Star Wars: Clone Wars Leaked Trailer!

Wow. Just... wow. Courtesy of Gizmodo:

Feast your eyes—squinting a bit—on the leaked two-minute trailer that was briefly seen in YouTube and then pulled off just to be rescued at the last minute by a Polish Corvette, saved into an astromech droid, launched onto a desert planet, and found by us in a garage sale somewhere in Kraków. Or something like that. The trailer further shows the work of the three hundred 3D animators who have been working on this project at Lucasfilm Animation for the past three years. And except for its lousy quality it, it seems that we are in for a ride (here's hoping Mr. Lucas didn't write the dialog.)

Follow the link to feast your eyes upon the trailer - don't mind the subtitles, I'm assuming it's Polish but I really have no idea what language it may be...

Gartner Report: MS-Windows Is Collapsing

Posted: 11 Apr 2008 on nixCraft

Wow, the researchers warn that Windows is collapsing and Linux / OS X replacing Windows:

Calling the situation "untenable" and describing Windows as "collapsing," a pair of Gartner analysts this week said Microsoft must make radical changes to the operating system or risk becoming a has-been.

In a presentation at a Gartner-sponsored conference in Las Vegas, analysts Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald said Microsoft has not responded to the market, is overburdened by nearly two decades of legacy code and decisions and faces serious competition on a whole host of fronts that will make Windows moot unless the Redmond, Washington developer acts.

This article explains why Windows is broken:

Two Gartner analysts said the words that enterprises dread, and that will move alternate operating system proponents to tears of joy: "Windows as we know it needs to be replaced." Microsoft's operating system (OS) development times are too long and they deliver limited innovation; their OSs provide an inconsistent experience between platforms, with significant compatibility issues; and other vendors are out-innovating Microsoft . That gives enterprises unpredictable releases with limited value, management costs that are too high, and new releases that break too many apps and take too long to test and adopt. With end users bringing their own software solutions into the office...well, it's just a heck of a sad story for Microsoft.

water powered car/torch

How to handle the jerk next to you on an airplane

Courtesy of my buddy Mike in Texas.

1. Quietly and calmly open up your laptop case.
2. Remove your laptop.
3. Boot up
4. Make sure the guy who is annoying you can see the screen.
5. Close your eyes, join your palms together, tilt your head up to the sky & move your lips as if praying
6. Then hit this link

When it's over, quietly curse at the computer, hit it a few times, and then throw your hands up in resignation and put it away again (make sure your browser cache and history clears itself when it exits). Pretend nothing happened.

Debugging Tip: Trace the Process and See What It is Doing with strace

Posted: 10 Apr 2008 on nixCraft

(I was just this past week trying to wrap my head around strace, a utility I haven't had the chance to use much, so I thought this was fortuitous to post.)

strace is a useful diagnostic, instructional, and debugging tool. It can save lots of headache. System administrators, diagnosticians and trouble-shooters will find it invaluable for solving problems with programs for which the source is not readily available since they do not need to be recompiled in order to trace them. This is also useful to submit bug reports to open source developers.

Each line in the trace contains the system call name, followed by its arguments in parentheses and its return value.

Run strace against /bin/foo and capture its output to a text file in output.txt:

$ strace -o output.txt /bin/foo

You can strace the webserver process and see what it's doing. For example, strace php5 fastcgi process, enter:

$ strace -p 22254 -s 80 -o /tmp/debug.lighttpd.txt

To see only a trace of the open, read system calls, enter :

$ strace -e trace=open,read -p 22254 -s 80 -o debug.webserver.txt

Where,

• -o filename : Write the trace output to the file filename rather than to screen (stderr).
• -p PID : Attach to the process with the process ID pid and begin tracing. The trace may be terminated at any time by a keyboard interrupt signal (hit CTRL-C). strace will respond by detaching itself from the traced process(es) leaving it (them) to continue running. Multiple -p options can be used to attach to up to 32 processes in addition to command (which is optional if at least one -p option is given).
• -s SIZE : Specify the maximum string size to print (the default is 32).

Refer to strace man page for more information:

$ man strace

HP 2133 Mini-Notebook PC - Full-function Priced Starting Under $500

Posted: 08 Apr 2008 on nixCraft

To help schools offer affordable computing to every student, HP today introduced a full-function, mini-notebook Linux powered PC priced starting under $500. HP will join a fledgling market already populated with products from Intel Corp., the world's largest semiconductor company, and Asustek Computers Inc., the world's largest maker of computer motherboards.

The only way to keep cost is use Linux and create network only computer for everybody. Windows vista cannot be installed because of price tag and higher hardware requirements.

Notebook features:

• Simple, refined design and anodized aluminum shell that is sleek and sturdy yet lightweight;
• HP DuraKeys, featuring a clear coating applied over the notebook keyboard that protects the finish and printed letters and characters;
• An HP 3D DriveGuard, which sends a signal to shut down the hard drive upon sudden movement or shock by using a three-axis digital accelerometer chip
• Scratch-resistant display and magnesium hinge bracket
• A large 8.9-inch diagonal WXGA display, user-friendly full keyboard (QWERTY) and touchpad;
• Ability to view video, still-image capture, web conferencing or video-enhanced instant messaging with no additional hardware to buy or carry. An optional integrated VGA webcam enables video and still-image capture to allow the addition of photos and video clips to presentations, documents and email;
• Two battery solutions - three-cell for lightest-weight configurations or optional six-cell for longer battery life;
• Wireless technologies such as integrated Wi-Fi Certified WLAN(3) and optional Bluetooth, allowing students to access the Internet as well as communicate via email, IM, chat, VOIP and blogging. The wireless technologies also enable connections at hotspots as well as with Bluetooth devices such as printers, mice and headsets; and
• The processors HP is using are made by Via Technologies Inc., the distant third-ranked player in the microprocessor space, and come in clock speeds up to 1.6 gigahertz.

=> More information available here and here.

Join a Windows Domain From Linux / UNIX Computer Using Samba

Posted: 02 Apr 2008 via nixCraft

An excellent guide; it will give you steps about using Samba server to join to a Windows domain. From the article:

The primary domain controller (PDC) will serve as the password server for the domain. If Samba and winbind services are running, turn them off. I will show you how turn them on after you join to the Windows domain. You should save your files at any point in your “work-in-progress” and restore your originals if you intend to reboot. You should make note of your hard devices listed in your fstab file. Before you start you should ping the server from your intended Linux workstation.

=> Step by Step: Using Samba to join a Windows Domain

Increase Your Productivity with Various Linux Desktop Apps

Posted April 1 2008 on nixCraft.

This blog post covers many applications which can be used to increase your productivity without spending a single penny.

From the article:

Sure, Apple’s built its reputation on being the hipster brand of choice, but one of the nice things about Linux is the ability to customize virtually any aspect of the operating system to cater to your workflow and computing habits.

For the purpose of structure I’ll break the article into two parts. The first will discuss how Linux can be just as application-rich, in terms of usefulness, as OS X or Windows. In the second half, I’ll cover various productivity-boosting apps and features that allow you do accomplish virtually any task with a few simple keystrokes.

=> Full-throttle Productivity and Web-Work With Ubuntu