Well, I'm composing this post in linux (Ubuntu 9.10, to be exact). Now I can be an elitist. Yay.

They make it so easy to set up a dual boot. You can download a "Windows Installer" that automatically sets up a partition and the dual boot screen when you restart. It also leaves Windows XP as the default boot option (something that doesn't take over your PC, how refreshing).

First and foremost, when you set up a new computer or operating system, you try to get on the internet. Well, that didn't work for me. After reinstalling Ubuntu three separate times, printing about 50 pages of forum nonsense, and typing "sudo [command]" about 200 times, I finally got Ubuntu to recognize the WiFi card in this laptop. I was immediately introduced to the negative aspects of linux. Supporters of linux say "It's not linux' fault that manufacturers don't make drivers for linux!" I had to use ndiswrapper to convert Windows XP drivers into linux drivers. Finding the correct drivers was a snap, the rest is entirely linux' fault. They have to know that a lot of people are going to encounter the same problem that I did, and they do absolutely nothing to make it intuitive to new users. I had to download 4 packages (installers for utilities/software) on another computer, burn them to a cd, install them in Ubuntu, and then figure out how to use the wrapper. Then I had to diagnose what the conflicts were and remove the other...... okay, I'm bored typing this, so I can only imagine how it is reading it. I'll stop now.

The point: it is definitely linux' fault that this nonsense isn't at all accessible. I am in at least the 98th percentile of computer users, and it took me 8-10 hours of work to get the internet on this sleek, modernized installation of linux. There is nowhere I can go and click "disable all default WiFi drivers," for instance, which would have saved me a lot of time. At least do something to try to make it intuitive for new users. From what I read, my problem occurs in a large percentage of Ubuntu installs, yet there is still no easy (or even reasonable) fix.

I guess it's just a different mindset.

There are some advantages I have already found. You update all your software from one window. Just a few clicks, and all the software on your whole setup is updated at once. Also, Ubuntu natively supports a desktop that is twice as big as your monitor. Just scroll over, and you have the space of a whole other desktop. It also natively supports scrolling by dragging with two fingers at once on the trackpad (like a MAC). That's something that could get addicting. I already use it kind of naturally when browsing. No need to find the scroll bar to browse further down on a web page. We'll see how this pans out.

Also, all software downloads files to the same place. Adjusting the colors/theme of your setup takes effect on all installed software.

Note: This post is outdated. The current plugin list can be found on this page.

I feel that I have been engrossed in WordPress long enough that I can put together a fairly authoritative list of WordPress plugins with an explanation of each. These are the plugins I use. I don't use twitter or facebook, so you won't find anything related to those two services in here. Presented in alphabetical order:

1. AddToAny. This plugin allows readers to add a more profession-looking link to your blog on their networking service of choice. It has automatic options for Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Digg, StumbleUpon, virtually anything you can imagine.
2. Akismet. Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not, then it automatically files them under "spam" if there is a match. It allows you to manage/review the comments after they are marked as spam, and undelete comments if necessary. This plugin has already saved me from over 600 spam comments on this blog.
3. All-in-one SEO Pack. This plugin allows you to setup your metatags for your both your main page and individual posts. You can add comments, craft an excerpt, or add tags for Search Engine Optimization.
4. Apture. My favorite plugin. This allows you to contain your links within java pop-up windows on your site. Instead of people clicking your link to a Wikipedia article, they merely hover over the link and the article pops up within your page. This allows people to view material that is pertinent to your articles without navigating away from your page. It works automatically with YouTube, Wikipedia, Twitter, IMDB, Amazon, and many more.
5. Audio Player. A highly configurable plugin that turns your links to .mp3 files into a stylish Play button. It uses Flash animation and expands when clicked. It also keeps the clueless from stealing .mp3 files off your server and forces them to stream the files.
6. Better-Wiki-Link. This plugin automatically creates a link to a related Wikipedia article if you put double brackets around any text in your blog entry. When used in conjunction with Apture, it creates a hover-link that brings up the Wikipedia article in a pop-up java window.
7. Better Tag Cloud. A more configurable tag cloud than the default tag cloud provided with WordPress.
8. Blog Protector. This plugin attempts to prevent people from plagiarizing information from your blog. It disables the highlighting of text (and in turn disables copy-and-paste of text from your blog). It can also be set to a) disable the ability for people to drag your photos onto their desktop and/or b) disable the ability to right-click on your page. I currently do not have this plugin enabled because it causes conflict with some other features of my blog, but maybe after a few more developments of the plugin I will be able to enable it.
9. Broken Link Checker. This plugin continually checks all the links (past and present) on your blog entries and validates that no links are broken. I have over 600 links in my blog thus far, so this is a great plugin for me (this post alone has 29 links). Sometimes pages disappear and links in your old posts no longer work; this plugin keeps you from having to constantly re-check all of your links. It runs in the background and is not visible to readers of your blog.
10. CommentLuv. When people fill out their information to leave a comment on your blog, this plugin checks the URL they provide. If the URL points to another blog, the plugin will automatically add a link to their most recent blog post. This provides free advertisement to others' blogs and helps the blogging community as a whole.
11. Do Follow. Removes the nofollow attribute that WordPress adds to comments by default.
12. Feed Pauser. Allows authors to pause a feed from immediately being published. I frequently make a host of minor changes to a post immediately after it is published. This ensures that the post does not show up in my RSS feed until I have made all of my final adjustments (I have my Feed Pauser set to wait 20 minutes).
13. Flickr Widget. A widget which displays the most recent photos from a Flickr account (mine displays in the right sidebar). You only have to set it up once and it automatically shows the most recent photos for you as you update your Flickr.
14. GD Simple Widgets. This is a pack of several basic widgets. Most of them are improvements of widgets that come with WordPress by default, such as Recent Posts, Related Posts, Recent Comments.
15. Google XML Sitemaps. This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog. It runs in the background and updates automatically every time you make a change to your blog.
16. Gravatar Signup Encouragement. Encourages commenters who do not already have a Gravatar to sign up for a free Gravatar.
17. No Curly Quotes. Stops WordPress from turning the ' and " characters into curly quotes in blog posts, titles, excerpts and comments. Options can be set for each element separately. Curly quotes cause problems when cutting&pasting text.
18. Outbound Links. Forces all outbund links to open in a new window. This helps ensure that people do not navigate away from your page when they click a link.
19. Sidebar Login. Adds a sidebar widget to let users login to your blog. I use it as the top widget in the right sidebar. (No one ever logs in, though).
20. Smart Ads. Allows you to automatically place Google Ads at certain places in your posts. You set certain rules (ie, minimum wordcount) that determine if and where your ads are placed.
21. SubZane YouTube Plugin. Like the Flickr Widget, this plugin allows you to automatically display the most recent YouTube videos from your YouTube account.
22. Visitor Maps and Who's Online. Displays Visitor Maps with location pins, city, and country. Includes a Who's Online Sidebar to show how many users are online and a Who's Online admin dashboard to view visitor details. The visitor details include: what page the visitor is on, IP address, host lookup, online time, city, state, country, geolocation maps and more.
23. WordPress.com Stats. Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks. Similar to Google Analytics.
24. WP Super Cache. A fast caching plugin for WordPress. If your page gets a lot of traffic, this plugin can cut down on the amount of traffic to your server while still allowing everyone to view your blog. It creates an up-to-date HTML version of your site instead of the more consuming PHP version. I do not currently have it enabled because I do not get what is commonly known as "traffic," hehe.
25. WPtouch iPhone Theme. Formats your site with a mobile theme for the Apple iPhone / iPod touch, Google Android and other touch-based smartphones.
26. Wunderground.com Weather Sticker. Adds a sidebar widget to display the standard wunderground.com Weather Sticker for your [chosen] location. Because of this widget, I actually check my own blog to get the outside temp before I go out.

I am typing this from my new laptop. And by "new laptop," I mean Jaime's discarded ex-laptop, circa 2005. I just did a system restore and spent about THREE HOURS uninstalling AOL and all the other crap that comes pre-installed. Then, after I did all that nonsense, I find out about the PC Decrapifier--made for removing all superfluous software at once. Maybe next time, sigh... maybe next time. I'm already getting used to hitting the missing 'x' key on this banged-up keyboard. So, since this computer is older and needs some help being fast, I installed Google Chrome. I think I like it. I mean, the tv commercial said it was fast, and commercials don't lie, right? Right? It has some cool ideas, like running a separate process for each tab within the browser, so if a website crashes the browser it only takes out the one tab.

I don't think Wolfram|Alpha has gotten enough publicity (not that putting it on my blog will help with that). It is definitely the next generation of search engines. It combines data from google searches, databases, and Mathematica to not only retrieve information but put it in a useful format. It also traces your IP and chooses results most likely to relate to you. For instance, if I search Springfield from my PC, it assumes I mean Springfield, Virginia because it is only a few towns over. Here are a few more examples:

weather in washington dc when rickey henderson was born. Despite the fact that Rickey Henderson was born in Chicago and has nothing to do with D.C., it retrieves his birthday and displays the weather in Washintgon, D.C. on that date. It turns the information into graph form, which is typically much more useful than straight data.

internet usage in europe. Again it displays it in a variety of forms, including a color-coded map, all which it generates real-time. It does not have to store all of this information (graphs, maps) anywhere on a server; it just calculates it as you search.

x^2 sin(x). Not sure what is going to keep people from cheating on math homework. You can go down to the derivative section and click "show steps," and it will show the answer and every step and rules that were applied.

new york. Basic city search. Shows current local weather in addition to the usual population-type stuff.

ibm apple intel. Real-time stock comparison. It not only shows current prices, but it plots graphs that historically compare the prices of the stocks you entered. It also compares their performance vs. that of the S&P500, bonds, and T-bills. This is all information that was readily available before, but this kind of comparison would have taken at least 30 minutes of work prior to Wolfram|Alpha. Now it takes seconds.

eiffel tower sears tower empire state building. It shows all measurements in standard U.S. measurements because it knows I am searching from a computer in the United States. Metric can easily be accessed, of course, by clicking "Show Metric."

2 slices bread + 8oz 2% milk + 2 eggs + 1tsp butter + 1tsp olive oil. Typical American breakfast. I included the butter for the toast and the olive oil for the eggs. It combines nutritional information for all listed ingredients and makes a food-label type list of nutritional information. Normally it would take some time and thought to calculate the calories alone in this meal. Now you can see everything from calories/fat content to Riboflavin content in seconds. If you would like to be more specific, you can change a lot of the information at the top of the page, just under the search query bar. You can change "eggs" to poached, fried, scrambled, etc. You can change the type of bread to wheat, rye, pumpernickel...

$200,000 15 year mortgage at 4.125% interest.

valentine mcdaniel huff young. Comparison of a lot of surnames in my family. It can also tell you how two people are related like daughter of my first cousin or great uncle's father's brother's daughter's son.

That's quite enough. Most categories can be expanded by clicking "More" in the upper-right corner of the results box. Also, you can save the results of any search as a .pdf file to be used in presentations and the like.

About 9 or 10 years ago, my friend happened upon a great internet meme. I had an account on mp3.com back in the day, before I had a website. It was a way for unsigned/unknown artists to host their music (and network among other unknowns). Well, Thuggin' It may have been an unsigned rapper on mp3.com, but he was not unknown, for his one and only song was spread far and wide by internet users looking for a good laugh. Thuggin' It - Warizon is a classic. I still listen to it every once in a while, and even though I can't understand most of the words, it makes me laugh every time.

Yesterday, I received a link that may be just as good. BANGS is a hip hop artist that is originally from Sudan but has now settled in Australia. It sounds like a child that got a microphone for Christmas. And now, without further ado, I present to you: BANGS - Take U To Da Movies

We are buried in snow. I just took my final measurement of the night--22½ inches. It is still snowing a little bit, so we will probably get to 23 inches falling in the span of 26 hours. For this area, that might as well be eight feet. We are going to try to get a few pictures of Stephen in the snow tomorrow. It is very hard to even take the dogs out in the current conditions.

Spent a good portion of time upgrading WordPress to version 2.9 today. This doesn't change my blog to the reader but just how I use it as "Administrator." There is something that comes with WordPress called Akismet. This little plugin collects data from all the other blogs about which comments are "spam," and deletes them automatically for you. You have the ability to review them... blogs really get a lot of these things; here is a good example:

Hey this was potentially one of the most intelligent posts I've had the chance to go over on the subject so far. I don't have any idea where you get all of your information but keep it coming! I am gunna send a few individuals to this site to check this out. Fantastic, simply fantastic. I'm have just started getting into writing articles myself, nothing remotely close to your writing skills (doh) but I'd love for you to check out my work in progress someday!

...Followed by some sort of link to a used item for sale. The thing that really makes it funny is that it is linked to a post of mine with no words.

Lots of things are just random encouragement in poor english:

Very great web.
The info here is very important.

I will refer it to my friends.

Cheers

Then if you click the person's name it takes you to some whey protein sales site. Broken English is throughout:

Dear Author blog.evanvalentine.com !
I am final, I am sorry, but you could not give little bit more information.

So weird. I also wonder how many of these are related to mechanical turk.

I have decided that today is going to be a good day. I got the kitchen faucet installed last night (no leaks). I couldn't find one of my adjustable wrenches, so I bought some slip-joint pliers at the grocery store, which turned out to do the trick for only four dollars. Tools included, a new faucet cost us about 45 dollars and 17 days of downtime (sorry Jaime). While trying to go to sleep, I had visions of my handywork coming undone and flooding our house all night.

This morning I made myself some coffee (something I very rarely do at home for some reason) and a grilled cheese sandwich for breakfast. Grilled cheese is one of my low-budget specialties. I use white american cheese and olive oil instead of butter. I just sat Stephen up in his high chair while I ate. I felt like I should have had a newspaper while I ate my breakfast, even though I haven't read a newspaper at any stage of my life. After that I fed Stephen a new food: turkey. So far we have only tried two Stage 1 foods. He liked the carrots but disliked the sweet peas. Today I busted out the pureed turkey with turkey broth. He more than disliked it; he hated it. He was a good sport and choked down 7-8 spoonfuls of it, though. Meanwhile his bib was covered in disgusting turkey product because he was involuntarily leaking it out of his mouth.

While all this was going on, Raffi was playing in the background. I fully endorse Raffi as a musician for children. He plays mostly traditional songs, always using real instruments (no fake keyboard sounds to save money). He also sings a handful of songs in French, which is early exposure to another language. I enjoyed children's music even before having a child. I owned Leadbelly sings for kids--Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger too. It is good stuff and something I can play for my child without getting enraged. He responded positively to Raffi as early as seven weeks old! (May have all been in my head though).

Mr. Stephen slept 10.5 hours last night, so I can't expect the usual lengthy morning nap, but when that nap comes I'm going to check out the new webcast version of The Mike O'Meara Show. Starting yesterday, a webcast version of the show is available on their website. When the mighty WJFK flipped formats to become a sports talk station, Mike O'Meara had the rug pulled out from underneath him and his nationally syndicated show was canceled. He had been a staple radio personality in this area and many other major markets for decades. Anyhow, they are trying to get picked up by financing their own show with the addition of Oscar Santana. A better way to check it out may be to subscribe to their RSS Feed where you can actually download .mp3s of each day's show instead of streaming it off their site.

I run into this problem all the time because I do not install any programs that I deem unnecessary onto my PC. For me, virtually nothing is necessary. This means that I can not view .MOV files, for instance, because Quicktime tries to take over your computer and associate every file known to man with its bloated software. Extend that example to virtually every file type out there (I can't load Word documents, all kinds of stuff). To convert files to a type that I can actually view means I have to install software to convert them, which I do not do. Here is the solution: Zamzar.com. This site converts a seemingly endless number of file types to many other comparable forms. Movie files, audio files, documents, image formats, you name it. Here is a list of the supported file types. Pretty cool. Sure will help me out a lot.

EDIT: Once again, my prediction was dead wrong. After waking up at 6:30am, this child went to sleep at 8:30am. Maybe it was the tryptophan (hardy har).

One of my favorite sites for a while now is archive.org (about). They focus on hosting public domain or creative commons media. A certain percentage of the archives is old material that has seen its copyright expire, while the other part of the collection was intended for public use from its conception (stock video, home videos). Among other things, this means that you can use this material in your own works without fear of being sued for copyright infringement. This is one of the reasons why classical and baroque music is used so much in television, movies and advertising: the composers are long dead and gone so there is no hassle with contacting the owner of the copyright, paying royalties, paying lawyer fees, etc.

Examples:

• If you click this, you can download (or just stream) 298 individual episodes of the old-time radio detective series Dragnet (1949-1955)
• This is a hilarious video (everything from 1990 is hilarious) about the release of Windows 3.0 and how it related to competing products at the time.
• 1949: Care of the Skin by Encyclopaedia Britannica Films. This ten-minute video covers the basics for teen cleanliness such as "the proper way to wash" and "the correct use of soap."
• Thomas Edison's oldest known voice recording is on this page, a recording of the inventor himself from 1888.
• Here is an opensource .pdf file of all the Beatles songs in sheet music format. 292 pages worth, free for download.
• On this page, you can watch someone beat Super Metroid for the SNES in 1:05 while collecting 100% of all items. I'm not sure why you would do that, but you could. You could even download high quality DivX versions of the videos and burn them to DVD.
• Searching my birthday, I found "Secret White House Recordings" of Lyndon B. Johnson from May 4, 1966

All of the material is downloadable, and all of it contains copyright information right there on the page. Some of it is free for use (no rights reserved), some of it is posted under "some rights reserved." Theoretically, all of our current entertainment will someday lose its copyright (although the lawmakers keep extending it, as much as 100 years now). One day, someone could use clips from E.T. in a film and not have to pay royalties.

(Another reason I like archive.org is they host a bunch of my music, but I'll get to that later)