crackpot [dot] ws

So you’re ready to commit full time to Linux, and you’re wondering what distribution to use. If you’re like most users then you want something that is simple, yet powerful, and backed up by a team of developers who are committed to quality releases. Allow me to introduce you to Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a Linux distribution based on Debian, and the name “Ubuntu” is an African word meaning “Humanity to others”, or “I am what I am because of who we all are”. The current release is version 9.04 (9 for 2009, 04 for the 4th month of the year), code named Jaunty Jackalope, and each release is on a release cycle that has been maintained since its initial release.

So why use Ubuntu? Well quite simply, it works! When you’re finished installing Ubuntu, a full installation takes about 25 minutes, it is ready to go. There’s not really any tweaking that needs to be done in order to get everything working like with other distros. You will most likely have to change a few settings here and there to tweak things to your liking, but that’s true with any operating system. Obviously your individual results will vary based on your particular system setup, but generally things are smooth.

Okay, so you’re ready to go. Head on over to Ubuntu’s website and download the ISO image of the installation you choose. Please be mindful of the 32 and 64-bit versions, 64-bit will not work on all systems. Then burn the image to a CD-ROM using Nero, or my personal favorite Alcohol 120%. Once that’s done then restart your computer and make sure your BIOS is set to boot from the CD-ROM. I am not going to go into in depth instructions on how to install Ubuntu, their installation instructions are pretty straight forward and do most of the work for you.

What I will talk about is deciding which Bootloader to use. Ubuntu comes bundled with GNU Grub aka Grub or Grand Unified Bootloader, and it works really well. When Ubuntu installs itself it will automatically install Grub to the MBR, as well as search your hard drives for other OS installations and add them to /boot/grub/menu.lst. For most purposes this will work just fine, and your two operating systems will live happily with each other. By the way, when doing a dual-boot system involving Vista, I would always recommend that you install Vista first, and try to have Vista on the first partition that your BIOS sees. Read more…

New in this release is the addition of the armory and guild modules. They will display a tooltip based on character/guild information from WoW’s Armory.

The backbone for the armory and guild modules is based on code from WoW Armory Tooltips. The code is heavily modified to update for armory changes, as well as modifications so that it will integrate into the script seamlessly.

Any bugs you found can be posted here or by e-mailing me.

You can download the latest version here for the universal parser, or here for the Joomla parser.

For full details go here.

The former host of TechTV’s The Screen Savers has a USTREAM feed where he talks about all things technology. Check it out below.

This release fixes a couple of issues discussed here as well as some minor tweaks to the overall code. You can download it here.

As some of you may know I am the developer of a PHP class that will turn BBCode tags into links that Wowhead’s power.js can use to generate a tooltip.  It has been in development for over a year, and has become quite popular.  The script itself has its own website located here.  It is based off of ItemStats, except that it does much more than ItemStats ever did.  Read below for more features.

• Supports items, item icons, quests, spells, achievements, NPC’s, itemsets, craftable items (displays reagents), and profiles from Wowhead.
• Supports all languages currently supported by Wowhead (English, French, German, Spanish, and Russian).
• Support for PHP version 4.x and 5.x.
• Uses a MySQL database to avoid long page load times and excessive queries to Wowhead.
• Armory tooltips are currently in beta release.
• Guild tooltips (grabbed from the armory) coming soon as well.
• Forums/CMS supported:
  • phpBB 3.x
  • Board3 phpBB3 Portal
  • phpBB3 Portal
  • SMF (Simple Machines Forum) v1.x
  • Joomla! 1.x via a custom plugin.
  • PHP Fusion v7
  • PHP Nuke v8
  • WikkaWiki
  • Wordpress via a custom plugin
  • If you would like a different implementation please e-mail me.

To learn more about the script head over to its site.

Welcome to the new home for crackpot.us.  Due to financial circumstances I was unable to renew crackpot.us when it came up for renewal and it was then purchased by a holding company.  Therefore, given the new domain I figured that it was time for a new design.  To save myself the hassle of redesigning the site and all that comes with it, I have decided to use Wordpress for my CMS.  Let me know what you think about the design.

Later guys,

craCkpot