Category: Linux/Open Source

Linux, Open Source, and Civil Disobedience

Linux/Open Source / OpinionLeave a comment

When I was still arguably a kid, there was an old TV show that my friends and I all watched called, “Baretta.” In the show’s theme song, “Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow,” voiced by the great Sammy Davis Jr., we hear the words, “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.” The show starred one Robert Blake, an actor who, as it turns out, would later be charged with murder. He was acquitted but later charged with “wrongful death” in a civil suit which he lost, despite the criminal murder acquittal. But I digress . . . …

Microsoft Buys ReactOS for $12.3 Billion US!

Humour / Linux/Open SourceLeave a comment

I was just remarking to my son that it’s going to be tough to write an April 1st (aka “April Fools”) story that is actually weirder than what we are living through right now. I mean, we are in the middle of a global pandemic, people around the world are in lockdown, or in isolation, everyone that can work from home is working from home, and the economy is tanking. Seriously, how do you beat that? Then, I started thinking about the most successful, meaning most convincing, April Fool’s article I ever wrote. There were tons of comments at the …

My Open Source Journey

Cooking With Linux / Life / Linux/Open SourceLeave a comment

Way back, in my late teens, when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, I had created myself a geek’s paradise in my basement. I had a chemistry lab, with equipment sourced through my high school, a microscope, a telescope, and an electronics lab built with equipment from Radio Shack. I was also starting to experiment with various computers and, in time, would have at least three different Commodore computers, a TRS-80, until eventually moving to a state of the art 286 IBM PC clone. Later, I’d expand the memory on that PC’s main board to a staggering 1 MB of RAM. …

The Book of Secret Knowledge

Life / Linux/Open Source / Useful StuffLeave a comment

Every once in a while, you run across something so terribly useful, that you just need to share it with others, even if it does have the word “secret” in the title. This is one of those times. Should I call this a document, or a resource? Hey, maybe it’s just a glorified collection of bookmarks, but dang, is it ever useful! Given that I think it’s pretty awesome, I’m going to pretend that maybe you’ll feel the same way. And so, I give you “The Book of Secret Knowledge“, a “collection of inspiring lists, manuals, cheatsheets, blogs, hacks, one-liners, …

The Open Deity Project (ODP)

Humour / Linux/Open Source / Religion & AtheismLeave a comment

Creating The World’s First, and Best, Open Source God To contribute, see the GitHub link at the bottom. Today, I want to introduce you to the “Open Deity Project”. ODP will be a community built god and religion with a git repository for changes. The purpose of ODP is to give us all the chance to make the perfect god. We will do it by following a time honoured open source philosophies. Open the code. Share the code. Release early and release often! Everyone is invited to work on creating the Open God. If you can’t help in the creation, …

No Net Neutrality? How About The Open Internet Instead?

Linux/Open Source / Opinion / SuggestionsLeave a comment

In the middle of yet another Net Neutrality crisis, I find myself wondering yet again if there isn't a way to just take our ball and go home. So to speak. We, in the open source community, have been great at spinning off new tech in order to build doors in the walls that others erect to keep us out. Why, I wonder, can't we do that with the Internet. There is a network of hundreds of millions of wireless routers out there, all of which could be used to launch the next generation Internet. Without cables. Without the big …

(NOT) Calling From Microsoft : Trolling a Scammer

Humour / Linux/Open SourceLeave a comment

Every once in a while, some joker calls, claiming to be from Microsoft (or Windows). They explain that they've detected malware of some sort on your computer and now they are here to help you fix it. I've known more than one person who fell for this helpful scam, and even if I didn't, I have no love for these people. One day, upon receiving such a call, I decided to let them 'help me' fix my Windows. I started recording the call and this is the result. Pay close attention to how they react when they find out they …

Rainbowstream, a command line Twitter client

Linux/Open SourceLeave a comment

I'm playing with a Linux command line Twitter client called "Rainbowstream" and it's pretty cool. The screenshot shows it running inside a KDE Konsole terminal. It can even display images, sort of, in striking ASCII art. You can download the latest from rainbowstream.org or from the command line using the following: sudo pip install rainbowstream Have some colourful 140 character fun!

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