Tech News and Rambling from a Surly Little Bastard…
I imagine many people have been confused with the differences between all the myriad open source licenses available. I did a quick Google, and found a very nice basic table listing some of the more popular licenses you might encounter and their key points.
Check out the comparison here, thanks to the KDE project.
The Open Source Initiative also includes a large index of licenses here, albeit comparison is left up to you.
I had the opportunity to do some quick WordPress plugin hacking tonight1 for Jim Whimpey. As a “payment” of sorts, he gave me a coupon code for the site he was working on: Panedia Desktop Wallpaper.
Being an Aussie company, obviously, most of their wallpapers are from Australia. Boy do they have some absolutely beautiful scenery down under. Check out the two I selected for my machines:
For my desktop, I got a huge 3200 x 1200 pixel version of Brisbane’s beautiful night skyline:
And for my MacBook Pro, I got a beautiful 1680 x 1050 pixel copy of the Robe Coastline:
Stunning wallpapers. Totally worth $25/year to constantly get new beautiful scenes in this kind of quality. I also love the interface that auto-picks the best format for your OS and resolution. Very well done.
Hurray! Vista SP1 is now available to TechNet Plus subscribers, just like it should have been all along.
If you’re looking to download, be sure to read the notes about it only being available under Top Downloads for the time being.
The original article I read said it was also now available to MSDN subscribers, but I’m too lazy to find that link…
In the past on this blog, I’ve supported Ron Paul for President and Chris Dodd for fighting the FISA immunity bill. Throughout both, I’ve always realized that there was something uplifting and inspiring about Barack Obama, but have been unable to put my finger on it.
Thanks to Nick Harris of NewsGator’s Inbox product, I no longer have to wonder:
After you’ve enjoyed the motivating musical adaptation, I encourage you to watch the entire speech, given by Obama after the New Hampshire primaries: Yes, We Can.. The really good stuff starts at around 9:45…
While others constantly demonstrate how wrong our country is and point out the seemingly endless list of things that are broken in our society, Obama has spoken positively of the great things America has accomplished and that it has yet to accomplish. You don’t have to like all of his positions — when was the last time there was a candidate you did? — but how can you deny that this man has our best interests at heart after watching that moving presentation?
While I still think Ron Paul would make an amazing President, it’s clear he’s not going to win this election. Faced with the prospect of a McCain or a Hillary Clinton term, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Barack Obama represents our best hope for changing the negative path we’ve been on for far too long. So with pride I say: Obama for President!
Yes, we can!
Considering Router Changes
I’m considering snagging a cheap refurbished Dell from HCDI Trading to use as an IPCop or m0n0wall firewall / router.
Both Belkin and Linksys have gotten on my ho-hum list for consumer grade routers recently with some poor performance overall. Two different Linksys WRT54G models (the early ones, pre-WRT54G-L branch-off) seem to freak out every few days to a week and die, requiring a power cycle to fix. The Belkin wants to restart itself every time you change absolutely anything in the admin interface, and its wireless seems to phase in and out of quality, even sitting 6 feet away.
I’m hoping that if I move the router / AP out of the ‘central’ role to a more peripheral AP role on the network, things will improve. I also miss some of the flexibility having a real OS and real hardware brings to the table1.
Another option I’m considering, although a bit more pricey (yet more ideal as well), is a small “appliance” device, similar to the Linksys and Belkin offerings, yet more flexible and powerful.
Due to the increased shipping costs associated with overseas orders, the company I would prefer to deal with, Linitx, is kicked out. Instead, I would probably go for something very similar to the Logic Supply box George Ou at ZDNet talked about in this exact scenario.
Anyone have any opinions? Other great small devices that would make ideal (preferably cheap) solutions? What do you use at home?