Linux Journal
Convert diff output to colorized HTML
If you search the web you can find a number of references to programs/scripts that convert diff output to HTML. This is a bash version.
Where are we on 508 compliance?
As a computer professional I take my sight for granted. Think about it, how much you rely on your eyes. How much of what we do is based on what is on the screen and where it is on the screen.
Product Spotlight: Linux Offerings from Fujitsu
Associate Editor Shawn Powers recently had the opportunity to speak with Fujitsu about their Linux latest offerings.
The Death of the Letter?
BALTIMORE (AP) - Mailboxes are going the way of phone booths. More of us are paying our bills online and using the Internet to send our correspondence, so the U.S. Postal Service has decided it needs fewer mailboxes. (WTOP)
Could Microsoft's Photosynth Have Been Free Software?
Photosynth is one of the most exciting programs I've seen in a long time. It takes a group of photos, typically of a single geographical location, but possibly taken at different times by different people, analyses them for similarities, and then stitches then together into a smooth-flowing, pseudo-3D panorama. It's really great. Just two problems. One: it won't run on GNU/Linux; and two: it's from Microsoft, and so is unlikely ever to do so.
My question is this: Why didn't the free software community come up with Photosynth first?
Obama's Secret Weapon: Geeks. Lots of Them
We were lost in Boston's South End, looking for Thayer Street. Street signs are optional around Boston, and the locals didn't know either the street or our precise destination...
Linux Product Insider: "FIRST LEGO League", the book
This "Linux Product Insider" features the book FIRST LEGO League, iStor Networks' integraSuite/MC Management Center, WaveMaker's Visual Ajax Studio 4.0, Perforce 2008.1 SCM System and FST's FancyPants SDK.
Here's what's new and noteworthy this week in Linux and open source:
OpenOffice.org Impress: Using Master Slides
The Master view in Impress is the equivalent of page styles in Writer. It's the view where you can set elements of design that appear throughout your presentation, such as the slide background and foreground colors, any reoccurring elements, and the fonts. By creating the master slides you need before you add content, you can automate your work and free yourself to focus on content.
How do we attract the next generation?
What are we doing to expose new users to Linux and Open Source solutions? My wife, after coming back from a visit to our local electronics store asked me why there were no “boxes” of Linux on the shelves, or PCs supporting the OS on display?
It sucks because it's good
Back in the mid-90s, when Linux was still at 1.something, website design was a simple exercise that left matters such as font choice up to the user. It was blessedly free of the Tyranny of Typography, the Legacies of Layout, and other controlling influences from the Provinces of Print. Better yet, it was free by design from withering rebuke by aesthetes whose high-minded "taste" made life miserable for both writers and readers. Back then
Rebooting the Magic Way
If you have ever had a hard drive fail on a remote server you may remember the feeling you had after trying to issue the following commands:
# reboot bash: /sbin/reboot: Input/output error # shutdown -r now bash: /sbin/shutdown: Input/output errorProduct Spotlight: Virtualization for High-End Computing
ScaleMP's vSMP Foundation aggregation platform enables the creation of high-end x86-based symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) systems, providing superior performance at prices significantly lower than traditional SMPs and comparable to managed x86 clusters.
Remote Application Deployment with NX
The X Window System is a magnificent platform for many uses, but using it to run an application over a slow network is nearly impossible. This is an introduction to NX, a technology that makes remote applications fly even over commodity internet.
Use Nagios to Check Your Zypper
If you use Nagios to monitor your system and run openSUSE on a remote server the bash script presented here will check for online updates and is designed to be run by Nagios so that the result will appear on the Nagios service-detail page.
What do you use to run Windows applications on your Linux desktop?
NGINX instead of Apache?
My friend Mario in Costa Rica sent me a short email about NGINX (pronounced engine-X). It is a web server and a bit more written by Igor Sysoev in Russia. Clearly, it isn't for everyone but if you have a very busy site that needs load balancing and some other performance stuff, it looks pretty interesting.
Transparency is just as important
One of the advantages, touted by the Open Source community is that you can read the source code and make changes to it if you need to. Now to be honest, how many of us even bother to look at the source code?
Linux Journal Flickr Pool Roundup
Music Education With Linux Sound Tools, Redux
Four years ago I wrote an article for the Linux Journal about my use of Linux software for music instruction. A lot has changed since then, so I thought I should update that article to reflect my current use of Linux in my work as a music teacher. I'll follow the presentation of materials as I organized it in the original article, but first I'll share some observations about the changing nature of my trade.
Looking for Python Programmers to Change the World
Ten years ago, the then CEO of Ericsson in Sweden wrote an internal article about digital convergence. He stated that within a very short time, all data produced in an analog way such as books, music, photographs, newspapers and so forth would cease to exist. Instead all content would become digital and we would render, view and listen to digital formats.