phpBB: creating online communities
One of the focuses of modern websites is the creation of a community—giving users the feeling that they are part of a larger group of like minded individuals who can share information and experiences.
Towards a free matter economy (Part 5)
I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries.—Carl Sagan, Cosmos
Book review: Wicked Cool Perl Scripts by Steve Oualline
Every GNU/Linux administrator will need to touch a Perl script or two at some point. Perl seems to be the scripting glue of choice since it has matured so well over the years. As a result, administrators can choose from many different Perl books. One such book is Wicked Perl Scripts by Steve Oualline and published by No Starch Press.
Wicked Perl Scripts coverThe day my father blew himself up
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the visible front of the current standards battle royale: in this corner, at 220 pounds, Open Document Format (ODF)! In the other corner, the 800 pound gorilla, Microsoft Office 12 XML format! Hopefully, we won’t get caught in the explosion.
The day my father blew himself up
Previous competition winner
One of our previous book competition winners, Julian Yap of Hawaii, in the USA, has sent us some feedback:
Thanks! Keep up the great work with the magazine.
Here's a photo of Julian with his prize.
Julian won a copy of Zope 3 Developer’s Handbook.
Congratulations Julian from all of us here at FSM.
Why can't free software do portable right?
I recently bought a U3 compliant USB key, the hype and packaging was amazing and for the most part the U3 drive lived up to the expectations. Thunderbird was included on the key, and I was excited about being able to make any computer “my computer”, do my work, and then go without leaving a trace.
Lessig and Stallman on “Open Source” DRM
Lessig endorsing Sun’s “Open Source DRM?” You’d better read these interviews on the Register to get the facts. What do you think—is “open source” DRM better somehow than proprietary—or just plain dumber than dirt?
Brother, can you spare a dime?
There’s a nice article on Donation Coder today called [When Do Users Donate?
Stylish XML
Creating custom markup with XML is pretty easy to do, but making it look good is another feat entirely. Fortunately, a little knowledge of cascading style sheets can go a long way toward making XML easier on the eyes.
Basic XML
We have a winner for “Linux Made Easy”
The entries just keep growing in number and this week was no exception, unfortunately there can only be one winner...
Congratulations Jeffrey Mills of Seattle, Washington, in the USA!
Mike has won a copy of Linux Made Easy.
Thanks to all who entered.
Thanks also go to No Starch Press for providing this great prize.
Google Calendar—Yes!
Wow. I logged in to Slashdot today and the first thing I saw was that Google has released its new calendar. I noticed right away that this calendar allows imports from MS Outlook—one less excuse for people to cling to MS. I've tried various calendar apps within Firefox and Thunderbird, but this one appears as intuitive as Google's great Reader app. I wonder if any of this is making MS nervous?
Battle for Wesnoth
Free software games have long ago evolved from the command line. In this article I’ll describe one thoroughly addictive, turn based, graphical online game named “The Battle for Wesnoth”.
Building a new media lab: advice needed
Greetings, everyone. We’re currently in the process of planning a new media lab for our English department. We have a budget of about $50,000, though there are hints that we could get more if we could make a compelling enough case. At any rate, the lab’s purpose will be to give students the chance to produce some really outstanding new media projects. These will likely range from website production to simple digital videos and on to fully interactive media (e.g., flash movies, videogames).
Win a copy of “Pro Apache Ant”
This week we are giving away a copy of Pro Apache Ant by Matthew Moodie.
All you need to do to enter is:
1) Read our terms and conditions.
2) Answer this question:
What CMS is our new system based on? (Hint: read the editorial for issue 11.)
3) Send your FSM subscriber name (the name you use to login), your full name and your answer to
.
Free software events review March 2006
As the March Hare sprang from the ground to frolic in the newfound warm weather of the spring season (here in the North), the free software world continued its steady but rapid advancement in the information technology landscape. Meanwhile, waiting in the corner is yours truly, glancing occasionally at the media ready to report on events that I personally think are interesting and feel like including here. In the month of March that consisted of:
Previous competition winner
One of our previous book competition winners, Nelson Mambre of Venezuela has sent us his appreciation and a photo of himself and his prize.
Nelson won a copy of Hardening Apache.
Congratulations from all of us here at FSM.
Thanks also go to Apress for providing this great prize.
Interview with Simon Peter, creator of klik
It's the year 2006, and installing applications in GNU/Linux can still be a nightmare (especially if they are not available in your distribution's repository). Simon Peter is the developer of klik, a piece of software that tries to resolve this problem. Simon kindly accepted to answer a few questions for FSM.
TM: Hello Simon! Please tell our readers about yourself...
MIT OpenCourseWare Turns 5
Ah, MIT. I don’t know what it takes to get into this school, but, damn, they have some good people there. I learned about their Open Course Ware project a few years ago, and am so glad to see it’s still thriving. The concept is simple: Make all the course materials freely available online, so that even folks like me (who are denied the chance to go to MIT), still get to reap some of the benefits of an MIT education. I’m timidly suggesting to my own dept that we start thinking in this direction.
Book review: Pro Apache Ant by Matthew Moodie
This book covers the popular Java-oriented build tool, Ant. It is a combination of reference manual and user guide, which demonstrates how to create Ant scripts that can compile projects, test them, and perform the many other manual tasks involved in the build pipeline, above and beyond standard compilation phase.
Pro Apache AntFree culture events for April 2006
Welcome to the second newsletter listing and reviewing free culture events around the world. Free culture is a movement that extends the logic of free software into the world of art, advocating free creativity, sharing and remixing. There will be thousands of events with this ethos going on around the world, but the listings below are brought to you by activists and advocates of the free culture movement. You can add your events and reviews to this newsletter on the Free Culture UK newsletter wiki.
Europe
Upcoming events
Pages
