Get yer Linux on… download the latest Ubuntu release fresh out today. Get it here. Get it now!

I have a few mp3s that are more audiobook than music, but I couldn’t figure out how to get it out of my music library and into my audiobook section in iTunes. That is until I ran across this link which lead me to this script. It worked flawless and was awesome. Thanks to Doug for the sweet script. I had no idea that iTunes was that scriptable. I’ll have to look into other useful scripts for iTunes.

Technorati Tags: feel good, Mac

I’ve been looking for a nice little web app for my wife and I to manage our finances. I stumbled onto Wesabe a while back and slowly but surely been putting my financial info into in. it was OK, but seemed to be missing two important features: Auto upload (Please don’t make me login to my bank’s website… it’s way too much work before I even get going) and a simple budget so I can see how much $ I have left to spend (or see if I went over).

Wesabe knocked the first one out by throwing a firefox add-on our way that auto uploads your data from your bank. +10 for that one, guys.

Now with auto-uploads from my accounts to Wesabe, I was almost there… one glaring feature missing. Budgeting! How can I know if I went over my limit? Luckily I read a blog post about how “Jason” the CEO of Wesabe would be available on the phone for questions every afternoon, from 12 to 4 p.m. PST. Yeah right! I was finishing up my late lunch today when I thought - why not? I’ve got a question - how do I get a budget going?

I pick up my cell and after 2 rings I was talking to Jason… the CEO. Pretty cool. I ask him about how I can set up a budget to track my spending. He told me about a dropdown on the Spending Summary page that will let you set a “spending target” (come to find out that people don’t like the word “budget”… so they call it a “spending target”) This is exactly what I’m looking for.

My only complaint is that this feature wasn’t in the FAQ or in the sidebar for me to easily find - I hope they fix that. I thanked Jason and that was it. He said if there’s any other suggestions to email him.

Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. I got my problem solved by speaking with the CEO directly. Imagine if you could do that with other company’s products.

Thanks Wesabe.

Technorati Tags: feel good

Juniper VPN on Windows without installing the invasive McAfee VirusScan and Firewall
or
“How I learned to stop worrying and love the VPN again”

(In reality this should work with any OS that will run Firefox and Java)

Rational: Some large companies require a very invasive virus scanner with cranked up policies. (Ever try to compile code while your virus scanner is in the middle slowing things down? Painful!) These steps will let you login to the VPN without having to jump through the hoops of install the full McAfee suite

- Install Firefox and the Firefox Java plugin (http://www.java.com/en/download/windows_xpi.jsp?locale=en&host=www.java.com:80)
- Install the user agent switcher addon (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59)
- Download a list of useragent strings at http://techpatterns.com/downloads/firefox/useragentswitcher.xml
- In the UserAgentSwitch options under “User Agents” on the (left hand side), “Import” and then browse to the useragent strings xml file you just downloaded.
- Now back in FF go to Tools -> User Agent Switcher and select “Safari 125.8 (MacOS)” [I believe other non-windows user agent strings will also work but I haven’t tested all of them]
- Browse to your vpn login page
- Enter your username and password as usual and change the Realm to Mac / Linux and hit “Sign In”.
- Click on the “Client Apps” icon at the top right of the page
- Click on the “Start” button for Java Secure Application Manager (It’ll give you an error popup window - just close it)
- Now Click on the “Start” button for Network Connect and it should open up the VPN client.
- You are now on the VPN network.

Technorati Tags: feel good

http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/do-you-blog-about-ubuntu/

Good point. I blog about ubuntu, do you?

(I’m pretty sure that these directions will also work for older versions of ubuntu.)

You need to install a program on your Treo 650 that will let it become a USB modem like:
Treo USBModem or PdaNet
If anyone knows of any free / open source software for the palm that will do the same thing let me know!

/etc/chatscripts/USBModem:

TIMEOUT 5
ABORT '\nBUSY\r'
ABORT '\nERROR\r'
ABORT '\nNO ANSWER\r'
ABORT '\nNO CARRIER\r'
ABORT '\nNO DIALTONE\r'
ABORT '\nRINGING\r\n\rRINGING\r'
'' \rATZ
TIMEOUT 12
OK ATD#777
TIMEOUT 22
CONNECT ""


/etc/ppp/peers/USBDialup:

noauth
connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/USBDialup"
defaultroute
usepeerdns
/dev/ttyACM0 115200
local
novj


You may notice that when you turn on the usbmodem software on the Treo and plug it in you may see something like this in dmesg:

[110049.340000] usb 3-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 5
[110049.508000] usb 3-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[110049.512000] cdc_acm 3-1:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device


That’s where you find out what tty port the USB modem will be communicating on: /dev/ttyACM0. And that’s the port used in /etc/ppp/peers/USBDialup.

The rest is easy…

pon USBDialup

And you’re gold! You can then tail -f /var/log/messages to ensure it’s connecting alright.

Thanks Railscasts!

<% flash.each do |key, msg| %>
<%= content_tag :div, msg, :id => “flash_#{key}” %>
<% end %>


Ubuntu’s super-awesome new version is out. Help the world and grab the torrent here.

I’ve updated my lds.org greasemonkey script to link to both google and yahoo maps. Find it here: Spicy Ward Web File

UPDATE: It’s new home is here: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/8357

Yes - it’s true. I’ve upped my geek level a few notches and became a Ubuntero (Ubuntu Member) today. I hope to give back to the community.