Richard A. Johnson

UPDATE: after just over 2 days, all of my whining may have paid off. I woke up 12/15 to find my GMail working again. I would like to think a Google employee who contacted me on Twitter got it fixed or at least escalated for me.

If you can’t read what that says, here it is:
Temporary Error(500)
We’re sorry, but your Gmail account is temporarily unavailable. We apologize for the inconvenience and suggest trying again in a few minutes.

Well, 2 days later, not a few minutes, it is still dead. So I did what everyone else would do in a situation like this, I head to Tech Support. Yeah, like you, I couldn’t find a clear tech support channel either. I did find a bunch of documentation that didn’t pertain to the situation, and what documentation I did find, didn’t help the situation. Well, luckily I found a contact link, actually I found 2, maybe 3, different contact links, to report the issue. So I did, all 3 times. I waited with another email account, thanks Yahoo! for working! And I am still waiting, over 24 hours later. Next step, the amazing Google Forums, or whatever the hell they call that.

So I post my problem initially with a subject of Temporary Error(500) - Numeric Code: 93. This didn’t even draw in a response. So, I did something I can’t stand, I said screw bumping the thread, let me create one with a subject that shows a little panic. I added the info they asked for, I told them everything I have gone to from Google and GMail to rectify the situation, and none of it works. Wouldn’t you know, my subject draws someone in, and their first response is:

Did you check this link? Have you done this?

At this point I have steam coming out of my ears. How in the hell could you ask me that question if you read my initial post? How? I don’t get it? Supposedly this person is a ‘Level 4′, whatever the hell that means. I think they give you a level by the amount of posts you get. I did a little research on this person, and wouldn’t you know it, they are doing the same shit in every one of the other HELP ME! posts in the forums. Oh, this is part of the reason I can’t stand forums.

I have done everything. I hit Twitter, messaged people who work on GMail, everything, except fly to Mountain View and grab the first ass I saw riding some foldable bicycle coming out of one of their numerous gyms or campus hot spots there, and choking them until my GMail worked again. So now I have resorted to my blog, and I am hoping that just 1 of the 3 people who read my blog, knows someone who knows someone.

I am seriously at a standstill here. Everyone of my email addresses forward to my GMail account. It is kind of like my digital lifeline. I have a few major tasks, one including Christmas presents and lists, that I have to do like yesterday, but I can’t. I have an Android that is damn near useless to me right now, except for Angry Birds and Bubble Blast 2.

OK, so to my other point. What ever we all do with this wonderful world of free and open source software, lets never get this bad when it comes to getting some sort of support for a free product. Yes, we have docs, we have forums, we have IRC, and we have, well we have everything one needs to get something fixed. I don’t think in all of my years of working on Linux, Ubuntu/Kubuntu, KDE, you name it, I have had to wait a day, let alone 2 or more, to get something fixed. Well, get something fixed that is as important as your email. If you want to make sure you don’t fail with your product, just head over to GMail support, look it over, and promise not only yourself, but everyone of your users, that you will never be like that!

OK, my venting, or dribble, is done here. Everyone enjoy your day and the rest of your week!

NOTE: I have another GMail account for cycling stuff that works perfectly. I have tried no less than 6 other browsers, 2 other operating systems, cleared cache, history, cookies, and candy bars.

My buddy Curtis is at it again with his awesome company, Bluecherry. For those of you who don’t know what Bluecherry is, a quick introduction. Bluecherry is a US based company out of the sticks in Missouri. They specialize in creating high quality Linux supported video capture cards as well as surveillance software. Those of you who work in a tight-security data center might be familiar with the Windows surveillance systems that out there, since more than likely you are hosting those servers as well. Well Bluecherry lightens the load by supplying the same type of equipment, just in a Linux environment.

Well Curtis hit me up on IRC this evening, and it seems my previous post where he was looking for a Qt dev worked out well for him. He asked me again to help out, and of course I am more than happy. Seems I am doing better at getting other people employed than I am with getting myself employed. Oh well.

This time around they are looking for someone who can hack on drivers and the kernel for their equipment, as well as a little bit more. I know the salary is competitive, the atmosphere is great, and if it is warm, you can wear shorts. My type of job, except for the fact I couldn’t hack myself out of a wet paper bag when it comes to creating drivers. Here is a quick breakdown on what they are looking for:

• Prior experience in Linux based software design / implementation including design
• Extensive knowledge of Ubuntu, including building / maintaining Debian packages
• Extensive knowledge of the Video4Linux2 and ALSA sound API
• Prior experience with gstreamer and RTSP
• Prior experience with SQLite, Postgres and Mysql
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Linux operating system development (device and kernel level) recommended
• Strong knowledge of C, PHP, Javascript required. Knowledge of Perl and Python suggested
• Strong knowledge of Apache2 and prior experience in writing PHP modules
• Played a leading role in the design and develop of previous client / server based applications
• Previous work with and understanding of working with video / audio formatting / codecs including MPEG4 and H.264
• Internet and operating system security fundamentals
• Sharp analytical abilities and proven design skills
• Strong sense of ownership, urgency, and drive
• Demonstrated ability to achieve goals in a highly innovative and fast paced environment

Sound like your type of job? If so, head on over to the Monster page for the position, Linux video surveillance software developer. In the past Curtis was looking for someone in the US to fill this position. And just so you know, you don’t have to live in Missouri, but if you happen to live in any of the US time zones, then you would be a groovy candidate. I do happen to know they are using Qt as well as Ubuntu (cough, someone get him on Kubuntu fast!) so I am sure knowing a little of that wouldn’t be to bad either, but I am sure it isn’t necessary.

There are great perks, so hurry up while it lasts!

First off let me make a quick apology to Earl over at ZaReason for publishing this write up a bit late. Right after I received the new laptop, I had my daughter for the end of the summer, so needless to say, I decided to spend time with her. Once again sorry Earl.

So, a little over a month ago I found myself in one heck of a situation. I was sitting here with piles of ruined equipment with nothing more than my netbook. Well, as many of you know, a netbook will not get you anywhere with development except for some testing here or there. Try and build packages or compile code, jeesh what a pain. Jono got wind of my situation and hooked me up with Earl over at ZaReason who helped me out tremendously in a time of need. I needed something right now that would do what I needed and didn’t need to be top of the line. Well, top of the line is exactly what I received, and today I would like to take a few minutes to show off my new toy which I absolutely love!

Those of you who know me know that I speak my mind. If something sucks, I will say it sucks, even if I can’t make it better or don’t know how to make it better. I have no problem calling something out when I don’t like it. With that said, lets get on to the goodies!

My new laptop is a machine which ZaReason was carrying until recently. It seems they have massively upgraded the version I currently have which provides me with a bit of jealousy and awe. For being an inexpensive machine it is plenty powerful for what I need. It is actually really damn powerful! It boasts an Intel Core 2 Duo T7100, 4 GB of memory, 160GB SATA drive, a NVIDIA GeForce 9200M, a 15.4″ widescreen display, camera, DVD burner, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi, and the lists goes on. Hell, this thing even has HDMI, which I am proud to say, it is the only device in my house with such an option. Anyone have a high definition TV for me so I can test it out?

Unboxing

Sexy Is The Name

Hey, where did the Windows key go?

This baffles me, no Window’s sticker either

Open Hardware What?

In a recent post by Jono Bacon concerning his new ZaReason laptop, he talks about this and that, and says:

Zareason are a company that I think really gets Open Source.

Jono, you know I love you, but let me fix this for you. ZaReason is a company that really gets the meaning of being OPEN. ZaReason provides you with what they refer to as the Open Hardware Warranty. What exactly does this mean? Just look at the next picture to see what they say.

That’s right, you are free to tinker with your hardware. Go ahead, open up the case, there is no Warranty Void if Seal Broken sticker like everyone else uses. Heck, they even provide you with a small ZaReason screw driver to do just this. So I did what anyone else would do in this case, I opened it up!

I am in love! I didn’t void my warranty! If I broke it, I fix it, but if I didn’t break it, then ZaReason will fix it. How kick ass is that?

Up and running

This machine is a tank, but it is a very light tank. I am impressed with the weight. It is so darn light for its size. There isn’t much I can say except this machine kicks ass, it is fast, it is stable, it is quiet, it runs cool, and it is fast. Did I say fast? I mean it is super fast! Well faster than anything I had before hands down.

Did you notice the Kubuntu CD? That’s right, they shipped me a notebook with Kubuntu. Earl and I joked around and I said, “Now don’t ship me Ubuntu or Fedora now!” I was waiting for him to pull a trick, but I am happy to say I got a brand new notebook running Kubuntu out of the box. No tweaking really needed, everything works out of the box. The only thing I did was enable the proprietary NVIDIA driver. Yeah I know, kill me. I am following the open source drivers closely and playing around with those as well. They are definitely getting much better for KDE compositing but still have a little more to go before I can use them and be 100% happy. Right now I am probably 90% happy.

Conclusion
OK, so where do I stand? I am in love. I have been a huge fan of Compaq and Dell notebooks for ages when it came to running and developing Linux. I can say I am now a huge fan of ZaReason and I will definitely do business with them in the future. Sure, you might pay a little extra when comparing to the others, but you don’t get the level of support, the freedom to do as you wish without voiding a warranty, and you don’t get Kubuntu or the KDE Software Compilation out of the box! I am super happy and super in love with my new machine!

Thanks again to Earl and the wonderful folks over at ZaReason. If you are in the market for a new computer and want to support the Linux community, then I will highly recommend ZaReason. Make sure you let them know ‘Rich Johnson’ sent you. Happy hacking!

If you have any questions please feel free to ask in the comments.

Along with the latest point release of Ubuntu, the Kubuntu developers have been busy whipping up the 10.04 release in to a shape good enough to present you all with the latest point release. This release will bring along with it any security fixes, bug fixes, or updated packages or applications that have been made available since the original 10.04 release.

Both Kubuntu and Kubuntu Netbook Remix are now updated to 10.04.1. These new ISO images are updated to include all the post-release fixes delivered since Kubuntu and Kubuntu Netbook Remix were released. This release includes updated desktop installation CDs for the i386 and amd64 architectures and an updated ISO image for USB installs for netbooks.

Note to those already running 10.04: There is nothing you need to do. As long as you have been doing your regularly scheduled updates then you are running the same as 10.04.1.

Please visit the website under Get Kubuntu to see your options for obtaining this latest release.

Thank you for listening, and we will now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Hey there my Ubuntu and KDE people! I am still around. I have my daughter for most of the month of August so I am currently AFK. I will be back in a couple of weeks full-time again. In the mean time if you need to get in touch with me, hit me up on Twitter @nixternal, or if you have my phone number you can call me there.

When I come back, I have a great review in the pipeline of a new ZaReason laptop that runs Kubuntu out of the box!

My daughter and I have been having a blast these past couple of weeks. We have enjoyed the weather, watched a lot of bike racing, and she got groovy with Ubuntu. She likes Kubuntu’s look better, but I hooked her up with some Ubuntu to play around with. She wasn’t down with the default look, so we found some themes, colors, and fonts, that she likes, and thus far she has been happy. I need more than an SSH backdoor, so if you have any ideas let me know. I would like to know when she logs on and gets online, but I would really like to know is her IP address automagically so I can connect and do updates and what not for her. I can probably do most of this with a little bit of scripting, but I am sure that 100% of the time she will be behind a firewall that doesn’t have ports for SSH open, so if there is something out there that you know I might be looking for, let me know. Oh, I need to figure out a way to prevent her pesky mom or grandparents from installing Windows on this machine, any ideas on that as well?

Oh, and Elizabeth, she one-upped you. She has pink braces :p

Bluecherry, a company that specializes in Linux (Ubuntu-based) surveillance equipment and applications, is currently looking for a full-time cross-platform Qt software developer. If you are a Qt developer who lives in the United States and is looking for a job, let me tell you, this could very well be it! It is a great opportunity to design and develop a new version of their interface and you get to work along side somebody like Ben Collins. Curtis Hall is the founder and owner of Bluecherry and is a really groovy dude. If you live around Fulton, MO, you can work in the office, and if not, you can work from home.

Here is just a brief introduction to the job posting Curtis has posted on Monster:

Bluecherry is seeking a well qualified applicant for cross platform Qt user interface software development. The position will also assist with training and support. The ideal candidate should have excellent communication skills and a strong background developing software applications under Linux. The candidate should also have extensive knowledge of Ubuntu. The position is full-time and is based in our Fulton, MO office however consideration will be given to telecommuter positions within the United States.

If you are interested in the position, I highly recommend you take a look at the job posting on Monster and apply through there, or send Curtis an email with your resume or CV to jobs (AT) bluecherry (DOT) net. Curtis would also like you have the following:

Applicants should provide, a resume including past work history, a cover letter with a brief introduction, two personal and two technical references.

Applicants should have prior work history available for us to review, specifically examples of Qt design and development.

Curtis also told me the following in an email:

We are trying to fill this position ASAP, so if someone might be interested I would highly recommend they apply quickly.