When the OpenSolaris Governing Board issued their ultimatum to Oracle on July 12, few thought it would have the desired effect of saving OpenSolaris. The board sent a message that if Oracle didn't start to show some interest in OpenSolaris by August 23, they would disband and leave OpenSolaris without leadership and guidance. more>>

In the latest round of upgrades and new installs of openSUSE around here I decided to take a different approach and use the network install and install from a USB stick rather than a DVD. While I was at it I decided that I'd try to make a dual boot installer that would allow me to install either the 32-bit or 64-bit version of the latest openSUSE (version 11.3) from the same USB stick. more>>

The technology scene of Montréal is a very vibrant one. With groups such as our selves, OWASP, JS-Montreal, Montreal.rb, and PHP-Québec; with events such as WordCamp, PodCamp, Startup Drinks, and Startup Camp; you end up with weeks during which all your evenings are booked before lunch time on Monday. Yet, it also happens that you have a guest in town and that you want to show then how active you city is without knowing where exactly you should take him to.

Fortunately, some members of the community decided to take the matter in their own hands and to expose for all to see what is going on with the tech and startup scene here in Montréal. Next Montréal is a blog featuring news and opinion from the Web, mobile, and gaming communities. The site is piloted by a handful of Montréal entrepreneurs, engaging us with interviews with the local players and giving us a good feel for who’s working on what and what’s the next big thing. Beyond interviews, Next Montréal brings together the community by posting job opportunities and a calendar of events.

Next Montréal is a great initiative and we hope to see more Python project featured there.

This year again, ConFoo is going to be a major conference on Web development bringing together many of the local communities. To celebrate this synergy, everyone is invited to ConFooBBQ, the BBQ for developers and other actors of the Web.

The BBQ will take place on 2010-09-11 starting at 1h00 PM.

On the menu: hot-dogs, chips, salad, soft-drinks, cookies, and lots of fun. In line with our beer inspired events, Montréal-Python will bring a keg a Charmeuse de Serpents, a special batch of India Pale Ale with a very assertive character.

To help us plan adequate supplies, please send an email to board@confoo.ca if you plan to attend. Don’t forget to mention if you come with others. If you can’t find the group once you’re on the site, feel free to give the crew a call: 1-888-679-8466 option 0.

Details of the event:

• when: 2010-09-11 at 1h PM
• where: Mont-Royal park, near the Smith House
• who: developers, actors of the Web, and their family
• price: it’s free
• reservations: board@confoo.ca

Wine runs many Windows programs nicely these days, including more and more serious music applications. Dave profiles some of those applications running under the latest & greatest Wine 1.2 more>>

Five days after the announcement of Voice and Video Chat service in Gmail for Debian-based Linux distributions, Google unveiled a Gmail phone call service for Windows, Mac, and Linux. more>>

This month Shawn and Kyle throw out X-Windows, and kick it old
school with the command line issue. Granted, "kicking it old school"
isn't really a stretch for them, especially Kyle, but you can join in
the fun with an entire issue focused on command line tools. Whether more>>

How often do we all hear the phrase, “Could you take a look at it for me?” Whether you are checking out a machine for a friend or colleague or looking after one of your own machines, it's handy to have the ability to virus check a Windows setup from the safety of a Linux boot CD or USB stick. This short guide shows you how to scan for infected files by booting into SystemRescueCD and running ClamAV, a virus checker. more>>

Montréal in September is an enthralling an time and place to be part of. With so many universities, you can hardly walk three blocks without bumping into a group of young persons dressed with their grand parents’ cloths and proudly holding signs announcing their initiation. People moving in, shopping for books, meeting old friends in brew pubs, typing on their laptop while sitting on a park bench. These parks,  are slowly left behind as the weather cools down and as cafés fill up once again.

For us too, at Montréal-Python, the vacation must end and we have to get back to work with new presentations and sprints. The preparation for our next meeting is going well and we should be able to announce a date soon. Beside that, we will have two sprints in September: one on Django translation on 2010-09-22 and one on the Python Packaging System on 2010-09-29. As usual, both will start at 6h30pm and will go on as long as people are standing. The most likely location is the Brasseurs Numériques’ office but we have other options in our sight so wait for some announcement later on to confirm the venue.

“What are these sprints anyway?”,
you may ask. During a sprint, a bunch of hackers get together and start working towards a common goal. You arrive there with your laptop, you grab a drink from the fridge, most likely a beer but other options are available, then you ask what everyone is working on. At this point, you might decide to pair with someone else or you may elect to work one some other aspect of the project, in which case you let everyone know what your plans are.

“Why would I join the sprint instead or working from home?”,
you probably wonder at this point. Beside all the merriness that usually ensues from simpling having a bunch of people sitting together with their favorite beverage, mine being beer in case you are wondering, you will typically be much more productive when you have many experts at hand to give you some help when you get stuck. That or you get much less productive as you spend your evening helping others to become super stars, just like you. “Wait, how did you just do that?”, you will probably ask at some point, “in Bash, CTRL-r searches in your history” is the likely reply from your coach. Sprints are like that; you learn new ways to be productive, not things that you would read in books, but the kind of tips and tricks that makes your life easier.

“What if I’m a total noob?”,
Well in that case we don’t want you. Just kidding. We want new comers at sprint because it’s the best place to teach them how to become self sufficient, and it’s much more effective to help them while sitting beside them then by instructing them on a mailing list. We once had one guy come to a sprint without having Python installed on his computer. When he left, he had committed a unit test for distutils2. He is now a core Python contributor.

“That’s cool! Where do I sign up?”,
I’m glad you asked, because venues that are good for sprinting are not very large and we have to restrict participation accordingly. You can make sure that there will be room for you by signing-up on our wiki. If you can’t attend for one reason or the other, you can always work with us remotely and coordinate by IRC, on #montreal-python on irc.freenode.net.

This is what sprinting is all about, and this is why we do it. We hope to see many new faces in our September sprints.

BuGLe is a tool for OpenGL debugging, implemented as a wrapper library that sits between your program and OpenGL. Although it's still in development, the Web site states that it already can do the following: more>>

One of the most common programs on Linux systems for packaging files is the venerable tar. tar is short for tape archive, and originally, it would archive your files to a tape device. Now, you're more likely to use a file to make your archive. To use a tarfile, use the command-line option -f . To create a new tarfile, use the command-line option -c. more>>

Parsix GNU/Linux is a great little distro hailing from the exotic lands of Persia. It features a lovely customized GNOME desktop and lots of handy applications. It reminds folks of Ubuntu in many ways and is often described as a nice alternative to Ubuntu. more>>

If you are one of the thousands of people who attend the South by Southwest Interactive conference each year, you could have the opportunity to hear a little about how things work around here, as well as my perspective on the seemingly endless debate about the future of print and online publishing. more>>

In the course of a normal work day I take several little breaks to check the news. On my list of news sites are Slashdot, Linux Journal and Linux Today. Frequently I see something that gives me an idea for an article. more>>

Bruce Steinberg was the best Linux Journal reader I ever had, qualifying on the grounds of correspondence volume alone. His letters to this one editor were always long, and always thick with good humor, good advice, and rich history. Bruce was a Unix/Linux geek of the first water, and worked for many years at SCO, long before that "brand" was shamed at the end of its life. more>>

Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a web interface to the logs on your central log server? Well, dream no more because this one is a reality thanks to LogAnalyzer (aka phplogcon). Let's take a look at how to setup both it and its suggested syslog variant, rsyslog, on a central log server. more>>

Today Google released a plug-in to allow Debian-based distros video and chat capabilities through Gmail accounts. Two years after the Windows and Mac releases, one has to wonder if it might be too little too late. more>>

I've been working as a freelancer for almost a year now, and I cannot help noticing how free software helps making this possible. Working in an international setting, most of the work is done from my home office. This requires techniques to get the work done. more>>

The Linux community had two birthdays to celebrate recently. Debian GNU/Linux turned 17 on August 16 and openSUSE has been providing an excellent desktop Linux for five years. more>>

Ever had a source package fail to build due to a missing file? If so, apt-file, a tool that searches online repositories for a specific file, may be the answer. more>>