Cooking With Linux

Here is a tool that you will want to remember. By highlighting any part of a OpenOffice document and selecting Clear Formating as shown in the attachment "Clear.png", the formating will be removed. Today I was working on a document where some unwnated formating crept in. This was formating that could not be removed using the formating tools available. Then I stumbled upon this gem and I was no longer wishing for the reveal codes feature in WordPerfect. It would be nice if we could have that, but at least this feature quickly solves the problem (in this case I had double line spacing that would not just go away) and lets us carry on with our work.

Click the image for a larger screen capture.

Inside that distinctive, tall, Vin d'Alsace bottle, is a pretty fantastic little wine. Those of you who know me well will find it somewhat surprising that I would gush over a medium-dry wine, but gush I must. Intensely floral, moderately fruity with hints of peach and apricot, and deliciously golden in color, the 2006 Cuvée Bacchus Pfaffenheim Gewurztraminer is a pleasure to savour.

So I just read that SCO owes Novell just over $2,000,000, a small victory for Novell. Of course Novell doesn't really expect to see any money, SCO has after all filed for bankruptcy. SCO apparently has no money and the bankruptcy court is "bending over backwards" to help SCO. Indications from the Groklaw article seem to indicate that SCO still has enough resources to continue in court. It's to the point of ridiculousness now.

Looking good is easy for our regular guests. True enough. However, looking good on the Web takes a little more work, which doesn't mean it can't be a lot of fun. With a little help from your Linux system, your smile will shine online!

Yes, François, I think it would be great to add a gallery of our regular guests on the restaurant's Website, but I do have a couple of concerns. First and foremost, I really don't think you should call it a "Rogue's Gallery". Second, why on Earth are you coding HTML by hand. This is going to take you forever and our guests will be here momentarily. Lucky for you, tonight's menu has some great free software for your Linux system that will make creating that gallery a breeze. Later, though. I can see our guests arriving as we speak.

Good evening and welocome one and all to Chez Marcel! Your tables are ready as are we to serve you. My faithful waiter, François, will fetch your wine while I introduce you to tonight's featured Linux software. François, to the wine cellar. Vite! In the South wing, you'll find a case of 2003 Sariza from Bulgaria. The Sariza is a great medium-bodied red wine that I'm sure you'll enjoy.

I must tell you that François had an excellent idea that involved creating a Web photo gallery. Before I show you how easy it can be to create such a gallery, I need to tell you about a package you'll need to have on your system, a package which will let you do all sorts of magical things with images.

Hello, oh great and powerful Adobe people.

Thank you so much for releasing Flash Player 10 beta 2 for Linux. Thanks even more for (finally) building in support for video4linux2 Webcam technology. You have no idea how much we appreciate that. The only problem is that many (if not most) of us can't use it. You see, it crashes our browsers within seconds.

Reading earlier posts on this subject, it's obvious that Adobe is aware of this problem (Flash player 10 beta 2 crashing Firefox) and that they have fixed it in-house. I think I speak for more than just myself when I say, "Please, just let us have the fixed version." You don't know how long we've waited for video4linux2 support. The suspense is killing us. Besides, it's kind of rough to be told that a beta is available with said features, then not have it work. It's even harder when we are told it's fixed but we can't possibly have it. So, please. Please. Let us have the current fixed version. We know it's not the real, final product, but we accept that. It's cool. Really. What do you say? Come on, guys. One little tiny fixed beta? No one is going to complain. In fact, we'll say nothing but nice things about you. Really.

What do you say?

Please. Pretty please . . .

I'll start at the end by telling you that I'll finish this with a discussion of my “Distro of Choice”, Gentoo. But before we get there .....

It royally annoys me when people say that Linux is too hard to learn! Admittedly, Linux is probably insurmountable for some people, in the same manner that learning Psychology would be insurmountable for me. Not everyone has an interest or talent in computers and their software. However, the statement that began this paragraph has been used to categorize computer users in general. I don't have a particularly strong computer background, but I do have an avid interest in them, so I figure that if I can do it, anyone with a modicum of talent and interest in computers can learn Linux if they want to.

You know that you love Cooking With Linux. You just can't get enough of it. François knows you by name and Chez Marcel has a table permanently reserved for you, complete with an engraved solid brass plaque embedded into the chair back. You love sitting down to a nice glass of wine while playing with cool Linux and open source software and lately, you want to tell the world. But how?!

Just copy the following text anywhere on your Web site and you'll not only provide a link back to this site, but also proclaim your love of Cooking With Linux with a stylish button featuring my faithful waiter, François.

<a href="http://www.cookingwithlinux.com/"><img border="0" src="http://www.cookingwithlinux.com/images/cwl_button200.png" title="The Original Cooking with Linux" alt="The Original Cooking with Linux" /></a>

Link away, mes amis.

Well, he tells some, anyhow. By now, you've probably heard the news that Xandros has purchased Linspire. Moments ago, I was sent the following Q&A with Xandros CEO, Andreas Typaldos. Enjoy . . .

Q: What are you announcing today?
A: Xandros' acquisition of Linspire, a pioneer in the commercial desktop Linux marketplace with its easy-to-use commercial Linspire operating system and innovative Linux software delivery service CNR.

Q: How did this deal come about?
A: Xandros and Linspire have had talks at the CEO level over the years about the possibility of a combination given their historically similar Debian-based roots and complementary product lines. Such talks accelerated in late 2007 and culminated in the current agreement.

Over at Practical Tech Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols suggests that it may be time for a fork of KDE, mostly because he doesn't believe that KDE 4.1 is heading in the right direction. It's obviously an interesting and emotional topic as the comments will attest. I'll quote a small portion of one of the comments. A writer who goes by burpnrun said, "I can understand the emotional investment that Asiego has in Kde4. But the article writer is correct: the desktop should not get in the way of the mainstream user’s productive needs, and that is what KDE4 does."

First of all, the Asiego (sic) in question is Aaron Seigo, a KDE luminary if ever there was one. The article writer is Stephen J. Vaughan-Nichols, a luminary in his own right -- of the tech-journalist variety. Now, Stephen may have said a lot more about KDE 4 in earlier postings but in this article, he points to one feature of one icon in one application. Not much to go on really. However, he does, indirectly, remind us of an important aspect of Linux and the world of FOSS (free and open source software).