A new blog engine

This morning I discovered Blazeblogger, a static blog generator in the Ubuntu repositories. I don’t know how I missed it. It’s written in Perl, and is therefore compatible also with Windows systems. Although it has slightly less functionality to Nanoblogger (the software I was using), I’ve found it simpler to use. And although Nanoblogger has a publishing script (which Blazeblogger lacks), I anyway had trouble with it, and ended up using Filezilla.

I was able to set up Blazeblogger within minutes. It took a while longer to learn the basics and transfer a few older posts over to the new system. I was quite happy with the default template. The only thing that took me a while to accomplish was to add a few links to the blog template. It would have been nicer if that part of the page had an easier configuration option, but once I tracked down the right file it was easy enough.

I notice also that the folder size for Blazeblogger is considerably smaller than that of Nanoblogger, and that file actions are faster

I think the fuss-level of writing a text file and then uploading it through Filezilla has been one of the reasons that I stopped updating the blog lately. Certainly it would have been hard to publish the blog from the slow internet connections I had in India. (Note: on a static blog, publish means to transfer all files each time.) And I usually don’t get a blog post right the first time. In Blazeblogger, the process is just a shade easier, but that might be enough to get me going.

Thoughts on social networks

I’ve been deliberating a lot about social networks lately. It’s an opportune time because the ones with which I am most familiar: Identi.ca / status.net, Friendika and Diaspora, have made some important updates lately. Diaspora is finally attempting to deal with its backlog of new user requests, apparently ahead of a move from alpha to beta status. Friendika has a new version number and has been investing much effort in both visible and behind the scenes changes. Status.net is moving from 0.99 to 1.0.

My use of social networks is fairly minor because aside from Facebook (which I quit a few months back) I don’t have real life friends on any of them. Still, I like to have a place where I can occasionally say a few words that do not add up to a blog post.

As a network, Twitter has the most interest value for me simply because it has good people and news sources in its user base. However, I tend not to write directly to Twitter, and wonder about placing material there even indirectly.

I object to Facebook and Google+ for a variety of reasons, but mostly because they make me feel exploited. Our decisions regarding our use of the internet in the next few years will determine much about both the web and the future of humanity. The potential for creating an Orwellian society of surveillance and thought control has never been greater.

The distributed social networks offer a hope for something better. The three that have been mentioned (and a few more) each have advantages and failings. Status.net is the most veteran and minimal (though it is in some ways more advanced than Twitter). Friendika has the most features and perhaps the greatest potential. Friendika’s vision – particularly that of its eloquent Aussie lead developer Mike MacGirvin, is particularly full and rich. Diaspora is placed somewhere in the middle. It may have a greater chance of winning over non-geek users.

Ultimately, all of these services may work seemlessly together, so that it won’t make a big difference which one of them we use as a base. At present, I’ve found Friendika a little more bug-prone than the other two, and its servers more sluggish. For now, I am going with Diaspora.

I’m slowly moving my old WordPress blog over here [to static blog], by cutting and pasting the source code. A good programmer could easily make a script to do this, which would probably take even longer since I don’t have very many posts. And I’m slowly captioning my photos from India this summer. Maybe I’ll eventually create a post, based on photos and emails.

While I was in India, a whole protest movement was born in Israel, which led up to last night’s demonstrations of some 450,000. We attended the biggest of these, which was in Tel Aviv. After a long search for parking, we arrived around 10:15 to the main demonstration site, which was still full although getting there meant cutting through a tide of people who were already leaving. The main slogan of the demonstration and the movement has been “social justice”. People seem finally to be getting fed up with the increasingly capitalistic trends of recent decades, the withering of the welfare state and the growing gap between rich and poor. The Occupation is not being talked about, but Arabs and Bedouin were mentioned in the speeches in the context of neglected weak population groups requiring care. The avoidance of speaking about issues that are central to the Israeli reality (because they would be divisive) makes me feel ambivalent about the movement as a whole. Dorit thinks that heightening awareness to one set of social ills will lead to a broader awareness that will eventually bring about a change with regard to the Occupation. I think that this may be trying to treat the symptoms rather than the root causes. But we’ll see how it develops.

Almost packed

Almost packed for India – here’s my bag. It weighs about 6 kilos and contains, if I didn’t forget anything:

13″ laptop computer (Dell Vostro V130)
toiletries, laundry soap, mosquito repellent, travel shaver
2 cotton longis (these are really multi-function)
1 travel towel
1 pair of cheap Indian shorts
1 pair of ex-officio nylon underpants
1 pair of cotton underpants 1 Columbia “Expedition Freezer” Polo shirt
1 Columbia “Silver Ridge Crew” shirt
Pair of socks
Travel clothes line
Combination lock (for hotel doors)
Indian multiplug (for times when there is only one outlet in the room)
wires and usb adapter for ipod, Kindle, phone
Combination lock
Small LED Flashlight
Small reading flashlight
Inflatable meditation cushion
First aid kit
Plastic knife and spoon
Nail clippers

I’ll also have on me

The other set of underwear and socks
Keenes Newport H2 sandles (1 year old, worn almost all the time)
Mountain Mesa convertible pants
Salewa Button shirt
Salewa Travel vest/waistcoat
Camera (3 year old Canon Powershot SX110 IS)
Phone (my Blackberry Pearl) + earphones
Ipod Touch or Kindle
Book light
Inside-pants pouch for travel documents
wallet

Notes:

 

In general it makes more sense to buy, or have tailored, light cotton clothes, in India (cheaper and suitable for the climate). I chose some items made of hi-tech synthetic fabrics for their quick-drying properties and supposed moisture-wicking. I’m still not sure whether I’ll feel comfortable in these fabrics, but laundry takes forever to dry in south India. Last year I found the Ex-Officio nylon underwear to be bearable, but was less happy with a set of Columbia nylon pants and shirt. I ended up buying some light cottonwear. This year I’ll have convertible nylon pants and another pair of cotton shorts as a backup.

I haven’t been a detractor of Canonical’s attempt to improve the Ubuntu desktop experience and since April, as well as for a time earlier, have been using the Unity interface. But as part of my general movement towards making things a little simpler, I thought I would take a step backwards. I’ve noticed lately some stability issues with both of my Ubuntu machines. Sometimes the mouse will mysteriously stop working – or rather does not respond to clicks – and other strange behavior. I’m not sure where this comes from, but it could be that going back to lighter and more tested configurations will bring greater stability.

I think some of those who are up in arms against Unity have not observed that it is extremely simple to go back to the old Ubuntu interface. You just log onto “Classic Ubuntu”, which is already there, installed alongside Unity. So on my home computer, that’s what I did. I also installed Docky so that I would have a nice application starter. I thought about Cairo Dock, but remembered some stability issues there from my previous use of it. I tried AWN, but at first it would not work. Docky didn’t work at first either. I found a couple of suggestions about how to resolve this issue, but the best and simplest was to edit gconf and get Metacity to use the compositor. However, I also decided I wanted my Desktop not to show icons. There’s another setting in gconf for that. Unfortunately, as soon as you ask not to show icons on the desktop, you also lose your wallpaper. But I’m happy enough to have a cleaner desktop. So back to Gnome 2, with Docky, and so far so good.

On my other laptop, at the office, I was a bit more radical. I installed XFCE, the XUBUNTU interface. There were a couple of suggestions on doing this. I think the wisest of them was probably what I ended up doing: not to install the entire XUBUNTU desktop, but only XFCE. I did add the extra Xubuntu themes, etc. It took me a while to tweak the XFCE interface into something I could live with. I duplicated some of the qualities of an application dock by adding launchers to the bottom bar and making it autohide. A couple of people in XFCE forums recommended that and, for a minimal keep-things-simple desktop, there is some logic in using just the native abilities of the GUI. So, there at work, I’m also quite happy now with the interface. With XFCE it’s easier to configure the desktop not to show icons, and you can choose between one of the wallpapers that come with XUBUNTU. That 3-4 year old computer is pretty snappy now with XFCE.

So tonight we went to a wedding. It was near Kibbutz Naan. When we went in they couldn’t find our names. Eventually they wrote out seating cards for us anyway. We dropped the cheque in the safe and looked around. “Maybe it’s the wrong wedding,” I said: I don’t see anyone I know here.” “Wow, maybe it really is,” said Dorit, also peering round to recognize a face somewhere. So it dawned on us that there must be more than one wedding hall near Kibbutz Naan. It took a while to get someone to retrieve the envelope from the safe and for us to go and find the right wedding.

As we walked in they were just reciting “and if I should forget Jerusalem may I lose my right hand – or however it goes.” At first we didn’t see anyone we knew there either. One wedding’s as good as another wedding, I thought. But it wasn’t so bad. The salads were excellent, and I managed to finish several chapters of “No more enemies.”

On the way out we took a different way, through the fields. Two young guys came up along side us and signalled us to stop. I thought they might be criminals. “Police”, they said. “Police?” – “We are police,” they answered, “Where are you going, sir?” “To the road.” “Where are you from?” “Neve Shalom. Shalom.” I said, winding up the window.

I’ve been thinking lately that the minimalism that I’ve been trying to achieve lately would have seemed to me bourgeois sophistication just a few years ago. The items and gadgets I possess are opulent in comparison to then, and the amount of time I squander on the computer is similarly insane. When I extrapolate from what I know of the change in my own habits to wider circles, I can only conclude that there must be something seriously wrong with our koyaaniqatsi world.

Anyway, today I was looking up on the web things that I might like to take to India with me. Last year I took along a meditation pillow and was glad of that but it’s too bulky. So I looked up inflatable meditation pillows. Amazon was selling one called the “Mobile Meditator”, and there were a couple of competing products on other websites. There’s an inflatable zafu from bodyfriendlyfurniture.com, and Wisdom Travellers also have an attractive set. After much deliberation I opted for the Mobile Meditator. But Amazon said it would only ship around July 5 and there seemed to be no way to alter the kind of delivery. So I looked further and found the company that sells the pillow directly – Brightspot Solutions. Their website was friendlier than Amazon’s. The product + delivery was also cheaper and, best of all, it has already shipped today. So if I’m lucky, I’ll have it in good time for India.

I also looked at light travel yoga mats. Here I ran into the problem that most companies didn’t ship to Israel. There’s an Israeli retailer, yogastore.co.il, that sells Jade travel mats. But yogamatsandmore.com have one that folds as small as a newspaper. That would be better for me, even if it is less comfortable to use.

Finally, I looked at clothing. I’m tempted by Ex Officio’s line of travel t-shirts. And there’s one unique company called Makeyourownjeans.com, which would definitely interest me if it weren’t for the time-frame. I’ve bookmarked them for another time.

My goal is to fit everything into the Chinese rucksack that Yonatan had shipped to me from China. If I can make do with just a single change of clothing, I think I can succeed.

On my afternoon walk I suddenly remembered what a dismal failure I’ve always been as a whistler. Ordinary folk may not be virtuosos, but they can get out a simple 3-tone sequence. My wife told me that, when she was growing up, her family had one of these as a kind of shiboleth, to attract one-another’s attention. But when I try to whistle, while some sort of sound will emerge, it’s always been a hit-or-miss affair. As a child, I remember this as a mark of shame. Since then I haven’t thought much about it. But on my walk this came to mind again and it riled me. How come I’m such an inept whistler? Is it something physical about the shape of the mouth, lack of coordination, shyness or what?

I spent the next 15 minutes trying to improve my whistling – out in the fields, where only the birds could hear me (I could imagine them cocking their heads in derision). Surely, at the age of 55, I could finally master the art?

The result? The same! I’m just the same lousy whistler as I’ve always been.

I’m continuing to play with Nanoblogger and through it learn more about the unix command line, ftp, and other things. I understand now why the script used to publish the blog does not publish the archives (mput * does not work with folders recursively). I have tried to replace it with wput, but the connection fails repeatedly. Tried also “cadaver” – a command line webDAV client, but this failed too. I’ve decided to simply upload files with Filezilla for now, when I feel like it.

I’ve also placed a mirror of the blog on Ubuntu One. That makes it possible to keep a mirror also on my other computer, and solves the problem of using different machines. It would work permanently. Dropbox – a similar service – also makes it possible to use a CName. It solves the upload problem completely if I like.

That brings me to think again about Opera’s Unite service. I realize now that it would be better if they offered the option of a caching proxy – actually just like Dropbox. That way it would not be necessary for one’s computer to be on all the time, and the service would also permit the download of files more quickly than if the user were to download these from one’s slow computer. They could charge for the option, by capacity.

A few weeks ago Kent lent us Invictus – Clint Eastwood’s movie about Nelson Mandela. We don’t have a working DVD player in the house. At first I couldn’t get it to work on my Linux machine. It took a while to understand that I could download the necessary codex and then it would work. Tonight we decided to watch it, so I connected the external hard drive to the laptop and the laptop to the TV via VGA cable and sound cord and presto!, the film hit the big screen. Or rather didn’t. Bits of the Linux screen moved over, and other parts didn’t. So I switched over to Dorit’s netbook on Windows 7. However, Windows Media player complained about a missing codex. I downloaded VLC player, and it worked, though it was impossible to get the shape right for the TV.

Invictus itself is a pretty good film. I didn’t check for authenticity, but the story rang true. It worked as a fim thanks to a very tight plot – it fastidiously chooses only two or three elements which seem at first glance quite minor, and focuses on them. Mandela evidently did the same. It’s moving to watch the reshaping of a national identity, through the minds and hearts of individuals. As Deb says (NME), identity change is often less about removing old parts of identity (difficult), but in adding new layers. At least in the beginning.