Allow me to rant before I get to the actual content of this post (if you prefer not to read it, skip right ahead to steps on solving the problem):

<rant>

My foray into the world of Ubuntu since installing it in my Acer Aspire One did not come smoothly.

No, I’m not talking about its installation, which was a breeze. Nor was it about hardware compatibility; the Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) distribution made sure that all my hardware worked immediately.

My actual challenge was to choose the right software that would fit my needs, and they were many! Holy cow, if I knew how many free software was out there for Linux, I would have switched sooner!

My main chagrin about a few of these software is its user-friendliness, not in terms of software usability, but in terms of documentation.

Take, for example, getting KompoZer to open PHP files. I did the usual configuration of having all files with the .php extension to open with KompoZer, but KompoZer defiantly denies it and kept prompting me to select a different program (you know, the equivalent of Open With… in Windows).

I found that the KompoZer extension called HandCoder would do the trick; all I needed to do was to download HandCoder from its site and add it via KompoZer’s addon manager.

The problem was… there was no fracking download link! Instead, there was only one link with the word “download”, which points to HTML Tidy, which I was not interested at all. I was hard-pressed to find the place to download it, only to find hours later (through a very short description somewhere within the page of some other KompoZer / Nvu extension description) that there is actually a link there, although not very obvious. Alright, I better stop ranting or else I won’t be able to finish this blog post.

</rant>

To open PHP files in KompoZer for Ubuntu, follow these steps:

1. In the Files and Folders view, right-click on any PHP file.
2. Select Open With / KompoZer. Or, if you don’t see KompoZer listed, go to Other Application and browse to /usr/bin/kompozer.

   

3. Visit the HandCoder website, and click on one of the flags (based on your language preference) to download the XPI file (or just click here to start the download). Click on the flag to download — hah, who freaking knew?! Remember where you save it.

   

4. Open KompoZer. In the menu, select Tools / Add-ons.
5. In the the Add-ons window, click the Install button on the bottom.
6. Navigate to the location in your computer where you saved it, select the HandCoder XPI file, and click the Open button.

   

7. Once you see HandCoder listed under the Extensions section, close the KompoZer program and reopen KompoZer again.

You should now be able to open PHP files with Kompozer in Ubuntu.

I’ve tried to quit paid postings for quite some time now. However, I realized that paid-to-posts are a blogger’s answer to quick money, and the temptation to fund my sudden shopping splurges get the best of me at times. So, I succumbed to several paid posts, which I would receive by the end of the week and nicely be more enough for me to have my lunches at fancy restaurants for a week or two.

After going through my other online income sources for last month, I finally decided to put my foot down and stop paid posting programs for good. It’s a liberating decision, because finally I don’t have to work so hard to earn money online. My sudden repulsion to go online while I’m pregnant certainly wouldn’t help if I rely solely on paid posts.

Of all my online earnings, paid to post programs are the only online revenue streams that constantly need my effort and time. The rest are all passive income. I’m so glad that AdSense, Chitika and TextLinkAds are working out for me; these programs have really spoilt me. I love passive income!

I’m glad I’m so good at organizing my posts with paid links, so cleaning out those pages were easy peasy. So, don’t expect to see anymore of my paid posts here.

Since last night, I’ve been busy uploading and tagging, tagging and uploading photos and videos of this year’s fine Sabah Bloggers Gathering. Seriously, I don’t know where to begin, so I’m just gonna do my story-telling in bullet-form. But before that, here’s how I looked like.

I am Soulja Grrrl. Get it? *ROFLs to self*… Dressed to kill, coz I’m a mean grrrl. And playing too much Half-Life: Counterstrike will do this to you. I also made it a point to have an “official” pose to make things more tacky, like so.

• Enemy spotted! The first costumed guest I saw as I went out the elevator was a Japanese-uniformed dude. And he had no weapon! Dead meat
• My action plan was to get to know as many people as I could, under the pretense that I wanna take pictures of each and everyone who came to the gathering. AND EVERYONE FELL FOR IT! MUAHAHAHAHAHAH! Seriously, though, everyone was so cool, and you can count only a handful out of more than 100 guests didn’t come with costumes. I really enjoyed taking pictures of and with everyone. You peeps really rocked the house!
• The Allies ruled! It was three Allied US Army soldiers versus one Japanese Axis soldier sans ammo. But I’ll exclude the masked terrorists (you people know who you are). And luckily our War Correspondent was neutral, though he did don a US Army colour. Yeah, lucky Axis guy   The cool thing was us army troops – Charlie, Vera and I — were lounging together in the same table. That’s the spirit — stick together, team.

More photos!

Read the rest of this entry »

Honestly, I have no idea what to do with Twitter Lists as of this moment, but it’s nice to see that the option is made available for me to use once I figure it out. A post in Marketing Pilgrim suggested that it could be treated like a blogroll, i.e. collection of favourite Tweeters based on a theme. The trouble is, as pointed in another of their posts, having such lists will probably attract a bunch of whiners. For example, if you create a list of WordPress Experts and I don’t see my Twitter handle in that list, then doggone it I’m swearing you and your Twitter followers off to Twitter hell! It’s kind of in the same lines as people who whine that I’m not following you anymore coz you don’t follow me even though I’ve followed you and read your boring tweets for days and you still don’t care, nyeh nyeh boo hoo.

Yeah, whiners.

I created a list called Blogging Fu, just for the sake of it, although I have a feeling that I might be deleting that one soon. Since Twitter did say that I shouldn’t tweet about it yet, why bother having one?

I wonder if anyone of you reading this blog are seeing this option? Are you planning on using it, and how?

Oh em gee, Sabah Bloggers Gathering is barely a week away! What makes this year’s gathering special is that it’s held on Hallow’s Eve, and you bet everyone’s gonna get crazy with their costumes!

Speaking of costumes, the theme is suppose to be anything really freaky looking, but I’m not planning to dress like that. I worry that my kids may have nightmares when they see their mom dressing up as a boogie (wo)man. Therefore, I am dressing up as something else but no less grrrl-looking, and I’m keeping it to myself till that night comes.

The hot and hunky organizers are doing a great job, yet again. Venue will be the the scenic loft of the classy Imperial International Hotel, in the heart of Kota Kinabalu city. Local supremo guitarist Roger Wang, and Alvin from the Malaysian reality show group Infinatez will be joining the list of entertainers for the night’s show. And, will Nuffnang and our wonderful bloggers from Tawau make a surprise appearance?

So for those of you who are in Kota Kinabalu and would like to crash the party, entrance fee is just RM20 per head. If it’s anything like last year, get ready to delight yourself with some scrumptious food and gourmet/premium desserts! It’s so worth it just for the food itself!

I’m off to pick up my kids, and then do some costume shopping, see you all there!