Open Source on System Overlord

Tablets, Free Software, and You

david@systemoverlord.com (David Tomaschik) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 01:38:56 +0000

Tablets are the current 'big thing' in computing devices -- so much so, in fact, that many believe tablets will replace most of the uses of laptops and desktops. This aligns closely with the trend to put "everything" on the web. While making everything browser-based certainly has its conveniences, it also has risks.

Users are continually placing their privacy and their data in the hands of others, while ignoring the risks posed by these actions. Look, for example, at the terms of service and software licenses associated with the iPad. Apple can remotely "kill" software on your iPad. If that software was storing your data, too bad, it's gone.

GnuPG: The What and the Why (For Me, Anyway)

david@systemoverlord.com (David Tomaschik) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 07:05:11 +0000

I'm a big advocate of GnuPG, the Free implementation of the OpenPGP standard. I've even recently begun to use a smart card for storing my keys. I've also answered some questions about why I do this, so I thought I'd write about it here. Put simply: the Bill of Rights is important to me. My privacy is important to me. Security is important to me. OpenPGP can help me protect the things that are important to me.

Welcome to Nginx!

david@systemoverlord.com (David Tomaschik) — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 17:49:21 +0000

If you're reading this, it's thanks to Nginx. As of about midnight last night, all content on SystemOverlord.com is being served up by Nginx. I did this for two reasons: Nginx has a much smaller memory profile than Apache, which is important when running on a 512MB VPS, and Nginx's preferred PHP path is through a FastCGI interface, which allows me to run separate PHP FastCGIs under different users for each application on my server. Privilege separation for different webapps has always been a big thing security-wise, and I'm glad I was able to get it going with a minimum of fuss. Wordpress, Nginx, MySQL, and Ubuntu Server powered, all on a Linode VPS!

Announcing NetStatUI: A PyGTK interface for network statistics

david@systemoverlord.com (David Tomaschik) — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 18:06:48 +0000

NetStatUI is my first significant FOSS release. It’s also my first significant Python project and my first use of GTK+. Yes, that’s a lot of firsts all at once, so I apologize if I’ve done things sub-optimally. I’m still learning some of the wonderful niceties of Python (a subject of a later post) and so I may have done some things “the other way.” NetStatUI is a program to display statistics and information about the IP connections currently on your system. It is an attempt to provide a usable NetStat work-alike for the desktop user. Many new users are shy of the command line, and having a graphical version may be useful.

Backupninja!

david@systemoverlord.com (David Tomaschik) — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 21:14:51 +0000

I don't know how I missed it before, but I found a great backup tool today. It's BackupNinja. It's stupidly simple to set up to back up a small number of machines. It's no centralized backup system like bacula, but for a single server or two (like I have) it seems far better than a "roll your own" solution.

So, a big Christmas thank you to the BackupNinja devs.

WikkaWiki: My new PIM

david@systemoverlord.com (David Tomaschik) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 09:00:24 +0000

For a while now, I've found myself finding tidbits of information that I think would be useful again in the future, or more commonly, having to look up things where I know I've looked it up before. In both cases, I keep thinking that I need somewhere to document this. For a short while, I just threw this information into a file called "TIPS" that I edited with vim. Sounds great, except I use a lot of computers, and keeping it on a flash drive meant pulling out the flash drive a lot. Not only was that slightly inconvenient, but even worse, the file was becoming unwieldy, and there was no good way to link to web-based resources for finding more information.

Needing more focus...

david@systemoverlord.com (David Tomaschik) — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 03:40:51 +0000

I've come to the conclusion that I need to become more focused in some areas of my life. I want to be able to contribute to open-source projects, including Ubuntu, but I realized that I don't know enough about any single project to really dive in and work on the code. I need to find a single project to contribute (codewise) to.

I sometimes feel that there's this technological void in my life, with a desire to work on a project of some sort. The big problem is that I have diverse interests: user experience, information security, embedded systems/robotics, etc. I know it's a ridiculous statement to make, but even at 25, I feel like I'm behind where I'd like to be in my life.

Review: The Art of Community (Jono Bacon)

david@systemoverlord.com (David Tomaschik) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:55:24 +0000

I had the privilege of receiving an early copy of The Art of Community by Jono Bacon for review. It's taken a little longer than I had hoped to get through it, but that's by no means a reflection of the book.

"The Art of Community" tackles a very difficult question in the Open Source world: how do you build a strong community around your project? Jono addresses this by using anecdotal evidence of good community organization, and discussing the facets that apply to community development. Jono's varied experiences are shown through anecdotes about the Ubuntu community and other communities he has participated in. The stories he shares are concise and clear, but demonstrate their points effectively and thoughtfully. Jono's writing skills are first-rate, with strong points made clearly. He builds the community idea from grassroots to the enterprise and shows how community participation can help -- and harm -- at each step along the way. It's obvious that Jono knows what he's talking about, and he communicates it well. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the dynamics of a community or any project leader looking to build from the ground up.