Lawrence Poon

Since the release of Ubuntu 11.04, I had installed/upgraded four of my machines.
1. MSI Wind U100 (Originally running 10.10 32bit, upgraded to 11.04 32 bit).
2. HP DV6000 AMD Turion(tm) 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-58
(Originally running 10.10 64 bit, upgraded to 11.04 64 bit).
3. Samsung NF210 Samsung NF210 Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N550 @ 1.50GHz ( new installation 11.04 64 bit).
4. Dell Optiplex 780 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz (Originally running 10.10 64 bit, upgraded to 11.04 64 bit)

MSI Wind U100 was upgraded without any issues, it seems the machine runs faster.

Years ago I had built a small library system with PHP/MySQL/Apache/Linux for a local church. Barcode scanners are used to scan items. The librarians need to scan the item and then use a mouse to click on a button to submit a web form for processing. The process is working fine, except it is not convenient. Recently, I rewrite the system with an object oriented approach. At the same time, I use AJAX to trigger the form submission. The librarians are no longer to click on a submit button. Jquery has very good support for AJAX.

To further pursue my interest in generic object class (http://www.drupalschool.net/node/211), I simplify the codes and extend the functionality. I start using the generic object class in a small project, rebuilding a church library system. It turns out it is working well. If you find it useful, please feel free to use it.

Object.inc.php
<?php
class Object {

private $table;
private $field_names = array();

//Assume the primary key field name is 'id' (auto_increment field)
function __construct($id=0,$table){

$this->table = $table;

For some reasons I cannot install php-mcrypt by : yum install php-mcrypt.

I install php-mcrypt from REMI respository
rpm -Uvh http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/5/i386/epel-release-5-4.noarc...
rpm -Uvh http://rpms.famillecollet.com/enterprise/remi-release-5.rpm
yum --enablerepo=remi install php-mcrypt

My work computer, an old Intel Pentium 4 @ 3 gz with a medium tower case, was recently retired and replaced with a little better machine, Dell Optiplex 780, a Intel dual core2 with 4GB ram. My old computer was working fine except showing its old age, especially when running a guest Windows XP virtual machine.

Originally, I installed Fedora 14 on the new machine (Actually it is not completely new, I heard it is a surplus), the networking and video had given me problems, the network card does not start after rebooting and my dual monitors do not work properly too.

Purpose: To create a virtual machine from a new server and install Apache, PHP and MySQL onto the virtual machine.

Situation:

1. Onsite install Dom0 the operating system with core system files
2. Install domU remotely. To avoid firewall issues, the DomU installation files are from a NFS mount on Dom0
3. The server has more than one physical network interface
4. Dom0 and DomU are in different subnet

Preparation:
1. Download Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.6 iso file and burn onto a DVD
2. Create kickstart configuration files for both Dom0 and DomU

The International Semantic Web Conference 2010 will be in held Shanghai on 7 Nov - 11, I will be attending the event. http://iswc2010.semanticweb.org/
It is very interesting to know the development trend of Semantic Web as it has many facets of practical applications. How Semantic Web will affect e-learning? As an e-learning practitioner, how to prepare ourselves for the coming of Semantic Web.

Ubuntu 10.10 has just been released, I wiped out version 10.04 and installed onto my MSI Wind 100 (2GB RAM and 320GB hard drive). The installation process was very smooth, no issues at all. Re-booting after installation was complete, Ubuntu 10.10 gave me the login prompt in less than 40 seconds.
Wireless, Webcam and USB drive all work. Ubuntu 10.10 seems running faster than previous versions. It comes with OpenOffice 3.2.1 and Firefox 3.6.10.

Courier complaints message inproperly-formated,
1. vi /usr/lib/courier/etc/bofh
opt BOFHBADMIME=accept
2. Restart Courier
/usr/lib/courier/sbin/courier stop
/usr/lib/courier/sbin/courier start

It seems it is a rule when installing Linux onto netbook, wireless is not working out-of-box.
However, there is rescue. When I installed Fedora 13 32 bit on my MSI Wind 100, wireless is not working. After installing "kmod-staging",wireless is working again
kmod-staging-2.6.34.7-56.fc13.i686.PAE-2.6.34.2-1.fc13.6.i686
http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/updates/13/i386/repoview/inde...

Fedora 13 runs faster than previous versions on Wind U100.