Category: Technology

Ever wonder what some of those “random” keys on your keyboard are for?  The Straight Dope has an article about such keys.  If you are a programmer you are more than like recognize some of the keys; and if you use Linux/Unix/BSD you will recognize even more.

Saw this on Security Focus and just had to post it.  Evidently the source code to Half-Life 2 (possible the most anticipated sequel in the history of computer games) was stolen via an IIS/Outlook buffer overflow protection error.  Then it was posted to the Internet! Dang… talk about your bad day at work.

While we are talking about Valve let me repost HL2 on Linux.

Some huge numbers coming out of Jupiter Group about the state of Linux on the small and mid-sized businesses.  Notably that some 19% of these businesses running Linux on some desktops in there environment.  OpenOffice.org got 6%, Linux server install got 26%.  All of these numbers (minus the server installs) come from out of nowhere considering Linux on the desktop and OO.org basically didn’t register last year.

To be entirely honest I am not wholly surprised by these numbers. Our organization is switching out almost our entire Windows Server install based because of speed, cost and dependability.  For example we currently run a DB2 setup to handle all database operations in our organization.  When we got new servers we got them with Windows 2000 (all dual proc boxes.)  The boxes cost about $20,000 a piece, DB2 was about $40,000 a piece, and Windows 2000 ES was around $32,000 a piece.  On a lark we decided to install Redhat AS 2.1 on one of them (our DB2 license supports any OS we want to install on.)  The systems run about 200% faster, had 0 down time, was MUCH easier to support (OpenSSH is GOD!), clustering was much easier with improved scalability, and all on an OS that cost us about $2,500 (support was $2,500; the OS was free.)

Needless to say we only run DB2 on Linux now.  In semi-related news Microsoft is urging channel partners not to pick up (higher margin) Linux service channels. Oh ya, OpenOffice 1.1 was released yesterday as well.

Ever wonder who invented the venerable Ctl-Alt-Del?  Well here ya go.  I found it interesting how it was only intended as a programming tool.  I always find it funny to see how random events become mainstream…

For some mid-day fun, a friend pointed me to this helicopter game.  My best score is only 912 but I have not gotten much practice at work.  Some practice… but not a lot.

In what has to be one of the coolest things I have heard about in a while, this story at space.com talks about host technologically close to producing a “space elevator” we actually are.

The theory goes something like this… get a super strong 62,000 mile long ribbon/nano-tube; attach it (very firmly) to the ground; attach other end to a large weight up in space.  If you can meet those criteria then the centrifugal force and the Earth’s gravity will keep it tight.  Then its imply a matter of sending electrical vehicles up and down it.

The idea has been around for a long time (the science is pretty sound for it) the problem is the strength of the materials involved.  Well, it looks like carbon nano-tubes can easily handle the load.  Maybe this is just the ticket to fixing the 40 year mistake that has almost screwed my generations aspirations for space travel.

The KDE Developers conference was held a couple weeks ago and the slides and presentations from that event are now available here. I make note of them because of a particular interest in the status of Kdevelop and the Makfile.am howto for kconfigure.

Holy crap!  I have found what has to be just dang near one of the most useful websites in history.  rpmpan combines two of the most used aspects of my development world.  RPM and Perl CPAN.  The dang thing is even apt aware!  God must freggin love me.

In additional news another great apt source that I found is jpackage. Jpackage is an apt repository for rpm based distro’s that works to keep copies of the mostly commonly sought after Java apts in one location.  Very very nice.  When they are up.

This article does a good job of showing the current and future prospects for the desktop Linux market.  Wonder what PC’s will look like in 15 years?

Application developers on Linux have been looking with great interest at the upcoming Reiser4 file system developed by Hans Reiser.  Although there is a great number of currently supported file systems on Linux (some better than others, some better at other things than some…) Reiser goes along way in fixing one of the most persistent bugs in file system theory; that of handling small file efficiently.

A great article discussing some of the possibilities that become possible with the Reiser4 can be found  here.  The longer I work with computers the more I am convinced of the accuracy of *nix style OS development.  Microsoft seems to agree also; with recent moves to extend the command line, create a command line only server OS, change the way the system looks at data (that of all file/folders/devices/drivers being objects), etc.. etc.. etc..  Heck, given enough time and money Microsoft will invent…. Unix!

Working to get OO.org Database configuration working with MySQL using ODBC gave me a little bit of a headache.  I have decided to pass along the info I found and used. 

First is a two part article at LinuxWorld ( Part 1 & Part 2 ) which helped a whole bunch in getting ODBC and MySQL setup.  A HUGE help was the how-to by Mr. McCreesh referred to in both part1 and part 2; of which I have linked locally (pdf 1.5m) for everyones convenience.  Finally I last little bit-o-trouble was given to me by MyODBC and I found the solution on a groups.google.com post.

All of this was to do OpenOffice.org work with databases on forms in a post I made earlier.