Linux

Be the penguin.

I stumbled upon some IBM developerWorks articles this week that are short but informative. The first is on the Linux Kernel and the source code layout. It’s a nice introduction to the kernel for those who have a little background but aren’t really sure how things are structured in either […]

Interesting reading material

Mon August 20, 2007 in Linux / Software Development tagged Linux / Open Source (updated 6541 days ago)

My sister needed me to pull some pictures off her digital camera so we could place an ad in our parents home paper for their 50th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the USB cable for the camera. However, the camera had an SD card. And my Acer Aspire 1691WLMi […]

Getting the Acer Aspire 1691 SD slot working under Fedora ...

Sat July 28, 2007 in Acer Aspire 1690i / Hardware / Linux / Open Source / Software Development tagged acer / aspire / Fedora / graphics / Linux / rpm / ubuntu (updated 6563 days ago)

This is a little bit of useless fun – you’ll need to find your own audio file to replace “kuku.au”: KUKU=`/bin/date +%I` while [ $KUKU -gt 0 ]; do eject /dev/cdrom cat /root/xxx/kuku.au > /dev/dsp eject -t /dev/cdrom KUKU=$((KUKU-1)) done

“Time” for fun with your cd drive

Sat June 16, 2007 in Linux (updated 6606 days ago)

My wife and I are planning this year's landscaping projects for our new home (we bought it last August). I thought a clever way to do that would be to run some landscaping software I bought a few years back. It's a Windows 98 application. I have a copy of […]

Getting a windows app running under Fedora Core 5

Sun March 18, 2007 in General / Linux tagged Fedora / Linux / MythTV / Video (updated 6695 days ago)

I was trying to install a package on an FC5 box at home today and discovered that yum was being uncooperative. Well, I blame it on yum but it was actually rpm. There were no error messages, no indication at all that something was wrong. It just hung. I noticed […]

How to fix a yum when it hangs with no ...

Sat March 17, 2007 in Linux / Open Source tagged atrpms / Fedora / Linux / rpm / yum (updated 6680 days ago)

I just read a very good (and short) article on working with rootkit checker utilities. A rootkit is a set of tools that crackers (the evil doers) use to break into your system. Linux is just as vulnerable to this sort of thing as any other OS if the system […]

Linux Security: checking for rootkits and other evil doers

Tue March 06, 2007 in General / Linux tagged Fedora / Linux (updated 6708 days ago)

I recently saw some discussion on the Griffin PowerMate, a USB connected volume knob, and it’s use with GIMP. I’ve been trying to understand exactly why this would be useful. While it’s possible to map the features of the knob to various functions in the GIMP, it would require yet […]

Interesting device for use with GIMP

Tue March 06, 2007 in Art and Graphics / GIMP / Hardware / Linux tagged GIMP / graphics / Linux

I’d forgotten about this until I saw a post about it on a local Linux user group mailing list. The gist is to run: zdump -v America/Denver | grep 2007 for whatever timezone you are using. You should see Mar 11 in the output, not April something. Most recent Linux […]

Helpful tip: making sure your timezone is updated for ...

Mon March 05, 2007 in Linux tagged Linux (updated 6710 days ago)

I read a Slashdot post today that pointed to an AP article on Michael Dell returning as CEO at Dell, replacing his previously hand-picked crony Kevin Rollins due to lots of downside to the Dell business. The article had this interesting quip: …in recent years Dell has been stung by […]

Dell and Linux (or Unix): Microsoft still pulls the strings

Thu February 01, 2007 in General / Linux / Via Motherboards tagged dell / Linux (updated 6397 days ago)

This year’s Libre Graphics Meeting is taking shape, with a temporary website posted. The official domain is being readied and the web site will be transferred there later. The LGM is a conference for artists and developers who work with open source graphics tools such as the GIMP, Inkscape and […]

LGM 2007: Libre Graphics Meeting, Montreal

Sun January 28, 2007 in Art and Graphics / GIMP / Linux / Open Source / Software Development tagged GIMP / graphics / Open Source (updated 6745 days ago)

I just installed the official FlashPlayer9 from Macromedia on my FC5 box at work. I then went to the Lost and Battestar Galactica sites, two sites that previously would not work correctly with the FlashPlayer9 beta releases. Well, they work flawlessly now. Kudos to the Adobe team for getting it […]

Flash Player 9: Official release (and it really works ...

Wed January 17, 2007 in Linux / Lost / Video tagged Linux / Lost / Open Source (updated 6741 days ago)

I’ve been playing around with Wink to create Flash-based tutorials on the GIMP. My goal is to put some of these tutorials on my upcoming book’s companion web site. I created my first tutorial, mostly as a proof of concept for myself. It shows how you can make basic shapes. […]

Experimenting with Wink: Flash tutorials for GIMP

Wed January 17, 2007 in Art and Graphics / Education / GIMP / Linux tagged GIMP / graphics (updated 6757 days ago)

Michael J. Hammel

Building a better today…because tomorrow is in question…