For more info: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/04/first-website-ever-goes-back-online-on-the-open-webs-20th-birthday/

Yes, our current economic system is working … for the Forbes 1,000 Global Billionaires whose ranks swelled from 322 in 2000 to 1,426 recently. Billionaires control the vast majority of the world’s wealth, while the income of American workers stagnated.

For the rest of the world, it is not working: A billion live on less than two dollars a day. With global population exploding to 10 billion by 2050, that inequality gap will grow, fueling revolutions, wars, adding more billionaires and more folks surviving on two bucks a day.

Over the years we’ve explored the reasons the economic system blindly continues on its self-destructive path. Recently we found someone who brilliantly explains why the current free-market economic system is destined to destroy the world, absent a historic paradigm shift: That is Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel, author of the new best-seller, “What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets,” and his earlier classic, “Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?”

For more than three decades Sandel’s been explaining how our current economic system is undermining America’s moral values and why most people are in denial of the impact. His classes are larger than a thousand although you can take his Harvard Justice course on line. Sandel recently summarized his ideas about our current economic system in the Atlantic. In “What Isn’t for Sale?” he writes:

“Without being fully aware of the shift, Americans have drifted from having a market economy to becoming a market society … where almost everything is up for sale … a way of life where market values seep into almost every sphere of life and sometimes crowd out or corrode important values, non-market values.”

Sandel should be required reading for all Wall Street insiders as well as America’s 95 million Main Street investors. Here’s a condensed version:

In one generation, market ideology consumed America’s collective spirit

“The years leading up to the financial crisis of 2008 were a heady time of market faith and deregulation — an era of market triumphalism,” says Sandel. “The era began in the early 1980s, when Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher proclaimed their conviction that markets, not government, held the key to prosperity and freedom.”

And in the 1990s with the “market-friendly liberalism of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, who moderated but consolidated the faith that markets are the primary means for achieving the public good.”

Today “almost everything can be bought and sold.” Today “markets, and market values, have come to govern our lives as never before. We did not arrive at this condition through any deliberate choice. It is almost as if it came upon us,” says Sandel.

I’ve been using Arch Linux pretty much exclusively for several years , and have nothing but praise for the distro.  Arch Linux strengths include it’s a rolling release, cutting edge packages, easily repairable should I break it, thorough documentation, very experienced Linux user base in the forums, flexible and powerful package management. I also must point out that Arch has proven very stable in my case, when combined with a little attention to detail and a dose of tlc.

Because of some of the above mentioned qualities of Arch, I’ve only “had” to install two times over the years. Although I have installed several virtual Arch installs to play around with, it was always with the old installer. I’ve yet needed to try out, and been somewhat reluctant to try the new installation method using the Arch Install Scripts.

This is basically a condensed tutorial of the installation process for myself.  For the official installation wiki  go here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_Guide For a more detailed version go here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_Guide

At this point, I’ve not had the chance to go back over and test this. It’s just a copy and paste from my notes. Of course, the commands would have to change to suit, so don’t even think of using them as is. Please use the Arch wiki link above above to install Arch.

Step 1: Boot gparted live and create ext4 /, swap, and ext4 /home partitions

Step 2: Boot the Arch Linux installation media .iso

Step 3: Mount the partitions. To display the current partition layout:

# lsblk  or  # fdisk -l

First, mount the root partition on /mnt:

# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

Then mount the home partition:

# mkdir /mnt/home
# mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/home

Step 4: Install the base system:

# pacstrap /mnt base

Step 5: Generate an fstab:

# genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
# nano /mnt/etc/fstab

Step 6: Chroot into and configure the base system:

# arch-chroot /mnt

Step 7: Set Locale:

# nano /etc/locale.gen

Uncomment the following and save

en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_US ISO-8859-1

Run:

# locale-gen

# echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
# export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Step 8: Set time zone:

# ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Los_Angeles /etc/localtime

Step 9: Set hardware clock

# hwclock –systohc –utc

Step 10: Set hostname:

# echo Arch2013p4 > /etc/hostname

Step 11: Configure the network

# pacman -S ifplugd

See what the wired interface name is:

# ip link

Put the wired interface name in:

# nano /etc/conf.d/netcfg

WIRED_INTERFACE=”emp0s3″

Copy a sample profile from /etc/network.d/examples to /etc/network.d:

# cd /etc/network.d
# cp examples/ethernet-dhcp .

Enable the net-auto-wired service:

# systemctl enable net-auto-wired.service

Step 12: Create an initial ramdisk environment:

# mkinitcpio -p linux

Step 13: Set the root password:

# passwd

Step 14: Install and configure GRUB bootloader:

# grub-install /dev/sda

Run:

# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Step 15: You’re done! Exit from chroot, unmount the partitions and reboot:

# exit
# umount /mnt/home
# reboot

Now you have a base Arch Linux install. Create your user accounts and install your packages!

# useradd -m -g users -G wheel power -s /bin/bash jeff

# pacman -S sudo

Edit sudo to uncomment wheel:

# EDITOR=nano visudo

Login as user and install alsa, xorg, a desktop, etc:

$ sudo pacman -S alsa-utils
$ sudo pacman -S xorg-server xorg-server-utils xorg-xinit mesa
$ sudo pacman -S xf86-video-vesa
$ sudo pacman -S xorg-twm xorg-xclock xterm
$ sudo pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies gksu ttf-dejavu

So there you have it, an Arch install using the Arch install script install process!

A very rich 82yo American man currently has a net worth of 44 billion dollars.  He’s stated that he is going to leave his fortune to charity upon his death.  Why wait is what I’m thinking.

44 billion sounds like a lot, but I don’t think you understand how much this is, I didn’t. Did you know this wealth accumulation could employ literally tens of thousands of people for their lifetime, from 20yo to 65yo at an average wage of $75,000 per year?  Keep reading for some interesting facts.

If the billionaire cashed in 1 billion to stash in a jar buried in his backyard, to support himself and wife, children, grandchildren, etc. he would have 43 billion left over to donate to the following hypothetical plan.

His 1 billion stash would accommodate an annual income for himself of 1/4 million per year until he is 115yo. That would still leave 992 million to his family.

So what to do with the 43 billion?

Lets invest 10 billion (not million) into construction of a non profit 501C manufacturing facility to produce and sell something. Anything here would do, but preferably something that would not require a crappy work environment.

Keep in mind the facility is now 100% paid for. The thousands of workers wages getting hired will be paid over a 45 year period from the remaining fortune. The non profit business would however, need to make enough money to pay the following:

1) payment of the utilities

2) payment of 100% benefits / retirement for all employees, but NOT wages

3) payment of maintenance and supplies to keep the facility running smoothly

4) payment of property taxes, but not sure how this would work for a 501C non profit business.

5) pay a management/sales team consisting of 6 people making NO more than 2 times the average worker wage of $75,000.

The management team is hired by, overseen by, and works for the blue collar team. Any additional required management help would come from rotating in/out the blue collar team workers.

So just to be clear, this company could lose money every year because the workforce wages are going to be paid from the 33 billion remainder of the donation.

The company could employ 8,000 blue collar workers to be paid an average of $75,000 a year per person for 45 consecutive years. (example: age 20 to 65)

After all this, there would still be 6 billion left over = (over 133 million per year to spend) to run the company.  The goal being to make it truly self sustaining by increasing profits to actually pay all operating expenses, at the same time breaking even to remain a 501C non profit.

Another number that needs to be put into perspective. Directly below is the amount of our federal deficit.

$ 16,378,008,303,035
$      43,000,000,000

For visual comparison, below that is our 43 million.

If just 3,639,557 people making $100,000 per year worked for 45 years and donated 100% of all the money they made, the defecate would be paid off!

========================================================

I’d like for someone to verify the numbers I came up with. I’m OK with math and numbers, but when it comes to billions and trillions, I’m getting conflicting info on the amount of zeros required…. I went with the least amount of zeros for all the above calculations.

One billion it is claimed in several sources to have differing amounts of zeros depending on the country of use!?  I’m being very serious! Since when did the country have anything to  do with math? I must have missed this, along with a lot of other stuff when I was in school!

Name             American-French                              English-German
million               1,000,000                                           1,000,000
billion             1,000,000,000                             1,000,000,000,000
trillion             1 with 12 zeros                                       1 with 18 zeros

source:  http://www.math.com/tables/general/numnotation.htm

This has me thinking that only in describing money, is it common to see units described such as billions  and trillions of dollars  or $334 trillion, etc.

Most “real subjects” other than “funny money” which I will consider anything over 999 million now, would use exponentiation or “to the power of” as I recall in school and often see in scientific info. ie: 344 followed with a small number 9.Not sure how to type that since I don’t have that much net worth myself.

I’ve convinced myself that describing amounts money outside of millions is basically meaningless ….. If your net worth surpasses the lifetime income of literally thousands of average people, “fourty very f#%@ing fourty rich” would get the point across just as well or even better than saying 44 billion.

While Linux is running our phones, friend requests, tweets, financial trades, ATMs and more, most of us don’t know how it’s actually built. This short video takes you inside the process by which the largest collaborative development project in the history of computing is organized. Based on the annual report “Who Writes Linux,” this is a powerful and inspiring story of how Linux has become a volunteer-driven phenomenon.

The Linux Foundation

What’s a Raspberry Pi?

The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized SoC (system on a chip) $35.00 computer.

The SoC is a Broadcom BCM2835. This contains an ARM1176JZFS, with floating point, running at 700Mhz, and a Videocore 4 GPU. The GPU is capable of BluRay quality playback, using H.264 at 40MBits/s. It has a fast 3D core accessed using the supplied OpenGL ES2.0 and OpenVG libraries.

Going to run Arch Linux ARM on it: http://archlinuxarm.org/

For additional Raspberry Pi info: www.raspberrypi.org/faqs

This will be my first ARM based system.  I anticipate playing around with this will lead to picking up on some basic programming skills….

Manjaro Linux is a new Arch based distro that comes pre-configured with an xfce4 desktop environment, which just happens to be my DE of choice.  Manjaro’s a small project and the current release is still in testing stage. With that said,  I found it to run quite well without show stopping bugs for both my installs.

Manjaro installs via a nice graphical installer in just a half hour or so. I installed it in vbox and was so impressed, I went ahead and replaced an outdated Ubuntu install on my laptop.

I did notice one small annoyance using Manjaro, however,  it was easy fix. When opening  Thunar file manager for the first time after start up, there was a 20-30 second delay. Removing the  gvfs-smb package with pacman solved that issue.

To me, Manjaro seems to have  great potential to displace some of the “easy beginner”  type distros. If it maintains compatibility with Arch, it will also attract some Arch users such as myself. While I’m definitely not planning on replacing my other Arch installs, I do see a use for a pre configured Arch with xfce. I don’t use my laptop enough to be interested in a several hour long  Arch install and manual configure session. Offer a quick to install, pre-configured Arch w/ xfce, and I’m all over it!

These guys have done a great job so far, and have even set up a nice looking website. Give Manjaro a try if you’ve wanted to try Arch, but were put off by the installation and configuration process.

I have only one minor complaint with Manjaro, and this is strictly personal and easily changed. It’s the choice of not promoting pacman via the command line, combined with the pkgbrowser GUI package browser. This allows the user to tap into the power and flexibility that pacman brings to package management, combined with pkgbrowser, which is the ultimate app to search and research packages, including the Arch AUR!

manjarolinux.org 

www.archlinux.org

pacman

pkgbrowser

]]> http://www.jeffstory.org/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=401 1 http://www.jeffstory.org/wordpress/?p=374 http://www.jeffstory.org/wordpress/?p=374#comments Sun, 24 Apr 2011 02:07:53 +0000 Jeff http://www.jeffstory.org/wordpress/?p=374 Continue reading →]]> This is a screen shot of the gdm login on one of my Arch Linux installs. To use this, I downgrade to gdm-old and archlinux-themes-gdm from the AUR repo. This makes it easy via GUI to change the log in theme. When introduced, the new version of gdm regressed in the ability/ease to change themes. As far as I’ve read, changing themes in the latest version has still not reached the ease of use available in previous versions. I should also say I have not tried the latest stable version of gdm, so if I’m missing anything regarding this, please post what you know……

CompuLab announced a 5.1 x 3.7 x 0.6-inch computer built around the dual-core, 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, designed as an open platform for ARM software development, among other uses. Claimed to run on only three Watts, the “Trim-Slice” features 1GB RAM, dual SDHC slots, a SATA SSD, dual-head HDMI/DVI, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, plus gigabit Ethernet, USB, and serial connectivity.

CompuLab Trim-Slice

Billed as CompuLab’s smallest and most energy-efficient computer to date, the Trim-Slice is available for both OEM and retail markets, says the Israel-based firm. The mini-PC can be used as a media player, IPTV box, infotainment system, signage computer, gaming device, or even a desktop replacement, says the company. The Trim-Slice is also touted as an open platform for ARM software developers.

Stated Mike Rapoport, Director of SW Development at CompuLab, “The open-source community and ISVs need an ARM development platform that is versatile, open and powerful. Trim-Slice meets that by incorporating PC-like performance, memory, storage, display, I/O and networking in an open platform that allows installation of any supported OS and application. CompuLab will offer more than one OS working on Trim-Slice out-of-the-box.”

While CompuLab did not specify which specific OSes the Trim-Slice will support, Linux and Android seem likely at the very least. The company’s x86-based “fit-PC” line of mini-PCs have run Linux and Windows (see below). While the Nvidia Tegra 2 supports Windows CE as well as Linux and Android, it is unclear whether proprietary OSes will be supported on the “open platform” Trim-Slice.

The Trim-Slice was announced only a week after CompuLab unveiled its fit-PC3 (pictured), the latest and most powerful of its line of fit-PC mini-PCs

While the fit-PC3 is based on the new AMD G-Series processor, and earlier models have used the Intel Atom and AMD Geode chips, the Trim-Slice represents CompuLab’s first step into the ARM world. The tiny computer adopts the red-hot Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, which combines dual 1GHz Cortex-A9 cores with an Nvidia GeForce graphics processor.

Rear view of the Trim-Slice

The Tegra 2 has been the processor of choice for high-end Android tablets, such as the upcoming Motorola Xoom, Toshiba Tablet, and several Asus Eee Pad models. It is now beginning to appear on Android smartphones that are not much smaller than the Trim-Slice itself, including the LG Optimus 2X and Motorola Atrix 4G.

Equipped with 1GB of DDR2 RAM, the Trim-Slice offers both a full-sized SD and mini-SD slot, as well as an apparently optional SATA solid-state disk (SSD) with up to 64GB in capacity.

The mini-PC also squeezes in a gigabit Ethernet port, four USB 2.0 ports, a USB device port, and a serial port. A wireless module, meanwhile, supports both 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, says CompuLab.

The Tegra 2 should be able to drive full HD video out through its dual-head HDMI 1.3 and DVI port. In addition, Compulab offers some IPTV flexibility by supplying a PAL/NTSC video-in connection.

Audio ports are also supplied to support the device’s 5.1 channel digital audio. In addition, there are “extensions for” JTAG, dual UARTs, and SPI, says the company (see spec list below).

As its name implies, the 5 .1 x 3.7 x 0.6-inch Trim-Slice is the thinnest CompuLab computer yet (it’s smaller than the 6.3 x 6.3 x 0.98-inch fit-PC3, but larger than the fit-PC2 and fit-PC2i, both of which measure 4.5 x 4.0 x 1.05 inches). In fact, aside from the device’s industrial-looking all-metal nickel-plated die-cast housing, the Trim-Slice has the look and feel of a smartphone or mini-tablet, minus the screen.

The fanless device runs on 8-16V DC power and is said to average three Watts of consumption. By comparison, the AMD G-Series based fit-PC3 ranges from 9 (1GHz) to 18 (1.6GHz) Watts, and the Atom-based fit-PC2 and fit-PC2i offer 10 and nine-Watt power consumption respectively.

Features and specifications listed for the Trim-Slice include:

• Processor — Nvidia Tegra 2 (dual-core ARM Cortex A9) @ 1GHz with integrated GeForce GPU
• Memory — 1GB DDR2-800
• Flash expansion — SDHC slot; micro-SDHC slot; up to 64GB SATA SSD
• Networking:
  • LAN — 1 x gigabit Ethernet port
  • WLAN — 802.11b/g/n
  • PAN — Bluetooth
• Other I/O:
  • 4 x USB 2.0 ports (480MBps)
  • 1 x USB device port
  • 1 x RS232 port
  • HDMI 1.3 + DVI (dual head) port
  • PAL/NTSC video in
  • Audio line-out, line-in, 5.1 digital S/PDIF
  • Extensions for JTAG, 2 x UARTs, SPI
• Power — 8-16V DC; 3 W average consumption
• Dimensions — 5 .1 x 3.7 x 0.6 inches (130 x 95 x 15mm)

Stated Igor Vaisbein, Trim-Slice project manager at CompuLab, “The ultra-low power of Nvidia Tegra 2 enabled designing Trim-Slice into a miniature form-factor with unprecedentedly low-power envelope while providing rich multimedia capabilities and PC-like user experience.”  

Availability

CompuLab expects to start accepting orders from Trim-Slice in April. Trim-Slice will be guaranteed for long term (five-year) availability, and will be available in several configurations. It will also be offered to OEMs looking to re-brand the product, says the company. CompuLab notes that it will “cooperate with ISVs that select Trim-Slice as a reference platform.”

Stated Irad Stavi, director of Business Development at CompuLab, “Trim-Slice pricing is yet to be finalized. It will be priced higher than a streamer, but lower than a tablet.”

More information may be found at CompuLab’s Trim-Slice page.

Source: http://www.linuxfordevices.com By Eric Brown

I’ve compiled and installed Minefield 4.0b8pre alongside Firefox 3.6 to give it a try.
Minefield is a precursory build of upcoming Firefox 4.0……..
It’s all good so far except one small detail.

The page link right-click (context) menu has inverted options
for “Open Link in New Tab” & “Open Link in New Window”.

This minor inconvenience was nearly a deal breaker for me!
I prefer the order of the previous versions, and couldn’t get used to it being reversed.

To restore the order as in previous versions, I changed my

~/.mozilla/firefox/d5me25we.default/chrome/userChrome-example.css

file to:

userChrome.css

Then added the following code to it:

#contentAreaContextMenu > * {
-moz-box-ordinal-group: 2;
}
#context-openlink {
-moz-box-ordinal-group: 1 !important;
}

Source of info:  http://www.forums.mozillazine.org

________ EDIT TO ADD INFO 1/12/12 ________

Using Firefox 9.0 now and still has same problem and similar fix.

Create a file:

~/.mozilla/firefox/d5me25we.default/chrome/userChrome.css

With this in it:

/*
* Edit this file and copy it as userChrome.css into your
* profile-directory/chrome/
*/

/*
* This file can be used to customize the look of Mozilla’s user interface
* You should consider using !important on rules which you want to
* override default settings.
*/

/*
* Do not remove the @namespace line — it’s required for correct functioning
*/
@namespace url(“http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul”); /* set default namespace to XUL */

/*
* Some possible accessibility enhancements:
*/
/*
* Make all the default font sizes 20 pt:
*
* * {
*   font-size: 20pt !important
* }
*/
/*
* Make menu items in particular 15 pt instead of the default size:
*
* menupopup > * {
*   font-size: 15pt !important
* }
*/
/*
* Give the Location (URL) Bar a fixed-width font
*
* #urlbar {
*    font-family: monospace !important;
* }
*/

/*
* For more examples see http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html
*/
#contentAreaContextMenu > * {
-moz-box-ordinal-group: 2;
}
#context-openlink {
-moz-box-ordinal-group: 1 !important;
}