I posted a fun little howto to hackszine today that you fellow geeks might enjoy. Using the Q virtual machine for OS X (it's a Cocoa port of QEMU), I was able to get Puppy Linux to run nicely on my Mac. If you haven't heard of it before, Puppy is a tiny desktop Linux distribution that's meant to run off of a bootable CD. It normally stores all of your files and save data to a file on a flash drive.

What's cool, though, is that you can virtualize the boot CD as well as a small virtual disk image. This lets you put the emulator application, the boot CD image, the virtual machine config, and the entire save state all on a single flash drive.

You can toss the QEMU Linux and Windows binaries on there as well, and have a private Linux box that fits in your pocket and will run on just about any desktop machine. Slick, no?

Running Puppy Linux inside OS X - Link

I've finally found a suitable case (and cashflow) for my old mini-itx motherboard (EPIA-M 1000) I've had laying around. The specs aren't too bad - 1ghz C3 cpu, a gigabyte of RAM, 160 gigabyte hdd, and a 52x cd drive. I am still missing one crucial part for me to use this as a file server - a network card. Athough I do have built-in 10/100, I'd like to go wireless since I don't have my own router (it's in another part of the house) but, I have no clue as to what kind of card I can easily use in Linux (comments welcome ;D).

Right now, it acts as another space heater in my room and my ad-hoc cooling solution is having a hard time keeping up. Eventually, I'll have a few fans installed into my desk so I can actually close the door on the computer cabinet; until then I'll use my current 'clip a fan on the desk and point it so it blows air into the cabinet' setup.

Here's a follow-up to the story I posted here...

It seems as though the accuser's now slightly annoyed... Here's his response to the Register

I do not follow instructions that show up when a website that I am not familiar with appears on my computer and I do not think anyone with experience would do so either. Once the Centos site appeared on four computers at one site I contacted our web service provider. The web service provider did not know what could cause the problem and had never heard of "CentOS". I then contacted the internet provider's local office and was told that they did nothing to cause the problem. I checked the building's server and found nothing relating to CentOS on the server. I was then left with only the web page email address to contact. I asked for the strange website to be removed because it blocked my City web site and I could not post public information. I only got help after threatening to contact the FBI. Now I am being flooded with emails from CentOS users that after knowing the answer say the problem was simple. I think this is unjustified and would like for this to stop. Your website should provide useful information and be a credit to the IT world. I do not believe it should be used to incite the users. Your attention to this matter is greatly appreciated.

TFA is here

I found this story on the Register today, detailing a series of correspondence between CentOS and an employee of an Oklahoman Town.  Priceless:

The heartland turned vicious this week when an Oklahoma town threatened to call in the FBI because its web site was hacked by Linux maker Cent OS. Problem is CentOS didn't hack Tuttle's web site at all. The city's hosting provider had simply botched a web server. This tale kicked off yesterday when Tuttle's city manager Jerry Taylor fired off an angry message to the CentOS staff. Taylor had popped onto the city's web site and found the standard Apache server configuration boilerplate that appears with a new web server installation. Taylor seemed to confuse this with a potential hack attack on the bustling town's IT infrastructure."Who gave you permission to invade my website and block me and anyone else from accessing it???," Taylor wrote to CentOS. "Please remove your software immediately before I report it to government officials!! I am the City Manager of Tuttle, Oklahoma."

The entire series of correspondence is available here

Here is a picture of Linux crashing on an airplane.  [via]

Update:  There is quite the debate going on regarding this pic in digg.  Be sure to check it out and join in.

Last night a friend of mine asked me what the big differences among Windows, OS X, and Linux are. After talking my way through it for a while, I thought it would be best to use an analogy to describe it. So this one's for all of you out there who are new to computers: think of your operating system as a movie. The way I see it, the following movies relate to the type of movie stated;

Windows - The everyday, nothing-special, run-of-the-mill movie. These are usually the movies that fill up the box offices that everyone goes to see, but don't really care about too much. Think chick flick, teen comedy, horror, and action movies. Tons of people see them (just as tons of people are running Windows), but the don't get good reviews, and really aren't expected to. Some of them will get a lot of hype, but then let down everyone who goes to see them. Your friends see them, your family sees them, they keep the movie industry going, providing most of the income at the box office.

I today read an article on LXer - and it hit the proverbial nail on the head for me regarding the new Microsoft Office "Open" XML File Formats to be included with Office 2007 - and it really is a dangerous concept.

From TFA:

Even more dangerously, the company has named these new formats Microsoft Office Open XML. Note the word “open" here: Microsoft is using a term which hitherto stood in stark opposition to everything the company represents. By employing “open" in this way – however apparently minor or unimportant – it has begun a subtle process of devaluation. All it needs to do is to drop in the word “open" at various points in its product line, and the concept starts to lose the force it currently enjoys, and all the “real" opens – open source, OpenDocument etc. – are diminished as a result. In fact, this process is already underway: Microsoft has announced the “Open Packaging Conventions", which form part of its PDF rival XPS (XML Paper Specification). To add insult to injury, Microsoft hammers home its new passion for “openness" by explaining: 

This sort of thing is really, and I hope that that the general public do try to fight against this sort of thing.

I cannot tell you guys (and gals) all the details due to a particular bias of mine, but there is now a project to add USB support for the Rio Karma under Linux.

Backstory
About a month ago, I was fed up with Windows. I hated having crashes all the time, security flaws cropping up every hour on the hour, having to pay for software, and everything else the closed-source community embraces (and by community, I mean industry). Two years ago, I tried to switch totally to Mandrake 10. This only lasted a week or so. The main problem? Lack of good package management.

I was told by a friend (noogz) that Ubuntu was a good distribution of Linux, so I downloaded the 5.10 Preview Release, and got it all set up. What follows is an account of all the steps taken until now. It is totally true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent (not really). Full story after the break!