Monday, June 30, 2008
Unit 6 post
I really got a lot out of the video links for this unit. Most especially, the Harvard distance ed tutorials. I can't adequately express the amount of frustration and wasted time I've experienced in the past blindly trying to trouble-shoot wireless networks for my home. I wish I would known about these types of video tutorials earlier. I will definitely consult Harvard's tutorial website again (I book marked it) when I experiment with a new technology project. Or if that doesn't do the trick, I'll give YouTube a try. Video is the way to go!
Monday, June 23, 2008
Unit 5 update
Unit 5 posed no significant problems. I was slightly confused after using the less /etc/group command...I fumbled around trying to get out of the screen before figuring out the "q" stroke. Another thing that I'm slightly confused about is assignment 5. I had no problem following the explicit instructions, but the new user and new user group I created using Ubuntu desktop VM did not transfer over to the Ubuntu workstation VM. Was it supposed to?
Assignment 6 was alittle confusing at the beginning. I typed the "https://localhost:10000" command and everything worked and I completed the assignment. I don't know what all the notes in the brackets were about though....I noticed that some of the information showed up on the quiz as well. I guess it was just a FYI, because the didn't use my primary machine to use Webin.
Overall, things are still going well. I feel like I'm absorbing the material pretty well and things are making more sense. Not much readings this week. Everything was pretty straightforward.
Finally, I'm glad that I finally seem to have got Ubuntu desktop VM resolved. I had some issues with the Live CD earlier, but my VM machine is working great.
Assignment 6 was alittle confusing at the beginning. I typed the "https://localhost:10000" command and everything worked and I completed the assignment. I don't know what all the notes in the brackets were about though....I noticed that some of the information showed up on the quiz as well. I guess it was just a FYI, because the didn't use my primary machine to use Webin.
Overall, things are still going well. I feel like I'm absorbing the material pretty well and things are making more sense. Not much readings this week. Everything was pretty straightforward.
Finally, I'm glad that I finally seem to have got Ubuntu desktop VM resolved. I had some issues with the Live CD earlier, but my VM machine is working great.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Text editors and assignments
I was relieved that all the hands-on assignments this week went smoothly. The vim tutorial was pretty neat--old school! I've never used a pure text (no GUI) computer tutorial before; the only comparison I can draw was when I tried playing a MUD RPG as a kid a couple of times. So it was sort of fun in that respect.
The Ubuntu server configuration tweaks were, as advertised in the introduction for this week, pretty straightforward. No problems. I admit that they were one of the first things I tackled, so I didn't comprehend much of what I was actually doing at the time. But after getting through the readings, I feel like I have a better idea.
Judging from the discussion boards, everyone says that mastering the commands in the CLI is all about practice, practice, practice. That seems good in that it implies most people rely heavily on user guides and lists of commands for reference. This could be a bad comparison, but the Command Line Interface seems sort of like the AACR2 rules for cataloging library and archival materials. Not many people have all the rules memorized and you don't have to be familiar with everything to know how to catalog. You just have to be familiar with the fundamental cataloging rules and literate in consulting the AACR2 manual and its updates for detailed information on any specific situation. The materials you deal with often you will eventually memorize from practice, but not grasping everything all at once won't prevent you doing some original cataloging and there are user groups you can go to for help; to push this analogy a little further, CLI scripting performs the same function as the LC catalog, both save a lot of people a lot of redundant work.
I don't know how much of the commands in vim tutor I have retained. I remember being slightly confused with the "!" in some of the way some of the commands were presented. I didn't know if the tutorial getting excited about telling me how to exit the program at first, but I soon realized that the exclamation mark is a vital part of the command :q!
The Ubuntu server configuration tweaks were, as advertised in the introduction for this week, pretty straightforward. No problems. I admit that they were one of the first things I tackled, so I didn't comprehend much of what I was actually doing at the time. But after getting through the readings, I feel like I have a better idea.
Judging from the discussion boards, everyone says that mastering the commands in the CLI is all about practice, practice, practice. That seems good in that it implies most people rely heavily on user guides and lists of commands for reference. This could be a bad comparison, but the Command Line Interface seems sort of like the AACR2 rules for cataloging library and archival materials. Not many people have all the rules memorized and you don't have to be familiar with everything to know how to catalog. You just have to be familiar with the fundamental cataloging rules and literate in consulting the AACR2 manual and its updates for detailed information on any specific situation. The materials you deal with often you will eventually memorize from practice, but not grasping everything all at once won't prevent you doing some original cataloging and there are user groups you can go to for help; to push this analogy a little further, CLI scripting performs the same function as the LC catalog, both save a lot of people a lot of redundant work.
I don't know how much of the commands in vim tutor I have retained. I remember being slightly confused with the "!" in some of the way some of the commands were presented. I didn't know if the tutorial getting excited about telling me how to exit the program at first, but I soon realized that the exclamation mark is a vital part of the command :q!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Ubuntu Server 8.04 install
I did it! Thanks to our instructor Bruce Fulton's Youtube videos that provided detailed step-by-step instructions, I was able to install Ubuntu Server on VMWare Workstation. I came into the class unsure about whether my computer was going to be powerful enough to handle all the downloads and run the software properly with only 760 MB RAM instead of the recommended 1GB RAM, but so far so good. I hit a snag early on in the installation process with VMWare Workstation. I got an unusual error message when I tried to start a new virtual machine session: "Unable to open kernel device "\\.\vmx86": The operation completed successfully. Did you reboot after installing VMware Workstation? Failed to initialize monitor device." But after I posted it to the "Activity" section of the course discussion board, Bruce recommended I re-install VMware and select the "repair" option. It worked and I was able to proceed with the rest of the installation instructions. I have an older Pentium M chip, so I also had to take some extra steps to make the Ubuntu installation work using the third Youtube video, but the instructions guided me through fine.
I don't have much experience in performing complicated download and installation steps or trouble-shooting sophisticated programs. I'm used to the "plug and play" software models where Install Wizards do all the work for you. However, I'm starting to get used to performing these new tasks. The resources we have for the class--the video tutorials, the discussion boards, and shared experiences from classmates--are very helpful. My usual frustration and uneasiness with technology trouble-shooting is slowly giving way to more patient, exploratory approaches where I am better able to cope with the inevitable glitches and hangups that go along with making technology work for individual systems setups. I'm starting to feel more empowered from this class and that seems like a very good thing, especially since this is probably only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the rest of the programs we will need to configure for this class to get the the LAMP server up and running.
I don't have much experience in performing complicated download and installation steps or trouble-shooting sophisticated programs. I'm used to the "plug and play" software models where Install Wizards do all the work for you. However, I'm starting to get used to performing these new tasks. The resources we have for the class--the video tutorials, the discussion boards, and shared experiences from classmates--are very helpful. My usual frustration and uneasiness with technology trouble-shooting is slowly giving way to more patient, exploratory approaches where I am better able to cope with the inevitable glitches and hangups that go along with making technology work for individual systems setups. I'm starting to feel more empowered from this class and that seems like a very good thing, especially since this is probably only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the rest of the programs we will need to configure for this class to get the the LAMP server up and running.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Ubuntu and adventures in myriad downloads
A big part of my class this summer is setting up a Linux-based server-client, aka a LAMP server. LAMP is a computer speak acronym that represents a combination of popular and effective open-source software applications designed to create a server-client, namely--Linux (an operating system), Apache (server software), MySQL (database software), and PhP/Perl/Python (programming languages.
For this week we were supposed to download the Linux-based operating system. Computer experts and users come together to build and trouble-shoot various Linux-based OS platforms that go by different names. We are working with "Ubuntu"--it's an African word meaning "humanity toward others." Neat.
So I was able to successfully download both the desktop and server editions of Ubuntu 8.04 and copy the ISO images to burned CD-Rs. I was glad that I was able to boot the OS from my disk drive, something I had never tried before and I had to consult my owner's manual about. So far so good.
However, I've had a heck of a time trying to successfully download the last piece of software for this week. It's called VMware and it will allow me to run a "virtual machine" on my computer using the Ubuntu OS. I've gotten so close--once at 95% and another at 97%--but it always ends up freezing. I must have tried 30 or so times with mixed results. My network connection is stable and I have plenty of HD space, so I don't know what the problem is. Hopefully I can get this settled soon enough. I think I'll try to download it to my external HD at work tomorrow and see if that helps.
Another aspect of our Ubuntu assignment was to troll around in the Ubuntu user forum, in a specially designated "Absolute Beginner Talk" section. I spent some time looking through the most recent posts on the first page for awhile. Then I decided to do a search for "VMware" and see if I could find any help regarding my problem downloading the this software. I got 8 pages of results. Nothing posted was able to help me resolve my specific problem. Alot of it was geared toward another Linux-based OS called "Xubuntu". Someone was having trouble installing VMware in Xubuntu and he got replies suggesting that he use "virtualbox" instead because it is generally a lot easier to use. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=806883&highlight=VMware
Maybe I'll find out more about this later. Perhaps it could be an alternative to VMware if I can't get it to work.
For this week we were supposed to download the Linux-based operating system. Computer experts and users come together to build and trouble-shoot various Linux-based OS platforms that go by different names. We are working with "Ubuntu"--it's an African word meaning "humanity toward others." Neat.
So I was able to successfully download both the desktop and server editions of Ubuntu 8.04 and copy the ISO images to burned CD-Rs. I was glad that I was able to boot the OS from my disk drive, something I had never tried before and I had to consult my owner's manual about. So far so good.
However, I've had a heck of a time trying to successfully download the last piece of software for this week. It's called VMware and it will allow me to run a "virtual machine" on my computer using the Ubuntu OS. I've gotten so close--once at 95% and another at 97%--but it always ends up freezing. I must have tried 30 or so times with mixed results. My network connection is stable and I have plenty of HD space, so I don't know what the problem is. Hopefully I can get this settled soon enough. I think I'll try to download it to my external HD at work tomorrow and see if that helps.
Another aspect of our Ubuntu assignment was to troll around in the Ubuntu user forum, in a specially designated "Absolute Beginner Talk" section. I spent some time looking through the most recent posts on the first page for awhile. Then I decided to do a search for "VMware" and see if I could find any help regarding my problem downloading the this software. I got 8 pages of results. Nothing posted was able to help me resolve my specific problem. Alot of it was geared toward another Linux-based OS called "Xubuntu". Someone was having trouble installing VMware in Xubuntu and he got replies suggesting that he use "virtualbox" instead because it is generally a lot easier to use. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=806883&highlight=VMware
Maybe I'll find out more about this later. Perhaps it could be an alternative to VMware if I can't get it to work.
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