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Inside Russia’s ‘hacking culture’

Author: JT Smith

Wired.com: “The world’s greatest hackers and crackers live in Russia. That’s the opinion of many security experts, who weren’t surprised by a report claiming over 1 million credit card numbers were lifted from websites by Eastern Europeans last year.”

Category:

  • Linux

Weird VTOL rescue platform

Author: JT Smith

Anonymous Reader writes ZZZ online has a story (the second one from the top) about a vertical take off and landing vehicle with four ducted fans which is supposed to be superior over the helicopter is some rescue operations. The design of the vehicle is quite strange, but if it files, I’m sure it would be sometimes useful.”

Category:

  • Linux

How to add text in the GIMP

Author: JT Smith

Maddog writes “The GIMP offers several methods for adding text to your graphics. You can use the “Add Text” tool or the more versatile “Dynamic Text”.

Start by creating a new image. Add some color using the fill or gradient tool. When you’ve done this change the foreground color to the color you’ll want to use for your text. Use something that will look good with the color(s) you’ve used to fill the background layer and will contrast with those colors enough to show up. Now select the big T (“Add text to the image”) in the toolbox and left click inside your image. The “Text Tool” dialog box will open. Type a letter or word into the “Preview” area. Scroll down the font list and select the font you want to use. The previewed text will change to the font you’ve selected. You may have some choices displayed in the “Font Style” column depending on what options are available for the font you’ve selected. You can use the default “medium” or change to “bold” or “italic” if these choices are available. Again, your choice will change the previewed text. Now select a size for your font in the “Size” column. You’ll probably want it to be fairly large for our purposes here so select 64 or 72 points if these sizes are available. When you’ve made your choices click OK and the text will be added to your graphic as a floating selection using your foreground color. If you’re happy with that color anchor the floating selection by hitting the “New Layer” icon at the bottom right of the “Layers, Channels & Paths” dialog. Before you do this, however, you might want to experiment a bit while the text layer is still a floating selection. In the floating selection the borders of the text will appear as a selection. Make some changes to your foreground and background colors, select the gradient tool, and drag your mouse through the text. You can get a bit fancier with your color fill this way. Go ahead and anchor the floating selection when you’re satisfied and the floater will become a “Text Layer” on a transparent background.

More at Pinehead.

Category:

  • Linux

Interview with IBM’s Linux business strategist

Author: JT Smith

LinuxToday.com.au: “Late last week I had the chance to interview Elmer Corbin, Linux Business Strategist for IBM, at Australia’s Linux Business Expo, in Sydney. Earlier on at the show, Elmer had given the Friday keynote speech, as well as being a key participant in several forums. IBM also had the prestige of winning the category of “Best Product, Service or Contribution to Linux” with it’s S390 mainframe, at the Linux Expo.”

Category:

  • Linux

Linux Standards Base lives

Author: JT Smith

“Well, well, well, fancy that. The hollowed Linux Standard Base (LSB) project, the practically moribund open source program to get
everybody on the same page of the hymnal and safeguard the community from going down the same rat hole as the fragmented Unix, is
showing signs of life.” More at Linuxgram.com.

Category:

  • Linux

Maybe Linux is un-American after all

Author: JT Smith

“As it turns out, Microsoft’s latest self-serving screed about Linux and Open Source being a threat to the American Way may be more than
specious rhetoric. One thing is sure: out there in the rest of the world, Windows is losing the OS mind share game, big time.” Read more at Linuxgram.com.

Category:

  • Linux

Intel giveth, Intel taketh away

Author: JT Smith

Infoworld: “Looking to cut costs in a tough economic climate, Intel has postponed until next year a plan to provide free PCs to all its employees in the U.S.”

Category:

  • Open Source

Review of twelve PDAs

Author: JT Smith

PCWorld: “More and more professionals and consumers are relying on PDAs. According to the Gartner Group, sales of
handhelds in the United States will increase by 300 percent to about 28 million over the next four years. Not too
long ago, the choice was simple: The 5-ounce, monochrome-display Palm III reigned as the de facto standard
because it was practically the only option. These days, shopping for a PDA means sifting through lots of
choices.”

Category:

  • Unix

Review: Gigabyte GA-7ZMM Socket-A KM133 micro-ATX

Author: JT Smith

From Anandtech: “VIA’s low-cost KM133 chipset has been announced and available for quite some time however we are just now receiving the first boards based on the chipset. Gigabyte’s 7ZMM is the first KM133 board to enter the lab, read all about it here.”

Category:

  • Unix

Girl Scouts ‘hacked’

Author: JT Smith

The Register: The Girl Scouts of America Web site was playfully defaced by a crew calling itself Hackweiser Saturday night. “We demand cookies for all the l33t hax0rs and skript kiddies.”

Category:

  • Linux