This will be kind of an open apology about there not being much of anything here.  I’ll must likely have this be my latest {and my last for a while!} post so it will be the first thing that most folks see when they come in. I probably should have kept this whole thing private until I learned what I was doing but then I am just a cherry boy so please forgive me if I get in your way. I really am not trying to get anyone hurt.

I’ve spent the last couple of months just reading and finding out what a blog is. I think I can now identify one from say a cat?? Hell, I just discovered that I have some comments that I didn’t even know were there. Will look at them in the next couple of day. I have to string a comm. wire to the house so I’m not just setting in the office waiting for the next tornado on the ground 18 miles away.

I’m still worried that Google is going to send their Google-mo-bile after me ’cause I may be too stupid to blog!

Anyway, please again, bear with me! This is a classic cause of “maybe I shouldn’t have played with the hardware until you knew what the kill radius was”.

Permalinks and web hosting changes!

I just spent the last two days going back over my posts to make sure that the permalinks were working correctly! I also found how to get the blog to come up under my hosting name without the Wordpress sub-directory showing in the address bar. The latter was super easy! Go-daddy had set up Wordpress for me so I didn’t have to worry about the really geeky part of that. They even had a work in progress/under construction type home page set up for me. I noticed that when I logged into Wordpress my blog showed up as being in the Wordpress sub-directory. That’s cool but it’s not how the big boys appear online!

First, the hosting changes

First I went to the General option under  Settings in my WP administrative account {The Dashboard, if you will.} I then changed the the Blog address (URL) so it was directed straight to b-ricky.com. I left the WordPress address (URL) alone as that was where Go-Daddy installed the core files for me!

What I then did was FTP into my hosting account, copied the index.php and .htaccess files from the WordPress directory into the home directory of my site that I have previously changed in the Setting/General options of WP under Blog address (URL).  {your address may be different than b-ricky.com} I then edited the file index.php replacing the line “require('./wp-blog-header.php');" to "require('./wordpress/wp-blog-header.php');"

*** Save the file! ***

Log out of Wordpress and/or your blog and log back in using just your host name and it should be fine.

And now, for those Permalinks

If you have set up Permalinks, go to the Permalinks option under Settings and update your Permalinks structure. WordPress will automatically update your .htaccess file if it has the appropriate file permissions. If WordPress can’t write to your .htaccess file, it will display the new rewrite rules to you, which you should manually copy into your .htaccess file (in the same directory as the main index.php file.)

By the way, I got most of this info from the documentation which in in my present BLOGROLL  or you can just go directly to it at http://codex.wordpress.org/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory.

Since I mentioned in the last step updating permalinks I guess that I should share some of my new found knowledge on them. Again from the Dashboard I moved to Settings/Permalinks. Wordpress seems to want to by default give your posts permalinks of “yourblogaddress.com/?p={somenumber}“. Now I don’t know where it gets the number, but it’s not very descriptive is it? Just click the Custom Structure and add “/%category%/%postname%/” {without the quotes!}.

*** Save the file! ***

Now your permalinks will be appended with the category and the name of the post! Again, you can view the documentation at http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks.

If I may, my own little disclaimer! I don’t claim to be an expert and there is a lot of information that I haven’t included in this post. I would always recommend reading the full documentation as your mileage may  vary and what works for me might not work for thou!

I had the hosting account at GoDaddy.com. It took me quite a while to learn to navigate in their Hosting Control Center. To my eyes their site is quite cluttered. Too much advertising and  many other things that I don’t or just rarely require! I much prefer Cpanel on my other hosting sites. Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. I just had to spend a little extra time with it. My next mistake was trying to rush into putting too much stuff into the site without learning how to run WordPress.

Again, I had to back up and spend some time just looking around and trying to get the basics down. I see all of the people saying that blogging is easy! Well. Yea. It is but there is still a pretty good learning curve until you’re comfortable with all of the little ticks, clicks and boxes to be filled in so that the posts end up in the right category with proper permalinks {still working on that!} and such. That was what I spent part of the last month doing. I found that I had posts scattered around and it appeared that I just threw them at the blog in a shotgun pattern. I also had some growing pains with finding out how to hook my blog up with the hosting account so that it was more branded with b-ricky.com.

One of my main problems is that I don’t immediately ask for help. I much prefer to go out to Google until I find the knowledge that I need and/or reading reams of help files whether I understand them or not at the time. That may be the hard way to approach stuff but by the time that I’ve pounded my forehead flat with the palm of my hand I really understand what I’m doing with each new chore.

To sum up! Yes it’s easy but please be sure to spend enough time learning the ins and outs of your hosting account and Wordpress. It will save you a lot of frustration. Also don’t try to rush in full tilt boogie if you will. Blogging can be fun but don’t fall for someone that tells you that it doesn’t require some time and effort! So, follow along with me in this category as my skills grow and I maneuver through or around some of the obstacles.

The Stable branch will pretty much work as you would expect. I’m sure that you will hit some snags as there is just too much hardware out there for them to cover every mix and match up. i.e. {id est! Not “Internet Explorer”? If I want to copy off someone’s paper, I’m sure going to copy from somebody that I feel has the right answer.

Oh Yea! Once that you’ve gone Firefox, you’ll never go back.

Some of you with Nvidia Cards will have to jump through some hoops and sometimes when you want to get a driver or a plugin to work it seems to be a hassle. After you are done with those little challenges put the knowledge in you pocket! That is where the reading part comes in. I see all too many posts from folks screaming like they were bleeding to death because they can’t get something to work. I know that nobody likes to see it but RTFM can often be your best friend. Hell! If you’re out of practice, read a cereal box. Reading is the cure all for “I didn’t know that”.

The Testing branch is a little more cutting edge but some of the packages {programs} still might have a few rough edges so if you enjoy puzzling out stuff this might be the place for you. At least you don’t have to get into the real geeky CLI {command line interface} to get a you tube site to play.

`The Unstable branch is for those that like to whip themselves with error messages and such. This one is for developers that aren’t afraid of something needing hacking!

Enough of that! Let’s go to http://www.debian.org/ and get us a copy. Just click on the link on the bar at the top of the page labeled “Getting Debian” to get the latest stable release. Currently it called lenny but just kind of remember what branch that you’re running. I prefer to just download the “netinst” image. It’s quicker and that way I don’t have to wait for a lot of stuff to download that I may never use. Let’s face it, there is a lot that I can do with my box that I either don’t want to know how to do or will never need to. You won’t be missing anything! You will be able to pick and choose what you need/want later.

Now, I ass-u-me that you can find the S.O.B. Burn the .iso file to one of those shiny disks.  Plug that in the drink holder thingie in the front of you machine and reboot your box. If you don’t know how to reboot please step away from the keyboard and nobody will get hurt!

When your computer come back to life you will probably see a whole bunch of really hard core geeky stuff that you might not have ever seen. Relax! It’s just an adding machine with an LCD screen. Both of you will make it through. If the installer doesn’t start you may need to set your bios to boot off the CD first. If there is trouble here, yank the disk out of the drive and give it to the next door neighbors’ kid. After he stops laughing at you and making jokes about you choice of distros go back in and reboot. Everything will be just fine!

Those of you that are at the install screen it’s just a matter of “poken der buttons”. There is choice to use Graphical install but unless your school colors are Pink and Grey what’s the fun in that. Also there is one period {when a lot of geeky stuff is happening in the background} that I’m sure you will get tired of watching the install bar creep along. Take a chance! Try the text install. I guarantee that you will like watching the download bit by bit and it’s in black and white! {It’s even more fun than watching the old windows defrag screen!

Oops! {Did I just let my nerd flag fly again?}

Don’t worry if you don’t know the answer to some of the questions. Most of the time you can just accept the defaults because the smart folks that wrote the install program are usually correct. At the Partition disks screen it gets a little touchier. Please do some research about what you are about to do as the wrong “finger poken” can really get you in trouble here.

I again assume that you don’t want to wipe out your windows drive. I know that I did on numerous boxes of mine but a few still retain vestiges of stupidity!Remember that the tab key is your buddy here. If you are unsure about anything it will let you back up out of the whole deal like a crawdad. Also take notes!! {Damn! Did I forget to mention writing? It can be almost as important as reading}

I have a slow DSL so a full install does take a while. If you get bored go have a cup of coffee, take the dog for a walk and go next door to see your neighbors kid. He probably has a Debian file server running on a gutted out Pentium laying across two LAN stations in his bedroom by now. Just don’t bother him too much. The little buggers get really rude if they get shot up while you’re asking questions.

When you get to the Installation complete screen you are about half way through your trip!  Go ahead and pull the CD out and reboot. You should see the grub screen come up. If you don’t do anything it will automatically boot into your brand new Linux OS.

Go ahead and sign in with your username and password. Please tell me that you wrote ‘em down! Stop pissin’ and moaning. It only takes an extra second and a half. This isn’t your fathers’ OS. Revel in the new feeling of security. That screen is your first step in keeping what you own away from others. {Quite different than that Vista disk that we just think that we own because we paid 4 it! That is if Uncle Billy’s minion even gave you one??}  Kind of like locking your front door if you live in the city or locking the toolbox if you have friends and nieghbors! You will probably see your desktop.

Don’t get me started on card manufacturers that won’t  distribute their codes!

If you’ve ever owned a Mac, played with your Mac or even walked past one, believe me that’s pretty much what one looks like.  Poke around! All of us like the slimmed down, uncluttered look of the default Gnome desktop. It’s blazingly  fast and I’m sure very hardware friendly.  {being frugal with both disk and memory use.} But I didn’t pay the big bucks for frugal. I paid for fast, big and flashy! F**k frugal!

Up in the system menu → Administration you’ll find a program called Synaptic Package Manager. I’d drag a copy of that to the desktop if I were you. That’s where all of the good stuff stays. In fact I keep a icon for it in one of the tool bars of my desktop. It’s a program that is keep you from having to make too many decisions when you go after new software proggies! If you want or need some other programs, they’re there and only a couple of clicks away.

The first thing I do is add the KDE desktop environment. It looks and can be made to work  more like windows. Be warned! It’s another big, long download but then again “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose”! Now I’m not saying to immediately discard the Gnome stuff. I run the gdm {Gnome display manager} and several other Gnome programs but in my opinion you dance with who brung ya! I knew that she was pretty when I met her; It’s some of the flashy stuff that pisses me off. I just made another user if I need to go back into Gnome even from within KDE.

Wow! I digress. My bad. Where was I before I so rudely interrupted myself?

Oh Yea! I cut my teeth on windows so that’s what I like. Can you say opinions & assholes? Sure. I knew ya could.  By now you have a fully functional Linux OS on your box and you can still go back into windows if you must. Remember the grub screen during boot up. Just arrow key down to whatever Debian called your windows partition, hit enter and Bingo. Right back where you started! I even played around with running windows in a virtual window but now you’re really talking hardware intensive. By the way, does anyone know how many windows behind other windows it would take before you couldn’t see out the windows.

Just a parting parting shot!

Damn Sam! I’ve already got a couple or three full time jobs, when would I have time to put together a product and/or a service. I’m not rich {am kind of pretty but that may just be Mom’s  brain washing} famous, a genus and don’t have a powerful position so whats a poor boy to do? I do have a mind just bubbling over with random crap so for now that’s what will be my forte. I’m gonna just keep bubbling over. I’m not sure that anyone cares but hell, it tickles me almost to death just to be writing this stuff down and actually seeing it on this new electronic newspaper thing-a-ma-bob.

“Look Ma, top of the world!”

It did occur to me that I could move other peoples’ stuff. That might be a alley that I could go down and creepy crawl the dumpsters. The one main problem there is I’m too damn picky about what I would tell people to check out. Nothing pisses me off worse that finding out that I’ve been chumped by some slicker! I’m just like anybody else. I don’t mind spending my money but at the end of the day I like to look back and say “I might not have needed to spend the money but in some weird way it was worth it”. Of course that just adds another layer to my already busy days. Not only do I have to find stuff but I also have to evaluate it to see if I would waste my hard earned cash on it.

I am now running Lenny and have found it to be everything that I need or could presently wish for! I love the file security, the multi-user format and the way it looks. I still feel a trend for the Gnome desktop to be the norm but I have usually thrown KDE at it. KDE looks, feels and acts a little more like the Windows OS and hey, like I said, I cut my teeth on Uncle Billy’s stuff. I also love certain things about Debian that windows doesn’t seem to want to address. Little things like multiple desktops. Since we all multi-task, it’s nice to have 5 or 6 desktops to separate our different work projects with out having to reboot into another user. All of my web type work can be running on a desktop with word processing on another and still another desktop to pop over to if I need to do a little down and dirty CLI work! I usually have a bunch of programs running and at least my desktop or my panels aren’t all cluttered up.

Now a couple of weeks go by and as a like minded buddy and I watched in amazement the heartbreak of watching the HD fail when we booted it up while holding said drive in the palm of my hand. OK what to do? I ran like a tail wagging the dog to the local store and purchased a 286. Wow! Not only did this new box do all of the other stuff but it also had pretty pictures in the way of Windows 3.0. Could love get any better that this? This just started me on the road to bigger and better. Now you can draw up your own set of tools for beginning to understand what make me tick! {in this moment, at this hour on this damn day.} All is subject to change at the strike of nicotine molecule!

My next step in the computer arms race was a 386, then on up rapidly through a 486 and on to a Pentium chip! Yes Virginia, I still have that same said Pentium chip! I was going to grind the pins off the back of it and wear it mounted it on a gold chain around my neck as a medallion. Luckily I was able to step away from the keyboard for a while as that would have been way too geeky for even me. These little boxes help me step into the internet! Of course, at the time that pretty much spelled AOL. I’m not ashamed to admit that I was an AOLer! I’ve already admitted to running Win 3.0. The problem that I had with that it was like eating at a cafeteria where there wasn’t anything on the menu except “canned meat”. I rolled gladly along for many years with numerous upgraded to Windows! At the time 95 was to my way of thinking the cats’ meow. Next up was 98 and then XP. That’s when we all started to pick up on security and the web. I also ventured out into the Mac world with an old Macintosh that I bought for $300! I was never very impressed with it due to serious limitations in both storage and speed! I did turn my Dad onto a bigger Mac in later years due to a long story of his missing digits and the need for a single button mouse! Alas, I never owned another Mac myself having already aligned myself in the PC crowd! {Not so much a windows person but just a DOS operating system type of guy.}

The command line interface has never scared me. My last box came with Vista. To say that I am unimpressed with windows is an understatement.. Don’t get me wrong! I’m not totally dogging the Everett bunch. They do a lot of stuff very well. I have always been impressed by their hardware discovery routines. But I’ve always been somewhat unhappy with their idea of a multi person OS. It always felt kind of awkward to me. I have never thought much of their security. Too many unnecessary permissions granted in the philosophy to allow everyone free access! Not that I have that many national security type files on my box but there are files that I would prefer not to be accessed, seen or messed with! I now have a disk for the newest and greatest?? Windows 7. Haven’t even bothered to put it on my hard drive and most of my work is now done in Debian Linux.. That, my dear is another story!

Uncle Ricky

If you aren’t already freaked by the initial photo then you might be interested in this stupid Blog {?}. { I do apologize! I was in motel lighting under the influence of narcotics that the good Doctor had given me.} I will label this blog as “Adult” only because it contains the inner workings of Uncle Ricky’s mind and at times I have been known to act in a decidedly adult manner. At other times, not so much so! The postings here are mine. Not always correct, politically or otherwise and I will try to censor myself but occasionally some Marine Corps will slip through.

I guess that the first order of business is to kind of explain the OP {operating premise} of this blog.

The pic to the upper left is Uncle Ricky in rather bad lighting on my last trip to town! As to the Hacking Uncle Ricky title, I like to refer to myself as a hacker! Not so much because of my computer skills although a have a well rounded bag of tricks in that area but because of an innate desire to take things apart to see what makes them work. I fondly remember taking toys, electronic devices and maybe a bug or two apart to find out what made them tick. {Oh yea! There was also a rabbit but that’s a whole ‘nother story.} Nothing gave me greater joy when faced with a adult saying, “Oh, that’s broken. Throw it away.” and then to be able to disassemble it and then by tweaking or soldering something come up with a semi working object. Not to mention even when the operation failed and ended up resulting in some working object that was no longer operating. Such is the price of knowledge and that’s all part of the quest, if you will. ! At I got older I came to understand that just because an object was designed for one job, that doesn’t mean that it can’t be use in another manner to do something else. Usually with new and often surprising results. Who says that you can’t soften clay with an old toaster element. Hell, you can pretty well melt the s**t!