The Linux Journal Readers’ Choice Awards are out with the current issue. Let’s talk about some of them. The number one distribution was, as usual Ubuntu. But, Ubuntu only got 16 percent, with Debian coming in second at 14.1 percent. So, one could say that Debian is strong since Ubuntu is based on Debian. One … Continue reading Linux Journal Readers’ Choice Awards: Ubuntu Weak, Unity Shunned
Or, at least, I’m surprised that this earlier implemented solution has not been mentioned in all the discussion about NSA spying. Richard Stallman invented an approach to obviating the NSA’s attempts to spy on email. He included it in emacs, the world’s greatest text editor. Here how it works, from the manual. The “M” is … Continue reading I Thought We Solved This NSA Thing Long Ago
My first computer language was PL/1, but soon after I learned, among other languages, Basic, and I really liked Basic and I still do. Basic is linear, and I think in linear constructs when I do any kind of computer program. This is probably, in part, because user interfaces are the last thing I want … Continue reading Is Python The New Basic? ("Python For Kids")
RIP Ubuntu. Ubuntu was great. For years, I kept trying to get my own Linux box up and running, initially so I could relive the halcyon days of UNIX and later so I could avoid Windows. But every time I tried to get Linux working some key thing would not be configurable or would not … Continue reading Which Linux Do I Turn To In My Hour of Need?
I have two items for you. First, I’d like you to inspect this brilliant computer game and come up with a bash equivilant (or something that will run from the Linux Command Line). The current version of the program is 32 megabytes of some kind of DOS based source code. I’m sure we can do … Continue reading Software Needs and Nerds
After the Big Bang, more or less evenly distributed stuff and energy somehow became slightly unevenly distributed, which caused a kind of Universal Angular Momentum to set in which gave early heterogeneity and structure to everything that existed. The lightest elements formed more or less spontaneously, but in order for heavier elements to form matter … Continue reading Making sense of our fights on the Internet
And system wars while we are at it. A recent discussion on Browser Wars at GLB led me to wonder what X Blog readers were doing. This, by the way, is an interesting way to get at the question: Are people who read the X Blog the same people who read Greg Laden’s Blog? Anyway, … Continue reading X Blog Browser Wars
One of the interesting items we have this week is a study by Greenpeace in which various organisms from the sea near Fukushima were sampled for radioactive isotopes. Let’s take a closer look. The data in the table provided (see the first item in Ana’s feed for the link) show the amount of radiation (radioactive … Continue reading Japan Nuclear Disaster: Update # 36: Sushi Recommendations
For now. When it comes down to it, benevolent dictatorship resting on a perfectly anarchistic base is the only way to go. Democracy is too easily bought. Free Market Forces do not make everything all nice and efficient and stuff. Wherever information can be OpenSource and OpenAccess it should be; No institution should be allowed … Continue reading I would like to be the first to welcome our Googley overlords
Both my desktop and my laptop started working more slowly a few weeks ago. This indicated that something about the operating system (some version of Ubuntu Linux) changed in a bad way. Or, perhaps, since the slowness was mostly noticed in the web browser, the newer version of Firefox was somehow borked. It turns out … Continue reading I shall build it and I shall call it gregBook