Since the server was a headless box, I needed a terminal client on Windows and the best one at that time and I believe it still is now, is Putty by Simon Tatham. It is really a Swiss-army knife for managing a Linux/Unix server box since it supports quite a lot of very handy functionalities.

When I got my first Mac, it was running OS X Tiger (10.4.11) and immediately I missed the handy functionalities that Putty offered, compared to the barebones feel of the mac terminal. What I mainly missed was the support for mouse clicks in the terminal window, which was really handy for working with programs such as Midnight Commander (MC), especially since MacBooks and MacBook Pros have impaired function keys (they are assigned to volume, screen brightness, etc) which means that using function keys to perform basic functions in MC could be a real pain.

I am not sure how I did not know about this before, but I found a software that allows one to work well with MC on OS X. That program is iTerm2. It supports mouse clicks in the terminal window, so working with the terminal commands becomes a lot easier.

If you like using command line over SSH, you will love iTerm2!

This is certainly a great news for so-called “regulators” in countries that are still controlled by military regimes and those who are opposed to free speech. Although Twitter only mentioned countries such as Germany and France, featuring laws prohibiting pro-nazi speech, the feature will be warmly welcomed by many other regimes around the world. While stopping pro-nazi hate speech might be a worthwile feature in the social network, the feature certainly has other uses, just like anti hate speech laws could be used against people advocating social change.

The changes in Twitter is clearly a move to appease speech regulators around the world, which once again poses the question of public needs vs private ownership of networks such as Twitter.

One of the things that annoys me, though, is that when you upload a header image in the default TwentyEleven template (very elegant template, I might add), it gets uploaded to the media library, but there is no way to tell the header to use an image that is in the media library. I would love to have this feature implemented, whereby a site admin could go to the header section under ‘appearance’ and find a button called ‘use images from library’ or something to that effect.

Wouldn’t that be nice?

Looking at the folder structure of the decompressed Zip archive, I really could not tell how to install this plugin (having never installed a Sketchup plugin before). So I read the instructions on the FAQ website and I learned that it needs Silverlight, specifically version 4.0. I went to the Silverlight website and tried to download it, but the only one offered is the new Silverlight 5.0. For some reason that I am not sure of, my Mac already has Silverlight 3.0 installed in /Library/Internet Plug-ins/Silverlight.plugin.

I kept searching through Google results to see if there’s any link for downloading Silverlight 4.0, but every link I come across points me to the same page for downloading Silverlight 5.0, which is apparently not compatible with the Maxwell Render plugin. I got sick of trying, so I went ahead and trashed the version 3.0 plugin from the /Library/Internet Plug-ins folder and I proceeded to install version 5.0 of Silverlight.

Searching for the correct version of Silverlight was a huge waste of time, although necessary. I cannot imagine any non-technical user going through this stuff and to be honest, I do not fancy using technology from Microsoft too much when I have already switched to a Mac (other than Word, Excel and PowerPoint, I suppose). The reason why I am complaining is mainly because of having to install third party software just to use the plugin.

In the Zip archive, there is absolutely no mention of how one installs this plugin. I have never installed a Sketchup plugin before, so it is a little bit of a mystery to me. I decided to poke around in /Library/Application Support/Google Sketchup 8/plugins and then I found that the structure resembles the structure inside the Zip archive. So I moved the file “maxwell.rb” and the “maxwell” folder into the Sketchup plugins folder and this seemed to do the trick.

Having installed version 5.0 of Silverlight, brought up a prompt when I started Google Sketchup and then clicked on the Plugin>Maxwell menu. This prompt complained that version 5.0 of Silverlight has been detected and it gives you a link to download. If you use Google Chrome as your default browser, it will take you to the download page for Silverlight 5.0, but if you copy the link and paste it into Firefox, it will let you download Silverlight 4.0 (huh?). This is weird, but it is true.

Good luck with installing and enjoy this magnificent render plugin from Maxwell Render. If they asked me for advice, I would say:

1. Include a link to download Silverlight 4.0 in your documentation, not just the “Get Silverlight” website, which makes you download version 5.0.
2. Better still, if Microsoft licensing allows, bundle Silverlight 4.0 in the package
3. A few short paragraphs on how to install this plugin in Sketchup would have saved a lot of time.
4. Nice plugin.

After much searching and talking to my friend Google, I found that the problem was caused by what is probably a bug with the way Webmin applies the updates. For some reason, the update process removed mod-apache2-lib-php5 so that it became disabled. If you enable the module, you will encounter the same error that I did. The way to fix this module is to reinstall it using aptitude install command such as outlined here

Next time, I will just fire up the shell and do it the old fashioned way.

I went for a cheaper option and acquired the Seagate GoFlex Home 2TB drive for $100 less than the time capsule. When I took it home, though, the Time Machine could see the drive in the network, but did not want to backup to it, complaining about “The network backup disk does not support the required AFP features”. After persevering for a while, I went to search Google and found out in the Seagate forums that there was a firmware update for the drive, which I promptly downloaded through Preferences > Administration > Software Updates.

When the update was finished, I restarted the drive. I checked on the software version and I got version  2.5.3:2.0.0.367:1.2.331. Then I went to create a new user through Preferences > Administration > Add User.  As per the advice in the Seagate forum, I made sure that the user was not an admin user (do not click on the “Create As Administrator” checkbox in the GoFlex interface). I also ticked the Enable Computers Backup feature under Preferences > Administration > Computers Backup. I entered a password and then I restarted my MacBook Air and fired up Time Machine and Voila!

Time Machine is now working to backup my MacBook Air and it went on for 5 hours (my wifi is still on g, not n). I hope that someone will find this useful as I was getting a few gray hairs trying to make this work. I am not saying that this will work for everyone, but I hope it could be a starting point towards a solution.

Last year, after using a Huawei K3565 dongle from Vodafone, I purchased a Huawei E5832 wifi modem so that I can use it with other devices and share it with friends occasionally. I did not have any problems connecting it to my MacBook Pro on Snow Leopard. It worked flawlessly.

Last week, I acquired a new MacBook Air with OS X 10.7 Lion pre-installed and for the life of me, I could not get the modem to work via USB (still works as a wireless router of course). I sometimes connect the dongle directly via USB when the battery is going flat so I can keep using it regardless of the amount of charge left in the battery.

One suggestion in Whirlpool is to install the connect software from Three http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1751706 but cancelling it after it has installed drivers for the modem. I find this a little slack from both Huawei and Virgin to not have the USB connection issue resolved.

If you follow the suggestion to download the Three software, the post suggests that this method works.

As time went on, I realised that most of the places that I visit during my work routine allowed me computer access as well as wifi. After weaning myself off the laptop and the backpack idea, I slowly was able to go to work with just a USB stick and a portable Hard drive. Even though the phone was great for firing quick emails here and there, I felt that I needed something that could function like a computer if I needed it to, light enough to carry around all day and has the battery life to last all day.

Originally, my thoughts went straight to the iPad2. However, I soon realised that the iPad2 had quite limited utility for my purpose. Its lack of expansion options and the lack of USB ports and the marginally useful camera had pushed it down my list of tablets. The tablets that were near the top were the Asus Transformer TF101 and the Acer Iconia A500. After a few days of agony I decided to go with the Acer A500 simply because it had a full-size USB port which makes transferring files to a work computer a breeze.

A couple of years ago the top of the list would have been filled with netbooks, but after buying one which was bundled with a 3-cell battery (lasting a lengthy 1.5 hrs–I am looking at you HP), netbooks just didn’t do it for me anymore. I just found the idea of having to wait for a netbook to boot into either Linux or Windows XP kind of took up more time than the short task that you wanted to do with it in the first place. Plus, the short battery life on offer in the netbooks just did not fit into the idea of all day mobile computing. I decided to go with a tablet because of the instant-on nature of both Android and IOS.

A few days after I got the Acer tablet I decided to put it to work. I would go to work with my bag filled with the following items:

• USB stick to carry small files
• A Western Digital 1TB portable hard drive
• Acer tablet
• A Ricoh GX200 camera
• A USB to micro USB cable for transferring files
• A Huawei wifi modem for internet connectivity.

I would fit all the above items in a small shoulder bag which barely strains my shoulder.

After a few days, I found that I did not need a notebook at all. I found that my notebook was sitting idle for a few days, not seeing much use at all, other than for heavy-duty typing of documents. Even the USB stick was becoming marginally useful when I could use Google Docs to work on various files on the tablet and continue it on the desktop computer at work.

The only problem that I have encountered so far was the fact that one of my workplaces still used Internet Explorer 6 as the standard browser and that made me bring my notebook to work once a week to be able to edit files on Google Docs.

It’s good to travel light. Plus, Angry Birds and the comic reader software keep me entertained on long bus and train rides.

Luckily, my sanity was saved by the ability of Mozilla Firefox (for Android) to have a proxy setting (via an Add-on), but the method that I had to use to connect to the wireless network at TAFE is so bizzare, that it defies any logic (this same craziness applies to using my Mac laptop as well). Unless you are using Internet Explorer on Windows, then your milage varies quite a bit.

The procedure on the Android tablet goes like this:

• Start Firefox mobile, then turn off proxy settings in the proxy add-on
• Type some random URL in the address bar
• Authentication page will come up.
• Authenticate
• Go to Add-on setting and enable proxy.
• Close the browser
• Open the browser
• Authenticate again
• Browse the internet
• After an hour, repeat all the above steps.

Bizarre or not?

I waited a long while before Samsung brought the 7-inch Galaxy Tab to the market, but, alas, it was only powered by Android 2.2 (Froyo) and it was also a phone which made it a little awkward and after a few hands on time, I decided it was lagging a little in the normal operations of the UI. It was only when Google released Honeycomb that other manufacturers started to come to the tablet party. HTC released the Flyer, although it was only running Gingerbread (2.3), while Samsung promised the Galaxy Tab 10.1, which in Australia manifested into the 10.1v sold through Vodafone.

While I liked the HTC Flyer, no one in Australia was selling it (except for a few on Ebay) and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v that I managed to look at in a Vodafone store, has no expansion slot whatsoever, with a steep price of $729 outright. I was then hoping that I would be able to find an Asus Transformer TF-101. I looked everywhere around town and no one had one. Furthermore, I found out that to have access to the USB port and HDMI, one would have to plug the Transformer TF-101 onto its keyboard dock. I mean, if I wanted a netbook, I would get one! So in the end I went and bought the Acer Iconia A500.

Why did I choose the Iconia A500? Well, one of the main reasons was that it was there in the stores that I went to. Hell, I even found one in Officeworks. Furthermore, it has a full-size USB port and expansion slots with an 8-hour battery life. The camera seems to be quite decent too. So without further ado, my money went to the Acer for availability and expandability.