Linux: printing still broken

Before the Windows fanboys start crowing and the Linux crowd get all defensive, let me preface this post with the fact that I’ve found printing under Linux to be, in most cases, far easier than it ever was on Windows. This is mainly because the Windows driver developers absolutely refuse to agree on a common method of doing anything at all, and the drivers for your shiny new printer are as likely to work as not. The cool features on one printer model simply won’t be available on another printer, and it’s all because the drivers control everything. Linux, OTOH, generally funnels everything through CUPS, which means there’s a single agreed-upon way of doing things. Features like N-up printing and the like will probably be there for any printer, and it’s only the hardware abilities (resolution, paper trays) that will differ.

That said, I was reading this post and it forced me to recall my recent experience helping a friend install Kubuntu. While Pete Savage may have stars in his eyes over how neat some enhancements to printing would be, I think more work needs to be done at a very basic level in simply getting printing to work at all.

OpenDNS as the defender of free speech?

My blog is blocked in Turkey. All of it. The whole blog, the whole country.

The reason is that a Turkish creationist petitioned the Turkish court to block access to the entire WordPress.com domain because of what he claimed were libelous posts about him. The court agreed, and I’m therefore blocked. (It seems as though I’m also blocked in China, but that’s a different story.)

Reading the comments and various posts, it appears that the answer may be as simple as using OpenDNS to bypass the government-approved DNS servers, or alternatively, by using Tor, which has other benefits as well. Courts tend to be rather stupid when it comes to technology, which is sometimes a huge hinderance, but in this case serves the people well. OpenDNS is not only not under the Turkish courts’ rule, but it also doesn’t appear to have any plans to censor anything (unless you decide to do this yourself).

So why does this matter? First, the Turkish people are losing their rights to free expression by having sites blocked. We condemn it in China and other totalitarian countries, so we must condemn it in our ally countries as well.

Second — and this is the one that should really get you if you’re an American — the same thing is very close to happening in the United States. After declaring AT&T a monopoly, we’ve allowed constant consolidation to return us to a mammoth AT&T, and this time they’ve shown themselves to be friendly to both censorship and spying. What’s more, even if you don’t mail a check to AT&T, chances are good that you’re still using AT&T’s backbone, which gives a single company nearly limitless control over your access to information.

Things to watch:

1. Turkish Internet censorship, specifically of WordPress.com;
2. Adnan Oktar, a.k.a. Harun Yahya;
3. The U.S. telecommunications industry — or what’s left of it.

“Can’t be any more complicated than my phone bill”

We were forced to watch seemingly endless hours of Judge Larry Seidlin presiding over the Anna Nicole Smith That’s-My-Baby-Oh-No-It’s-Not-It’s-MY-Baby case by MSNBC, CNN, Fox Noise Carnal, and even the crown jewel evening newscasts on NBC, ABC, and CBS.

Now, however, there’s a case that actually matters to somebody other than just the baby and the baby daddy, and we hear… nothing.  We’re too busy hearing about the fact that there are six miners still trapped down a mine, and that there’s no further information on whether they’re alive or dead or will ever get out.  Fine, I’m interested in the outcome, but could you drop the story until there’s some more story?  In the meantime, hundreds of people have died in Iraq every day, and they have warranted only a minor mention.  “We support the troops,” but we only support hearing about the ones who died doing their jobs if it can be told in under 15 seconds.  But I digress.

It appears, in the whole warrantless wiretapping mess, that we have some presiding judges who not only get it, but might even be sort of entertaining.  Unfortunately, I’m sure no cameras can be allowed in the courtroom, but why, oh why, do we not even see some poor windblown reporter standing on the courthouse steps every 30 minutes to update us on exactly how suspicious our government is of us?

Maybe the news networks think we Americans won’t be able to understand the subtleties of the complex issues involved.  I think we can.  After all, as Judge Harry Pregerson quipped, it “can’t be any more complicated than my phone bill.”

Get it out! Get it out!

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070813

apt-get can’t remove dependencies?

So reports Aaron Toponce.

I take it he’s never tried apt-get autoremove.  It isn’t perfect, but it has only missed one or two dependencies in the time I’ve been using it.