Older blog entries for Burgundavia (starting at number 63)

11 Jan 2006 (updated 11 Jan 2006 at 01:20 UTC) »
More on Flash

Zack says "Not having an open library fully implementing SWF is not a problem." After that rather bizarre statment, he then says some really really smart things about competing and good UIs.

Why is that statement bizarre? Because having a free flash player is not really about competing, which is the gist of the rest of his statement. It is about caring about your users and their freedom. That is why we are here, after all, right?

Gnash != GPLFlash

It seems that FSF released a free flash player today. However, this means we now have three free flash implementations: SWFdec (LGPL), GPLflash and this new Gnash.

Bah.

9 Jan 2006 (updated 9 Jan 2006 at 06:39 UTC) »

Google Juice

One bored moment this weekend I decided to google for "linux desktop". Then I realized that there was something wrong: No Ubuntu in first 20 hits. Instead we have many fine other distros (Novell Linux Desktop, Linspire, Xandros, Foresight, and Mepis), Asa's piece on why it is NOT ready, the OSDL page and a few news articles.

But then Brian Shumate pointed me to that googling for gnu/linux desktop get, in order, a non-official Debian survival guide, Libranet, and then wonder of wonders, us and our KDE brethern. Despite what RMS might want to believe, the world thinks of it as Linux and not GNU/Linux, so that doesn't do us much good.

So go out there and lets push us up the rankings. Lets make our favourite linux desktop rock!

8 Jan 2006 (updated 8 Jan 2006 at 12:28 UTC) »

How to kill a project

For sometime I have followed the development of UFO:AI. It looked like a great open source clone of UFO:Enemy Unknown (also known as XCOM:UFO Defence) , a game produced by Microprose in the 1990's that still enjoys a cult like following. UFO:AI took the best bits of UFO:EU and then ported it to the Quake 2 engine. Seems like a great strategy for world dominiation. And then they stopped releasing anything. Oh, and they also actively refused help. Yes, they have actively turned away people, even those who set up a friendly fork with an SVN server. Anyway, the game is great fun, if unfinished. Do try it out.

Unexpected Ubuntu

In my many web wanderings I come across any number of things, most not related to Ubuntu. What is interesting is when you run into Ubuntu in completely unexpected places. For instance, today I was following a link from The Linux Games Tome's forums and I saw this cool blog on making a graphical Interactive Fiction game. Funny thing was, I didn't even recognize the brown theme, because it is so natural now. It wasn't until I saw the Ubuntu logo on the applications menu that I clued in. So enjoy the unexpected Ubuntu.

4 Jan 2006 (updated 4 Jan 2006 at 07:29 UTC) »

The problem of data

As someone who dabbles in GIS stuff, there is a constant problem with FLOSS GIS: There isn't much free data, which makes all those fancy free tools pretty much useless. So if you own a gps, head over to the Open Street Map and lets solve this no data problem.

Helping Ubuntu for fun and profit (well maybe not the latter)

Quite frequently we have people come to #ubuntu-doc and ask us "What can I do". I know MOTU gets similar questions. Me being the proactive person that I am (crazy was another term that has been used), decided that we need a single resource for all this enthusiasm with nowhere to go. Thus I have created Helping Ubuntu, a single wiki page for those wanting to get involved with Ubuntu.

But I can hear you object now, "I don't have much time!". Fear not, I have considered you too: Easy Ways to Help Ubuntu. For those with 30 minutes or less and can't do massive changes like installing the latest development release.

In order for HelpingUbuntu to succeed, we are going to need buy in from every group in Ubuntu. Therefor consider this a challenge: Create a landing wiki page that can be linked off of HelpingUbuntu that a new person can quickly find out a) how to get involved and b) what needs to be done.

So go out and Help Ubuntu!

Still 2005

For me at least :) Just wanted to comment that it has now been a whole year since I joined the Doc Team. Which I think makes me the oldest extant Doc Team member. I feel so old.

Happy New Year everybody!

Apparently I am supposed to blog this
  • look_for_humans
    • if humans
      • attack_humans
    • if no_humans
      • look_in_building
        • if humans_in_building
          • break_barrier
            • if barrier_is_broken
              • go_into_building
            • if barrier_is_solid
              • return to break_barrier
        • if no_humans_in_building
          • look_for_humans_nearby
            • if humans_nearby
              • go_there and return to look_for_humans
            • if no_humans_nearby
              • choose_random_direction and return to look_for_humans

Reference: This is pseudocode for moving zombies for the new game Endarchy.

29 Dec 2005 (updated 29 Dec 2005 at 23:37 UTC) »
Booting charting for fun and profit

Recently there was a thread on the ubuntu-devel mailing list about bootcharting. However, the mailing list was not a great place to collect this information, so I have fixed up the BootCharting wiki page.

So if you have a default Dapper Flight 2 install, please install the bootchart package post the results on the BootCharting page.

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