Category Archives: Free Software/Open Source

About all things Free Software and Open Source. Mostly good news :)

microsoft discovers remote attestation

Via slashdot: Microsoft’s corporate VP for trustworthy computing – Scott Charney – has published a position paper that boils down to remote attestation: let ISPs cut off internet access for computers that are not deemed free of malware. So… how … Continue reading

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CF iPod conversion to FAT32

In order to install Rockbox on an iPod, it needs to be formatted in FAT32, not HFS+. The relevant wiki page over at the Rockbox site suggest either connecting the iPod to an iTunes install on Windows, or using one … Continue reading

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DRAC5 source code available for download

Dell’s DRAC5 is based on free software. The source has been rumored to be available but hard to find – until today, when this helpful e-mail popped up on the linux-poweredge list. Here’s the link to an ISO with the … Continue reading

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Jaunty’s stabilizing

A quick update on some of the bugs reported in my previous post bugs, bugs, bugs: upgrading to jaunty jackalope. The two most serious problems were atrocious Intel video performance, and ongoing sound issues. Thankfully, the Intel issues have been … Continue reading

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bugs, bugs, bugs: upgrading to jaunty jackalope

I upgraded my laptop to Jaunty Jackalope. Here’s the list of issues (and solutions) I’ve run into: 1. Tor is not packaged anymore, apparently there is no Ubuntu maintainer. Upstream provides Ubuntu packages, but they have no jaunty package yet. … Continue reading

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Drupal: disable caching for an entire module

I have a legacy php application that had to be integrated into a Drupal site, so I wrapped it in a simple drupal module. The code needs to run for anonymous users. The wrapping worked fine, but the Drupal cache … Continue reading

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Asterisk vs. Telemarketer: 1 – 0

We’ve been getting telephone spam from Affiliated Mortgage Protection Affiliated Mortgage Protection 292 Terminal Ave W, Clark, NJ- 7066. (732)-499-0700 We answered five of their calls the past three weeks, and each time asked them to stop calling. Apparently, they … Continue reading

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Dell’s GNU/Linux support leaves to be desired

So I have a poweredge 2800 with some hardware issues (voltage sensors on the riser card seeing things they should not…). The Dell support folks wanted me to run a DSET report with this tool http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R155882&formatcnt=2&libid=0&fileid=208066 Man – what a … Continue reading

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25 years of GNU

The FSF has put out a 5 minute anniversary video celebrating 25 years of GNU. It’s a pleasant, concise explanation of what free software is all about, why it’s important, and how the GNU project fits in to all this. … Continue reading

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price comparison: Dell XPS M1530 with Ubuntu vs. Windows

Dell announced that a few more models are now available pre-installed with Ubuntu: the XPS 1530n and the Studio 15n. I configured an XPS 1530n with the following specs, which are available both with Ubuntu and Windows: SYSTEM COLOR Tuxedo … Continue reading

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