This is something that I only do after some consideration. I just can’t bring myself to feel comfortable with a connection to somebody in the Tobacco industry.
Now when I post a story to this blog there is a wordpress agent that automagically posts a link as a Twitter update.
This has been available since about october 8th, 2009.
You can read a bit more about this facility here…
http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/publicize-twitter/
HEADLINE: The Swine Flu (H1N1) will be prevented in most people by use of an inexpensive dietary supplement of vitamin D3 that can be obtained from the local pharmacy for a few cents per dose. Vaccinations are still advised though for people in “at risk” groups.
===
To quote from the September 2009 Mayo Clinic Health Letter (www.HealthLetter.MayoClinic.com )
Recent reports on vitamin D suggest that it offers many benefits, especially for older adults. Findings point to improved balance, reduction in the risk of bone fractures, and better thinking skills such as planning, organizing and abstract thinking. Low levels of vitamin D are associated with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune disorders, infections such as tuberculosis, and periodontal disease. Low vitamin D levels also may affect certain cancers, including colon, breast and prostate cancers.
Vitamin D is generally produced through exposure of the skin to the sun, however, many of us don’t produce enough because we work indoors, cover our skin with clothing, have darker pigmented skin, or production in the skin has declined due to our age. It is a particular problem for darker pigmented people working away from the equator or people for whom custom dictates full coverage of the body by clothing. In most cases for all people, Vitamin D in the body falls to very low levels during winter or monsoon periods and this is a direct cause of seasonal influenza, many other infections, and some cancers.
I’d encourage you to do your own research on this. If you’re interested there are a few good starting points here…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D#Nutrition
http://www.ted.com/talks/nina_jablonski_breaks_the_illusion_of_skin_color.html
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/
http://www.grc.com/health/Vitamin-D.htm
For some years my wife and I have been taking a standard multi-vitamin along with a vitamin B supplement and fish oil. Now we have added a 2,000 IU dose of vitamin D3 each day.
Please have a look and forward this information on to your family, your friends, and other connections if you feel it has merit. And please tell me what you think by leaving a comment.
Mike Smith – dominoconsultant.org
It’s been about three days or so since I joined up with the Open Street Map project. I’ve spent that time working out how to produce GPS traces as a GPX file that I can upload (DONE).
I’m using the “Nokia Sports Tracker” on my Nokia E90 (built-in GPS). I have that set-up on my dashboard as I drive around. You can see an E90 here… http://www.navigadget.com/index.php/2008/01/07/nokia-e90
Nokia Sports Tracker is really intended for people to track their jogging/walking/etc but it lends itself very effectively to the production of GPX files for OSM. You can get it here… http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/main/index.do
Any Nokia phone with a built-in GPS should work with this software.
For editing I’m just using the on-line editor (Potlatch) which I’ve found to be fine for my purposes so far. So far I’ve done the streets around my home ( http://osm.org/go/uF4AyEIK- ).
If anyone in the local area wants some help setting up a Nokia with the Sports Tracker software, just send me a message (through my OSM profile here… http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/dominoconsultant ) and I’ll be happy to help you out.
Mike Smith – dominoconsultant.org
This graph indicates the rate of infection is increasing but not at an exponential rate.
The average death rate from infections stands at 0.44% globally but ranges from 2.817% (in Columbia) to a low of 0.040% (in the UK). Of course, many countries with significant numbers of infections have reported zero deaths.
With the global population at 6.7Bil the expected global deaths would likely range between 2.7 mil and a possible high of 191 mil. Likely global deaths are 30 mil.
The graph is derived from raw WHO data found at http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/updates/en/index.html
disclaimer: I’m not a statistician so check the figures for yourself using the listed references.
The World Health Organization has been publishing data on the spread of the H1N1 influenza strain since 24-Apr (ref WHO site… http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/updates/en/index.html ).
Since then we’ve seen the count of officially confirmed cases rise in a roughly linear fashion to a total of 28,774 (as at 11-Jun). This is up over the period of a week from 19,273 (as at 3-Jun). At the time of writing, the total number of deaths (globally) stood at 142. This gives us an average global death rate of 0.51%.
With the current global population at 6.7 billion (ref USA Census bureau… http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html ) this would give a likely death total over 34 million. This is compared to the Spanish Flu Pandemic that began in 1918 which is estimated to have caused the deaths of over 50 million.
Regional Variation & Worst Case Scenario
One area of potential variation is in the death rates between countries. While it should be noted that deaths have only been reported in 7 out of the 73 countries in the WHO data, the variation in total death rates between those countries ranges from 0.118% in Chile to 1.698% in Mexico. Using those death rates as an indicator we could see deaths range between 8 and 125 million worldwide.
Speculation on a worst case scenario could see largely rural and sometimes impoverished peoples in emerging nations suffering a higher death rate than these figures would indicate.
And now is where it gets particularly scary. The H5N1 Avian Influenza death rate is more like 61% (ref… http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/country/cases_table_2009_06_02/en/index.html ). A blending between the H1N1 (swine) and the H5N1 (avian) influenza strains may see a dramatically more virulent variety emerge with death rates that can only be imagined.
Impact of Nationalized Health
With the current debate around Obama’s push for health care reform in the USA it may be relevant to note the variation in the death rate in 1st world countries, specifically between the USA (at 0.204%) and Canada (at 0.118%). This may indicate the effect of widely available health care and it’s impact by facilitating early intervention.
If those rates continue over time, we could see total deaths in the USA reach 626,425. If the USA had the benefit of a death rate more like Canada’s the total deaths in the USA would be 124,959 lower at 501,466.
I wonder if the USA Legislators on Capitol Hill will see the sense in health care reform if it will save a significant number of lives.
For those of you in the USA who are listening to the media spin stating that “health care reform is a socialist plot” (put out by the health industry lobbyists that are spending money hand-over-fist on “influencing” those same legislators) please bear in mind that as of writing this post the death toll in Australia is nil.
You all know of Australia as one of the USA’s staunchest allies; a country with nationalised health care and universal unemployment insurance (ref… national health==> http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/ & universal unemployment ==> http://www.centrelink.gov.au/ ).
By the standards of some people in the USA that would make Australia a socialist country. A country I am proud to be a citizen of.
This post was written on a computer using free Ubuntu Linux with free Open Office instead of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office, get your free copy of Ubuntu from http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu and/or free Open Office for Linux or Windows from http://www.openoffice.org/
Other quality free software can be found at … http://www.theopendisc.com/
It used to be that the average PC running microsoft windows cost a couple of thousand dollars. When that was the case, it was feasible for microsoft to charge the PC manufacturers a pretty hefty fee for each windows license. With the current popularity of netbooks we are starting to see that as the overall cost of the device gets lower it is increasingly difficult for the manufacturer to justify paying a license fee for the windows operating system. As the PC makers push for lower and lower prices on their PCs this trend will tend to apply across the board.
When you combine this with the acceptability of Linux based operating systems such as Ubuntu and Android, it is easy to see where this will eventually lead.
And this is coming from someone who doesn’t hate microsoft.
I know about the kindle. It seems nice and all, but problem one is that I’m in Australia, and we can’t get it here. Aside from that fact it doesn’t do some of the key things I want to do. A big need is to accurately display PDF documents.
UPDATE Fri Oct 9, 2009: I just pre-ordered my International / Australian kindle. It will ship around Oct 19th. Order through this link… http://bit.ly/iiZCB
my current e-book reader
This post shows my wish-list for a device that I’d like to use as an e-book reader:
There are two main things I want to be able to do with this reader:
- Read novels. I have a large collection of novels (mainly sci-fi/fantasy) that I’ve downloaded from the web. I used to buy a new novel every other month at around AU$25. Now I download them and read them on a laptop turned 90 degrees. There is one thing I just never would be able to do with any kind of e-book reader and that is read in the bath. But that’s why I still have paperbacks!
- Read technical manuals. It seems almost anything work related that I need access to is available as a PDF manual. In fact things have changed to a huge degree from when I started my career in Information Technology. I used to have shelves full of technical manuals just on the off-chance that I’d need to refer to a specific two page section about a particular obscure function. Now I go to the PDF and do a search.
MUST HAVE features:
- Operate mainly in portrait mode with NO AIR VENT at the bottom edge. A vent will be obstructed by my lap while I’m sitting down.
- Also can operate in landscape mode with NO AIR VENT at the bottom edge. This will be mainly be used for novel reading with the pages shown side-by-side.
- The other two edges should contain all the connectors; ports; and openings with the possible exception of a dock connector.
- Low thermal output. For this reason (and to increase battery life) you’d want to aim for this device to have just enough processing power to perform it’s primary purpose and no more. Mainly here I’m hoping for a system that does not need to be vented. Vents are a real problem when you’re sitting down with a reader of any kind balanced in your lap.
- A dock (or at least a stand) that will allow the reader to be set-up at a good viewing angle next to my normal laptop on my desk for “all day” use. The dock should have a power connector; 2 or more USB ports; network (RJ45).
- Wireless connection with a range of standards supported including “n”.
- Back-light. I want to be able to read a novel in bed in a darkened room. This means that the screen will have to be a conventional LCD (perhaps with an LED back-light) and not the electronic ink we see on the kindle.
- Standard LCD screen mounting points on the back of the reader and also on the dock. With the dock this would mean that the mount might be off-center in landscape mode but this should be avoided if possible.
- Battery life can be an issue with a device like this but there is one way which is quite revolutionary; this is the use of ultra-capacitor technology. A battery based on this will only take a minute or so to charge up and then run for a few hours. It is real and available today. For an idea of how it works have a look here… http://www.flashcellscrewdriver.com/
- Hot-keys for page turning and basic navigation. I’d like to think that with a variety of keys that can be customized to emulate key-clicks then the basic functions built into an e-book reader would be catered for. Here I’m talking about: page-up; page-down; up; down; left; right; select; screen rotate. Perhaps that’s all.
- USB connection so it can act as an external hard-disk to another computer. Hopefully it can get a trickle charge for the battery through this.
- On the software side, I am most familiar with the mobireader e-book reader that I used to have on my old windows machine. This was able to sync e-books down to my Nokia E90 phone. As a reading platform it wasn’t too bad for short periods. One thing is that it NEVER forgot where I was up to in a book regardless of shutting down the application or rebooting the phone. What I’d like is to be able to sync the big e-book reader with the E90 via bluetooth so that I can pick-up reading at the same point if I’m on the bus/plane/etc.
NICE TO HAVE features
I’d happily sacrifice these to get a cheap & light e-book reader. The hard part is working out what is essential for the primary purpose of the device and what would just be nice. Some of these items are:
- touchscreen: Besides this will really push the cost up DRAMATICALLY.
- multi-touch: This would have to be expensive to implement. If it’s a cost consideration I’d happily use a button to turn the page instead of a swipe. It might be cool but i don’t want to pay for it.
- I really want to devote screen space to the image I’m reading rather than controls so I’d prefer to have the controls as separate buttons along the rim of the device. I’d like to think we could get away with not having a mickey-mouse keyboard like the Kindle if we were able to use a blue-tooth or USB keyboard when needed.
- progress bar: As I’m reading a novel I want to see where I am in the book. A separate little LED bar with a progress indicator would be nice.
- fingerprint reader. I’ve heard these are not that secure but I haven’t researched it very thoroughly. What this would give is a way to “log-in” to a web page without having to connect a keyboard.
- Bluetooth to allow the use of an external keyboard and mouse.
- Bluetooth to allow syncronization with other portable devices such as my Nokia E90. See the E90 here… http://europe.nokia.com/A4346040
- A general mobile focused Operating System linked to a major Linux distribution like Ubuntu. I use Ubuntu for all of my machines so this would be ideal. Here I’m thinking something like:
- Ubuntu Mobile Internet Device (MID) Edition which you can see info on here… http://www.ubuntu.com/products/mobile ; or the
- Ubuntu Netbook Remix which is focused on netbooks. Details are here… http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/unr
- A Firefox web-browser would be ideal for use with a mouse connected. This would make it a thin-client machine that could have many uses.
- Basic speaker with an earphone jack. I’d like to have my pod-casts downloaded onto this.
- A web-cam.
- dual microphones to pick up voice from different locations.
This is a guide on how I set-up my work laptop to use Ubuntu 9.04 as the main Operating System (instead of some flavour of microsoft Windows). Here I’ll list any instructions step-by-step with explanations on why you’d want to do these things. I’ll also include links to various external resources where appropriate. If you have any suggestions; criticisims or comments then please leave a note.
Preamble
I first started looking at Ubuntu in 2006 and I’ve been using Ubuntu Linux for my PCs at home for about two years now. When Ubuntu 8.04 came out (if you don’t know yet, the 8.04 means it came out in the fourth month of 2008), I started using it for my primary operating system for my work laptop (I currently work as a server systems administrator). Over the last year I’ve played with this Operating System on several machines for many and varied purposes (mainly for Desktop use) and I’ve worked out what the main things are that I need from Ubuntu on my primary laptop for me to be productive on a day-to-day basis. Many of these tweaks will be relevant to the everyday user.
The big message here is that I am of the opinion that Ubuntu is ready for PRIME-TIME use by people who have a inclination to learn a few simple things. There are certainly some differences between windows and Linux and I’m not going to cover those here. But having said that, the ready availability of a mature operating system (Ubuntu) in combination with a multiverse of free (and good quality) applications makes a compelling case for the average user to give this a serious try.
I will be setting this machine up initially to dual-boot between the old 8.10 and the new 9.04 installation. This way I will still be able to go back to my “fully productive” work environment at any time while I’m getting my new “almost there” work environment up and running. If you are a windows user, you can follow this guide and set-up a dual-boot with Windows/Ubuntu.
The Laptop
This is a Dell Latitude D620 bought by my employer back in September of 2006. It is not the latest greatest machine but it’s not too shabby either. I could do with a faster processor and a better hard-disk though. Some sp
ecs are…
- WXGA+ (1440 x 900 resolution)
- Intel Core Duo Processor T2500 (2.0GHz)
- 3gb Memory 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM
- Gigabit Ethernet network interface adaptor
- Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 (802.11 a/g) MiniPCI Card
- Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
- 8X DVD+/-RW Combo Drive
- 80GB SATA (5400RPM) Hard Drive
- Starting at 2kg (4.41lbs)
Some Objectives
- I will be running several virtual machines. This way I can get all of the benefits of Ubuntu but still have access to other operating systems (i.e. windows) running inside my machine during my work day without having to reboot.
- One will be an image of our standard corporate laptop build of Windows XP. The original physical laptop I’m doing all this on has a licence for Windows XP Professional (SP2) so I am fully compliant with the licencing in this respect. Why an XP virtual machine?
- We run Novell for file & print at work and I’m not a Novell expert. So it’s easier for me to run an XP image for file and print until I transition us over to Microsoft Active Directory.
- I’ve been using windows for so long that the vast majority of my experience is on that platform. Why this is relevant is that as a sysadmin I’ve accumulated various tools over the years that I feel I need to run, and they run under windows.
- Nokia doesn’t have sync software for my Nokia E90 except for the Windows platform.
- There will be a standard corporate image of an XP desktop machine for testing of our move from Novell to Active Directory at work.
- A few other Operating System instances for testing and play. This way I can fiddle without installing experimental software on my main machines.
- One will be an image of our standard corporate laptop build of Windows XP. The original physical laptop I’m doing all this on has a licence for Windows XP Professional (SP2) so I am fully compliant with the licencing in this respect. Why an XP virtual machine?
Step-by-Step
Step 1 – Freeing up space for the installation
I had about 10gb free before I started looking at doing this. If this was my personal laptop I’d be replacing the hard-drive with a larger & faster unit. But anyway this is a work machine so it’ll have to stay as-is.
So, 10gb is not really enough to do much with the virtual machines I’ll be running in the background and the media I’ll want to have with me so I need to free up some space on the hard-drive.
I have a Western Digital 320gb external USB hard-drive that my wife bought me last Christmas (she got the same thing from me ;-). I plugged that into the back of the laptop and copied all the podcasts and other media off onto it as well as the current virtual machines I’m running. Now I have about 48gb free. This should be more than enough.
Step 2 – Ubuntu 9.04 Installation
You have a few options here depending on how committed you are to giving Ubuntu a solid try. Regardless of which option you choose you should remember to back-up your data before you do anything. Although I cover a sub-set of the options, you may want to read through the “Switching From Windows” guide which is here… https://help.ubuntu.com/9.04/switching/index.html
option 1 – Just boot up the operating system from a CD to have a look at it. It will be slow because it’s running off the CD drive but this way you can see what is included by default. The downside of this is that you can’t change anything ’cause you can’t write the changes back to the CD. To get started with this option go here… https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto
option 2 – If you are a microsoft windows user, you can use” wubi” to do an easy installation of Ubuntu from within windows. To quote from their website “No need to burn a CD. Just run the installer, enter a password for the new account, and click “Install”, go grab a coffee, and when you are back, Ubuntu will be ready for you.“ These guys are really on the ball! As soon as the 9.04 version of Ubuntu was available, they had it up on their website for the WUBI installer. You can find it here… http://wubi-installer.org/
option 3 – (recommended) I suggest you try an install from a downloaded image that has been “burnt” to CD. This is what we’re doing here with a slight variation from the “standard” install in that we will be doing a dual-boot installation. What this means is that each time you turn on your machine, you’ll have a choice between the new Ubuntu 9.04 installation and whatever was installed on the machine before. In my case, that will be a choice between booting into my new Ubuntu 9.04 installation or booting into my tried-and-tweaked Ubuntu 8.10 installation.
The dual-boot is the only real variation from the standard installation process. It’s actually pretty easy and is supported by the graphic installer. If you have windows already installed on your machine the installer will give you an option to set-up a new “partition” for the Ubuntu installation which is a dedicated bit of the hard-disk that is separate from the operating system you already have installed.
If you are installing onto a fresh hard-disk then you won’t get the option to do a dual-boot install.
The link to the “how to install” guide is here… https://help.ubuntu.com/community#Installation
I’ll let you follow through their guide because they cover all the possible permutations. When you’ve finished that we can go onto the tweaks, tips, and customizations.
Step 3 – Proxy
At this point we should have a vanilla installation of Ubuntu 9.04 that we have booted into.
I f you’re just doing this at home where there is no proxy server then you can skip this step (and the next one).
Since I’m going to be using this laptop mainly at work I’m going to have to deal with with my employer’s proxy server. What this means is that every time I take my laptop home (each night) I have to change the network setting so that at home the laptop knows it has a direct internet connection through the broadband at home. Then, when I get back to work the next day, I have to change it back to using the proxy.
Because I have to go through this process virtually every time I boot up my laptop, I’ve put a link to the proxy settings on the top panel so it’s easy to access. Here we go…
- Navigate to System > Preferences > ;
- Right-click on “Network Proxy” and select “add this launcher to panel”.
Now you’ll have an icon on the top panel 
that looks like a server with three legs.
One of the nice changes I see in this new version of Ubuntu is the added feature of having proxy locations that you can switch between. This is useful if you go between locations that have different proxy set-ups. If you are just going between work and home (i.e proxy or no proxy) then you’ll switch between “Direct Internet connection” and “Manual proxy configuration”.
Step 4 – Add proxy exceptions for internal access.
still to come.
Step 5 – Ubuntu Updates
The system will automatically check for updates periodically. On this occasion we’ll do it manually so we’re sure the system is fully updated from when the installation CD was burnt.
- Run the update manager from System > Administration > Update Manager.
- The system will automatically see if there are any updates, but to make sure you can click on the “Check” button. If you are prompted for a password you should enter the same password you set-up during the installation.
- Once the update manager is finished, click on the “Install Updates” button.
- The system will show a progress indicator and an estimate of how long it will take.
- When the update is done, clock on the “Settings” button;
- On the “Updates” tab, select the radio-button next to “Install security updates without confirmation”.
- Click on “Close” then “Close”.
I’m doing this from home where I have a “direct internet connection”. Otherwise it is necessary to set-up the proxy details in the “Synaptic Package Manager” preferences.
Step 6 – change the desktop theme (I like chocolate)
One of the things to be updated in this version of Ubuntu is some new themes. There are two ways to get to the configuration section for these themes:
- System > Preferences > Appearance; and
- Right click the desktop; Select “Change Desktop Background”; select the “Theme” tab.
There are not a huge variety built into the system but my favourite is the “darkroom” theme. So I’ll select that.
Also, I generally change the desktop to plain black. To do this:
- Go to the “Background” tab;
- Of the three available backgrounds select the solid brown colour on the left side;
- Then, lower down, select the brown block of colour next to where it says “solid color”, you’ll be presented with a colour selection dialog;
- Look for the little white circle in the central triangle and drag it to the dark corner;
- click on OK. You should see the background go dark.
This is also where you would change your desktop to a picture. A website I’d reccommend as a starting point for wallpapers is… http://www.natures-desktop.com/ The site will automagically format the selected picture to whatever screen format you select for your desktop. Mine is 1440×900 so I’ll choose that format on the right-hand side. Once I have a picture I want in the web-browser I’ll right-click and select “save image as” and save it into my pictures folder. Of course you could use any picture at all for this.
Once you have a picture in your pictures folder:
- Go to the “Background” tab;
- Click on the “Add” button;
- Navigate to the “Pictures” folder;
- Select the photo you want and click “Open”. You’ll see the desktop change in the background.
Step 7 – map windows button to applications menu
Let’s face it, Microsoft did get a few things right with user interface design (whether they borrowed some concepts is open to debate). One thing is getting the vast majority of manufacturers to include the “windows button” on most keyboards. While it’s mainly used to open the windows “start menu”, what I generally do is map the “windows button” to the Ubuntu “Applications” menu.
- Navigate to System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts;
- Scroll down and click on “show the panel’s main menu”;
- With this selected, press the “windows button” on the keyboard; Click on “Close”
Now when you press the “windows button”, the Ubuntu “Applications” Menu will open up. Then you can navigate to a menu item with the left/right/up/down/enter buttons without having to use the Alt+F1 key combination.
All we need now is a little Ubuntu Decal to cover over the windows logo.
Step 8 – silent boot & shut-down
I like to have a silent machine during boot-up and shut-down. In fact, the only time I want to hear anything is when I intentionally play some audio or video. So this is how to make the machine pretty well silent:
- Navigate to System > Preferences > Sound;
- Select the “Sounds” tab;
- De-select both the “Play alert sound” and also the “Play alerts and sound effects”; Click on “Close”.
Now I won’t be inflicting unnecessary noise on my colleagues.
There is a bug I’m tracking that is causing a LOUD BEEP when I shut-down. As a place-holder, I’ve included a link to the bug status report here… https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/+source/linux/+bug/331589
Step 9 – The Firefox bits
I love firefox! It’s a great example of free libre open source software. However, some of the default settings don’t fit my preferences; and there are some great plug-ins that enhance it’s functionality.
9a – firefox config: the backspace key
When I browse the web I often need to go back to the previous web-page. Since I used to be a heavy “internet explorer” user I’m in the habit of using the “backspace” key for this action. Thankfully we can set Firefox to behave in the same behaviour:
- Type “about:config” in the address bar of Firefox and press Enter;
- A page will come up warning that you should be careful, click on “I’ll be careful, I promise” button;
- In the “Filter” field, enter “browser.backspace_action”, you’ll see a single line with some settings displayed;
- Double-click on the line and change the displayed value to 0 (zero);
- Close down the browser tab.
Now the backspace key will take you to the previous web-page when you’re in firefox.
9b – firefox config: click to select
When I click on a URL in the navigation bar field I want the cursor to select the entire contents so I can type over it. I don’t want to have to go through the additional step of right-clicking and then selecting “Select All”. This is another tweak to make firefox act in a similar fashion to IE:
- Similar to the previous tweak, type “about:config” in the address bar of Firefox and press Enter;
- A page will come up warning that you should be careful, click on “I’ll be careful, I promise” button;
- In the “Filter” field, enter “browser.urlbar.click”,you’ll see a single line with some settings displayed (;
- Double-click on the line and the displayed value will change from “false” to “true”;
- Close down the browser tab.
Now a click on a URL in the navigation bar will select the entire contents of the field, ready to be typed over.
9c – firefox add-on: adblock plus
This firefox add-on will help you if you get annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Installing Adblock Plus will get rid of them:
- In Firefox, select Tools > Add-ons. An add-on search dialogue box will open up. Make sure you’re in the “Get Add-ons” section.
- In the search box, type “adblock” and press enter. Search results will be displayed;
- Look for the adblock plus logo (shown in this blog at right) and click on the entry. You’ll see some more information and a button;
- Click on the “Add to firefox…” button, a dialogue box will pop-up warning you to only add trusted add-ons. Click on Install;
- Once it’s installed you can shut it down and then you’ll have to restart firefox;
- When firefox starts again you’ll have to choose an ad-block list.
Now you can go to an ad laden site and you’ll see a lot fewer ads. These is a point here you should know. I use a list that is primarily targeted ad ads on sites in the USA, however, I’m located in Australia. Because of this I sometimes have to manually block an ad. Thankfully this is easy to do:
- When you see an ad, right-click on the ad image and select “Adblock Image…”;
- A dialogue box will open up with some options. You can select different levels of blocking, just exercise some caution because it’s possible to block an entire site when you just meant to block the ads. The default “middle level” is a good starting point. Click on “Add filter”.
You can alter the settings and see how many ads have been blocked by navigating to Tools > Add-ons, then selecting “Preferences” under “Adblock Plus”.
9d – firefox add-on: xmarks (previously called foxmarks)
I’ve used a lot of different machines over the years while working in IT. And since the Internet came along I’ve constantly struggled with the problem of organizing and retaining all the web bookmarks & references from researching a multitude of problems and other just plain interesting stuff. Xmarks helps me with this issue of retaining all those bookmarks and synchronizes them between all the different machines I work on.
- In Firefox, select Tools > Add-ons. An add-on search dialogue box will open up. Make sure you’re in the “Get Add-ons” section.
- In the search box, type “Xmarks” and press enter. Search results will be displayed;
- Look for the Xmarks plus logo (shown in this blog at right) and click on the entry. You’ll see some more information and a button;
- Click on the “Add to firefox…” button, a dialogue box will pop-up warning you to only add trusted add-ons. Click on Install;
- Once it’s installed you can shut it down and then you’ll have to restart firefox;
- When firefox starts again you’ll have to sign-up for a free Xmarks membership.
There are some other functions that involve passwords which I don’t use for my work machines. This is pretty useful though and I use it for my machines at home.
9e – Other firefox plugins.
- firefox plugin: iMacros
- firefox plugin: snaplinks
- firefox plugin: noscript
10 – Jungle Disk for offsite backups
This is more than just installing a piece of software. This involves setting up a paid membership with the Amazon S3 online storage service. But don’t panic, our on-line backups of several gigabytes result in a monthly fee under AU$3.00 (three Australian dollars) each month.
So you should follow the set-up guide located at the Jungle Disk site here… http://www.jungledisk.com/ .
The trick with this is setting it up so it starts automatically when you boot up.
- Navigate to System > Preferences > Startup Applications;
- Click on Add and in the command section enter the path to the Jungle Disk Monitor program, eg. “/home/msmith/.jungledisk/jungledisk/junglediskmonitor”;
- You’ll need to have already configured the monitor software but this will start it up whenever you log in. I have mine set to backup every 6 hours. It doesn’t back-up through the firewall at work, but it does backup when I’m at home in the evening.
Other Steps – I’ll be documenting the following steps over the next few days
- Add icons to taksbar/panel: Proxy; VinagreRemote Desktop Viewer; System Monitor;. Remove email from panel
- firefox flash setup
- create downloads directory and point firefox downloader to it
- keepass
- consolidate lower panels into upper one
- reduce size of upper panel
- set to four workspaces
- change power settings to not shut down or go blank
- Change desktop background
- VMware server v 2.0 (/virtualmachines for VMs i.e. no space in directory name)
- disable desktop effects because they clash with VMWare
- VMWare keyboard fix
- copy in virtual machines from backup
- add desktop icons for vmware virtual machines
- add VirtualBox for testing
- Vinagre remote desktop bookmarks.
- Ubuntu Tweak: Restricted Extras
- VLC Media Player
- change default view to list with small font size
- FSLint
- FreeMind
- Skype
- Workrave
- Terminal
- add locations to clock drop-down (wellington; zhengzhou; brussels; key west; chicago; loveland; portland)
- Lotus Notes
- FreeCiv
- System Monitor
- Boot-Up Manager (BUM)
- Boot Chart
- Disable irrelevant services
(Credit: Compete.com)Earlier today we got a nice update on the most popular social network sites from Compete.com for the month of January. The results are shown in the table, but the big thing in my book is the rise of LinkedIn in comparison to other sites.
While Facebook and MySpace continue to fight it out for top ranking the addition of Twitter is an acknowledgment of it’s meteoric rise as it is adopted by the mainstream.
According to Compete’s Andy Kazeniac: “These are numbers stemming entirely from Web browser data in the U.S. That means that you won’t be pulling in any international numbers, where most of Facebook’s users are now, or data from widgets or third-party applications, which are how many avid Twitter users access the service. That means that it’s likely that Twitter’s reach is bigger than the numbers indicate.”
In his blog “How to save the World”, Guy Kawasaki goes through his tips on “Ways to find a job using LinkedIn”[1]. The brief topics are listed here along with my own suggestions below.
- Get the word out. Tell your network that you’re looking for a new position.
- Get recommendations. A strong recommendation from your manager highlights your strengths.
- Find out where people with your skills are working. Do an advanced search for people in your area who have your skills.
- Find out where people at a company came from. LinkedIn “Company Profiles” show the likely career path of employees.
- Find out where people from a company go next. LinkedIn’s “Company Profiles” also tell you where people go after leaving.
- Check if a company is still hiring. Company pages on LinkedIn include a section that lists people who were recently hired.
- Get to the hiring manager. When you view a LinkedIn job, focus on the ones you’re no more than two degrees away from.
- Get to the right HR person. Find someone inside the company to walk your resume to the hiring manager or HR department.
- Know the secret job requirements. Find a connection at the company with the inside scoop on what really matters for the job.
- Find startups to join. Play with LinkedIn’s advanced search using “startup” or “stealth” in the keyword or company field.
- Build your network before you need it. A strong network is a good form of job security. Don’t wait until times are tough.
My own advice is:
- Review your LinkedIn profile and make sure you can use it as your Resume. Massage it every day for a week. Ask your spouse and several close contacts to review it and provide feedback. Tell them to be brutal!
- Include a photo (head shot) on your profile and dress for it in a business-like fashion.
- Make sure your listed specialties are fresh by “archiving” some of the less current items. Wrack your brain for that obscure skill and list it; this may be the thing that a Recruiter searches on.
- Use the spare time to chase-up old colleagues and ask for a recommendation for past positions. By all means bribe them with a beer but make sure it’s accurate, employers WILL check.
- Participate in the Q&A forums in your areas of expertise. Both answer & ask questions.
- Change the “by-line” on your profile to “currently seeking next position” or something similar. People will see this against your name in the forums. In my profile I mention that I donate blood plasma every two weeks (but I’m not currently seeking a job).
- Join and be active in all the relevant groups for your specialties (you can join up to 50). Read the discussions; comment; follow up with the people who asked the question. If you have some time do the research necessary to knock their socks off.
- Use the “Download as a PDF” function while viewing you own profile. This will give you a document that a Recruitment Consultant can use in their own internal database. Some Recruiters will want a .doc file, have both available. I recommend openoffice.org to save a .doc file as a PDF.
- Build relationships with the recruiters in your region. The Advanced Search Tool will allow you to focus in on a geographic area. Work those contacts. As unpleasant as it might seem, if your contingency plan is to move interstate and live in your in-law’s basement (ouch), start to build your network in that location too.
- Reach out to your contacts, both LinkedIn and not. Ask for permission to contact them again in 5 or 6 weeks. They will not often say no, and will be more receptive to a call a month down the track. Keeping your situation fresh in their mind will increase the likelihood of a spontaneous referral. Make sure they have your resume (as a .doc & a PDF) as attachments on an email from you in their in-box.
- Carry hard-copies of your resume with you at all times. Also carry it with you on a memory stick. Horror stories abound about what potential employers have seen on a prospective employee’s memory stick so make sure the resume (again as a .doc & a PDF) is the only thing on it. Attach the stick to your car-keys; it’s not going to do you much good if you leave it at home.
- Work on your blog and make sure the posts are upbeat and career related. If you don’t have a blog, start it now with one of the free services (this blog is hosted at wordpress.com. I publish under my own domain name for $10 a year, but if I didn’t, the blog hosting would be free).
- Link your blog to your LinkedIn profile using the WordPress “application” within LinkedIn (check out my profile to see how it looks).
- Review your myspace/facebook pages and remove any links to these pages from your LinkedIn profile if the content is not business appropriate. For some time now we’ve heard anecdotal stories about people not getting the job because of embarrassing photos on other social networks.
- Organize as many interviews as possible with Recruitment Agents. And the most important thing here is; ask them what they would change about your resume; change it overnight; get it back to them. It doesn’t matter if you end up with 20 versions, they will see that you are prepared to help them get you a job. Use Twitter to tell your network when you’re going for an interview.
- Find other face-to-face networks to leverage. I’m not very good at this but I try. Look at the LinkedIn events in your area and also try Meetup.com.
Good Luck. And please provide feedback on this blog post (make a comment below). I’ll use your suggestions to improve this page so it is more useful to others.
MikeSmith@dominoconsultant.org
1. [Guy's blog post on "How to find a job using LinkedIn", Feb 2nd, 2009]
Update Monday, February 16, 2009 2:26 PM PST
see also a related PCWorld article on “Tips on Using LinkedIn for Job-Hunting” at… http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/159485/tips_on_using_linkedin_for_jobhunting.html
Please comment here at dominoconsultant.org before you leave.
- What are your objectives while using LinkedIn?
- What are the main things you find challenging?
Please leave a comment…
At LinkedIn, they are always looking for ways to make the world’s professionals more effective through the use of their network. Today, they announced the first of several upcoming product features being built through a partnership with IBM’s Lotus, which extends the availability of LinkedIn functionality to Lotus Notes.
Here are three key LinkedIn features that 140 million Lotus Notes users can look forward to:
1. Network Updates
Keep track of your broader professional network through an integrated stream of LinkedIn Network Updates.
By using Network Updates to keep track of what projects are being worked on, what questions are being asked, and what connections are being made in one’s professional network, you can stay more engaged and up-to-date in your professional life. The LinkedIn Lotus Notes integration makes viewing your Network Updates a seamless part of your daily activities, by placing them within the inbox that you already use every day.
2. People Search
Another feature to supercharge your Inbox is the ability to use LinkedIn’s People Search with one-click:
Easily look up that new contact you’ve just made or the attendees of an upcoming meeting. You can even find contacts at a given company or with a given skill, just as you would on the LinkedIn site. So if you need that expert in mobile technology, open source, or Ruby on Rails, just put the right keywords into the search box to see who in your professional network can assist.
3. LinkedIn Profiles
Once you find who you need, you can also view their LinkedIn Professional Profile right within Notes:
Lotus Notes will make profile look ups simple by hyper-linking names to a one-click LinkedIn search. Just click on an unfamiliar name in an e-mail and instantly view the associated LinkedIn profile. And when you do find that right contact, the ability to send them a message or connect with them on LinkedIn is always available.
Those familiar with the LinkedIn Outlook Toolbar may recognize similar functionality. However, by working with IBM directly on the Notes integration, LinkedIn has been able to make it richer, more seamless, and more robust. These are just first steps in a broad partnership with IBM.
Original Press release at… http://blog.linkedin.com/2009/01/19/linkedin-and-lotus-partner-to-improve-enterprise-software/
January’s “must listen” piece of free media is an interview with Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics and Grown Up Digital.
This interview highlights some of the most significant points from Grown Up Digital and the way that the new generation is changing our world as well as the way they (and we) will work through the next decade.
One of the key insights is how people are changing the way they absorb and process information. If you have children or are seeing changes in the way people work and are wondering how this may affect you then this interview is a good start at exploring this subject.
You can listen to it direct from the website at… http://twit.tv/natn79
Regards,
mikesmith@dominoconsultant.org
Today as I went through my pre-donation interview prior to donating blood plasma I was surprised to be given my 75 donations badge. I used to donate whole blood every month or so. Lately I’ve been donating blood plasma every two weeks (mostly). I guess donation number 75 just crept up on me.
If so:
- What was the cost?
- Network bandwidth footprint?
- Ease of install / use?
- Reliability?” – asked by David Hsiao on LinkedIn
Answer…
Teneros provide an appliance that sits between your email server and the internet. If the connection to your email server is unavailable (because the link is down or the email server is kaput) it stores the incoming emails until the server can accept them.
I’ve had an associate implement one of these here in Australia. This was a big project for him and as he was the lead consultant on the project he was assuming a significant degree of professional risk. I’ll address your question one point at a time…
These appliances are expensive (at around $28,000 for the project).
Bandwidth requirements were not an issue and were on par with not having the solution in place.
Installation was easy (he says) and as an appliance was simple for the in-house IT guy to manage.
Reliability of the actual appliance was very good. It just did its thing quietly and waited for the problem that was likely not ever going to happen; loss of bulk emails.
Lessons Learnt?
Well, it was a lesson in architecture. If the appliance is on-site, what happens to queued emails if you loose the physical network connection to the site? In the example outlined above there is still a risk of loss of a large number of incoming emails & that is what happened when a backhoe ripped up the fiber in the street (that is going to cost them).
Where you really get a gain with this sort of appliance is when it is hosted offsite in a third-party data centre (you should add in the extra cost). In that circumstance the Teneros system receives the incoming emails and stores them awaiting the delivery to the in-house system. This can even be achieved via a very slow temporary backup link while the main link is repaired. i.e. it is better for most emails to be delivered overnight via a backup link than not at all.
Similar services are often offered by domain hosting registrars and other companies at significantly lower cost than the Teneros solution.
Mike Smith – dominoconsultant
Question posed by Nepal Patel on LinkedIn:
Apart from the big players like VMware, Citrix, IBM, HP and so forth, have you had experience with a smaller organizations infrastructure virtualization solution for Enterprise?
I am looking for a more customer centric company, that can be more competitive with the pricing, and will come to bat when needed.
Answer:
I’ve had some experience as an IT Manager & Enterprise Architect in this space.
Sounds like you’re looking for a services company that will assist with consulting around a cost effective virtualization technology. The big questions here are 1) Which product set provides for easy and cost effective entry into server virtualization but still has capacity and scope within the product set for growth to a full enterprise solution; and 2) How easy is it to source people/companies in the marketplace with skills in that product set.
In my personal experience as an implementer, for cost effective entry to virtualization you can’t go past VMWare as they have free products that are very effective. I implemented virtualization with their free products and ran that way for about two years as I gradually virtualized all the servers I could. As I had questions I was able to access people in my personal network and & companies in the marketplace who were knowledgeable on the product set. People were there to ask because techies respect a company (like VMWare) who are willing to _GIVE_ you something that just works and is easy to use with the hope that down the track you might actually buy something from them.
So two years down the virtualization track with my portfolio of virtualized servers I was able to gain capital approval for a big new powerful server (not a blade server and without a SAN as they were too expensive). I also rolled in the VMWare bare metal ESX product (with the customized linux core) and haven’t looked back since.
After it’s run into the ground for a few years the blade and SAN option will be revisited.
I’ve moved on to another company now and am leading them down the same path to virtualization as outlined above. I’m very confident in this methodology as I’ve seen it work in an environment that is very cost conscious.
With the new company, although I’m servicing the local geography of a large multi-national, I have found that there is significant acceptance of the VMWare product-set by Global IT and have found very few barriers to implementation.
Mike Smith – dominoconsultant
DataPortability.org Project Report for May 2008 published – With a new look and format by Daniela Barbosa
Daniela produces the monthly reports that serve not only the active DataPortability Project members but also users, vendors and developers who want to be kept informed on the progress of the project… link to the report
What is DataPortability.org
The DataPortability Project is a group created to promote the idea that individuals have control over their data by determining how they can use it and who can use it. This includes access to data that is under the control of another entity such as a social network site.
What impact will it have if OpenOffice.org is deployed in Federal offices around the US?
Question posed on Linkedin by Alexandro Colorado:
A PCWorld article by Phil Shapiro reports that one of Obama’s first executive acts will be standardizing all federal offices on OpenOffice.org.
OpenOffice is free, robust, stable and more than sufficient for 99 percent of government work. If any particular government office requires Microsoft Office, they’ll be able to purchase it — after explaining in a few sentences why OpenOffice is insufficient for their needs.
What do you get when all Federal offices standardize on OpenOffice? You get increased productivity at lower cost. Scratch that. You get increased productivity at no-cost.
Retraining is certainly a major issue. When considering this, one thing to keep in mind though is that many companies have held back on going to the recent versions of MO because of this same training overhead and implied productivity cost. When you count in the additional cost of the software upgrade to the latest MO the total impost on a business (or government agency) has proven too gnarly to contemplate. There are also the same costs for the next upgrade two years down the track. An often heard response to such a proposal to upgrade is that “the current version we are using does 99% of what we need so why should we change everyone”.
Contrast this with the same situation if the proposal was to upgrade to the latest OO. Same retraining overhead and productivity cost (I’d suggest actually less productivity cost moving to OO than the latest MO). Zero licensing cost for the OO. Same cost in two years.
So why would an organization upgrade to MO when they can upgrade to OO for the same (or less) pain and significantly less cost in both the short and long term. It’s a question of mindshare amongst the senior executives (CIO, CEO, Board, etc.) and how well informed they are of the pros and cons rather than the F.U.D. that Microsoft will spread.
If the President (as the Executive of the USA Gov’t), makes a strategic decision to move to OO from MO then there will be immediate visibility of this as a viable choice to consider in every single board room across the globe. That visibility and the ensuing discussion around it will be the primary impact.
Amongst all the possible good that an incoming President could do, this particular initiative would have a significant positive impact for all people around the world regardless of race, colour, creed, or language.
Mike Smith – dominoconsultant
Answer:
The short answer is yes there is a demand. You should note that many implementations particularly those hoping to achieve real gains with governance are likely to have a significant Process/Organizational Change component akin to the process modeling seen in ITIL implementations.
What is most apparent in the marketplace at the moment is that what demand exists currently is widely geographically dispersed. Therefore, in order to offer consultancy services in this space you would be required to have a global consulting and service delivery approach. In the current globalization push companies are more likely to accept this as a service model than they would have been, say, six months ago.
Key to executing in this space will be ongoing relationship management with not only the engaging manager but also the participants in a project. A great deal of up-skilling will often be required to bring reluctant participants on-board and this should be depicted as a personal development opportunity for the individual as well as a project objective for the organization.
Mike Smith – dominoconsultant
The folks at LinkedIn announced jointly a partnership with Simply Hired that should help both of them gain traction in a their respective spaces. LinkedIn also announced LinkedIn Services.
Simply Hired offers a vertical “meta-job” search engine that spiders job boards like Monster.com and aggregates all of the listings into one large index. When you do a search, you can see if any of your contacts work at the company through a link to LinkedIn. LinkedIn will also offer Simply Hired jobs in its jobs directory, probably by the end of May.
In another area, LinkedIn also announced LinkedIn Services, where users can find recommendations for services such as lawyers, financial advisers, accountants, etc. The secret sauce that makes this work over similar services from Insider Pages, Judy’s Book and Yelp! — a built-in social network that already has tons of testimonials and endorsers. While Yahoo! 360 may be better at getting reviews from its users for restaurants, professional services require a higher level of confidence and referral information, which LinkedIn can provide.
So congrats to LinkedIn, which continues to innovate. Now, let’s see how well they can monetize all of these great assets — the proof will be in the pudding when they are able to charge companies for job postings and premium service listings (anticipated in later in 2005).
Original post by Charlene Li at… http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2005/04/linkedin_announ.html
Dave Pollard notes that in the November edition of Business 2.0 has selected Social Networking Applications as the Technology of the Year. Mentioned in the survey are Ryze, LinkedIn, Friendster, Zero Degrees, Tribe.net, Spoke Connect, and Visible Path. The magazine should be commended for this insightful choice, but they missed the companion technology that will provide the data essential to the functioning of future Social Networking Applications. That technology: Personal Content Management and Publishing Applications (notably Blogs and RSS). You can’t have one without the other.
[Dave Pollard - How to save the world]
=== Update ===
Text of original report (now out-of-print) is reproduced below from “Ties & Bonds” Vol. 25 by Barry Wellman
(expertise finder from Entopia's Social Networks Analyzer)
The author, David Pescovitz, thinks that popular consciousness of social networks goes back to Stan Milgram’s six degrees study in 1967. While inaccurate, of course, the assertion at least has more time depth and validity than current media attributions to Barabasi and Gladwell.
This batch of social network software applications are largely aimed at organizations who want to track who is talking with whom. Besides the corporate uses, several government spy agencies are doing social network analyses. I know of organizations using it to see the impact of mergers on relationships and, of course, to develop subterranean communication and influence patterns.
The activity is somewhat reminiscent of the dot.com boom of the 1990s, albeit in a lower key. I know one social networker working for Metalogix, another has been consulting to Spoke Software, Realize Networks is just getting going, while Visible Path has been visible at recent social network conferences. Non-organizationally, Friendster, claiming 2M members, creates personal profiles and publicly identifies friends who also use the service, enabling folks to browse the profiles and links friends of friends.
[David Pescovitz, "The Best New Technologies of 2003." Business 2.0, Nov 03.]
