That’s the number the entire internet is talking about today. A number with letters in it? Yes, it is in hexadecimal notation, which is often used in computers to represent numbers. Converted into decimal system we use every day it would be: 13256278887989457651018865901401704640.

So what is so special about it? Well it’s more or less this way. The greedy movie and music industry (represented by MPAA and RIAA) is using various forms of digital restrictions management (DRM) on the content they write on media. In effect they scramble it in such a way that you can’t view it if you don’t know the secret recipe to unscramble it. I think it is quite obvious to everyone that this DRM crap doesn’t work at all and only hurts people who legally buy movies and music. It only makes it all more complicated, more expensive. And to think that this DRM stupidity s even integrated into Windows Vista. Just one more good reason to avoid it.

Well back to our number. This once secret number is used in DRM system which infects HD-DVD discs. It is needed by any player (software or hardware) that wants to decode video from HD-DVD. But now it’s not so secret any more. How could it happen? Well in all their greedy stupidity the industry has sent it within a DMCA complaint notice to some poor guy from which it wasn’t so hard to get this number. And sure enough today it is al over the internet.

To read more about this DRM stupidity and take some action in order to stop the greedy industry hurting consumers and buyers be sure to check out DefectiveByDesign.org. We must not tolerate this any more! Eliminate DRM!

Tags: drm, digital restrictions management, consumer rights, mpaa, riaa, movies, music, hd-dvd, technology

PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a very nice gaming console. Actually it is much more than just a console. It is also the cheapest way to get some of the new technologies like Blu-ray Disc player and the Cell microprocessor. Another great thing about PS3 is that it is a very open console, which is also using a lot of open standards (like OpenGL for graphics) for game development. Sony even officialy allows you to install Linux on PS3 and the company is directly helping with development of support for PS3 in the Linux kernel. This openness has already enabled some of the very interesting uses of PS3. For example it is used to build an academic computing cluster (a cheap way to build super-computers), performs calculations to help with cancer/Alzheimer’s research and it is also used for some real-time ray-tracing.

But there is one important piece of hardware in PS3 that Sony (or nVidia) is still blocking direct access to: the RSX ‘Reality Synthesizer’ graphics processing unit (GPU). If full access to RSX was allowed to programmers people could create even more amazing and creative new stuff with PlayStation 3. In a hope to persuade Sony to open-up the full access to RSX a petition has been started. So if you are a PS3 owner or will become one in the future be sure to sign this petition. Hack, even if you are not interested into PS3 right now, consider signing the petition. Help bring more freedom and openness into game consoles.

Tags: playstation, playstation 3, ps3, sony, hardware, rsx, reality synthesizer, graphics, petitions, petition, linux

Yesterday I attended the fourth and the final part of a free Plone workshop that was organised by Kiberpipa (Cyberpipe) multimedia centre here in Ljubljana. My main motivation for taking part in this workshop was LUGOS. You see, the web page of our Slovenian Linux user group is running on Plone. So I thought it would be a good idea to learn Plone to also be able to help in this department.

Each part was about two hours long and during the entire workshop we’ve learned the basics about Plone. First about Zope application framework and server and how Plone is a product that uses it. Then we took a look at the main parts of a Plone-based portal. We also installed Plone on Linux machines there (it was very easy: unpack, run installation, start the server). After that we learned how to add various types of content and how to organise it. We also found out about packages that add functionality to default Plone, these packages are called Plone products. Portlets were introduced and techniques to modify the layout and looks of the Plone portal were presented. At the end even concepts like states, transitions, workflow, roles, groups and security couldn’t escape from us.

All in all it was a very nice workshop and I think I’ve learned a lot of useful stuff about Plone. It has also surprised me to see how many sites use Plone. I visit some of them (like Trolltech, The Free Software Foundation, Open4Business) more or less frequently and I didn’t even know that Plone is behind them. A special thanks to our mentor Rok Gerbas who has done a great job introducing us to the powerful Plone content management system.

Tags: plone, zope, cms, content management system, internet, web, web design, open source, free software, python, kiberpipa, cyberpipe

A couple of days ago a French company Mandriva released the final version of Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring (also called 2007.1). One of the major new features in this version is the integration of Metisse, an advanced window manager that provides an easy to use environment for designing and implementing new innovative ideas for computer desktops. They have also added the very popular Beryl, a 3D OpenGL-accelerated desktop which makes Windows Vista Aero look like an old and boring slideshow. In Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring you will also find KDE 3.5.6, GNOME 2.18. Firefox 2.0, Thunderbird 2.0 and OpenOffice.org 2.1.

I downloaded PowerPack DVDs two weeks ago, as I am a member of Mandriva Club where I was enrolled in Early Seeders program for BitTorrent sharing. First I upgraded my sister’s computer which was running Mandriva 2007. All went without a hitch and she is now enjoying the new Mandriva 2007 Spring. Later during the week I also installed the new version onto my laptop, where I have a special partition which I use for testing various Linux distributions. All works fine here too.

The only annoyance was the new Mandriva themed KDE start button. While it looks very nice it took up way to much valuable space in kicker (about 3 or 4 buttons long). This was quickly solved by following these instructions to switch back to default KDE K menu button.

In my opinion Mandriva Linux with the release of 2007 Spring remains one of the best Linux distributions for new Linux users (right next to Kubuntu). For more information about the new release check out:
Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring Release Announcement
Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring Release Tour (with screenshots)
Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring Release Notes

And of course, don’t forget to download Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring and check it out for yourself.

Another great thing is that Mandriva is back to 6 month release cycle. So work has already begun on the next version and Frederik Himpe has written about some of the features that might come with Mandriva Linux 2008.

Tags: mandriva, linux, spring, distributions, metisse, beryl, free software, open source, operating systems

Last weekend (on Saturday, 17th of May 2007 to be exact) I’ve officially become a member of Linux User Group of Slovenia (LUGOS for short). I must say it was about time as I do quite a lot of work for Linux, like translating software, testing, bug reporting, spreading the word about it and helping new users. So joining my local Linux user group was only natural. This happened while I was attending the 11^th meeting of LUGOS. It was my first LUGOS meeting and I must say it was quite fun. We talked about accomplishments in the past year and made some plans for this one. During the meeting we had some nice snack and after it we also had a cake. The first event that LUGOS is preparing for 2007 will be dedicated to all people who are interested in translating and localising free and open source software into Slovenian language. People who will come will be able to see how our work looks like, see some presentations and take part in workshops. Currently the planned date is 21^st of April. I hope to see many people, I’m sure it will be fun. Oh and by the way, this year LUGOS is celebrating its 10^th anniversary, so: Happy anniversary LUGOS!

Tags: linux, lug, lugos, slovenia, translation, events

When I woke up yesterday morning a message from Tim Ansell was waiting for me on Jabber. It was some extremely great news about open source game project Thousand Parsec, which I joined a couple of months ago. Google has just published the list of mentoring organisations for Google Summer of Code 2007. What is so great about it is that Thousand Parsec was one of the selected organisations. This also means that I get to be one of the mentors.

I must say this has surprised me a bit. Thouand Parsec is quite a small project, not that well known and 4X space strategy games are unfortunately not as popular today as they were a few years ago. Who knows, maybe the foundation of existing code base, our plans for the future or some other part from the project description convinced Google to choose Thousand Parsec. Whatever the reason, this is our chance to get some fresh new developers, to get the project to the next level and make it more known and appealing to gamers. We have to make the most out of this chance.

So, if you are a student and would like to work on a task for a vibrant free and open source game project, I encourage you to take a look at Thousand Parsec : Google Summer of Code 2007. Here you will find some instructions and ideas for a project on which you can work during the summer. I’m sure it will be fun, you will learn something new and if you finish your project you will even get 4500$. Our community is waiting for you! And don’t forget that the deadline for submission of student applications is 26^th of March.

Update: The deadline for student applications has been changed to 26^{th of March, So you now have about 4 days left to join the fun.}

Tags: games, 4x, strategy, turn-based, strategies, tbs, stars!, galactic civilizations, programming, google, summer of code, soc, gsoc

When KDE 3.5 was under development in the year of 2005 I’ve written two very popular preview articles about it. Currently the development of an even more exciting version KDE 4 is in full swing. But for now I don’t plan to write any article about it (if I don’t count this one). The reason for this is that there is no need to. Several people have already done the job and written a lot of great material describing new features, new technologies and the process in which they are being developed. In this article I will try to collect and chronologically list all these articles. I will also do my best to keep it updated. If you know about an article that is missing, tell us about it in a comment and I’ll add it to the list.

• [2007-08-28] Touring the KDE 4 Beta
• [2007-06-21] KDE’s Plasma is heating up
• [2007-06-19] The Road to KDE 4: KDE PIM Libraries and Related Technologies
• [2007-06-19] More about Nepomuk-KDE: Soprano and KDE integration
• [2007-05-31] Semantic Desktop and KDE 4 - State and Plans of Nepomuk-KDE
• [2007-05-30] The Road to KDE 4: KWin Composite Brings Bling to KDE
• [2007-05-23] The Road to KDE 4: Konsole Gets an Overhaul
• [2007-05-11] Why Dolphin is a Good Choice for KDE4
• [2007-05-05] KDE Games Taking Shape for KDE 4.0
• [2007-04-23] The Road to KDE 4: Solid Brings Hardware Configuration and Control to KDE
• [2007-04-11] The Road to KDE 4: Strigi and File Information Extraction
• [2007-04-05] A first look at Dolphin, the KDE 4 file manager
• [2007-03-27] KDE 4 gets more Hot New Stuff
• [2007-03-21] The Road to KDE 4: Updates and Addenda
• [2007-03-07] The Road to KDE 4: Oxygen Artwork and Icons
• [2007-02-28] The Road to KDE 4: Dolphin and Konqueror
• [2007-02-27] Faces of KDE4
• [2007-02-26] New KDE 4 preview shows progress
• [2007-02-21] The Road to KDE 4: CMake, a New Build System for KDE
• [2007-02-16] The Pillars of KDE 4: Decibel Definitions and Benefits
• [2007-02-14] The Road to KDE 4: Okular and Ligature Document Viewers
• [2007-02-07] KDE 4’s Sonnet will turbocharge language processing
• [2007-02-07] The Pillars of KDE 4: Decibel
• [2007-02-06] The Road to KDE 4: Phonon Makes Multimedia Easier
• [2007-01-31] The Open Source Hook: Porting KDE to Mac and Windows
• [2007-01-30] From KDE 3 to KDE 4: what we will leave behind
• [2007-01-29] The Road to KDE 4: Kalzium and KmPlot
• [2007-01-23] The Road to KDE 4: Job Progress Reimagined
• [2007-01-15] The Road to KDE 4: Full Mac OS X Support
• [2007-01-08] The Road to KDE 4: New KOffice Technologies
• [2007-01-05] A sneak preview of the expected features in KDE 4.0
• [2007-01-01] The Road to KDE 4: SVG Rendering in Applications
• [2006-12-15] KDE 4: the ultimate business desktop?
• [2006-06-21] Why the KDE project switched to CMake - and how
• [2006-02-15] KDE 4 developers look toward new desktop possibilities
• [2006-01-12] Previewing KDE 4
• [2005-09-26] KDE 4 promises radical changes to the free desktop
• [2005-08-11] KDE4 - understanding the buzz

Another web site worth keeping an eye on if you are interested in development of KDE is KDE Commit Digest. You can find weekly reports about important changes to KDE source code there.

By the way, you can subscribe to comments to this post (where I will also post new links I add) by using this RSS feed.

Tags: kde, kde4, kde 4, desktop, linux, mac os, mac, windows, open source, free software, software, operating systems

Today I just replaced the old graphics card Leadtek WinFast A400 TDH (nVidia GeForce 6800 chip, NV40) with the new one, Club 3D 7600GS (nVidia GeForce 7600 chip, G73). The main reason (or excuse :)) was that the the fan on the old graphics card was extremely noisy and irritating. And it doesn’t hurt to have a more powerful graphics card so that Beryl, also known as the Windows Vista Aero killer, runs faster and smoother.

When looking for a new video card I decided it should not be too expensive, I expected it to fall into the range of 100€ to 150€. Another limitation was that I needed an AGP card, and not PCI Express, since AGP is what the motherboard supports. So in the end I was comparing nVidia 7600 GS cards to ATI/AMD Radeon X1650 Pro cards. After looking at some comparisons (here, here and here) I could see that they are very close, but on average nVidia 7600 GS has a slight advantage and nVidia was also cheaper. Another reason I liked nVidia 7600 GS more is that I’m quite disappointed with current ATI/AMD drivers for Linux. Never had any problems with nVidia drivers, which I can’t say for ATI/AMD drivers. So nVidia 7600 GS it was. More specifically, a Club 3D 7600GS.

The Club 3D 7600GS card, which costed 130€ (including shipping), came in a very nice black box. In the box you can find video converter cable, a quick installation guide and a CD with manuals and drivers. No Linux or BSD drivers are included. Come on, Club 3D, there is plenty of space left on the CD to include them. The card itself is a lot lighter than the heavy Leadtek WinFast A400 (which has a huge heat sink). Installation was easy. I just had to pull out the old card, insert the new one and it was all working just fine, since the nVidia Linux drivers (1.0-8774) were already installed on Mandriva Linux 2007.

I’m happy so far. The installation was very easy, the card works and the computer is quiet again. Now I’ll upgrade the drivers, do some more testing and maybe write something more about that later. As for the old card, which is still fast enough, I’ll try to replace the fan on it and put it back into good use. My cousin has an even older and slower graphics card (ATI Radeon 9000) and he is looking for an upgrade.

Tags: hardware, graphics, video, graphics card, video card, nvidia, geforce, ati, amd, radeon, linux

The new year has barely started and good news for Linux and free/open source software just don’t stop coming in. This time story goes something like this. A headmaster of a school in Russia got accused of software piracy. Now Russian schools are so afraid that authorities would find unlicensed software on their computers, that they have started to look at alternative options to overpriced Windows and software for it. And Linux operating system and free and open source software is the perfect choice. Not only will they be able to stop worrying about freely copying the software around, they will also save a lot of money, get safer and more stable platform, which in addition has higher educational values. The philosophy of free access to source code, collaboration and sharing that is behind free and open source software is just a perfect fit for schools. And it is a great way to finally put an end to software piracy. Way to go Russia! More about this on CNews. And to learn more about the use of open source software in education visit K12 Open Source wiki.

Tags: linux, windows, russia, free software, open source, floss, foss, education, school, schools, k12, k-12

Linus Torvalds has just released a new version of the Linux kernel. Version 2.6.20 features new virtualisation options: KVM (which uses hardware capabilities of AMD and Intel processors) and a paravirtualisation implementation (which can be used by hypervisors like Xen and VMware). The new kernel also sports an official support for PlayStation 3 which has been contributed by Sony. It’s still not complete, but it’s a good start. Developers have also added support for UDF-Lite protocol, which brings advantages for transport of multimedia over networks. Support for compilation optimisations for Intel Core 2 was added. There are also many other new features and new drivers in this version. For easy to read information check out Linux 2.6.20 @ Kernel Newbies. For complete list of changes see the Linux 2.6.20 ChangeLog. After reading all this don’t forget to download the full Linux 2.6.20 source code.

Tags: linux, kernel, operating systems, os, virtualisation, playstation, ps3, sony

Ko je bratranec Matej postavljal svoj blog, ga je seveda želel imeti v slovenskem jeziku. S samim WordPressom ni bilo težav. Vsa zahvala za prevod WordPressa v slovenščino gre Simonu Rozmanu. Sicer prevoda za različico 2.1 še ni na voljo, a prevod za različico 2.0.7 posloveni tudi veliko večino različice 2.1.

Druga komponenta, ki jo je bilo treba posloveniti, je bila tema. Matej si je za svoj spletni dnevnik izbral temo Connections Reloaded 1.5, za katero pa še ni obstajal slovenski prevod. Nič, pljunil sem v roke in temo pač prevedel v slovenščino. Za osnovo sem vzel paket s francoskim prevodom in ga naučil govoriti slovensko. Rezultat vam je na voljo za prenos:
Tema Connections Reloaded 1.5 za WordPress v slovenščini

Za uporabo temo odpakirajte v mapo wp-content/themes in jo nato izberite v nastavitvah za WordPress > Predstavitev > Teme. Da delujejo povezave na vrhu strani je potrebno še ustvariti nove strani z vsebino: O avtorju (o-avtorju), Arhivi (arhivi), Povezave (povezave) in Stik (stik). V oklepajih so nizi, ki jih morate pri ustvarjanju strani uporabiti za nastavitev Žeton objave (Page Slug).

Upam, da bo še komu prišla prav. Če opazite kako napako ali manjkajoč prevod, mi kar sporočite spodaj v komentarjih.

Značke: blog, bloganje, internet, wordpress, slovenščina, prevod, prevajanje

While we are still eagerly awaiting the release of KDE 4 - on which developers, artists and other contributors are working very hard - here comes a new service release with many bug fixes and translation updates. In addition, KDE 3.5.6 brings a couple of new features:

• Fields for entering passwords show bullets instead of asterisks
• Kicker, the main panel, got support for Compiz window manager
• Akregator, the feed reader, got session management support for tabs
• KMail, the email client, now enables you to create templates for messages
• Kontact, the personal information management (PIM) suite got new Summary menus for appointments and To-Dos

KDE 3.5.6 is also the first version that fully supports Euro as the new national currency here in Slovenia. For more details about the new version you can check out KDE 3.5.6 Release Announcement and KDE 3.5.6 Changelog.

Tags: kde, kde4, kde 4, desktop, linux, kicker, compiz, akregator, kmail, kontact, open source, software, slovenia, euro

Winter has really been boring this year. No snow at all and not even that cold. Definitely not what it should be like here in Bohinj at this time of the year. Really bad for business at our ski centres Vogel and Kobla. Until the day before yesterday, when it finally started snowing. Some real winter at last. I hope it keeps snowing for a longer time.

Here’s the view from our balcony

On a weather related note, we had quite a few power outages yesterday and today. A very long time since the last one. Because of this my Gentoo Linux powered home server was off-line several times for a few of minutes. When it went off-line for the first time it had a couple of hours more than 81 days of uptime. I’m quite sure this is its highest uptime. I guess I’ll have to buy myself an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) unit some day. Until that day comes, don’t be surprised if this blog isn’t accessible at some moments.

Tags: winter, weather, bohinj, slovenia, uptime

If you check the Powered By section in the right sidebar you can see that one component that makes this blog possible is WordPress, an open source personal publishing system. Today a new major version of WordPress was released. In version 2.1 you can find new features like: autosave, tabbed editor, lossless XML import/export, spell checking and search engine privacy option. An expert from MySQL (the database behind WordPress) has also gone through the code and optimized it so it is now faster. You can read more about this release (and the future) in the post WordPress 2.1 “Ella”. The download is available here.

Tags: blog, blogging, internet, wordpress, cms

A couple of days ago the European Commission released results of an extensive study titled Economic impact of open source software on innovation and the competitiveness of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector in the EU (PDF, 1,8 MiB). It’s not only that the title is long, the report itself is 287 pages long.

What this study shows is that free/libre and open source software (FLOSS) is very important for Europe (and the rest of the world). It is also clear from the study that companies can save a lot of money by migrating from proprietary closed source software to open source software. Another benefit of FLOSS is that it encourages creation of small and medium-sized businesses and new jobs. Which is good for increased competition and innovation. An interesting bit of data is that existing base of FLOSS would cost firms almost € 12 billion to reproduce. And this base is doubling every 18-24 months. There are more benefits and details in the full report.

So, this report is in stark contrast with lies and FUD that Microsoft, a convicted monopolist, is trying to spread about FLOSS. Don’t believe them, read the report and get the true facts. Now it is upon our companies and politicians to implement the recommendations from the study and boost our economy.

Tags: software, free software, open source, floss, foss, europe, european union, business, economy, ict