Linux

Cameron Shorter, in this post, announce the LiveDVD that will go to FOSS4G2008 in Cape Town as OSGeo LiveDVD.

We are happy that Doktoreas's work has been expanded by LisaSoft and produced a first community effort for a LiveCD/DVD from OSGeo.
We hope this effort can go on and get better and better.

In this live CD we've put both the C and Java stacks of FOSS GIS application and some free geo datasets to try them directly.
Another cool feature derived from Xubuntu, where the live come from, is the possibility to install on the local machine the GNU/Linux same as in the live cd with all software and geodata.

you can download the liveDVD from this link:
http://download.osgeo.org/livedvd/FOSS4G-2008-LiveDVD-Alpha4.iso

more notes here:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_Disc

ciao
lorenzo

This Mac Book Pro is cool but when the summer gets hot it gets hotter. It start to be impossible to work on the sofa with this hot brick on my legs.

I'am used to work mainly with Ubuntu Linux. Checking monitors about CPU frequency, CPU temperature and fan speed shows values continuously varying because of the automatic CPU speed control. If you actively ask for performances, Linux gives you back what you want automatically.

This post gives the hint that let you decide manually the frequency of your CPU and contain performances and temperature when you prefer.
For what I need this laptop I can easily stay always at half the performances of its CPU.

ciao
Lorenzo

I've tried a couple of solutions to make some acceptable screencasts with my linux box.

The first enthusiasm has been spent around the cool vnc2swf application. It creates a cool and simple HTML interface to Flash movie getting the output of your favorite VNC server. My problem is that I don't have a favorite VNC server and I've lost a lot of time trying to deal with VNC configuration without reaching the type of output I was looking for.

Then I've changed direction and looked inside apt-cache:
istanbul - Desktop session recorder producing Ogg Theora video
Istanbul has a decent user interface that let you choose the window of the area of your screen to be recorded.
Supports only OGG output format.

Then FFMPEG comes out to help:
ffmpeg -y -i my_file.ogg -f swf my_swf.swf

last thing to do is an HTML page to add some controls for the movie playing.
I've copied the code from a vnc2swf session and just changed the SWF name inside the Object/Embed HTML object. it works fine to me.

ciao
Lorenzo

For a long time I've been used to spend many hours behind scary hardware and Linux installations.
"I have an old computer I'm not using anymore" -> "use Linux"
"I don't know what Linux is" -> "I'll help you"
damn, why?!?!

Yesterday I've bought a Mac Mini. Without completing OS X installation, I've downloaded Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) CD and sticked it into the Mac Mini.
"C" key at boot, Ubuntu LiveCD starts, an shows the "install" icon in its desktop.
Double click on that icon, told it to use the entire disk (YES, the entire disk), and wait for the process to end without a single problem.
Reboot.

Logging in show me the new Gnome with 3d effects of Compiz Fusion.
I try to connect to my wireless network and smoothly connects.
I've easily synchronized my Firefox bookmark using my .Mac account and "Sync and Sort" plugin.
Mac remote control can manage both my Ubuntu and my Powerbook OS X volume (weird maybe).
Plugging in whatever disk, even a Lacie 250GB with HFS+ file system, it mounts writable on my desktop.

Using "add/remove" software from the "Application" menu I've added:
- JRE + Eclipse and working environment is ready,
- QGIS,
- GRASS,
- Mapserver (with Mapscript or php5 and python),
- other stuff just for fun, etc. etc.

there are still few things to do but I'm really happy.
I didn't have to touch any single configuration file. I promise.

as they say on the official site: "Ubuntu just works"

ciao
Lorenzo