the block are slowly killing, by their actions, the spirit which the author himself created and nurtured all those years ago and that has survived until now with a sharp drop starting 18months to 2 years ago. Roughly, the time these new kids on the block got their grubby fingers into the distribution.

In recent times a new web site offering Slackware compatible, but not identical, package build scripts has popped up and stolen the limelight from another web site offering the same which just happened to have been around for years. Probably before the new guys with their new web site were even born so long ago was that original web site started. They made no reference to that long established defacto web site. In point of fact it was, when the new site first started, plain for us old hands to see that the less the old web site was mentioned the sooner people would stop using it and a new defacto web site would be born. I reckon that, as unfortunate as many reckon it is, the new web site succeeded. Many of the long established web sites built around knowledge of Slackware were, in the eyes and minds of new Internet denizens, killed off in similar fashion. Instead of engaging in dialog with these older, much older, web sites and learning what those web site creators could teach them, the arrogance with which these newer ones aimed their destructive attitudes towards the older web sites lost Slackware a few long time users.

Those, like myself, who have sat on the sidelines watching all this happening noticed a sharp decline in long time Slackware users and, of course, with these long time users gone there are few left to spread the gospel according to Slackware with the ferocity the older long time users gave it. Which meant that the Slackware, and its ports, lost its relevance in todays market place. As these new kids on the block continue in their so obviously arrogant ways and keep on changing things as they grapple time and time again at lose straws in their efforts to stem that ever increasing movement away from Slackware, and its ports. Some have said that the long time Slackware users that left are defectors. I do not believe that for one second. Most of those long time users, if not all of them, left because they saw what was happening and what was happening they did not like. Many no longer use any Linux distribution preferring instead a BSD distribution which adheres to the values Slackware once did and of those long lost values the main value was based on the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle.

Recently I downloaded a set of Slackware build scripts and was slightly dismayed, but not surprised, to find that there was no 64 bit (x86_64) settings within any scripts. I have emailed them before asking them if they wanted me to add 64 bit to their scripts and where needed either patch myself or use someone else patch who got there before me but as was expected the email was ignored. Of course, like many do nowadays they may claim they never received the email but whatever the reason is/was for the email being ignored I simply chalked it up as another nail in the sinking ship.

New age Slackware.

2008-05-14T23:59:00.001-05:00

It used to be said that Slackware was the best all round fit for both server installations an desktop systems. It was also said to be the best fit for both old, older and new systems. In the days of yore many, if not most, of its users were command line junkies. Nowadays though, almost none of that holds true.

Sure, the venerable Slackware distribution can be, and is, used on a few servers here and there with the desktop components not being installed but my own findings are that Slackware is nowadays mostly found on desktop installations. That assumes one can find anyone outside of the clique that makes up its current user base who is actively using it. This change of direction came around the time Gnome2 was dropped from the distribution and the horrible KDE became the main desktop GUI. This was a major choice by the creator of Slackware and not one that was popular. My dislike of KDE is because of its QT dependency. I dislike QT with a passion which means I dislike KDE too and anything else that depends on it.

Slackware, rightly, has a reputation for being staid in its choice of software. Some of the software that makes up the distribution is not bleeding edge. This gave Slackware a reputation for being solid in use. Slackware has always shipped with a choice of desktop Gui's but the dropping of Gnome was a minor disaster for Slackware which ultimately lost it a few users to other distributions that did include Gnome. There are also a few people that built Gnome for Slackware almost making a mockery of the Slackware authors claim that Gnome2 was hard to build and maintain.

In the latest release, due real soon now, the use of a default 2.6.x kernel, and the tools that go with it, also shows a leaning by its creator towards desktop installations. Many users, or potential users, of Slackware are now told to use an older version if the system it is being installed on is an old one. How old is old? Well, my reckoning is any CPU from the pre 2004 days. That move to a 2.6.x kernel combined with the dropping of Gnome2 excludes a lot of users.

So, with the combined dropping of Gnome2 and now the move to a 2.6.x kernel, Slackware stands to lose a few more users. I have no idea just how many installations, server and desktop, comprise of Slackware installations but my findings indicate the number has dropped dramatically in recent times, which is a shame because it is a fantastically stable distribution.

Added to this the Slackware creator has gathered together a bunch of people who he is hoping will take up the slack (no pun intended) should the creator decide for whatever reason, he has had enough and quits. Not all of these people are popular amongst its current user base and will I reckon lead to even less usage of Slackware in the next few years. Some of these people are arrogant, something the creator of Slackware has never been seen to be. They stomp all over other peoples work by stealing it. They never give attributes where due. Work that they gave away for free on various web sites dotted here and there. Web sites that in some cases have been around longer than some of these people. They jump on anyone who might have something bad to say about Slackware itself or the creator of, even if that something has merit.

I have used Slackware since around 1993 when it was born from the soon to be ashes of the SLS (Soft Landing Systems) distribution and have followed it not only by usage of it, but also with a general interest when compared to other distributions. Nowadays I have a 64 bit CPU which Slackware itself does not support but other distributions based on Slackware do. Of these ports I find Bluewhite64 to be the best fit as it directly mirrors, save for the 32 bit compatibility layer, Slackware itself. So, the transition from 32 bit Slackware to 64 bit Bluewhite64 via Slamd64 seemed to me to be an obvious one. I took it and find that Bluewhite64 with Gnome2 is the best of breed. I just find it a shame that the Slackware creator dropped Gnome2 from the distribution. Through my own scripting of the Gnome2 build process, and all its various dependencies, and the usage of other peoples scripts to build it, that the claim it is hard to build and maintain is laughable. However, it is, and was, his choice as it is after all his distribution that one assumes mirrors his own usage on the desktop at least and that is something I respect.

It has hurt to write this post because I honestly think that Slackware and the none sanctioned 64 bit ports of it are the best distributions by far, but that said, what I have said here is based around my observations of how the distribution has developed in recent times. It does not make good reading if you are, like me, a stout and devoted Slackware user but it is my view of the current state of play.

I still don't get it.

2008-05-14T23:54:00.001-05:00

Having recently used a Mac, with the latest Mac OSX installed, on and off over a working week (that be Mon through Fri) and finding that it and myself did not get on well at all, the same old thought came back to haunt me as it has for quite sometime now. That is, why do software people/companies bring stuff out for MS Windows and Mac but never for the Linux platform?

The differences between an MS based client machine and a Mac based client is machine are massive in not only the GUI on offer but also in how the underlaying OS works. A Linux based OS and an MS based OS also differs in the same areas. However, a Mac based OS and a Linux based OS, especially one based on SYSV, do not. Sure the GUI differs but the underlaying OS does not. Well, not in any significant way that stops software people/companies from creating whatever software they create anyway.

I reckon it all comes down to 2 things. One being the openness of the GPL, v2 and 3, and similar licenses or licenses based upon the GPL and the other things being profits or more accurately what a person or company can get a way with charging for their software.

Licenses on the Linux platform almost universally say that the source code should be made available to the softwares users even if no-one ever requests it. On the MS platform one rarely sees source code unless that source code comes from a person or company who adheres by the licensing of the GPL, v2 or 3. Source code is a rare sight on the Mac platform but it does exist, again from those people/companies that license their software offering by the GPL. MS Windows is closed source. Mac OSX is closed source. An OS based on the Linux kernel is not closed source, though some closed source programs exist.

Money. This is where I think the reason lays. While it is not impossible to make money off the back of a freely given away program, most people/companies on the Linux platform simple give their programs away with no strings attached other than those governed by the license used. People/companies that create programs for the MS platform rarely give their programs away for free, sure there is growing market of free MS programs but that market is very small in the world of MS program availability. Mac OSX people/companies that keep the source code away from their users are aplenty.

Having built software on all 3 platforms I can say that of those 3 only one was problematic and that was the MS platform. Money. The root of all evil.

It just is not right.

2008-05-07T03:18:00.001-05:00

A long time ago a mate of mine and I worked out how to get gaim, now pidgin, working without the need for mozilla's nss. It took us about 15 minutes to get all the kinks worked out and we even provided all the slackbuilds and a binary builds created by our own slackbuilds.

Even though we stopped providing these scripts and binaries a while ago we still get emails about them. At the time we created them all and for a good 2 or 3 years afterwards the files where downloaded over 1 million times. The web page that hosted the files had over 4 million page views. All in all we was happy with the results of our work.

Fast forward to the present and we find there are several people claiming they created both the slackbuilds and the work around to get gaim, now pidgin, working with GnuTLS and friends. This is a situation we find all to often on the Internet where new people to slackware claim they created this and that but what they don't tell their readers is that they have everso slightly edited the slackbuilds that people like my mate and i, have had on the Internet years before this new unethical crew came to slackware.

It is unfair but then i suppose this is the state of the western world now where new people make a new for themselves off the back of those who went before.

Slackware 12.1 released

2008-05-03T03:03:00.001-05:00

Slackware 12.1 has been released to the faithful. I count myself amongst that number. Even though I no longer use Slackware itself, I do use Bluewhite64, which also released 12.1 on the same day, which is the best 64bit port of Slackware.

This is the first release with only a 2.6.x kernel. Finally. This release also missed a few good updates such as perl 5.10 (Slackware has 5.8.8) and PHP, both of which have been around quite some time now. But in the time honoured fashion that is how Slackware is created the creator has stuck with older, possibly more reliable, versions of those two applications.

This URL shows how staid Slackware can be in its choice of applications over the years since its first release. The remit of Slackware is to release a distribution that is good for servers and desktops alike but as I said here I think apart from the faithful few like myself who simply love the stability Slackware and the ports of it, offer on both desktops and servers, Slackware's relevance in todays wealth of desktop orientated distributions is nothing like it was say 6 or 7 years ago.

I am sure Slackware's creator still makes a living from his creation but making a living from something and that somethings relevance in the market place are two entirely different things. It will survive for years to come but its relevance in the market place will slowly but surely diminish further than it is today which is lower than it was a few years ago.

I will use Bluewhite64 for as long as I use computers on both the desktop and on servers but this stark reality is something that is constantly at the back of my mind. Added to this is the fact his "Crew" are not popular at all with the vast majority of administrators and desktop users it all adds up to a bleak future, but a future where Slackware will just about survive for quite sometime. Possibly forever, though I have my doubts on that one.

New age Slackware.

2008-04-29T03:31:00.001-05:00

Ubuntu sufferation.

2008-04-07T00:16:00.001-05:00

My wife uses a Ubuntu desktop and it is fine for her. After a few days tutorial by yours truly she is now very adept and upgrading/installing and removing applications by herself.

And that my friends is where Ubuntu should stay. On the desktop. It is great there for those with minimal Linux knowledge. My wife loves the way automatic updates just works "like it did in windows".

So, why on earth do Linux hardware sites use Ubuntu as their OS of choice? It is, by design, unstable. It is, by design, a desktop OS. Sure one can get a Ubuntu server OS but come on. Using it as the OS of choice for benchmarking is just plain stupid. Ubuntu has layers and layers of useless crap between it and its users which slows it down. The guys who run and work on these hardware sites have tons of Linux knowledge so, surely they are capable of using a real Linux OS inplace of that toy OS and still provide the articles their users love to read.

Use Slackware or one of the x86_64 derivatives. Use CentOS. But for crying out loud don't use bloody Ubuntu and then claim Linux is unstable when it bloody crashes. It may even raise your profile in the eyes of us geeks that have years and years of Linux usage under our belts.

Why oh why?

2008-04-04T02:51:00.001-05:00

It seems only myself posts here any more. I have no idea what is happening in the world of this blogs creator as he does not reply to my emails anymore. He is based in the U.S.A. while I reside in the U.K. so it is not as easy as popping across the road when trying to contact him. I am sure he will pop up here eventually but right now it seems I am alone in providing content.

Oh well.

So, what is this "Why oh why" all about? Well, as many Linux based applications compile and run fine on Mac OSX why don't creators of certain software create said software for the Linux platform when they create it for MAC OSX?

Now that the venerable MAC uses a BSD base system under all that pretty GUI-ness there is little to seperate the Mac platform from a Linux one. They can use Xorg on the Mac so the differences are less and less so why don't they allow their software on the Linux platform? I really do not know. They do though so email them and ask them. Every day for ever until they release their games and applications on our platform. They create MS Vista and XP ones so why not Linux based ones too?

Sourceforge.

2008-03-20T04:25:00.001-05:00

I am sure I am not the only one when I say Sourceforge is going downhill fast. The web interface is utterly crap now.

Once upon a time you clicked download and the file came down. Then they added the ability to select an alternative source but still the download came down.

Now though it is hit and miss whether the download starts at all never mind come down the pipe.

Sourceforge while the bastion of open source and GPL software is now so slow in every area it it almost unusable.

Old timers.

2008-03-13T02:52:00.001-05:00

Are being forgotten.

As I transverse around the Internet it becomes clearer and clearer. Those trailblazing old timers are being what can only be described as forgotten.

Look at some of the once nail-on-the-head web sites that offered up free advice and information. Then look at some of the new kids on the block web sites and you will see lots of the advice, information, scripts etc etc on the new kids web sites looks remarkably similar to those old timers web sites. Plagarism in all but name is what it is.

Oh yes, I know all about how the Internet is supposed to be in that everything bar very little is avaialable for others to copy etc but I am not whining about that. I am whining about how these new kids totally ignore and have utter disregard for other peoples work and by extention the authors of those old time web sites.

Take my own web site which has been available to all since 1998. Since that time it has gone through several redesigns but the basic premise always remained. That is to give the reader advice on some of the problems they may be having. Well, problems they are having else why would they search a solution that ultimately brings them to my web site. I have not done much work on the web site since around 2004 and it shows. It looks dated, it has information pertinant to 2.4.x kernels and little to nothing about 2.6.x kernels. But, the information offered is as valid now as it was when written. Some, if not all, of the scripts and coding bits are just as useful now and it is those bits I find eleswhere on the Internet apparently written by someone else! Line for line stuff that cannot be mistaken. Slackware build scripts written some 4 or 5 years ago have been slightly reworked and put out as someone elses work.

It is downright annoying to find my own code and information elsewhere on the Internet with not so much as a cocked hat in recognition. People who one would assume are fine upstanding individuals who should know better but apparently don't.

As far as people accessing my site goes I get, give or take a few either way, approx 4000 uniqute hits a week even now. I know that is not many but still for a web site that has not been updated for going on 4 years that is not bad, but that is not the point of this whiney rant. The point is that all us old timers want is the recognition we deserve.

Linux the Kernel

2008-02-11T01:42:00.001-06:00

When the Kernel went from 2.4.x to 2.6.x we saw a huge jump in the size of the sources. Of course a compiled kernel can be any size the compiler thereof wants it to be beyond the basics that get a usable kernel.

But, not only did the sources size change. Under the hood there were lot of other major tweaks like various sub systems.

As the Linux kernel has grown in size so the complexity of it has grown exponentially. And with complexity comes more and more errors. We can see this, given arbitrary hardware, if we compare kernel 2.4.x against 2.6.x compile time errors or kernel OOPS whilst running.

Given that we _need_ the kernel to grow because 1) We have more users of it now, 2) There is more hardware available now 3) 2*1 = more sources. All well and good. However, as good for Linux based operating systems as that obviously is it comes at a price due to ever increasing code complexity which creates errors/warnings at compile time and kernel OOPSES at run time.

As modular as 2.6.x kernels are, or rather can be, I think we, or rather the kernel coders, can take this modularisation further by splitting off basic kernel functions and hardware functions. I will admit my knowledge in this area is severely limited but that said I am sure this can be done.

What exactly am I talking about? The kernel, which _is_ linux, is the heart of all distributions. Without it distributions would neither function as we know them now nor indeed exist (witness GNU herd) but a radical rethink on how we perceive it is not only due but overdue.

As it stands now to get the latest all singing all dancing kernel sources one must:

1) download a huge archive.
2) build it. Assuming one knows their hardware and general requirements one can then build for oneself a new all dancing all singing kernel.

As far as it goes this is all well and good. But, the first step in that process is were changes could be made. Instead of downloading a huge archive one could:

1) download an archive of just the basics that enable the kernel, once built, to function.
2) Then one could download the various hardware sources, that would be split up into individual archives

As an example. On my main desktop workstation I would:

1) Download an archive of the basic kernel
2) download the driver for my SCSI hardware
3) Download the driver for my VIA hardware
4) Download the driver for my SATA hardware
5) Download the NetFilter sources

And so on.

All archives would extract to linux-2.6.x as they do now. Once everything has been downloaded then the configuration and build process can be done.

I know this all sounds more complex but the idea is to make the main kernel archive smaller and thereby hopefully make gcc spit out less errors/warnings and kernel OOPES less likely.

Oh how laughable!

2008-02-04T01:39:00.001-06:00

In other blog posts here and here I have derided new, new as in springing up on the Slackware scene in the last 2-3 years, Slackware users for their attitudes. So, it was with much laughter I saw on one web site "Approved by..." as if that approval means anything to anyone except the person who deems him, or her, self important enough to give it.

I mean. Who gives a rats arse if some web site administrator deems him, or her, self important enough in the Slackware world that he, or she, gives his, or her, approval to something someone else has done.

What the fuck is that all about huh? Approval? Eh?

This particular web site administrator bursts onto the scene a couple of years ago pimping his web site at every given opportunity. Even today he pimps and pimps and pimps o such an extent that it is bloody annoying. Up until the time he came on the scene no-one had heard of the guy and now here he is giving his approval for something that someone has taken from elsewhere, adapted to fit in with this guys way of doing things then he deems it okay by giving his approval to it?

I do not give a flying one and I strongly doubt many long time Slackware users do either for his approval and that is why I will never, ever, submit anything to that web site even though I have hundreds of scripts that would expand his web site a hundred times over. I will never, ever submit anything because:

1) I don't like the way the his scripts are designed and I will not change my scripts to suit.
2) I don't need anyones approval to know my scripts are suitable for the purpose they were written and
3) I seek approval from no-one.

Damn Americans, not all of them obviously, seeking to dominate everything they touch. It does my head in it does and it is totally, utterly and laughably laughable in the extreme.

Emulation.

2008-02-01T04:08:00.001-06:00

Or as the wine blarb goes "Wine Is Not (an) Emulator". Which is certainly true of both the Wine project and the Qemu project. Both can use full blown MS Windows installs and that is where the problem lays. As GNU/Linux adoption via a collection of a kernel and several applications commonly known as distributions continues almost unabated we have wine and Qemu which in my honest opinion are fighting the good fight and slowing down Linux adoption in several areas. How and why are wine and Qemu slowing down Linux adoption? Well, the answer to both questions are basically the same. Because people who install a distribution then go on to install wine and/or qemu and then go on to install MS Windows within one or both of those and then go on to install whatever MS Windows application they see as being unavailable under their choice of Linux based distribution are simply stopping the improvement of applications in the same field from growing as the good folks who create these programs don't see the need to create further as people who use wine and qemu are settled on whatever application they used under the MS Windows operating system. And that is the why and how answered. If only these people who dogmatically insist on using applications designed for another operating system on their distribution of choice used whatever search engine they prefer, or look at web sites like this one which shows The table of equivalents / replacements / analogs of Windows software in Linux they would see that in almost every single case there is an equivalent application that runs natively under a Linux based operating system. They could then remove the baggage known as wine and qemu and quite possibly at the same time have a more stable system.

A.O.L.S. (and Usenet in general).

2008-01-22T02:00:00.001-06:00

Or to give it its full title Alt.OS.Linux.Slackware (where OS stands from Operating System). Since switching from BSD to Linux during 1993 one of the things on the Internet that sure was an excellent place o get help and/or glean some excellent information was on UseNet. In those early days the Usenet was a place of gentlemen where every question about a given subject was, providing it was asked in the correct place, answered with a skill level so sublime as to be a joy to witness. Sure, even during those heady days there was those whose only premise was to disrupt proceedings. These were quickly identified and given the derogatory mantel of Troll. Overall though the eloquence and excelence of the vast majority of these early adoptors shone through. Because of this the Usenet was one of the first places any one would visit if in need of an answer. Back in the early 1990's I was something of a prolific poster to the Usenet reading as I did hundreds of messages, known as posts, a day and replying to as many of those as I wanted to. Sure, I got the odd thing arse backwards and got hung out to dry, known as being flamed, because of that but the overall experience was a good one. But as a whole new generation of posters came along so the quality of Usenet declined. Just as in everyday life English language skills declined so the quality of Usenet posts. Until today the situation is so bad the it could be said that the Usenet is a shadow of its former self. Nowadays I rarely post to the Usenet proper (to define Usenet proper one has to know the basics of how Usenet posts propagate. Basically, very basically, Usenet can be defined as being like motorway stopping points. Throughout all the motorways here in the U.K. you can get from one stopping point to another via the motorway road network. Usenet is similar to this methodology) though I do still read several Usenet groups added to this is the fact I run a subscription only news server of which I take part by posting and replying to articles posted. Why do I rarely post now? Well, the standard is generally so low now that I have dropped myself to the disinterested level. And so to the subject. A.O.L.S. The standard in that particular Usenet group is no different to any other Usenet group. But it does seem to have suffered more than most. As the Usenet more or less mirrors the outside world so the standard of the posts contents have dropped along with the general demeanor of the outside world. People are more arrogant. poorly, by comparison to the early/middle 1990's, educated and this reflects in the text of the Usenet articles. A.O.L.S. suffers as all Usenet has suffered from this blight. Oh and let us not forget the role in this decline google groups has and is playing. Remember that google groups is not Usenet but even with that fact known and understood the quality of google group users posts is so bad that it is dragging the Usenet ever further down. Why is this? I have one theory as to why this is. Permit me to espouse it here. Along the straight line of time we have taken the following route. Usenet, fidonet (another olde worlde but wonderful article based network), mobile phone texted'ing. Now that may look like a harmless route to have taken but consider how piss poor mobile phone texted'ing is quality wise is then apply that to what is left of Usenet and you get a huge drop in quality. Added to this is, as I said, the general decline in other areas and of course as the wider worlds populace has got more and more arrogant in their general demeanour and we have the stakes right there that are embedded deep in the carcase of Usenet.

Phoronix

2008-01-05T14:57:00.001-06:00

That is a nice web site you have there with Linux users well catered for with some interesting articles. But, I have to ask one question regarding your choice of distributions.

Ubuntu? I mean why?

On my wifes machine it was as unstable as an unstable thing can be in a land called unstable. At least it was until I replaced it with another distribution.

If you don't want to lose the head of steam you have made for yourselves then please lose Ubuntu.

Use a distribution that carries little to no patches in its wake. Ubuntu, being Debian derived is, just like Debian, patched to Hell and back and carries all the baggage as well. Lose it. Seriously.

Dependancies

2007-12-28T01:40:00.001-06:00

All long time Slackware users know its package management tools do not calculate dependencies. It never has and possibly never will. At least not officially.

The author of Slackware, a certain Mr Volkerding, is on record as saying Slackware will never do dependacy checking due to the inherent risks of doing such. Now, it is perfectly feasible that as he gets older and married life takes a hold and the probability of children being added to the fold, that he may change his mind. However, at this time in Slackware's development cycle, it is at version 12 with -current (the play area that will become the next Slackware version when the author deems it fit to be so) in full swing, Slackware's package tools do not support dependancy checking.

There are a couple of packages in /extra that do do dependency checking but as is witnessed all over the Internet these programs sometimes wreak havok on users systems. It is not for me to say whether these issues are caused by user or program errors but having played with these programs on my test desktop machine I can only state what happened to me. I am by no means a novice Slackware, let alone Linux, user but both Slaptget and Slacktrack (the programs deemed worthy of a place in /extra) both bit me and totally hosed my test desktop machine. Luckily, having used Slackware since forever I recovered that desktop but as sure as night follows day there are many poor tortured souls out there that do not have me experience who would be left with but one option and that is to reinstall. I would hazard a guess that Mr Volkerding knows about these oopsies that occasionally happen and until such a time as these reports and complaints stop he will never incorporate such programs into Slackware proper.

And so it should forever be so.

So, why then do various third party outfits add in extra tags to their package sets that are for dependency checking? These outfits add slack-required files into their packages which are then used by Slaptget. Linuxpackages.net started this rot and others such as slacky.it and slackbuilds.org are doing it too. It is wrong and flies in the face of what Mr Volkerding himself has stated.

I ask these package repository owners to clean up their act and remove these slack-required files from their packages.

A while ago I joined a party whose aim was to properly explain how Slackware's package tools worked. The grand plan was to document every aspect of those tools. A noble aim I am sure you will agree. However, it soon became apparent that what they wanted to do was expand on what Slackware's package management tools already did by adding in various extra bits. As soon as this became apparent I and my partner in crime for this very blog, left.

Slackware is lean and clean. Long may it remain so.

Stealing

2007-12-10T15:00:00.001-06:00

That is the only word I can think of that hits home how I feel about this particular thing.

In the latest slackware-current changelog there is a reference to someone who is not averse to stealing scripts by other people and calling them his own. In this particular case it is the build script for XFCE4.

I put up my own build script for XFCE4 when XFCE went from the older XFCE to the newer XFCE and labled it XFCE4. In fact, I was building every new XFCE4 as and when they came out upstream. I would build it, put up the package, build script and slack-desc. For one or two releases I was prompted by users as I was slow in catching the upstream release. However, as soon as I was notified I went and downloaded it, built it etc etc.

The similarities between my own script and the script in slackware-current attributed to a particular person who has been noticed by others for stealing other peoples scripts is disappointing at worst and downright annoying at best.

Decisions.

2007-12-07T03:16:00.001-06:00

For only the second time in some 12 years I am considering changing distributions. Over those 12 or so years I have enjoyed using first Slackware, then Slamd64 and latterly Bluewhite64. Those latter two are 64 bit ports of Slackware. Bluewhite64 is the more vanilla port as slamd64 has some additiions not found in Slackware itself.

In all that time my allegence has been with Slackware, or a port thereof and distributions have come and gone and some have been around forever but none have strung my head hard enough to make me change for more than a week.

The last time I considered changing distributions was about 6 years ago. I joined Arch Linux and did some 300+ packages for them but the administration team went off the rails around version 0.3. I argued with them. Left then rejoined only to leave again. That distribution is still going and my heart says give it another go but my head always brings back the thoughts of those arguments. The crux of those arguments concerned direction and if I am honest with myself I would end up back arguing again. To show how the current administrators act consider the fact I did over 340 packages for Arch Linux but you would not know it as my attributions have been removed from most of the PKGBUILD scripts and my name nor nick is mentioned anywhere on their web site. You would think with such a large contribution at a time when Arch was growing, and I believe I helped it grow with my huge contribution, would at least have got my name or nick mentioned somewhere but, and I strongly believe it is because of the current administration, I get no such mention.

Anyway, that gripe off my chest I looked around at the current state of the Linux distribution market both big players and little players. None took my attention. Not one. Well, that is not completely true. ROCK got my attention as did one of its spin offs but something stopped me from trying them. Was it my previous go, though I cannot remember trying them. Whatever it was it was something. The Ubuntu family simply turn me off so much I find them abhorant. My wife uses Ubuntu and administrating it for her, both hands on and remotely is a breeze but it is exactly that ease, and their overreliance on the sudo command, that turns me off.

Some of the middle field players i dug into insomuch as I viewed their web sites but there was always something that held me back from actually using them as my main stay everyday distribution choice.

So, for me at least, the newer Bluewhite64 which is based on the venerable Slackware will for the forseeable future remain as the distribution of choice on my desk top rig.

Now, if I had to change which one of the 300+ disributions would I choose? If I had bags of time to install it then ROCK or EDS would be my choice. If I did not have bags of time then it would be Arch or Crux Linux. Hmm, Crux I tried before and really liked what I saw but at the time I tried it its application database(s) where very small if they existed at that time at all. These days however, Crux has come along way and now has many databases spread around the Internet some of which have lots of content.

Anyway, after a 4 weeks search and read exercise I still cannot find anything to replace my Slackware based Bluewhite64 Operating System with.

Time rolls on.

2007-12-05T03:45:00.001-06:00

Indeed it does. Time rolls on and the dinosaur's disappeared. And so it is. With the above line stated I think some explanation is required, especially its deeper meaning as well as to what it is I refer to in the present tense. Many years ago some Slackware users placed many nuggets of information relating mainly to that Operating System but sometimes to every GUN Linux based Operating System. They put on to web sites information such as how to 'properly' build Slackware packages. How to get around some of the quarks that distribution had. How to change the start up scripts to make them faster at boot time. Etc, etc, etc. All this and more was put out there for public consumption and people used that information. Then other Slackware users came to be and they too put such information into the public domain. These users collected the information scattered on many web sites put there by the previous generation, updated to fit new releases and then put it all together in one place for other people to view and use. Fast forward to today and yet again a newer set of users came to be who collated information out there on the Internet, gave it a new twist, called it their own and placed the result on the Internet. The different between the three generations of Slackware users, while all had or have good intentions, follows the same path and attitudes each generations general public had or had. Lets call the generations Gen-1, Gen-2 and Gen-3. Gen-1 built the foundations the Gen-2 built on top of. Gen-2 attributed Gen-1 for the work Gen-2 created off the back of what Gen-1 created. In otherwords Gen-2 acknowledged Gen-1. Gen-3 however is a different beast all together. They took the work done by Gen-2 and called it their own. They changed the smallest bits. They give no attribution at all to Gen-1 and Gen-2. They created web sites in a mirror image of web sites created by Gen-2 and then added or edited scripts then gave no attribution to Gen-2. So, today we have a situation where Gen-3 users are coming across, and they do everything possible to put that in the minds of other people, as being the first and only generation of Slackware users that have put information and slackware build scripts on the Internet. They give not the slightest nod to all those who have gone before them doing what Gen-3 users are doing right now. I reckon there are one or two reasons for Gen-3's attitude. Reason 1 is mirrored in how todays society at large acts. Reason 2 is that most of the Gen-3 web masters are American and we all know they think they rock andthe rest of the world does not exist in their minds and that they are hellbent on ruling the world. That is my take on the current generation of Slackware users. It is bad enough to make me want to change distributions for the first time in 12 years or so. Attributes people. Attributes. Deep deep down you know I am right.

Gnome2 >2.20.0

2007-11-26T02:22:00.001-06:00

I am unsure when Gnome2 started using PolicyKit which itself relies on SELinux and/or PAM but in my honest opinion this is a bad bad move.

I don't know how people who are building third party Gnome2 packages for Slackware are going to build it without PolicyKit. Every man and his dog knows that Slackware's author, Mr Volkerding, regards PAM as a huge security hole so does not and has said he will not include PAM in his distribution.

I have liked Gnome since its first incarnation many years ago. While I currently use the always improving without adding bloat Xfce4 I often revisit Gnome2 to see what is going on there. KDE simply does not get a look in because I have never liked QT.

But, this new reliance on PolicyKit which in turn relies on PAM and/or SELinux to be able to do its work is going to prove to be a massive turn off for me and no doubt a lot of Slackware users and for that reason alone unless I, and others, can find a way to build the latest version of Gnome2 without PolicyKit then Gnome2 will simply fall by the wayside as so many other DTE's and WM's have done over the years. Xfce4 will be the only DTE (DeskTop Environment) left on my system for those times I load up X.

Time and time again I have dabbled with PAM. Built it, installed it, configured it for my needs but always I have felt that PAM is simply a security bolt on that is not needed on a properly configured system. Because it is a bolt on this alone makes it a security hole. Look at PAM's record on vulnerabilities and you will see just how poor a record PAM has in this area. After a week or two usage with PAM running on my systems and adding a patch or 3 to cover some hole within it or updating it yet again because of a vulnerability I get fed up with it and remove it. Look around the Internet and you will see problem after problem regarding PAM and now we have parts of Gnome2 relying on it. If I feel this way how many others out there feel the same?

I downloaded the latest, at time of writing 2.21.2, Garnome (that is how I have tested various versions of Gnome2 for quite some time. Garnome itself is a wonderful tool as it allows you to test Gnome2 without actually installing it system wide) and because I have no PAM or SELinux installed it will not build. I have edited various files within the Garnome environment to try and eliminate the need for PolicyKit, PAM and SELinux but every effort resulted the same. It simply will not build.

This reliance on PolicyKit, PAM and SELinux is a shame as I said earlier on, Gnome2 has been one of my favourite DTE's and because of these reliances I will soon be consigning it to the bin.

Creative XFI Fata1ity.

2007-11-25T03:21:00.001-06:00

Is this card a dead duck under a Linux Operating System? As of this time I have to say a resounding yes. However, read on. You may be surprised.

I will hold my hand up and say up front I am no audiophile. My partner in crime on this blog seVen however is. He has often winced at sounds I have found reasonable to my ears. Anyway, what is said here in this blog post is not about sound itself but about the state of Creative's drivers for the Linux Operating System.

The last time I had a Creative sound card in my main system they had just released what turned out to be probably one of their longest life card range. The Sound Blaster Live! I had two variants of these excellent cards within a 6 month time frame. My first one was a 4.1 one. My second one about 6 months later was a SB Platinum which of course was a 5.1 card.

So called on-board audio is audio that sits on your motherboard rather than being an external PCI/ISA/PCIe etc card. Not all motherboards have on-board sound but more and more do these days and the quality, for a desktop system with an OpSys that has everyday ears for sound receptacle's, the sound is really rather good. Of course there are some on-board audio chips that suck more than a suckything at a suck fest but by and large on-board audio has come on leaps and bounds in the desktop space.

As on-board audio became more ubiquitous and became better and better with 5.1 and 7.1 being the norm the good old SB Live! was consigned to the desk drawer where all good cards go and which I call my "Use again Someday" drawer and while the sound emanating through my 5.1 speakers via the SB Live! Platinum still punched out some excellent bass from the sub woofer I had no choice but to free up a PCI slot and reluctantly move to onboard audio.

My first on-board experience came via a VIA AC`97 chip which frankly was utter rubbish. I went through motherboard after motherboard all of which had some form of on-board audio chip. I will say that the best of these is probably my current one which is a VIA High Definition Audio used via the intel driver under Linux.

This brings me to something else. Driver support. It is a rare sound chip that has no support at all, though there are some. Under a Linux Operating System many chipsets are collected into one driver. So, if you check your kernel sources you may not see your audio chip, on-board or not but via the ALSA sound sub system more often than not there is support for most sound chips. In some cases you may need third party drivers. Nvidia's nForce series is one such example as is Creative's latest and greatest the XFI range.

Not being totally enamored with my current on-board audio I decided to purchase a PCI external sound card. Plenty of choices out there but I wanted something good. My attention immediately switched to Creative's range. In particular the XFI range. I settled in the end for a Creative XFI Fata1ity. Now, usually I check Linux compatibility before purchasing any hardware but this time around I simply bought the card and thought I'll worry about support later.

Oh dear. What a mistake that was! First time in years I have not checked compatibility first and sure enough that decision came back to bite me in the arse. There was no support for the Creative XFI range whatsoever when I bought it. None. I had a card sat in my machine that registered itself but the kernel said "Unknown device". For approximately 6 months this card was useless under a Linux Operating System. I was absolutely gutted.

Then just last September Creative released some closed source driver for the XFI range. And they released it for 64bit Operating Systems only. The rights and wrongs of that decision will play out in time but for what it is worth I think it was the wrong decision. There are plenty of x86_64 or AMD64/EMT64 systems out there but by and large the majority are x86 or 32bit. I will not get into the closed versus open source argument as honestly I couldn't care less either way. As long as the driver gets my hardware working then the fact the driver is open or closed makes no odds to me at all.

Having downloaded the driver I proceeded to use their 'installer' script. This failed miserably. After some editing of the 'installer' script to fix obvious mistakes I tried again. This time it failed on some kernel header file. By now I was slightly pissed off but decided my best course of action would be to Google it. I did exactly that and found many other people around the globe had hit the same issues as I had hit. As is usual for closed source drivers, Linux users set about fixing all the issues. Notably, Gentoo users fixed the issues. Some Gentoo users are a world apart from other Gentoo and other Distribution users. I tip my hat to these people. This web site documents everything so I won't go through it here. If you have a Creative XFI range audio card then go take a look. It will save you some hair loss.

So, finally, what is the actual sound like? Hmm, it is listenable but certainly no great shakes. There are serious issues with this driver like 'scratching' as the file or video plays, the driver sometimes locking up the system on boot etc etc. I am sure that given time Creative will sort all these issues. Let us be fair here this Creative released closed source driver is ALPHA status so given that status there is plenty of room for improvement. I think Creative's best bet would be to release the driver as true Open Source with a relevant, possibly restrictive, license. By doing this they are guaranteed to have hundreds, possibly thousands, of eyes on the code which with Creative's help with 'hidden' details should yield a driver that matches or possibly beats its MS Windows driver.

As of the time of writing I am not overly happy with this card. I will sit quietly, patiently and wait for the next few releases of the driver which should see both stability and usability improve. I hope so. The card itself can and does produce excellent sound under MS Windows and apart from Creative blocking coders by withholding vital information regarding this card there is no reason why this Linux based driver cannot improve.

If you, the reader, are a Bluewhite64 or Slamd64 or any other copycat 64bit Slackware based Operating system would like a fully patched Slackpak of the Creative XFI driver then tell me and I will see what I can do about creating one for you. Do not ask me for a 32bit Slackpak of this driver as as of the time of writing the closed source portion of this driver has no 32bit support.

Slackware package build scripts

2007-11-24T04:09:00.001-06:00

Long time Slackware users have since the beginning created their own Slackware build scripts that created Slackware compatible packages. These packages made for easy installation as well as removal. They also eased the pain for administrators with multiple machines.

Over time these long time Slackware users built up a huge collection of build scripts. Most, like myself, have kept these build scripts to themselves. Only releasing the odd one or two to friends and colleagues or if some package that came with Slackware itself could be built in an alternative way. Gaim, now called Pidgin, comes to mind here as it can be built against mozilla's NSS or against GnuTLS. Slackwares own is built again Mozilla's NSS but many users don't install Mozilla so the alternative build against GnuTLS that I created a long time ago was born. That build script was downloaded over 2 million times. The packages were downloaded over 1.2 million times. These numbers vindicated my releasing the build scripts and packages.

Many friends and colleagues urged me to release more of my own build scripts and packages but I did not. One, probably the major reason why I did not, because I considered Slackware users would rather create their own.

Latterly, lots of web sites dedicated to Slackware build scripts have popped up. Some borrowed my Gaim/Pidgin build scripts and called them their own. Others simply copied them, changed a few bits here and there within the build scripts then called them their own.

But the point of this post is not to complain about that but to ask the various administrators of those Slackware build script sites to add support to all their scripts for the x86_64 architecture.

I have no idea which of the two main x86_64 distributions, Bluewhite64 or Slamd64, is the most popular. Nor do I care. I use Bluewhite64 myself purely because the packages are one for one with Slackware itself whereas Slamd64 has some changes.

I don't care if these newer sites have stolen or reworked Slackware build scripts from other places on the Internet. Simply put these collections offer a great service to Slackware users by having lots of build scripts in one place. However, by leaving out x86_64 support in their build script repository's they are leaving out a large, and growing by the day, proportion of Bluewhite64/Slamd64 users.

P2P to throttle or not.

2007-11-23T01:51:00.001-06:00

P2P to throttle or not. That my dear friends is the question facing ISP's the world over (apologies for the bastardised quote).

With P2P traffic gobbling up bandwidth, bandwidth owned by the ISP, well even they purchase it but for this blog post we'll put up with the consideration that they own their part of it, and purchased legally by you the customer, there are those who are seeking to kill off all P2P traffic. For that there is no justification whatsoever.

ISP's, mostly, are throttling P2P traffic. Some more than others but throttling it nonetheless.

Those that seek to kill or throttle P2P traffic seem to miss one simple point in all this and that is that the customer pays for their connection and therefore have a legal right, within the ISP's T&C's and/or FUP, to use that connection as they see fit.

Sure, there are those that use P2P to download illegal content and they should be targeted in an effort to stop them, but for the rest of us downloading free content like Linux ISO's, free applications, free video content etc etc why should we suffer these restrictions?

A lot of ISP's use self learning throttling applications that seek to level out customer usage by looking at signatures which give the application some idea what the user is actively doing. ISP's and the creators of this application claim that the self learning nature of this software allows it to differentiate between legal and none legal traffic so why can they not distinguish between those customers that download illegal stuff from those of us who want to download, via P2P, legal content?

I will tell you why. It does not matter to them if you are downloading legal content or not. They do not like the fact that P2P uses a distributed model for downloading, and uploading, which means that the bandwidth you legally purchased from your ISP is used. There can be hundreds if not thousands of distributed bits of a file or video dotted all over the world taking up bandwidth legally purchased.

There are many legitimate uses for P2P, like Linux ISO's. The idea that the only people to benefit from P2P are those who distribute ilegal content is quite simply wrong. Further, if I have the option of downloading from a distant server or from a torrent with hundreds or thousands of users, I will go for the torrent everytime quite simply because usually the torrent download will be faster even with misconfigured ISP throttling in place. Added to this is the fact that BitTorrent software is quite adept at managing large downloads. There are times I may want to throttle my torrent download because I am playing a game.

I have yet to have it explained to me why downloading via P2P is any worse bandwidth wise than downloading via a single host. I fail to see how this differs in bandwidth used. Unless of course it is easier for ISP's to throttle single downloads.

Throttling or killing of P2P is wrong. For many reasons.

Apples Leopard OS.

2007-10-27T06:01:00.001-05:00

With all the fuss surrounding Apples release of their latest OS offering called Leopard it will come as no surprise when the users of it are disillusioned. That is assuming they dare become disillusioned.

Thing is Apple never truly innovates. They copy whatever other OSes have done and in some cases have done for years but to Apple fanboys who believe every word Mr Jobs say these "innovations" are new and truly innovative. Silly people.

Since Apples move to a Unix underbelly they have become mainstream again. Why? I have no idea. Apples OSes have turned me off for years. I honestly cannot understand how they have become what they have become.

Apples Leopard. Nothing new here. Move on.

X is NOT KDE!

2007-09-23T02:04:00.001-05:00

Or put in pure Linux/Unix terms: X != KDE. Or Gnome, XFce4, Fluxbox etc etc.

As Linux (Linux defined here constitutes an entire distribution. In real terms, linux of course is the kernel only and a distribution, like Slackware, RedHat, Ubuntu etc are collections of programs which include the kernel.) grows exponentially in popularity there are many misnomers cropping up regarding what is what. While these misnomers are mostly harmless they do make diagnosing problems that may crop up harder for us more knowledgeable long time users.

For example. I saw a discussion recently on a forum where the user with a screen blanking problem kept referring to "The screen blanker in KDE." After much discussion going back and forth it eventually transpired that he/she was using Ubuntu. Ubuntu hides the underlaying console that all distributions have and boots straight into Gnome, by default, or KDE. This user had changed the default so instead of logging directly into GDM (the gnome login manger) from where he/she could log into Gnome or KDE he/she automatically booted directly into KDE.

Nothing wrong with this method and can in fact save a little bit of time logging in. This method also facilitates booting ones machine then walking away to do something else. On return the machine will be sat on the Gnome, KDE etc desktop so one can start work immediately upon returning to the station.

Where this sort of auto login does become an issue is when, for whatever reason, ones X or Gnome/KDE has been irreparably broken so that instead of being sat on the desktop one is sat at a scary black screen with nothing more than a bit of text at the bottom.

And so this discussion went. He/she was not having a problem with KDE but did have a problem with X blanking the screen. however, his/her constant use of "The screen blanker in KDE" kept throwing us old timers off the scent of where the problem really laid.

In very simple terms the boot process boots in 3 separate stages. First, the console, second, X and third ones chosen GUI which can be any one of many but most new users tend to use Gnome, KDE or XFce4. To blank or stop blanking the monitor each one of these stages should be addressed separately. Of course if one never uses the console directly that stage can be missed out. None of the GUI's have screen blanking themselves. Instead they offer, via their setup or configuration applets, options to setup the default GUI screen blanker which is a program called xscreensaver.

So, for console blanking we use 'setterm -blank <time in seconds>. If the value of (time in seconds> is set to 0 then blanking is disabled. Any other none negative value will blank the console after those minutes of inactivity.

For X this is a little more tricky insofar as how one goes about setting this up, but works fine once set up. If one does not add these options to /etc/X11/xorg.conf the default options, which are for X to blank the screen after 5 or so minutes of inactivity, kick in. To set X to blank the screen after so many minutes of inactivity, open /etc/X11/xorg.conf in your editor of choice. We need root access for this so use 'su' to gain root privilidges or 'sudo'. Add the following lines to 'Section "ServerLayout"' in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

Option "BlankTime" "0"
Option "standby time" "0"
Option "suspend time" "0"
Option "off time" "0"

These options totally stop X from blanking the screen.

The third part is simple and for a new user probably the easiest way to blank or stop blanking the screen. Gnome, KDE, XFce4 or any desktop environment or any window manger for that matter do not contain any screen blanking code beyond offering configuration options for the xscreensaver program. By setting these options up one can disable screen blanking in your chosen GUI environment.

I hope you found the information given here useful and please, new users to Linux, try not mixing up the various parts that make the whole and we old timers will be better able to help you with whatever problems you may be experiencing.

Optimise.

2007-08-30T01:11:00.001-05:00

Having used SLS (Soft Landing Systems an ancient now defunked distribution. IIRC SLS was the first 'packaged' distribution), Slackware then when moved to an x86_64 system, Slamd64 before finally settling on Bluewhite64. I currently have over 500 packages of my own creation. That is, I download the sources and configure, compile and install a lot of stuff myself, usually with a Bluewhite64 package of the result. It never ceases to amaze me how people claim optimisations over and above the stock -march=i486 -mcpu=i686, or in some cases -march=i386, Slackware uses or the stock i386 debian is built with, results in faster load and execution times.

Gentoo users are the biggest culprits for doing this. They claim, and worse some even think and believe, that because their systems are built from the ground up (this is no longer completely true as even stage1 comes with a pre-built base install last time I checked) with some semi insane GCC settings that their OS somehow, magically, is faster than all the other Linux distributions that come pre built via packages.

As an aside, the myth that says Gentoo gives you more knowledge than other distribution is just that. A myth. Portage does all work with the user giving some, often ignored, flags to it. Portage then goes and downloads the sources, builds then installs it. No black magic there at all.

Gentoo users through this mistaken belief can be seen on various mailing lists, web forums, blogs and Usenet arguing over little known, little useful, hidden GCC flags again in the mistaken belief that these flags offer them optimisations over and above what every other OS uses.

Gentoo users are not alone in this belief but their userbase is way over and above the most vocal about it. There are other distributions that make the same claims. Sourcemage, Rock Linux are two others that come immediately to mind at the time of writing.

I cannot find the link now but a while ago there was a binary speed comparison of Gentoo, Mandrake (now Mandriva) and Debian. Debian was compiled for i386, mandrake for i586 and Gentoo for i686. I don't recall what GCC flags where used but I do seem to recall that the flags used where pretty ordinary. It turned out that Debian's i386 compiled binaries were faster in every way. The report was vilified by Gentoo fanboys at the time but what the report did show was that setting insane GCC flags does not always mean one will get a faster system load time and execution time.

The truth is that most optimisations for GCC have nothing whatsoever to do with speed but do have something to do with the resultant binary size(s). This binary size can and does give the illusion that the binary can and does load and run faster.

Where has he gone?

2007-08-13T03:40:00.001-05:00

This blog was created not be me, Jeepster, but by a very good friend of mine called seVen. He invited me to join him and write for his blog which I accepted and do.

He lives in the U.S.A. and I live in the U.K. but our online friendship grew over time and has been established for around 5 maybe 6 years. We are so alike we could be brothers but that is by the by.

He has a habit of disappearing and because of the distance between us I cannot simply knock on his house door and ask him what the hell is going on. He has vanished of the face of the Internet once again and I am worried for his welfare. He is not returning my emails. He suffers from bouts of depression which is always a worrying thing that sits in the back of my mind.

In an email exchange we had some time ago he mentioned the fact he had found a wonderful female companion with who he hoped it would turn into a full blown love affair. He was spending more time at her place than he was his own. Her (he never did tell me her name) place has, the last time was spoke via email, no Internet.

If, and I hope this is comes true and turns out to be the reason for his seeming disappearance, he has moved in permanently with his female companion then until such a time as he or she gets an ISP account at her house then that would be the reason why he has seemingly disappeared once again.

I hope he reads this post and gets in touch with me via whatever method he chooses as once again I am worried about him.

Please Don. Get in touch.

Ho hum....

2007-08-13T03:16:00.001-05:00

I hate misinformation with a passion and beleive me there is a lot of misinformation about a GNU/Linux on the Internet. I was browsing around the Internet looking for nothing in particular when I happened upon the following link: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/233123/migrating_to_ubuntu_linux_from_microsoft.html Now, having been a Linux user since around the very early 1990's I take issue with some of the bogus things mentioned in the above article. Let us look at this persons "Requirements" one by one. Here is his list of "Requirements": 1. It must have a GUI interface for installing and configuring the system. 2. Existing hardware must remain usable and the new operating system must make it "just work" without my having to edit text-based configuration files. 3. Existing software must remain usable unless the new operating system has equivalent features to the ones I use, and I can switch without losing data or doing much work. 4. Because I need to use software that has no Linux substitute, the Linux distribution must make it easy to create a dual-boot system. It has to recognize and preserve the existing operating system and its data during installation, and give me access to the data on the Windows drives after installation. Further this person says his "Requirements" are "non-negotiable". Obviously a very arrogant person who writes fluff at best and utter junk, like the article above, at worse. Option 1 in this persons list of "non-negotiable requirements" is the funniest of all of them. The question is, what constitutes a GUI? Most people consider a GUI to mean real drivers for the graphics card and real and proper windows, buttons, icons etc. The MS Window installer does not use a GUI, it uses bit mapped graphics which imitates what we all know as being a GUI. On Linux this is called the framebuffer or sometimes the VESA buffer is used. Given that this person claims to know his stuff does not bode well for whatever else he waffles on about. Throughout the article there are errors and misleading information that is so blatant is stops being funny after page 1. Anyway. Item 2 on his "non-negotiable requirements" list is almost as funny of item 1. The vast majority of hardware under MS Windows immediately after the installation phase is used in the most basic of basic states until one installs the proper driver. Under Linux the vast majority of hardware is in the most usable state from the minute the kernel loads the driver during the install phase. There is a huge difference between these two methods and those differences are at best glossed over in this article and at worst totally disregarded. Further in this persons Item 2 it is stated that the hardware must just work without the need to edit text based files. Now, given that MS Windows has all manner of "Wizards", some of which just work whilst others simply do not and almost every change requires a reboot, I think editing the odd text based file is a much prefer method as they are almost always guaranteed to "just work". Redhat, Mandriva and SuSe to name but a few all have similar wizards. Still, it has to be said that the vast majority of hardware "just works" under Linux and of those obscure bits that rely on deeply embedded MS Windows files often installed by MS Windows only drivers are not worth bothering with anyway, because those types of hardware use way too much CPU time to do their thing. Item 3 in this persons "non-negotiable requirements" list is an obscure one. The person states that "Existing software must remain usable". I do not fully understand the meaning here as it should be obvious that MS Windows software will not work on a Linux distribution as the under laying file system formats are not compatible, unless one uses cedega or qemu both of which run MS Windows within Linux. Some software packages, like the Picasso one this person mentioned run under a Linux OS but is wrapped up in Wine, another MS Windows emulator. If however, this person meant that under Linux his DATA files should be usable from the MS Windows world then that is a different thing altogether. Apart from some deeply proprietary formats the vast majority are usable under a Linux distribution. OpenOffice, which can be directly compared to MS Office, can open, edit and save in all manner of formats, some MS, some Linux but the majority of major MS formats can be opened, edited and saved back to the MS format. The programs under a Linux based OS may not be the same (how could they be when the program creators do not produce a Linux version?) but the fact is that the vast majority of file formats, be they text based ones, movie and sound based ones or even the ubiquitous MS Office formats are usable under a Linux OS but using a different program. OpenOffice in place of MS Office or Mplayer plus codecs in place of MS Media Player plus codecs etc etc. Finally, this persons Item 4. This person states that he uses some applications that have no Linux equivalents. While I agree that this situation does happen, the situation is getting less and less but there are still some areas Linux has not gone to that the MS world has. The person also mentions a dual boot situation. Now, given that both Lilo or grub (two boot loaders under a Linux OS) have been able to do this since, well, since they more or less first came onto the market and if given the choice between a Linux based boot loader and an MS boot loader I personally would go with the Linux based one every time. Why? Well, the MS operating System does not like sharing with anything and is often times the culprit when in a dual boot situation the Linux OS side suddenly either stops working or simply gets deleted. Also, when you install MS Windows it will automatically over write whatever is in the MBR irregardless of whether you wanted it to. The Linux based counterparts however will allow not only a dual boot situation but a triple or quad etc boot option. And just so this person knows it is not a Linux OS that stuffs up the MBR (Master Boot record which holds all the partitions and OS information) but the MS Windows one. The MS boot loader, or rather the MS installer does no sniffing of the MBR at all, while its Linux based counterparts do, and simply overwrites whatever was in the MBR. So, there we have it. Someone who has not the first clue about Operating Systems writing blatant rubbish about operating Systems. If these people are to gain any credibility whatsoever they should at least learn that about which they speak. Installing a Linux based OS nowadays is easier than installing its MS Windows counterpart. It will not over write whatever is in the MBR. It will open, edit and save almost all formats be they text based one, XML based ones, film based ones and music based ones. Apart from games, and even that area is getting less and less, there is very little MS Windows can do that a Linux OS cannot. This person used Ubuntu as his marker for his or her "non-negotiable requirements" which is a good choice as Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu or any other flavour of Ubuntu does all the things one would expect from a Linux OS trying to immitate MS Windows in every area. There are other Linux Distributions out there that operate in a similar fashion but there is only one MS Windows (Windows95, Windows98, WindowsXP, and MS Windows Vista are not differing OS's in the same way that the many and varied Linux distributions are). For anyone thinking of installing a Linux OS either as the only OS on the hard drive or as a dual boot you would do well to ignore this blatantly bias rubbish as portrayed in the article above and go and find someone, somewhere that knows what they are talking about. This person in the above mentioned article clearly and unequivocally does not.

My foray into the murky world of Operating Systems.

2007-08-09T02:47:00.001-05:00

Or, A potted history of my computer usage.

This blog post can also be found elsewhere. They where both written by myself.

While this blog host is worldwide the stuff at the end is for local to me people and companies. That said, if you are located somewhere far away from my locality, which is Hull, UK, then we can still talk via email, ICQ and even MSN and who knows, perhaps I can offer you or your company some remote services, which are incidentally something I excel at. Read on then decide for yourself which way you want to go.

I have used the Linux kernel and the same GNU based distribution since 1991. Yes, I was one of the masochists back in those days who saw Linus Torvalds work and the associated GNU tools as something radically different from what was quickly emerging as the default operating system ("OS").

I had previously used the Amiga OS, which was so far ahead in what it offered that even in todays OS world it would not be out of place. I started by foray into the murky waters of computers with a Commodore-PET, carried on through the C64/128 phase then the Plus4. Then along came the Amiga 1000. I immediately saw this machine for what it was and jumped on it. Over the following few years I went through the entire Amiga range ending up with what was their finest hour, the Amiga 3000 Tower.

By now it was 1991 at which time it had become painfully obvious the Amiga was going nowhere fast. Over the next few years I started looking at what else was available. IBM, and compatibles, where everywhere but lacked something I had grown used to having with the Amiga. Apple had machines out but they too lacked that something. Eventually, around 1996 and knowing nothing about them at that time, I bought my first and only pre-build IBM compatible machine which came with the awful MS Windows OS of that time. The OS itself stayed on that machine just long enough to download a Linux distribution, Slackware as it turned out, and install it. I have never used another OS on my main workstation since that time.

I had used NetBSD on my Amiga 3000 Tower setup since around 1990. Running it alongside the Amiga OS. It wasn't until around 1996 that I sold all my Amiga equipment and went full time into the Linux world which I have remained with ever since.

And that is my potted history of computer OS's I have used over the years.

I have said I started using Linux around 1991 and that is correct. Someone had given me an IBM clone on which had, if I remember correctly, MS Windows 1.0 or maybe 2.0, I forget. I ran this box alongside my Amigas for about 5 years, never upgrading it, save for an extra floppy drive and generally not doing much at all with it as it paled in comparison to my Amiga. Anyway, that OS, on the IBM clone. was quickly replaced with what was at that time the all new Linux kernel add in some GNU tools and a new OS was born.

What did the GNU/Linux combination have that the Amiga had that MS Windows, then and now, had that made me decide to use it? Freedom. Freedom to tinker with the underlaying OS and bend it whichever way I wanted to bend it. No MS OS has ever allowed for this and that alone made using the, any, MS OS a huge no-go for me.

Fast forward to today.

Through all of those machines and OS's I have been on a learning curve. Sometimes that curve has been steep, very very steep, and other times it has been easy. I am now the proud owner of several certificates which proclaim to the world I am fit and able to do all manner of IT related work.

I build all my own machines now as they work out cheaper that way plus one gets the ability to add-in whatever hardware one wants and often needs. Plus, I can tailor the hardware to ensure it works 100% with my choice of OS, which is GNU/Linux. Of course, today that tailoring of hardware is not really required anymore as GNU/Linux works with just about everything available, save for a few hardware pieces that tie themselves so close to the MS OS the coders and hackers cannot be bothered to create code that would make them work. If a hardware vendor is so short sighted they only make hardware that works on one OS then that hardware is not worth the time of day in my humble opinion anyway.

As a final note. If you enjoyed reading this and if you are located in Kingston upon Hull or at least somewhere close to it, and you are thinking of using a Linux OS within your company or as an individual at home, but the very thought of it is giving you nightmares, then feel free to contact me and if you want I will help you install a Linux based OS of your choosing. Perhaps you need someone to explain the finer points of the GNU/Linux OS versus MS OS, and there are many plus points for GNU/Linux over an MS OS, GNU/Linux is in 99.9% of cases cheaper to run and has no license fee mess to worry about, plus there is help everywhere on the Internet plus a few good GNU/Linux users locally who can offer guidance if you so need it. But the plus and minus things are best left for another blog post or possibly put somewhere on the Internet for all to see, read, inwardly digest and finally a decision made.

To my credit I have built from scratch upwards of 50 seat networks for various companies, that have at their heart a GNU/Linux based server. So, if you are such a person of company but are afraid of what GNU/Linux offers or perhaps the installation phase bothers you for some reason then feel free to contact me and we can perhaps have a chat about it. One thing you will find, be you an individual at home or the owner or manager of a small to medium company, GNU/Linux is not hard to install and with someone like myself at your elbow it will all become easy.

The savings that your company, be it a 2,4,16,32 or 64 seat one are not something your company can ignore or at least should not ignore.

As a side note and something that is, I am sure, always in your mind. I do not charge much, in point of fact I am confident you will find my services cheaper than most, if not all, of those who offer the same services, which is surely a plus for you. I charge nothing at all for email contact so what have you got to lose? Nothing, so go on. Contact me and let me show you the cost savings you can surely make.

Innovation.

2007-08-03T02:28:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I got talking to an old old friend via MSN. Needless to say or indeed sad to say, but the guy was really into Microsoft operating Systems. I am sure you all know or realise I am a staunch Linux advocate. This dividing of the ways led to an interesting discussion which lasted just over 4 hours on and off.

He, as do most Microsoft using people, think that Microsoft innovated everything that comprises an Operating System. He even went so far as to say "Microsoft invented everything we use on the desktop and innovated everything we see on it". This rankled somewhat so I set about putting the record straight.

He was utterly disbelieving of the fact that through the years Microsoft has  actually innovated almost nothing, ever and has in fact assimilated companies who posed a threat to their near monopoly on the desktop as well as stolen code and called it their own, rehashed other peoples ideas and called it their own idea. The only things they have innovated on has been out of desperation of what others had done and even then because they innovated something that someone else had already done it is not true innovation.

The conversation was long, I will not be relaying it all here as a lot of it was just 'catch-up' chat. However, here are a few examples of the kind of things he believed that simply where not true or correct.

He was enamored with Internet Explorers tabbed browsing until I told him that we in the Linux community have had tabbed browsing for at least 2 years before Microsoft copied it. He was full of praise for some new Microsft terminal that has "scripting abilities" then I explained about the Bash shell and all the other console and terminals we in the Linux community have had for at least 10 years. Tabbed terminals? Same again, we have had them for years. The list went on and on and on and in every single case where he believed Microsoft has been first to market I corrected him and told him they where simply playing 'catch up' with what we in the Linux community have taken for granted for a long long time.

Microsoft does not innovate, they either buy out ideas and call them thier own or copy ideas already in use on other Operating Systems.

We ended the conversation with him promising to try a Linux distrubution but before he left he asked "Where do I get it from and if there is more then one which one should I use?". I answered with "Why bother? If you are happy with what you are using then stick with it". Then he said something I never expected. "Microsoft Vista is a bear and costs way too much for what it is, anyway, I was going to go back to Microsoft XP but now you have intrigued me with this thing you use called Linux so I want to take a look before reinstalling XP". So, I told him of Distrowatch and that if he is asking me for a recommendation for someone like him then I would have to say Ubuntu.

And that, as they say, was that. Off-line he went. I expect that either later today, it is almost 8:30am here in Blighty, he will come on line and then I can ask him if is using or even tried Ubuntu. I expect the answer to be yes, he had tried it but...And he will be using the same broken Operating System as he had always used.

Whatever will be will be.

Perhaps later or possibly tomorrow, I shall report on what he tells me.

Server v desktop

2007-07-24T16:03:00.001-05:00

i have used a Linux distribution since 1993 and it frankly scares me that distributions nowadays are blurring the line between a server and a desktop.

What do I mean by that statement?

Well, one should never, ever, put a GUI (Graphical User Interface) such as KDE or Gnome or even plain old Xorg on a server.

RedHat led the way in this area, now Ubuntu is following. Sure many others have done such a stupid thing along the away but that does not make it right. In fact, I think it is downright dangerous.

I have built and installed at many locations around the world servers and desktops and not once in all the years I have done it have I installed a GUI on a server.

If you or your server administrators have anything about them at all they will not, nah, they should not, need a GUI to get things done. If they do then they are sorely lacking the most basic skills a Linux Administrator should have and those skills are the ability to wake up a seemingly dead server from the commandline.

What if for whatever reason the X server or GUI woke bootup?

I will say it again. Putting Xorg and a GUI on a server it downright stupid at best and downright dangerous at worse.

What a crock.

2007-07-16T02:13:00.001-05:00

Over the last weekend, and for 4 months previous for the design phase, I got to use a modern MAC with its modern Operating System (OS). I was offered a job setting up this network of computers and during a discussion with the man he requested Apple hardware and a MAC OS. Hmmm. Still, that is what he wanted and that is what he got. All told there were 23 computers including the server that held the Internet connection. Three other machines did the web serving, mail serving and a few other tasks. One further machine did file file serving that services the remaining machines that had a desktop role. Once in place everything gelled perfectly first time. Now those using those desktop machines will have to learn how to use them as their previous desktops were all a mix of MS Windows 98 and MS Windows XP. I am sure we all know how different from the user perspective these OS's are hence the learning curve their boss(es) have forced them into. The setup itself is not mission critical nor is this learning period going to have an affect on their business but I cannot help thinking they should have been given some time to learn this new OS before being thrust headlong into it. It seems unfair to do it this way but this way they decided to do it. On the Sunday I had a few of the desk workers in to show them the very basics of this new, to them, OS and I have to say they seemed on the face of things to manage very well. There were some who had issues with various parts but all told they seemed comfortable with it, That was the end of my job with this company apart from a contract that runs for 1 year that gives me unfettered access should something go wrong. Plus a login once a week to do some housekeeping. I highly doubt anything will go wrong, save for hardware failing, but as a safety net for the company this contract will suffice. You have to realise I deal almost exclusively in the Linux OS and while I am totally comfortable in dealing with any other OS available, either as a whole netowork or as a mixed enviroment, I much prefer a Linux OS for many reasons I am not going into today in this post. So, what is a crock? The MAC OS is that is what. I saw nothing innovative. I saw nothing special at all. Oh sure, all the machines gelled into one network with consummate ease but the actual OS itself compared to what a well configured Linux distribution offers or a well setup MS Windows box offers was nothing special at all. Sure is has 'ease of use' written all over it. It has some wonderful applications, the hardware is nice and the lack of viri and malware etc on that platform is a positive plus, but then none of those things are any different to a well configured Linux based OS nor in fact a well setup MS Windows OS (not including Vista as that has issues of its own). In fact I told the boss of this company how much he could of saved not only on the hardware but on the OS as well by choosing a Linux distribution instead and yet he still insisted on this well over-hyped setup. It was his call and he made it so I went ahead and designed the network layout on paper, well actually on a computer, then bought the hardware (being given money, a lot of money, prior to any actual work is a major plus to a small time network/system administrator/hardware guy like myself) and finally installed it all into a working environment. Only time will tell how his workers get along with this OS but I guessimate that within a year, during the lifetime of my contract with them, that they will change this crock of an OS to something else. And yes, I will say it again. What a crock MAC OS is for what one pays for it. Totally overhyped and totally expensive.

Whine whine whine.

2007-07-09T02:30:00.001-05:00

It seems that there are some folks out on the Internet involved in some peripheral way with Slackware are not happy with Slackwares creator Patrick Volkerding. Apparently the guy is narked because P.V. has little perceived interest in the market value of his beloved project. Has anybody got any right to dictate to the maker of Slackware, or any other distribution, how he/she should run it or have any say in what each release is ready? I say not. This however has not stopped Jim from linuxpackges dissing P.V. I have no idea if P.V. cares for market value or not and frankly I don't care either. He puts time into creating what is in my opinion the best distribution there is to be had for new and experienced users alike. If he does it for his own amusement than distributes it that is his choice and everyone who uses it gets a huge plus. People these days either do not know or simply forget many of the larger distributions were created on the back of Slackware. I also have no idea if Jim from linuxpackages.net has some hidden beef or not but on the face of his post on his own web site it certainly smells of it. I think Jim is pissed because his linuxpackages web site is slowly but surely being seen for what it has always been and that is a poor web site full of dubious Slackware packages with no sources. His web site has been marginalized by many slackbuild sites who provide not only packages for Slackware but the build scripts which enable users to create their own packages. More and more users are seeing the benefits of doing their own packages and are increasingly leaving Jim's web site alone. There have been a few spats over the years between these two and always has Jim been in the wrong. I have dealt with Jim and a few others a few years ago when we all combined to set out some standards for Slackware build scripts. We broke up not long after forming because he wanted to enforce all sorts of none standard things which in our opinion broke away from P.V.'s methods. He was very insistent and some would say arrogant over his dealings during the whole affair. He is now showing the same "me me me" arrogance over this current affair. His attack on P.V. smells of what it is. Soar grapes.

Security hole in the making?

2007-07-06T01:29:00.001-05:00

Everyone knows Apple uses BSD as its base and wraps all manner of inhouse (inbred?) applications around it to create the user experience known as OS X. Ubuntu and friends (Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu etc) are all based on debian and uses the 'sudo' application with gay abandon.

Many 'LiveCD`s' use a root account and a root account only. By passing the root versus user setup that Linux distributions and BSD distributions have used since forever. Linspire is another distribution, amongst many others, that uses root for everything. There are many examples of this blatant security breach everywhere.

This deliberate breaking of the dual root/user account setup has the ability to become a clear breach of security. Having a user account with limited ability to break things is one of the major reasons why Linux Distributions have a deserved record of lack of rootkits and spyware, malware etc etc. Sure there are rootkits available out there for Linux distributions but properly secured they are all but useless and this fact is where the run as root could open a whole can of worms.

'Sudo' has its place and used properly has all sorts of advantages but by creating a distribution that breaks away from the normal usage of 'sudo' takes away any advantages that it has when used properly.

Ignoring the advantages of the root versus user accounts by removing the need for a user account is in my opinion, one step closer to the abyss of darkness that is the MS Windows way of doing things with all the rootkits, viri, malware etc that brings with it.

Patent pledges.

2007-07-06T01:24:00.001-05:00

Is it just me or are Microsoft digging themselves a hole so deep even they will never find a way out? They duped Novell into signing a patent pledge, which is now backfiring against Novell, and a few other lesser distributions have followed suit. Many, however, have not and amongst those who have not sits Red Hat. Red Hat wants dual indemnification but without the patent pledge (This pledge apparently is a dual 'we won't sue you' thing). Whether or not this plan is workable from both sides remains to be seen but so far Microsoft has said a firm 'no' to the idea. As an aside it is worth mentioning that the all new and shiny GPL Version 3 has a covenant within it that will stop these backhanded patent pledges so from Red Hat's point of view it makes perfect sense to seek doing it the way they want. Plus, they have shown Microsoft to be what others suspected them to be. A wolf in sheeps clothing. I will not claim to know the ins and outs of patent law but it does seem to me that Microsoft wants these patent pledges to deflect the view away from themselves. I also do not know how much, if any, GPL code sits within a Microsoft OS, be it NT, XP or Vista. It is almost a given that there is no Microsoft patents in a Linux distribution and that all this mutual indemnification pacts are nothing more than a smokescreen for what is really happening out there in the world of OS's/distributions. I am not the first to comment on this subject and no doubt will not be the last but nobody, that i have read online, is seeing this the way i have written about above. So, from that angle it is worth writing as if nothing else this blog was created to stimulate discussion.

More regulation for them.

2007-06-14T03:15:00.001-05:00

Let me state upfront I have no beef at all with the residents of the U.S.A. What I do take issue up over is people who should know better offering the U.S.A. as te world when it clearly is not.

Mr Bill Stearns is an erstwhile guy who on the face of it seems to have the users security at heart. He often produces papers on that very subject but then he goes and spoils his work with comments about U.S.A. based national security.

I strongly believe the buck stops at the doors on the ISP'S. They can create a walled garden and force anyone with applications that do damage to others into it. Once there they can be offered on-line tools to aid in the cleanup of the users system. Once and only once, the users system is shown to be clean will they be let out and back into the big bad Internet. A pool could be created via all the worlds ISP's and one single huge walled garden created from those funds. If an ISP will not join this walled garden then perhaps we should be looking to not carry their data at all. Tough, perhaps but tough is where we need to go. Self regulation. Not U.S.A. regulation that affects no one but the U.S.A.

If the above is seen as unworkable then it shows a total lack of willingness and foresight on behalf of all the worlds ISP's.

Why do these people always think in terms of the U.S.A? It is NOT the world on its own. What affects the U.S.A. also can, and usually does, affect other countries but people like him in the field he works in constantly harp on about U.S.A. and its national security.

Why do they do that? They do it simply to gain traction to the points they make. By dropping in casual remarks about how the U.S.A. will suffer at the hands of nefarious people almost guarantees their remarks will be noticed.

As a none U.S.A, person i can assure you that the U.S.A. is not the end all and be all of security and as people harp on and on about U.S.A. this and U.S.A. that all they are doing is making the rest of the world hate the U.S.A. a little bit more with each such comment.

Sure, botnets suck big style. As does SPAM. But wait! Most of the SPAM in the Internet world comes out of....The U.S.A. Yes, that is right.

So while people go on and on and try to score points by mentioning National Security and the U.S.A. in the same sentence they  immediately alienate the rest of the world.

We, that is all none U.S.A. peoples of the world know they are an insular race but this sort of thing simply shows a lack of awareness and will quite simply alienate everyone else around the world.

Well done Sir. You have achieved your aims.

There I was...

2007-05-31T03:09:00.001-05:00

...sorting out yet another MS Windows machine that its owner had got clogged up with all manner of dodgy stuff. That one made 18 this week.

Viri, malware, spyware etc are all designed to slow PC's running MS Windows to a crawl. Not only that but they are designed to create a sometimes huge botnet which if you are tagged, your machine will become part of the attack.

As I was fixing yet another MS Windows machine infestation my thoughts turned to why is this situation so bad? I think I have the answer.

The people who create the tools to fight these infestations do not want to totally stop then from infecting your machine. No. They would have no way to extract money from you for thier products if they did that. The same goes for Microsoft and their lacklustre efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice as they have claimed to be doing for quite a while now. How many of they prosecuted? One, if my memory serves.

Not one of the so called Security outfits, and this includes Microsoft, are interested in stopping and much less interested in prosecuting the people that create Viri, malware and spyware simply because if they started on this road then the cash cow that is Security programs will run out of steam very very quickly.

So you, poor MS Windows user are left to fork out yet more money for the latest and greatest "secure" MS Windows and the latest and greatest security application and of course let us not forget the firwalls that everyone and his grandmother say you should have. More money spent there and along with all this you are left with machines that at best manage to boot and at worse crash and burn on booting.

They simply do not care.

Go Linux, you know it makes sense as we have none of these viri, malware and spyware things to content with.

When Ubuntu sucks.

2007-05-28T01:41:00.001-05:00

It can suck bad...

Rather an open statement in that title. My meaning is basically that there are still areas of this Linux distribution that will give everyday users major headaches. Before someone tilts and attacks me for saying something sucks in Linux let me state clearly right now I have used and continue to use Slackware Linux and more recently BlueWhite64 Linux and I have never run an MS OS on my main workstation for more than a few days and even then because back then it took that long to download the install files, and never will. In fact, every machine on my local networks runs Linux and I am a vocal advocate in favour of it.

That said. One area where Linux in general can suck less is wireless. Sure once everything is working as it should then as usual it is rock solid but when it does not work it can be a struggle to get it working.

A case in point was my recent foray into installing Xubuntu (and for the record Kubuntu, Edubuntu and plain Ubuntu all exhibited the same symptoms) for my wife. For many reasons I understood she has struggled to get to grips with Slackware so after looking at many a-distribution we both settled on Ubuntu. She likes XFCE4 so for obvious reasons Xubuntu got the nod. This gave us too many other issues so we moved to permanently to Ubuntu.

While the install phase of all the various Ubuntu flavours is painless, getting her wireless working was not under any of them. But, at first, no matter what we tried her wireless refused point blank to initialise even though the OS itself said it was found and even though this particular card had worked, and was working, fine under Slackware. It is the usual chicken and egg thing. No internet connection because the device will not start but one needs the internet to either locate a newer driver or to seek help in getting it working. We are lucky here in that we have other machines for these purposes but many do not and are in point of fact single machine users.

In these modern times wireless is everywhere and in a large number of machines, laptops in particular, it is often the only connection available. So, when Ubuntu found the wireless but insisted it was a wired connection we had a fight on our hands.

After much messing about with /etc/network/interfaces we could not get Ubuntu to alter its perception that the wireless connection was a wired one and gave up on a known working PCI wireless card, inserted another one, which used the exact same driver, but again the not working persisted. After much editing of various files finally the wireless connection was coaxed into action.

Before we coaxed the wireless connection into action we added several files to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist that were the root cause f it not working and others added to /etc/modules and to ensure the wireless card came up at boot we added the network details to /etc/network/interfaces. Once all that was done a quick run of /etc/init.d/dbus restart and /etc/init.d/networking restart finally kicked the wireless card into life with all the correct details for our wireless network.

All that above should not have been necessary and would most certainly trip up any new users to our beloved OS. It seemed to me that the reason the card refused to work was that the auto-detection process loaded the wrong driver files. Much hair tugging later these drivers were removed and added to the blacklist and the right driver to load added to /etc/modules.

Sometimes auto-detection can cause more hassle than it is worth and it is that that sucks not the distribution itself though I suppose because the OS uses auto-detection it can be said to the cause of the problem.

Patents?

2007-05-26T15:51:00.001-05:00

So Microsoft have claimed Linux infringes on 235 of their patents but they will not say what they are due to paperwork.

What is all that about then? It is crap of course and stating paperwork as an excuse not to tell anyone what the patents are is even more crap.

The world plus dog knows how patent battles are done and they are not done by shouting "infringement" and then not saying what is infringed.

More FUD by Microsoft. That is all it is. FUD.

Which Distribution?

2007-05-16T17:29:00.001-05:00

This is going to be a long blog post.

When I build a machine for someone, or get the job of setting up small to medium sized office I often get asked a few questions about the OS that they will have installed. Some outright request an MS Windows install and some more enlightened managers ask about Linux. Below I have complied a short Q&A.

1) Which Linux Distribution is right for me?

2) There are many hundreds of Linux Distributions and finding the right one for me without the need to install each and every one is a royal pain in the arse.

3) Is Linux like MS Windows?

4) I have been told that Linux costs more than MS Windows.

5) Won't I/we have problems if we use a Linux Distribution when other use something else?

6) What is the differences between the various Linux Distributions?

7) I have been told Linux is hard to use.

Some of those questions do not have a quick and easy answer but they can all be answered in a fashion that can be understood by everyone.

Answer 1) The right Distribution for you is the one you and whoever it is that will be using it feel comfortable with. Myself I would recommend one of the Ubuntu distributions. Of those I recommend Xubuntu or Kubuntu.

Answer 2) See answer 1. Of all the distributions available very few will actually fit the vast majority of users and potential users. X and Kubuntu are excellent at hardware detection. They are easily monitored from remote and are easy to update and add extra packages.

Answer 3) Yes and No. Yes in that an OS operates the same way at the very base level. They allow for copy files, they allow editing of files etc etc. No because if all OS's where the same what would be the point of all the various OS's out there?

Answer 4) Cost or Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) comes up all the time with offices with more than 4 computers and is a massive subject and I don't have the time nor space here to cover every facet of it. The truth is that you can get a Linux distribution for nothing but getting someone to maintain the whole network can be expensive. However, weighed together a Linux distribution is cheaper as the cost of the OS itself is nothing. However, there is a lot more to TCO than I cover here.

Answer 5) A Linux distribution comes with or can be added later, lots of applications that can handle 99% of all formats out there. Be they document formats, video formats or music formats. So, the short answer is a no you will not have interpolarity issues.

Answer 6) The main differences between all the various distribution are: package management (some have it, some do not). Some have a GUI to work in, others do not. In short the differences can be huge.

Answer 7) If you can use a muse and keyboard you can use a modern Linux distribution.

I have been short in my answers and have not gone in depth on any given subject so if you would like more information on a Linux distribution then feel free to email me at mr.jeepster at gmail dot com (replace at with @ and dot with .) the email address is obscured in an attempt to squash spammers. If you do email me then I will answer any questions you have and will if requested send an information pack which I compiled myself. I can also offer my services as a Remote Administrator and installer of Linux Networks.

I hope that some of the information given here was and is useful to you.

Oh dear what can the matter be.

2007-05-14T04:50:00.001-05:00

Slackware has always been something for those of us who like stability over bleeding edge crash every few minutes type Linux distributions. Slackware has always been looked down on by those requiring a clue and never has this been more apparent when one sees rubbish such as this link below.

pidgin.im/pipermail/devel/2007-May/000651.html

Slackware, and by extension Bluewhite64 and SlamD64, have included Gaim, now called pidgin, since for as long as I can rmember. Not once has Slackware or its included Gaim been broken, it has always worked with AIM, MSN, Yahoo etc etc. Where these guys get off on saying such rubbish about Slackware is  something only they know.

Slackware's lack of dependency tracking is one major reason for its stability. Just because these guys cannot setup Slackware does not by any stretch of the imagination mean the distribution itself is in any lacking. No, it is they who are lacking and by posting such rubbish for all to read they have admitted their own limitations.

How Far Has Wine Come ?

2007-05-11T23:56:00.001-05:00

Sorry Jeep, your title was just waiting for another drop in *phrase* =) Warning: Wine in and of itself causes much debate, public drunkenness & heated discussions on the Internet and around newsgroups in general but it doesn't always have to be the case. There are emulators for many OS's OS's OS's ... I can understand both sides of the Wine Pros and Cons Long Living Debate and the affect ( negative or positive ) on the Linux World. That is not the point here. This is simply a POST concerning success running some apps on an emulator. period. It ( Wine ) has it's times of need and just plain ol fun when the most original looking and feeling software remake of your favorite game ( mine is good ol "Galaga" and "Asteroids" =) is windows only. Let's face it, Linux does not have three rows of software available at your local Computer Store. Check Jeeps post here which explains many angles on the Linux Desktop vs Windows that would also have an extreme affect as to why so much software is still only available for the Windows & Apple/Mac Platforms. I have been intending on posting this since the success I had running wine in the recent days. I am very impressed with the latest "wine" and would like to say a few words about it and keep in mind we can also post as comments to this post of course any apps we find that are running on wine IF and when we need to. Possibly to submit them to the wine database which is very handy for a quick look/see if a particular application you want to run is in the list or not and if so, possibly save you the heartache of a pointless effort OR a give you the information you need for a successful fast solution. I will start by saying in all honesty, I have tried wine in the past, lost faith and frankly, did not have the need to run any windows applications. Years ago, and when the project first started up I was always disappointed. Although many apps were and may have been supported at the time it always seemed that the one I wanted to run was either not supported at all or very limited. I gave them a thumbs up for trying so hard nonetheless. It has been probably 3 years since I have had a need or reason to run a windows application. Moving forward... I decided to give it another go earlier this year and was very pleased and surprised. I am happy to report that the all three different times I have had the need or want to run a windows application this year it has been a success. The original application can sometimes make life much easier. NEWS FLASH - All three apps I tried so far worked prefectly! *nod* to wine developers for "keeping on keeping on" as we say. 1) Wine & Wine-Tools installed perfectly on Slackware-11.0 ( plus updates ) 2) Each and every application worked almost perfectly. The only thing that did not work in two out of the three apps I have run succesfully on/under wine was window resizing. 3) Even this, amazingly, one the applications even went through it's "auto-upgrade!" This touches on another comment I need to post here The Windows Software I am running using Wine:

PokerStars Free (Play) Money Tables for me! - for this site

NOTES: This one was an executable installation and went through the familar windows "setup" installtion windows perfectly and set it up in my ~/.wine/ directory as needed by wine. No root was needed at all. Although I did install wine as root system wide. PokerStars even went through a normal "auto-update version upgrade" with no problem at all right before I made this post tonight. hmm .. Interesting =) I think I should post a comment here to this affect as it could be possibly an answer to one of many issues concerning the Linux Desktop for the average Home user which is simply installing commonly used apps in in your ~ ( home ) directory ( FOLDER for windows users ) like OpenOffice.org for one of may examples and auto-update is np. Windows re-sizing does not work.

Picasa for Windows

NOTES: Yes I also have Picasa for Linux which, by the way, is distributed with it's own wine server and depends on wine , not system wide but included, to run. I wanted to try both ways so I did and both work fine.

Roland's BR Wave Converter 2.0

NOTES: Window resizing does not work. It sees the Roland BR-600 through which Linux sees as a standard usb-storage device with no problem and no special hand config was needed for it to read and write to the device. Thanks to Roland for making the device spec to UMS also. Wine has come a long way. Whether you agree or disagree with wine's "affect" or what it may do to the Linux community is not the issue. That is a long and heavily debated topic. The point I want to make is that it is working for more and more applications and it works well. I may have the need for a few more apps running under wine who knows? =) Anyone know of a original "look & feel" Galaga for Linux or Windows to download? =) Later people.

How far have we come?

2007-05-11T17:20:00.001-05:00

How far have we come? What am I referring to? I am referring to Linux on the Desktop. How far have we come in this area in the last 4 or 5 years? I reckon the linux desktop has come on leaps and bounds, however, i do not thing the desktop experience is ready for rpime time. Intel and Redhat have teamed up to spread the word but when I first heard about that venture my first thought was "Oh no, here we go again." That venture is doomed to failure. I am sure both parties will put heart and soul into their efforts but I cannot help but think it is doomed to failure. Linux on the Desktop whilst being very very good compared to a few years ago may be ready for the masses but it is the engine that drives it all that is not. While we Linux users pride ourselves on how robust the basic OS is it is held back from mass consumption by the fact that there is no really good way to install updates and extra applications. As is often seen in the MS Windows world people do not want to be editing text files to configure something. people do not want to be putting in the root (administrator in the MS world) password every time they wish to install something or change some system setting. Until that mentality is removed Linux on the Desktop will never propagate. The various methods of various distributions are all well and good and should be heartily commended for their efforts in this area but there are many differing ways and until such a time as those differing ways all follow the same path this Linux on the Desktop thing will go nowhere fast. Redhat is not Linux. Redhat will not succeed in the desktop market. Who will? I haven't a clue but whoever comes out on top of the pile they have a long way to go before they are accepted and until they are accepted Linux on the Desktop for the mass market is doomed to failure.

Word of The Day - I am bored -> Pantheon

2007-05-11T05:19:00.001-05:00

Pantheon

Dictionary.com/Word of the Day Archive/pantheon

pantheon \PAN-thee-on; -uhn\, noun:

1. A temple dedicated to all the gods; especially (capitalized), the building so called at Rome.

2. The collective gods of a people; as, a goddess of the Greek pantheon.

3. A public building commemorating and dedicated to the famous dead of a nation.

4. A group of highly esteemed persons.

Geeks Like Music too =)

2007-05-10T00:37:00.001-05:00

Discogs - Music Information Discography database

This site kicks ass. Best site I have ever seen as far as Discography database for all genres of music. Perfect for those mp3's or ogg's laying around that you want to complete the TAG info.

Discogs

Welcome to Discogs

a community-built database of music information. Imagine a site with discographies of all labels, all artists, all cross-referenced. It's getting closer every day.

Get your own 128-bit number

2007-05-09T04:33:00.001-05:00

00 2B 9C 5A A5 15 3B 72 F9 84 0F 46 A9 19 FA 65

I hereby own all the Intellectual Property in relation to the 128-bit integer number given above. And there is nothing you can do about it! See here http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1155 and get your very own 128-bit integer that you can claim is your own Intellectual Property. First noticed on the inquirer (http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39486)

New kids on the block

2007-05-08T15:03:00.001-05:00

There are many places on the Internet one can find build scripts for Slackware. many are good, some are poor. Take you pick and don't moan at other peoples work that you are taking. Be thankful abd give credit where credit is due.

Now here is what bugs me regarding these new slackware build script web sites. They have clearly taken other peoples work and replaced it with their own very slightly different way of building the packages. Some of these build scripts have been available on the Internet for years and yet these new web sites claim them to be their own. It would not harm these new sites to give a nod to the web sites where they got them from or indeed to give credit to the original author. But no. Not these new web site owners. Oh no.

Good practice it is not. Sadly, in todays world of give give give it is not surprising they go round doing this sort of thing.

Minor annoyance.

2007-05-05T02:52:00.001-05:00

There is something that is growing in usage and is quite frankly a minor annoyance. Minor to those newish to a Linux distribution but a major annoyance to old timers. This phenomenon can be seen on various Usenet groups, many forums (fora?) and many other places around the Internet.

What is this annoyance?

The annoyance is when people call a distribution Linux 11 or Linux 8 etc etc.

There is no such distribution called Linux alone let alone one called Linux 11 or Linux any number! By using such a phrase you are showing you are the ultimate newbie!

When you ask a question, such as:

"I am using linux 12 and my wireless card does not work."

You are stating something, well two things, that make the question itself very very hard to 1) Understand and 2) to answer. Seeing as it was an answer you wanted it was pointless sending it phrased like that. So, before you post think a little before you hit send. 1) What is the actual distribution you are using? 2) what is the chipset ON the wireless card or perhaps the actual name of the card or usb dongle? Those two things determines the question can now be written as:

"I am using Slackware 11 and my D-Link DWL-G122 does not work"

And then go on to explain what you have already tried and maybe what links you have attempted to follow.

It really is not hard to understand that by saying Linux 8 you are not helping yourself nor those who may want to help you.

Please, stop saying it! It drives me and many others up the wall.

Cups very common error - Answers linked below

2007-05-02T03:50:00.001-05:00

Article #291: Why Am I Getting The Error: client-error-not possible? - Common UNIX Printing System

Article #291: Why Am I Getting The Error: client-error-not possible?

Life Insurance Journey - REGISTERing on sites that want all your personal information when not needed & RANT TOO !

2007-05-01T12:20:00.001-05:00

Why is Life Insurance in the topic on THIS blog ? Read on my friends ... I did not originally intend on blogging this until I was in the middle of saving a personal note and it struck a nerve. This site ( Linked Below ) has Easy, online, instant approval and quotes without giving SSN, Credit Cards or bank accounts. At least you can get an "estimated" quote fast and easy without giving out that so important Personal Information that these thieves are using for ID theft. You know the drill, Phishing for Info and all that. At least some sites are easing up on the "registered user FIRST" to get any thing other than worthless Information concept. This is the next "advertising ploy" but it is just a tool that advertisers are using for sites to get more traffic, however, it is actually something useful. IE: Sites not asking for any Information than can be used for ID theft to get simple things such as a quote or details of services for the public to view. How smart you say. Well, the public "John Doe" has been waiting for sites to smarten up ( RANTING NOW =) and STOP the nonsense of having you give your first born to "REGISTER - SIGN UP" for simple viewing. That all started with the PHP-NUKE ( and other CMS applications ) era IMHO. So, there ya go. My opinion on what started as a simple personal link as I was checking on Life Insurance premiums out of curiosity that I may want to add to my additional. ramble ... ramble ... ramble ... Term Life Insurance from American Life Direct

Added "Quotes of The Day" Section

2007-04-30T20:25:00.001-05:00

Added "Quotes of The Day" Section for the heck of it.

Just glance to the right. =)

Printing In Linux

2007-04-30T10:29:00.001-05:00

NOTE TO MODERATORS We should think about organizing all printing posts, including this post into one "Post and all other printing posts are posted as comments or have a howto "Section" on the blog and merge any and all previous posts that concern printing. Using comments under one post is one solution. I am just trying to move towards organizing the blog a little better. This is my Google Notebook "Linux Printing" for public viewing. Linux Printing - Shared Public Google Notebook

ESP Print Pro - Linux Printing - News

2007-04-30T10:00:00.001-05:00

ESP Print Pro

Attention All Customers

ESP Print Pro will no longer be sold starting May 1st, 2007. Commercial support for ESP Print Pro will cease on January 1st, 2008. The CUPS Companion CD is the recommended replacement for ESP Print Pro. See the Transition Guide for more information.

ESP Print Pro - Easy Software Products

FoxyTunes installed!

2007-04-30T06:49:00.001-05:00

Welcome to FoxyTunes

FoxyTunes installed! This page will only be displayed once Connecting Web and Music * » See what's playing in your player * » Control your player from within the browser * » Find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and more with a click To get started - play some music in your player, click on the main FoxyTunes icon FoxyTunes main menu icon and choose your media player.

YES ! Slackware 11.0 + CUPS + hplip + HP Deskjet D1420 = Successful Printing on Linux

2007-04-29T16:10:00.001-05:00

All I can say for now is HELL YEAH ! I can print ! I bought a cheap printer 25-30 bucks at wal-mart ( my second - I took back a paperweight Lexmark ) and just finished setting it up. I will post all the details in this same post at a later date. For now I have to run. Details coming soon ...

Welcome Jeepster ! Good to have you aboard man.

2007-04-28T06:37:00.001-05:00

Hello all, A warm Welcome to one of my bestest friends! Jeepster is a new author & moderator for sevengeeks blog that you will see posting ( I hope ) soon. He is, well, a Geek. =) He is also one of the most knowledgeable persons I know as far as computers , networking, etc. You name it, he either knows it or he can find out. He is my mentor as far as bash scripting and many other geeky stuff goes. I learned a lot from hanging around this fellow. Let's give him a warm welcome. He will bring with him much knowledge and experience and will be my "partner in crime" as far as taking care of this blog. Soon enough we will get more and more visitors and more content. Good to see ya ol mate! =) Take a seat and get comfortable

Linux Printing CUPS replacing ESP Print Pro

2007-04-28T01:48:00.001-05:00

ESP Print Pro - Easy Software Products

ESP Print Pro will no longer be sold starting May 1st, 2007. Commercial support for ESP Print Pro will cease on January 1st, 2008. The CUPS Companion CD is the recommended replacement for ESP Print Pro. See the Transition Guide for more information.

Lexmark Info Linux Foundation

2007-04-27T13:09:00.001-05:00

OpenPrinting/Database/LexmarkFAQ - The Linux Foundation Powered by ScribeFire.

Festival Source Distribution

2007-04-25T02:09:00.001-05:00

Text To Speech ( Linux ) Festival Download

Festival: Linux Text-To-Speech Tutorial and Demo

2007-04-25T01:53:00.001-05:00

Festival: Linux Text-To-Speech Tutorial and Demo

DVD On Linux - DVD Software Players and Burning Utilities

2007-04-24T02:14:00.001-05:00

Section & Topic: All things DVD on Linux

Please post any and all content concerning DVD & Linux in this section.

Ok let's get started.

As we all know, DVD+Any-OS can be troublesome at some stage in your endeavours depending on what you are trying to accomplish. We can gather some links and post our own tips & hints in this section for everyones convenience. I am going to put a link here that is probably the best Article for a "Starting Point" into the world of getting the most out of your DVD and related tasks on the Linux OS.

I found the article at LinuxJournal.com ...

Linux and DVD Players - Hardware and Software Tips - Great Starting Point

I am also going to publicly Share my GoogleNotebook: DVD and Linux on this topic.

So the floor is open. Comments are very much welcomed and appreciated.

Technorati Tags: dvd, linux dvd, burn, rip, burning, ripping

audio_burn and libaudioburn for Linux

2007-04-23T00:34:00.001-05:00

Homepage of Neill Miller and "audio_burn"

From the homepage of audio_burn and libaudioburn. These tools are provided under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) and are written and maintained by Neill Miller. Latest release as of this post is audio_burn-0.0.9 and can be downloaded here audio_burn-0.0.9.tar.gz (04-09-2004). What are people saying about audio_burn? "This program was the only one I've been able to use successfully to burn my mp3 -> cdda. Works great, simple, console-based. Neat." --MSilveira on Freshmeat.net audio_burn is a command-line audio cd burning application written in C. It uses libaudioburn (also written in C) for all of the real work - which in turn uses several other Free Software packages and utilities such as: oggdec, mpg321, sox, normalize, and cdrecord. ------- I found a nice helpful hint for cdrecord on the audio_burn page worth a look if you have a 2.6.x kernel and do not use scsi emulation. Check it out ... The --atapi option is new with audio_burn 0.0.9. If specified, it causes audio_burn to use the ATA Packet Interface (ATAPI) support in cdrecord. This is mostly useful in the 2.6.x kernels, where it's often faster and more stable to use this mode. This is similar to running cdrecord with the dev=ATAPI:X,Y,Z option. The --atapi-dev=/dev/X option is new with audio_burn 0.0.9. If specified, it causes audio_burn to use the ATA Packet Interface (ATAPI) support in cdrecord, but specifying a direct path to the device. This is similar to running cdrecord with the dev=/dev/X option. Some machines reportedly support this better than the --atapi option above, and some machines don't support it at all. YMMV. NOTE: This option CANNOT be used at the same time as the --atapi option above. Later seven

KeePass 2.02 Alpha released KeePass is a free password manager

2007-04-22T04:22:00.001-05:00

SourceForge.net: KeePass 2.02 Alpha released

Summary: KeePass 2.02 Alpha released KeePass is a free password manager which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master password or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. Databases are encrypted using a very secure encryption algorithm (AES/Rijndael).

ScribeFire Basic Documentation Configuration

2007-04-18T14:20:00.001-05:00

ScribeFire Documentation Proper Credits First: Submitted by misterx on Tue, 04/10/2007 - 21:24. http://www.vaughnsphotoart.com Link to original document here.

------- Start Quote from Site -------

Download ScribeFire 1.4 | ScribeFire FireFox - Fire up your Blogging

I've written up basic configuration instructions. Submitted by misterx on Tue, 04/10/2007 - 21:24. Since there is a serious lack of documentation, I've written up basic configuration instructions for the following blog types: - Livejournal - Wordpress - Blogger/Blogspot - Windows Live Spaces - Myspace Instructions can be found here which is hosted in my Google Docs. http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhc792q6_5gzzsp6 If you find errors in the document, please send corrections to misterx@misterx.com . If the instructions help you, please consider buying one of my photos at http://www.vaughnsphotoart.com. Thanks. :) =========== http://www.vaughnsphotoart.com

------- End Quote from Site -------

My Notes & Comments

Good afternoon,

As a ScribeFire user myself I must admit I have never looked for any detailed documentation. The User Interface is pretty much self-explanatory. I have noticed many people requesting or looking for official documentation. This is about as close as you are going to find at this point in time. ( meaning the info above and link provided in this post )

That being said, If you just take a brief look around the program / add-on / plugin you will find it very very easy to setup and use without any documentation. If you still have questions a quick google will turn up an answer to your particular question. Instead of complaining about the lack of documentation how about helping with the documentation? I am sure if someone emailed the author he would be glad to give you any info he has and you may discover that he has a team of volunteers willing to help out on the documentation.

FYI: I use blogger.com ( blogspot.com ) as you can see in the URL that lead you here.

Personally, I have found a *few* irritating bugs, but nothing that would cause me to stop using the program. The problem I have is that anytime I put in the text "-&gt;" or any ">" I get some strange code where the ">" should be. I have tried enclosing any >'s in quotes ">" and it does not help. SO the right arrow should be here in between the ()'s now ( > )

So do you see the garble above? Maybe not because I am typing in my native blogspot.com editor and not ScribeFire right now and up until this point. I will post this now which has been edited without using ScribeFire then I will edit the post using ScribeFire and put in more "greater than" signs and we will see what happens so I can show an example in this post of the problem I am having. I will be back and after the --'s below will be posted from ScribeFire. After the line below is using ScribeFire. This sentence and everything above in this POST was NOT ORIGINALLY edited with ScribeFire.

"Greater Than" sign next >

------- Edited this section using ScribeFire -------

Hello .. I am back and now editing this post in ScribeFire. Now I will post a few "greater than" signs right now > > > ( before this text in parentesis you should see three (3) greater than signs but I am almost positive that after I post this you will see some garbage where the "greater than" signs should be. Posting this edit using ScribeFire now to check it out.

------- End section edited with ScribeFire -------

Hello I am back again and as you can see .. not only the edited section "greater than" signs which were originally fine are now ALL showing the garbage instead of the "greater than" signs like here > > > > ( the reason the three before this text show up fine is because I am now editing the post again in the native blogspot.com editor. ) > > > Now all of the > signs in the entire post except for these in this section will show garbage because remember I re-published the post using ScribeFire and it turned ALL > signs into garble. Except the ones in this paragraph because I am now editing using the native blogspot editor. This is very annoying. There are a couple of other characters that show garbage whgen posted using ScribeFire , not only the > signs. I think -> show even more garble even. So this is something I will now Google on to see if I can find the answer to my problem because I would love to continue to use scribefire as it's design being readily available and tied into the browser and such is so handy. So I will not complain about documentation, I will find the answer/solution and post it back here and pass it along to the dude that is linked above since he has started a documentation project. He will then be able to add it to his ScribeFire documentation.

Later, seVen

pdf somethin - firefox plugin

2007-04-17T17:02:00.001-05:00

www.pdfdownload.org Seems to be a FF plugin that gives you several choices when you encounter a pdf file while browsing. Could save resources and time instead of letting FF auto download the file with a pdf reader. you can choose to download, save, open in browser, open with anything and see the size of the file before choosing which action to take.

FoxyTunes Plugin for Firefox - Multimedia

2007-04-16T22:02:00.001-05:00

FoxyTunes Plugin for Firefox for Media Manager and Player

Welcome to FoxyTunes

Performancing Blogger Grand Central Site

2007-04-15T19:05:00.001-05:00

This needs to be in the Links section on this page to the side.

Note To Self: Put this in the Links then DELETE this POST

Performancing.com | Helping Bloggers Succeed

Gspace Firefox Add-on

2007-04-14T23:13:00.001-05:00

Gspace :: Firefox Add-ons

This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (2.8 GB and growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable system. The interface will make your..

ScriptSolutions - home of PerlDiver, DomainDirector, and more!

2007-04-12T13:44:00.001-05:00

Welcome to ScriptSolutions -- home of PerlDiver, DomainDirector, and more!

Perl Archive Guide Home

2007-04-12T13:42:00.001-05:00

The Definitive Site for Perl Scripts

Perl Archive by Creative Fundamentals, Inc.

List of free ftp & sftp clients for windows

2007-04-11T23:29:00.001-05:00

Free FTP Clients / Secure FTP (SFTP) Programs / Software (thefreecountry.com)

Coreftp Windows Client

2007-04-11T23:28:00.001-05:00

Seems nice enough for a free ftp client

Free FTP client, secure file transfer software

Gaim News - Gaim Changes Name to Pidgin

2007-04-10T03:29:00.001-05:00

Gaim officially announced a name change and new website because of AOL bitching about legal crap. Typical AOL Bullshit.

News - Pidgin

The article/announcement/News will be moved from the Gaim website Frontpage and end up in the Archives so here it is in full directly below.

-------Start Original Announcement-------

Important and Long Delayed News

April 6th, 2007 - 6:19PM EST

Many years ago when this project was first started, it was

called "GTK+ AOL Instant Messenger." AOL naturally complained, and Mark

Spencer changed the name to "Gaim." AOL was appeased, and no one really

ever heard of it because there were very few users back then.

A

few years later AOL trademarked "AIM," and started referring to their

IM services using that name. They complained. The issue was brought up

on Slashdot, and the Gaim developers at the time got some legal

support. That legal support advised that the ongoing discussions with

AOL be kept confidential until fully settled, and so it remained. The

public thought the issue had gone away then. It sorta did, in that AOL

stopped responding to Gaim's legal support for a while.

Our

legal support has changed several times, and each group of lawyers have

recommended silence & secrecy. Around the time of Gaim's first

2.0.0 beta, AOL came back into our lives in a very strong way, this

time threatening to sue Sean.

This represents a clear pattern.

AOL received more pushback than they expected, and would sort of let

things stand for a while. Then they would threaten a different Gaim

developer. Each time a new Gaim developer was threatened, we had to

look at new legal support, to prevent a conflict of interest.

This

process could not go on forever. As a result we ended up forming the

Instant Messaging Freedom Corporation, and making it legally

responsible for Gaim. We also had our new legal support work to create

a real settlement with AOL that would get this issue dismissed from our

lives forever.

Getting a settlement with AOL has taken FAR FAR

longer than we would have ever guessed. On legal advice, we have

refrained from any non-beta release during this process as a show of

good faith, and to keep AOL from giving up on it. Again, on legal

advice, we have also kept this information closely controlled.

At

long last, I am pleased to announce that we have a signed settlement

and can release our new version. There is one catch however: we have

had to change the project's name.

After a long, and

unfortunately secret debate (as we could not say why we were looking at

a name change, we ended up just doing this ourselves), we settled on

the name "Pidgin" for gaim itself, "libpurple" for libgaim (which, as

of 2.0.0 beta6, exists), and "Finch" for gaim-text. Yes, the spelling

of "Pidgin" is intentional, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgin.

Since

so much is changing between the name and the nature of the 2.0.0

release itself, we decided to go ahead with something we have talked

about doing for a while now. We have set up our own server, kindly

donated by DVLabs. As a result our new home will be www.pidgin.im and developer.pidgin.im

We, at least for now, will still be using SF's mirroring system for

releases. However, the bug tracking will no longer be on SF, and we

will be migrating the mailing lists at some point soon. Also, we have

chosen to go with monotone for our revision control, rather than the SF

cvs or svn.

In the last week or so, an upgrade to SF's

infrastructure caused an old version of the gaim-cabal list to become

briefly public. It has always been our intention to end-of-life this

list and make its archives public once the settlement was signed.

Fortunately, the legal process has concluded, allowing us to make a

formal announcement now, instead of months from now.

I, and all

of pidgin's development team have deeply hated the need to keep some

portion of our work, decision making and discussion secret for a time.

I sincerely apologize that as a result of this need, you all have had

no chance to help us with it, and to provide feedback.

Now that the settlement is signed, we hope to have the final Pidgin 2.0.0 release late this week or early next.

We

are going to release it with a 2.0.0 version number, and an API

compatibility layer for plugin authors. The project has not changed;

this is our 2.0.0 release, not some new program that requires new

version numbering.

-------End Original Announcement-------

Digital Blasphemy - Wonderful art

2007-03-22T15:24:00.001-05:00

Great site to grab some backgrounds. You can join ( it cost to join ) or you can just grab the free ones that change up from time to time. The free ones are good enough reason to go to the site IF you like nice backgrounds or digital art in general.

Digital Blasphemy 3D Wallpaper

My3cents.com The Consumer Revolution

2007-03-22T15:00:00.001-05:00

My3cents.com Main site

Vent your frustrations as a consumer. Below I have posted a link to the search results on eBay at that My3cents. Thousands and thousands of hits. Anything and everything you will not be told by ebay are on this site.

On this site you will find consumers reporting businesses and individuals that have ripped them off, bad customer service, etc etc. It is like a forum to search or post your own topics or comments ( much like a blog ) but this site is not just a blog. It is for the consumer. I reported eBay for the public to see as well as 1000's of others raggin on eBay's policies ( mainly eBay failing to comply with their own policies! ), false advertisement for protection, rip offs and buyers and sellers that are doing bad business. You can vent your frustrations here also. It is NOT an agency that helps you in any way in and of itself. However, the site will lead you to many people who have more than likely had a similar experience. eBay is all over the site. Man you would not believe what you find out about eBay on this site.

My3cents.com - EBay complaints and reviews - Let Your Voice Be Heard!

Nice Read for Newbies and Advanced Bloggers

2007-03-22T14:46:00.001-05:00

Web presence improvement tips and HOWTOs. Here you will find great tips on promoting your website. There is a lot of info concerning blogging. Don't let this fool you though. This site ( link below ) has some great input on how to get more hits,  search engine saturation, and web presence in general. You do NOT have to have a blog to make use of this information. The same information applies to your web site as well. Great place to find everything you need to know to increase traffic and improve your site.

Raj Dash's blog | Performancing.com

Very Cool - Howto Make a Sideways room

2007-03-20T21:44:00.001-05:00

How to Make a Sideways Room - WikiHow

What Blogger won't tell you

2007-03-20T21:28:00.001-05:00

The Real Blogger Status

    I keep running across this dude's articles/blogs/posts all over the place concerning blogging and networking in general. He has two profiles ( profile-one AND profile-two ) on blogger.com. For one thing I have no idea how he did that unless he used different gmail accounts and then set the profiles viewable information as he wished. Actually I do know how he did that, I just told you. =) It's two different blogger accounts and appears to be the same account from what he has allowed the public to view on his profile page(s). The only difference in the two profiles is the bullet list under his name ( a/s/l type stuff ) and the blogs listed on each profile. You can have two different blogger accounts and set the publics view to whatever you want, to a point. SO there!

    This post is to lead you to his blogs which are loaded with great and informative information about blogging. Whether you are a newbie or an advanced-geek you will find helpful tips and answers or just plain good ol geek articles.

On The Road with Audioblogger

2007-03-20T17:27:00.001-05:00

Blogging from your phone? Cool idea but it looks like it has been disabled?

Well, it has links and such to more information concerning the ability to blog with audio.

Later people

Scribefire Name change semi-official article

2007-03-16T18:18:00.001-05:00

New Scribefire for Firefox Version | Performancing.com

Technorati Tags: blogging tools, blog, blogs, scribefire, performancing for firefox, PFF

Nice Read for Newbies and Advanced Bloggers

2007-03-16T06:29:00.001-05:00

Blogging, web presence and content in general.

Raj Dash's blog | Performancing.com

Linking to Word of the Day

2007-03-16T06:02:00.001-05:00

All it takes is one line of code!

Code for linking to Dictionary.com

Word of the Day - Malapropism

2007-03-16T05:03:00.001-05:00

Dictionary.com/Word of the Day Archive/malapropism malapropism \mal-uh-PROP-iz-uhm\, noun: The usually unintentionally humorous misuse of a word, especially by confusion with one of similar sound; also, an example of such misuse. Geeks tend to like to be enlightened and learn and use their head. Some people may think of it as boring, mundane or dull. I like learning new words myself so I will post it. I may even embed the code to have it link to the word of the day on the main page of this Blog daily that auto-updates with no need of posting it. Trying to decide whether or not to have it open in a new window or same window... hmmm. I will have it open in new window for now. Coming soon?... "Word of the Day" on main page here. Technorati Tags: word, dictionary, learn, think, word of the day, brain