Slashdot | Full Debian ARM for Under $200
“With minor elbow grease, you can now set yourself up with a complete Debian ARM Linux box for under $200. This is thanks to Peter Korsgaard, who figured out a cool byteswapped kernel hack for the little $99 Linksys NSLU2. Add a $99 USB harddrive, and the tiny, cute, quiet ‘Slug’ can run any of about 16,000 Debian ARM packages, 24×7, for pennies per month worth of electricity, since ARM is still orders of magnitude more power-efficient than anything x86. Serve files, music, web pages, printers, backups, kernel images, webcams/motion detection, firewalls/routers, wireless access point… or whatever. Oh, did I mention you can overclock the Slug?“
RSS Is Bigger Than Blogs
The Future of RSS is Not in Blogs
“Even now, businesses that were initially reluctantly evaluating RSS are beginning to realize the power and benefit of the RSS information avenue. The inherent capacity for consumers to select the content they wish to receive will be the driving mechanism for keeping advertisements to a minimum and content quality consistent. “
This is quite true. It has been apparent to me for quite some time that RSS goes way beyond simply delivering news headlines. Podcasting is certainly evidenc of that, as is the recent Longhorn RSS lovefest from MSFT. The power of RSS lies in its simplicity. It is a simple XML spec that allows the easy and fast dissemination of information. Really Simple, Sure.
Linux Cluster to Help DoD Design Weapons
Defense Department Buys HP Servers To Design Weapons – Yahoo! News
“The clustered system is rated at 10-teraflops performance and is expected to be used to help the Defense Department accelerate research into weapons concepts, and speed simulation programs that enhance tests and evaluations of potential new weapons systems.“
Running MS Exchange 5.5 Inside a Linux VM
Resuscitating Microsoft Exchange 5.5 with Linux – OSNews.com
“What we will be doing is running NT4/Exchange inside the Linux OS via a virtual machine, VMWare is the vm recommend for its ease of use and stability. We will use a more secure MTA, such as Postfix and we will receive mail via an Imap server, such as Cyrus. Exchange 5.5 will not connect to the Internet at all, and all mail will be filtered through the more secure systems before Exchange has to deal with it. We can even have Exchange 5.5 forgo all mail handling, and only perform address book and calendar sharing.“
Article provides a quick, non-detailed howto on getting Exchange 5.5 running on VMWare using Linux as the host OS. This provides a good way to secure Exchange from the outside world and is less disruptive to end users. It is interesting to note that VMWare can be used to run virtually any MSFT apps on a Linux host in a more secure environment.
FCKEditor 2.0 Released
SourceForge.net: File Release Notes and Changelog
“After a long and delicate development path, this is the final release of version 2.0. Now the editor is even more stable. Lots of key bugs have been fixed and a few and exiting new features has been added like native Flash support.”
I’m especially looking forward to Mozilla/Firefox support:)
Migrating MySQL DB from MyISAM to InnoDB
NewsForge | MySQL migration: MyISAM to InnoDB
“The MySQL database is unique in that it offers multiple storage engines. The SQL parser and front end interfaces are separate from the storage engines, so you can choose among nine low-level table formats the one that suits your application best. I recently needed to convert a production application from the default indexed sequential format, MyISAM, to InnoDB.“
Creating Enhanced Podcasts: Include Slides and More!
This excellent HOWTO on the MAKE blog is a great HOWTO on creating enhanced podcasts for iTunes 4.9 and iPod Color. There are some potential uses here in a lot of areas in the education arena. Think lectures with slides and links to notes. Biggest drawback right now: tools to create these are Mac only:(
MAKE: Blog: HOW TO make Enhanced Podcasts (images, links and more with audio)
“Apple’s new iTunes 4.9, iPod color, allows you to view (and listen to) “enhanced podcasts” these are audio files that can have slideshows, URLs and some cool features we have discovered. Apple’s included documents and a Wiki was all I needed to make our MAKE enhanced podcasts, but I also wrote a how-to. Here’s how to get, make and all you need to know about enhanced podcasts! As a bonus, we put together some fun ideas we think many might use…“
Make a desktop trebuchet
MAKE: Blog: Make a desktop trebuchet
“By using popsicle sticks and some glue you can build yourself a clever little trebuchet. This is a good replacement for the one made out of paper that has vanished from the Internet. You will need 18 sticks for the frame sides. “
Needs to work this into next year’s conference.
Scribus Releases 1.3.0 – Includes Support for Win32 and OSX
Scribus Team Releases 1.3.0 – La Liberté :: Scribus :: GPL Desktop Publishing for Linux and more
“With this release, we also commence support for Scribus running natively on Windows and Mac OS X.“
Native builds for Windows are not yet available, but alpha compiles have been done and Win32 builds are on the way.
Scribe Adds Word Processing Features to Web Forms
This is one cool extension for FireFox and another reason to move IE. Be sure to check out Scribe’s features.
MAKE: Blog: Word processing in web forms
“Scribe adds Word Processor like functionality to web forms, including opening and saving form entries as files. Open and save form entries as files. Quickly save to a local file as you type. Never lose a post again due to your internet connection being dropped or laptop battery going out.“