I’ve tried it already under Windows, but as my main OS is Debian, I can’t use it

You can sign up for updates on Linux version.

After reading the Google Chrome book, it is a long time waiting for it to be released for Linux….

Also, I’m looking forward for the plugins to enhance Chrome. Although it did import my settings/passwords(?!)/bookmarks from Firefox, but it has no Foxmarks, AdBlock and some other goodies I’m now used to on all the computers I regularly use.

When right-clicking many links in FF3/IW3, it quite often happens so that a random action is performed instead of opening the context menu (bug report).

One of the solutions work-arounds (suggested by Andre Pirard) is to slow-right-click, that is to hold the right mouse button down until the menu actually appears, then - and only then - release it. Or, you can even slow-right-click, move the pointer over the desired menu item, and then release - that will perform the desired action in a single long right click (instead of more common single right click with a following single left click.)

This bug/behaviour is otherwise unsolved.

For some reason, my IW 3 is now starting in Offline mode each time, despite my attempts to remove that checkbox every time.

Little research had shown that the simplest solution is to disable FireFox’s/IceWeasel’s feature to auto-detect if Internet connection is available: go to about:config, find browser.offline-apps.notify and set it to false. After this, FireFox/IceWeasel 3 will no longer try to check if you have Internet connection.

However, this is not a good solution, because auto-detection generally improves user experience (e.g. by automatically using cached page versions for tabs open at startup). The actual reason (in many cases) is the network detection by the NetworkManager - it reports “no connection” although connection is present (bug report).

The simple solution is to remove NetworkManager.

Another simple solution (without removing NetworkManager) is to disallow NetworkManager to notify other desktop application about the presence of the internet connection (slightly edited):

Open the terminal/konsole (Applications–>Accessories—>Terminal), and type gksudo gedit /etc/dbus-1/system.d/NetworkManager.conf (note: path might differ for your Linux distribution - try locate NetworkManager.conf). Then replace all lines

< allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager"/ >
with
< deny send_interface="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager"/ >

Save the changes and either reboot or just stop/kill/restart the running instance of NetworkManager. This change will stop NetworkManager from notifying FireFox/IceWeasel and other desktop applications about the presence/absence of internet connection - and FireFox will no longer start in Offline mode.

(Thanks Nikitas350 from Ubuntu forums for this fix.)

Personally, I did what Nikitas350 suggested, and also removed the networkmanager-gnome package - I’m still able to add networkmanager-kde monitor to Gnome panel, if I want to (and for me, networkmanager-kde works properly).

The even better solution would be to make NetworkManager detect the availability of connection properly. However, I did not dig deep enough to find how to do that - comments and better solutions are welcome.

One of the more complicated solutions (and still not a perfect one) was also found at Ubuntu forums (slightly edited for contextual clarity):

I am using USB modem to connect to internet and the Offline mode issue was also bothering me after upgrading to Firefox 3.

The solution I have found was: disable Network Applet from System -> Preferences -> Sessions, and add the following lines to the file “/etc/network/interfaces”:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

Thus, I guess, Firefox believes that eth0 (i.e. ethernet card) is active, although Internet connection is established via ppp0 (i.e. USB modem).

Simplest way to develop your custom Drupal theme is to start with some skeleton/wireframe theme.

In this post, I’m briefly reviewing 4 themes (atck, blueprint, framework, and zen), made specifically to serve as theme developer’s starting point. All 4 are listed with their features (as per Drupal project page of each one), with my personal “impressions” (not based on actual use experience, yet). There’s also my choice and order of preference for the 4 candidates at the end.
Read the rest of this entry »

Simplest way to develop your custom Drupal theme is to start with some skeleton/wireframe theme.

In this post, I’m briefly reviewing 4 themes (atck, blueprint, framework, and zen), made specifically to serve as theme developer’s starting point. All 4 are listed with their features (as per Drupal project page of each one), with my personal “impressions” (not based on actual use experience, yet). There’s also my choice and order of preference for the 4 candidates at the end.
Read the rest of this entry »

When either consulting on a new website design, or actually designing one, keep in mind Ad Unit Guidelines if the website is going to use advertising. The list is far not exhaustive, but sufficiently standard.

Personal communication resulted in a link to slicehost, who provide VDS/VPS services at prices as low as 20$/mo, which is comparable in price to good shared hosting plans, and is cheaper than Dedicated plans.

I’m considering a move from shared hosting, and found Slicehost attractive. For 20$/mo, you get guaranteed 256MiB RAM, 10GiB disk and 100GiB traffic, which is sufficient to host several under-1k-per-day sites.

The only thing which isn’t spoken aloud is the guaranteed CPU speed. Based on the numbers provided: 16GiB total RAM per server, quad-core CPU, and CPU quotas set equivalently to RAM quotas, I came to a conclusion that 20$-plan guarantees ~125MHz of CPU (take 16 GiB, multiply by 4 20$-plans - you get 64 “slices” - virtual servers; quad core CPUs were quoted as 8+GHz - I assume that’s the sum of the core frequencies, thus 8GHz divided by 64 slices gives as little as 125MHz guaranteed per slice).

The better slice you buy - the more CPU is guaranteed, so for 1024-RAM slice you’d have a minimum of 500MHz of CPU.

However, slicehost describes their CPU-clamping system as the one allowing “bursted” performance, if others aren’t actively using their CPU shares. So it must be much better than what I’m calculating here. And even if it’s not, then for some applications it’s better to have a 125MHz-clamp on CPU, than have a 20-seconds maximal CPU time limit.

Still, I’m looking for reasonably-priced collocation services in Ukraine - e.g. those (currently unavailable) from Volia, starting at 40$/mo for the rented physical VIA C7-based server with enough traffic included.

With this post, I’m finally announcing the opening of the (mostly) functional COTRASIF web-tool, created for the genome-wide identification of promoter regulatory sequences (transcription factor binding sits, TFBS). You can learn more from the About and Help pages. For an example of use, see the Supplement page (article is currently being prepared; as soon as it’s ready, I’ll make it available).

If you are interested - have a look at the News page, where there is information on joining COTRASIF Google group. For non-public enquiries, please use my contact page.

Note: the problem of identifying eukaryotic transcription factor binding sites stays acute for many years in a row - see e.g. the most recent Eukaryotic transcription factor binding sites - modelling and integrative search methods.

Some things to be aware of when enhancing Drupal site with FLV video playing/conversion features.

• Setup wizard for the free JW FLV Media Player (and the JW FLV Media Player itself)
• Flash Video in Drupal 5: A complete multimedia tutorial to the flashvideo module
• actual flashvideo module page on drupal.org

Some things to be aware of when enhancing Drupal site with FLV video playing/conversion features.

• Setup wizard for the free JW FLV Media Player (and the JW FLV Media Player itself)
• Flash Video in Drupal 5: A complete multimedia tutorial to the flashvideo module
• actual flashvideo module page on drupal.org

Some things to be aware of when enhancing Drupal site with FLV video playing/conversion features.

• Setup wizard for the free JW FLV Media Player (and the JW FLV Media Player itself)
• Flash Video in Drupal 5: A complete multimedia tutorial to the flashvideo module
• actual flashvideo module page on drupal.org

NicEdit - lightweight inline configurable rich-text editor for the web. Can fit where both FCKEditor and TinyMCE are too clunky and monstrous.

As an update to WordPress anti-spam plugins, I highly recommend Spam Karma 2. For a time, it seems to be the ultimate protection. I turned off all the other anti-spam plugins (including Aksimet), and everything’s just perfect! SK2 gathers up to a thousand spam comments/trackbacks during a single week on this blog, and I never had a complaint from blog visitors on their inability to add a comment (though some did have to fill in captcha to post a comment with links).

And SK2 still works under WP 2.5! (SK 2.3 was released to support WP 2.1)

Kudos to Dave!

It would be a pity if this excellent plugin is abandoned and stops functioning in one of the upcoming WP releases.

Update: SpamKarma is now GPL (at google code).

As an update to WordPress anti-spam plugins, I highly recommend Spam Karma 2. For a time, it seems to be the ultimate protection. I turned off all the other anti-spam plugins (including Aksimet), and everything’s just perfect! SK2 gathers up to a thousand spam comments/trackbacks during a single week on this blog, and I never had a complaint from blog visitors on their inability to add a comment (though some did have to fill in captcha to post a comment with links).

And SK2 still works under WP 2.5! (SK 2.3 was released to support WP 2.1)

Kudos to Dave!

It would be a pity if this excellent plugin is abandoned and stops functioning in one of the upcoming WP releases.

Update: SpamKarma is now GPL (at google code).

As an update to WordPress anti-spam plugins, I highly recommend Spam Karma 2. For a time, it seems to be the ultimate protection. I turned off all the other anti-spam plugins (including Aksimet), and everything’s just perfect! SK2 gathers up to a thousand spam comments/trackbacks during a single week on this blog, and I never had a complaint from blog visitors on their inability to add a comment (though some did have to fill in captcha to post a comment with links).

And SK2 still works under WP 2.5! (SK 2.3 was released to support WP 2.1)

Kudos to Dave!

It would be a pity if this excellent plugin is abandoned and stops functioning in one of the upcoming WP releases.

Update: SpamKarma is now GPL (at google code).

This post provides several links which would be useful for the beginning Drupal developers, or developers deciding which CMS to use as the base for their next project. Also, strengths of Drupal are highlighted.

Intensively working with Drupal during the past two weeks, I find it to be an excellent tool, and also much more than a YACMS.

Now I think that Drupal is also a framework - providing invisible to developer caching, session handling, access control, theming, localization, and more. The minimal effort required to extend already huge Drupal functionality is to write your own module - and, if done right, your module will immediately benefit from all the bonuses Drupal provides.

But Drupal also really shines as a CMS! You can start with a free design theme, and without any PHP knowledge have your custom portal built within a week - with your own hands, if you desire! (Note: “within a week” is true, but only if you already know what exactly you should be doing; learning time is short, but it’s not within that same week.)

What makes Drupal so powerful? I’d say that beautiful core and numerous modules.

What Drupal has to offer?
Read the rest of this entry »

This post provides several links which would be useful for the beginning Drupal developers, or developers deciding which CMS to use as the base for their next project. Also, strengths of Drupal are highlighted.

Intensively working with Drupal during the past two weeks, I find it to be an excellent tool, and also much more than a YACMS.

Now I think that Drupal is also a framework - providing invisible to developer caching, session handling, access control, theming, localization, and more. The minimal effort required to extend already huge Drupal functionality is to write your own module - and, if done right, your module will immediately benefit from all the bonuses Drupal provides.

But Drupal also really shines as a CMS! You can start with a free design theme, and without any PHP knowledge have your custom portal built within a week - with your own hands, if you desire! (Note: “within a week” is true, but only if you already know what exactly you should be doing; learning time is short, but it’s not within that same week.)

What makes Drupal so powerful? I’d say that beautiful core and numerous modules.

What Drupal has to offer?
Read the rest of this entry »

This post provides several links which would be useful for the beginning Drupal developers, or developers deciding which CMS to use as the base for their next project. Also, strengths of Drupal are highlighted.

Intensively working with Drupal during the past two weeks, I find it to be an excellent tool, and also much more than a YACMS.

Now I think that Drupal is also a framework - providing invisible to developer caching, session handling, access control, theming, localization, and more. The minimal effort required to extend already huge Drupal functionality is to write your own module - and, if done right, your module will immediately benefit from all the bonuses Drupal provides.

But Drupal also really shines as a CMS! You can start with a free design theme, and without any PHP knowledge have your custom portal built within a week - with your own hands, if you desire! (Note: “within a week” is true, but only if you already know what exactly you should be doing; learning time is short, but it’s not within that same week.)

What makes Drupal so powerful? I’d say that beautiful core and numerous modules.

What Drupal has to offer?
Read the rest of this entry »

I have just joined AN Hosting Affiliate Program - you can tell by the new link in Web Hosting section in the right sidebar, and by the real huge banner on the blog hosting page (so huge actually that it won’t fit completely with smaller resolutions like 1024×768 and less). I do not yet know if this affiliate program is worth the trouble, but I did find good feedback for their hosting on Drupal forums (here and here and search for more), so that really was the initial reason to put the links to them.

I would be interested in AN Hosting feedback, as I do plan to try their services one day.

P.S. A Small orange (direct link) also has lots of positive feedback.

Is that only me, or WordPress is really leaning towards the Drupal ideology?

Here’s what I mean:

• user levels were changed to user roles - just like in Drupal
• now, instead of categories and just recently introduced tags, the word ‘taxonomy’ is used - which is a Drupal slang
• ‘widgets’ work just like ‘blocks’ in Drupal - even style IDs are assigned the same way, e.g. id=”widget subscribe_to_comments_widget”
• (add here the similarity you found yourself)

I wonder, what will be next. PHPTemplate support, as default theming engine?
Or no-backwards-compatibility policy?
Or, best for WP users, advanced Drupal-like caching and throttling techniques?