Several years ago I started using VI and the more I used it, the more I loved it.  When I switched my desktop to Ubuntu, I found that the arrow keys only worked in command mode VI.  This aggravated me however I continued using it despite the irritation and productivity decline.

Friends at work conjoled me to give up on VI and switch to Nano however I never gave in.  Finally, today I was using VI to edit an HTML document and after having to switch to command mode about 50 times to fix errors that were caused by insert mode arrow key mistakes I gave in and went to ubuntuforums.org.

clipped from ubuntuforums.org Re: Arrow keys are broken in vi…how to fix? sudo apt-get install vim-full ’sudo apt-get install vim-full’ will install all the vim related package and the dependencies, that includes gnome libs, etc… if you dont use gnome and just want to fix this issue in the text mode you can run : sudo apt-get install vim-runtime

1.  Boot from the Ubuntu Live CD

2.  Open a Terminal Window

3.  Type in

• sudo grub
• > root (hd0,0)
• > setup (hd0)
• > exit

4.  Reboot (normally)

Ok, we all know about PayPal. The same PayPal that was bought out by money hungry eBay. PayPal is ok but they are so “pre” Information Age. The fees that PayPal pays is higher than most other financial institutions… why? Because they can… as long as we continue to use their services.

Now, there is an alternative. Yes, and it is free!!!

Visit the website to find out more. If you hurry they will give you $25 free.

Almost everyone uses email - Everyone complains about it. I remember when my parents complained about getting “junk mail” in the mailbox. Nobody complains about that anymore now that we get ovalerwhelmed with “Spam” email. Not only is spam over whelming but the content of spam should make everyone of us angry.

How many times have you expected or been told to expect an email but never received it? More recently with all of the spam filters, I am surprised that any emails ever reach their destination with any reliability at all. Every business that I know relies on email for communications. When I used to work at Gateway computers, we were told that when we sent an email to a customer we were to treat it as though it was a “legal document”. Now that I work for an Internet provider, I see the horrible shape that email is in. I actually consider email to be the most unreliable form of communication in the world. Worse even than smoke signals …I am only half joking here.

How do we solve this problem? Let’s look into the future a moment… How do we do that, you ask? Easy, look at the younger generation. Although many are scared to think of this, they have solved the problem already for themselves. Everywhere you go, you see them Instant Messaging on their phones, computers, PDA’s.

Switching from Email to IM will take a long time but as the next generations take over, they will set the standard and us old foggies will either have to jump on the bus or get left behind in the dust.

Blogged with Flock

This past weekend, we did some work on the house.  We finished the trim in the bathroom (crown molding).  We also started (and finished!) replacing the faucet and drain plumbing in the kitchen.  The faucet and the drain had been leaking.  I was quite pleased that there were no leaks after each step.  I hate having to do over.

The next sunny day, we need to clean up the branches and tree limbs from the yard and start arranging the garden for this coming year.

I still keep trying to think of ways to add blog/diary entries more quickly.  Jott.com is one possibility that I tried out earlier but since I don’t have a personal cell phone anymore, it is sort of inconvenient.  I still think, sitting down and typing entries is too labor intensive for me.  Another option might be for me to use my voice recorder and then run recordings through a speech recognition program or maybe replay the recordings to Jott.com which would then upload to Jott.

I think that I will take a look at Jott again to see if they have added any new features that would help me decide for or against using their service.

Blogged with Flock

My rights are very important to me. My rights are so important to me that I am willing to put up with hurt feelings as long as I can have the same rights as the person that hurt my feelings. It would be childish of me to demand that some else’s rights be removed so they could not hurt my feelings any more.

The society that we live in likes to blame everything on someone else. Recently, someone I know, wrote on a forum that they chose to homeschool their children but the pastor of their church said that home schooling was not the best choice for children. Someone responded how terrible it was that the writer was so judgmental of the church pastor…. Wait just a minute!!! Who is being judgmental here?

Everyone wants to blame someone else because they don’t want to accept responsibility for their own actions. If you can’t accept responsibility for your own actions then you need to be treated like a child which is what is happening. When we don’t accept responsibility for what we do we need to have a parent guide us and make decisions for us. In the real world this is fine for parent child relationships since the parent has the best interest of the child in mind. But in this situation where the parent figure is the government or organization the only interest it has is itself.