del.icio.us bookmarks extension even tastier!

While I try to avoid being too stereotypically geeky, I couldn't help but want to shout w00t! at the top of my lungs when I upgraded to the latest version of the del.icio.us bookmarks extension for Firefox.
(I didn't, of course, but I wanted to.)

My joy comes from the fact that while they have occupied Firefox's bookmark folder since their first release, they have finally retreated to the sidebar or a drop-down list!

WhooHoo!

This means I can drag and drop bookmarks like usual, but still have the full-featured tagging goodness of del.icio.us bookmarks! Sure there's the official del.icio.us firefox addon they try to push on you when you first sign up, but if you've tried the del.icio.us bookmarks extension
(also produced by Yahoo! Inc), then you know there is no comparison.

The cool thing about the bookmarks extension is that you don't just have a couple of bookmarks to add a shortcut or view your del.icio.us account, you actually have access to your del.icio.us bookmarks from within the firefox interface, including incremental searches of tags, page titles, and page descriptions. Seriously guys, w00t!

For some reason, when the extension first came out, they disabled the bookmarks functionality of firefox intending on completely replacing it with your del.icio.us account. Fortunately, they realized some people may not want to bookmark their bank's website in del.icio.us, even if you can mark it as "private". Or that maybe some people want some good old fashioned bookmarks that they can drag and drop to manage when they are in a hurry.

Enter version 1.4.25, the best of both worlds.

It is the klondike bar of del.icio.us extensions, but it doesn't melt when someone tries to hold a conversation with you while you are trying to enjoy its ice-cream-chocolatey-goodness.

So, open up the freezer and grab yourself a del.icio.us klondike bar of bookmark tagging goodness and hit it hard and fast, without the fear of brain freeze.

Check out twitter.com/OneSeventeen for my adventures at the microsoft launch event on 2/13/2007

A Fortunate Series of Unfortunate Events

There, that should avoid any copyright issues, right?

Actually I say "fortunate" because God has definitely provided in all of the events.

Let's start at the beginning of the week when your's truly decides to file taxes early. Apparently we owe more than we've ever owed before. This would normally freak me out, but since God has been providing for everything up till now, I figured why would he stop now?

I check out the KBB value of my car, and for a trade-in it would roughly pay for what I still owe on it and give us enough to cover taxes. Woot! God provides again!

This weekend my wife and I decide to celebrate four years of marriage (another woot! would go great here) by going out of town. I made reservations weeks ago, so I went home early Friday to do some last-minute file management at home. (I'm a little OCD when it comes to record-keeping, and being away from the filing cabinets and file server is a little scary to me.) I hear the rain start outside, which shocks me because of how sunny it has been all day. When I step outside to see how bad the rain is, I notice it isn't raining. Despite the lack of rain, there is water coming down the door to my storage area. The problem: my storage area is covered! I open the door and water is pouring in from 1 or 2 stories above me! Apparently someone's water-heater broke and was flooding the floors below (including mine). As I'm walking through my apartment calling the office every few minutes when I think of one other thing I think they should know, I step into my bedroom and about halfway into the room the carpet is soaked and very squishy. (To the point of squirting water a few inches with each step I took.)

Fortunately, this is all covered by my apartment and they get the above water shut off in a matter of minutes, a new water-heater for the poor guys above me in about 30 minutes, and a flood recovery service in within the hour, all at no cost to me. Praise God! He provides again!

I run out the door to get the oil changed in the car, and they notice some stuff hasn't been done recently that should be done every 3 months or so. (And I haven't had it done at all during the 3 years I've owned the car!) Praise God! He gets it fixed before anything dramatic happens!

I then pick up my wife from her work, we fill up the car with fuel, and head up to the hotel about an hour away. We check in, and the room looks great! Until we notice that the towels haven't been washed and there is trash in the wastebaskets. We go to the front desk, and they fortunately have another room just like it and it looks awesome! They are super friendly about it apologizing all the time. (Considering they only charged me $26/night for a King sized room with desk, internet access, blow dryer, iron, and all that good stuff, I'll let it slide.) Praise God for us still having a place to stay!

The next day (today) we drive back to our church because my wife leads in the Children's Ministry. We planned on leaving around 3:30 in the afternoon, but for no apparent reason around 12:00 we decide to drive to the lunch hall instead of walk (just in case we hang out for a while and need to hurry up and leave). After loading up all the stuff for the Children's Ministry in the car I notice the back tire is low on air, so we figure we'll just head to the nearest town and air it up. We stop by the main office and find out the place we are staying at has an air compressor so we drive over to it and right before I air it up, I find a 1/4" nail in the tread.
Praise God we found this before driving an hour on it!! Plus, if we hadn't found it until 3:30 we wouldn't have made it in time for my wife to help out in the Children's Ministry.

I pull out the spare, check the pressure, and my digital reader tells me it is 30PSI instead of 60! Thank goodness I found that out quickly! So I air it up, but after 50 the reader just reads a bunch of 8's. I decide to just use it as-is instead of over inflating it. We pop on the spare and drive an hour and a half back home (top speed is now 50 instead of 75) and I drop my wife off at the house so she can drive over to the church while I get the tire repaired.

She makes it to the church in plenty of time to get ready, and I head over to my local Sam's Club (because I'm also a very frugal individual). They are awesome and repair the tire for free! We don't need new tires, woohoo!!!

Praise God again for providing a free tire repair (see "tax issue" above).

The repair guy then tells me that whoever inflated the spare last inflated it to 90PSI!!! (I will be throwing the digital reader away as soon as I finish blogging this!)

Praise God we made it over 60 miles on a highly overinflated spare tire!!

Conclusion:

There are two ways to look at this week:

1. We find out we owe more than ever on taxes, and even owe "estimated taxes" for next year,
2. we have our apartment flooded and all of our bookshelves ruined,
3. we get a room that hasn't been cleaned,
4. we get a flat tire while out of town,
5. and we over inflate our spare because of a faulty tire pressure gauge.

Or:

1. God provided exactly what we needed to cover our taxes,
2. we get free carpet cleaning and mold testing, and potentially free carpet replacement and water-damage repair if it is needed,
3. we get a new room on a floor with a better view of the mountains,
4. we get free tire-repair,
5. and God prevents us from having a spare tire blow out on us.

For the first time in a long time, I've been focusing on the latter, and I can tell you it is so much more calming relying on God rather than relying on the way the world is supposed to work.

The world would say I should be more logical, I should focus on what is happening and react accordingly. Instead, we've been praying and praising God and we have been more open to seeing, recognizing, and accepting His solutions to our problems, rather than trying to solve them ourselves.

I have to say it at least one more time: Praise God!

Apparently you can Blog from your mobile phone. Expect a lot of tiny posts throughout the next few weeks.

How ODF can beat out Microsoft Office Formats

As a business member of the ODF Alliance and a proud supporter of the concepts behind Open Document Format. I currently use OpenOffice.org for all of my business related documents, and find it to be much more helpful than Microsoft Office most of the time.

Unfortunately, I see an area that the ODF could easily dominate that I think Microsoft Office fails at currently:

File Format APIs

Could you imagine a File Format API that would allow you to quickly and easily create documents from the command line, or via PHP scripts? Possibly creating a template in your favorite ODF creator then manipulating the file later via the API.

Then, just to make things even more fun, a tool to render the ODF file and print it to a printer or to a postscript file, which would also make it infinitely easier to create a PDF from the command line.

It is not hard to manipulate XML if you know what you are doing, but that should make an API even easier to create. How many developers want to learn the schema for ODF so they can write conversion scripts and dynamically generate ODF files on the fly? (note that I am not raising my hand here)

Now, how many developers would love to write conversion scripts and dynamically generate/manipulate ODF files on the fly without needing to know how ODF works? (I am frantically waving both arms in the air at this point.)

Here's another question: How many developers would love to use their command-line linux server to generate PDF files out of ODF files and move 90% of their paper forms to an intranet application, without needing to know how ODF works, and without having to install some sort of X server or X forwarding application? (I am now waving money in the air... but only for donating to the project or spending on support, because I'm a frugal individual that wants this technology available to everyone.)

If we started treating ODF like a real file format and not just another XML file, maybe more people would see the value in using it. I'm sure moving all of our canned reports and forms to an intranet that makes use of ODF would be a big hit, and could make it much easier to switch to StarOffice or OpenOffice.org, and most of the work has already been done for projects like OpenOffice.org.

The -headless command isn't enough if I still need to run X just to install OpenOffice.org. Once we take back the command line and create PHP, ASP, Ruby, etc extensions/plugins/objects/classes/methods/functions/whatevers that can manage, manipulate, convert, and fully utilize the Open Document Format, the quicker we can move away from a forced-vendor solution.

I would also assume the first company to do this could easily be a singe-vendor-by-choice (SVBC) for many companies.

Common SVBC's might be distributors, such as CDW who sell various hardware and offer support for just about all of it. I can still switch companies anytime I want, I'm not locked into CDW, but because of their service, I'm willing to choose them over other companies when making my IT purchases. (I am not paid by CDW, but if you work for CDW and you'd like to slide a little cash my way, feel free!)

The point is, I am choosing a single-vendor because of the security, reliability, and comfort of having one company that knows everything about my IT purchases.

If CDW all of a sudden said their products and services required that I only use them, I would drop them in a heartbeat.

The only thing worse than having more than one IT vendor is being forced to use only one IT vendor. That's the whole point of ODF from my perspective.

Let's take back the office document battlefield, and let's do it by providing options and solutions that Microsoft wouldn't dream of competing with for free.

Keep in mind that an easy-to-use API would make developing your own office software infinitely easier, so we would see tons of open document office suites pop up all over the place, making it much more difficult to sell office software, but much easier to sell tools and services that work efficiently and effectively with ODF files.

When the Holy Spirit Talks

I'm typing this on my laptop in a hotel room at a Christian Conference Center in New Mexico. The reason I am typing this is to share what happened tonight with others, and archive something public that I will be held accountable for before I forget it.

This is not about legalism, dumping out any beer that might be in my fridge, or burning all of my books, but is about being ministered to directly by the Holy Spirit, and realizing what has been missing from my walk with God.

Tonight we had an awesome message by pastor Dave Row, who was talking about David and Bathsheba. He discussed a lot of great points, but the overall theme that I got from it was that we have to be ready, we have to be prepared, and we have to be continually fighting the good fight in order to avoid falling when we least expect it.

No serious opponent in battle will attack when their foe's defenses are at their strongest. They will wear them down, cut off food supplies if necessary, and will prevent them from gaining a defensive advantage. Once the foe's defenses are at their weakest, the enemy will attack, and will most likely succeed.

As a Christian, my defenses are the weakest when I think I don't need them, or when I forget that I'm in a battle altogether. As a human being living and breathing, we are involved in a battle, whether we want to be or not. As a Christian, we are fighting on the winning side. But just because we are on the winning side, doesn't mean that we ourselves are making a positive impact on the battle. In fact, I believe Christians can have a negative impact on the battle unless they are properly focused on God and fully engaged in the battle.

As a human being, I have a default nature (as we all do), and that default nature wants to be satisfied. It wants to be comfortable, and it wants to feel good. God has graciously been protecting me against the most common pitfall to men, which is sexual immorality, but there are still other areas of the battle that I didn't know where anywhere near the battle. My time and my efforts.

I just started reading an awesome book series by C.S. Lewis, and have really enjoyed the few times I've found to sit down and read it. I also have taken up juggling and might soon start a juggling ministry at my church. These are not bad things. In fact, they can be good things, when done according to God's timetables and God's order of priority.

I have not been having daily bible studies, and I have not been leading my wife in daily prayer and bible studies. If I'm not reading the word of God, why am I reading the words of men? If I'm not putting forth an effort to build the Kingdom of God, why am I putting forth an effort to learn to juggle?

Is my focus on my self, or on God?

My wife and I have confronted ourselves on this recently, and we have both been convicted to put our focus on God. Unfortunately, I've let myself get lazy, complacent, and comfortable. I don't feel Satan attacking me like he has in the past, but that's because he is probably simply putting me very slowly and cautiously to sleep, hoping I won't notice.

I didn't notice. Until tonight.

I have been compromising in areas that I don't normally struggle with, and that aren't my primary focus. I always have memorized scripture on hand ready to quote when presented with even a hint of sexual immorality. I also use that scripture to avoid pride, greed, and a self-righteous attitude. Instead, I have been compromising in how I spend my time. When presented with the choice to read God's word, or to read an entertaining book, or watch a TV show, or work on my computer, I rarely choose God's word.

I strongly felt the Holy Spirit talking and ministering to me tonight, convicting me of these areas that are not normally a focus for me. I do not feel at all whatsoever that reading fiction and learning to juggle are wrong. I just know that letting my relationship with Christ "coast" is wrong.

By not striving to grow closer and closer to God, and behave more and more like Christ, I am simply putting back on the old self, when I need to die to self, and offer myself as a living sacrifice in all areas of my life, not just the times at work, or the times I'm presented with the temptation to get angry or bitter, but also when I'm presented with the temptation to spend my time in a manner that is not glorifying to God.

If what I'm doing is not to glorify God, then why am I doing it?

I specifically need to stop reading the books I'm reading, and stop watching TV, and stop working on my computer needlessly, and start reading the Word, responding to the Word, and putting on the Armor of God so I can daily take up my Cross and follow Christ.

When I have reached that point, then I will start reading books that I know will not compromize my walk with Christ.

This is not to say everyone should do this, but the Holy Spirit clearly pointed out to me that I need to re-evaluate how I spend my time, and whose glory I am seeking after. Is it my own, or is it God's?

Windows Wireless Peekaboo and other home-networking woes

I have inadvertently installed a game I didn't want on my computer. This is the type of game that my computer plays, and that I can only play the role of spectator in.

Call me selfish, but if there's a game on my computer, I want to be the one playing it. (or my wife, in the case of Nancy Drew and other girlie mystery games that are kind of fun to play.. I mean that are fun to watch my wife play....)

The way the game works, is I set up a wireless network with WEP encryption. I then use a wireless PCI adapter of the same brand as my wireless router so my desktop can connect to the wireless network.

The final step is to connect to the router with Windows XP.

This is where the fun begins!

Windows, feeling excited at its new found friend, W.R. Puff-N-Stuff (Wireless Router), quickly starts talking to it and exchanging contact details, memories, and after some handshaking and packet exchanging, they are best of friends... like they've known each other for years!

As they start working together they reminisce over the days of yestermonth, when they first met and were in the honeymoon phase of their relationship.

In an effort to return to those wonderful days long past, Windows and W.R. decide to play a friendly game of peek-a-boo, and invite me to watch. As I'm writing an email in response to a purchase of an Ubuntu Christian Edition CD (only $5.00 each plus $0.75 shipping!), the router, with its thin yet effective antennae hides itself behind an imaginary steel and copper plated wall (in reality made out of thin air, swirling around the room as a result of those pesky tsunami-inducing butterflies somewhere in the east). This waft of air, which is quickly turned into a steel and copper wall by the imagination of both W.R. and Windows, pass through right as W.R. says "Where'd the Wireless Router Go?!?!" in a childish and happy voice.

Having years of networking experience, and the most up-to-date drivers, Windows quickly responds with "Wah?! huh?!? OMG (oh my goodness!) Where DID the Wireless Router Go?!?!!!?".

The butterfly is quickly smote by a young child practicing ineffectively the art of ken-do with a rolled up instruction manual for a wal*mart product that hasn't yet shipped. The wind dies, the imaginary wall is removed, and only moments after the game began, the final round is at hand.

At this point, the Router is now visible, and Windows, filled with extreeme joy of reuniting with its long-lost friend greets him with a quick tear-filled "THERE you are!!!" before swapping the most up-to-date contact information, a few packets, and even some more handshakes, lest they part ways again without knowing how to keep in touch.

It is at this moment that the game is over, my email gets sent, and I relax as another hour or so passes on the Church-Forge forums before yet another butterfly finds its way into the beautiful Eastern landscape and begins flapping the exhaustion off its wings, providing a cool breeze across the amber waves of grain, and into my apartment as my wife arrives home from work, ready to to relax and spend time with her mildly frustrated husband mumbling about butterflies and steel-and-copper walls in a game of peek-a-boo.

Adding my Podcast to the series of tubes

I have bit the bullet, and started a podcast. I talk about how to use current technology (preferrably open source) to furthur Christian Ministries.

The podcast consists of three segments, a Review or Product Spotlight, a How To or Tips and Tricks, and a short Bible study. The shows are released every Sunday evening (better to set your podcasting app for early monday morning!), and usually run between 15 and 30 minutes in length.

Plus, my wife does some of the voice-overs, and MercyMe has been kind enough to allow me to use some of their music for the intro. All in all, it's a pretty neat thing to look into if you are at all interested in reliable, free software. (I don't , to my knowledge, review any software that installs malware, pop-ups, or other advertisements)

Check it out at geekons.com (get it? Geek + Deacons = Geekons)

Open-Minded Geekdom: a lesson in iTunes and other technologies

As a geek, I have always rejected anything popular, be that something as large as the Windows Operating System, or as small as iTunes. The fear of something popular being worthless comes from years of overpaying for software that isn't well supported when push comes to shove. Another example of why geeks shy away from popular things can be summed up in two words: "American Idol". (Or pop music)

Based on this, I have been using Windows only when neccessary, staying as far away from Windows Media Player as possible, and only touching Apple products and software when absolutely neccessary.

A few weeks ago a geek friend of mine (even if he doesn't admit he is a geek) mentioned that he used Windows Media Player 10, and therefore couldn't help me with a winamp question I had. This shocked me, but after I got over the shock, I installed MediaPlayer 10 and found it not too difficult to use.

I still use OpenOffice.org, Inkscape, Firefox, SciTE, Thunderbird, and 7-zip, but it definitely opened my mind to trying things that are not Open Source.

This extended to Apple when the leader of my Church's Web Servants got an iPOD and showed me some of the features of the device. When I saw the features and quality of the device, not to mention the ease of use, I decided to try out iTunes.

Much unlike the OSX Operating System itself, iTunes is incredibly easy to use. It also has tons of features, and just makes sense. It's almost like it is one "beta" tag away from being a google application.

Through this, I've learned that especially as a geek, I need to keep up on current technologies. As long as I'm not risking security (by doing something silly like using Internet Explorer), all I'm doing is learning what works. Imagine if the GIMP used features and interfaces similar to the Photoshop? It would have the same usability and same quality experience and results.

On a sidenote, Windows Media Player 11 beta doesn't seem all that great. I'll be switching to iTunes, or keeping WMP10 unless they make some dramatic changes, but that will come in a later review.

Biodiesel for fun and profit!

First things first, when I go to grill out, I grab bun-sized Beef Franks, not tofu-dogs. I still enjoy the occassional McDonald value meal, and I shop at walmart.

I also don't like spending nearly $3 per US Gallon of Gasoline.

Enter BioDiesel. It can be made from almost any vegetable oil, and is less toxic than table salt. I've heard some diesel engines produce more horespower when using B100 (100% Biodiesel) than when using petrolium-based diesel. The only thing that might make that possible is the fact that the original Diesel engine was intended to run off of vegetable oil, not petrolium.

While many diesels can run off of straight vegetable oil (the kind you can buy off the shelf at your local grocery store), it will probably wind up clogging something up unless you modify your vehicle to accept the thicker fluid. Processing vegetable oil into biodiesel will remove the thick viscosity. The byproduct of creating biodiesel is glycerine, which is used in skincare products, cough-syrups, food sweeteners/preservatives, and many other things.

Many people who produce their own biodiesel claim to spend less than $0.50 per US gallon. Imagine filling a 16 Gallon tank for $8!

Just some fuel for thought.

RIAA: Is copying illegal this week?

Synopsis:
In March of 2005, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said copying CDs to MP3 was legal, as long as you did not distribute it to other listeners who had not purchased the music themselves.
In February of 2006, the RIAA then said copying CDs to MP3 was illegal, reguardless of how many times you have purchased the originating CD. Their solution is to replace CDs that get scratched with new ones.

Evidence:
March of 2005:
Supreme Court Transcript 04-480, page 11, available in PDF format from the official supreme court website.
From Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v Grokster, Donald Verrilli representing the petitioners:

...and let me pick out the iPod as one, because it's the most current example, I guess. From the moment that device was introduced, it was obvious that there were very significant lawful commercial uses for it. And let me clarify something I think is unclear from the amicus briefs. The record companies, my clients, have said, for some time now, and it's been on their Website for some time now, that it's perfectly lawful to take a CD that you've purchased, upload it onto your computer, put it onto your iPod...

(emphasis added)

February of 2006
Copyright Docket No. RM 2005-11, page 22, available in PDF format from the official US Copyright website.

...creating a back-up copy of a music CD is not a non-infringing use, for reasons similar to those the Register canvassed in detail in her 2003 determination that back-up copying of DVDs cannot be treated as noninfringing.47 2003 Rec. at 102-08. While we recognize that access controls may in some circumstances affect copying, the fact remains that there is no general exception to the reproduction right to allow back-up copying (except the limited exception in § 117 for computer programs)48 and thus no justification for allowing circumvention of access controls for this purpose.

(emphasis added)

From page 40 of the same document:

Even if CDs do become damaged, replacements are readily available at affordable prices.

(emphasis not needed, it's pretty obvious)

Conclusion:
It appears the RIAA is not interested in the consumer's right to have full use of the product they purchase. Imagine purchasing a car and being told you were not allowed to fix it when it broke, but instead were encouraged to purchase a replacement car at an "affordable price".

Purchasing CDs and supporting bands backed by the RIAA only encourages them and shows that they are able to rewrite Fair Use policy anytime they wish. I, for one, will not be supporting this organization until they change their policies.

Client-Side Server Scripting

While many people think it is impossible to shift Server-Side Duties to the Client, it isn't! Apparently the group of people hired to write a web application for my employer (my full-time job that supports my pursuit of Woven Thorns Productions, not WTP itself) decided to do just that.

By using Java applets to write server-side applications, we are able to require that everyone use the Java Runtime Environment. No biggie, that is made for linux, windows, mac OS, and of course solaris. So I install it on my windows machine and on my Linux machine. The application works great in Internet explorer 6+ on Windows XP Pro, but does not work in Firefox 1.5 on Windows, nor does it work in Firefox 1.0.7 on Linux.

If the developers had used something such as PHP, ASP, Perl, or any CGI language, then this would be a non-issue, because the work would be done on the server side of things. Heck, they could even throw in some Javascript to make it look and perform the exact same way. But here's the problem, Javascript can be purified down to a simple, cross browser, cross platform language (minus a few Microsoft changes, which are easily tip-toed around) that will work on all versions of Firefox on all Operating Systems, as well as IE, Safari, Opera, etc. etc. All without having to add Java Runtime Plugins for each browser.

Why didn't we do this?

My only guess is money. Java developers connecting to Oracle Servers get paid better than PHP developers connecting to MySQL/PostgreSQL Servers. (Side Note: PHP can connect to Oracle Servers just fine, and can even be compiled to encrypt the database usernames and passwords)

So for all the Java developers out there, please continue making great, compiled, desktop applications for specific operating systems, but leave the internet alone unless you can garuntee cross-browser, cross-platform portability. I'm tired of being told to "view this page in IE". That's like saying you can't watch a black and white TV show because I have a color TV. If a standard signal was sent, I could watch whatever I want to.

Please, if you work on the web, don't do what is easy, or what is lazy, do what is portable. If your website requires something other than what is packaged by default with Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Opera, then please recreate your site.

Some examples of methods that defeat the purpose of web applications:

• Java Applets
• Flash-Only websites
• AJAX-Only websites
• Complex Table layouts
• Any web content, CSS, Graphic, etc. geared for a single web browser.

Please, follow standards, and keep in mind that while most visitors are using IE on Windows, doesn't mean all of your visitors are. If I lived in a predominantly white town, I wouldn't let that influence me to refuse service to someone just because they are a minority. The same attitude should be taken to web applications.

If you want to target an operating system, create stand-alone applications. If you want to target anyone with the internet and a web browser, write standards-compliant, ADA friendly, server-side applications.

Webserver Setup in Ubuntu

Tonight I will be taking my laptop with me to work on a website, but the place I am going does not have a secure connection to the internet available. (No wired connection, and only unsecured wireless)

Because I'm paranoid when it comes to security, I will be insalling PHP5, MySQL, and Apache2 on my Ubuntu 5.10 based laptop. Here's my steps:

2:37PM
Click on System>Administration>Synaptic Package Manager
Enter the Administrator Password. (normal users shouldn't be able to install/remove applications without a password)

Click "Search" and type in "php5" and click the "Search" button.

Check the box next to "libapache2-mod-php5" and click "Mark" on the popup window that confirms that I am okay with installing the additional packages required to get this library working. (Such packages include apache2, php5, openssl, and related items)

Check the box next to php5-mysql

Check the box next to php-pear

Check the box next to php5-gd

Click "Apply"
Review the changes and click "Apply" again.

2:42PM
watch as files are downloaded and installed

2:43PM
Review the window that confirms it downloaded and installed properly

2:44PM
Remember I need to install MySQL and run a search for "MySQL"

Check the box next to "mysql-server" and accept the additional packages.

2:45PM
Click "Apply" and confirm the changes by clicking "Apply" again.

Wait and watch as the files are downloaded and installed.

2:46PM
Follow the Postfix Configuration wizard:
Choose Local Only (since this is for developmental purposes only)
Accept the default mail name (we won't really be using postfix anyway)
Watch as it installs the rest of the packages we chose.

2:48PM
Click "Close" at the Changes Applied screen.

2:49PM
Because I'm a geek, I'm going to install PEAR DB, so I open up a terminal and type in:
sudo pear install db
(because I want the administrator to make pear install the pear DB package)

2:50PM
Open up firefox and type in "localhost" to make sure it all worked.

It Did!!

2:51PM
Download all the neccessary scripts from my FTP server that I will be modifying, so I can work on them locally, then set up a MySQL user for the script to use.

2:55PM
DONE!


In an 18 minute time span I was able to install and set up a webserver that has PHP5, MySQL 4, Apache 2, and PEAR::DB. I was also able to download my files from my FTP server using gFTP, a simple and elegant FTP client.

I'll post tomorrow how well it worked, and what issues I've run into with my rushed webserver installation.

Where the death of DVD should lead us

According to Australian news source, The Age, DVD is dead. And they leave open a question for what comes next. They, and many other sources, point to the standard HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray battle, but I for one am holding out for option 3, which is actually coming on much quicker than I anticipated.

Digital video for download.

Before I jump into why, and if companies should trust users, I'd like to drudge up some recent bad press for the companies that would disagree with me.

As everyone by now knows, Sony Music has released a beefed up version of Digital Rights Management (DRM) that was essentially a rootkit. Without going too far into detail, I'll just say that it created a space on your computer that you did not have access to, but ran Sony branded scripts, such as those that would send information back to their servers every time you played their CDs. On top of that, virus writers found a way to exploit this rootkit and install viruses in a manner that you, nor your virus scanner, could remove them, all thanks to Sony's DRM.

This was all to keep you from being able to make a backup copy of your CD, as well as to keep you from listening to the music on your mp3 player, ipod, etc.

After Sony denied the existence of the rootkit, and denied the severity, it was made public on numerous websites, news articles, and television shows. Sony then agreed it was a bad idea and offered to replace all of the affected CDs by shipping out new CDs to the customers. While customers were waiting on the new CD, they were offered free downloads of the mp3 version of the songs. So in the end, Sony's outrageous method of DRM intended to prevent mp3's being made of their music caused them to release the mp3 version of their songs.

Had Sony offered free mp3 downloads for songs people purchased to begin with, customer satisfaction would have gone through the roof, and iTunes users everywhere would probably start buying Sony branded CDs. Instead, many people (including myself) are going to be very skeptical before purchasing a Sony branded CD, much less any audio CD that advertises DRM.

The solution:

The solution to this problem is simple. Allow owners of media content the ability to use that media content in any way they see fit, as long as they do not break copyright laws for their country. This means, do not copy the music or video and give it to someone else, there should be a license agreement to prevent this anyway. However, if you would like to copy the music or movie to your computer so you can stream it over your home network to all of the rooms in your own home, then by all means, enjoy.

Adding company-wide DRM policies that impact the playability and usability of a product will only cause bad press, more lawsuits, and possibly indigestion.

Unfortunately I have decided as a Christian and as a Business Owner to use only legal software on my computers, and I refuse to knowingly break any laws (and try my hardest to keep myself educated on the laws that are easy to break unknowingly). I say "unfortunately" because this means I must go return my DVDs as they do not play in my computer's DVD player. I was told I needed to purchase a DVD decoder in order to play the encrypted DVDs, but I was told this after I purchased a fairly large collection. It is also important to note that Windows based PCs and Macintosh based PCs are the only computer systems that have decoders available. This means Unix, BSD, and Linux users are left out in the cold.

I won't make this a Linux vs. the world debate, but considering the number of linux users has been nearly doubling each year, it does not make sense to prevent users from playing encrypted DVD video on this platform.

If you live in a country that allows you to break the encryption on DVDs for the purpose of viewing them, you can download various open-source DVD decryption libraries that are a sinch to install. Unfortunately, United States law prevents me from doing this on my laptop, because that wouldn't be fair to the company I paid so I could watch the movie they produced.

The only solution I see is for DVD decoders to be freely available for every operating system that supports DVD video playback, or to remove encryption altogether. And if we are removing encryption altogether, we might as well offer downloads for at least the 3 most popular Operating Systems.

By moving to a more standardized approach of media content distribution, we will be able to realize the technology corporations are struggling to support today, but without the headaches caused by DRM, proprietary encoding, and lack of respect for Fair Use rights in many countries.

Some interesting facts to think of while watching the media drool over new, yet proprietary, technology:

The encoding methods used to create DVD video has been surpassed by not only proprietary video encoding methods, but also by open-source and freely available encoding methods. XviD has better compression rates than DVD video while maintaining better video quality, and is free to use on any system, including future set-top players.

Plasma TV's have fewer horizontal scan lines than standard television sets. While they have larger surface areas, look nice and thin, and have better viewing angles than other large-screen TVs, they still technically have worse resolution and therefore worse quality than a standard $150 television.

Flat pannel computer monitors that reach resolutions of up to 1280x1024 are now available for less than $250 while most "HD-ready" sets are not even able to completely support the 1280x720 HD standard. A new standard, 1920x1080 is being pushed, and with high-end HD plamas reaching closer to 768 lines, the end result is a 1920x1080 image shrunken down to fit into a 1366x768 screen. That means some pixels are completely lost, but not an even number, so while it may not be overly obvious, you will be missing some of the picture on the $4,000 50" plasma when a $400 22" CRT monitor could accurately display up to 2048x1536.

If more money were spent on usable computer formats, we could start downloading movies at higher than current "High Definition" resolutions and play them on truly high resolution computer monitors (that could easily be expanded to a more enjoyable 42" if the demand presented itself). In the future, I see very few electronics being without standard computer parts, especially entertainment centers which are already seeing PCs as a valid source of media. Why pay a monthly fee for television shows on demand when you can purchase the show for $2 on iTunes the day after it comes out?

Why purchase a 1280x720 HD DVD that requires a decryptor, when current computers support much higher resolutions that don't requre extra software?

PHP Applications with Smarty and OOP

Introduction

With PHP script kiddies (including myself) around every corner, it's time we start distinguishing ourselves from the crowd and start writing more than just web scripts. Yes, you read right, PHP Applications. Entire Applications consisting not of multiple scripts, but of multiple objects, templates, and possibly even a solid framework!

You may ask why use PHP for an application at all, to which I wouldn't reply, because this is a blog, not a forum. Stop talking to your monitor. Seriously... it's kind of creepy.

The Tools
PHP 5
While PHP 4 is perfectly capable of creating great online web applications, so is PHP 5, and PHP 5 has the ability to create fully-functional Objects with Public and Private variables and methods.
The number one technique that has changed the way I write applications is the practice of extending classes. When you extend a class, you are creating your own new class that has all sorts of custom methods, but also has full use of the original class that you are extending. An example of when to do this would be if you had a class that you used for various portions of the application, but needed added functionality for a different area of the application, or for a different application altogether.
I'll go more into the benefits and techniques in a tutorial later on the main WovenThorns.com site, but for now, let's just assume PHP 5 is a great tool that has been around for over a year and is more than stable enough for production use.

Apache 2
Apache 1 vs. Apache 2 doesn't make a whole lot of difference to me, other than the administration side of things. Keeping track of multiple sites is much easier, and there are more modules being actively worked on for Apache 2. Once again, you can use IIS on a windows machine instead, but why would you want to?
The number one technique in Apache 2 that I love to take advantage of is mod_rewrite, which allows you to rewrite URL's, such as http://www.example.com/articles.php?id=5&page=3 to http://www.example.com/articles/5/3 (which looks much nicer and is noticed more in search engines)

PEAR DB
If you don't know what PEAR is, head over to http://pear.php.net and find out. While it is not neccessary for all applications, they sure do have a lot of great tools, such as PEAR DB that make writing web applications a whole heck of a lot easier, and make your tools much more portable. PEAR DB is a catch-all database class, that allows you to query a database without having to worry about the syntax for a specific database server. You just have to know the proper connection string to use with PEAR DB, then it will use the appropriate PHP tools to connect to your database, whether it is MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, etc. This means you can write an entire PHP application without hard-coding a specific database vendor. If you decide to change Database Vendors from Oracle to PostgreSQL, then you only need to change the connection string, and the rest of your application will remain functional!

Smarty
Smarty is a great templating class written in PHP that makes creating web applications very organized and easy to modify. Smarty makes it simple to separate code from design, allowing your design team to work on layout and graphics and freeing up your development team to write the code without worrying about layout.
If you are unfamiliar with Smarty, head over to http://smarty.php.net and check it out. They have a great tutorial on creating a web application with the techniques hinted on in this article as well.

Conclusion
Don't re-invent the wheel, and don't program yourself into a corner. Keep things modular with PHP5 Object Oriented Programming techniques, separate your database from your application with PEAR DB, and separate design from code with Smarty.

Look for tutorials and help forums when the new and improved Woven Thorns Productions is released later this month!

More Corporate Branding

With a newfound interest in promoting the WTP image, we have decided to brand each of our computers with the new WTP logo.

The Cross and thorns has been a longstanding image present on many internal documents, project proposals, and our corporate banner (originally created in the spring of 2000). Now that we have converted it from a 3d rendering to a two-tone vector image, we have made it our goal to promote the new image, as well as our values and standards, as much as possible.

The only computer remaining is a single laptop, which will need to have some extensive work done before the surface is ready to be branded due to the existing computer manufacturer placed branding which changes the shape of the surface.

While the picture may not do it justice, the edges of the logo are crisp and not blurry whatsoever. All of the work was done in-house, from the logo design, to cutting of a foam-rubber stencil of the logo, to the placement and ultimately painting and polishing of the computer. Due to the quality of the finished product, you may very well see WTP branded stencils for use on any smooth surface, not to mention the window stickers we have already been experimenting with.

Be sure to check out the new site in December to see what we've been cooking up at WTP labs!

The Linux Experience at Woven Thorns Productions

The Background:
After spending around 15 years running our applications on Microsoft based operating systems, we at Woven Thorns Productions have switched all of our office computers to Ubuntu Linux. This switch was not made as a whim, and was not an easy decision to come to. There were fears of lack of hardware support, costs of training, and availability and costs of support.

We have been using the Adobe Creative Suite for all of the graphics on the Woven Thorns Productions website, as well as various client websites. We have also become reliant on the Macromedia Studio MX 2004 collection of web development applications, specifically Dreamweaver MX2004 and Flash MX2004. None of these products are available for Linux, and making the switch would mean we are no longer able to create media with the same tools we are trained on and have experience with. Despite the difficulty of switching to a new platform of media development applications, the "coming soon" animation on the home page of www.woventhorns.com will mark the last document created with an Adobe or Macromedia product until they open the source to the general public.

The Reasoning:
Despite the overwhelming popularity of Microsoft products and the applications that work well with them, WTP has chosen to avoid the restrictions incurred within Closed Source licenses. If a particular application does not work on our hardware, and we know how to modify it to work, Open Source licenses allow us to make these modifications, Closed Source licenses do not. In fact, Microsoft would be within their legal rights to sue our business if we did make these modifications.

Another restriction when using closed source solutions is the lack of support. Truly knowledgable and in-depth support can only be obtained through the company that has access to the source code. With closed source applications, this means the company that created the software. If the company decides to stop supporting, or sunset, the application then we are left with a useless and often expensive application that would otherwise be supported by other development firms had they been granted access to the source code.

Security is also decreased when many closed source developers use the "They don't know where all the weak spots in the code are, so they probably won't exploit them" method of programming. Open Source developers are often accused of those weaknesses being exposed, but that only gives the product a greater chance of becoming more stable and more secure. Two illustrations I used in a recent siminar are:

1. Just because an inspector approves the quality of your building without actually visiting and inspecting it doesn't mean you don't run the risk of having a poor quality building that is ready to collapse.
2. Open Source code does not require passwords, database connection strings, nor data to be exposed, and if an individual having access to the source code jeapordizes the security and integrity of your software, then you need to rewrite your application.

The Result:
Woven Thorns Productions is now able to:

• Code and Test complex web aplications
• create 3d Models and animations
• edit video
• edit audio
• create complex spreadsheets
• create dynamic pivot charts and 3d graphs
• create raster and vector art
• check and send email
• browse the web
• remote into all of our servers and desktops with reliable security and encryption
• connect to our wireless network
• backup and restore files quickly and easily across the network
  
• and more...

All without paying any money whatsoever for software, training, or installation. The only fees we have paid are for hardware and internet access, which greatly reduces our cost of operations, and allows us to offer our products and services at a much more considerable rate.

All of our support issues have been solved promptly through free online support, and were we to run into a problem that would require modifying code, or simply more complex and in-depth troubleshooting, these services are provided by various vendors throughout the world, most of which charge less than support centers for closed source applications.

This blog is being posted from a widescreen laptop over our wireless network here at Woven Thorns Productions, and the only windows desktop left in the building (which happens to be sitting next to me at the moment) has lost its wireless connection about 5 times since I started typing. I have also had to defragment the hard-drive twice this month, and restart it at least 3 times due to software updates. The Linux-based laptop I am using has had over 15 updates this month, but has not required me to restart once, and the filesystem used by this laptop does not require defragmenting, no matter how often I create, delete, or move files.

The Bottom Line:
The computers running Linux have been easier to maintain, easier to connect to network devices (servers, printers, etc.), and have had fewer problems and maintenance issues combined than the single Windows XP machine that is sitting next to me.

Installing software has become as simple as clicking the "Applications" menu and then clicking on "Add Applications". We just browse through an intuitive menu of available applications which number in the hundreds and range from 3d rendering and video editing programs to email clients and office applications. The program downloads the applications from a reliable source, double-checks the download to be sure it is safe to install and has downloaded accurately, then installs the application and configures it for my machine.

Productivity has increased, and tech support issues has decreased, and it hasn't cost us a day of training nor a penny of license costs. We have no intentions of turning back, and are very pleased with our decision.

A step in a new direction

Because of the dramatic change from what was woventhorns.com and what will be the Woven Thorns Productions web site, I have done a nearly unforgivable thing. I have added a "Coming Soon" page.

Before judging, feel free to hop over to woventhorns.com and see the image for yourself. It does not have an animated picture of a construction worker, and does not mention anything about the site being under construction (which I am still against, and will continue to pretend that makes this okay).

I am hoping to build suspense in the 2 people I force to view my site while giving myself incentive to hurry up and finish the site. Because I hate coming soon pages so much, and I have so much to say and do with this Company, I will hopefully have the site up in the next week or so. (But definitely no later than December 1, 2005)

I will be implementing far more complex development in the background than ever before, which will actually make things easier, as I've recently discovered that complex applications are much easier to maintain and develop than semi-complex scripts. (note that scripts are a collection of functions and if-then statements, and applications are built using multiple classes and a more object-oriented approach)

I will also be switching to a tried and true templating system, and will offer the end result as an open source application.

A quick glimpse into the future:

• New Direction
• Church Management
• Church Community Building
• Individual Study Applications
  
• New Image
• New Logo
• New Color Pallet
• New Layout
  
• New Projects:
• OSCampus - an Open Source suite of Higher Education Software Solutions
• OSChurch - an Open Source suite of Christian Church Software Solutions
• OSHelp Desk - an Online Help Desk application
• Bible Guide - "Read the Bible in" online application
  
• The COSD Network - a Community of Open Source Developers working on Christ-centered projects.

If you would like to be involved in any of the projects listed above, or you know of a ministry that a team of Christian developers could help with, please contact me at: chris [at] woventhorns [dot] com.

ATI and NVIDIA: secretly become great friends

Based on my experience with ATI and NVIDIA, it appears they have become great friends.

I recently witnessed ATI kindly sharing the market with NVIDIA. While the Windows market is still a fierce battle ground, ATI has obviously handed NVIDIA the Linux market by not putting forth much of an effort at all to get their graphics cards to work under just about any distribution of the operating system.

Those with new kernels, such as the kernel that ships with Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger), will be hard pressed to get hardware accelleration to run, even with the recent release of version 8.18.6 of ATI's linux proprietary drivers.

I'm sure ATI is working hard at getting things to work under Linux, but as with most proprietary software, having it developed in a closed source office rather than the open source community, it just doesn't have much of a chance of keeping up with the development and growth of Linux.

For most software applications, this is fine, because you rarely have to upgrade applications because of a kernel upgrade, but hardware drivers and core modules are a different story.

My personal reccomendation is if you use linux, or think you might use linux, then stick with an NVIDIA card. If, however, you love Windows and will probably never even try Linux, stick with whichever card has the best advertising campaigns. (all the open source geeks are laughing at that one... at least I think that guy in the back row is laughing.... no wait, choking on a jolly rancher, my bad)

Set In Stone

Well, it is officially set in stone, this will be the new logo of Woven Thorns Productions. Yesterday I had this sandblasted by some relatives, and it couldn't have turned out better.

This tile will be backlit and serve as "that cool thing on the wall" until I am able to create a larger one. (this is exactly 1 square foot)

For a sneak preview of where else this logo might appear, check this out.