openswitch

I want you to read these 10 Rules and then read this piece on making the web more structured. How can you apply one to the other?

10 Big Myths about copyright explained. This article makes me weep. Our current copyrighting system is completely screwed up. Yay Creative Commons!

Obama is going to get the Democratic nomination. And, dare I say, he stands an excellent chance at winning the election in November. Crunchy Con offers up a very good commentary on one of Obama’s latest speeches.

OK, so here’s what’s going on here. I’ve been hugely inspired by the color scheme of Chaotic Soul (the best dark theme I’ve seen to date) which was created by Bryan Veloso. So, most of the colors with this redesign are taken from there. Also, the Trebuchet MS font family was used because it looked so good on Chaotic Soul.

I designed this site to be somewhat akin to Kottke’s site in that it’s a more refined tumblelog with a sidebar. I say “refined” tumblelog because unlike my previous attempts at a tumblelog I will not generally be just posting up links with a little thought next to it. My goal is to, like Kottke, produce more original content than a simple link-log.

You won’t see many images posted here. You won’t see many chat snippets. My goal is to create a site full of quality content. Enjoy.

P.S. – I should point out that most posts will not have comments enabled. This is by design. If a post has comments enabled you will see a little comment bubble in the lower right hand corner of the post →

P.P.S. – I’m still working on getting it to render properly in ie7. Hang tight.

I know Jake Bouma. Good guy. Thoughtful, considerate person too. He was nice enough to give me a copy of his album Dying Stars to listen to and I must say, I really like it.

I’ve been becoming increasingly disenchanted with today’s mass produced music. Dying Stars is decidedly not mass produced. It’s just a guy and his guitar (for the most part) singing lyrics that actually mean something to him. Imagine that.

As you’re listening to the album you hear the slight fluctuations in his voice. Sometimes a note is just the slightest bit off. But that, to me, lends credibility. Besides, we all know that mainstream musical performers have their voice run through filters, equalizers and other equipment during production. It’s a breath of fresh air to hear an artist who puts out a clean, honest product.

Jake Bouma isn’t trying to fool anyone with a facade. He’s just writing music and performing it in an effort to lift up another human being. Good album.

Tonight at youth group I wanted to have more of a discussion than an official Bible study. I know, heresy. But I was really curious about what my student’s perceptions were with regards to Facebook and MySpace. I also wanted to take that opportunity to discuss in brief how to make wise choices online.

My students vary in age from 12 years old to 17 years old. I found that 66% of my students have a MySpace profile. 41% have a Facebook profile. 25% have both.

I then asked them which they prefer, MySpace or Facebook. They answered unanimously that they preferred MySpace. I asked why. Here are their answers, in no particular order:

1. MySpace is easier to use.
2. No annoying “invitations.” They said they all hated being pummeled by invitations to things like “you’ve been bit by a zombie.”
3. Easier to send messages to friends / leave comments.

They quickly followed up with one thing they liked about Facebook: they didn’t get “30 friend invitations each day from strippers and ho’s.” That just made my day when I heard them say that.

Overall, I got the impression that they didn’t see much value in Facebook but were still heavy users of MySpace.

Full disclosure: I’m not a Linux expert but I am somewhat competent. I followed directions on sites linked throughout this article and then used a little common sense. On a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being the difficulty level of changing your desktop background) I rate this exercise a 6. It’s a little lengthy only because I tried to spell out exactly what I was doing each step of the way.

This tutorial covers how to install WordPress on Ubuntu Linux in a local hosting environment. Though as you’ll see you can install any other CMS with this same method.

After a comment from Stuart on a previous post I decided to try to create a local web development testing environment in Ubuntu using the tools already available in the repositories. Turned out to be a little harder than using XAMPP but (and this is a big butt) doing it this way will yield more control on your part and your installation will benefit from general Ubuntu updates.

Step 1: Install Apache2, MySQL & PHP5

These instructions are taken verbatim from this helpful article. Why retype the wheel? Open up a terminal and execute this command:

sudo apt-get install apache2

Then, install PHP5:

sudo apt-get install PHP5

Then install MySQL with PHP5:

sudo apt-get install mysql-server libapache2-mod-auth-mysql php5-mysql

At some point in the above installation of MySQL you will be asked to assign a password for the root user. Keep it simple, this isn’t going to be a public server. OK, so now at this point you should be able to access http://localhost. I mean, when you go to that address you shouldn’t be looking at an error page.

Install phpmyadmin

Now, this step isn’t documented anywhere I could find, and maybe it’s not even necessary. I wanted to install phpmyadmin because frankly, I’m used to it. Just open your Synaptic Package Manager and search for “phpmyadmin” and install it.

Now you should be able to create a database for your WordPress installation by going to http://localhost/phpmyadmin. All you need to do is create a database because your user “root” and your password (assigned above) are already in place. I called my database “wordpress”.

Create a “sites” directory

Create a directory within your home directory. Call it whatever you want, I’m calling it “sites”. This will hold all my development sites.

By default, Apache doesn’t know that you’re going to be using the “sites” directory for your localhost development files. You have to tell it this. Thanks to Vinno and the help he gave me on the Ubuntu Forums thread I started I found this to be fairly easy to do.

Open up a Terminal and edit your default file:

sudo gedit /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/default

That should work for you. For me, however, it did not work because the default file did not exist. For some reason it was called 000-default so I had to edit it like this:

sudo gedit /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default

Odd, I know. At the top of the file you should see this:

NameVirtualHost *
<VirtualHost *>
        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
        DocumentRoot /var/www/
        <Directory />
                Options FollowSymLinks
                AllowOverride None
        </Directory>
        <Directory /var/www/>

We’re going to point the DocumentRoot to our /sites directory; eg. DocumentRoot /home/YOUR USERNAME/sites/. Then restart Apache:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

There should be no errors.

Install WordPress

You’ve created the /sites directory and told Apache that this is where you’ll be keeping your localhost files. This is where we’ll now put all our WordPress files.

NOTE: If you only wanted one WordPress installation then you’d just dump all the WordPress files into this /sites directory which could then be accessed at http://localhost.

However, I want to keep all my WordPress sites separate (and I also want to install Texptattern later) so I keep them in their own directories. The naming convention I use was taken from the book Textpattern Solutions. I name the directory the same name as the site I’m working on but call it “.dev” instead of “.com”. So here’s what my local file structure looks like:

/home
  |_ /ben
      |_ /sites
         |_ /wordpress.dev
            |_ /wp-admin
            |_ /wp-content
            |_ /wp-includes
            |_ index.php
            |_ wp-app.php
            |_ wp-atom.php
            |_ wp-blog-header.php
            |_ wp-comments-post.php
            |_ wp-commentsrss2.php
            |_ wp-config.php
            |_ wp-cron.php
            |_ wp-feed.php
            |_ wp-links-opml.php
            |_ wp-login.php
            |_ wp-mail.php
            |_ wp-pass.php
            |_ wp-rdf.php
            |_ wp-register.php
            |_ wp-rss.php
            |_ wp-rss2.php
            |_ wp-settings.php
            |_ wp-trackback.php
            |_ xmlrpc.php

OK, now go about the normal process of installing WordPress. Visit the location of your WordPress installation. In this case it would be http://localhost/wordpress.dev. It’ll tell you that you have to install WordPress. Do so with the normal installation method and remember that your username is “root”, your password is whatever you choose when you installed MySQL above, your database name is whatever you created in phpmyadmin (in my case “wordpress”) and you’re at “localhost”.

So now, I could access my WordPress Dashboard at http://localhost/wordpress.dev/wp-admin. Simple, right? Of course it is.

NOTE: If you have any questions I may or may not be able to help you. The forum thread I opened is located here and those folks are much more knowledgable than me. If you find errors in this tutorial please let me know by leaving a comment or contacting me so I can remedy the mistake.

I’ve been thinking a lot about myself lately. Not in the egotistical sense but in the introspective, “why am I like this?” sense. Why do I like Linux so much? Is it just because it’s no-cost software or does it go deeper? Well, I’ll admit that I can sometimes be pretty superficial and even though I like the fact that Linux is no-cost I think my love for Free and Open Source Software goes a little deeper than that.

FP’s

I’m an fan of Fountain Pens. I have two of them, and use ‘em both for daily writers. I like how they write. I like that I can change the nibs, I can change the ink too. I like how they bleed right through and feather on cheap paper. In short, I can change the very way the pen writes. I like that when the pen runs out of ink I don’t throw it away, I get my glass bottle of ink and refill the pen. I feel some strange, Frequency-esque connection to the past when I use a FP.

FP’s leak. If you use one you will get ink on yourself at some point. You’re also bound to spill that bottle of ink all over something. It’s inevitable. They’re fragile, you can’t drop them on their point because that point will bend. Of course, you can then just replace the nib with a new one or repair that point yourself if you’re handy like that.

Make no mistake, however, FP’s are not an efficient way to write with pen and paper. They’re finicky, but they’re romantic. Nothing can write more elegantly than a FP, and no other writing implement is as personal. However, you have to learn how to write with one; or more accurately, you have to unlearn the bad habits you’ve developed by using ballpoint pens. They’re a total departure from the “norm” of using a plastic cheapo pen that, when it runs out of ink, is thrown away. Though more often than not a cheapo pen is lost between the cushions before it ever runs out of ink.

DE’s

I use a Double Edge Safety Razor to shave. You want to talk about steep learning curve? A DE razor is decidedly not an intuitive user interface. I mutilated myself the first couple dozen times I shaved with one. But after unlearning all the old, bad habits I’d developed over the years of using disposable Bics I now actually enjoy shaving in the morning; even though it takes longer and requires more thought and skill on my part.

I go all out with shaving too. I’ve got a porcelain shaving mug, nice shaving soap, a badger brush, and some pretty good, yet inexpensive blades (I got 100 blades for $20). Up front investment was high. But over time I’ll be saving money because one razor will last (theoretically) the rest of my life.

Shaving is not easier with a DE razor, it’s harder. So why do I like it? Well, again, I feel a strange connection to the past by using it. It also feels pure to me. I know I’m doing something better for the environment as the used blades just rust away instead of sitting around in a landfill for decades. I’m also not throwing out tons of packaging, plastic, rubber and in some cases, batteries.

If I do something wrong while shaving with a DE razor I’ll immediately know it. My toddler son could shave me with a Mach 3 and I’m pretty sure he’d do just fine. But he’d undoubtedly cause me to bleed out if he used a DE razor. When I use a DE razor I have to think about what I’m doing. I have to decide what soap I want to use, what blade I want to use, I have to decide on the brush, on the shaving mug. They’re small decisions but they personalize my shaving experience, it’s now unique to me.

Linux

FP’s and DE’s really have little to do with Linux. There are few parallels (if any) between them. The only thing I can think is that 1) they’re all non-mainstream and 2) they all require the me to think about what I’m doing when being used.

Maybe I like Linux because I like doing things the hard way, even though it could be argued that Linux really isn’t that hard. Maybe I just like doing things myself. Maybe I like Linux because I can personalize my computer, even though you can do that to an extent with Windows and OSX. Maybe I like it because it feels “pure” to me. That’s probably the closer to the truth than any other reason. Linux feels un-marketed, unadulterated. The last vestige of not-selling-out-ness in a market whose only concern is how much money they can get from your pocket by locking you in.

So when it comes right down to it, I suppose my choice for Linux has roots in my feelings, in my principles. Of course, those roots then branch out into other reasons to use Linux like “it’s no-cost” and “it’s unrestrained.” But I suppose when you get right down to it, I love Linux because it feels pure, it’s free (as in speech), and it’s unique.

— note: I realize that there are politics involved in the Linux community. But by “pure” I’m talking more about “not selling out for the almighty dollar.” —

Most of you don’t know this, but when I wrote the previous article about why I used my Ubuntu box more than my iMac I had planned all along to turn the tables and write a complimentary piece on why I like my iMac more than Ubuntu. >:D So for all you Mac fans, here’s your article.

The thing just works

Ubuntu is wonderful in that it has great flexibility. You can change anything you want; but if you’re planning on tinkering with stuff, be prepared to completely break your computer. And then, even when you get it working just right, you’re more likely than not to find there are parts of your computer that still don’t work correctly.

Moreover, what you’ll find upon installing Ubuntu on a new box, is that some things don’t work correctly. Your iPod may not mount at all. Your sound card may not recognize when you plug in a headset with a mic. Or your monitor may not have the correct resolution. These things can be fixed, but you need to fix them. And it will require working with Terminal.

I’d wager to guess that many people who install Ubuntu have to spend at least a few hours getting the system up and running correctly. With an iMac you plug it in to the wall and you’re done. It works out of the box.

Linux software hell

Open Office is a great app. But it’s still not as good as Word, and no one can convince me otherwise. Most of the things you can do in Word are totally doable in OO but when you run into that one thing that OO can’t do, you’ll be ready to sell your soul to Bill Gates for a copy of Word . . . if you could run it on Linux in the first place (and don’t talk to me about parallels or some such nonsense. If I wanted to pay money to run two Operating Systems I could do it by other means.) Of course, Open Office isn’t the only option for Linux, but it’s definitely the best one.

Open Source games, in general, smell like wet monkey. A couple notable exceptions are Battle for Wesnoth and Tremulous. Though at this point I want to complain a little. I keep getting kicked off the freakin’ Tremulous servers by the admins. The reason: “Too n00b, try another server.” Yes, I know, I suck. That’s why I keep playing. But I get kicked off every server I try, how am I supposed to get better if no one will let me play? And there’s no “n00b” server for me to get better on. Then again, even if there were a n00b server I’m sure it would just be full of kiddies with no life who play the game all day (i.e. they’re really good). Because, you know, that’s what you do when you’re good at a game. You find out where all the n00bs are so you can warm up by killing them.

Sure, the games for Linux are free, but they suck. If they were good they’d be charging money for them. All the good games cost money.

But remember I’m talking about Linux Software Hell, not just games. Sure, I might praise amaroK for it’s many features. But I’ll be darned if I can get it to transfer album art to my 3rd Gen iPod nano. And at first it didn’t even mount the iPod at all. I had to hack through it to get it to work right.

I may like gFTP for my FTP client, but you can’t drag and drop files like you can with Transmit and with my visual-learning bent, drag and drop is my best friend. And good luck editing a file via FTP with gFTP. I still haven’t figured that one out. Maybe I’m just that stupid.

Everyone praises Cinelerra and Kino for movie editing, but in a year of trying I’ve not been able to even load a movie into the programs, not to mention edit one. I’m always missing necessary programs, or codecs, or don’t have something configured correctly, or something . . . iMovie is dead simple, so is iDVD.

I might not like iTunes very much, but at least it mounts my iPod all the time, trasfers movies, music and album art without a hitch. But I’m still not buying another song from the iTunes store until it’s DRM free. Thank god for Amazon.

Looks count for something

If they didn’t, we’d all by driving butt-ugly cars. We’d buy all our clothes second-hand. We’d cut our own hair, and be overweight without care. Looks matter, moreover, I think looks affect function. Function and form cannot be separated. They’re two sides of the same coin. As humans we need beauty in our lives. We want it. We can’t live strictly by means of functionality. No one is a strict utilitarian.

And let’s face it, sometimes the form is the function; or at least part of the function. This is where iMacs excel.

Sure, you can make the desktop of Ubuntu look really slick. But only if you have the right kind of graphics card. If you’re running an ATI graphics card all those nifty Compiz features won’t work until you install XGL. But then after you install XGL your monitor-sleep settings may not work at all (mine didn’t, and I found it was a common problem.) More hacking was needed. Now the monitor never goes to sleep. It stays on 24/7. That’s not really a bad thing though, I’m just sayin’.

Conclusion

Sure, Linux is free and Macs aren’t. Many free software does virtually the same thing as their paid counter-parts. But the fact remains: regardless of not having the ability to tinker and play with your computer (at least, not easily), and regardless of having to pay for some things, an iMac is a no-nonsense computer in which everything works together, consistently, all the time. It’s dependable. And let’s not forget the pretty aluminum container it comes in