Groklaw has the story. Stewart Rules: Novell Wins! CASE CLOSED. What follows is a complete wrapup of the long standing case of SCO vs. Novell regarding intellectual property rights to Linux code. SCO has been maintaining that Linux users owe them licensing fees. They say that Linux is based on UNIX code that they, SCO own. See the Groklaw story for complete details of the ruling.

Could SCO appeal? Not too likely since SCO is in bankruptcy and they would have to get permission of the bankruptcy judge to spend any more money on this case. So it seems that a stake has been driven through the heart of this particular vampire.

In reporting this story Yahoo! Finance headlined SCO to Sponsor Next Season of “The Biggest Loser”. Their story is by John Paczkowski The author says this case may finally be over See the Yahoo! Finance article for their details

A good overall view, though dated may be found Wikipedia article on SCO-Linux_controversies One of the strangest parts of this melodrama was when SCO announced that they would not be suing its own customers. Good to know, huh?

Photo Credit: http://taliesinttlg.blogspot.com

Posted by The GNUinator

Get Slack

Patrick Volkerding has announced the release of Slackware Linux 13.1: “Yes, it’s that time again! After many months of development and careful testing, we are proud to announce the release of Slackware version 13.1. Slackware 13.1 brings many updates and enhancements, among which you’ll find two of the most advanced desktop environments available today: Xfce 4.6.1, a fast and lightweight but visually appealing and easy to use desktop environment, and KDE 4.4.3, a recent stable release of the new 4.4.x series of the award-winning KDE desktop environment. We continue to make use of HAL and udev, which allow the system administrator to grant use of various hardware devices according to users’ group membership.”

To see a review of Slackware 13.1 click here

Posted by The GNUinator

Steve Ballmer

Interesting story on Yahoo! Tech Blog yesterday. Here is a link.

Christopher Null blog

Also see Reasons to Avoid Microsoft

Meanwhile the reviews are statring to come in on Slackware Linux 13.0

Interesting marketing strategy from Microsoft. Our previous operating system was so bad that you should upgrade to our new operating system right away. Apple has picked up on this with one of the funniest ads running on tv.

PC: Hello, I’m a pc

Mac: Hello, I’m a Mac

PC: Windows 7 has been released and it will not have the problems that Windows Vista had.

Mac: …remembering …

PC: Windows Vista has been released and it will not have the problems that Windows XP had

Mac: …remembering …

PC: Windows XP has been released and it will not have the problems that Windows ME had

etc … etc … back to Windows 3.1

Posted by The GNUinator

My grandfather, Jesse Augustus Perkins (Oct 18, 1872 – Apr 19, 1951), was an engineer on the Central of Georgia Railway.

The family moved back and forth between Columbus, GA where my mom was born to Savannah, GA where she graduated high school.

Then the family did an amazing thing. They sent my mom to Brenau for a year. Sounds like a theme you might see in a novel of Anne Rivers Siddons. I can just imagine what a financial commitment this must have been for the family.

Jesse retired at age 65 and went fishing every day after that. Within three years he had turned into an old man.

As we approach retirement we should plan to stay engaged in mind and body. Our choices today are much wider than in my grandfather’s time. Blogging is a choice I wanted to explore. I had no idea what a blog is. At last I found out that a blog is shorthand for a weblog. Wow, that cleared it up. So, what is a weblog?

Then on one of my trips to Fort Collins, CO I wandered into the public library. There was a book “Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation that’s Changing Your World” ISBN 0-7852-8804X published in 2005 written by Hugh Hewitt. I wanted answers to the following questions:

• How is a Blog different from a website?
• What client software is used to create a blog?
• Does any client blog software run on Linux?

I had already done a 35 page website, all hand-coded HTML using only the IBM OS/2 Warp Enhanced Editor to create it.

Instead of finding answers to any of these questions I found out instead what horrid people liberals are. Bloggers were going to expose corruption among liberal politicians, etc.

One thing I did learn from the Hewitt book is that blogs link to other blogs and thus each multiplies the power of those other blogs.

During the next few years I started seeing bloggers appear on cable television. Townhall.com on the conservative side, MediaMatters.com on the liberal side. Representative examples.

Then one day I logged in to Linux Questions.org , As I was reading through the Slackware forum I saw a message with a tagline inviting folks to see a blog article on moving from Windows to Linux specifically Slackware Linux. I read the article and wrote to the author, Brian Reichert who turned out to be a great guy. Brian used Nanoblogger to create his blog, and of course it runs on Linux.

Seeing Brian’s blog raised another question. What is a blogroll? I flirted with Nanoblogger for months before deciding that it was not for me. Soon afterwards I decided on a domain name kakoluri.com and registered it through A2Hosting in Ann Arbor, MI. A2 is a linux friendly hosting company. Their service has been superior in every way.

Eventually I learned that there is a Linux version of WordPress

WordPress runs on the host as a MySQL task. Instead of just starting a blog, I decided to find out about MySQL. The client software is included with Slackware Linux so I was able to get MySQL running on a localhost. In order for this to work you also have to have PHP running. In Slackware this is easy. You simply edit one text file to turn PHP on.

Where does the name kakoluri come from? I was reading a book about the Gypsies. Kako is a word which means chief and Luri is an old name for the Gypsy people. I promise that I am not from Romania nor do I have any ancestors from there.

When I was a child Adolph Hitler murdered six million Jews in concentration camps. This is well-known. Some people forget that Hitler also murdered hundreds of thousands of Gypsies in Europe as well. So I feel comfortable identifying with them.

With the choice of WordPress blog software, A2 Hosting, and a registered domain name, I was soon off and running. I found out what a blogroll is by accident. So the pieces started coming together.

Now with a few months of blogging experience under my belt, I found, almost by accident another book which answers the questions that the Hewitt book did not.

The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging, ISBN 978-4391-0500-9, published in 2008, avoids the adolescent ranting of the Hewitt book. It answers the real questions I have today.

• What should I blog about?
• How should I link to other blogs?
• How can I promote readership?

I blog about what I am passionate about. Microsoft ,
for example. These days it is quaint to think that computing should require some effort and study in order to do it successfully and safely. Microsoft has sold snake oil that says any idiot can run a computer if they use Windows. The worst thing about Microsoft is the kind of users they create – according to one author.

I am passionate about RealID. A national identification card is illegal in the United States. Despite that, governments, federal and state, have spent millions of dollars on a scheme to create a de facto national identification card.

The Huffington Post Guide says do not let perfect be the enemy of done. I get ideas from C-Span and other sources but if I delay very long it is too late. Despite that, I never run out of things to blog about. Somewhere along the line I decided to include a book of the week series. Now I’m busier than ever.

Posted by Gypsy Chief

Get Slack

A development release of Slackware Linux, version 13.0RC1 was made available on July 2, 2009. Looks like the production version will be based on Linux kernel 2.6.29.x

Update: A second development release, version 13.0RC2 was made available on August 6, 2009.

For me, Slackware is the Linux distribution of choice though I’ve used some others like Vector Linux and OpenSUSE.

More information is available on Slackare website

Posted by The GNUinator

Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing

Recently we published Introduction to BOINC which said that older computers could be useful for processing Berkeley Open Infrastructure For Network Computing, BOINC, work units. These computers, retrofitted with Linux instead of Windows can contribute to the public good by looking for pulsars in outer space, searching for life on other planets, studying protein folding, finding new prime numbers and so forth. Indeed, Linux User and Developer Magazine from the UK devoted a cover story to BOINC some years ago. They called BOINC responsible peer to peer networking, as contrasted with irresponsible peer to peer networking which is associated with theft of copyrighted music, etc.

When I was in high school General Dougles MacArthur appeared before a joint session of Congress. MacArthur had just been fired by President Truman over the issue of supremacy of civilian authority over military leaders.

MacArthur concluded an emotional presentation by recalling a song they used to sing at West Point.

For months afterward Old Soldiers Never Die, They Just Fade Away was a hit song.

How does this apply to BOINC? Well I happen to have two IBM ThinkPad 770Zs. They are Pentium II machines with 320MB of ram, they run at 366MHz and their operating system is Slackware version 10.2. One of them processes Einstein at Home work units. The typical work unit will take about five days to complete on a 770Z. The cycle is get a work unit – process it – upload the result – get another work unit. The objective is to run the wheels off until the machine dies of old age or fatigue.

The other 770Z processes Prime Grid work units. This BOINC project looks for new prime numbers of the form K*B^N+/-1 and B^N+/-K and other kinds of prime numbers.

Do I have any idea what these number forms mean? Well, frankly no I do not. I do know that prime numbers are used in computer security and for other useful purposes. So that is the idea behind BOINC. The volunteers who contribute unused CPU cycles are not required to know the science involved. They just need to be willing to help out. Frankly I think this is a better use of old computers then having them thrown in land fills.

Posted by The GNUinator

We Have Links

Astronomy Picture of The Day was added in honor of my sister. See Sis You’re No Valley Girl on this blog. Our links are divided into Blogroll, Public Interest, and Science and Stuff which includes computer science, BOINC, climate science, wind, and other things. Notice the link for Junk Science Judo. This material was produced by The Cato Institute and I think it is valuable. More recent material produced by The Cato Institute seems to me to be excessively negative.

I am struck by the number of bloggers appearing on cable television. For example on Howard Kurtz’s Reliable Sources on CNN there appeared Jeff Jarvis blogger at Buzz Machine as well as John Aravosis blogger at America Blog. I’m happy to have both on my blogroll. Speaking of happy, I was glad to see Jane Hamsher, blogger at Fire Dog Lake, on The Rachel Maddow show recently.

Posted by Gypsy Chief

Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing

Use the idle time on your computer (Windows, Mac, or Linux) to cure diseases, study global warming, discover pulsars, and do many other types of scientific research. It’s safe, secure, and easy:

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Well yes downloading and installing the BOINC client software is simple. There is more to this than you might think.

For one thing, this can get competitive really quick. There are teams all over the world vying to produce more completed BOINC work units than any other team. For another, one may participate in multiple BOINC projects at once.

In addition, participation in BOINC projects has implications for the use of old computers. I define old computers as computers which originally shipped with some version of Windows. From time to time Microsoft announces End of Life for Windows versions such as Windows 98 for example.

What happens to a computer with an old no longer supported version of Windows? Computer professionals have struggled with this question for years. It has been estimated that only 22% of discarded computers are disposed of properly. Too many of them end up in landfills where they harm the environment.

One answer I think, is to put them in strong hands and set them to work producing BOINC work units.

When I say strong hands I mean blow Windows off the hard drive and install some Linux distribution instead. I do not mean this as an anti-Microsoft rant. Consider this. Older versions of Windows were never too secure so they are not very safe on the Internet. After End of Life announcement the third party addons like Zone Alarm and AdAware stop being supported as well. These old computers lack the horsepower to run a newer version of Windows. That is just a fact. But these old computers will run Linux.
Slackware is one Linux distribution which works well with older hardware.

You may have heard of SETI@home, that is, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligience. This is the original project in which the University of California asked for the public’s help to perform calculations needed in the search for life on other planets. Hundreds of thousands of people responded worldwide. Years later the university decided to scrap the original SETI@home client software and to replace it with BOINC client software which could be used to support network computing on a variety of scientific projects.

Today one such effort is the BBC Climate Prediction project where users run thousands of simulations to see what is the effect of small changes in sulphur or carbon dioxide.

This is an ambitious project which requires much dedication as a single climate prediction model can run on your computer for months. In this case an obsolete computer will not do – you need something with more horsepower. However, old computers can still do lots of good things. I have, for example Pentium III computers which produce Einstein at home work units. These look for pulsars in space.

Why is this post categorized as ‘the press always gets it wrong’? Well, you might remember that CNN produced a special report asking ‘is anyone out there?’ … an intriguing question. The report focused on the SETI Institute. The executive director was interviewed and SETI raw data collection was shown. What was not discussed was SETI@home where thousands of regular computer users donate unused CPU cycles to process the raw data at no cost to the SETI Institute or the American taxpayers. Dan Brown (The DaVinci Code, etc) described SETI as a government boondoggle. That is his opinion, but he didn’t say a thing about SETI@home.

Posted by The GNUinator