Linux Trivia
I read an interesting bit of trivia a while back from PCToday.com, who proclaims to be "Your (Microsoft) Windows Authority" :

OS Trivia Of The Day: May 7, 2005
And In The Beginning

In 1975, Microsoft had three employees, including Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Ric Weiland. The guys produced $16,005 in revenue that year. In 2003, the same company produced more than $10 billion in revenue and a net profit of $1.55 billion.

So, I thought I'd present my own little brand of trivia around one of my favorite subjects, Open Source and the freely available operating system known as Linux. I hope you enjoy and haven't already heard some/all of these factoids that I present today.

Birth of Linux
As you may or may not know, Linux is an operating system that was initially created as a hobby by a young student, Linus Torvalds, at the University of Helsinki in Finland... read more @ linux.org

August 25, 1991 is noted by enthusiasts as the birth of Linux by the initial announcement from Linus of a new operating system he was working on :

From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: What would you like to see most in minix?
Summary: small poll for my new operating system
Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

Hello everybody out there using minix - I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things).

I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, and I'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)

Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)

PS. Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(.

Linus/Linux up close
Lars Wirzenius shared an office at the University of Helsinki with Linus and was there during the initial trials and tribulations of early versions of the system. His ancedotes on Linux and Linus are quite enjoyable.

Growth
Linux is not a panacea to solve all the woes of the average IT department, but it is clearly a new opportunity to lower costs, maintain or expand functionality, and 'partner' with a huge community of developers that would be too expensive for anyone to hire.

A free and extensible operating system gives corporations the ability to implement a cheap OS 'vendor independent' solution - but I readily admit that you will have to hire administrators that know how the system works beyond a few GUI screens available from the "Control Panel." This may add to your 'total cost of ownership (TCO)' over a windows implementation, but Linux is being adopted by companies at an ever increasing rate.

Here is a collection of some growth/revenue numbers regarding linux servers :

• IDC expects Linux-based server revenue to grow by a compound annual growth rate of 21 per cent between 2003 and 2006 - compared to the market average of 5 per cent.
• Linux server sales recently enjoyed their 11th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, with year-over-year revenue growth of 35.2 per cent and unit shipments up 31.1 per cent.
• Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced company record setting revenue of $2.5 billion from its Linux-based offerings
  
• IBM says it made back its $1 billion investment for switching to linux services within the first year
• Selling servers is IBM's biggest Linux business, with nearly $2 billion in sales expected in 2004, but the company says services and software revenue will grow in coming years
• IDC announced they are forecasting the market for servers running Linux will exceed $9 Billion by 2008.

The Emperor has no clothes ?
Yes, windows does run on the majority of servers and desktops that are shipped. But the Windows market share is usually estimated by the units of Windows Microsoft claims to have shipped. This figure is skewed, because it includes every unsold box sitting on shelves. More significant, however, is the fact that it includes every PC with a pre-installed version of Windows.

So, the change to Linux from windows is occurring, but the actual market share statistics are unavailable. When someone purchases a PC with Windows pre-installed and then overwrites it with Linux, nobody subtracts "one" from the installed base of Windows and then recalculates the market share. So Windows starts out with a false boost and maintains an inflated market share even as it gets replaced by Linux.

Web Servers
Apache, an Open Source web server, runs 70% of the internet servers. Nuff said.

Predictions
Non-technology executives soon will realize that their companies already use much more Open Source than they think. We all probably know of executives who still think their companies don't/shouldn't use Open Source in a 'production environment.' Of course, there are probably Open Source technologies at work inside each enterprise somewhere, including that corporate web server running Linux and Apache for the last few years.

But in 2005, the dramatic and continued growth for Linux will be joined hand-in-hand with recent boosts in other Open Source use - like Firefox and Open Office which will replace the buggy, insecure MS Internet Explorer and horribly expensive kitchen sink known as MS Office. Open Source is bound to finally hit the radar of even the most pointy-haired of bosses (phb).

In the last couple years we have heard about companies 'switching to linux' and this year will be the initial year that large corporations actually disclose their balance sheets and IT expenditure that can be compared to previous years. The bottom line will start to show overall cost savings in licensing fees, development and maintenance. So, once executives realize that incorporating Open Source libraries into their development processes can make development go faster, cost less and make them more competitive - the smarter ones will begin asking why they aren't using more of it.

So, executives will soon realize that their companies aren't using nearly as much Open Source as they should.

Soapbox
After all, Open Source applications and programming libraries are usually available at little or no cost and they work well, are extensible and almost always follow a commonly accepted standard. The latter being especially important to a programmer like me, as a library or utility can easily be swapped out for another if it doesn't quite meet the requirements or expectations.

And most Open Source libraries are written in Java. But that's another blog...
- posted by Steve @ 6:41 PM 4 comments

 
Google Maps

Google maps once again proves it's the experience, not that data.

The offerings from their mapping service aren't new - satellite photos, directions and maps with points of interest have been widely available online since the first boom of the internet. The Google service has been around a very short time compared to the stalwart MapQuest, but once again their developers prove that they can provide a better experience.

You can do many interesting, different things with Google Maps : sightsee the globe, build your own custom maps, get directions, hack the interface, create/view new mashups or even see fun/weird things. You could even enhance your blogging with maps, markup, pictures or clickable interfaces - although the examples I have seen are quite lame, IMHO.

"Why bother seeing the world for real?"

Satellite pictures have always been interesting and Google Maps allows for easy navigation and/or retrieval of a birds-eye view of available images, all courtesy of Keyhole - now a Google subsidiary. You can easily find an image of a location of interest, using it's latitude/longitude or address. Here is a site for looking up the latitude and longitude of commonly known locations - compiled from a variety of sources in the public domain.

Interesting things found on Google Maps:

• Alcatraz
  
• CN tower and Toronto Sky Dome
  
• Playboy Mansion
  
• Area51
  
• Niagara Falls
  
• Mt. St. Helens
  
• Easter Island, South Pacific
  
• Airplane boneyard
  
• UFO

Google GlobeTrotting Sites

• http://www.googlesightseeing.com
  
• http://gmaps.nicj.net
  
• edge.i-hacked.com/archives/319
  

Directions

Maybe you want to use Google Maps for getting directions to a point of interest - pretty standard stuff and the main reason MapQuest has survived the dot-bomb bust. However, some users have noticed that you can search and find sites of interest on Google not commonly found on the other sites.

Yahoo! has a story on "brothels" that can be found in Eugene Oregon , New York and South Dakota using Google Maps.

If you want to track down the person or business that has been calling your phone (why else would you want a map to a phone number?), you could use gMap, a mozilla Firefox extension that allows you to find directions based on publicly listed phone numbers.

Hacking

The major foothold Google obtains in each market can partially be attributed to the result of developer uptake of their mostly hackable products and Google's reluctance to let anything bypass a mandatory beta phase. It's like they're saying "come play with this" and almost every programmer likes to try the latest shiny new object/technology.

It appears that the easiest hack would be the "service" offered by www.mygmaps.com (registration required) - as it enables you to "create, save and host custom data files and display them with Google Maps."

Joel Webber has blogged how Google Maps works under the hood.

Gpswanderer's blog shows how to get your phone to use the current GPS location to display a Google Map. He used a Bluetooth GPS device, but all phones will have an internal GPS device in the near future. Using python (the coding language) on a Nokia phone seems a bit of a stretch, as I'm sure this would be easier to accomplish with Java, as it is already widely available on most new cell phones.

Hacking Resources

• Greasemonkey extension for FireFox
• Google Maps use of XSL and Javascript
• Google Maps Hacking Wiki
• Joel Webber explains how it works
• Google Maps hacking howto on sourceforge
• Receive raw XML from any Google Maps URL
• Google Maps Mania blog
  
• Live vehicle tracking

Mashups

A mashup is a term used for a home-spun mix of two or more songs, usually the lyrics from one overlayed on the backing music from another. Many people have taken Google Maps and mixed their service with other geography based information from other sites/services to build a hybrid.

This site offers the ability to choose any city that Craigslist covers and see all of the places for rent/sale in that area. I'm sure this could be implemented for almost any product (with an address or phone number) listed on the classified market section of Craigslist.

There's Google Traffic Maps - you enter a city, state or zip code and receive a Google Map, with traffic information icons : construction signs, hazard signs, etc. If you click on an icon you'll get a popup window of detail information about the construction, road closure or other incident.

Blogging

As this sample site shows, you can create an interactive blog with Google Maps.

Other Cool Google Technology

If you use Google to search using the keyword/tag "movie:" before the title of the movie, you'll be presented with a summary page of all the online reviews Google has found. Here's an example of what is available for one of my favorite movies: Ferris Bueller's Day Off

While this is obviously an alpha product (pre-beta), the "Find theaters near you" option is very telling in the direction that Google will going in the near future - almost any search results on their site can/could be equated to a geographic location on a map, driving directions or the showing of a cool satellite image.




- posted by Steve @ 6:30 PM 1 comments

 
Search Terms
I've been keeping track of search terms that referred people here since I received a flood of traffic after I published a link to the U.S. blog that was breaking the Gomery publication ban.

Some are surprising and a little unnerving. Several terms were utilized several times - showing that the Homulka/Bernadro crimes and the sexiest MP in Canada are searched for quite often.

Here's a quick summary, in no particular order and sans page view details.

Search Terms	Blog
gomery	Gomery Publication Ban - We all want to know
"this day in nhl history"	This day in NHL History
"rona ambrose" sexiest	Update - 20050406
with hack pepsi vending machine "coke machine menu"	Hacking Vending Machinesv
devonphotoradar.blogspot.com alberta drivers speeding fine schedule Devon Photo Radar town of devon speeding town of devon Photo radar	Devon Photo Radar
"jon bentley"	Quotes
carla homulka paul transcripts bernardo lethal marriage	Gomery Publication Ban - We all want to know
Fireman Chris Fields april19th 1995 Oklahoma City ceremonies 10th anniversary chris fields image firefighter holding	Oklahoma City Bombing - 10 years later
Calgary chief police chief beaton Jack Beaton beaton calgary Calgary Police Code200.com	Free Speech?
"dryer lint screen" "spam" Bad Habits (Hudson/Ford/Cassidy)	Mr. Mom
stapler technology	Main Page

- posted by Steve @ 11:37 PM 0 comments

 
Epson C80 aka Boatanchor
Our printer, an Epson C80, died this weekend. Of course, we just bought all the ink for it. I even remarked to the clerk that a new printer would be cheaper than buying ink as I could get a few bucks for the old one on eBay...

Well, we installed the new ink and now it's lights just blink (two red and one green). No paper jam, nothing. The Epson utilities advise us to "remove the paper jam and restart it - contact the dealer if the problem persists." It's lovely three button interface doesn't help much either : Did you push the button ? How about now ?

The last time we had a printer that required service (4 years ago), I took it in when it was "skipping" and making an awful sound. It cost $50 to fix and a month after that, something else went wrong with it. The shop told me it needed a new board, which could cost $100+ to fix. I told them to "keep it." The C80 was the replacement for that forgotten model.

So, I was determined to try and find the issue with this printer. I searched and found sites that discussed resetting Epson's ink counters on FixYourPrinter.com - I even downloaded and ran a utility called SSC Service that will let you freeze the ink counters. This allows you to get around the constant nagging as the ink gets low or when it refuses to print even though there is ink left in the cartridges! I did run across a humorous page about the Epson's insatiable thirst for ink.

But each time I tried anything, the utilities claimed I needed to "contact the dealer." Given the previous mentioned charges for the last printer I think I'll give this one away on FreeCycle and buy a new C86 for $139.99 (before rebate). The ink cartridges cost $82 by the way.
- posted by Steve @ 8:15 PM 0 comments

 
Reused Acronyms
Yes, there is an alphabet soup of acronyms used in technology today. And yes, we geeks do use them a lot in conversation "when you're around." But most of the time three letter acronyms (TLA) serve their purpose - to abbreviate standards or other terms in technology 'we' know all too well.

Many vocations have their own TLA's and I'm sure when each group gets together, their set of peers completely understand each TLA used. I won't even get into a discussion (today) of phbs using acronyms that they heard and think they understand.

What I have to point out today is the reuse of common Acronyms. I'm not talking about ones that are only used just by those in the technology professions, but have become part of the culture - a meme or a piece of knowledge that that we all seem to know.

The other day I received a weekly "Threat & Vulnerability Report." The report's header called it this week's 'TV Report.' Now, if you're reading this, I'm pretty sure you know what TV really stands for...

Canada's Association of Technology Professionals promotes their trademarked designation for Information Systems Professional (ISP). Again, if you're reading this you probably know by now that ISP is the generally accepted acronym for Internet Service Provider.

Microsoft introduced Active Server Pages (ASP) in December 1996. Active Server Pages is their technology to make dynamic and interactive web pages. You may have seen an '.asp' extension on the link to a page you accessed on the internet. When this page is requested, Microsoft's webserver Internet Information Services (IIS), runs the script and some html is generated "on the fly." Great idea, right ? But we had CGI first (can you say standardardization, boys and girls ?) to do much the same thing in the world's most popular webserver: Apache.

In the latter half of the 90's dot-com boom, several bright people had the idea that if you have a browser on your computer, you can access applications running remotely through dynamically generated web pages. A business model soon arrived where applications didn't need to be installed on your computer and you (or your company) paid to use the service. These bright people called their niche : Application Service Providers (ASP).

So, if you try to find ASP information through Microsoft, be sure to let them know you mean "Application Service Provider" instead of "Active Server Pages." But then, that's so much easier to remember or say than the TLAs, right ?

A final note : with only 26³ or 17,576 possible three-letter abbreviations, perhaps we have run out of combinations and we need extra letters. "If we could get just one more letter, that would allow us to continue making acronyms through 2018."
- posted by Steve @ 5:38 PM 0 comments

 
Jetsgo & Website Technology
Jetsgo, a discount airline in Canada, went bankrupt this last weekend. They were accepting reservations right up to midnight the day before everything shutdown. Just for fun, I decided to lookup what technology they were utilizing for their public website.

Here is a quick comparision of the technologies used by various major airlines for their public websites.

Draw your own conclusions.

Airline	OS & Webserver
Jetsgo	Windows 2000 Microsoft-IIS/5.0
WestJet	Linux Apache/2.0.46 (Red Hat)
Air Canada	AIX Netscape-Enterprise/4.1
Quantas	FreeBSD tigershark/3.0.113
NWA	AIX Netscape-Enterprise/6.0
American	Solaris 8 Netscape-Enterprise/6.0
United	Solaris Apache/1.3.26 (Unix)
Delta	Solaris 8 Netscape-Enterprise/4.1
JAL	Solaris 8 Apache
Virgin	Solaris 8 Apache
Southwest	Solaris 8 Netscape-Enterprise/6.0
British Air	Solaris Netscape-Enterprise/4.1
US Airways	Solaris Netscape-Enterprise/3.6 SP3

- posted by Steve @ 12:11 PM 0 comments