Yes, there is such a beast. No, I not talking about ndiswrapper or anything else that uses Windows drivers. I mean that this G card works out of the box with Linux. What is this mythical creature? The Netgear WG511T Super G 108 Mbps Wireless PC Card, which is currently only $49.99 @ Amazon. It's a PCMCIA card that works perfectly with K/Ubuntu 5.10. I should know ... I'm using it right now. This is the one to get, guys ... although if someone knows of another G card that works out of the box, list it below! (Check out all of our posts on wireless.) ...

Wi-Fi Planet looks at how the Linksys WRT54G router can be modified with open source to produce a wireless networking monster! The WRT54G router is based on components from Linux, and gurus from the Linux kernel mailing list discovered how to change its core software. Improvements include tweaks to support IPv6, hotspot deployment, boost signal strength, and more. (Check out all of our posts on networking.) ...

Novell recently opened up SUSE to community development as OpenSUSE, & now we see the results: SUSE 10. Read the release announcement. Download the software directly or via BitTorrent. Feel the SUSE love. My buddy Matt in Germany (hey, Matt!) just installed SUSE 10, & here's his report: Here is my report on the installation of SuSE 10. The installation itself went somewhat smoothly. I actually had to initially install twice as I received a GRUB error after the basic installation (the first disk) was complete. The second attempt worked. I have spent most of the day trying to get a wireless connection. I have yet to get my internal wireless card to work. I even had trouble getting the trusty Orinoco Gold card to work. I eventually figured it out, but the signal strength for this card is weak, just as it was when I used it running Linux on my old Dell. I think there is a problem with the card under Linux as the card has great strength under Windows. Does anyone ...

Yellow Dog Linux is basically Red Hat for PowerPC machines (ie, Macs). It's the main distro for our Apple brethren interested in running Linux, and as such, it's received a lot of attention. Unfortunately, YDL ain't gonna enjoy the attention it's getting in "Review: Yellow Dog Linux 4.0 PPC", available from Apple-X.net. I mean, he eventually says that you should try it out, but he lists a litany of problems: "... display flickered for a few seconds as YDL struggled to start X, but it didn't work … if I plug [ethernet] in after I've already booted the system, I need to sudo /sbin/ifup eth0 … clock seemed to be perpetually inaccurate … Sound didn't work at all out of the box … no hardware 3D acceleration, and no wireless … some apps, like xmms and Mac-On-Linux, were simply broken … packages are much harder to manage and upgrade". Yeeeeouch! ...

There's a new Knoppix in town, & this is the best one yet! Knoppix 3.8.1 dropped a few days ago, and you can download the 700 MB ISO from a variety of places (PLEASE use BitTorrent!). New stuff includes: kernel 2.6.11 (no more 2.4), write support for all virtual directories using UNIONFS so you can install software even without writable file systems (!), support for Centrino2 wireless (awesome!), the ability to create a permanent /home on a hard drive (even if it's formatted as NTFS), KDE 3.3.2, Gimp 2.2.4, & OpenOffice 1.1.4. That's quite an upgrade! I've been using it for over a week, & it's really nice. A nice review of the new Knoppix can be found at O'Reilly. Kyle Rankin's "Knoppix 3.8 and UnionFS. Wow. Just Wow." focuses on, uh, UNIONFS. It's a good piece. Read it. (Check out all my previous posts on Knoppix.) ...

A reminder: Early registration for ShmooCon 2006 closes Saturday. Until then, you can get in for $75. After that, it's $150. The Shmoo Group guys bill ShmooCon pretty modestly as "the annual East coast hacker converntion," but it's one of the premier events of the year for hackers and security experts around the country. This year's conference will be divided into three tracks: Break It! A track dedicated to the demonstration of techniques, software, and devices devised with only one purpose in mind—technology exploitation. You will bear witness to some of the most devious minds, source code, and gadgets on the planet that focus their energies on breaking the technology we mindless sheep keep on buying. Baaaaa. Build It! A track that showcases inventive software & hardware solutions—from distributed computing or stealth p2p networks to miniature form-factor community wireless network node hardware or robotics even. Let loose your inner ...

Robert Citek wrote about this on the CWE-LUG list a while back, & I thought y'all might find it interesting. For example, when I want to know all the MAC address and IP addresses on my LAN, I do the following: # ping -b -c 2 -W 1 192.168.1.255 # arp | grep eth although I find this for-loop gives me more complete results: # for i in $(seq 1 254) ; do ping -c 2 -W 1 192.168.1.$i >& /dev/null & done # arp | grep eth The above works great if I know the network I'm on. But what if there is a device that is using a different network IP, e.g. 10.1.1.1? For example, we discovered serendipitously through using ethereal that one of our wireless switches was doing just that. Now, here's how I would do the same thing, using the fantabulous nmap: # nmap -sP -PI -PT 192.168.0.1/24 Of course, Robert's examples assume that his network's addressing uses 192.168.1.x, while mine assumes 192.168.0.x, but you probably saw that anyway. :) By the ...

So far, it's been a really fun day, in a geeky sort of way. As a neophite tech conference goer, it's a little strange to see so many people plugged in. At least 80-% of the audience is taking notes, visiting the websites being mentioned, chatting, checking email, and probably hacking up code samples, a far cry from the academic conferences I'm used to. The, uh, gender dynamic is about what you'd expect, too. I'm sure I'm not the only one liveblogging this either; an open wireless network is a wonderful thing. The organizers ahve done a bang up job, and aside from some logistical problems created by the vist of Ahmed Kharzi to campus today, everything has gone very smoothly. The people are great, too, but anyone who has hung out on any of the NYCBUG lists already knew that. Chatted a little bit with Maichael Welsh  about the BSDCert colo  facilities. Who knew FreeBSD was big in Brazil? I exchanged pleasantries with Jeffery Hsu from Dragonfly at lunch and Michael Lucas who is a ...

The Weblogs, Inc. network features over 100 independent, unfiltered bloggers producing over 1,000 blog posts a week across over 75 industry-leading blogs. Each week we ask our bloggers to choose their top posts, which we bring to you in one easy-to-read weekly post. You'll find links to the hottest posts from the past week after the jump including the Macromedia MAX ticket giveaway and exclusive Treo 700w information. ...

The Weblogs, Inc. network features over 100 independent, unfiltered bloggers producing over 1,000 blog posts a week across over 75 industry-leading blogs. Each week we ask our bloggers to choose their top posts, which we bring to you in one easy-to-read weekly post. You'll find links to the hottest posts from the past week after the jump including a special review contest, celebrity virginity, and even the best Windows emulator for Mac. Enjoy! ...

The Weblogs, Inc. network features over 100 independent, unfiltered bloggers producing over 1,000 blog posts a week across over 75 industry-leading blogs. Each week we ask our bloggers to choose their top posts, which we bring to you in one easy-to-read weekly post. You'll find links to the hottest posts from the past week after the jump including coverage of the most overrated shows of all time, DVD disagreements, and even a Picasso. Enjoy the full listing after the jump. ...

The Weblogs, Inc. network features over 100 independent, unfiltered bloggers producing over 1,000 blog posts a week across over 75 industry-leading blogs. Each week we ask our bloggers to choose their top posts, which we bring to you in one easy-to-read weekly post. You'll find links to the hottest posts from the past week after the jump including an Engadget Blinged-out Gadget Contest, the worst TV news of the week and information on the possible death of Tom Hanks. Enjoy! ...

The Weblogs, Inc. network features over 100 independent, unfiltered bloggers producing over 1,000 blog posts a week across over 75 industry-leading blogs. Each week we ask our bloggers to choose their top posts, which we bring to you in one easy-to-read weekly post. You'll find links to the hottest posts from the past week after the jump including an exploding snake, a new Gameboy Advance hack, and how to survive a run of bad luck. ...

The Weblogs, Inc. network features over 100 independent, unfiltered bloggers producing over 1,000 blog posts a week across over 75 industry-leading blogs. Each week we ask our bloggers to choose their top posts, which we bring to you in one easy-to-read weekly post. You'll find links to the hottest posts from the past week after the jump including an Engadget Meetup on the west coast, a way to get a free plasma screen in politics, and even a full day in Prague. Enjoy! ...

The Weblogs, Inc. network features over 100 independent, unfiltered bloggers producing over 1,000 blog posts a week across over 75 industry-leading blogs. Each week we ask our bloggers to choose their top posts, which we bring to you in one easy-to-read weekly post. You'll find links to the hottest posts from the past week after the jump including a call for Digital Photography bloggers, the announcement of a brand new fanboy from Joystiq, and an invisible (almost) browser. Enjoy! ...