Well that went well...

Well, I'm not longer using puppy linux. I can't ever get git in the package manager, so it's not quite a dev platform. Oh ya, and I screwed up my save file permanently because I made it too big. So I said screw that and tryed Ubuntu mini remix. Nothing. Worked.

Well, I'm back to my old standby, Arch Linux. Ah, like a breath of fresh air Arch Linix is by far the easiest distro I've ever dealt with. More compliant then Gentoo, not Debian-based (I now declare my hate for Debian), small and with a massive supply of packages (if you install a AUR installer such as yaourt).

So I've installed it on my usb stick and after fixing grub (grub works weird-ish on USB drives) I quickly have got the nvidia driver and wireless drivers installed, have a window manager (Fluxbox!) and a wireless connection mananger (wicd!).

Yay! So ideally this'll work well. Shoulda done it in the first place, really.

*Raises Glass* To Arch Linux!

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Now playing on Winamp: american woman
via FoxyTunes

Sorry for the lack of post.

The great disease of laziness took a very strong hold of me and yesterday I mostly used Omegle. Here is one of the more amusing conversation I partook in: http://paste2.org/p/407132 (warning: much foul language).

At this point currently I have set up Puppy Linux to be my install platform. I am at this moment cloning the Zen kernel so I can start... Oh, it's done. Better go.

Funny Video

Here is a fun video from college humor. How true it is!

Scribe Fire

I am a firefox guy, as most of our readers probably are. I have firefox on my linux box and on both my windows PCs. One thing that I really like about using firefox is the amount of add-ons that are available, its like bling for your browser.  I thought I'd bring this one to your attention. Its called Scribe Fire and I'm using it right now to compose this blog entry. It allows me to blog from what ever website I happen to be on at that time, without having to navigate to guysonfoss.blogspot.com. It actually open s in a split screen so I can still view web pages while I compose. As for formating its fairly basic. You can change font, size, colour, etc. Plus you can add your own html if there is something specific you want to do. If you blog in firefox, I'd recommend this add-on.

-The Thoth-

Book Review - Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner

In a world full of technical books its sometimes hard to decide which one to buy. I’ve decided to do a review of a technical book i've recently read, but I'm going to keep it short and sweet. The book that I will be reviewing is called Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner and Michael Dawson wrote it.

Now I’d like to make clear that I am an absolute beginner when it comes to python or any other programming language, I’m barely competent at shell scripting in bash! So if you already know something about python, this may be a little basic for you. I’m not saying that you won’t learn anything from this book; you just might find it a little easy for you.

The book starts by explaining why one might want to use python. It gives some of the benefits and will tell you why the author believes that it is a good programming language to learn first. This section also includes some history. It was this introduction that made me want to read on.

The book starts with the very basic “game over” program, which is really a cleverly disguised “hello world” program. Each exercise in the book builds on what comes before it and lays the foundation for the next exercise. The exercises are entertaining and fun to complete and the author organized them in a logical manner. He also keeps the reader entertained by adding his own style of humor without getting in the way of the technical stuff. Perhaps a couple of concepts could have been better explained but if you stick with it, you’ll soon figure it out.

I’d recommend Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner to anyone who would like to learn about Python and have little or no experience with python. I gave the book to a friend, who is extremely competent in awk, to read through and he told me that the syntax was similar between the two, so if you have other programming experience, you may want something a little more advanced. This book was perfect for me and I am currently attempting to purchase the book (which I never do) because the library is going to stop me from renewing it sooner or later. If I had one criticism it would be that the book is quite expensive, but if you buy second hand you should be able to get it for under $40. Overall, its 2 thumbs up from me.

-The Thoth-

We have an IRC channel

Woo! To chat with the guys, just head over to Freenode and #guysonfoss.

State of affairs.

It's been 2 days since the blog had a post, so I figured I should keep it fresh.

Well, let's start with the Gobolinux project:


No real change. The kernel I needed to compile I've delorted, so I could clone the git repo again to make sure there are no errors there, but every hour or so the internet cuts out, and git won't start downloading again. So I'll just wait until I get home on Saturday.

As for Xusbtu (the OS I'm currently running off my usb stick, Xubuntu) it still has the VESA driver, because the NVIDIA one caused the login not to work. So I'm stuck with 1024x768. Funfun. It also locks up every few minutes, depending on load. I cannot wait for USB 3.0, it'll be soooooooo much better.


In other news:


I'll try and make a video when I get back on Saturday. Likely, it will involve the GPL. Look forward to that...

School is starting soon! I do have to attend, thus the pace of update may slow. It may also get faster, if I'm bored in class. All of our current writers will also have to attend. Expect possible long droughts.

Just something awesome: The Always Innovting Touch Book. I. Love. This. Computer. It is fricking awesome. Small, well designed, and it comes with Linux! It is also based in Open Source principles, and it based on an Open Source platform. It is the sex. Go look at it. Screw you Apple Tablet!

LinuxCon 2009 is happening September 19th and 20th. I want to go. I very likely can't.

The Linux Kernel Archives have gotten a small makeover! Um, ya. That site is cool.

Heroes comes back this September. I still love the show. Many do not. GO SYLAR!

Sarah Conner Chronicles was canceled recently. Hopefully one of the fan campaigns will actually work (a la Family Guy).

Top Gear returns in November. Yay!

Family Guy also returns this September.

As does The Simpsons. This is the Simpson's 21st Season, making it the longest running American primetime television series ever. 21 years. Wow.

Ubuntu 9.10 is set for release this October.

The second batch of Pandora handheld consoles should be available for pre-order this December. I also really want one of these. They are so cool!



Well, there's a generic blob of news. 'Till next time.

Nerd's Creed

This is my computer. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My computer is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I master my life. My computer, without me, is useless. Without my computer, I am useless. I must install my computer true. I must install straighter than any bug who is trying to kill me. I must patch him before he kernel panics me. I will....

My computer and myself know that what counts in this war is not the files we compile, the noise of our MIDIs, nor the programs we make. We know that it is the Linux that counts. We will use Linux...

My computer is human, even as I, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weakness, its strength, its parts, its accessories, its keyboard and its screen. I will keep my computer clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other. We will...

Before Linus I swear this creed. My computer and myself are the defenders of my sanity. We are the masters of our enemy. We are the saviors of my life. So be it, until victory is mine and there is no enemy, but Stability.

Not fair...

Well, I found the cause of my problems. The b43 driver for my wireless card causes everything to screw up. Why? I dunno. It's weird.

So to try and get wireless on my Zen kernel, I bought a cheap D-link wireless USB dongle. Unfortunately, the only driver that works with it is ndiswrapper. Supposedly, you just ndiswrapper -i tehinffile.inf and voila, it works.

Not so.

So neither wireless option works. Ethernet seems fine.

Oh right, I also did try the Broadcom-wl driver. Did that work? On the normal Ubuntu kernel, yes. Zen? No. It doesn't have the old wireless stack that the driver requires to compile. Brilliant.

So I haven't really progressed. It's infuritating. It's like level 22 in Donkey Kong.

Well, I'll try and post again tomorrow. Hope I have some progress then.

As the Frustration mounds...

As I have mentioned before, I am currently in Salmon Arm. I have my laptop, which isn't fixed yet. I am using it though, as I installed Xubuntu on a usb stick (full install) and have made it bootable. There are problems though, that have caused me to become quite irate and frustrated.

First of all, running off a USB drive is SLOW. Especially when you're multitasking. Firefox is not good on this. USB 1.1 is probably unusable.

Second, the Nvidia driver causes the Desktop Enviroment to screw up, so when it boots the cursor and a blue background appear, but nothing else. So I'm stuck with the 1024x768 vesa driver. *grumble*

And thirdly, my kernel I'm compiling tends not to work with the terminals. Specifically, if you use a terminal the keyboard doesn't work. The mouse does though. I am currently trying to fix this, will update if it works.

I need this kernel because I need to access my Reiser4 partitions. Very few Distros support Reiser4. Ubuntu is not one of them.

So thus, there is an outline of the Gobolinux project so far. Frustration.

Reflection on the third video

It's becoming a habit to do these. I must had excess creativity I haven't burned off after those videos.

Anyways, I had real troubling think of what to do and how to execute it. Hopefully in the future I can do more Linux tutorials: I'm probably better at those then at software politics... OOOOH! I should do software licenses next! Look forward to that.

To conclude, I think that was mildly amusing, but I'm likely wrong. Try to enjoy it regardless!

On another note, I am leaving for Salmon Arm this Saturday for a week, so I'll try to blog but videos are out (hopefully my laptop works by then...).
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Now playing on Winamp: Blizzard - Protoss 3
via FoxyTunes

Third Video!

Finally I have released my third video. This one is about the 3 major nations of computing: Mac, Linux and Windows. Oh ya, BSD's in there somewhere too.

Enjoy!

I LOVE THIS COMIC

IT'S JUST SO AWESOME I HAVE TO SHARE.

http://fatpita.net/images/image%20(1036).jpg
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Now playing on Winamp: Santana - 04 - Africa Bamba
via FoxyTunes

Some updates

These are mostly under the hood but it is important to note a few:

When there is a post on the blog, within 30 minutes there will be a post on out twitter account, guysonfoss, and a post on our Facebook Page.

If you want to email us, the email is guysonfoss@gmail.com.

Thanks for your support!

Last but not least...

Our Forth Blogger has joined us! The only one here who can really program, we hope we can bring something to the table none of us can.

Welcome crazy2be, best of luck.

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Now playing on Winamp: gary numan - are friends electric
via FoxyTunes

Greetings and Hallo!

O hai! I'm the Wafflemonster, self proclaimed mac-fanboy and mac-gamer (I didn't know they existed either).

Lil' bit about me, I aspire to dabble in both Private Business Ownership, or professional writing. I have a bad addiction to drum kits, and diet Ginger ale. This may attributed to my Diabeetus.

For my first post, I'm doing a review of QUAKE ENGINE GAMES IN GENERAL.

For the most part, most Quake-based games are fast paced, deathmatchy frag fests with shiny guns and sci-fi characters. Exactly on the mark is Nexuiz, a multi-platform game who's sole purpose is to continue the abuse of anyone with a reaction time under 0.05 seconds. Flashy energy bolts, rockets, and an ineffective grenade launcher. The graphics aren't anything all that incredible, and are trumped by anything with twice the graphics of AssaultCube, which is the same sort of deal except more counter-strike and it's only 40MB, meaning it could be run on a browser. However, these games are fun and for the most part are intuitive and easy to learn, hard to master.

Urban Terror decided to take this idea, make it more tactical, and give you the stellar ability to leap off walls and climb up ledges. While just as fast, it provides a more versatile equipment choice, seeing as you can customize your set up. The shotgun and grenades, however, are extremely inneffective and should really have their core damage upped.

The Cube and Cube 2 (Saurubraten, I don't care if I got it wrong) focused on easy level customization and dynamic lighting with decent graphics, but to achieve this you need quite the machine. Otherwise, you're playing Quake III except everyone looks like Goblins. It's a great deal more balanced than Nexuiz and it's knock offs, as the explosive weapons will actually kill a fellow with one hit if shot well, and splash damage is moderate. You're starting weapon is actually useful and you can have a great deal of fun.

While I realize that there are a great many other open-source quake-based games out there, I feel like these offer the most originality out of all of them and thus, should count as the infinite betters.

-WM

I'm sorry

I know it sounds like a cop out, but I think I'm canceling the Gobolinux special. It's just too hard to film and too boring to watch. I'll do blog posts about it though - don't you worry!

No rant today either, haven't had the time. Hopefully we'll get Stig and Waffle's Youtube channels up soon, so there will be a larger income of videos.

I'll be going to Salmon Arm Saturday until the next Sunday, so there is a possibility I'll be out of contact. Supposedly there is WiFi though, so hopefully it'll be all right.

Now, on to Gobolinux!

---

State of Affairs on the Gobolinux Mutilib project:

Paritioned.

/dev/sda1 /boot ext4 258.83MB
/dev/sda2 -Extended Partition- 148.80GB
/dev/sda5 / reiser4 10GB
/dev/sda6 /var reiser4 2GB
/dev/sda7 /Files/Compile reiser4 2GB
/dev/sda8 swap swap 4GB
/dev/sda9 /home reiser4 130.80GB

On Gobolinux, /boot is actually /System/Kernel/Boot, /var is /Variable, and /home is /Users.

Now, I've set this up this way for three reasons:

1. Having a dedicated boot partition is good practice, and I've also found it tends to boot faster.
2. Moving the files that change often to a new partition is something I've seen done in Gentoo a lot (typically with /var/portage). It reduces the impact of fragmentation, as creating and deleting many files causes (though the Reiser4 filesystem negates this a fair bit).
3. Redundancy: a separate home partition means I can reinstall without losing my files if the main partition screws up (this is also good partitioning practice).
   

On the programs side, I've managed to get git set up on System Rescue CD, but SVN and CVS are proving more difficult. Grrrr portage...

Well, th-th-th-th-that's all folks.
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Now playing on Winamp: asvu 2006 - 10 - surfin usa
via FoxyTunes

Another new blogger...

I welcome our new writer: Waffle Monster!

He is our charismatic Mac-fanboy.

I wish him the best of luck.

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Now playing: Pink Floyd - 07 - Goodbye Blue Sky
via FoxyTunes

Hello World

Thank you Mekapaedia, I feel welcomed. Just a little bit about me, I'm new to Linux and the whole world of open source. My good friend Mekapaedia introduced me to it in January. Right now I'm dual booting Xubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope and Arch Linux. I also have a old solaris box that I've been fooling around with (Sparc Solaris 8). I have just started teaching myself Python and its going slowly but well. Thanks to Mekapaedia for inviting me. I hope I can bring something to the blog.

-The Thoth-

Upcoming Special...

Since I needed to install Linux anyways, I decided to record it. I'm not finished today, nor will I be. I'll pick it up tomorrow.

So far, I've set up the partitions and directories. Since this is a "Linux From Scratch"-like install, it is necessary.

Hopefully it'll all turn out good... we'll see tomorrow!

I also welcome our new Blogger - The Stig!

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Now playing: Blizzard - Zerg 1
via FoxyTunes

Reflection on the second video

Just 'cause I can, I'll talk about this.

I mentioned it the video a bit: I started filming another video like the first one: I did an introduction and then cut to be showing you how install a CPU, and how to install a heatsink. It was boring as hell. So when I was doing the usual outro, I somehow got around to ranting on passwords. Which I found more amusing then the video itself. I then deleted the first one and refilmed, focusing on the password rant. I think it is better for it.

Comments if anyone read this, please.

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Now playing: the beatles - i want you (she's so heavy)
via FoxyTunes

Second Video!

Here we go! I enjoyed watching this far more then the first one - I enjoy ranting more too... thus, I have decided this is the new format.

Well... ya. Enjoy.

LIKE A BAWS

Unfortunately, I was not able to complete another video today, so I will leave you with one of my favorite music videos ever.

LIKE A BAWS!

Reflection of the first video

Well, that's the first video done. Do I think it's that good? No. Is it a start? Indeed.

Hopefully as we venture closer to what I am the most comfortable in (Linux) it'll get better. So in a few videos, as there isn't a great lot to explain about the hardware. Electrically, immense topic. Practically, not so much.

What should I do next? If anyone reads this, comments plox. If not, I'll probably do the CPU.

The First Video

This is a fairly short video on one of the most important hardware devices, the Power Supply! Enjoy (ideally)!

The engimatic first post.

Ah, the first post. What exactly should I be putting here, anyways? My goals? Explanations?

How about this:

As Linus Torvalds said: "Nobody should start to undertake a large project. You start with a small trivial project, and you should never expect it to get large."

Thus, this is my trivial project: To explain what I know of computing, starting with something common to all current Personal Computer OS's, x86 hardware.

Hopefully, this will eventually become a blog that is enjoyable to read.

Shooting to release the first video tomorrow. Ideally it'll be short and sweet.