July 31, 2008

Social Networking in Benton AR

Filed under: General — WirelessMike @ 8:36 am

In case you’re wondering, I’ve been spending some time lately on the social network for my community in Benton, AR. If you’re interested, it’s MySaline.com. We discuss local issues, like how to influence local government regarding whether or not to remain a “dry” county and meeting candidates for local government positions. We also discuss community gatherings, carpooling, new restaurants and businesses. The site has helped bring me up to speed with what’s going on at my new home like nothing I’ve ever encountered before.

I highly recommend seeking out local community networks online– I’ve learned a bunch already and am looking forward to becoming more involved in my community!

July 7, 2008

Back Up and Running

Filed under: General — WirelessMike @ 8:04 am

Sorry for the long absence… In my time away I’ve moved to another state to work for a new employer and my blog’s host server has been updated with a new OS and new version of wordpress.

I’m ashamed to admit it has taken me over a month to figure out the problem (first, there was this bogus error message about cookies at login, then it appeared I could login, but to only a blank page). Turns out, there were blank lines in my config file. I simply deleted the blank lines (they were at the end of the file, so if you’re having the same problem, find your config file, go all the way to the end and backspace delete to the last actual character and save) and I’m back in business.

Isn’t it always hard to find but easy to fix? Go figure…

Anyway, I hope to be posting lots of new and interesting articles again soon.

February 29, 2008

Kubuntu Gutsy’s Splash Screen Fix

Filed under: Ubuntu — WirelessMike @ 2:33 pm

Not so long ago, I posted a fix for the kdm splash screen of the Feisty Fawn release of Kubuntu. Every time there was a kernel update, it would update my grub menu and I had to go back into /boot/grub/menu.lst and update the line for the first kubuntu boot option with a vga setting (vga=792).

Please see this post for details.

This works in Gutsy, too, but for my setup (I have an agp ATI X700 graphics card connected via DVI to a 19″ Acer LCD), I had to update some more files first. I was lost until I happened upon this post in the ubuntu forums regarding framebuffer errors (thanks El Chupacabras).

Basically, I have to force the kernel to recognize my card and driver.

First, I had to edit the framebuffer blacklist for the kernel. This file is found at /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-framebuffer and can be opened with any text editor. I like nano and vim.

$ sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-framebuffer

The file will look something like this:

# Framebuffer drivers are generally buggy and poorly-supported, and cause
# suspend failures, kernel panics and general mayhem. For this reason we
# never load them automatically.
blacklist aty128fb
blacklist atyfb
blacklist radeonfb
blacklist cirrusfb
blacklist cyber2000fb
blacklist cyblafb
blacklist gx1fb
blacklist hgafb
blacklist i810fb…

Locate the brand that most closely resembles the name of your graphics card, and comment it out by putting a # in front of it. In my case, I inserted # in front of “blacklist radeonfb” and “blacklist vesafb” (never hurts to allow vesafb). Once completed, remember to “save” it and close your editor.

That done, I next updated startup modules with the same framebuffers. That, too, is a file update. The file is located at /etc/initramfs-tools/modules:

$ sudo nano /etc/initramfs-tools/modules

The file will look something like this:

# List of modules that you want to include in your initramfs.
#
# Syntax: module_name [args …]
#
# You must run update-initramfs(8) to effect this change.
#
# Examples:
#
# raid1
# sd_mod

Go to the end of the file and add your framebuffers and the controller. I added to the end of the file:

fbcon
radeonfb
vesafb

Now just update the init scripts with one simple line:

$ sudo update-initramfs -u -k all

After that, I simply updated the kernel boot line in /boot/grub/menu.lst as I did before, even using the same vga (vga=792). It has worked ever since.

As the kernel has been updated, all I’ve had to update is the kernel line just as before with Feisty.

Again, thanks to El Chupacabras of ubuntuforums for finding this solution!

I hope this works for some of you as well as it worked for me!

February 19, 2008

Sony’s Blu-ray Wins

Filed under: Hardware — WirelessMike @ 9:28 am

Sony Blu-ray

Everyone should have seen this coming when Wal-Mart announced they weren’t going to distribute HD-DVD. It wasn’t official, however, until Toshiba threw in the towel

“Toshiba said Tuesday it will no longer develop, make or market HD DVD players and recorders, handing a victory to rival Blu-ray disc technology in the format battle for next-generation video.”

I guess that’s bad news for Microsoft, who decided to back HD-DVD in September of 2005 and builds HD-DVD support into its XBox (the HD-DVD player is, of course, optional– a very wise marketing decision, I think, in retrospect).

October 28, 2007

Dramatic…

Filed under: General — WirelessMike @ 8:18 pm

I know you’ve seen it, but I just had to post it cause it’s still funny.

October 17, 2007

Why Do I Keep Hearing About This “Ubuntu?”

Filed under: Ubuntu — WirelessMike @ 8:04 am

Ubuntu

Perhaps because it is the most logical alternative to Windows to come along yet…

Indianapolis (IN) - During a phone conference today, Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth made the comment that he’s seeing Ubuntu move into spaces which are not just horizontal migrations away from UNIX or other Linux distributions. He’s actually seeing Ubuntu as a cost-effective and viable out-of-the-box alternative OS on new machines, even as a Windows replacement. When asked about Ubuntu’s future he said, “Ubuntu is on the map. I believe [we’re] here to stay”.

Read the whole article here.

September 26, 2007

Walter For President

Filed under: General — WirelessMike @ 9:16 am

I don’t usually promote politics (gripe about it, sure, but not promote), but when I found out Walter was in the race, I HAD to post!

Walter

Instead of not voting, vote for Walter!

September 12, 2007

Saltwater- The Perfect Alternative Fuel?

Filed under: General — WirelessMike @ 10:38 am

burning water

I stumbled upon this news article today and found it extremely interesting! See here

“John Kanzius happened upon the discovery accidentally when he tried to desalinate seawater with a radio-frequency generator he developed to treat cancer. He discovered that as long as the salt water was exposed to the radio frequencies, it would burn.

The discovery has scientists excited by the prospect of using salt water, the most abundant resource on earth, as a fuel.”

I just find the whole idea terribly exciting! I wonder if one day we’ll be bragging about how many miles per gallon of saltwater our cars get…

September 11, 2007

What’s an “eggxpert?”

Filed under: Hardware — WirelessMike @ 9:43 pm

Newegg.com

Anyone who’s read about hardware on my blog knows I LOVE Newegg! I continue to promote the online vendor of all things electronic, especially hard-to-find computer hardware, to anyone I know is in the market.

Well, there is now a forum for people in this market with questions about anything from how to make a printer available to anyone on a budget wireless network to how do you tell one stick of memory from another, and it’s called…

Eggxpert.com

If you are a satisfied customer of newegg and wish to participate in the forum, or if you are simply looking for some current advice or can offer some good advice on electronics (computers, networking, cabling, entertainment, digital media, etc.), please take some time to check out this forum– I think you’ll find it worth your while, and you may discover that you are actually an eggxpert!

August 2, 2007

I Believe You Have My Stapler…

Filed under: General — WirelessMike @ 8:01 am

I recently watched Office Space again. One of the more memorable lines from that movie is Milton’s rant to Peter on the phone:

And I said, I don’t care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I’m, I’m quitting, I’m going to quit. And, and I told Don too, because they’ve moved my desk four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels, and they were married, but then, they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn’t bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it’s not okay because if they take my stapler then I’ll set the building on fire…

I Believe You Have My Stapler

So I’m thinkin’ to myself, I don’t want to set the building on fire, so maybe I should get me one of those nice red staplers, but guess what? That was just a prop for the movie– Swingline didn’t make a red stapler at that time, but they do now! I found it on thinkgeek (who happens to have a nice t-shirt about it, as well), but I’m sure there’s many places you can get it. I’m going to order one soon, I think, because it takes something more dependable than a cheap old Boston to put these TPS reports together!

July 18, 2007

Cat Herding

Filed under: General — WirelessMike @ 8:17 am

It originally aired during a superbowl a couple years ago, but it deserves to be seen again!

July 13, 2007

Wordpress SWF Problems Fixed

Filed under: General — WirelessMike @ 8:17 am

Please forgive the problems I was having with this blog in relation to video stream links to youtube and google video. There has been an “upgrade” to Wordpress that, for some unknown reason, caused these links to look awful. My host was kind enough to downgrade back to the better version, but days later upgraded again and so it has looked awful for over a week now.

I have since found an excellent plugin (see here) that not only addresses this issue, but makes it incredibly easy to add swf or flv streaming video to your wordpress blog from youtube, google video, etc.

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