Month: December 2007

Ubuntu + Motorola PEBL U6

I have a Motorola PEBL and have been trying to get it to work with Ubuntu for quite some time. After a bit of searching, I discovered Moto4Lin which allows me to do all kinds of fun things to the phone.

In order to successfully get your Ubuntu system and PEBL playing together nicely, here is what you need to do.

  1. sudo aptitude install moto4lin

  2. Press <Alt>+F2 to bring up the run dialog and run 
    gksu moto4lin

  3. Open the preferences for the program and under the connection tab change the ACM Device to /dev/ttyACM0

  4. Enjoy

Hopefully this will get your phone doing what it should be.

It is time…

I have finally decided it is time to take my leave from the services provided by Livejournal and move into my own webspace. I have been considering this for quite some time as there are definite pros and cons to the move…

Pros

  • Customization: I can make my blog my own.
    • Themes
    • Plugins
    • Widgets
    • URL
  • Control: I have full control over the site including whether or not it works at any given point. It does mean that if it goes down, it is most likely my own fault, but it also means that when it is working, that’s my fault too.
  • Ad Support: If I want ads on my site, that is my prerogative. I get to choose which ads, and any profit from those ads go to me.

Cons

  • Readership: Livejournal’s friends page makes it very easy for people to keep up to date on other people’s blogs. If I don’t show up on that page, those people will most likely not read anymore
  • Reliability: My site doesn’t have the infrastructure of Livejournal to keep it up and running.

Obviously I think the Pros outweigh the Cons or I wouldn’t be making this change. In the case of losing readership, I don’t really see that as a problem. When I created the Livejournal I was still in college and had (almost) exclusively personal updates to post. The people who read my Livejournal may or may not have actually been interested in those personal posts. My intention with this site is to post more informative content and less personal content. That doesn’t mean that I won’t have any posts of a personal nature, but I expect to focus more on other content.

To make things clear to anyone who may be interested:

  • I will not be posting exclusively one type of content…it will be varied based on what I have to contribute at any given time
  • I will not be updating on any kind of specific timetable. I am not trying to make a living blogging. I am merely hoping to create content that may or may not be useful to other people.

To all those still on Livejournal…if any of you have a paid account and want to create a syndicated feed for my journal, I would be most appreciative. Feel free to contact me if you need help with that.