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Issue 73

From Issue #73
May 2000

May 01, 2000  By Various
 in
Stop the Presses, LJ Index and more.
MORE SLASHQUOTES

Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear bright until you hear them speak:

  • Me fail English? That's unpossible!

  • Engineers never lie; we just approximate the truth.

  • this .sig no verb

  • Windows 2001: “I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that.”

  • Eggs don't grow on trees.

  • Blessed is him who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.

  • Someone had to put all that chaos there!

  • Linux just happens to be one of the best forking kernels out there.

  • Stupidity should be painful.

  • Wouldn't 1/0 approach infinity?

  • militant agnostic: I don't know, and you don't know either.

TUCOWS STATISTICS

ISO downloads by Volume:

the Mandrake downflow from Tucows continues to be huge: still #1, though down 4% from January. Corel edged past Red Hat for #2, though both rounded to 17%. That's up 3% for Corel and down 1% for Red Hat. #4 Debian is up 2% and #5 SuSE is down 1%. Slackware was up 1%, Caldera held even, and Stormix showed up for the first time with a 1% wedge of the pie.

Non-ISO by Volume

All by Volume

ISO by Number

Non-ISO by Number

STRICTLY ON-LINE

A Real-Time Data Plotting Program by David Watt is an introduction to programming using the QT windowing system in X. Mr. Watt has written a real-time plotter application called RTP and tells us how he did it. This is freely available software, and you can join others in adding enhancements or use it to write your own application.

The Network Block Device by P. T. Breuer, A. Marín Lopez and Arturo García Ares tells us about this system component and how it can be used. Basically, an NBD driver will make a remote resource look as if it is a local device to Linux. Thus, it can be used to construct a cheap and safe real-time mirror.

Shell Functions and Path Variables, Part 3 by Stephen Collyer is the final article in our series to introduce you to path variables and elements. This month, Mr. Collyer talks about the makepath utility, more path-handling functions and a few implementation issues.

Linux Administration for Dummies is a book review by Harvey Friedman who gives us a taste of what this book is about and whether we should buy it.

WordPerfect for Linux Bible is another book review by Ben Crowder. WordPerfect is one of the most common word processors available. If you need help with this application, this book may be a good resource for you.

Python Programming for Beginners by Jacek Artymiak is a great introduction to this popular scripting language. A tutorial with many examples to help you learn the right way to code non-trial applications using Python. Once you've read it, you'll be ready to outsmart the Spanish Inquisition.

Python Conference Report is just that: a report on the conference held in Washington in January. Find out all about it in this article by Andrew M. Kuchling.

THE BUZZ

During the month of February (and the beginning of March), people were talking about:

  • Microsoft's convenient web-based system on their site that allows vendors to submit invoices. Michael Olson was there and found this message: “Note: Microsoft Invoice is not compatible with Netscape Navigator, Apple MacIntosh computers, or Linux.”

  • Copyleft, a company dedicated to helping further Open Source idealism, and their donation of $10,000 US to support the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The money is intended to aid the legal defense the EFF is mounting in response to lawsuits by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA). Show your appreciation: buy a T-shirt. Visit their site at http://www.copyleft.net/.

  • Rumors that Microsoft is considering porting Office to Linux. Arthur Tyde, executive vice president at Linuxcare, was told there are 34 developers working on this very thing at Microsoft.

  • The work done by Penguin Radio, Inc. and Ineva.com work on a Linux-based car radio with the capacity to receive thousands of stations. The radio hooks up with the the Ellipso Satellite Internet service, which uses a unique (and patented) system of satellite orbits to provide global Internet connectivity. This won't happen until 2002. Huff!

  • An e-mail concerning a new ad for Microsoft's Internet Explorer e-mail program. The ad uses “Confutatis Maledictis” from Mozart's Requiem as its theme music. The chorus sings “Confutatis maledictis, flammis acribus addictis.” This translates to “The damned and accursed are convicted to the flames of hell.”

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