I like to create and administer websites. I’m forever starting new projects, giving projects away, and finding something to tinker with. My most recent (not quite ready for the public) is a Simple Machines Forum installation. While I prefer vBulletin, SMF has some wonderful qualities and is a good piece of software and I am enjoying working with it.
The first thing I did after installing the software was look at themes. I don’t like the default theme of any forum software that I have seen. Maybe the elegant beauty of the Ubuntu Forums has spoiled me. I went on a search. There are a lot of decent and free themes available for SMF, but none was exactly what I was looking for. I did find one I liked pretty well, though, so I downloaded and installed it and began customizing the theme to suit my needs.
After the theme was set up and working, I realized there are several functions that SMF does not have out of the gate, functions that I wanted. I began to search for MODS, bits of code to add in to give me the functions I wanted. I added mods for pretty urls, creating a sitemap for Google, customizing the permissions beyond what is allowed in the standard setup, adding custom fields to member profile pages, and allowing members to choose or upload an avatar at registration.
I also found some nice mods that required some hacking to fix…for example, there is a mod to add drop down boxes for font and font size to the text entry area for posts, but the boxes were mislabeled. Most of the fixes are easy if you are able to dig through and read the PHP or html, but it takes time.
What I would like to find is a mod for spam control (the Akismet mod for SMF does not work with my custom theme, even after hours of hacking at it and also appears to be unsupported/unmaintained).
Anyway, this is kind of a followup to the “why does the Ubuntu Forums website use vBulletin instead of a free forum software?” questions we receive from time to time. vBulletin is easier, has more features by default, more complete control over how it operates, better customization options that add in and operate correctly with less work, and is well worth what little is paid for the annual license. We get complete access to the source code and can (and do) modify it at will when we want to, but almost never do we find ourselves forced to do so to make something work.
May 6th, 2008
One such user is my friend K.Mandla. His disappointment? It’s too easy to set up. 
Those of us who have been around since Hoary Hedgehog (Ubuntu 5.04) or earlier remember the work that was needed to get things up and running. Well, for the majority of people, those days are gone (and good riddance!).
Congrats again and huge thanks to all involved in making Hardy the best Ubuntu release so far, and perhaps the best Linux distro release ever!
April 30th, 2008
I found this here and liked it enough to believe it was worth sharing, even if the picture is a little large and breaks the flow of my site. This is good enough that I have to share it. Yet another reason I love Ubuntu…if only I had a Hardy 8.04 disk to take my own picture…
April 29th, 2008
If you have upgraded to WordPress 2.5.1, you may have discovered a bug that hit a lot of people this weekend. What happens is if you change your password, the login link you are sent doesn’t work and you end up locked out. You can reset a WP password manually, and here is a link to two updated files that fix this issue.
The fix will also be included in 2.5.2, so if you haven’t upgraded yet, I suppose you could wait for that, however there were several important security fixes in 2.5.1, so I recommend upgrading and then uploading the two updated files.
April 27th, 2008
Sorry about the length of that last post. I thought using the “more” tag in WordPress would cause only the first couple of paragraphs to be carried by my rss feed, like it does on my blog front page…I didn’t expect the whole, long thing to end up on the Planet.
So, dear lazyweb, any idea how I can accomplish that goal for the next time? I certainly don’t want to overwhelm the Planet page or others.
April 26th, 2008
I have several websites for which I am responsible. On one site, I am building a new gallery site for storing pictures as well as sound and video clips. There are several good options for building a gallery site, and I have used more than one with success. For the site in question, I decided to use Coppermine, which is powerful, configurable, open source, and freely licensed using the GNU GPL.
I ran into a little snag that took some work to figure out. To help me remember what I did, I am blogging it here. Maybe someone else will find it useful as well.
Coppermine makes it very easy to store, embed and play lots of media files and formats. That is awesome. I found one that is not supported…the now common flv, or flash video. In fact, by default you can’t even upload a file with an flv extension. Bummer. Off to Google I ran.
I found several sites with ideas and info, but one was more useful than others. Even it required lots of reading and page turning. I decided to put all the info in one page for my easy reference, but the Coppermine Gallery forum deserves a link and the credit for this method. I’m just posting it, people there came up with it. That is an old thread, though, and things have changed since the first post. I had to read the whole thing to figure out what needed to happen to make this work, and that is the reason for this post, rather than just a bookmark in my personal web browser. Okay, here are the steps I took that got this working for me. (more…)
April 26th, 2008
I failed to post yesterday during the main release party excitement, not because I wasn’t excited, but because I was so excited that I had already upgraded all of my boxes when Ubuntu 8.04 was still in beta.
Anyway, woo hoo!!!
If you want to download the new version, go here. The links are at the bottom of the page. I recommend using a torrent download as it will be faster and will save some of the load on the Ubuntu servers.
April 25th, 2008
One of the most freeing moments of my life was when I learned to stay out of other people’s business. That moment freed me from the stress and worry of trying to keep everyone else safe, correct, or “on the right path.” Don’t get me wrong, there is a place and a time for that. The real trick is learning how to discern what is your responsibility and what is not, in other words, when are where are those proper times and places?
I like to use the analogy of circles. Each of us is given a circle of responsibility and influence. Everything in the circle is ours. Everything outside of that circle is not ours. The things inside of other people’s circles are their responsibility.
Sometimes responsibilities are shared, like my wife and I each have our children within the shared, overlapping portions of our individual circles.
Sometimes my circles contain other people’s circles. My children, especially as they are very young, are fully within my circle. As they get older, my job as a father is to help them learn how to manage the things in their circle well, giving them authority and power over their lives. At first, I control the decisions. Then, I allow them to make decisions within parameters I establish. Finally, we move to more and more freedom, ultimately allowing them to make decisions for themselves as they learn how to do so.
Sometimes circles exist only for specific areas of life. An employer’s circle of responsibility at work completely encompasses the circles of his employees, but only where work is concerned. The employer does, or should not have, any such authority over the employee at home.
Sometimes circles are unique. This blog is in my circle and no one else is responsible for it in any way (other than my web host keeping its uptime promise).
Problems appear when people overstep proper boundaries and begin trying to manage the things in other people’s circles. You are still within your circle when you state a preference or a belief. You are probably still within your circle when you advocate or promote an idea (depending on how you do it, obtrusively or respectfully). You are no longer within the boundaries of your circle when you demand that someone do things the way you want them done.
It goes the other way, too. I am fully within my circle when I delete spam comments from my blog, when I prevent them altogether, when I decide who may or may not post comments, and when I arbitrarily change the theme of my site. I am stepping outside of my circle when I demand that someone else do the same things on their site. I can comment, “I do this. Here is why. You might like it as well.” I may not say, “Anyone who administers their site differently is a moron,” and I certainly have no power or authority to demand that they change.
Actually, realizing that is quite freeing. Suddenly it is okay to allow people to make choices. I might comment occasionally, if I can do so politely and without stepping out of my circle and into someone else’s, but ultimately I must allow others to have control over their lives, to have the freedom to live as they would, if I am to expect the same consideration.
So, with that in mind, I won’t tell you how to raise your children, how to run your software project, how to administer your website, or what you should or shouldn’t believe. I might make a comment occasionally based on my personal preferences, but only when I can so do in a way that does not steal from you your freedom. I’ll stay out of your circle, you can rule it as you see fit. If you are working for me, I will limit my attempts to control or influence your actions only within proper the boundaries of the workplace and the job and our professional relationship. That is the path of respect.
In return, please feel free to tell me what you think, what you believe, and share ideas you have that I may not have considered. I want to hear them! Really. Then, let me make an informed decision, and let the decision be mine. Stay out of my circle.
April 24th, 2008
I spent some time this morning looking through my logs and reading some stats (when I should have been working, but that’s a different post altogether). One statistic that fascinated me was the list of search terms that have led people to this site. Some are obvious, because I have written posts on these topics.
conky
using rsync for backup
ubuntu forums
date ideas
guitar effect settings
automatic php database backup
But then there are some that both confuse and amuse me. I thought I would share them, in case you needed a chuckle. How any of these led someone to my site is a mystery, probably involving chaos math and a butterfly somewhere in Venezuela.
joke donut difference between a
the coolest things ever known to man
soda cause achy feeling
“top secret” morocco site:net
what are the coolest clothes on oblivion
can diet coke cause indigestion
what do you call a conductor’s stick?
Please, share yours. I need the laugh.
April 24th, 2008
We have upgraded the Ubuntu Forums to use the newest version of vBulletin, 3.7.0RC3 and it rocks! There are a ton of new features, a new look, and still the same friendly, welcoming, helpful atmosphere.
The upgrade is a direct result of work done by ubuntu-geek, so he should get all the credit and thanks. The atmosphere in the forums is because of our members, who are wonderful and deserve the best looking and best working forums on the internet.
April 22nd, 2008
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