Presenting.....xmessage!
As I was reading the latest Linux Format Magazine, they had a great tip for a low tech way to remind yourself of different time-sensitive events. The best part is that it works under any window manager! (ie it doesn’t matter if you’re in Gnome, KDE, XFCE, Fluxbox, or any other) The trick is to use xmessage and at. at is cron’s little brother, for scheduling things that will happen in the future, but not be a recurring event. xmessage presents a little dialogue box with whatever message you give it. Here’s a screenshot with an example!
My Beautiful Wife
Sometimes my wife is allows me to use her as a model in my photography. Here are some recent shots as she tried various techniques with eye makeup.
I just love black and white portrait photography!
flickr goes gamma and adds new features!
This whole time, flickr has been technically beta software. Well, as they went gamma, they have decided to add a great new feature based on mashups that people were already doing using Google Maps API - they are providing a map of the world where users can drag their pictures to the spot it was taken. It then gets geotagged with that spot. So for those of us who don’t have some GPS method of figuring things out, flickr has made it easy for us. And, any photos you have previously geotagged with long/lat will automatically be mapped. So far people are complaining that there’s only good coverage in the USA map whereas Google has good coverage world-wide. I expect this to be fixed soon, though, as more and more people complain. I know that a good portion of the pictures I like to visit are created by non-US nationals.
Use Minix....create a free OS?
As we all know, Linus Torvalds created Linux out of his frustration with the lack of features in Minix, a teaching OS meant to duplicate a POSIX-compliant Unix system. Well, as a great followup to Saturday’s Post, why not check out Minux yourself? A new group has begun developing Minix3, in the hopes of getting into a niche somehwere between FreeBSD and Linux: tiny, old computers. All you will need is the VMWare Player and Minux source. Typing root at login gets you in without any passwords. Tinker with Minux3 and tinker with a bit of history. It’s not EXACTLY the version Linux used, but it’s still pretty darned cool!
Arachnaphobic?
This little guy stayed alive and stayed still long enough for me to photograph him. Then Danielle squished the life out of him. Hopefully he doesn’t go Agrajag on her. (Hitchhiker’s reference)
Bollywood Fight Club!
Want to crack up? Want to see the movie sure to be so cheesy it MUST be watched, then check out Fight Club: Members Only. A Bollywood remake of the Ed Norton and Brad Pitt movie.
Late Happy 15th Birthday Linux!
I'm a day late, but happy birthday Linux! Here's the email that started it all!
From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: What would you like to see most in minix?
Summary: small poll for my new operating system
Message-ID: <1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava.Helsinki.FI>
Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki
Hello everybody out there using minix -
I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and
professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing
since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on
things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat
(same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons)
among other things).
I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work.
This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, and
I'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions
are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)
Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)
PS. Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs.
It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never
will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(.
