On the web, I’ve shifted from WordPress hosted blog to my very own domain(yippee!!!) hosted on ExperTrio (thanks, Preshit!). And for the moment, my Linux experimentations have ceased due to lack of a PC/laptop with me. Updates will continue, as soon as I get them.

And oh yeah, my sis gave birth to a girl. Here’s a pic of my neice!

Chao!

“In the past 365 days we successfully released openSUSE 10.2 with numerous improvements and new features. Up until now it has been installed hundreds of thousands of times. We brought the Build Service to a broader audience as an open source project with cool features like release management, build monitoring package tags, statistics, an ever improving command line client, patterns and one click installations. This must have impressed AMD because they quickly became a Platinum Sponsor. The software/download page was completely rewritten and relaunched. Several other sites appeared, including but not limited to opensuse-community.org, suse-art.org to share your openSUSE artwork, the Localization Portal to help bring openSUSE to your language, Benji’s package search tool, our own idea pool, several localized openSUSE wikis, and not to forget this site here.”

“While we are at the topic of opening up. The YaST, Limal and Zypp developers completely moved everything under the hood of openSUSE. We launched our own SVN server and are trying to bring the various package repositories together into one software portal. We also had some fascinating ideas implemented during our Hackweek, for instance a Build Service project that recompiles Debian packages or Giver for easy file sharing. The first versions of KIWI, our imaging technology, appeared which helps everybody to deploy their own versions of openSUSE”

“

… and even more things to come!

Today the first beta release of openSUSE 10.3 with lots of new features arrives. The final release is only 2 months away! The localization project has taken over all the translations for 10.3. This weekend we will try to slash as many bugs as we can. We are working vigorously on building the distribution inside the Build Service and implementing a framework for contributions. The Software Portal is coming on, and more and more people are joining the openSUSE packagers team. There are more openSUSE images built with KIWI coming; the latest addition is an image for USB sticks. We will have weekly interviews here under the category People of openSUSE. The final draft of the guiding principles was just released and we have to form the openSUSE Board. Also in the pipe are various re-designs of our web pages. The splash on www.opensuse.org and the download/software pages will be followed by the wikis and the Build Service. And this won’t be everything that is coming in the next year, we promise!

So enjoy this day and have some cake or a drink on openSUSE.”

Happy Birthday!!!

Source from: openSuSE website

“Bob Teixeira decided it was time to take a stand against U.S. dependence on foreign oil. So last fall the Charlotte musician and guitar instructor spent $1,200 to convert his 1981 diesel Mercedes to run on vegetable oil. He bought soybean oil in 5-gallon jugs at Costco, spending about 30 percent more than diesel would cost.

His reward, from a state that heavily promotes alternative fuels: a $1,000 fine last month for not paying motor fuel taxes. He has been told to expect another $1,000 fine from the federal government.

To legally use veggie oil, state officials told him, he would have to first post a $2,500 bond.

Teixeira is one of a growing number of fuel-it-yourselfers — backyard brewers who recycle restaurant grease or make moonshine for their car tanks. They do it to save money, reduce pollution or thumb their noses at oil sheiks.

They’re also caught in a web of little-known state laws that can stifle energy independence.

State Sen. Stan Bingham, R-Denton, is known around Raleigh for his diesel Volkswagen fueled by used soybean oil. The car sports a “Goodbye, OPEC” sign.

“If somebody was going to go to this much trouble to drive around in a car that uses soybean oil, they ought to be exempt” from state taxes, he said.

The state Department of Revenue, which fined Teixeira, has asked legislators to waive the $2,500 bond for small fuel users. The department also told Teixeira, after the Observer asked about his case this week, that it will compromise on his fine.”

Hmm, poor fella, does his bit to reduce oil consumption(albeit, for his own reasons, but nonetheless he *does* make an effort, doesn’t he?) and he gets fined!