jmbuser

First of all, this is not a tribute to Max Spevack, great guy that he is.

This is a long-overdue introduction to my alpha male cat, Max.

Also, Max was not named after Max Spevack, honest.  I'm a big fan of Fedora, but not so obsessional that I would name my pet after the former Fedora Project leader. Sorry, Max (the former FP leader, not my cat).

Here's the real explanation: Max (the cat, not the human) had a sister named Minnie - yeah, Max and Minnie.  Unfortunately, Minnie died while boarding at the vets (go figure), so Max is an orphan and without family, which not too uncommon a situation for rescued cats.

Max is the handsome cat with his tongue sticking out  in the accompanying photo. He serves as my mascot and hackergotchi. His breed is shorthair domestic cat. Max's pedigree is very mixed. His coloring, as the photo shows, is ginger and white.

Max is around 4 years old, having been rescued around the time of Hurricane Katrina. Katrina happens to be the name of his mother, who also passed on, but not after dragging Max and Minnie into my apartment one night at the tender age of 7 days.

I'm happy to say that Max has not only survived, but thrives. He weighs approximately 8 kg. I refer to him as my "dog cat", since he has quite a few canine traits along with the usually feline ones. He's cohabitating with Mollie, a very affectionate stray I rescued a few years back on a cold winter's night.

So there you have it.

For the record, I also like dogs and other living creatures. It just so happens stray cats are much more common in my part of the world.

After too long a break, I should be making landfall once more on Planet Fedora.

That is, if all goes according to plan.

If it works, credit the great tech support provided by the guys on the #fedora-websites channel.

If not, it's all my fault. :-)

I'm back! 

I've been away from my blog for much too long.

One of the reasons for being absent was losing my ability to aggregrate this blog with Planet Fedora at planet.fedoraproject.org. (I'm working to get it back.)

Another reason was that I've been very busy at work. Yes, I'm still busy, but I'm getting better organized.

So here I am. Watch this space.

Congrats to the Fedora Project team members for another great release!

The semi-annual Fedora release is nothing short of miraculous.

Check out Fedora 10 by downloading it at http://fedoraproject.org/get-fedora.

On a personal note, my new $DAYJOB prevents me from participating as much as I would like. However, I continue to follow the Fedora Project on a daily basis via mailing lists and an occasional IRC visit.

...and I hope to be more active in the near future.

It's very common these days to get a new PC or laptop with MS Vista installed. You want to use Fedora, but still need to occasionally use Vista. Dual booting is one popular approach to have use of both operating systems.

Since version 9, Fedora has the capability to resize NTFS partitions, the type commonly used by newer versions of Windows. (Yes, I know that this capability has existed for some time in other Linux distributions.)

This posting briefly describes an alternate approach to using Fedora's new built-in NTFS partition resizer. Instead, this method uses Vista's own partition resizing utility which ships with Microsoft Vista. This is described by Microsoft as "shrinking".

This approach consists of 2 steps:

1. In Windows Vista, shrink the Windows system partition.

2. Install Fedora utilizing the resulting free space.

Step 1. Shrink the Windows System Partition

In order to "shrink" the Windows NTFS partition, follow the instructions in this excellent pictorial guide:

"How to Shrink and Extend NTFS Volumes in Windows Vista" at http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial133.html

Warning: Always create a backup of any important files before resizing the Windows partition. Some vendors have a utility which allows you to create restore CDs or DVDs for one time only. You may also need to defragment the Windows partition before starting the shrinking process.

Step 2. Install Fedora 9

Next, install Fedora 9 using any method you prefer: live CD, DVD, over the network, etc. Get Fedora 9 at

In my experience, assuming your system has a DVD reader, installing via the Fedora 9 DVD is usually the fastest approach. Be sure to update Fedora afterward to get the latest security and bug fixes, as well as the latest version of the software.

Fedora 9 will automatically recognize the free space on the hard drive, create a Linux partition and install the GRUB booter. Note that Vista will appear on the boot menu as "Other", unless you changed the name while installing Fedora.

Finally, in the unlikely event that Vista fails to boot up after installing Fedora, the GRUB config file under Linux may need to be manually edited to point to the Windows system partition. This file is located at /boot/grub/grub.conf.

You will need to edit this config file as root. Be sure not to delete this file or change the settings for Fedora. be aware that the numbers in the hd parameter are zero-relative, meaning the first drive or partition is 0, second is 1, etc. Therefore, hd(0,0) refers to physical drive #1, partition #1.

Of course, if you don't need Vista, the simplest approach is to let the Fedora installer reformat the entire drive, thereby avoiding issues with missing drivers, incompatible applications, etc. But I digress.

One of my favorite projects which uses free and open source software (FOSS) is the One Laptop Per Child project, or OLPC. If you haven't heard of the OLPC project, it is an educational initiative to provide low-cost computers in the form of an extremely rugged and versatile laptop to all the children of the world. It is much more than just a cleverly-engineered laptop. Since I know more about computers than educational theories, this will be the focus of my blog today. One of the things I really like about the One Laptop Per Child XO laptop is the fact that it's very green. No, I don't mean the case, which does come in a bright shade of green and white.




I'm referring to the need for the OLPC XO laptop to be extremely efficient in its power consumption. The OLPC laptop is designed to be used in places where there is no reliable power grid, or, in many cases, no power grid at all. This has challenged the OLPC Project to be very creative in how power is generated, stored and conserved.

How Power is Generated

The XO laptop can be used with an AC power adapter. This is great when there is an available AC power source, like a utility power grid or a generator. Considering one of the main objectives of the OLPC project is to empower children in parts of the world with marginal technology, this is seldom likely to be the case. That's where clever alternate-source devices come into play. One is a yoyo-like pulley system, with a power output of about 10 minutes of laptop usage for every minute of pulling. Another device is an inexpensive foot-square solar panel. Other power sources being explored are wind power and other forms of human power. None of these are entirely unique to the OLPC project. What is unique is the potential users of the XO laptops are in the tens of millions. This can only have a positive impact on making these alternative sources of energy cheaper and more widely deployed.

How Power is Stored

The XO laptop comes with an advanced rechargeable battery. Instead of a Lithium-Ion battery, the type used in most laptops and mobile phones today, the XO laptop uses a lithium ferro-phosphate battery, which runs cooler, is cheaper and can be recharged many more times, than the typical laptop battery. This type of battery is also more stable chemically and is therefore safer. No videos of exploding XO laptops should ever appear on YouTube.

How Power is Consumed

The XO laptop also is miserly in its power consumption. It consumes around 2 watts of power, rather than the 65 watts my current laptop requires. It does this partly through having no electromechanical parts - in other words, no fan, hard drive.or CD drive. Flash memory is used for storage and expandable through 2 USB ports. The screen also doesn't need to draw power when used as a ebook reader, since the screen backlight switches off in bright sunlight while still displaying the current page. It only powers up momentarily to display a new page. The operating system for the XO laptop is based on Fedora Linux, so it can take advantage of the built-in power handling features of Linux and be easily modified to support its unique requirements.

Environmental Impact

The OLPC project has certainly worked hard to use environmentally friendly materials. The XO laptop and accessories supplied by OLPC will be fully compliant with the EU's RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) directive. It has also received EPEAT's Gold rating for environmental performance.

Since it requires so little power, the XO laptop also eases the demand for power generation in places where it is inherently difficult.

Because of the need for a very efficient low-powered platform, the XO laptop is, in my opinion, one of the greenest laptops on the planet. It uses power sparingly and is designed to have a minimal impact on the environment. At the same time, I hope this laptop will have a major impact on the education of children everywhere, especially in places where this kind of learning tool is rarely available.

Note: This is my modest contribution to the Blog Action Day - Post on October 15th relating to the environment. I am not officially connected to the OLPC project. I am a volunteer with the Fedora Project, which produces the Linux community distribution upon which the XO laptop software is based.

Quick update on preparations for GITEX 2007:

BACKGROUND INFO

WHO: Fedora ambassadors
WHAT: Fedora Project participation in GITEX for the first time
WHEN: 8-12 September, 2007
WHERE: Red Hat's booth (GITEX, Dubai, United Arab Emirates)
WHY: To promote the Fedora Project and FOSS to the ICT business community

Here are the fantastic brochures put together by one of our own:





We also have 380 Fedora 7 DVDs for distribution at GITEX.

We still need:

- Fedora Project volunteers to man the booth, answer questions and help demo the OLPC laptop.
- Fedora Live CDs for distribution far and wide

This is shaping up to be a great event to show what the Fedora Project is all about.

See http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraEvents/GITEX for details.

In my opinion, a very positive development for the Fedora community is the merger of the Core and Extras repositories. My take on this is that Fedora is maturing to the point where the volunteer community is assuming the bulk of the effort for the building and maintaining of the Fedora packages. This certainly is not meant to take away from the valuable contributions made by Red Hat employees.

The Fedora user gains the advantage of installing the desktop and applications of his or her choice. GNOME fans can keep using GNOME, KDE fans get a more complete implementation of KDE. I personally use both, as well as Xfce for my memory-challenged, i586-class laptop. Of course, you can mix-and-match the apps of your choice.

Right now, the Desktop User Guide is rather narrowly focused on the default GNOME desktop and default apps, as one well-known reviewer has very strongly pointed out. The current DUG is written for Fedora Core 6 and I agree with its present scope.

The challenge for the Fedora Docs Project team is to expand the Desktop User Guide and other documents to encompass the greater choice this merger provides.

Greater coverage of KDE and, in my opinion, Xfce, should be given. We have a growing group of enthusiastic volunteers in the Fedora Docs team. There's always room for more, including multilingual individuals who would like to translate docs into another language.

If you would like to join the Fedora Docs team, please see http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/NewWriters.