Recently sourceforge.net and a number of other opensource software related sites blocked all access to their site from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. This was in compliance with export control regulations. This resulted in their sites access being restricted from all individuals living in those countries.

True to the inovation of the Opensource community sourceforge has found a way to make much of their sites content available to those living in the affected countries. They have layed out a new system. that allows each project to identify whether the export control regulations apply to their work or not. So those whose projects do not conflict with export control compliance can make their work available world wide.

For those who have projects on sourceforge they are responsible for being in compliance with the new standards in export control.

Those glitchy proprietary Windows programs have finally found a way to be useful. They are being used to curb Terrorism. As of January 1rst the U.S. began blocking several countries from being able to access several sites including sourceforge.net that provide open source and Linux based software as a measure to curb terrorism. You see it is quite simple. Make them run Windows! Then their systems will begin to fragment. Error messages and crashes will ensue. And of course the viruses. Oh, and don’t forget spyware, I am sure that could be helpful also. Then everything just kind of slips into chaos.

So there you have it the Governments latest measure is to limit their access to open source software. I am not saying whether I agree with this or not.

Phase two could involve taking their PC’s away and making them use ipads. That’s right, no Linux and no keyboard for you. You are running off of ipad magic now. Sorry about your flash player.

What is this ipad magic I keep hearing about? In my case I do not believe in magic. Magic does not exist and the ipad certainly is not magical. The only thing that could be considered magical about an ipad is how it will cause 499 dollars to disappear from your wallet. For the amount you will pay for an ipad starting at 499 dollars you could get a decent netbook or even a nice laptop, even if it was used for 499 dollars you could get a laptop with a nice big screen and flash player and accelerated 3d and a whole lot more programs and a decent Linux distribution. The people who you will see with these gadgets are the people who have money to throw around or Kids who nag their Parents until they buy it for them.

I am hearing all this talk about ipad magic. Even many Linux users and writers getting swept up in this and talking about how Linux needs to have the kind of magic that Apple has. Linux has the closest thing to magic, it can revive old hardware and on newer systems can provide a stable environment that simply works. It can also be used for cluster environments something that I have never heard of anyone using Apple based systems for. If it has been done it must be a rare occurrence.

Nobody has listed a single feature to rightfully call magical about the ipad. They are not going to tell you what it cannot do such as play flash video and the lack of game support and the fact that it has few programs to choose from. Also with the ipad simply being an over sized and over priced ipod touch and with fewer programs, nobody is going to tell you what it can do since the list is to small. The phrase magical is used to give a product an appearance of having some sort of superiority over more functional Linux based options. And unfortunately it is a strategy that seems to be working. Everybody has been writing about ipad magic even though they cannot explain what specifically makes it magical.

Computers do not run off of magic! Computers run off of hardware and software.

NameBench is a program that searches for the fastest DNS in your area. After the program is finished searching and comparing between DNS it will give you the results including the fastest and nearest DNS in your area. After that all you have to do is edit your connection settings to use the fastest DNS available. NameBench is available for Windows and Mac systems, but most importantly it is Linux compatible.

First you will need to download the program. Here is a link to download the tgz for Linux and also there are some download files for those other Operating Systems.

The program is quite easy to install.

After you have downloaded the file open it using ark to extract the files.

You will find a file called namebench.py. To open the program simply click on that file.

Now that you have the program open simply click on Start Benchmark. When the program is finished the results will be displayed in Linux most likely in Konqueror.

The results are compared to Google’s DNS and the system will compare against your current DNS settings. The fastest DNS will be listed at the top.

Changing your DNS

If you found out that you already had the fasted DNS then good for you. You may now go brag to your friends about your web browsing prowess. But if you need to change your DNS settings to get setup with the fasted DNS in your area then you will need to configure your network settings for this. So click on your applications menu button and go to Tools then click on System Tools and finally the Network center (Mandriva 2010).

Cick on the drop down arrow then click on Configure.

Depending on the type of internet you have setup the settings may be a little different. In this example we are dealing with a DSL connection.

If Get DNS from DHCP is checked then disable that and then type in your new DNS in the box below. Then simply click okay and you should be ready to go. You may need to restart your internet connection for this to work.

Here is a link to an article that I stumbled across, it is very well written so I would just like to provide a link and encourage visitors to follow it and read the story.

Enjoy

When I received the news of youtube using html 5 for their video streaming I was interested. When I tested it out  and saw how much better it worked for me than the flash video I was excited about this new development. My excitement quickly turned to concern when I learned why Mozilla is not supporting this new streaming video format in their Firefox browser.

The html 5 video on youtube and vimeo is using the h.264 codec. Which is closed source and patented. In addition MPEG-LA is charging exhorbant fees to the sum of 5,000,000 annually in order for a software package to be able to support the h.264 codec.

Obviously that is a concern since this company could make it expensive to receive something that most people have been receiving for free. Also the sheer cost of the fee makes it only possible for the big players to enter the market and support this codec. You may have the most brilliant team of programmers and a great product but if you don’t have 5,000,000 you will not be able to support their product. This gives large companines with deep pockets a chance to control the market.

But here is another side of the issue that many have not considered. Currently the streaming video standard is the flash player. Flash is also a proprietary solution. This means that MPEG-LA is not doing anything that the people at adobe could not do with flash player support. Right now with html 5 using the h.264 codec we have streaming video that works well. And it is supported in Linux through the Chrome browser. If Adobe was left to itself to continue to dominate the market unencumbered with competition they could do the same thing that MPEG-LA is doing and even worse, they hardly support Linux as it is with so many years to get their product working properly and still the same problems.

At least right now their is some competition. Not the kind of competition that the open source community would like to see. But as long as the h.264 codec exist then Adobe is not left to control the market entirely and as long as the Adobe flash format is in existence they force MPEG-LA to find a way to be competitive.

The proprietary flash player has left alot to be desired for Linux and Apple users. Especially if you are running with accelerated 3d and with compiz fusion. Finally it is possible to watch youtube videos in html 5 format instead of the flash player. And I have found an easy way to take advantage of this new feature. This experience for me at least has been so much better. No more low quality jerky video, but instead with html 5 the video can be viewed in high definition and still be smooth.

Here is what I have found to be the easiest way to take advantage of this option:

First install the Chrome Browser. Here is a link to their page.

Next, there is a a grease monkey script that you can install in chrome that will place a view in html 5 link on youtube videos that can be viewed in this new format. It is very easy to setup. After you click on this link for the grease monkey script, click on the link to download the grease monkey script and it will download and a box will pop up with the option to install. Then simply click install. After that you should be finished and ready to begin playing with this new feature.

Another Option:

An alternative to installing the script is to use the youtube.com/html5 page. Once you are on that page you will need to click on the join beta link. After several tries I managed to get this to work in Chrome but not in firefox. Maybe they were just having some issues at the time. This is a new feature in its testing phase. And the script does offer the convenience of being able to browse youtubes home page and search from there.

You may now search for videos on youtube and many are available to be viewed in html 5 format just click on the view in html 5 link when the page loads.

We may have to wait a while before the rest of the world catches on to html 5 but for now at least you can have some online entertainment free of the many flash player glitches.

Unfortunately with youtube I have not found a simple solution for doing this with firefox the page for the grease monkey script explains why. I am sure there will be a work around found for this. I am looking forward to learning more.

This news seems shocking to some but makes perfect sense to me. It turns out that 75% of the code that had been submitted in the last 12 and a half months was by paid programmers. Opinions vary on this topic. Some feel that this is a break away from the ideals of free software. I think it is only fair that an individual gets paid for their hard work. Even people who write code for Linux need to pay the bills and put food on the table since you rarely find anything that is free as in free Beer. Sorry I just had to throw the free Beer in.

An individual who is getting paid enough to make a living at programing may be able to focus more on that work and on the code.

Still there is one concern, that Linux will become so commercialized that it will gradually turn into a project that is powered by proprietary software. On the other hand we are talking about 2.8 million lines of code and 25% of that is still being written by those who are not getting paid to write code. And when was the last time anyone even saw a tv ad for Linux. Perhaps that concern is a bit premature.

Unfortunately most Linux users do use proprietary software and once a proprietary solution is available there may not be any open source alternatives developed as everyone gets nice and comfortable with proprietary software.

Then some talk about using strictly open source products while at the same time they push the idea of running windows through virtualization or dual booting into windows. I too use virtualbox for occassionally running Windows in Linux. But really which is worse using proprietary software in an open environment or using Windows on a regular basis. I would rather be able to spend more time in Linux even if it means using some proprietary products inside Linux versus booting a Windows install.

While Microsoft asserts that Linux will fail on the mobile devices market and many bloggers argue about whether or not Linux will dominate the Netbook or Desktop market. One thing is clear Linux does have market share on the stock exchange. That is, on the London Stock Exchange.

The London Stock Exchange is in the process of replacing their windows based systems with linux. Finally maybe the economy will begin to flourish again. Or at least the London stock exchange will have a very smooth operation.

Meanwhile some branches of the New Zealand Government are begining to deploy Linux based systems on a trial basis.

While many still view Linux as a failure due to its lack of success in the Desktop market this lack of success is mainly a result of a lack of exposure and the fact that many people are not willing to learn something new. Everyday developments are taking place that show that Linux based systems are gaining more market share. In fact the Linux operating system is experiencing growth as other systems are losing market share.

After months of playing with various compiz fusion features and running Atlantis etc. I settled in for a while and then the other day decided it was time to give my system a new look. I dimmed the transparency of the desktop cube to make the icons look all nice and shiny but left just a hint of transparency which does some interesting things with your desktop wallpaper and you can still see

the programs that you have running on the other side of the cube. And the reflection of things like your menus. The transparency setting in ccsm under the desktop cube is currently at 71%.

The next step I installed Cairo dock. Which provides an aray of shiny icons for your viewing pleasure. Also a number of other little handy widgets like your ram and cpu monitor. Mostly the dock is just eye candy but it does provide some handy features. I like the weather program that keeps a display of the temperature you can click on that and also get a sub dock which each day of the week displayed, simply run your mouse across the sub dock to get additional weather information.

And then finally I added the sleek little clock widget to finish things up.