Category: General

Since September 2007, my friend and co-worker in the Ubuntu Forums, K.Mandla, has been doing interviews with forum members on his blog, Motho ke motho ka botho, giving all of us an opportunity to get to know some of the people who are consistently helpful and friendly contributors to our community. This has been a fun way to introduce the wonderful members of our worldwide forum community to one another in a little bit deeper way, with posts coming once every two to six weeks*, depending on the time of year, how busy everyone is, and how easy or difficult it is to get a response at a given time.

A large number of the forum staff have already been interviewed, as well as many of the most popular and helpful members of our forum community. Many current forum members have been around since the forums’ inception, the same month that Ubuntu itself started, October 2004, and have become fixtures in the community, so they were the ones we started with. Others are much newer, but bring a new energy and life to the community that longs to be shared. Some interviewees are Ubuntu members, others aren’t. Some are Linux system administrators, some are homemakers. Some are rabid technophiles, some are free software purists, and some just want to check their e-mail in a safe and stable way.

Of late, K.Mandla has found himself taking on more and more responsibility in the real world. This has the downside of forcing him to release this project to someone else so that he may continue to be a consistent contributor in the forums community, helping new users with problems and helping keep the forums community clean and welcoming for newcomers. The positive side of him stepping down is this, I get to be the one to continue the project.

As I take this over, I would like to expand the interviews to include people from the larger Ubuntu community as well, some who are well-known, and others who have been mostly anonymous so far. I will continue to focus on people with a consistent and positive presence in the Ubuntu Forums, as that is my main role in the wider community and where I know the most people, however, I don’t want to limit us to only including forums people. So, to all of my friends on Planet Ubuntu, we would love to include you in the project so you may find an email from me in your inbox someday asking if you are interested in participating (I’m also open to volunteers, so feel free to email me).

The bottom line reason for doing these interviews is that everyone has a life beyond the nickname and avatar that we see, and it’s interesting to find out a little bit more about the human being behind the screen, the blog, or the reputation. To that end, I’m picking up on an idea that was borrowed from an idea originally suggested by forum staff member extraordinaire aysiu, and given legs by K.Mandla. I will be asking the same simple series of nine open-ended questions.

1. Tell as much as you’re willing about your “real life” like name, age, gender, location, family, religion, profession, education, hobbies, etc.
2. When and how did you become interested in computers? in Linux? in Ubuntu?
3. When did you become involved in the forums (or the Ubuntu community)? What’s your role there?
4. Are you an Ubuntu member? If so, how do you contribute? If not, do you plan on becoming one?
5. What distros do you regularly use? What software? What’s your favorite application? Your least favorite?
6. What’s your fondest memory from the forums, or from Ubuntu overall? What’s your worst?
7. What luck have you had introducing new computer users to Ubuntu?
8. What would you like to see happen with Linux in the future? with Ubuntu?
9. If there was one thing you could tell all new Ubuntu users, what would it be?

The questions are intentionally generic; that gives everyone a common ground to start with, and allows them to direct their replies in whatever way they see fit. Interviewees can answer as fully or as briefly as they like, and might even skip questions. Replies are only edited for punctuation, grammar or clarity, and so what you read is what they responded.

* Just in case anyone gets scared that I am about to flood the Planet Ubuntu feed with these interviews, let me ease your mind. I will be keeping to a similar schedule of one interview every two to six weeks, give or take. That should be infrequent enough for disinterested people to ignore them easily.

Early responses can be found here on K.Mandla’s site, including my interview last November.

EDIT/UPDATE: I have had a wonderful time leading and hosting these interviews, but time constraints in real life compel me to pass the project on to a new leader. Joe Barker is that person and I’m sure he will do a fabulous job on his blog. Thanks to all who have participated during my time! I appreciate it!!

All contributors whose interviews have been posted here on Matthew Helmke (dot) Net from 07/2008 to 08/2009 are listed below, in chronological order.

forestpixie

Mark Shuttleworth, SABDFL

overdrank

Alan Pope

John Crawford

Joeb454

nathangrubb

Nicolas Valcárcel

vor

PartyBoi2

Michael.Godawski

Rocket2DMn

tinivole

Travis Newman

This is the third edition of a wonderful book about Ubuntu. The book itself will be for sale from multiple vendors.

The Barnes & Noble Custom Edition contains an extra chapter on the half-million strong Ubuntu Forums written by me. It gives a tour of the forums and its people, processes, and rules for getting assistance with your Ubuntu installation.

The book is slated for release on July 15, 2008. Pre-orders are being accepted on the Barnes & Noble website.

Huge thanks to Mako for allowing me to be a part of the project. I am honored and am thrilled to have my name attached to the book and the Ubuntu community, both in the forums and the greater whole.

I want to go on record and say that I do not believe that gender plays any part in a person’s competence in leadership, intelligence or mental capacity. I’m tired of people questioning another person’s intellectual or technological abilities based on their biological plumbing. I’m sick of female members of technological communities feeling like they need, or want, to hide their gender because of very real bias they have sensed against them.

It’s slightly off-topic, but also for the record, I’m frustrated that this attitude exists in the music, and especially guitar-playing community as well, since that is something else I enjoy participating in.

Thankfully, this experience isn’t universal or constant. I know many ladies among us do not feel as if the gentlemen in and around our overall Ubuntu Linux community are sexist pigs. At least, I would wager they do not think that of most of them. And yet, the problem has not yet been eradicated.

We have at least one staff member in the forums who has chosen not to reveal their gender. That’s fine with me. This person was chosen to join the staff based on the merit of their service to the community, not their plumbing, not the color of their skin, not their politics, not their religion, not based on any other issue. This person is a competent and very helpful member of the community. Yet, there was a recent discussion about whether this person was a man or a woman. Why? Does it matter? The person is a wonderful addition and part of our community who would be missed if absent.

If a member of our community chooses to remain anonymous in name, gender, race/ethnicity, native language, place of origin, religion, political stance, sexual preference, or other things, let’s respect that. Some do so because they are private people who simply don’t wish to share their private lives. That’s cool. Some choose not to share out of fear of rejection, a fear that we often do not cause, but which is based on past experiences with which we were not involved. However, this is a fear which may be inflamed by our manner of address, joking, or perceived pushiness in asking questions that are too personal in nature, and therefore inappropriate…this is something we need to pay attention to on our end.

To the extent we are able, let us continue to make our community as safe of an environment as possible for people to be themselves. Let’s continue to encourage participation by all without strings attached, without the need for disclosing unnecessary details about their lives. At the same time, let us also allow the freedom to celebrate the differences shown by those who desire to reveal the personal bits about themselves, and by doing so, do all we can to make anyone who wants to be a part to feel welcome.

I am who I am because of who we all are…Ubuntu.

I am a member of one of the boards that considers candidates for official membership in the worldwide Ubuntu community. A person who has made a sustained and real contribution to the Ubuntu community may apply to be an Ubuntu member. It isn’t an incredibly difficult process, but we are pretty strict on following the steps listed.

Why?

Because those steps are the only way that we, as the membership board, can accurately and adequately determine whether a candidate’s contributions have been consistent, helpful, and sustained enough for us to feel comfortable giving them the right to make Ubuntu business cards, have an official @ubuntu.com email address, and live in the world as an official representative of the community.

We are looking for people who are helpful, who are kind and gentle, who are talented and smart, but who are humble and service-oriented. The only way we can discover these qualities is with the help of the candidate him or herself.

So, if you plan to apply, please do so. You are certainly most welcome! When you do, please, please, please do a good job of writing out your contributions on the required wiki page. Find some people who know you and who have witnessed your work and bring them to the public meeting on IRC, during which you will be interviewed, so that they may speak on your behalf, or at least have them type a message on your wiki page.

Doing these things may be difficult for humble people, but this is the equivalent of a job application or resume. Present yourself honestly, clearly, accurately, and at your best. All of us on the membership boards want to approve you. Help us do that.

If you have done everything perfectly, and you don’t yet qualify, we will gladly help you learn what to do so that you may. It is not our goal to exclude people, but rather to help people become a part of something wonderful.

NOTICE: this is from April 2008. The information was accurate then and may still be accurate, but keep that in mind. Software changes. This info may need some adaptation. Also, see the disclaimer at the bottom of the post.

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.

Note: get your site up and running, with the theme work complete before doing this. That will make your life a little easier.

1. Download and install the filetype editor MOD discussed here. The mod is included in the cpg1.4.x_plugin_pack_v3 package available on the SourceForge download page for Coppermine. I happened to upload all of the plugins to my website, and sorted them from there, ending up using only a handful. That was easier for me. You do it how you want to.

2. Run the plugin and make a new filetype using the following data; “flv – application/x-shockwave-flash – movie – Flash player”

3. Download the FLV Player from this site. Extract the archive locally and upload mediaplayer.swf and swfobject.js to your Coppermine site’s root directory.

4. I added the following code to my theme’s theme.php file, before the function theme_html_img_nav_menu().

Note: this code is available in a txt file here, which will probably be easier and better than trying to cut/paste from this page.

//** added by matthew to try to get flv play to work **
function theme_html_picture()
{
global $CONFIG, $CURRENT_PIC_DATA, $CURRENT_ALBUM_DATA, $USER;
global $album, $comment_date_fmt, $template_display_media;
global $lang_display_image_php, $lang_picinfo;

$pid = $CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pid'];
$pic_title = '';

if (!isset($USER['liv']) || !is_array($USER['liv'])) {
$USER['liv'] = array();
}
// Add 1 to hit counter
if (!USER_IS_ADMIN && !in_array($pid, $USER['liv']) && isset($_COOKIE[$CONFIG['cookie_name'] . '_data'])) {
add_hit($pid);
if (count($USER['liv']) > 4) array_shift($USER['liv']);
array_push($USER['liv'], $pid);
}

if($CONFIG['thumb_use']=='ht' && $CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pheight'] > $CONFIG['picture_width'] ){ // The wierd comparision is because only picture_width is stored
$condition = true;
}elseif($CONFIG['thumb_use']=='wd' && $CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pwidth'] > $CONFIG['picture_width']){
$condition = true;
}elseif($CONFIG['thumb_use']=='any' && max($CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pwidth'], $CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pheight']) > $CONFIG['picture_width']){
$condition = true;
}else{
$condition = false;
}

if ($CURRENT_PIC_DATA['title'] != '') {
$pic_title .= $CURRENT_PIC_DATA['title'] . "\n";
}
if ($CURRENT_PIC_DATA['caption'] != '') {
$pic_title .= $CURRENT_PIC_DATA['caption'] . "\n";
}
if ($CURRENT_PIC_DATA['keywords'] != '') {
$pic_title .= $lang_picinfo['Keywords'] . ": " . $CURRENT_PIC_DATA['keywords'];
}

if (!$CURRENT_PIC_DATA['title'] && !$CURRENT_PIC_DATA['caption']) {
template_extract_block($template_display_media, 'img_desc');
} else {
if (!$CURRENT_PIC_DATA['title']) {
template_extract_block($template_display_media, 'title');
}
if (!$CURRENT_PIC_DATA['caption']) {
template_extract_block($template_display_media, 'caption');
}
}

$CURRENT_PIC_DATA['menu'] = html_picture_menu(); //((USER_ADMIN_MODE && $CURRENT_ALBUM_DATA['category'] == FIRST_USER_CAT + USER_ID) || ($CONFIG['users_can_edit_pics'] && $CURRENT_PIC_DATA['owner_id'] == USER_ID && USER_ID != 0) || GALLERY_ADMIN_MODE) ? html_picture_menu($pid) : '';

if ($CONFIG['make_intermediate'] && $condition ) {
$picture_url = get_pic_url($CURRENT_PIC_DATA, 'normal');
} else {
$picture_url = get_pic_url($CURRENT_PIC_DATA, 'fullsize');
}

$image_size = compute_img_size($CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pwidth'], $CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pheight'], $CONFIG['picture_width']);

$pic_title = '';
$mime_content = cpg_get_type($CURRENT_PIC_DATA['filename']);

if ($mime_content['content']=='movie' || $mime_content['content']=='audio') {

if ($CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pwidth']==0 || $CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pheight']==0) {
$CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pwidth']  = 320; // Default width

// Set default height; if file is a movie
if ($mime_content['content']=='movie') {
$CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pheight'] = 240; // Default height
}
}

$ctrl_offset['mov']=15;
$ctrl_offset['wmv']=45;
$ctrl_offset['swf']=0;
$ctrl_offset['rm']=0;
$ctrl_offset_default=45;
$ctrl_height = (isset($ctrl_offset[$mime_content['extension']]))?($ctrl_offset[$mime_content['extension']]):$ctrl_offset_default;
$image_size['whole']='width="'.$CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pwidth'].'" height="'.($CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pheight']+$ctrl_height).'"';
}

if ($mime_content['content']=='image') {
if (isset($image_size['reduced'])) {
$winsizeX = $CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pwidth']+5;  //the +'s are the mysterious FF and IE paddings
$winsizeY = $CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pheight']+3; //the +'s are the mysterious FF and IE paddings
$pic_html = "<a href=\"javascript:;\" onclick=\"MM_openBrWindow('displayimage.php?pid=$pid&fullsize=1','" . uniqid(rand()) . "','scrollbars=yes,toolbar=no,status=no,resizable=yes,width=$winsizeX,height=$winsizeY')\">";
$pic_title = $lang_display_image_php['view_fs'] . "\n==============\n" . $pic_title;
$pic_html .= "<img src=\"" . $picture_url . "\" class=\"image\" border=\"0\" alt=\"{$lang_display_image_php['view_fs']}\" /><br />";
$pic_html .= "</a>\n";
} else {
$pic_html = "<img src=\"" . $picture_url . "\" {$image_size['geom']} class=\"image\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" /><br />\n";
}
} elseif ($mime_content['content']=='document') {
$pic_thumb_url = get_pic_url($CURRENT_PIC_DATA,'thumb');
$pic_html = "<a href=\"{$picture_url}\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"document_link\"><img src=\"".$pic_thumb_url."\" border=\"0\" class=\"image\" /></a>\n<br />";
} else {
$autostart = ($CONFIG['media_autostart']) ? ('true'):('false');

$players['WMP'] = array('id' => 'MediaPlayer',
'clsid' => 'classid="clsid:6BF52A52-394A-11d3-B153-00C04F79FAA6" ',
'codebase' => 'codebase="http://activex.microsoft.com/activex/controls/mplayer/en/nsmp2inf.cab#Version=5,1,52,701" ',
'mime' => 'type="application/x-mplayer2" ',
);
$players['RMP'] = array('id' => 'RealPlayer',
'clsid' => 'classid="clsid:CFCDAA03-8BE4-11cf-B84B-0020AFBBCCFA" ',
'codebase' => '',
'mime' => 'type="audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin" '
);
$players['QT']  = array('id' => 'QuickTime',
'clsid' => 'classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" ',
'codebase' => 'codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab" ',
'mime' => 'type="video/x-quicktime" '
);
$players['SWF'] = array('id' => 'SWFlash',
'clsid' => ' classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" ',
'codebase' => 'codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,0,0" ',
'mime' => 'type="application/x-shockwave-flash" '
);
$players['UNK'] = array('id' => 'DefaultPlayer',
'clsid' => '',
'codebase' => '',
'mime' => ''
);

if (isset($_COOKIE[$CONFIG['cookie_name'].'_'.$mime_content['extension'].'player'])) {
$user_player = $_COOKIE[$CONFIG['cookie_name'].'_'.$mime_content['extension'].'player'];
} else {
$user_player = $mime_content['player'];
}

// There isn't a player selected or user wants client-side control
if (!$user_player) {
$user_player = 'UNK';
}

if ($mime_content['content']=='movie' && $mime_content['mime']=='application/x-shockwave-flash') {
if ($CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pwidth']==0 || $CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pheight']==0) {
$CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pwidth']  = 640; // Default width
$CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pheight'] = 480; // Default height
}
$CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pwidth']-=26; // black bars on sides for me for some reason

$flv =  $CONFIG['fullpath'] . $CURRENT_PIC_DATA['filepath'] . $CURRENT_PIC_DATA['filename'];

if($mime_content['extension']!='flv') {
$flvcheck = fopen($flv,"r");
$flv=fgets($flvcheck);
fclose($flvcheck);
}
$exxvars=str_replace($CONFIG['thumb_pfx'], $CONFIG['normal_pfx'], get_pic_url($CURRENT_PIC_DATA,'thumb'));
if(!file_exists($exxvars)) $exxvars=get_pic_url($CURRENT_PIC_DATA,'thumb');
$exxvars="â„‘=".$exxvars;
$pic_html = "<embed src=\"mediaplayer.swf\" width='".$CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pwidth']."' height='".$CURRENT_PIC_DATA['pheight']."' allowfullscreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" type=\"application/x-shockwave-flash\" pluginspage=\"http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer\"
flashvars=\"file=$flv$exxvars\"></embed>";

} else {

$player = $players[$user_player];

$pic_html  = '<object id="'.$player['id'].'" '.$player['classid'].$player['codebase'].$player['mime'].$image_size['whole'].'>';
$pic_html .= "<param name=\"autostart\" value=\"$autostart\" /><param name=\"src\" value=\"". $picture_url . "\" />";
$pic_html .= '<embed '.$image_size['whole'].' src="'. $picture_url . '" autostart="'.$autostart.'" '.$player['mime'].'></embed>';
$pic_html .= "</object><br />\n";

}
}

$CURRENT_PIC_DATA['html'] = $pic_html;
$CURRENT_PIC_DATA['header'] = '';
$CURRENT_PIC_DATA['footer'] = '';

$CURRENT_PIC_DATA = CPGPluginAPI::filter('file_data',$CURRENT_PIC_DATA);

$params = array('{CELL_HEIGHT}' => '100',
'{IMAGE}' => $CURRENT_PIC_DATA['header'].$CURRENT_PIC_DATA['html'].$CURRENT_PIC_DATA['footer'],
'{ADMIN_MENU}' => $CURRENT_PIC_DATA['menu'],
'{TITLE}' => bb_decode($CURRENT_PIC_DATA['title']),
'{CAPTION}' => bb_decode($CURRENT_PIC_DATA['caption']),
);

return template_eval($template_display_media, $params);
}
//** end added by matthew **

I have not tried them, but I have read that there are some changes you can make to your theme’s template.html file that will allow you to change the size of the video on site. If I am successful doing so, I will add that info in a comment here. Otherwise, this is all I have done, and the site in question now allows me to upload flash video and play it in the same way as an mpg or mov.

EDIT: March 9, 2009. I am no longer in charge of the site that I was working on when I wrote this. I’m leaving this post up in the hopes that it is helpful to others, but I don’t have a site available to use to help people troubleshoot. Sorry. You are still free and very welcome to post comments, questions, or tips, there just isn’t any guarantee that I will be able to help, but maybe someone else will. 🙂

All the way back in October 2007 I made two posts about conky, a lightweight and highly configurable system monitor for your desktop.

I still use conky and love it. My configuration changes regularly, especially the colors, but you can get the basic idea from the config files I included in the earlier posts. There is one change I made recently that I would like to highlight because I think others will appreciate it.

Originally, and for many months, I had a line in the configuration that would query a specific website to get my public IP address. I appreciate whatismyip.org allowing people to do this. At the same time, the service has some limitations that I wanted to bypass. For example, you are limited to the number of queries per unit of time, and occasionally I would end up with a conky that included an ugly html page smeared over my desktop instead of a pretty set of IP numbers.

How to fix it?

I decided to do what any good geek would do and make my own IP query site. I won’t share the location, simply because I can’t afford to have 10,000 requests per hour hitting my web server. However, this is something that anyone with web hosting space can do. It is simple.

I just made an unbelievably short php file and uploaded it to my web server. Here is what it contains.

<? $remote = $_SERVER[“REMOTE_ADDR”]; echo $remote; ?>

Yep, that’s it. Put that in a file on your web server with a name like myip.php and test it out by pointing your browser there. If you get your IP address as the response, you are set. Add something like this to your conky file and you are good to go.

${color #FEB60D}Public IP ${color #FECE0D}${execi 360 curl ‘http://yourwebaddress_notmine.com/myip.php’}

There are lots of good ways to back up your computer. I’ve used several. Lately, I am enjoying the ease, convenience, and quality of rsync. In typical geek fashion, I was perusing the rsync man page the other day and found some nice options that I hadn’t known about, so I started to experiment.

I wanted to back up my laptop to a portable, external hard drive, starting with a full backup, then going to incremental backups after that. I also wanted to make sure the backup was kept in sync with my local hard drive, but without accidentally permanently deleting anything from the backup that I might want or need later. Here is what I came up with, posted here mainly for the sake of my memory, but you might find it interesting as well.

First, to back up the entire hard drive, I need to do this as root. Since I am using Ubuntu, and because I like sudo, I just add that to the beginning of the command and enter my password at the prompt. This reminds me to mention that it is important that your backup be kept in a secure location, just as with your computer. Anyone with physical access to the backup drive will eventually have access to all your data.

Here is the command I used, followed by an explanation of the options I am using.

sudo rsync --force --ignore-errors --delete --delete-excluded --exclude-from=/media/disk/matthew-exclude.txt --backup --backup-dir=`date +%Y-%m-%d` -av / /media/disk/backup/matthew-laptop

Options used:

–force: forces the deletion of directories on the backup drive, even if they are not empty

–ignore-errors: tells –delete to go ahead and delete files even when there are I/O errors

–delete: deletes unnecessary or extra files from destination directories

–delete-excluded: deletes excluded files from destination directories

–exclude-from=/media/disk/matthew-exclude.txt: tells rsync not to backup files or directories listed in this file, which I include on the destination drive (my sample is below)

–backup: creates backups of files before deleting them

–backup-dir=`date +%Y-%m-%d`: creates a backup directory on the destination drive for those backups with today’s date as the directory name

-av: archive mode, which combines lots of great stuff together like preserving file permissions and ownership, and verbose output, which is nice for knowing what is going on

This is my exclude file.

home/lost+found/
home/.Trash-root/
home/matt/.thumbnails/
home/matt/.Trash/
lost+found/
media
mnt
proc
root/.thumbnails/
root/.Trash/
sys
tmp

That’s it. The first time I ran it, it took a long time. Of course, I have some 75 gigabites of data, so that isn’t surprising. After that, only things which have changed need to be transferred or deleted, so the process is quite fast.

I admit it. I have given a metric ton of different reasons for why I choose to use Linux. I have made lists. I’ve discussed tons of features. I’ve mentioned freedom.

Earlier this week I found a blog post in which the writer claims the real reason we use Linux is because it is fun. You know what? He’s right, at least as far as probing the real reason I use Linux.

This operating system has brought me back to my childhood, sitting in front of a computer with a flashing cursor just daring me to make it do something. There is very little that can compare or compete with the thrill of figuring out how to make this pile of electronics do something I want it to do, whether it is something practical or silly.

Yeah, it’s stable. It’s secure. It’s free as in freedom. I love all those things. The bottom line for me, though, is simple. It’s fun. I enjoy using it.

Thanks, Linus, for letting us all play along with your little educational toy that grew beyond anyone’s expectations. 🙂

Oh, yeah. I love guitar effects.

Any good guitar player will tell you that you have to start with a good instrument, learn good technique and tone, and have a quality amplifier. I agree. I also agree with those who say that the lion’s share of tone comes from one’s fingers. Once you have that foundation, though, it’s a blast to step on a little pedal and totally transform your clean, pretty sounds into a raging troop of screaming monkeys, fire-breathing helicopters, rude buzzsaws, and modulated head trips.

Here are some of my toys.

The pedals I include on the board changes regularly, and not all of my effects are pictured. Here are some notes on a few of the pedals and some favorite settings. For the settings, pretend all of the knobs are labeled 1-10.

Boss OC-2 Octave (octave 2: 3, direct: 4, octave 1: 6)

Morley PWA Wah(level: 4)

DOD FX 30-B Noise Gate/Loop. (release: 3, gate: 5, sensitivity: 9)

Boss AC-2 Acoustic Simulator (level: 9, body 4, top: 4, mode: enhance)

Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive (level: 3, tone: 7, drive: 4.5)

Marshall ShredMaster (gain: 8, bass: 4, contour: 2, treble: 10, volume: 5)

Boss DS-1 Distortion (tone: 7, level: 3, distortion: 10) (I’m simulating a fuzz with this setting)

MXR Micro Amp (gain: 6) (I am using this to counteract signal loss since I have so many pedals. It works great.)

Boss BF-2 Flanger (manual: 5, depth: 9, rate: 5, res.: 2)

Boss PH-2 Super Phaser (rate: 6, depth: 9, res.: 2, mode: I)

Boss DM-2 Delay (rate: 6, echo: 4, intensity: 1)(This may be the best delay I have ever heard)

Boss CE-2 Chorus (rate: 4, depth: 8 )

Ibanez LF7 Lo-Fi Filter (drive: 5, lo cut: 8, hi cut: 2, level: 6, mode: guitar)(this does a great job of imitating the “cheap transistor amp” or megaphone sound, I really like it when used with other effects like my pseudo fuzz setting on the DS-1)

All settings listed are subject to change at my whim, but this is where I had them the day the pics were taken.

As you can see, I am partial to the Boss pedals. You can use ’em, abuse ’em, and they just keep working. Fact is, I haven’t had any trouble with any of my pedals, but they are all well built. I am a little skeptical of plastic pedals, even if they sound good, so all my pedals are in sturdy steel cases. The Marshall ShredMaster is probably my best deal–I found it at a pawn shop and only paid $15 for it, in near mint condition!! I’m also in love with the Boss DM-2 and SD-1.

I have a few more not pictured. If there is interest, I’ll post again on the topic and include them in the future.

Well, since everyone responded so well to my last post with a list in it, I thought I would share another. I have been married for more than 15 years to an amazing woman that I love and respect greatly. When you are in a relationship for a long time, it can be easy to get into a rut. Here are some (often silly) ideas to spice things up. Really, this is just for laughs, unless you are with a significant other with a great sense of humor like mine. However, if you use one and it works, please comment and say so! If you have any other good or goofy ideas, I would love to hear those as well. (This is originally from xkcd.com and can be seen via the Internet Archive. Thanks to mermshaus for finding the original and giving me a heads up in comment #4. I had completely forgotten where I originally found this list.)

1. Pretend you’ve never met, then loudly try out lame pickup lines in a upscale cafe. Act like they worked.

2. Go on a walking journey and every fifteen feet draw a chalk arrow in the direction you’re going. At the end of the trip, leave a big pile of chalk.

3. Create photo evidence suggesting that you went on an adventure that didn’t really happen.

4. Go for a drive. You can only make right-hand turns. When you finally get stuck, turn around and then you can only make left-hand turns. Repeat until you find something interesting. Take pictures along the way!

5. Build forts out of furniture and blankets, and wage war with paper airplanes.

6. Go to a major chain bookstore, and leave notes to future readers in copies of your favorite books.

7. Write a piece of fiction together. Outside at a cafe. Ask strangers when you get stuck.

8. Try and visit as many people as you can in one night, and turn as many things inside their apartment upside down as you can, without them noticing.

9. Do the lamest tourist thing in your area that you have both secretly wanted to do forever. Have an unabashed good time!

10. Hide and seek in the park.

11. Go around the city with sidewalk chalk and draw hearts with equations inside on random things.

12. Drive somewhere unknown and have dinner in a city you’ve never been to. With fake names.

13. Go for a drive with the passenger blindfolded, choosing directions at random. see where you end up.

14. Dress up as pirates, commandeer shopping carts, and have a war upon the high seas.. er, parking lot.

15. Go on a search for as many good climbing trees as possible, climb as high as you both can in all of them, compile photo evidence.

16. Rent a movie you’ve never seen before. Set on mute and improvise dialogue.

17. Dress up as pirates and go parrot shopping at local pet stores.

18. Go to the airport, get the cheapest, soonest departing flight to anywhere when you show up, and stay there for a weekend.

19. Walk around a city and perform short silent plays in front of security cameras.

20. In the middle of the night, drive to the beach, so you arrive just as the sun is rising. Have a breakfast picnic, then fall asleep together. Bring a sun umbrella.