From Debian Admin:
Google’s Linux software repositories make it easier to download and stay up-to-date with current releases of Google Linux applications. Please choose one of the guides below to help configure your system to use these repositories.
Get the Howto at Debian Admin. It is a short and sweet, “just the facts, ma’am”, kind of howto. =)
From LinuxDevices.com:
This article describes how to build your own silent, fast, eco-friendly Linux-based PC for use in a digital music listening system. The PC is based on a high-end Via mini-ITX board, passively cooled case with heatpipe technology, Debian Linux, and a little creative embedded elbow grease.
(Click for larger view of final installation)
This system is the fourth dedicated Linux-based music server that I’ve built over the past eight years. For the first time, though, I tried to do the job right, rather than just making do with spare parts. After all, digital music is no longer an interesting experiment, but the primary focus of my listening setup, despite all of that vinyl gathering dust in the basement.
Sonos Digital Music SystemVendors of Linux-based music equipment (Sonos comes to mind) often poke fun at amateurs like me who still roll their own — arguably for good reason. Commercial systems like the Sonos Digital Music System (pictured at right) have slick features like synchronized multi-room playback that are light years beyond my crude hacking capabilities.
Yet, a real Linux computer is a toolbox that can do anything the user is capable of doing with it. For about the cost of an entry-level Sonos setup, the system described here can also serve as a LAMP server and development host, a digital video recorder with high-definition component video capabilities, or as a silent livingroom Web and email kiosk, to name a few possibilities. So, there are tradeoffs on both sides of the build/buy equation.
Read the rest of the article at LinuxDevices.com
I signed the Linuxchic.net site up today for Odiogo. Odiogo “automatically generates podiocasts from textual content structured in RSS feeds. The end-result is a high-fidelity computer-generated voice file”. Swanky. Basically I sign up for free as a blogger and tell it where to find my RSS feed, it then takes my posts and converts them into audio files so they are like “mini podcasts” or what they call podiocasts. I added their Wordpress plugin to put a listen button on the top of each post and pointed it to my Odiogo feed number. I now have an RSS feed with text AND audio as well as a fancy subscription page with ready made links. There is a little ad at the start of each audio file, but hey, it is free. I was impressed with the clarity of the computer generated voice. It remains to be seen how it handles all those Web 2.0 names. Try it out and let me know what you think!
From Entrepreneur.com
“Just like in the 1990s, today’s coverage of web companies like Facebook and YouTube dominates the media. But just as it was a decade ago, the faces behind the Web 2.0 wonders are mostly male. Are women not running technology companies–or are they simply not getting media coverage? Statistics on the number of women in technology are difficult to come by. Many women in tech believe their numbers are growing, but that they’re simply not getting much press.”
After becoming infected with the Harry Potter excitement contagion I decided to wait in line with a friend of mine last night even though I ordered my book online to be delivered on Saturday (he was leaving for vacation at 4am the next day and wanted to have it to take with him). I don’t know what it is about being in a store full of hyped up, costumed fans but whatever it was I had to be a part of it. Under the assumption that the blue wristband we had meant something, we headed back up to the store at 11:00 PM. The line outside was long and it appeared that the store was still open as people were in the cafe and wandering around the book isles. Turns out they were having to keep track of how many people were inside the store and could only let more in when some came out because of occupancy limits and fire code.
It was a little before this time that I discovered I wouldn’t be able to be a part of the Twitter stream as I had previously thought. My SMS to web and web to SMS wasn’t working. “Perhaps the gateway is down,” was the response from T-Mobile customer service. SMS to and from other phones worked fine. Thank goodness for the mobile Twitter page although I couldn’t keep up with tweets very well through that.
After hanging out in line for a while we learned that the wristband didn’t really mean anything but the color of our flier determined when we would get in. Everyone that did not preorder had a white flier and would be going last regardless of when they picked it up. My extra trip to Barnes and Noble earlier that afternoon to get a wristband and flier meant nothing in our placement as people just now arriving were getting the same thing. The people with red fliers were the first in and they were the ones that preordered and picked up their fliers very early in the day. Next up were the yellow fliers (also preorders) then blue fliers; the preorders that didn’t appear till the line had formed. Our white flier guaranteed us last.
Barnes and Noble staff did a good job separating the reds and yellows and getting them into the store in a timely manner. The ugliness didn’t start until they decided the one long line of blues and whites should be reshuffled. Basically they told everyone near the front of the line with a white paper to move to the back of the line. The people with white papers in the middle then got to be in the front of the white paper line. This was really aggravating because we had been there standing for much longer than some.
Then the line cutting started. I guess I am a little naive because I was disappointed to find that the majority of folks cheating in line were the older folks with the white hair and the suburban housewife looking folks. I had an older lady yell at me that she had been there for 2 hours (compared to my 5) and how dare I cut in line (he had been making her way with her husband through the line one group a a time for a while). After I asked her how long she had been there and retorted with my time she demanded that I prove I had an “exclusive while paper and blue wristband”. Understand, there was a table with white papers and wristbands about 10 feet from us that they were still handing out to late arrivals. Eventually I lost the will to hold my spot in line and just let her pass. Sometimes it just isn’t worth it.
I want to add that there were more cool people than mean ones. I had some lovely chats with fellow line waiters about the movies and the books. Over all it was a lot of fun to be part of a community like that for a little bit. This is the first time I have ever stood in line for anything.
Once inside the store the line moved crazy fast and it didn’t take long to get to the counter. My friend purchased two copies of the book and a set of audio CDs. They had plenty in the stock so there was no limit to the amount you wanted to purchase. I resisted buying one on the spot since I had already ordered one.
So, here I sit seeing tweets from people that are done reading and wishing I had bought a copy after all that line waiting because mine still hasn’t been delivered. Apparently I am not alone as there are also quite a few tweets from people wondering where their order is.
NOTE: At a little after 1:00 AM CDT my SMS to and from web miraculously came back to life and it appears all my crazy Tweets went through along with my SMS “test” messages. Even though T-Mobile doesn’t typically queue undeliverable SMS messages, the appeared to have done so last night. Sorry to those that got a storm of messages from me. The conspiracy theorist inside me wonders if the gateway was “down” to avoid issues with the spoilers and lawsuits. The technologist in me wants to think that so many people were Twittering or using other SMS type services last night that the gateways just couldn’t handle it. I think the latter theory is cooler. =)
In response to the RIAA and MPAA’s campaign against file-sharing, the University of Kansas has announced a stringent policy for students found sharing copyrighted content on the university network. Students fingered for file-sharing would be kicked off of the residence hall network, although they would still be able to use campus computer labs.
A brief notice on the University of Kansas ResNet site explains the university’s new position very succinctly. “If you are caught downloading copyrighted material, you will lose your ResNet privileges forever,” reads the notice. “No second notices, no excuses, no refunds. One violation and your ResNet internet access is gone for as long as you reside on campus.” Presumably, the University is referring to illegally downloaded copyrighted material, as there is plenty of copyrighted material that can be downloaded legally.
Read the full article at Ars Technica
I tried to post a short tweet, but Twitter said no.
I hit Update and Twitter said this:
Me thinks Twitter forgot how to count!
