Kennebec Valley Computer Society

Dealing with bugs in Linux

One of the things I’ve always liked about using Linux is the feeling that my input is actually important. Either by way of giving input to the developers directly or (more importantly) reporting bugs that inevitably appear on a system. It’s the latter of the two that help Linux (as a whole) to take great [...]

Open Source Software - Rational or Risky Business?

I received quite a few comments this past week following the publishing of California IT Policy Letter 10-01 [PDF]  which formally establishes "the use of Open Source Software (OSS) in California state government as an acceptable practice."... While not obviating the need to determine our own security risks, when large organizations like the Federal government and Department of Defense make policy decisions to use OSS, aren t we being overly irrational by saying we re too good or too important that we

Python for Informatics: Remixing an Open Book [PDF]

I never seemed to find the perfect data-oriented Python book for my course so I set out to write just such a book. Luckily at a faculty meeting ... Dr. Atul Prakash showed me the Think Python book which he had used to teach his Python course that semester. It is a well-written Computer Science text with a focus on short, direct explanations and ease of learning. As the copyright holder of Think Python, Allen has given me permission to

Matt Asay joins Canonical

Ubuntu is already under too much influence from anti-Free Software, pro-Commercialization / pro-Fauxpen Source thinkers. They hire ex-Microsoft and ex-Novell employees, brook virtually no discussion on fundamentally divisive technologies like Mono and Moonlight, and put profits ahead of both user experience and ethics by making Microsoft the "opt-out" default search provider. At best, this mindset considers the Free Software foundation of GNU/Linux an inconvenience or distraction. Mr. Asay will fit right in with this mindset....If you understand that this pro-corporate interest

The New Middleclass Musicians: I Fight Dragons

Obviously, we ve been covering various stories of content creators who are making use of new methods and new ideas to build a successful business model in a very changed world. We get lots of content creators contacting us about what they re doing -- but so many are doing cool things these days that just what they re doing is becoming less interesting than the details of how well they re working. So it s great to see Ariel Hyatt, over at

Nexus One Reportedly Isnt Selling Well, But Linux Founder Loves It

Torvalds says the Nexus One is the first phone he doesn t "hate"

Explore A Website’s History With WaybackFox

Webmasters and researchers sometimes need to take a look at a website’s history. This is for instance essential when buying a website to make sure that the seller has been running the website for the time claimed and not snatched a dropped domain to make a quick buck. The Wayback Machine at archive.org is the [...]

Verizon Wireless Blocks 4chan; You Would Think It Would Remember What Happened When AT&T Did That

Last summer, due to a DDOS attack emanating from IP addresses connected to 4chan, AT&T temporarily blocked access to 4chan... without giving a full explanation for why. If you know 4chan, you know why this is a bad idea. It took very little time for the 4chan community to retaliate (and, as you know, no one "retaliates" like 4chan "retaliates"), and only a few days later, when AT&T explained what happened, did 4chan back off. So, now

Authors Guild Didnt Want To Pull An RIAA But Still Misses The Point

Last week, in discussing its attempt to settle its lawsuit with Google over the Google book scanning project, the Authors Guild posted a rather interesting public letter, entitled To RIAA or Not to RIAA, That was the Question. In defending the settlement, it notes that it could have fought the lawsuit to the end, but that it might have lost. In fact, this is why I supported the idea that Google should have fought on, because it seemed

What Is paypal.112.2o7.net

If you are a very observant – or cautious – PayPal user you might have noticed that several connection requests are made that are to other domains that are not paypal.com. This can be extremely worrying to users considering that malicious software and attackers also use these kinds of connections for their evil doings. If you [...]