I love Make magazine. It captures the excitement and joy of tinkering, experimenting, and modifying things for fun. This is an experience I have had over and over through the years, beginning in my early childhood. I was that one kid that always took all of his toys apart, usually putting them back together with “improvements.” I have learned so much from doing things this way, probably more than I have learned from books. I am a book lover, but more than that, I am a tinkerer. I’m never content with knowing theory, I have to get my hands dirty…
Matthew Helmke (dot) Net Posts
I am the sole person responsible for seven websites that use MySQL databases, and have worked on the back end of several others. Over the years I have worked on these databases in many different ways. I’ve done it from the command line, via ssh. I’ve done it using PHP scripts within the software being run on a site. I have also used phpMyAdmin. Each method has applications and moments where I would prefer using it to the others at my disposal. I have generally used phpMyAdmin only in those moments when I had something quick and simple to do,…
I wrote several articles, and co-wrote one with a friend, Ryan Troy, for the Ubuntu 8.10 edition of Linux Identity. I even got to write the editorial at the beginning of the issue. I received my copy today. The issue should be available on newsstands soon. It includes two installation DVDs, one 32 bit and one 64 bit. The issue will give a good introduction to Ubuntu for your friends and coworkers, even those with little technical skill, knowledge or experience.
My second book (written solo, not as a cowriter) appeared on Amazon this morning. The cover still hasn’t appeared on the site, but hopefully it will soon along with “search within this book” capability. From the back cover: “There are things that happen in the world that are difficult and sometimes impossible to explain. At times, we are confronted with circumstances or situations over which we have no control. How we deal with those situations reveals much about our strongest beliefs, our dreams, and our fears. This collection of short stories explores specific instances of involvement with or belief in…
Note: this post is outdated. Use at your own risk. In Apache, you can create an .htaccess file to house 301 Redirect statements, or you can do it in the main config file. It is easy, and common. To change the url that appears in a client browser, as well as tell it where to find something that is no longer located in an original place, you would write something like this for : Redirect 301 /original_location/ where is where the client is looking for the file, but would not find it, and is what you want used when the…
Note: this post is outdated. Use at your own risk. I am running my sites on a VPS from Slicehost and have had a very good experience. When I started, I set everything up using Apache 2, since that is what I am most familiar and adept with using. Apache works well, but likes more memory than I have in my server. This caused me to use my swap far too much. I worked with the Apache configuration, finally coming up with the changes below for my /etc/apache2/apache2.conf file, which minimized the swapping, but wasn’t quite enough for me to…
I recently bought a new computer from System76 with Ubuntu pre-installed, because I want to support companies who are supportive of Free and Open Source Software. This was my experience. Before I ordered the machine, I spent some time reading several pages of questions and answers from their support forum, housed at the official Ubuntu Forums. A quick disclaimer: I am an administrator for the Ubuntu Forums. Later, I emailed their support team with several questions. They responded quickly and answered every one to my satisfaction. I also compared configurations and prices with several other Linux pre-installed retailers such as…
I have used Drupal to administer sites for years. It is flexible, powerful, and relatively easy to use. The one area of Drupal where I have been weak is theming. Generally, I have used contributed themes, maybe modifying colors, logos, and other simple things. The one or two times I felt ambitious and tried to read through the documentation in order to learn how to create my own theme from scratch, I either got distracted by life, or found myself getting tired of the search and wishing I had all of the information I needed in one place to learn…
Shawn Dennie, known as vor on the Ubuntu Forums, is one of our moderating staff. He is a programmer with a long technical history and being hired at 18 years old did wonders for his already-strong geek credibility. He is a world traveler, and an all-around interesting and good guy, and the subject of our latest in the community interview series. 1. Tell as much as you’re willing about your “real” life – name, age, gender, location, family, religion, profession, education, hobbies, etc. My name is Shaun Dennie, I’m inching closer to 30 every day and can generally be found…
What is it about the internet that causes some people to act like it is suddenly okay to be rude, demeaning, or to speak/write/act in a way that would otherwise be obviously unacceptable in any human society? I don’t actually expect an answer. I just needed to vent.