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September 2010 PLUG Meeting |
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Written by Jason Wallwork
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Thursday, 09 September 2010 01:32 |
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 The next PLUG meeting is coming up fast. In fact, it's this coming Monday.
Free computers at our September Meeting!
Well not exactly, but close. Harry will give a slide show on turning a decade-old computer that would normally be thrown out into a useable and not too shabby machine for the guest room, children, or grandparents. It works well enough to play 3D games, do some graphics work, watch movies, and the usual email and Internet browsing. It even handles OpenOffice.org Impress. For the price, it's awfully good.
Hint: The OS originally comes from Europe, and the desktop, while being quite easy and functional, is designed for low memory machines and slower processors.
Date: Monday, September 13, 2009
Time: 7:00 - 9:00 PM
Location: Applewood Manor, 1500 Lansdowne Street West, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.
Applewood is located right next to the former E-LAN Games where we used to meet. It's the next building east. Parking is on the east (right) side. Entrance is at the front of the building. From the front, go down the hall to the right, and enter the last door on the left.
Admission is free.
There will be a door prize. Members get double entries.
After the meeting, everyone is invited to Tim Horton's just east of the meeting location.
Hope to see you there!
Note: PLUG MUG nights will continue every Thursday night including the week of a regular PLUG meeting (as long as there is interest). Please check the forums for the weekly sign-up list.
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VLC Media Player: The Cone Knows Its Formats (TechNewsWorld) |
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Written by Jason Wallwork
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Wednesday, 18 August 2010 12:35 |
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 If you've used open source software or Linux for a while, you probably already know about VLC Media Player. If not, you're in for a treat. In both Linux and Windows, VLC is the way to go. It's also available for OS X. You can throw almost any video or audio file at it and it'll just work. No tinkering is necessary. This article is a review of just how easy VLC player is:
VLC does not need external codec packs installed. Everything is also standard fare. This alone makes it invaluable. Playing video and audio files along with Internet radio and podcasts in this hassle-free app is what Linux computing should be all about.
A cool feature you may not be aware of is “the built-in streaming server. VLC Media Player streams in unicast and multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. You will not find this combination in most other media apps.”
More in the review at TechNewsWorld.
You can download VLC Media Player with most Linux distributions. Just check your package manager. With other operating systems, you can download it at http://videolan.org.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 18 August 2010 12:51 |
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Written by Jason Wallwork
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Saturday, 07 August 2010 19:20 |
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 Busybox's developer, Erik Anderson, with representation from the Software Freedom Conservancy, has been engaged in a lawsuit against a dozen electronics companies for violating the GPL. The companies have been distributing hardware that includes Busybox but not licensing it under GPL-compatible terms.
In late July, the judge in the case issued a summary judgement against one of the defendants, Westinghouse Digital Electronics, which stopped participating in the case when it entered bankruptcy protection. The ruling isn't a sweeping victory for the GPL, but it does show that the GPL is compatible with the standards for summary judgement.
The damages, $90,000, weren't large when considered with those sharing music on P2P sites ($675,000 and $1.92 million, in the first two cases to go to trial) however, because the company only shipped a single software package (although I'm presuming they shipped more than one unit).
More details at the ars technica article. The actual ruling can be found in PDF format at sfconservancy.org here. |
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