When we talk about intellectual property rights and copyright at Red Hat, we’re usually talking about code–or music. The company ethos hinges on the idea that the free exchange of ideas will improve all things–from the education of children to the robustness of the kernel. Our focus is usually on technology. But not today.
Today we’re going to talk about knitting.
It’s the beginning of the holiday season here at Red Hat HQ and we’re in a festive mood. Fedora™ Core 6 is out the door (and the DVDs have arrived), and the elves–er, engineers–are hard at work on Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 5. Here at the magazine, we’re readying a few gifts of our own. We see from our statistics and page ratings (thanks!) that the how-to articles are among our most popular. In this issue we’ve got two. Spend your holiday break setting up your home network–Shannon and Stuart will help you get email and DNS running smoothly.
Whew, we’re exhausted. The release of Fedora™ Core 6 was incredibly exciting–in more ways than one. But we’re back now and ready to get everyone caught up on the newest member of the Red Hat family–codenamed Zod.
In case you managed to miss Zod’s coming-out party, we’ve got the uber-announcement–straight from the Fedora Project Leader. And if you ever wondered why there’s more than one announcement, or how Fedora releases get their names… this article might help solve those mysteries.
Earlier this month, we gave a sneak peek into the Fedora Core 6 feature set. Now that it’s live, we’re back with more details–and screenshots–you can check out while you’re waiting for the download to finish.
And we’re following up on some other topics of interest. The conversation on Web 2.0 continues with Enterprise 2.0. It’s moved into large organizations. See what all the suits are talking about.
We’ve also got the final installment in our series on Dogtail, as well as the perfect teaching tool for learning about Creative Commons licenses. (It’s a comic strip. How cool.)
As always, we love to hear your comments. So send ‘em in. And thanks for reading.
Oops, we did it again: October’s rolled around and we’re bringing you even more music (also da’ noise AND da’ funk). We just can’t get enough.
You don’t have to be hooked on polkas to appreciate Squeezebox–it’s for music lovers who want to join the dots between the computer and stereo. And we have the behind-the-scenes scoop on the server that powers it.
And while your guitar gently weeps (for the missing guitar tab website we told you about last issue), you should check out the follow-up, where our writer explains his take on the turning away.
Those of you who’ve been keeping the faith know that another Fedora Core release is due any minute. How soon is now? We know you just can’t wait, so we’ve got the preview.
If you’re a superfreak for applications that make your life easier, don’t miss the second part of our tutorial on Frysk or another in our series of popular how-tos. You’ll have nothin’ but a good time with Anaconda and Kickstart.
Let’s dance.
P.S. You might have noticed a few song titles sprinkled in this entry. How many can you find? Bonus points for naming the artist, too.
This time we’re talking about one of our favorite topics–music. If you love tunes like we do, you know about the fight over Digital Rights Management (DRM). New technologies have blown the lid off music distribution; files can be passed almost invisibly over the Internet, from one device to another. Once a music file is out there, it’s hard to control. And like the advent of the cassette tape, this makes the music industry nervous. DRM is a way to reclaim control over how music can be used… but it eliminates many of the newfound freedoms the technology has introduced. Is it the right thing to do?
Get the answer to that question (and more) from Ed Felten, an expert on the subject of DRM. And if you missed our last release, you should catch the first segment of his talk, too.
The wide world of the Internet has disrupted the music industry in other ways. Web-savvy amateur guitarists have been sharing song transcriptions since the early 90s at sites like the Online Guitar Archive. You might notice that link is blank–it’s because OLGA’s been shut down. We had to find out why.
But don’t fret–it’s not all bad news and short-sighted policy. We’ve got some great info for Linux-loving musicians and listeners. One of our resident hackers turned his Fedora Core 5 machine into an audio and MIDI workstation with Rosegarden. And we talked to the founder of Jamendo, a music sharing service that uses Creative Commons licensing on its entire (and enormous) DRM-free library.
Also this week: Brush up on the basics of web services, pick up a few new tips and tricks, or sit a spell with your old pal Shadowman.
This month’s RSS article should help you get your feeds up and running. And if you still have questions after that, post them here and we’ll see if our experts have the answers.
Question: Is RSS generally available for sites other than news? What about photo sites and webcomics?
Answer: RSS feeds can contain links to all kinds of content, including podcasts and videos, or photographs and comics. Many readers will include small images with the summaries, and there are feeds and feed services (like Comic Alert that have lots of online comics to choose from. Getting images is even cooler. Flickr, for instance, lets its users tag their photographs, and you can get a feed from Flickr for any tag that’s in their system. One of my favorite feeds, Mr Bento Porn is a group of pictures of a particular kind of lunchbox. People all over the world photograph their mid-day meal, and I read the feed to get new ideas for my own lunches. (Warning: it’s not a feed to read if you’re hungry!)
Question: What about news sites that require you to log in to access the articles? Can a feed bypass this step, will it make me log in for every article I want to read from that source?
Answer: It is possible to set up “members only” password- or key-protected RSS feeds. Some news sites use this to restrict access to certain features or to full versions of stories. If you have access to one of these news sites, you will be given login information that your RSS reader will require, but you usually only have to enter it the first time you load the feed or if you switch or re-install readers.
