Saturday, May 17th, 2008
I have created a new page on my website. For lack of a better name, I have called the page "Interesting Stuff Elsewhere". The page features a list of links to "stuff" which I have deemed interesting enough to share via my Google Reader account.
The "stuff" is a hodgepodge collection of articles, blog posts, podcasts and videos; having said that, the "stuff" could be anything and the only real way to find out what the "stuff" is, is to click on the links. One thing is for sure, all the links lead to dead good "stuff" :)
See: http://crunchbang.org/elsewhere/
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
January 7th '08 - Problems/Issues
There are some issues with this script that could potentially lead to a temporary loss of access to your Gmail account. Please see the user comments for more details.
The How-To Geek has posted some really useful instructions for setting Gmail as the default email client in Ubuntu. How-To Geek starts his post by saying:
Every Geek uses Gmail… it's pretty much required. And now you can set Gmail as the default client in Ubuntu without any extra software.
I think his opening statement is a slight generalisation :) Having said that, I am indeed a geek and I do use Gmail so he may have a point! Anyhow, I followed the instructions and the hack works well. I did deviated slightly and placed the shell script in my bin directory; this way the script can be called by name as it sits within my system path. For future reference the script I used has the following content:
#!/bin/sh
firefox -remote "openurl(https://mail.google.com/mail?view=cm&tf=0&to=`
echo $1 | sed 's/mailto://'`,new-tab)"
Note: The Firefox command actually sits on one line.
Once I'd placed the script in my bin directory, I then simply needed to change my preferred mail application:
System -> Preferences -> Preferred Applications
When email is slower than snail mail
Talking of Gmail and email, I've been experiencing some technical issues with email across several domains. Apparently these issues stem from Gmail greylisting one of my hosting providers mail clusters. You can't imagine, unless you've experienced it, how frustrating it is to receive email more than 48 hours after it was originally sent.
I apologise if anyone is waiting on a reply from any messages sent between 30/11/07 and 03/12/07. Your message will probably never arrive at its intended destination; I can only imagine that your message is floating aimlessly around cyberspace, either that or it's been sucked into a black hole :(
Looking on the bright side, I also use another more reliable [read more expensive] hosting provider and I've moved my email operations to their servers. I've also been looking into using Google Apps for all my email needs; however, I'm slightly apprehensive about paying out on a service that has been in Beta status for more than 3 years. Does anyone have any experience of using this service? If so I'd really appreciate some sensible feedback about it.
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007
I've added the following addresses to my version of an Ubuntu Search Engine:
That brings the total number of sites to 178.
I've been quite surprised at how popular the service is becoming, especially considering that I only created it as an experiment to satisfy my own curiosity. The Firefox tools have also attracted a number of downloads.
Here's a basic usage chart provided by Google:
Add your site
I'd like to keep the service as relevant and concise as possible, so if you own or know of an Ubuntu related blog/site that is not included then please let me know.
Monday, November 5th, 2007
Foreword: I set-up this Ubuntu Search Engine as an experiment and to satisfy my own curiosity about Google's CSE service. It's ironic but I only found uboontu.com when testing my own effort. I'm also aware of the existence of ubuntuwire.com, however I've not been able to connect to this service for the last few days. There isn't much difference between the any of these services [this is to be expected as they all use the same backend.] My version of an Ubuntu Search Engine has the slight advantage of having its results hosted on Google. Hopefully this will minimize the chances of the service going down or becoming unavailable in the future. Besides, you can never have too much Ubuntu goodness ;)
Google Custom Search Engine for Ubuntu
I've set-up a new Google Custom Search Engine for Ubuntu. So far it provides results from a list of 169 separate Ubuntu related domains. The usual suspects are included in the list i.e. www.ubuntu.com, wiki.ubuntu.com, help.ubuntu.com, ubuntuforums.org etc. The list also includes blogs listed on planet.ubuntu.com and various other Ubuntu related sites.
Firefox Tools
I've created a couple of Firefox tools to accompany the service. See: http://crunchbang.org/ubuntu-search-engine/firefox-tools/
About the design & logo
The user interface to my Ubuntu search engine should appear familiar to users of Google. This is intentional as I don't want to confuse anyone with a new Web 2.0 atrocity. Also, I like to keep to the K.I.S.S principle where possible and I don't think you can get much more simple than Google's default interface. Finally, this wasn't an exercise in stroking my design ego.
The logo may also look familiar — I'm hoping I don't receive any threatening letters from Google Inc :)
Spread the word
If you enjoy this version of an Ubuntu Search Engine please consider spreading the love by sharing with your colleagues, friends, family and complete strangers. There are a couple of ways you could help share this service:
1. Add an "Ubuntu Search Engine" search box to your blog or web site with this code.
2. Share with: Digg - Del.icio.us - StumbleUpon etc.
Thank you :)
Disclaimer
Google search engine and the Google logo are the trademarks of Google Inc. My Ubuntu Search Engine is not affiliated with Google Inc.