OSNews: FreeBSD 4.7-RC1 is out. What I’m really waiting for is the next release of OpenBSD, mostly for the release song and cover art. The 3.0 release song has made its way into a roadtrip mix of mine.
Category: Web Services
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I’m back from the Cato Institute panel debate. A full writeup might have to wait until I’m done with work.
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Silicon.com: In an article about Microsoft asking 2,300 organizations if they wanted to see Microsoft’s source code. Only 150 said yes. Jason Matusow, shared source manager at Microsoft, was quoted in the article as saying:
“One of the great myths of open source is that everyone wants to look at source code.”
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Ximian announces Evolution 1.2 beta. Evolution is Ximian’s workalike of Microsoft Outlook. [via PC Linux Online]
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Infoconomy: Sun considers $1,100 cheap.
The PCs, which have still to be given a brand name, will be assembled from commodity components that Sun will source from the open market. Sun intends to sell the Linux PCs in units of 100 at a cost of around $1,100 (€1,125) each, with part of that paid upfront and the remainder spread over the lifespan of the PC.
While that unit cost is actually slightly higher than an equivalent machine from Dell or HP, the real cost savings will come from replacing Microsoft software with open source alternatives and from lower administration and support costs.
Aside from the Linux operating system, the PCs will mimic a typical Windows set-up by using the Gnome desktop environment, the Mozilla browser, the StarOffice applications suite and the Evolution clone of Microsoft Outlook.
This seems to be good, however I’m trying to figure out where Sun isn’t going to loose their shirt on this computer. I’m sure that the specs on this commodity hardware machine will be easily duplicated for 25-40% less through other vendors or by building the machine yourself. It also appears that once again Sun will be using its software (a derivative/rebranding of Red Hat Linux) in order to sell hardware. Anyone can go download .ISOs of Red Hat Linux, but they’ll have to spend a premium on hardware in order to get Sun’s identity management software and control panel.
I hope that Sun does well, but I’m not sure if they’ll be able to. [via Kenneth Hunt and Newsforge]
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Blog: An automated weblogging application. Have you heard of it?
Blog is an automatic web logging program which allows you to update your site easily without the hassles of HTML editing and having to use a separate program to upload your work. You simply set Blog up with the necessary information for logging into your site via FTP, define a template to specify the look for your page and then type in your entries in the main Blog window and click Publish and Blog does the rest! Blog also handles the task of generating archival entries for older posts. It is a really convenient way to keep a site (or multiple sites) updated without going through several programs to do the job.
Blog can be operated in three different modes – a) Standalone – which allows a single person to maintain their own site(s) from their desktop machine b) Server – which allows collaboration between several people or for the same person to post from multiple locations using the third mode of Blog which is … c) Client. The Client and Server modes might be a bit confusing to set up but do refere to the included Blog.txt file which is present in all distros of Blog to get some hints as to what you need to do.
The interface is sparse, clean, and seemingly functional. It looks like it can manage the weblog via ftp, has templating support, and is free-as-in-beer. [the first useful link harvested from Betanews]
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Sam Ruby changed his RSS feed again, which apparently breaks my RSS aggregator that you see on the right hand side of this page. I’ve removed him from my subscriptions list! At least until I have some time to figure out what’s wrong with the XSLT-based RSS aggregator I’ve written.
I have a feeling that we will see quite a bit of the homegrown RSS aggregators choke on RSS 2.0, even thought it’s not really supposed to break stuff. Granted that the big three blogging packages will soon be able to handle RSS 2.0 gracefully, but this means that a lot of the single-programmer RSS aggregators and generators are going to be hitting the drawing board.
Hopefully this will be good for the long term and only minorly annoying in the short term.
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The Shifted Librarian likes the new Phillips Stremium. The funny thing is that this sounds like exactly the same thing that the Kerbango could have been (had 3com not bought it and killed it), and then some. We’re talking CD, CD-R, CD-RW, mp3, broadband and traditional radio.
I want one.
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The Cato Institute’s Copy Fights panel debate is tomorrow. Keep your eyes peeled for a writeup as soon as I get back from it.
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MacCentral: Apple starts shipping its new (really expensive) Dual 1.25GHz PowerMacs.
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CNet: Lindows 2.0 is a coming. Michael’s Minutes on Lindows’ web site has several screen shots and feature blurbs.
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Newsforge also reports in about the United Linux press release and conference call. They and others have issues with an earlier ‘closed beta’ which may potentially have violated the GPL:
UnitedLinux admitted it had its partners sign a non-disclosure agreement in order to use the closed beta, which likely means that UL violated the copyright of kernel developers everywhere and others who have contributed to GNU/Linux. If the NDA was structured so that the GPL would take precedence on non-proprietary, Free Software elements of the software, then that NDA would not violate the terms of the GPL. It is more likely, however, that the NDA squashed the GPLed freedoms by forcing recipients of the closed beta to agree that they would not redistribute any portion of the software.
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Linux Today: United Linux will release an open beta to the public on September 23. More details are at unitedlinux.com.
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Linux Today points to two articles at IBM DeveloperWorks (article1, article2) about creating solid code with php. Here’s the intro from the first article:
The Develop rock-solid code in PHP series is about solving practical real-life problems in medium- to large-scale applications. With a sharp focus on new features available in PHP 4, the articles shed light on numerous tips and tricks that make life easier. Inside, you will find plenty of examples and techniques to learn, with lots of sample code. In this first article, PHP veteran Amol Hatwar gives a higher perspective for designing and writing bug-free, maintainable code for medium- to large-scale Web applications.
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It’s the end of the world as we know it: RSS is no longer a draft but a spec.
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Web Services DevCon
If you were thinking about attending the Web Services DevCon but couldn’t justify $445, you can now register to attend the event for 50% off. Just send an email to conference@sellsbrothers.com and let them know that you are a friend of Matt Croydon, and they’ll get you the hookup. Let me know if you’ll be there, I’m gonna be an itty bitty fish in a big effing sea.
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A Klog Apart: What exactly is good blogging? According to Phil Wolff:
- Persistence and frequency
- Stringing ideas together using words
- Writing in a way that engages
- Context, lots of context
- Themes
- Voice
- Authority / Sincerity
I would highly suggest reading the rest of his post for more info on blogging and klogging.
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Jeremy Zawodny throws Debian Woody on a Sun LX50. $2795 is an entry-level server now, according to Sun, ouch! Woody does fine.