No Such Luck

What is luck?  Outcome determined by chance?  That is probably a definition many would agree with.  But is it real?

Superstitions exist in the belief that it is.  They hope to perform some action to obtain good luck or avoid bad luck.  While superstitions may be difficult to prove via a rational analysis, there may be a practical basis at the origin of some.   The September 25th, 2011 edition of Get Fuzzy by Darby Conley puts a humorous perspective on several. 

One final thought for Christians who confess Christ as their Lord and Savior.  By their own statement they will acknowledge that the God is in control of their lives.  If so, what place does random chance take in their lives?  

The biblical worldview makes no such allowance for luck.  Instead it shows the plan and purpose God has for everyone and that plan can be known. 

Something to think about.

Enjoy.

Adding Windows Truetype Fonts to Linux

Out of the box, modern Linux systems have an adequate number of fonts for any task.  However like all things Linux, they are different from what the user who has just migrated from Windows is used to having, even with the ttf-mscorefonts package installed  This post will be a quick tutorial on how to add those "missing" Windows fonts to your Linux system.

Quick legal disclaimer:  this is a technical how-to article, not a legal interpretation of Microsoft's EULA for Windows or any other software that may have installed Truetype fonts under Windows.  If you have any questions or concerns, read the license agreement for yourself or seek other counsel before proceeding.

The assumption is that Windows is still available in a multi-boot configuration and that the Windows partition can be mounted in Nautilus, the Linux file manager.  If that is not the case, there are many sources of truetype fonts available on the web for free, even including handwriting fonts if you're interested.  The basic steps are:

1. Open the Nautilus file manager and select the correct "nn Gb Filesystem", to mount the Windows partition
2. Open a terminal session and become root via the su command
3. cd /usr/share/fonts/truetype
4. mkdir winxp
5. cp /media/your_mount_point/Windows/Fonts/*.ttf  /usr/share/fonts/truetype/winxp

The above mixes using the UI and terminal to use the easiest of both.  Details of using the mount command can be found quickly elsewhere on the web - both to mount the Windows parition from the terminal or query the mount point Nautilus selected.  It'.s probably the only really long hex number though.  Mounting the partition via the UI and verifying that /Windows/Fonts exists was also much easier to write up.

Lastly, there's nothing unique about the choice of the winxp/ directory name.  If you choose to add additional fonts from other sources, choose any name (ex: myfonts/) for the directories you create, as long as they are all under /usr/share/fonts/truetype.

I just walked a relatively new Linux user through this and so thought a quick post might help someone else too.

Enjoy.

To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

Not just Twitter actually, but any type of social media.  Some form of the subject question seems to come up on a semi-regular basis, probably more so in circles where the age creeps upwards and usage of social media is not a de-facto way of life.  The question came up recently where I work, so I thought I'd put a somewhat more reasoned answer in one of the forms of media that sparked the question.

Cutting right to the chase - why do I tweet, blog and book?  There is no one easy answer.  I took my time entering the field of public posting, attempting to make sense of it all first.  I doubt I've made perfect sense of it all now.  However, I think I have learned some things and can provide a "how it works for me" answer.  So in no particular order, here we go:

• Staking out a claim in cyberspace.  With a name like mine, there are not too many of us with the same name - but somebody had to be first.
• Preventing XPFA.  Short for Cross-site Personality Framing Attack.  Semi-related to the point above, follow the link for a not only a good explanation, but the original coining of the acronym.
• Connecting with old friends.  I have found and been found by friends that I'd known all the way back to Junior High.  We'd disconnected for various reasons, mostly unintentional and benign neglect.  The boundary free nature of social media provided a way to reconnect.
• Staying connected with current friends.  Short quick status updates initially seemed like shouting into cyberspace.  Over time, face to face meetups started to include conversations seeded from something that had been posted.  Instead of eliminating in person connections, social media has enhanced them.
• Keeping my friends.  I previously had the habit of occasionally sending out mass emails to various groupings of friends and family with everything from vacation pictures to political views.  I'm a realist, probably a lot of time they were just deleted.  Social media allows the recipient to tune how, when and if they view content you share - maybe helping me keep a few friends in the process.
• Professional connections.  I spent a couple of decades with a large international business that I still very much admire.  However at the time I was there, it was very much inward focused, not participating and thereby missing out on a lot of good people and ideas in the industry as a whole.  Focused national organizations and business networks provide a way to maintain connections and share very specific ideas.
• Giving something back.  It goes without saying that like most people, I've learned a lot through other people posting their experiences to the internet.  Not that anything I've put up is necessarily unique or special, but it just might give someone another perspective to consider.

Overall, it has been a very positive experience.  In addition to the benefits above, I've been contacted by persons who found my words to be useful and found my content cross linked in positive ways.  Being more in the public space has resulted in some harvesting of my name into various bogus listing services, but so far no harm done.

Sometimes blogging can still seem to me like answering questions that haven't been asked.  I started this post with one and will end with another.  Whether you consider yourself a reader, subscriber, follower, connection or friend - are you yet a writer?  There are a lot of choices, don't try and make too much sense of it, just get started and what is important will become clear.

Enjoy.

Fret Dressing

Collecting guitars is a trap many players fall into.  There's always thoughts of a "next guitar".  I'm likely no different.  The youngest of my first two sons (Steven Cimijotti) and I both agreed for years that the Fender Stratocaster sunburst finish was our favorite guitar style.  Neither of us did anything about it at the time, but I never changed my mind.

Fairly recently I came across one at a great price and decided it was my next guitar.  The neck was solid and straight.  The action was low and fast.  The finish was beautiful.  The one not so perfect element was the frets.  They were rounded nicely, but the cutoff ends were not finished well for a number of frets.  It was accounted for in the price and so I bought it, knowing one day I'd fix them.  That one day turned into many until our recent run of snowed in days.  It was time.

Let me say right off the start - I am not a luthier.  I have adjusted truss rods, replaced nuts and experimented with many different strings in making several guitars I've owned more playable.  However, I've never dressed frets before.  Never needed to actually.  So if you're using this as a guide, proceed at your own risk, but it did work for me.

There are lot of sites and videos that will show fret detail and dressing techniques for various repairs.  The problems I needed to correct were sharp edges on the bottom of multiple crowns where they'd been cutoff.  Also three frets where the tang was not flush with the neck.  Here are the steps I took to correct them.

Preparation

• Assemble the following:  micro file set,  painter's tape, wire cutters, polyurethane (optional).

Setup

• Relax and cutoff both E strings.  To keep tension on the neck during the work, I left the middle four intact, just removing what was needed for filing.
• Tape down each side of the neck, just below the frets.  Using blue painters tape insures that it will come off easily and be easy to see if hit with the file.
• Tape down in parallel to the frets, as close as possible without touching.

Dressing

• Pick a flat file that seems suitable, maybe one with a taper.  Starting roughly parallel to the fret, draw the file around the end of the fret and down.
• Start near the bottom, around 12th where still have some room, develop technique in a lesser played area.
• Use the flat side of a tapered file.  One direction, rolling motion, starting parallel to fret, rounding over end and down (end of stroke illustrated)

A couple of tips to keep in mind along the way:

• If you're tempted to not use tape - don't.  The tape, especially the blue tape which turns white when roughed up, provides a visual of when getting too deep.  Plus a thin margin of error for slips.
• Place the tape across the frets like laying out string for a setting a fence - as close as possible without touching.
• Near the body frets are narrower than the tape so you can't pre-tape the whole neck to do the job factory style.  There will be iterations of tape removal and resetting.  This is more craft anyway, take your time.
• Since the strat is a double cutaway, I was able to dress 16 on one side and 19 on the other side.  I never play further down the neck anyway, so risking the paint shop finish on the body (the main reason I bought the guitar) wasn't worth it
• Filing took about two hours, a slow and meticulous process, running my hand along entire neck many times as comparision for each one as it was being worked.

Completion

Overall, this was a great success and I'm glad that I did it.  The neck feels much better now when playing.  There are one or two spots where I should have stopped which resulting in a couple micro fine and very short grooves next to a fret.  They weren't enough to require any refinishing, therefore the polyurethane was listed as optional above, more as a warning.

The neck more than passes the 6x6 rule (visible at 6 inches, but not from six feet) which is good enough for me.  However, if you're really particular and/or have a very expensive guitar, finding a professional luthier to do the work for you might be less stressful.

The picture below (that I couldn't get the lighting just right on) provides some idea of what the finished product looks like, restrung and back hanging on the wall. 

For me, this project was probably as much about customizing the guitar as it was just trying something different to see if I could do it.  Looking back, I'd do it again without hesitation.

Now to take it back off the wall and enjoy.

The Best Discussion

STRTweets posted an entry last week linking to Joe Holland's blog post on "8 Tips for Talking to Kids About the Sermon".  In that original article Mr Holland begins and ends with two observations about kids:

1. They retain more than you think they do
2. They understand more than you think they do

Both are accurate statements in my experience.  The first is encouraging to any parent wanting to pass along their values to their children.  The second echoes my previous thoughts on the ability of children to think critically.

In between those two observations, he makes a number of good suggestions on how to create opportunities to introduce your children to Jesus.  My own experience as a parent is filled with both failure and success, many of each, in making those introductions.  Especially in the area of post sermon discussions.  The remainder of this post focuses on some elements of the successes, as additional considerations in addition to the "8 Tips" linked above.

We've tried a number of techniques to both emphasize a sermon message and to use it as spring board into broader family discussions.  When children were very young, completing the picture in a children's bulletin was a start.  That graduated into writing any three notes about the sermon, which typically became a song title, picture and Bible verse.  Finding the right balance after those early stages has been more challenging and varies between children.  Particularly when as a parent you believe a child isn't "working at their potential", to use a common school phrase. 

Two things that have generally worked well in our family have been big picture discussions and chasing rabbit trails.  The big picture is typically easy to grasp, even for wandering attentions, and leads naturally to a discussion on life application.  Often though, it branch off down a rabbit trail, which has lead to all sorts of interesting insights.  In both, open ended questions help encourage thinking and typically provide guidance for where the conversations will or should go.

In the end, the best discussion might be not be a specific discussion technique at all.  It might be the experience of spending time and talking with your children.  It just might provide a memory of what you value to them, in more ways than one.  Something to pray about.

Enjoy.

Learning to Love Linux

My entire family has been converted to Linux.  While I drove the adoption as the tech support in residence, the conversion wasn't always met with open arms by all.  In the end the the fear of the unknown was overcome and everyone did learn to (mostly) love Linux.

This post is a summary of the applications that have helped in that adoption.  There are many Windows to Linux application equivalence charts.  This won't be another one.  Nor is this a detailed analysis of the merits of various alternative applications.  Instead, like most posts on this site, is more statement of what worked for us, with minimal explanation.

User Interface

This is the area where adoption begins - initial navigation.  Being able to find, start and stop programs is crucial.  Like it or not, the 800 pound gorilla is Windows and it's navigation paradigm.  Following it has benefits both in home adoption and in transferring skills to systems outside the home, such as at school.  Based primarily on that plus overall out-of-the box functionality, Linux Mint is our main choice, however we have at least one of each below.

• Linux Mint - best Windows equivalent:  start menu, taskbar, min/max/close buttons
• Ubuntu - the foundation for the other two distributions:  inverted UI for Windows users, a lot of "the same only different"
• UNE (was UNR) - Screen optimized for netbooks:  nothing the same here, launcher very unique

Identical - Linux

These applications comprise most of the home computer usage in our family.  Either originally on Windows or once converted to Linux, these are identical.  It should probably be noted that no one is a PC gamer.  Those that enjoy those use dedicated consoles.

• Firefox - customizable web browsing
• Office - word processing, spreadsheet and presentations
• Picasa - photo management
• Google Desktop - desktop, email and web searching
• KeePassX - password manager 

 Office above refers to Open Office, which is cross platform.  Since most home users don't use 3% of the installed function of Office applications, switch the default file type to the Microsoft format (for sharing) and you'll never know the difference.

Alternatives - Linux

These are the native Linux applications that round out the functions wanted by the family.  Note that these links are given for information only.  Applications are installed via the package manager within a Linux system, not via web downloads.

• Banshee - music manager and mp3 sync.  Syncs perfectly to multiple mp3 players and Android.
• Songbird - music manager and iPod sync.  We have only one iPod owner and this works well for him.
• Totem movie player - DVD playback.  VLC has more options and may be use less CPU though.
• apcupsd - software control for APC UPS.  Battery operation options for UPS.
• gnuCash - accounting software.  Amazing software, gave it 14 months of usage, but switched back to Quicken.
• simplescan - multi sheet scanning to PDF.  The 300Mb+ of HP Solution Center is gone.
• Tomboy - cross platform - sticky notes, useful with DropBox. 

Productivity - Linux

Many people create written content either to send (email), print (documents) or remember (sticky notes).  Those that make a discipline out of creating content, in the hope they'll be more productive, might be interested in these.

• Nevernote - an open source, cross platform (near) clone of Evernote, focused on creating the "missing" Linux client
• Rednotebook - an open source, cross platform (including Windows portable version) journal and calendar application

Alternatives - Cloud

A switch in operating systems might also be a good time to look at cloud, or web based services.  Consider your access, storage and security needs.  You may find this is a good time to move to a computer anywhere model.

• Springpad - cross platform, web and mobile. Social and email linkage.  If I ever switched from Evernote, this would be it.  Maybe when I upgrade to Android 2.1, hmmm.
• Mint - Owned by Intuit, "Quicken Lite" - limited to pulling 3 months history when starting, relatively inflexible categories, very coarse grained tax designations.  But, like GnuCash, great for a free application.
• Google Docs - All office type applications and data are web based.  The performance lag, plus existing critical mass keep me from this, but there is a lot of positives if starting fresh.
• Dropbox - cross platform, web and mobile.  Synchronized file access for all your computers via the web.  Allows access from any web browser.

Identical - Wine

This section gives me a deja vu from my time as a OS/2 Version 3 (aka Warp) support engineer.  The Win 3.x compatibility and IBM's inability to market small systems led to OS/2s downfall, but I digress.  In any event, while trying alternatives I did test the following two 32bit Windows applications, which worked perfectly for everything I tested under Wine 1.2 (Windows emulator):

• Quicken 2009 - personal finance management
• Evernote 3.1 - tagged note taking, cross platform (except Linux), web and mobile

Don't Need

A short list of some of the things you'll no longer need to have bogging down your system, keeping updated or having to spend.

• Anti-Virus
• Anti-Spyware
• Disk Defrag
• Adobe Reader
• PDF Writer
• Proprietary Scanner
• Validation
• Upgrade $$$

Problems

Linux is not Utopian computing.  At the end of the day there are still some computer "they're all like that" issues - see the "mostly" comment at the start.  This is our short list of items that I haven't solved due to time, expertise or interest.  One of our Linux Mint systems loses X-Windows only occasionally when two users are logged in.  The UNE system uses a launcher that removed Places which makes local file sharing more inconvenient than it should be.  Our lowest end system (1.8Ghz/512Mb) runs movies better on WinXP, although everything else runs better under Linux Mint.  If none of these situations apply (or make sense to you), have no worries.

Still not sure?  Try one of the Live CD distributions.  While the actual boot is about 20 times slower than off a hard drive, you'll have full functionality once its up and running.  It will even allow installations (for that session) of additional software.

Hopefully this can be a small additional resource to those considering the move to Linux or just starting out.  Net:  the benefits far outweigh the small learning curve to be climbed.  You just might end up loving it.

Enjoy.

Computer Donation

How do you safely donate a computer to a person or organization when you've moved on in your technology needs?  How can you do so without putting your own digital information or identity at risk?  The difficulty in answering these questions keep many old computers sitting unused in closets.

While better than going to a landfill, there are uses that are better yet.  Job retraining facilities can use older machines for teaching purposes, running local applications for courses such as typing and basic computer skills.  Non profits can also use downlevel machines as dedicated kiosks they might otherwise not afford.  Whatever the use might be, something is better than nothing.  Let's get started with some how-to considerations.

The key is to remove personal information from the machine and any licensed software that you are not including in the donation (including original media, documentation and license).  Personal information not only includes information in email and files, also browser cache, cookies, history.

The easiest way to insure nothing is disclosed is to wipe the entire drive.  There are several utilities that will do this, including the popular Darik's Boot and Nuke.  Download the .iso, burn it to a CD (not as a file, as an image).  Insert the CD into the old machine and (you guessed it) - boot and nuke.

The downside to this is that the machine is now unusable without a reload of an operating system.  To reinstall on an older machine, find all necessary drivers, configure preferences, etc. can take some time.  The staff at your chosen ministry or nonprofit might not have the necessary skills or tools either.  It might be faster to do some selective deletion.  The suggestions below will provide some steps to get you started.

• Open the Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs then create a new user with administrative rights.
• Write the userid and password on a piece of tape and put it on the side of the machine.
• Logoff then logon with the new id
• Delete all other ids
• Open C:\Documents and Settings, delete all folders except All Users, Default User and the one you just created
• Open the Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs then delete as necessary
• Browse the Start menu for applications that may need to be deleted
• Open C:\Program Files, then look for any remaining applications for deletion
• Look for files off the root of C:\ such as \Temp, \Tmp etc that could be candidates for deletion
• Install CCleaner being sure to add the menu to the Recycle Bin
• Empty the Recycle Bin using secure delete
• Use CCleaner to wipe free space

I wrote this from memory as a precursor to helping a friend out this weekend.  I've been away from Windows support for a long time and wrote this as much to collect my thoughts as anything.  Suggestions on better or more current techniques are welcome.

In the meantime, it should help me and maybe some others.  Enjoy.