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Posted: August 10th, 2008, 3:45pm BST
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Posted: July 24th, 2008, 12:47am BST

OpenSSH 5.1 is out.
OpenSSH fully supports SSH protocol versions 1.3, 1.5 and 2.0. It also includes client and server support for sftp.
A few bug fixes, security fixes and new features come with the new 5.1 release. It’s already released to the mirrors so make sure to get patched. FTP mirrors || HTTP mirrors
Read the changelog
Also, if you are interested in the statistics for SSH implementations across the Internet, the graphs below from OpenSSH will surely interest you.

SSH protocol versions

SSH implementations
Source: OpenSSH
Tags:
bug fix,
mirrors,
Open Source,
openssh,
patch,
release,
Security,
Software,
ssh
Related posts
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Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 1:22am BST

Amarok 2.0 Alpha 2 (Aulanerk)
Heads up Amarok fans.
The Amarok team released Amarok 2.0 Alpha 2 today, codenamed “Aulanerk” after the friendly sea goddess.
If you don’t already know, Amarok is the most popular media player for Linux today. Amarok 2.0 is new and is set to replace it’s sibling Amarok 1.4 once KDE4 matures. The plan is to have Amarok 2.0 shipped with KDE 4.2 sometime in the future.
Read the changelog
Source: Amarok
Tags:
amarok,
Linux,
media players,
Open Source,
Software
Related posts
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Posted: July 15th, 2008, 8:44pm BST
WordPress 2. 6 (Tyner) is out with some new improvements.
1. Post Revisions :: You get to diff your post changes now.
2. A new Press This! button. :: Directly post from any site you are on. Plus support to automatically detect media files from sites like YouTube and Flickr.
2. Google Gears :: My fav, you get a local cache for your WordPress. Speedier access and the possibility of new and better feature moving forward.

WordPress 2.6 with Google Gears
3. Theme Previews :: Now you get to preview your theme without enabling it.
Those were the major additions, now for the smaller stuff.
- Word count! Never guess how many words are in your post anymore.
- Image captions, so you can add sweet captions like Political Ticker does under your images.
- Bulk management of plugins.
- A completely revamped image control to allow for easier inserting, floating, and resizing. It’s now fully integrated with the WYSIWYG.
- Drag-and-drop reordering of Galleries.
- Plugin update notification bubble.
- Customizable default avatars.
- You can now upload media when in full-screen mode.
- Remote publishing via XML-RPC and APP is now secure (off) by default, but you can turn it on easily through the options screen.
- Full SSL support in the core, and the ability to force SSL for security.
- You can now have many thousands of pages or categories with no interface issues.
- Ability to move your
wp-config file and wp-content directories to a custom location, for “clean” SVN checkouts.
- Select a range of checkboxes with “shift-click.”
- You can toggle between the Flash uploader and the classic one.
- A number of proactive security enhancements, including cookies and database interactions.
- Stronger better faster versions of TinyMCE, jQuery, and jQuery UI.
- Version 2.6 fixes approximately 194 bugs.
Download WordPress 2.6 :: Install Guide :: Upgrade Guide :: Forums
Source: WordPress
Tags:
Blogging,
Open Source,
release,
Software,
update,
WordPress
Related posts
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Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 4:31pm BST

Firefox 3 Download day 2008 was a success!! 8,002,530 people downloaded Firefox 3!
Guinness World Records officially awarded Firefox 3 a new Guinness World Record yesterday for the largest number of software downloads in 24 hours.
Source: Mozzila
Tags:
Firefox,
Mozilla,
Open Source,
release,
Software,
web browser
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Posted: June 19th, 2008, 11:23pm BST

openSUSE 11.0 is out!! No chance of downloading it today, servers are slammed with users just like Firefox 3 Download Day 2008.
Source: openSUSE
Tags:
Linux,
Open Source,
openSUSE,
operating system,
release,
Software
Related posts
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Posted: June 18th, 2008, 11:43pm BST
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Posted: June 17th, 2008, 1:47pm BST

Firefox 3 download day 2008 is 10 hours away for me here in Malaysia GMT +8. Downloads are scheduled to start at 10am PDT, June 17th.
When it’s time to download, head on to Firefox 3 Download Day 2008 and download Firefox.
Tags:
Firefox,
Mozilla,
Open Source,
release,
Software,
web browser
Related posts
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Posted: June 13th, 2008, 1:44pm BST

Finally we have a date for when Firefox 3 will be released. 17th June 2008, add it to you calendar.

Don’t forget to pledge to Firefox 3 Download Day and make your mark in history.
Source: Mozilla Dev News
Tags:
Firefox,
Mozilla,
Open Source,
release,
Software,
web browser
Related posts
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Posted: June 11th, 2008, 5:18pm BST

Firefox 3 Release Candidate 2 is out. This should be the final release for Firefox 3 before it goes public soon.
Take it for a spin while reading the release notes.

Also, Firefox is out to set a new Guinness world record by setting a new record for most downloaded software in 24 hours. If you want to be part of it, pledge yourself to the cause.
Since Firefox 3 has not official release date, make sure to keep up to date with the Firefox 3 Download Day 2008.
Tags:
Firefox,
Mozilla,
Open Source,
release,
Software,
web browser
Related posts
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Posted: May 27th, 2008, 11:08pm BST

Received my Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Hardy Heron cds in the mail today.
Who doesn’t like to receive internatioanl packages with goodies? The best part is when I tell my non OSS friends that the cds were shipped free of charge.
You will be suprised to know that many people don’t believe that there are people out there providing wonderfull services not for money but out of passion. Welcome to the world of opensource is what I normally my response would be to them.
Go Go OSS!!
Anyways, if you want your own Ubuntu cd, go to Ubuntu’s ShipIt page and place your order. Remember, it’s a free service so don’t expect speedy delivery unless your are willing to pay.
Tags:
Linux,
live cd,
Open Source,
Software,
Ubuntu
Related posts
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Posted: May 25th, 2008, 11:48pm BST

When forced to work within a limited budget you are normally forced to come up with alternative cost saving solutions. This was the case for a University which desided to use a Linux powered X-Box to host it’s students web projects.
As time passed so did the personnel who knew about the X-Box web server. Without proper handover documents and asset management the X-Box server soon gets forgotten.
One day a new guy comes in an sees a X-Box sitting on the shelve all alone and decides to take it home for his kid. What happened next was, students started calling up reporting their server was down. Oooops!!
The X-box server is tracked down and labeled “This is a server” and the day is saved.
Getting Linux onto your X-Box
Source: WindowsITPRO
Tags:
Funny,
Linux,
Open Source,
X-Box
Related posts
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Posted: May 21st, 2008, 8:30am BST

The first release candidate Firefox 3 is out. It’s mainly targeted at developers, bug testers and superusers.
Installed it yesterday and only managed to get 3 of my add-ons working but the performance improvement on the other hand was noticeable as promised.
Take it for a spin.
Tags:
Firefox,
Mozilla,
Open Source,
release,
Software,
web browser
Related posts
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Posted: May 19th, 2008, 8:40am BST

Linux to me is like religion. Even though I am not religious but I feel that Linux in some way is like religion. It’s free, goes by many different names, it’s changes over time to suit needs but ultimately it’s personal.
There will never be one “ultimate distribution”. It will always be a personal choice for the end user.
I love openSUSE, my hardcore Linux friends love Debian and BSD. Many others love Fedora but then a few prefer Ubuntu. It’s individual.
Source: Zoitz
Tags:
comic,
Funny,
Linux,
Open Source
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Posted: May 17th, 2008, 10:07am BST

Here are some screen shots to support my previous post about Fedora 9 “Sulphur”.
- GNUMAN.org
- The Coding Studio
Also, here’s a feature overview video I found on YouTube.
[www.youtube.com]
Tags:
desktop,
fedora,
fedora project,
Linux,
Open Source,
operating system,
release,
screenshots,
Software,
youtube
Related posts
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Posted: May 16th, 2008, 11:28pm BST

Good news to all Fedora fans. Fedora 9 codenamed “Sulphur” is out.
The new release comes with quite a few new features. To start off. Fedora 9 runs on the latest 2.6.25 kernel. There’s a new package management system included called “Packgeit” which uses Yum for it’s backend. Gnome Desktop 2.22 and KDE 4.03 are the desktop managers to choose from. Firefox 3 Beta 5 is the browser of choice this time and to top it all the new opensource version of Java “OpenJDK” is part of the new features. See the full summary here.
Feel like taking the new Fedora 9 “Sulphur” for a spin? Well, you could grab the install DVD/CDs iso files via bittorrent or direct download. The other alternative would be to download the Gnome Live DVD or the KDE live DVD. Go to the download page.
Source: Fedora Project
Tags:
desktop,
fedora,
fedora project,
Linux,
Open Source,
operating system,
release,
Software
Related posts
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Posted: May 9th, 2008, 1:53am BST

OpenOffice.org 3 Beta is out. The Beta is available to all those who wish to test, evaluate and report bugs about the next major release scheduled to be released in September.
The new release is packed with tones of new improvements. See the full feature list.
- New “Start Centre”.
- New icons.
- Zoom capabilities.
- Improved spreadsheet features. Columns now increased from 256 to 1024.
- Support for ODF 1.2.
- Support for Office 2007, 2008 document files.
OpenOffice.org 3 Beta is currently available for MS-Windows, GNU/Linux, Mac OS X and OpenSolaris. Head on over to the download page to grab your copy.
Source: OpenOffice.org
Tags:
beta,
beta release,
office suite,
Open Source,
openoffice,
Software,
Sun
Related posts
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Posted: April 22nd, 2008, 7:28am BST
Here’s a list of 100 popular opensource applications. From audio editing to 3d graphics, there’s an application out there for everyone.
The list comes in handy for those new to Linux. Moving to Linux has never been easy for Windows users. The major reason being applications. Hopefully the list will make that transition smoother ans give them a reason not to go back to Windows

My favorites will always be Linux, MySQL and PHP.
Source: Top 100 of the Best (Useful) OpenSource Applications
Tags:
Linux,
Open Source,
Software
Related posts
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Posted: April 14th, 2008, 10:34pm BST
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Posted: March 18th, 2008, 7:16pm GMT
Looking for an opensource project to work on? Look no further because
Fedora is accepted as a
mentoring organization for
Google Summer of Code 2008. Check out
our project ideas page. Talk to
our mentors. Discuss
your project ideas with us.
I have proposed two project ideas, and I am looking for interested students to work on it:
SystemTap is an instrumentation tool that simplifies the gathering of information about the running
Linux kernel, so that it can be further analyzed for
performance or functional issues. The
first project involves extending
bootchart to support SystemTap and XML and to explore additional metrics that would make performance analysis and virtualization more useful. The
second project involves writing a graphical tool for visualizing information gathered using SystemTap, in real-time, so that anomalies can be easily identified. For more information, read the
Ideas for Student Projects for 2008 page.
Tip: put a pencil line through the weeks March 18-31, and make sure you read the GSoC 2008 FAQ thoroughly. The deadline for student application is April 1, 2008, 00:00 UTC, so make sure you participate early.
Have fun!
Technorati tags: fedora, gsoc, gsoc2008, linux, opensource, systemtap, summercoding, ideas, mentoring
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Posted: February 16th, 2008, 1:44am GMT
[video.google.com]
PlexyDesk is the latest project to come out of Sri Lanka. The project team consists of a group of Sri Lankan developers and the project is only a couple of weeks old.
PlexyDesk is a Desktop but not a full desktop environment like KDE and Gnome. The goal for Plexydesk is to simplify and improve the desktop experience by by rendering your desktop workspace and optimally organizing your information thought it support for multi touch screens. Plexdesk will run on top of both KDE and Gnome.
Even though Plexydesk is well within it’s infant state the team has already managed to come up with a working model to show the world. Plexy glass was even shown to Mr. Ricard Stallman during his recent visit to Sri Lanka.
The project team is actively looking for help with the project so if you have any skills don’t hesitate to join the team. What are the looking for?
Source: PlexyDesk
Tags:
desktop environment,
Linux,
Open Source,
Software,
sri lanka
Related posts

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Posted: January 14th, 2008, 9:11pm GMT

Switched over from Math Comment Spam Protection to reCAPTCHA. Spam has still been coming in despite the Math Comment Spam Protection plugin. I decided to take reCAPTCHA for a spin for a few weeks. Hopefully it helps.
What is reCAPTCHA?
You need a CAPTCHA differentiate human from computers. There are many other CAPTCHA programs available today, from numbers to whole phrases. Almost every website with registration, comments or basically any sort of forms implement some kind of CAPTCHA to keep spam bots at bay.
I chose reCAPTHA because it’s CAPTCHA function not only stops spam but also helps in the digitizing of books from the internet archive. It does this by adding OCR unrecognized words into it’s CAPTCHA images for users to solve. Sometimes the CAPTCHA gets pretty scrambled and can be hard to read. To aid users an additional word gets added to the CAPTCHA image which has been previously solved. A user normally only needs to get the solved word correct, the unrecognized word will be compared against answers from other users and the most accurate one then gets picked.
You can get the reCAPTCHA WordPress plugin here.
Source: reCAPTCHA
Tags:
Internet,
Open Source,
plugin,
spam filtering service,
WordPress
Related posts
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One of the changes made in Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon is Compiz enabled by default on installation. However the Compiz desktop effect setting are modest at best when enabled out-from-the-box in Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon.
How to Customize Compiz effect in Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon
From Desktop, go to Applications->Add/Remove..., search for 'compiz' and then install the CompizConfig utilities.

CLI lover might want to "sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager".

To customize Compiz effects, just go to System->Preference, and select Advance Desktop Effects Settings.

There you go, a simple guide how to enable Compiz setting manager for Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon). From here, you can add and remove compiz effects according to your needs and processing power budget. Hope you'll find it useful !
Tags: ubuntu, debian, compiz, linux, opensource, desktop, effects, graphics, opengl, glx

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Posted: October 26th, 2007, 8:29pm BST
One of the changes made in Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon is Compiz enabled by default on installation. However the Compiz desktop effect setting are modest at best when enabled out-from-the-box in Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon.
How to Customize Compiz effect in Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon
From Desktop, go to Applications->Add/Remove..., search for 'compiz' and then install the CompizConfig utilities.

CLI lover might want to "sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager".

To customize Compiz effects, just go to System->Preference, and select Advance Desktop Effects Settings.

There you go, a simple guide how to enable Compiz setting manager for Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon). From here, you can add and remove compiz effects according to your needs and processing power budget. Hope you'll find it useful !
Tags: ubuntu, debian, compiz, linux, opensource, desktop, effects, graphics, opengl, glx
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Posted: October 12th, 2007, 11:37am BST
I just found out from Brandon Holtsclaw’s blog that he started a project named UbuntuWire for the benefit of Ubuntu users.

UbuntuWire is a specialized Ubuntu search engine which can help you find information related to Ubuntu operating system quickly without having to wade through countless unrelated websites on the internet. The search engine is powered by by Google Custom search and only takes result from reliable/official Ubuntu websites.
Alternatively you could try Uboontu which performs the exact same functionality as UbuntuWire but with different UI presentation.
Hope that would help you shorten your work when you’re searching for Ubuntu related information.
Tags: ubuntu, debian.linux, opensource, open source, gutsy, gutsy gibbon, howto, guide
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I just found out from Brandon Holtsclaw's blog that he started a project named UbuntuWire for the benefit of Ubuntu users.

UbuntuWire is a specialized Ubuntu search engine which can help you find information related to Ubuntu operating system quickly without having to wade through countless unrelated websites on the internet. The search engine is powered by by Google Custom search and only takes result from reliable/official Ubuntu websites.
Alternatively you could try Uboontu which performs the exact same functionality as UbuntuWire but with different UI presentation.
Hope that would help you shorten your work when you're searching for Ubuntu related information.
Tags: ubuntu, debian.linux, opensource, open source, gutsy, gutsy gibbon, howto, guide

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The new release of Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) is just around the corner! It comes with a load of new features including :
- Cool desktop effects with Compiz support out from the box
- New Printing Service (Automatically setup connected printer)
- Integrated Desktop Search with Tracker
- Graphical X configuration tool, supports system with dual monitor
- Fast User Switching
- Latest XOrg and GNOME version
With all these new features and latest softwares from repositories, I think it makes no sense not to upgrade to Gutsy Gibbon unless if you don't have a fast internet connection or way too crazy to upgrade.
How to upgrade to Gutsy Gibbon
Upgrading to Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon is painless. You only need to press "Alt-F2" from the desktop to launch the "Run Application" dialog, and type "gksu update-manager -c".

You will the be presented with this dialog

Press Upgrade and sit back, grab a cup of coffee while your Ubuntu operating system is being upgraded to Gutsy Gibbon.

That's all, happy upgrading!
Note that Gutsy Gibbon upgrades will only be available on or after 18 October 2007, so stay tuned!
Tags: ubuntu, linux, debian, opensource, feisty, gutsy, gutsy gibbon, feisty fawn

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Posted: October 8th, 2007, 12:10pm BST
The new release of Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) is just around the corner! It comes with a load of new features including :
- Cool desktop effects with Compiz support out from the box
- New Printing Service (Automatically setup connected printer)
- Integrated Desktop Search with Tracker
- Graphical X configuration tool, supports system with dual monitor
- Fast User Switching
- Latest XOrg and GNOME version
With all these new features and latest softwares from repositories, I think it makes no sense not to upgrade to Gutsy Gibbon unless if you don’t have a fast internet connection or way too crazy to upgrade.
How to upgrade to Gutsy Gibbon
Upgrading to Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon is painless. You only need to press “Alt-F2″ from the desktop to launch the “Run Application” dialog, and type “gksu update-manager -c”.

You will the be presented with this dialog

Press Upgrade and sit back, grab a cup of coffee while your Ubuntu operating system is being upgraded to Gutsy Gibbon.

That’s all, happy upgrading!
Note that Gutsy Gibbon upgrades will only be available on or after 18 October 2007, so stay tuned!
Tags: ubuntu, linux, debian, opensource, feisty, gutsy, gutsy gibbon, feisty fawn
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Posted: September 30th, 2007, 2:01pm BST
A friend of mine write an interesting post which shows me how to backup hard drive image directly over network using Linux CLI only environment with the use of netcat.
Refer to his post for more information : Backing Up Drive Images Over The Network
Tags: linux, backup, opensource, netcat, network, security, howto, guide, unix
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Posted: September 28th, 2007, 1:32pm BST
Now you can open and read documents written in the notorious Microsoft Office OpenXML (*.docx) with OpenOffice.org OpenXML Translator.
What you need to do is download the OpenXML translator from GetDeb.net and install it in your Ubuntu Linux operating system.
Your OpenOffice.org application should be able to read documents files in *.docx format after this. Note that you need to restart your OpenOffice.org Writer if you can’t see the Microsoft Office 2007 OpenXML option under the Load/Save dialog.
Guide for other Linux distribution can be found here - How to open Microsoft OpenXML docx documents in OpenOffice
Tags: openoffice, openoffice.org, microsoft, openxml, open source, open standard, office, microsoft office, ubuntu, linux
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It is always a good idea to create a limited guest user account when you are sharing the computer with multiple users. This is to prevent accidental (or intentional) tampering of system configuration which can prevent your Ubuntu Linux operating system from running properly.
Here’s how to setup a limited guest account for your Ubuntu Linux operating system. This guide assumes you are adding a guest account user for your children to play with.
How to Add a Limited User Account
1. From Desktop, go to System, Administration and select “Users and Groups”.
2. You will be shown with user settings dialog. Click “Add User” button
3. Fill in the new user details

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Posted: September 27th, 2007, 10:39am BST
It is always a good idea to create a limited guest user account when you are sharing the computer with multiple users. This is to prevent accidental (or intentional) tampering of system configuration which can prevent your Ubuntu Linux operating system from running properly.
Here’s how to setup a limited guest account for your Ubuntu Linux operating system. This guide assumes you are adding a guest account user for your children to play with.
How to Add a Limited User Account
1. From Desktop, go to System, Administration and select “Users and Groups”.
2. You will be shown with user settings dialog. Click “Add User” button
3. Fill in the new user details
4. You can grant the appropriate privilege on in the “User Privilege” tab.
Note by assigning privileges, you can fine-tune user account rights to use certain application in your operating system. For example you may prevent users from messing up with internet connection by preventing him/her to access modem, and so on.
Conclusion
Ubuntu provides the facility to create limited (and unprivileged) user account for conveniences in day-to-day Desktop experience. By creating users with limited privilege, you can prevent other users from messing up with your operating system configuration while giving them the freedom of using their own Desktop and workspace.
Tags: ubuntu, debian, security, linux, opensource, open source, gnome, guide, howto
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I found another great free and open source software (FOSS) which lets me track satellites location orbiting around earth. The software is named GPredict for its capability to predict satellites orbit and footprint on the sky.
My first impression of this software itself makes me go wow, as the software is able to track known satellites path around the earth which includes GPS satellites, Weather Satellites, Iridium satellites, geostationary,military and satellites used for scientific purpose.
GPredict-ing GPS Satellites
To test the accuracy of GPredict, I whipped out a GPS-capable device which runs Garmin Que navigation software. The Garmin device has an informative screen which represent GPS satellites visible on the sky according to their PRN id.
Then I created a module on GPredict which tracks those satellites. The GPredict results seems to tally with the Garmin Que results! Moreover GPredict is able to tell GPS satellites that Garmin Que has missed on its initial sweeps, which then appears on the Que screen shortly after.
Predicting Satellite Pass
GPredict also able to tell when certain satellites will pass over a designated area, it also able to estimate the satellite visibility duration — a valueable information if you’re into satellite hunting or are using satellites to communicate.
GPredict Screenshot
GPredict Downloads
GPredict is licensed under the GNU General Public License and can be downloaded from its official website : Groundstation GPredict.
A Microsoft Windows port is available from GPredict Sourceforge project page.
GPredict is also available in the Debian and Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon / Feisty Fawn apt-get repository.
ps: You can also view the location of MEASAT-1, MEASAT-2 astro satellites, though it is rather pointless to track since both satellites are positioned in a geostationary orbit.
Tags: gps, satellites, linux, opensource, open source, feisty fawn, gutsy, ubuntu, debian, ham, hamradio, foss, gnu gpl

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Posted: September 18th, 2007, 11:59am BST
I found another great free and open source software (FOSS) which lets me track satellites location orbiting around earth. The software is named GPredict for its capability to predict satellites orbit and footprint on the sky.
My first impression of this software itself makes me go wow, as the software is able to track known satellites path around the earth which includes GPS satellites, Weather Satellites, Iridium satellites, geostationary,military and satellites used for scientific purpose.
GPredict-ing GPS Satellites
To test the accuracy of GPredict, I whipped out a GPS-capable device which runs Garmin Que navigation software. The Garmin device has an informative screen which represent GPS satellites visible on the sky according to their PRN id.
Then I created a module on GPredict which tracks those satellites. The GPredict results seems to tally with the Garmin Que results! Moreover GPredict is able to tell GPS satellites that Garmin Que has missed on its initial sweeps, which then appears on the Que screen shortly after.
Predicting Satellite Pass
GPredict also able to tell when certain satellites will pass over a designated area, it also able to estimate the satellite visibility duration — a valueable information if you’re into satellite hunting or are using satellites to communicate.
GPredict Screenshot
GPredict Downloads
GPredict is licensed under the GNU General Public License and can be downloaded from its official website : Groundstation GPredict.
A Microsoft Windows port is available from GPredict Sourceforge project page.
GPredict is also available in the Debian and Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon / Feisty Fawn apt-get repository.
ps: You can also view the location of MEASAT-1, MEASAT-2 astro satellites, though it is rather pointless to track since both satellites are positioned in a geostationary orbit.
Tags: gps, satellites, linux, opensource, open source, feisty fawn, gutsy, ubuntu, debian, ham, hamradio, foss, gnu gpl
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One of my blog readers posted a feedback on my previous post regarding Hewlett Packard open source printer driver.
I dug around a little bit and found that Brother Industries, one of consumer printer and fax machine manufacturer seems to support Linux drivers by releasing GNU GPL drivers of its product.
Though I haven’t use any of Brother’s product, I heard many great reviews regarding its lasetjet printer (one of the review is from LiewCF about Brother HL-2070N which are sold in Malaysia).
This is a good news for an average computer user like me as it broadens my choice. I might consider getting Brothers laserjet too should I expand my businesses later (since HP Laser Printer cost a bomb to maintain).
Hardware vendors and manufacturers that releases free and open source drivers are not just doing the community a favor, they can have an advantage of attracting consumers to use their products regardless of their operating system choice.
Tags: printer, printers, opensource, gnu, gnu gpl, open source, laserjet, hp, officejet, linux

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Posted: September 17th, 2007, 11:25am BST
One of my blog readers posted a feedback on my previous post regarding Hewlett Packard open source printer driver.
I dug around a little bit and found that Brother Industries, one of consumer printer and fax machine manufacturer seems to support Linux drivers by releasing GNU GPL drivers of its product.
Though I haven’t use any of Brother’s product, I heard many great reviews regarding its lasetjet printer (one of the review is from LiewCF about Brother HL-2070N which are sold in Malaysia).
This is a good news for an average computer user like me as it broadens my choice. I might consider getting Brothers laserjet too should I expand my businesses later (since HP Laser Printer cost a bomb to maintain).
Hardware vendors and manufacturers that releases free and open source drivers are not just doing the community a favor, they can have an advantage of attracting consumers to use their products regardless of their operating system choice.
Tags: printer, printers, opensource, gnu, gnu gpl, open source, laserjet, hp, officejet, linux
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This serves as a continuity from my previous post, I got myself a new and flexible Printer - HP Officejet 5680 All in One.
HP Officejet All-in-One Under Ubuntu
Its all seems rather easy at the way I left off, the printer is fully functioning by just plugging it to my Ubuntu pc, the scanner works well without I having to do anything special, the phone is fully functioning (yeah it is included with the printer) and I am able to send and receive fax without a hitch, something that I cant do without installing 350MB of companion application (half of it was crapware) under WIndows Vista.
Everything worked, what left to do?
What left to do is figuring out how can I send fax directly from Ubuntu (or other Linux base operating system) using only digital files (*.txt, *.pdf, *.ps, *.jpeg), so I don’t have to print those files and fax them one by one anymore.
HP Linux Imaging and Printing project
Through googling, I found that Hewlett Packard (HP) has published open source software tool to deal with their printers. Free and Open Source drivers and printer-specific application directly from manufacturer, which is very cool!
Fortunately Ubuntu already installed HPLIP tools by default with CUPS in my machine. The next step that I should take is to run ‘hp-setup’ as root to configure my printer port and run the ‘hp-sendfax’ application to send the faxes.
Both of these tool requires python-qt3 package which is available from Ubuntu software repository.
Now I can fax my pdf documents directly without having to print them first, a huge saving over ink and paper cost.
Conclusion
If you are planning to get a new printer, then I would suggest you get a HP printer. Not only because HP printers are reliable, but they also comes with Free and Open Source drivers and applications for the Linux based operating system. Well that’s a good reason to get HP printers.
Please visit HPLIP project website for more information about HP printers support under Linux based operating system.
Tags: hp, hewlett packard, printer, linux, opensource, ubuntu, foss, drivers, hardware, scanner, officejet

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Posted: September 16th, 2007, 12:33pm BST
This serves as a continuity from my previous post, I got myself a new and flexible Printer - HP Officejet 5680 All in One.
HP Officejet All-in-One Under Ubuntu
Its all seems rather easy at the way I left off, the printer is fully functioning by just plugging it to my Ubuntu pc, the scanner works well without I having to do anything special, the phone is fully functioning (yeah it is included with the printer) and I am able to send and receive fax without a hitch, something that I cant do without installing 350MB of companion application (half of it was crapware) under WIndows Vista.
Everything worked, what left to do?
What left to do is figuring out how can I send fax directly from Ubuntu (or other Linux base operating system) using only digital files (*.txt, *.pdf, *.ps, *.jpeg), so I don’t have to print those files and fax them one by one anymore.
HP Linux Imaging and Printing project
Through googling, I found that Hewlett Packard (HP) has published open source software tool to deal with their printers. Free and Open Source drivers and printer-specific application directly from manufacturer, which is very cool!
Fortunately Ubuntu already installed HPLIP tools by default with CUPS in my machine. The next step that I should take is to run ‘hp-setup’ as root to configure my printer port and run the ‘hp-sendfax’ application to send the faxes.
Both of these tool requires python-qt3 package which is available from Ubuntu software repository.
Now I can fax my pdf documents directly without having to print them first, a huge saving over ink and paper cost.

Conclusion
If you are planning to get a new printer, then I would suggest you get a HP printer. Not only because HP printers are reliable, but they also comes with Free and Open Source drivers and applications for the Linux based operating system. Well that’s a good reason to get HP printers.
Please visit HPLIP project website for more information about HP printers support under Linux based operating system.
Tags: hp, hewlett packard, printer, linux, opensource, ubuntu, foss, drivers, hardware, scanner, officejet
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Like to keep updated with the latest news from Ubuntu community ? Then I suggest you subscribed to Ubuntu Solar System Feeds available from Yahoo Pipes!
The pipe is a collection of various planet Ubuntu feeds including planet Ubuntu, Ubuntu Women, Ubuntu Brasil, Ubuntu-fr, and Ubuntu-nl. All feeds published through the pipe are presented in English language so you don’t need to worry about language barrier here.
If you’re a kind of person who likes to read the rants and ramblings of the Ubuntu community, then I suggest you subscribe it here : Ubuntu solar system
Tags: ubuntu, debian, linux, open source, feeds, news

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Posted: September 15th, 2007, 11:41pm BST
Like to keep updated with the latest news from Ubuntu community ? Then I suggest you subscribed to Ubuntu Solar System Feeds available from Yahoo Pipes!
The pipe is a collection of various planet Ubuntu feeds including planet Ubuntu, Ubuntu Women, Ubuntu Brasil, Ubuntu-fr, and Ubuntu-nl. All feeds published through the pipe are presented in English language so you don’t need to worry about language barrier here.
If you’re a kind of person who likes to read the rants and ramblings of the Ubuntu community, then I suggest you subscribe it here : Ubuntu solar system
Tags: ubuntu, debian, linux, open source, feeds, news
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Today is the third Saturday of September, and it is Software Freedom Day! SFD for short, is a day dedicated to educate public about software freedom and the benefits of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).
The objectives of Software Freedom Day are :
- to celebrate software freedom and the people behind it
- to foster a general understanding of software freedom, and encourage adoption of free software and open standards
- to promote constructive dialogue on responsibilities and rights in the information society
- to create more equal access to opportunities through the use of participatory technologies
- to be pragmatic, transparent, and responsible as an organisation
- to be inclusive of organizations and individuals that share our Vision
Let’s celebrate Software Freedom Day in Malaysia
The SFD is going to be celebrated in two locations in Malaysia; Kuala Lumpur Where it will be held in KL Central.
There will be a lot of activities tomorrow, including Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) demonstration, CD giveaways and FOSS advocacy. You can also have your USB drive loaded with Open Source software for free at the SFD local booth.
Come and celebrate Software Freedom Day with our local Malaysian Team there!
Tags: open source, sfd, software freedom day, opensource, foss, linux, ubuntu

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Posted: September 14th, 2007, 2:27am BST
Today is the third Saturday of September, and it is Software Freedom Day! SFD for short, is a day dedicated to educate public about software freedom and the benefits of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).
The objectives of Software Freedom Day are :
- to celebrate software freedom and the people behind it
- to foster a general understanding of software freedom, and encourage adoption of free software and open standards
- to promote constructive dialogue on responsibilities and rights in the information society
- to create more equal access to opportunities through the use of participatory technologies
- to be pragmatic, transparent, and responsible as an organisation
- to be inclusive of organizations and individuals that share our Vision
Let’s celebrate Software Freedom Day in Malaysia
The SFD is going to be celebrated in two locations in Malaysia; Kuala Lumpur Where it will be held in KL Central.
There will be a lot of activities tomorrow, including Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) demonstration, CD giveaways and FOSS advocacy. You can also have your USB drive loaded with Open Source software for free at the SFD local booth.
Come and celebrate Software Freedom Day with our local Malaysian Team there!
Tags: open source, sfd, software freedom day, opensource, foss, linux, ubuntu
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Posted: September 3rd, 2007, 7:30pm BST
As disk storage capacity increases over time, more and more Microsoft Windows user prefer to choose NTFS over FAT32 as their primary filesystem as the latter is inefficient in handling large storage capacity.
Unfortunately by default, Ubuntu only mounts NTFS volume as read-only, preventing users from transferring files between their Linux and Windows partitions.
How to mount writable NTFS partitions
However now you can easily mount writable NTFS partitions easily with ntfs-3g filesystem driver. Here’s how to do it under Ubuntu.
- First from the Desktop, go to System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager. Search for ntfs-3g and install it. Close synaptic once it finished with installation.
- The next step would involve editing /etc/fstab file to use ntfs-3g filesystem driver. From the Desktop, press ALT-F2, type “gksudo gedit /etc/fstab”
- Find lines with ‘ntfs’ and replace it with ‘ntfs-3g’ and save the file
- Remount all ntfs partitions to test the modification, the easiest way to do it is to reboot the computer and try copying file into ntfs partition using the default Gnome file browser (Nautilus). You’re done!
Tags: ntfs, filesystem, windows, opensource, linux, ubuntu, gutsy, feisty, feisty fawn, gutsy gibbon, open source
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Posted: August 15th, 2007, 2:40pm BST
Here’s the way to configure Ubuntu to autostart your favorite application upon startup (like Microsoft Windows ‘Startup’ folder). This how to assume you are using the default GNOME windows manager.
- From the Desktop, Go to System > Preferences > Session,
- Select Startup Programs, click “New”, and type in the command of your favourite application. Close the tab.
- The application selected in the Startup Program dialog should automatically starts the next time you logged in your computer.
Why do you need Startup Programs ?
For convenience purposes. with Startup programs, you don’t have to manually launch your favourite application each time you logged into your Desktop environment which can become very laborious.
This is very handy if you have a list of application that you need to start each time you log in to your Desktop such as Gaim/Pidgin, Ekiga, Feedreader and/or some application that you can’t live without.
With Startup program, you can save your time from having to start these applications manually and save yourself from forgetting to start essential application each time you boot up your computer.
Tags: ubuntu, debian, open source, opensource, feisty fawn, gutsy gibbon
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Posted: July 25th, 2007, 10:51am BST
Picture this, you’re running a lot of process that consumes a lot of memory that even your 2GB RAM is running out faster than you can blink your eye. Suddenly your machine slows down to a crawl, then it begin to hang, and all you can do is pray that you wont lose any valuable data should one of the process be killed.
You realised now that you should have allocate more space to that dwarfish 100MB swap partition, seems like it is too late as you need to repartition your hard disk to resize the swap partition to avoid this problem when running memory intensive program. All is lost…
Enter the Swap file…
Actually you can substitute a swap partition with swap files if you need more swap. What you need to do is create an empty file with the size of the swap that you preferred (for example 500MB) and add this information to your fstab.
How to add more Linux Swap with Swap File
Assuming you want to put it in “/”, Create an empty 500MB file
$ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swap.img bs=1024k count=512
Format it as a swap file
$ sudo mkswap /swap.img
Add it to your running Linux system
$ sudo swapon /swap.img
Optionally you can add /swap.img to fstab for automatic swap activation.
$ sudo gedit /etc/fstab
Add this line at the end of the file
/swap.img none swap sw 0 0
Run “free -m” command to verify that you’ve added the newly created swap to your Linux based operating system.
Hope that helps!
Tags: linux, ubuntu, debian, opensource, open source, fstab, swap
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Posted: July 23rd, 2007, 4:35pm BST
Users of Ubuntu Linux are probably already accustomed to Ubuntu update screen which appears when there are security or critical updates to the operating system.
A typical software update screen will display a list of softwares that require updates along with their release number. What most people would probably overlooked is the “Description of update” below the the list. Clicking it will reveal the description of the updates along with a brief explanation about security hole or bug that it fixes.
The expanded description also provide hyperlinks to the patch website which contains security advisory references to the aforementioned patch. This information would help users understand which bugs/security hole that has been eliminated with the current updates.
Tags: ubuntu, security, debian, open source, opensource, linux, apt-get, synaptic, feisty fawn, feisty
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Posted: June 17th, 2007, 1:10pm BST
If you are searching for any games playable on Linux platform, then stop. I’ve found a website which list freely available Linux games for you to kill your time with. The website provides you with the game title along with its genre and the URL to download the Linux version of the game (most of it available in Ubuntu Linux repository).
So if you’re a kind of guy who like to play games a lot, then I suggest you pay The Linux Gamers’ Game List a visit for a comprehensive list of Linux games.
Tags: Linux, ubuntu, games, open source, opensource, free, freeware
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Posted: June 15th, 2007, 2:33am BST by mypapit
If you are a Linux enthusiast, then one of the thing you might consider when buying a new hardware is its compatibility with your operating system.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many dealers out there that know whether their products are compatible under GNU/Linux or otherwise. This may lead to frustration when you’ve to spend a lot of time searching for a particular hardware that can work under Linux.
Luckily there are websites which maintains a list of Linux supported hardware. These websites are :
Although some of the lists are maintained by a particular vendor, the list can be use as a guideline when buying hardware for other Linux distro too.
Please note that the lists provided here are not always up-to-date with the latest Linux kernel . You are still encouraged to find more information for newer hardware from Linux support forums and newsgroups.
Tags: linux, windows, computers, open source, hardware, ubuntu, debian

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Posted: June 15th, 2007, 2:33am BST
If you are a Linux enthusiast, then one of the thing you might consider when buying a new hardware is its compatibility with your operating system.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many dealers out there that know whether their products are compatible under GNU/Linux or otherwise. This may lead to frustration when you’ve to spend a lot of time searching for a particular hardware that can work under Linux.
Luckily there are websites which maintains a list of Linux supported hardware. These websites are :
Although some of the lists are maintained by a particular vendor, the list can be use as a guideline when buying hardware for other Linux distro too.
Please note that the lists provided here are not always up-to-date with the latest Linux kernel . You are still encouraged to find more information for newer hardware from Linux support forums and newsgroups.
Tags: linux, windows, computers, open source, hardware, ubuntu, debian
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Posted: June 5th, 2007, 2:48pm BST by mypapit
I’ve been a SWL for a while now since I got my hand on my dad’s old two-way ham radio. Since then, I’ve become interested to learn morse code after listening it over the amateur radio band in my place.
After spending time searching for morse code training program, I settled on the three best application I can find inside Ubuntu repositories, and they are : aldo, cw and morse-x.
aldo
aldo is perhaps the best morse training application for Linux (unix-like) platform. It can train you to recognise morse code beeps with classic Block method or the more recommended Koch method.
Aldo keep tracks of your performance by gauging your accuracy of identifying the correct morse code keyed during training sessions. Aldo is also capable of generating random north american amateur radio callsign for training purposes, which is essential when you’re communicating/listening on CW mode.
[www.nongnu.org]
cw
cw is another morse code training application which can convert characters entered from standard input (stdin) to morse code. The software package also includes ‘cwgen’ utility which generates random word for morse code practice.
cw can also be use to convert text files into morse code beeps to be sent over voice communication channels which is useful if you want to pretend that *you’re* the one that keyed in the code
[linux.maruhn.com]
morse / morse-x
Unlike training application mentioned above, morse-x concentrates on morse code sending. As sending and receiving morse code is a different experience altogether, morse-x is the cheapest and easiest way to properly train yourself on morse code sending when you’re transmitting over the air.
[packages.ubuntu.com]
Bonus: codegroup
‘codegroup’ is an interesting application in which it enables you to transfer binary files using standard morse code. This is accomplished by converting binary files into five-letter word message string which is easily transmitted using morse code. Each of these encoded files is accompanied by 16-bit CRC to ensure the transmitted file can be decoded correctly after it has been transmitted over the air.
[www.fourmilab.ch]
Conclusion
Overall, I find those application is useful for me to learn morse code. I dedicate an hour per day for morse code training using the Koch method, so far it has been interesting as I’m able to recognize some alphabets from random morse code tranmission. I’m hoping that I could master morse code so I could use my skills to sit for RAE and obtain my own amateur radio license.
codegroup sounds interesting for transfering small/encrypted binary files over ham radio though :p
Tags: morse, linux, ubuntu, opensource, open source, morse code

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Posted: June 5th, 2007, 2:48pm BST
I’ve been a SWL for a while now since I got my hand on my dad’s old two-way ham radio. Since then, I’ve become interested to learn morse code after listening it over the amateur radio band in my place.
After spending time searching for morse code training program, I settled on the three best application I can find inside Ubuntu repositories, and they are : aldo, cw and morse-x.
aldo
aldo is perhaps the best morse training application for Linux (unix-like) platform. It can train you to recognise morse code beeps with classic Block method or the more recommended Koch method.
Aldo keep tracks of your performance by gauging your accuracy of identifying the correct morse code keyed during training sessions. Aldo is also capable of generating random north american amateur radio callsign for training purposes, which is essential when you’re communicating/listening on CW mode.
[www.nongnu.org]
cw
cw is another morse code training application which can convert characters entered from standard input (stdin) to morse code. The software package also includes ‘cwgen’ utility which generates random word for morse code practice.
cw can also be use to convert text files into morse code beeps to be sent over voice communication channels which is useful if you want to pretend that *you’re* the one that keyed in the code
[linux.maruhn.com]
morse / morse-x
Unlike training application mentioned above, morse-x concentrates on morse code sending. As sending and receiving morse code is a different experience altogether, morse-x is the cheapest and easiest way to properly train yourself on morse code sending when you’re transmitting over the air.
[packages.ubuntu.com]
Bonus: codegroup
‘codegroup’ is an interesting application in which it enables you to transfer binary files using standard morse code. This is accomplished by converting binary files into five-letter word message string which is easily transmitted using morse code. Each of these encoded files is accompanied by 16-bit CRC to ensure the transmitted file can be decoded correctly after it has been transmitted over the air.
[www.fourmilab.ch]
Conclusion
Overall, I find those application is useful for me to learn morse code. I dedicate an hour per day for morse code training using the Koch method, so far it has been interesting as I’m able to recognize some alphabets from random morse code tranmission. I’m hoping that I could master morse code so I could use my skills to sit for RAE and obtain my own amateur radio license.
codegroup sounds interesting for transfering small/encrypted binary files over ham radio though :p
Tags: morse, linux, ubuntu, opensource, open source, morse code
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Posted: May 17th, 2007, 1:29pm BST
Some of my friends aren’t aware that the latest Debian relese (Etch - 4.0) includes an optional GUI installer. This option can be activated at the CDROM boot prompt by entering ‘installgui’ option.


While the GUI installer is not particularly impressive when compared with modern GNU/Linux distributions, it is nice to know that the Debian team has taken such effort to code one. For the time being, the new Debian gui Installer only available on x86 platform as is still marked as an experimental feature.
Tags: debian, opensource, open source, linux, livecd, installer, ubuntu, etch
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The moment that we have been waiting for is here. Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn was finally released today (19 April 2007), despite rumors saying that the release might has to be delayed for a few days.
It seems everybody want a piece of Feisty Fawn right now, the mirrors are dead slow, one can only guess how many terabytes are being transfered this night alone. I would suggest to use the p2p bittorrent solution to download the iso file.
But the speed doesn’t bother me that much compared to the Ubuntu official website which seems ‘weird’ to me after the release.
Take a look at the ‘before’ and ‘after’ screenshot I took :
Before (on 18 April 2007)

After (on 19 April 2007)

Seems like somebody is in a hurry to update Ubuntu.com website or was it a work by a professional cracker?
Anyway, enjoy your Feisty Fawn download :)
Updates : As of 0200 UTC (20 April 2007), the Ubuntu website is back to using the default layout again :)
Tags: ubuntu, linux, feisty, feisty fawn, open source, distro

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Posted: April 19th, 2007, 10:25pm BST
The moment that we have been waiting for is here. Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn was finally released today (19 April 2007), despite rumors saying that the release might has to be delayed for a few days.
It seems everybody want a piece of Feisty Fawn right now, the mirrors are dead slow, one can only guess how many terabytes are being transfered this night alone. I would suggest to use the p2p bittorrent solution to download the iso file.
But the speed doesn’t bother me that much compared to the Ubuntu official website which seems ‘weird’ to me after the release.
Take a look at the ‘before’ and ‘after’ screenshot I took :
Before (on 18 April 2007)

After (on 19 April 2007)

Seems like somebody is in a hurry to update Ubuntu.com website or was it a work by a professional cracker?
Anyway, enjoy your Feisty Fawn download :)
Updates : As of 0200 UTC (20 April 2007), the Ubuntu website is back to using the default layout again :)
Tags: ubuntu, linux, feisty, feisty fawn, open source, distro
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surface from Linux by Examples has written two ‘getting started for SVN’ articles that I find it interesting and useful for beginners.
The article covers important SVN operation (checkout,diff,update,import, check in) necessary for managing a software project.
Here’s the link to the article :
What is SVN (Subversion)
SVN or subversion is an open source tool used for revision control system similar to CVS. It is widely use by popular open source project such as Apache, KDE, Gnome, Python and Samba as their version control program.
Open Source repository site like SourceForge and Google Code Project Hosting provides SVN hosting for free and open source project.
Visit SVN (Subversion) Official website for more information about the system.
Tags: svn, subversion, cvs, version control, opensource, open source

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Posted: April 18th, 2007, 5:29pm BST
surface from Linux by Examples has written two ‘getting started for SVN’ articles that I find it interesting and useful for beginners.
The article covers important SVN operation (checkout,diff,update,import, check in) necessary for managing a software project.
Here’s the link to the article :
What is SVN (Subversion)
SVN or subversion is an open source tool used for revision control system similar to CVS. It is widely use by popular open source project such as Apache, KDE, Gnome, Python and Samba as their version control program.
Open Source repository site like SourceForge and Google Code Project Hosting provides SVN hosting for free and open source project.
Visit SVN (Subversion) Official website for more information about the system.
Tags: svn, subversion, cvs, version control, opensource, open source
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The much anticipated Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 (Etch) was finally released on 8th April 2007.
The release was unofficially available since November last year but some technicalities prevented the project from making an official release announcement until all architectures it supported is of release quality.
Among softwares included in Debian Etch are :
- GNOME 2.14
- OpenOffice.org 2.0.4
- GIMP 2.2.13
- Iceweasel (Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.3)
- Icedove (Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5)
- PostgreSQL 8.1.8
- MySQL 5.0.32
- GCC 4.1.1
- Linux kernel 2.6.18
- Apache 2.2.3
- Samba 3.0.24
- Python 2.4.4 and 2.5
Debian is one of the oldest GNU/Linux distribution project which is still active until today. Many of the newer Linux distribution (eg Ubuntu, mepis,knoppix) based their project on Debian codebase.
Debian has the largest collection of softwares and the widest machine architecture support compared to other distro.
Please visit the official Debian GNU/Linux project website to get more information about it.
Tags: debian, linux, distro, opensource, open source

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Posted: April 12th, 2007, 12:41am BST
The much anticipated Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 (Etch) was finally released on 8th April 2007.
The release was unofficially available since November last year but some technicalities prevented the project from making an official release announcement until all architectures it supported is of release quality.
Among softwares included in Debian Etch are :
- GNOME 2.14
- OpenOffice.org 2.0.4
- GIMP 2.2.13
- Iceweasel (Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.3)
- Icedove (Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5)
- PostgreSQL 8.1.8
- MySQL 5.0.32
- GCC 4.1.1
- Linux kernel 2.6.18
- Apache 2.2.3
- Samba 3.0.24
- Python 2.4.4 and 2.5
Debian is one of the oldest GNU/Linux distribution project which is still active until today. Many of the newer Linux distribution (eg Ubuntu, mepis,knoppix) based their project on Debian codebase.
Debian has the largest collection of softwares and the widest machine architecture support compared to other distro.
Please visit the official Debian GNU/Linux project website to get more information about it.
Tags: debian, linux, distro, opensource, open source
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A friend from #fakap asks me to create a dead simple FLV to 3gp batch converter for him to port youtube clips to mobile phone.
As a result I complied, and created flvto3gp bash script for the job.
Usage
Using it is simple, just run this script inside a directory full of FLV (or any video files supported by ffmpeg) and execute it using this command :
sh flvto3gp.sh *
The script will convert all video files to 3gp file format one by one. The script requires
ffmpeg in order to run.
Ubuntu users might have to refer to this post before using this utility : Enable mp3 and amr support in ffmpeg ( Ubuntu )
Tags: ubuntu, flv, linux, ffmpeg, open source

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Posted: April 10th, 2007, 1:49pm BST
A friend from #fakap asks me to create a dead simple FLV to 3gp batch converter for him to port youtube clips to mobile phone.
As a result I complied, and created flvto3gp bash script for the job.
Usage
Using it is simple, just run this script inside a directory full of FLV (or any video files supported by ffmpeg) and execute it using this command :
sh flvto3gp.sh *
The script will convert all video files to 3gp file format one by one. The script requires
ffmpeg in order to run.
Ubuntu users might have to refer to this post before using this utility : Enable mp3 and amr support in ffmpeg ( Ubuntu )
Tags: ubuntu, flv, linux, ffmpeg, open source
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Posted: April 9th, 2007, 12:45am BST by mypapit
Gaim the popular multiprotocol instant messenger client has changed its name to Pidgin recently. Their main reason for changing the project name because it has been plague by legal threats from AOL concerning the name of the project.
The project has also moved to a new website to pidgin.im with the old gaim website served as a pointer to the new project site.
Apart from that, the project will migrate its current version control to monotone from CVS (hosted by Sourceforge). The newly rebranded Pidgin team hasn’t disclosed the reason behind the migration of revision control system or why they chosen to use monotone instead of the more popular SVN.
Here’s the latest screenshot of Pidgin IM (formerly known as Gaim) :

About Pidgin (formerly known as gaim)
For those who don’t know, Pidgin/Gaim is a multiprotocol instant messenger which support popular Instant messenger network including Yahoo, MSN Messenger, Jabber, Google talk, AIM, ICQ and IRC.
More information about Gaim rebranding can be found here : Pidgin.im and Gaim Sourceforge website
p/s: Hopefully after this we can have the latest Pidgin 2.0 release as soon as possible since the project won’t be dragged down with the legal issues anymore.
Tags: gaim, pidgin, open source, instant messenger, yahoo messenger, linux , opensource, ym

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Posted: April 9th, 2007, 12:45am BST
Gaim the popular multiprotocol instant messenger client has changed its name to Pidgin recently. Their main reason for changing the project name because it has been plague by legal threats from AOL concerning the name of the project.
The project has also moved to a new website to pidgin.im with the old gaim website served as a pointer to the new project site.
Apart from that, the project will migrate its current version control to monotone from CVS (hosted by Sourceforge). The newly rebranded Pidgin team hasn’t disclosed the reason behind the migration of revision control system or why they chosen to use monotone instead of the more popular SVN.
Here’s the latest screenshot of Pidgin IM (formerly known as Gaim) :

About Pidgin (formerly known as gaim)
For those who don’t know, Pidgin/Gaim is a multiprotocol instant messenger which support popular Instant messenger network including Yahoo, MSN Messenger, Jabber, Google talk, AIM, ICQ and IRC.
More information about Gaim rebranding can be found here : Pidgin.im and Gaim Sourceforge website
p/s: Hopefully after this we can have the latest Pidgin 2.0 release as soon as possible since the project won’t be dragged down with the legal issues anymore.
Tags: gaim, pidgin, open source, instant messenger, yahoo messenger, linux , opensource, ym
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Posted: April 6th, 2007, 10:02pm BST
If you are running Wordpress below version 2.1.2, patch it immediately, it leads to SQL Injection Vulnerabilities. Here is my test before patch.
wp-injection.pl http://www.takizo.com/blog/xmlrpc.php xxxxx xxxxx 10
The usage is correct
[*] Trying Host http://www.takizo.com/blog/xmlrpc.php …
[+] The xmlrpc server seems to be working
——————–
Username for id = 1 is:–> 3
AN
Md5 hash for user: 3
AN
is: 3
AND post_id = 10 union al
——————–
Username for id = 2 is:–> 3
AN
Md5 hash for user: 3
AN
is: 3
AND post_id = 10 union al
Of course there are more I didn’t show la, just patch it! If you are lazy, this fellow can help you do it for free.
Tags: Wordpress, Open Source, SQL Injection, Vulnerable
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I forgot where I found this joke, but I find it funny when people use Unix command to relay jokes.
Code (bash)
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alias sex "updatedb; locate; talk; date; cd; strip; look; touch; finger; unzip; uptime; gawk; head; apt-get install condom; mount; fsck; gasp; more; yes; yes; yes; more; umount; apt-get remove –purge condom; make clean; sleep"
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p/s: this is one thing I like about Unix (or Linux), the users and developers are just having way too much fun hacking the platform!
Tags: unix, linux, make, open source, ubuntu, debian, fsck, apt-get

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Posted: March 24th, 2007, 11:27am GMT
I forgot where I found this joke, but I find it funny when people use Unix command to relay jokes.
Code (bash)
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alias sex "updatedb; locate; talk; date; cd; strip; look; touch; finger; unzip; uptime; gawk; head; apt-get install condom; mount; fsck; gasp; more; yes; yes; yes; more; umount; apt-get remove –purge condom; make clean; sleep"
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p/s: this is one thing I like about Unix (or Linux), the users and developers are just having way too much fun hacking the platform!
Tags: unix, linux, make, open source, ubuntu, debian, fsck, apt-get
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Posted: February 22nd, 2007, 9:55am GMT
I believe some of you have already read my blog and will summarize that I’m an Ubuntu user and advocator.
However, having said that doesn’t mean that I dont have things that I hate about Ubuntu, and they are :
- Windows manager (GNOME) is damn too slow compared with other distro
- Eats a lot of memory in desktop mode
- It has defective or near unusable packages (ie ffmpeg, scribus)
- Depends too much on internet connection for package installations and management
- Default installation does not include applications and codecs that I use most. I had to rely to the *internet* to get those apps installed (read above) (a small issue but an issue nevertheless)
Those are the 5 things that crossed my mind when I switched on my computer and use Ubuntu everyday. What’s yours?
Tags: ubuntu, debian, linux, opensource, distro
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I believe some of you have already read my blog and will summarize that I’m an Ubuntu user and advocator.
However, having said that doesn’t mean that I dont have things that I hate about Ubuntu, and they are :
- Windows manager (GNOME) is damn too slow compared with other distro
- Eats a lot of memory in desktop mode
- It has defective or near unusable packages (ie ffmpeg, scribus)
- Depends too much on internet connection for package installations and management
- Default installation does not include applications and codecs that I use most. I had to rely to the *internet* to get those apps installed (read above) (a small issue but an issue nevertheless)
Those are the 5 things that crossed my mind when I switched on my computer and use Ubuntu everyday. What’s yours?
Tags: ubuntu, debian, linux, opensource, distro

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Wordpress 2.0.9 has been release for the 2.0 branch.
Among the bugfixes introduced in this release are :
- Fixed RSS bug when %category% used in permalinks
- Eliminate PHP 5.2 error in cache.php
- fixed random bug in Comment code
- Eliminate Vulnerability in nonce AYS
Should I upgrade to Wordpress 2.0.9?
You should upgrade If you are using Wordpress 2.0.7 and below. There are reasons why people wouldn’t upgrade to the latest stable branch Wordpress 2.1. One thing is the plugins compatibility and the other thing is the technical restriction such as the the use of older mysql databases (3.23).
Users of Wordpress 2.1 need not to worry about this as you use a different branch of stable release.
Tags: wordpress, blogging, opensource, open source
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I’d like to share with you two great books I’ve read which motivates me in managing open source software projects.
These two books has taught me all the things I need to know about starting up a successful Free and Open Source Software project, best practices and how to handle the project properly.
Most importantly the books taught me how to use essential tools that helps me in the development of collaborative open source projects development.
Among the thing explained in the books are:
- Guide on starting Open Source Software Project
- Source Code Control (SVN,CVS)
- How to manage bug tracker and feature request
- Choosing an Open Source License
- How to setup discussion channel (mailing lists, IRC channel)
- Funding your project
- Managing Volunteers
- Managing Documentations effectively
- Sharing management and technical tasks
- Choosing Project Committers
For those who are interested to read these two great books, you can get them from here :
- Producting Open Source Software
- Producing Open Source Software (Mirror 1) f
- Open Source Messaging Application Development: Building and Extending Gaim (Expert’s Voice in Open Source)
Tags: open source, free software, foss, gpl, fsf, e-book, ebook
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Posted: February 16th, 2007, 3:31pm GMT
I’d like to share with you two great books I’ve read which motivates me in managing open source software projects.
These two books has taught me all the things I need to know about starting up a successful Free and Open Source Software project, best practices and how to handle the project properly.
Most importantly the books taught me how to use essential tools that helps me in the development of collaborative open source projects development.
Among the thing explained in the books are:
- Guide on starting Open Source Software Project
- Source Code Control (SVN,CVS)
- How to manage bug tracker and feature request
- Choosing an Open Source License
- How to setup discussion channel (mailing lists, IRC channel)
- Funding your project
- Managing Volunteers
- Managing Documentations effectively
- Sharing management and technical tasks
- Choosing Project Committers
For those who are interested to read these two great books, you can get them from here :
- Producting Open Source Software
- Producing Open Source Software (Mirror 1) f
- Open Source Messaging Application Development: Building and Extending Gaim (Expert’s Voice in Open Source)
Tags: open source, free software, foss, gpl, fsf, e-book, ebook
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I found this funny video clip from Ubuntu Video website. the clip is about an Automatic Cat Feeder powered by Ubuntu Linux.


Funny how this guy solve his problems by utilising excess hardware in this manner, creative indeed.
This inspires me to come up with simpler solution when I come accross such problem like this. Sometimes , the toughest problem does not always require an uber-1337 solution.
Tags: ubuntu, linux, diy, opensource, cat, cats, automatic, automation
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According to the announcement I read from Fedora devel lmailing list recently, Fedora project will not release Fedora Core and Extras anymore.
There will be no more distinction between the two repositories as both are will be combined and maintained by the community.
Fedora 7, the first release under this new move will have 28 new features to be added. Fedora 7 is schedule to be release on 26 April 2007
Tags: linux, fedora, fedora core, open source, opensource, distro, rpm, yum
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Posted: January 9th, 2007, 10:43pm GMT
According to the announcement I read from Fedora devel lmailing list recently, Fedora project will not release Fedora Core and Extras anymore.
There will be no more distinction between the two repositories as both are will be combined and maintained by the community.
Fedora 7, the first release under this new move will have 28 new features to be added. Fedora 7 is schedule to be release on 26 April 2007
Tags: linux, fedora, fedora core, open source, opensource, distro, rpm, yum
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Fedora Legacy Project - A community driven project that supports older releases of Fedora Core announced that it has stopped its support for Fedora Core 4 and earlier distros, much earlier than expected.
Currently, Fedora Core is one of the most popular Linux distro besides Ubuntu and OpenSuSE
The Project’s main objective is to provide critical and security bugs fix for end-of-life Fedora Core releases, effectively extending their support for a much longer time.
The Fedora Legacy Project however faces challenges to keep up with the relatively short support time provided by Fedora Core (around 6 to 9 months compared to 18 months from Ubuntu). What Fedora Core users need is longer support for the current release and the older release immediately after it.
It seems Fedora Core Legacy is unlikely to support older releases than Fedora Core 5 anymore, so it is advisable for users of older Fedora Core to upgrade their operating system to the latest release in order to receive critical patch and bugfix to avoid their system being exploited by malicious programs/crackers.
p/s: It is interesting to note that Ubuntu/Canonical is able provide such a relatively long support for their releases compared to average community supported GNU Linux distro.
It is still to be seen whether Ubuntu Dapper LTS is going to be supported up to 3-5 years after its release, but I’m confident that it will be supported.
[ Source ]
Tags: fedora core, fedora, red hat, linux, open source, distro, centos
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Posted: January 3rd, 2007, 5:45pm GMT
Fedora Legacy Project - A community driven project that supports older releases of Fedora Core announced that it has stopped its support for Fedora Core 4 and earlier distros, much earlier than expected.
Currently, Fedora Core is one of the most popular Linux distro besides Ubuntu and OpenSuSE
The Project’s main objective is to provide critical and security bugs fix for end-of-life Fedora Core releases, effectively extending their support for a much longer time.
The Fedora Legacy Project however faces challenges to keep up with the relatively short support time provided by Fedora Core (around 6 to 9 months compared to 18 months from Ubuntu). What Fedora Core users need is longer support for the current release and the older release immediately after it.
It seems Fedora Core Legacy is unlikely to support older releases than Fedora Core 5 anymore, so it is advisable for users of older Fedora Core to upgrade their operating system to the latest release in order to receive critical patch and bugfix to avoid their system being exploited by malicious programs/crackers.
p/s: It is interesting to note that Ubuntu/Canonical is able provide such a relatively long support for their releases compared to average community supported GNU Linux distro.
It is still to be seen whether Ubuntu Dapper LTS is going to be supported up to 3-5 years after its release, but I’m confident that it will be supported.
[ Source ]
Tags: fedora core, fedora, red hat, linux, open source, distro, centos
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Security focus has published information regarding Wordpress HTML Injection Vulnerability which may allow attackers to inject PHP code straight into your Wordpress blog.
This can lead the attackers do nasty things such as deleting your post, defacing your blog, dropping your entire post (read: delete all your post !) and other dangerous attack. This particular vulnerability affects all Wordpress release from 1.2.1 to 2.0.5, Wordpress 2.0.6 (currently in RC2) is not affected by this vulnerability.
Wordpress bloggers are advised to apply patch released from Wordpress team in order to secure their blog from malicious users.
Applying the patch is simple, all you need to do is download the zip archive from Wordpress Trac, unzip it and upload wp-admin folder to your Wordpress host, overwriting the old template.php file.
Thanks to Faizi for blogging about this.
[Source]
Tags: wordpress, open source, blogger, blogs, blogging, blog, security, exploits
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One of the things that I love about Ubuntu is it offers a wide choice of packages. Ranging from basic administration utilities (apt-get, yum,adduser, atop,cpuid) to Networking (apache2, 6tunnel, bind, xchat) and Games (nethack, ppracer, crack-attack).
The official software repository of the latest release of Ubuntu (Edgy Eft) has at least 20,231 packages, the number doesn’t include 3rd party repositories that offer restricted open source software such as lame, faad and libdvdcss.
Previously, I’ve use SUSE as my main distro. SUSE is slightly better than my first distro of choice, Mandrake/Mandriva (which was plague with rpm dependencies and stale packages), but it has certain limitation at that time mainly because it is still considered a comercial distribution and keeping up to date with the latest version of SUSE was a pain.
I’m not saying that SuSE is a lousy GNU/Linux distro, but it just doesn’t fit me well enough, and I found that SuSE lacks some packages that Mandrake/Mandriva offers.
I use SuSE until a friend recommend me to use Ubuntu as it is based on Debian GNU/Linux. Upon trying out Ubuntu, I found that it is an easy GNU/Linux distribution to use for me, an average desktop users.
apt-get does wonders in installing softwares from the internet and performing software and security updates. Moreover, Ubuntu has a predictable release cycle that I could really depend on.
I know some people would argue that shorter release cycle might degrade distro quality but I’m one of those people that like to keep up to date with the latest software release and technology (I’m pretty sure i’m not alone in this).
To summarise it, some of the things I love about Ubuntu is because it has a wide range of software choices, a predictable release cycle and a relatively up to date software releases. What about you? What is your favorite GNU/Linux distro?
Tags: ubuntu, debian, linux, suse, open source, distro
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Posted: December 4th, 2006, 12:48am GMT
Just a note for myself to tune FreeBSD OS for better performance.
Partitioning
Every partition of the disk will required different usage. For example webserver needs a lot reading and database needs read and write. Beside that, /var is a place to keep logs/transactions/mail and etc, require a lot of read and write too. It will be better if every disk partition for its own needs. Usually I do;
2G - /swap
2G - /var
5G - /www
10G - /db
5G - /usr
10G - /
the rest of the disk - /home
Size of a disk partition is depend on your own needs.
Syscontrol - sysctl
net.inet.tcp.sendspace/net.inet.tcp.recvspace - Tune this if you are running heavy traffic web server. Its control the send/receive buffer space for any TCP connection.
kern.ipc.somaxconn - Default somaxconn is 128, it’s not suitable running on heavy webserver, increase it to higher value cater your needs. Mine default is always set to 1024.
kern.maxfiles - If you running large database server, increase of kern.maxfiles will enhance your database server performance. Use kern.openfiles to determine current openfiles value on server.
Tags: FreeBSD, Unix, Open Source, Tuning, Performance Tuning, Web Server, Unix Server
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Posted: December 3rd, 2006, 5:15pm GMT
These past few days I’ve been hooked up playing Tremulous, an open source First Person Shooter (FPS) game. The objective of the game is to protect your team’s base and eliminate the enemy base. You can choose one of the two sides, either as member of human team or as an alien species.



Each side has it own unique abilities; the humans have long-range weaponry and the aliens have powerful melee attack and high body hitpoints The game uses GNU/GPL Quake III engine and only requires modest 3D hardware acceleration.
Tremulous is indeed a fun and addictive game, those who want play tremulous with me can look me up in Tremulous Basic Server #1 through #3 (low pings for me).
Download tremulous at : [tremulous.net] available for Windows and GNU/Linux operating system
Tags: games, quake, tremulous, quake 3, open source, FPS, linux, windows
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Posted: December 3rd, 2006, 5:15pm GMT
These past few days I’ve been hooked up playing Tremulous, an open source First Person Shooter (FPS) game. The objective of the game is to protect your team’s base and eliminate the enemy base. You can choose one of the two sides, either as member of human team or as an alien species.



Each side has it own unique abilities; the humans have long-range weaponry and the aliens have powerful melee attack and high body hitpoints The game uses GNU/GPL Quake III engine and only requires modest 3D hardware acceleration.
Tremulous is indeed a fun and addictive game, those who want play tremulous with me can look me up in Tremulous Basic Server #1 through #3 (low pings for me).
Download tremulous at : [tremulous.net] available for Windows and GNU/Linux operating system
Tags: games, quake, tremulous, quake 3, open source, FPS, linux, windows
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Posted: December 2nd, 2006, 12:29pm GMT

TheOpenCD project has just announced the release of OpenCD 4.0. Softwares featured on OpenCD 4.0 includes :
- OpenOffice 2.0.4
- PDFCreator 0.9.3
- GIMP 2.2.13
- Azureus 2.5.0.0
- Mozilla Firefox 2.0
- 7-Zip 4.23
TheOpenCD is a collection of Free and Open Source Software that runs on Microsoft Windows. It aims to provide high quality and well tested software that is free from restrictive license for people to use.
Hopefully by the time openjdk is ready, TheOpenCD will include a precompiled Java Runtime runtime too for running open source Java programs such as Azureus.
Tags: open source, free software, foss, opencd, firefox
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Posted: December 2nd, 2006, 12:29pm GMT

TheOpenCD project has just announced the release of OpenCD 4.0. Softwares featured on OpenCD 4.0 includes :
- OpenOffice 2.0.4
- PDFCreator 0.9.3
- GIMP 2.2.13
- Azureus 2.5.0.0
- Mozilla Firefox 2.0
- 7-Zip 4.23
TheOpenCD is a collection of Free and Open Source Software that runs on Microsoft Windows. It aims to provide high quality and well tested software that is free from restrictive license for people to use.
Hopefully by the time openjdk is ready, TheOpenCD will include a precompiled Java Runtime runtime too for running open source Java programs such as Azureus.
Tags: open source, free software, foss, opencd, firefox
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Posted: November 19th, 2006, 12:47pm GMT

Linux Mint is a variant of one of the most popular linux distro, Ubuntu with few differences. It emphasis on convenience for users to get non free softwares or softwares under patent without much hassle.
For example, out from the box Linux Mint installs allow you to :
- Play MP3 files
- Watch Realmedia, quicktime and encrypted dvd
- Get Sun Java 1.5 Update 9 (and Java plugin) preinstalled
- Surf Website with Flash 9 plugins
- Compile application with gcc
These capabilities is also enabled in its LiveCD session.



In addition, Linux Mint enables all Ubuntu repositories including Multiverse (non-free) and Universe repo as well as other binary only 3rd party repositories. However, the presence of binary only package means that Linux Mint is only available for x86 32bit platform only.
The latest release of Linux Mint 2.0 is compatible with Ubuntu Edgy Eft which it is based upon. Linux Mint is created for the convenience of users who have hard time to part with non-free plugins or software.
You can think Linux Mint as the opposite of gNewsense which I’ve reviewed earlier which emphasis on having only 100% free software on their distribution.
Tags: linux, ubuntu, edgy eft, opensource, livecd, distro
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Posted: November 13th, 2006, 11:25pm GMT
After a long wait, Sun has finally released its key Java implementations - Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE - OpenJDK), Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME - phoneME) and Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE - Glassfish) under the GNU General Public License version 2.0.
Maybe this news is insignificant for some, but finally i can run a completely free (as in free speech) Java platform in my operating system. I use a lot of Java in my hobby of developing mobile phone apps, and yes, I’d like to see the open sourced phoneME feature MR1 (JavaME implementation) running on my Ubuntu.
Hopefully by the end of next year, I’ll be able to install Sun OpenJDK on my GNU/Linux workstation from my distro’s software repositories.
p/s: Additionally, James Gosling - Father of Java has announced in his blog that they have made Duke the Java mascot images free under the revised BSD License. You can get Duke’s images at [https:].
Tags: java, open source, openjdk, javame, j2me, gnu/gpl
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Posted: November 13th, 2006, 11:25pm GMT
After a long wait, Sun has finally released its key Java implementations - Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE - OpenJDK), Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME - phoneME) and Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE - Glassfish) under the GNU General Public License version 2.0.
Maybe this news is insignificant for some, but finally i can run a completely free (as in free speech) Java platform in my operating system. I use a lot of Java in my hobby of developing mobile phone apps, and yes, I’d like to see the open sourced phoneME feature MR1 (JavaME implementation) running on my Ubuntu.
Hopefully by the end of next year, I’ll be able to install Sun OpenJDK on my GNU/Linux workstation from my distro’s software repositories.
p/s: Additionally, James Gosling - Father of Java has announced in his blog that they have made Duke the Java mascot images free under the revised BSD License. You can get Duke’s images at [https:].
Tags: java, open source, openjdk, javame, j2me, gnu/gpl
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Posted: November 3rd, 2006, 7:22am GMT
PHP 5.2.0 released! Some on the features I like.
The key features of PHP 5.2.0 include:
- New memory manager for the Zend Engine with improved performance and a more accurate memory usage tracking.
- Input filtering extension was added and enabled by default.
- JSON extension was added and enabled by default.
- ZIP extension for creating and editing zip files was introduced.
- Hooks for tracking file upload progress were introduced.
- Introduced E_RECOVERABLE_ERROR error mode.
- Introduced DateTime and DateTimeZone objects with methods to manipulate date/time information.
- Upgraded bundled SQLite, PCRE libraries.
- Upgraded OpenSSL, MySQL and PostgreSQL client libraries for Windows installations.
- Many performance improvements.
- Over 200 bug fixes.
Security Enhancements and Fixes in PHP 5.2.0:
- Made PostgreSQL escaping functions in PostgreSQL and PDO extension keep track of character set encoding whenever possible.
- Added allow_url_include, set to Off by default to disallow use of URLs for include and require.
- Disable realpath cache when open_basedir and safe_mode are being used.
- Improved safe_mode enforcement for error_log() function.
- Fixed a possible buffer overflow in the underlying code responsible for htmlspecialchars() and htmlentities() functions.
- Added missing safe_mode and open_basedir checks for the cURL extension.
- Fixed overflow is str_repeat() & wordwrap() functions on 64bit machines.
- Fixed handling of long paths inside the tempnam() function.
- Fixed safe_mode/open_basedir checks for session.save_path, allowing them to account for extra parameters.
- Fixed ini setting overload in the ini_restore() function.
Tags: PHP, Open Source, FreeBSD
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Posted: November 2nd, 2006, 12:25pm GMT
Just found out FreeBSD Ports ported Suhosin. When you install php from port, you can either choose configure with Suhosin or no.
PHP 5.1.6 with Suhosin-Patch 0.9.6 (cli) (built: Nov 1 2006 11:37:21)
Copyright (c) 1997-2006 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.1.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2006 Zend Technologies
Tags: PHP, Suhosin, Open Source, FreeBSD
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Posted: October 25th, 2006, 11:53am BST
Finally, the official Mozilla Firefox 2.0 has been released, after a brief commotion about “Early Release” link provided from a digg post. I guess some people has learnt valuable lessons about downloading things before the official release.
I won’t repeat improvements that has been already stated on Mozilla website as I want to stress on my personal opinion about this release.
First of all, I don’t like the shiny ‘visual improvement’ on the Firefox tab but I do feel that browsing internet with firefox is a lot smoother, although it still eats a lot of memory compared to other browsers.
The anti-phising warning is a nice addition to browser which dispense friendly warning of possible phishing site (fake website) that designed to harvest your personal information on the web.
Beside that, two of my extensions were disabled by Firefox 2.0 (PageRank, LiveHttpHeaders), i don’t care much about PageRank, the extension is pretty old anyway, but I do use a lot of LiveHttpHeaders extension for web development. Hope the extension author will take note of this.
Well that’s all that I noticed about Mozilla Firefox 2.0 for now, if you’re a firefox fan, then you should probably get it at : [mozilla.com] (Unless you’re using extensions that isn’t supported by the new release)
Tags: firefox, mozilla, mozilla firefox, web browser, open source, opensource, bon echo
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Posted: September 14th, 2006, 10:56am BST
I think many of you already familiar with vending machine that dispense soft drinks and chocolates. Now meet another type of ‘vending machine’ that dispense free software. Yup, that’s right, just bring your CD-R and the Freedom Toaster will take care the rest.
The term vending machine might be misleading as you can get free and opensource software for free from a Freedom Toaster kiosk. It is powered by none other than GNU/Linux operating system and the selection of software is only limited to the total harddisk space on the toaster.
The project was sponsored by Shuttleworth Foundation (the guy behind Ubuntu Linux) and it started as one solution to overcome the difficulty of obtaining Linux and other Open-source software in South Africa, where the restrictive telecommunications environment makes downloading large software files through the internet expensive.
What’s interesting is, the Freedom Toaster specifications is also release for free! That means anybody can duplicate the Freedom Toaster functionality to dispense free software. And this makes me wonder when I could a Freedom Toaster within my university compound.
All the specs and information about the kiosk can be obtained from Free Toaster Project website, which currently run by a group of volunteers. Check it out, it’s a cool way to provide free download.
Tags: free software, open source, opensource, linux, foss, embedded, kiosks
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I think many of you already familiar with vending machine that dispense soft drinks and chocolates. Now meet another type of ‘vending machine’ that dispense free software. Yup, that’s right, just bring your CD-R and the Freedom Toaster will take care the rest.
The term vending machine might be misleading as you can get free and opensource software for free from a Freedom Toaster kiosk. It is powered by none other than GNU/Linux operating system and the selection of software is only limited to the total harddisk space on the toaster.
The project was sponsored by Shuttleworth Foundation (the guy behind Ubuntu Linux) and it started as one solution to overcome the difficulty of obtaining Linux and other Open-source software in South Africa, where the restrictive telecommunications environment makes downloading large software files through the internet expensive.
What’s interesting is, the Freedom Toaster specifications is also release for free! That means anybody can duplicate the Freedom Toaster functionality to dispense free software. And this makes me wonder when I could a Freedom Toaster within my university compound.
All the specs and information about the kiosk can be obtained from Free Toaster Project website, which currently run by a group of volunteers. Check it out, it’s a cool way to provide free download.
Technorati Tags: free software, open source, opensource, linux, foss, embedded, kiosks
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Posted: August 22nd, 2006, 12:03pm BST
GetGnuLinux.org is an informational website about GNU/Linux operating system. The website is simple and easy to navigate and written to accomodate non-technical people. The website answer questions such as “What is Linux?”, “Why not Windows?” and how to switch from Windows to Linux in “Making the Switch”.
The website explains the advantages and disadvantages of using GNU/Linux operating system in in layman terms to help people make decisions whether GNU/Linux operating system is right for them or not. The website also has an FAQ section which answers common questions about GNU/Linux operating system and free software.
I like the way GetGnuLinux.org website was organised with simple layout and theme,it emphasis simplicity to the web users.
Technorati Tags: linux, gnu/linux, advocate, free software, open source, opensource
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GetGnuLinux.org is an informational website about GNU/Linux operating system. The website is simple and easy to navigate and written to accomodate non-technical people. The website answer questions such as “What is Linux?”, “Why not Windows?” and how to switch from Windows to Linux in “Making the Switch”.
The website explains the advantages and disadvantages of using GNU/Linux operating system in in layman terms to help people make decisions whether GNU/Linux operating system is right for them or not. The website also has an FAQ section which answers common questions about GNU/Linux operating system and free software.
I like the way GetGnuLinux.org website was organised with simple layout and theme,it emphasis simplicity to the web users.
Technorati Tags: linux, gnu/linux, advocate, free software, open source, opensource