A few weeks ago, my friend Dave Yates announced in his podcast how he accidentally typed his IRC password into the chat room that he was in. I can easily see how this could happen, while someone was trying to identify themselves to the server. To prevent this, he could have taken a couple of steps to ensure that he was not typing into an active chat window, so that even if he had made the same typo, his password would not be exposed. Alternately, just being careful might have prevented this.
Then again, it might not have… Continue reading “Stop Stealing My Focus!”
Installing Ubuntu Netbook Interface
I decided to give the (recently much-ballyhooed) Ubuntu Netbook Remix a try on one of my virtual machines. Here are the steps I followed to get it installed:
sudo su
cat >> /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/netbook-remix-team/ubuntu hardy main
Ctrl-C
apt-get update
apt-get install go-home-applet window-picker-applet maximus human-netbook-theme \ ume-launcher
Once installed, I logged off, then logged back in and wham! I was in the new interface. Except, I wanted to see what it would look like on a small screen. I changed my resolution to 800×480, and it fits great, but the fonts did not scale accordingly, so they were unreadable.
I figured the quick fix might be to uninstall the packages I added, set my resolution to 800×480, then install them, because presumably it would detect and choose the correct font size then.
That didn’t work so well. I was able to remove and re-install the packages, but now the new interface won’t come up, and all I have is a little GNOME desktop.
It's Official: Funpidgin is Now Carrier Instant Messenger
Justin Hayes has just confirmed that Funpidgin has officially been renamed to Carrier Instant Messenger!
I wonder if I’ll get a mention in an obscure footnote of the release docs that no one will ever see.
Fedora 9 GNOME Live CD Trial
Recall in my last post that I had some trouble with the Fedora 9 KDE live CD. So I decided to give the GNOME live CD a spin and see if I had any better luck.
I did not.
Fedora, I’m sorry. I tried. Maybe I’ll see you again with Fedora 10.
Kicking the Tires of Fedora 9 – KDE Live CD
I know I’m going to get some flak for this from our Fedora listeners, but I can’t restrain myself.
I downloaded the Fedora Live CD (KDE edition) to give it a whirl. Yes, I admit that I bundled three things I don’t particularly care for into one download (Fedora, KDE, and KDE 4), so you could argue I’m setting this micro review up for failure. (Miraculously, I was not intoxicated at the time, although I have been feeling under the weather for the last couple of days, so that may have been a contributing factor.) Anyway, I fired up a new VMWare machine, and booted from the Live CD ISO. After a few standard boot messages, I was greeted with the following image.
*sigh* Off to a great start here. Continue reading “Kicking the Tires of Fedora 9 – KDE Live CD”
Fresh Ubuntu Podcast: Hardy Heron Round Table
Today we recorded the second Fresh Ubuntu round table episode, with many special guests! Harlem and I were joined by Chad Wollenberg from the Linux Basement podocast, Knightwise from the Knightcast, Emmett Stewart (aka “CafeNinja“), and Jason Watkins (formerly of the In the Trenches podcast). Later on, the second shift showed up, and Alan Pope and Tony Whitmore from the Ubuntu UK podcast, and Jorge Casto and Mike Basinger from the Ubuntu community. I also had the pleasure of editing and mixing this episode down – a first for me! It will be available for download tomorrow from the Fresh Ubuntu web site and via iTunes.
Interview with Justin Hayes of Funpidgin
Harlem and I interviewed Justin Hayes from the Funpidgin fork of the Pidgin project on this week’s Fresh Ubuntu podcast.
Bethel Signs on to EC Fiber
From this week’s Select Board Meeting Minutes:
With respect to the Town joining with others through the ECFiber Interlocal Contract to develop and implement a communications system, Chairman Fox stated that the Town appears to be in receipt of sufficient legal advice to confirm that the draft Interlocal Contract for formation of ?ECFiber? should now be signed, it being anticipated that the initiative will move forward expeditiously, and that a final form of the contract will be available for consideration in the near future which, when executed, will perpetuate the association being formed at this time. He then made the motion to approve the subject contract, this motion being seconded by Joe De Freitas and unanimously carried. Justin McCoart asked if the Town had yet appointed an alternate representative to the ECFiber Board of Directors; Chairman Fox advised such has not yet been undertaken by the Board.
gAIM -> Pidgin -> Funpidgin -> Carrier?
There’s a little program out there known as Pidgin, which is an open-source messaging project formerly known as gAIM. It supports communications with all of the popular chat platforms out there, like AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, and Jabber. I have been using it for years and love it.
However, there is a sense in the user community that the Pidgin developers have been unresponsive to user requests. Apparently the straw that broke the camel’s back was the latest version not allowing you to resize the text entry box, forcing the user to rely on the program doing so automatically. Continue reading “gAIM -> Pidgin -> Funpidgin -> Carrier?”
(Minor) Corrections to this Week's Herald Article
The Herald of Randolph this week published a story covering my presentation to the Stockbridge Select Board on April 17th. It was good, nut there were two minor errors. First, I did not say Stockbridge has the highest number of pre-registrations, I said we have the highest rate of pre-registrations among the member towns. Also, the article indicated that I am attempting to solicit more pre-registrations. In fact, other individuals in town are heading up this effort. All I am trying to do is get the grand list from the town so that other volunteers can contact property owners in town who may not yet know about EC Fiber.