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| DATE | 2007-12-12 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] [noreply@lists.linuxjournal.com: Linux Journal Weekly Newsletter - Dec. 12, 2007]
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----- Forwarded message from Linux Journal -----
To: ruben-at-mrbrklyn.com
Subject: Linux Journal Weekly Newsletter - Dec. 12, 2007
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 01:45:16 -0800
From: Linux Journal
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Linux Journal Weekly News Notes -- December 12, 2007
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--
Ho, ho, ho, hello!
This is the December 12th, edition of Linux Journal Weekly News Notes.
LinuxJournal.com is averaging at least one exciting new addition each
week...this week it's video product reviews from our new gadget guy, Shawn
Powers. See his entertaining review of the Neuros MPEG4 Recorder below.
Keeping with the multimedia theme, Dave Phillips reviews commercial audio
software for Linux and Jes Hall opines about the OpenMedia MythTV system
she tested.
More technically speaking, see the second installment of the Brain Trust
tip on the shred command. Finally, see a non-technical but nonetheless
interesting 'Tech Tip' on the demographics of open source developers.
Before signing off, please take note that this newsletter will publish next
week, December 19th, but then we will take a break on Christmas Day and New
Year's Day, to return on January 8th.
We look forward to more of your Brain Trust and Dot Org of the Week
contributions!
James Gray and The Linux Journal Editorial Team
jgray-at-linuxjournal.com
--
LINKS FOR GEEKS LIKE US
Review: Neuros MPEG4 Recorder by Shawn Powers
http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1005815
LJ's new Gadget Guy, Shawn Powers, offers a video review of the Neuros
MPEG4 Recorder for getting your VHS tapes into digital format on your PC.
"If there is such a thing as open source hardware, the Neuros is it," says
Shawn.
Commercial Sound and Music Software for Linux, Part I by Dave Phillips
http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1005835
Dave gives us a whirlwind tour of the commercial Linux audio apps that are
available.
OpenMedia myPVR 2.0 by Jes Hall
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9799
Amazing how much talent people named "Hall" have, isn't it? Jes Hall
reviews OpenMedia's well-made MythTV implementation.
Interview With Bob Sutor by Glyn Moody
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9797
Glyn chats with IBM's Bob Sutor about open standards, open source and how
best to use software patents.
Ideas for a Geek Ranch Web Site by Phil Hughes
http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1005871
Now that Phil has your attention about his idea for the Geek Ranch, here's
his plan to collaborate on building its Web presence with his favorite
Linux-based apps.
--
PLEASE READ THIS INFORMATIVE MESSAGE
Linux Journal is Microblogging!
In order to quench your insatiable thirst for Linux info, we've added a new
feature on LinuxJournal.com - microblogging! For instance, here is Jeff
Parent, a member of our Reader's Advisory Panel, on how to create a self
extracting bash script to automate the installation of files on your
system: http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1005818.
--
BRAIN TRUST: Shred That File, Take II
We had several responses to last week's Brain Trust tip on the shred
command. For example, Simon, from somewhere in cyberspace, sent this
cautionary note:
Excerpted from $ man shred:
CAUTION: Note that shred relies on a very important assumption: that the
file system overwrites data in place. This is the traditional way to do
things, but many modern file system designs do not satisfy this assumption.
The following are examples of file systems on which shred is not effective,
or is not guaranteed to be effective in all file system modes:
* Log-structured or journaled file systems, such as those supplied with
AIX and Solaris (and JFS, ReiserFS, XFS, Ext3, etc.)
* File systems that write redundant data and carry on even if some writes
fail, such as RAID-based file systems
* File systems that make snapshots, such as Network Appliance's NFS
server
* File systems that cache in temporary locations, such as NFS version 3
clients
* Compressed file systems
Our own Mitch Frazier adds:
Certain file systems may say that they've deleted the file but they may not
have actually deleted it. They may have simply 'renamed' it or they may
have made a copy of it for recovery purposes. So even though the file
appears to have been deleted the data may still be on the disk and could be
recoverable with the right tools. Therefore, you need to find a different
way to secure your data. For example, if you store your sensitive data on
an encrypted partition then you don't worry have to worry about what
happens when it gets deleted.
Becoming famous is easy. Just send us your creative technical tip and we'll
publish it in this e-newsletter. We'll also send you a free thank-you gift!
Send your tip to: jgray-at-linuxjournal.com
--
DOT ORG OF THE WEEK: Free Geek Vancouver
This contribution comes from David in Toronto, Canada:
I recently stumbled across the Free Geek Vancouver site,
http://freegeekvancouver.org/. Check out their Windowless Wednesday series:
http://freegeekvancouver.org/en/node/135.
It appears that their primary initiative is to recycle donated computer
hardware by reusing it. As we all know, the notion of recycling any
electronic hardware is truly a fallacy as the whole process simply adds to
the destruction of the environment.
The Free Geek network is not just in Vancouver but eight cities in the
U.S.A as well. I live in Toronto and can see a great need to open a Free
Geek chapter here. Plus, you have to love their slogans. "Ethical Computer
Recycling for Vancouver" and "Helping the needy get nerdy since the
beginning of the 3rd millenium".
Do you know of great organization or person of the 'Dot Org' variety that
is doing excellent FOSS-related advocacy work? If so, we want to know about
it and share it with the world. Send your nominations to:
jgray-at-linuxjournal.com.
--
TECH TIP: Demographics and Statistical Profile of Participants in Open
Source
This tip comes from the forthcoming book Open Source: Technology and Policy
by Fadi P. Deek & James A. McHugh:
This section overviews the basic demographics of the populations involved
in free development. Open source participants tend to be young and male, IT
professionals or students, with a part-time or volunteer commitment that is
limited for most but quite substantial for some. A good overview of their
general demographics as well as data on the personal motivations of open
developers is available in the surveys by Lakhani et al. (2002), Ghosh et
al. (2002), and Robles et al. (2001). The remarkably skewed nature of the
gender distribution of OSS participants apparent from these surveys is
somewhat astonishing, with all of these major surveys reporting that almost
all of their respondents (98%) were male. Age distribution was skewed in a
more predictable and less extreme manner, with, perhaps unsurprisingly,
about 70% of the respondents being in their 20-30s with an average age in
the upper 20s. The preponderance of participants (80%) were from either the
United States or Europe.
Although about a quarter of the respondents were students, another half of
the respondents were employed as full-time professionals in IT. Almost half
(about 40%) had completed college degrees, between 10 and 30% had Master's
degrees (depending on the survey), while about 20% had completed only
high-school degrees. The latter statistic would reflect youth rather than
ultimate educational level. For example, recall that Blake Ross of Firefox
was in high school at the time of Firefox's development, but as of this
writing is a student at Stanford. Most of the participation was part-time.
Up to 50% expend 5 hours or less per week. About 15% or fewer work
half-time, expending 20-40 hours per week. Only 5-10% of individuals spent
on the order of 40 hours per week on open projects. Similar results were
found by the Linux Study and the UNC Open Source Research Team surveys
reported on in Feller and Fitzgerald (2002). Those results indicated that
the majority of Linux kernel developers (60%) were involved for under a
year, with another 20% involved for 1-2 years. The developers were
geographically split evenly between the United States and Europe.
Editor's note: To save space, references for the above citations are not
included. However, please email James Gray at jgray-at-linuxjournal.com to
inquire about a specific reference.
This excerpt is from the book Open Source: Technology and Policy by Fadi P.
Deek & James A. McHugh, published by Cambridge University Press; Copyright
2008; ISBN-13: 9780521707411; reprinted with permission. For more
information, visit http://www.cambridge.org.
--
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