Tanguy Ortolo

Major desktop environments such as Xfce or KDE have a built-in computer suspend feature, but when you use a lighter alternative, things are a bit more complicated, because basically: only root can suspend the computer. There used to be a standard solution to that, using a D-Bus call to a running daemon upowerd. With recent updates, that solution first stopped working for obscure reasons, but it could still be configured back to be usable. With newer updates, it stopped working again, but this time it seems it is gone for good:

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply \
            --dest='org.freedesktop.UPower' \
            /org/freedesktop/UPower org.freedesktop.UPower.Suspend
Error org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: Method "Suspend" with
signature "" on interface "org.freedesktop.UPower" doesn't exist

Read more GNU/Linux graphic sessions: suspending your computer

grep is designed to print lines matching a given pattern, but I often need to print only the matching part, discarding the remaining.

I used to do that with sed, but it involves several actions: match, replace the line by only the matching pattern and print. Fortunately, GNU grep has an option to do just that:

-o, --only-matching

Print only the matched (non-empty) parts of a matching line, with each such part on a separate output line.

Unfortunately it is not a standard option, so it may be missing on non-GNU systems.

You certainly know Picasa Albums Web and Flickr, two commercial picture hosting services. You probably know a few free software projects that allow people to keep control of their own pictures, such as Gallery, Piwigo, Zenphoto or PhotoShow.

GNU MediaGoblin is a similar project, but with some interesting characteristics and features:

• it has a funny name and mascot;
• it is part of the GNU project;
• it is written in Python;
• it does not need a database servers since can use an SQLite database;
• it is designed with a specific care for free culture, allowing to indicate the license of a picture and to provide its source format as an attachment for instance.
• it supports audio, video and 3D models with HTML5 features rather than the dreadful Flash;
• it is a work in progress and is asking for financial contribution.

If you find GNU MediaGoblin as promising as I do, please consider donating!

Do you remember how Intel used to be the white knight of graphic card manufacturers, the one from which you could buy hardware without looking, being sure that it would be supported by GNU/Linux directly?

Do you remember how they broke that by releasing the infamous Poulsbo card?

Well, they did it again. The newest Intel Atom D2500, D2550, D2700, N2600 and N2800 processors, codenamed “CedarView” and “Cedar Trail”, include a graphic core that is only supported by a proprietary driver only available on Meego (read: unusable on regular GNU/Linux.

Read more Beware of the newest Intel Atom GPU