Linux Format Blog

I've just spent ten minutes with the Acer Aspire One, a Linux-powered subnotebook with these specs: 9" screen, 512MB RAM, 8GB flash storage, 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, three USB ports, 2 SD card slots and an Ethernet port. It's running Linpus Linux 9.4 Lite -- based on Fedora -- with an Xfce desktop for added snappiness.

...the mice go to Argos.

Here's something ker-azy: Argos has a special offer for My Word Coach DS, a vocabulary trainer for Nintendo's handheld console. If you buy it, you can also obtain an 'Action Replay Cheat System' for 1/3rd the price. (Click here and then 'Special offers'.)

OK -- that may not be so odd. Presumably Argos is offering the cut-price Action Replay with loads of games, right?

Tomorrow is the last day at Linux Format before I leave. No, I'm not resigning or moving magazines (sorry!), but I am going on sabbatical, and that means 64 days away from the office. I've spent the last few months doing all the work I would normally have done during that time - staff appraisals, budgeting, flatplanning and, yes, even a little bit of writing, so I'm sure LXF will be all smooth sailing while I'm away.

OK, folks, listen carefully: the subs team has now finalised the subscriptions offer for overseas peeps. It's only available for a month, so if you miss this chance then you've missed it for good. Please pass this offer on to anyone you think would be interested - friends, family, LUGs, forums, mailing lists, etc, because it really is only available for a short time.

NEW SUBSCRIBERS

(you don't subscribe right now)

• USA 1-year subscription: US $154.35 (30% off retail price)

If you live outside the UK and are thinking of subscribing to Linux Format, hold fire: our subs team is working on a special limited-time subs offer for all overseas readers. It won't last long (that's why I'm warning you in advance!), but it will be a significant price cut that you absolutely won't want to miss. I'll post more details as soon as the deal is finalised, which should be Monday morning.

Every cloud has a silver lining, right? Right? I know a lot of you really hate it when LXF's built-in spelling system goes awry, so I wanted to come clean: LXF108 may well make your blood boil. In fact, if even the occasional error makes your head hurt, then LXF108 may cause you to self-destruct. Thanks to a small series of production mistakes - namely a number of wrong pages being sent to press by accident - there are some mistakes in LXF108 that are comically bad, and I apologise for that.

After several months on a waiting list, my Monome128 arrived last week. A Monome is a hand built walnut wood and aluminium box with 128 buttons lit by 128 LEDs - designed primarily for making weirdy electronic music. All Monomes are built by a couple of guys in Philadelphia, who promise economic and ecological sustainability in their design and production. Everything is open source, from the firmware to the PCB schematics, and many people create their own. You can even build them from an Arduino.

A little while ago we announced the LXF Community Conversion project, where people could volunteer to convert PDFs of LXF tutorials into wiki text to help expand our wiki - if you'd like to help, visit this link for more information.

I had an email from a reader asking whether we could produce some sort of quick reference wall chart to common Linux commands, and it occurred to me that we did something similar almost 18 months ago when we produced our Getting Started guides to Linux.

Because my life is like a perpetual episode of Seinfeld, I ask you: What's the deal with toasters?

I mean, look at this. Here's the marvellous job done by my classy new Argos Cookworks toaster:

That's OK -- it's pretty dark and crunchy, just as I like it. But this is setting number four. There are nine settings. No sane person would want their toast much darker than this, so why are there nine settings?