patch.panel

No more paper for Linux Journal

2011-08-21T15:36:00.000+02:00

I am a subscriber to Linux Journal in digital format, although to be honest, sometimes it happens that I let a number pass without consulting its PDF, or just rapidly browsing it. The point is, a printed magazine can be carried around much better (to the bathroom, the balcony, in the bag, resting on the sofa ...) where a computer, even if it is a laptop - is much more awkward (and more fragile).

Not to deny that digital has its good benefits. I can subscribe to a magazine whose editor lives at the opposite side of the world, without running the risk of paying more for shipping than for the contents themselves. I can read a magazine the next moment it was published. I can also store all my numbers on a disk drive, bringing in a USB stick. I can also annotate, highlight phrases, searching for words, and so on.

Like it or not, however, times are changing, and digital advances seems unstoppable. Yesterday I received a mail from Linux Journal that informs me that the print magazine will be abolished, and LJ will goes therefore to be 100% digital.

In a post on the LJ site there is a brief but careful analysis of the latest market trends in publishing (along with a parallel path of the magazine with the very progress of linux). As a matter of fact, the digital switchover is affecting several newspapers, becoming a phenomenon by no means haphazard, but hardly avoidable. Cutting costs is one of the fundamental reasons, but it is not the only one: the greater flexibility of digital versions also plays an important role, for example.

We can easily predict that in a relatively short time, the magazines that actually will be printed will be the exception, not the rule. Before this can happen really, though, we should wait for a number of things. These include:

mass dissemination of tablet devices for convenient fruition of magazines and digital content in general. As we said at the beginning, it is not confortable to read your favorite magazine at the computer, not even a laptop. These devices - iPad, Android, or other - will need to demonstrate easy to use, cheap enough, and really reliable.
prices of digital magazine should be noticeably lower in respect to the printed version(if any), so that cost considerations will push the migration towards the new format
any "vexatious" system content protection should be avioded, so that people will maintain the freedom to move a magazine from one device to another without being forced to abstruse procedures to convince the system that is not "spreading improperly" the magazine itself
digital magazines should prove to be easy to read and attractive; you should have the possibility to isolate an article, see the pictures, enlarge it or shrink it, make printed copies, annotate it, share it, etc. ... (PDF does not seem the ideal solution, for example)

Meanwhile, we will soon do without Linux Journal paper. Well, admittedly, I've never kept in hand a printed copy of Linux Journal. Maybe I was already in the future ....?

This page does not exist (?)

2011-03-01T21:50:00.001+01:00

Wow, the error page in Ubuntu website is definitively too funny! Well it seems that guys does not take themselves too seriously, which is a really good thing. Long life to open source software!

Amplify’d from www.ubuntu.com

This page does not exist.

Well, obviously this page exists. But the page you requested does not exist. This page is just here to tell you that the page you requested does not exist.

You can use the search box above to find what you need. Or you can make a fresh start at the Ubuntu home page.

404
Read more at www.ubuntu.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bs979

A brief history of social networking

2011-01-25T14:49:00.001+01:00

Social networking has a rather short history, but it appear indeed quite intriguing. A good picture by "Online Schools" summarize the main facts of this interesting adventure. As a matter of fact, I was not aware, till now, of the fact that the rate of twitting at the end of 2010 was so high....

Via: Online Schools

Posted via email from Signal 2 Noise

Chrome Store it's open for business

2010-12-09T12:26:00.002+01:00

A very good post about the recent Chrome Store opening, and on the difference between a web site and a local application. I do agree that the difference is going to narrow each day, given the new possibilities of HTML5...

Amplify’d from googlesystem.blogspot.com

See more at googlesystem.blogspot.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/i04m

KDE November Updates

2010-11-04T15:01:00.001+01:00

via kde.org

Yesterday the KDE team announced the release of a series of updates concerning the Plasma Desktop and Netbook workspaces, KDE Applications and KDE Platforms. In my humble opinion, this excellent desktop environment, notwithstanding its greatness, do suffer a lot for the minor attenction that Canonical - which maintain Ubuntu, the most diffused linux distribution - deserve to it, in respect to Gnome (i.e., Kubuntu is clearly not as much developed as Ubuntu). Even if, also Gnome team is somewhat angry with Ubuntu, given the programmed switch to Unity Desktop....

Posted via email from Signal 2 Noise

Steve Jobs on Android's Fragmentation

2010-10-23T21:58:00.001+02:00

Apple's CEO says that Android is fragmented and that the open vs. closed dilemma is not important as long as Apple's proprietary mobile operating system manages to provide a better user experience.

via googlesystem.blogspot.com

My point on this: Steve Jobs may be right; i.e., the iOS ecosystem is certainly less fragmented and more homogeneous. I have an iPod and I do appreciate it. That's right.

But what he forgot to tell you, is the price you pay for this self-consistance: namely, the reduced possibility of choice. You have a lot of different choices for Android, from budget to high priced devices (for me, I'm quite fine with a rather inexpensive HTC WildFire).

Conversely, not too many choices are left to you, if you want an iOS device: an iPhone. What else?

Posted via email from Signal 2 Noise

Testing browsers on Mac OS X

2010-10-22T13:54:00.001+02:00

From a quick and (admittedly) naive comparison between Firefox 3.6.11, Chrome 7.0.517.41 and Opera 11.00 alpha (all loading the same page), it seems clear that Firefox is still the most hungry of memory...

...anyway I'm too addicted to its extensions, to get rid of it! ;-)

Posted via email from Signal 2 Noise

Ubuntu One Buzz

2010-10-21T14:49:00.001+02:00

Well it seems that Ubuntu One is moving its first step into the social web; you can easily obtain a link for the song you're listening to. At variance with Apple's Ping, in Ubuntu One you can propagate this link to the (social) web, via all the services you've already set up in your microblogging client Gwibber. Far better than to have all inside iTunes only!

Oh, and as a nice surplus, you find your messages on Ubuntu One front page too. As an example, you can find on that web page a few of my recent played songs (user @mcastel)
;-)

Posted via email from Signal 2 Noise

Mark Shuttleworth talks Project Harmony, Unity, Windicators and more

2010-10-20T16:42:00.001+02:00

I do love the kubuntu community, and spend what some would consider an unreasonable amount on doing certain things twice but there is no philanthropic benefit to having TWO free desktops out there, that won’t help more folks embrace free software neither is there much commercial benefit in having two free desktops.

via omgubuntu.co.uk

Great interview with Mark Shuttleworth, spanning a great range of related topics (from Kubuntu to Canonical and business models, not disregarding interesting motivational considerations... "Anyway, what matters to me is that our users are delighted")

Posted via email from Signal 2 Noise

Apple.com reveals iLife upgrade, reaffirms MacBook Air refresh ..

2010-10-20T15:21:00.001+02:00

A little bit of URL manipulation has revealed separate forums for a new iMovie '11, iPhoto '11, and GarageBand '11, all three of which are core components of the iLife suite, leading us to go ahead and presume that Steve Jobs will be discussing an iLife '11 later today.

via engadget.com

Yes, the fact that Apple follow a "closed" business model gave us this environment, in which "fans" are forced to run after deep investigations in order to understand what's going to happen next. I understand that it's a part of Apple strategy, as a whole (and I am an Apple customers too).

Anyway I can't help but notice the difference with the Ubuntu roadmap.. in which you're not forced to run after unconfirmed rumors, but you find all under the Sun...

Posted via email from Signal 2 Noise

GNOME 3 and KDE 4...

2010-10-14T23:26:00.001+02:00

Interesting point of view about the developement of GNOME, in comparision with the fate of KDE4 ...

Amplify’d from dasublogbyprashanth.blogspot.com

GNOME will emphasize simplicity, ease-of-use, and understated modernity over flashiness and over-the-top effects. KDE will be the way forward for ultimate customization, web-connected computing through Plasmoid widgets, and flashy desktop effects (as well as tools for power-users, like Dolphin/Konqueror vs. Nautilus, Okular vs. Evince, Kate vs. Gedit, etc.).Read more at dasublogbyprashanth.blogspot.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/couz

obiect oriented... or not?

2010-08-18T18:28:00.003+02:00

Oh! I'm so happy to have found someone who speacks loud the same doubts that I still have, after many months spent trying to obtain an "object oriented way of thinking".

Admittedly, I have grown up with Basic and Fortran, but I still can't fully understand what it's written in every Java book I stumbled upon, i.e, the object oriented way of thinking should be more "natural"..

... mmmm, sure??

Amplify’d from www.linuxjournal.com

"Here is my simplified position, I find OOP harder to read, harder to maintain, and harder to use. PP seems so intuitive and straight forward. I find most PP code I can read and understand with very little in the way of comments or documentation, the code is the code you can see what it is doing (it is mostly self documenting). In OOP I find that I am constantly trying to figure out what it is doing, it seems more... nebulous. I normally have to jump around more; it is not like PP where you are mostly reading top down.

Read more at www.linuxjournal.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/8tjy

KDE 4.5 is here...

2010-08-10T20:22:00.001+02:00

Admittedly, I am a Gnome / Mac OS X person from a good amount of time. Nevertheless, when I look at these screenshot, I am taken by a strange desire, namely, to test KDE again... ;-)

Amplify’d from kde.org

KDE, an international Free Software community, is happy to announce the immediate availability of the KDE Applications 4.5. Be it the high-quality games, educational and productivity software or the useful tools, these applications have become more powerful, yet easier to use.

See more at kde.org

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/8jc2

Why Android? Because it's open!

2010-07-30T22:26:00.003+02:00

While surfing on the net to gain information about the operating system of my brand new device HTC WildFire, I stumbled upon these statement, that boosts my "open source" sensibility... "no player can restrict or control the innovation of any other"... Sounds good, doesn't it? ;)

Amplify’d from source.android.com

"We wanted to make sure that there was no central point of failure, so that no industry player can restrict or control the innovations of any other. That's why we created Android, and made its source code open."

Welcome to Android
Read more at source.android.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/871s

Linux Mint 9 KDE

2010-07-30T11:03:00.004+02:00

Linux Mint is surely one of the most interesting distribution for an average desktop user. It's surely user friendly and multimedia oriented (media codecs are included so you can play music and consume other media "out of the box"). Welcome Isadora ! ;-)

Amplify’d from www.h-online.com

"The Linux Mint development team have issued the KDE Edition of version 9 of their Ubuntu-based Linux distribution, code named "Isadora". Linux Mint aims to be user friendly and to provide a more complete out-of-the-box experience by including support for DVD playback, Java, and various plug-ins and media codecs..."
Read more at www.h-online.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/86i1

Really high mass star ...

2010-07-21T18:23:00.001+02:00

I really prefer low mass stars.. in which they can shine for a much longer time! (Image credits: ESO)

Amplify’d from www.eso.org

A 300 Solar Mass Star Uncovered

Using a combination of instruments on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, astronomers have discovered the most massive stars to date, one weighing at birth more than 300 times the mass of the Sun, or twice as much as the currently accepted limit of 150 solar masses. The existence of these monsters — millions of times more luminous than the Sun, losing weight through very powerful winds — may provide an answer to the question “how massive can stars be?”
Read more at www.eso.org

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/7xic

GrandPerspective

2010-07-18T23:07:00.001+02:00

Excellent little program, no doubt! What they has forgotten to say, in my humble opinion, is that it is also an interesting background generator; what I'm using now on my Amplify account is exactly a graphical representation of part of my hard disk ;)

Amplify’d from grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net

GrandPerspective

GrandPerspective is a small utility application for Mac OS X that graphically shows the disk usage within a file system. It can help you to manage your disk, as you can easily spot which files and folders take up the most space. It uses a so called tree map for visualisation. Each file is shown as a rectangle with an area proportional to the file's size. Files in the same folder appear together, but their placement is otherwise arbitrary.
Read more at grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/7tz3

Tips for bloggers

2010-07-17T21:40:00.001+02:00

Brief but interesting article for those who blogs but have to deal with many activities... sometimes, it's good to return to the core: blogging is about writing (possibly good) blog posts, first of all. Simply like that ! ;)

Amplify’d from www.dailyblogtips.com

4 Tips To Help You Stay Focused on Your Blog

Most people who blog also have a full time job or occupation (i.e., school), not to mention other personal activities (e.g., friends and family), so balancing everything can become tricky indeed.

If you don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to your blog, focus on the core activities only. The main one is writing content. If you only have time for one task, use it to write content. If in one day you happen to have some extra time, use it to promote your best posts.
Read more at www.dailyblogtips.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/7t4h

What I like in Amplify

2010-07-16T21:48:00.003+02:00

After just a couple of days, it seems reasons are forming in my mind why I think that Amplify is not "just" another social network, but it seems to show a good appealing (at least, to me)...

Here is my first thought...

the possibility of web site clipping & posting is great. Better than Buzz or Friendfeed
I like the "recommend" button. Easy and fast way to show appreciation of a post
I like the threaded replies (much better than "flat" replies as in FriendFeed or Qaiku). Identi.ca has also threaded replies but the strong limit in the length can heavily hamper the conversations
I like the fact that blog & microblog are kept together, the user can choose the right format for each post
I also appreciate than micropost are not limited to the too much abused 140 chars max. 500 is far better, IMHO; I'm tired of very short post ;)
Connection to other services is also a good thing. Just hope Amplify staff can add Identi.ca in a near future ...

(more to come...)

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/7sby

Why I'm using gmail #0

2010-06-15T22:33:00.001+02:00

With this post, I want to begin to put down on paper (so to say...) a short list of reason that lead me to slowly lean to Google mail (the now really famous Gmail service) as the preferred choice for my email communication, slowly but constantly abandoning other viable alternatives, many of which I adopted for long time.

I was somewhat pushed into this, from personal "ruminations" after a diffused dibate that took place in my Observatory in several occasion, where my position (with an interestingly wide spread of different approaches) is now shared among a good number of other researchers.

Since its first apparence, Gmail was rightly considered as "innovative" for a good number of reasons, ranging from the more technical aspects (for example, the interface carachterized by a judicious use of AIAX and other emerging technologies) to end on the more social aspects (the pecuiliar conversational model, etc...). As a consequence, the choice of talking about Gmail, far from being reductive and restricted to a particular brand or service, can easily became (in my humble opinion) an occasion to talk about the "modern web" in a variety of its more aspects.

These posts came as an (imperfect) traslation of a series of little messages I am writing in italian in another blog. Instead of making a long post here (with a long series of grammatical errors... since English is not my first language!) I have choosen a different approach, i.e., to breack up the list of reason in a series of little "pills" to be hosted (also) on my compainion blog signal2noise (s2n). This also with the aim to explore a little bit a form of expression expecially suitable for Posterous platform (yes, I'm addicted to web techology and services, no doubt!)

Well, at this point, I'd say that the scenario is well defined. Next post will deal with a first "motivation" for my adoption of Gmail. In passing, if you like the idea and want to add your two cents, just drop a message to s2n@posterous.com :-)

Stellarium, the sky inside your computer

2010-06-12T21:11:00.005+02:00

Two new versions in just a few days: I'm talking about the popular software named Stellarium , which lets you explore the heavens, taking advantage of a large database that includes more than 600,000 stars (with extra catalogs of more than 120 million items!), with the representation of the constellations, images of nebulae (full Messier catalog), realistic representation of the Milky Way, planets and satellites. Stellarium also includes realistic effects of sunrise and sunset, zoom controls telescope, and much more ...

... Briefly, there are so many interesting features that even those vaguely fond of astronomy can be convinced to try it!

ce of the planets above ESO headquarters, nearThe dance of the planets above ESO headquarters, nea

The dance of theplanets above ESO headquarters, near Munich.

The dance of the planets above ESO headquarter, near Munich

Credits: Stellarium website

Version 0.10.3 has been released on 29 of January, with new features like plugins that allow to predict the position of artificial satellites, and a database with constellation for twelve different cultures.. and many other thinks that you'll be glad to discover by yourself ;)

Version 0.10.5 has been released just some days ago; it features the correction of a lot of bugs, a reduced loading time and other improvements.

Stellarium is available for all the major operating systems (Windows, Linux and Mac OS X), it's free and open source. Binary packages for Ubuntu 10.04 are now also available from their website. Could you ask for more...?

Stellarium website is www.stellarium.org

Flash for iPhones / iPods?

2010-05-20T13:17:00.000+02:00

Interesting article, dense with links to reference literature on the topic of Apple / Adobe war around allowing Flash into iPhones and iPods, and a proposal path to peace.

http://www.infoworld.com/print/122878

Ubuntu 10.04, my two cents...

2010-05-15T17:53:00.003+02:00

DieciZeroQuattro

Originally uploaded by mcastellani

Some days ago, I upgraded my linux box to Ubuntu 10.04. I am pleased to say that the upgrade took place without worries and virtually no intervention on my side (aside a couple of request from the upgrade script in order to ask permission to overwrite some system files).

Now, detailed descriptions of the new release may be easily found in the network (you just need to google a bit to find plenty of them), so here I note only some impressions of use. Say, what strikes me without "scratching" too much under the surface, in the first approach.

Let's see ...

for a "sick" of social networks like myself, Ubuntu 10.04 comes with a really interesting aspect: it is eminently social. It comes with the client gwibber (now at release 2.30.0.1) that supports Twitter, StatusNet, Facebook, Identi.ca, Digg, FriendFeed, and also Qaiku (a microblog service with an exciting support for languages; I like it a lot and, as a matter of fact, I have realized most of the interface translation in Italian). To tell the truth, not only it's included, but it result deeply integrated in the "social" concept of Ubuntu, for which we can now express our "online presence" directly from the top status bar of Gnome. I am very curious (and so are the developers) to understand whether the inclusion of native Qaiku in Ubuntu will bring more users to put their noses in this interesting but still little known platform.
There was much discussion on Ubuntu related sites, concerning the new network online music store that comes integrated into Rhytmbox, the "software and music playback for GNOME", which is now reached its version 0.12.8 (but what to say about this habit of going forward with the zero point something ?). I just spent a bit of time in it, and I found that the prices of a number of albums are very interesting and - at least in some cases - significantly lower than their iTunes counterparts .
The GNOME desktop backgrounds have my appreciation, for the aesthetic work that I think has given excellent results. Overall, it seems quite clear that Mac OS X has been well taken into account by the Ubuntu developers (up to small details as the discussed choice of putting the icons on the left side of windows) ... but that's OK, no problem;)
Even the 'Ubuntu Software Center' (again, the not-too-hidden reference not is to the online software repository of Mac OS X) has made significant progress. Browsing through categories to choose the software to install it 's now easier, and it is a truly enjoyable experience ... and it's free, too!

Overhall, I like Ubuntu 10.04. Surely there are things to improve and fix (for example, during the first days of use I stumbled upon some oddity of gwibber, which kept to give me authentication error in Qaiku, despite having already added the correct API at least a couple of times ...), anyway I think we came to a really respectable version. One of the most important representations - perhaps the most important at present - of an open source operating system.

... what do you think, I'm exaggerating?

Twitter Blog: Hello World

2010-04-13T10:33:00.001+02:00

We hope you'll share in our enthusiasm as today we unveil a simple service we're calling Promoted Tweets. It's non-traditional, it's easy, and it makes a ton of sense for Twitter.

via blog.twitter.com

Twitter makes its first moves toward advertising. Personally, I do appreciate the honesty and transparency that comes out from the blog post. Anyway, I wonder what will be the response of the community...

Posted via web from Signal 2 Noise

googliferus

2010-04-02T08:37:00.018+02:00

A guest post by Flavio Castellani

We all hate Microsoft for its amount of money making, its weight in the consumer market and for much more.

And we all love Google, for its fresh spirit, its apparent disinterested way of adding value to our technological experience and, ultimately, to our lives.

And yet, Google is arguably going to make much more money than the evil Microsoft. It's already controlling (as a monopoly) the Internet business on a scale beyond imagination. You don't hear about microsoft interacting with nations and government legislative organs, like google does for clearing the path to its operations. You don't hear (yet) glamorous cases of antitrust sentences turned bad against google.

The most important thing: Microsoft gained our hate for the way their products made us feel, and for the control on what we use to surf the net.

But while we recognized and reproached Microsoft for their attempt in controlling the browser we use to surf, google increases its control on the content of it. Every day, we let increases its control and dictate more and more not just the experience on how we access the information, but the accessibility to the very information itself.

Do we think that the free gadgets and applications are really for free?

this is like believing that the free drinks in las Vegas are really for free.

Google now has tentacles in mobile networks and operators, fiber optic network and ISP providing, Internet, mobile devices and expanding.

There is something confusing about so many free applications and services, and yet a stellar share value trend in the stock market exchange.

The way I see is this: to run a business you need to have

an investment,
some assets,
products to sell, and
customers to sell them to.

This is the archetype of business. Is the minimum denominator any business have in common, and upon which they are based on.

How does it map to Google way of making money then?

Their protocols and their applications are not their products, those are their investments.
We are not their customers. We are their assets.
Data-mining, eyeball time, internet syndication: those are their products, the ones that they sell to increase their stellar share value and their business. Data-mining in particular is one of the most sought and profitable products to sell.

For MS office the revenue stream is the classic one and much simpler:

their applications are the products, the one that they sell, and
we are their customers (in the specific case of MS office business model, of course)

Google is not a bad thing. It's just a huge thing now. And huge corporations relentlessly pursue the increase of their shares value in the stock market.

Above a certain critical point, the direction of a corporation drift to whatever direction satisfies its goals.

Image Credit: Google

Google contribution to civilization (I'd adventure to say) is remarkable. But it's clear that this contribution is not its goal, is its mean to get to its goals. its goal is profit ($$$) from internet advertisement. That is what pays the freebies, and the immense funding in R&D to expand in mobile, voice, ultra-fast fiber ISP, video, authoring and whatnot.

Until its means and its goals matches with our interest, that's great. But we need to be careful to see well all the parameters of the equation.

Google strives to position itself more and more as the internet content syndication provider for the general population. That takes away the beauty of the internet, and more sadly, diminishes its distinguished characteristic that opposes it to television.

Internet is truly the most significant informational achievement in the past 100 years. We must fear any monolithic entity that seek control over it, for lucrative scopes. My believe is that Internet is a solid answer to the past decades of the informational unbalanced entry point created with the advent of television, which generated a chain of consequences that lead to a corrosion of the democratic political debates and to an increase of influence of corporations in the nations public and political matters.

Internet could bring a ribalancing and galvanize the spirit of the debates. Its general access point for content authoring enable it to be the future arena where ideas can truly democratically compete, assuming they remain equally accessible.

[Flavio Castellani]

patch.panel

No more paper for Linux Journal

This page does not exist (?)

This page does not exist.

Well, obviously this page exists. But the page you requested does not exist. This page is just here to tell you that the page you requested does not exist.

404

A brief history of social networking

Chrome Store it's open for business

KDE November Updates

Steve Jobs on Android's Fragmentation

Testing browsers on Mac OS X

Ubuntu One Buzz

Mark Shuttleworth talks Project Harmony, Unity, Windicators and more

Apple.com reveals iLife upgrade, reaffirms MacBook Air refresh ..

GNOME 3 and KDE 4...

obiect oriented... or not?

KDE 4.5 is here...

Why Android? Because it's open!

Welcome to Android

Linux Mint 9 KDE

Really high mass star ...

A 300 Solar Mass Star Uncovered

GrandPerspective

GrandPerspective

Tips for bloggers

4 Tips To Help You Stay Focused on Your Blog

What I like in Amplify

Why I'm using gmail #0

Stellarium, the sky inside your computer

Flash for iPhones / iPods?

Ubuntu 10.04, my two cents...

Twitter Blog: Hello World

googliferus