If you’re not familiar with installing and running Windows applications on Linux with the Wine, here are the steps on Ubuntu.

1. Install the wine package via Synaptic
2. Download the Windows installer from scratch.mit.edu/download to your Desktop
3. Open a terminal window and run the command: wine Desktop/ScratchInstaller*
   • Assumes you’re working from your home directory and you downloaded the installer to your Ubuntu Desktop
4. From here, the Scratch installer looks just like it down on Windows - follow the defaults.
5. Double click the Scratch icon on your Ubuntu desktop to open Scratch.

Now, go make the cat dance.

My Story

Many of my customers spend hundreds of dollars a day in pay per click advertising and rely on their web sites to generate sales leads. If their web site goes down, we don’t want to pay for traffic to a dead site, and we’re missing out on leads. So we need to pause our adwords buy and get the site back up as soon as possible, which means we need to know it’s down. I monitor with Zenoss Core and the check_http plugin so that I can be alerted when problems arise.

I have one web site with a historical outage problem and Zenoss provides me with the data to know the site goes up and down frequently. Most outages occur at non-peak times and for short intervals, but recently it went down during business hours.

By the time my customer called to tell me the site was down, I had known for five minutes, and I was able to say, “I know. We’re looking into it.” My next move was to pause our Google Adwords. When the site came back up 35 minutes later, we returned to business as usual.

I also collect performance data on my web sites so I can track load times for sites over time as well as load times for different hosts.

——–
I cover the check_http plugin in my book Zenoss Core: Network and System Monitoring.

Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design.

At 8 months, drool is the only language my son can program, but I have some kids in the extended family who I think might benefit from the access to the learning skills and technology available in the Scratch. The drag-n-drop scripts make building animations and games a snap, the software ships several sample projects that can be remixed as needed.

Check it out. I’m sure I’ll be writing more about Scratch in the coming year.

• User Management at Packt
• Device Management at Scribd

The Zenoss Blog lists several delightfully positive reviews. To read my own thoughts on the book and to find purchase information, click here.

Check out the conferences below and let me know if you’re in the Williamsport, PA area (e.g., Lycoming, Union, Northumberland, and Synder counties) and want to make the trip.

Central Pennsylvania Open Source Conference

I was surfing for some information about local events and stubmled on the Central Pennsylvania Open Source Conference in Harrisburg, PA. This is the first year for the conference and no real details are available yet.

This is a totally awesome reason to have a conference. From the CPOSC blog:

As members of various open source related organizations in the area (including CPLUG & CP.rb) we realized that there is a wealth of talent and knowledge just waiting for a venue in which it can be shared. So the idea of CPOSC was born. A time and place where people with a desire to gain knowledge and people with a desire to share knowledge can meet.

Ohio Linux Fest 2008

This will be the sixth annual Ohio Linux Fest, but 2007 was the first year I attended. I took the plunge and drove 400 miles to surround myself with geeks and meet up with some long lost friends.

Mark the calendars for October 11.

The dip is the obstacle (bureaucracy, busywork, fake requirements, etc.) that stands in the way of success. Decide whether it’s worth your time to bust the obstacles or redirect your passion somewhere else.

My favorite quote from the book comes from a Hugh MacLeod illustration. “Only talented people fret about mediocrity.”

An quick, recommended read for anyone feeling stuck.

How Do You Install Linux Applications? by Jason Brooks. A short, insightful post about how easy installing packages is with Ubuntu. Add/Remove programs - who’d have thunk it. (via a sarcastic but fun post from DesktopLinux.com)

2008: The eBook Goes Mainstream. Here’s a thoughtful post from Kassia Krozser from Booksquare on ebooks.

The first step to understanding is ebooks is the realization that this is the modern world: you do not have to have an either/or mentality. If you like your books in print format, buy and read your books in print format. If you like your books in electronic format, ditto.

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English.

Not only does loremipsum.com provide an informatitive background about the origins and uses of the placeholder text commonly used in many publishing programs, it provides a web based generator. Generating incomprehensible text has never been easier. If you’re a Firefox user, you can install the Dummy Lipsum Generator plugin. To install the Firefox plugin, click here.

Generate Lorem Ipsum text

It couldn’t be simpler. From the Tools menu in Firefox, click Dummy Lipsum Generator. From the Dummy Lipsum Generator, select the amount of text you want measured in paragraphs, words, lists, or bytes. Generate. Copy to Clipboard. Paste into your form.

Since I commonly test the character limits on the form, I generate 501 bytes of text to test the validation on a 500 character limit of form. Better yet, I’ll never be a loss for words again.

Blogs and Self Promotion by Seth Godin.

The truism of the web: people talking about you is far more effective than talking about yourself.

—

What’s Your Credit Score by Mike Kelly.

As a tester, many times your effectiveness is relative to your current credit rating. Much like buying a house, even if you have the right information at the right time, you may be overlooked or have to go through a difficult process because of past mistakes or oversights.

Have you ever sent an old computer or electronic device to the landfill to be buried and forgotten? If we be honest with each other, most of us have sent our e-waste to the dump for one reason or another.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, approximately four percent of all solid waste is e-waste, which includes computers, printers, cell phones, TVs, and monitors.

“The CRT [cathode ray tube] monitors are really dangerous,” warns Conor Quinlan, CEO of MePush Technology Solutions. The glass in the older CRT monitors contain large amounts of lead. “The LCD [flat screen] monitors are better.”

The EPA believes our discarded electronics account for as much as 40% of the lead found in landfills. Other toxins include mercury and cadmium. Batteries, cell phones, and the circuit boards inside your computer introduce mercury into the landfill. The semiconductors and the resistors on circuit boards contain cadmium.

These chemicals from the electronics leach from the landfill and contaminate our food, water, and air sources. The best way to prevent contamination is to dispose of your e-waste in a responsible manner, or as Quinlan says, “Be mindful of what you’re doing.”

You do not need to have a radical agenda to care about how you impact the environment. MePush offers technology recycling services to clients. “We try to be as green as we can be,” says Mr. Quinlan.

Often Quinlan’s clients do not want their old printers and computers, so he offers technology recycling as a value added service. If you just call him up and say come get this old computer, he charges a $30 fee.

What does Quinlan do with the computers he recovers? Often, the parts from several older computers can be combined to form one better system. He has given several computers new life by donating them to local non-profit organizations.

Individual parts from the recovered computers can be reused or resold on eBay. The sales from boxed lots of spare parts can sometimes be enough to pay for Quinlan’s Internet access. After the parts are stripped, the plastic and metal cases can be recycled.

The parts Quinlan cannot use in normal operations sit in a corner until he finds a qualified recycling company to take them. The emphasis is on qualified because unscrupulous recyclers ship their e-waste out of the country for disposal or toss it in the landfill after they harvest any reusable parts. The problem Quinlan has with finding someone to take his stack of miscellaneous components is that he does not have enough to warrant pick up from a larger recycling company.

Recently, Staples, Inc. became the first retail store to announce a nationwide technology recycling program. Craig Miller, General Manager of the Lewisburg Staples, says, “we accept the technology we sell, which consists of used office equipment.” Used office items include PCs, monitors, faxes, laptops, and all-in-ones. They do not accept televisions or copiers.

Since the Staples recycling program began in mid-May, Miller reports “the store averages between five and ten recycles a week. The program becomes more popular as the word spreads.” Consumers who are concerned with being green are willing to pay Staples the $10 per piece for the proper disposable of their used technology, Mr. Miller points out. Keyboards, mice, and speakers are free.

The collected e-waste gets tossed in a cardboard box in the back of the store and waits for a third-party company to pick it up. The recycler breaks the e-waste down into its reusable metals, plastics, and components for further recycling. According to Miller, Staples does not currently accept individual system components, such as motherboards, graphic cards, or hard disks.

The technology recycling program at Staples builds on a successful ink cartridge recycling program. According to Miller, the Lewisburg store “takes in several hundred ink cartridges a week.” In exchange for your ink or toner cartridge, Staples offers $3 off the purchase of a Dell, HP, or Lexmark cartridge.

Reusing and recycling are important ways for consumers and companies to dispose of used electronics, but as consumers, we can extend the life of our computers by making better purchasing decisions. When you buy a new computer, Quinlan offers the following advice to help you extend the life of the computer and reduce your e-waste.

“Don’t buy bottom-of-the-barrel systems.” These are the $500 economy systems. Mr. points out they often do not last through the first year of use, which is one reason he does not sell them.

“Get the warranty,” is Quinlan’s next piece of advice. The extended warranty ensures you have a working computer for as many as three years, and if you opt for next business day service, the repair technician comes to you.

If you use a laptop, Quinlan suggests accidental damage insurance from the computer manufacturer. Obviously, when you take your computer on the go, you will drop it. The screens are fragile and expensive to replace without a warranty.

The recycling mantra is reduce, reuse, and recycle. As industry and individual become more green, recycling e-waste will be easier.