November 2009 Archives
2009-11-30 22:39:12
Saddening News
Hearing from Michae Arrington about the demise of the CrunchPad is not cool. The demise of this project sets back any hope of a wireless web not welded so much to the realm of cellular telephone carriers.
2009-11-25 11:34:56
So When Is The Hundredth LISTen Podcast Really Happening?
Although it may seem silly, it is perhaps worth
it to note that there is a small bit of fudge in episode numbering
of LISTen: An
LISNews.org Podcast. By any stretch we are already past one
hundred released episodes. The main reason that the numbering does
not reflect that is that specials normally are not included in the
numbered sequence and are either given date-related titles or
simply bear descriptive titles. The one time a special podcast
release received episode numbers was when coverage of BlogWorldExpo
2008 was released as three separate episodes in a single
week.
With luck we will hit the ninety seventh episode of LISTen: An LISNews.org
Podcast soon with the hundredth episode coming in
December.
It has been a long run. The podcast has outlasted everybody's
nervous initial expectations. How long it may run into the future
is a story not yet written, though.
So When Is The Hundredth LISTen Podcast Really Happening? by Stephen Michael Kellat is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
2009-11-19 09:53:14
Making Online Possible Offline
In the midst of the Ubuntu Developer Summit for
the forthcoming long-term support release named Lucid Lynx, a new
issue arose. This was an issue of intense partisanship perhaps. The
GNU Image Manipulation Program, otherwise known as GIMP, was
proposed for removal from the default installation on the
distributed live CD.
Documentation for this is skimpy at the moment. The desktop team's
blueprint does not explicitly state that this will happen. The
Internet Relay Chat log for
that particular session has barely any details except that the
popularity contest package for measuring usage ranked GIMP on par
with F-Spot. Although the session was filmed, the relevant Ogg
Theora video file has not tumbled down the podcast distribution
chute yet for review. A blog post at fan
site unaffiliated with Canonical is what broke word for those
not attending the summit.
Opinions on Identi.ca were across a bit of a range from being okay with the change
to opposition through
thoughts of counter-proposal to sadness. One user on
Identi.ca noted that it
is a big difference between stripping something from a live CD and
removing something from repositories.
This whole matter presents concerns from the perspective of
the Ubuntu NGO Team's blueprint. One of the areas of work
enunciated in that plan was that the team would work on offline
documentation. Offline repositories are something also
considered in a discussion paper on the team's wiki site.
How can the GIMP be made available for those with sub-optimal
Internet access? A case might be made that stripping GIMP off the
live CD would reduce access to the package for those with less than
optimal access to the Internet or no access at all. Unfortunately
such is anecdotal at present and there is no hard data to properly
back such a notion up.
The first tool to surmount this issue is the Ubuntu Customization Kit. At
present that package's own project site shows examples of use in
creating
localized editions by language. For putting GIMP back into a
live CD while stripping out other packages would create a
derivative version of the distributed disc images which can over
time create things like Linux
Mint, CrunchBang
Linux, and Katian.
A different work-around that may work better would be to go the
route of APTonCD.
APTonCD is one option for off-line movement of packages that does
not require access to the Internet for installing anything. A
similar tool for a command-line world would be AptZip that instead may allow
shifting the download burden elsewhere such as to perhaps run on a
public access computer at a public library.
As an overarching shift in live CD design, the inclusion by default
of APTonCD would alleviate any worries like this in the future
perhaps. Backers of GIMP and other packages that might not fit on
the disc but still have strong communities can make images of
APTonCD discs available. This is a short run solution, though.
Increasing the availability of repository mirrors in public access
Internet service settings would be a far more preferable solution
in the long run.
Within the Ubuntu project, this would be a matter of liaison
between the NGO Team and the Desktop Team, perhaps, as it touches
upon the matter of trying to make the Ubuntu experience as equal as
possible between the industrialized West and the Global South.
Outside the Ubuntu project, this remains a matter of knowing what
is going on with what you use. Just as it may seem simple to drive
an automobile, quite a lot is going on under the hood. Compared to
Windows or MacOS, Linux in general is the hotrod that you can
upgrade and change just as drivers in the 1960s and 1970s could
fuss over vehicles from manufacturers like AMX.
Making Online Possible Offline by Stephen Michael Kellat is licensed
under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
