Local Dallas transit runs on Ubuntu Linux
Category: Computing
Triggering the Social Chain
Social media is frustrating, but not for the reasons you are probably thinking. It’s frustrating because it’s disconnected. What happens on Facebook doesn’t seamlessly make it to Twitter; conversations on Twitter don’t seamlessly appear as conversations on Facebook. Twitter friends cannot talk to Facebook friends when discussing the same topic. Statusnet and Diaspora attempted to… Continue reading Triggering the Social Chain
Melty printer
A visit by family members usually coincides with embarrassing failures of computing in our household. This is embarrassing because I try to be fairly tech savvy. However, any cred is immediately wiped away by events such as those which occurred during this most recent Thanksgiving: While my sister and I were trading the latest internet… Continue reading Melty printer
My Life with Statusnet
The term “social network” is ironic, because it largely applies to systems on the internet that are themselves anti-social. For instance, Facebook and Twitter don’t really talk directly to each other. If I have one group of friends on Twitter and another on Facebook, I have to use a third-party tool like TweetDeck [1] to… Continue reading My Life with Statusnet
Free as in verse
A few weeks ago, I was lying on the couch browsing RSS news feed headlines on my open-source “TiVO” (called STiVO – I’ve mentioned it before…), when I saw on the linux.org news feed that a letter-writing campaign was in gear. The Free Software Foundation, whose work I deeply appreciate but whose absolutism I don’t… Continue reading Free as in verse
Take TV Anywhere
I’ve commented on how much I love my MythTV box, “Stevo.” I’ve found another reason to love it more: streaming recordings from my home in Texas to my laptop in France. Fundamentally, all MythTV does is take output from a TV tuner card and convert it to MPEG, writing it to disk. MythTV makes the… Continue reading Take TV Anywhere
So long, Songbird
The music player Songbird has been a project I’ve been excited about for a long time [1]. When Songbird first appeared, it wasn’t great on Linux but it brought a promising feature into the music player mix: a built-in web browser, allowing you to surf to music blogs and grab free MP3s from the site.… Continue reading So long, Songbird
Live blogging Dad’s update from Vista to Windows 7
After years of colorful verbal expressions regarding the quality of Microsoft Windows Vista, dad is upgrading his desktop from Vista to W7. Here is a live blog of the process. 7:15 pm: Dad has already tried upgrading once. The upgrade tool sat for about 10-15 minutes, then told him he needed to remove a bunch… Continue reading Live blogging Dad’s update from Vista to Windows 7
Steve’s Tech Picks for 2009
It’s the end of 2009, and time to have a little blog fun. Here are my tech recommendations for things I’ve discovered (or re-discovered) in the last year. Ubuntu Linux 9.10 (Karmic Koala!): it seems that each time Ubuntu releases a new version of their Linux/GNU/open-source remix, they out-do themselves. Version 9.10 is no different.… Continue reading Steve’s Tech Picks for 2009
Skype Spam!
Skype has become an invaluable tool for communicating with family and friends. PC-to-PC calls are free and PC-to-phone calls are cheap. Lately, I have been trying Skype on Linux, Windows, and Mac. As an avid follower of the (not frequently updated) “Skype for Linux” blog [1], I was pleased when the latest beta version for… Continue reading Skype Spam!