Returning to Amarok and Yakuake instead of Listen and Tilda??

Ok, I have used most of the Gnome music players and they are mostly very good and quite stable but here, I find myself back on Amarok, given up on it’s Gnome counterparts? Well, mostly it’s the tagging capabilities that Amarok offers. Yes, Listen and a few other have musicbrainz support but most of my …

Open Source Mind Mapping & Microfinance Software

I had seen, used and explored Freemind before but never REALLY put it to use. Recently, I began brainstorming for a project that I have had in my head for the last 12 months and I have found Freemind to be brilliant. As is the case with most software I seek out, it is cross-platform …

Links of the day – for my own reference

I shall replicate these at the serious student when I revive it so as to keep this blog focused on open source. The serious student can deal with more life, living, art & philosophy as per the original intention a number of years ago. Building Low Cost Disaster Resistant Housing Programs with Women – at …

Open Source everywhere I turn

Is it just me or is this the year of open source? That ever elusive “year of Linux” may not arrive but certainly, it seems the virus of open source is taking hold. It certainly is happening in the kind of Web2.0 projects we are seeing coming up, and many businesses are choosing open business …

Open Source PDF Editor for Linux (and a windows one but not OSS)

# Update – I discovered a better PDF Editor than flpsed and have written about it here I spend so much time typing and so little time writing these days, that when I have to use a pen, any length of writing ends up becoming a bit painful, especially so because I am left-handed and …

VMware’s licensing practices following Microsoft’s lead?

Today, I tried to organise some VMware licenses for a customer who was running the ESX Starter Pack. Both my customer and myself were never aware that To upgrade from ESX 3.0 Starter to Standard or Enterprise, you have to be an ‘Enterprise Partner’ To become an Enterprise partner, you need to pay US$1000 and …

Beyond the Linux OS – Nexenta, ReactOS, Syllable & Haiku

I recently stumbled upon this very interesting interview with (ex) Linux kernel developer Con Kolivas. The article is definitely worth a read as Con expresses much of his frustrations with the performance of the Linux kernel for desktop users (much of it relating to scheduling) as well as some of his frustrations with the kernel …

Convert IIS ssl certificate to use in Apache

Last time I did this, I found the instructions pretty easily on how to migrate SSL’s from IIS to Apache. This time I found it hard to locate the documentation, so for my own lack of memory and when google fails you, here it is: First we need to export the certificate from IIS into …

Troubleshooting Apache with mod_status, strace, apachetop, iftop & top

Ok – some real-life critical experience today.. one of our web servers notifies us (thanks to csf / lfd firewall ) that the server has had a high load for greater than 5 minutes. I get logged in and see the 5,10 & 15 minute load average exceeding 30 and this server normally runs at …

Open Source Flashcard Learning with Granule or Jmemorize

Whether you are trying to study for your RHCE, MCSE, Solaris, Linux+  or some University exams or maybe even trying to learn a new language, having some flashcards can be extremely helpful – for both short-term and long-term learning. I have a pretty good system setup: cross-platform, remote learning. I have played with both Jmemorize …