For they have horses and are good with knots…

Back on track this week, so you’ll be getting you dose of Linux news in the extended entry. Randy’s busily working on the next batch (we’re on strip 20 for those keeping score, and we have completed art through strip 22.) The next story arc after this one completes is going to start our first attempt at more than a 4 strip plot. This one will run a whopping 8 strips. Characters will be developed. Plots will unfold. Falafel jokes will be made!OK gang, I’m finally getting some semblance of normality back in my schedule after The Vacation, so this will be the last time you get a two-week Linux News (at least for the foreseeable future). I’m typing this on a new keyboard (my old Logitech having finally given up the ghost, but not before I had rubbed the lettering entirely off the A and S keys from use). I’m using a Microsoft one now, which has a nice feel, but like a new pair of shoes, is going to take some getting used to.

Sometimes it truly sucks to be a New Englander. Mainly when you try to get tickets for professional sports teams. The cheapest standing room seat you can get for a Patriots game will set you back at least $120, and good Red Sox tickets can be even more (although nosebleed seating for non-Yankees games is still reasonable). Makes raising a kid an expensive proposition, but there’s always the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. With both the Red Sox and Patriots at the top of their game, things do not bode to improve in the near future.

When not watching the elimination number for the Yankees, your humble editor did manage to get a few articles out to the OFOW* faithful over the last two weeks. Gregory Brown delivered unto us the middle episode in his ongoing saga to implement Behavior Driven Development with Ruby. See how BDD will make you the king of Dots and Boxes.

On a more WebDev-centric note, Jack Herrington and Steve Yen introduced us to Trimpath Junction. No, it’s not the border town to Petticoat Junctions, it’s a JavaScript framework that brings the Ruby on Rails style MVC design pattern to the browser. It also integrates with Google Gears, and a lot of other neat stuff.

And if you’ve ever wanted to create a more focused (and perhaps less pr0n infested) version of Google, Benard Farrell showed us how to create a Google Custom Search Engine.

Lots of blogs, so you get the abbreviated blog report.

Doug Hellmann: Python Module of the Week - optparse

Nitesh Dhanjani: Social Networking as a security risk

Doug Hellmann: Python Module of the Week - unittest

Matthew McCool: Culture as the Software of the Mind

Noah Gift: A Python Programmer dives into Ruby

Curtis Poe: Being able to challenge source code in court

Noah Gift: How will the OpenSolaris vs. Linux adventure turn out

Chromatic: Should the FSF 4 Freedoms apply to hardware

Caitlyn Martin: Running 64 bit Ubuntu

Juliet Kemp: Using cron to ping hosts

Carla Schroder: Hacking low-end Canon cameras

Roland Bouman: Java locales for Date dimensions in databases

Gregory Brown: Come to Ruby East 2007

Tom Adelstein: Documenting an open source implementation strategy

Next week, blogs will be written, and we’ll see if the Sox can fend off the Yankees coming down the stretch (insert appropriate regional sports rivalry here if you’re not part of Red Sox Nation.) Til then, have fun!

* The ONLamp Family of Website, part of a complete breakfast.

James Turner Site Editor, ONLamp.com turner@oreilly.com