Tim's Wee Part of the World

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

I actually got the opportunity today to have a play with Windows 7. And wasn’t it just soo much fun.

Now to set the scene here, I am a Linux User, but I’m not that closed minded that I’m out to bag every other operating system out there just because Linux – in particular – Kubuntu is pretty good.

Every Operating system has it’s Pro’s and Con’s.

Read More

The second seminar in the series of 9 just finished up and I have to say that those panelists are pretty switched on.

They should be – it’s the job of some of those on tonight, to study the pshycology of what makes a customer, a customer.

The remaining calls are still free so it’s best that you go here to register , so that you can be informed when the next one is on!

I strongly suggest that you mark the time and date on your Calendar. Also I strongly suggest that if you know anyone in an offline business. or more affecctionately known as a “Brick and Mortar” business, that you let them know about these calls.

This isn’t a bunch of internet marketing mates having a friendly  chat. These are published authors in marketing and advisors to the big boys. That’s their livelihood.You can find out on the website, who the panelists are.

So, to be able to listen in on these calls while they answer a number of questions, relating to a specific topic ( See the list of topics )

The next one is marked on my Calendar.

Cheers

Tim

Now I’ve bought the script, I can let you know a bit more about MultiProfitWebsites.

Yes, out of the box, it’s one of those fill in the blanks and we’ll show some Clickbank (using Clickbank AD Rotator**, Amazon, PayDotCom, Ebay, Resale Rights Products, and Adsense.

But it does have a bit more to it than other scripts of this kind. You can see that it is well thought out. There are enough instructions available as “you go” to lead you through all the steps required to set up a site.

The first time I did it – from scratch – I built a site in about 45 minutes – taking it slow and documenting it as I went.

I created an Open Office Writer File to capture the information as I went, so I know what’s there.

Something I noticed with a couple of sites I have.

The main reason I’ve even bothered to look at this, is to get some life out of my parked domains. I had used a similar kind of script on a couple of websites which had been showing some Adsense income. Not a lot, we are talking about less than $10 USD each. BUT they were getting traffic and appearing in Google. Search for “LivePlay” on Google and one of my sites shows up on the first page.

Now that site is using a “different” kind of monetized script.

But the main points were,

1. It’s being crawled by Google and appearing in searches
2. It’s getting Visits, although the Adsense conversion is very low.
3. It’s not gathering dust on a parking service getting minimal search traffic and paying a percentage of any revenue it generates.[That's one way parking services make their money].

ClickBank Ad Rotator** – a Product which led me to create a bit of website magic to cloak the links – http://www.cb-ad-rotator.com – It’s Free!

I’ll be using this for many of my “parked domains”.

So the plan is to use this new script and set it up on my remaining domains. So bye bye parked page service and hello to creating a bucket load of new websites accounts.

It’s really a simple process.

So he said….It’s something I do on a regular basis. But here’s what I do, to give you and idea.

I find a domain – one I already have – Umm yeah well, I have over 200 at the moment – Yes I hate selling them ( but that’s now a better option as I also bought the License where I can resell sites using this script).

So I find the domain in a niche – for example – I bought http://www.personalwatercraft.info and is been parked not doing much. This is the website that’s getting the treatment with this new script.

Back to the process.

Find the domain – change it’s DNS Settings to point to my hosting, upload the script, bring up the website in Firefox, Log into the Admin section, fill in the info and Bob’s your Aunty.

Ok it’s kind of fun the 1st time, but anymore than that is going to become a chore and I hate working too hard…So I’m looking at a solution to that problem – stay tuned!

It’s early days, but from what I’ve seen of “other” scripts, this one has a fair chance at helping get traffic and possibly increase the conversion rates. We’ll see. I can see it does need a few tweaks. Being a Professional Tweaker, I’ll probably loose a few hours tweaking to get the desired effect.

This won’t suit everyone.

Seriously, don’t get all excited when you see words like – “Builds your site for you…”

These kinds of scripts work very well with product type niches. You do need to do your homework.

For instance – with Personal Water Craft, you need to find keywords that get relevant results back from Amazon, Clickbank, Adsense, Ebay etc. You don’t need to use all of these “Vendor” services. You might just want to use Adsense…

It does have a built in article facility.

This was one of the things that made this script stand out. It allows you to make some serious changes.

For instance, from the admin section you can add articles, add blocks ( like new sections). You can modify existing ones. You can add in your own affiliate links for relevant programs. It’s like a mini Blog in a way.

Problems.

The fact that the majority of the websites content comes from – other sites – can cause the page to load slowly. The other point is that if the site is down or “undergoing maintenance”  it can cause issues. I’m guessing that some form of caching would be nice to have.. but that has it’s own set of problems… For the “stuff” that isn’t likely to change that often, there’s no need to run off and fetch it on every page refresh. Hmm more thinking time is needed on this.

But it’s not a major problem. I’m just a fussy bugga!

Resources:

Domain Registration : I primarily use Dynadot .You can drop a domain name within 7 days so if you Whoopsie. Plus after $500 USD in purchases the price plummets. AND the user interface is Simple and won’t leave you sitting there for hours PLUS it’s wont up sell you on anything that can be thought of.

In summary – its log in – search – buy – and you are DONE!

Web hosting: I use GVO. i can create a individual Cpanel accounts for each website I’m hosting plus I can tailor the packages to suit. This also allows me to sell a website – hand it over and keep hosting it as a reseller. Plus it’s got an affiliate program that pays you monthly and has a bunch of other “Marketing” tools…..

Which takes me back to the point of having bought the “Site Resellers License” for MPW. So I can setup and sell ready to go sites using the script. Anyone interested in Personal Water Craft?

I’ve just got to update my website manager for this new site so I can leap into my AWStats with a click of a button. Ahhh Nice!