IM, Pidgin, Amsn and the others

I'm a Pidgin (former Gaim) lover. I've been using it for 3 years now. In 2001 we were all using ICQ in the university residences, even to talk to our neighbour (and even if our doors were open, shouting wasn't the way to communicate at that time. Internet was!)

And then 2004 the new promotions arrived and brought us MSN, so we had to stay in the progress and switch. But I didn't want to have 17 different IM softwares on my computer, so Gaim was the solution: one platform to talk to all my friends at the same time, even if they are talking via icq, msn, or yahoo. Well, I must say, I started with Trillian, but it's not an open source software (even if it's free), so I choose the open source one.

And I'm very happy with my Pidgin, I can talk to my world of friends, and many at the same time without a big bunch of windows (tabs are the best things on earth ;)).

But today another technology gap to face: Pidgin doesn't support webcam conversations. Argh !! It's planned in the 3.0 release, but for when? Please don't ask!? Luckily, if you are like me, a Linux user, and you would like to see your friend (or them to see you) while sending them messages, then you've got to urpmi (i.e. install) AMSN.

The webcam is working with AMSN. There is no sound, but the image is good and clear, so it's worth it. But I can't wait for my Pidgin to be the best again !! And of course my Pidgin groups are not appearing in Amsn...

I'm a Hoaxbuster !!

I read an article from 01Net[fr] yesterday saying that 96% of the e-mails in the world are spam. But in these ones, I don't think they include the mails of hoaxes that our friends send us, believing they are saving the girl who disappeared or the boy who needs a bone marrow transfusion...

We call these emails hoax ou canulars. Most of the time it's a chain letter, and if you don't forward it you to your best friends will die of sudden death, have 7 years of misery of any other bad thing... They can also be a emergency call because a girl/boy disappeared, or is going to die if they don't find the right blood/bone/brain/lung/kidney/nose donor...

If you receive any email like this, please, please, please, DON'T SEND IT BACK !! Go and check
http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/ if you speak English, or http://www.hoaxbuster.com/ if you speak French.

Just type or paste a sample of your email in the hoaxbuster search engine, and click go to see if the email you received is true or not. If not, please stop the chain and delete the mail. If it's true, you can send it back, but write a word saying that you checked the truth of the content.

Et pour les Français qui sont sur Facebook, je vous conseille de devenir fan de hoaxbuster. Recherchez HoaxBuster dans les groupes, et devenez fan !!

Using ll and chmod

What is great with Linux is the console thing. You seem like you are the master of everything when you are typing commands in your shell. That's the way I feel anyway :)

You can easily change the permissions and access to your files via the console, without having to look for the file in your exploration window and then do the click right and all the stuff. Open a console window, get to the folder you need with cd. The syntax is cd way/to/the/folder/you/want/to/be/in.

[root@localhost poipoi]# cd /var/lib/mlocate/

Check your file status with ll (or ls-l) the-name-of-your-file.

[root@localhost mlocate]# ll mlocate.db
-rw-r----- 1 root slocate 3326223 2007-10-21 19:06 mlocate.db

The first dash shows us that the file is NOT a directory (or you would have a d instead of a dash), then you can see 3 sets of 3 dashes or letters. I'll tell you about it in 1 minute.

We can now use chmod.

Two ways to use chmod:
1/ with the letters
you have four different types of users hidden behind the letters U, G, O or A

• the file's owner, called with a U as User
  
• the users from the group (if a group is defined), called with G
• the others, called with O
• everybody at the same time, called with A (and so stand for U, G and O at once)
  

And you can give the users three different permissions:

• Read, or R = the user can only read it, no editing permitted
  
• Write, or W = the user can read and write
• Execute, or X = the user can use the file if it's an executable file (script,...)

If we get back to our ll result:
-rw-r----- 1 root slocate 3326223 2007-10-21 19:06 mlocate.db
We can see that the user/owner is root and can read and write the file, but not execute it. We can see that the group of users is slocate and can only read the file. The other users have no access to the file.

The syntax is: if you want to add permissions:
chmod [users]+[permissions] file
or chmod [users]-[permissions] file if you want to withdraw them.

So now, if you want to make your file mlocate.db writable and executable by the group and the others, you type: chmod go+wx mlocate.db. ll will then give you:

[root@localhost mlocate]# ll mlocate.db
-rw-rwx-wx 1 root slocate 3326223 2007-10-21 19:06 mlocate.db

But if you want to make it writable and executable for the group but just executable by the other users, you'll have to run chmod twice. That's the case when using numbers is faster.

2/ with numbers
Numbers as in binary numbers. Hey don't go !! I'll make it easy ;) You have the 3 sets of permissions:
rw- r - - - - - To convert them in numbers, just put a 1 when there is a permission, and a 0 if not.
110 100 000

In binary we start to count from the right, so every set corresponds to 2² 2¹ 2⁰, 4 2 1. So the rw combinaison is worth 4+2 =6, or only r is worth 4. The next table shows you them all.

Permissions	Binary	Becomes
---	000	0
--x	001	1
-w-	010	2
-wx	011	3
r--	100	4
r-x	101	5
rw-	110	6
rwx	111	7

So now, you know that if you want your file to be readable and executable (r-x) you must choose the number 5. Let's see how to use it if we want to get this mlocate.db writable and executable for the group, and just executable for the other people.

chmod 671 mlocate.db will do what you want: get the user to read and write (rw- 4+2+0), the group to do everything (rwx 4+2+1), and the others just to execute the file (--x 0+0+1). And now you can see that my example is a bad choice, because the group will have more permissions than the actual owner, which is a very bad idea !! :)

Be careful with the numbers, you must take care of all the type of users, and not just give one number or you might lose your owner's rights! Trouble you don't have using the letters, because they only apply on what you actually say, and don't change anything about what you don't say !

In real life, what I just wanted to do is give the read to group and user to mlocate.db, because locate (my computer search engine) is not working with my user right now. So i'll just chmod 644 mlocate.db. And now it's working :)

My source: chmod by the numbers

Change your shortcuts in Firefox "Save As" dialog box

When you are saving a file that you found on the internet, Firefox default choice is to save it on the desktop. This parameter can be changed in Edition>Preferences, then in the General tab change the bottom option to "always ask me".

Now that Firefox is always going to ask you where you want to put it, a first dialog box shows up asking if you want to see the file, or if you want to save it. If you decide to see it, it will open the file in the corresponding software and save the file in a temp folder.

If you decide to save it, a "Save As" dialog box shows up, with on the left part of it a tree with some of your folders. Your shortcuts. You can add and remove these shortcuts, except the first 5 ones. To add a folder as a new shortcut, go to it in the Save As dialog box, and then the Add button under the left menu will be accessible. If you click on it, you will see the new folder appear under your list. This is pretty easy and so much time saving !

CMS: joomla

CMS: [Web] Content Management System (definition on Wikipedia)


Joomla! is an open-source software which is going to help you build your website to your image.

They advertise saying that Joomla! is "easy to use" and very "intuitive", but I must disagree with this. Easy to use, probably, but intuitive, not always... Being a computer nerd, I thought it was going to be easier. I was a bit lost the first week, didn't really know where to look and how it really works.

But the good news about Joomla! is that you can find a lot of templates ready to use if you are not a CSS/pHp expert, and the back-end seems difficult at first, but gets easy pretty quick, the first steps are big at first.

Another good news: Salyris Studios made a website of tutorial in Flash ! You see all the process by yourself, step by step !

Just another thing. If you are looking in the user manual, page 71, about the menu manager and the frontpage manager.
To decide what the home page really looks like, for example you want your three (or more) articles to be displayed, with no navbar, or no back button, you must go to Menu> Main Menu> Home.
The Home (frontpage) parameters can then be changed on the right side of your screen.

The # intro is the number of articles you want to see displayed at any time. And you can decide to hide or show pretty much everything :)

So, if you want to create a website by yourself, but are not a pHp/CSS freak (or you don't want to re-invent the wheel), joomla! is a good choice. Just check before that your FAI/Provider has a mysql database on his server and accept php.

For Canadians, joomlawebhosting.ca is doing a fine job (and proudly Canadian!) for not too expensive (75$ tax included a year for the space and the domain name .ca). They install joomla! if you say yes, the only thing is you are responsible for the backups (in case).

jUploader

Friends of flickr, Welcome !

If you have a flickr account (or a Zoomr account) and you are using Linux, your best bet to upload your pictures faster than using the website and the 6 upload fields is jUploader.

Do use the software, it's pretty easy: download the .tar.gz on your computer. Then unzip it (tar -zxvf jUploader-version.tar.gz). This extraction will create a folder. Go into this folder (cd jUploader-number-of-version) and run the script using ./jUploader. No need to be in root for any of these actions.

The bas thing about this is that you won't have any icon in your menu. You will always have to launch jUploader like this from the folder, in a console.

The second step is to link jUploader to your flickr account, so that jUploader sends the pictures under your name :) For this, go to Edition>Accounts (ou Comptes en français) and click on flickr or zoomr depending on the one you want to create.

jUploader then opens a windows saying that it is going to ask for the authorisation from flickr, and you need to be connected to the Internet to do it. You must put in your login account and your password. flickr is going to open in your web browser and say that a request has been sent, and that you must accept it. This is done in the web browser, on the flickr website.

When this is done, you can come back to jUploader, and add the pictures you wish to upload in mass. For this, you just drag and drop your files or folders in the jUploader window. Be careful, jUploader doesn't work recursively, which means that if your folder contains another folder, the pictures in the sub-folder won't be added.

jUploader checks every picture one by one (it takes 1 sec or less for each picture) to see if the extension of the file is accepted. If not, a pop-up will tell you so and wait for your approval. Don't start uploading your pictures before jUploader is done checking, because trying to upload a non-accepted file will crash jUploader.

You can change everything about any picture before you upload it. You can also make some change on several pictures. All you have to do is select them, right-click and choose to modify! Easy isn"t it?

I'm using version 1.1.2 right now, and I'm very happy with it !! Tip: Click and hold on the folder you want to add, and then [Alt+Tab] will make you switch from your photos folders to any other application. Keep on pressing the tab button to navigate through the different windows until you reach jUploader. It's very useful when your exploration window is maximised and your jUploader window disappears behind it.

Oh, and of course, jUploader is open source, so you can use it, but don't hesitate to help the project if you really like the product !!

Create a tag cloud

As you maybe noticed, blogger can give you the opportunity to tell what every post is about, and then you can, with the new interface, create a list of the categories you used, and class these categories by number or alphabetically. But rather than a boring list with mixing numbers, I think that a tag cloud is more fun.

So here I am, looking for a way to create tag cloud in this blOg.

Technacular lists all the way to do it, from programming your own code to get help from another website.
As I'm a bit lazy, and mostly because blogger doesn't give me the categories database that I need, I decided to go for the second solution and I found a few:
Tag Cloud Builder from OCLC Research. But you can only save your tag cloud as a file, no way to keep it "alive".
Tag Cloud Generator. Whatever the way I do it (via the links or via the 30 most used words), the tags chosen are never the one I really want...And I need to re-run the process everyday if I want a cloud up-to-date!
ToCloud.com. Results are better than with the TagCloud Generator, but idem, the HTML code is generated at a time X, and no automatic update at the time Y in the future. You have to run the process again. But the good thing is, the tag cloud is very easy to edit !! You can delete all the tags you don't like.

For any of the sites above you need to create an account. Which is also why you can't update your tagcloud :)

ZoomGroups I endedup signing in ZoomGroups because they were telling that yes, I could create a tagcloud with ZoomGroups. But now that I am logged in, no sign of any way to create a tagcloud. And of course, they propose to create a blog, but if you want it free of ads, it's not free for you (55$/year!) Guess I'll be signing out of this one pretty quick !!

ZoomClouds. Héhé. The first time the server seemed to have lost my request somewhere, but a little refresh in my browser, and POUF, I have a tagcloud! I can edit everything, the style, the colors, and I know that the tagcloud will be updated, because it has been created via my atom feed. Bad point: the only way to get a tag in or out of the tagcloud is to add it in the filters. And even when you put them in the no-no filter, they stil show up. Maybe after a couple of refreshings it'll change. Second bad point: when you click on the tag, you end up on the ZoomCloud site, where you can see all the latest articles with this tag. But all my tags were empty of articles...

So, ok, a long way just for this, but if you want a tagcloud directly in your blOg without trouble, you'd better log directly in
ZoomClouds.!! But just don't click on the tags!!