Hello everyone, welcome back to our occassional series about what I have read online since last time. Without further ado, let's dive in to the next installment.

Another reason why Linux is better for the environment

CNN reports that switching from a Windows-operated computer to a Linux- operated one can slash computer-generated e-waste levels by 50%, I'm not surprised.

Five years ago, I built my main home Linux desktop. I did my research well and I tried to get the best components that I could on a very tight budget, hoping that it would not be redundant for at least three years when I would hand it down to someone else; after all someone who is on the computer for a unusual amount of time needs a responsive system.

Yet after five years, it is still completely perfect for Linux, way over the system requirements and it runs all the latest desktop effects and only uses up 50% of the RAM. I do not foresee replacing it for at least another three years, maybe more; it just doesn't need any more power. Not at least until there is some unforeseen major change in Linux. By the way, the computer won't run Windows Vista, in the Windows world it is ready for the bin.

Catalogue of cool

The Free Software Foundation, Creative Commons and Wikimedia have put their heads together and made the GNU Free Documentation licence and the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike licence compatible. Having the two the biggest licences in free culture become compatible allows far more remixing, combining and creative innovation with shared community content, really cool!

Phill has written a Battleships game in Javascript, I totally slaughtered the enemy's navy, time after time, so the robot hoards are not going to be invading England by boat any time soon.

I just discovered mod_wsgi, which can host any Python App written to the WSGI standard. It can even run in daemon mode (i.e. in its own process), my favourite way to run web apps. So it is a really good idea, when I get to try it I'll let you know if it works.

Talking of Python have a look at Andy's blog for a fun comic.

Bug talks about why he wrote his own blog software, namely so he could have his posts in files, he wanted complete control and to avoid spam.

This is similar to why I stopped using Wordpress and built my own custom setup over Pyblosxom. I now write posts using a text editor, press save and then I have a post. Maybe it is just that I spend too much time making websites that when relaxing I don't want to see a web interface. It is also still easier to compose in a text editor than a website text box. I also have had no spam since moving to Pyblosxom so I think a lot of spammers are particularly targeting the major blog platforms such as Wordpress.

Guns and Bombs

Dallas News reports that Joe Horn watched two men burgle the house next door, when two men came into his yard and towards his house, with seemingly perfect aim, he shot both of them with his shotgun. The interesting thing is that the whole time he was on a cellphone call to the 911 operator. Another twist is that we can listen to the whole thing online! E.g. here on Youtube (note the title is incorrect, they were on Horn's property when they were shot).

I am not a fan of gun ownership in general, and I have often argued that there is no reason at all for anyone to own a handgun as they have no practical use and they can be concealed, while hunters' rifles can be easily controlled by licences. However, whether this gun was owned for hunting or not, and despite my pacifist views, I have very little sympathy for the two dead robbers, who were also both convicted drug-dealers, meaning two birds with one shell. If they die while undertaking a robbery, then they have only yourself to blame. Listen to the recording and make up your own mind.

I am not a fan of time-bombed software or content, I think it verges on the abuse of the user. However, as Eric You XU points out, nothing stops you providing different times to different programs and he explains a couple of ways to do that.

Congrats to PDF

In the brouhaha about the flawed OOXML specification and Microsoft's somewhat questionable attempt to make it an international standard, it is easy to miss that PDF is well on its way to becoming an ISO standard, as James is keen to point out that PDF is a cross-platform format for communication of finished documents, not a format for revisable native documents.

Menelkir has hit the problem of people sharing Microsoft Office 2007 documents with him. This is something I should certainly look into one of these days. How are you finding the MS Office 2007 documents? I have never received one yet, probably because my University where I work and study has set the old formats as the default on the install images.

Discuss This Post - Leave a comment