Creating a Child Theme in WordPress
A couple of days ago I updated Lightword, the theme that I've been using on this blog for quite a while now. Unfortunately when I did the update I lost all of my customizations, including my logo and Adsense code. So I went looking for a solution.
Little did I know, WordPress has supported a feature called "child themes" for some time now. The idea is that you create a new theme, which is as simple as creating a new directory with a single CSS file called style.css, and add a comment to the new CSS file specifying the name of the parent theme. You can read all about how to create a child theme here.
Converting My Business to Linux, Part 4: Updating my IPhone
(Back to Converting My Business to Linux, Part 3: Adobe Acrobat)
The last few days I've been using Linux on a daily basis without too many problems, but tonight I attempted to resolve an unresolvable issue: updating my IPhone to iOS 4.
Though there is plenty of support for syncing and using your IPhone under Linux, as far as I can tell updating simply can't be done since ITunes is required to download updates. I installed ITunes under WINE, but since USB support doesn't exist under WINE (or does it?) that wasn't going to work. I'm looking into libimobiledevice right now since the website says it supports firmware updates. I'll post an update when I know more.
Either way, I feel like this is an area where Linux has some room to improve!
Converting My Business to Linux, Part 3: Adobe Acrobat
(Back to Converting My Business to Linux, Part 2: Installation)
If tonight's experience is any indication, my goal of 100% transformation from Windows to Linux is probably not going to happen.
Tonight I was asked my one of my clients to change a single page of a PDF document hosted on their website. No problem in the pay-to-play land of Windows, right? You fire up your ridiculously-priced copy of Adobe Acrobat Professional and use the Replace Page menu option. Dead simple. On Linux? Not so much.
Editing PDFs on Linux
If all you need to do with PDF on Linux is view and print, your options are numerous and quite stable. If you don't like Ubuntu's built-in PDF viewing support you can opt to download and install Adobe Reader from the Canonical Software Repository. Of course, that's only if you miss all of the bloated and unnecessary features that make Adobe Reader what it is today.
If you have to create or edit existing PDF documents, you're options are few and finicky. I tried two methods: the first was to install PDF Edit from the Ubuntu Software Center. PDF Edit has lots of features, but it couldn't open the document that I needed to modify. Upon further research I found that OpenOffice.org has a PDF Import extension. I installed the extension, and it too had problems opening my document. Perhaps something was wrong with my docuement?
The Problem
I installed Adobe Reader as described above so I could verify that my PDF file would open using an Adobe product and so I could view it's metadata. Reader opened the document without any problems, but within the document metadata I noticed that the document had been created using the HP scanning software at my client's office. I tried opening other documents created with that software and verified that they opened in Adobe Reader, but not in PDF Edit or in OpenOffice.
The Solution
This isn't so much a solution considering I still had to have Windows and Acrobat Professional available to solve the problem. I opened the documents in Acrobat Professional and performed a "Save As." The new documents were now editable under both PDF Edit and OpenOffice.org's PDF Import extension.
PDF Edit was able to quickly and easily replace the page that had changed within the document. If it is able to open my documents in the future, this is what I'll use to make changes to PDF documents on Linux. The OpenOffice.org plug-in still has a long way to go. It does exactly what I expected and what Microsoft Word import utilities have done for years: butchers your document. But at least it opened!
Summary
I may find myself updating this post in the future as I have more experience editing PDF's on Linux. My initial impression is that "it's close, but no cigar. PDF Edit almost worked, and if it is able to open and edit my PDF's in the future I'll consider this a success. OpenOffice.org's plug-in works just as good as other PDF Conversion utilities: it will import your document and keep most of your text intact, but any graphics or stray marks in your PDF document will make your converted document almost completely unusable.
(Continue to Converting my Business to Linux, Part 4: Updating my IPhone)
Converting My Business to Linux, Part 2: Installation
(Back to Converting My Business to Linux, Part 1)
The first step in converting my office to Free Software was to install Linux on my desktop computer. My PC is a pretty beefy machine; the only part of my configuration that is the least bit out of the ordinary is the fact that I have two 420 GB drives configured for mirroring via Intel's Matrix Storage software RAID.
My PC has two network connections: one a gigabit ethernet connection and the other an old 802.11g wireless Linksys Adapter. Though I can run a cable directly to my PC from my DSL modem I prefer not to, as my house is in the beginnings of a decades-long renovation. Enough talk, time for action.
Pre-Installation
Installing Ubuntu Linux is generally dead simple. These days Linux has enough hardware support that you should be able to get Linux successfully installed in a couple of clicks, and something should eventually boot up. I downloaded the x64-bit edition of Ubuntu Desktop and burnt it to a DVD in Windows 7 using my laptop. With any luck, this should be one of the last personal things I do on that company-issued machine!
After booting to the disk and getting through the Language/Keyboard configuration installation screens, I arrived at the screen I knew was bound to give me trouble: the drive partitioning screen. Of course Ubuntu couldn't see my Intel software RAID, so no disks were available to install to. I did some quick research and found the FakeRaidHowto in the Ubuntu Community Documentation. It is possible, but frankly? I didn't feel like spending my time tinkering to make this mediocre feature work. (To make it work, download an Alternative Installation CD with the dmraid drive built-in. But I'm too lazy). I rebooted my computer and switched my drive configuration back to standard SATA instead of RAID, then restarted the installation. From here on out I had no issues with the installation.
Post-Installation
Twenty minutes later, I was at a login prompt. Let me tell you what: Ubuntu 10.04 boots FAST. From the time my BIOS passed control to Ubuntu to the point in which I could type in my password, I bet I waited about eight seconds. Amazing!
My first step after any new OS installation is to install updates. But lo' and behold, Ubuntu was not seeing my wireless network, or any wireless network for that matter. At the top of the screen I saw a flashing icon that looking curiously like it might have something to do with my hardware so I clicked it and found myself face-to-face with the Hardware Drivers window. Listed were an available Nvidea driver for my graphics card and the Broadcom B43legacy wireless driver. Neither of these drivers are actually included with Ubuntu because they are closed-source software, so you have to download them after the installation.
Problem: In order to get my wireless drivers downloaded I had to have an Internet connection. This is the sort of chicken-or-the-egg situation that really gets under my skin. I grabbed a spool of CAT 5E and some RJ45 connectors, and a few minutes later I had the 40 foot cable required to connect my PC to my router. Moments later, I was connected to the Internet, the Hardware Drivers window allowed me to install my wireless driver, and I was able to configure my wireless network.
At this point I opened the Update Manager and installed a few hundred megabytes of available updated.
Summary
I'll say this: my experience with this installation was light years ahead of what I've experienced in the past. Though I'm not thrilled with the fact that there was no out-of-the-box support for my software RAID the wireless configuration was a snap. I've installed Ubuntu dozens of times over the past few years and I've always left because of wireless support. They've finally found that happy medium between hardware support and their commitment to open source code and software.
In my next few posts I will be dealing with software issues and alternatives to popular software packages.
(Continue to Converting My Business to Linux, Part 3: Adobe Acrobat)
Converting My Business to Linux, Part 1
Call it frugality. Call it insanity. Call it what you will, but I'm converting my computers that I use for my consulting business to Linux. That's right, I'm a Microsoft Certified computer consultant whose going to switch to Linux. Actually, I'll go one step further: I'm going to try to switch completely to Free Software. This means:
- I will install and use Ubuntu Linux as my operating system.
- I will use OpenOffice.org as my office suite.
- I will use Evolution for email, calendars, and contact management.
- I will try to find and use a Free Software alternative to QuickBooks to manage my business accounts.
- I will try to find and use Free Software alternatives to Adobe Creative Suite.
- I will try to find and use a Free Software alternative to Virtual PC, so I can install Windows 7 and Server 2008 into virtual machines for my Microsoft training.
I'm pretty darn goods with computers, but this will be a daunting, quite possibly annoying, and maybe even futile task even for me. So I invite you to come along and gawk at the train wreck I'm about to embark upon...
Proceed to Converting My Business to Linux, Part 2: Installation.
Kill It With Fire! How Facebook is Assimilating and Destroying the Internet
It began as a trickle. An email from Windows Live on behalf of my friend Tricia. An hour later three more arrive from something called Flixter on behalf of three other friends who signed up for whatever it is the site has to offer. As more websites adapt the new Facebook for Website's interface in a grab for a slice of their 300 million users, Facebook will quickly become the glue that holds the Web together. And that's not a good thing.
The Thing About Glue Is...
Dan Yoder at rocket.ly already outlined 10 Reasons You Should Stop Using Facebook, but let me break it down for you. Facebook is not a responsible steward of your private information and online relationships. As I said, Facebook aims to be the glue that holds the Web together. But glue--like many building materials--contains formaldehyde, a known respiratory irritant and carcinogen. In other words it rots your guts from the inside out. Facebook seems to be doing the same to the Web.
If you stay logged into Facebook, any website that implements the new Facebook for Websites API can communicate back to Facebook and perform various actions on your behalf including but not limited to: posting to your wall, and emailing your friends on your behalf. That's email, not Facebook messages which is an important distinction, especially considering the stringent email archiving requirements of today's businesses and corporations. In other words, Facebook and other websites are now sending me emails I have absolutely no control over, and because I work at a school those emails are becoming part of public record.
The Repercussions
I've long accepted that anything I do on a social network is public knowledge. If you don't want it to be public, then don't post it online. This is the law of the land when it comes to Facebook, but do you accept those same conditions for every other website that you visit?
Do you want your coworkers to see a stream of wall posts on your behalf throughout the workday?
Do I want everyone knowing what I rented from Netflix?
For the sake of argument, lets say you're a closeted atheist/democrat/homosexual/whatever your parents hate. A stream of your Internet activity would almost certainly out you, were the sites you visit and the news you read to be posted to Facebook. How would you feel if Facebook came out of the closet for you? Perhaps angry, perhaps liberated, perhaps thirsty for a lawsuit.
The Internet was never supposed to work like this. Cookies, the technology that websites use to store data about you as you surf, are "sandboxed" for a reason. That is, a website can only read cookies that that website has created. It's both a safety precaution and a barrier to innovation. Facebook has breached that barrier and in the process torn that safety net wide open.
What to Do?
Perhaps I'm alone in my reasonable expectation of privacy. Perhaps not. But unless something changes, I will be deleting my Facebook account and I won't be looking back. If you are concerned with privacy and how Facebook uses what used to be personal information about you and your personal relationships, I urge you to do the same.
New Project! 98MarketSt.com
I'm happy to announce the start of a new project: 98MarketSt.com. I've started this blog to discuss my home renovation projects, which currently consume most of my free time. I talk about things like jacking support beams, restoring stone foundations, and other home improvement topics. If you have any interest I hope you'll check it out!
Use a Different Password for Insecure Websites
We all do it: we have a single username and password that we use for our every account we have on the Internet. The only problem is, all websites are not created equal. When you log into your bank the connection is probably encrypted, whereas the connection to a gaming site, blog or forum probably isn't.
The Problem
No big deal, right? Wrong! Hackers can easily sniff unencrypted passwords out of Internet traffic. You may think that if a hacker steals your username and password for a forum or chat site it's trivial, but if that password is identical or similar to the one you use to log in to your online banking, that's can be a problem!
What if a hacker steals your email account? Again, you may not consider that a big deal. But all most services require to change your password is your email address. They will send a password reset link to that address, which the hacker can then use to reset your password.
The Solution
The following tips will help you keep your online accounts safe from hackers and password sniffers.
- Familiarize yourself with your browser, and know how to determine if you are logging into a secure or insecure website.
- Use a different username and password combination when registering for secure and insecure websites. That way if a hacker does get the password to your blog, at least it can't be used to log into your bank accounts and other critical online services.
Got a tip related to website usernames and passwords? Leave a comment and I'll add them to the article!
Uninstalling Programs on Windows 7
This demonstration video shows you how to uninstall applications on Windows 7. For this video I intentionally sabotaged my computer with a bunch of applications which I don't recommend anyone actually download, just to show viewers the various tricks that some programs play to prevent you from removing them.
This is the third video in a series developed for my Home PC Maintenance course. Enjoy!
Check Your Hard Drive Space Using Windows 7
The following video shows you how to check your available hard drive space using Windows 7. It also explains how to use the Disk Cleanup Wizard, Compress, and Index options under the Windows 7 Drive Properties window. This is the second video in a new series I've developed for my Home PC Maintenance course.
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