Beanworks

I wrote about this six months ago (here). I took out the modem on the old machine I had installed Deli on, and put in an Ethernet card. Since a new version of Deli had come out I decided to try it out again from scratch.

The install went pretty much the same as the last time, but this time I tried to configure the local network during the delisetup part (after installation). The delisetup command (at the command prompt after logging in) goes to a text-based setup. (Note: if you try to go straight to a gui interface (by typing startx) without doing the setup, it gives a group of white terminals on an icewm interface; but closing the terminals closes the gui interface). The setup categories are:

• Keyboard
• Language
• Setup LILO – the Linux Loader
• Setup PPP – Needs data from your Internet Service Provider
• Setup local Network
• Printer Setup
• Setup Tiny X Server
• Setup Window Manager
• Install additional software packages
• Set up your Mail system (with masqmail)
• Select servicesto run at boot

I went through the Setup for local Network. The first screen says you can always go back and make changes by typing netconfig (it says that, but it lies: typing netconfig gets an error message that there is no such command). Then it wants a hostname and domain name. There are instructions with screenshots at the wiki on the Deli site. After the hostname and domain name, you choose between using a static IP, DHCP, or loopback. I tried both static IP and DHCP, but somehow ultimately ended up with loopback. Choosing DHCP will take you through a probe for an Ethernet card. The message I got was “A networking card using com20020.o module has been detected.” Great, but it wouldn’t connect to the network.

I tried “ifconfig” instead of “netconfig” and it showed, despite the Network configuration done in delisetup:

Link encap:Local Loopback

inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask: 255.0.0.0

UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU 16436 Metric:1

After looking at a bunch of config files, going through delisetup several times, and editing the /etc/rc.d/net file, I checked the ethernet card and put it in another slot. But the browser is still giving the error: “dns can’t find slashdot.org.” I think it’s stuck in loopback purgatory, and I don’t have the right incantations to get it out.

On the other hand, it is still a nice, fast distro, even on this old dinosaur, and not that difficult to install, as long as you’re not trying to connect to the Internet.

I have been slogging through applications, plug-ins, extensions, and widgets for anything related to blogs and blog posting on Macintosh (OS X). Since I download anything that looks like a possibility as I come across it, I invariably end up with a lot of stuff sitting around waiting for my attention. Sometimes it may be weeks before I actually get to a downloaded file, and have no idea what it is or why it’s there until I install it and try to use it. Such was the case with Flock, a browser for quick picture uploading. But it had mentioned something about blog posting (which is why I downloaded it).

So here’s the first post from Flock! The blogging part isn’t as obvious as the photo-uploading features. In fact, it looks like the blog part is really supposed to be an enhancement to the photo-uploading feature (you can drag and drop a photo you find on the web into a web-snippet bar to “hold” it, then drag it from the snippet bar into your post). But it’s findable through the menus, or the customizable toolbar. It pops up a blog editor which operates in editor mode or source code mode (for those who like to have total control).

The browser itself is like Safari and Firefox in the look and feel. It supports tabbed browsing, and will import your bookmarks from Safari or Firefox when it is installed. It even has extensions, like Firefox. In fact, on the site, there’s an interesting promise and caveat (snipped via the Flock websnippet tool):

Very soon you will be able to add your favorite extensions and we’ll convert them on the fly for you. Extensions written for other platforms can still be used in the Flock browser, but there is no guarantee that they will work correctly.

So for Mac bloggers, here’s the site:

[addendum: the tagging tool is for technorati tags only, so I had to edit the post here to add my own tags ]

[addendum #2:  once I had posted, my categories showed up in Flock.  Unfortunately, I can’t add categories, but it does show the ones I have already used on the blog.]

technorati tags:Review, blogs, blogging, Macintosh, Mac, OSX, browser

Somehow I have ended up with a copy of ViaVoice for Mac OS X. It appears to be the newest version, although I recall hearing something about it not being updated in the last couple years. This could be a problem for a new macbook. I decided to give it a try anyway.

The package comes with an instruction book and CD, a headphone/microphone combination attached to a USB adapter, and an audio plug to connect the USB adapter box to the audio output port on the computer. There are also a few other things I haven’t figured out yet.

I inserted the CD into the macbook slot, decided to actually read the instructions in the book and try tp follow them, and found the first minor glitch. The book assumes the CD will start on its own. I helped out and opened the CD. From there it is pretty much a no brainer, going step by step through plugging all the devices in and positioning the headphone/microphone, then going through an initial test to see if all the parts are working. Audio: check. Microphone: problem. It suggested I close the setup assistant and start over. Same thing. It suggested I restart the computer after plugging in the USB. O.K. Once again, the message: “It appears that your microphone may not be connected. Check your connections, close SetUpAssistant, and repeat this setup test again. You may need to restart your compuer after plugging in the mic.” Hmmmm. Back to the book: Getting Help; Obtaining Technical Support: “A solution to your problem might already exist! Before contacting technical support, check the Frequently Asked Questions database and the Tested Systems list. The Internet address is http://www.ibm.com/viavoice. Click the support link in the left panel on the web page. Then, select your speech product.”

I typed in the url and ended up at IBM software through a redirect. Clicking on the support link took me to their websphere section. Backing up and trying the support & download link at the top and searching through their software by name and category got me nowhere. There is no more viavoice on their site. There is a Websphere Voice, however. But there is no Macintosh version (I should have paid more attention to the discussion about ViaVoice a couple months ago). Nothing, nada, nowhere.

So I made a trip to friend Google and found: Nuance – IBM ViaVoice Release 10 Mac OS X Edition. Hey! The picture looks just like the box I have here! O.K., so after navigating through the site, I found this knowledgebase article: “Error message: ‘The microphone does not appear to be connected’ when using OS 10.2.” It actually has some very good information there, like turning ON the speech and microphone recognition in System Preferences. In OS 10.4 that turns on the native speech recognition, but ViaVoice still couldn’t get through. So, the next step was to reboot and try it again. Next: Remove the ViaVoice folder from the Applications folder, and the ViaVoice login from the users folder. But there is no ViaVoice login in the users folder. Sooo, Spotlight! then trash all the ViaVoice files (about 20 of them!), and empty the trash. Reboot, re-install, reboot, download and install the update, reboot, and try again.

Oooookay, first there’s the warning on the update download page, saying this is only for OS 10.2. But I download, reboot, install, and reboot anyway. It says to start the setup assistant from a specified path in the Finder menu, but it’s not there. Spotlight! again. This time it acted like it was recognizing the microphone, but not me. After a couple tries, and taking off the headphone, I tried one last time, fairly shouting the passage. Amazingly, that worked. So I put the headphone back on, and shouted into the microphone. Finally past that hurdle, I got to the testing voice quality. I spoke slightly louder than normal, and it said the quality was good. I tried again in a normal voice and the quality dropped to poor. After getting it back up to fair quality, I moved to the next section, which is to read passages as they are displayed.

I don’t think it’s supposed to be this hard. It’s beginning to dawn on me why I ended up with this: last one to arrive, having missed out on the previous conversation about how bad it is? But giving in to a masochistic streak, I finished the setup, and now have no idea what to do with it, especially since I’m now hoarse from reading aloud. On the upside, the reading passages were interesting.

This is somewhat off-topic, but caught my attention.

Chicago just finished their runoff elections for aldermen yesterday. There’s a site that has videoclips from the election posted: AlderTrack.com. These are YouTube syle videos: short, amateur-style clips. Some are goofy, some “newsy.” But what’s really amazing is that it’s there this morning.

The stuff is real Chicago. There’s Truckin’ for Tillman, Rolling with Shirley, Predictions on Pat, 3 Cheers for Leroy, The Whisper Campaign (no sound), and several victory and concession speeches. They have the charm of man (person?) on the street type stuff, filled with the seriousness of elections. This is people’s news.

Kudos to the team, and the ones who got it all together so fast! Can we schedule you for our next South Florida elections? 🙂

As processing becomes slower and memory acquisition becomes more limited, older adults begin making adjustments to compensate. They begin to draw more on their strengths (semantic and global memory) to compensate for the greater difficulty in learning new material. This is why analogies work well (see Tip #1). To put it in computer terms, learning requires blocks of short term memory for the process of laying down a block of long term memory. If that process can utilize links to existing long term memory, the demands on short term memory are lessened, and the new block of long term memory has links to something that’s already stable, increasing the likelihood it will successfully map. On the other hand, without links to existing long term memory, the process becomes more resource-intensive in areas that are losing efficiency (short term memory).

As we age, processing speed slows so that the blocks of short term memory fail by the time they are needed at the end of processing. For example, in a four part process where step one must be remembered for step four while executing steps two and three, step one, utilizing a block of short term memory, typically gets lost during the intermediate steps so that step four cannot be completed.

One of the ways older adults deal with the increased difficulty in learning is to limit what they try to learn. They are motivated by how important a thing is to them personally to learn it, and they will learn only what they need to know for that item. For example, keeping in touch is important, whether it is with a spouse, children, grandchildren, friends, or doctors’ offices, so that cell phones no longer seem to be a convenience, but a requirement, even to the older generation. But all the bells and whistles available, even on the cheapest phones, are just that to the older generation: non-essential items which have a high learning cost. They will learn how to turn the phone on or off, how to keep it charged, how to make a call, how to answer a call, and how to “hang up.” Those are pretty straightforward tasks, using visible buttons on the phone. Learning to navigate through menus on the phone’s screen comes at a higher cost. For most, the additional features don’t add to their core requirement, which is to simply use the phone to make and receive calls anywhere they go, so there is not much incentive to attempt to learn how to use those features. How many older adults do you know who have a cell phone? How many of them can use the phone to take a picture and send it to someone? How many even want to?

Tip #2: Teach them only what they need to know to do what they want to do.

One of the things I do is teach technology to older people, especially those for whom it is still something new. These are typically people who have a very rich background which doesn’t happen to include computers. The basics of cell phones are fairly easy for them to grasp because they have used telephones to communicate for quite a long time, and their experience typically includes wireless home phones. So the “leap” to cell phones is really not that great, although there is a steep learning curve beyond simply answering the phone and ending a call. Not so with computers.

Computers have practically landed in their laps over the last couple years, full grown and ready to be their means of integration with the rest of the world today. Many have dodged the bullet, so to speak, by having a secretary or other, younger, worker interact with computers for them. But then they retire, and there is no one to do it for them any more.

There are also many who had embraced computers early on, and followed along with their development. But the changes are harder for them to manage now. Learning is not as easy. They tend to want to freeze time where they are comfortable, or at least slow the pace of change so they do not feel left behind.

Technology today represents a difficult place for the older adult. The constant changes require continual, rapid learning while traditional learning paths are becoming more difficult for them. And here’s the kicker: the assumption today that everyone has access to a computer and can use it. Product instructions assume prior knowledge of or familiarity with computers. Computer courses assume participants have at least some familiarity with computers, with a pace set for a much younger generation.

I see the ones who have fallen through the cracks, and it is not a happy picture. These are people with a very rich background. This is the World War II generation through the sixties. Yet their experience and competence pales for them compared with what they see “kids” capable of doing today. If I had a dime for every time I’ve heard one of them say “I’m so stupid,” I could retire.

My main job (the one I actually get paid for) is finding ways to make learning to use computers and technology easier for older adults. So here are some tips for the rest of you out there trying to connect with the older generation:

Tip #1: Analogize. Tell a story. Make a comparison they can relate to. Accuracy is not as important as relevance. Here’s a handy example:

There was a discussion among a group of seniors of varying levels of computer experience about the difference between a hardware firewall and a software firewall. The easiest explanation I could give, and one which they all instantly understood: “You have a house, and you do not leave the door open so that people driving by can see inside (and decide whether to drop in and help themselves). In fact, most of you live in a gated community [this is Florida; everyone here understands the concept of gated communities]. A hardware firewall is like a gated community, keeping out unauthorized people. A software firewall goes a step further. It’s like having a high hedge around your house so if someone actually gets through the gate, they can’t even tell your house is there, much less see what’s inside.”

More tips to come…

I actually have a couple of these hanging around (all the way back to a Mac Classic II!) But they’ve stayed in the background as I play with machines that are more likely to be still in use today. A couple weeks ago a friend mentioned he had an old powerpc and, being a windows guy, didn’t know what to do with it. So, trying not to look too excited, I offered to help him out, thinking, “Yes! Another linux box!”

When I showed up at his “warehouse” (he’s got about 50 computers at any given time, in various stages of completion), he took me to the latest delivery items, carefully stacked up, and pulled out a beige powerpc. We went to plug it into a monitor, when we noticed the adaptor plug for the monitor. As he went to look for a Mac mouse, I thought, “Uh oh, this bodes ill.” But it booted up, displayed on the monitor, accepted the mouse, and was running Mac OS 9.2.

Blinking through the fog covering my memory of OS 9, I got to the control panel and was able to see it had 384 MB of RAM, and at least 4 GB on the hard drive. As I was trying to remember where to find the processor information, my friend, who was in a hurry to pick up more computers, suggested I take it with me and work on it. The only proviso: I’d have to give it away (which is what he does with all the computers he refurbishes).

So home it went with me. I got a monitor from my dad (with the same give-away requirement) and found an old mac keyboard and mouse. The first thing I did was pop in an OSX disk just to see if it could install. OS 10.2 did fine, but there was a smug little message when I tried to upgrade to 10.3, telling me it just wasn’t going to work out. But I found it actually had a 6GB hard drive, and did indeed have 384 MB of RAM, as well as a 233MHz processor. There was a CDROM and floppy drive, a modem port for an external modem, an ethernet card, and serial ports. No firewire. No USB.

There was some more “This bodes ill” thinking as I started looking stuff up on the Web, and found just what Old World Mac means. Yeah, you can get Linux on them, but they’ve got to have OS 9.2 on them because that’s what Linux boots from, and it’s a real bear to get it on and working (I checked both Mandriva and Ubuntu). Figuring whoever got the computer would probably be happier with OS 10.2, and without the headaches of Linux on an Old World Mac, I abandoned that effort.

The OS9 disk has a nifty little feature in its Initialize Disk tool: write zero’s on the disk to completely wipe the disk for a totally clean install. But it’s hidden in the menus when you get to the Initialize window. So I went looking, found it, and let it run. It took at least an hour. Then I created two partitions: one 200 MB, and one 5.8 GB, both with the HFS+ file system.

I installed OS9 on the larger partition, then downloaded the 9.2 upgrade. Knowing some of these older computers do not like burned disks, I burned a copy of the 9.2 upgrade at 2X. It worked fine, except version 9.2.2 requires version 9.2.1 be installed first. Back to the Apple site, and pop in another CD-R.

After getting everything upgraded to 9.2, I moved the system folder to the smaller partition. Then I installed OS 10.2 on the larger partition. There was about 3.75MB left over. I stretched an ethernet cable across the house and plugged it in to get the rest of the OS updates. It still had Internet Explorer set as the default browser. So I downloaded Firefox and made a few changes to the dock. Then I went looking for someone to give it all away to.

Hello Freecycle! I posted a message in the local Freecycle, and the setup was picked up 5 days later. I threw in a couple unused program disks I had laying around, and a copy of Software for Starving Students. He seemed happy. And now I know all I want to about Old World Macs.

MySpace Unraveled: A Parent’s Guide to Teen Social Networking, by Larry Magid and Anne Collier, Peachpit Press, 2006.

This stands out as the best of the three books. It is logically organized and well presented, with color screenshots. The authors present a balanced approach to MySpace, without an alarmist attitude, but with very insightful observations and helpful suggestions, backed by cited research. Their approach is based in the reality of the Web and social networking, addressing the issues one needs to know while guiding the reader through setting up a MySpace account and using MySpace resources.

Sprinkled throughout the book are “Key Parenting Points” which speak directly to parental concerns about MySpace features. Their philosophy on dealing with those parental concerns can be summed up by their statement (on page 12), “There is no substitute for engaged parenting…But that engagement…is less about control than it is about communication.” Hence the book is about informing for constructive parenting rather than controlling a teen’s access to MySpace.

The writing style is informal and easy. The authors speak as parents and professionals who are actively involved with teens, parents, and the Web. Their experience shows. It should probably be noted the authors are the directors of the online resource BlogSafety.com. If you need a book about MySpace, this is the one to get.

MySpace Safety: 51 Tips for Teens and Parents, by Kevin Farnham and Dale Farnham, How-To Primers, 2006.

This book is written (obviously) from a purely safety perspective. While not entirely alarmist, the authors present guidance on using MySpace from the standpoint of minimizing the risk of contact from members with “malicious” intent. Minimizing that risk is not just about minimizing visibility on MySpace, so there are warnings and advice throughout the book as it steps through the process of signing up and using MySpace.

Notably, the authors’ philosophy on parenting teens using MySpace is to get to know their world to be able to advise them appropriately:

“What’s an appropriate response for parents? To get accustomed to the new world…learn about and teach your teens about the risks, and ideally to enjoy participating with them in this new form of interaction that has become normal for [this] generation.”

The book is intended to be a “user’s manual” with “specific warnings about MySpace dangers and specific methods to minimize the risk that comes with having a MySpace.com account.” As the book moves from introduction to setting up an account and modifying account settings, to using MySpace, there are numbered “Safety Tip” sections after discussions of each feature, giving the authors’ recommendations.

While the book is well written, it speaks primarily to the parent reader, occasionally stepping aside to address teens. While the discussion and tips are good, the focus is so narrow it is easy to begin relegating the whole book to paranoia. I think the better choice of books would be MySpace Unraveled. Although in some areas this book has more information, it is more dated, and lacks screenshots. Still, it is worthy of consideration, especially if your main concern is the safety issue on MySpace.

A Parent’s Guide to MySpace, by Laney Dale, DayDream Publishers, 2006.

There’s not a lot to say about this book. It appears to be self-published. It is rife with errors and typos. The tone alternates between patronizing and inflamatory. There is no documentation. Needless to say, even as short as it is, I had a hard time finishing it. Try one of the other two listed above. Forget about this one.

GIMP 2 for Photographers, by Klaus Goelker, Rocky Nook, Inc., 2007, distributed by O’Reilly Media. Also available from Amazon.

This book is a tutorial. As it states right at the beginning of the introduction, it is not a reference guide, but is

designed to facilitate your entry into the world of digital image editing with the help of the GIMP…You will learn the fundamentals of digital editing, familiarize yourself with common image editing tools and their functions, and acquire a working knowledge of the GIMP 2 program.

And that is exactly what it does. The tutorial style is almost like being in a classroom. The steps are explained, then set out in detail, starting with pixels, color, resolution, and file formats. Towards the end of the book there is less explanation, as the exercises build on what has already been learned and focus on new ways to use the tools.

This really is not a beginner book. It assumes a certain amount of knowledge about computers, cameras and scanners. But you don’t have to be an expert in any of those areas. In fact, although the book discusses importing RAW formats and scanning images, the actual editing exercises are done with images included on the CD which comes with the book. Also included on the CD is the entire book in PDF format, copies of what the exercise images should look like after the editing exercises, the GIMP program for Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux (with source files), plugins for the program, and a copy of Irfanview, a free image viewer and conversion tool (for Windows).

Although intended for all formats, the book presents material from a Windows-centric perspective. I worked through the exercises on a Mac, however, and had no problems, thanks to the GIMP having virtually the same interface across platforms.

As seems to be the case with all books, this one is not without a few flaws. There were many typos, although few of them really serious. It would be better if there was an errata page (having marked them all in the book, I could probably put up one myself at this point). Some of the tools could use more explanation. I wish the beautiful, color screenshots were bigger. But my biggest surprise was the book itself: I don’t think I’ve ever had a cover on a brand new book start separating from the book after only one week.

I have been using the GIMP for a couple years already, but there was a lot in the book that was new for me. In fact, I wish I’d read the book a few weeks earlier: it would have saved me a lot of time on a Christmas project! Despite the flaws, and even with the defective cover, I’d recommend it. It will give you more than a working knowledge of the GIMP.

CSS Cookbook, Second Edition, by Christopher Schmitt, O’Reilly Media, 2006.

First things first. You should have some experience with Cascading Style Sheets before diving into this book. It will not teach you CSS, but you will learn some really nifty shortcuts and tricks using CSS. The book assumes its readers “possess some web design or development experience either as a hobbyist, student, or professional.” Take the assumption seriously. But even if you’re an expert at CSS, don’t overlook the book. It should make a handy resource, especially in terms of interoperability.

For those of you who are weak or rusty with CSS, the first chapter provides a good refresher. Go lightly through it, however, since there are some errata which can leave you scratching your head. Most of the errata in the rest of the book is obvious and doesn’t detract from the content, although the typos can be a bit annoying.

The book is structured in a problem-solution format, categorized by type. For instance, “Creating a Hanging Indent,” a handy technique to know, is in the Web Typography section (Chapter 2). It begins with a statement of the problem, “You want to create a hanging indent,” offers a solution (in this case, pretty brief), then goes into a lengthy discussion of the problems, workarounds and related issues (such as, in this case, paired hanging indents). The “problems” range from fairly simple and obvious to complex, using javascript. I should probably note that there is very little explanation of the javascript when it is included in solutions or discussions. The assumption is that you already have some knowledge about it. I should probably also note that when javascript is included, there are instructions on where to obtain the needed code, and how to include it.

Many of the solutions also include using images. Again, there is the assumption you know how to create or modify the image needed. Like the solutions using javascript, the instructions typically tell you where to get the needed image. But some, like the “Rounding Corners” techniques, tell you to create a rounded corners design, then tell you how to modify it for the solution.

On the issue of cross-browser compatibility, there is a very handy section (Chapter 11) on Hacks, Workarounds, and Troubleshooting, and a section in the index with tables showing the implementation of CSS elements in different platforms and browsers (also available from O’Reilly Media as a pdf file). But compatibility issues, if there are any, are also dealt with in each problem-solution set. IE 7 is also included in the discussions.

On the whole, except for the typos and errata (which, unfortunately, were not listed on O’Reilly’s site at the time of this writing), this is a good, solid reference book. I like the discussion part of the solutions, which not only explain the how and why, but often give alternatives and discuss issues which impact implementing the solution (such as validation, and compatibility). While not a book to start out with, it is definitely a book to expand your knowledge and skills.