PCR's notepad » open source

How to change language in R (Windows version at least)

David Dernoncourt — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:10:19 +0000

Like a lot of open-source programs, R comes with the highly annoying “feature” of being extremely localized. Not only does it default to your system’s language, but also it makes it a pain in the neck to manage to change the language: using the “GUI preferences” menu (or whatever it is in your locale, haha ^^) to change the language doesn’t even seem work… (you need to restart R for a language change to apply, but when you restart your custom configuration doesn’t get loaded – awesome)
But, well, someone asked the question on an R mailing list hosted by the University of Newcastle, Australia, and the solution is to run R with the added command line parameter LANGUAGE=en (edit the shortcut to R and add this stuff at the end).

On a side note, the solutioner points out a very common mistake made by localizers:

“Apparently some users want Windows in their native language, but not R.”

Dear localizers, you appear to forget or ignore the fact that some people run your software on their work computer, where they don’t have the choice of their OS nor of their language. You also seem to ignore that in some countries it’s pretty hard to grab a legal non-local copy of Windows. So please, don’t make it hard for users to change your program’s language back to normal (i.e. English). How would you like it if I forced you to read a Google-translated version of this notepad in your local language, hm?

Open source IZarc equivalent

David Dernoncourt — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:49:00 +0000

In my quest for always more open source software, I used to be a little disappointed on the side of compression/uncompression software. Sure, there is 7-Zip, but it doesn’t support shitloads of format, whereas on the freeware side I had found this IZarc that could open like every compression format I could met. Well, I finally found out, quite randomly while browsing PortableApps, that there is an open source equivalent for IZarc: PeaZip. The source isn’t very obvious to find, thus here is the link I dug out for you : PeaZip source packages on SourceForge
Ok, I still use 7-Zip because all the formats it supports are enough for me. But if I ever need more, now I’ll now where to look…
NB: it works on Linux too.

The French parliament switches to Ubuntu

David Dernoncourt — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 14:40:00 +0000

The French Parliament looks to be the next big Ubuntu switcher according to reports. Recently the Parliament produced an official government report that recommended the use of free software over proprietary software. The switch to free software is expected to provide a substantial savings to the tax-payers according to the government study.

read more | digg story

Will hardware manufacturers open the floodgates to free software adoption?

David Dernoncourt — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 06:52:00 +0000

The Free Software Foundation has released a paper detailing the five actions major hardware manufacturers can take to foster a mutually beneficial relationship with the free software community: support free software drivers, end the “Microsoft Tax”, remove proprietary BIOS locks, support a free BIOS, and reject Digital Restrictions Management (DRM)

read more | digg story

Despite 100 Million IE 7 Installs, Microsoft’s Browser Still Loses Ground

David Dernoncourt — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 16:47:00 +0000

Good news for web developpers, according to Net Applications, Internet Explorer accounted for 79.6% of all browsers used in December 2006, a drop from the 80.6% during the previous month. Firefox’s use, meanwhile, measured 14% in December, up from 13.5% in November. Also gaining ground in the last month of 2006 was Apple’s Safari, which climbed to 4.2% from 4%, and Opera, which saw its share increase from 0.7% to 0.9%.

A first look at Gaim 2.0

David Dernoncourt — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 20:44:00 +0000

The Gaim team released beta4 last week, with a number of new features and UI improvements. Gaim 2.0 is shaping up as a net improvement over Gaim 1.5, though some features have not changed for the better, and voice support for Google Talk is still missing in action.

My special pick : When your friend starts to compose an IM to you, Gaim will pop up a chat window with their screen name and the message “You feel a disturbance in the force.”

Read on

Fedora Core 6 arrives today

David Dernoncourt — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 05:49:00 +0000

The final release of Fedora Core 6 will be available for download on October 24th, 14:00 GMT. Get your blank DVDs ready, and watch for the torrents.

Digg it

Microsoft helped company finance legal battle over Linux, investor says

David Dernoncourt — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 11:49:00 +0000

Microsoft Corp. helped a Utah company raise money for its legal challenge to the open-source Linux operating system, an investor said in a court filing. In a sworn statement, Lawrence R. Goldfarb, a founder of BayStar Capital Management of Larkspur, Calif., said he invested $50 million in The SCO Group Inc. at the urging of Microsoft executives who promised to guarantee BayStar’s investment against any losses.

Running .Net applications on Linux with Mono

David Dernoncourt — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 05:48:00 +0000

Mono is an open source project (sponsored by Novell) that allows you to run .Net applications on Linux (as well as Unix, Mac OS X, Solaris and even Windows). To obtain it, go to the Mono download page and find the version you need for your distro.

Full article | Digg it

The ultimate open source licence : Do What the F**k You Want To License

David Dernoncourt — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 11:19:00 +0000

The title says it all… look at the license for FePy library and FePy DB-API library.

Source | Digg it