Last updated: Thurs 15th June 2006.
These web pages contain stuff which other people may find useful.
Last update: links to an unpleasant internet shopping experience.
See Change History for other history details.
If you know nothing about Linux, a good place to start is the beginner's guide.
Yes, it is possible! Have a look at this page to see how to use a Linux system in a Windows network to let you do cool and useful stuff. It describes how to use a Linux system together with some free software for Windows, to let a network of Windows machines use the services of a Linux machine to their advantage.
Personally, I find one of the great things about Unix-like systems (e.g. Linux), is that security has always been considered important. In contrast, to run a Windows PC with any degree of safety you need to be running intrusive virus scanners that check every file you access. You may have bought a super-fast PC to run your Windows system -- but you can use it at full speed with no safety, or with a virus scanner that makes you safe while crippling the performance of your fancy PC!
Another approach is to run a Unix system for your desktop. We use ours for surfing the web, reading email, playing music, writing books, recording music, and stuff like that.
Initially, I'm doing this just to put up some info on
creating MP3 CDs, since I'm rapt by the ability to put
almost 200 songs onto a single CD. I'm trying this all out with
a Digitor portable CD/CDR/CDRW/MP3 player from Dick Smith.
For now, only a few files in the
script
directory are of interest for MP3 CD
creation: mp3s2wavs, wavs2mp3s,
load_mp3_player_info, cdrw-dev, and yorn.
I only created the MP3 stuff in the last couple of days,
so they're not ready for general consumption yet.
You'd also need sox (the SOund eXchange program, standard on all
Linux systems), and bladeenc (converts .wav files into MP3 files).
Bladeenc's home page is
here.
Please be aware that you should use the bladeenc software responsibly.
Don't use it to rip off artists who depend on sales of their
CDs for their livelihood.
As an example of the kinds of useful stuff you can do,
I've written a Unix shell script that prompts you
for the album title, artist, and then the name of each track. It
then produces artwork ready for printing (or editing). It creates
a minimalist paper sleeve/holder for protecting a CD. This is ideal
for use where CD storage space is at a premium. Just cut it out and glue
the flaps down. I've called it
cd-sleeve
(just shift-click to download it).
You just run it by typing: sh ./cd-sleeve
Here
is a large collection of command scripts.
(Like DOS batch files, but using real scripting languages,
mostly Bourne shell scripts.)
They are currently (2002/1/2) completely disorganised.
I plan to add a manual entry for each one in due course,
and a table summarising what each is about.
Some of them are ancient; some are under development.
Right now I wouldn't recommend you use any of them, unless you really
know what you're doing. I'll be sanitising them in due course.
If you want to use the command scripts mentioned above,
you'll need to be running a Unix-like environment.
For Windows users, that would mean something like the free
Cygwin
system. Be aware you'd need a cable modem to download that, since
there's about 300-400Mb of stuff in a full download of everything
(including all the source code).
It works very well, though.
So too does
U/WIN
from Bell Labs, but that's only free when used for
educational or research purposes.
From memory, it's about a 50Mb download.
I'm amazed that someone intrepid explorers have found this site,
but pleased that they've found it moderately useful.
I do plan to make it more useful, and maybe even interesting, in the
months to come.
Two scans of an unpleasant Amazon or US Postal Service experience.
The front scan of what I received:
music-cd-not-a.pdf
and the scan of the back of what I received:
music-cd-not-b.pdf
lukekendall then an "at" symbol then optushome.com.au
Thurs 15th Jun 2006.
Added links to scans of an unpleasant Amazon or US Postal Service experience.
Mon 2nd July 2003.
Fixed a typo in the Unix (Cygwin) post-install command.
Relates to
this page.
Tues 22nd April 2003.
Added a Unix shell script to create minimalist CD sleeves.
Relates to
cd-sleeve .
Thurs 27th November 2002.
More polished handling of home directory assignment.
Relates to
(this page).
Fri 22nd November 2002.
Fixed handling of default case in post-install.sh when asked for home directory.
Wed 6th November 2002.
Lots of small tweaks to the Cygwin helper stuff
basically to make it more readable.
Sun 27th October 2002.
Tidied the new Cygwin automatic post-installation,
and added a DOS batch script (cyginst.bat), that kicks off everything.
Tues 22nd October 2002.
Made the new Cygwin automatic post-installation
even more robust and flexible.
Wed 16th October 2002.
Made the new Cygwin post-installation automatic stuff pretty flawless.
Mon 14th October 2002.
Mon 14th September 2002:
pre- September:
Command Scripts
cd-sleeve
Change History
Made lots of the Cygwin post-installation stuff automatic
(big updates to xwin-network.html and related files).
I also removed wmaker-0.80.0-cygwin.tar.gz since it's included by
default as part of XFree86 in Cygwin nowadays.
Added a port of xcb to cygwin, at
xcb.zip ,
see
README-xcb.txt
for details of the X11 Clip Board.
I wasn't keeping track of changes back then! :-)