Month: September 2007

Categories
Linux

Giving Away Software For Free Costs More Than You Would Think (Part 2)

Starting with Part 1 of this series, I introduced the idea that free software is expensive to give away.

For example, in 2000, the Debian distribution would have cost nearly 1.9 billion dollars to re-write from the ground up.

It’s been almost 8 years since that report was generated, and Debian has somewhat faded from the limelight. Ubuntu has taken the lead as the most-used desktop Linux distribution since then, and I would like to roughly calculate how much Ubuntu costs to give away for no charge.

I will outline and detail my method and solution to this question in 8 steps:

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Categories
Linux

Giving Away Software For Free Costs More Than You Would Think (Part 1)

Little known fact: The Ubuntu distribution is now includes 23,164 packages.

How much did all of these packages actually cost to make? Well thanks to the Constructive Cost Model, (COCOMO) we can find out. COCOMO estimates how much it costs to write x number of lines of code, based on complexity of the project as well as how collaboration takes place (ie over the internet vs in an office), and many other factors. Then you get a ballpark figure of how much the software cost to develop.

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Categories
Linux

I Don’t Think We’re In Kansas Anymore: How-To Install KDE 4 Beta 2 on Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon Beta 7.10!

Caution: As with any beta software, things can go wrong. I’m doing something that shouldn’t be done by mere mortals, all for the sake of experimentation. And for posterity, I did screw this up once. But I was able to recover from text mode console and resume. I’ve ommited those steps. 🙂

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Categories
Linux

Do You Have A Story To Tell About Linux?

Now is your chance. For the first time ever, fsckin w/ linux is recruiting guest bloggers.

In-depth expertise with Linux is NOT required. In fact, the less you know about Linux, the better! I’m not planning on walking anyone through an installation, but if you think you have the guts to give a try for the first time and write about it, I’ll make sure you have the instructions needed to succeed.

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Categories
Humor Linux

How To Install Gutsy Gibbon – A 21 Step Guide For Technical Support

Ok, this is completely satirical, cynical and NOT serious at all. It’s meant to make you laugh. If you don’t laugh, you may have DVHAD (Digg Visitor Humor Absence Disorder). You may need to seek professional therapy. I can recommend a good psychiatrist if you’d like.

This article is 99.7% joke. (0.3% standard deviation)

1. “First, insert the Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 CD into your cup holder.”

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Categories
Linux

Digg “Linux Nation” for Thursday September 27th 2007

This is the 3rd Weekly Linux Nation news report for the week, where I link to and provide some brief commentary with my opinions about the most popular stories for the week in the Linux/Unix section on the Digg.com website. I am committed to doing this every Thursday.

“Why Thursday?” you may be asking – why the hell not! Enough banter. Let’s get down to the nitty gritty.

1. Man is Dugg for donating 16,000 Linux boxes, then gets the regulatory axe

Number one with a bullet, this story is worth reading. Summary: Guy donates computers to those in need, and then the Department of Toxic Substance Control of the California Environmental Protection Agency issues him a citation for hazardous materials.

First get over the fact that the Department of Toxic Substance Control of the California Environmental Protection Agency has of way-too-long-of-a-department-name-and-should-be-shortened-asap-p.s.-add-yellow-dolphins-as-our-logo-thanks.

Second, this guy donates computers to people and organizations that could not otherwise afford to buy them.

These computers he gives away are put to good use, which would otherwise be sitting in a landfill or elsewhere, poisoning the water supply, giving cancer to baby kittens dwelling in sewers, and far, far more evil things. So where’s the problem?

Sounds like this inspector has a hair trigger up his ass.

2. OPEN SOURCE GOD: 480+ Open Source Applications

Cynical Summary: Author browses Sourceforge, Freshmeat and other similar websites, writes about it, and get a ton of diggs. If you’re looking for something new, I can assure that you will find it in this very long list, with screenshots and such – obviously quite a bit of work went into writing this article, especially with the descriptions.

Mr. Sharma, keep up the good work. This article is one in a series of “GOD” articles that have all been very exhaustive and informative. Give it a read.

Continue reading “Digg “Linux Nation” for Thursday September 27th 2007”
Categories
Firewall Linux

Do You Use Linux? The RIAA and MPAA Don’t Want You To Use This Program

Have you ever used PeerGuardian for Windows? Well good news my friend, there’s a Linux alternative available.

PeerGuardian is a program that blocks companies such as the RIAA and their affiliates (such as Media Defender) from connecting to your computer when you are running P2P software.  This is not foolproof by any means, but certainly a step in the right direction.

When I used Windows, one of the programs I used to protect my online privacy was PeerGuardian. Now that I’m using Ubuntu full-time, I’d like to find an alternative.

A quick google search found that PeerGuardian actually has a Linux client, but the installation is far more difficult than another program I found called MoBlock. Not only does it come pre-setup with most of the Bluetack blocking lists, the same ones that PeerGuardian uses, but it will also utilize the eMule ipfilter.dat file format, if you’re looking for that.

Ok, now I know we’re looking at the rest of this document and saying,

“Sh!t Wayne, this looks complicated.”

It’s actually really easy if you follow it step by step, and if you have any questions, feel free to comment and I’ll do my best to help you out.

Deep breath, here we go.

First, we edit sources.list to add a repository:

gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Paste these two lines at the end:

deb http://moblock-deb.sourceforge.net/debian feisty main
deb-src http://moblock-deb.sourceforge.net/debian feisty main

Save and Close the gedit program, just a few more commands:

gpg --keyserver wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net --recv 9072870B
gpg --export --armor 9072870B | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install moblock-nfq

Now it’s installed! Congratulations. Now we need to configure the program so that HTTP (website) traffic is unfiltered. This program likes to be as paranoid as possible to start out with, which can be a good thing for some people.

gksu gedit /etc/moblock/moblock.conf

Look for the following section about half-way down:

WHITE_TCP_IN=""
WHITE_UDP_IN=""
WHITE_TCP_OUT=""
#WHITE_TCP_OUT="http https"
WHITE_UDP_OUT=""
WHITE_TCP_FORWARD=""
WHITE_UDP_FORWARD=""

Remove the hash (#), save and you’re done.

Run this command to test and make sure it’s working properly:

EDIT

Thanks to mbsjoblom on Digg, I missed a step.

sudo moblock-control reload
sudo moblock-control test

You should get a message something like this:

* MoBlock blocked the IP. Test succeded.

EDIT 2

Thanks to “Moblockin” there is a GUI available , which I haven’t tried out, but seems like a more user-friendly than the command line.

Now, you have no more big brother looking after you. MoBlock will automatically do it’s magic behind the scenes with no interaction from you – ever!

Categories
Linux

SCO Sells Text Ads On Website After Filing For Chapter 11

SCO and their recent filing for Chapter 11 Bankrupcy has generated quite a bit of buzz on various news websites.

Starting several years ago, they attempted to extort money from EVERY Fortune 1500 company who used Linux in any form, in an effort to keep their company afloat. They sent letters with veiled threats of legal action, and demanded licenses for “their” code which is inbedded in Linux. Tt was actually proven that Novell owns the code that SCO was claiming was theirs.

They’ve been in headlines ever since they started lawsuit mongering. Even after years of legal battles, they failed to prevail in the courts, and when I recently visited SCOs’ website while looking for a press release from the CEO, I noticed something immediately.

Why are there links for Search Engine Optimisation (or SEO) and website design on the footer of www.sco.com? SCO is a business built on selling hardware and software, not SEO or web design.

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Categories
Humor Linux

189 Funny UNIX Error Messages

I was searching around and I’ve compiled a list of *nix errors found on an old newsgroup archive, reformatted for your reading pleasure.

Which one is your favorite?

  1. “Values of B will give rise to dom.”
  2. FATAL system error #nnnn CAUSE: We should never get here!
  3. OHHHH…. I give up Core dumped
  4. COMPILER UNABLE TO ABORT
  5. AN ATTEMPT WAS MADE TO WRITE BEYOND THE MAXIMUM ASSIGNED SPACE FOR A MASS STORAGE FILE. AN ATTEMPT WAS MADE TO EXPAND A MASS STORAGE FILE BEYOND THE MAXIMUM ASSIGNED SPACE. A READ FUNCTION FOR A MASS STORAGE FILE SPECIFIED AN ADDRESS (WORD 5 OF THE I/O PACKET) THAT IS BEYOND THE MAXIMUM ASSIGNED SPACE. A READ OR WRITE FUNCTION FOR A WORD-ADDRESSABLE MASS STORAG FILE SPECIFIED A MASS STORAGE ADDRESS (WORD 5 OF THE I/O PACKET) AND A TOTAL DATA COUNT. WHEN THE MASS STORAGE ADDRESS IS ADDED TO THE TOTAL DATA COUNT, THE RESULTING ENDING MASS STORAGE ADDRESS IS GREATER THAN 2*/35-1. A READ OR WRITE FUNCTION FOR A SECTOR-FORMATTED MASS STORAGE FILE SPECIFIED A MASS STORAGE ADDRESS (WORD 5 OF THE I/O PACKET) THAT IS GREATER THAN 2*/30-1. ADI ONLY: REFERENCE ATTEMPTED BEYOND THE ASSIGNED FILE WHEN THE FILE IS CONFIGURED AS A FH-432 OR FH-1782 DRUM.
    Continue reading “189 Funny UNIX Error Messages”
Categories
Off-Topic

How Much Work Actually Goes Into Each And Every Article I Write

Most articles I write here are very simple from conception to pressing that publish button.

Usually I get an idea of “Hey, it would be cool if I could do this in Linux” and then I spend a fair chunk of time familiarizing myself with the topic as well as the solution and then I sit down and do it myself.  I take notes along the way and finally I write the actual article, usually in a short period of time, since by the time I’m putting the pencil to the proverbial paper, I’ve become reasonably familiar with the topic at hand.

I’ve been working for the last 5 or 6 hours on what appears at the surface to be a very simple article.  It’s about how to get your iPhone setup to use the HTTP Remote Control in VLC  to control your playlists / etc.

Let’s just say that this article ended up being much more difficult than I first imagined.

I figured that I would simply enable the HTTP server in VLC, connect via Safari on the iPhone and everything would be OK.  I was dead wrong.  Oh, it works alright, but it doesn’t display properly, and isn’t really usable.  I found this page after much searching, which had a re-themed version of the HTTP interface for PDAs and PSPs.  I thought my long search was over.  Wrong – the link to the Graphite theme is totally useless – it’s been out of date for quite some time now.
So I had to figure out how to do it myself.

First I started trying to download a new svn/cvs version of VLC, as I had read that 8.6c had better mobile support.  That had bad news written all over it to begin with, but I persisted onwards, until my notes looked something like this (newlines ommitted to save space:

apt-get build-dep vlc libtool automake1.9 ffmpeg libavcodec-dev libpostproc-dev subversion automake libtool gettext cvs libdvdcss2 This command takes several minutes. svn co svn://svn.videolan.org/vlc/trunk vlc-trunk cd vlc-trunk; ./bootstrap Output should be Successfully bootstrapped. cd extras; cd vlc-trunk/extras svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/ffmpeg/trunk ffmpeg cd ffmpeg ./configure --enable-gpl --enable-pp --enable-pthreads --enable-libmp3lame make cd ~/Desktop/ wget http://downloads.videolan.org/pub/videolan/testing/vlc-0.8.6b-test1/vlc-0.8.6b-test1.tar.bz2 tar xvjf vlc-0.8.6b-test1.tar.bz2 svn co svn://svn.videolan.org/libmpeg2/ Wait.... wait... keep waiting... for that to finish. It takes a damn long time! Open up another terminal. cd ~/Desktop/ wget http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/mad/libmad-0.15.1b.tar.gz tar xvjf libmad-0.15.1b.tar.gz cd ~/libmad-0.15.1b ./configure make sudo make install cd ~/Desktop tar wxGTK-2.8.5.tar.bz2 cd wxGTK-2.8.5 wget http://internap.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/wxwindows/wxGTK-2.8.5.tar.bz2 ./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-wxwindows ./compile

Hmm… no good at all – way, way too complicated, even for me.  I’m pretty sure I even ran a few commands that borked my VLC config file beyond repair.  I don’t want tutorials I write to be so complicated that I’m writing shell scripts to do the work for you, or a person with minimal experience can’t follow my instructions since they are so convoluted and/or take HOURS to complete.  In the list above, the “build-dep” package weighs in at over 100MB of packages!

How are we supposed to learn from experience if you don’t/wont/can’t do anything yourself?

In the end, what started as a simple “oh, I’ll just recompile VLC” turned into a complete nightmare.  By the way, I did find the best guide on how to recompile VLC after going through most of the above by trial and error.

So now, what I’ll be doing instead, is re-writing a VLC control interface so that things look good on the iPhone.  I’ll also see if my GUI can be easily adapted to Windows Mobile, it shouldn’t be difficult at all.

I’m not just doing this for myself, I’m primarily doing all this work for you, to give back to the community.

If you would like to see an improved VLC http interface for pretty much every mobile phone, pda, tablet, etc and are not already subscribed to my RSS feed or updates via email, click here to subscribe now and I’ll have something for you later this week.

Stay tuned, I’ve got lots of new and interesting things coming specifically aimed at Linux iPhone users.  Strangely enough, most of them are actually applicable to Windows and Mac also.

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