I’ve been a Michael Blieden fan since I first saw Melvin Goes to Dinner.  Next to Jerome Bixby (The Man from Earth) Michael is one of the best writers of natural dialogue I know.  He’s also a major comedic writer.  Here’s a sample:

Want more?  Check out Guacamole.

Call it Raphael no longer! HTC has officially thrown the cover off its Touch Pro today — the QWERTY slider sibling of the recently-unveiled Touch Diamond — which should cover the bases for those who loved the Diamond’s keen looks but decided they’d go our of their gourds without a full set of physical keys at their disposal. Under that glossy black shell lies WiFi, HSPA with a solid 7.2Mbps on the downstream, Bluetooth, 2.8-inch VGA display, Windows Mobile 6.1 featuring HTC’s TouchFLO 3D interface, a 3.2 megapixel camera, a half gig of ROM, and 288MB of RAM. It’s not going to win any “world’s thinnest” records with an 18.05mm waistline, but those five rows of textual healing don’t come without a price. The first batch of devices will be Europe-bound in “late summer” with 900 / 2100MHz 3G alongside the quadband GSM and EDGE; North and Latin American versions are promised for later in the year. http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/04/the-htc-touch-pro/

There’s a new player in the software firewall market. The makers of my favorite anti-spyware software, Webroot (makers of SpySweeper) have introduced their Desktop Firewall.

I’ve had it running for about 2 weeks on my test computer, along with SpySweeper and NOD32 AV, and thus far am finding it quite good. It has many of the same controls as Zone Alarm, monitoring inbound and outbound traffic and asking permission only on the first attempt of any software to connect to the internet. It will automatically recognize your default browser and allow it access to the web, and provides the ability to block all traffic if you need it to.

continue reading "Webroot Firewall"

Most Linux distributions are built to meet a specific purpose, address a specific audience. There are USB-bootable versions, live disks, versions geared toward scientific research or desktop publishing. Ubuntu Linux is one of the few distributions designed around a philosophy.

You may have heard about Ubuntu’s founder and first developer, Mark Shuttleworth.

Shuttleworth gained worldwide fame on 25 April 2002 as a civilian cosmonaut aboard the Russian Soyuz TM-34 mission, paying approximately US$ 20 million. Two days later, the Soyuz spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station, where he spent eight days participating in experiments related to AIDS and genome research. On 5 May, he returned to Earth. In order to participate on the flight, Shuttleworth had to undergo one year of training and preparation, including seven months spent in Star City, Moscow. (Source-Wikipedia) In the 1990s, Shuttleworth was a developer for Debian Linux. In 2004, he released Ubuntu Linux.

The Ubuntu website has this to say about their guiding philosophy;
“The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Philosophy: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit.”

continue reading "The Official ubuntu Book"

Usually I prefer to review books one at a time. Since I like to not only read the book I’m reviewing but apply some of the suggestions it makes to evaluate it from an average user’s point of view as well, trying to cover more than one book per review is difficult.

In the case of these two books, though, my usual practices have to be ignored. These two books not only need to be reviewed together, they need to be purchased and read together. Allow me to expand on my reasoning.

Fedora Core is, in my experience, the first Linux distribution to include setting up SELinux (Security Enhanced Linux) as part of its installation routine. Even though SELinux is supported by Debian and Gentoo, Fedora is the only OS I’ve encountered that presents the opportunity to setup SELinux during installation. Having both these books at hand while setting up Fedora Core 5 will leave you with no unanswered questions.

Red Hat Fedora 5 Unleashed is a massive book. To look at it, someone unfamiliar with Linux might think that Fedora is a very complicated system. Actually Fedora is one of the easier distributions to install. The reason the book is so large is that it covers every aspect of the Fedora Core 5 operating system in exquisite detail.

continue reading "Fedora 5 Unleashed & SELinux by Example"

Packaging isn’t usually an element of my book reviews. We all know what a book looks like, how can someone package a book to make it more interesting?

Sams Publishing understands that packaging is all about making your product stand out, catching the shopper’s eye. It’s what helps a potential customer choose your product over another. With the Linux Starter Kit, it’s what makes this offering unique.

SUSE has always been one of the better documented distributions of Linux. I’ve been a SUSE user since version 7. I always purchased the boxed version as it came with an extensive manual as well as the installation disks. By the time version 8.2 became available, I no longer needed the manual but I still purchased the box just to support the developers of this robust operating system. SUSE has long been one of my favorite distributions.

SUSE Linux isn’t a distribution that’s usually mentioned when the discussion turns to which distribution a new Linux user should consider. I’m not sure why. The SUSE desktop is no less intuitive than the distributions that are thought to be the easiest for someone migrating from Microsoft’s products to Linux, like Mandriva, Linspire or Xandros Desktop. Installation and setup can be a bit daunting, as there’s more to configure than the average Windows user encounters. But if they can get some assistance during that process, the result is a Linux system that is rock solid, mature and feature rich.

continue reading "Linux Starter Kit"

I’m very careful about recommending software to others. But there are certain applications that I not only recommend to everyone I talk to but also install on every computer I work on.

TinySpell falls into that category, as does IrfanView. Both of these applications will improve anyone’s productivity.

Security applications, though, are another matter. It’s harder for me to recommend my favorites because they may either conflict with the security you already have on your computer or they may require specific configuration that’s beyond some people’s abilities.

One security program I have no hesitation in recommending, though, is WinPatrol from BillP Studios. There is a free version and a shareware version, and Bill has just announced the release of a beta version. I’d encourage you to try the free version, then install the shareware version, if for no other reason than to support the excellent work Bill is doing.

As a MULTI PURPOSE SUPPORT UTILITY WinPatrol replaces multiple system utilities with its enhanced functionality. Explore deep into your system and understand what programs are installed and why. WinPatrol PLUS provides easy to understand descriptions of over 12,000 programs.

As a robust SECURITY MONITOR, WinPatrol will alert you to hijackings, malware attacks and critical changes made to your computer without your permission. WinPatrol PLUS includes our unique, patent pending R.I.D. technology.

WinPatrol uses a heuristic approach to detecting attacks and violations of your computing environment. Traditional security programs scan your hard drive searching for previously identified threats. WinPatrol takes snapshot of your critical system resources and alerts you to any changes that may occur without your knowledge. You’ll be removing dangerous new programs while others download new reference files.

continue reading "WinPatrolPlus"

One of the greatest strengths of the Linux operating system is the power of the command line. One of the greatest weaknesses of the Linux operating system is that it’s not easy to remember all the commands that can harness that power. Many reference books include a smattering of commands that will accomplish a limited number of tasks. Scott Granneman has compiled a collection of Linux commands that will allow you to do almost anything you need to do from a terminal. To make it even more indispensable, it is small enough to fit into your laptop case or backpack so you can have it available whenever you need it.

The Linux Phrasebook doesn’t include a lot of flashy graphics or irrelevant comments. Each topic is laid out in a way to make it easy to understand and implement a specific command. Granneman gives you a scenario in which a particular action would be applicable, shows you the command as it would be typed into a terminal, and concludes with a brief description of what the results will be. With an average of one command per page, nearly 370 commands are covered in this one book.

A complete contents listing and index make finding the command you need a breeze. Despite the paperback book size of the Linux Phrasebook, each page is easy to read, with margin space for your own notes. The layout is perfect for the purpose of this book.

If you’ve ever needed to quickly find a way to view the status of your network interfaces, list your Samba shares, execute shell commands, or print find results into a file from a terminal, keep a copy of the Linux Phrasebook handy. It will put you in command of your system.

Linux Phrasebook
Author: Scott Granneman
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Sams (June 12, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN: 0672328380
SRP: $14.99 USA / $18.00 CAN / £10.99 Net UK