Archive for October, 2009

MythTV: Turning Linux Into a Digital Video Recorder: The Front End

October 30th, 2009 by admin


After reading the first part of this series, you should have a MythTV server up and running. To watch TV or schedule recordings you’ll need to setup one or more MythTV front ends. Since the front end has to decode, deinterlace, and display the video content, it normally [...]

Rule the Web with Four Firefox Add-ons

October 30th, 2009 by admin


You don’t have to take the Web as-is, you have the power to change it! With a few handy add-ons for Mozilla Firefox, you can take control of the sites you visit and make them look and work the way that you want to.

Ksplice: No More Reboots?

October 30th, 2009 by admin


How’d you like to never have to reboot a Linux box again — no, not even if you have to apply a kernel-level patch? That’s the promise of Ksplice, a software technology for Linux (and maybe soon other platforms) designed to allow a system to be patched from the kernel level on up without having [...]

A Taste of Android’s Freshly Baked Eclair

October 30th, 2009 by admin


When the Verizon Droid from Motorola arrives next month, it will include a new version of the Android Operating system. Android 2.0, also known as “Eclair,” will no doubt show up in lots of other new smartphones over the coming months. Android 2.0 ushers in a host of new features. Perhaps the one that sparks [...]

Tutorial: Using Temporary Tables to Speed Up MySQL

October 29th, 2009 by admin


If you’re fetching several resultsets that contain a lot of common data, it can make sense to obtain a single resultset that has all the data that’s required, store it in a temporary table, and then select from this temporary table as needed.

Tutorial: Dual-Booting Linux And Windows: Easier Said than Done

October 29th, 2009 by admin


Despite claims by advanced users, confusion abounds when trying to run two OSes. Matt Hartley offers some possible solutions.

FOSS Goes to Washington, and Nvidia Keeps Its Driver Code to Itself

October 29th, 2009 by admin


You know it’s going to be a good week when it kicks off with news that the Obama administration has officially embraced the open source content management system Drupal. Just a few days later, the Department of Defense issued an almost glowingly positive memo on open source software. “The government is acting intelligently. I feel [...]

Report: Red Hat’s KVM Surpasses Xen, Aims at VMWare

October 29th, 2009 by admin


Xen made a big splash when it was introduced, and VMWare has long dominated the virtualization space. But Red Hat’s KVM promises to leave Xen in the dust, and challenge VMWare. At least that’s what Red Hat says will happen.

Droid Steps Out of the Shadows

October 28th, 2009 by admin


Following a spate of rumors, leaked specifications, and an ad campaign explicitly challenging the iPhone, Verizon and Motorola on Wednesday officially announced Droid, the first smartphone based on Android 2.0. Featuring high-speed Web browsing, voice-activated search, a customizable large screen, plus access to thousands of applications and hundreds of widgets through the Android Market, the [...]

Ubuntu Karmic Koala Climbs Into the Ring

October 28th, 2009 by admin


Canonical, the commercial developer of the open source operating system Ubuntu, will release on Thursday Ubuntu 9.10 Server Edition and Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop Edition. The two latest releases come on the heals of last week’s release of Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system. The latest Ubuntu releases could raise the ante in the competitive field of [...]