Computer Tips -Tech Info

I thought this writeup was interesting on the idea of using a web interface to customize a livecd. I’ve built a couple livecd’s (that I still use) for tech support, but I’m always thinking of one more tool that I’d like to have. After looking through their wizard it seems a bit limited in the granularity of what can be chosen (at least for what I’m thinking of.) But… it might introduce a new interest in the use of livecds.

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The release date for the 7.10 Ubuntu release is coming soon. I’ve installed a beta into a virtual machine to see what’s what and so far haven’t had much time to play around. I seem to recall the localization question being new in the installer, but then it’s been a while since I used the ubiquity installer (used the alternative install to setup software raid based systems.) But… other than that I haven’t poked around with it much. However, I have read that the 8.04 (April 2008) release will be codenamed Hardy Heron and will be a long term service (LTS) version. I’m MORE interested in that given that I have one server running the previous LTS release 6.06 dapper drake. I’ll be interested in upgrading it to a newer LTS EVENTUALLY, but I don’t know if I’ll jump for the upcoming April release or wait… but I did find some promising instructions for upgrading to Fiesty (7.04). It’s good to see that kind of detailed how-to as opposed to just an upgrade option on the cd so you can do it from within the OS.

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I’ve mentioned lulu.com before (I have several products up there – a couple cds – music downloads – pictures – calendars – etc.) They’ve recently had a nice revision that ups the possibilities nicely. If you have anything you want to get published and don’t want to go in and buy a large amount of stuff upfront, or want to do pay per download stuff – it might be worth looking into lulu.com – you can get going with no upfront cost – they just take a commision out of things you sell. I know I’ve mentioned them before but I still get overwhelmed thinking about the projects I want to do through lulu.com…. I have a few books in progress…. I’ve got 2 cds done and a couple more audio related ideas going… etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. not enough hours in the day.

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I’ve been looking for a simple windows based web editor to recommend for someone. I use quanta plus on linux and would really have a hard time LEAVING it, but… there’s of course dreamweaver and frontpage… but I’ve also found kompozer which is based on nvu – although I still REALLY wish quanta plus were available for windows. (Of course, if they want the nice toys, maybe they should just think about switching or dual booting…) I’ll leave comments on in case anybody knows of a good windows based, web editor that has some of the similar capabilities of quanta plus.

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I don’t know if anonymity is exactly acheived, but…. anyway not too long ago I explored/setup tor on my system to play around with, no real reason I suppose, but doing what I do it pays to be aware of many different kinds of software. Tor proxies web requests from your machine through a tunnel to another machine on the tor network – it could be nearby or far away, but it essentially prevents the destination site from knowing EXACTLY where you’re located and can prevent machines in the middle from logging your access (i.e. your isp, or a wireless access point owner.) The problem is – once it’s setup you have to turn it on by changing the proxy settings in your browser – tedious. Well, in comes torbutton, which is a firefox extension to enable routing through tor with the click of a mouse. (You do have to have it setup beforehand (tor and privoxy work well together for that.)

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I’ve just been using miro the last few days and I ought to mention it here. It’s a multiplatform program (windows/ mac/ linux) that let’s you subscribe to video feeds (much like a podcast catcher does for audio.) It also plays video within the player (you can organize your local video clips through it as well.) You can also search/download from youtube/etc. and you can add custom rss feeds such as those from tvrss.net for instance. It’s also bittorrent aware, so it can make use of bittorrent for downloading.

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I found this link of plugins for wordpress to aid in multilingual site building. I’ve been experimenting with English/Spanish designs of one site I maintain using plain html (index.html.en index.html.es and the server gives the correct page depending on the browser localization. It seems as though there was an .htaccess change that I had to make as well although I don’t recall off the top of my head. (Maybe I can update if I read through it again.)

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Good article

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How many times have I seen the same chain email about who knows what… it always ends in something along the lines of “I don’t know if this is true, but I figure I don’t have anything to lose, so pass it along and let’s see what happens.” Computers were supposed to improve productivity, sometimes I think they’ve fueled other things though…. breakthechain.org is a good site to refer people to that forward messages to you that may be hoaxes or chains… some of them are real, some are hoaxes, some are absurd but why do we keep emailing them back and forth? Try to get some of your time back by sending folks to breakthechain.org

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I’ve mentioned offline wikipedia access before mainly because for all it’s flaws, wikipedia is probably the single largest, most comprehensive and best information resource out there. There may be other encyclopedias that are more accurate, but require subscription access… anyway for all the warts it’s a great resource. To many people though it comes as a great shock that we’re not plugged into the internet all the time.. (so many people say “why offline, that’s what makes wikipedia so good is that it’s current and if it’s not current it’s worthless.” When I was growing up we had an encyclopedia set from 1965, I grow up through the 70’s and 80’s and it was still VERY useful and there was very good information, now it may not have been “up to date” in many areas, but it was still informative and was right on a GREAT many things. I think if I manage to download wikipedia once a year I’ll get by on the “currency” of the information. Anyway… the main point is that many times internet access is 1)not reliable 2)not practical 3)not there….. For instance I do have wireless for the laptop, but don’t always hook up to wireless networks there are places here and there “bubbles” of access around town, but many of the places I go there just isn’t wireless internet available. Now I guess if I wanted to pay verizon another $60 a month that would increase I would have MORE pervasive access, but frankly…..

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