Letters

SCO Crimes

Following the SCO vs. IBM fiasco in LJ and various other publications, I have not seen any mention of possible criminal charges that could be filed against SCO and its officers should they lose their case. I would expect to see numerous counts of mail fraud to be followed up by extortion charges for sending letters demanding payment. I'm no lawyer, but I'd think racketeering charges may even be warranted.

—
Randy Bancroft

Sounds like you should be reading GROKLAW (groklaw.com), where paralegal Pamela Jones explains SCO's precarious legal situation in merciless detail. —Ed.

Correct URL for PhotoGen

Just wanted to let you know that the URL listed for my project (PhotoGen) is not correct [LJ, October 2003, page 10]. You guys have shawley.mpip.org, and it is supposed to be shawley.myip.org. By the way, thanks for putting my project in the mag, that rocks!

—
Jeremy

More on Audio Apps, Please

I liked the blurb about the Jahshaka video editor in the October 2003 issue. However, I'd like to see some coverage on audio multitracking software or audio software in general. Ardour is a very powerful tool for audio recording, and I think that many artists would benefit from knowing that they don't have to pay $1,000 plus for a ProTools rig to produce their art effectively. And lastly, I think Linux Journal is fabulous; I read every issue cover to cover. Thank you.

—
Jeremy Sherrer

Check out the Pure Data article on page 60. —Ed.

New Wi-Fi Freedom in France

I am a French Linux Journal reader. I found the article, “Linux Makes Wi-Fi Happen in New York City” by Doc Searls, in the September 2003 issue of LJ, very interesting, but I would like to comment on the following sentence: “In Europe they use 1–13, except for France, where they use 10–13.” Since July 25, 2003, you can use channels 1–13 in France.

—
Romain Touze
Paris, France

Airplane Seatback System Runs Linux

The most amazing thing happened when I was flying back from Detroit—where I had been teaching a Linux course for one of our customers—to Amsterdam late Wednesday night. The Northwest airplane was a brand-new Airbus 330, which had just been put into service the week before. It's their only Airbus so far, and it was completely new to the cabin crew. They told me that they had had their training for this aircraft based on photos from the galley.

The A330 is equipped with an in-flight entertainment system for each and every individual passenger—even in cattle class every seat has its own LCD panel, remote control, et cetera. The system is unique in the respect that it allows you to choose and start a movie at any time. So every passenger could be watching a different part of a movie at the same time. (This is actually great—sometimes you hear a giggle behind you, and five minutes later a giggle in front of you. Two people watching the same thing, only with five minutes difference in the time they started it. Happened again a few times.)

Anyway, the cabin crew did not know how to operate the system properly, so we couldn't even get our reading lights going. After they messed with it for about 30 minutes, they announced over the PA system that they would be doing a full power reset on the system. They had evidently talked to tech support via the sat phone, and that seemed to be the only resolution. And true enough, power went off and the systems started booting—Linux.

I could not believe my eyes. Here were more than 300 passengers staring at Tux's friendly smile, while Linux was booting on each and every console, in frame-buffer mode. I could see that they are using cramfs for their filesystems, but not much else before X took over. Needless to say, I was amazed. I should have brought a camera with me. That would have been a great picture for LJ.

Once the system was rebooted, it worked properly. Movies, multi-user games, interactive maps, surveys, you name it. You could even send e-mail (but that would cost $2.50 US, and you needed to type it using a joystick-like device—not very fast). Currently, I think the range of applications is actually quite limited. The only multi-user games they've got right now are multiplayer reversi, and some sort of trivia quiz. But can you imagine playing Quake at 30,000 feet with the whole passenger load or getting a true chess competition going on in-flight? Anyway, just wanted to let you know that our favorite OS is not only used on earth and in space, but in between these two as well, and it's keeping a lot of people entertained.

—
Wouter Liefting
IBM Learning Services

Another Happy Reader

I just wanted to let you know that Linux Journal continues to be my favorite source of Linux-related information. And, it has become my dog Gracie's magazine of choice as well. As she's only three months old, she does get tired easily and has to take an occasional nap. 7108f1.jpg

—
Larry Varney

Ahoy, Linux Cruisers!

I've just read Don Marti's review of Linux Lunacy 2003 on the Web [www.linuxjournal.com/article/7149]. It was great fun. Really worthwhile. For example, Guido van Rossum described the architectural decisions and trade-offs that are incorporated into Python. He tailored the talk to our interests and was happy to answer specific questions, even outside of the conference sessions. Don didn't mention the popular third stream with LPI training/certification. I'd also comment on the tremendous accessibility, inclusiveness and friendliness of the speakers and other attendees. There were plenty of technical discussions outside of formal lectures. Geek cruisers were really easy to spot hanging out in the Internet cafe happily chatting and eating cake crowded together in the Lido, and burning the midnight oil in the Crow's Nest.

—
Alex Perry

Aboard Linux Lunacy 2003, Linux Journal authors from left to right: Alex Perry, Doc Searls, Don Marti, Greg Haerr (below) and Mick Bauer.

More on Desktop Linux, Please

I read Linux Journal regularly and would really appreciate seeing your format expand to include a strong section devoted to the desktop—in particular, to reviewing, critically, applications of merit outside the traditional office suite and to providing installation instructions for a modest selection of currently available laptops that sell for about $1,300 or less. Years ago, I attempted to get Linux running productively in a desktop environment on a Dell laptop, and failed. I have been waiting to accomplish the same thing again (for over four years, to be exact), and every time I looked closely I found numerous unresolved issues with regard to laptops and power management in particular, font management and display (important to me), and no serious page layout applications.

—
Walter Hollenberg

We do cover individual laptop models on our Web site. There is a lot of new and exciting desktop software available, and we have a special desktop issue planned for March 2004. —Ed.