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WordPress – Preliminary Impressions of Photon in JetPack
JetPack for WordPress now includes a feature called Photon: Photon works by using wordpress.com to cache and serve up images from your site. Since I am always looking for ways to reduce my bandwidth (and speed up performance), I enabled it. I have observed a reduction in the bandwidth: The 20th, 21st, and 22nd averaged about 3% fewer page hits than on the 25th – but it is obvious that (with Photon enabled) I used less bandwidth on the 25th . The 23rd and 24th are the weekend, so there is always a drop in traffic. I suspect the spike seen on the 24th is related to enabling Photon. Based on very limited data, Photon appears to be working well and is saving me some bandwidth. It does not require me to change anything about my … Read entire article »
Understanding the differences between various Linux distro’s
There are many different operating systems (OS) out there. The most commonly known being Microsoft Windows and Mac OS, and then there is that OS called Linux that people keep talking about. It is not always clear what Linux is except that its operating system (sometimes claimed to be better than any other operating system on the planet). When you look it up, you are faced with a bewildering choice of operating systems that all claim to be Linux: Red Hat, Ubuntu, Slackware, Mandrake, Linux mint, PC Linux OS, Pear Linux, OpenSUSE, etc. Summary Fundamentally, all Linux distros are very similar. They are based on the Linux kernel which forms the core of all distros. The difference between distros fundamentally boils down to: ease of installation which GUI (Graphical User Interface) they provide (changeable … Read entire article »
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Review of the Lazer 7″ (MID7109) Tablet
Alcampo (the Spanish arm of the French Auchan chain) had Lazer 7″ tablets on sale for €79 (they also had a 10″ version for €149). Given that the price was unbelievable, I bought one. Reasons for Buying There were two reasons I bought it: 1) The whole idea of a tablet is cool. I watch my kids using their iPods as portable total connectivity devices and would like the same – though bigger and not so squinty eyed for my aging eyes. Besides, there are many times when it simply doesn’t make sense or is inconvenient to have to use the computer or laptop (why can’t I read PDF files anywhere / everywhere? Check on the weather? See what movies are playing?). 2) Most importantly, it has the same specs as the MK802 (basically a … Read entire article »
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The UG802 a New Entry in the Ultra Low Cost, Ultraportable Computer War
It seems that hardly a week goes by these past few months without some announcement of a new ultra low cost (usually USB stick sized) computer. This flurry of activity was kicked off by the Raspberry Pi (a $35 bare bones, exposed circuit board, hobbyist computer featuring a 700MHz ARM CPU, 256MB of RAM). I think the next serious contender was the RikoMagic MK802 (a 1GHz ARM CPU, with 1GB of RAM, and 4GB of Flash) fully encased in a oversized USB stick form factor. You can read a comparison of the two over here. The Raspberry Pi is coming out with a second generation version. The MK802 has spawned two minor revisions (the first being a small board redesign and coming in more colours, the second being a slightly revised form factor that … Read entire article »
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Raspberry Pi and the MK802 a Side-by-Side Comparison
All information and links presented were considered accurate as of 02-August-2012. All links to external sites were deemed safe and relevant at the time this article was written. If they cease being valid or safe, please let me know. The Raspberry Pi and MK802 are sub US$100 computers. Raspberry Pi This was the first sub US$100 computer I heard about. There are two models (A and B). The A model is priced at US$25 and the B model at US$35. I have the B model (the A model is still not available). In terms of hardware, the A and B model are identical except that the A model has only 1 USB connector (instead of 2) and no Ethernet port. It is developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a not for profit organization. The Raspberry Pi site is … Read entire article »
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Fedora 16 – First Impressions – Not Positive
UPDATED 11-May-2012 I have discovered that the problem with Software Updates and Add/Remove Software noted below was caused by VirtualBox Guest Additions not being correctly installed. This happened because the Linux kernel header files are not installed, GCC (a compiler) is not installed, make (a tool for GCC) is not installed. Installing gcc and make was not a problem. Installing the Linux kernel header files was. For some reason, kernel-devel-3.1.0-7.fc16.i686.PAE is not available (I am sure if I hunt around some more, I will find it, but that is beside the point, I am interested in install, test, use not install and fiddle around until I get some semblance of a usable system. Notwithstanding the problems it has with VirtualBox Guest Additions, I still find it hard to like or recommend Fedora 16: (1) The Software and … Read entire article »
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How to Deal with Content Theft
If you produce good content, at some point someone will steal that content and post it on their own site. This article offers some tips on dealing with that. The first time someone ripped my content I had two reactions. The first was, “Yeah! My content is good enough for someone to want to steal!” The second was anger – I work hard to produce content and to have someone rip it, repost it and not credit me hurts. The Two Types of Pirate The Shameless Pirate This one knows they are stealing your content, feels no remorse and usually does it to either increase traffic (and revenue) on their site or increase their (perceived) credibility / expertise. Some do it for both reasons. Often times they will retouch your article (and usually butcher the text) … Read entire article »
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w.bloggar – How to Fix “Unable to parse the XML response” Error
I am probably one of the few, if only people around who use w.bloggar for my blogging needs. While it is an old and outdated program, it has three essential features for me: (1) customizable edit keys (that’s how I input these coloured sections without typing in HTML code), (2) it is easy to upload images and (3) it doesn’t add bloat to the images (the images I upload are in no way, shape, or form modified by w.bloggar). For most people, though, I would still recommend Windows Live Writer. A few days ago, I began having problems with w.bloggar when trying to post or upload images. It would return the message: “Unable to parse the XML response.Parser Reason:Invalid at the top level”: At first, I thought it was something funny happening at … Read entire article »
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Which Browser is Fastest?
This is not an article about which browser if fastest, just an observation about some data that caught my eye. While looking at page load times in my Google Analytics account, I noticed a surprising browser ranking (based on data from 01-Jan-2012 to 08-Apr-2012): Internet Explorer, which has often been derided for being slow (as well as not standards compliant), took top spot. While someone could take these figures and misrepresent it as which browser is fastest. What it really shows is which browser has a faster Internet connection. As can be seen in the table below, Chrome and Firefox tend to be used in less developed countries where high speed Internet is probably not available: For some reason, in those countries, Chrome and Firefox appear to be the preferred browser. … Read entire article »
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Epson SX130 – a Review
After my laser printer died, I was in a scramble to buy a replacement printer so my daughter could get some homework printed out. It was 7 years since my last printer purchase, so I wasn’t up to date on printers and didn’t have time to thoroughly research the market. I have owned ink jet printers before, but have always preferred laser printers because (1) they are faster and (2) the cost of consumables is cheaper. I bought the Epson SX130 because it was at a very attractive price and would meet my needs until I found a replacement laser printer. Summary The Epson SX130 is a low cost, ink jet printer and scanner combo that produces excellent quality prints and scans. Its cons are very slow print speed and high cost of operation. Print Speed The … Read entire article »
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