The sitemeter site has been down for 2 days for me so I started searching to see if other people are experience a similar problem. Other than finding out that some others are experiencing the same problem, I accidentally find a post on “Did Sitemeter sell out to Spyware?“. I did a few more search to see if sitemeter is really sold out to Spyware, but that’s up to you to decide, I would still consider it as unconfirmed. However due to the server being down for me for 2 days, I’m really considering of taking it out for this site and just use Google Analytics instead. If you are also using sitemeter, find out more for yourself from the link above.

Tags: Internet, Websites
Categories: Weblog, Internet
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Managed to solve the problem with getting a blank screen while loading gdm after upgrading a desktop from 6.10 Edgy to 7.04 Fesity Fawn. The desktop has a ATI 9600 graphics card and works fine on 6.10 Edgy, however after the upgrade to 7.04, it starts having this problem. I knew it’s something wrong with the Xorg like many others, after trying a few changes in the xorg.conf without success, I ran the autoconfig for Xorg and that fix the problem, the command is:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

What that basically did for me to finding the HorizSync and VertRefresh, most importantly it changes the driver from “ati” to “vesa“! Initially I thought the problem was just that it doesn’t have a correct sync value, however when I changed the driver back to ati it gave me a blank screen again. So will have to use the vesa driver for a while until the problem with Xorg is fixed. Anyway, after configuring your xorg.conf or ran the command above, restart gdm by:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

everything should be running :).

Tags: 6.10 Edgy, 7.04 Feisty Fawn, ati, Linux, Technology, Ubuntu, upgrade, xorg
Categories: Weblog, Technology, Linux, Ubuntu
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The new Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn is released today! I’m very impressed by Ubuntu for having a new release every 6 months. I have been using the beta version for a while so I can’t test the upgrade function, which I had problem with before when I upgraded 6.10 to 7.04 beta but that problem should be solved with this final release. Although I can’t try it on mine, I will try it on other laptops later when I get a chance.

• Get Ubuntu / Upgrade instruction

My experience with 7.04 has been good and the new feature of supporting music sharing should quite attractive to many people. If you are interested in finding out more about my experience with Feisty or Ubuntu in general, these are some of my previous posts:

• Ubuntu related posts
• Beryl + Ubuntu + ATI (3D Direct Rendering)
• Installation on Toshiba Tecra S1

– Update 20/04/07 –

Just downloaded a CD for upgrade, ran it on a desktop (AMD) with Ubuntu 6.10 installed. Everything ran smoothly until the restart, it loads up to the point where it try to initiate Xorg but it returns a blank screen. Still not sure where the problem lays, will work it out when I have time…

– Update 22/04/07 –

Managed to solve the problem with getting a blank screen while loading gdm, view this post for details.

Tags: 6.10 Edgy, 7.04 Feisty Fawn, Linux, Ubuntu, upgrade, Weblog, xorg
Categories: Weblog, Linux, Ubuntu
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Want a break from exam revisions? Ajahn Brahm is visiting London and will be giving a talk at ULU for ULUBUDA the coming Monday. The events will be on:

Date: Monday 23rd April
Time: 6:30pm-9:00pm
Room 3E, 3/f, ulu

To find out more or RSVP for this event, please visit the ULUBUDA website. I have also quoted the details of Ajahn Brahm visits below for your info.

Sunday 15th April ‘07 - Depart Perth 3:55pm for London, UK.

Monday 16th April ‘07 - Arrive London 3:30pm.

Tuesday 17th April ‘07 - Masterclass at HRD conference at EXCEL Convention Centre, Docklands at 1.45pm - 3pm. Details can be found www.cipd.co.uk. Look under conferences HRD2007. Evening talk at Thames Buddhist Vihara, Selsdon, 7.30pm-9pm.

Wednesday 18th April ‘07 - To Cittaviveka Buddhist Monastery.

Thursday 19th April ‘07 - leave Cittaviveka after dana, 6-8pm talk at London Buddhist Society, Victoria, 6pm-8pm.

Friday 20th April ‘07 - all day at International School in Egham, evening talk at London Buddhist Vihara, Chiswick, 7.30pm-9pm.

Saturday 21st April ‘07 - afternoon talk at MOD in Andover. 7.30pm - 9pm. Dhamma talk at Buddhapadipa Temple, Wimbledon.

Sunday 22nd April ‘07 - 1 day Meditation at Thames Buddhist Vihara, Selsdon, 9am-5pm.

Monday 23rd April ‘07 - 6.30pm - 8.30pm Dhamma talk at University of London Union Building, Malet St. WC1 (contact www.ulubuda.org.uk)

Tuesday 24th April ‘07 - Wat Santidhamma, Warwick. Evening with the Samatha Group. Venue - Room 10, 173 Euston Road (opposite Euston Station) Euston, London NW1. Time - 6.30pm - 9pm

Wednesday 25th April ‘07 - Depart Heathrow London at 12pm

Tags: Ajahn, Buddhism, Dharma Talk, London
Categories: Buddhism
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System info of Toshiba Tecra S1:

• BIOS: Version 2.50
• system-version:PT831T-11Q4L
• Ubuntu Version - Currently using Feisty 7.04, previously worked on 6.10 Edgy and 6.04 as well
• Kernel - currently using 2.6.20-15-generic, had problem with 2.6.20-14 but 2.6.20-13 works

Basic Installation of Ubuntu:

• Very simple to install with graphics interface, can test if everything works first before installation with the live CD.
• Ubuntu is a free distribution, can download from the Official Website
• A very useful online guide (wiki) for Ubuntu
• Post-Install modifications/tweaks - there are many tutorials online, here is one that I wrote for my laptop

Setting up additional features for Ubuntu

• Setting up 3D support and Beryl
• Google Earth
• Xubuntu - Xfce desktop instead of gnome

Unresolved issues

• Couldn’t get Direct 3D to work on external monitor at 1280×1024 resolution, therefore Beryl can only work on 1024×768.

Configuration Files

• Sources.list - /etc/apt/sources.list - follow this guide to add extra repositories
• Menu.lst - /boot/grub/menu.lst - Startup menu for choosing which OS to enter
• Xorg.conf - /etc/X11/xorg.conf - Some changes to get 1280×1024 resolution to work on 19″ Xerox XA7

Section “Monitor”
Identifier “Xerox XA7″
Option “DPMS”
HorizSync 31-82
VertRefresh 60-75
EndSection

Some useful commands

• sudo - wherever you want admin access
• sudo aptitude search <application name> - search for a application that you can download and install
• sudo aptitude install <application name> - download and install a application
• sudo gedit <file name> - use gedit to edit a file, can use sudo nano <file> in recovery mode
• sudo fdisk -l - list all the hard disks available
• ifconfig - same as ipconfig in windows
• ctrl + z - stop a running command in terminal
• ctrl + alt + backspace - restart Xorg
• mount myiso.iso /mnt/iso/ -o loop - mount an iso image

Some Applications that I found useful - not installed by default

• Tomboy Notes
• Gnumeric

Contact Information

• Vincent Lai - contact page

Links

• Ubuntu related posts on this website
• Linux related posts on this website
• Ubuntu Official Website
• Ubuntu Guide Wik
• Ubuntu Forums
• Linux on Laptops

Tags: 7.04 Feisty Fawn, ati, Linux, Technology, Toshiba Tecra S1, Ubuntu, upgrade, Weblog, xorg
Categories: Weblog, Technology, Linux, Ubuntu
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Recently started to use some statistics program for websites, started off with Site Meter about a week ago and Google Analytics 2 days ago. This is just a share my impressions on both of these statistics program, this is not going to be a detailed reviews as there are plenty of them out there already. To start with, both of these are free so money is not a concern here. For me, after my 2 days experience with google Analytics, I already feel that it’s better in many ways compare to Site Meter, here are some:

• Google Analytics does not have advertisements where Site Meter does
• Google Analytics provides more professional reports (subject to personal preferences)
• Google Analytics does not force you to put their logo on your site
• Google Analytics provides more features
• The site overlay function in Google Analytics is very impressive

Things that I feel Site Meter is better:

• Site Meter interface is simpler
• Site Meter update instantly whereas Google Analytics which update daily
• Site Meter provides less features - but are the features in Google Analytics really useful, however there are 3 modes to choose from - Executive, Marketer, Webmaster

If you are thinking of these statistics program for your websites, I would recommend Google Analytics over Site meter due to reasons mentioned above. Furthermore, since it’s with Google it is likely to have little downtime, you may disagree. Since both of them are free, the best way is to try them both and find out for yourself. Here are some stats for both:

Overview - Summary page

Some more

View more stats by clicking on the above photos or following the following links to:

Google Analytics | Site Meter

Tags: analytics, Google, Internet, site statistics, Technology, Weblog, Wordpress
Categories: Weblog, Technology, Internet, Google
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