SourceForge Removes "Blanket" Block

By Joe Brockmeier | Published: 2/8/2010

After just a few weeks, SourceForge has backed off its policy of imposing a blanket ban on all users trying to access the site from countries on the U.S. "banned" list. Instead, it announced on Sunday that it's putting the decision in the hands of each project that hosts on the site.

According to SourceForge's Lee Schlesinger, the company has no way of knowing which projects should or shouldn't trigger a block. So it will leave that up to the individuals running the project:

Read the rest on OStatic

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Writing a Simple Bash Script

By Joe Brockmeier | Published: 2/8/2010

The first step is often the hardest, but don't let that stop you. If you've ever wanted to learn how to write a shell script but didn't know where to start, this is your lucky day.

If this is your first time writing a script, don't worry — shell scripting is not that complicated. That is, you can do some complicated things with shell scripts, but you can get there over time. If you know how to run commands at the command line, you can learn to write simple scripts in just 10 minutes. All you need is a text editor and an idea of what you want to do. Start small and use scripts to automate small tasks. Over time you can build on what you know and wind up doing more and more with scripts.

Read the rest on Linux.com

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Beautiful projects deserve beautiful sites

By Joe Brockmeier | Published: 2/8/2010
Front page of the LESS Web site

Front page of the LESS Web site

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. The old cliche is true, and it applies to the Web sites of FLOSS projects as surely as it does a first date or a job interview. Unfortunately, all too many FLOSS Web sites make a very, very poor first impression. Not surprising, since many FLOSS developers are much more talented at coding than they are at Web site design. How to fix the problem?

Sawyer X writes about "marketing the entire box," and how it relates to Perl, Ruby, Python, and PHP. Specifically, he notes that many Ruby sites have beautiful sites not because they understand how to design sites better, but because they view sites as part of the product:

Ruby programmers see the marketing as relating to not just the product, but its wrapper. That is, that many Ruby programmers understand at a very core level (more than most programmers - at least me) that the website which shows the project is the actual wrapper of the project and is just as important, if not more so.

The same is true of any project. Users and contributors look at a site and form a first impression based on the look of the site before they ever take the time to download code and install it. It's hard not to look at sites like the LESS site or the Banshee Project and think that the projects are going to be solid and more professional because the sites are solid and professional looking. On top of the visual impact, the sites are well-designed and easy to navigate. So when a potential user decides to take the next steps, they can find what they're looking for in a hurry.

But so many sites look amateurish and just plain ugly. Unless you're already motivated to use the project, there's a good chance you're going to turn around and go to the next project. I'm not saying CPAN sites are ugly, by the way -- but the LESS site is far more appealing, wouldn't you agree? Sure, Perl developers may be fine with the existing CPAN design. It's functional. They understand the layout. It's part of the Perl culture, etc. But marketing a project isn't just about making the existing community happy, it's about attracting new members and growing and changing to fit their needs.

Standard CPAN Project Page

Standard CPAN Project Page

I'm glad to see Sawyer X (presumably not his real name) putting out a call for help to beautify Perl projects. On a larger scale, how could the FLOSS community harness the talents of Web designers who might want to contribute to FLOSS projects or simply find projects to showcase their skills? Or perhaps provide some site templates that allow developers to simply plug in details and wind up with a prettified site?

This is a topic that has grabbed my interest not just because of the marketing FLOSS angle, which is important, but also because I've been tweaking my own site design. While it's fun, site design is not one of my core skills. I can mangle HTML just fine, but actually making things look pretty from a Web design angle... not so much one of my strengths. Better resources for site design would be greatly helpful!

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Today is Clean Out Your Computer Day: Use Linux...

By Joe Brockmeier | Published: 2/8/2010

According to WebWorkerDaily, today is "Clean Out Your Computer Day," which means anything from scanning your system for viruses or getting the rat's nest of files under control on your desktop. Of course, if you want to go squeaky clean, think about putting Linux on your computer or help someone else with their spring clean by putting Linux on their system.

It's interesting how many add-on applications one can find to help fix inherent problems with Windows. Anti-viruses, de-fragging utilities, registry tools, and so on. Linux may have its problems, but I haven't had to defrag a hard drive in about 10 years, or worry about running an anti-virus of any kind.

Spring cleaning for the files system is another story entirely. I tend to wind up with a ton of file clutter after using a machine for a few weeks, much less a full year. Lately I've been trying to keep it under control a bit more by arranging work files in a more strict directory structure (and making sure that it's backed up) and weeding out the Downloads directory at least once a week, getting rid of files I won't need again (like ISOs that have been burned to CD) and filing away PDFs and other documents I might need again.

One piece of advice in the WebWorkerDaily is good for all of us: Shut down that machine and do a good cleaning. Get some canned air and blow the dust out of the sucker, especially the vents around fans and so forth. If you have a desktop machine, at least once a year you should pop it open and get the dust out.

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New 80's Music! Spoons on Magnatune

By Joe Brockmeier | Published: 2/7/2010

Love the 80's sound, but tired of all the stuff in your collection? Magnatune has just released Unexpected Guest at a Cancelled Party by Spoons, an 80s band from Canada you may or may not have heard of. (I hadn't)

While I was tinkering with the new site theme this morning, I checked out Unexpected. It's not surprising that Spoon didn't knock Duran Duran off the charts, but several of the songs are quite good and it definitely has that 80's feel. Have only given it one drive-by listen so far, but I'll be adding that to the rotation this week.

If you're a child of the 80's, or just dig the era, go grab it today or just give it a listen right here. The embedded player includes a short notice after each track.


Unexpected Guest at a Cancelled Party by Spoons

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Amazon vs. Macmillan: Authors lose, physical books win

By Joe Brockmeier | Published: 2/5/2010

Amazon has pulled books from publisher Macmillan off of its virtual "shelves" because the publisher has told Amazon it wants to increase its ebook prices and split royalties 70/30. Amazon said publicly that it would (eventually) agree to Macmillan's terms, but in the meantime they've yanked titles off the site and there's no indication when the company will be selling the titles again.

Amazon may hope to strong-arm Macmillan but it's doing a really good job of pissing off writers and writers' groups. The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) have removed Amazon.com links from their Web site and quite a few authors are getting increasingly pissed at Amazon for screwing with their sales. John Scalzi says it far better than I can:

Many if not most of these folks do not have the financial cushion I do, and the sales that they are getting cut out of here are going to make a real and concrete difference to them when it comes time to tally up royalties, and when they’re trying to sell that next book. I have friends who are deeply worried right now about what this thing is doing to them, and they should be worried, because it’s going to hurt them if it drags out. Amazon is not the entire sales universe, to be sure, but it’s a significant chunk, especially for genre writers who build their communities online and sell a large percentage of their work online (and thus through Amazon) because of it.

I said it snarkily yesterday but I’ll tell it to you in earnest today: Amazon was moving against Macmillan when it pulled those books, but in doing so it also moved against Macmillan’s authors. Amazon thought it was sniping at a corporation, but in fact it unloaded a shotgun into a crowd of writers. It wasn’t smart, and although I know the world isn’t built to accommodate this particular concept, neither was it fair. There’s a lot of collateral damage here.

It's a bit ironic that the real problem here isn't DRM, which (rightfully) has a lot of people nervous because of the potential for its abuse, but plain old corporate stupidity.

Having written or contributed to a few books (albeit nothing that's generated any real royalties), I can sympathize with the authors being caught in the crossfire much more easily than I can sympathize with Amazon or Macmillan. Amazon is a channel between the author and their buying public. When Amazon decides to play chicken with Macmillan it isn't just hurting Macmillan, it's hurting the authors. Lost sales to Macmillan might hurt the company, but not as much as the lost royalties to the individual authors.

In the past, I've spent quite a bit through Amazon on books, Kindle eBooks, MP3s, DVDs, and so forth. I've had a "Prime" membership for years, which I'm giving serious thought to canceling if this little stunt doesn't end very soon. While Amazon is the most convenient game in town, it's not the only one.

If you are a bookish person, consider buying at least one Macmillan title from another retailer, to show support for their authors and to show Amazon that, in fact, people can buy books from other sources and all Amazon is doing is pissing off authors and their fans.

Posted in Books, Digital Rights, Front Page | 1 Comment

Mozilla Sponsors GNOME Accessibility Efforts

By Joe Brockmeier | Published: 2/4/2010

Good news on the accessibility (a11y) front. Mozilla has donated $10,000 to help with GNOME's a11y efforts. This isn't the first time that Mozilla has contributed to GNOME (and hopefully, not the last). The projects have a long history of working together on a11y efforts dating back at least to 2008 when the Mozilla folks gave the first donation to GNOME for a11y, which helped benefit Orca and other a11y technology in GNOME.

Read the full details on the GNOME site.

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