Well, I finally started using third-party cookies again (still deleting LSO’s and other types of Flash cookies on my computer), so now I’m using (and liking) Disqus. Might try to enable it on here, too!
Took a little while — had to wait until the plugin “Asideshop” was updated to be compatible to 2.8… and it never was.
That’s the downside of depending upon a third-party plugin — if the creator doesn’t update it, you either have to do it yourself or you’re screwed.
Well, with a little help from Nina and the blog post right here, I got it working!
The only problem with that tutorial that I had is that I would’ve prefered if the author included a complete plugin file at the end of it — I’ll get to work on releasing that right here, for anyone who just wants to copy and past the solution into their WordPress Dashboard.
This has seriously got to be a joke. I can’t figure out any other explanation for it. I’m going to try and not get too upset about, because I’m almost 75% sure this is a joke, because there’s so much of this article that is either grossly exaggerated, or just downright untrue.
Let me show you some quotes (after you read the article up above — don’t worry it’s not long):
But something stopped her: Ubuntu.
That’s an operating system for your computer similar to Windows that runs off the Linux system.
I love it when a journalist can’t even get the first farking thing right. No, Ubuntu is not “similiar” to Windows. It doesn’t even try to be. And it doesn’t “run off the Linux system” — I don’t even know what that means. It is Linux.
She didn’t realize until the next morning her laptop defaulted to the Ubuntu operating system.
Once again, I don’t even know what this line is trying to say. A computer no more “defaults” to a certain operating system than a car “defaults” to a certain engine. If it has Ubuntu installed, it has it installed — there is no “defaulting” going on. It’s not like anyone’s being tricked into running Ubuntu, which is what I think the author here was implying.
Schubert says she never heard of Ubuntu before learning that’s when [sic] she accidentally bought.
And here’s my biggest problem with the story — there’s no way to “accidentally” buy a computer with Ubuntu on Dell.com. I challenge you to try. Go ahead — load up a new browser window and go to Dell.com and just try to even find a computer they sell with Ubuntu on it. (Doesn’t count if you search for the word “ubuntu” on the site — you’re not “stumbling” onto something you’re looking for intentionally. 
)
Let me save you the trouble — you won’t be able to. Dell did that on purpose, specifically to avoid this kind of thing happening (i.e., the novice computer user buying a computer with Ubuntu as its operating system, and then complaining when it’s unfamiliar to them). When you’re buying computers on the “normal” section of their site, Ubuntu isn’t even listed as an option (you usually have a choice of either Windows Vista crap edition, Windows Vista poop edition, or Windows XP, which for some reason usually costs $100 extra).
I really can’t critique the rest of the article because of this. Either this is a joke story , or someone else — conveniently not mentioned in the story — bought this computer and gave it to her, which isn’t either Ubuntu’s or Dell’s fault.
Just a few more points, though, because I honestly can’t resist:
Later, she discovered Ubuntu might look like Windows, but it doesn’t always act like it.
I love it when journalists don’t even try to make it look like they did any research.
Ubuntu doesn’t look anything like Microsoft Windows, other than the fact that they both exist on a computer screen. It doesn’t take more than a cursory glance to become aware of this. This is like saying your Ford Taurus “looks like a Ferrari, but sure doesn’t drive like one.” I mean, come on — they both have tires, right?
Her Verizon High-Speed Internet CD won’t load, so she can’t access the internet.
Oh boy — here’s another little tip, O novice computer users — those little CD’s you usually get upon buying high-speed access when you move into a new house or change internet providers or whatever? You don’t need them. Throw them away. Any modern high-speed internet network is completely system agnostic — it doesn’t care what it’s hooking up to. Just hook your modem up to your wall, and plug it into your computer. That’s it. Doesn’t matter if you’re running MacOS, Linux, or Windows.
Your high-speed service provider will tell you that you need to run a CD, but trust me, you don’t. This is proved later on in the article, when we’re told that “Verizon says it will dispatch a technician to try to assist her accessing the internet without using the Windows-only installation disk.” Well, that’s nice of them to make an entire trip out there to do something that’ll take all of, oh, five minutes.
She also can’t install Microsoft Word, which she says is a requirement for MATC’s online classes.
This is a much larger problem, and one that I really don’t have the time to get into here, but you don’t ever really need specific programs to do school work.
You don’t need Microsoft Word to do word processing.
You don’t need Microsoft Excel to do spreadsheet tasks.
You don’t need Adobe Acrobat to use and create PDF files.
And for the love of G-d, YOU DON’T need Internet Explorer to browse the web.
It’s a sad, sad phenomenom in our society that an entire generation of computer users has grown up thinking that the “Microsoft way” is the only way to do things. (And they’re definitely not doing anything to help that problem.)
Now, I’m not saying that there isn’t a time and a place for Microsoft products — Windows is a tool, and it’s a tool with a specific purpose, but just like you don’t need to buy one particular brand of hammer to build a house, you don’t always need Microsoft products to do things with a computer.
You can see this kind of thinking all throughout this article — Ubuntu “looks like Windows, but sure doesn’t ‘act’ like it. “ (As if anything that doesn’t act like Windows isn’t a “real” operating system.) Ubuntu just won’t let her install Microsoft Word! (As if this is the only way to get word processing done.)
Tsk tsk tsk, WKOW 27 News Station. Either this is a joke (and if it is, I’ve got to admit it’s actually pretty good), or you’re seriously, seriously uninformed when it comes to computers and the Internet.
(Yes, I used “uninformed” to be nice. A less polite person than me would’ve said “fucking retarded,” but I’m not going to go down that path.)
Make sure and check out my new little widget thingy over in the right-hand sidebar — it’s a plugin that shows the last 6 or so entries on my tumblr page.
I love my little tumblr account — it’s like Twitter, but I use it as a picture blog. The pictures you see on their are all uploaded from my cell phone, when I’m out and about.
The tumblr plugin code is a wonderful little bit of code from Robert Nyman — I had been working on my own Tumblr include script a while back, but was going at a from a completely different direction (I was trying to parse things server-side beforehand, and was kinda rusty when it comes to PHP). Robert apparently thought about doing the obvious thing and loading the Tumblr JSON API into an html “script” tag, and then just using JavaScript to do everything. Bloody brilliant.
I finally got me a moblog — a _real_ one, this time. Take a look over on the right — it’ll show the most recent photos from my camera phone.
It’s the culmination of several weeks of coding, drawing from both my newfound experience in JavaScript, as well as good-old-fashioned time-honored server-side PHP! (That PHP coding was a doozy, too, seeing as how I haven’t coded anything in it in years… but I came through, in the end.)
Keep an eye out!
In case you were wondering, I’ve got some other sites that you might be interested in (this is mostly for you-know-who):
*1) http://mdm-adph[dot]blogspot[dot]com*
There’s “http://mdm-adph[dot]blogspot[dot]com” (feel free to replace the [dot]‘s with periods). This is my work blog — I’m not hotlinking it here for obvious reasons (referrers can be tracked, and I’d rather not let my employers pick up on anything personal that I write).
I write about mostly tech-related subjects here, keeping firmly away from the areas of personal life or politics. I know they’re probably logging everywhere I surf to at work, so I make sure and keep this blog clean.
2) “http://threshold-zero.com/blog”:http://threshold-zero.com/blog
This will soon be a new blog of mine, or a place where I’ll put specific types of entries (movie reviews, book reviews, etc.). Really, I just wanted to use the new version of “Movable Type”:http://movabletype.org that was recently released, because it’s finally gone free again.
3) “http://threshold-zero.com”:http://threshold-zero.com
This is probably where I’m going to tie all of my sites into to — I bought this domain name about a year ago, and even though I haven’t done anything with it yet, I’ve grown rather attached to it. (There’s nothing there now, of course!)
4) “http://gallery.macnahanchey.com”:http://gallery.macnahanchey.com
I’m trying to make this into a members-only photo-sharing site for members of my family, but I (and they) have been slow to get together and start putting pictures up. (By the way, if any of you are reading and need help putting some pictures here, feel free to ask for help.)
4) “http://board.macnahanchey.com”:http://board.macnahanchey.com
This is going to be the same kinda thing, just for messages and posts instead of pictures.
And that’s about it!
By the way, from time to time feel free to check my “Tumblr Blog”:http://captainskyhawk.tumblr.com — it’ll just be quick little things that I send from my cell phone! Yep — pictures, quick text messages, all straight from my cell phone.
The site is even PDA/Newton accessible via “http://captainskyhawk.tumblr.com/mobile”:http://captainskyhawk.tumblr.com/mobile (hint hint nod nod wink wink), so you lucky owners of internet-enabled PDA’s can have fun, too.
Hey, if you noticed, I’m changing a lot of shit to do with the design of my blog — I wanted something brighter and “happier.”
So, I decided to go with a light gray instead of black. Neat, huh?
Well, “Movable Type 4″:http://movabletype.org has been released, and the makers have finally decided to release a free version again.
I’ll probably be moving back to MT, of course. I’ll still keep doing stuff in Textpattern, too — I still think it’s the best, with it’s combination of tag-based templates (vs. “WordPress”:http://wordpress.org) and no-reload-necessary publishing (vs. “MT”:http://movabletype.org).
I’ve got a testblog up at “threshold-zero.com”:http://threshold-zero.com that I’m working around with — take a look if you have the time!
Doing several things all at once, now:
I’ve got a permanent solution set up for the Ventrilo server for the GUILD — one that won’t change addresses, even if mine does.
I’m working on helping everyone with their respective computers:
I’m getting a “new case”:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811147010 this week… My brother and I are speeding up our respective computers a bit, too… I’m trying to help my brother-in-law sell his nice (but highly proprietary) Dell computer for some new, nicely upgradeable stuff… I’m trying to help my sister out with a new gaming PC, too… “Nina”:http://sophisticat.org’s already got a super-fast computer, so blegh! blegh!! :p
And I’m trying to do all of this without spending hardly any money at all! Yay!
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I’m also working on the site here a bit — I started messing with the commenting system, but haven’t finished it, though it still works.
I’m working on fully integrating the “jQuery”:http://jquery.com JavaScript library (I’m liking it a LOT more than the old moo.fx stuff).
