Logiciel Libre

Tired of staring at your computer screen? This guy will help make it a little more interesting.

I was recently getting the following error when trying to use GUI administration tools bundled with Fedora Core:

$ sudo system-config-printer
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified

system-config-printer: could not open display
This is a graphical application and requires DISPLAY to be set.

Sounds like fun!

(more…)

I just found what appears to be a Hungarian translation of an article I wrote for the Linux Journal on learning the quicksort algorithm using the DDD debugger. Can anyone translate? Should I be getting some royalties or something? :)

Why would anyone ever count in octal outside of computer science and math? Guess, then read on.

From the Wikipedia entry on Octal:

The Yuki language in California and the Pamean languages in Mexico have octal systems because the speakers count using the spaces between their fingers rather than the fingers themselves.

News to me! They sure miss[ed] out on two extra digits worth of convenience.

Ever heard of high dynamic range imaging? It’s a pretty amazing digital post-processing technique where multiple exposures and effects are combined to make some striking, dramatic images.

Is there any “Netflix for books” service out there? Yeah, I know what a library is, and libraries are great, but if I want to borrow a popular or recently published book it can be pretty hard to get it from the library. Plus, my local branch is being remodeled.