Lightkeepers

Thursday, March 26, 2009

10 Desirable Features in Ubuntu Linux

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10 Desirable Features in Ubuntu Linux

Ubuntu is no doubt a fabulous Linux distribution. And it is gaining in popularity by leaps and bounds - thanks to Mark Shuttleworth and his team at Canonical. As an end user, what would you like to see in Ubuntu that would tempt you to ditch your current OS and embrace Ubuntu with gusto ?

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Matthew Helmke: Learning JavaScript

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Matthew Helmke: Learning JavaScript

via Planet Ubuntu by matthew on 3/10/09

I recently became the maintainer for a site that uses a bit of JavaScript. Surprisingly, I have no previous experience writing or maintaining anything in JavaScript, so I needed to get up to speed, if only to know what is going on. To help me out, I picked up a copy of Shelley Powers' new book, Learning JavaScript.

I am familiar with Shelley Powers' work, having read Unix Power Tools, a book that holds a special place on my shelf for its usefulness and depth. She is obviously someone who knows what she is doing.

This book states in the preface that

Readers of this book should be familiar with web page technology, including Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and HTML/XHTML. Previous programming experience isn't required, though some sections may require extra review if you have no previous exposure to programming.

That sums up the only negative thing I might be tempted to say about the book. Usually, O'Reilly's "Learning" series books are excellent resources for complete newcomers and are the sort of books that I might point a novice toward. While this book is designed for the JavaScript novice, it is not the best resource for a programming/web creation novice. If you can't follow or understand the following quoted sentences, this book isn't for you. If you can, this book does an excellent job of covering the basics of JavaScript in depth and may end up being the only text you need on the topic.

JavaScript has just three primitive data types: string, numeric, and boolean. Each is differentiated from the others by the type of value it contains: string, numeric, and boolean, respectively.

My first exposure to programming was in 1981, using BASIC on a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer. Over the years, I have studied (and often forgotten, but can certainly read a bit and understand the concepts of) LISP, C, Bash scripting, Perl, Python, and more. Lately I have spent more time using PHP and enjoying it, since that is the language of things like Wordpress, Drupal, vBulletin and other commonly used CMS and interactive web site software. The two sentences quoted above seem perfectly clear to me, but I can imagine what they must seem like to someone with no experience with programming languages. So, now you have been warned. Let's get to the good stuff for those who understand the jargon.

This book is clear, with enough detail to help you understand what is happening without bogging you down in the minutiae. The reader is expected to see how and why each facet of the language would be useful, so the examples given are simple and seem to be designed to help her get the feel for usage without pretending to be a cookbook of programming recipes, although some seem quite useful as they are such as Chapter 6's code for browser detection, which allows you to modify content and/or how it is displayed based on the web browser being used to view your site.

The text covers everything you are likely to need while using JavaScript, and more importantly for me, most everything a person is likely to stumble across when reading existing code. You get a solid introduction to data types and variables, operators, statements, objects, and functions. This is built upon with chapters on debugging and cross-browser compatibility. This new second edition (just released earlier in 2009) has several updates and changes from the previous version including a wonderful comparison of the benefits of generating and processing XML data using Ajax versus using JSON.

If you are considering using JavaScript on a website that includes the dynamic creation of web pages, or if you have inherited one that you are now responsible for maintaining, this book would be a good resource to help you start to understand one of the more common languages used for doing so. This is especially true if you have any prior experience with any other programming language. If you want a cookbook, scripted-style, "do this, now do that" sort of beginner's guide to making a site that holds your hand through the whole process, this is not the book you want.

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rubygame 2.4.1 (updated)

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rubygame 2.4.1 (updated)

via Happypenguin on 3/10/09

Flexible game development library for ruby

More about rubygame

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Risto H. Kurppa: Pay for your Open Source software!

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Risto H. Kurppa: Pay for your Open Source software!

via Planet Ubuntu by Risto H. Kurppa on 3/13/09

(CC) Cofundos.org

Sound's stupid, doesn't it? Isn't Open Source usually free, you don't need money for it..

How about if the application, feature or plugin you need has never been written so far with Open Source licences? How to find the developer who's the skills to write it - even if you had money? Or if you have a great idea and 10 of your friends support it and are ready pay, say 20€ each for someone to write it?

Cofundos is the answer. It's a platform to publish your innovations, tell that you're ready to pay for the solution, make an offer to realize the blueprint and so on. It's designed for open source software: openID login, free licences and RSS's and so on - it's made for YOU!

The picture shows you the steps from an idea via bids and offers to the finalized project and donated money. Everyone wins!

I think Cofundos should be better known and more used for it to actually work so spread the word! Share your idea there, maybe others like it, too!There's something similar in brainstorm.ubuntu.com but brainstorm doesn't involve money.

Two best payed projects in Cofundos are:

True PDF handling in Scribus (1240€)
VLC video streaming implementation of the BitTorrent or equivalent P2P protocol (1030€)

Two projects I can warmly recommend:

Can you find anything interesting there you could bid to? Maybe 5€, maybe 50€, maybe 100$? Maybe spread it in 5 projects and bid 20$ each? Or if you have the skills, check if there's a perfect project waiting for you tagged with MySQL, Drupal or GTK+?

Go to Cofundos.org

Tags: opensource, planet-fnoss, planet-openmoko, planet-ubuntu, planet-vapaasuomi, software

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Jono Bacon: The Big Ubuntu Brainstorm Braindump

I thought this was interesting.....posted it on my blog....http://lightkeepers.blogspot.com

Roy

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Jono Bacon: The Big Ubuntu Brainstorm Braindump

via Planet Ubuntu by jono on 3/19/09

One of the facilities that has been hugely popular in the Ubuntu community has been Ubuntu Brainstorm. With Brainstorm you can register ideas and features for the Ubuntu project and others can vote those ideas up or down. There are also tools in Brainstorm to indicate potential solutions or notes around the idea. Brainstorm has become a great way to get an idea of what our users want.

As we build towards the 9.10 release cycle, I figured it would be useful to present a summary of the most popular ideas of all time and the most popular ideas within the last six months: thanks to Jorge for helping me with this. This should offer some great food for thought for the wider community to work on. Here goes…

Most Popular over the last 6 months

These are the most popular ideas that have been registered in Brainstorm in a recent cycle. Many of these ideas give a great impression of more recent desires around functionality in Ubuntu.

Check my hardware against application blackists BEFORE 'upgrading'

On 12 Jan 09 - 1653 Votes

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/17218/

Better life battery for laptop

On 3 Feb 09 - 646 Votes

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/17825/

Volume control should close when you click somewhere else

On 14 Feb 09 - 829 Votes

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/18045/

Redesign ubuntu for 2010

On 21 Jan 09 - 773 Votes

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/17540/

Allow ALT+Tab when drag and drop

On 4 Jan 09 - 753 Votes

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/17042/

"Scan wireless networks" option in NetworkManager

On 29 Jan 09 - 750 Votes

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/17725/
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id#498887

Easy screen-sharing and audio-chat for instant messengers

On 7 Jan 09 - 743 Votes

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/17102/
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/replace-pidgin-with-empathy
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/EmpathyVsPidginUsability

There should be a simple GUI to do basic disk maintanence tasks

On 30 Dec 08 - 723 Votes

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/16919/
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/DeviceKit

When abbreviating filenames, cut out the middle, keep the beginning and end

On 19 Nov 08 - 720 Votes

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/15752/

Guest account needs a change

On 19 Nov 08 - 690 Votes

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/15773/

Make System Monitor as powerful as Windows Task Manager

On 24 Sep 08 - 682 Votes

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/13626/

"Speed up" Ubuntu by reducing duration of Compiz animations

On 3 Jan 09 - 664 Votes

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/17009/

Automatic handling of external monitor

On 20 Jan 09 - 647 Votes

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/17509/

ubuntu main menu icons are too big, they take too much space

On 30 Jan 09 - 594 Votes

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/17748/

Native Firefox on Ubuntu is even slower than on Wine

On 21 Jan 09 - 767 Votes

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/18058/
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Building_with_Profile-Guided_Optimization

Synaptic/Apt-Get should check for free disk space before download or install

On 15 Sep 08 - 669 Votes

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/13235/

Unify sound drivers and the sound api

On 22 Oct 08 - 661 Votes

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/14682/

Usplash should use a time-based progressbar

On 18 Nov 08 - 578 Votes

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/15741/

Something in this big 'ol list strike your fancy? Well, roll your sleeves up and start making plans for the Karmic cycle. Lets see how many of these features and problems we can fix. Start your engines folks…

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Nick Ali: Ubuntu Podcast #22

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Nick Ali: Ubuntu Podcast #22

via Planet Ubuntu by boredandblogging on 3/20/09

In this episode:

Fun and accidents at Florida Linux Show
Florida Linux Show interviews coming soon
Ubuntu Case badges
UFBT and Ubuntu Classroom Team offering on securing Ubuntu sessions
John Dvorak plugs Ubuntu
Interview with David Thomas of the New Mexico LoCo, discussing New Mexico Linux Fest and Endorphin Power Company.

Update: Thanks to Vadim for pointing out that clicking on the thumbnail above returned a 404. Its fixed now.

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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

National Geographic News

lrhanna@gmail.com has sent you this story from National Geographic
News. We hope you enjoy it

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/photogalleries/week-in-space-pictures-35/index.html?source=rss

Exclusive images from VK9LA team

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Exclusive images from VK9LA team

via DX World of Ham Radio by DX World on 3/24/09

VK9LA team member Stan, SQ8X has sent through exclusive images for publication in DX World of Ham Radio.

More to follow soon.

Thanks Stan!

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Sunday, March 08, 2009

Crew Selected for Mock Mars Mission

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Crew Selected for Mock Mars Mission

via SPACE.com on 3/8/09

The crew was recently announced for the first phase of a mock mission to Mars.

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DIY sun tracker for solar panels

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DIY sun tracker for solar panels

via MAKE Magazine by Jason Striegel on 3/8/09

You've probably seen a number of light-following robotics projects. Making a light detector is one of the first projects a new Arduino maker embarks on. What better way to use a light detector than to aim a solar panel at the sun? Instructables user bwitmer shows us how.

For a class project (PV Design, Appalachian State, Dr. Dennis Scanlin) I decided to try making a low cost PV (photovoltaic) tracker. Being able to follow the sun's path through the sky can raise your solar panel system's output considerably (30-50%), but the argon filled ones can be a bit pricey, and seem to be a bit unsteady in wind. I looked at several different designs, looked at what materials I could find, and this is how I did it.

He's using an inexpensive purchased LED tracking unit, but if you're comfortable making your own, that part should be fairly straightforward. What's cool is the simple design of the hardware. The project uses a couple of bike wheels and a linear actuator to enable the movement of the panel. It looks to be relatively low-maintenance, and the bike wheels are easy to come by and should support quite a bit of weight.

Solar PV tracker

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Space Shuttle Discovery Set to Launch March 11

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Space Shuttle Discovery Set to Launch March 11

via SPACE.com on 3/6/09

After numerous delays, NASA has scheduled the next space shuttle launch for March 11.

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Press Release: Titanic Honors Radio Heros

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Press Release: Titanic Honors Radio Heros

via KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog by Dan KB6NU on 3/8/09

Branson, MO—From the Titanic Museum Attraction in Branson, MO to other points around the world, ham radio operators using call sign W0S will? pay tribute to the brave men who used a Marconi radio to signal for help when the mighty Titanic went down at sea 97 years ago on April 14th, 1912.

The 3rd Annual W0S Special Event will take place at the Titanic Museum Attraction's free outdoor entertainment?center from 8am-7pm Saturday, April 11, 2009.??

"We want to continue to honor the Titanic radio crew that sent the sinking distress?signal immediately after the ship hit the iceberg. Without these radio transmissions, many additional lives would have been lost that?night," said Rod Kittleman, spokesperson for the hams. " They represent what Ham radio operators do today, help save lives during disasters." ?

The special call sign, W0S, stands for "White Star," the name of the ?company that built the Titanic. ?Detailed information and media gallery is available on the station's website.??

The World's Largest TITANIC Museum Attraction opened in 2006 and has? become a landmark Branson tourist destination. The 17,000 square foot,?ship- shaped structure—built half scale to Titanic's original size –?towers more than 100 feet above its anchored position on the Branson? Strip. A 90-minute, self-guided tour covers 20 galleries on two decks?where more?than 400 priceless artifacts that once belonged to Titanic's passengers?or crew are on display. None of the artifacts were retrieved from the? ocean's floor.

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IBM's Antique Attic

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IBM's Antique Attic

via Boing Boing by David Pescovitz on 3/4/09

Since the 1930s, IBM has not only created adding machines, computers, and the like, but also collected them. They apparently have an amazing historical collection of "counting and reckoning tools and devices," some of which can be checked out online. Joel has the details over at Boing Boing Gadgets. Seen here is a Hahn Calculator from 1774. It could multiply, divide, add, and subtract up to values with 12 digits. "IBM's 'Antique Attic' Gallery"

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VK0BP - Update from Davis Base, Antarctica

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VK0BP - Update from Davis Base, Antarctica

via DX World of Ham Radio by DX World on 3/5/09

Bob, VK0BP

Bob informs DX World of the following date changes:

Just an update to my activity down here at Davis Station…

I will be here until roughly 1/11/09 instead of the initial date of 7/3/09. The initial date was given as the date of the last ship of the summer returning to Australia. This was my ride back home if all was not going to plan down here, and back home. But since it is going smoothly I will now be here until November.
Cheers,

Bob

VK0BP

*Note: VK0BP website

ARRL Audio News: Mar 6, 2009; Vol 28 Number 9

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ARRL Audio News: Mar 6, 2009; Vol 28 Number 9

via ARRL Amateur Radio News on 3/6/09

ARRL Audio News--OPEN--In this edition . . .; FCC Special Counsel Laura Smith Visits ARRL HQ; FCC Has Done "Literally Nothing" to Comply with Court Ruling; ARRL Audio News ID--Satellite Update--BREAK:; Julius Genachowski Nominated as Next FCC Chairman; April QST on the Way to Your Mailbox; ARRL Soliciting Nominations for 2008 Hiram Percy Maxim Award; ARRL Audio News--IN BRIEF/CLOSE

Thursday, March 26, 2009

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Most Popular Ever

Fix suspend/hibernate

Speed up ubuntu/gnome boot time

Easy mounting of images and ISO and CUE

Clean up preferences and administration

Improved file/folder sharing experience

Fix compatability with webcams and microphone

Enhanced Mobile Device Sync

Better wifi support

Easy way of backing up/moving your documents and settings

Disk Manager by default

Mouse button extension

Better Hardware Profile Manager

Better DVD support

Better monitor support and configuration tools

Professional looking boot loader

Restoring the bootloader by Ubuntu installation CD

Include a graphical frontend to edit /boot/grub/menu.lst installed by default

Provide a simple interface for labeling partitions

Make ubuntu more responsive (performance)

GUI configuration front end for common services

Most Popular over the last 6 months

Check my hardware against application blackists BEFORE 'upgrading'

Better life battery for laptop

Volume control should close when you click somewhere else

Redesign ubuntu for 2010

Allow ALT+Tab when drag and drop

"Scan wireless networks" option in NetworkManager

Easy screen-sharing and audio-chat for instant messengers

There should be a simple GUI to do basic disk maintanence tasks

When abbreviating filenames, cut out the middle, keep the beginning and end

Guest account needs a change

Make System Monitor as powerful as Windows Task Manager

"Speed up" Ubuntu by reducing duration of Compiz animations

Automatic handling of external monitor

ubuntu main menu icons are too big, they take too much space

Native Firefox on Ubuntu is even slower than on Wine

Synaptic/Apt-Get should check for free disk space before download or install

Unify sound drivers and the sound api

Usplash should use a time-based progressbar

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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

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Sunday, March 08, 2009

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Include a graphical frontend to edit `/boot/grub/menu.lst` installed by default