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I installed the beta of 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon on the move. Three days later, I’ve finally managed to have a first look at what’s new. The improvements this time are more apparent. There are newer releases of OpenOffice, GIMP and the Firefox browser, amongst many others. The inclusion of Gnome 2.2 is welcome, providing a number of usability enhancements. It’s also important to remember that this is still in beta, so there is a chance that some things are not entirely stable or completed.

The installation of Gutsy is as expected with most Linux distributions nowadays: minimal fuss and effort. Entry of basic information only. The only time to take care is when partitioning disks: the default is still a reformat of the entire primary hard drive. The installation is quick and ensures all important Internet and productivity applications are installed. The default desktop look is the chocolate brown swirl, not everybody’s cup of tea.

There are obviously many updates and enhancements, so there’s no way I have a chance of covering all of them. Instead, I take the approach of looking at those that interest me and are possibly the most important if you simply want to get on with your mission.
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With about another 2 months to go before Fedora 8 is released, the hunt is on for a name. Moonshine was the name imparted to Fedora 7, the current code name for Fedora 8 is Rawhide.

Shuttleworth has a cool naming convention for releases of Ubuntu: we’ve had Feisty Fawn, Dapper Drake and now Gutsy Gibbon. He also names his releases early in the development cycle. The Fedora team has a more appealing distribution, in my opinion, but the naming of their software is somewhat less so. The current contenders, for which votes are being sought until 5 October are: Werewolf and Kwass. Lycanthopy or alcohol? You decide…

There is some confusion as to the new Lego AT-AT, released recently. The model is not yet available locally, though it is likely to be at some point in time albeit in limited quantities. There is an older AT-AT Walker in the form of kit number 4483. This is available from Amazon for the princely sum of USD 496! A limited release is the primary reason for that high price, as is the model’s rarity. The box looks like this:

The new model is part of the Ultimate Collector Series and has the kit number 10178. The model is similar in look to the 4483 model, but is motorized and does not include the ice-speeder. The price is USD 130 and this model is not presently available from Amazon. 1137 pieces means the 4483 model has simply been fitted with gearing and a motor.

At a saving of over USD 350, the newer model is certainly better value

The rAge Expo idea was great to begin with. There is a need in this country to cater for the consumer market when it comes to computing expositions. rAge filled that gap for a while, offering a fun atmosphere with some new products on show and the ability for consumers to interact with vendors. Sure, the shopping aspect cannot be missed out on. Consumers want to be able to spend their money on the goodies on show. Vendors are more than happy to oblige. Why pay a lot of money for an exhibition area and not recoup some of it. And therein lies the primary problem. It’s great to have some outlet for spending your money. But, I consider the fact that the entrance fee is pegged at ZAR 40. It’s not necessarily a huge amount, but if I want to shop for something, I’ll run to the corner technology store. There is no incentive for me to pay that amount of money and wander around aimlessly looking for something of interest.

We’re all aware of the latest trends and products. The Internet makes everything accessible. Often, consumers know more than vendors. And that makes rAge‘s mission even more difficult. Case in point: the Nokia stand at rAge was an utter waste of time. The 8GB black N95 on display. But no one was able to answer a single question. The reason: we’re from the marketing company and basically have no clue. The Nintendo Wii was on show, ardent gamers waving the Wiimote around like a bunch of frustrated tennis players. AMD impressed with a Ferrari F1 racer, cordoned off neatly. But no sign of Barcelona, and no one to provide any information. And everywhere, stores selling their wares, both hard and soft.

There’s a need for a decent exposition. If that means sharing floor space with some retail space, so be it. But let’s focus on what some of us actually expect: product displays and information from a reliable, knowledgeable source. Else, call it rAge PCMall, not rAge Expo.

Welcome! As you should notice, nothing has changed. The final move to the new hosting provider has been completed without too much trauma. I have lost one post, which I will surreptitiously re-post and modify it’s date and time. That post was made during the late hours of last night when I mistakenly assumed all DNS entries had already been updated. They had not. The domain was in a twilight zone, straddling IP addresses, so to speak. No matter: if I hadn’t told you, you would never know.

No that I’m here, I have the flexibility to add more content and grow some other areas of the site I’ve been considering. Thanks for visiting, and hope you enjoy looking around!

I’ve recently installed Suse as my testbed on the nx8220 and have found it to have an absolutely fantastic installation routine. Better than most I’ve seen. Yesterday, the announcement of Ubuntu‘s latest release going beta was made. Normally, downloading an ISO at such a peak time is not recommended, but I tried in any case. Lo and behold, the 650MB file was down in less than twenty minutes and I burnt it to a CD, intent on installing it sometime later. Left the CD in the nx8220 and headed westward.

So there was a lot of rain. A lot of traffic. Many traffic lights not working. Maximum speed for at least two hours:

What to do? Boost that geek rating! So I hauled out the nx8220 and booted the Gutsy Gibbon LiveCD. Don’t try this in traffic, kids!

The installation completed in a fraction of the time the entire three hour journey home took. I reformatted the 18GB / partition using ReiserFS, as I had it under Suse, and was greeted by the new chocolate brown desktop. Even at 10km/h, Gutsy Gibbon seems a lot faster

Not wanting to risk life and property, I shut her down.

Once I’m stationary, I’m keen to see the latest capabilities Gnome 2.20 offers and the updates that have been made to the Bluetooth connectivity libraries. For notebook computers, there is a lot to be gained from the new Intel PowerTOP power-management .

WordPress version 2.3 aka Dexter is available. By the time I’ve completed my hosting migration, I’ll be in a position to upgrade.

The new version includes native support for tagging, something I’ve been loathe to try using a plug in as there are dire warnings regarding possible data loss. I’m in no mood for data loss. Native support should streamline the tagging issue and make it less risky. Update notifications check all plug in modules and alert the administrator that new versions of those components are available. Some additional features for improved multi-user support and better WYSIWYG editing capabilities.

I still prefer WordPress over Drupal in terms of user-friendliness and look forward to trying out the new tagging functionality.

The story so far…

I watched the clock with interest and was keen to see the change in DNS to the new hosting provider, only to be disappointed by a mail from the DNS administrator. Subject: Bad SOA/NS. Surprisingly, the nameserver at 769.89.16.8 (ns2.hostmonster.com) does not appear to have a reverse DNS entry. No kidding. A spelling mistake that creates an invalid IP address will be responsible for another 24 hour delay before the DNS entry change can be retried. And that’s only once the request for the change has been resubmitted which may take another few hours. Am I glad I didn’t leave this to the end of the month.

So, we’re still in the same place, bursting at the seams. I need the space!

At least my procedure for backing up and restoring the site content is pretty much honed by now. I even remember to delete all spam entries from the relevant WordPress table before starting the backup.

Waiting…

UPDATE: ticketman has responded to the request for a DNS change. Request accepted and here we go again.

Just arrived in the online Lego store is this absolute gem:

The AT-AT stands over 30cm tall and roughly 38cm long with Luke Skywalker attached to a grappling hook, attempting to gain access to the belly of the beast. But that’s not all: batteries are required! The AT-AT is motorized and faithfully reproduces the walking motion of the real thing. USD 130. If only we could get it locally ;-(

The story so far…

After having produced a number of backups of the home directory, MySQL database and complete environment, I signed up with the new provider. That was a five minute deal and involved the entry of some credit card details. Man, those guys in the 50′s must have had it tough…

New space provisioned, details of ftp, www and ssh mailed back to me in less than a minute. Request change in DNS entries to point to my new home and install WordPress using Fantastico. It’s a good thing I recently upgraded to WordPress 2.2. Copy all the images, themes and plug-ins, then restore the very latest MySQL backup file to recreate the database. I’ll be doing that at least once or twice more.

It seems as though the new target is set up, though I can’t fully test it. Paid the renewal fee for the domain name and responded with Accept to the ticketman. That’s to go ahead with the DNS host location change.

If all goes well, I’ll be online in roughly 24 hours or so without knowing that the physical location of these words has changed.

Like I said earlier: if things don’t seem to work, something’s gone wrong. Don’t panic.

I’ll panic.

You just try again in a few hours