Geekspace for Women

Posted by ubergeeke on June 30th, 2008 in blogpost

There are several reasons to pick up the July 2008 issue of Linux Journal. IMHO, Linux Journal is the best Linux mag in the US. (They’ve got some stiff competition in the UK, so the jury’s still out on who’s the best worldwide.)

If you’re standing around in your favorite Monster Book Chain, wondering if you’re going to buy it, check out two articles in particular:

• Kyle Rankin’s Performance Comparison (p. 84) between standard laptop hard drives and solid state drives. Since these drives are popping up everywhere as of late, it’s good to see someone testing ‘em out.
• Katherine Druckman’s interview with WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg (p. 50). Obviously, I use WordPress, and I must say that more often than not, I’m very pleased with the product. I was hoping for a little more meat to the interview since it’s the cover page article, but it does touch on most of the pertinent topics, such as why WordPress is open source but Akismet is not. What do I think Druckman missed? I wanted to know a little bit more about Mullenweg’s career *before* WordPress, but I guess that’s why I’ve got the interwebs. Overall, though, great article, and frankly, it’s the reason I bought the mag (and braved the Mall Sprawl of suburban Detroit while on vacation).

After you check those out, go buy the magazine!

Here’s the thing: there’s always *something* cool in this mag. I never think after the fact that I should have saved that $5.99 USD for something else. I’ll admit that I usually skip Dave Taylor’s column because he either writes about something so esoteric that I’m not at all interested, or something I already know about so why bother. (Just you watch: I’m going to run into that guy in a dark alley at OSCON and after he kicks my ass, I’ll have to admit that some of the stuff he writes is just over my head.) Still, I always check out the product reviews and “EOF” by Doc Searls. I gotta say that it’s been a long while since I’ve read a copy of LJ where something didn’t send me running for my keyboard, eager to try something that I’d just learned about.

Hey! LJ folks! How about a subscription? (End shameless plug.)

In other LJ news: I’ve only recently begun clicking madly at their website. Funny that: I’ve read the magazine for *years* but never visited linuxjournal.com except to check the subscription rates. There’s a lot of cool stuff there, and I’m browsing my way through Shawn Powers’ videos as well as the updated news content. Keen!

Off you go to the mall sprawl near you!

Editor’s addition: Forgot to mention that I was *very* psyched to see an article by Druckman in LJ. She’s LJ’s webmistress (which is an enviable job, if you ask me), and I’m thrilled to see a woman’s article - particularly hers - in the magazine. More, please!