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WordPress/ GPL drama…

Posted by jamba on July 16, 2010

After an argument broke out on twitter between wordpress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and Chris Pearson who created the popular wordpress theme Thesis, an interview was put in place by Mixergy to talk to both of these guys and get their views on the matter.
Matt feels that since WordPress is licensed th the GPL, all themes would be considered derivative works, and therefore should also be licensed under the GPL
Chris feels that the GPL doesn’t apply to him, and since he does not feel like it is what is best for him, then he should not have to comply.

I’m not a lawyer, I don’t know.  I am inclined to side with Matt/Wordpress on the matter, but it is certainly complicated.  It seems as though all Chris would have to do if he does not want his work to be under the GPL, he would just have to develop for some other platform that would allow whatever license that he chooses for his work.  That is my opinion.

Anyhow, here is the interview: http://mixergy.com/chris-pearson-matt-mullenweg/

Here is a blog post on the subject that says Thesis may contain some WordPress code.  Assuming this is the case, then the whole argument that it should/should not be GPL’d just because of using functions and whatnot like a plugin would be moot– and only those portions of the code which are “derivative” would need to be GPL’d (I think), which could mean the rest of his code could be whatever license he wishes.

Hopefully these guys will realize that and come to some kind of happy(ish) medium.

Posted in FOSS, tech | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Tethering on the Moto Droid with EasyTether

Posted by jamba on July 14, 2010

This is really great, and extremely easy.  I have NYBill to thank for finding out about this.
There is a tutorial from here, However, in case that goes away I will list the steps here (in the very likely event I forget how to connect).

EasyTether is in the Android Market  (as well as an EasyTether Lite, which can’t connect to https, among other things).

Once you install and run the app, it can download the driver file which is a .deb package.  There are also windows drivers, but I don’t know anything about those…

Anyway, connect to usb, and enable the usb so that the phone is mountable. copy or install the .deb from the phone.

After installation, UnMount the phone (leaving the USB connected) and start EasyTether on the Droid.

On the PC, open a terminal and type

easytether enumerate

This returns an ID of the device.  Capture this ID and paste it into the ##### in the command below:

easytether connect #####

This will connect the droid, as well as give you a command which you need to type into another terminal to configure the connection.  This command needs to be entered into a separate terminal window, which can be closed after this command is executed.  *The first window needs to stay open!

sudo dhclient easytether0

The second terminal window can now be closed.  The first window needs to be left open for the entire session, and when you wish to disconnect, this can be done by pressing CTRL-C in that first terminal window to exit.

Update:

In order to make my life easier, I made a couple of entries into my ~/.bashrc file for these commands:

alias tetherinit="easytether enumerate | easytether connect"
alias tetherstart="sudo dhclient easytether0"

(as of this writing, this method still works with Android 2.2)

easytether connect ################

e

Posted in linux, tech | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Project, or Masters?

Posted by jamba on July 3, 2010

I had been planning to back to school to get my masters degree in Computer Science (or maybe Information Systems)–Work would pay for the schooling as long as I made at least a B, and all of that would be well and good.  However, it would take me 5 or 6 years to complete the program, and it would take up a lot of time.

I am now trying to decide if I would rather do that, or just undertake creating some project program or something on Linux for open source (or maybe for Android).  I’ve wanted to be more involved in FOSS for a long time, and if I did start this project it would be me “giving back” something.  But I’m not incredibly creative…I would be terrible at making a podcast and things of that sort, and I am not a very good blogger (yes, I realize this).  I do have some sort of ability to do some programming, and a desire to learn in that area so I guess that is where I am heading.

Now, the obvious problem with such a project….I have NO IDEA what i is I would like to do. I could create my own distribution, but I don’t see much added value for that. Just a lot of work!  But I have always wanted to try Linux From Scratch.

Or I could make some kind of identi.ca client: mobile like mustard or maybe something desktop like HeyBuddy.    Or maybe I could start out with some kind of project like this, and then see where I go from there.  I am definitely not thinking that whatever I do will take off and be tremendously popular or anything, but I guess it could happen.

I think I will start reading up on the identi.ca API and see what needs to be done, then can work something out!

Posted in code, linux, tech | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

a couple of links:

Posted by jamba on June 24, 2010

Ubuntu One Review: is it ready for your data?

A simple lesson from Apple

100 Mbps LTE demonstrated in Johannesburg - 4G modulation scheme that is very impressive, similar to WiMAX.

Posted in tech | Leave a Comment »

Mobile is the future!

Posted by jamba on June 20, 2010

As I was sitting here at home listening to the Linux adventure show podcast, I was just thinking about how mobilized everything is becoming. The iPad is ridiculously popular, as are the android tablets and ipad clones. Not to even mention the smartphone markets– I’m even writing this post on my iPhone!

… And the majority of my post was deleted… Thanks wordpress app

Editing with the continuation, which is going to be different since this is several hours later, and I am outside enjoying some vino and a habana.

There was a quote I saw on identi.ca the other day, something like: “the year of the Linux desktop will be the year after the desktop dies”

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in tech | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Browsers etc.

Posted by jamba on February 20, 2010

I had used firefox for a long time, and then recently started using chrome / chromium.  It is nice in that it is faster, and load times are good.  however, it seems that it cannot properly render some sites (they are few, but they are important!). I guess I need to say that IE is just terrible (although it is the best one ever), but really isn’t even an option in my opinion.

With the release of Firefox 3.6, I have moved back to using it… and it is faster than it was before.  Not a huge difference, not chrome  fast, but faster.  Not having a lot of add-ons helps, too.  I use AdBlock Plus and NoScript, which are just awesome.

So in my opinion, chrome is nice, but firefox can edge it out with some of these add-ons, even though chrome has the speed advantage.

ANOTHER problem I have, which happens to be the biggest problem I have, is that Google is becoming too big-brotherish.  They have google docs, gmail, and a host of other services, while being stupendous also pretty much have the ability to track all of our personal information and browsing/emailing habits.  This makes them a powerful marketing/ad-sales company, but who knows what they will do with that information in the future?  That may sound a little paranoid, but too much power in a few hands is never a good idea.

So I am going to be sticking to firefox for now.
…Except on my wife’s netbook, it uses chrome because it needs a lighter-weight browser to run effectively.  but generally speaking, I am sticking to firefox!

Posted in Random, tech | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

tidbits

Posted by jamba on September 2, 2009

Petabytes on a budget:How to build cheap cloud storage

–Very Interesting.  I’m kind of tempted to try that one day.  Although…I don’t need a Petabyte at ALL.

5 great open source games for Linux

–I’m downloading wormux right now :-)

Posted in linux, tech | Leave a Comment »

Drama in the Linux world Linus vs Cox; trouble at CentOS

Posted by jamba on July 30, 2009

After a dispute with Linus Torvalds, the long time developer and Linux kernel maintainer Alan Cox has stopped development of the Linux TTY subsystem. A debate took place on the Linux kernel mailing list over the question of whether changes in the TTY code should, or could, affect the operation of existing programs

Dispute between Linux gurus Alan Cox and Linus Torvalds

Open Letter to Lance Davis

July 30, 2009 04:39 UTC

This is an Open Letter to Lance Davis from fellow CentOS Developers

It is regrettable that we are forced to send this letter but we are left with no other options. For some time now we have been attempting to resolve these problems:

You seem to have crawled into a hole … and this is not acceptable.

You have long promised a statement of CentOS project funds; to this date this has not appeared.

You hold sole control of the centos.org domain with no deputy; this is not proper.

You have, it seems, sole ‘Founders’ rights in the IRC channels with no deputy ; this is not proper.

When I (Russ) try to call the phone numbers for UK Linux, and for you individually, I get a telco intercept ‘Lines are temporarily busy’ for the last two weeks. Finally yesterday, a voicemail in your voice picked up, and I left a message urgently requesting a reply. Karanbir also reports calling and leaving messages without your reply.

Please do not kill CentOS through your fear of shared management of the project.

Clearly the project dies if all the developers walk away.

Please contact me, or any other signer of this letter at once, to arrange for the required information to keep the project alive at the ‘centos.org’ domain.

Sincerely,

Russ Herrold
Ralph Angenendt
Karanbir Singh
Jim Perrin
Donavan Nelson
Tim Verhoeven
Tru Huynh
Johnny Hughes

http://www.centos.org/
Also on the website, it states:

Facts Regarding CentOS and the Open Letter to Lance Davis
- CentOS is not Dead or going away.

Posted in linux, news, tech | Leave a Comment »

"Which linux desktop for you?" and "an open source answer to Google Apps"

Posted by jamba on July 28, 2009

GNOME, KDE, and Xfce: Which Desktop is Right for You?

OpenGoo: An Open Source Answer To Google Apps

Posted in linux, tech | Leave a Comment »

5 reasons Microsoft is afraid of Linux

Posted by jamba on July 8, 2009

5 reasons Microsoft is afraid of Linux.

Maybe “WILL be” is a better choice of words. Right now the market share isn’t too concerning for them, I’m sure. But I bet they are looking forward.

Posted in linux, tech | Leave a Comment »

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