A running description of activity related to DragonFly BSD.
This IBM developerWorks article about screen goes into a lot of detail about how screen works, and has some nice examples of usage. (via)
One of the problems with screen is that it has a lot of settings and changes to use, which makes initial adoption difficult. However, it’s very useful…
This post on Blog Pseudoaccidentale described, by way of a parable, how many people think, incorrectly, they can’t contribute to open source. (The article says “FreeBSD”, but the rule applies to any open source project) It’s a matter of doing something, no matter how small, consistently.
I’d even use that analogy differently and say, “How do you eat an elephant?” Hint: see title.
(Thanks, Matthias Schmidt, for the link)
From O’Reilly: a love note for UNIX. Today’s the day for it, after all.
The wiki from Summer of Code 2008 has been opened up to the world and is being treated as a general resource for mentors and students, so please consult it if you are thing of being either one of those things.
Also, a FAQ for the 2009 session is together. Applications start in March, so get yourself together…
Update: Dates mentioned here, by me.
A vulnerability in telnetd code common to FreeBSD and DragonFly was just discovered; it’s been fixed in DragonFly using code from NetBSD in 1995, strangely enough. (via #dragonflybsd on EFNet)
‘Sdävtaker’ posted a note about BSDday-AR, happening in Buenos Aires on May 29th and 30th. There’s a Spanish version of the site; no English yet.
There’s an extensive article on “Unix’s Magical Moment” up on the O’Reilly site, with more details about that upcoming 1234567890 epoch time. That moment is probably happening very close to the same time you are reading this.
Hiroki Sato has posted that the schedule for AsiaBSDCon 2009 is now available. It’s happening in March, and registration will be available soon. There’s still time to get a paper in, if you hurry…
Matthew Dillon has updated pkg_radd to download based on the uname of the system where it’s run. This means binary downloads can be keyed to the appropriate release, instead of just whatever’s most recent on pkgbox or any of the mirrors.
There’s a new issue of BSD Magazine out, and it’s (almost) all NetBSD. Apparently there’s been several issues, and I’ve been slack in covering them. (via)
The default version of Python in pkgsrc is now version 2.5. Be ready for this on your next upgrade.
Not only is there going to be BSDA exams available at AsiaBSDCon, but there is now a permanent testing facility for the BSDA in Brazil.
BSDTalk 170 has Marshall Kirk McKusick (His first name’s Marshall? Thought it was Kirk.) talking almost an hour of BSD history at the recent DCBSDCon. I’m assuming it’s going to be the first of several recordings coming from that event.
Matthew Dillon posted another summary of the road to the 2.2 release, scheduled forFebruary 15th. Among other things, this release will be available in a LiveDVD form which looks to be about a gigabyte in size with all the added packages.
The FreeBSD Foundation is looking to give people money to work. (pdf) Specifically, they have USD $30K to give to people wanting to work on FreeBSD subsystems. Fight global recession!
EuroBSDCon 2009 is being held September 18-19th in Cambridge, UK. That’s a long way off, but they just opened their call for papers.
Art & Code is March 7th, at Carnegie Mellon. “Programming for Artists” – it’s cheap, and the output should be interesting. (via)
I’ve updated the images page on the DragonFly site. It now has some added wallpaper and DragonFly badges for you to use as needed, and it’s all thumbnailed to make it easier to browse.
I like the smaller font size on the DragonFly website, because it packs in more information, but it throws off the visual balance of the sidebar. How about: http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/~justin/testblock/ ?
Matthias Schmidt has created a page for DragonFly project ideas, for Google’s Summer of Code 2009. (Nobody’s accepted yet, but we were last year and I’m optimistic we can be again) If you would be available to mentor, add projects you’d enjoy mentoring. If you’ll be an eligible student, give it a read.
Dru Lavigne was at DCBSDCon, and her initial notes mention Robert Luciani’s talk on threading in DragonFly.
Was it really this painful to program a PDP-11? I can only imagine every other alternative was worse. (via)