News Linux News for Dec 10, 2008:

More Tips For Documentation Writers (You Too, Ace Coders)
(2008-12-10 00:05:31)
Linux Today Blog: "Last week we learned a few tips for writing better documentation, and talked about why good documentation is so important. Which seems self-evident, but some folks aren't getting the message :). Today we'll talk about letting clear, precise examples do the talking, and why being strictly literal is so important."

Magic Tricks With the Sysreq Key
(2008-12-10 01:35:31)
Tip of the Trade: "The SysReq key is hidden up the top right of your keyboard, and looks a bit like a relic from a former era of computing. (Which, indeed, it is.) But there's a bunch of things you can still do with it that may come in handy."

Blocking Content in the UK. Censorship or Populous Protection?
(2008-12-10 03:05:31)
Linux Journal: "A startling development is being reported by the BBC in the UK. It seems that the Internet Watch Foundation which looks like a quasi governmental organization, has taken offense with an album cover on Wikipedia and is "blocking" access to it. IWF claims it is an issue of child pornography, Wikipedia is calling it censorship."

Linux and UNIX How To: Scripting SSH and SFTP
(2008-12-10 04:35:31)
Enterprise IT Planet: "SSH is an indispensable tool that I use every day for file transfers, remote execution of tasks, setting up network port redirection between systems (tunneling), and securely driving a shell on a remote system. While the SSH commandline client on UNIX and Linux systems is how I interact most often with SSH servers on the remote end, there are times when it is helpful to script some action or series of actions rather than performing them interactively."

Creating an oBAMP Stack: OpenBSD, Apache, MySQL, and PHP
(2008-12-10 06:05:31)
DevX: "The OpenBSD operating system claims to ship "secure by default" and aims to be "the world's most secured operating system." OpenBSD also boasts the capability to run on many hardware platforms including amd64, i386, and Sparc machines. What better way to test these claims than to configure and deploy OpenBSD yourself with more familiar web technologies?"

Interview With Totem Maintainer Bastien Nocera
(2008-12-10 07:35:31)
Footnotes: "Gnome Multimedia This is the second in a series of of interviews about Linux Multimedia. The previous interview was with Laszlo Pandy about Jokosher. This time we check in with Bastien Nocera of the Totem media player. In addition to Totem Bastien has worked on range of multimedia related projects and is someone who knows the challenges of multimedia from a range of different angles."

MinGW and Why Linux Users Should Care
(2008-12-10 09:05:31)
LWN.net: "The Minimalist GNU for Windows (MinGW) project is a way to get GCC and tools like binutils working to build software for the Windows environment—something that might not sound very interesting to Linux users or developers. But there are a number of advantages to porting and regularly testing free software on Windows, as Red Hat's Richard Jones and Dan Berrange explain in the following interview."

Storing Files/Directories In Memory With tmpfs
(2008-12-10 10:35:31)
HowtoForge: "You probably know that reading from RAM is a lot of faster than reading files from the hard drive, and reduces your disk I/O. This article shows how you can store files and directories in memory instead of on the hard drive with the help of tmpfs (a file system for creating memory devices)."

Serious Error in Diebold Voting Software Caused Lost Ballots in California County
(2008-12-10 12:05:31)
Wired: "Election officials in a small county in California discovered by chance last week that the tabulation software they used to tally votes in this year's general election dropped 197 paper ballots from the totals at one precinct. The system's audit log also appears to have deleted any sign that the ballots had ever been recorded."

The Many Signs That GNU/Linux Grew Significantly in 2007 - Part 1
(2008-12-10 13:05:31)
BoycottNovell: "IT is sometimes forgotten that GNU/Linux is more than just a desktop operating system. Linux, being a well-engineered kernel, is used extensively and also funded for its important role in several different areas of computing."

Joe the Plumber Teaches How to Weather the Recession With Linux and Open Source Models
(2008-12-10 13:35:31)
The Linux Distillery: "In this globally troubled time open source software - and Linux, its operating system poster child - has clear economic advantages. You've heard talk of Joe the Plumber; let me introduce his little known cousin Cain the CIO who’s looking to do more with less money."

XP Lives... For a Price
(2008-12-10 14:05:31)
Cyber Cynic: "Can we cut the crap? No one wants Vista, and stubborn Windows users have demanded XP. While neither Microsoft nor its partners will admit it, Microsoft has abandoned its attempt to kill off XP."

Linux Desktop Enhancements
(2008-12-10 15:41:47)
NixCraft: "Here are few more Linux customization resources for you."

A Gentoo User Gives Debian a Go Around
(2008-12-10 16:01:47)
LXer: "I have to note however, I have run Gentoo for the past four years, and most of the times it's hard to 'learn' something else. However, I still liked to try and find out for myself if Debian was an easy distribution to use. So, how did I fare?"

Give Linux With no Surprises
(2008-12-10 16:31:47)
451 CAOS Theory: "In other words, if you're offering or giving a Linux-based computer this holiday season -- whether you're a big box retailer, online distributor, or Linux fanatic who wants to spread FOSS to family or friends -- make sure you tell them it's Linux."

Why the Cybersource Linux Solution for Australian School Laptops Won't Make It
(2008-12-10 17:01:47)
The Linux Distillery: "Australian Linux and open source implementation and training consultancy, Cybersource, have put forth their 9-step open-source and netbook solution to solve the Australian Government's one-laptop-per-child promise which has so far had policy makers scratching their red-faced heads. Yet, Cybersource's plan simply won't make traction and here's why not."

Linux, Windows 7 and Netbooks: It's On
(2008-12-10 17:31:47)
LinuxInsider: "With the rise of new, ultra-small netbook computers, Linux has a chance to make its case to consumers. Windows Vista usually won't fit on netbooks, XP already has one foot in the grave, and many netbook buyers may give Linux serious consideration when choosing what OS they want pre-installed."

Linux Worthy of Any Economy
(2008-12-10 18:01:47)
OpenSUSE Linux Rants: "I found this spectacular article on reasons to consider Linux in a down economy. Actually, they work in any economy. Take a look:"

Whirlwind Tech Tour: Linux distributions ranked for speed, security, performance, support
(2008-12-10 18:31:47)
Search Enterprise Linux: "This week, we address the issue of how Linux distributions compare in performance under different enterprise conditions. Whether you manage a small or large IT department, have the latest software versions or ...less-new ones, check out this question and the answers below to find out which Linux distribution might serve you best."

Incidents on the Internet -- Weekly summary
(2008-12-10 19:01:47)
Royal Pingdom: "This is a weekly recurring post about noteworthy incidents on the Internet. This includes for example general network issues, ISP problems and downtime for well-known websites."

Followup: Asterisk Bug is Old, Fix is Also Old
(2008-12-10 19:31:47)
John Todd: "Just an update on this issue: We were able to get in touch with the IC3/FBI agent in charge on Monday. Indeed, we were correct in our guess - this is an old bug that was fixed some time ago..."

Funambol's CEO Sees AGPL as Essential for FOSS in Cloud Computing's Future
(2008-12-10 20:01:47)
Linux.com: ""The future of software is in cloud computing," says Fabrizio Capobianco, CEO of Funambol, a company that provides mobile services. And if free and open source software (FOSS) is going to survive in that emerging market, he says, then the community needs to adjust by promoting greater use of the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL), a license specifically crafted for software as a service."

Using HDMI Audio/Video On Linux
(2008-12-10 20:31:47)
Phoronix: "The last time we looked in-depth at HDMI support on Linux was last December when talking about HDMI with the ATI Catalyst Linux driver. Since then there has been improvements in a number of drivers for different hardware. In this article we have a brief overview on the status of HDMI support in the Intel, NVIDIA, and ATI Linux drivers."

HP Finally Offers Pre-Installed Desktop Linux
(2008-12-10 21:01:27)
LinuxPlanet: "For years, HP has been slowly edging towards releasing a pre-installed Linux for general users. Today, December 10th, the company finally announced that it would be releasing Novell's SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) 10 SP 2 on its low-priced business class HP Compaq dc5850."

10 Linux-based Gadgets Just in Time for Christmas
(2008-12-10 21:31:47)
Ken Hess's Linux Blog: "If you haven't bought that special geek in your life something electronic yet for Christmas, here are 10 ideas for you. They're all Linux-based and are sure to bring a smile to any geek's face."

FSFE and GPL-Violations.org on Reporting (and Avoiding) Licensing Issues
(2008-12-10 22:01:47)
OStatic: "The FSF Europe's Freedom Task Force and GPL-Violations.org have jointly prepared a few guidelines on how to best report (and avoid) license violations."

Turn Your Linux Machine into an Application Server in 10 Minutes
(2008-12-10 22:31:47)
Linutop Mag: "Machines like Linutop can make a rather neat mini server which you can use to host virtually any application base on the LAMP stack (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP). The problem is that turning Linutop (or any machine for that matter) into an application server involves setting up the required servers (e.g., Apache and MySQL), manually modifying configuration files, and tweaking application settings."

Will OpenSolaris 2008.11 Attract Linux Users?
(2008-12-10 23:01:47)
Enterprise Networking Planet: "This second OpenSolaris release comes with even more software packages than before, more hardware support, and a few nifty features revolving around ZFS. In this article, we review OpenSolaris 2008.11 and cover some of the new features they've added."

With HP in, All OEMs Now Ship Desktop Linux
(2008-12-10 23:31:47)
Cyber Cynic: "I have known for more years than I care to think about that HP has been almost ready to release a pre-configured Linux desktop system. But, then, they wouldn't pull the trigger. Now, they have."

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