Lockergnome's Compendium of Linux Knowledge Focusing on the core functionality built into every Linux distribution, these tomes contain a wealth of information on everything from the kernel, to core services, to networking and printing issues. Find your way around the command line functionality, so that your Linux install works the way you want it to. You won't be an expert overnight, but it will certainly lead you in the right direction. Dowload your Linux tips today.

The 'net is running hot these days.

First, there's the current conflict in the Middle East. I was reading a story this afternoon that said that 'net traffic is *way* up, with citizens from connected countries around the world turning to the 'net in increasing numbers for the latest news. I've kept a stream from my local NPR station open full-time at my desk. The AM reception in our building is horrible, at best, and the stream comes in loud and clear. With the major network news sites feeding video and audio coverage, we're sucking up big-time bandwidth with a thirst for the latest events.

Then there's the case of Salam Pax, the Baghdad blogger. There's been some controversy over whether the author is actually living in Baghdad, though the latest descriptions from the scene would, to me, indicate that it's probably not the hoax some have claimed. "Where's Raed" is hosted by Blogger and, as you can imagine, has been inundated with readers interested in the news from Baghdad. It's also gotten tons of media coverage, which has only increased the bandwidth use. Salam also happened to use a free photo service, among others. The traffic was so high that the service, Pyxz.com, has now officially gone to a pay model. This after consistently pegging 15 megabits on a 2 megabit account. This only after the Pyxz site owner redirected Salam's account to satirical photos of the war and the US government.

All the leads, in a roundabout way, to wondering if we've reached another plateau in 'net usage - if conflict has permanently driven yet more people to rely on online sources for news and items of other interest. RSS and blogging have, in their own way, contributed to this increase even without the conflict. Will these new online users stick around when the sand has cleared? Will our children, with a lifetime of Internet access, come to rely solely on what they find online? If so, how will that affect the ability of future generations to interact face to face? When I moved from the world of commercial finance into the dotcom universe, one of the reasons was a theory that was popular at the time - that the 'net would one day no longer be a place, but rather just be. Is it possible that the ever-increasing online use is moving us exactly in that direction?

It looks like Thursdays are for questions. I've had a lot of them over the past few weeks. That's almost unimportant because the answers are really all in your head. Let them loose, and tell me what you think.

In the meantime, have a great weekend and find your way back here on Tuesday. I'll let you know what your fellow Penguin Shell community members think.

See You at Gnomedex,              
Tony Steidler-Dennison       

GnomeTWEAK

UniMessage

It doesn't appear that we've gotten much closer to a unified messaging client in the computing world, despite the promises of those who hold the proprietary code to make it happen. In the meantime, messaging has become almost ubiquitous regardless of the operating system you've chosen. In Linux, the choices are very good. GAIM is a great AOL Instant Messaging client for Linux. Many distros now include GAIM as part of the default install. ,a href="http://messenger.yahoo.com/messenger/download/unix.html" target="_blank">Yahoo! now offers a YMessenger client for Linux. There are several good ICQ and IRC clients, as well. Of course, there's not likely to be an official MSN client for Linux any time soon.

So how do you manage to keep up with all the various protocols without keeping four or five different clients open? I've recently tweaked my messaging capabilities with Gabber, the Gnome Jabber Client. Don't let the name fool you - Gabber will run in KDE, as well, if you have the Gtk libraries installed.

Gabber uses the Jabber protocol. As such, it creates a unified client that will allow to to connect with your friends on MSN, ICQ, Yahoo, AOL, and IRC. While there are other multi-protocol clients out there, I've found that Gabber is perhaps the easiest to set up and use.

Gabber works by connecting you to a Jabber server. A list of public Jabber servers can be found at the Jabber.org site. To connect to these servers, you'll need to select a server from within the Gabber interface. You'll create a user account and password on the server that will allow you to connect. Once connected, you'll be able to select the protocols you'd like to use. In fact, you'll connect to msn.jabber.org, for example, to connect to the MSN messaging servers. Jabber makes this process nearly transparent.

So, if your friends and families are spread around the country, and around the various messaging clients, Gabber could be your answer. It's the closest we've gotten yet to a unified messaging client - one that's capable of connecting to all the major proprietary clients out there. It's easy to configure and use, and will tweak the messaging capabilities of your Linux system to the fullest.

Recommend It!
Send us a GnomeTWEAK

GnomeCORE

Get your favorite Linux flavor on CD: Pick your favorite Linux flavor and get it on CD for as low as $1.95. Find Linux gear, books, and software for Linux at Linux Central . Check out the selection today!

It's surprising how necessary time keeping can be in any computer system. In my line of work, it's especially crucial. Even a one-second deviation in system time can create critical errors when pointing a telescope at an object based, in part, on the current time. In normal usage, system time finds its way into every file on your system. You may never think of it, but time in Linux is essential.

Linux systems rely on two clocks. One is a hardware clock. This can be set and adjusted in the BIOS of your computer. It's maintained by a small battery in your system to guarantee that if the power to your computer is killed, the time will remain accurate.

When your Linux system boots, it looks to the hardware clock to set a software clock. Linux systems use a software clock because it's time consuming (no pun intended) and requires resources to rely upon the hardware clock. In other words, it's more efficient to start a software clock, using the hardware clock to adjust the system time only when the system boots.

Software clocks can, however, be notoriously inaccurate. We're not talking about huge leaps in the error rate, but the cumulative error can be a matter of several minutes over the course of several days. If you require precisely accurate time, there are a couple of steps you can take to assure the accuracy of your software clock.

If the computer is connected to the network, you can use the Network Time Protocol (NTP). This system allows your computer to poll any one of hundreds of NTP servers, adjusting the time automatically. These servers maintain a reference to the current time with atomic clock accuracy. For details on how to set up NTP on your machine, see the Clock Mini-HowTo. It's full of interesting information on Linux clocks, in general, and provides specific information on setting up the NTP daemon.

You can also, of course, manually set your system time every few days. This is done with a relatively torturous process, using the date command. Here's the convention necessary to set your system time:

date [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]

You can see that in order to set perfectly accurate time, you'll need to remember quite a string of options. Most of these are self-evident (MMDDhhmm), but some may not be. CC, for example, is the two-digit century, followed immediately by YY for the two-digit year. ss represents the seconds. The information is all pretty obvious - the structure of the command is something less than intuitive. This command, by the way, sets only the software clock. When you reboot your system, it will be reset yet again by the hardware clock.

Time keeping in Linux - you can go high-tech or low-tech. In either case, you'll want to maintain accurate time on your system.

Recommend It!
Send us a GnomeCORE tip

GnomeFILE

Catch the Furball 1.0.3

http://jonathanscorner.com/etc/furball/

"Catch the Furball is an icebreaker board game intended for friends to play around a computer. It features a freshly-generated board for each game, an eclectic collection of cards, and beautiful pictures of Cambridge University. The distribution is intended both to allow Web masters to quickly set up their own copy of the game, and to allow tinkerers to use the game engine to make their own games. It includes the editor used to create game data."

Recommend It!
Send us a GnomeFILE suggestion

GnomeVOICE

Raging Torrent
Scribbled by Ed Brown

I just started in to Linux with a pick that I picked up as a bargain with the CD in the back because it was written in 1999. It said I could use it with my window OS because it would partition the drive for me. The Linux program is Caldera's OpenLinux. The installed messed up my windows OS. I managed to get most of my apps and data off before it crashed for good. I re-installed OpenLinux but it left off the boot disk, that I could install with Windows, something called Boot Magic or another program called Lilo. So now I have OpenLinux installed. I would like to format the disk and reinstall my win98 OS. And see if I could install it correctly this time so I could have both in separate partitions. But as I really know nothing, zilch, nada about Linux, I do not know how to do this and the guy who wrote Sam's Teach Yourself Linux in 24 Hours never ever thought anyone would want to remove the Linux app from the disk and re-install a windows OS. Help. I do have 3 install disks Mandrake 8.2 complete with supplements. Would this be any easier for a beginner or should I reinstall OpenLinux with the KDE 1.1 that seems to be the heart of this thing, and try to progress through the book. I am up the creek without a paddle and it is a raging torrent of cascading white water. HELP :-)

Recommend It!
Speak your GnomeVOICE

GnomeCLICK

LinuxVirgins.com

http://www.linuxvirgins.com/index.html

"Tired of your computer crashing all the time? Tired of being a slave to an upgrade cycle that forces you to pay hundreds of dollars per computer to upgrade to a new version of Windows and/or Office every couple of years just to stay compatible, but not getting any real improvement in return? Tired of not having a choice? Well you do have a choice. It's called Linux.

"My name is Michael Davis. I build web sites. (How do you like this one?) So I spend a lot of time working on computers. Until recently I worked exclusively on machines with the Windows operating system installed. However I have always been intrigued by Linux and irritated by Windows. Eventually I took the plunge and tried Linux. To my surprise I found it to be easier to use than I had expected. This web site is about my experience migrating from Windows to Linux. I hope the information here will help others make the migration too."

Recommend It!
Suggest a GnomeCLICK

 Latest Windows Daily
 Latest Digital Media
 Latest Tech Specialist
 Latest Penguin Shell
 Latest Apple Core
 Latest Web Weekly
 Latest Bits & Bytes
 Latest Forum Posts

 Suggest a Feature
 Advertise With Us
 Chat With Gnomies
 Watch The Webcams
 Recommend Us!
 View More Options
 About Lockergnome

 Link To Lockergnome
 Our Privacy Policy
 Our XML / RSS Feed
 Syndicate Our Tips
 Download X-Setup
 Download eBooks

 Ask a Question
 Low Price Finder
 CPU Magazine
 High-Tech Job Search
 Gnomies.com ISP
 The GnomeSTORE

 General Feedback
 E-mail the Editor
 The Editor's Blog

GNOMESEARCH

GNOMESPECIALS

 INSTANTLY Find Files!
 Intranet Help Desk
 Web Menus and Buttons
 Passphrase Keeper
 Clean your Registry
 Recover Non-booting PCs
 Easy Web Editor
 Dr.Tag - MP3 Tagger
 Pretty Good MahJongg
 Book Collector
 Create CD, Web, catalog

Get Listed Here

CLICK HERE TO ZOOM

GNOMECETERA

©1996-2003, Lockergnome LLC. ISSN: 1095-3965. All Rights Reserved. Please read our Terms of Service. Our Web site is hosted by DigitalDaze. Domain registered at DNS Central. Warranted spam-free by Habeas. Powered by Lyris ListManager.