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Have you ever wondered how the OK and/or FAILED messages are printed out in the initialization of services on a Linux system during bootup? Well… I have. Anyway, I’ve always thought that it was really cool how the OK and FAILED messages printed out at the same column on the screen and in different colors. [...]

Have you ever wanted to create an installer program on a Linux system, but didn’t want all the hassle of an actual install builder? I have. I recently had need of a simple, no frills installation that could:

ask the user a few questions
extract some binary files and
do some stuff with those binary files.
 

So I’m [...]

The Problem
I recently had a problem. I am a software developer and as such I use source control. For this purpose I generally prefer Subversion. I have been keeping my source repositories on an external drive with the intention to back them up to another secure location periodically (yeah, that never happens). I looked into [...]

Revolution OS is a 2001 documentary which traces the history of GNU, Linux, and the open source and free software movements. It features several interviews with prominent hackers and entrepreneurs (and hackers-cum-entrepreneurs), including Richard Stallman, Michael Tiemann, Linus Torvalds, Larry Augustin, Eric S. Raymond, Bruce Perens, Frank Hecker and Brian Behlendorf. The film begins in [...]

I use Java as my main Linux server programming language these days and so I usually have a Bash script to go along with each program. The Bash script help encapsulate creating the proper CLASSPATH needed to run the Java program, calls the correct Java class and also passes through any command line parameters that [...]

The release of Apple’s iPhone has made tremendous waves in the cellphone industry. However, the honeymoon is over and the iPhone has been “cracked” in favor or more user customization and third party applications. Apple has announced an SDK (software developer kit) to be release for the iPhone coming in February 2008, but by then [...]