Well, I've just changed the comments component that I had installed (chronocomments) to jcomments. I couldn't get chronocomments to actually show the comments and I think it was something to do with the SH404 add-in I was using. I don't want to bag chronocomments at all - It just didn't work for me here and I was too lazy to try and get it to work!

Particularly when I installed JComments, then imported the ChronoComments,  and then it worked first up!!! Fantastic. I'm stoked.

I have been resisting upgrading Ubuntu 8.04 LTS on my Dell Latitdue D600 because I had tried 8.10 and compiz did NOT work well at all - VERY slow. So with much trepidation I upgraded to 9.04 last weekend to see if the video/X11 side of the latest release of Ubuntu was any better at handling my aging ,but still very capable, Dell laptop(affectionally called dellboy). Things didn't look so hot at first but I just ran with the not-compiz settings until having a look tonight. Trying all sorts of AddRGBGLXVisuals and other, non-relevant, NVIDIA-chipset-only, options to xorg.conf resulted in no change - wobbly windows would appear but no window decorator and an unusable, completely white gnome-terminal. Then I remembered a couple of things I had seen mentioned elsewhere: 1. For some chipsets (Intel & now ATI): the default EXA acceleration doesn't work or is unacceptably slow. For ATI, trying the older XAA works marvels. For  Intel chipsets try the latest UXA acceleration method. And 2. The last time I tried with 8.10 I needed to increase the colour depth to 24. Well, I inserted both the following into /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

Under Section 'Device':

Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"

Under Section 'Screen':

Depth 24

Voila! Compiz, in all it's glory, works very acceptably on my Dell Latitude D600 laptop running under Ubuntu 9.04 'Jaunty Jackalope'.

FANTASTIC.I am stoked!

I found this very interesting article regarding the use of the command line interface (CLI) to teach new computer users rather than a GUI (mouse and windows and desktops and stuff). I have often thought the CLI is a more consistent interface, whereas a GUI tends to change often (across versions, applications, etc).

Click here for the article.

I found this very excellent Firefox extension. It's called Noojee Click. What does it do?

It interacts with a VOIP PBX such as Asterisk, Trixbox, etc. and allows you to click numbers presented on a web page, which in turn dial the configured VOIP phone to call the clicked number. VERY COOL.

I can now search for  people in the White pages and just click the Nojee icon beside the number and my phone automatically dials that number. He, he, he, fantastic. Check it out.

I found this Newpaper Clipping Generator webpage today, that I thought was quite cool.

I created a headline that I thought I might like to see someday in a real newspaper somewhere :-)

The obvious challenge for me now is to 'make this happen'!

We have a new local Nelson phone number.

I have been having a bit of trouble with my Trixbox PABX lately. More specifically the clone X100P card used for interfacing with the Telecom analog phone line doesn't want to - interface, that is. Or is sporadic at best.

So I've decided to take the plunge and change the Freedom IT main phone number to a 2Talk VOIP local Nelson number:

03 929 5502

What does that mean for you? Nothing except a new number. Please update your records.

N.B. This is still a local Nelson number, even though it doesn't start with a 5!

My cellphone number is still the same and the 028 892 968 still works as well. The 542 3801 will work until next years white pages book update, at which time I will stop it.

It looks like Yellow have updated the whitepages.co.nz search page (looks good too) and my search engine for Firefox/Internet Explorer no longer works!

So I have updated it and added a Nelson-specific one. If you would like a specific one for your area drop me line via the top menu Contact page.

If you have already installed my previous version then you'll need to 'Manage Your Search Engines', remove the old one, and then add the new one again.

I upgraded my Gimp to version 2.6 on Fedora 9 today. I managed to find someone who had packaged up the required packages and supporting libraries here. Incidentally, the gimp 2.6.0 versions of the RPMS/SRPMS DO NOT exist as listed - replace 2.6.0 with 2.6.1 in the URLs and voila! I downloaded the SRPMS and 'rpmbuild --rebuild' them. Only one didn't work - glib2 - I installed the listed f8 RPM and it works fine.

 As part of the upgrade the Toolbox no longer exists with the Xtns Menu. This has now become File, Create. Seems a logical change and more 'intuititive'. BUT....

... if you have created or added any non-standard scripts (.scm) files and they use to be under that Toolbox, Xtns menu then they need to be changed to reflect the new 2.6 menu layout.

 I wrote a very small bash script to copy an existing pre-2.6 scm file and change the appropriate menu-register parts to reflect the new 2.6 menu structure. The original file is not altered - a new scm is created with -26 added:

I've been successful in creating my first 'real' KVM/QEMU virtual machine. 'Real' because it's running something Freedom IT relies on for the day-to-day running of our business: Email.

Yep, Scalix is running on top of Centos 5.2 inside a virtual box inside a Centos 5.2 Host. And it's performance is fantastic. 

Why KVM and not Xen?

I opted to create a KVM virtual machine as opposed to a Xen-based virtual guest since Red Hat seem to be heading in the KVM direction. And I am glad I did so since hearing they have acquired Qumranet.

Which type of disk did I use?

I chose to use a real disk-partition (as opposed to a file) and that partition is actually a mirrored device on the Centos Host

Why did I choose to virtualise the Scalix email server?

Well, previously I had it running on my underpowered Trixbox (PABX) PC. And while it was OK, I was never confident of it's successful restoration probabilities in the event of a catastrophic failure! Since Scalix includes numerous components (PostgreSQL Database, Tomcat, LDAP server) I thought it wise to give the software it's 'own' environment. So nothing else will run on that virtual server.

  BTW, a really useful script I found while finding out how to transfer  the existing Scalix data across to the new machine was sxstoreexp. This can be found here. And I'm going to use it for backup purposes on my customers sites too. It worked really well.

Long time no blog.... 

Oh well....

I have created a Firefox (IE7 too) search plugin for the NZ White Pages. Nothing special. But just gives you the ability to search for someones name without having to go to the whitepages.co.nz site first.

Howto: If you are running Firefox or IE7 you should now be able to drop down your search box providers (normally top, right-most box in your web browser) and see an "Add NZ White Pages" option. If you do that then you can search for people in the white pages directly from that search box. Cool. 

Oh, and don't tell White Pages I beat them to the punch....!

UPDATE:  2008-10-15: I have added Pricespy and Shop Bot to my list of installable Firefox search plugins.

I had tried to install Ubuntu 8.04 onto my Dell Latitude D600 when Hardy Heron first came out. Everything worked EXCEPT the Broadcom Wireless. It produced a computer-stopping, hardware error just before GDM came up (presumably when the firmware was being loaded into the chipset). So I went back to the reliable 7.10. Well I have just tried again and now it works! 95% of the time! There seems to have been a kernel update since 8.04 was released. Awesome! The error does still come up occasionally  (which requires a reboot) but usually within the next couple of reboots it will be OK. For me its workable and I have also included the Ubuntu Studio repos so its running quite sweet now.

For several reasons I had MS Exchange get into a state on a customers Windows 2003 SBS Server today, that required a re-install of Exchange over the top. I think this was mainly to correct IIS issues and related stuff.I did also need to backup and restore the information store since after the 'disasterrecovery' setup the correct information store data could not be seen by certain (Exchange) services.

Well, we've joined up to a new VOIP/SIP/IAX2 company: 2talk . Since the demise of 0064 (which was a company ahead of it's time, really - they even did IAX2 trunking) we have been reluctant to delve into the external VOIP scene due to, IMHO, exceptionally high prices for calls and per month fees.

But now 2talk have managed to come close, with their freebie package,  to what 0064 were offering. So we have another number you can contact us on: 028 892 968.

If you are also a 2talk customer the call will be free!

If not, then the call should cost you the same as a 'mobile' call. 

And there are real cost-savings when I use this as an outgoing trunk: 5c/minute national numbers, 25c/minute NZ mobile numbers.

Update: They now offer both SIP AND IAX2 trunking. This is sweet.

Aren't USB flash drives useful?

I use mine to carry around useful utilities that I can install for my customers. I also use it to carry some sensitive data as well (both mine and customers)!

But what happens if it get's lost. What happens to that sensitive data when it gets into someone's hands that I would rather it not get into?  Well, nothing! Now that I use a very useful utility called TrueCrypt .

Who would believe we're 1/4 of the way thru 2008 already! I haven't been doing much blogging lately. Not that anyone reads it.

Freedom IT turned 1 on April 1 2008. Woo hoo! It's been a really good journey so far. Thanks to all our customers who have supported Freedom IT over this last year. We look forward to supporting you over the coming year.

Found this fantastic little advert for Linux on YouTube (via www.fsdaily.com)