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Review of Data Source Handbook, just coming out. A few years ago I did something utterly stupid. I listened to someone's advice. Now, I don't want to sound too cynical, but really, half or more of what people tell you is, shall we say, unconsidered. They don't stop and think that they are actually telling you something that will affect what you do next, what decision you make, how you adjust your plans, or what money you spend. So random sh#t comes flying out of their mouth and you do it and later feel stupid.

VLC, without a doubt, is the best media player around. Not only is it able to play almost any file format, it is also able to stream audio/video from the Web and transcode on the fly. VLC-share is a web implementation of VLC streaming and transcoding that allows you to stream (and transcode) your videos to your WII Media Center (WIIMC) or Android phone. Just think of airplay for Android and you get VLC-Shares. In this tutorial, we will show you how to get VLC-shares up and running in your Ubuntu machine. VLC-shares is available for Windows as well and the installation and configuration instruction is pretty easy and straightforward, so we will not touch on that.

The Southern California Linux Expo is taking place this weekend in Los Angeles. Matthew Tippett and myself will be speaking there tomorrow on Making More Informed Linux Hardware Choices. This is also from which we will be launching Phoronix Test Suite 3.0 and OpenBenchmarking.org.

Mixxx is a free and open source DJ software for Windows, Mac and Linux. Mixxx 1.9.0 was released a few days ago and this latest release adds several major new features including Shoutcast support, direct deck outputs for external mixers, and ReplayGain normalization.

Toradex announced a Linux-based single board computer (SBC) with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom E6xx, and also debuted a PC based on it that's claimed to be & the world's smallest.& The & Topaz& SBC underlies the fanless, aluminum-housed & Xiilun,& which measures 3.50 x 2.36 x 0.63 inches, features up to 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and offers a bootable microSD slot, DVI-D, and four USB 2.0 ports.

This step-by-step tutorial was created for the Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) operating system and it will teach you how to change the looks of your Linux desktop into an eye-candy, practical, simple and modern one.

Data compression is the process of storing data in a format that uses less space than the original representation would use. Compressing data can be very useful particularly in the field of communications as it enables devices to transmit or store data in fewer bits. Besides reducing tranmission bandwidth, compression increases the amount of information that can be stored on a hard disk drive or other storage device.

Three videos about how to insert page numbering in OpenOffice, Koffice, and Abiword. All instructions given, all in video with spoken instructions (English) I have recently published a post regarding page numbering in Open Source Office applications. This time I will repeat the same post in slightly different manner. There are video lessons showing process of document editing.

Frequently, Datamation puts together lists of top open source software. This time we've done something a little different and made a list of top open source Web sites. Of course, literally thousands of sites and forums provide news and information about open source software. To narrow things done, we focused on sites that provide a lot of links of open source applications – the top places to download open source software.

Kernel version 38 will offer a new meshing implementation, loads of new and improved LAN and Wi-Fi drivers, plus various minor changes that promise to improve the network subsystem's performance.

Verizon Wireless launched the Motorola Xoom Feb. 24 for $600 with a two-year contract, and the dual-core Android 3.0 tablet has earned solid reviews -- although with concerns over the high price and lack of apps. Android tablets certainly have a long way to go, however, since Apple's iPad represented 93 percent of the 4.5 million tablet PCs sold in 3Q 2010, says ABI Research.

There are many ways in which Linux users can collaborate. You can use white boards, chats, full-on cloud-based office suites, CMS tools, and more. But what if you are wanting to collaborate quickly and efficiently on text-based documents? What do you use? If you're a fan of free and open source software, you turn to either Gobby or Kobby.

Google has revised the developer tools for its Chrome web browser. In a blog post it has explained that information about the communication between Chrome and a web server is now available in a new Network panel. You can sort and clear data that is stored there, and export network data into the HAR (HTTP Archive) format. The timing information for resource loads no longer comes from the WebKit browser engine, but from the network stack, so that it more properly represents raw network timing. Holding the mouse pointer over each entry reveals detailed timing for the different phases of loading for each resource. This solution is similar to that provided by the Firebug plug-in for Firefox.

rTorrent is a popular command line based bittorrent client. It provides very powerful features yet it is very light on the system - contrary to other bittorrent clients like Vuze. There are a couple of webinterfaces for it but they are not truly need. SSH access combined with the "screen" program provide you all the tools you need. In addition to the previous compilation guides of rTorrent, this one will also feature ruTorrent on a force Apache SSL connection with password protection.

The Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) is happening this weekend Feb. 25-27 and is, simply, awesome! I heard about it during its infancy but never even looked into it thinking it would be just as expensive as OSCON. Boy was I wrong! The first year I attended, it cost $60. This year the cost is $70. That's $70 for THREE days, which is a steal! Factor in the discounts provided to local open source user groups & it is downright highway robbery. You really cannot beat it.

As many Linux users know, there's a number of motherboard vendors out there who put out very poor/buggy/broken BIOS implementations for their products. For Linux users this can be particularly painful if the changes are catered to workaround issues in Windows but in turn cause a greater mess for non-Microsoft operating systems. As a step to improve the situation, assuming BIOS developers actually will use it, Intel has released a BIOS Implementation Test Suite.

There are a lot of 'touchy' issues in the open source world - none are perhaps more controversial than those involving money. One such case is the recent attempt by Ubuntu to redirect affiliate dollars away from the GNOME project and its Banshee media player - to Ubuntu's own bank account. It's a debate that this week hit Twitter with a flame war of vitriol and NSFW comments. Canonical announced this week that in Ubuntu 11.04, Banshee will have both the AmazonMP3 and Ubuntu One music stores and 25 percent of the revenues will be directed to the GNOME Foundation. GNOME founder Miguel de Icaza wasn't as polite Ewing, and also struck out aggressively at Ubuntu: @jonobacon Oh you are entirely within your rights. Douchebags, assholes and dicks almost never violate any laws. A dick move is a dick move

I started working at NASA Ames Research Center in July, 1992. Prior to this I had worked as a computer operator then network engineer for a large multinational, and I'd been using network services starting with Compu$erve in 1983, then Fido-net, I-link, many BBS's, etc. Being about as close to the heart of things as one could get, and working the graveyard and evening shifts, gave me a wonderful ring-side seat to watch as a Liberty occurred.

Tweak-Center is an idea, albeit a brilliant one, to create a marketplace to download themes, icons, tweaks etc. within Ubuntu Software Center. We have featured a number of very unique mockups and ideas before, but Tweak Center is different in a very good way.

The U.K. has become the latest country to conclude that for information and communications technology (ICT) procurement purposes, “open standards” means “royalty free standards.”