Mark Gregson over at Linux.com Linux.com has a great article on how to write reviews for Linux distribution. I know I’ve cut corners when trying to review distros in the past, and I hope to take him up on his tips in the future.
I’ve lost my key. Can you pass me that banana?
Patrick White from the Globe and Mail has an interesting article on a section of the hacker community that even I wasn’t aware of. Amatuer lockpicking, a sort of offline cousin to computer hacking, is gaining interest in the hacker community and is even showcased at the annual Defcon conference. See the entire article here here. HT to lewrockwell.com
Other Links:
Portable Apps
Portableapps.com is an exciting website for geeks on the go. Some of the best open source apps for Windows have been shrunkand encapsulated to work on your portable flash drive. Everything from The Gimp to VLC (with DVD and DIVX codecs) are available for free. If you’re like me, your workplace doesn’t like people installing outside software on company machines, but with the software from Portable Apps, you can install the software on a thumb drive, and your settings will save to a file on the thumb drive, not to the Windows registry.
A little Linux Geek humor
(from xkcd.com)
My new project?
AM/FM RADIO KIT - ELECTRONICS COURSE
Modular instruction and construction.
Training Course of 52 pages is divided up into 9 lessons: Audio Amplifier, AM Detector, AM IF, AM Amplifier, AM Mixer & Oscillator, FM Detector, 1st FM IF, 2nd FM IF, FM RF Stages. “Superheterodyne” receiver of standard AM(amplitude modulation) and FM (frequency modulated) broadcast frequencies. Includes stand. Req. 9V battery (not included)
Product Code EL-AMFM108K $34.95
From elenco
Ideas and Projects for QRP
Damn Small Linux
I’ve been interested in Damn Small Linux for a while. The frugal intallation’s ability to load the entire OS into RAM is awesome. The ability to mount different add-on programs to the OS (ala OSX) and have a very up to date OS is another. It doesn leave a bit to be desired, but overall, it is a very good Linux for slower hardware. I’m currently running the standard HDD installation on the 866mhz P3 with 256megs or Ram. It is fast and reliable. I do have a few complaints though.
PC’s and more PC’s
Two weeks ago, I picked up a “grab bag” of computer parts from a guy on Craig’s List. It contained two PC’s and a box of miscellaneous stuff. I also picked up a computer from beside the dumpster on my way to work. It appears to be a Pentium 3. There was no hard drive in it, but it does have a DVD-Rom drive and a cdrw drive in it, so that’s a big plus, not to mention 384 megs of ram.
Adventures with Qemu
I first saw Qemu again on the Elivecd development live cd, and I was certainly intregued. I’ve been looking for an open source alternative to VMWare, and I think I’ve found a good one. The version found in the Ubuntu repository left a lot to be desired. After a bit of Googling, I found a walkthrough for compiling it from source here. Surprisingly, the directions worked well with only a couple minor changes.
My e17 desktop
I’ll post some links later
