Readers sound off.
I just received my May 2005 issue of the Linux Journal magazine. I am extremely upset with the
cover picture selected for this issue.
When I subscribed to this journal, I never dreamed my
name would be associated with a “pictured” magazine
like this.
I was extremely embarrassed for my secretary to
have had to see this when distributing my mail.
I cannot display this on the public table for my other
technicians to use as a reference in the office.
Your company has presented a very volatile Sexual
Harassment Potential in my Federal Government Office.
—
David Jerkins
I am shocked and appalled at the picture on the
cover of this most recent issue [May 2005]. It really should
have come in one of those black wrappers. If I want
to see that sort of smut, I would subscribe to
Dr. Dobb's Journal!
—
Rudy Pawul
I want to thank you for your interesting feature article, “Belly Dance and Free Software” by Dawn Devine and Michael Baxter [May 2005]. Although it's geared specifically toward performers, there's much that's useful for any business or anyone who has events to promote.
I would particularly like to commend you for
your cover photo, because it explodes so many
misconceptions at once! Too often, the computer world
looks like a boys' clubhouse with a “NO GIRLS” sign
on the door. To show a woman who's a professional
in the arts, rather than another high-tech or high-business field, is even rarer. Being an artist and
Middle Eastern dancer myself, as well as a Linux-using
computer geek, I'm delighted!
—
Marty Hale-Evans
When my son was born in 1999, I named him Linus in honour of Linus Torvalds. I have included here a picture of me and my son Linus, who will be a future volunteer in the Linux community.
I'm a Brazilian guy that has used Linux since 1998, when I worked at Conectiva, I designed (technically) the project to implant more than 20,000 workstations and 1,000 servers in our public network, here in São Paulo. This public network was on the schools and high schools to offer Internet access to the people who don't have it. This project was called Linux Na Escola (Linux in School), and until today, is the biggest project in this segment on earth. Workstations are all in production, in more than 500 labs educating thousands of children.
When I went to this supermarket to buy some beers and bodka, I saw penguins. I and said to my cousin, “Look, Tux brings his family here to buy some fish, and beers too!”
This photo is of the robot Talos and his minders, Richard Gardiner, Aristotelis Papadimitriou, James O'Hea, Sang Hun Lee and Matthew Gray. Talos is one of four entries in the Cybernetics MEng Robot Rally Cybernetics ng. challenge project (see www.cyber.reading.ac.uk/robot_rally) and the only one to use Linux as its operating system. The challenge project is loosely based on the DARPA Grand Challenge. On March 17th, the four robots raced across the Reading University campus. Although none of the robots completed the course (just like their DARPA challenge counterparts) all managed to get past the first leg. Everything now depends on the final event in June.
Photo of the Month gets you a one-year extension for your subscription. Photos to info@linuxjournal.com. —Ed.
I wanted to send along a picture of my son with his baby tux shirt. Can't get them started on Linux too early!
You might want to point the new Linux users you know at www.tuxmagazine.com. It's a free download, and we hear they have an article on TuxPaint coming up. —Ed.
Here is a picture of my four-month-old son, Griffin, looking up information on iptables one snowbound day in February. He was very helpful. I have not let him get a hold of my magazine yet. Somehow I do not think it would survive.
I read with great interest in the April 2005 issue of LJ Charles Curley's article “Finding Your Way with GPSDrive”. With a little additional code, GPSDrive could be easily modified with code for Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS) use in emergency services. With WiFi support, some radio data traffic that are non-priority, or very large files, could lessen the load on congested ham radio frequencies. WiFi would be excellent to backhaul VOIP traffic, pictures and video and other such things to be shared with emergency services personnel. The possibilities are endless.
I noticed that one can import USGS maps, or street maps, but does this software support importing mapsets from DeLorme? USGS maps leave much to be desired, as some of the maps date back to before the 1960s. Of course, the topo does not change, but roads are sometimes nonexistant on these maps. Topo USA I found to be much better, and also covers current roads.
Regarding Chris McAvoy's reply to Jason Shelton's letter [LJ, April 2005], the MAX232 chip from Maxim is a very versatile chip. The kit for the MAX232 may be inexpensive, but “samples” of this chip and others are free. Maxim has a very extensive line of chips for use in the computer, electronics and ham radio hobbies.
LJ is my only connection to the Linux world until
2019. I am in Federal Prison for a victimless
crime. Glad to see that there are other Tux fans in
a microcosm society that sometimes has no justice or
intelligent life.
Please keep up the good work with LJ. I am glad to see
the radio geek articles, along with articles covering
other hobbies. How about some embedded Linux while
SCUBA diving?
—
William StormBringer Smith
Yes, DeLorme format is one of many supported by GPSBabel (gpsbabel.sourceforge.net). We'll look for an article on integrating APRS and GPSDrive. —Ed.
I've read many things about Monarch Computers in your magazine (which I greatly enjoy). However, my experience with Monarch is less than acceptable.
It took a month to receive our new dual Xeon server,
and it didn't work on arrival. They do not seem to
respond to e-mail or telephone queries about orders or
rma's. The only responses I get are autogenerated.
The voice mail box is full and will not accept
a message.
—
Jack Adwon
We sent a copy of this letter to Monarch, but did not get a response. —Ed.
I just received the first issue of my Linux Journal subscription and I am pleased with every page. I am a newbie (but learning quickly) and I was surprised to see a letter from an inmate who finds it difficult to meet other Linux enthusiasts in prison. I am also incarcerated and know how hard it is to learn about Linux since most of the people around here either use Windows or don't know anything at all about computers. I don't have access to the Internet until 2008, but fortunately I've been able to acquire an excellent job at the Vo-tech here. I set up a LAMP platform on a Dell Poweredge 4400, a Fedora workstation for development and 25 Win2k workstations; and I owe Linux Journal a debt of gratitude.
Another inmate here introduced me to Linux Journal and I read an article about Moodle [December 2004]. We are now happily using this program, which makes my job easier and provides me with more time to learn about Linux. I've seen a few advertisements for Linux certification programs (such as Linux Professional Institute, Red Hat and so on) and I wonder which certifications are the most marketable and recognized by employers. I just want to focus on getting the best Linux education I possibly can. Thank you for your wonderful magazine.
PS. I really liked the “Linux on a Small Satellite”
article [April 2005]. I am interested in Amateur Near Space flight
using helium-filled weather balloons, and I've been
looking for examples of how Linux can be used for
these projects. All of the spacecraft I've seen so far
only use Basic Stamps and PBasic code. If you can do a
piece on near-space sometime, that would be excellent.
—
Aaron Kirby
Here's a picture of my youngest, enjoying the latest Linux Journal. Thanks for a great magazine!
LJ is the most educational computer magazine I have ever known. I learn something new with every issue, often several new somethings. The article on Bash in the April 2005 issue was very enlightening, and I have used some of the techniques described in shell scripts used in the Computer Repair class for user account maintenance on the Linux-based server for the LAN operated in the class.
Over the past few months I have seen letters written by other incarcerated persons and want to express my thanks that LJ recognizes that while some Linux enthusiasts may be in prison, the mistakes individuals like myself have made in the past does not nullify our abilities to spread the ideals of Linux or our abilities to make meaningful contributions to Linux and free software.
Please keep up the excellent work and while I didn't
get to be part of your first ten years, I hope to be
a part of the next ten, twenty, thirty years.
—
Frank O. Robinson
Here's my four-month-old daughter Amelia Danielle playing with an old school Caldera Tux! Can't start 'em early enough, eh?
Thanks for the great piece on building live CDs [April 2005]. The recipe for mounting and chrooting the decompressed Knoppix tree will work if you do it on a filesystem mounted the usual “defaults” way. But I tried it in my test machine running off a Knoppix CD and it didn't work.
Knoppix had mounted my hard drive partition (/mnt/hda5) with no dev options, so no devices worked in the chrooted environment. I needed to do:
mount -o remount,dev /mnt/hda5
just before giving the chroot command, and everything
worked.
—
Cameron Splitzer
