Multitouch on Linux?

Multitouch technology is becoming increasingly more common, and now it is finally coming to GNU/Linux. (Image by Flickr User cellanr)

In step with the release of the Apple iPad, a multi-touch device similar to the iPhone, GNU/Linux has a working multi-touch stack implementation, as Carlos Garnacho shows in this demostration.

Windows has been the only player in the world of multi-touch for a while. Microsoft recently pushed Windows 7 multi-touch technology, and with the advent of inexpensive tablets like the $69 Bamboo Touch, this technology has been steadily growing in popularity as of late. Apple, too, has tried to capitalize on this, pushing out the new iPad multi-touch tablet last Wednesday.

With this demonstration, though, GNU/Linux has shown itself to be a player in the multi-touch world. In the video, a patched version of Eye of GNOME takes input from the multi-touch screen to resize and move an image.

Open Source Embargo

SourceForge has announced that it will be following the restrictions laid out by the US Government. (Image by Geeknet, Inc.)

SourceForge has recently announced that the it will block all people from countries sanctioned by the Untied States government from accessing its site, instead showing a 403 error to users from these nations. Because it is incorporated under United States law, SourceForge must follow these requirements set out by the government.

This should not cause a problem, in truth. The SourceForge Terms of Use do not allow people from these countries to post on or download from SourceForge.net. This is nothing new. So why is there such an uprising?

Well, it seems that people think this goes against the definition of Open Source Software and Free Software. This is not so. The Definition of Open Source Software is specific about Discrimination Against Persons or Groups:

"Should I learn C? No, Python? Perl? LISP?!"

CodeProject

There are plenty of great C and C++ tutorials around online, and even more in print. (Image by Elly Waterman and William R. Wilson)

This is somewhat of a minor holy war among more experienced programmers. Everyone is biased based on what they learned first, who taught them, the language with which they are most familiar, and so forth. If you ask twenty different people, don't be surprised to get twenty different answers.

In truth, there is no best language to learn when starting out programming. If you want to learn C++, go ahead; try it. As a language, C++ is harder than, say, Python, but it also has a different philosophy and set of features. The same goes for LISP or EMCAscript. If you want to learn a specific language, do it! The motivation will help you.

If you do not know what language you want to learn first, bear several things in mind when deciding.

Moderate, Don't Censor

Moderate, don't censor. (Image by Flickr user mike/d.)

If you haven't read the previous post, I suggest you do to understand where I am coming from.

Early in the morning today, I posted a comment on Gene Quinn's IPWatchDog blog, a blog discussing topics about Intellectual Property (IP) laws. Well, not discussing, exactly…more Gene presenting his view and saying that any other view is incorrect.

The comment was in response to the post, Praying the Supremes Get Bilski Right In 2010, in which Gene presents a thought-provoking and in-depth argument on why the existence of Software Patents is warranted. This was a well thought out post, I will give Gene that. But that is all I will give him.

Before you read any further on this entry, take a look at the comments for this post. See if you can see what is wrong in them on Gene's part. I have to say, I got to comment number six before getting disgusted.

Are You Arguing Against My Argument, or Against ME?

And the moral of the story is Value and respect comments, even if they don't share the same viewpoint as you do.(Image by Flickr user Laughing Squid.)

Recently, I came across this blog entry on IPWatchdog. This blog/law firm was founded by Gene Quinn. Gene is a patent attorney, and like many other patent attorneys, he believes in Software Patents. I do not believe in them, but I respect that he does.

Usually, after reading it, I would skip over an entry like this. However, after reading the first six comments, I was already disgusted with the way Gene responds to opposing views. Instead of addressing points made by others, he insulted them, saying they are unable to learn, have no knowledge about patents, and do not know what they are talking about because they have less experience, despite evidence to the contrary. Gene would not make a good courtroom lawyer, based on his lack of debating skills.

Well, That Was a Nice Break...

The Wacom Bamboo Pen tablet is a very affordable but featured drawing tablet. (Image by CoolBeta.com.)

Yes, I took a break. Let me just get you caught up with a few things:

• I got a Wacom Bamboo Pen tablet. It's marvellous. Great. Amazing. Spectacular. What more can I say? It worked out of the box with Windows, but took a little more effort to get to work on Debian. Wacom tablets are supported on Linux with the Open Source Linux Wacom Project. However, because the the Bamboo TPen is so new, it isn't supported even by this project. Luckily, though there is a patch (available here) that allows you to use one of these nice tablets on GNU/Linux. Be warned, however: the code automatically is in debug mode. This makes extremely large log files. Think your computer will not generate 13 GB of log files in one session? Think again! To fix this, just go into the source directory and comment out the #define DEBUG 1 line. It's worked so far.