Four Island

While I did write this post four months ago, and this post was written within the last week, I loooove Pingbacks.

One day, a few weeks ago (read: four months ago), I was reading an article about blogging on I Help You Blog. A link on this article led me to Freelanch Switch, where I found a great article about how to get the most out of your memory stick. On this article, I found a link to a wonderful mini-suite called Tiny USB Office.

Tiny USB Office offers all you could want in a portable office at 2.5 megabytes! Some of the most interesting things it carries are a Notepad replacement (with more features than Notepad itself), an MSN client, a web-server file-sharer, an FTP client, a secure file shredder, a vector-image editor and more!

Try Tiny USB Office out. It's great. You won't regret it. Promise.

Look, it's another stupid question post! YA----huh?

Anyway, as noted in a recent's post, I start way too many posts with the phrase "Recently, I....". And look, it's even made it into today's post title! GAH!

So, basically, what I'm asking for is, does anyone know of some more phrases I can use here instead of a sentence beginning with "Recently, I...."? Yes, I know, I am the laziest, but that phrase has taken over my mind! No! Get out of there! That's Fourie's house! Ouch! Don't touch me there!

Well, that's today's question post! Remember, if you haven't seen it, the last one was Twitter != tumblr. Thank you, and good 12 o'clock.

OK, you may have noticed the new Four Island layout. Yes, I thought you did. I got tired of Layout 4 and decided Four Island needed something new. But I was too hasty with it.

In my haste to put up a new layout, I forgot a few necessary things such as affiliate links and the Quotes subsection links. And Fouripedia isn't integrated correctly. Also, the development site was having difficulties with the automatic posting feature, so I disabled the pending queue, and thus forgot to re-enable it. That's why there wasn't a post yesterday.

I am going to re-enable the posting queue as soon as I finish typing this post. I'll also attempt to fix the many problems people seem to have with the new layout. Once layout 6 has entered a stable phase, I'll announce it like I usually do.

In the mean time, if anyone has any suggestions or problems with the new layout, feel free to comment on this post or reply to TimTam's Fourm topic, New Layout in Fourscore Improvement. I welcome any suggestions because I dislike Four Island not being as functional as it used to be.

....well, I guess Games won. And no one at ALL voted for TV! Oh well, I can't control the outcome of the polls, BUT I CAN CONTROL YOUR MIND. Just kidding.

Movies - 2 vote(s)! Music - 6 vote(s)! TV - 0 vote(s)! Games - 8 vote(s)!

So, did everyone enjoy VisitorGrid week? I didn't think the blogging posts on it were that good, but I liked the MPD one. Readers? What do you thing? You know I like comments! AND PINGBACKS!!!! YAY.

I'd put other stuff here, but I'm already planning to put it in other posts, so you'll just have to wait :)

This post is the sixth and final day of VisitorGrid Week. For more information, read the post linked to right there.

This week seems to have gone pretty well. I'm going to end it off with a yummy tutorial. This time it's about MPD, the Music Player Daemon. MPD is a program you can use to play music from your computer without any interface, which is why it is usable even on the command line. MPD usually interacts with a client, which range from MPC, a command line client to GMPC, a GNOME-based graphical client. There are quite a few clients, however, that allow you to interact with MPD wirelessly, via some type of remote control.

I browsed through these and found none that I could to immediately without running out to the store and buying some type of accessory. But, then I found mousempc, a bare-bones client controlled by a mouse. That's right, that includes wireless mice. And, I just happen to have a wireless mouse lying about.

First, I'll tell you how to install MPD, then I'll tell you how to setup mousempc. MPD is easily installed, due to the amount of distributations it's been ported and packaged to, but mousempc is quite a challenge.

Ok, installing MPD. MPD can be found in most Linux distribution's packaging system under the name "mpd". So, for instance, on Debian/Ubuntu, you'd run this command to install MPD:

sudo apt-get install mpd

That wasn't too difficult, was it? The only other thing you really have to do is to import your music into MPD's library.

On Debian, this library resides at /var/lib/mpd/music/ by default. You can find the location of your library in your /etc/mpd.conf MPD configuration file under the name "music_directory". Copy your songs into that folder. Note that you may need root privileges to access that folder, so add sudo to the front of each cp command you run.

After copying in your files, you need to have MPD re-create it's database. You can do this by running the commands:

sudo mpd --create-db
sudo /etc/init.d/mpd restart

The first command re-creates the database and the second restarts MPD. Note that the second command may be different depending on your distribution.

Well, there you have it. Your music files are safe and snug in MPD's database. Now you need to install mousempc. This, as I said before, is the difficult part.

1. Begin by downloading the Makefile and mousempc.c from its Subversion repository.
2. You need GCC (the GNU C Compiler) to compile mousempc, but it's normally pre-installed on most Linux systems. In case it isn't, however, try installing it with your packaging system using the package name "gcc"
3. You also require Make to parse the Makefile. Same post-text as above applies.
4. Finally, you require a small package called runit.
5. Run the following commands:

make
mkdir ~/mousempc
cp mousempc ~/mousempc/
cd ~/mousempc
mkdir env log
cat > run << EOF
<\$EVENTFILE exec chpst -u mousempc -e ./env ./mousempc
EOF
chmod a+x run
> env/MPD_HOST
> env/MPD_PORT
OLD_UMASK=$(umask)
umask 077
> env/MPD_PASSWORD
umask $OLD_UMASK
cat > repeat << EOF
./run
./repeat
EOF
chmod a+x repeat

1. The last thing you need to do is find out which event device your mouse is. Enter this line into the top of the run file created in the previous step:

EVENTFILE=/dev/input/event2

Then, run run:

sudo ./run

Try right clicking with your wireless mouse. If nothing happens, try /dev/input/event3 in run. If that fails as well, /dev/input/event4 and so on. 7. When you find the correct device, all you need to do to start mousempc is run repeat:

sudo ./repeat

There are two problems you can have with this. One is that, after running repeat, you get some error about not having enough permissions to do whatever. This is resolved by looking in the /etc/mpd.conf file mentioned earlier, finding the value entitled "password", and placing that into the MPD_PASSWORD file inside of the env folder.

The other problem you can have is that after a while, mousempc stops working. This may be due to the fact that your wireless mouse reciever may have changed event devices. If this happens, simply retry going through /dev/input/event2 and so on.

Finally, that long tutorial is over! Well, I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial, and I hope you've enjoyed VisitorGrid week!

This post is the fifth day of VisitorGrid Week. For more information, read the post linked to right there.

Continuing along with the blogging theme, now that you know why you should blog and you have a blog, I'm going to make a little reward-type-thing.

You must write a post on you blog relating to the number four. Not just any post, not a spam post, a good post. No wait, a great post. If you do, post a link to it in this post's comments, I'll look over it, and if it's good, I'll pingback it.

So, there are the terms. You write a good post relating to the number four, I'll pingback your blog, providing you with more traffic. I'll generally post the Pingbacks on Saturday along with the weekly poll.

So, like the idea? Well, good. Now get blogging. This offer does not expire.

This post is the fourth day of VisitorGrid Week. For more information, read the post linked to right there.

Now that you know why you should blog, here's a handy tutorial on how to start a blog just in case you decide that blogging interests you.

The first thing you need are some ideas. Like, for instance, what are you going to name your blog? Or, what's it going to be about? Your life? Blogging?

Once you've handled that stage, you need a host. There are many free blogging hosts on the internet (myself included, I'm already hosting two), so this one isn't difficult. We'll assume that you're using Wordpress.com, a hosting service that runs off of the popular Wordpress blogging software. It's fairly easy to create an account on Wordpress.com. It has a large "Sign up" button on the home page, and the forms are easy to navigate.

Now that you have a blog, you should write an introduction post. Explain what your blog is there for, why people should read it. This, and some more self-promoting information should also be inserted into an "About" page.

Finally, you need to come up with a blogging schedule. How often are you going to blog? Are you going to do special things on certain days of the week? Think about this, because when people start to enjoy your blog, want to keep reading some good content, they'll be disappointed when you fail to post.

This post is the second day of VisitorGrid Week. For more information, read the post linked to right there.

Many people on the internet have blogs. Many people have more than one blog. But do you have one?

There are many good reasons for you to have a blog. That's why I've decided to make a list! YAY! This is probably going to be terrible (as it's my first blog post list), but anyways, here we go!

1. Blogging is fun
2. Blogging is a method of telling people of the outside world your feelings
3. Blogging is a way to connect to people you don't know
4. Blogging is a good way to vent your feelings
5. Blogging is a good way to get feedback from your visitors
6. Blogging is a good way to have daily content on your site
7. Blogging makes it easier to have a reason to make a site
8. A blog can be an online diary
9. Blogging can be a way to speak your feelings to the world without revealing your true identity
10. People on the internet who have blogs can sometimes look more professional
11. Having a blog can be a good way to direct traffic to your site
12. A blog doesn't always have to be an updates archive. You can use it as a type of game
13. A blog can keep your visitors updated to the most recent events on your site
14. Blogging can be a way to keep yourself from being bored
15. Um.... insert more good reasons here

Ok, that was terrible. But I hope you enjoyed it!

By the way, if you have any ideas that you think would do well on this list, please comment!

NOTE: Verify blognomic.net, make sure it's not a different TLD

This post is the second day of VisitorGrid Week. For more information, read the post linked to right there.

Today I thought I'd vent some more of my anger towards Apple. It's time to be angry at the iPhone.

The iPhone.... GAH. It's so terrible, only an idiot would like it. So, naturally, I got an idiot to come in for an interview.

Hello Douglas, that is your name isn't it?

Hatkirby

Yes

Douglas

Ok. So, Douglas, why do you like the iPhone?

Hatkirby

Because it has a touch screen.

Douglas

But Douglas, the DS you are playing right now also has a touch screen.

Hatkirby

And I like it! So I like things with Touch Screens. It's also the only iPod with a Touch Screen so far.

Douglas

Um, Douglas. That's not exactly true. Ever heard of the iTouch?

Hatkirby

They're made at the same time. They're the same thing except the iPhone has a phone.

Douglas

Um.... ok. Any other reason you think the iPhone's good?

Hatkirby

It's awesome.

Douglas

That didn't exactly answer my question, Douglas.

Hatkirby

It's a phone. It's the first iPod thing that's a phone. It's very new.

Douglas

Um, that's quite apparent from looking at it. Well, iPod's are IPODs, not cellular phones. Why do you need an MP3 players with a phone in it?

Hatkirby

Because then you don't need to buy a phone and an iPod. Then you just have an iPhone.

Douglas

Well, that's a thingy. Anyway, thanks for coming today Douglas.

Hatkirby

Your welcome.

Douglas

Um.... that wasn't quite the answer I was expecting.

Hatkirby

You scare me.

Douglas

....Ok, this interview's over.

Hatkirby

Well, as you can see, the idiot has some good reasons for himself to want an iPhone. Which means, that if you have these reasons.... well.... um.... runs away

NOTE: If anyone was offended by this post, I am sorry. I am just expressing my immense dislike of Apple. No idiots were harmed in the making of this post.

I really don't like posting more than once a day, but this is necessary. I was looking through my logs recently when I saw that my webserver had a lot of email, somehow. I looked through it, and this is what I saw:

This is the mail system at host trindla.fourisland.com.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
delete your own text from the attached returned message.

                   The mail system

<****@hotmail.com>: host mx4.hotmail.com[65.54.244.104]
said: 550 DY-001 Mail rejected by Windows Live Hotmail
for policy reasons. We generally do not accept email
from dynamic IP's as they are not typically used to
deliver unauthenticated SMTP e-mail to an Internet mail
server. http://www.spamhaus.org maintains lists of
dynamic and residential IP addresses. If you are not an
email/network admin please contact your E-mail/Internet
Service Provider for help. Email/network admins, please
visit http://postmaster.live.com for email delivery
information and support (in reply to MAIL FROM command)

Apparently, I'm not allowed to send emails to Windows Live Hotmail. Among the messages rejected were:

• The activation code for someone trying to register for the Fourm. Gryphic, this's probably your friend.
• A password reset email. Pyro, this is yours, sorry about that. Now you know why you didn't get the email.
• Various pingback and comment notification messages from Color Pencils. This is probably why Gryphic never noticed I commented on her "The Pigeon Reports" page.

I'm really sorry about this and I'll try to get it fixed by routing my email through my ISP's email server. Again, I'm sorry. If you have a Hotmail account and you haven't been recieving emails, this is why.