So here is my ramble – it’s got a fabulous 5 megapixel camera with a dual led flash (I loved the camera and features),  32 gigs of internal storage. 1 gig of application memory, up to 16 GB of additional storage with a microSD card, a slide out keyboard (you can use an onscreen one in lieu of or in addition to) , a huge touch screen interface, all the bells and whistles of an iPhone, and it runs Linux. LINUX. Maemo 5 to be exact. This is the phone for the hackers and geeks.

Want to add whatever applications and functionality that you want? You can. Want to use an app style store? You can (Ovi Store). Want to SSH in or out of your phone? Yeah, you can. Want to dual boot your phone with Android? Go right ahead! Want to compile code? Not a problem.  Want to hack your phone without violating a terms of service or add functionality without being sneaky about it? You can (maybe not on AT&T, I hear that they like to force phones to comply with approved install sources for apps).

The downfall is that the product needs more developers. Everyone seems to be forgetting about the platform and going gaga over Android and iPhone. It’s a shame really because this is just so much better. This is freedom. Are you a Linux developer? Get a crackin’ and push some of your eye candy this way!

What else can I say about this little gem? It’s from Nokia – which holds a lot of weight for me. I do love Nokia – I like the ability (even on my little candy bar XpressMusic) to add jar file apps. The platform is stable and the hardware is tough and reliable.

Other things I loved about the hardware:

• TV out
• Non-proprietary headphone jack
• Easy peasy setup of Exchange, Gmail and Flickr
• No tears for lost address books – popped in my SIM and off I went
• Ability to add icons for not just apps but contacts right on the home screen
• FM transmitter – played my tunes & podcasts through my radio with no additional hardware
• Bluetooth
• GPS
• Wifi and 3G
• Widgets (and anything else you want) on the home screen (four of them!!)
• Dashboard interface to see what you have running on all your screens
• System notifications are superb.
• “Lens cap” for the camera – the sliding cap activates and deactivates the camera without needing to push any buttons.
• Skype works amazingly well
• Ogg support

Get one. You’ll fall in love with it. Want to read more? Check out the review at Engadget.

The flip top mittens will remain free until the end of March then will be for sale for $2.00 US so get them while you can. Please feel free to let me know your experiences or link back so I can see what you have made! And now, the patterns!

Thick & Quick Mittens – Free!!- PDF Download or Ravelry Download

Thick & Quick Flip Top Mittens – Free until March 31, 2010- PDF Download or Ravelry Download

These patterns are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

This dishcloth has the hidden pattern of a Dalek and is based on the Exfoliate Dalek Cloth by Penwiper who has given permission to publish this pattern and modifications (thank you!!). It is best knit on smaller needles than your yarn recommends to keep the pattern tight and visible. The color changes are easily carried up the side of the cloth and I recommend using contrasting colors so that the hidden image shows clearly.

Click here to download the free chart or grab it here on Ravelry.

If you enjoy illusion knitting, these sites have even more great free patterns and information:

Wooly Thoughts – Illusion knitting patterns for many popular themes as well as a Mona Lisa!

Freshisle Fibers - Illusion/shadow knitting pattern links

Knitted Tassel Hat

Materials:
One skein of Hobby Lobby Yarn Bee Fleece Lite
Size 13 needles.
Yarn needle for sewing up hat and weaving in ends.
Crochet hook to assist the attachment of the tassels.

Hat:
Cast on 44 stitches.
Knit in a 2×2 ribbing (knit, knit, purl, purl) for 2 inches.
Switch to garter stitch (knit both sides of your work) and knit for approximately 6 more inches or until hat is a total of 8 inches long.
Bind off.
Sew up side seam then sew up top to close.
Weave in ends.

This image shows how the top seam should close as well as the tassel placement at each top corner.

Tassels:
To make tassels cut 6 strands of yarn approximately 12 inches long. Fold three in half and pull the fold through the stitches of your knitting and back out on the top corner of the hat. The crochet hook can help you poke them through your knitting. Take the loops off the hook and slip the tassel ends through the loop and pull tight to complete the tassel. Repeat for the other corner. I recommend making a small knot in the yarn at the bottom of each tassel to stop it from fraying.

This is an open source pattern and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You are free to use the pattern, build upon the pattern, and make the object the pattern provides instructions for for non-commercial purposes only (personal use and charity crafting is allowed). You are required under this license to give credit to me (a link to my blog, my email address, or the pattern is sufficient) for any content you post which contains this work and if you make changes you are required to release the pattern under the same license with credit to original author. Pattern created by Christa Casebeer, web: http://linuxchic.net , email: linuxchic@linuxchic.net , Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/people/linuxchic

PDF version available for download & printing here. This pattern is also available as a project on Ravelry.

The approximate finished size should be about 7 inches around at the top by the knuckles and 6 1/2 inches at the bottom after the wrist decreases. There is little stretch at the starting chain (near the knuckles) but quite a bit of stretch throughout the rest of the wrist warmer (about an inch or little more in stretch). The finished length is 8 inches.

Supplies:
Size F (3.75 mm) crochet hook
Sock Yarn – Approx. 200 yards give or take a little. The yarn in the picture is Hobby Lobby Yarn Bee Walk Away in the Footsy colorway.
Sewing needle for weaving in ends if you don’t want to crochet them in.

Special Stitches & Abbreviations:
BPDC: back post double crochet – Dc worked around the back post of the stitch. Yarn over, insert hook from the back side of the work right to left around the post of the indicated stitch on a previous row;
yo and pull up a loop (3 loops on hook), yo and draw through two loops (2 loops on hook), yo and draw through two loops (1 loop on hk)
FPDC: front post double crochet – Dc worked around the front post of the stitch. Yarn over, insert hook from the front side of the work right to left around the post of the indicated stitch on a previous row;
yo and pull up a loop (3 loops on hook), yo and draw through two loops (2 loops on hook), yo and draw through two loops (1 loop on hook)
DC Decrease: double crochet decrease – Work a dc in the next stitch without completing the very last step (2 loops on hook), then dc in the next stitch without completing the last step (3 loops on hook), yarn over and draw through all the loops. Decrease made.
Sl. st.: slip stitch
Ch: chain
Dc: double crochet
Yo: Yarn over

Hand:
Ch 30 loosely. Making sure not to twist the chain, slip stitch chain together.
Row 1: Ch3. Dc in each chain. Sl. st. to previous ch3 to close the round. Ch2.
Row 2: Ribbing: BPDC in first DC, FPDC in next DC then BPDC in the following repeating from to the end of the round. Sl. to previous ch2 to close the round. Chain 2.
Row 3: Dc in each dc to end of row. Sl. st. to previous ch2 to close the round. Ch 2.
Row 4-6: Repeat row 3.

Thumb Hole:
Row 7: Turn work rather than continuing in round and dc across to next to last stitch (leaving one stitch in previous round unworked). Ch2. Turn.
Row 8-9: Dc in each dc. Ch2 turn.
Row 10: Dc in each dc. Chain 1. Sl. st. across skipped stitches to first dc and join. Ch2.
Row 11: Return working in the round. DC in each dc then across ch1 joining the round with a sl. st. to top of previous ch2. Ch2.
Row 12-16: Dc in each dc. Sl. st. in top of previous ch2. Ch2.

Wrist Decreases:
Row 17-19: Dc in each dc making 3 dc decreases throughout round joining each round with a sl. st. to top of ch2.

Arm:
Row 20-24: Dc in each dc joining the round with a sl. to top of ch2. Repeat this row for as long as you want your warmers to be. (I didn’t add any more rows to the ones I made in the pictures.)
Row 25: Dc in each dc joining the round with a sl. to top of ch 2. Cut thread and weave in ends.

Now make another one!

I hope this is a mistake because I really would like to get a G1 but I am just not going to pay more for my T-Mobile loyalty. Another thing, if I am paying “full price” with only an online ordering discount, I shouldn’t be locked into a 2 year contract since I am not getting a discount for it. Dirty dealing T-Mobile.

Check out the Engadget blog for transcripts from the live event or visit T-Mobile to see video of the event.

Wired is reporting that according to an unofficial T-Mobile blog:

“…the first version of the multimedia Google Phone will be released by HTC starting on September 17 for one week, for T-Mobile customers only. This offer will be immediately followed by a general release a week later. It will be called, ostensibly, the G1.”

T-Mobile offering a special early release to their current customers, with or without discount, would play perfectly into their customer base who tend to be faithful and loyal to the cellular provider.

While some may be wary of being an early adopter for a brand new mobile interface, I for one look at the potential of being able to work with something that isn’t locked down and closed source as the iPhone is. At least I won’t have to modify firmware to make it work.

Regardless as how it plays out, I am saving my lunch money in anticipation for the Android phone. Now I can stop scouring the market for an old beat up, overpriced iPhone to jailbreak & unlock while I wait for T-Mobile to release something better than their current Sidekick 2008 dud.

If you want to try PC-BSD or FreeBSD you can grab them here:

• PC-BSD
• FreeBSD

An OpenMoko distrubutor, Koolu, is offering a free phone for Google Apps referrals. Basically I can earn my own free OpenMoko FreeRunner by referring 25 people to register for the Premier Edition of Google Apps (pay for service) or 100 people to sign up for FREE Google Apps through the Koolu web site. The sign up process for Google Apps only takes 3 minutes and requires no purchase, registration or verifying of a domain (web site).

In other words, you don’t have to buy anything or even own a domain name to help me earn one of these delicious phones.

Just use this link to sign up and help me earn a free open phone:

http://apps.koolu.com/google-apps-referral/google-apps-signup.php?r=1000277

or the TinyURL if you would rather: http://tinyurl.com/openmoko

Please pass this link on. I will post the progress here.

If you are interested in the project or want to grab the code, head over to the Reddit Trac Open Source Project.

BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — often focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies, social protocols, and open data formats.

Unlike other BarCamps, BarCampKC will have no actual camping out and all the sessions will be planned the night of the 9th during the meet and greet time.

If you are in the KC area, or want to come even if you aren’t, check out the BarCampKC page or the blog and put your name on the Wiki.

I will be running the audio equipment to record as well as live stream the audio for the Alternageek Tech Show either through TalkShoe or BlogTalkRadio. The links and stream will also be available the day of the event at Alternageek.com

After initial testing and tweaking, NixNews.com has been reborn into a user voted Linux news and article site. I have tagged it beta, and it just that, an early beta service that will still have bugs to be worked out. I have taken the testing as far as I can go on my own and am opening it up and announcing it’s release. Please take the time to visit, register, vote/bury the stories, and submit new posts. I would like to see NixNews grow in it’s niche as a valuable resource for information to the Linux community. I welcome your bug reports as well as any suggestions you might have for it’s function, interface, design, or feed aggregation.

• GnuCash - GnuCash allows you to track bank accounts, stocks, income, and expenses. As quick and intuitive to use as a checkbook register, it is based on professional accounting principles to ensure balanced books and accurate reports. It is backed by an active development community and is blossoming into a full-fledged accounting system. GnuCash has also released a Windows binary. GnuCash is open source and free.
• Buddi - Buddi is a personal finance and budgeting program, aimed at those who have little or no financial background. Buddi will run on almost any computer which has a Java virtual machine installed. This can include Windows, Macintosh OS X, Linux, and many other operating systems. Buddi is released as an open source application and is free (donations accepted).
• PearBudget - Free while in beta, PearBudget is a simple system that helps you build a clear spending plan and track your spending record.  It removes all the overkill in other financial apps and just helps you track a budget. A wizard interface and simple language takes the frustration out of planning (and sticking to) a budget. Multiplatform.

Image "Money Rose" from Flickr by distinguish 

1. Are you comfortable working with prerelease software that is not yet feature complete?

2. Will you be able to submit bug reports on issues that you find back to our development team?

3. How many hours a week can you spend testing on Linux?

4. What is the primary distribution of Linux that you’re using? If you are using more than one distribution, please list.

5. Will you be developing applications on your Linux machine (as opposed to writing on Windows and testing the applications on Linux)?

6. What other operating system are you using, if any (Mac, Windows)? Can you compare the behavior of AIR for Linux with AIR for Windows and AIR for Mac OS?

7. Are you working on an AIR application today? If so, please describe.

8. Are you primarily a Flash, Flex or JavaScript developer?

9. What is your name, company name and email address?

gOS is built off Ubuntu Gutsy running the windows manager Enlightenment E17 rather than Gnome. Designed to run on low end and affordable hardware, gOS is built on the reliability and stability of Canonical’s Ubuntu without the added bloat included in the latest Ubuntu release Gutsy.

Funambol, which makes an open source mobile application server, announced last week that it will be creating a mobile messaging system designed specifically for Google’s Android platform.

Read more at Network World 

Funambol currently can be used with third party apps on a jailbroken iPhone and iPod Touch.

“In what may well be one of the most unusual computing tasks performed by the Linux operating system, Terra Soft Solutions integrated its Yellow Dog Linux distribution and the Sony (NYSE: SNE) PlayStation 3 to guide a specially designed driverless car competing in the qualifying rounds for the DARPA  (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) autonomous vehicle challenge in Victorville, Calif.“Integral to the on-board, real-time image processing system, the YDL PS3 rode atop a set of 1U rackmount servers inside the experimental car, dubbed the “Spirit.” The team used the Linux equipment to navigate the vehicle through simulated city traffic and obstacles during the qualifying rounds the last week of October.”

Read more at LinuxInsider

• Visit System76.com and send them a SASE and they will send you free Ubuntu stickers
• Order a free Ubuntu disk from the ShipIt service and it will arrive with a couple of free stickers.