Google Summer of Code 2012 – Fedora JBoss Spin

April 24, 2012 by 2 Comments

So yesterday I found out that I got accepted into the Google Summer of Code program. It’s really exciting news for me, being enthusiastic about free software and open source, and also because I’ll be getting money to contribute to a project that I’ve been hoping to get more involved with anyway.  I’ll be working with the Fedora project, to help with the packaging of JBoss software, and eventually I’ll create a JBoss spin, which will include JBoss Application Server 7, JBoss Tools for Eclipse, and JBoss Forge. I’m currently doing exams in university, so my activity on this will be limited until they’re finished. Then the hard work begins! I look forward to learning from all of the talented people who are already involved in the Fedora community. For more info on what I’ll be doing, the proposal is available on the wiki. I’ll update here with any interesting progress!

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Adjust screen brightness on fedora 16 – try this if it’s not working

November 28, 2011 by 9 Comments

Just in case this can help anyone on the fedora planet or other, who doesn’t visit fedoraforum.org or ask.fedoraproject.org very often. Admittedly I don’t visit there very often myself. A quick search in bugzilla shows some possibly related bugs.

If you don’t seem to be able to alter the screen brightness in fedora, either with the Fn keys, or through the gnome-control-center, try reinstalling bash. I rarely have the screen brightness on full on my laptop, so when I couldn’t change it on f16, it was ever so slightly annoying! I honestly wouldn’t know what to file a bug report against, so I started searching. First stop was that shiny new ask.fedoraproject.org instance, which led me to forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=272500
So with the Fn keys not working, which had always worked previously; and the slider in the screen settings in gnome-control-center having no effect, doing a simple

sudo yum reinstall bash

was the answer.

Update:

It’s listed in the ‘Common F16 Bugs’ here:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F16_bugs#Bash_entry_in_.2Fetc.2Fshells_disappears_after_update

Filed under Fedora, GNOME, linux, Uncategorized Tagged with , ,

bitcoin: what is it, and how to get started.

May 17, 2011 by 6 Comments

There’s a very interesting project called bitcoin, which has started to gather momentum recently, and pop up in more and more places. Bitcoin is a currency, but it has the following properties which distinguish it from what we might call a ‘physical’ currency:

  • digital - Bitcoin doesn’t exist in a physical sense; the coins are stored on your computer, and are transferred over the internet.
  • decentralized – There is no central governing body in control of the currency
  • distributed – Transactions are made across the globe, without the need for banks or other financial institutions.

Here’s a little infomation video from weusecoins.com (CC-BY 3.0)

There is a lot of speculation going on about what will happen next. Will bitcoin be a success or a failure? Will the masses begin to use bitcoin on a regular basis? What will that mean for other currencies? Will bitcoin be able to fit into the current economic model and live alongside the legal currencies of the countries of the world? I’m not an expert on the technology behind it, and I’m certainly not an expert on economics; but maybe that is a good thing. I know that everyone using bitcoin at the moment hopes that it is given a fighting chance, and not just outlawed by governments around the globe. Should a currency not be used to give people control, rather than be used to control the people? It is unrealistic to think that it could replace all of the currencies being used around the world, but I do think it will become quite popular for certain purposes, and it will have a significant impact on the way on-line transactions are carried out around the world.

Getting started with Bitcoin: your first steps and cents.

If you are curious about all this, I would encourage you to try it out. The first step is to download the software, from here. Once installed and running on your computer, you will surely want some bitcoins. Rather than buying some straight away, there are ways to get a few freebies, to get a feel for it and decide if it’s worth your time and/or money (your other money, that is…). You can sign up at bitcoinbonus.com and earn a small amount of the currency just for signing up. You can see that further small amounts can be gained by just shopping on-line through the sites listed on the page. You can also get a tiny amount of bitcoins here, although this wasn’t working at the time of posting. The coins are then yours to do as you please with. You can buy goods or services, or sell your bitcoin for legal tender. If you want more bitcoins, you can offer goods or services to people, or buy some at an exchange. For those of you with high-end GPU’s, you can try to ‘mine’ bitcoins (think mining gold, only on your computer), although I think that unless you have a lot of resources, this really isn’t worth it.

How this will eventually turn out is anybodies guess, but I think bitcoin is destined to become increasingly more popular and controversial in the not-so-distant future. If you have any thoughts on this, let me know in the comments!

Filed under Bitcoin, internet, technology Tagged with , ,

Add applications to autostart on login, in GNOME 3

May 14, 2011 by 11 Comments

Since I started using GNOME 3 a while back, one feature that I’ve wanted to see is an option to have certain programs start up when I login. Unfortunately I haven’t had time to look into this until now, and  a quick look in the release notes pointed me in the right direction. There are two ways of doing this; neither of which I find very obvious, and both do essentially the same thing. The easiest way is by using gnome-session-properties. Unfortunately, this is something that the shell in GNOME 3 doesn’t seem to know much about. Entering it in the search bar in the shell doesn’t provide anything useful, apart from a wikipedia or google search possibility. To open the dialog, we must either open a terminal and enter gnome-session-properties, or hit the trusty Alt+F2 and enter it there. At this point, I would like to point out that the Alt+F2 command launcher now has tab auto-completion (I’m not sure if that was a feature before or not, but I’ve only noticed it now)!

Screenshot of 'startup applications preferences' in Fedora 15

As you can see, this presents us with the familiar Startup Applications Preferences dialog, where we can add/remove applications to our hearts content! As you can see from the screenshot, the first application I added was RSIBreak. This is a handy little utility to help prevent Repetitive Strain Injury.

The alternative way to add something to startup on login is to manually create the.desktop files in ~/.config/autostart. Some examples can be found in /usr/share/applications.

Filed under Fedora, GNOME, linux, technology Tagged with , , , ,

Same blog, different domain!

May 10, 2011 by 9 Comments

Welcome to my new blog! As you can see, it isn’t new at all. It’s the same blog as before, just with a cool new domain name.
The new domain is something I’ve been thinking about for a while now, not so much for the blog, but to give me more control over my email address. My main email address up until now has been a free ‘@gmail.com’ one. With my own domain, I can use my new address just like gmail, using google apps, but if for some reason in the future I would like to move away from that provider to an alternative, I have that flexibility. Reasons for moving away from a provider could include anything from a CEO shooting elephants, or even just a competitor comes up with some cool new feature.

For those of you who didn’t catch it, the reference to the CEO shooting elephants, is related to the debacle caused by Bob Parsons, CEO of GoDaddy.com, causing many people to look for alternatives. One such alternative that I would like to recomment is gandi.net.

Filed under internet, Uncategorized Tagged with , ,

Say No to DRM.

May 4, 2011 by 8 Comments

DBD_Eliminate_DRMToday, being Day Against DRM, I thought I would write a little bit about it, and the reasons why I think it is severely flawed, both in reasoning and implementation. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management, but as the campaign at DefectiveByDesign.org points out, a more apt description would be ‘Digital Restrictions Management.’ Digital content providers (e.g. Amazon, Sony, Apple)  use DRM to limit the ways you can use the stuff you buy from them (e.g. Music, eBooks, DVD/BluRay). This is why we say that it is defective by design. A decision is made to encumber the content or device with restrictions.

The first thing to note about DRM, is that DRM is not the same as copyright law. Granted, it is often used to ‘protect’ copyrighted works, but it does not respect the rights of you, the person purchasing the works. I believe Karen Coyle puts it best: Where copyright law is an expression of “everything that is not forbidden is permitted,” DRM takes the approach of “everything that is not permitted is forbidden.” This means that you have very little control over how you use what you are spending your money on. Imagine if you went to a pet shop and bought a goldfish, and the seller tells you that you can’t put the goldfish in any other bowl than this bowl, and you can’t give it away when you are bored of it (not that you could possibly get bored of a goldfish!). Now I’m not saying that the bowl the petshop owner provided you with isn’t suitable for the goldfish, but maybe it doesn’t look nice in your living room. Or maybe you move house, and your new abode is furnished with one of those huge tanks built into the wall! DRM doesn’t take into account what may happen in the future, it locks you into specific devices: who says you won’t want to move on from your current Amazon Kindle ebook reader, when a fancier equivalent comes along in the future? DRM will prevent you from transferring the goldfish ebooks you already own on to it.

This is an unacceptable restriction. Digital technology has opened so many new possibilities that are obvious for all to see, but media providers want to restrict it as much as possible, so that they are in control and can take as much of your money as possible. You buy a physical book, you read it, you enjoy it, you add it to your bookshelf. At any point in the future, you can come back and indulge yourself in the wonder that it brought you when you first read it. You own and are in control of this book. You can donate the book to a library, share it with your friends, give it away, even resell it! The information will never die, the knowledge will be passed on for future generations to enjoy. We are still marvelling at books written thousands of years ago! Now, look at your huge archive of DVDs or BluRay discs, or all of your ebooks that you have purchased from Amazon.com. What will happen in 10 years when optical media devices are unheard of, or your Amazon Kindle dies? What will happen to your digital media? If it is restricted with DRM, it will be unusable. This is detrimental to a free society and free culture! Such a situation could be compared with the burning of the Ancient Library of Alexandria!

Speaking of society and culture, aren’t we all taught at a very young age to share with our friends and neighbours? Sharing is one of the fundamental aspects of community! DRM forbids us from sharing our stuff with the people around us. Content providers (who generally have lots and lots of money), are afraid that people will mass distribute their content to lots of people, and they won’t get any of the money. This is an obvious case of you’re doing it wrong. First of all,I think that’s what copyright law is there for. Secondly, by putting DRM on content, it makes it less appealing to potential buyers; who will try to find an alternative, either in the form of a competitor or even piracy. Yes, I believe DRM promotes piracy. If I can buy from you, and get bundled with DRM-ridden stuff, that I can only play on a certain device; or download illegaly the same album or movie or whatever, without DRM, that I can convert into any other format and play on any given computer; only one of these is appealing. Not only does this inconvenience me, and tempt me to break the law, but you don’t benefit at all. At least if people share files illegally, I suppose DRM indirectly (and unintentionally) promotes sharing!

How can we stop DRM? It’s not going to be easy. I think the main way to stop it, is to make a decision not to use it, not to use any content or device which is bundled with DRM. I realise in some rare situations, it might be necessary to buy something with DRM; but just remember that every time you use it, you are promoting it. When we stop using it, and buy from competitors, then eventually the major players will realise that it’s not such a good idea after all. Another way to aid in its decline is to spread awareness, and that is what I’m attempting to do here. Of course, all of the views expressed here are my own opinions. If you want to find out more about DRM, and find alternative content providers that have more respect for users, check out http://www.defectivebydesign.org/

Please comment!

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frustrations with netflix and DRM

May 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Today I signed up for that 30 day free trial period that netflix have going on. I was quite excited about it, and it was really one of those moments where I thought ‘I hope this works well, if so, then I’d be happy to pay after the free trial!’ – this isn’t a mindset I’m often in, admittedly.

The signup process was going swimmingly, until it asked for the payment details. I was presented with 2 choices: Credit card or paypal. I chose paypal, since I my credit card will expire soon, and I won’t be renewing it, since the account is in Ireland, and I currently live in Canada. Unfortunately, clicking on the paypal option wasn’t very helpful, since netflix turns out to be one of those silly companies that requires all paypal accounts to be set up with credit cards. This is something that really annoys me, let’s rewind a little to see why more clearly. So, remember I was provided with 2 payment options, credit card or paypal? That seemed reasonable at first glance: not everyone is eligible for a credit card, but you can have a paypal account with just a bank account, eliminating the need for a credit card for online payments (this is the most advantageous reason for providing paypal as a payment option, in my opinion). Requiring paypal accounts to be linked to a credit card, isn’t providing any option at all really, since now you must have a credit card to use netflix.

After a slight hesitation, I caved. I entered the details for the paypal account which is linked to my irish credit card (as opposed to the other one which is linked to my canadian bank account). I figured that even though my canadian bank won’t issue me a credit card, I might be able to find something that will work, if I end up liking the service provided by netflix.

After signing up, I was asked some questions and I ticked some boxes. I assume this was to provide me with more personalised recommendations. After that, I was brought to (what I assume was) the main netflix interface. I spent about a minute or two rating stuff I had already seen, and clicking ‘not interested’ in other stuff that I hope never to subject my senses to.
Eventually I saw something that I wanted to watch, a movie that I hadn’t seen in years, but which recently came up in conversation, and I had planned on watching in the near future. Clicking ‘play’ brought me to a nightmarish screen, one that I had hoped I wouldn’t be seeing. It was a message informing me that netflix requires either Microsoft Windows or Mac OS to play. This was the end of the road for me, so I quickly cancelled my account and moved on in frustration.

A little digging afterwards, told me that the reason netflix doesn’t have a GNU/Linux compatible client, is because of DRM. Of course, if I had known this in advance, I would have steered well clear. Most importantly because I think DRM is just wrong and unnecessary, but also because, as everyone knows, DRM doesn’t work.

Filed under internet, linux, technology Tagged with , ,

happy earth day! (and why distributed computing is awesome).

April 22, 2011 by 9 Comments

By Bruce Irving, CC-BY 2.0

When I think of the Earth as a whole, my first thoughts are usually just of a pretty blue and green beachball spinning around up there in space; but for a more comprehensive picture of it, I believe a breakdown of what’s inside is necessary. It’s a one of a kind beachball planet, and it’s the only one we know of that we can live on. The earth is all of the land, all of the water, all of the air, and (most importantly) all of the life inside the spinning sphere. We, as the the most intelligent species living here, have a huge effect on the planet. Of course, the effect we have could be a lot worse, but there is a lot we could do to make our effect severe.

So, on a day where we celebrate our home world, I would like to talk a little about how we can help make it better, with very little effort, by participating in what are known as distributed computing projects. Oh boy, doesn’t that sound scary and difficult! A distributed computing project gives you a piece of software to install on your computer one time, and then tells that to use your computer to help scientists to do their work faster. Once you have the software running on your computer, your job is done, your computers processor does the rest! It will be sent calculations that it will do, and it will return the results to the people who need them (usually scientists/researchers). ‘But don’t those scientists/researchers have access to far better computers than mine?’ I hear you ask (or imagine you ask, at least…). Well, yes; but the whole point of this distributed computing thing, is that dividing the work into smaller parts for less powerful computers to do, is more efficient and faster than leaving it to a handful of ‘supercomputers.’

If you do run a distributed computing project, you will probably notice that your computer might be a little hotter than normal, and your fan is running a lot more frequently, or even constantly. This may worry you at first, as you think your computer is too slow, or that by using the software, you think your computer will become less responsive for your own personal work. This should not pose a problem, as most projects will just use the processor power that is idle, i.e. what you don’t need. If you suddenly need your processor for something, the software will notice this fact instantly, and back off. Usually,  most people use only a small amount of their processing power, unless they are playing some high-intensity games or watching HD video or something like that. This is a way to make use of all of the rest of that power while you are getting on with your work.

Choosing a project to participate in

For someone who is new to distributed computing, the first thing you need to know is that there are many different projects to choose from, depending on your own interests. A lot of these projects use the same software on your computer to delegate the work, which can be found here: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/. Once you have downloaded and installed the software on your computer, you need to choose a project (or a few projects), from this list: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/projects.php. Personally, I’m participating in World Community Grid and SETI@home. The former is really a collection of several sub-projects, which you can choose from in their preferences (I choose all), and the latter is a more specific project.

In conclusion, I pose to you this question: can you think of any good reasons not to participate in such efforts? Happy Earth Day, Earthlings!

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how to make twitter lists useful (and keep your timeline clean)

November 6, 2010 by 10 Comments

For those of you who don’t know, twitter lists are like custom timelines away from your main timeline. Lists contain a selection of twitter users that (usually) have something in common. For example, I have a list called ‘Musics’ which contains artists and bands I’m interested in. Grouping these twitter users in a list, rather than following them in the traditional sense, means that I can still keep tabs on them, without having my main timeline spammed with stuff that I’m not bothered about 100% of the time. The problem I have, is that I rarely think to check my lists for any updates that do pertain to me. For quite a while I wondered if it was possible to export lists to read in my feed reader (RSS/atom). I figured it wasn’t possible, or wasn’t easy at least, since clicking on the feeds button in firefox gives 3 options to subscribe to: my main timeline, my mentions, and my favourites. Also, none of the microblogging clients that I have used (most recently: pino, gwibber, choqok) have a lists feature. I’m unsure if applications on other platforms support lists, let me know if they do!

Anyway, while poking around with the twitter API for a while today, I just noticed that ‘lists’ can be called externally as an atom feed. <- Click on that linked text for all available parameters, etc. Basically, as long as a list is public, it can be seen by anyone. Feed URLs are in the following format for atom feed readers:

https://api.twitter.com/1/:user/lists/:id/statuses.atom

where :user is replaced with the ‘curator’ of the list, and :id with the list name. For example, the list I mentioned earlier called ‘Musics’ which was created by me, has the following feed URL: https://api.twitter.com/1/twitz0r/lists/musics/statuses.atom.

If a list is private, it can’t be viewed by anyone except the twitter user who created it, and so can’t be viewed by any regular feed readers. I’m sure that if you have some super cool feed reader that authenticates you with twitter then that’s not a problem. It isn’t a problem for me, since private lists are boring anyway. I hope this post will be useful to anyone who has the same pining to use lists as they should be used! Good day.

Filed under internet, social networking, technology, twitter Tagged with ,

open social stepping stones

June 4, 2010 by 7 Comments

I just stumbled across an interesting new project today called Ostatus. Basically it aims to provide ‘distributed social networking’ by using some existing protocols to existing blogging and microblogging networks. Depending on what sites implement it, it could be very exciting (I’m excited already, can you tell?). So far, they list Google Buzz, StatusNet (and sites running the StatusNet platform, such as identi.ca), WordPress.com, and tumblr as having implemented some or all of the necessary protocols.

If higher profile sites such as twitter and facebook get in on the act, then it could be the answer to a lot of problems. It would mean that we would not all need to have an account on every platform on the web to interact with our acquaintances. We would not need to provide so many sites with our personal details, just because we have a handful of friends that use each. For example, the thousands of people who have left facebook recently could still show up in the friend lists of the zombies who still occupy it, not as facebook profiles, but as profiles from other social networks or blogs.

Some will inevitably ask: Why don’t we all just use the same social network, then we wouldn’t have to worry about all of these unnecessary growing pains?

Well, we all know what happened with the facebook, and why not everyone would agree with that. If there is some aspect of one network that you don’t like, such as the privacy policy, terms and conditions, or the features it provides, you would use a different one instead. Couple this with OpenID, another exciting decentralized open standard, add a few bells and whistles, and we would have a much more open and social web!

Through their unprecedent kickstarter success, the Diaspora guys have proven that we all want more choice and diversity, while at the same time having control over what details we share publicly. This is another project I look forward to. Due to be released in September, it could well be the ‘next big thing,’ if it can do what they promise! The project page already mentions the possibility of OpenID, among some other phenomenally cool stuff. Everyone (who wants to use it) will have a ‘seed,’ which will harness all of their existing information from the social sites they use (and choose to tie in to the seed). When you want to check up on a friend, you check their seed, without having to worry about scouring the web for different sites with the information. It will also mean that the information we see will be a little more ‘proven’ – we will be more certain that the information about the person, is by the person, and not fraudulent. Also, did I mention it will all be encrypted?!

Who knows, maybe by then the internet won’t be cool anymore…

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