Testing the iPhone Blogger App.

So I've got this new iPhone 4S that my wife bought to cheer me up. This thing is really cool, so I thought I'd give the blogger App a test drive. So far I like it, but the App needs some more work. It's usable but...... More later.

Okay so it's a little later now. The main gripe right now...? The screen won't flip when the phone is rotated. Also there seems to be no facility for font effects.

Posted with Blogsy

Cinnamon - My Ferret is dying and other depressing stuff!

So it looks like 2012 is not going to be so great either. My second and last ferret Cinnamon (AKA: Mimi) is dying of cancer. She's been in a bad way for months now, but is acting particularly strange for the past few days. It's been a total bust for me for 2010, 2011, and now it looks like 2012 is going to be no better. Seriously, the streak of bad events just doesn't seem to ever end. Maybe I'll be lucky and the 2012 doomsday prediction will come true. I'm getting really tired of all the crap coming at me, now the IRS wants me to pay them $3800.00 because of some obscure tax error.

Well, I'll be going to see a tax specialist tomorrow and hopefully they can help. God, can I please get a break and some good, no wait, great news and events in my life soon?

I'm asking for prayers from anyone who cares to. I'll be praying a lot in the future...


Update: 2/19/2012
Cinnamon (MiMi) died a few minutes ago at 12:10 PM. I was petting her as she tensed her body and took her last gasp. I love you MiMi, rest in peace my baby.

In Memory of Charles Seymour Jackson - My Wonderful Father

My father died at 7:04 PM on 12-22-2011 after battling lung cancer for the past 2 years.  The cancer spread to his brain after lung surgery, and he fought the battle well but things went down hill fast all December.  My mother, baby sister, my wife, and myself were with him and held his hands as he took his final breath.  This has been and is a very upsetting/depressing time for our family, Christmas will never again be the joyful time of year for us.  We love and miss you dad, I'll think of you every day for the rest of my life.

Full Obituary Memorial Website Guest Book

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Some things to do after a fresh Ubuntu install

Open up a terminal screen and paste in the following text, then hit enter:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras non-free-codecs p7zip-rar acroread gimp inkscape blender vlc libdvdcss2 libdvdread4 faac faad audacious rubyripper cd-discid aacplusenc gtkpod lame cdrdao aacgain flac mp3gain normalize-audio vorbisgain arista soundconverter gnome-sushi winff devede openshot audacity cheese synaptic gconf-editor

HP G6 (i5) - Ubuntu 11.10 install

So my wife bought a new laptop as above and wanted Ubuntu installed. Wow what a task on this computer. All 4 primary partitions were alread used (windows, windows recovery file, HP bios tools, HP full image of the drive recovery tools). So first you have to eliminate one. I deleted the windows recovery partition with gParted. Then I merged or grew the windows boot partition into the newly unalocated partition.

Next, I found that the LiveCD would boot to a blank screen, so I had to edit the the kernel boot line to include the "nomodeset" command and the install went fine (wrong resolution though).

After the install I found that no matter what, the LCD was black after boot. After days of googleing I found the solution below.

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

 

And change the option row GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" as follow:   

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor splash"

 

Then update Grub installation with the command:

sudo update-grub

 

and restart the notebook.

Probem solved, but with a minor quirk or two... If you close the loptop lid, the screen will be black again when you open it. All you have to do is use the keyboard function that raises the brightness and it's back to normal. It seems that closing the lid turns the screen brightness to completely off.

Next, becareful not to hit the button that turns off the wireless. It turns off the radio and it won't come back on unless you reboot.

That's it, everything else works fine. If you use this information to help you with YOUR install and it works that's great. Remember this is not intended to be a guide but it's actually notes for me to use if I need to do a reinstall.

How to add the Medibuntu Repository to Ubuntu 11.04+

Open a terminal and paste the following and hit enter. You will be prompted for your password, enter the password and hit enter. DONE!

Using this method will add hooks to the USC (Ubuntu Software Center) so that the packages from the medibuntu repository will show up in the software center app.

sudo -E wget --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list && sudo apt-get -y --force-yes --quiet --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get install app-install-data-medibuntu apport-hooks-medibuntu && sudo sed -i "/^# deb .*partner/ s/^# //" /etc/apt/sources.list && sudo apt-get --quiet update

Ubuntu Oneiric - 11.10

Well, I upgraded to the latest version of Ubuntu and I must say it's a mixed bag of beans. I find the Unity interface and Gnome3 on the buggy side. The wife hates it and me for putting it most of our computers. I'm hoping things will improve over the next month or so, otherwise I'll have to switch to a different flavor of Ubuntu. The wife is talking windows again...

Nook EasyTouch

Father's day has come and gone, but I'm still loving my Nook EasyTouch that the wife got me. I've never really been much of a book reader but that's all in the past. I'm a reading fool now. It's not that I've never read a book or anything, it's just that I've always only read things like technical manuals and text books. Novels however are something I haven't read. Since the Nook has arrived, I've read several...

Thanks Baby...

New Car for Ericka!

My Daughter Ericka graduated from H.S. last month, and this past Thursday I bought her a new 2011 Nissan for a graduation present. She has been on cloud 9 ever since. My credit got her the car, but she is making the payments. There are no silver spoons in this house. I Love You baby girl... Do well in college and keep making me proud.

Today my best friend died. I love you Roxie!

Today my best friend Roxie was put to sleep due to complications from pancreatic cancer. Roxie was a male Ferret with a female name. When we got Roxie from a local pet store over 7 years ago, he came with papers that indicated he was a she.

Roxie has had a rough life during the past 1 1/2 years. I've had to hand feed him every 4-6 hours and keep him on medication to elevate his blood sugar. Through it all Roxie has been a loving and loyal friend to me. Unlike many ferrets, Roxie was very smart and litter box trained. Most ferrets can't be totally trained to use a litter box reliably but I could count on my baby Roxie. Roxie loved me as much as I loved him. He loved me to hold him and pet him for hours. If you know anything about ferrets, you know that they don't want to be held, they want to explore and hide. Roxie loved those things too, but he truly loved for ME to hold and pet him as I spoke to him. He enjoyed the contact we had during hand feedings and grooming time. Roxie loved to take warm showers with me and then run and play, rolling and scooting on the carpet to dry off. My life has been greatly enriched because Roxie shared his life with me. I'm very sad he is gone but I know he's not suffering from the ravages of cancer anymore. Roxie became very weak 3 days ago and I just couldn't bring him out of it. Today when I heard him crying and whimpering as I attempted to give him water through a syringe, I decided to let go and give my beloved best friend a much deserved rest.

I Love You Roxie, I hope there is an afterlife for animals and you are now running and playing in the dirt you craved so often. Think of me and please know how much I cared for you. Goodbye my baby, go have some fun.

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Job Search

This month marks 1 year since I lost my job.  Hundreds of applications and Resumes later, I'm finally getting a couple of interviews. Anyone who thinks Charlotte, NC is an easy place to get decent employment is mistaken (unless or course you are willing to take a job for slightly more than minimum wage, I'm not quite that desperate just yet).

This information is superfluous to most of you, but I wanted to make a blog entry of some type since I haven't posted in a very long time.

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Update: 2/25/2011

Life gets worse...

I was applying for a job as a police dispatcher and all indications from the chief were great. He called me and gave me a brief phone screening to be sure that I was okay with the third shift (I was), the pay (I was), and the days of the week I would be working (I said great!). He then said "Very Good, you will be hearing from very soon".

Today I got a rejection letter telling me they were moving forward with other candidates. This shit sucks ass. I'm running out of places to apply and I don't understand why I can't find something.

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Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) released!

Ubuntu 10.10 was released today. I've been using it since it's pre-alpha days and I like it okay. It had some rough spots during development but it's a nice release in the end. I'm not sure I'll move all my system to Maverick though. I really like 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) and I'm not keen on dumping it just yet.

Dad to be released from Hospital on Oct. 1

I had a good day today.
Mom called and told me that my did is scheduled for release from the
hospital on Oct. 1st. His heart and lungs are doing much better - Thank
You God  :)

UPDATE: - October 4, 2010

Dad was released from the hospital at 1500 hours on October 1, 2010.  He is happily at home and resting well.  He and Mom report that he is getting stronger physically and mentally and progressing well. He starts physical therapy today (Mon, OCT. 4) and it looking forward to having his life back. I found it strange that he was released from the hospital on the same day, and EXACT same time that I was released from the hospital.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for blessing my family and working all the daily miracles that you do. I ask that you continue to watch over my earthly Father and Mother and continue to bless them health and wellbeing. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Please Pray for my Dad...

I realize that probably no one will read this post, but I have to unload these thoughts.  My 73 year old father went into the hospital about a month ago for a lung surgery.  He was in reasonably good health and of sound mind when he went in.  The hospital stay was supposed to be 1 week.  Here it is a month later and he is still there with a multitude of problems.

• His good lung keeps collapsing (pneumonia is suspected)
• His heart rate is 150-200 beats per minute (medication to reduce isn't working)
• His left foot has severe edema (blood clot is suspected)
• He is confused to the point that he appears to have lost his mind. No one really knows why.

I ask that anyone reading this blog post pray for my Dad (Charles).  Please add him to your prayer list at your church.  My father is a great/kind man.  He has worked his entire life to take care of his family and did so very well.  My father only had a 8th grade education. He quit school to help provide for him family. He served honorably in the military (Army), and has always worked hard for us.  He was a truck driver for 40 years and married to my mother for 50 years this month.  He adopted his great-grandson (Jake, my sister's grandchild) and only wants to spend a few quality years with little Jake before his life is over.

I beg you to pray to whoever your deity is and ask that my dad be healed and returned home in reasonable health and sound mind.  Thank you all..

Charles

New Maverick ISO testing.

Well, today I installed the Alpha 3+ (daily build) of Ubuntu Maverick.  It fixed quite a few minor issues and reviled a few others that are only noticeable during at all when doing a fresh install.  The main issue for me was the crappy partitioner dialogue.  I found that the option to install to the largest unallocated free space option was gone.  When I install a new version of Ubuntu, I generally use gParted from a LiveCD/USB and blow away the old install and swap partition.  Then I select to install to the unallocated space.  With the new Alpah3 however, I had to make and format my partitions with gParted, and this use the manual install option to put things where I wanted them. It all worked out okay but it's not the idea solution.

Next, I noticed that the nice little install slide show was not working as normal.  That sucked but it's not a show stopper.  It will turn-off new comers however if the issue isn't fixed before the final release.
 

Gateway Netbook vs. Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.04

Today I got a new Gateway Netbook for my wife Joy.  The thing was on sale for $50 off, then I got another 20% discount since she is a store employee.  I inspected the packaging (it had been returned) and found it was missing warranty registration and was able to get another 5% discount.  Grand total (drum roll...)  $140ish.

The first order of business was to do away with that nasty piece of software called windows xp and installed Ubuntu Netbook Edition.  A quick download and placement on a USB stick and it was Live boot testing time.  After a quick test to confirm all hardware was supported I went straight to an install.

I did a little tweaking (adding flash, java, and video codecs) and then added some of my wifes basic software favorites and I'm off to the races.  After testing for a few hours I gave it the A+ rating and handed it off to her.

Joy has never used the Netbook Edition desktop interface so a brief tour was needed to explain the subtle nuances and she is now ready to battle the playing field.

All in all, I'd say it was a good day (computer-wise) in the house and I look forward to playing with the new toy whenever she will hand it off to me.

Goodnight All...

OpenTyrian Rules

 
Do you remember the old DOS game Tyrian? It's a spaceship shoot 'em up game. Man I used to love playing that game.  I still have the original floppy disks and had the game setup using dosbox under Ubuntu.  It worked but wasn't as good as running under native DOS.

Well, the game was recently opensourced and you can get it from www.playdeb.net for native Ubuntu Linux.

Well after the install all I can say is AWESOME!  The opentyrian version is EXACTLY the same game and it includes all game episodes.  This is great, I'm off to play another round.

New Chainsaw - Oops... Tree vs. Fence problem.

Okay, Joy (my wife) has been fussing at me lately because I'm not getting things done around the house (yard work & home repairs) since I've been unemployed.  So I go to Lowe's today and buy an inexpensive 16" chain saw and start chopping down trees in the backyard (they keep dropping leaves into the pool) as requested.  All WAS going well until I started chopping on this one tree next to our fence line (keep in mind I've never used a chainsaw or cut down a tree in my entire life).

Well, I read up on tree cutting and understood how to make the needed cuts and where.  The only problem is that this one particular tree didn't read the same instructions I did on where it was to fall.  Stupid Ass Tree!!!  It started falling backwards in the wrong direction (over my fence towards the neighbors property). 

Well I stopped my cutting and strapped the tree to an adjacent bigger tree.  It's holding so far...  If it makes it through out the night I'll call in a professional tomorrow to see if he/she/we can finish the job without damaging the fence or any property.  Hopefully if it does come down tonight it will only do some minor fence damage that I could perhaps fix tomorrow.

I'll follow-up this post tomorrow and let you know how it turned out.

-Good Night Irene

Okay, so I got the tree down today.  First I had to take down a section of my neighbour's privacy fence.  Then I had to take down my chain-link fence.  Finally I made the final cuts on the tree and brought it down.  I've been bucking the tree for hours in the 100° heat and had to go inside.  I have never sweat so much in my life.

The neighbour's fence has been re-assembled but my chain-link is still down.  I'll have to get a fence stretcher to put it back in order.  I'm in no hurry for that, it can wait a while.

Well that's it.  Tree is down and no damage. Nothing else to say for now.

HOWTO: Fix GPG errors for bad/deleted keys

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=7667086&postcount=1

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys

Ubuntu 10.04 - The Lucid Lynx has escaped!

Ubuntu 10.04 was released yesterday.  I've been Alpha / Beta testing it from the beginning.  It's been a fun ride and now it's rolling off the production line.  I really like the new theme and other features.  So far every thing works great with the exception of the Simple Backup Suite.  That application does nothing for me on Lucid.  I have discovered another great backup utility called deja-dup however.  It's late and I don't really have time to do justice to this entry, so I'll continue this tomorrow.  Good night.