I've been a Linux Journal reader for years. Thanks to Shawn Powers for his recent article on Project Fi in the July 2018 issue. I thought he might be interested in my project using them: https://journal.highlandsolutions.com/my-car-has-an-email-address-b5443afc84ec.
—Mark Snyder
Shawn Powers replies: Mark, that's a really cool idea! We keep track of each other with a combination of Automatic and Life360, but the idea of a data-only connection to the car is genius!
Thanks to Shawn Powers for his article on globbing and regex in the September 2018 issue. I enjoyed reading it and learned a few things. Please do write more about regex. Thanks again.
—Steve
Shawn Powers replies: Steve, I'll be honest, RegEx still blows my mind. I force myself to stay familiar with the basics so I can use it when needed, but anything more advanced usually requires me googling and head-scratching. If you become a RegEx superhero, perhaps consider contributing an article!
I just leaned about these topics from a Fast Company article on Tim Berners-Lee and his startup Inrupt.
Can you please publish more about this in LJ?
I'm kinda surprised that you haven't presented anything yourself, given that my interpretation that some of your editorials are in high alignment with the concepts put forth of my currently cursory understanding of SOLID and POD.
I look forward to LJ contributors shining a light on this most hopeful technology news, especially given the skewering of Democracy we're going through at the hands of huge corporations taking over more and more of our lives and OUR government.
—Greg
Doc Searls replies: Thanks, Greg.
As you may know, I've led ProjectVRM at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for the past 12 years, encouraging exactly the kind of things Tim and friends hope to make happen with Solid and Inrupt. In fact, both Solid and Inrupt are listed on ProjectVRM's Developments page, along with many dozens of other developers doing very similar work.
Since I want to encourage all of those developers, I've gone out of my way not to favor any of them. But I'm not the only writer here at Linux Journal, and now is a good time for somebody to take a look at the whole list and do a summary report. So stay tuned for that, and thanks again!
I just read Doc Searls' article on Amazon pricing in the October 2018 issue, and I too have noticed that the pricing seems arbitrary and seems to change at random. I frequently will look at something and go back later to find the price has increased or decreased slightly. I now write down the prices of items if I am going to look at them again later. This includes books, tools, electronics and other things.
I find something else that Amazon does even more annoying. I will try searching for something using a generic term, say "drill press". Amazon will present me with a list of drill presses that omits some of the leading manufacturers. The manufacturer I want won't even be listed in the list of manufacturers on the left side of the screen. However, if I type in the manufacturer I want or the manufacturer's model number, all of sudden the listing will change. I have also noticed that I have to be careful to specify the exact model number and version of something I am looking for, otherwise Amazon will show be something older. I was searching for something a few weeks ago, and I knew there was a new version of the tool out, but Amazon wouldn't show it to me. Finally, I went to the manufacturer's website and got the exact model number and version for the product. When I put this into Amazon, the item I wanted finally appeared. I'm thinking that Amazon was trying to clear out its old inventory at my expense.
Amazon needs to start being a little more honest with its customers, or we will soon be shopping somewhere else.
Keep up the good work!
—Phil Hegge
I use amazon.com. Although I am living in Europe, I go back and forth between the US and Europe. Generally, I read in English, so I prefer amazon.com instead of amazon.fr for books, etc. I often look at Amazon from Europe, not only from the US.
Below are some comments which may explain, in part, why Doc Searls finds different prices for the same item at Amazon. My comments are all related to books (including the Kindle versions); I don't have enough experience with non-book purchases at Amazon to comment on those.
I have found that when I search amazon.com without logging in to Amazon, particularly when I am in Europe, I often get one price. Then, when I log in, the price has changed. I understand that this is because, when you are not logged in to Amazon, Amazon uses your IP address to figure out where you are. Book publishers/distributors have divided up the world, and, as I understand it, for English language books sold by Amazon in my part of Europe, those books are from British book publishers/distributors. On the other hand, when I log in to amazon.com, I am considered to be in the US, so the English language books are handled by US book publishers/distributors. There are clear differences in price for the "same" book depending on the publisher/distributor (Amazon suggests that it is the publishers/distributors who set the prices), which may explain some of the differences in pricing that Doc Searls has seen. I know from previous editorials that Doc Searls travels quite a bit. Perhaps some of his test cases used different IP addresses associated with different publishers/distributors?
Depending on whether you use a VPN, you also may see some of this because the other end of the VPN connects to internet in various countries. Therefore, the IP address that Amazon sees may be different from time to time. And, as I mentioned above, the book price may vary depending on IP address, because Amazon associates the IP address with different publishers/distributors. Note that I do not (yet) use a VPN, but I am hypothesizing about the effect of using a VPN vis-á-vis Amazon.
The difference between being logged in and not being logged in also affects availability. I don't recall the precise example, but there was one time when the Kindle version of the book I wanted was available when I was not logged in. But when I logged in, the Kindle version was not available. Again, a difference between publishers/distributors.
One situation where I have seen the price change for a given book is when I am not logged in, using the same browser, but I look at it on different days. For example, if there is a book I might buy, I may hold it in a tab in my browser for quite some time (even weeks). Then, when I return to this tab, perhaps ready to buy, and I click on the "refresh" button, the screen is updated, which sometimes (not always) results in a change in price. This change (increase or decrease) is simply a function of the date because I am using the same browser and the same IP address.
These are some suggested explanations for why Doc Searls may have seen different book prices with Amazon. However, I don't mean to suggest that all of the differences mentioned in Doc's editorial are related to the reasons in my comments. It is quite possible that Doc's explanations for the differences also cover many cases.
—J.
Doc Searls replies: Thanks, J. Yours is an interesting and fully helpful case in point—or several points, all well made and taken.
What matters most is that Amazon remains, like so many other large and proprietary systems we depend on, a mess of opacities, on purpose. Thus, in spite of all the good Amazon does, one can't help sensing we are each being taken advantage of, in ways we'll never know, much of the time.
I believe the only solution to this problem in the long run is to increase agency—the power to act with full effect in the world—on the individual's side, in ways that are standard for all of us. In fact, aside from my work here at Linux Journal, that's my main mission in life.
I just read Rob Hansen's review of the System76 Onyx Pro laptop in the October 2018 issue. I own a Meerkat desktop system from System76. It's based on Intel's NUC. I'm running POP_OS after running Ubuntu.
My Linux box is a workhorse. It takes whatever I throw at it with elan. I've been mostly Linux since 2004, and this version is really sweet. I'm a middle school computer teacher, so that's all Chromebooks. Accordingly, I have the third iteration of the Pixelbook. It is also a workhorse. Over time, I've realized that the OS doesn't matter as long as I can do what I want to do. Linux just makes that more probable.
—Ron Smith
Rob Hansen replies: With respect to "doing what you want to do", I'm overjoyed at how much things have changed since I first started using Linux in 1996. I can honestly say that not even work has me tied to Windows anymore. It used to be that I was dependent on Windows for Skype to talk to remote team members, Outlook for syncing my calendar with my office, and many more. In the last five years, all of those have migrated to web applications or desktop versions have been released. It's a great time to be a Linux user. The age of the Linux desktop never really arrived, but the long dark night of Windows dependency seems to be at an end. Viva freedom, viva choice!
In response to Zack Brown's "Linus' Behavior and the Kernel Development Community"
From commenter Dr Richard Stallman, President, Free Software Foundation, Internet Hall-of-Famer, MacArthur Fellow:
"Trolling" means making insincere statements to get a rise out of people. When I asked Linux developers to use the term "GNU/Linux" to refer to the GNU system with Linux as the kernel, I did so because I believe that is what fairness calls for. I think that the GNU project, which started development of this system, and contributed the largest portion, deserves equal mention.
The developers of the kernel, Linux, may have felt annoyed that I asked for fair treatment, but that doesn't make it "trolling".
See https://gnu.org/gnu/linux-a... and https://gnu.org/gnu/gnu-lin..., plus the history in https://gnu.org/gnu/the-gnu....
In response to Glyn Moody's "Now Is the Time to Start Planning for the Post-Android World"
From commenter Marlock:
I read the whole article expecting Purism to be mentioned, they are doing some serious work and upstreaming it all so it doesn't just vanish as vaporware, dies out of an app ecosystem or agonizes for lack of trustworthy code like so many before it did without much of a legacy.
Their approach seems much more sustainable than Canonical's Ubuntu on Android or the Ubuntu phone did, plus it's easily more trustworthy than Samsung's Tizen (Tizen is not a high standard), and then their PR is actually transparency, not just PR, so to me, they are looking great for the not too distant future.
And they have other hardware sales businesses going to keep them from running out of cash all of a sudden.
Author Glyn Moody responds:
It actually was supposed to be mentioned, but the sentence was left out somehow. It's now been added back.
From commenter Gwen Lynn: I like eelo's approach to bringing a de-Googled mobile environment to the market. They provide both the smartphone ROM and web services, without any piece of Google inside!
The project has started only nine months ago with a successful yet modest Kickstarter campaign, but they already have a first beta available for 20 devices, with online drive (and automatic syncing from the ROM), calendar, email, etc. All this with a single eelo identity and the promise that in further versions, you can self-host your data.
Of course they are doing all the word by forking existing software (lineageos, nextcloud...), but they are doing really a great and credible job on the UI consistency, and they provide everything as 100% open-source solution that could eventually go to the mass market in my opinion.
What's still missing though is an application installer because they are not ready yet with it, but at least it seems they won't make the same error as FirefoxOS or other "pure" platforms where you cannot install existing Android apps.
I'm super excited about this project, really.
In response to Kyle Rankin's "Raspberry Pi Alternatives"
Nick Danger @niqdanger: i now have 3 odroids and 2 raspis as my home network. I blame @kylerankin for this. At least they are all quiet!
We'd love to hear your feedback on the magazine and specific articles. Please write us here or send email to ljeditor@linuxjournal.com.
Send your Linux-related photos to ljeditor@linuxjournal.com, and we'll publish the best ones here.
