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First impressions of Saline OS 1.0

The IPv6 Transition: How Much Will It Cost?

MyNotex A free note-taking and notes manager software for Linux

The new Debian Linux: Irrelevant?

SCALE 9X across the snowy horizon

Open Source Alternatives to Google

Unovyx on Kickstarter! RapidDisk, a new type of RAM Disk for Linux.

How to Assign/Remap Keyboard Shortcuts For Better Productivity [Linux]

LCA: IP address exhaustion and the end of the open net

Designing Ubuntu

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LCA: IP address exhaustion and the end of the open net
Feb 7, 2011, 14 :32 UTC (0 Talkback[s]) (1001 reads)
(Other stories by Jonathan Corbet)

"Geoff Huston is the Chief Scientist at the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre. His frank linux.conf.au 2011 keynote took a rather different tack than Vint Cerf's talk did the day before. According to Geoff, Vint is "a professional optimist." Geoff was not even slightly optimistic; he sees a difficult period coming for the net; unless things happen impossibly quickly, the open net that we often take for granted may be gone forevermore.

"The net, Geoff said, is based on two "accidental technologies": Unix and packet switching. Both were new at their time, and both benefited from open-source reference implementations. That openness created a network which was accessible, neutral, extensible, and commercially exploitable. [Geoff Huston] As a result, proprietary protocols and systems died, and we now have a "networking monoculture" where TCP/IP dominates everything. Openness was the key: IPv4 was as mediocre as any other networking technology at that time. It won not through technical superiority, but because it was open.

"But staying open can be a real problem. According to Geoff, we're about to see "another fight of titans" over the future of the net; it's not at all clear that we'll still have an open net five years from now."

Complete Story

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Why IPv6 Is Like Broccoli(Mar 27, 2009)
Lots of Foot-Dragging on IPv6(Aug 19, 2008)

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Python4Kids: New Tutorial - An Awful Pickle
Feb 7, 2011, 07 :02 UTC (0 Talkback[s]) (1511 reads)
(Other stories by Brendan Scott)

[ Thanks to Brendan Scott for this link. ]

"So, we know how to save trivia questions to a file, and how to read them back from a file in the future. Moreover, we have decided on a particular way of structuring the data which makes a question. That is, the question is followed by the correct answer and then a number of incorrect answers. Now we have to translate between a list (which has a concept of elements), and a file (which doesn?t). Files are ?flat? ? which is to say that they have no sense of structure, they are simply a stream of data. A file may record all of the characters which are the questions and answers, but it wouldn?t record the fact that they are a list or, indeed, that they are any kind of Python object. I was originally just going to run with this to let you find out about files, but I have instead decided to introduce a further concept ? the Python pickle!

"pickle is a module which allows you to store Python objects including their structure. That means after you have pickled an object to a file, you can later load that object back up from the file and all the structure associated with that object will be preserved."

Complete Story

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[ Thanks to James Maguire for this link. ]

"Is it feasible to drop Google for a period of time in exchange for unfettered open source alternatives?

"When I first pondered the notion of such an idea, I figured I must be losing my mind. Drop Google? The search giant, regardless of how well-intentioned it may be, has an octopus-like hold on the Internet ? its tentacles are everywhere.

"Oddly enough, though, it turned out to be easier than I expected. Let?s look at the mindset, software choices and habit changes needed to make this idea doable.

"Dropping Google

"Considering Google's contributions to the open source world, why would anyone want to stop supporting such a company? Well, the problem with Google is that despite their support of open source developers, their track record with privacy concerns is spotty.

"Perhaps even worse, the fact is that we are becoming entirely too dependent on Google products over those from smaller vendors. Everything from document management to revenue generation is almost entirely tied to Google these days. Ask anyone using the Web regularly and the odds are huge they're using at least one Google product."

Complete Story

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How to Assign/Remap Keyboard Shortcuts For Better Productivity [Linux]
Feb 7, 2011, 15 :02 UTC (0 Talkback[s]) (715 reads)

"By default, Ubuntu comes with a set of keyboard shortcut that you can use straightaway. However, some of these keyboard shortcuts might not be desirable, troublesome, or obstructive and disrupting your productivity. For example, if you have a keyboard with a media button, that button is automatically mapped to Rhythmbox. If your favorite media player is Banshee, or Exaile, you might want to change the keyboard shortcut to your favorite application.

"There are several ways to manage your keyboard shortcut in Linux. You can do it via Xmodmap (and Xkeycaps), Gnome Keyboard Shortcut or Compiz. In this article, we will focus mainly on Gnome Keyboard Shortcut and Compiz. Gnome Keyboard Shortcut

"The Gnome keyboard shortcut is by far the easiest way to assign/remap a shortcut key in any Gnome-based distro. Go to System -> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts."

Complete Story

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