I’ve noticed a few “web-celebs” have a tendency to “friend” and “follow” everyone who “friends” and “follows” them. My first impression remains: what can anyone do with all that chatter?
For example, Robert Scoble, an “A-List blogger,” claims he follows everyone that follows him. He’s got 5,000 friends in Facebook (the current limit), and is following 6,946 (at the time of this writing) people on Twitter. Author J.C. Hutchins has 741 followers and is following 745.
I can’t imagine what that’s like. I suppose since I review my Twitter and Facebook feeds via RSS, my method simply would not work, and I’d miss, well almost everything. From a “snapshot in time” perspective, these guys’ method may be more interesting, but if your motive is more like mine, to actually track everything that goes into your feed, it’s practically impossible to manage the sheer volume of noise that is going to be flying through that stream.
So, just for kicks, I am following more of the folks who follow me on Twitter. If I end up not following you after a period of time, I apologize in advance. I’m sure it’s not because the content of your feed is boring, I just don’t have the time to track it all (and play World of Warcraft). Okay, maybe it’s because it was a tiny bit boring, but please don’t assume that. Besides, it’s hard to compete with World of Warcraft.
No Comment?
I haven’t gotten any comments on the blog lately, other than the spam that Akismet’s been catching, but I have been getting comments via Facebook, Twitter, and email. Ted Roche was kind enough to point out that registration was turned off on my site. I’d totally forgotten that I shut off comments months ago because of all the spam, and never turned them back on after installing Akisment. So, comments are open once again.
Let’s hear it, people! What do you have to say?
Installing NX Free on Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon
Last week I read an article in this month’s Linux Magazine on remote desktop access via NX Free. While Ubuntu ships with a great client for Windows Terminal Services and VNC, NX free is more powerful in that it gives you full access to a Linux desktop environment, including such things as sounds. Unlike VNC, which requires extra effort to secure, NX Free runs over SSH, so encryption is built in. Continue reading “Installing NX Free on Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon”
How I Enabled My 1440×900 Widescreen 19" Flat Panel under Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon
As you may have heard on a November Fresh Ubuntu podcast, I was disappointed at Gutsy’s inability to reliably detect my widescreen 19″ flat panel display. It failed to give me the option to set the display to its native resolution of 1440×900 pixels. However, booting from the live CD correctly detected and set the resolution!
The fix?
- Back up /etc/X11
cd; tar cvfx X11.tgz /etc/X11 - Boot from the live CD, and mount the Ubuntu partition (/dev/sda1 on my computer) into /media/sda1.
sudo su; mkdir /media/sda1; mount /dev/sda1 /media/sda1 - Set the screen to its proper resolution, if it’s not there already.
Click System | Preferences | Screen Resolution | Choose the desired resolution | Click Apply. - Copy the working X11 config over to the inactive copy on the hard drive
cp -fuvr /etc/X11/* /media/sda1/etc/X11/
Reboot from the hard drive and presto! We have 1440×900.
Now… if only I can get Windows to do the same thing. But that’s a separate blog post.
Ubuntu Holiday Gift Ideas!
Just in time for the end-of-year holidays (Christmas being the one we celebrate in my family), I’ve decided to put together a list of Ubuntu-centric gift ideas! I’ll be updating this post over the next couple of weeks, but if you want to give the gift of Open Source this year, here are my suggestions. Note that these can make excellent gift ideas for your loved ones or yourself! Continue reading “Ubuntu Holiday Gift Ideas!”
The Joys of Off-Shoring
A friend just shared this hilarious YouTube video with me. Ah, the joys of off-shoring. I’m having trouble embedding it into my blog, so you’ll have to click to follow the link, but it’s well worth it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-u9B6nouBo
How to *Quickly* Log on to a New Windows Domain
If you’re not an IT professional, then please skip this article, as it’s? irrelevant.
If you are, and have ever installed a fresh Windows workstation into a domain, or want to switch domains, you may have experienced the phenomenon where the first time you try to log in to the new domain, it takes a long time, I mean minutes, to generate the list of available domains from the Domain drop-down box. This has happened to me on several occasions, regardless of proper DHCP, DNS, etc., settings.
I have found the fix to be to log in with the DOMAIN\username syntax. Instead of taking a chance of being greeted with “Please Wait While Domain List is Created” for several minutes, you can specify the domain you with to log on to in the username box. Without exception, this has resulted in instant logins for me.
Broadband: Good For Jobs
This article points to a study that shows why we need broadband here. I think it ties in nicely with what Justin has to say about the Bethel economy, and how the big three or four businesses in town would prefer to have a steady stream of uneducated labor at their fingertips.
If you’re interested in discussing this, you can comment by joining us at the new Bethel Forums that I’ve set up over at the town web site.
Fiber-Optics? Not in Bethel!
You?ve got to love it when the presenter of a proposal to bring telephone, television, and high-speed Internet access at a fraction of the cost of current providers? services (in places where they are even available) asks ?does anyone not want to see these services available??
And one person, in the approximately 35 assembled, raises his hand. And he?s the Town Manager of Bethel. Continue reading “Fiber-Optics? Not in Bethel!”
E-mail Inbox Management Tips
I frequently run across client machines of all sorts who complain of various problems related to email. Many of them have one thing in common: thousands of messages in their Inbox. I’ve been saying this for years, and I still believe that sloppy email management is the cause of problems on every mail system I have encountered, with the possible exception of Gmail.
Here are the reasons why you do not want to keep all of your mail in your inbox: Continue reading “E-mail Inbox Management Tips”