I just saw that Amazon MP3 now officially supports Linux. Packages are available for the latest versions of Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and openSUSE. Sweet! Even though it’s not an ideal free software solution, it’s still exciting to see a service selling DRM-free music to the free software community. Seems like a step in the right direction. I submitted a brainstorm idea about it:
Update: No 64-bit client available (yet?). 
My friend Kiyoshi made a site called AngryJournalist as a place for journalists to rant anonymously where others could read it. Someone has apparently ported this for physicians in training: AngryResident. It wasn’t by me, but no doubt only because I’ve got another 3 years before I get to worry about ranting 
The following video is of my computer, running Ubuntu 7.10, with some of the new features and applications I’ve been playing around with, including compiz-fusion, avant, and amarok. Best part? This is all free software! Enjoy!
A more detailed video, more features.
Can your computer do that?
Have you ever read about a cool new linux application, but it’s not available out-of-the-box with your current version of Ubuntu? You can go searching online only to find a bunch of instructions telling you how to compile the program yourself. That’s not very helpful if you’re unfamiliar with Linux. I’m leery to compile anything, and I have had this problem with 2 applications so far. Both of these are things that will be available in the next release of Ubuntu, but I want to try them out now. GetDeb is a site that hosts pre-compiled versions of popular applications, which you can download as a .deb file (Debian installer file). You can read more about GetDeb here. The 2 things were pidgin-musictracker and Avant Window Manager.
Apparently the new rig shipped (from China) this morning. Man, fast shipping just sweetened the deal even more! Expected delivery is Wednesday (to my mom’s house).
I need to renew my FAFSA for next year so that I am eligible for federal loans for school. I attempted to log in to the FAFSA website to do this, and I was greeted with the following message: “We have detected that you are using a non-certified browser.”
They proceeded to give me a long list of browsers they do support, including Internet Explorer, Netscape, and Mozilla Firefox (my browser). What’s the problem then? Oh, they only support Firefox on Microsoft and Macintosh operating systems. What the hell?! What kind of age are we living in that websites are still placing these kinds of silly browser restrictions on its users, especially a government one? I proceeded to send their Customer Support folks a nice message:
I really feel that it is unacceptable that the FAFSA website only supports browsers in proprietary operating systems (Microsoft and Macintosh). You choose to support Firefox on Mac and Windows, so why not in GNU/Linux? I think as a government website, you should allow users to choose free software if they want to and not lock them into proprietary systems that cost hundreds of dollars. See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html.
Now that I re-read this, I feel like I focused too much on cost, although this is a concern for some using free software. It inherently seems un-American to restrict the public’s freedoms in such a way. In fact, it even seems against the philosophy of FAFSA. After all, how can it be a “Free” Application for Federal Student Aid, in any sense of the word “free,” if you’re required to purchase a proprietary operating system to use it?
Fortunately, their contact form did not have browser restrictions. If you’re offended by this, feel free to let them know.
A few weeks after Drupal (runs RMstudents.com) got an upgrade to 6.0, WordPress is scheduled to offer its next big release (2.5) next week, and Ubuntu will upgrade to 8.04 in a few weeks. Ah, the wonders of regularly updated free software packed full of new features!
So I’ve been looking into picking up a little decorative art for the new rig since the outside design is kinda plain. I saw today that you can get 4 free “Powered by Ubuntu” stickers by sending them a SASE (hat tip ubuntu.wordpress.com). If you prefer a wider variety and don’t mind DIY, there’s always the Free Software Sticker Book. Or you could buy them at CafePress.
The New Rig (just purchased):
Lenovo Thinkpad T61 14″ Widescreen model
Specs:
)**Total Price (including Rush discount, coupon, and taxes): $ 936.12
It won’t ship for another 2 weeks, which is good. It will be an after-finals treat 
* – I will be replacing the stock 1GB chip with 2x2GB Kingston memory from NewEgg for an extra $80.
** – I will be loading Ubuntu on it, as part of my resolution.
I’m a big fan of WordPress. It runs this blog, millions of other private blogs, and hundreds of thousands of blogs at WordPress.com. It’s a great architecture for developing online tools and the community is one of the best around. Matt Mullenweg (lead developer of WordPress and founder of Automattic) announced today that Automattic has taken BuddyPress under its giant wing today to nurture the project into full bloom. BuddyPress is a social network based on WPMU, the framework behind WordPress.com. It will be a social network that will connect me right where I am (this blog). And it will be FOSS that anyone can use, improve, and even create plug-ins for.
The important part of this is something I’ve felt for a long time. No offense to users of Facebook, MySpace or what-have-you, but I think this quote sums it up very nicely:
I am tired of data silos. I am tired of trying to keep up with every new site that comes along. I am tired of someone else owning my place on the internet. This is my place. This blog is me. Anyone who reads this I am sure will think I am strange that I mix my personal thoughts in with my programming frustrations. I don’t care. I write this for me because I own these bits and by hell they will do my bidding. -Justin Ball
I also enjoyed this Q & A on Techcrunch:
I asked Mullenweg if the world really needs another social network. His response:
The world doesn’t need another social network, it needs a thousand networks that let you own your data and interconnect using open standards. We invest countless hours giving our data to networks like MySpace, essentially sharecropping on their land for the privilege of being able to connect to our friends. It’s our friends, our time, our connections, our data — it should be our software.
I think only an Open Source solution can do that.
I can’t wait to see how this shapes up over the course of the next few weeks/months/years.
