The Art of Unix Programming is Eric S. Raymond's book explaining much of the Unix history, traditions and tools. Available from Addison-Wesley, the book can also be read online at the link above.
7:58:36 PM comment []
I've driven a few technical editors to drink with my challenging writing: tenses and I don't always see eye to eye, a few split infinitives add rhythm to an essay, and gender-correct "he or she" or "s/he" is correctly written as the singular "they" in my none so humble opinion. So I was enlightened to discover the secret of prepositions in this Dr. Language column: http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/drlang001.html
5:37:05 PM comment []
I blogged back in July that I'd picked up a charming little Ethernet-to-USB print server from IOGear for $60, and needed to set it up with Linix. Leeman Strout wrote to ask if I'd ever had any success. I wandered over to the Linux workstation to check, and it wasn't set up, so I set to it. The printer is a Lexmark E312, which speaks PostScript natively, making it a bit easier to set up with Linux. Here's the
trick I used, thanks to the latest issue of Linux Magazine, March 2004 and http://www.linuxprinting.org. I opened a browser to localhost: 631, the http interface for CUPS. I added a new printer with the following specifications: Device: LPD/LPR Host or Printer, Device URI: lpd: 192.168.1.xx/ - its local address, Make: Postscript, Model: generic postscript printer (en). The trick was realizing that it used an older LPR interface, rather than the more modern Internet Printing Protocol (IPP). Test prints worked great!
5:20:33 PM comment []
The most common question I am hearing from developers considering bringing Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) into their company is whether people make money doing this. They do. In yet another article where the headline writer should be flogged, CNET reports on Pandora's box for open source. "As the demand for open-source software continues to rise, established companies must figure out how to profit while combining free technology with proprietary products."
The article is rather good. The headline, with its reference to an innocent girl releasing pestilence across the world, is a bit over the top.
11:40:09 AM comment []
