Recently, I decided to ignore my own advice (to always wait until the .10 version before upgrading) and upgrade to Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin. I kind of knew that this was a bad idea from the start. Ubuntu has been headed down the path to Unity (a great example of a road to Hell paved with good intentions) for several iterations now. I have never been a fan of the Unity interface. Each time I upgraded Ubuntu,  I completely removed Unity and ubuntu-desktop and replaced it with Gnome and Cairo-Dock.

But I know Canonical is hellbent on enforcing Unity on the nonconformist masses of Ubuntu users. I heard that they made a lot of improvements to Unity in Pangolin. So I thought, what the hell, I will give it a shot. One last chance before I ditch Ubuntu for good. I will either go along with Unity, or find an alternative to Ubuntu. I just don’t have the time to keep fighting this battle.

Well, the upgrade went smoothly enough, but Cairo-Dock looked like crap afterward. I’m not sure why but I think Pangolin uses a new window manager and it doesn’t play nice with Cairo-Dock. OK, so I shut down Cairo-Dock and just used Unity for awhile.

I still dislike the Unity interface. It is kind of like someone said, hey, let’s make something that is a little bit like Mac but uglier and much clumsier. No thanks. Unity has a couple nice features, but unless you want to memorize a keyboard shortcut for everything you want to do, it is a pain to use. For me, anyway. If you like it, that’s awesome.

For me, the last straw was when I discovered that VMWare Player doesn’t work on Pangolin. It worked fine on Oneiric, but Pangolin uses a newer kernel and it breaks compatibility. I’m sure VMWare will update soon enough, but in the meanwhile, I sometimes need a way to run Windows in a virtual machine.

I could just revert to Ubuntu 11.10, but why bother. I know which way Ubuntu is headed and that’s fine, but as I said before I am tired of fighting to get the interface I want. Goodbye Ubuntu, thanks for everything and good luck. I am switching to Debian, the Universal Operating System.

I have been thinking a lot about technology and the (specifically, American) “new economy.” You know, the economy that is described alongside terms like “Great Recession” and “jobless recovery.” The economy where Apple (a company that doesn’t actually manufacture anything directly) is described as the most valuable corporation in the world, with Google, Facebook, Microsoft and the like not far behind.

I’ve been thinking about the unfolding “knowledge economy,” which is largely enabled by a rapid and dramatic evolution of mass-produced personal computing devices. Desktop PCs, laptops, tablets, smartphones; these devices are changing the way we interact with people and the world. People are caught up in the exuberance of the moment, even as they struggle to come to grips with the new economic reality. The reality is that we the people, the majority are much poorer now than we even yet realize.

Not middle-class. Not even that peculiarly-stigmatized term “working-class,” but rather, underemployed, unemployed, in-debt, no credit, no prospects, poor.

Most industrial manufacturing jobs have departed the United States – possibly never to return. Foreign labor costs, environmental regulations, supply chains, etc. provide compelling reasons to move production out of the U.S. Instead of manufacturing jobs, we now have low-paying service jobs (even these are fewer in quantity than during the heyday of U.S. manufacturing) and a relative few, better-paying “knowledge economy” jobs.

It’s interesting that we have been flooded with foreign-made high-tech computing gadgets like the iPhone, iPad, Android phones, etc. at the same time that our earnings have plummeted. Every time the average American buys one, some of their money goes out of the American economy and overseas. Some of it comes back as purchases of American exports, but since we have a perennial trade deficit, most of the money does not come back.

It’s true that much of the money spent on gadgets goes to American corporations: for example, Apple. Fair enough, but where does that money really go? Does it go back into the American economy as wages paid to the masses? No, because there is no mass employment in America that pertains to gadgets. There is employment, yes, in the knowledge economy and the retail channel and so on. But these jobs are not jobs that the masses of Americans can work. They don’t add up to replace all the lost manufacturing jobs.

So, every time you buy a computer (smartphones and tablets are computers too) more money leaves the American economy. When does it come back? It doesn’t.

Corporations know this, but cannot escape the pressure to increase short-term profits. They have come up with clever ways to make the devices seem “cheaper” by selling them through wireless carriers with a service contract. Of course, they are not really cheaper – if anything, they are more expensive this way. The payments are just spread out over the term of the contract.

Corporations also spend an enormous amount of money on marketing (knowledge economy jobs – what else can they spend their money on at this point?) to convince people that they really need a new, expensive Macbook or PC or tablet pod whatever. The campaigns have been successful in prolonging the inevitable, but the writing is still on the wall: the era of expensive personal computers is near a compulsory end. It should have been over 20 years ago, but marketing taps into powerful psychological and emotional motivations. You need this, says the dealer to the junkie. Just one more hit.

But, you don’t need it. You really just don’t. You need to stop being a technology crackhead. You can’t afford to keep spending your money on the stuff. You need to spend your money on things that affect the real (American, local, the one you live in) economy.

Use what you have. If you buy new technology, don’t ever spend more than $100 on it. And I don’t mean, a smartphone that costs $100 plus $40 per month of data service plus $70 per month of voice service for two years. Because, that is really $2740 isn’t it. Don’t lie to yourself, that is what addicts do. If you are not employed in the knowledge economy, you really can not afford to spend $1420 of your yearly income on a gadget that has a negative resale value (factoring early-cancellation fees and obsolescence).

I suppose many people will think that a $100 upper limit for computer purchases is wishful thinking. It isn’t. Devices such as the Raspberry Pi are already available, new, for considerably less than $100. Not to mention, there are many perfectly good used devices available on eBay or even free for the taking if you ask around.

Of course, people will continue to buy expensive electronics like the MacBook. I’m just saying, you shouldn’t. You don’t need to, unless you happen to be one of the statistically few people who are part of the knowledge economy. Even then, you probably don’t really need to, except to impress your co-workers.

The majority simply can not afford the luxury of expensive electronics that retain negative value, even if retailers offer seemingly attractive pay-later schemes.

By Brent W. Hopkins

Today I made the switch from Posterous to WordPress. It’s a move I’ve been contemplating for months and preparing for the last several days. Posterous has been great, but I’m ready for more. WordPress gives me more control over my website(s) and content. It’s more work than Posterous, but I think it’s worth it.

The recent redesign of Posterous to Posterous Spaces gave me the incentive to proceed with the switch. Personally, I find the new Posterous Spaces more difficult to use, but not in a good way. Meaning that the extra level of difficulty didn’t bring more powerful features; it just made the service harder to use.

Posterous is still a good service, and I plan to leave an archive of thegeniusfiles at http://thegeniusfiles.posterous.com indefinitely. But moving forward, new content will be at http://thegeniusfiles.com which is powered by WordPress MU.

Thanks, Posterous. I appreciate your contributions to the blogosphere. Best wishes for your continued success.

I’m planning a similar move from Flickr Pro in the coming days. More on that later.

By Brent W. Hopkins

thegeniusfiles is proud to participate in “Move Your Domain Away from GoDaddy Day” in protest of the company’s decision to support the Orwellian Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Censoring the Internet: it’s a no-go, GoDaddy. Buh-bye.

Oh yes, the company has made an insincere about-face in an attempt to save face as over 70,000 customers leave en masse – but thegeniusfiles will file that one under “too little, too late.” Suck it, GoDaddy. We The People don’t give a GodDamn about your PR spin. That bitter flavor is the taste of SOPA in your mouth.

Want to join the GoDaddy exodus? Sure you do. Here’s how to transfer from GoDaddy to DreamHost. Other domain registrars may vary slightly but the process is essentially the same.

(1)   Log in to GoDaddy & Unlock domain in web panel.  GoDaddy will send you an email to let you know.  You have to unlock the domain to allow it to be transferred out.

(2)    If you have GoDaddy’s privacy turned on, turn it off.  You should receive a “cancellation confirmation” for the cancelled domain privacy order. At this point you need to wait for DNS to propagate since DreamHost’s system will read the WhoIs to send a confirmation email to the domain owner.  If you leave privacy on or don’t wait long enough, good luck ever seeing that email. A good way to check whether the new Whois data has propogated is to run a whois on the domain you’re trying to transfer.  If the privacy details have been replaced by your actual contact details then you’re good.

(3)    Unlock the domain from the GoDaddy control panel

(4)    Request an authorization key from GoDaddy control panel.  (Some companies call this the “domain secret” code).  You should receive it by email within a minute or two.

(5)    Go to DreamHost control panel and click “transfer domains”.

(6)    Enter the domain and the auth key

(7)    Click transfer and pay the annual domain fee

(8)    The email address shown in the WhoIs entry will receive a confirmation email from DreamHost.  You will also see this email address in the DreamHost web panel – “Approval email sent to xxxx”.  If it was sent to the privacy company then you didn’t wait long enough for the WhoIs to propagate.  Click re-submit and try again.

(9)    Click the link in the email from DreamHost and accept the transfer.  You must click through and accept the transfer.

(10)    DreamHost will send you a confirmation of the transfer.

(11)   GoDaddy will send you a confirmation of the transfer – this notice gives a date by which you must respond if you *don’t* want the domain transferred.  You can either wait for this date to pass (it’s a few days) or log in to the GoDaddy domain panel and force the transfer by accepting it.

(12)    You should receive another cancellation notice from GoDaddy for the cancelled domain.

(13)    You should also receive a success notice from GoDaddy saying that the domain has transferred to another registrar.

(14)    You should now be able to log in to the DreamHost web panel, make sure they also think the domain has transferred (if you look under “Reg Transfer” it’s no longer in the pending list but is in the list of available Auth codes at the bottom of the page.

(15)    Go ahead and check privacy is back on with DreamHost (no extra charge for this from DreamHost – thanks guys!!!), finish any other setup of hosting or the domain if necessary and check the domain is working.
         

Bask in the warm satisfaction of knowing that you just hit GoDaddy where it hurts most – profits.

This very nice Twitter client supports extended functionality via assorted plug-ins.

by Brent W. Hopkins, PCWorld

Twicca is a Twitter app for Android that’s loaded with features, such as support for Twitter lists, image-upload resizing, color-coded labels, and sharing to other apps. Among other helpful functions, it offers reply history, reply auto-complete, saved searches, recent hashtags, quoted retweets, GPS location geotagging, notifications, Bit.ly link shortening, and image previews. You can also use the app to edit your profile and change your avatar image, and you can adjust the font size in Settings.

One of Twicca’s most interesting features is its support for a wide variety of third-party plug-ins that add functionality. Some of my favorites include URLy, a link shortener on steroids; Filckr, which helps you upload images to Flickr and embed the link in a tweet; the Tumblr plugin for uploading media or other files to Tumblr and embedding the link in a tweet, and the Image Download Plugin, which lets you download and save images embedded in tweets.

Twicca is in many ways the best Twitter client I have tried, except for two shortcomings: It does not support multiple Twitter accounts or scheduled tweets. You may have no need for those features, however–and if that’s the case, I highly recommend that you give Twicca a try.​

You might also like Mustard, a Twitter and Identi.ca client app that supports multiple accounts, or HootSuite, which supports scheduled tweets.

Connect with Brent W. Hopkins on Twitter, and see other articles by Brent W. Hopkins.

By Brent W. Hopkins

Consider the power that the simple word “yes” has to influence decisions, determine outcomes, and shape your destiny. Language is one of the most powerful forms of symbolic thinking, and the word “yes” is one of the most powerful of all words. “Yes” is one of the first words that a child learns to speak. Every language has a word that corresponds to “yes.” “Yes” manifests the possible. It is the key that opens the door to new experiences. Without “yes,” we only have intangible collections of “no” and “maybe.”

Think of something that you want to happen. Now phrase it as a question. For instance, if you want to get a new car, ask yourself “Am I going to get a new car?” Write down your answer to the question – the first answer that comes to mind. If your answer doesn’t contain the word “yes,” then you are not likely to be getting a car.
So you want a car, but you are not getting one. See what just happened? You verbally negated your desire. Perhaps the universe will intervene and give you a car, despite that fact that you nullified your own desire? Anything is possible, but it is unlikely that the universe will forcibly bestow a car upon you if you don’t say “yes.”

Why? Because if your answer didn’t contain “yes,” then it probably contained “no,” or “maybe,” or some variation on those themes. Only “yes” has the power to manifest results.

Consider this thought experiment. Imagine you are thirsty, and you want a glass of water. Now, imagine a person approaches you with a glass of water in hand and asks “Would you like a glass of water?” How do you answer this question? If you say “no,” then do you think the person will give you the glass of water? Of course not! If you say “maybe,” or “someday I too would like to have a glass of water,” or “I am thirsty, but now is not the right time for me to get a drink of water,” or pretty much anything other than “yes,” do you think the person will give you the glass of water? No, because you really have not answered the question in a way that communicates that YES, you would like the glass of water, right now.

To carry the thought experiment a bit further, imagine that you didn’t answer “yes” and so the person shrugs and walks away, carrying the glass of water with them. Is it reasonable to become angry or bitter because of this outcome? Is life unjust, did the person do you wrong, because you are still thirsty, while they have a nice cool glass of water? No!

Of course, “yes” on its own does not automatically manifest your desires. You still have to do the work! But without “yes,” your efforts will not bear fruit.

Power can manifest itself in positive or negative ways, and this is also true of the word “yes.” To say “yes” can sometimes be extremely unwise. Just as “yes” can open the door to positive experience, it can also drop you into the pit. For example, consider the question “Do nice guys finish last?” If your answer is “yes,” then you have created a mental framework that is almost certain to manifest unhappy outcomes. If being nice brings failure then either you choose to be a nice failure or a successful jerk. Neither of these outcomes are desirable. You said yes to an idea that constrained your choices to negative outcomes.

Think of the word “yes” as the “on” switch for a machine that can turn your thoughts into reality. Be careful of the thoughts you feed into the machine before you flip the switch!

Now you can read the latest posts and tweets from thegeniusfiles with the new TGFiles Beta Android app.

My recent decision to unplug from Google has opened my eyes to some of the shortcomings of the Google-centric Android platform, or more specifically the Android developer ecosystem. If you uninstall the Market app, you will quickly discover that you won’t get updates to any of the apps you installed with it – even if you purchased those apps.

It’s true that there are a number of alternatives to Google’s Market for Android apps.  However, none of them has even close to the same variety of inventory as Google – not even Amazon’s AppStore. Even where their inventory overlaps, they can’t update your app if it was originally installed using Google’s Market or some other app market.

Furthermore, Amazon’s AppStore brings its own hassles with it. If you uninstall the AppStore app then all the apps you installed from Amazon will stop working. Even Google isn’t that heavy-handed! You can at least still use your apps after you uninstall Google’s Market – you just can’t update them.

This is not a good situation for anyone other than Google, its mobile carrier partners, and Amazon. The big guys with their captive markets can get away with a lot of arbitrary or questionable (but profitable) business practices. Developers and consumers are left with a take-it-or-leave-it, you’re-welcome-to-leave-if-you-don’t-like-it, don’t-let-the-door-hit-you-on-the-way-out kind of “freedom” of choice. That’s not cool.

Android is advertised as open source software, but Android devices as sold to the consumer are open in theory only. In reality, Google has a lock on app sales and distribution, and Amazon is the “competition” that Google can point to as a counter-argument to accusations of anti-competitive business practices. I guess you could consider the mobile carriers’ half-baked app stores as “competition” too. What do they all have in common? Oligopoly. Market control. Enormous informational asymmetry compared to consumers and developers.

For consumers, where is the choice? For app developers, where is the choice?

It doesn’t have to be this way. Android could be set up so that an app could call home to its own developer’s code repository, keep track of its own license keys and manage its own updates. This approach has been demonstrated to work very well in other Linux distributions like Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc. This way, you could purchase an app wherever you like, and not worry about how it will be updated or how you will verify your purchase if you need to reinstall it.

Such an approach would be unlikely to harm Google or the other big players. Most people would probably continue to use Google’s Market simply because it’s easy to find a wide variety of apps there, and because they trust Google to remove known malware. But consumers should have a choice, and that choice shouldn’t be artificially limited by a system designed to make it difficult to leave. Consumers should stay because the products and services are better – not because it’s difficult to leave. The difficult-to-leave mentality gave birth to Windows Vista. Is that what you want Android to become?

Developers should not be shackled to a take-it-or-leave-it revenue model. Amazon with its “free app of the day” fiasco, and Google with its history of sometimes-arbitrary suspension of developer accounts, demonstrates the inherent problem here.

The current approach of walled-garden, proprietary app stores is anti-consumer, anti-competitive, and contrary to the spirit of open source development. It’s time to break down the walls.

If you are one of the millions of people who read this blog, then you know that I recently deleted my Facebook personal profile. My main reason was to escape Facebook Group spam. I had previously deactivated my Facebook account, explaining to Facebook that I was unhappy with the “new” Groups, their ability to add me without my permission and thereby spam me. Well, enough time passed to make me realize that Facebook is not about to halt its Group spamfest – so it was time for me to take matters into my own hands.

Facebook Pages, on the other hand, are a different sort of beast. They can’t be added to Groups, so are not as vulnerable to spam. You can even turn off visitor’s ability to Wall post if you start getting Wall spam. Best of all, you can have a Page without having a personal profile. In fact, it’s preferable not to link your personal profile to your Page, because if your personal profile ever gets suspended (too many friend requests, or whatever) you won’t be locked out of your Page. Here’s how to configure a Page without a Profile:

1. Go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
2. Pick what kind of page you want to create; agree to the TOS; click “Get Started.”
3. Select “I do not have a Facebook account,” enter your email address (cannot be already associated with an existing Facebook account). Pick a password, enter a date of birth and type the captcha. (Hint: audio capcha may be easier than the visual one)
4. Click “Sign Up Now!”
5. Go to the inbox of the email you used to sign up, and click the confirmation link
6. If this is your first Page, continue filling in the information, adding links, uploading photos, etc. You can also add other admins.

If you already have a Page you want to transfer to your new profile-less account, then don’t bother with the Page you just created – it’s a dummy. Instead, you need to do a couple more steps.

1. Login to Facebook with your old, personal profile account that you use as admin for your pre-existing Page.
2. Go to your Page, click “Manage Page,” then “Manage Admins.”
3. Type in the email address you used to sign up for your new Page account (from previous step 3) into the box that says “Start typing a name or email…”
4. Click Save Changes, enter your password.
5. Log out.
6. Log in with your new account.
7. Go to your pre-existing Page.
8. Click “Manage Admins.” You should see the new account there. Click Remove on your old personal profile.
9. Click “Save Changes” and enter your password. Now you can manage your Page without a personal profile.
10. Now you can delete the “new” dummy Page that you created when created your new profile-less account. Go to the new page, click “Manage Permissions” and click “Delete Page” at the bottom of the page.
11. Check to make sure everything is working as intended. If you use third-party client apps to manage you Page, you will have to re-authenticate with the new account credentials.
12. When you have verified that everything is working, go ahead and delete your old personal profile if you don’t want it anymore. Be aware that Pages can’t do everything that Profiles can do, however. Experiment a bit before you take the plunge.

Enjoy your newfound freedom from Facebook Group spam!