Installing java platform on your favourite GNU/Linux distro can be very hard to do because it was licensed in such a way that it couldn’t be packaged along with your distro CDs. All that will become history as a group of Debian developers, Ubuntu developers, Sun engineers, Sun lawyers have devised a new binary license form so that it could be bundled along with your CD. So, all you have to do is to do an apt-get install sun-java5-jre.
Unofficial Python Tutorial
Here’s an Unofficial Python Tutorial which is wiki containing the documentation of the Python language. Changes and comments made here will be used to improve the official tutorial over at python.org.
Windows XP EULA in plain english
Have you read the EULA(End User Licensing Agreement) of Microsoft’s Windows XP? Since it is too long and boring to read, we just click Agree. But here is a page which points out what the EULA actually means to the End Users. Some of the parts are scary to think about. eula, microsoft, windows
Permalinks problem
There was some problem with the permalinks structure as my .htaccess file was changed with the backup. I just now noticed that problem and so have set things up. Now the permalink feature will work fine. Sorry for the inconvenience.
ODOC: printenv
printenv – Print All/Part of Environment Summary: printenv prints environment variables with its Name and Value. Examples: $ printenv — Print all Env variables and its value. $ printenv HOSTNAME — Print HOSTNAME value. $ printenv SHELL TERM — Print SHELL and TERM values. Read: man printenv printenv, odoc, linux,gnu/linux
ODOC: setfont
setfont — Load EGA/VGA console screen font. Summary: The setfont command reads a font file and loads it into the EGA/VGA character generator and optionally outputs the previous font. It can also load various mapping tables and output the previous versions. The standard Linux font format is the PSF (PC Screen Format) font. Examples: $ setfont — Load the default font. $ setfont -v — Load the default font with verbose output.
ODOC: locale
locale — Get and show the locale-specific information. Summary: The locale program writes information about the current locale environment, or all locales, to screen. Locale is a set of local environment settings, which is used to describe the Language Encoding Standard, Date/Time format, Number format, Telephone Number format, Paper format, etc … Examples: $ locale — Show the current locale settings. $ locale -a — List currently available locale settings.
ODOC: od
od — Dump files in Octal and other formats. Summary: od (Octal Dump) writes an unambiguous representation of the file in screen. Each line of output consists of the offset in the input, followed by groups of data from the file. Examples: Create a 2 lines text file to test following examples. $ od myfile — Dump the content and Offset in Octal format. $ od -a myfile — Dump the content as named char.
Debian from Scratch
Most of you must have heard about Linux from Scratch – a project project that provides you with step-by-step instructions for building your own custom Linux system, entirely from source code. Here is a similar kind of project, by John Goerzen, the Debian From Scratch. DFS is really two systems: a bootable CD for repairing Linux systems or installing Debian the program that generates the CDs that are used for #1 You can also download the ISO images from the DFS site.
New Computer
Sorry for not posting for a long time. I have been living without my computer for about 2 weeks and I am afraid that I may become mad. I will most probably get my new computer by May 1 or 2. I think I will have an AMD Athlon 3000+ 64bit, 1 Gig of RAM, 120GB harddisk and so on. I wonder what to do till I get my computer.
ODOC: eject
eject — Eject the removable media Summary: Eject allows removable media (like CD-ROM, Floppy, Tape, JAZ, ZIP) to be ejected under software control. The command can also control some multi-disc CD-ROM changers, the auto-eject feature supported by some devices, and close the disc tray of some CD-ROM drives. Examples: $ eject — Eject the default device, mostly CD. $ eject -v — Same as above and show more info.
ODOC: su
su — Run a shell with Substitute User Summary: su allows one user to temporarily become another user. It runs a command with the Real & Effective user id, group id and supplemental groups of a given user. If user not given, it will login as root. Examples: $ su — Run a new shell with root user. $ su user1 — Run a new shell with user1. $ su -c ls — Run the command with substitute user.
Google Summer of Code 2006
Google has announced the Summer of Code this year too. Summer of Code is a program started by Google last year to make more students to develop Free/Open Source Softwares. The students will be aided by organisations which develop Open Source softwares. Each student will be assigned one mentor and will also get stipend. If a student is selected in the program, then Google pays $500 initially. Then during the middle of the program (if sufficient progress has been made), then it pays $2000, and at the end of the program, will pay $2000.
Linux Security Tips
Here are some tips which can secure your linux box, especially if you are on the always-on internet connection. Anyway, my system is totally down and I got to buy a new system. I want to know which distro to install on it. Also which distro has out-of-the-box support for SATA hard drives. Any suggestions? security, linux, gnu/linux,sata
ODOC: colrm
colrm — Remove columns from a file. Summary: colrm removes selected columns from the input. Input is taken from STDIN and Output is sent to STDOUT. Column numbering starts with 1. Examples: $ ls -l | colrm 35 — Remove all columns after the 34th column. $ ls -l | colrm 1 14 — Remove columns from 1 to 14. Read: man colrm colrm, linux, odoc, gnu/linux
ODOC: lsmod
lsmod — Show the status of loaded Linux Kernel Modules. Summary: lsmod is a trivial program, which nicely formats the contents of the /proc/modules, showing what kernel modules are currently loaded. Examples: $ lsmod -V — Print the version number. $ lsmod — List all currently loaded Kernel Modules. Read: man lsmod lsmod, modules, kernel+modules, linux, gnu/linux
ODOC: lsusb
lsusb — List all USB devices Summary: lsusb is a utility for displaying information about all USB buses in the system and all devices connected to them. Examples: $ lsusb — List all USB device details in short form. $ lsusb -v — List all USB device details in long form. $ lsusb -vv — List all USB device details in very verbose form. $ lsusb -t — Show USB device hierarchy as a tree.
Game in a Week
Found this news in Reddit where Jay Barnson has created a simple Role Playing Game(RPG) within a week(40 hours). He didn’t have any big budget or great tools. He used only freely available tools with basic APIs to create the game. His toolset is: Code: Python 2.3 PythonWin PyGame Py2EXE to compile this into an executable for distribution Art: Gimp 2.0 MS Paint (which comes with Windows) – for pasting up screen shots grabbed by hitting the PrintScreen key (GiMP doesn’t like these for some reason) Free textures available from places like Toob’s Tiled Textures and Mayang’s Free Textures Sound:
ODOC: lsdev
lsdev – Display information about installed hardware Summary: lsdev gathers information about your computer’s installed hardware from the interrupts, ioports and dma files in the /proc directory, thus giving you a quick overview of which hardware uses what I/O addresses and what IRQ and DMA channels. This program only shows the kernel’s idea of what hardware is present, not what’s actually physically available. Examples: $ lsdev Read: man lsdev
ODOC: lspci
lspci — List all PCI device information. Summary: lspci is a utility for displaying information about all PCI buses in the system and all devices connected to them. Examples: $ lspci — List all PCI device details in short form. $ lspci -v — List all PCI device details in long form. $ lspci -vv — List all PCI device details in very verbose form. $ lspci -vb — Show PCI device connection in Tree form.