Now this might seem a bit egotistical but in reality it’s a very interesting exercise on how you can get yourself  “known” out there by the sites you have built, forums you have joined and other sites you are a member of.

Is it a kind of social proof? Well I’d say , yes! Hang on, I’ll just check if there is anything bad  mentioned about me – Nope – all is good!

It’s a bit of a history tour of what you’ve done and what you’ve been a part of! I know I’d forgotten I’d participated in the many sites that come show up as places I’m known in.

Fortunately for me, there isn’t that many Tim Brownlaw’s around , so I know what I get to see is actually about me. Big Ego rush!

I’d like to catch up with anyone that shares my own name. We could be related! Who knows…some lost relatives out there I’ve never met. (actually I have caught up with a branch of the family that stems back to my great grandfathers time.)

Go on – try it! All you need to do is enter in your name in double quotes in Google or any other search engine you prefer and see what comes up. ie “Tim Brownlaw” and Bingo!

One thing this does show regarding forums. If you participate in Forums ( and I hope that you do ) and you are promoting anything which you can mention in your Forum Signature  then you’ll definitely get “More Exposure” out there on the search engines.

It’s kind of nice to have your Own Personal Keywords – that being – your own name!

And on another very important note….

Today is the last day of 2009 here,  So I’d like to thank you for your support over 2009 and I hope that you continue to come along and have your mind messed with – whoops  – I mean – learn something useful, and I certainly hope you’ll continue to do so in 2010.

So to you and yours from myself and my family – a very sincere Happy and Prosperous New Year in 2010!

Let’s make it big in 2010! It’s got nice even numbers, that has to help – right?

Cheers

Tim Brownlaw

Friend or Foe?

Well I must say that the first time I tried to setup an account on Thunderbird 3.0 running on  Windows XP , I was mentally creating a post that wasn’t going to be very nice!

They’ve changed it, and it’s going to throw a lot people out that had managed to figure it out on the older versions. For one thing, all my screen shots now need updating and I’ll need to add messages in big bold Red Characters that say “Do Not Panic”!

I’ve only tried using this on my HP netbook running XP (head hung in shame…) as I was called up on the phone by a mate that was struggling to get it running on his new laptop. So of course I installed it to see what all the fuss was about.

Summary of the phone call.

Does it work on your Desktop? -  Yes the older version works a treat…

Does it work on the old laptop? – Yes the older version works a treat…

But it’s not working on your new Laptop? – No, cause it’s all different!

So I installed it and looked at it myself and offered a few choice words I’ve learned from the kids. I was puzzled by the changes and this “Auto” Detection system – for some reason – smacked of M$ cleverness ( yes, that last word was sarcastic!).

I played with it instead of fighting it…

And I finally got it to work… Now I’ve got all my hosting with GVO ( formerly Kiosk ) on their titanium package so I can pretty much Create Websites to any size or shape at will. But it appears now, in hindsight, that my newer hosting accounts do indeed support IMAP.  Something I didn’t know and I was wondering why Thunderbird thought it was there and working…. After telling it that the SSL Certificates weren’t bogus it all worked.

I did find that my older  – pre Titanium accounts – dont play well and so I have to use my ISP mail server as my SMTP, and they use POP3.

Where did the Tick Box for Global Inbox Go?

On my Kubuntu 9.10, I do have Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 and I’m very used to creating lots of accounts for my various sites. One of those processes involved “Unticking the Global Inbox” Box so that each account has it’s own folders.

Folder groupings have changed

Where each account used to have a separate  Inbox, Sent, Trash folders grouped under the account name,  it’s reveresed!

Now the different email accounts Inboxes are grouped under the Inbox. The different email accounts Trash Folders are all grouped under the “Trash” Folder. And so forth, which at first seems a little strange. <pause for time to adjust> Hmm, I can kind of see the logic of what they’ve done.

It probably makes much more sense if you have a number of accounts to be able to view all the inboxes as a group. Usually you don’t need to see the other folders. One thing  I need to try though is what happens to those other folders that you sometimes create under an account – Where do they go? To Silicon heaven, where all the dead calculators go?

I’ve not been watching too much “Red Dwarf”!

So after the initial shock and the internal battle to resist these  changes  I never asked for, I must say that now I can come to terms with it and even go as far as saying – “Not bad”!

That’s about as far as I’ve got with it so far… So next step is to get back to my mate and get him sorted out. Now I know a bit more of what’s going on….

Wordpress  has come a long way over the years.

It’s now at the point where it’s simple to knock up a website in a matter of moments, literally.

It sure beats my old templating system I developed and teach in my classes. Well the templating system is a  good introduction to using PHP at least and has some applications for small sites.

It’s probably how Wordpress started out. I’m just way too late…

Anyway, Wordpress has now got my full attention to the point that I’m learning how to throw in all my past PHP code snippets into it via Plugins. Which at the beginning, like most things, has a wee learning curve. But there is a lot of good information available on the internet to help out.

I’ve even gone and bought a domain name and have been slowly building the website up.  It’s a place where I’ll be providing all my new found Wordpress Knowledge and providing links back to some good sources.

Which leads me to a dilemma. I’ve got this website where I ramble on about things. I’ve also got http://www.LookingOverMyShoulder.com which I use as my base site for  my teaching ( Note to self:  It needs a major revamp – hey install  Wordpress on it  – good idea! ).

And the tutorial site for Wordpress is http://www.AdvancedWordpressTutorials.com.  So my thinking is to stick with these sites and use them as they do cover some of the different areas I’m working in.

I use these sites to “record” what I’ve learned so I guess they work like my own personal reference sites. Sites where I can collect all the vast resources available and hopefully merge them into a central location.  Something to consider when you create your own websites. And don’t go pillaging  from other sites. Link to them and provide any extra useful information to make things clearer if need be.

So when I go – “umm where did I see that” I can go to one of my sites and dig up the information. Plus it helps you build your website.

I’m just creating a new plugin – my first – at the request of a mate that wanted a new plugin.  So I’m busy learning up on the ins and outs of Wordpress. The plugin – actually works – but there is a bit more to do on it. Umm , yeah I am being a bit vague on what it is!

Still, with all the little snippets I’ve developed for my hand coded sites, it’ll be a great adventure to turn them into plugins and add their abilities to Wordpress. Why reinvent the wheel? It’s better just to make new ones!

Have a very happy New Year and I’ll keep plodding along.

Cheers

Tim Brownlaw

Well in my last post I raved on about my new HP Mini 5105 Netbook that comes with Windows XP.

So I installed XP, which was a very simple process, and even went as far as installing Firefox and a few other little thing I like.

So I was deciding whether to trash XP and install Linux on it… Along comes NoMachine. NoMachine is a suite of applications you can install on Linux running it as a server and then you just get the Windows Client, log into the Linux Box with it and Bingo! A lovely Linux Desktop session running on my XP box.

NoMachine is a great thing for us great people who want to use Linux from Windows remotely. Plus I dont have to worry about Synching files etc… Yes, this only works if I’m within wireless range at home (at the moment) but at least I can wonder anywhere around the house and not be stuck at my desktop in the study.

I’m actually outside right now under the verandah enjoying the fresh,the noises of the birds and the occasional car driving by. Ahh what a life

In short.

I’m going to keep XP on this netbook, use my nomachine login into my Linux Box and that’s about it for now. If I do wonder off away from home, I still  have WAMP installed for my website development and notepad++ for my text editor. OpenOffice for all my Documentation,Ebook creation etc. So I’ll still have what I need to do what I have to do. So it’s all good!

Well we are just getting over Christmas which was full of surprises this year.

Santa ( my wife) decided I needed a new laptop and so here I am typing away on my new HP Mini 5105 Netbook.

My experience with Netbooks so far…

I had bought myself an ASUS EEEPC 701SD from Ebay ( paid $200 AUD  for it) and it’s been a great little workhorse. It came installed with ASUS’s own flavour of Linux which was very useable as far as surfing, writing etc. All the normal stuff one does. The 701SD is a 7 inch screen, 8Gig of SD Ram for the Harddrive, 512MbRam and I added in a 4Gig SD Card into the slot to give it a little extra. It was never intended to be anything more than something I could take with me and write stuff when the mood took me.

I even got it a car charger so I could it’s battery topped up when I was “out”.

The plan was to upgrade it to Kubuntu 9.10, but I never got that far… The kids have sort of taken ownership of it these days…

The reason I bought it was I had seen my (now old ) boss using one, and I was very impressed with a few things about it.

1. It’s small
2. There are no mechanical parts to it ( ie the HD is all semiconductor) so it can take a bit or rough handling.
3. The Keyboard is very useable, unless you have massive fingers.Otherwise it’s very easy to type away on.
4. The screen is extremely readable. At only 7inches you would think you would need a magnifying glass to see anything, but the opposite is true. It’s not the size that matters it’s how you use it…..and it’s used in a way that you don’t think – gee that’s small!
5. Battery life with the standard battery is about 2 hours…from memory. I might be wrong there, but then mine had been used and batteries get a bit tired with a bit of use. Still it’s not bad. You can upgrade the battery and get something like – 7 hours. I’ve not bought one so I’m going off the quoted figures on that.

So the Netbook, over a full blown laptop, held it’s own in my book. It’s not a replacement for a Laptop. It’s never intended to be,but as a mobile device that gives you the ability to email, write wonderful blog posts etc, it does the job just fine.

The HP Mini 5101

My wife decided I needed a bigger one! A Netbook that is! And I’m thinking it was more because she got a good deal on it (Santa won’t spill on how much) . Plus I’m starting a new job in January on contract… So it was decided this was the way to go. I must say I was very surprised and shocked and flabbergasted  all at the same time as I unwrapped “the present”.

For one thing, I knew nothing about any HP Netbook. I’ve only been following the ASUS netbooks in regards to what they had and what was selling on EBay…Ebay is an interesting place to watch how much things sell for. I must say, some people pay near or over retail price on netbooks. They are certainly popular, even the old ones…

So when I opened the box and took out this small, slimline netbook I was amazed at how light it was. Then on opening the lid, I saw the Keyboard….. Ok, I was initially shocked by it! Why?  Well I’m used to a keyboard where the keys are snug to it’s friend. Like a normal keyboard… But the keyboard on the HP Mini 5101 has padddocks of room between each key. Plus the keys themselves are huge…

It’s a bit like, Ok we’ve got lots of room here guys, let’s shift all the keys about to make it fill up the room we have…At first I thought it was going to be really annoying… but I must admit, as a bit of a touch typist, it works.

For anyone a bit slow and unsure of what keys to hit..It does give them a very good chance to hit the right ones . So I’ve come to accept the “paddocks” of room between the keys.

Functions are the wrong way

One complaint about the Function Keys like the F1, F2 etc… For some silly reason HP decided to make the special functions the main keys . If you want to use the F1 keys etc you need to hit the fn key…In my opinion this is the wrong way around… I’m more likely to want to Hit the F5 key to update something than change the contrast…

So to use the F5 key I need to press the fn key then the F5 key to get it to work…If I don’t I’ll put the machine to sleep. That even makes it more stupid! Want to refresh a page, Whoops I’ve just put the thing to sleep. Not good!

I’m not yet sure if this can be “reversed” by some setting. If someone knows, please feel free to let me know in the comments.

EDIT: I have found in my investigations (to make it sound terribly formal ) you can change this behavior of the “Arse about” Function Keys in the bios. So I am going there now so I won’t be cursing this otherwise brilliant netbook for going “to sleep” instead.

The Screen.

This is a 10.1 inch LED screen, nice and big. The resolution is the HD option of 1366 x 768. Which makes the text small, but it’s very crisp and clear. So I can get a whole lot of stuff showing on the screen. I’m quite impressed. Initially it all seems like “ant writing” but you do get used to it. Even with my shocking eyesight.

Operating System

This unit comes with Windows XP.  Ok ,I’m not a big Windows fan but…

Now HP, in their wisdom, actually provide the OS and all support stuff on physical CD’s.  So in the case of  a catastrophe, you’ve still got what you paid for. The question is, these units have no CD drive so how would you get the stuff back on it? There are a few ways, but nothing terribly simple. The main thing is, you won’t have a trashed system with no way to recover it. Although I think there is a built in restore  system if things go “pear shaped!”.

Oh, one thing I didn’t mention yet. When you first start the netbook up , it asks you a few questions and installs the OS for you. In fact it couldn’t be any simpler and you are up and running in no time flat. Yes I was impatient and plugged in the battery and plugged in the charger and got  it up… Very well done HP.

Some Specifications.

• Screen, LED 1366 x 768.
• CPU is a 1.6GHz,  Intel Atom E280
• Ram : 1G
• HD : 160G, 7200rpm.

I’m going to have to come back to finish this as the Kids are pestering me to take them down the street to use their gift vouchers….Till then take care and happy netbooking.

Cheers

Tim

New FTC laws will be in force from Dec 1st 2009. Now I am not a legal eagle so this is my own personal summary of what I understand these new laws to be.

They are regarding the requirement to disclose any financial gain that will be made by any person making a product or service review/endorsement. In our case, on a website platform. Again, that’s my gist of the situation and I hope it’s close to the mark.

Is it Fair?

I think so…

For one thing, it gives the “would be purchaser” something to ponder before splashing their cash on something based upon someones recommendation. ie If this person is going to make a commission from this review, is it the truth or are they just wanting to make a quick buck?

Personally, I only review things I would and do use myself. It’s only those things that are worthy of the words I spend time writing about it. I do know there are those who will write anything to make a quick buck. Well I’ve got my name and contact details out in front here, so if I’m giving glowing reviews on anything that is going to end up with someone making a purchase and being pissed off… then I aint going to be very popular. And I don’t like pissing anyone off. It’s just bad business. I’ve also been at the other end, having had both good and bad experiences.

So again, these new laws will help increase the protection of the buyer, by having any reviewer give a really honest review, dirt and all, so the potential buyer can make an informed purchase.

Well that’s the idea anyway, as to whether some dishonest people find a way to work this to their favor, only time will tell.

As long as the FTC doesn’t go too crazy and start turning peoples worlds upside down unfairly…. The word’s still getting out guys and we’re doing our best!

Who does this affect?

Anyone that has a website, blog etc that talks about other peoples stuff and has an affiliate link. So if you have an affiliate link, you stand to make a commission and you need to have this stated on your website to that effect. That’s in my own simple terms… Remember I’m not able to give legal advice and this is just my own opinion.

What can you do to implement this?

I did find this website…http://disclosurepolicy.org ( I will not make any financial gain if you click on that link and use the service! After all its FREE! )

While it’s probably a good start and better than nothing, I can’t say for sure that this will “please” the FTC but hey, we are trying!

Now how do I put this on a Wordpress Site.

This is something I’m a little more qualified to talk about. But I must state that there will be other, maybe better, ways to do this. ( I love disclaimers too).

So I’ve already gone to http://disclosurepolicy.org and checked the boxes and amswered the questions and generated the resulting disclosure statements…Now I have to  put it somewhere! Well that’s what you are wanting to know.. where do you put it?

I created a New Page, ( not a post ) but a New Page. Called it disclaimer – all lower case – and saved the generated text in it…

Beware of having Your Email Addresses on Your Websites!

One thing and this is a major peeve I have with Email Addresses on anything out there that can be scanned by the “aholes that use our emails addresses for evil”. Never Ever have your email address written in it’s natural form. Now at this site, it will ask you for an email address to put in. This is solely up to you, but personally, I put mine in, BUT I altered it a wee bit…

Here’s what you DONT DO – Never Write this in it’s Pure HTML Form. For Example ( and I hope this is a really bogus email address… thorax1099@theweebinthemiddleofinsects1099.com )

That’s a No No! You could use thorax1099 ‘AT’ theweebitinthemiddleofinsects1099 ‘DOT’ com with a note ( replace the words in ” with their symbols ). For one thing, this kind of email address has to be typed in… If it’s read ( scanned ) the “aholes that use our emails addresses for evil” software has to do some work… I’m not saying that their software does or doesn’t but it if it hinders them, I’m all for it…

There is way number 2 which looks more appealing. In the actual HTML – you can replace the ‘@’ with the characters ;#064 so you’d write thorax1099;#064theweebitinthemiddleofinsects1099.com

There are also javascript type solutions, but if your visitor has javascript disabled, well it’s not going to show up correctly at all!

I’ll just step off my High Horse on email addresses…..

Next…

Ok, so we have our disclosure statement, we’ve put it in a new page called disclosure ( you can call it what you like but I’m guessing it’s more search engine friendly ) and what about Where will this page live… Well I made my about me page the “parent” to the disclosure page. For no real reason but to tie it to something… I’m also going to be adding a “privacy” and “terms and conditions” pages as well. So they’ll be hanging off the about me page…. Which means – the “about me” page is the Parent. You’ll see this in your Wordpress Admin area when you create this new disclosure page.

I Want it in the Footer!

Well it’s where all this kind of stuff should live! Isn’t it? Now this involves a bit of “tinkering” with your worpdress files. While not for the feint hearted, hopefully I’ll explain this well enough that you won’t be too scared to attempt this if you are a bit hesitant to start altering things… Hey, this was made for changing…So let’s change it…

Now this depends upon the theme you are using ( I’ll write more on the details later, I’m thinking a video is required… Have you joined my news letter yet? ) Most Themes have a footer.php file. You can access this in your Wordpress Admin section and if you go to…

Appearance -> Edit  and select the footer.php file. ( yep this needs some pictures at least <insert images here…> ) and I added in this line…

Now my Footer looks like this….

<div id="footer">
<?php wp_footer();?>
</div><!-- footer -->
<div style="clear:both;"></div>
<div><p>Copyright &copy; 2009 <a href="<?php bloginfo("url"); ?>"><?php bloginfo("title");?> </a>| Powered by <a href="http://www.wordpress.org">Wordpress</a> | Designed by <a href="http://www.bingowebdesign.info">Bingo</a> - The Web Design Experts</p>
</div>

and I added in this line…

<br /><a href="<?php $page = get_page_by_path('/about/disclosure');echo $page->URL?>" title="disclosure">Disclosure</a>

For some reason the above wasn’t working….So to keep it simple (KISS)

<br /><a href="/blog/about/disclosure" title="disclosure">Disclosure</a>

Which I’m showing in the next section in Bold, so you can see where I placed it.

<div id="footer">
<?php wp_footer();?>
</div><!-- footer -->
<div style="clear:both;"></div>
<div><p>Copyright &copy; 2009 <a href="<?php bloginfo("url"); ?>"><?php bloginfo("title");?> </a>| Powered by <a href="http://www.wordpress.org">Wordpress</a> | Designed by <a href="http://www.bingowebdesign.info">Bingo</a> - The Web Design Experts</p>

<br /><a href="/blog/about/disclosure" title="disclosure">Disclosure</a>

<br /><a href="<?php $page = get_page_by_path('/about/disclosure');echo $page->URL?>" title="disclosure">Disclosure</a>
</div>

The Wordpress Function get_page_by_path(‘/about/disclosure’) gives us the advantage of not needing to know anything more than where the pages lives. Remembering that I created the disclosure page with the about page being the parent. So there is no need to worry about the websites URL and under what path the blog is located. On this site, wordpress is installed under http://www.timbrownlaw.com/blog and I don’t need to worry about that as the function get’s than information internally when wordpress was installed.

I’ve had to put in the path msyelf. Now my wordpress installation hangs of the folder called blog ( yours might be different.) It may even be straight from the public_html folder in which case you will only need “/about/disclosure”.

Try it and see. It’ll get you going.

Just note that the disclosure page will be a menu item under your about page menu item if you have that functionality on your menus. That’s not a bad thing! We had set the about page to be the parent to the disclosure page. You can use the very same methods to add in any other pages you wish… for example a “privacy” and “terms and conditions” page. I would recommend you name the “terms and conditions page” with hyphens between the words – never use spaces ( although Wordpress will fix it if you do use spaces ) . So you’ll end up with terms-and-condtions.

If you have any questions or it’s just not clear, please leave a comment!

See the result!

And don’t forget to Check out my Disclosure page – see the link at the end of the page…..

[UPDATE] – Here is something I’ve seen on some sites that sits bold and proud at the end of every page…

This is not a detailed version of events – unfortunately.  I’ll add those after things settle down and I get some work done. More has since been added – [ update - see resources below ]

Now I have been running Kubuntu 8.04 ( the KDE3.x version of Ubuntu ) for sometime. It’s been upgraded from 7.04 and had a bit of “stuff” kicking about.

Windows 7 and No Printer Drivers

Anyway, my wife went and upgraded from XP to Windows 7. Which by sheer misfortune, there ain’t any drivers available for our Canon Laser Printer LBP5000 ( there was for XP!).

So I’ve raised my hand and said, well Linux can talk to it, let me set it up on mine….. Well that was a mistake. Linux and Ubuntu don’t play nice with setting up printers. As nice as Kubuntu is, it still has some serious issues which Windows has had solved for a very long time…( yes I did just say that!).

Printer Setup on Linux

So here I was, trying to remember how to setup a laser printer… It’s certainly not for the feint hearted when the system doesn’t know about “Your Printer” and I’m figuring those who are not patient or just don’t have the time to bash their heads against a brickwall for a long time.. will promptly run back to Windows…Because – most times – it works. Linux will work – but be prepared to do lots of forum reading… and lots of downloading and command line bashing.

Setting up for a Canon LBP5000 – https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CanonCaptDrv190 (This worked for 9.04)

For 9.10 I followed these destructions and got it up and running real quick smart. I’m guessing it’s all the practice I’ve had..If you need help with this, let me know. Ubuntu 9.10 LBP5xxxx setup can be found at http://www.unixmen.com/linux-distributions/ubuntu/229-installation-canon-lbp2900-on-linux

Continuing on….

I had tried to upgrade my version from 8.04 to the latest 9.10. It’d get so far along then complain about incompatible packages that might break things…. It’s certainly not an easy task to discover and rectify those packages “in dispute”. I must admit though, being under the pump to get somethings done can lead to the dreaded “Sexy Fingers” Syndrome and I’m certain I fell victim to that.u

It’s the old rule  – get what you have to get done, done and don’t get sidetracked fixing other things… Like up-grading Apache etc….And I’m thinking I had a few packages I tried to update that were left over from the attempted update to 9.10 and of course I’ve tried to install some of those…

After messing about a little too much. I attempted a system reboot and my fears were realized…. It wouldn’t.

Error 15: File Not Found

It was very trashed, hosed, cactus, not working, take your pick…. But this particular incarnation of strife was new to me so more learning time coming up…

I’d gone and removed too much of that “old stuff” that removed some vital bits. A bit like if you pull out a nose hair and your brains come out… (I’m tired – give me a break!) How about plucking an eyelash and your eyeball comes out! It’s got to be something painful cause this sure was. Anyway, that’s kind of what can happen and it did!

Just Install Kubuntu 9.10

So my 8.04 System was trashed. No Problem – I’ll just do an install of Kubuntu 9.10….After all, I’ve never had a problem before….

Umm yeah! Famous last words. Instead I did a fresh install of Kubuntu 9.04 and it ran a treat. I had a quick play with it and rather liked it. I found this neat little package called envyNG which correctly and quickly installs your NVidia Drivers and I had my Dual Screens set up in seconds. In the past, that was one of those loooong sessions to get it setup.

Great, how wonderful. That works! So I upgraded straight to 9.10…. EnvyNG wont work in this version, so after a lot of reading etc I ended up installing the NVidia Drivers and the Dual Screen the ole tried and tested way. So that worked…I can’t quite remember what else happened but it was bad enough that I decided to go back to Kubuntu 9.04.

Where did the Steering Wheel Go?

There was lots about it I just didn’t like.I’m not sure why but alot of the functionality I was so used to on 8.04 (KED3.x) just wasn’t there. It was a bit like sitting in a new car and looking for the steering wheel but instead you had to lean in the seat to make it turn. You do that on a motor bike, don’t you? I was thinking some M$ guys had snuck in on the project and added their brilliance on these “Changes”….. Hmmm! I’m sure they had their reasons for leaving them out….

So I went back to Kubuntu 9.04. After which I found the magic guide to installing my Canon LBP5000 and got it working….

I plonked my thunderbird and Firefox back on and had it up and running in minutes…. That’s one of the many things I love about Linux. You can copy and paste most things from the old to the new. Oh, I used to have a Raid1 System so all my “Old Stuff” was backed up on the 2nd drive – Plus I’d copied my home folder onto another Hard disk for safety. I’m not worried about the MySql Databases etc.

I also found that konqueror/dolphin didn’t have the “Right Click” Action -> Edit as Root. This is very useful to make system changes for instance , updating your xorg.conf file once the NVidia Setup tool has done it’s stuff, not to mention udpating your Apache2 virtual hosts file and the systems hosts file….

It seems this feature is not included in Gnomes -  Nautilus 2.28.1. It may have been chopped across all Distros! I’ve not run Gnome for years so can’t remember if it was in earlier versions.

Then came VMWare Server 2.0

Then I tried to reinstall my VMware Server. It used to be painless…… But now – No joy, it bitched and wouldn’t compile and carried on like a bear with a sore head!

In the meantime I thought I’d check out Ubuntu 9.10 which is the Gnome Desktop ( not as fancy… but very solid..) So I re partitioned the Hard Drive (adding a separate / partition and forgetting to partition  my /var/usr separately. I had made the / partition way too small). In the meantime, I’d discovered how to install the latest version of VMware Server 2.0 on 9.10 and it worked straight out of the box – well it did for me….

I installed it off the Live CD and it went through it’s paces and I made those silly diddles to the Disk Partitions .. .and on reboot, the X Server ( The graphical bit ) wouldn’t run… In fact it sat at the text login and with the screen flashing madly. So bad in fact, it wouldn’t accept keystrokes to login…. I’m got in with an F8 on reboot and used the recovery mode.

The problem was the NVidia Driver – I got into the /etc/X11/xorg.conf and renamed the driver from NVidia to NV. (Something I learned from my setting up in 8.04 days)

So here I am – sitting in front of Ubuntu 9.10 with my VMWare Server 2.0 running and was just putting back the VMware files for one of my Windows Installs ( 20Gig HD = 10 x 2Gig Files) and I’d run out of space…. I’d gone and set /usr to be a whopping 10Gigs not considering my VMware OS Files were going to be bigger… Whoops. Isn’t this how you learn stuff?

No VMware running – I’ve since missed two of my Classes this week – two run on consecutive days…Friday and Saturday afternoons Australian time.

This being another lesson in getting distracted and running off doing other things…. which will stop you dead in your tracks in what you were hoping to get done!

“I’ll just do a quick upgrade and get straight back onto my Schedule…” Never more famous words mispoken. It’s now Saturday Afternoon and now I’m trying to decide which version to settle with… I’m going to be doing a fresh install of something. I’m guessing Kubuntu 9.04 at this stage.

It’ll be interesting what happens from now till I get back here up and running again. Well I’m excited! Who knows what will happen.

Cheers

Tim

I still love Ubuntu/Kubuntu. I won’t be going back to Windows as my development system anytime soon ( read – never!)

Resources I found useful through all this….

Printer Setup – https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CanonCaptDrv190 for 9.04. (this worked but the link below is probably much better)

Printer Setup – http://www.unixmen.com/linux-distributions/ubuntu/229-installation-canon-lbp2900-on-linux for 9.04, 9.10 and other flavors.

VMWare Server Setup – how to install the latest version of VMware Server 2.0 on 9.10 (It’s a good idea to set the default /var/lib/vmware folder somewhere where there is a ton of room for your Virtual Machines. – another drive would be good due to their size. That’s if you have them big >20G like I tend to. )

Getting Root Actions back into Konqueror missing in 9.xx (KDE4.x) – https://launchpad.net/~samrog131/+archive/ppa/+files/servicemenu-rootactions_2.4.7.1~karmic~ppa1_all.deb

[UPDATE] I’m running Ubuntu 9.10 – totally repartioned the world – read as done correctly… and I put on Kate, Konqueror and Kwrite. Why? Well because I like them. So I’m running a mix of Gnome and KDE Apps which is pretty neat! Who said this wasn’t fun!

All I really had to do…

Was just get the old drive back up and running on Kubuntu 8.04, do my classes and then attempt an upgrade when I had time. But it was meant to be quick in the first place…..

Conclusion

All Roads lead to Gnome!

Now that I’ve had a baptism of fire with these various distributions, the one that came out on top as to ease of installation and up and running for anyone wanting to use a Liunx based system had to be Ubuntu 9.10. Remember that’s the Gnome Desktop version and not my much favored Kubuntu with the Fancy KDE desktop. There is a very large support base for the Gnome Version and I can see why.

Hmm I might get my VMWare problems sorted out another way – just specify a new folder somewhere else….I was trying to install Gparted but one of the aussie servers seems to have gone offline… It never rains…. I’ll get there through shear determination ( some might call stupidity).

Oh and there is an educational release which I’d like to try out. It’s bundled with all the stuff a student/kid would need…. It’s called Edubuntu.

To check out all the Ubuntu Flavors goto http://www.ubuntu.com/

Time to go and do some more stuff….

Cheers

Tim

What, you never send any. Hmm, well for a very long time I never did either.

It was just too hard.

When you have to pick out the card, write out the card, address the envelope, put on the stamp ( well you could get the kids to do that if you have them) it can become “all too much”.

It’s much simpler to simply go online – join one of those email E-Cards Sites and send out your cards that way.

That’s one way to do it.

E-Cards! While simple and easy, they really don’t replace the ole fashioned ,hold in your hand and show everybody Snail Mail kind.

So what’s the answer?

Well you can go down the path of making your own. Again, while “cheap” it’s still a bit of work. Now you have to print the cards or you can make them with some of that arty stuff you can get. My Wife was big into Stamps and Sparkly stuff and paper cutout relief work to make her cards. Handmade Cards are nice. But they are a ton of work.

Combine the lot!

Making your Own with an Online Service and you are just about there.

Join, Pay for postage and some points for the cards. Select your Card, type in the message and maybe a photo, type in the address ( which is stored for later – for Birthdays etc..) Click and you are done.

The Card gets printed, the envelope gets addressed, the stamp gets put on and it gets mailed.

I can add an image on each of the inside panels. I can have it so that it inserts peoples names, if I’m sending the same card to a group of people. And the user interface has got a lot simpler and easier to use.

So I can store addresses. Get prompted for birthdays so I never miss them. Be able to mass mail instead of having to write the same card out over and over when I need to do that.

The Cost?

This is where it gets good! It still costs for postage. I’ll just check out the actual cost by logging in. There, I’ve just sent myself a Card I made. Easy!

This is the cost in US Dollars.

* Points
* Cost for basic Two Panel Card = 2
* Charge for added pictures = 1
* Total Points = 3
* Expense
* Postage Cost = $0.45
* Gift Expense = $0.17
* Total Expense = 0.62
* Your available points are 654. Your available expense account funds are $36.68

The points Cost about $0.44 cents USD each if you are not paying monthly. Making the total come to 3 x 0.44 + 0.45 + 0.17 (I’m sending myself their new promotional CD to look at) $1.94 USD.

You can also make this your Business!

If you were to take this on as a business and become a distributor the cost per point is 0.31USD plus you can earn an income with it. It actually has a very good – no nonense – nothing to tie your hands behind your back business plan to it. You don’t have to keep throwing money at them monthly – just pay as you go if you want to.

So I’ve just sent myself a Custom Made Card for $1.94USD. For a postcard it’s 1 point plus a point for inside imagesif you add them.

When my card arrives I’ll scan it and show you. I played a little and put in some business logos on the inside to test those out. It should be good. Now I should get it in a few days here in Australia. In the US it’s about the same and internationally it was about a week in the old days. Of course that depends on where you live. From outside Australia and Canada, it will come from the USA.

Years back I sent a card to a mate in Israel and he got it in about a week. Must send him a new one…

This Years Christmas Card…

So It’s off to think of something whacky we can put on this years Christmas Card. Possibly a Family Picture (If I can gather everyone together). And then it’s out to see a few business folk where I’ll show this to them and see if they want to use it for their Christmas Mail out to their Clients.

Take a Camera..

Take a camera, shoot a few storefronts or take their logos from their websites, or both. And send them a card with their images splashed on it with some mock up “Thank you Bill for being a loyal customer… We wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and hope we can serve you in 2010…” Sincerely Bob the Boss.

Or something like that Of course with your contact details and/or do a follow up phone call.

Gee I hope I’m writing all of this down……

Professional Looking Cards or Postcards.

So you can offer, professional looking Cards or Postcards to just about anyone that see’s the benefit in receiving a Card.

It’s all about Giving!

We all love to get a card in the mail. So if you can make them stand out, you’ll be remembered. People love to receive stuff.

So check it out – if you want to know more – contact me and I’ll go out of my way and send you a card. It’s really no trouble.

The bugga is though,

you can spend a lot of time deciding which card to choose from out of the catalog. They have cards for every occasion.SO you’ll never be stuck on picking out the right card.

You can go, right now,  direct to the website to view the videos and what it’s all about. They have a really good website explaining everything.

No this isn’t going to be some ranting about everything I’m doing and everything that makes me what I am….

A New Social Network Adventure

Nope, MyLot is a new discovery of mine – prompted by my good friend Lou Roggio. It’s rather interesting, in fact it could very addictive and for a lot of Good Reasons.

I think Community is a more appropriate term for MyLot

You can open Discussions, you can start up your own little blogs, you can ask for help on getting articles done etc (you have to pay of course). But it’s number one feature as I see it is it’s ability to expose you to a whole new world. I say a Whole New World as you are going to read and participate in a very broad range of topics.

It’s much much better than FaceBook and MySpace.

It’s a very well laid out, easy to use system and in my opinion it’s going to outshine the likes of Facebook and MySpace.

It’s quite “busy” as there are a lot of things you do – useful things. Umm there is NO Farmville and all thoes games that have polluted facebook. I do hope MyLot does not go down the same path.

So join and open up a discussion on your Niche!

It’s as simple as joining up and starting a discussion on your Niche. What better way to start building interest in your Business.

Make sure it’s a fair discussion.

Those that haunt MyLot are either going to love you if you play fair or if you choose the path of being pushy with your business you’ll be promptly dispatched. There’s no other way to say it.

It’s just a fun place.

I’ve been in there for about 10 minutes and I’ve learnt alot, about stuff I’d never get to read anywhere else. It’s very interesting just to see what people are finding popular topics. Could be an idea for a Niche waiting for you in there. I know I’m scouring.

If you are into Being A Social Spectator

This is definitely the place for you.

Now I am looking to build a group in this..

And I would really love for you to be a part of it. For one it’ll give us a presence on there and let us have discussions on various matters. There are a number of folk looking for Biz Ops on there. Plus it’ll give you a great place to research and have fun at the same time.

How to join?

Simple – go to MyLot (clicking on my link ) and sign up and start experiencing MyLot.

Now that is My lot on MyLot for now! Promise…

PS- I have to change this font and color scheme on this website – YUK

I’ve just got back to write a new post on something exciting and well…

I nearly had a heart attack!

I took a look at the site and nearly had a heart attack. How ghastly. Actually it came to be like this as I was going to do some changes ( still am ) and record them over at http://www.AdvancedWordpressTutorials.com

So as part of the magic time machine affect and to help me have a heart attack for years to come, I’ve captured the event in all its glory.

A Snapshot in time - The ole Ghastly site appearance