King Arthurs Tech Life

Is Google+ growing?

2012-01-17T00:12:00.001-07:00

I just learned of two ways of telling how many people are using Google+1. Total number of Google+ Profiles :site:plus.google.com -inurl:about2. Total number of Posts :site:plus.google.com -inurl:postsIf you haven't used the :site: command in Google you need to give it a try. Select the text and highlight, Right Click, and select “Search Google for” on these linksRight now I get 186 million profiles, but probably only half of that are daily users. Yesterday I blogged about that facebook had 10 times more users, but according to Khalil only 9 times more unique users.

Google unveils Search Plus

2012-01-11T19:48:00.001-07:00

I have been watching the adoption of google plus grow like wild fire. Today, I have 111 followers. I think the main reason people are leaving facebook for google plus is how facebook treats your data. Google has a contact export feature where as Facebook doesn't.

The circle way of controlling your news stream seems a lot better as well. But today Google unveiled the killer idea that is going to push facebook into the dust and convert a lot of "on the fence" crowd to post to both places or only to Google Plus. It is called "Search Plus" It basically allows for content from your friends to be included in your Google search. So if you want to be noticed either as a singer or actor you better finish filling out your Google Plus Profile. Every one knows getting hits via search engine optimization techniques is a lot cheaper than paying for every hit. It still will be an interesting fight. Facebook has 10 times more users than Google Plus, but the growth rate on Google Plus is climbing and it is now starting to see the network effects. If you don't beleive me read this.

Facebook vs Google Plus

2011-11-07T11:30:00.000-07:00

Social media is nice because it allows you to expand your horizons. You can use it to keep you updated on people and happenings. Facebook relationship status indicator probably has the most page reloads of all. I just don't like it when Facebook starts spamming all your contacts in the hopes to generate more ad revenue. Sure Leonard Chapman is a friend, but do I want all of his friends and my friends to know we are friends? I thought Facebook had given up this evil practice, but I guess not. Google doesn't seem to be that evil. When you log in to plus.google.com for the first time it recommends to you 10 people. It then gives you a list of celebrities / technology people and gives you the option of following them. If you do follow someone, all yours and their friends aren't emailed like Facebook likes to do.That is why I have been asking my friends to post on google+ instead of facebook.com It does seem to be working as of today -- I have 84 friends on Google+ and 89 friends on Facebook. And who knows if you join plus.google.com today you might be the guy who makes me very happy. Having more google+ friends then facebook friends. And who knows I might even reward you with gifts. Have a great day, I know I will. Thanks for following me on g+

Google+ is growing at 20% per month.

2011-10-12T19:46:00.000-06:00

I was supprised to see something I posted on Google+ get quite a response today. So I decided to see what Google+'s growth rate is at and will it get over the 12% of online people in order to gain the network effect. One month ago Mark Zuckerberg had 1/2 million followers on Google+ and now he has 20% more. This 20% per month growth rate is what I have been experiencing also. I have just over 50 followers now and at a 20% per month growth rate I should have over 100 followers by February 2012. If network effect takes over it might be sooner. Who knew our trailer for sale would get that kind of response or maybe $30,000 is too cheap for a lot and a house.

Hangout+

2011-09-21T11:27:00.001-06:00

Another disruptive technology from Google got released today. In Google Plus there is this Hangout feature which enables you to meet others just like you do at church. Now, besides video conferencing you have the option of sharing your desktop. This will be a huge blow to webinar platforms. I will try to use it tomorrow for my peace computer session at the Hythe Community Centre. Helping others has never been this must fun.

Security - Viruses vs Facebook Connect

2011-09-02T16:32:00.000-06:00

What is worse? Viruses that have key loggers built-in or Facebook that tracks people's interest and monetizes that information. It seems that doing evil is fine as long as you can't get sued. Virus writers do it by being anonymous and Facebook does it by tracking your habits and selling them to the highest bidder. Virus removal software has been around for a while; and now we have something stops Facebook from abusing cookies. The extension is called On-Demand Cookie Cleaner - and it stops websites from tracking your identity. Maybe having your password stole is worst then being manipulated, but is it really? Both gave out info you really didn't want to give out. Go ahead and install the extension, your future self will thank me.

Open Source versus Libre Linux

2011-06-11T06:26:00.000-06:00

Mike and Richard have a great talk posted here. Programmers enjoy manipulating software just as cooks enjoy changing the recipes. In my life I have seen the birth the Android which allows people to modify code, not only the birth, but the growth, There now are more cell phones running Android software then Apple, Nokia/Microsoft or RIM. Hopefully I can get back to the ideals of Libre Linux (GPL) and not buy hardware that uses binary blobs. I want to thank the people who are good rather than mention the bad. Thanks Google and Canonical! I know a lot of people can't tell the difference between Skype or Gtalk, but one is Libre and one tries to lock you in. I would like to quote Richard Staleman here:

Bill Gates's idea of charity is to get school students hooked on Windows, so that he can make more money. That's not charity, I think

Open Source now available in Grande Prairie, Alberta Canada

2011-04-12T07:35:00.001-06:00

I am heading to GP today and I would like to offer my services as a pickup boy to anyone who wants to buy a tablet. This isn't the first time that Open Source software has been offered pre-installed on a computer, but this is the first time that it is now the best of the best in computer user experience. It's closest revel is Apple's tablet-the ipad. The Xoom is better because it supports flash and is not a beholder to Apple's software app limitations. Offer expires on the passover (April 18, 2011)
Thanks for being Noah's descendant!
King Arthur

Mission Accomplished: SCO Loses, Groklaw Closes | ZDNet

2011-04-11T17:24:00.000-06:00

Mission Accomplished: SCO Loses, Groklaw Closes | ZDNet I like this statement from PJ "Android has won. No matter what tricks Microsoft may pull going forward, the world knows now that when there was free choice in the marketplace, people chose Android, which runs on Linux, over Microsoft’s phone" I sure noticed this yesterday at the Taylor hockey tournament. Both Andrew and Michael showed me their new Android based phone. Freedom is such a powerful tool.

How to catch an Elk?

2011-03-28T09:52:00.000-06:00

Normally I post helps, but this time I would like help. I am trying to figure out how I can watch the Elk that are in my hay shed every other night. I am not sure if I should use wxcam or motion software to notify me when there is movement in the hay shed. I snapped a screen shot of the wxcam program and as you can see the menu allows for this service. Has anyone managed to get it to work? The motion software installs easily also, but my network routes through 2 dd-wrt routers. There is one in the hay shed and one in the house and for some reason it doesn't want notify me in the house when there is movement in the hay shed. Has anyone done this before, what software did you use? My camera is a $200 eeepc laptop.

We entered Mexico with our nails a little shorter.

2011-02-05T21:08:00.001-07:00

We had stashed an extra 5 suite cases filled with cloths for the Orphanage or a least that is what we thought Foundation For His Ministry‎ had given us to be delivered to San Vincente. After getting pulled over and the Mexican border officers dog had a good sniff I was sure that is what we were given to take across the boarder. Even with the talking and sniffing it only took us 5 minutes to get into Mexico.

Pulling back onto the highway the signs flashed before us and we knew we were headed the wrong way. With our gas gauge light on we thought we better turn back. After a couple of 3 lane traffic circles we found a Pemex gas station. The mid-size 2003 holds almost 500 peso, but we got to put it onto the MasterCard so everything was ok. This country accepts America dollars just as readily as the peso. My bank cards don't work at the Bankomex so it is a good thing Pemex accepts MasterCard

Heading South on Highway 1 we ran into 2 $2.25 toll booths and a $2.50 one, then a lady that wanted a donation for ambulance services which we gave a dollar. 280 km later we unloaded our 5 50lb suite cases and our community service was done. 2 street boys want me to give them a dollar so I took out a 5 dollar Canadian and they didn't like it as much as the 1 America dollar. Only 1 week ago the Canadian dollar was better than the America, but not according to these kids. They got scolded by a older Mexican woman for standing in the way of me being able to close my car door.

We were told to make sure we filled up in Encinada because it's 300 km of no services, but I did notices few trucks with barrels of gas on the back. I imaged it would be more than just $40 for a fill-up. As you can see by the pictures it is quite picturess and you can go pretty much whatever speed your willing to risk on the comers. Whatever the sign said you can usually double it. Most roads say 80km/h but I find 130km/h a reasonable speed, maybe it is because I have been travelling in the US and there most highways are 80 mph. There were 4 guard stops the first day before we spent the night at Desert Inn in Guerrero Negro. The sign said $85 /night, but we negotiated it down to $58 which I put on the MasterCard and it came out to be 700 peso. Too bad I can't use my Canadian debt cards down here, not even to withdrawn from an ATM.

2011 - Technology Update

2011-01-16T13:26:00.000-07:00

My technology life is getting to be strange. People are starting to ask me to install jabber, Ubuntu, Open Office onto their computers. That is what I have been recommending for quite a few years now. I know there are still people trying to follow Apple, but more and more people are starting to see that Steve Jobs is all about control. Their latest is not letting VLC player onto iTunes. Microsoft was never so blatant about keeping competition out of their software market.
A lot of this posturing will become mute when Chrome and Firefox 4 come out and people start uploading webm files. With Google backing this video formate and Microsoft/Apple only controlling 40% of the Browser Market, this to me is a fight that Google has already won. Gone will be the days when people use files that certain companies control via threats of lawsuits etc. The next hurdle to overcome is Facebook's walled garden approach, it is a lot like Apple's usage rules. These (TOS) rules are quite draconian in nature, but most of us don't bother complaining or closing our accounts. Maybe my niece (Kerry Cundal) with her new found fame can make the world a better place in this area. For more info see my next Buzz. Who says I can't use marketing manipulation also? All the best to you in 2011!

Rogers cell phone billing = confusopoly

2010-12-14T06:12:00.000-07:00

I got my bill yesterday and if you look and the underlined printing I subscribe to their 6 Gigbytes service for $30. I also pay $17.50 / month for 200 minutes of day time cell use. What concerns me is that extra data usage bill of $25.04. It doesn't make sense to charge 100 times more per MB just because I didn't pre know how much data I was going to use.
Can Rogers make money from irritating their customers? Do people still buy when they are confused about the billing? I am tempted to phone and cancel the service. What do you think? Is Rogers practising confusopoly? Should I cancel the service? Thanks for listening to my rant!

What is real and what is manipulation?

2010-11-22T07:36:00.000-07:00

As I tie into the solar radiation I experienced 46 years ago (only one more revolution till the age of Aquarius) I keep wondering what is real. It has been almost 40 years since Nixon took the US off of the gold standard and the monies we use today to exchange services indicate more and more that we are using fiat currencies. Without the Canadian dollar as a medium for exchange, what can we do? (Please comment on buzz because it is nice to have a social discussion). To me reality is:

food, water, air and shelter.
Gold is real, but not easy obtainable or standardised.
Land and buildings are real, but not easily transferable.

Having been a contrarian stock investor, the stock markets seem to have taken on the air of a gambling casino, and the pillars of greed and corruption go unchecked, virtually without bounds in our major financial institutions, and within the general fabric of society, but salt is real and more and more important.

Today I teach computers at the church in Hythe hoping more people will adopt open source because proprietary formats tend to lock people in. Even Microsoft's famous manipulation scheme -embrace -extend -extinguish hasn't allowed it to control the instant messaging market. In fact Microsoft 4 days ago adopted Jabber, but they will probably use it like facebook does --only allow instant messaging between their own domains so it is not much different from msn. Gmail with their open federation policy is the best instant messaging platform. I remember 6 years ago when I switch from hotmail to gmail wonder if Google was doing this as a manipulation scheme. I guess maybe because my heart is evil I have a hard time trusting the good people have to offer. So far, Google has been the best, biggest company promoting openness. They even offered up libvpx (webm) which I have been enjoying for it's video chat abilities. Even youtube which is own by Google allows for webm. I guess I want to thank the 100's that have taken the leap of faith with me into open software and open codecs and even those that just use the open encyclopaedia -- wikipedia. I do feel that when people get a taste for openness they will have a a hard time going back to vendor lock-in even with a 60 day trial or like Simply Accounting which now offers 1 year without payment (at least the student version I installed on Friday did) Moving data out of Simply into another accounting program can cost you a lot more. If my life becomes a conduit for truth and not just one companies version of how to manipulate people to make money, then I will die a happy man. Information is meant to be free. Thanks for commenting / linking!

The Unity Interface in Ubuntu 10.10

2010-10-26T10:26:00.000-06:00

My Nephew Mathew came over with his Dell Inspiron mini 10 so I thought I would upgrade him to Ubuntu 10.10. By default, the netbook edition installs the Unity interface, so I set about to teaching him and educating me on how to use the Unity interface.
The first thing you will notice is the Unity Launcher -- on the left side of your desktop. It shows a stack of applications icons, one for every application that is running or the applications you want to have quick access to. It replaces the Start/Applications menu and the bottom panel / task manager. It seems to be easy to get used to, at least Matthew was up and running without an issue.

The Good:

The Unity dash can be access using the Ubuntu button in the top left
The Software Center recommends software you should buy or just get for free.
You just need to install Mediubuntu and Flash and 99% of the Internet works.
Google video chat works with just a couple of clicks (Matthew likes phoning with his laptop, I am hoping I didn't teach him a bad thing)

The Bad:

Clicking on the "File Manager" doesn't launch Nautilus, but a rather a simple file browser which isn't as useful, but one more click on the top right side makes it okay by loading Nautilus.
Firefox and OpenOffice don't put their menus in the top global menu bar (top panel)

The Ugly:

I can't figure out how to add stuff to the Unity Launcher (I am trying to add the Educational submenu)
The Broadcom wifi chipset crashes when I installed the B43 proprietary driver. It reminds me of 9.10 when the Huwai 3g radio didn't work.

Fanbox is learn from Facebook -- Web marketing 101 -- Spam

2010-10-15T11:30:00.005-06:00

I got 3 emails this week that looked like this. All had a name of a close friend in the from area. Like this one has the name of Gerry Beckett. But if you hover your mouse over the friend's name you will see that it is not from your friend at all in fact he doesn't even know that he has sent you this email. If you click reply it will not even go to him. If you want your friend to know that www.fanbox.com has trick him in giving up his friends forward the email to him. I get upset with people when they intentionally do this to people who are just innocently clicking links to see what the computer will do next. This is how facebook got their user base not too long ago. Remember getting his email? Here is hoping you delete your facebook and your fanbox account. Or better yet never click on the email you got from @yourfanbox.

Is facebook doing the right thing?

2010-09-27T18:16:00.000-06:00

No, In the mind of Facebook, locking in users by holding their data captive is equally legitimate to actually making them want to stay, and it means more power for them. The problem is very simple. They own every piece of information about you that either you or your friends knowingly or unknowingly submit to them. They control who can see every bit of it, and they control how you can access it. You can bet when you delete something, it isn’t actually gone, that when you set something to private, there’s nothing to keep it that way, that when you want to see anything on Facebook, you’ll have to do it the way Facebook wants.
Buzz on the other hand allows you to keep your data as well as generating a discussion with your friends about the topic. You can post data and share it just with your friends as well as mute some parts of a friends feed. To me that seems the right mix between privacy and the enjoyment of other's people's pictures. Time will tell if Diaspora will be able to do a better job.

Wake up to Cell Phone or Email?

2010-09-09T09:18:00.000-06:00

Almost every morning for that last 20 years I have incorporated into my morning routine a glance at the cell phone to see if it is on and working. Now I have replaced the cell phone checking habit with a glance at my gmail's inbox / chat list. Gmail's Call Phone Option makes email and phoning all in one place and with my eyes getting dimmer I need every advantage I can get. Remember F11 for full screen or hold down control and press + to make the font bigger. It is also nice to be able to video chat with your brother when he gets up in the early morning, just like me. Ed, when you make video calls, you can click on the top left corner of the video window and it will become full-screen, to make it small again click the top left corner again. If clicking doesn't work press alt F4 or you can setup keyboard shortcuts. Cnet has a good video on the subject.
Happy Videoing. Remember Jabber is Open Source so any domain (not just gmail) can do this. Now if I could only get rid of my morning cup of coffee.

Where has all my Hard Drive Gone? Baobab to the rescue.

2010-09-07T12:10:00.001-06:00

This Eee PC comes with only 4 Gigs of hard drive. I let Jesse use it so he could jabber with family ad friends when he was in Turkey. Back at PRBI now and a desktop suites him fine. It left with over 1.5 gigs of hard drive free and came back with 0.1 Gigs -- not even enough for an update. What to do? Gtalk for help. Lets see who is online. My other nephew Craig pointed me in the right direction -- Baobab. Baobab is a disk use analyzer. It quickly showed me that my home folder had 1 gig of data and that most of it was under .mozilla and .thumbnails. I guess this laptop was used to view over 18,000 photos in Turkey. Each image viewed in F-spot had a thumbnail of it stored in .thumbnails/normal, in fact over 1/2 a Gig in that folder. WOW Each image was only 128 x 96 but every 4K file adds up. I just moved them all to trash and emptied trash. Thanks for Craig for helping me out with computers! Ubuntu is people helping people.
This is what BAOBAB looks like.

A look at voice in the future.

2010-09-06T12:59:00.000-06:00

With voice phoning to any number now included in Gmail, one can easily envision the death of ten digit numbers for quick access to other people's voices. A lot of companies want to expend their communication profile to include voice, but which one will win? Companies like Google, Microsofts 's MSN, Yahoo, and Ebay's Skype, etc, realize they can make money with real-time interaction and more money with Voice and Video communications. The only open phoning protocol is Gmail's use of the XMPP. So that is why Google and others, that federate with Google's Gmail, will win. The black horse in this race is Facebook who uses the same protocol, but they don't federate with other domains, but if they do than this point is mute. This Jabber technology will become the bases of future voice communications . WHY?

People change phone numbers and you are not automatically updated. In Gmail the cloud backs up your personal contacts and in Google / Buzz is used to search for new businesses / people.
Phone Numbers belong to Operators/Countries (travel overseas for a month and your phone number belongs to someone else -- your email account is much more personal. i.e. I can log into Gmail via my android, my computer or a friend's Iphone.
With Jabber you can control who can call you. On regular phone you are often the victim of unwanted calls.
Your Instant Message presence indicators can relay info like "do not disturb" or how you are feeling or what you are selling.

Use Ubuntu - Think about people not just about money.

2010-09-03T12:28:00.000-06:00

As I sit here installing Ubuntu on my friend's Sony laptop, her words "you have never done me wrong" keep ringing in my ears. So instead of fixing her Windows issues, I put Ubuntu on it. I am worried about her simply accounting and game familiarity integration. Change is harder as we get older and maybe that is why I am nervous. How much faster will the computer be? I usually find Ubuntu to be twice as fast as Windows. What repositories should I install? I guess I should install WINE, just in-case.
Maybe Ubuntu gives us too much freedom or is there just too many options. It takes me 2 hours to do this. If i fixed windows $80 x 2 = $160, but it is Ubuntu $25 x 2 = $50 Or maybe I should just charge my normal rate, after all it will be better for them and the world.

No long distance charges, Use: voice.google.com

2010-08-25T22:03:00.000-06:00

I wonder how many new gmail users there will be this week? A lot of people want to save money on long distance phoning. Gmail is the only video conference service that allows it's users to use another domain other than gmail. A lot of my friends use the hythe.ca domain. Voice, chat and emailing isn't a issue. Most people now days can't remember back to when email between AOL and Compuserve and other domains was not possible. I do. This is why I take people off Hotmail, yahoo and Skype and put them on open Instant Messaging / Voice and Video systems. Happy Communications.

Google helps out with Open Communications

2010-08-20T09:08:00.001-06:00

http://www.google.com/chat/video

Google joined forces with the jabber community and have enabled audio and video inside the browser. Up till now you had to install Empathy or Pidgin in Ubuntu to get video working. This will go a long way in easing the computer interface. You can just save the google-talkplugin_current_i386.deb file then when you click on the file, it should open the deb file package manager. After the installation just restart your browser. ENJOY

Ubuntu 10.04.1 Released

2010-08-19T13:30:00.000-06:00

Ubuntu 10.04.1
It saves you about 300 Megs of updating, but it still doesn't have everything you need to talk and share your Ubuntu desktop. For that you need to install

gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse
FFmpeg
Telepathy-core

Now, you can video chat with all your jabber friends, even if they are using Apple or Microsoft software. The other option is to install the google-talkplugin.deb
Enjoy

Using a data plan to phone via link2voip helps Canadian keep the sanity.

2010-08-13T12:34:00.001-06:00

Have you ever wondered why your cell phone looses all it's minutes each month? It looses all it's data also. Having a plan that saves unused minutes to next month would be normal. If I leave gas in my truck at the end of the month it is there when I start the truck next month. The gas company didn't poke a hole into my tank and drain it. First they make you pay for x amount of minutes, they make you guess also, then if you don't use what you thought you would the cell company pockets that. I guess I am looking forward to alternatives. I did find that installing sipdroid on my Android allows me to phone via my data plan. It works through link2voip

Who knew browsing had this much risk?

2010-07-23T13:51:00.001-06:00

Have you ever wondered why piracy is rapid in our culture? Answer: We try to catch up to the big companies in making or saving monies. Look at this website image and see if you can spot the manipulation. The RED comes via my pen.
In order to click on that BIG "GO" button you must first sign that you will not compete with the company and second give up your IP rights. But who reads the 4 pages of fine print just to see a picture from a friend. At least with facebook you only have to give your life away once.

Empathy 2.31.5 now has popup dialog boxes.

2010-07-19T17:36:00.000-06:00

After getting Voice and Video in Ubuntu 10.04 via the Open XMPP protocol, I was happy; but, end users just couldn't figure out how to double click on the person's name to answer the call and connect, so my exhilaration faded.

But now a new day has arrived, Empathy finally gained an option to automatically present incoming events rather than just making the status icon blink. Can you spell "EASE OF USE"? The notifications bubbles now contain more buttons allowing you to quickly accept or decline incoming events. Now my relatives and I can talk openly.

Empathy 2.31.5 now has popup dialog boxes.

2010-07-19T15:50:00.006-06:00

After getting Voice and Video in Ubuntu 10.04 via the Open XMPP protocol, I was happy, but, end users just couldn't figure out how to double click on the person name to answer the call and connect, so my exhilaration faded.

But now a new day has arrived, Empathy finally gained an option to automatically present incoming events rather than just making the status icon blink. Can you spell "EASY OF USE"? The notifications bubbles now contain more buttons allowing you to quickly accept or decline incoming events. Now my relatives and me can talk openly.

How to Rip a Cd

2010-06-21T10:35:00.001-06:00

Did you know that ripping CD's is now part of Rhythmbox Wow! Life is getting to be too good with Ubuntu default install. So after you stick in your CD and start Rhythmbox you will see a CD like icon (shown in the picture in yellow) under the Devices folder. After clicking you then decide if you want to rip all the tracks and if all blanks are filled in right. By default Rhythmbox uses Sound-Juicer 160kbits/s and ogg format. The file is then stored in your Music folder under Artist and then Album. Previous to Ubuntu 10.04 we had to do ripping in grip. This is nice, but I find that clicking on Jamendo and then download is the easiest way to get the best music out there.

Internet media has gotten it's first leaves -- WEBM

2010-06-15T12:14:00.000-06:00

At this time of year a lot of us farmers are looking at our land and seeing if the Cotyledon leaves are what we envisioned 3 weeks ago. Beans to me are the most interesting because their seed shell rises above the ground almost like saying

"I am the best, I am the tallest, I get the most sun."

This epigeal phenomena is happing with the Internet. Ogg and other Open Source formats have been under ground developing their cotyledon leaves and now they are ready to say I am better than proprietary formats. Sure it took till 2010, but now Firefox, Opera and Chrome are all supporting webm Sure harvest is still a year or 2 away, but the leaves that will stem from this will be a great harvest. I am already telling all my clients, "Make sure your website is HTML5"

Open Source Communication -- I like it.

2010-06-10T16:17:00.001-06:00

Starting at 10am and were done by 4pm
Notice the rear window is not in the truck and we are talking behind Marcy's back.
Alan: Your truck doesn't have a pane in it . . . No pains in that truck.
Marcy: Its a convertible.
Ed: You don't have to wash the back window
Alan: Open Source communication.

We all can enjoy Open Communication.

Ubuntu and Nerd TV

2010-05-19T08:26:00.002-06:00

I started watching The Big Bang Theory TV and low and behold Shelden likes Ubuntu

Cossfest 2010

2010-05-18T06:54:00.000-06:00

Great People great work at www.cossfest.ca Great time in Calgary, Alberta
javascript:void(0)

Using Empathy for Remote Desktop Support

2010-05-11T16:18:00.000-06:00

With Ubuntu there are lots of people that what to help YOU succeed, so if a friend is good a doing something why not share your desktop with him and let him help you. All you need is the default install of Ubuntu and a gmail account. (any jabber account will do).

Ubuntu 10.04 Released and Ubuntu 10.10 getting even better.

2010-05-11T10:03:00.000-06:00

People helping people is what it is all about not criticising others for being able to manipulate the market via a pre-installed OS. Good thing the EU now allows for browser choice, but I still think companies rule the world more that politics. Example. Greece now works for the IMF.

Ubuntu 10.04 Released

2010-04-29T07:26:00.001-06:00

I know it is hard to get excited about an Operating System because it's forta is to be unnoticed. This release has more social networking tools built in then any that came before. In fact Jesse (my nephew) needed to be able to phone home while in Turkey this month so I through Ubuntu 10.04 on an eeepc 900 and got him to sign into his gmail account in Empathy and we were talking. Empathy has remote desktop built in so when he was waiting for his plane in Grande Prairie we could talk and I could show him how to install and configure the other programs he wanted. All done via default install and all done via open source software. Ubuntu 10.04 is awesome. Everything for under $200 doesn't hurt a school boys budget either.

Sierra Wireless usb 306 and Ubuntu 10.04

2010-04-27T11:26:00.000-06:00

Installed Ubuntu 10.04 on a Acer Aspire 3680 this morning. He needed Telus's USB Stick to work. So I clicked on "New Mobile Broadband connection" and clicked on Telus and it worked. Great I better install Xiphos since he is a preacher.

How to print your Ipad document.

2010-04-17T07:08:00.000-06:00

People are figuring it out how to print from an Ipad. Sure this might seem archaic to you, but you haven't lost all your hair trying to find a print driver for this Apple device.

Rogers Internet Coverage-- 21Mbps in Yellow 300Kbps in Red

2010-03-31T08:12:00.000-06:00

More info about Rogers new service can be found at:
http://www.rogers.com/web/content/internet-mobile/hubplans
http://www.itworldcanada.com/blogs/cooltools/2009/12/03/rogers-rocket-hub-roundup/52578/
Basically $35 / month for 3 Gigs $5 more per Gig after.

CLEVER IDEAS WORTH KNOWING

2010-03-31T08:01:00.001-06:00

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store.
If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.. I didn't know that!

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminium foil.
It will stay fresh much longer and not mould!

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating.
Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef.
It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.
To really make scrambled eggs or omelettes rich add a couple of
Spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.
For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.
Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste
Of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.
Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!
                                                   Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a non-stick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm.
This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up.
Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg.
Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size.
You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.
                                           Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in
A microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food
Moist and help it reheat faster.

Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers,
Put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and for-
Get about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not
Get through wet newspapers.

Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-t ip t o pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.
                            No More Mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.
      Squirrel Away!

To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it. (Wonder if this works with rabbits? Sure gonna give it a try)

              Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water.
Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such
As peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!
                                    Re opening envelopes
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.

Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!
(This will definitely try!!!)
                    INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material .. I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. Well .... the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit.You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free ... that nice fragrance too. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box ... well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long-time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!?! Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that. So, I thought I'd share!
Note: I went to my dryer and tested my screen by running water on it. The water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water and a nylon brush and I had it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it .. the water ran right thru the screen! There wasn't any puddling at all! That repairman knew what he was talking about!

First Day with my Android

2010-03-24T12:05:00.001-06:00

Having been a smart phone user for 20 months, I kind of knew what I was expecting when I bought the Nexusone. I was blown away. Like Craig Illustrates If the Iphone represents one step in options up a ladder the Android represents 20 steps. I can now:

See my voice mail as text on the screen.
Translate my voice into other languages and
Sync music without having to use Itunes.

All of which Apple users can't do. Plus, I am not sure if Apple users will ever get these apps. Anybody want a useless Iphone?

DD-WRT and D-Link DIR-615C1

2010-03-11T11:10:00.002-07:00

I have been waiting for dd-wrt to offer support for D-Link DIR-615 for quite a while. The dd-wrt site still says D-Link Routers still don't support the dd-wrt software, but, I know they do. At least it works for me.

Three caveats though.

You need a hex editor like ghex2 to edit the binary file to 00AP81-AR9130-RT-070614-02.
You need to have Hardware version C1
You need to put the router into recovery mode by holding in the reset button while you plug in the power.

DD-WRT Supported Routers

Ubuntu and Telus and Huawei --Internet

2010-03-09T09:08:00.006-07:00

All three organizations want to do the same thing for people --help them use the Internet. So why is Telus's tech support being so hard headed? It is not a hard thing to connect the Huawei e182e USB stick that Telus sells to Ubuntu. You just plug it in and enter Telus's APN setting numbers which is sp.telus.com or isp.telus.com if you need to tether. The stick preforms decently at a speed 6 mbits/s and the ping rate was 42 msec. Huawei says the stick is capable of 21 Mb/s that is faster then the fastest ADSL connection (15Mb/s). for more info visit islandlinux.org Ubuntu 10.04.1 and Ubuntu 10.10 have these settings built in.

So your setting screen should look like this.

Facebook -- a "how to" in manipulation.

2010-02-24T16:44:00.000-07:00

We stopped at Hood River on our journey home and being from Canada we are experts in all snow related games. So, we converted our friends into watching curling; because it is a lot like football we can argue over the best rock to throw. The weird part about watching the Olympics on TV is the length of commercials. The house sometimes has 8 rocks in play before the commercials end. Wow, that is worst than watching telemarketing. We take turns in muting the channel in order to keep our sanity. Mind you, facebook takes the cake in my opinion. It displays targeted ads that keep getting better and better at manipulating their users. Having a good understanding about psychology helps me avoid getting strangled by the facebook ad machine. Even the way facebook tells all your friends that so and so has became a friend of so and so seems to me a rude way to make money. I find the best way to revolt is to not use their service. Buzz on Gmail does everything facebook can do without the manipulation so, for me it is a no brainier. Join together with me and start using www.twitter.com and www.gmail.com until facebook cleans up their act.

Cheering for the Open Source Community!! We have almost won!

2010-01-19T15:58:00.001-07:00

Well, we finally made it to LA to watch the LA Kings and the San Jose Sharks fight it out. Sports in a lot of ways brings out the best and worst in humans. The best because teams have to learn to help their team-mates and worst because they have to try to hurt the opposing team. The quality of the players are enhanced via the competition factor. Without M$ and Apple fighting with us Open Source advocateors we might become lackadaisical in our code. :

NOTE When you use
proprietary software, you
become a customer of the
company that is selling you its
product. When you use Open-
Source software you
automatically become part of a
community, whether you want
to or not. Allow me to boldly
suggest that you donate to the
Open-Source community. The
amount you donate is
irrelevant; the fact is that as
conscientious members of this
worldwide community we
ought to encourage Open-
Source growth.

I sometimes push people into using Firefox and Open Office before they are ready to make the switch to Open Source and before they realize why Open Source is better for the harmony of the world. Here in LA right now we see a police following a car to the impound lot and a beggar on the other corner. Force and rules don't always make people turn out better. Some beggars intentionally weave their way into traffic hoping to get noticed more thereby getting more monies and a better life. I have chosen, in twenty ten, to give people who use Ubuntu higher priority on my help scale because they can improve the world we live in easier. Go, GO you M$ and Apple lovers and help us Open Source people sharpen our skills.

Grande Prairie is going green!

2009-12-23T08:55:00.003-07:00

On the way to Grande Prairie, Alberta we saw Golden Sheep Power making our county a better place, by installing 20Kwatt generators.

$180,000.00 vs Free -- Not a hard decision.

2009-12-19T07:13:00.001-07:00

McDonalds plans to stop charging for its Wi-Fi in mid-January in the US. you aren't even required to make a purchase — 'free is free,' With around 20,000 free hotspots between McDonald's and Starbucks (who went free[ish] earlier this year), anyone still charging for Wi-Fi is going to look foolish, if not downright greedy. Compare this to Rogers (see chart) $3/MegaByte -- plus plus plus. I think when I am in the US I will just use wifi. So instead of paying Rogers and Microsoft to get information. I will use McDonalds and FON wifi and use Open Source software. I guess I need to donate more to FON and Wikipedia and Ubuntu. Better than paying Rogers $180,000 for my 60 gigs of data I normally get in a month. How can the same data be charged at so different a rate?

Skype vs Jingle (Jabber)

2009-12-14T06:40:00.004-07:00

Every time a big company like Google backs a standard it becomes the standard just because Google backs it. Google has now bought Gizmo and with this comes Google's entrance into the SIP/Jingle protocol.
Their are quite a few advantages of using Jingle over Skype.
Here is just a few:
1. Off-line message - If the contact you are trying to reach is off-line just send them an email. In Skype you can't send emails.
2. You can use your domain name as a address. In Skype you have to use Skype's domain
3. It is part Multi-protocol client list. In Skype only the Skype protocol is allowed.
4. The software is Open Source-- it can be checked by someone not working for Skype to make sure there is no spy-ware in it.
5. It supports fast file exchanges, I think Skype doesn't have enough money for good proxy servers.
6. Remote Desktop is just a click away in Empathy. Skype needs third party software like yuuguu.

Dell's Canadian Ubuntu Laptops

2009-12-12T06:44:00.006-07:00

In the US, Dell is listing 4 different Ubuntu systems for sale. In Canada they are listing only one. Like most retailers if you move lots of product the mark-up can be small, but if the returns are high then the mark-up has to include the product to offset the cost of processing those returns unless you are using it as a lost leader. The problem Dell has in Canada is not the return rate, but the fact that Microsoft pays for the sys admins to manage dell.ca for the price of an add on every page. Yes, the ad says something to the effect of buy M$ latest software. So to encourage Dell to make Ubuntu more prominent on their website I propose the following:
1. Offer Dell a less than M$ return rate or
2. Have Ubuntu Laptop sales go to another product dispenser. However, Dell has been doing a reasonable job. Like my friend Norm says "Dell is trying hard within the constrictions of the North American legal system"
3. Have Canonical host the selling system Dell is using. Forcing M$ to pay fair market value for advertising.
Every time you sell a new product there are lots of risks. It's sad M$ would sue Dell if they pre-installed Ubuntu-restricted-extras and Dell has to pre-install the fluendo codecs. So, let's keep on buying from Dell and hopefully pre-installed Ubuntu laptops will be a money maker for them.

People who search for "Ubuntu" who live in Alberta

2009-12-11T16:00:00.003-07:00

I was thinking this year as we head south for warmer weather that we would stop in at the towns who use "Ubuntu" in their googleing. You know me I am willing to talk to anyone about Open Source. If I wear my Ubuntu shirt with my Ubuntu bag slung over my shoulder and lots of stickers on my laptop, who knows we should be able to find lots of people to talk to.

Facebook vs Twitter vs Jabber

2009-12-07T16:52:00.004-07:00

Today I was online with Empathy and chatting with people from 5 of the 7 continents (5 different countries) I have yet to achieve that with skype even though I have been a skype user for over 10 years and only a voip jabber user for 1 month. This happens so quickly because a lot of my gmail users have already been invited to chat (see my online presence). A lot of teenagers have moved away from msn to use facebook to chat with their friends. Some are even using Twitter. Both facebook and twitter and jabber use XMPP as their server protocols, but that is where their similarity ends. Jabber can be used on any domain, but Twitter and facebook use walled gardens locking people in ie. I can send messages within their domain, but not to other domains. A twitter person can't message a facebook person and vise versa. Reminds me when an CompuServe user couldn't email a Prodigy user. Where are these companies today? I update my Jabber status 3 times as often as my Twitter status. Facebook is using too much deceit by saying only "friends" can view your updates" The reality is far different. I use it as a police line up to tell me the quality of my future renters. It is getting to be better than equifax. As time goes on more and more will be using twitter rather than facebook, because it represents the headlines of a person's life, with a short link, Blogs can be used to fill in the details.

No 3G if you buy Windows 7

2009-11-28T05:37:00.009-07:00

I found this out yesterday while helping a friend setup a Bell usb stick. This is the first kink in Microsoft's armour that has effected me. Normally if your manufacturing a usb 3G cellular modem you make sure you have the driver perfected for M$ computers. Or,I guess Qualcomm never got the memo from M$. They might have switched sides to support Goggle, IBM and other open access companies. Even Dell doesn't bow to M$ any more, Every since Michael Dell can use Google Android platform to sell their smart phones they don't care how much M$ threatened them. In fact, every day that goes by it is Steve Balmer bowing more and more to Michael Dell. His method of manipulation is coming to an end.
If you need Internet and want the 3g usb modem to work either use Ubuntu or buy a fon router. Most 3g usb modems just plug into the router and work.

Instant Messaging is now open

2009-11-24T08:55:00.003-07:00

I am starting to enjoy Empathy and the features it now offers. Remote desktop being the most important. Not having to worry about Network Address Translation or router configuration in general makes Ubuntu people able to help other Ubuntu people easily. Even newbies helping newbies Talk about a receipie for success. With Yuuguu you have to setup another account and install one more annoying application. Yuuguu almost is as bad as Skype for this, both default to automatically boot when your computer starts. Mind you they both aren't as bad as MSN that you can't remove from your start-up process. Mind you most people who use M$ programs don't worry about quick boot times. Many features of the popular chat clients (Yahoo, AIM, MSN) are not available in the alternative clients. And implementing them is not only difficult, but the companies would/will try to prevent this via technical and/or legal means. That is why I stick to Empathy. I find, it is better to encourage people to stick to the standards (jabber/voip) and make them easier to use. Maybe even integrate Pidgin/Kopete/Empathy with Ekiga or some other voip client to make this happen with standard protocols. Open Instant Messaging has been in dark ages for quite a few years. It is time for it to be opened up like email was 15 years ago. Join gmail.com or other domains that federate with Google and lets get Instant Messaging on the road to usefulness.

As for supporting the additional features in MSN/AIM such as voice calls and video and what not is a wast of time IMHO, because you would need to reverse engineer much of it only to have them change the specs to cut you off. The solution to that problem is making them work with Wine. So if you absolutely want/need proprietary stuff you can use the original program.

It's my birthday. - A day in the life of a King

2009-11-22T07:03:00.008-07:00

Well, let me see, it is 2009 years since Christ was born and I was born in 1964 that means I have circled the sun 45 times, but more importantly I have been using the x86 architecture for over 30 years. Who says computers change daily. LOL I know a lot of people would want my blog to be about technology and how to exchange info easily; but it my birthday so I don't care how many people I help.--lie LOL. I will tell you about my day yesterday.
November 21, 2009 start with me trying to track down a moose, with our dog Chika being great at sniffing out where the moose went,and me being to old to run though the deep snow. We never got the moose and Chika was confused at how I wanted her to help me. Then after feeding the cows I went in the house to my $300 x86 3GigHz computer, read my rss feeds and watched some NCIS while Judy and I ate cream of wheat with blueberries. At noon I took 2 power-saws and fell 3 dead trees. One busted my fence even though I was standing 8 feet off the ground cutting it off at over 10 feet up. The base fell 2 feet away from the stump so the tree top touched the wire, ok the top was over 10 feet past the wire anyways. It is hard to tell how tall the trees are when they are standing or to fall them the way they are not leaning. Alan called from Ecuador so I spend 2 hours helping him. The first hour was done via chatting without seeing his desktop. In Ubuntu 9.10 the easiest Remote Desktop comes via Empathy Messenger. After entering his Gmail credentials it took 20 minutes to get him to figure out how to answer the empathy voip phone. We need to work on Empathy Usability for newbies. (make it flash more where the user is to click to accept calls). After seeing his desktop we did a desktop / networking lesson. He was using free Internet at McDonald. good enough for VoIP and Desktop Sharing, but hard to send Video and every 10 minutes, if too many Mcdonaldites were online, the VoIP would degrade. I had to hang up because the basement window was open and the 3 trees I fell weren't getting into the basement without human intervention. The temperature was dropping a degree a minute. I finished up in the dark and closed the basement window before the 20 below hit this morning. After eating pizza for supper it was on to helping my other brother Ed who has a decent Internet and has Empathy figured out -- almost. We transferred Farmer Joe -starring King Arthur if you haven't watched it yet your missing out. I had to use Yuuguu for remote desktop for some reason. The audio via google talk was better than through the cell phones even with the blackberry. We enjoyed reading craigslist together trying to buy up Fort St. John. Almost as good as garage saleing together. We never bought or sold anything. Then Mark trying to remotely view my 24 inch desktop on his 7 inch eeepc. Empathy handled the info, but the scroll buttons on the eeepc got worn out being dragged back and forth. Saturday are usually my time to watch hockey, but laughing with my brothers can be just as enjoyable. I got to bed before midnight. Thanks for spending the day with me.
Happy Birthday from Lorna, from Charlene

Windows 7 and the blue screen of death.

2009-11-03T04:42:00.004-07:00

Well I got to fix a Windows 7 machine yesterday. It couldn't connect to the wireless network. It was asking for the Router's number instead of the WPA2 password. It would have only been a 5 minute job if it handed given me the blue screen. A slow reboot got it running again. It still takes over a minute to start-up Windows7. If this is the best M$ can do I would look elsewhere. Ubuntu boots in 20 seconds, doesn't have all those pop ups / ads /crap-ware installed. This poor product by Microsoft will make Canada and the USA less competitive in the world. Maybe I should move to where people make good products and enjoy helped each other out. Any ideas where? Someplace where Andre isn't the only one working.

Top things to do after installing Ubuntu 9.10

2009-10-30T17:26:00.005-06:00

Most of my day today was spent installing Ubuntu on older computers. Microsoft's software had crashed and they needed their computer for checking their email, banking etc. After updating the restricted hardware drivers I fix the most common issue people have with Ubuntu-- "Not being able to play protected formates." To fix this the terminal command is.
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras
Enter your password and you are ready to use your computer. I like to copy more then one item so I also install parcellite.

Remote Desktop - Yuuguu vs Empathy

2009-10-27T14:24:00.003-06:00

With Yuuguu releasing their 64 bit version of Remote Desktop, I thought I would give them a link to increase their page ranking on Google. So here is where you get the file. I havn't been having any remote desktop support issues with Empathy, but Empathy only runs on Open Source Kernels so Windows 7+/- and Leopard 10.5+/- are out of luck. This probably explains why I have been setting up a new Ubuntu 9.10 system daily. Ok maybe it because it is new and everybody wants to try it out--Not! Most people don't like change. Watch this movie if you don't believe me. Yuuguu works well if you you have to remote into a Windows 7+/- machine but I prefer Empathy. Empathy allows for talking as your helping the other person out. It even supports file transfer.

Gmail vs Hotmail vs Skype - Instant Communication

2009-10-07T11:50:00.006-06:00

As more and more people avoid answering unknown callers, people will use online presence indicators more and more. The most common ones are Gmail, Hotmail and Skype. Which one is the best / worse.
Worse -- Hotmail -why?
1. In email, it spams all your contacts. Everytime you send out an email along with it another Microsoft ad is attached. I remember once having a virus that did that. SAD. Microsoft is saying in effect "Spamming your friends is the price you have to pay to have this 'FREE' email account." People who don't care about their friends getting spammed should use this. Skype and Gmail don't do this.
2. You have to use Microsoft controlled domains in order to exchange chats / talk / video. They do, however, allow emails to be exchanged. Skype is guilty of this also.
3. You have to use Microsoft software to exchange info. There is no video client for Linux and the Mac client has issues.
Best-- Gmail -Why?
1. It allows for Google wave.
2. Spam control, no more worries.
3. Email IM all in one place.
4. Remote syncing - no more having to bring your device into the shop to get reprogrammed (synced with Outlook).
5. Jabber (XMPP) can be used on any domain.
6. You can host your own Jabber server.
7. Too many more to mention.

What 25 years can do. Live and Learn

2009-09-30T09:15:00.009-06:00

In 1985 I was at NAIT taking Electronics Engineering. The Internet hadn't been invented yet and we were busy sharing our excitement of unseen forces - electrons. The thought of hiding the results of the gold leaf experiment was a foreign to us as stealing the gold. We just assumed everyone had our best interest at heart and for the most part they did. Fast forward 25 years and we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of software freedom. Thanks in a large part to Richard Stalman and Linus. Now days it seems it is ok to steal the gold as long as you don't get caught. Music and DVD's are dangled in front of us trying to get us to buy and then if they get our attention they throw in Digital Rights Management. It is like taking your shirt off to enjoy the Sun and the Sun then charges you. Ubuntu doesn't get caught in with this deceitful practice. The developers release the best code for all to enjoy and that is why I try to help them out whenever I can. Sure I could be installing Vista +1 on everyone's computer, but as soon as people try to use it they will run into DRM. Life is about learning to live peacefully with others. Every time someone sues me I have a harder time giving that person my blessing. Microsoft is now trying to protect their Market Share by giving away their anti-virus code. The freedom here is to use the code for free, but not to modify it. Mind you Microsoft's suing potential is not as strong as it once was, now that nobody needs their software and people who run Ubuntu only save regularly 50% on their information exchange costs. I am hoping that I can be instrumental in helping people exchange info. Too bad it is so hard to tell who is trying to help you and who is trying to hose you.

Rogers 3G comes to Grande Prairie County

2009-09-29T12:14:00.002-06:00

Coming back from the Alberta Community Futures Symposium I was delighted to see 3g coverage just pasted the Little Smoky River. Now I am typing this from the farm which has been spiting back over 1 Megb/sec via speedtest's website. This is good news for all of the county residence. Looking back at when I was trying to get wireless into the county and the hassles we had 3g seems like a great service. It does seem strange that I had my 3g phone for over 1 year before I made real use of it's 3g capabilities.

First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win

2009-09-09T19:21:00.006-06:00

Well, it looks like Microsoft has come out fighting with Windows 7. Will 2010 be the downfall of Microsoft. When Microsoft forces you to choose sides a lot of customers with fight back. Thanks for the competition Microsoft you gave your shareholders a good ride. 2009 you have lost 40 billion dollars from your war chest after having laid off 5000 people. If you only lose 40 billion in 2010 Ubuntu will have done its job. People will be better off because off Open Source software. We all know the viruses pre-installed in your software.

Rogers and Tethering Access

2009-08-13T15:51:00.004-06:00

I got my bill from Rogers today. Hopefully I have highlighted tethering enough so your eye is attracted to that area of the bill. I have been tethering my Ubuntu computer to my Roger's Iphone for quite a while now and I hear that they will allow it until December. If you need to learn how to do that just share your desktop with me via Empathy. I tether my laptop via bluetooth. And after pairing the iphone with your computer type "sudo pand --connect 00:26:4A:64:??:?? -n" into terminal, enter your password and type "sudo ifup bnep0" It works great, but as you can see I don't get close to my allotted 6Gigs. VoIP doesn't really work over the cellular network :( Too bad I can't get rid of this Iphone garbage and get a Android, I could I guess, but I still have 2 years remaining on my contract.

Empathy vs Skype vs Yahoo talk

2009-08-10T16:15:00.002-06:00

Empathy is already starting to save me gas.. --No pressure from outsiders any more. To help another Ubuntu person out you just load Empathy, log into your favour jabber enabled account, (I use gmail) and click share desktop as you are talking to your friends via lib-jingle. Remote desktop and computer training are getting easier.

Rogers, Bell or Telus?

2009-08-07T12:55:00.005-06:00

Must be using Ubuntu 9.04 or later

Tried to setup mobile Internet on Roger, -no luck- could not get the radio to be recognized as a non-usb stick via the program ozerocdoff. So M Bailey went to get a stick from Bell and it just worked. I have found that Telus's Stick just works also. Here is the info you need to know.

Empathy now has Desktop Sharing

2009-07-30T13:11:00.006-06:00

I thought I would give the beta version of Ubuntu 9.10 a try this morning. Wow was I impressed. Empathy is now version 2.27.5 and it has remote desktop sharing. Just right click on the person you want to share with and click share desktop. The remote viewer can now just click on the invitation and violla he sees your desktop. This is very helpful and it runs at the core philosophy of Ubuntu --people helping people. Most of us Ubuntu lovers will wait another two months to see this, but I just couldn't wait. Mind you, I just finished setting up a Windows 98 on 15 Mbits/sec Internet today. So we all are at different stages of our software use abilities. I even had to use IE6 which isn't supported by a lot of websites any more. I think that is one of the reasons why I don't mind using Open Source software--It enables everyone to use the same software without financial restrictions. The best reason still is it is free to change to suit your needs. All righty then

13 people 340 km up (only one toliet)

2009-07-20T17:20:00.004-06:00

With 13 people 340 km up and only one toliet you got to have good communication. I can see the 2 Canadian Astronauts
having Empathy for each other, but all 13? Ever since my motorbike accident, I have gastro-intestinal challenges, so I know what personal pressure Astronauts can feel. It is now 40 years since Neil stepped onto the moon and we have 13 people flying around the earth. Wow this is something to blog about.

Jabber and file transfer

2009-06-29T12:27:00.003-06:00

Today marks a major breakthrough in information exchange. You can now be chatting with anyone of your gmail contacts and then send them a file (picture, movie etc) that you have been working on. The 10 Mega Byte limit has always be a hindrance to the amount of data you can exchange. Now this paper cut is forever gone in the Open Source World People that learn about computers from now on will aways think this was part of the computer experience. Come join gmail and start enjoying what Google can do for you.

Hug Empathy Day

2009-06-18T15:00:00.008-06:00

Making useful food can take quite a long time to grow. Making useful software like Empathy can take longer. With -4C on June 8 and a the same temperature expected 2 months later, you have to be on the ball here if you want farm fresh produce. It takes a minimum of 60 days to grow lettuce, peas, onions and beans. It has taking over 3 years from when Google released libjingle and Nokia released Telepathy till we now have an open source voice/video communications like skype. In that time skype users have doubled. I still think open source will be able to take back the Voice Video exchange of the Internet. If some people want to become hip now you can join early. By joining early you can help make Empathy better by join the Ubuntu Global Jam.

Tips for those humans who desire more.

2009-06-14T15:12:00.005-06:00

Helping people isn't always about the money. Every time we go out to a fancy restaurant I wonder if the waiter/waitress is being nice because they are being real or if it is because she might get a bigger tip. Or does the employer have a knack for hiring people that actually care for the people they serve food to a few time per life. How are these servers different than the ones at McDonalds who don't get tips. They make 3 times the money for the same amount of work. With more self esteem you can demand more money. I just sometimes feel guilty for giving more tips to the higher paid person.

Shareaholic for Firefox :: Add-ons for Firefox

2009-06-10T14:51:00.000-06:00

Shareaholic for Firefox :: Add-ons for Firefox

Empathy is a software program

2009-06-04T11:41:00.007-06:00

I guess my last post used too many strange words like Speex, Theora and Jabber. What is Jabber and why should I care. Jabber is a method of connecting people via a packet based networks. Gone are the days when running 2 22 gauge copper wires to your business meant people could use your services. Jabber is built on XMPP The last 2 Ps stand for Presence Protocol which is an idea that copper wires don't afford. If my icon is green then I am available, if it is yellow then you take your chances and if it is black then you can't get a connection. It makes a lot of sense if you are trying to get a hold of someone in the morning and you are not sure if they are awake and the other person after waking up goes online to read the news. At the bottom of this post is a little green light if I am available to chat and hey you don't even have to sign up. You will just chat with me as guest.
Arthur Amendt

Speex + Theora = Empathy

2009-06-02T15:06:00.008-06:00

Ok, ok you might need telepathy and few other files like telepathy-sofiasip if you want to make sip calls. Guillaume Desmottes does a nice job of updating the empathy personal package archive. Google search It sure takes a lot of time to get all the parts of the software together. We are almost there. Christian Schaller is even doing video already. I have been using it for file transfer and chatting. In 2.27.2 it shows that option, but there are some bugs. By the time Ubuntu 9.10 is released we should be communicating via open source files like Speex and Theora.
To install the latest Empathy software just search for "ppa empathy" in google which will take you to launchpad. Add Desmottes ppa to System > Administration > Software Sources. Click on 3 party and click add. Copy and paste. Remember to add both
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/telepathy/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/telepathy/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
Remember to add the public key which can be found at Ubuntu key Server here The advantage of adding a repository is that the developer's improvement are automatically updated on your computer. If you want to watch a nice video of someone doing this click here.

Android vs Iphone

2009-06-02T11:29:00.002-06:00

Well, I just got off the phone with Rogers. There is nothing I can do short of buying the Android out right to get one of those phones. O well I guess I am going to add the word Android into my Grande Prairie kijiji rss feed to see if someone has one for sale. Maybe I can swap someone for my iphone or Black Berry. This is the last time in human history that open source will lag behind proprietary companies.

How to setup Ekiga - VoIP

2009-05-26T09:48:00.005-06:00

I usually register Ekiga with link2voip because it offers Quality Voice and only costs $2.50 per month. As I told in the Video, the registry info is sip.ca2.link2voip.com or sip.ca1.link2voip.com The port VoIP usually runs on is 5060. Gone are the days when you have to spend $500 /month on communication. A laptop and a Fon Spot are all you need.

Will Ubuntu be the best for body repair?

2009-05-24T23:21:00.007-06:00

Well tomorrow I will be converting an auto body repair place over to Ubuntu from Windows. No knowing all the hicups before your start can get a person up tight. Having been wrestling with computers and for quite a few years I figure I can tame this steer and put the automotive buisness on the right track for profitability. On a side note I wasn't sure if Ubuntu 9.04 would work with the Telus Sierra Wireless USB Card, but it was just plug and play. Now if I could just get Telus to update their website.

Ubuntu is for Power Professionals

2009-05-22T09:47:00.003-06:00

Adam Overa wrote an interesting article Desktop Linux For The Windows Power User for Tom's Hardware. It gives a good review of Ubuntu 9.04 and goes through the common questions power windows users have. I learned most of what Adam says here through trial and error. Using mount points instead of drive letters can be confusing as well as using the same program for adding software as you use for removing it is a little different. Adam demonstrates how to add restricted software which sometimes throws a new user. I found it well worth the read even though I have installed Ubuntu 9.04 on 20 machines, almost one per day.

6 months of a Kings Life

2009-05-16T20:33:00.002-06:00

What do we do up north in Northern Canada. We blog and exchange info. Maybe Laugh and Cry depending on the info. I found this info interestingly Over the last 6 months 1270 people have read this blog and OVER HALF 723 use Linux as their Operating System. There are a lot of hip people around this world. As summer comes and I start spend more of my time outdoors I can't help but think of how much better life will be in the fall and Google Summer of Coding gets upload to the Ubuntu Repository. Thanks for shareing you people of the planet Earth.

I am because of who we are.

2009-05-14T12:14:00.002-06:00

Ever wonder what life would be like without friends. No friendly communication, no word of empathy, SAD. Ubuntu allows me to help people. Sure I could help people with M$ software, but what if that company becomes insolvent? All that helping for not. Ubuntu gives me back the ability to help someone now and that person can then decide who and when they want to help not worrying about weather that software will be usable in a few years. Go ahead and join the Open Source movement your download rate will only improve.

Linux Destop Use is between 1 and 4%

2009-05-01T16:43:00.002-06:00

Hitslink says 1% and w3schools says 4%. I am just happy that when I talk to computer lovers they are starting to understand what I am doing with my life. They might not understand the potential of computers or Open Source software, but they do ask some questions now before they hand over their cash to a box store. I am hoping this educational process will grow 1% this year. After the Olympics I expect most people to have a vague concept of Open Source.

Ubuntu 9.04 Released

2009-04-23T09:21:00.004-06:00

If you want to get the latest Ubuntu release just go to your favorite torrent website and search for any of the following. I usually install ubuntu-9.04-desktop-i386.iso And Yes Firefox is better.

Ubuntu
ubuntu-9.04-alternate-amd64.iso
ubuntu-9.04-alternate-i386.iso
ubuntu-9.04-desktop-amd64.iso
ubuntu-9.04-desktop-i386.iso
ubuntu-9.04-server-amd64.iso
ubuntu-9.04-server-i386.iso

Kubuntu
kubuntu-9.04-alternate-amd64.iso
kubuntu-9.04-alternate-i386.iso
kubuntu-9.04-desktop-amd64.iso
kubuntu-9.04-desktop-i386.iso

Mythbuntu
mythbuntu-9.04-desktop-amd64.iso
mythbuntu-9.04-desktop-i386.iso

Ubuntu Studio
ubuntustudio-9.04-alternate-amd64.iso
ubuntustudio-9.04-alternate-i386.iso

Xubuntu
xubuntu-9.04-alternate-amd64.iso
xubuntu-9.04-alternate-i386.iso
xubuntu-9.04-desktop-amd64.iso
xubuntu-9.04-desktop-i386.iso

Please be a good citizen and seed at least 1:1.
You can always come over to my office and pick up a free disk or usb stick. Enjoy.

Finally Microsoft is fighting Ubuntu

2009-04-10T20:06:00.003-06:00

As I and millions of others await the release of Ubuntu 9.04 I can't help wonder why Microsoft is trying to downplay the importance of this Operating System on Netbooks. Is it because $300 Laptops makes their profit margin slim. $300 for XP Professional doesn't seem like a lot of monies if the laptop costs $1000. Is it because the boot time on Ubuntu is 3 times faster than Windows? or maybe it is because the can't make money via removal of viruses / spyware when Apple and Ubuntu don't have any of those headaches. Come on Microsoft lets not use FUD.

Microsoft's G20 meeting

2009-04-01T19:11:00.005-06:00

Microsoft requested yesterday some $20 Giga bits in bailout funds from the IMF, claiming that Linux adoption has hampered their plans for economies of scale. The cost of software duplication is too costly. The low adoption rates for Vista, the ensuing ad campaign trying to convince people that they really do like Vista, and the increased need for development resources to rush Windows 7 to market to make people forget about Vista have necessitated the monies.
In related news, Steve Ballmer will personally guarantied no more Virus and Worms in Windows and will allow Security Professionals to view Microsoft's OS code before it gets installed on your computer. Just like Steve Jobs has done for Apple's Snow Leapord.

Good and Bad Jabber

2009-03-24T14:30:00.004-06:00

In 2007 I was so happy that jabber was taking off. Now having seen jabber in use via facebook and my niece, I am wondering if when I was helping getting jabber out of beta it was a good thing. I'm saying this mostly because facebook chat is setting itself up as a walled garden. You can't even email someone in Facebook. So two steps ahead and one step back. We now have jabber working well, pretty much out of beta, but companines are trying to manipulate people still. Google to me has the right approach with jabber. It allows federation between itself and other jabber companies. The good news is that jabber and skype will be exchanging info soon.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS VERSES LOVE

2009-03-07T05:45:00.006-07:00

You might have notices that I don't say "as people sue our lives become better". One of things life has taught me is that it is better to love than hate. Even if chocolate doesn't seem as powerful as a well placed bullet, I believe it is. Software development takes more work than song development, but the synergism developed by the GPL sounds better to me than 4 part harmony. And yet the suing that takes place because of some 200 sec sound bit is almost to the point where music is only meant for the birds. As an Ubuntu lover I am often criticized for being too vocal in my praise for GPL code developers and users. To me it seems amazing that someone is willing to sing for free, but more amazing that someone will code and allow others to code on top of his code and the program that comes out is very intuitive. How can you not give praise to that. Sure there are people who write code just to get more monies, (mostly Apple or Microsoft employees), but the people who write code with the foresight of helping others write onto their code deserve the praise. I even praise those people that only use GPL code because that creates a demand for more of it. Those that buy proprietary software hinder the love between people and care mostly about their immediate needs. We need more people donating time and monies to GPL coding. Thank you to all who have stopped buying proprietary software and look for GPL code for your software needs.

Amendt.net is now a Google Apps providor

2009-02-04T08:45:00.003-07:00

This is how a felt the last two weeks learning how to use Google Apps. Every time I work with Name Servers or DNS settings
I feel like sticking my head into the monitor. Sure most end users are polite and curious as they realize that changing their hosting company can take some time and getting used to new software might take some time. The main reason I have been moving companies over to Google apps is because a lot more people are getting data phones and want to be able to read their email on the Android. Mobile Email reminds me of when the cell towers came to this area in 1998. It is great for communication, but a lot of the early adopters just say "Can you hear me now?"

Linux Users surpass Windows Users

2009-01-21T09:27:00.003-07:00

Ok, Ok this might be a little premature, but with Obama as president and the good will people have towards each other right now, who knows. I know on this blog there are more Linux users than Windows users. Even in Canada of the 92 visits 45 had Linux already preloaded onto their computers. WoW To me this is quite amazing because I never installed Linux on 45 machines in December and installing an Operating System is not what most people can do. December 2008 was the first month that this blog has seen more Linux Readers than Windows Readers. If you look at the 281 visits from the world you will notice that only 1/3 are windows users. We have a lot of catching up to do in Canada. Most box stores still don't sell Linux pre-installed. Oh well, I will have to keep getting my computers from Dell or HP and keep on converting virus infected Windows computers over to Ubuntu Linux

Iphone hack - stop banging your heads

2009-01-17T10:36:00.002-07:00

Finally, 6 months after buying the Iphone, I can use it. Thanks Ubuntu help! Now my music can be put on the Iphone. Awesome If you are thinking of buy a new cell phone make sure it is the Android.

Open Source Software takes down Nortel.

2009-01-14T12:37:00.005-07:00

If Nortel would have gotten the open source itch a while ago they would have survived. It would have been worth while for Nortel to have kept track of what Mark Spencer was doing with Asterisk Open Source software is getting more and more powerful and when Nortel made the deal with Microsoft I was glad I had pulled my shares out of the company. It will not take long for Microsoft to go belly up also as it tries to become part of the lucrative patent-troll industry.

How to make money in 2009

2009-01-12T19:03:00.001-07:00

Making money is done one of two ways. Either you sell someone your product/service or you force them to buy your product/service. Forcing is usually done via hidden manipulative techniques or via armies (big corporations). One forcing technique is to control the market via digital formats. If you want to view my movie you have to allow for DVD encrypts. The best hardware example I can think of is, all parts for your car have to be certified by the car’s manufacturer thereby making sure the manufacture makes money by building end of life cycles in to products only they can sell. Most humans don’t intentionally force someone into buying a product unless they are used to living above the law. In the world now there are over 180 country laws and most of the legal systems of those countries just enforce laws onto their own citizens and not onto other countries citizens. If one country is being bad to another country the United Nations or Arab nations is suppose to solve the issue. See war in Palestine. If they can’t solve it then we are back to the time of the Judges where “every man does what is right in his own eyes.” . If you see an ineffectual legal system or 180 bosses then manipulative techniques are used more. (drunk drivers not getting punished) then an entrepreneur will try to make money via that discrepancy in the law. With the US copy-write laws being ignored more and more by China and other countries you can make more money via deals with China than dealing with the US

2009 is the year of the Linux desktop

2008-12-31T14:18:00.004-07:00

Now that the early adopters have switched over to Linux it is time for the mass market crowd to switch. Mind you--most people will not switch until Linux is all you can buy at the box stores. People are a lot like sheep and think they can not change the world. Reality is far different. In 2008 I talked 25 people into using Ubuntu as there main Operating System. I venture to say those 25 people will have a hard time changing back into supporting Microsoft again unless Windows 7 is a lot better than Vista was. In 2009 a reasonable goal for me should 100 (4 times the number of Ubuntu Newbies there was 2008). There are two main factors that enable me to make such a bold prediction. One, people won't be able to buy Windows XP in a couple of months and Vista doesn't run on netbooks very well (at least compared to Ubuntu) and two, people are becoming more stingy/sophisticated with their money and don't want spyware and crapware (trial programs) pre-install without asking for an extreme discount.

Christmas is a time for "Giver"

2008-12-24T14:07:00.004-07:00

File sharing has come a long way since the birth of Christ. In fact only this year has M$ given permission for the Samba team to inter-operate with windows file sharing. In Linux, Network file sharing (NFS) works good for offices, but on a home network where computers are always changing this program called Giver is what you need. It is in the default Ubuntu repositories so takes only a minute to try out. The Google team has made another useful user friendly program. It uses ports in the 45000 range so no worrying about port setup/blocking. This is a great program and if you want more help go to Ubuntuforums Just make sure you are on the same subnet. For more info see Jorge our fearless Ubuntu upstream rep.

Why Gmail is so Great

2008-12-12T10:43:00.013-07:00

My friend Cathy came over today and asked me "Why is gmail better than hotmail" The reason is that gmail doesn't Spam your email recipients. Hotmail does. Hotmail Spams via their attachments onto your email. The bottom line on your email is where most people put their signature is now controlled by Microsoft. Let me explain it a different way. Spam is something in your inbox that you didn't request. The reason why Microsoft wants to get more monies via Spamming others is anybodies guess. Google's approach is so much more human because they let you use their email service without requiring you to spam your friends. Thanks Google So in conclusion, if you want to help Microsoft spam more people, then keep using your hotmail / live account. If you want to help people get less Spam then use gmail.

Friend Connect

2008-12-02T23:22:00.003-07:00

I added Friend Connect to my website. This is a lot like face book, but without the ads and the stealing your pictures after upload them just to generate more traffic to face book. This is the start of a standard way to share with friends who are interested in similar info.

One more reason to get rid of hotmail.

2008-11-26T17:02:00.003-07:00

If you are a Landlord or Tenant and need to file a depute you can not do it with hotmail. Please Microsoft give up your proprietary ways and join open standards.

Dell Mini 9 and Empathy vs Skype

2008-11-19T15:53:00.004-07:00

Well I received my Dell Mini 9 that I ordered 2 months ago to the day. 60 days to received my order from Dell, that has to be a record. Started to wonder if the computer would be obsolete before I could use it. I wrote this on dell.ca, but they deleted it probably to keep other buyer still spending money. It sure is nice to have your own blog where you can put any info you want. I enjoy reading other peoples blogs better than reviews, because you know there is no hidden agenda. Sure if you post a review on a sellers website it might be relevant info for the nest buyer, but how many reviews get deleted? It is best to use Google's blog search or have your friends buy the device before you do. In this case I have done so and I recommend the Dell Mini 9. It is small and easy to use and uses the most GPL Licensed software of any other Linux machine on the market. Now to get Empathy running. Did you know the XMPP is 10 years old. It was conceived the same time as the ISS. The International Space Station has gone from only 20 tones to over 300 tons in 10 years. Empathy will do more heavy lifting than Skype will every do.

Cookies and why they are bad.

2008-11-17T14:33:00.006-07:00

I came across this cookie monster picture and because cookies are coming more and more common because of web 2.0, it seem appropriate to comment on why enabling cookies on your browser can be bad. To turn them off go to edit -> Preferences. Tracking cookies, placed on your computer without your knowledge or your consent, are definitely spy-ware. This is what face-book and eBay do, they track what you view with your computer and build a user profile to get you to buy more stuff from them. Be careful. Most sites are good and use the cookies to help you browse more effectively. To limit your risk I would enable delete cookies every time you close your browser.

The headaches of Software

2008-11-16T07:50:00.004-07:00

I got to try out Linpus Linux this weekend. After reinstalling the system because of a forgotten password we were ready to hook up the printer. The Canon Pixma ip2200 isn't found in the Acer Aspire One repositories so I had to download 2 rpms (yes it is fedora based)from Canon's website. Acer sure doesn't make these mini notebooks easy to configure a least compared to the Dell Mini 9. Also the keyboard on the Dell is easier than the Acer. Companies need to spend more time helping Linux contributors out so they can sell products that are easier to use.
Even the Dell Mini 9 (the one I recommend) doesn't use the full one gig of RAM by default. You have to recompile your kernel to get the full use of all the memory you bought. Mind you for $389 how can you go wrong. Why not give everyone who edits dells help pages free credit vouchers. Most of the current crop of Linux users are power users. I guess this will change by 2009 when there will be more laptops running Linux than Windows XP thanks to all the mini notebooks getting sold with Linux pre-installed.

How to connect to Rogers 3g network

2008-11-10T10:47:00.010-07:00

I tried to get this Dell Inspiron 1525n Laptop onto the Rogers mobile network via their Internet Stick, but no luck. It might have been my Ubuntu setup, but I usally first blame the ISP. I wonder if someone knows what settings I should have entered. The girl at Rogers says "it automatically should work". One guy said I should try these settings. Has anyone gotten this to work?
* Name: Rogers
* APN: internet.com
* Username: wapuser1
* Password: wap
* MCC: 302 - should be preset correctly
* MNC: 72 - should be preset correctly (if 72 does not work, try 720)
I found this link helpfull. http://www.timetraveller.org/rogers/

How to connect to a wifi router

2008-11-06T15:55:00.003-07:00

After clicking on the power indicator stairs on your top panel you need to go and select which Wireless Router you want to connect to indicated by the drop down list. In this example only Fon_Free_Internet would allow you to connect without knowing the wireless password. Click on the network of your choice and if it is a secured Router then enter the password and press enter.

I started using Empathy to Jabber (bye Pidgin)

2008-11-06T15:08:00.005-07:00

The neat thing about Empathy 2.24.1 is that it supports VOIP, sure it has some bugs, but what software doesn't? It works great for chatting or talking with all my Jabber (Gtalk) friends and hey, it is open what can be better than this?