Examining the Compilation Process. Part 1.
Mike Diehl discusses preprocessing, compilation, assembly, and linking.
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Load Me Up, Load Me Down
The second-generation HP Media Vault.
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Java Sound & Music Software for Linux, Part 3
Dave Phillips completes his survey of Java-based sound and music applications that run under Linux.
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Linux Journal Live!
Join Editor Shawn Powers Thursday evenings at 7:30pm Central Time-- live! Ask questions, listen in.
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HOW-TOs
Bash Parameter Expansion
October 1st, 2008 by Mitch Frazier in
If you use bash you already know what Parameter Expansion is, although you may have used it without knowing its name. Anytime you use a dollar sign followed by a variable name you're doing what bash calls Parameter expansion, eg echo $a or a=$b. But parameter expansion has numerous other forms which allow you to expand a parameter and modify the value or substitute other values in the expansion process.
Change Volume From a Bash Script
September 24th, 2008 by Mitch Frazier in
If you use ALSA for sound on your system the functions contained in the script presented here can be used to get and set the volume on your system. You might use this if you had a monitoring script running and wanted to raise the volume when you signal an alarm and then lower it again to the previous volume.
Monitoring Processes with Kill
September 23rd, 2008 by Rich Lundeen in
If you have a process ID but aren't sure whether it's valid, you can use the most unlikely of candidates
to test it: the kill command. If you don't see any reference to this on the kill(1) man page, check the info
pages. The man/info page states that signal 0 is special and that the exit code from kill tells whether a
signal could be sent to the specified process (or processes).
Grep: RRTFM
September 16th, 2008 by Mitch Frazier in
If you've been a Linix/UNIX user for a long time you surely know what RTFM means (Read The *bleep* Manual). I'd like to offer up a new, related acronym, RRTFM, for Re-Read The *bleep* Manual.
Product Review
Research Report: "Open Source in the Enterprise", a Review
October 2nd, 2008 by James Gray in
This is a review of a relatively new resource, called Open Source in the Enterprise (OSIE) by Bernard Golden. The report's raison d'être is to help companies to decide if open source applications are right for their enterprise, and if so, how to implement it intelligently.
More From LinuxJournal.com
Adios Windows 9x
September 25th, 2008 by LJ Staff in
The upcoming release of Cygwin version 1.7 will be dropping support for Windows 9x (Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me). If you're lucky enough never to have to use Windows, Cygwin probably seems like a waste of effort. But, if you're not so lucky, Cygwin is what keeps you sane.
Join us for Linux Journal Live! Thursday Evening
September 24th, 2008 by LJ Staff
Join Editor Shawn Powers and columnist Kyle "Hack and /" Rankin this Thursday evening -- live! Ask questions, listen in... whatever you do just make sure to come join in the fun.
Slax: Your Pocket Operating System
September 18th, 2008 by Carlie Fairchild in
Slax is a fast, small, portable Linux distribution taking a modular approach that gives you the ability to easily add on your favorite software. Just download a module with the software, copy it to Slax -- no installing, no configuring.
See it in action:
Linux Product Insider - ”Free the Penguins” Virtualization in Schools Initiative
September 17th, 2008 by James Gray in
The "Linux Product Insider" features: ”Free the Penguins” Virtualization in Schools Initiative; ZaReason's Breeze 3110 PC; Gimpel's FlexeLint for C/C++; Glacier Computer's Everest Rugged Industrial Computer; Alternative Technology's Oracle Unbreakable Linux Support.
Java Sound & Music Software for Linux, Part 2
September 16th, 2008 by Dave Phillips in
In this second part of my survey I list and briefly describe some of the Java sound and music applications known to work under Linux. Java applications show up in almost every category found at linux-sound.org and the Applications Database at linuxaudio.org. The scalability of the language is well-demonstrated throughout those pages where one can find everything from highly specialized mini-applications to full-size production environments. Of course I can't cover or even present the entire range of Java soundapps, but this survey should give readers a good idea of Java's potential in the sound and music software domain. Again the presentation is in no special order.
Breaking News
| GIMPs Are Popping Out All Over the Place | 3 days 21 hours ago |
| Linux Foundation Offers Up a Conference For Us All | 5 days 50 min ago |
| Mama Mia – Italian Blogs Just Got a Lot Hotter | 6 days 23 hours ago |
| Linux Foundation Takes a Bite Out of Sun | 1 week 2 days ago |
Blogs and Opinion
Rebuilding a Laptop Battery
October 5th, 2008 by Phil Hughes
When your laptop battery is about to give up the ghost, you are
probably thinking of the typical three alternatives. The most
obvious, of course, is "wow, what a great justification for buying
a new laptop". With laptop prices falling and no such luck with
battery prices, this almost makes sense. But, most of us will
probably just bite the bullet and buy a new battery.
Linux turns 17
October 5th, 2008 by Doc Searls
Free minix-like kernel sources for 386-AT, was the subject of Linus Benedict Torvalds post to comp.os.minix on October 5, 1991 -- seventeen years ago today.
A Disturbing Trend
October 4th, 2008 by David Lane
"Lawyers in the Windows Vista Capable lawsuit against Microsoft want a federal judge to force the company to use Windows Update to notify potential class members of the suit, according to court documents." This is the opening paragraph in an article in ComputerWorld. A number of people, including myself think this is a bad idea.
Stay of execution for Internet radio
September 30th, 2008 by Doc Searls
Says here that Internet radio is about to get a reprieve. We've been covering the fight between the RIAA and webcasters for many years, going back to the DMCA, which left working out webcasting royalties pretty much unfinished.
Openness is the Solution to the (Double) Subprime Crisis
September 30th, 2008 by Glyn Moody
As I listen to all this talk of lack of trust in the banking system, of inflated values ungrounded in any reality, of “opacity”, and of “contaminated” financial instruments, I realise I have heard all this before. In the world of software, as in the world of finance, there is contamination by overvalued, ungrounded offerings that have led to systemic mistrust, sapped the ability of the computer industry to create real value, and led it to squander vast amounts of time and money on the pursuit of the illusory, insubstantial wealth that is known as “intellectual property”.
Linux and FOSS in a Slowing Economy
September 26th, 2008 by Katherine Druckman
In case anyone hasn't been paying attention, apparently the US economy isn't doing too well these days. There is a lot of news lately about banks failing, government bail-outs, and natural disasters that will cost us all a lot of money (thanks, Ike).
Toshiba NB100 for Linux
September 23rd, 2008 by Phil Hughes
It seems that lots of people are talking about Toshiba's NB100 mini-laptop but they are just talking about it appearing in the UK market in October. What The Register has to say is as good as any.
GACL
September 21st, 2008 by Doc Searls
Until Chrome came along, Google's Master Mobile Plan didn't quite add up. Now it does. Chrome -- Google's new superbrowser -- is cream on the top of a new mobile software stack. Let's call it GACL, for Gears, Android and Chrome on Linux.
Google Chrome . . . for Linux?!
September 19th, 2008 by marcel
As some of you know, Google released a new browser recently, something called Chrome. The idea is/was to fix everything that is wrong with browsers and make the Web browsers a tool to run applications. As opposed to just viewing Web pages. I'm being a bit silly here, but Chrome is built to be more like an operating system than a plain old browser. There's more but it's all only for Windows users since a Linux version doesn't yet exist. Wait . . . What? Check out this screenshost (click it for a full screen view).
The *Other* Vista: Successful and Open Source
September 19th, 2008 by Glyn Moody
There is a clear pattern to open source's continuing rise. The first free software that was deployed was at the bottom of the enterprise software stack: GNU/Linux, Apache, Sendmail, BIND. Later, databases and middleware layers were added in the form of popular programs like MySQL and Jboss. More recently, there have been an increasing number of applications serving the top of the software stack, addressing sectors like enterprise content management, customer relationship management, business intelligence and, most recently, data warehousing.
But all of these are generic programs, applicable to any industry: the next frontier for free software will be vertical applications serving particular sectors. In fact, we already have one success in this area, but few people know about it outside the industry it serves. Recent events mean that may be about to change.
Where Do YOU Send Netbook Users For Help?
September 18th, 2008 by Shawn Powers
As a Linux evangelist, I find myself in an interesting quandary. There are many new netbooks being sold with Linux pre-installed, but often the way Linux is installed is not what I’m used to seeing. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I understand the reasoning for custom interfaces, but it has some disadvantages.
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Linux Journal Live - Oct 2, 2008
October 3rd, 2008 by Shawn Powers
The October 2, 2008 edition of Linux Journal Live! Associate Editor, Shawn Powers, and Steven Evatt, Online Development manager for The Houston Chronicle discuss surviving disaster with Linux.
Mastering IPTables, Part I
October 2nd, 2008 by Elliot Isaacson
Linux comes with a powerful firewall built-in, although the interface can be a little intimidating. This is the first in a multi-part tutorial on how to master basic and not-so-basic IPTables functionality and create the perfect firewall for your home network.
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From the Magazine
October 2008, #174
This month's focus is Languages. Parlez-Vous Français? Wait, not those types of languages, programming languages. We've got a few different ones this time around: Inform, Sleep and Falcon. And, on a more traditional front, Guido Van Rossum talks about Python 3000. Our monthly columns also include discussions of JavaScript, PHP using Eclipse, and bash, and Chef Marcel talks about languages more generally.
On other fronts, if you're interested in audio, we've got part II of Dave Phillips' Linux Audio series; Kyle Rankin shows you how to connect some musical instruments to your system and use them with a number of audio programs; and Dan Sawyer shows you where to store all that audio data in his review of the HP Media Valut. All that and more in this month's issue of Linux Journal.
