Bill McGonigle announces two great presentations for the September meeting of the Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee Linux Users Group: Joomla! and AJAX. Should be a great show.
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OpenOffice.org 2.0.3 Premium released
LXer reports OpenOffice Suite Gets Font Freebies. “OpenOffice.org Premium can be downloaded from the SourceForge Web site, but is available only for Windows. A native Mac OS X version of the suite will be previewed in France in September.”
[You can also grab the accessories from the SourceForge site, if you already have OOo. – dcparris]
What great timing! I've been looking for a package that includes OpenOffice with some additional fonts, templates and clip art to hand out at Software Freedom Day. On the OO.o site, they have an Extras disk, but it's a couple of micro-versions behind and in need of a lot of attention: files are still in StarOffice format, installers are rough, HOWTOs are missing. There is a lot of great documentation and stuff on the disk (theres an Excel VBA StarBasic concordance that's 63 pages long and looks worthy of further examination), however, and I encourage every OO.o power user to grab the Extras disk (and find out how you might be able to contribute back a little to the disk). But the OOOP disk looks very promising. Will report what I discover
And, remember, be careful out there!
I pointed out the article on NX Server on Ed Leafe's ProFox list, and member Tracy Pearson pointed to a great article on Informit.com on Mitigating the Security Risks of SSH. Remember, just because you sprinkle the magic pixie dust of ssh on a solution, it is not necessarily secure. Security is still a process, not a feature.
Remote secure desktop serving for Linux servers and Linux/Mac/Windows clients.
OSNews reports NX Server, Client Released Under GPL. “2X today announced the release of 2X TerminalServer for Linux, an open source terminal server for Linux, which enables users to run a Linux desktop and Linux / Windows applications over any type of connection. “If Linux is going to happen on the desktop, it will require a terminal server approach such as that of 2X Terminal Server for Linux. Only with the more advanced thin client approach, will Linux be able to outdo Windows fat clients in a company's network. 2X is proud to contribute to this by opening the source code of its terminal server software for Linux.”
'Way cool. NX uses the underlying ssh technology to provide an encrypted tunnel to a remote machine. Through that tunnel, you can support VNC, RDP or compressed X Windows traffic for remote desktop access. I've cobbled together ssh-VNC-http solutions before, but they were typically a bit awkward. I'm looking forward to trying this one out.
Terminal Email
Slashdot post: Radio Shack E-Fires 400 workers. KingSkippus writes “You've got mail! …and no job! The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting that RadioShack has notified 400 workers by e-mail that they are being laid off. The e-mails state, “The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated.” Nothing says thank you for your years of service to our company quite like an e-boot out the door.”
Ow. I got laid off from US DataCenters via cellphone, as I was working from home the day they let everyone go, and I thought that was bad. (One of the best things that ever happened to me, though.) But email! That's incredibly insensitive.
Desktop Linux Survey results posted
Linux-Watch.com reports on their totally non-scientific Desktop Linux Survey results analyzed. I was surprised by the results
Internet Explorer a Monster No More? I don't think so.
Thom Holward posts this article on OSNews, linking to the this ZDNet blog post where Richard MacManus interviews Microsoft's Chris Wilson. I've read the article and I can't see where Thom's conclusion comes from. Chris says…
“…IE7 is going to be an important update in the automatic updates feature. This means it'll actually show up for everyone's [Windows] computer. It won't automatically install behind the scenes or anything, because it is going to change your user experience of the Internet quite a bit.”
I really can't see that anything has changed.
Microsoft won't play High-Definition content on 32-bit CPUs – or will it?
Slashdot post: No Full HD Playback for 32-bit Vista. snafu109 writes “Pity the Vista user with a 32-bit CPU. Senior Program Manager Steve Riley announced today at Tech.Ed Australia that full HD content shall only be played at the full resolution where only signed drivers are used — only in the 64-bit version of Vista.” And you thought that there were no features left to remove!
UPDATE: Today, OSNews reports Microsoft: 32Bit Vista Will Play Protected HD Video. The web exploded yesterday with the news that Microsoft would cripple 32bit versions of Vista so they would not play protected high-definition content. However, Microsoft was quick to respond, stating: “The community is buzzing with reactions to APC Magazine's article regarding playback of protected High Definition content in 32-bit versions of Windows Vista. However, the information shared was incorrect and the reactions pervading the community are thus (understandably) ill-informed. The real deal is that no version of Windows Vista will make a determination as to whether any given piece of content should play back or not.” Well, that certainly clears things up!
Hands-on night at PySIG
Speaking of Python, it's the fourth Thursday of the month, and that means that the Python Special Interest Group of the Greater New Hampshire Linux User Group meets tonight at 7 PM at the Amoskeag Business Incubator, Commercial Street, Manchester. Bill Sconce, the PySIG leader, announces that tonight is “Hands-on Night.” Should be fun. Hope to see you there!
There is no one best way
Declarations of a One True Way to Python Web Frameworks has lead to lots of kickback. A few samples from Daily Python-URL! (from the Secret Labs):
- [Floris Bruynooghe] Python web frameworks
- [online.effbot.org: Fredrik Lundh] he has given us… his shoe!
- [Groovie] Notes on the Python Web Framework Pronouncement
The consensus seems to be that not much has really changed following the “pronouncement.” No one is in charge, and choice is a good thing. The TurboGears folks will keep trying a little harder, now that they're officially #2, everyone else will try a little harder to unseat them.
What will be good to see implemented would be a comparison chart of the many products. The FoxPro Wiki does a great job of this for VFP Frameworks, and CMS Matrix does a good job on content management systems. This would be a great service to the community.