Friday, October 19, 2012

10-19-2012

Fri Oct 19 12:45:43 PDT 2012

Been slacking the past couple nights due to a cold. I think I want to move
formward with a domain name by this weekend. Just choosing a good one
is so dang tricky. I'm sure I will post the update here once I get it
going. In other news I am stuck in a google+ thread debating the usefulness
of ubuntu's UNITY interface. I personally hate it because the left half the
screen takes up half the realestate of the desktop. Boo to that!

Sure, you can technically do a lot of tricks to re-arrange stuff an keep using
UNITY, but I just reverted to Gnome, and everything is good. More on this
later.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

10-16-2012

Linux is almost becoming second nature to me now, it's pretty great. I don't get nearly as lost when trying to follow
instructions on how to do things. A couple more months of practice and I think I should be able to get the email
server up and running. I did get the apache server up and running, that was way easier than expected. I thought I
had to tell it to start running or whatever, but it's just... going! I might have to mess around with it later if I do
anything fancier than just a few simple web pages.

Also, I discovered that Xubuntu works a lot better than just ubuntu, it also has more features unlockable than does the
normal ubuntu. For example I can make my own splash screen and login screens with ubuntu tweak, which I couldn't do
under just normal ubuntu. I rebranded my flavor - mothbuntu. Also, I like just running a window manager instead of a full on
desktop environment, it's a lot lighter and there isn't a bunch of unncesscary crap running. Fav so far for that is fluxbox.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

10-10-2012

I am getting the software together that I need in order to build a good email
server. I know that I need Apache, and I need SQL, there are some spam filter
things that are suggested as well. I think maybe for christmas for myself I
will arrange that dynamic DNS account. There is a way to rig everything
from what I have read to set my local machine as static, and then also have a
daemon running that automatically updates the DNS directory and points it
to my IP address, incase COMCAST decided to switch it on me. That's rather
handy.

Now the debate is whether I really need to get a faster computer first before
I dive into all of this. The box I am currently using is so unbelievably slow.
It is almost torture.

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

10-09-2012

OK!

I think I know some new goals for myself with all this computer stuff I have been doing. I think I want to try to host
my own website and email server, like.. at the house. I won't be getting any traffic really, so I am sure I can
pull it off. The purpose being only to prove my mousey worth. Maybe I can get some kind of side work if I figure
that stuff out. I've maintained a website before, but it was ghetttttto. I don't want to make anything flashy at
all, just the basics.

It will be rad to get the email set up. It's a bummer that mothrock.com got snatched up a long time ago and nobody ever
did anything with it.


Monday, October 08, 2012

10-08-2012

WHOA! I finally got some stuff working! I was able to get some programs working
through X11!! Nothing that impressive, and I am sure it was really stressing
out my poor machine at home. I need to figure out how to get ubuntu to default
boot to command prompt only. I am sure there has to be something out there
that I can read to figure that out. I am not able to load a gnome session
through X, as apparently only one desktop environment can run stable on
system. Bummer.

I guess I don't really want it to boot to command prompt every time, just
need to know how to do that so that I can connect a full blown gui session.
Running just separate programs is neat, but looks ghetto on a mac. Ha.

Maybe also there is an alternative skin for X that uses the mac theme? That
would be nifty. Oh... more research to do.

Friday, October 05, 2012

10-05-2012

Had a few days gap there, I've been trying to avoid that, but sometimes life
has its funny way of interrupting blogtastic blogging.

I haven't developed any major super awesome compu-powers in the last couple of
days, but I have been forcing myself to do rather silly things, like shutdown
my computer with the command line. Which isn't all that cool, but kind of
funny to see the warning pop up in terminal, then the computer shuts down.

I was able to create a ssh tunnel to my computer at my house using port
forwarding. I still haven't been able to activate X so that I can use the
gui remotely, but I can get the CLI, and that's all I have been using anyway.

anyhoo. Back to work!

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

10-02-2012

Not a whole heck of a lot to report today. No adventures in archaic interfaces. I did donate some $$ to help a friend pay for their dog's ear
surgery. It appears the cider making will commence this weekend. I'm kind of pumped to be making a fermented - anything - , but
I am particularly fond of apples, so this is going to be good.

Monday, October 01, 2012

10-01-2012

Hello world!

Not much computer mayhem to report today, nothing too daring. Nothing that exciting. I might be getting a compiler program
send to me through dropbox. Apple only makes their compiler available for the very latest operating system, and since I
don't have that, I can't run it! :( Luckily, I met someone on one of UNIX servers that I dink around on and they are
totally going to hook me up.

In other news - CIDER! I am hellbent on getting myself a cider press so that I can turn apples into delicious cider. Also, the yeast
used to make hard cider is a lot cheaper than the stuff even to make beer, so that is also a project I want to get underway. Soon,
very soon. The delicious cider will be mine.