World of Linux and Open Source

Having had bad luck with trying to get three Android phones to run as a hotspot without killing the data connection when the WiFi transceiver activated for the hotspot, I went the “Jetpack” route.

We live in an area with no close towers and simply talking on a cell phone can be a challenge.

The phones all were 95-99% reliable with cellular broadband when using the phone but that all changed when activating the hotspot feature. These three phones were all from different manufacturers. I am putting the proximity of the antennas to each other in the phone causing WiFi interference to the cellular broadband receiver in this area of marginal signal.

Well, I activated the Jetpack, did all the right things to configure the WiFi settings, and promptly didn’t have Internet connectivity on the computer. On a lark I unplugged the Ethernet connector from the switch on the side of the desk. Right away, I had Internet! But then, I lost connectivity with the other computers and networked printer over Ethernet. At least I knew I was on the right track and looking at the Jetpack configuration page confirmed that the Jetpack and router both had Gateway addresses of 192.168.1.1.

After several false starts due to it being so long since I did any setup work on my home (or any) network, after factory defaulting the router for the umpteenth time, started with the printer configuration, and then reconfigured the router. And promptly ran into trouble again! I have all my network equipment running static IP addresses and forgetting about the static addresses for the computers gave several more worried minutes before remembering that fact. Setting the second to last octet to match what I had set everything else to finally gave me both wireless and Ethernet connectivity back.

Since I didn’t have this problem while using the phones as hotspots  delayed realization of what was going on.

On a better note, having a dedicated “MiFi” device and the optional external antenna which could go outdoors is sure less stressful than loosing data whenever I wanted to do anything. It isn’t 100% reliable, but I feel it is close to 95% or better.

Mozilla has just released Firefox 5. They are working on a new more frequent update schedule that seems to be working.

I installed it and it seems to be a lot faster than the previous versions even with my modifying about:config. Either that or Verizon Wireless goofed and provided the nearby towers with more broadband resources as I installed version 5! I am guessing that Firefox 5 is that much faster as I doubt Verizon Wireless will do much to meet the growing broadband userbase here in the boonies.

Since the unpleasant discovery I mentioned in my last post, I have been working on the main site. It is far from polished, but I am making it easier for the lazy person that I am to (maybe) keep things on the main site fresher.

It still has a long way to go, but at least I can honestly say that progress is being made. Be warned though, that I may add features (ahem – break things) as I make improvements (ahem – proceed by trial and error) with no prior notice. Please be patient as I check everything a step at a time and promise to never hit the sack with the site totally borked.

After learning many of the ins and outs of Joomla!, I had a heart stopping moment when I used Internet Explorer on a test machine to see how the site loaded. I discovered some fake infection popups and scanning scripts loaded into IE 8. Comodo seems to think things are clean, here’s hoping it is correct.

I do have to say that the scripts sure were dumb looking and amateurish, but they have no place online anyplace.

I guess it is a lesson learned to not take the “easy” route of keeping a website fresh. I have some ideas doing things “in house” to make it easier to keep the site fresh.

I had Joomla! off the site as soon as I could uninstall it after finding the payload. I noticed that Joomla! did seem to want to load some scripts that looked like simply statistics gathering scripts. I had planned to remove them when I could, but upon finding at least one script was not innocent, I dumped the entire application entirely.

So far none of the other offerings caught my attention, but I may still check one out if I am convinced of its security.

Fedora 15 became the latest of Fedora’s projects on May 24, 2011. Check out http://fedoraproject.org/ for the details.

Fedora tries to keep abreast of the latest cutting edge technology available. As a result, I do not recommend it as a first-timer’s entry into Linux, but they do have a super support community for those who have issues, of course, you can also get help right here. For anybody with any familiarity with Linux, I do suggest they consider giving it a try! I feel that what is “bleeding edge” in Fedora today will be standard tomorrow.

I am working on setting up a Content Management System (CMS). I hope the site will be easier to keep fresh. Maybe I will keep it fresher!

Please be patient as the site is liable to change appearances without notice and I am equally liable to break something without notice. I actually have already broken things but at least I have been able to repair my own damage so far!

The theme of the site will remain the same; open source news and helping newcomers drop proprietary software in favor of open source.

I have really enjoyed the friends here and have renewed after all for another year.

I hope to have more time to keep the rest of the site fresher than previously, but can give no absolute promises….

I put this up for the duration that John Fish had Newbies Linux down, and since he is up and running, I am bringing this site down when it expires on May 15. Financial reasons are playing a big part of this decision, but I am keeping my ham radio site up (n3mtj.net) and will try to put a dedicated Open Source section and forum there if the interest exists.

I have enjoyed running this site, but it is time to cut back where I can.

Please let me know if you want me to try to put a dedicated forum like the one here up on n3mtj.net.

To be honest, I will most likely have a section for open source ham radio software there, but keep the ham radio hardware forum separate.

For those who think of WordPress simply for blogging, here is a surprise: the Open Source Hall of Fame thinks of  WordPress as a Content Management System and has placed WordPress above players such as Joomla and Drupal, both developed explicitly as CMS applications! I will say that both Joomla and Drupal are pretty good, so this is quite an accomplishment on the part of WordPress.

Why? Check out the WordPress plugin directory and you will see something for just about every need. They have over 12,000 and more coming all the time.

As I mentioned earlier, WordPress just keeps getting better and better.

I suggest holding off updating the WordPress plugin Share and Follow until a version after 1.50.2. I updated on my ham radio site and found the favicons all scrambled.

Here is the link to his blog where the latest version should be announced (he does a great job announcing the latest updates): http://share-and-follow.com/wordpress-plugin/

I have disabled it on the other site to avoid confusion and have not updated here.

I like Share and Follow and am looking forward to getting Andy’s latest and greatest.