Ubuntu In The United States - A Plug for the teams

The Ubuntu US Teams Mentoring Project is working hard to get an approved Local Community (LoCo) Team in every state by the end of 2007. At the beginning of the year, there were only a couple state teams (see the map). Now, 7 months later, there is a LoCo in just about every state, minus a handful (see the updated map). See http://ubuntu-us.org.

Be sure and digg it if you have an account!

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Grid Wars 2 - Works on Ubuntu not Windows

I’ve blogged about this game before, why cause it’s just so much fun. My wife, who loves a good blast fest as much as the next nerd lover, wanted it on her computer. No I haven’t  moved her over to Ubuntu,  she says I have to prove to her Gimp will work for her as good as Photo Shop CS. Well the real story is I could not get Grid Wars 2 to run on her Windows Box…..not sure why it would not run, but I was both surprised and happy.

How Awsome is Ubuntu and Canonical!

I got home from work today and a nice white envelope was waiting for me on the bar. What was inside but 10 CD’s and Stickers for Ubuntu 7.04. Can’t wait to start handing them out. Damn sure never saw Microsoft be that cool.

Ubuntu, Nagios, and Groundworks

For some time now I’ve been using Nagios to monitor the network where I work. Nagios is great and it comes in a nice little package for Ubuntu. The Ubuntu package sure helps with the install but the configuration of Nagios is well, lets just say no fun. I then discovered an application called Groundwork, it’s a nice front end to Nagios and it makes configuration a snap. I also love the fact that Groundwork created this nice little VMWARE appliance so you can test it all out before you commit to a large and time consuming install. The Network I monitor is fairly large about 60 printers, 20 servers, 15 Cisco switches and routers, and tons of internal and external web sites. Nagios has a nice web interface so you can see what the network is doing by just going to a website (internal web server needed). This stuff is enterprise level stuff so if you have 50 or 10000 devices to monitor Nagios can handle it and groundwork will make it easy to configure. Best of all it’s all open sourced.

Ubuntu 7.10 Tribe 3

What can I say but Wow, It sure is coming along nicely. I installed it on a Stock Dell GX 620 with an ATI Radeon X600 video card. That card has been nothing but a pain in the butt, but Tribe 3 had no issues. The default resolution was spot on and desktop effects worked right out of the box (so to speak). Now it’s not all perfect, dual screen needs some more work, as does wide screen monitors (my Dell 2007FPW didn’t work at all I’m sure it’s was my config). But it looks good, and I see it really becoming something that the masses could use. Sure was easier to install and less compatibility issues when I installed Vista on the same setup, save for the monitor issues…… Keep trucking Ubuntu, it’s just a matter of time.

Stop OO-XL it’s just bad

Ubuntu Member “Roald Hopman” blogged this today and I read it on Planet Ubuntu…….

Microsoft is trying to push their inferior OO-XML as a standard. The existing ODF standard is superior and is already implemented by all major office suites (except by MS Office). The OO-XML standard is has big problems and is designed to be hard to implement. For example to be able to implement “autoSpaceLikeWord95” or “useWord97LineBreakRules” you would have to reverse-engineer these proprietary applications.

Sign the petition and say NO to OO-XML.

This is exactly what I’m talking about, Microsoft is forcing this down our throat, and they are lobbying as hard as they can paying off as many government officials as they can find.

Ubuntu, Open Source, and Ron Paul

That’s right Ubuntu, Open Source, and Ron Paul. What could those three things have in common, well Ubuntu and Open Source sure, but what’s with the Ron Paul? As some of you may have guessed next years presidential  elections in the United States of America is more than likely going to be an ugly brutal mess. No one is happy about the war no matter what side of it your on. The economy looks like it’s booming but only if your one of the have gots and not one of the have nots. Gas prices are rising every day, which means food prices go right up with it. Thanks to the Patriot Act, we’ve been kissing most of our civil rights good bye too. So what does any of this have to do with Ubuntu or Open Source Software, for that matter Ron Paul? Well Ubuntu is a community thing each of us helping one another. The more you contribute the more you get back, much like Open Source Software. I’ve debugged a few applications in my day and the skills and techniques I learned was more valuable than any programming class I’ve ever took. That bring me to Ron Paul and what he stands for. When I started looking for a person I could trust to lead the United States I started to get a little worried everyone scared me, that is until I found Ron Paul, the only republican to vote against the war from day one, vote against the  Patriot Act, and even understands what Internet neutrality means. I’m not sure if Ron Paul is aware of it but he brings to the table all the values that most of the Linux users and Open source Developers I know care about. A free and open society, free of government intervention, and the right to do as you please as long as you do not infringe on others.

Yes I know this is kind of a political rant, but with lobbyist for Microsoft trying to kill the Open Document Format, Telcos trying to regulate the Internet, and senators trying to tell us the internet is like a bunch of tubes. We just might want to get a little political before were all regulated out of the very rights we as open source supports hold dear.

Add on for Gnome

Just love that Gnome

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Linux MPX Multi-touch Alternative to Microsoft Surface (VIDEO + INTERVIEW) Linux moving right along.

It may not be as fancy-schmancy as Microsoft Surface or Jeff Han’s demos but this video of a Linux-based MPX multi-touch table shows that things are moving full speed ahead in the land of the free penguins. We talked with developer Peter Hutterer, who gave us his insight on the project, the iPhone and the ongoing multi-touch craze.

I just love it when I see this kind of thing, I blogged last month about a device very similar to the Surface that was used as an instrument.

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Help My file hosting site is down

The company I’ve been using to host my files, pictures, and documents has been down for a week now. I thought they were great I had 25GB of storage and I could link to the files for my websites, blogs, and other stuff. They did a big upgrade and now I can’t upload new content and none of my hosted links work. Anyone know of a similar service that  is  free and has at least  5GB of storage? What a bummer.