Tech Friday: Installing Ubuntu on the Mac and the PC

I've been drinking a lot of coffee today, and I think it affects my ability to concentrate. So, one thing has been leading to another and another, and I've ended up installing the latest version of Ubuntu Linux on both my PC and my MacBook using virtual machine software.

Why Virtual Machines?

A virtual machine allows you to host multiple operating systems on a single physical computer. The classic reason for doing this is to run some form of Windows on the Macintosh OS because you just can't live without some crucial Windows program. (Think Quickbooks, or OutLook, or in my case OneNote). The Virtual machine program is a thin layer of software which sites between the original OS (on the Mac this is OSX), and one or more "guest" operating systems, (in my case Windows Vista). There are a couple to choose from. The people at our university recommended Parallels. Installing Vista and Parallels went pretty smoothly. So, as I hadn't seen a Linux desktop for while, I thought I'd try installing the latest and greatest Ubuntu.

Why Ubuntu?

Ubuntu appears to the current favorite for a "desktop" Linux. It is available on some Dell machines. It comes with a large number of applications, and an attractive desktop. There are several versions available for specific purposes. It is well supported.

I started with this step-by-step tutorial, which is available for a couple different combinations of Parallels and Ubuntu.

While waiting for this to install, I fiddled with Microsoft Virtual PC on my Windows box and found that I was using an older version 2004. I downloaded and installed version 2007. Looks just like 2004, but includes support for Vista as reported at Linux.com. After a couple of false starts dealing with the mouse, I was able to get Ubuntu installed.

Once installed there are several additional tweaks that need to happen which required editing the boot loader parameters and some config files to get the mouse working. Then a similar process is required for sound drivers, and network drivers.

Rather than go through all that, I downloaded VirtualBox and installed it on my workstation. Then I reinstalled Ubuntu. Mouse worked immediately. Networking came right up. The sound card worked as soon as I changed the default VirtualBox configuration to include the sound card. So far, Ubuntu works fine, and is surprisingly fast, and VirtualBox appears to be superior to Microsoft Virtual PC, at least when installing non-Microsoft operating systems.

Meanwhile, back on the Mac, its been more of a struggle. Here a couple issues and solutions:

1. When choosing which version to install, choose the "alternate" form of the Ubuntu installer. (There is a checkbox for this on the download screen.) This is a text-based installer. Otherwise, it will just hang as you start to do the install, and you'll get a funny message saying somthing like "Tried 6 times to start the X-Server and something is seriously messed up".
2. When you download the .iso file from the mirror, it will appear on the desktop as a disk. However, this is actually, just a pointer to the file ubuntu-7.10-alternate-i386.iso which is located in your download directory. This caused a lot of confusion, because when you attempt to assign an "image" for the installation process through Parallels, you have to point to the actual file with the .iso extension. (If in doubt...just burn it to a physical CD for heaven's sake; I should have done this and saved myself an hour of futzing. To be honest, my problems with the disk and the .iso are due to unfamiliarity with OSX on the Mac, not the fault of Parallels or Ubuntu.)
3. When installing, you'll be given the opportunity to select the screen resolutions that you want to install. The excellently named Muffin Research discussion page suggests selecting two resolutions: 1440x900 for using full screen, and 1280x800 for use when you have Ubuntu running in a window. Once you have installed, if there is still a problem, you can run the following command to start the selection process again:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
   
   
4. Parallels gives you the opportunity to set up networking to use the existing Mac network addressing, (shared), or the not-so-well-named (bridge). The bridge will treat the Ubuntu VM as a separate machine, so it will get an IP address separate from the Mac. There is an icon in the "system tray", located in the upper right hand of the Ubuntu desktop window, that shows if you are connected. If not, just click once on the icon and select "Wired Nework", if that is how you're connected.
   

More from LifeHacker on running Parallels on the Mac.

Random Cranks & Parts

James Howard Kunstler has a dark vision of what might happen in our country and the rest of the world as oil becomes more difficult to find and more expensive.
He has now started a podcast. He probably best known for two books, The Geography of Nowhere, and The Long Emergency.

I received a new biking magazine, a newspaper, actually, The Practical Pedal. Looks as if the audience is bike commuters. Their current issue is about winter riding...something I haven't done; must be that I'm too chicken to get salt all over my touring bike.

The newest computer around here from Logic Supply has a mini-ITX form factor. Video output includes a very fine digital monitor connection, and an S-Video connector. Turns out adapters for S-Video don't necessarily include all the pins to convey color. (WTF?) So, a search on the internet led me to Parts Express, which has lots of part and gear for home audio installations. They look especially helpful if you want to build your stereo speakers. They had the requisite connectors, at a good price. Problem solved.

Not to be forgotten are the Cyberguys. As they say, "Your Source for Hard-to-Find Computer Parts & Accessories". For software I love NewEgg.

Web Worker Daily is loaded with office productivity tips.

Applying for Federal Grants

We're into "tax season" here in the U.S. as the corporate tax deadline looms for March 15th, and personal taxes returns are due on April 15th. Although we spend lots of time and effort sending money to the Internal Revenue Service, it is always nice to recall that many other government agencies will give it back if you ask nicely, at the proper time, using their forms. Yes, this means grants.

Our own experience is primarily with the SBIR program. It turns out that 2.5% of all "extramural" procurement, that is, goods, services and research done under contract for a government agency must, by law, be provided to "small business". What constitutes a small business may be laughable when you consider that a small business can have a couple hundred employees, but my own case also applies; most of the time my little corporation has one full-time employee, with a lot of subcontractors. You provide credibility by working with others, and demonstrating your ability to fulfill the requirements of the grant. Often this means that you need to hook up with a Large Organization...say the local college or university, and use their expertise and facilities as part of the grant.

As my ink jet printer spits out another 60-page set of grant instructions, it occurs to me that there are several pre-requisites for success when chasing down these grants:

• You must be a company or corporation. For SBIR you must be a for-profit business; otherwise, you probably need to be a 501c(3) non-profit organization. Most of the grants listed in the Chronicle of Philanthropy are targeted at non-profits; health care, social service, or educational institutions. Grants to individuals are rare. (If you want to get government money as an individual, get a gig at a federal or state agency).
• You must have accounting competence, or the ability to find it. So, you need a CPA who is experienced with federal accounting, and a bookkeeper who can keep everything straight. If you are terrified of doing your own tax return, you'll need to find people who aren't. If you are familiar with TurboTax, then multiply it by ten, and that will give you an idea of the effort involved for a grant of significant size. (>$60,0000) both to do the application, and then the ongoing accounting and management.
• You need to be able to do a budget in a spreadsheet, use a word processor, and be able to create PDF files.
• You need to be able to work with other organizations (see above). Grant makers love collaboration and synergy. They recognize that it is unusual for a single person or organization to be expert in everything.

The gumint has been switching over from paper grant submissions to electronic submissions, and it continues to be quite a trip. A couple years ago, you filled out Word forms and sent them in as PDF files. Then they switched to online forms, which often requested longer narratives to be uploaded as PDFS. Now many of not all federal agencies participate in Grants.Gov, a central point for all federal grant applications. And, yet, working with NIH and NSF, I note that they each have their own interfaces and ways of doing things.

Your organization needs a DUNS number (from Dunn and Bradstreet), if you don't already have one. This is a prerequisite for registering in the CCR, the Central Contractor Registration Database. Registration in the CCR is a prerequisite for applying for federal grants. You'll also get lots of unsolicited phone calls from people who say they can "assist" you with working with the government. Ignore them, and find out if your local SBA office can help.

Battery Blues

My cellphone battery died the other day and I was in a hurry. I went to the local Verizon store only to be told that my two-year old phone was "obsolete", and they didn't have any batteries for it. Rushed around to a couple Radio Shacks, and the almost had batteries, at least they looked similar but no deal. The batteries at Radio Shack, by the way were going to be about $50.00 a pop.

Back to Verizon and I bowed to the inevitable, and got a new phone. Since I have a prepaid plan, I paid full price, more the $200, after paying for the phone a 12 volt charger and case. Its an OK phone, it flips...and has a camera.

Back home several days later I went on the Internet to check, and sure enough there was a battery for my old Kyocera phone for $17.95 Cell Power plus $4.95 shipping. It arrived the next day. Moral: You have a lot more control of your budget and impulses before a deadline.

Tech Friday: Troubleshooting Windows Firewall

Tech Friday is the day when we get bogged down in technicalities.

Dynamic DNS Redux

Today I've been doing some further research on Dynamic DNS, and indeed I found out that Wednesday, I was actually playing with the Unix/Linux version of the the DynDNS updater. They have a more conventional Windows client available with a nice graphic interface. It still does the same thing as the earlier one does, and it can install as a Windows service.

Firewall Issues

The Windows XP SP2 firewall can be managed locally on the XP Workstation through the Control Panel applet, via the local Group Policy, or via a domain group policy. When running into problems with the firewall, often the first problem is to figure out just where the settings are coming from. Microsoft has provided a handy guide on troubleshooting the Windows firewall, using familiar tools like netstat and netsh. For example, the following command will display the firewall status, and show where the settings are coming from. Note the returned results in my case show that the workstation is controlled from the Domain under the Group Policy.

C:\netsh firewall show state

Firewall status:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Profile = Domain
Operational mode = Enable
Exception mode = Enable
Multicast/broadcast response mode = Enable
Notification mode = Enable
Group policy version = Windows Firewall
Remote admin mode = Disable

Ports currently open on all network interfaces:
Port Protocol Version Program
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1052 UDP IPv4 C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
26675 TCP IPv4 (null)
67 UDP IPv4 (null)
135 TCP IPv4 C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv\inetinfo.exe
137 UDP IPv4 (null)
139 TCP IPv4 (null)
138 UDP IPv4 (null)
3389 TCP IPv4 (null)
38293 UDP IPv4 (null)
443 TCP IPv4 C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv\inetinfo.exe
443 UDP IPv4 (null)
445 TCP IPv4 (null)
37674 UDP IPv4 (null)
37675 UDP IPv4 (null)
37674 TCP IPv4 (null)
2869 TCP IPv4 (null)
1900 UDP IPv4 C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
2967 UDP IPv4 (null)
990 TCP IPv4 F:\Program Files\Microsoft ActiveSync\rapimgr.exe

Additional ports open on Local Area Connection:
Port Protocol Version
-------------------------------------------------------------------
427 UDP Any


C:\

The Microsoft network troubleshooting white paper describes several additional troubleshooting tactics and is recommended.

For a cookbook approach to the Windows command line, check out the Administrator's Pocket Consultant series title Microsoft Windows Command-Line by William R. Stanek.

Review of commercial VoIP systems

ChannelWeb is publishing a review of five VoIP systems. While not terribly helpful as a whole, the article discusses several aspects of choosing a VoIP system. The focus is on small systems for small business, 2-40 users or so. There are some helpful comments following the article.

One deficiency is that the article doesn't really encompass the whole picture necessary for putting in VoIP. For example, most installers would consider using conventional PSTN phone lines or a T-1 connection for multiple lines, rather than attempt to use public IP connections for their "production" phone trunks.

Candadian Health Care - A positive view.

The first of two posts about the Canadian Health Care system that debunks a lot of the misinformation which is being passed around. We lived in Canada in the mid-eighties and I was mildly surprised at how smoothly everything went. Although we were on one-year residence permits, we were issued a standard credit card size health system card. This was used for payment for doctors, dentists and eye specialists.

At the time we found this to be only mildly extraordinary, as we had been living in Germany under a similar system.

If you try to decipher Medicare Part A, Part B, Part C, and Part D, you can spend a week trying to figure it out.

How does employer-provided healthcare affect non-profits? For one thing it forces your organization to consider the cost of providing health care as a cost of hiring new personnel. In our area, this is around $12,000 per year (and rising by 8% or more per year) for an employee with a spouse and one or two children.

How bad does it have to get before there will be some action on health care at the federal level?

Dyn DNS clients

Looking for a client for Dynamic DNS. This is a program that goes out and pings the DynDNS web service and tells it what your current IP address is.

DynDNS runs a service that will tell you what your current public IP address. This is handy...in any web browser just type http://checkip.dyndns.com.

DynDNS recommends using software clients to do updates, although the functionality is embedded in most home routers.

...[I]n practice we have found that router based clients just don't provide the same level of reliability and user experience as software clients. For this reason, our current recommendation is that customers use a software client whenever possible, even if their router has a DDNS client built into it and even if that DDNS client has been certified by us.

Using the command line version of inadyn, I tried the following which does a one-time update:

C:\DynDNS_Client>inadyn --username myname --password mypass --alias mydnsname.gotdns.com

This returns the following:

INADYN: Started 'INADYN version 1.96.2' - dynamic DNS updater.
I:INADYN: IP address for alias 'mydnsname.gotdns.com' needs update to '24.61.26.209'
I:INADYN: Alias 'mydnsname.gotdns.com' to IP '24.61.26.209' updated successful.

Now, of interest here is that the one time update does not simply execute and then return to the command line....in fact it creates a loop that executes repeatedly. By default this appears to be one minute, and what happens is that program first does an ip address update. On subsequent passes, it first sends a query to checkip.dyndns.org and compares the results with the stored IP. If they are different then it will perform another update. This is more evident if you add --verbose 5 to the command line; you'll get a printout as the program goes through the steps.

So, I'm going to try installing this as a software service on my XP workstation; and disabling it in the router.

Over Lunch

This week's New Yorker magazine, (and next week's too, since it is a double issue), has a wonderful article in their occasional "Annals of Invention" series about the artist and inventor Steve Hollinger called Thinking in the Rain--An Artist Takes on the Umbrella. If you ever wanted to find out about the provenance of Tubers and Zots, more than you ever knew about clerical haberdashery, manufacturing in China, and umbrella design (tricky), it is all in this article...unfortunately, not online, but in the print issue.

But there is a sentence fragment buried in there that just begs for a fuller explanation. Top of page 95 second column.

His mother, Myrna, a sculptor who works primarily in the medium of dried fish, said about him recently...

Free Audio Telephone Conferencing

We've been using a free audio telephone conference application for about six months.

It is instantconference.com

http://www.instantconference.com/

Features:

• Basic Service is free.
  
• You are assigned your own conference number which you keep between conferences
  
• Users dial in using their own long-distance provider to a (605) area code (South Dakota).
  
• They can also provide a toll-free number for your users; then they charge 7 cents per minute per user.
  Example...today we had a meeting with two connections, that ran for an hour and 45 minutes.. so that would have been 7 x2x105=$14.70. Since we both used our own long distance providers, which typically charge 3-4 cents for domestic long-distance, it may be cheaper to let everyone pay on their own. There is no restriction on long-distance provider.
  
• Call quality is more than acceptable. It breaks up occasionally.
  

Recommended.

We use this with a Polycom Soundstation conferencing phone.

Put this up with SightSpeed, and you have video as well.

Downgrade Vista to XP

Computerworld has a discussion of how to downgrade an OEM-installed VISTA Business to Windows XP Professional. Having now tentatively installed Vista Business on two "production" systems, my Macbook under Parallels and on a test machine for Polycom PVX videoconferencing, I was hoping to have to avoid this discussion. Related to Polycom, however, they have issued an update to their PVX application, from 8.0.2 to 8.0.4 ostensibly for Vista Business. I'm not sure if this is necessary for Vista home; we're trying to find out.

Dynamic DNS & Port Forwarding

One thing that is necessary when dealing with IP videoconferencing is the whole network management thing. This means dealing with DNS, ports, and firewalls.

DNS remains a bit of a mystery, but in essence, the DNS system maps numerical IP addresses to domain names. So for example, my web site is located at 64.78.42.66. The way I know this is by running the NSLOOKUP command in Windows.

You can find your current public IP address by going to www.whatismyip.com

For help in setting up your router with port forwarding, go to http://portforward.com/

Laura Chappell produces fantastic tutorials on network troubleshooting. I should say "still"...because I've been reading her stuff since Novell was the networking operating system, and that is going back close to twenty years. The linked tutorial, from Novell Connection Magazine is entitled 10 Tasks Every Troubleshooter Should Conquer.

She references the SecTools site for tons of networking tools

Chronicle of Philanthropy This Week

Lots of technology news in the Chron this week, but much of the good stuff is behind the paywall, which may make it worth it to spring for the $42.50 or so for a subscription. They have put out their 2008 Technology Guide, which includes the following articles:

CHARITIES ARE SETTING UP DONATION KIOSKS that work like automated teller machines to accept credit or debit cards. In the future, the machines might be used to connect people who want to help charities in ways other than giving money. But experts say charities have to be careful to use the kiosks in a tasteful manner. "You don't want to put these kiosks out there like a shameless electronic hand," says one consultant to charities and other organizations.

FACEBOOK, the popular social-networking site, is allowing nonprofit groups and companies to develop new technology tools to reach out to its 58 million members. More than 45,000 charity efforts are now under way on the site, experts estimate.

INTERNET-BASED TELEPHONE SYSTEMS are making it cheaper for nonprofit officials to make calls when they are working overseas, and greatly lowering the cost of videoconferences. In addition, the systems are aiding charities in grass-roots advocacy efforts and enabling them to send text messages and exchange files of information for far less money than before.

THE NONPROFIT TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE, set for New Orleans in March, will feature such topics as using mobile phones and Web-based social networks for raising money and communicating with supporters.

A NEW WEB SITE aims to reduce the volume of direct-mail catalogs that go out to consumers by helping people "opt out" of companies' mailing lists.

VIDEO AND OTHER MEDIA PROJECTS supported by the Open Society Institute to document the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina have been brought together on a new Web site.

Ten Thousand Hours to Mastery

I've been reading Daniel J. Levitin's book This Is Your Brain on Music. In particular, I was interested to learn of the ten-thousand hours theory of mastery...that it takes that long to become "world class" at something.

The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert--in anything. In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes again and again. Ten thousand hours is equivalent to roughly three hours a day, or twenty hours a week, of practice over ten years. Of course, this doesn't address why some people don't seem to get anywhere when they practice, and why some people get more out of their practice sessions than others. But no one has yet fond a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.

Of course, my question is, how long does it take to become "pretty good"?

And, after searching Google, I see I'm pretty late to this party; there are further discussions in the context of game development, and personal productivity.

Tiny Computers from Logic Supply

I'm testing a tiny computer from Logic Supply It has the following specs:

Intel Celeron M440 (Yonah) with a Front-side bus of 533Mhz
1 gig of memory
A 2.5" Hitachi hard disk 5400 rpm
Panasonic DVD/CD reader
No OS
Build and test for additional $45.00

The case is about 7" x 7" and maybe 1.5 inches tall.

Total price is $661 before tax.

They gave me an awesome tour of the assembly plant. Dozens of these little guys being assembled, tested and burned in.

The one caveat that I would bear in mind is that the ones without fans can run hot...really hot, like hard to hold your hand on to them hot. This was the case at least when they were running the test program which exercises the processor.

I ordered mine with a fan; and the noise is acceptable, just a low swoosh (so far).

It came without an OS, so I'm installing Vista just for grins.

So far the buying experience has been terrific. They are really helpful on the phone. They specialize in small machines using mini-ITX motherboards using either Intel, AMD or Via systems. This unit is a candidate platform for our embedded application, and a successor to our beloved Pundit pizza-box sized system.

Alan Weiss on Fundraising

I love it when the development directors complain at board meetings that it’s so hard to raise funds in this economy, that government is cutting back, that corporate giving is down, that the board members have to make up the difference. It seems that when times are bad, it’s the fates, not them; when times are good, they are geniuses, it’s not the rising tide. Isn’t it marvelous when it’s never your fault, and always your credit?

If you’re charged with raising money and you’re too self-absorbed to bother to learn what passions and goals other people have, to engage them in your cause, to demonstrate how their self-interest is met by contributing, then you ought to be in another line of work, and stop taking up money and space at an organization which needs better social skills and business acumen.

Full posting located here.

Grantsmanship Training Program Boston: 3/17-21

More Grantsmanship! The full notice posted below:

The Grantsmanship Center’s signature Grantsmanship Training Program is coming to Boston, Massachusetts, March 17-21, 2008. The program will be hosted by Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD).

The Grantsmanship Training Program is a comprehensive, hands-on workshop that covers the complete grant development process, from researching funding sources to writing and reviewing grant proposals. More than 100,000 nonprofit and government personnel have attended this fast-paced, five-day workshop, which is followed with a full year of membership support services.

During this workshop, participants learn The Grantsmanship Center’s proposal-writing format, the most widely used in the world. In addition to practicing advanced techniques for pursuing government, foundation, and corporate grants, participants work in small teams to develop and then review real grant proposals.

Participants exit the class equipped with new skills, new professional connections, and follow-up support services for one year, including professional proposal review, access to The Grantsmanship Center’s exclusive online funding databases, and an array of other benefits. Many also leave with proposals that are ready to polish and submit.

Tuition for the Grantsmanship Training Program is $875 ($825 for each additional registrant from the same organization).

To ensure personalized attention, class size is limited to 30 participants. To register online, to learn about scholarship opportunities for qualifying organizations, or for more information, visit http://www.tgci.com/gtptraining.shtml. Or call The Grantsmanship Center’s Registrar at (800) 421-9512.

If you’re wondering why the Grantsmanship Training Program is five days (when other grantwriting classes are shorter)…

· The Grantsmanship Training Program is not a quick overview of “grantwriting.”

· The Grantsmanship Training Program is an intensive, small-group, total-immersion workshop that covers funding research, program planning and proposal writing.

· By integrating program planning into our curriculum when we first created grantsmanship training, The Grantsmanship Center anticipated the increased demand by grantmakers for more accountability, smarter programming, and a stronger, more demonstrable return on granted funds.

· Grantsmanship Training Program participants prepare and critique real grant proposals under expert guidance during the class.

· You can’t get this quality of in-depth training, personal attention and hands-on experience in a two-, three- or even a four-day workshop!

Introduction: February 1, 2008

Welcome to Tech for Non-Profits, the unplugged version of Microdesign Consulting. Part lab-notebook, part brain-extension, it is a repository for new and half-baked ideas and projects that we run across as we provide software and database development, network support, and R&D for a growing list of clients in education, health care and non-profit organizations.  

In recent weeks I have been working both with and as part of several non-profit projects. We are evaluating the results of our highly successful Creative/Tech Career Jam. and working on a new NSF grant application, the ITEST. We're also operating under our Phase II SBIR grant, performing our R&D project related to telemedicine in home.   

Comments to the posts are welcome and encouraged. They are moderated, but appropriate and useful comments should appear shortly after you contribute them.  

Install Vista on a MacBook

Here is an illustrated walkthrough of an installation of Windows Vista on a Mac running the virtualization software Parallels. 

 

There is a bit of a saga here; I was resisting installing Windows on my Macbook but I finally decided I couldn't live without Microsoft OneNote, the note-taking software which comes with Microsoft Office 2007. (and version 2003, BTW).  I found that that the Mac version of office called something like Mac Office 2008 does not include a version of OneNote, so I took myself off to the handy-dandy computer depot at the university, got Parallels for about $79.00 and Windows for an academic price of about $15.00.  However, they've been told no more Windows XP, they'll only sell Windows Vista.  

They also recommended 4 gigs of RAM; I've got 2, so we'll see how it runs, and then if I need to upgrade I'll probably do that through Crucial.  So now I have the OneNote trial running on Vista in a Parallel's virtual machine.  Of interest will be seeing how this will eventually synchronize with my master OneNote file.  All that depends on  how the Windows network will work through Parallels.