My view of the world and anything that might interest me.
With the release of Thunderbird 1.5.0.2, Mail Redirect 0.7.3 will stop working since it has a max Thunderbird version of 1.5. I have updated the max version and repackaged the extention for those that does not want to fiddle with the package. Download here [Remember to rightclick and save somewhere]
Technorati Tags: Thunderbird, Mail Redirect
Mark, congratulation on being named International Open Source Personality Of The Year. It is nice to see somebody from South Africa being recognized for the work that is being done on an International platform.
Technorati Tags: Shuttleworth, Ubuntu
One thing that is missing from my hardware list and which is a critical item. I obviously need some optical device and the first one that springs to mind is a Dual Layer DVD writer. After thinking about this a bit I was wondering whether it would not be worthwhile to go directly to Blu-Ray or HD DVD drives. The question then arises, what one?
For a while now I have considered getting DSTV, I do not even have M-NET at the moment. Now that DSTV also come with their own PVR (Personal Video Recorder) I was considering it. Over the New year long weekend I read an article about a guy that build his own PVR. I then decided that it would be a nice hobby project to also build my own. Here is my idea on what I will use (please comment if you have any other ideas)
Hardware
Software
I will add blog entries as I progress with this hobby project.
I have started to use Performancing to do my Blogs and must say it works a lot easier. Can now post directly to my own hosted WordPress blog from within any FireFox browser session without going to my Blog admin page. Update: Hopefully I will now keep this blog more up to date since it is so easy to do.
During the last week I was asked the question whether Open Source is a viable solution for Business here in South Africa. My instinctive answer was yes but after thinking about it for a while I have my doubts.
Technically the answer is a yes … Open Source solutions is technically just as good if not better than most proprietary solution out there. I then asked myself the question why does Business then not use Open Source solutions and after talking to some businesses (both small and big) I came to the solution that it is all to do with professionalism and maturity in the Open Source community.
What do I mean by this? One big business told me straight that if you look at The Shuttleworth Foundation (TSF – which is suppose to be one of the biggest evangelists of the use of Open Source) and see the way they operate then I will understand. The impression is created that TSF promotes Open Source that is usable in schools and for the geek that wants to play around with it at home. They talk about things like Freedom Toasters and all the fun that can be had with Open Source. But when you ask them about how Open Source will help a business they do not seem to have the answers. Very few if any of the people at TSF knows or have any experience of what happens in the business world and how technology influence Business.
If this is true or not does not matter, it is the impression that is created that is important. As long as Open Source gets seen as the playground of youngsters/geeks and only usable in the education fields then business will not take it serious.
It is time that a forum/organization get established that has its aim and goal to further the use of Open Source in business. Even better is to add to an existing establishment like TSF to solely concentrate on the business world. But it must make sure that the people that is put to do that knows what the priorities and problems are in the business world and then come up with Open Source solutions that addresses that.
We have very credible and professional support companies in South Africa like Obsydian and products like Ubuntu but until we have a professional spokescompany to promote Open Source in the business world, it means nothing and proprietary software will be continued to be used.
Today as I am sitting here and reading on IRC about all the guys/gals travelling to Sydney for UDU (Ubuntu Down Under), I wished I had some money to join the guys/gals there. Well I suppose all that needs to be done is to convince sabdfl that the next Ubuntu Conference should be held here in SA and then in Cape Town.
Since Jane (she is the PM for UDU) is from Cape Town should make things a bit easier.
I have this old laptop without a hard disk and its battery is not working but it is working great with Ubuntu 4.10 LiveCD — have a look here.
Now with the release of Ubuntu 5.04 I decided it was time to download the LiveCD for it but wow what an nightmare here in South Africa or for anyone that has dialup. I have an ISDN connection with InfinityCall (that means that there is a max call charge of about R9 over off-peak) so I try to download big things over weekends and I try to use and torrent.
So I tried over this weekend and it is a slow and tedious process and while it is downloading my Internet connection is useless.
So if anybody from Cape Town has Ubuntu 5.04 LiveCD on a CD available then give me a shout and I would like to get a copy from you. Yes I did order my bunch of CD’s from shipit but that will take a while to arrive.