NTP: a behind-the-scenes protocol As I've mentioned before, Network Time Protocol is one of those oft-ignored-but-nonetheless-essential subsystems which is largely unknown, except to a select few. Those who know it well generally fall into the...
A few times recently i've had to think about the essential applications i use on my desktop. The latest was Anthony Burke's tweet, but the recent churn in the Linux desktop world and my unhappiness with Unity means that i need to be prepared for...
The Register has a review of the Ubuntu 11.04 beta release which suggests there are some rocky times for existing Ubuntu users ahead. The part the article that stuck out to me reads: The highlight of the current launcher is the plethora of...
Today we have a guest blog post from my wife Angela. She is an avid Ubuntu user (in fact, so are our kids) and a great web researcher in general. She wanted to borrow digital editions of books from our local library; however, the books are only...
(I used to love Stan Kelly-Bootle's column in Unix World, so i thought i'd share an experience a little like the ones he used to write about. Hope some old-timers out there can get into it...) The task i was working on involved taking a file...
I use IRC a lot for asking questions (and hopefully answering some as well) about Free Software projects, particularly Ubuntu-AU. Most of the time i use IRC from my laptop, which means that every time i shut the lid or disconnect from the wired...
Last week i had my first encounter with a person who was unable to read an email which used Usenet-style quoting. For those not familiar with the whole debate, which probably started probably before i first encountered the Internet (way back in...
I've had a few problems over recent weeks on both Ubuntu karmic (9.10) and lucid (10.04) whereby web pages built on Flash player (such as ABC iView) would display a large error screen proclaiming that Flash player had crashed. I first saw it on...
IT Toolbox has a great little summary of the experiences of Mike Kavis, a guy who's been living Microsoft free in an all Microsoft shop - at work! It all started from an "eat your own dog food" challenge (something i did with my wife which...