Feb
25
Quick Announcement
Filed Under News | 56 Comments
I have a few minutes this evening after a full day at the hospital. My first child, a little girl, was born last nite. Everything went well and we’ve been getting used to the new addition in the hospital today. We’ll be back home tomorrow sometime, and I’m sure life will be a lot different.
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Jan
11
I’ve just done an update of the database for this blog. I did an export and a giant find/replace for some formatting tags I wanted updated. If you notice anything really odd about the site, pages not displaying, content screwed up, etc please let me know.
It appears all is well.. so far.
What I did was go back and add the code tag to all of the blockquotes, which shoud clean up a bit of the formatting. This should help avoid things like reformatting of dash-dash, etc.
Jan
5
Server Transition & Thanks
Filed Under News | 3 Comments
I spent yesterday evening putting the final touches on my server transition. The DNS update should be making its way through the ever clogging interweb tubes as you read this. Hopefully by Monday it’ll have made its way to the far corners of the interweb.
I do want to thank everyone that offered services and advice. There were a number of people that stepped up and offered discounted or even free hosting for this blog, and I really do appreciate those offers. In the end the server ended up on SliceHost running a xen Ubuntu 7.10 image. (I actually bought the SliceHost image about a month ago and, due to the holidays, had been unable to get everything migrated.) I’m glad to hear the good remarks in SliceHost’s favor. I hope I am as satisfied as the rest of you.
New Server Stats:
Information from /proc/cpuinfo shows four listings for “Dual-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 2212 HE”, which I’m sure is shared with a number of other “slices”. I have 256M RAM dedicated to my “slice” and it is running Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy” Server. To help maintain a healthy speed I’m running the latest WP-Super-Cache plugin for Wordpress and memcached underneath. I hope this new setup can withstand Digg and its minions.
Thoughts About the Old Host:
Having been with BlueHost for about nine-months I think I learned a few things about bulk-hosting companies and more specifically about my needs as a webmaster. For your everyday site I’m sure BlueHost is more than adequate. I have nearly a dozen other sites and blogs that I maintain, all (previously) hosted there, which have seen minimal issues. This site however is a different story. As the number of active Ubuntu users continues to rise the load on this site gets heavier and heavier. In its earlier days this site was not a threat to any host, but as it has matured I’m sure there are many hosts that would tremble at the thought.
I’m sad to say that I’m really disappointed in the way that BlueHost handled the load issues. It isn’t an uncommon practice for hosting providers to temporarily suspend a site with a high load, but I think it is a bad practice. I think a better solution would be to contact the site owner and notify them of the server load. Offer to keep the site online and available (when it really is needed most!), perhaps for a small additional fee worked into the contract. When a hosting provider takes down a site under a heavy load all they are doing is making both parties look incompetent. If BlueHost had gone the extra mile with my server load vs suspending the site and making it unavailable I would be singing a different tune now altogether. Praises vs grief.
It’s water under the bridge now and we’ve moved on. Here is to 2008 and (hopefully) a very accessible, very active Ubuntu Tutorials blog!
Jan
3
Blog Downtime & Host Transfer
Filed Under News | 6 Comments
As many of you have noticed the site has been down for the majority of the day. I really don’t have any idea why other than because I’m over my “PHP quota”, which I don’t know why would be the case.
I’m honestly pretty fed up with my hosting provider at this point. I’m very actively working on transfering all of my sites to a new server that I’ve set up. Just getting things sync’d and I should be ready.
I think its honestly *really* pathetic that a hosting provider can’t keep my site online 24/7 whereas my old PIII 500MHz kept it running just fine. The only reason I don’t keep it hosting on my server at home anymore is because I have a pretty poor bandwidth pipe. Bluhost has really been a disappointment lately.
If there continues to be downtime I apologize. I am aware of it and I’m very actively working on it. Thank you for your patience.
Oct
27
Heading Out to the Ubuntu Developer Summit
Filed Under Community, News | Leave a Comment
I’m about to head to bed for the nite. First thing in the morning I’m getting on a plane and heading out to the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Boston. I’m excited to be spending a week planning Ubuntu’s next release, 8.04 “Hardy Heron”. I feel very privileged to be invited and hope to help get a lot of work done while I’m out there.
This next week will probably include a lot of play-by-play on the conference but I’ve got some tutorials pending as well. See you in Boston!
Oct
23
AptURL : Web Based Package Installation
Filed Under News | 25 Comments
Some of you may have seen some recent posts around the Ubuntu Planet about the new AptURL project that is default in Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy”. I wanted to make a few comments about it myself after tinkering with it a little. I think the project and idea is pretty cool and I hope it sees some more use.
I may be updating my blog in the future to take advantage of AptURL. I suppose to maintain backwards compatibility I’ll need to use both, but we may begin seeing tutorials along these lines:
Example…
Installing non-free codec pack
sudo aptitude install ubuntu-restricted-extras
For those using Ubuntu 7.10 you should be able to simply click the link and the package should prompt for installation. If it does not try installing the apturl package. Those still using previous versions will still need to type the command on the command line.
Does anyone have any thoughts on seeing this on the blog moving forward? Good? Bad? Indifferent? I think it may make some tutorials a bit simpler for some users.
Oct
13
Happy Birthday To Me
Filed Under News | 10 Comments
I thought of writing some witty script that would tell you I’ve become a year older, but I thought I’d just do it in english. Yes, today I turn twenty-eight years old.. wow.
Also, and even better news, is today is also my two-year wedding anniversary. Best two years ever and even better to come. Love you Catherine. 
I will, of course, be unreachable today. Try to catch me on Monday if you need anything.
If you’d like to get me something awesome for my special day you can do one of the following:
- Squash an Ubuntu bug on Launchpad
- Share an Ubuntu CD with a friend and help them install it
- Dedicate some time and bandwidth today to sharing Ubuntu CD images
Oct
11
Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon” Release Candidate Available - “Suitable for testing by any user”
Filed Under News | 5 Comments
The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the Release Candidate for version 7.10 of Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Gobuntu, and Xubuntu codenamed “Gutsy Gibbon”. The Release Candidate includes installable live Desktop CDs, server images,
alternate text-mode installation CDs, and an upgrade wizard for users of the current stable release.
We consider this release candidate to be complete, stable, and suitable for testing by any user.
The final release of version 7.10 is scheduled for 18 October 2007 and will be supported for 18 months on both desktops and servers. Users requiring a longer support lifetime on servers may choose to continue using Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, with security support until 2011, rather than upgrade to 7.10.
Before installing or upgrading to Ubuntu 7.10 please read https://wiki.ubuntu.com
About The Release Candidate
—————————
The purpose of the Release Candidate is to solicit one last round of testing before the final release. Here are ways that you can help:
- Upgrade from Ubuntu, Kubuntu, or Edubuntu 7.04 to the Release Candidate by following the instructions given above.
- Participate in installation testing using the Release Candidate CD images, by following the testing and reporting instructions at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing
/ISO
Desktop highlights
——————
- Compiz Fusion: This innovative compositing window manager enables 3-D desktop effects that let users work with, and see, their desktops in completely new ways.
- Printer installation: In GNOME, printers are automatically configured for use as soon as they are connected.
- Free Flash support with Gnash: Ubuntu 7.10 leads the pack with a preview of this Flash browser plugin. Although still actively in development and not yet fully supported by Ubuntu, Gnash gives a glimpse into the future of free Flash, bringing partial Flash support to 64-bit desktop systems.
- Automated Firefox plugin installation: Beyond the addition of Gnash, Firefox in Ubuntu now supports automatic installation of popular plugins through the standard Ubuntu package repositories, for a richer web-browsing experience with the integrated security support of the rest of the Ubuntu system.
Server highlights
—————–
- AppArmor: This easy-to-deploy kernel technology limits the resources an application is allowed to access and can be used to provide an added layer of protection against undiscovered security vulnerabilities in applications.
- Pre-configured installation options: Mail Server, Print Server, Database Server, and File Server options join existing LAMP and DNS options for pre-configured installations, easing the deployment of common server configurations.
Edubuntu highlights
——————-
- Faster thin clients: Thin clients have been sped up significantly through the use of compressed images.
- Updated login manager: The thin-client login manager has been completely reworked, with themes for all Ubuntu flavors, support for autologin, and optional unencrypted graphics transport for improved performance on slower hardware.
Kubuntu highlights
——————
As well as the above desktop highlights, the following new features are specific to KDE users:
- Dolphin file manager: This updated file manager gives Ubuntu users a glimpse of the upcoming KDE 4.
- Strigi desktop search: Another pillar of KDE 4 available now in Kubuntu.
- Restricted-manager: Kubuntu 7.10 includes a KDE front-end for easy nstallation of proprietary drivers, complementing the existing GNOME front-end.
Please see https://wiki.kubuntu.org
Gobuntu highlights
——————
Gobuntu 7.10 is the debut full release of the Ubuntu version that is composed entirely of open source non-restricted software. For experienced linux enthusiasts, Gobuntu will act as the test bed for developing a user-friendly operating system with no compromise in terms of the open source philosophy.
This initial release comes without any software from the restricted component, and with artwork for usplash and the isolinux CD bootloader.
The full release notes can be found at http://www.ubuntu.com/testing
To Get the Ubuntu 7.10 Release Candidate CD
——————————
To perform a new installation or try out 7.10 “live” from CD, download the Ubuntu 7.10 Release Candidate (choose the mirror closest to you):
Europe:
http://se.releases.ubuntu.com
http://nl.releases.ubuntu.com
http://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub
http://ie.releases.ubuntu.com
http://it.releases.ubuntu.com
http://gb.releases.ubuntu.com
http://de.releases.ubuntu.com
http://fr.releases.ubuntu.com
Asia/Pacific:
http://tw.releases.ubuntu.com
http://mirror.optus.net/ubuntu
Africa:
http://za.releases.ubuntu.com
North America:
http://ca.releases.ubuntu.com
http://releases.ubuntu.com/7
South America:
http://br.releases.ubuntu.com
Rest of the world:
http://releases.ubuntu.com/7
Please download using Bittorrent if possible. For more information about using Bittorrent, see:
https://help.ubuntu.com
Upgrading from Ubuntu 7.04
————————–
To upgrade from Ubuntu 7.04 to Ubuntu 7.10 Release Candidate, follow these instructions:
https://help.ubuntu.com
Feedback and Helping
——————–
If you would like to help shape Ubuntu to better meet your future needs, take a look at the list of ways you can participate at http://www.ubuntu.com/communit
Your comments, bug reports, patches, and suggestions will help turn this release into the best release of Ubuntu ever. Please report bugs through the Launchpad bug tracker:
https://bugs.launchpad.net
If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but aren’t sure, first try asking on the #ubuntu IRC channel on FreeNode, on the Ubuntu Users mailing list, or on the Ubuntu forums:
http://lists.ubuntu.com
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/
Oct
3
Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon” Release Countdown
Filed Under News | Leave a Comment
If you’re a fan of Ubuntu (and we all know you are!) consider helping countdown to the final release with this Ubuntu supplied release calendar. Most organized US Teams will be having release parties. Look for an organized party in your area.
For those in Utah, our release party is planned for Oct 20th at 6:00pm. Location pending. If anyone has any suggestions on places that we could hold this event please let me know. Please stay tuned to the ubuntu-us-ut mailing list for upcoming details.
Sep
30
Comments Fixed ?
Filed Under News | 2 Comments
For those that have been having problems with commenting on the blog I am aware of the problem (its b0rken WP2.3!). I have deactivated a few plugins and commenting worked in my testing. If you try again and continue to have problems please email me with the error output. Thank You.
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