What the.. Flickr Dropped Most of My Photo Sets When It Migrated Me From Pro Back to Basic
After clicking a link in my blog which pointed to a Flickr photo set, I found out that my group of images no longer existed – well, at least in the set that I originally created. Curious to find out what happened I started poking around and remembered that I let my Pro account expire this month. It turns out that Flickr will drop all your photo collections (including your page layout showing collections) when your Pro account expires. I get that. But, in doing so, Flickr also (I expect inadvertently) dropped around 30 of my sets, leaving me with only 6!
I’ve got to say I’m a little peeved. I put a lot of work into creating those sets and now they are showing as non-existent. The funny thing (or maybe not so funny) is, if you know the original link to one of your “missing†sets, you are presented an empty set that still contains your set description and title (see above pic). Go figure? MORE »
Popularity: 9% [?]
Woohoo! GNOME Nautilus Has Received a Huge Speed Boost Improvement
I’m not quite sure when it happened (this morning or a couple days ago), but the Ubuntu team pushed out a new update to Gutsy 7.10/GNOME 2.20.1 that drastically increased the speed of Nautilus’ file seek functionality – a big bugaboo of mine. Here’s what I mean: Previously it took Nautilus a good 5-10 seconds on my 3Ghz PC with 1GB of RAM to display my listing of 1,400 images (and growing) every time I wanted to upload an image to my website or view contents from that particular folder. Well, guess what? It now takes one second (or a matter of milliseconds) for the upload listing and a second or two for the thumbnail view when first opening the folder.
I can’t even begin to tell you how pleased I am about this update, but I can say that my productivity is going to shoot through the roof because of it. Great work Nautilus developers!
Side note: I also noticed, when in list mode for uploads (as in the above pic), that one can now toggle on/off hidden files through the right-click menu (interesting), but one still can’t right-click or double-click a file to rename or delete it like in Windows.
Popularity: 25% [?]
Richard M. Stallman Free Software Speech + Church of Emacs Skit @ University of San Francisco
If you have a few minutes, have a look at the following videos I recorded of Richard M. Stallman speaking to the students, teachers, and guests of the Computer Science Department at the University of San Francisco (event link). The talk covered the principals of Free Software and what it means to the world at large (photoset). Richard M. Stallman, as you will see, is a very animated speaker who believes wholeheartedly in the GNU philosophy/project, which he founded, and travels tirelessly around the world (sponsored by the supporters of the Free Software Froundation) to spread his message of freedom computing to all. MORE »
Popularity: 26% [?]
How-To: Install Django on Your Linux Server or Development Desktop
I was going to go through the trouble of documenting the process of installing Django on a Debian-based Ubuntu Server, but it looks like the python web-framework has been added to the repository in both Debian and Ubuntu (and a few others). The package has been dubbed python-django, so the install code is simply: MORE »
Popularity: 35% [?]
How-To: Add a LAMP Server to Your Linux Desktop for Development
Lately I’ve been in the mood to do some PHP/MySQL development for my website. In the past, like most newbie or part-time developers, I would work on some code on my desktop and then uploaded the changes to the remote server and hit refresh — not very efficient. This time around I wanted to see how easy or hard it would be to get a production Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP (LAMP) server working on my Debian-based Ubuntu desktop (currently running Feisty Fawn 7.04) so I can do all the development and testing locally without disturbing my LIVE remote site. Below are the steps I took to reach my objective. Notice: The instructions require basic to intermediate knowledge of Linux, how to use a Terminal, sudo, apt-get, and understanding of PHP and MySQL interaction. MORE »
Popularity: 42% [?]
How-To: Use Gizmo’s Access Numbers to Get Calls from Landline or Cellphone Users to Your VoIP Account for FREE
Recently, I lost my cellphone and haven’t had a good way for people to get a hold of me in the short-term. I did a little poking around the Gizmo Project website and discovered they offer 20 “Access Numbers†across the United States that allow landline and cellphone callers to ring Gizmo VoIP users for FREE.
Here’s how it works. Tell your friends to call you by:
1. Dialing (415) 354-1083 (My San Francisco-based Gizmo Access Number)
2. Entering your 11-digit SIP number 1747169XXXX <– found by going to Account > My Profile in Gizmo
3. Pressing the # sign when done
That’s it! Now, your buddies can get a hold of you from any standard phone and even leave you voicemail messages. Just tell them your SIP number is like your personal extension on the access number you’ve provided them – and they’ll get the picture.
Note: If you want a long-term solution for using your Gizmo VoIP account full-time, you can purchase a direct “call in” number for $35 a year.
Aside: I just noticed that Gizmo Project 3.0 has added voice calling support to Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live, Google Talk, and Jabber (very cool) — previously it was IM chat only.
UPDATE: Another quick “free” solution to easily give your traditional phone buddies a way to call you on your Gizmo softphone is to create a GrandCentral account (when you register you’ll get a free standard phone number in any area code you choose) and have their servers route your calls to your Gizmo account.
Popularity: 17% [?]
DivX Connected SF Event
In partnership with Jeremy Toeman’s Stage Two public relations company, DivX hosted a demo party for the soon-to-be-released DivX Connected platform at a cozy little venue called MR. in San Francisco. As expected, there were popular bloggers and journalists in attendance like Robert Scoble (Scobleizer), Om Malik (GigaOM), Ryan Block (Engadget), Hubert Nguyen (Ubergizmo), Scott Beale (Laughing Squid), Vincent Nguyen (SlashGear), and others. The evening started out as more of a mixer but then morphed into a hands-on demo opportunity and then into a full-fledge 20-minute presentation by DivX co-founder Jerome Rota. MORE »
Popularity: 16% [?]
Blockbuster Takes Away Key Package Features in Total Access Plan
I just got the following email from Blockbuster stating that their 3-at-a-time package has changed once again. This is the third such email I have received from the company since joining the program the first fews months into its launch.
BLOCKBUSTER Total Access - Due to changes in our subscription plan pricing, your current BLOCKBUSTER Total Access plan, Unlimited Online DVDs up to 3 at a time plus unlimited in-store exchanges each month for $17.99, will no longer be available at the current price.
You will be moved to our new plan that includes Unlimited Online DVDs 3 at-a-time plus up to 5 free* in-store exchanges for $17.99. This plan will not include an e-coupon for in-store DVD and/or game rentals. The new subscription plan and pricing will go into effect on your regular monthly billing date following August 31, 2007.
In addition, exclusively for BLOCKBUSTER Total Access customers, we have introduced in-store movie rentals for $1.99* per movie should you need more than the in-store exchanges included in your plan.
What’s different?
I used to get 3 movies out a time with unlimited in-store, trade-in rentals + 2 monthly coupons for in-store games or movies rentals all for $17.99 (originally $14.99). Now, I’m just getting the above. MORE »
Popularity: 15% [?]
Speaking Engagement (July 26th): Linux Desktop Podcasting Basics at PenLUG
I would like to invite everyone who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area who’s interested learning about using their Linux Desktop as a podcasting development platform to come to the PenLUG meeting on July 26th at 7pm in Redwood City (directions). In this presentation, I’ll be covering what podcasting is, how it’s distributed, how to record, which equipment to buy, how to use VoIP clients and traditional phones to record interviews, where/how to get music samples, intro to Audacity, intro to EasyTAG, and how to publish your recordings via your Wordpress blog. To say the least, everyone who attends is going to get a healthy serving of information that should prepare them to enter the exciting world of podcasting.
UPDATE 1: A photoset of the night’s event can now be found in my Flickr photo album (mostly pics of me chatting away behind the speaker desk). In addition, a Google Video of the presentation (including what was shown on screen) should be available soon as soon as PenLUG’s Bill Ward finishes the editing. I’ll post it here as soon as it’s up.
UPDATE 2: I don’t know what’s going on with the video. I’ve got to ping Bill and get a status update.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Monster Cable’s “Get Connected Beyond High Definition” Party
I was invited to attend a private mixer party called, “Get Connected Beyond High Definition,” hosted by Monster Cable at Entertaining Spaces. In attendance were some A-list bloggers, industry insiders, and a few Internet personalities. The event, it appeared to me, was an opportunity for Monster to reach out to the tech community and get the word out on existing and upcoming products – one of which I’m very interested in called, Einstein. Another that’s right up my alley is M-Design and Monster Central. Anyways, it was blast chatting with Jeremy Toeman, Dave Zatz, Thomas Hawk, Scott Beale, Brian Lam, Ryan Block, Veronica Belmont, Neal/Cali Lewis, and bunch of other guests and employees at Monster. I even met the head Monster himself (see pic above - photo credit: Generation eXe), Noel Lee riding his Ferrari branded Segway. For more pictures of the event, checkout Thomas Hawk’s photoset here and Generation eXe’s set here.
Popularity: 11% [?]
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About
Alexander Grundner is a San Francisco Peninsula based web publisher who spends most of his time tracking down news stories for eHomeUprade, attending technology events, or working on his next big project.
For fun he likes to stay active outdoors, take photographs, shoot video, hack together PHP/Python code, play with Linux, and test new technologies.
