Igneous Quill

The Position I Seek

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:31:00 +0000

Only a few weeks ago I received word that my company's operations would be transferring from New York to Boston. The entire New York team of this struggling start-up was being laid off. Rather than a setback, I see this as an opportunity. I've learned a lot during my nearly two years with this company, and I'm ready to learn more and advance professionally. So, what position do I now seek? It's easier if I just bullet-point what I'm seeking:

Funded start-up, based in New York.
Primarily customer service/community management with social media management possibly somewhere in the mix.
Company's development done using Ruby on Rails, preferably utilizing the agile methodology.
The opportunity to work with the development team to build on my basic programming and qa knowledge.
Full-time with medical benefits.

In essence, I want to continue what I was doing before but with the challenge and opportunity to grow. I know how to wear many hats and have a strong desire to acquire new skills and deepen the ones I already have. I'm an analytical thinker and team player.

Check out my resume below, and be sure to have a look at my LinkedIn profile. I have plenty of references. Contact me if you think I may be the person you're looking to hire.

Resume

Looking for the Next Big Opportunity to Advance in Tech

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:07:00 +0000

Having worked nearly two years with an Internet start-up in Manhattan, I find myself laid off (along with the rest of the New York staff) as the company relocates offices to Boston in a larger overall shift of focus. These were two very productive years for me. I've gained familiarity with GNU/Linux, Mac, the command line, Ruby, Rails and basic testing with Selenium. I'm ready now for the next big opportunity to grow professionally and contribute to tech development.

Check out my LinkedIn profile as well as my resume, below. Feel free to pass it along to any hiring managers in the greater NYC metro area. Let me know if you have any questions.

I'm excited about the possibilities.

Resume

Terminator and CDargs: Two Great Command Line Tools

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:30:00 +0000

The average Linux user isn't going to need to use the command line, and in my opinion, shouldn't feel compelled to use it. Still, developers and system administrators use it intensively on a daily basis. Recently two very handy tools for managing the terminal have come to my attention.

First, Terminator. It allows you to open a terminal window and then split it into multiple views within the same window. You can be browsing directories in one, using interactive Python in another and running an applications from another...and still split the terminal further.

Ubuntu users should have no problem downloading Terminator either through the command line with sudo apt-get install terminator or through synaptic. Check out the man page for commands to open, close, resize and more. H/T to ars technica for bringing this one to my attention.

Second, CDargs is a very useful tool for bookmarking directories. Rather than have to type the full path to a directory you access frequently, bookmark it. Once you have CDargs installed, you can go to any directory you wish to bookmark and create a shortcut to it.

Let's say you want to bookmark the desktop. With CDargs you would do as follows:
user@user:~$ cd Desktop user@user:~/Desktop$ ca desk

Then, from the home directory (or any other) type in cdb desk and it will take you back to the Desktop.

Simple, right? Check out the tutorial on Linux.com where I learned about this to find out how to install and begin using CDargs.

Is there something you like to use in the terminal that makes your life easier? If so, let me know about it in the comments.

DebConf10 is Coming Soon to New York!

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:41:00 +0000

DebConf10, the annual conference of Debian developers, is coming to New York in just over a week. As I understand it, this is the first time for this gathering to be held in the United States. Here's some basic info from the website:

Debian Conference is the annual Debian developers meeting, an event filled with coding parties, discussions and workshops - all of them highly technical in nature. It will be held in New York City, USA, August 1-7, 2010.
This year's schedule of events promises to be exciting, productive and fun. As in previous years, DebConf10 features speakers from around the world. Past Debian Conferences have been extremely beneficial for developing key components of the Debian system, infrastructure and community. This year will surely continue that tradition.

Debian, for those who don't already know, is a distribution of GNU/Linux. Further, it is the one upon which the Ubuntu distro is based and still depends. Ubuntu developers often contribute to the Debian project, even as they draw the benefit of other's efforts with Debian to apply to Ubuntu. So, although Ubuntu is my distro of choice, I am still reaping the benefits of Debian.

There will be no vendors at this conference, as it is really more of a technical gathering for the Debian community. As such, the presentations for the most part will be, as the quote above states, "highly technical in nature." However, the first day of DebConf10, Debian Day, will feature presentations oriented toward a more general audience.

Meanwhile, decision-makers interested in discovering the benefits of Free Software and Debian users are invited to attend Debian Day on Sunday, August 1, 2010. This day will open DebConf attendance to the broader public and the schedule includes presentations of more general interest.

My plans are to attend Debian Day and at least one afternoon session later in the week. If anyone else plans to be there on August 1 and would like to meet up, please let me know.

Oh, did I mention that this conference is entirely free to everyone? Just show up and attend any session. Free is good.

Learning to Program in Ruby

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:30:00 +0000

For quite a while I've been saying I wanted to learn to program in Ruby. Actually, the first programming language I thought I'd learn was Python, but working for a start-up that uses Ruby on Rails, Python doesn't make a lot of sense. In any event, I'm glad to say that, despite the loneliness of having my wife and kids gone on vacation visiting family in Brazil for more than a month, this has been an excellent opportunity for me to devote time to Ruby. I'm finally getting somewhere!

There are a lot of good, free online books and tutorials about Ruby, but the one I've been using is "Learn to Program" by Chris Pine. This tutorial can be accessed for free online or you can obtain a hard copy from Amazon.com. This tutorial assumes no knowledge of programming at all, starting the aspiring programmer out at the most basic information. For me, this was perfect.

One problem I noticed was that when I went looking for help online with some of the exercises, the answers given by more advanced programmers utilized techniques way ahead of what the book itself provides. All of the exercises given in the book can in fact be done with the information provided up to that point, so if you do go looking for help online in forums and elsewhere, be careful to look for pointers that use what you should know already from the book.

Just for fun, here's a little program I cobbled together from my limited understanding of Ruby as I was going through the section on loops. It's based on the argument between John Bender and Principal Vernon in The Breakfast Club.

#famous scene from The Breakfast Club
#just the principal's part will be correct

puts 'You\'re not fooling anyone, Bender. The next screw that falls out will be you.'

answer = gets.chomp
 
puts 'What was that?'

puts 'I said, ' + answer + '.'

answer = ''

while answer != 'stop' 
 
puts 'You just bought yourself another Saturday.'
 
answer = gets.chomp

puts 'You just bought one more.' 

answer = gets.chomp

puts 'We\'ll keep going. You want another one? Just say the word say it. Instead of going to prison you\'ll come here. Are you through?' 

answer = gets.chomp

if answer.downcase == 'yes' 
  yes = 'stop'
  puts 'Fine, now everyone shut up.  I\'m going back to my office.'
  Process.exit
else

  puts 'I\'m doing society a favor.' 

  answer = gets.chomp

  puts 'That\'s another one right now! I\'ve got you for the rest of your natural born life if you don\'t watch your step. You want another one?' 

  answer = gets.chomp

  if answer.downcase == 'no'
    no = 'stop'
    puts 'Fine, now everyone shut up.  I\'m going back to my office.'
    Process.exit
  else
    puts 'You got it! You got another one right there! That\'s another one pal!' 

    puts 'You through?'

    answer = gets.chomp

    if answer.downcase == 'yes' 
      yes = 'stop'
      puts 'Fine, now everyone shut up.  I\'m going back to my office.'
      Process.exit
    else 
      puts 'Good! You got one more right there!' 

      answer = gets.chomp

puts 'Another! You through?'

        answer = gets.chomp

        if answer.downcase == 'yes'
          yes = 'stop'
          puts 'Fine, now everyone shut up.  I\'m going back to my office.'
        else 
          puts 'Let\'s just do this again'

          end
        end
      end

    end

end

Below is the first of a video series about programming in Ruby, though not based on the book I've reviewed here. I provide it simply to provide a basic intro to the language, though of course if you find the series helpful, by all means follow up with the others in the series.

How to Make a Tar Archive (a.k.a. "tarball")

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:30:00 +0000

So you want to compress a directory. Here's how you make a tar file, also known as a "tarball," from the command line. What follows assumes you already have a basic familiarity with how to navigate the via the terminal.

First, change your current working directory to the parent directory of the folder you want to archive. In other words, if you want to make a tarball of a directory whose pathname is /home/username/Documents/computing/linux/ , you would use the following command:

cd /home/username/Documents/computing

Second, select a name for the tarball that ends in .tgz . For example, you could call the tarball for the directory above linux.tgz

Third, create the tarball with this command (here I continue with the same example as above):

tar -cvzf linux.tgz linux

What does the command above mean and do?

-c tells tar to create an archive. v makes it display the names of of the files as it processes them. z is to compress the file and f tells tar to use the next name in the command (in this example, linux.tgz for the tarball being created. The final argument in the command is the name of directory (folder) to be saved and compressed.

Hope this helps!

Setting Up Conky on Ubuntu

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:30:00 +0000

Conky is a pretty cool desktop app that displays system monitoring information. I began using it months ago and recently had to go through setting it up again when I did a fresh install of Ubuntu 9.04 on my laptop. Yes, 9.04. For some reason 9.10 just didn't seem to agree with me. Anyway, the following steps are specific to Ubuntu 9.04. You may need to do some tweaking to use it on your version of Ubuntu. Steps for installation and set-up on distros based on anything other than Ubuntu will vary.

First, install Conky either through Synaptic (simply look up "conky") or via command line with the following:

sudo apt-get --assume-yes install conky

Second, make a configuration file in your home directory. This is where you will put the code for what you want displayed on your conky desktop.

gedit /home/your_user_name/.conkyrc

Third, insert the code for your conky display. There are many options made available online by more knowledgeable minds than mine, but the following is what I use. I adapted it from something I found on the Ubuntu forums (see here) You can copy and paste it into the conkyrc file you should still have open. Once you've done this, save and close the file.

Code:

# UBUNTU-CONKY
# A comprehensive conky script, configured for use on
# Ubuntu / Debian Gnome, without the need for any external scripts.
#
# Based on conky-jc and the default .conkyrc.
# INCLUDES:
# - tail of /var/log/messages
# - netstat shows number of connections from your computer and application/PID making it.
 
# Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus)
own_window yes
own_window_type normal
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
 
# Use double buffering (reduces flicker, may not work for everyone)
double_buffer yes
 
# fiddle with window
use_spacer right

# Use Xft?
use_xft yes
xftfont DejaVu Sans:size=8
xftalpha 0.8
text_buffer_size 2048
 
# Update interval in seconds
update_interval 1.0
 
# Minimum size of text area
# minimum_size 250 5
 
# Draw shades?
draw_shades no
 
# Text stuff
draw_outline no # amplifies text if yes
draw_borders no
uppercase no # set to yes if you want all text to be in uppercase
 
# Stippled borders?
stippled_borders 3
 
# border margins
border_margin 9
 
# border width
border_width 10
 
# Default colors and also border colors, grey90 == #e5e5e5
default_color grey
 
own_window_colour brown
own_window_transparent yes
 
# Text alignment, other possible values are commented
#alignment top_left
alignment top_right
#alignment bottom_left
#alignment bottom_right
 
# Gap between borders of screen and text
gap_x 10
gap_y 40
 
# stuff after 'TEXT' will be formatted on screen
 
TEXT
$color
${color blue}SYSTEM ${hr 2}$color
$nodename $sysname $kernel on $machine
 
${color red}CPU ${hr 2}$color
${freq}MHz   Load: ${loadavg}   Temp: ${acpitemp}
$cpubar
${cpugraph 000000 ffffff}
NAME             PID       CPU%      MEM%
${top name 1} ${top pid 1}   ${top cpu 1}    ${top mem 1}
${top name 2} ${top pid 2}   ${top cpu 2}    ${top mem 2}
${top name 3} ${top pid 3}   ${top cpu 3}    ${top mem 3}
${top name 4} ${top pid 4}   ${top cpu 4}    ${top mem 4}
 
${color green}MEMORY / DISK ${hr 2}$color
RAM:   $memperc%   ${membar 6}$color
Swap:  $swapperc%   ${swapbar 6}$color
 
Root:  ${fs_free_perc /}%   ${fs_bar 6 /}$color 
hda1:  ${fs_free_perc /media/sda1}%   ${fs_bar 6 /media/sda1}$color
 
${color grey}NETWORK (${addr eth0}) ${hr 2}$color
Down: $color${downspeed eth0} k/s ${alignr}Up: ${upspeed eth0} k/s
${downspeedgraph eth0 25,140 000000 ff0000} ${alignr}${upspeedgraph eth0 
25,140 000000 00ff00}$color
Total: ${totaldown eth0} ${alignr}Total: ${totalup eth0}
${execi 30 netstat -ept | grep ESTAB | awk '{print $9}' | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr}
${color orange}LOGGING ${hr 2}$color
${execi 30 tail -n3 /var/log/messages | awk '{print " ",$5,$6,$7,$8,$9,$10}' | fold -w50}

Fourth, create a bash script for starting Conky when the computer boots up.

gedit .conky_start.sh

Place the following code in the new file you have created, then save and close.

#!/bin/bash sleep 2 && conky;

Do the following to ensure that the file is executable:

chmod a+x .conky_start.sh

Fifth, add the conky start script to "Startup Applications" (System > Preferences > Startup Applications).

The command is located at /home/your_user_name/.conky_start.sh

Sixth, restart your computer and enjoy Conky. Play around with the config file if you want to change colors or other settings. As I mentioned above, there are other codes mashed together out there on the Internet that you can use for a different look. Mine isn't definitive, by any stretch.

Mobile Blogging with Tumblr for Blackberry

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:30:00 +0000

If you have a Blackberry and are into blogging, Tumblr offers an app to allow you to use the former to do the latter.

The Tumblr app for Blackberry is free and it allows you to post text, photos and more to your Tumblr blog. Of course, you need to have a blog hosted by Tumblr first for this to work.

Assuming you have a Tumblr blog, once you download and install the app to your Blackberry you just have to provide your login info for Tumblr. One clear drawback I see with this app is that, so far as I have found, it isn't possible to write a post and then insert a photo. However, an extended commentary can be included with photos. Also, there isn't much in the way of formatting options either (italics, bold, etc).

Since it is possible for the device or upload process to fail, I recommend writing your blog post as a note on your Blackberry first, saving it regularly, and then copying and pasting it to the Tumblr app for upload.

The rss feed from my Tumblr blog is imported into my Facebook notes, so this might be an option you want to look into as well.

Folks on the train into Manhattan might wonder why I'm tapping away so intently on my Blackberry when I have no signal (underground tunnel), but once I'm out on the street and have a connection, I upload my post.

Click here from your Blackberry to install.

YouVersion for Blackberry

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:30:00 +0000

LifeChurch.tv has developed a website and app for use on various mobile devices. It's called "YouVersion," and it allows the user to read the Bible online and on a smartphone. Since I use a Blackberry, that's the app version I'll be commenting on here.

YouVersion is obviously first and foremost about reading the Bible. Numerous translations are available, though it can be difficult to decipher which ones they are going through the "settings" on the app. Most people won't have a clue what "BG1940" or "VI1934" stand for. I simply set mine to "ESV" (English Standard Version) as this is my second favorite English-language translation of the Bible, after the New Revised Standard Version (which isn't currently available on YouVersion). The New International Version (NIV), a translation very popular among American evangelicals, is also available.

One drawback to this app is that an Internet connection needs to be available for it to work. In other words, if you are going through a train tunnel (as I do going into Manhattan every workday), are on a plane or in any area without service, the app won't work. The Bible, other than the last chapter you loaded, is not stored locally on the handheld device. This is good in that it doesn't take up space, but not great if you want to read the Bible but have no cell service.

The application provides access to "Contribs," which are user-submitted commentaries connected to certain passages. What seems really odd to me is that though commentary can be contributed through a traditional desktop or laptop browser, the Blackberry app offers no means to comment. There have been times I've read a passage on my Blackberry and wanted to write up some thoughts to contribute, but had no way to do it. I hope this functionality will be added in the future.

Aside from reading the Bible through this app, at least one key element of social media functionality is included. Twitter. Any verse can be tweeted with a link back to the full verse. If the verse is longer than 140 characters, the verse cuts off and the rest can be seen through the link. If you use both Twitter and Facebook, I'd like to suggest you add the "Selective Tweets" app to your Facebook. This will allow you to simply add the #fb tag to the end of any verse you are tweeting (assuming there's still room available) and the verse will also be sent to your Facebook status.

YouVersion doesn't have everything I could hope for in a mobile Bible app, but it's completely free and easy to use. It's also available on a number of platforms other than Blackberry, so check it out.

HTML5 is the Future (and the Future is Now)

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:30:00 +0000

HTML5 is likely the future of document sharing on websites. Why?

PDF and video displays on websites have long depended on Flash, requiring a separate "thing" to be present on a webpage. This can cause headaches, because this "thing" is in many ways independent of the webpage itself. An example would be in the case of printing documents from flash. A print option separate from the browser's native print option is required. not so with HTML5
So long as you have an up-to-date browser you won't need any special plug-ins or other software to view documents and videos in this format. It will just work.
Writing and maintaining HTML5 is much, much easier for developers than trying to deal with Flash.

Those are the three reasons that come to mind for me when I think about the benefits of HTML5 over Flash. Can you think of any more?

Scribd in HTML5
Ready to learn HTML5? Click here for an online tutorial.

Automated Social Media (for Free)

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 14:30:00 +0000

Note: There appears to be some difficulty now between Twitterfeed and Ping.fm, so this solution may not work for you.

Here's a very simple way to get your website/blog broadcast out into multiple social networks every time it's updated. This will work for anyone who utilizes an RSS feed in a website or blog, but since it's free may be especially attractive to marketing teams for small companies as well as for non-profits operating on a shoestring.

Step One: Set up an account on Ping.fm. This is a service that allows you to update all of your social networks at once, from one place.

Step Two: Once you have an account with Ping.fm, go through the list of services which can be updated through it and sign up for as many of them as you can.

Step Three: Link/authorize the accounts to be updated from Ping.fm.

Step Four: Set up an account with Twitterfeed.

Step Five: Copy the RSS feed address from any and all websites you want to publish to social social networks and set each one up on Twitterfeed. You will need to opt for "Ping.fm" instead of Twitter in the publishing option. You can get your authentication key, if you are logged in to Ping.fm, by going to http://ping.fm/key. I suggest you have it only publish the title of the post and a link, although if there are tags that should always appear, certainly include them.

Step Six: Post as usual and watch Twitter to make sure you can see the posts coming through. Be aware that it may take a few hours at most for each new post to appear.

These steps are not deeply detailed, telling you how to do each step. You should be able to log in and figure it out on your own. If not, feel free to ask any questions in the comments on this post.

If you do this and set up your RSS feeds to broadcast to many social networks you are increasing your visibility in a number of ways and making it automatic as well. No pressure and no cost to you.

Learn to Program in Ruby (Tutorials)

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 26 May 2010 14:30:00 +0000

If you've never done any programming but are interested in learning, there's no lack of online resources for you to begin. Though I began with Python, I've switched my focus to Ruby. Both are object oriented languages, but the latter seems to be more in demand in the greater New York metro area (could just be my faulty perception). For those who want to start learning to program, let me suggest the following resources:

Learn to Program - A tutorial by Chris Pine. This site contains much of the same info as a printed book by the same name from this writer. I highly recommend this tutorial, having used it myself. No prior programming experience needed.
Mr. Neighborly's Humble Little Ruby Book - Available as a downloadable pdf and html book. Also good for beginners.
Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby - An e-book you can download or view online. Complete with illustrations, for those of you who like "picture books." ;-)
Ruby User's Guide - A handy reference.

If Sound On Your Ubuntu Desktop Stops Working

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:30:00 +0000

Not long ago I tried to watch a video on YouTube but couldn't hear anything. The volume icon on YouTube had an "x" next to it, even when I turned the volume on the video up. I checked the desktop's sound and it was not muted. To make sure there wasn't anything wrong with the hardware I rebooted the computer with a Linux Mint live CD. The sound was just fine with the live cd spinning, but when I went back to the regular desktop (Ubuntu) the sound was off again. The solution? I removed the sound drivers and re-installed them.

Problem solved.

Use the following commands if you are having the same issue in Ubuntu or Linux Mint:

sudo apt-get --purge remove linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils

sudo apt-get install linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils

Add a Favicon to Your Grou.ps Site

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:30:00 +0000

If you are looking to add a favicon to your Grou.ps site, instructions follow. I'm including here steps for creating and hosting favicons. If you already know how to do these tasks, skip to point three.

First, you need to create a favicon. There are certain format and size conditions for these. An easy way to make a favicon is to use an online creator. Click here or here for a couple of good options. Remember that the .ico image is going to be really small, so a logo would be more appropriate than a detailed photograph.

Second, hosting a .ico file can be tricky. Not all image hosting sites accept this format. I use IconJ and haven't had any problems. It's free, by the way.

Third, once you have the link to your hosted favicon image, follow these steps to display in on your Grou.ps site:

Go to:

Administrate > Look and Feel > Customize Current Theme

Scroll down and look for this:

<link href="{$service_host}/images/favicon.ico" rel="SHORTCUT
ICON">

Remove the {$service_host}/images, and edit to point to your favicon.ico.

Example:

<link href="http://www.iconj.com/myicon.ico" rel="SHORTCUT
ICON">

If there are any questions, just ask.

Free Online PDF Management Services

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:30:00 +0000

It used to be that if you wanted to do something involving a computer, you needed to install the right software. For pdf files this meant using something like Adobe Pro. Trouble is, that's expensive. Fortunately there are many pdf management solutions now available for free online. In this post I'll discuss, briefly, online tools for unlocking, creating, editing and hosting/sharing pdf files.

First, unlocking. You may never need to do this, but in my present job I am responsible for managing the intake and upload of partner pdf files to the company website. Sometimes, oddly enough, these files arrive in a "locked" state. With some all I have to do is change the properties to "no security" using Adobe Pro. Others, though, are password protected. No problem. So long as the password protection was added through Adobe and not some other, third party locking process, PDFUnlock can unlock the file for you. Simply upload the locked file, click "Unlock!" and wait for the file to unlock and download. The word "unlocked" will be added to the file name, distinguishing it from the original.

Second, creating. If you want to make a simple document in a fixed format, possibly including images, OpenOffice can do this for you. It comes with a pdf maker option built right in. Create your document, saving it every so often, and when you're ready just click the "pdf" icon in the toolbar. You can then choose where to save the resultant file.

Third, editing. If you want to modify a file that has already been created, there are options. The one that works best for me is PDFescape. I can delete and insert pages, "whiteout" text and add text and images, among other things. It isn't perfect, but it's free, easy to use and generally gets the job done.

Fourth, hosting. If you want to save your pdf documents and easily share them, try out Scribd. You can upload files, manage privacy settings and share via Facebook, Twitter, direct links and embedding.

Finally, how about making a web page into a complete pdf file? No, not "print-to-file." If you print to file you'll end up with a different format and possibly printer notations, like time and date. With Web2PDF you can submit any valid URL and the site will generate a complete and accurate pdf document of that site.

Hopefully something I've discussed here will be useful to you. Let me know if there's any online tool for managing pdf files that you like better.

From Ning to Grou.ps

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:30:00 +0000

When I heard early last week that Ning would be dropping its free offerings and going completely to being a paid service, it didn't worry me too much. Although I have a Ning network, it's never grown beyond a handful of members. Still, I wanted to have a social network available for potential future projects where having a community would be helpful or necessary. There are many options out there, but I opted for Grou.ps, and I'm glad I did.

Grou.ps offers pretty much everything I had with Ning, plus the possibility of assigning a custom domain to the site. In my case I chose to create a subdomain of one of my domains, registered through Godaddy. The steps to do this were fairly straightforward but the process was by no means immediate. While I created the CNAME in Godaddy's Total DNS with no particular problem, it took nearly 24 hours before the Grou.ps site would recognize and accept the custom domain I input. It worked eventually, however, and now I'm the proud administrator of a Grou.ps-hosted social network.

Here's a screenshot of my old Ning site:

Here's the new Grou.ps site:

Why don't you check it out and join, if interested?

See Also:

Ning’s Bubble Bursts: No More Free Networks, Cuts 40% Of Staff (TechCrunch)

OMG Africa! Linux Project Press Release

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:30:00 +0000

Luqman Saeed, a Linux and open source advocate in Africa, sent along the following information. Give it a look and spread the word.

Though a great concept and model, the use and adoption of Free and Open Source Software in Africa is very negligible. This is not because Windows and other proprietary software are better, but because not much is being done by those of us in the FOSS world to bring it to Africa.

There is a vast untapped market available here where Linux in particular and Open Source Software in general have a lot of gains to make. But these gains will not come without efforts on the part of all FOSS proponents. It is in this light that we would like to present to you and seek your involvement in the OMG Africa! Linux Project.

Essentially, the Project has 3 main objectives

1. To increase the use and adoption of Linux in Africa: We hope to achieve this by educating people and small businesses about the massive advantages Linux has over other systems. To increase accessibility to Linux ISOs, we would seek volunteers who would be willing to mail FREE copies of pre-burned CDs containing Linux distros to those who have no internet connection to download.

2. Help curb the e-waste menace that is engulfing most parts of the continent: Given that Linux is free and runs on not so new hardware, the scourge of e-waste -which is mostly outdated computers that are dumped on us by advanced countries- can be reduced to the barest minimum by giving second lives to computers that would have ended as scrap because they are too old to run Windows. A look at this video titled from Anwerp to Ghana (my country) is ample evidence of the severity of the e-waste menace.

3. Find ways in which Linux in particular and Open Source Software in general can be used to enhance the quality of education here in Africa.

The goals and objectives of this humble but ambitious project cannot be realized without the active involvement of every single one of you wonderful FOSS proponents. If there is one thing that sets Linux apart from Windows, it is the strong community that surrounds it. Now we humbly implore the power of this community of which we all belong, to help bring Linux and Open Source Software to Africa and help improve lives.

You can contribute in a diverse number of ways to this project, two of which are volunteering to send out a FREE Linux CD and joining or starting discussions on how to achieve the set objectives of the project. If you ever wondered if there was any way Linux could be of use in any way other than on the PC, then you definitely have a role to play in the OMG Africa! Linux Project.

You can join the project Facebook page , follow on Twitter or subscribe to the official blog of the project to keep in touch with it at all times. We also are open to your ideas, feedback, suggestions, constructive criticisms and general advice and opinions on how we can improve the project. Once again, the noble goals of this project cannot be realized without your active involvement. Every single member we have counts towards achieving these goals. Why not join us right now and start a discussion? Can we reach a 100 members today?

My Top Five Chrome Extensions

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:30:00 +0000

Chrome has become almost exclusively my only web browser. I came for the speed and ease of use and stayed for the extensions.

When Google's Chrome browser was first released it was available only on Windows. Since I only use Ubuntu Linux (and an iMac at work) it was around a year before Chrome was even really available to me (no, I wasn't interested in the Chromium Projects). Even after the Linux and Mac versions were officially released I didn't get into using this browser right away. This was largely due to habit, Firefox having been my default web browser for so many years, and partly due to the lack of extensions (add-ons). After I started using it I discovered that not only is it noticeably faster than Firefox, it has many nice features, including the ability to search right from the address line.

What confirmed my switch to Chrome were the extensions. These are add-ons that extend the functionality of the browser. Many are ported over from Firefox, others relatively original. What follows are the extensions I like and use the most as of right now. So many extensions already exist, with new ones coming available on a regular basis, that this list will likely be outdated in a matter of weeks. In any case, here goes.

RSS Subscription Extension - What is a default feature in Firefox is an extension in Chrome. Having access to the RSS feed to subscribe seems pretty fundamental, so if you're using Chrome this will be one of the first extensions you'll want to install. Otherwise if you click an RSS feed link you'll just get a page of xml gibberish.
TooManyTabs - From the makers of an add-on of the same name for Firefox, this handy extension lets you shuffle excess tabs off into a saved area to check out later. This is especially useful for me because I'm always coming across articles and tutorials that I don't want to bookmark but also don't have time to read right away. By using TooManyTabs I can save the link out of site and come back to it later. No more browser full of tiny, crowded tabs or fear of restarting the wrong way and losing everything.
Web2PDFConverter - Pretty much everyone knows you can print a web page "to file" as a pdf. The result isn't great, though, with the saved page being formated as though it had really been printed. Items can be out of place or missing and there may be date and time markers on the tops and bottoms of the saved pages. Not so if you use Web2PDFConverter! Just click the pdf icon and any page you are viewing will be converted into a pdf file almost exactly as it appears in the browser, images, formatting and all. You can then download the file or view it in Google Docs.
Shareaholic - This extension lets you share any page you're viewing easily with many social networks. You click the icon, select the network on the drop-down and click. Often a new page will appear for the share to take place and you will need to be logged in (or else log in) to the social network to complete the process. I use this a lot for sharing to Twitter, especially when the site doesn't have adequate share options built in.
Chromed Bird - Speaking of Twitter, there really is no good reason to waste a perfectly good tab on the service. Chromed Bird changes color and shows a number of new tweets since you last checked, so if you use Twitter often you can stay on top of what's being tweeted. You can also reply, retweet and favorite tweets using this extension.

The preceding were just my top five Chrome Extensions. I actually use several on a regular basis and have others installed that I utilize less frequently. Although I'm well aware that Firefox has had add-ons for quite a while, it wasn't the extensions that won me to Chrome. As I said above, I find this new browser versatile and fast, better in these respects than Firefox. The extensions are the icing on the sweet, sweet cake.

Check out the Extensions page and have a look around. If you find something you really like that I haven't mentioned, tell me about it in the comments on this post.

Two Apps That Brought Me Back

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:30:00 +0000

It's been obvious to me for a few years now that the tech focus is moving from desktop to mobile. While it's nice to be able to sit down and use a computer or laptop, the future is on the go. More and more people in the United States are switching from standard cell phones to smartphones. The iPhone is obviously really big, as are the Android-based phones. Personally, I still like my Blackberry despite the fact that the OS is entirely proprietary and there are nowhere near as many apps for it as there are for other devices. With this move towards increased mobile Internet usage, it doesn't make sense for serious business not to have good apps for a variety of popular platforms. Two in particular that were released recently for Blackberry have actually won me back to their services.

First, Tumblr. I signed up for a blog with Tumblr months ago, thinking I could use the RSS feed import functionality to increase traffic to my various sites and blogs. I hooked 5 feeds up and let Tumblr do its thing. There must be some sort of time-out on this feature, though, because I kept noticing that the import had stopped after several days and would only start up again if I logged in to Tumblr. This got really old, really fast, so I deleted the feeds and abandoned my Tumblr blog.

Then the Tumblr app for Blackberry came out.

Now, sick as it may seem, I actually write blog posts most days while I'm on the train into work in Manhattan. When I arrive in New York and have signal again I publish what I've written. Suddenly, Tumblr is useful to me again.

Second, LinkedIn. It's like Facebook for professionals. It's boring, quite frankly, and only useful for connecting and getting my resume out. Now that there's a LinkedIn app for Blackberry the service has become slightly more interesting. At least now I can easily update my status with what I'm working on and make it look like my profile is "live."

Is there any app, regardless of mobile device, that has brought you back to a service?

Blogging with Heroku, Git and Toto

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:10:00 +0000

When I read, about a month ago, that I could set up a “Ruby powered blog” in five minutes, I was intrigued. Saving the link to instructions on how to do this, I came back to the task early one morning last week. After about 30 minutes I had made some progress, but had to get ready for work. Later in the day I came back to the project and, after an additional couple of hours, managed to take the blog live. Apparently the “five minutes” only applies if you are an experienced programmer familiar with Ruby and Git in particular.

Two steps missing from the instructions linked above were creating SSH keys (click here for more on that, and use dsa instructions) and setting up/installing git (sudo apt-get git should do it). One other missing step was installing the Toto gem: (sudo gem install toto).

To publish a post I have to add it as a text file to my articles directory and then commit and deploy through git. Editing the layout and pages involves going to the templates folder and working with CSS and html. There are, obviously, far easier ways to set up a blog, so why bother with this rather arcane path?

Learning and experience.

Before setting up this blog I had no experience with git, though I’d heard quite a bit about it. While I’d installed Ruby gems before, I’m still pretty “green” with this sort of task. I know pretty much nothing about CSS and need to continue expanding my familiarity with html. JavaScript will come into play as well, I’m sure.

Nothing that really matters will be posted to my “hacker blog.” At least, nothing that I don’t also save or post elsewhere. The real value to me isn’t in the blog, but in the learning experience this affords me.

Book Review: Dawn of the Dreadfuls

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 14:30:00 +0000

I really enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (PPZ), so when the publisher contacted me with the offer of a free review copy of the prequel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls (DoD), I jumped at the chance to read it. (Consider that the legally required disclaimer.) This, despite the fact that I was pretty unimpressed with Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (SSSM). Although I wondered if this prequel would live up to the original, I figured it couldn't go wrong with zombies. I was right!

The original PPZ was a mash-up novel, one that took the original work by Jane Austen and worked in martial arts and zombie mayhem in the midst of stuffy Victorian England. It was my good fortune to not be assigned Pride and Prejudice in high school and telling from the roughly 85% of Austen's work that remained in the mash-up. Boring! At least with PPZ I could trudge through the long, windy sections about formal balls and courting with the expectation of a putrid, decaying undead creature busting onto the scene.

DoD is, as I mentioned above, a prequel to PPZ. Not based on a pre-existing text, DoD is written on a far more readable level with a contemporary style. In PPZ I could practically feel the re-writes as I read, but in DoD there's none of this. Less Austen, more zombies and a lot of fun. This novel doesn't take us to the very beginning of Victorian England's "Troubles," but it shows us where the Bennett girls get their start in the anti-zombie resistance. The opening chapter takes us to a very proper funeral that, perhaps predictably, is disturbed by the rise of the dead.

Some questions are vaguely answered, leaving still more questions (Only England? How long's this been going on? Etc, etc, etc....). This makes for an excellent setup to more prequels or even sequels. What began as a quirky literary mash-up could become a franchise.

If you haven't read "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" yet, start with "Dawn of the Dreadfuls." If you like undead fiction written in somewhat comical style, you'll love these books.

Geek Anthems

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:28:00 +0000

There's a new "geek anthem" in circulation now, "New Dorks." A parody of "Empire State of Mind" by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, "New Dorks" is a viral marketing scheme brought to us by the folks at Grasshopper. It's pretty clever, in my opinion.

Another long-standing geek anthem is "White and Nerdy" by Weird Al Yankovic. Good stuff.

Do you know of any others?

Domains and Webhosting on the Cheap

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:30:00 +0000

Nearly a decade ago I wanted to build a website to share about my mission work in Brazil. Not having much technical knowledge, I turned to a helpful Brazilian friend to show me the ropes. He spent a couple of hours showing me Microsoft Frontpage, but I really didn't like it. Time passed and I eventually discovered Tripod. There were ads (many more now than in those days) and the site I built wasn't very imaginative, but it was easy to put together and maintain. While I also didn't own a domain, I really didn't care. Fast forward to now. I have not only multiple sites and domains, but also use different platforms. For anyone looking to set up a website with a personalized domain "on the cheap," this post's for you.

First, have a look at Wordpress. Though I don't care for it, there are folks who like it...a lot. You can set up your site and then go to "My Dashboard" and then "Upgrades." There you'll find options, including registering and mapping a domain (see picture below). I use Wordpress for one of my blogs. Two issues with this service irritate me:

The dashboard bothers me. Although I've been using it for a few years now, I still have trouble finding my way around. Something about it just isn't intuitive.
Limited flash and no javascript. It is often difficult to embed videos in posts and impossible to use third-party widgets. This is incredibly frustrating at times.

Second, how about Blogger? I've had a blog through this service since 2006 and have been very happy with it. Last year (if memory serves) the ability to create stand-alone pages was added. This makes it possible to make the blog look more like a regular site. Many, many free templates are available online, the blog layout is easy to adjust (mostly drag-and-drop) and the post editor is excellent. Under Settings > Publishing you will find a link to purchase a domain, if that's what you want. Blogger makes it easy and inexpensive, allowing you to obtain a domain name and also e-mail addresses associated with your domain (up to 50!) for only $10 a year. This is a major bargain.

Third, the least expensive option involves Go Daddy and Weebly, but takes a little more effort to set up. Through Go Daddy you can buy a domain. The cheap part? You can buy a .info domain for as little as $1.07 with tax! Why would you want a .info? Why not? It's cheap, it's personalized and it will turn up in search results like any other web page out there. I use this type of domain for my GizaPage and also for a catch-all site. Once you've purchased your .info domain (or something a little more expensive) through Go Daddy, head over to Weebly and sign up for an account. Build a basic website (just as a placeholder). Then, follow instructions here and here to associate your Go Daddy registered domain with the Weebly site. For less that $2.00 a year you're online! The worst thing about Weebly is the shabby blog editor, but if cheap is what you're going for, this is an excellent option anyway.

There you have it. Three options for low-cost domain registration and website hosting. If you know of any other good options, let me know in the comments.

New York Linux Users Group

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:15:00 +0000

For a little over a year now I've been attending events and gatherings of the New York Linux Users Group (NYLUG). It's been an interesting experience, and I'd like to share briefly a little about it.

First, there's the monthly "General Meeting." The date varies but it's typically held on a Wednesday the third week of every month. For the General Meeting a speaker or speakers are lined up to talk about anything involving open source software. We've had people talk about everything from Rockbox (open source firmware for mp3 players) to Puppet (a configuration management tool, written in Ruby) and everything in between. The meeting starts with announcements and then goes straight into the presentation for the evening. For those interested in open source technology, there's a lot to learn at these meetings.

Second, twice-monthly "Hacking Society" meetings are held in the basement of the Hudson Park Library. This was originally a Python workshop, but in recent months the organizers have decided to open it up to any code, any programming language. The motivation for this was apparently to attempt to attract more people than just Python enthusiasts and learners. Hacking Society meetings are informal to an extreme. Normally no one really takes the lead, and even when there is a guest teacher/speaker everyone tends to keep their heads down, tapping away at their laptops. This isn't necessarily bad, but visitors can feel a little lost and the meetings can, at times, seem rather meaningless. Recently, however, Robert Menes has volunteered to teach Smalltalk. The going is slow but the opportunity for programmers, especially newbies like me, to learn on the cheap is compelling.

Check out the NYLUG website, sign up for announcements and try to attend one or the other of the regular meetings. If you're into computers and live/work in the New York metropolitan area you'll probably enjoy getting to know this great bunch of geeks.

Apple: The Gold Standard for GNU/Linux

igneousquill@gmail.com (Adam Gonnerman) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:30:00 +0000

Before I was hired for my present job I went through an interview with the young man who was CEO at the time and then a team interview with everyone except him. In the team interview one of the developers asked me if I ever worked with Macs before. My reply was something like, "Well, I never had to, but I can learn." He chuckled and said, "'...never had to,' I like that." It all worked out and I got the job, but I still had to get accustomed to a big, bright, shiny iMac.

Having only used Windows for all of my adult life up to that point I felt almost as though I was learning my way around a computer for the first time. It's been over a year and I am pretty experienced with Apple software, but I even now I don't like it. The fact remains, though, that it certainly feels superior to any version of Windows I've ever used. That is why I believe it is the "gold standard" which a Linux distro needs not only to match but also surpass.

In December 2009 I switched my family's home desktop over to Ubuntu. I'd been toying with the idea of trying out Linux for a while and had given a couple of live CDs a spin. There were bumps along the way, like not being able to set up dual-boot because of a hardware/BIOS issue, but when all was said and done I was quite a bit happier with Ubuntu than I was with Windows XP. My kids adapted quickly and my wife has actually become somewhat of a casual Ubuntu evangelist. At least, every time someone mentions having an issue with Windows she extols the virtues of Ubuntu and encourages me to tell them about it. My household holds no doubt about Ubuntu being a better option, for many reasons, than any version of Windows. So why isn't it gaining more of a foothold? It's missing the "wow" factor.

Imagine if Ubuntu were to be developed to the point where, installed in virtually any fairly modern desktop or laptop, it were to work as well or better than a Mac. That is to say that all the "bling" would be there and none of the bugs or even "papercuts" currently experienced with Windows and Ubuntu Linux. If the Ubuntu OS were as good or (ideally) better than Mac OSX and also free there's little doubt it would make far more progress in the market. The real competition for any Linux development community has to be seen as Apple, not Microsoft.

Apple computers do not have as large a hold percentage-wise on worldwide personal and business markets, and this can largely be attributed to the price. Another reason would be the fact that humans are creatures of habit. No matter how bad a person's experience might be with Windows, most end up preferring that over the "unknown" of a Linux distro. Again, if Ubuntu or any Linux distro were to be seen as outdoing Apple's OS, that combined with the "free" price tag would likely be enough to push the reluctant to make the switch.

As I said above, I don't like Apple's OS. I like many of the features and the sharp look, and of course I find it far more reliable that Windows. What bothers me most are perhaps the lack of a simple package manager (as found in Ubuntu) offering numerous free software options and also the somewhat obtuse way of installing downloaded software (I'm sure that will make Apple fanboys howl about my stupidity). If the Ubuntu team worldwide manages to polish what it already has to the point of meeting or exceeding Apple's current offering I don't see how it won't begin to receive wider adoption. At that point Microsoft will no longer be on the radar for discussion, unless the company is willing to rise to the fresh challenge.

In truth, the future of of operating systems may not even come down to Canonical (sponsor of Ubuntu) and Microsoft. It could be a battle between Google and Apple, with Microsoft fading into the background. Ah, but that's a topic for another day....