Gizmo – A free phone for your computer

I tried Gizmo a few nights ago and it works really well! The conference feature could be invaluable for global groups who need to keep in touch.

I’m probably one of the few people in the world who hasn’t used Skype so I can’t compare yet. Skype does offer almost-worldwide calls at 2c/minute I think but for calling the US, Gizmo is better at 1c/minute!

Even better, just like Skype, Gizmo also runs on Linux!
(Edit: the url for this entry has been updated because when I copy/pasted the title I brought over a strange “-” character that the post slug didn’t like! You should be able to click this entry now!)

Matt in Blarney

Matt has been in Cork for the past few days and we’re catching up on WordPress stuff. After mentioning a local beverage, the discussion on his blog has centered around which is better, Guinness or Murphys! I don’t drink either so I’ll let that up to others!
He’s going home soon, but expect a podcast interview by Tom Raftery before the end of the week, and I’ll post a picture later today!

Here it is! A great photo taken by Jacinta outside Blarney Woollen Mills.

Later .. Matt is on his travels again and he’ll reach the US later today. He was a pleasure to have visit as he’s so easy going! The local B&B he stayed in, River Walk, is run by husband and wife, Eddie and Grace and they put on an early morning breakfast to prepare him for the day!

Apart from the B&B, Eddie runs a Bikecraft.ie where he runs motorcycle training courses!

WordPress guy, meet Microsoft guy

Jacinta and I met Tom Raftery, Robert and Maryam Scoble this wet and cold morning to do the tourist thing in Blarney! Robert and Maryam were really unlucky with the weather today but that didn’t dampen their mood!
Want to see a picture? I’ve posted a photo of us after coming down from the castle.

Everyone is in good health and the narrow steps of the castle failed to deter us from getting to the top! Robert, Tom and Maryam all kissed the Blarney Stone so as they have now been given the gift of the gab, expect a lot more to be said by them!

Upgrading to Ubuntu Breezy

I resisted for as long as possible, but I finally upgraded to Ubuntu Breezy.
It was quite easy in the end. The upgrade notes and this page were of some help of course.
Be warned, that if you have GNUcash installed on Hoary, you should uninstall it. I didn’t and ran into these problems with libofx2. How to fix? Uninstall gnucash with the following command:

dpkg -r gnucash
dpkg -r gnucash-common

Now, run apt-get -f install and finally apt-get dist-upgrade again!

I can’t run GNUcash yet, I hope they get this fixed soon! (In an ironic twist, launchpad.net is down for maintenance, it’ll be back later!)

Later! I discovered how to fix the problem with libofx2! You need to remove libofx0c102 first!

# apt-get remove libofx0c102
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
libofx0c102
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives.
After unpacking 803kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
(Reading database ... 84490 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing libofx0c102 ...
# apt-get install libofx2
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libofx2
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/454kB of archives.
After unpacking 3731kB of additional disk space will be used.

Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 84466 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libofx2 (from .../libofx2_1%3a0.8.0-3ubuntu8_i386.deb) ...
Setting up libofx2 (0.8.0-3ubuntu8) ...
# apt-get install gnucash
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
gnucash-common
Suggested packages:
gnucash-sql gnucash-docs
The following NEW packages will be installed:
gnucash gnucash-common
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/4194kB of archives.
After unpacking 16.6MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously deselected package gnucash-common.
(Reading database ... 84713 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking gnucash-common (from .../gnucash-common_1.8.10-18_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package gnucash.
Unpacking gnucash (from .../gnucash_1.8.10-18_i386.deb) ...
Setting up gnucash-common (1.8.10-18) ...
Setting up gnucash (1.8.10-18) ...

Top 25 Irish Blogs

Michael Larkin has posted a Top 25 Irish Blogs based on Technorati stats.

The inbound links for this blog are most definitely skewed by the fact that I’m a WordPress developer because there’s a shiny link in every new install! I’ll be very happy when In Photos shows up on such lists.

I haven’t read all the blogs listed, but those I have are a great read.

Cork blog – all about Cork City and County

Now, this is interesting. The Cork blog covers topics related to, you guessed it, Cork!
For some reason I found the entry about busses around Cork fascinating, possibly because busses are such a major part of urban life!

2007-11-01 – Bah, looks like the domain is gone. An MFA site is there now so I’ve mangled the links above. What a shame.