Linux News for Aug 31, 2008

• It's a Joke: In a Linux World Without Walls Who Needs Windows? (Aug 31, 2008, 23:03)
  IT Wire: "Most of the details are still scarce at this stage but what has been confirmed is that Bill Gates will make an appearance as well as various others, with Jerry Seinfeld as the headline act."


• Free-Software Activist Speaks on Moral Duty to Share (Aug 31, 2008, 22:03)
  The Rice Thresher: ""Today we have what we didn't have 20 years ago - powerful enemies," Stallman said."


• The 7 Best Closed-Source Apps for Linux (Aug 31, 2008, 21:33)
  Intranet Journal: "With all of the noise going back and forth about how open source software is "better" for the end user, I am of the mind that this is clearly in the eyes of the beholder."


• Universities That Do Not Use Free Software: Time for a Boycott? (Aug 31, 2008, 21:03)
  Linux Magazine: "I did investigate the university of the student and found that Microsoft was indeed a sponsor of the University. In fact, the university had a large banner on the front page of their web site talking about Microsoft as a partner."


• Why Linux...? You Might be Surprised (Aug 31, 2008, 20:33)
  Blog of helios: "With the proliferation of Lindependence and upcoming events for that effort, HeliOS Solutions and HeliOS Solutions West will publish some basic and informative articles to guide the New Linux User."


• Splert: A Custom Answering Machine and more for Pidgin (Aug 31, 2008, 20:03)
  My Technophilic Musings: "This is a simple tool I wrote a few months ago to turn Pidgin, everyone's favourite multi-client Instant Messenger...into a customized answering machine (and more) when you are away from your computer.


• Photo Digikam Tutorial 1-3: White balance (Aug 31, 2008, 19:33)
  uga's blog: "In this third part we will continue addressing the light issues, but we will target color issues rather than brightness issues."


• Sun Naming Confusion: Is OpenSolaris an OS or a Project? (Aug 31, 2008, 19:03)
  Polish Linux: "Over three years, the OpenSolaris project has gathered some community under Sun Microsystems Inc. (SMI) guidance. The whole project resides at www.opensolaris.org and is focused on the open flavor of Solaris operating system, licensed under CDDL."


• How to Get a Refund for Windows in Poland? (Aug 31, 2008, 18:03)
  Polish Linux: "Reading the Slashdot article about Dave Mitchell from Great Britain, who got a 47 pounds refund from Dell for returning his copy of Windows was an inspiration for me to check, if it is possible in Poland, too. This is my success story."


• Interview: FreeNAS for No-Cost Network Attached Storage (Aug 31, 2008, 17:03)
  OStatic: "The BSD licence is the most open license from my point of view. I didn't have time to read (and understand) all the concepts in the GPL, and I needed a simple license."


• Using MediaTomb With a PlayStation 3 (Aug 31, 2008, 16:27)
  Volatile Int: "I recently got a PlayStation 3 from my wonderful girlfriend, and one of the reasons I wanted one was for its great possibilities of being a media center. I installed MediaTomb on my Linux machine (Gentoo) and after half an hour of configurations, it was ready to stream content to the PS3."


• Microsoft Investment Shows All is Not Well at Novell (Aug 31, 2008, 16:03)
  ITWire: "In the same period, Red Hat has shown impressive growth and gone from strength to strength."


• Your Wise Oldtimers Are Not Eternal (Aug 31, 2008, 15:41)
  I heard a snippet of a story on the radio about the trauma of losing older workers. I didn't hear much, but I'm pretty sure they were talking about retirement, both forced and voluntary, and occasionally moving to a different job. The staff who were left behind were all traumatized- the old coots are gone, and all of their ineffable wisdom with them! Now what will we do!

  I've run into this several times in my consulting career. This probably reveals too much of my cranky, impatient nature, but the script always runs the same way- they act like employees getting older and moving on is an unforeseeable event, and act all surprised and betrayed and the foundations of the universe are cracking. I always wonder- don't they teach planning ahead and how to recognize the obvious in those spendy college business programs?



• Dynamically Manage XML Schema Variations in XMLBeans Apps (Aug 31, 2008, 14:03)
  IBM Developerworks: "Apache XMLBeans does not inherently support multiple versions of an XML schema. For applications that need this type of support to manage compatibility, this limitation is serious. But there is a solution, and in this article, you'll learn how dynamic class loading techniques can help.:


• Spring: A Lightweight Application Framework for Day-to-Day Business Applications (Aug 31, 2008, 12:03)
  BobCares: "Spring is a Lightweight Application Framework which covers all levels of your day-to-day business applications. It helps you write, debug and maintain enterprise applications much easier and faster. It can also be integrated with other commonly used frameworks and greatly simplify your development work."


• Wish List: 10 Improvements for KDE 4.2 (Aug 31, 2008, 10:03)
  Linux.com: "KDE 4.1, released last month, brought a great number of improvements to the popular desktop environment. It's the best desktop I've ever used -- but that doesn't mean it couldn't be better."


• Track Your Investments With Grism (Aug 31, 2008, 08:03)
  Linux.com: "Grism, written in Ruby, is the tool my dad now uses to easily follow the changing market trends. It allows you to create watchlists and portfolios and offers charts to help you gauge the performance of particular stocks."


• Novell's Linux Business is Booming (Aug 31, 2008, 06:03)
  Practical Technology: "On a superficial level, Novell's third quarter, which ended July 31, 2008, didn't look that good. A closer look reveals though that Novell did quite well in general and extremely well with its Linux business."


• How To Shrink VMware Virtual Disk Files (.vmdk) (Aug 31, 2008, 04:03)
  HowtoForge: "This guide shows how you can shrink the virtual disk files (they have the extension .vmdk) of your VMware virtual machines so that if you zip them, they will use much less space. It is then easier to upload and share them with other people."


• More Funny Unix, Linux and Mainframe Error Messages (Aug 31, 2008, 02:03)
  The Linux and Unix Menagerie:
  "OHHHH.... I give up
  >
  >Core dumped"


• LyX 1.6 is Ready For Release (Aug 31, 2008, 00:03)
  Linux.com: "Occupying a position somewhere between a word processor and a mark-up editor, LyX is designed to meet the needs of professional and academic writers by allowing them to focus on their content rather than formatting and layout."