Archive for April, 2008
Jontopia is Now Available as a Podcast
April 26th, 2008
I’m just adding features left and right today! I’ve added a service called Odiogo to the site that uses a text to speech engine to turn blogs and other sites into podcasts. So, now you can subscribe to Jontopia as a podcast. You can also click the “Listen Now” button below any of the entries to listen to an audio version of the entry.
To subscribe to the podcast, either click the “odiogo” button under “Syndicate” on the sidebar or point your favorite podcasting software to http://podcasts.odiogo.com/jontopia/podcasts-xml.php.
Sphere: Related ContentAdded Seesmic Video Commenting to Jontopia
April 26th, 2008
I’ve added a video commenting plug-in called Seesmic to the blog to enable all of you to leave video comments. All it takes is a camera attached to your computer. Just click “Or add a Video Comment” below the text commenting filter, hit record, and start talking. I’m not convinced that video comments are the wave of the future (it’s much easier to scan text comments to see whether to read the whole thing and until Google implements speech to text, video comments won’t be indexed) but let me know what you think.
You can post comments anonymously (when the registration link comes up, just click “Anonymous”) and you must still fill out your name and email address in the comment form field which is a little confusing.
I’ll leave the first comment to get it started.
Sphere: Related ContentTaking Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) For a Spin
April 26th, 2008
Ubuntu released Hardy Heron a couple days ago and I’ve finally gotten around to trying it out. I should disclose that I spend the majority of my time in OS X so Ubuntu is more of a curiosity for me than a day to day OS. I attended the Web 2.0 Expo this year and heard Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems, talk about their acquisition of VirtualBox. VirtualBox is a free virtualization application, similar to VMWare and Parallels, that lets users run other operating systems inside a host operating system. In the past I’ve run Ubuntu instances from Parallels but I’ve found Parallels to be unstable at times under Leopard so I decided to give VirtualBox a try.
After downloading VirtualBox, it was a snap to set up a new VM and then mount the Ubuntu ISO. The installation went without a hitch and I was up and running in no time. The only part of the installation that needed any manual configuration was getting Ubuntu to run at a resolution other than 800×600. Even after I installed the “Guest Additions” from VirtualBox (Devices > Install Guest Additions), I didn’t have any choices other than 640×480 or 800×600. After a quick Google search, I came across the solution of manually editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf (don’t worry, it’s not that scary). The only other thing I haven’t been able to figure out is how to get my mouse wheel to scroll. I’m assuming this is an issue with VirtualBox that will be updated once the developers have a chance to work with Hardy Heron a little more.
Overall, Ubuntu 8.04 is awesome. It’s pretty fast; I’m not sure if this is because I’m now running it under VirtualBox and not Parallels or if the developers made some major speed updates. It comes with Firefox 3 Beta 5 (the newest right now). I’m increasingly impressed how Ubuntu is really becoming an alternative to Windows that I almost feel comfortable recommending to friends and family who know almost nothing about computers.
It’s definitely worth checking out and playing with.
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