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Sausage Sizzler - Home and Away |
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| Editorial February 20th, 2003 |
G'Day Sizzlers!
What a grueling trip this is turning out to be for me. I have
spoken at conference in Sydney (which I rated highly in!),
totalled my Dad's car giving myself whiplash, been detained by
the INS on trying to reenter the USA, and still my trip is not
over!
I missed an issue last week thanks to the lack of internet access
at my Sydney hotel. When I got back on Friday I figured it was
better just to skip a week and get ahead.
One interesting piece of news during the week was Google buying
Pyra Labs, makers of Blogger. I think the deal solidifies the
importance and value of the blogging community.
We have more great articles and opinions, so I will leave you to
it! Read, learn, then implement!
Keep on sizzling!
Nathan Allan
Sausage Sizzler Editor
editor@sausage.com
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HotDog - Working Hand-in-Hand With You
HotDog works well but works best when you make it fit like a
glove to the way you work. Do this by changing the preferences
menu:
From the HotDog menu, select:
Mouse Keyboard
Edit ALT-e
Preferences ALT-s
From the dialog box choose from the simple panels the items that
are going to make your life easier. Start off with the most
obvious ones and leave the rest. Don’t worry about making a
mistake; they can always be sorted out and the folks on the
Sizzler Forum’s will be there to guide and lend a hand. Of
immediate interest are the ‘General’, ‘Directories’ and
‘Dictionaries’ options. As your proficiency progresses the other
panels and options will make perfect sense and the glove will fit
even better.
Post your comments here:
http://www.sizzlerforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1360
HotDog Tip by Kevin Hannan
Little Green Footballs
http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/
Are you ready for some football!?
The title of this site may be a little misleading, because it has
nothing to do with football (or soccer for our non-American
subscribers). But on the bright side, it has everything to do
with web design.
It's actually a design company started by a pair of brothers who
really know their stuff. In the "our tools and skills" section
you can read about the design philosophies that have made them
successful, and what tools they use in their work. Their motto
is "Clarity of purpose leads to effective design," and this is
obvious when you look in their "portfolio" section. This
sampling gives you a nice taste of what they have to offer
businesses seeking their services, and maybe you can pick up a
little inspiration for those days when the ideas just won't flow.
My favorite part is the blog. First of all, it's a way to get a
little more personal with some fellow web designers, and read
their views on some of the more important issues facing us today.
Second, it's a great source of information. Along the right side
you'll find a huge list of publications, where you can read about
everything from art, to computer technology. You also get a list
of web sites dealing primarily with web design. Sites like W3C,
CGI Resource Index, WebMonkey, and many others that you'll
probably see reviewed by me in the weeks to come. Even you mac
addicts get a fix with a list of sites just for you.
The left side of the page holds some little treasures as well.
There are a few free scripts you can download for your own
personal use, some quick searches so you can check out all of
LGF's articles dealing with subjects like PHP, and a centralized
place to download Netscape, Mozilla, and Internet Explorer, if
you don't already have those. Maybe someday we won't have to
worry about the compatibility of our sites working on multiple
browsers. Ahh, we can dream.
So check it out, learn some new skills, and let me know what you
think. Throw me some feedback in the forums, and I'll see
you next week Sizzlers!
http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/
Post your comments here:
http://www.sizzlerforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1361
Site spidered by Orion Johnson
RPM Packges Part Two
Let me start out this weeks continuation of installing RPM packages with a little message to everyone. I would like to explain that the content in the section will vary from time to time. We may spotlight Linux information one week and Windows information the next week. I'm going to try to stay very unbiased but keep in mind that I write this section in my very limited free time so my ideas come for questions people ask me via e-mail or because I remember a cool switch while working on a server. I highlight Red Hat because right now that is what I use on my servers but I try to keep the information generic for Linux just as I would for Windows. I'm not interested in getting in a distribution war as there are many great Web sites that have written many more wonderful articles outlining the pros and cons of the different distributions. I also want to take one more second to remind you all about the forums. This is an excellent place to post more questions and get a lot more information that what I had space and time to write in the article. Now having said all this let's get back to what you really came here for.
Last week we went over some places to look for RPM packages and how to understand what you are looking at. This week we will be looking at the install process. I understand that Red Hat has a GUI interface that you can use to install packages but to stay universal (and because this is the true geek way to do things) I will be talking you through installing files from the terminal interface.
I'm going to assume that you know how to download RPM files and save them to a folder or CD. I'm also going to assume that you are familiar with FTP if that is how you want to access the install package.
The first step is to see if you already have that RPM package installed and you either just need to start the service or upgrade the package. If you wanted to know what version of the Linux kernel you had installed you would type "rpm -q kernel" (sans quotes) and you would get an output like "kernel-2.4.18-0.13" (sans quotes). This would be an instance where you would only want to upgrade the kernel. Let's say this was a graphics program and it came up not found. At this point you would want to do a clean install of the package. If you want a complete listing of your installed RPMs then you just need to type "rpm -qa | more" (sans quotes) and hit enter.
The command I use for a clean install is "rpm -ivh path-to-RPM-package" (sans quotes). Replace the path-to-RPM-package with the location your RPM package is located. If you are trying to run this from a CD then you may have to mount the drive with the "mount /mnt/cdrom" (sans quotes) command but if you have GNOME or KDE graphical desktops installed and running then your CD with be mounted automatically. The path to your CDROM would be /mnt/cdrom. Let me break down the -ivh switches for you so you understand why I use this combination. First, -i is the switch that tells RPM that this is an install. I could have used a -U in place of -i to perform and upgrade instead. The switch -v is to show verbose information such as progress messages and errors. The -h switch is to provide a hash line the works as a progress indicator. If you want to install a package that is available via FTP then put in the path to the FTP site in place of path-to-RPM-package. If the FTP site requires a username in password then you will need to type something like this, "ftp://USER:PASSWORD@HOST:PORT/path/to/package.rpm", (sans quotes) for the path. Fill in the appropriate areas of course.
For more information about RPMs just type "man RPM" and you will see a type of manual for the RPM command. In here you will see how you can use the -e switch to remove a package. Plus you will see much, much more that may help if you get stuck.
Now having said all this I will warn you that you need to be logged in with the root account to install an RPM package. I would, however, prefer that you us the use the su command to switch the the super user (root). At the terminal window before you perform the install type "su -" (sans quotes) and hit enter. You will be asked for the root password. Now you can perform functions as root. When you are done type "exit" (sans quotes) and hit enter.
Please feel free to continue this discussion in the Sizzler Forums under The Server Source. I'll be more than happy to answer questions or go into more detail if needed... I've just run out of space. Until next week.
Sourced by Brian Stevens
Here are some short and snappy tips for when space is limited in
Sizzler. You can choose to publish as many or few as you wish at
any one time or put in the 'bank'.
Tips & Tricks - Miscellany
If you like the look of a site, then select 'View' | 'Source'
from the Internet Explorer File Menu. Try not to copy the code to
avoid infringing copyright. Work out how it's done and then see
how you can do it better!
Many studies have shown that the average Internet user is very
impatient and only considers what they see immediately on the
screen before deciding to stay or move on. Make sure your first
page loads fast and the main key points are placed attractively
and prominently in the first screen to persuade the user to stay.
Funnily enough, white space is also a primary key design tip, so
don't cram everything in a small space!
If your web pages have forms consider how you might make it
easier for your user by allowing them to tab through the data /
input fields. Use the TABINDEX attribute in the <INPUT> tag to
specify the order which the user can move through the form when
the tab key is pressed - <input .... tabindex="5">. You can also
do this for links <a href .... tabindex="1"> which may make life
easier for those who find using a mouse difficult. For more help
on forms visit Sizzlers forum's at www.sizzlerforums.com created
by Sausage software specifically for web coders. While you're
there let us know if you have seen any excellent or ridiculous
forms on the 'net lately?
Never change the size of an image by altering the height and
width attributes of the <image> tag; the results are always poor
- change the size of the original image to suit instead. Use
Paint Shop Pro's 'Preview Image' option to decide on the clearest
and fastest format for your image.
Don't provide a link that leaves your site without advising the
user first. That way you will help keep your visitors by reducing
the possibility of confusion. You might consider launching the
external link in a new window; all you need to do is add the
target="blank" attribute to the <a href> tag -
<a href="http://www.externalsite.html" target="blank"> where
"externalsite.html" is the url link of the web page.
Post your comments here:
http://www.sizzlerforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1363
Tip by Kevin Hannan
To read the Sizzler Forums you do not need to be a member.
However to take full advantage of this resource it will only take
you a few seconds to sign up!
- Go to: http://www.sizzlerforums.com/
- Read the information and click on the REGISTER button
- Fill out the form
- You will receive an email that you simply reply to
- Hey presto! Your a fully fledged Sizzler Forums member!
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