Although I’m not sure that it is an effective use of my time, I’ve written another letter to Arlen Specter concerning health legislation.
Dear Senator Arlen Specter:
I writing to express my concerns about some of the proposals put forward as part of health reform legislation. While I’m not against true health reform, I have reason to believe that the bills currently being considered will have a negative impact on my family’s budget. I have two particular concerns:
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The Fulton County Government has posted a number of items on its auction web site for sale to the public. There are over 50 items such as computers, office supplies, and furniture. The items currently listed will expire on October 15, 2009 at 9:00 PM. Visit http://www.co.fulton.pa.us and click on the “Asset Auction” link.
I recently designed several web-based software applications using PHP & MySQL. Some of the applications allow the user to upload photographs to the web server. However, it seems many times when I install one of these apps on a new server, I have trouble with the image upload feature. After several episodes of head-scratching, I’m posting everything I know about the subject here. Hopefully, it will server as a reminder to me and some assistance to others.
Most of the Linux servers I maintain are running Ubuntu 8.04, so the specific file locations will be geared toward that distribution.
- Make sure the php5-gd package is installed. That’s pretty basic but can be overlooked(I’m living proof of that). In Ubuntu 8.04 the command to install the appropriate package is:
sudo apt-get install php5-gd
- In php.ini (usually in /etc/php5/apache2 or somewhere close), check the following values:
memory_limit needs to be of sufficient size.
post_max_size needs to be of sufficient size.
file_uploads needs to be on
upload_max_filesize needs to be of sufficient size
- Make sure the default system temp directory (usually /tmp) is writable by everybody. This is usually the case by default, but I had this trouble on some physical servers that I had converted to OpenVZ containers.
Good luck! 
About a week ago I pulled the plug on my EVNow.org website. I started the site a few years ago with big dreams of it becoming the place to go for news on alternative energy and electric cars. Unfortuately, one guy can only do so much in a 24-hour day. So EVNow is one hobby that had to go.
On the bright side, GreatCove.com is back on its feet. Last spring I had replaced the home page of the site with a message about going out of business. At the time I had taken a position with the Fulton County Government. I am still happily employed there, but I have begun to do some web programming on the side. No, I am not doing repair and networking, so don’t rush to the phone to call me concerning your virus infested home computer.
Yesterday I stumbled across an article on how to install the beta version of Google Chrome on my Ubuntu 9.10 desktop. The article mentioned using the command line, but I found just downloading the file, double-clicking to open it, and then clicking “Install” did the job just fine. Nice!
http://linux.com/news/software/applications/31870-get-your-chrome-experience-on-in-linux
The other day I was trying to access GMail and got the error message below:
500 Internal Server Error
Sorry, something went wrong.
A team of highly trained monkeys has been dispatched to deal with this situation.
Also, please include the following information in your error report:
RrJiENDzKV3poLPXdIW6n-ZzqWmeb46-Qite2X01a4182UYllj2mqA3siwV6
U8B9lsUpmH0R8FtAvnfzQQugp6NFI-8lnrV_MF9JZvSefgfb2L1flZd6OILf
coLk8CH-IE-wbhgXP3UMjzNd1YQNV4j4jbeRdzHSpYSQxuVIfCGQMjtw5xAQ
ZgPC1ZRKXEoWHl9A6VuvCFFjdPi1Qw9FcMp8AoM5cQbtUbxxbci5gbI_8Bd
...
Trained monkeys. So that’s how Google thrives in hard times.
Before you plunk down serious cash on an enterprise virtualization solution, check out the free, open-source ProxMox VE. It is based on two mature open-source virtualization products, namely OpenVZ and KVM. I maintain two physical ProxMox VE servers running a total of eight virtual machine “guests”, including Ubuntu 8.04, Ubuntu 9.04, Windows 2003, and CentOS. So far, the expirience has been nothing but positive.
To download ProxMox VE, head over to the developers website at www.proxmox.com and find ProxMox VE on their product page. Or just go straight to pve.proxmox.com to get right into the good stuff.
There’s also a good review of ProxMox over at www.montanalinux.org.
The word on the street is that we may be nearing the bottom of this recession, or even be on our way out. I’m a little skeptical of those claims, but even if they’re true, there are three nasty problems that will get in the way of any recovery:
1. High fuel prices
How much you pay at the pump is largely determined by supply and demand, along with a large dose of federal gas tax. The weak demand of the recession has brought about much needed relief in fuel prices. But while nobody is paying attention, the new administration has canceled many gas leases in the western United States, which potentially lowers the supply of fuel. My prediction is that by the time the Dow recovers to its pre-recession glory, the price at the pump will be setting new records as well.
2. Higher Taxes
The federal government keeps spending us deeper and deeper in debt, and sooner or later will have to raise taxes in attempt to balance the budget. Regardless of whether they tax the rich or the middle class, the effect on the economy is still negative. High taxes = poor economic performance. Period. It doesn’t matter who pays the taxes.
4. Inflation
The spending of the federal government has been getting plenty of media attention, but I don’t hear much about the trillions being spent by Federal Reserve. While this spending doesn’t drive up the federal deficit, we pay for it just the same – with inflation. LOTS of inflation.
Wondering what to do with those extra dollars you take home because of the the U.S. government’s so-called “stimulus” package? Here are a few suggestions:
- Donate it to a poor person in another county who will see it as a blessing instead of an entitlement. Or give it to a truly needy person in America, if you can find one.
- Donate it to a pro-life cause in attempt to balance the leftward shift in Washington on social issues.
- Invest it for your children, as they will need it to help pay the interest on the mountain of national debt these so called stimulus packages are creating.
- Donate it to a truly conservative politician, if you can find one. Perhaps you can donate it to whichever state governor takes the least amount of our money from stimulus package.
- Buy an advertisement in your local newspaper bashing the politicians who voted for the stimulus bill.
It seems many financial advisers today have a strong opinion about which type of IRA is the better way to invest for retirement. I’m not a financial expert, but I cringe when I hear somebody emphatically state that one type or the other is clearly superior, when it really is not that simple. The correct answer depends on several factors, and I think so-called “experts” are doing a disservice when they try to steer a financial novice like me in one direction or the other without a proper explanation. Please note that I don’t have any fancy initials after my name, so I’m not to be relied on for sound financial advice. This post reflects my limited (and possibly out-of-date) understanding of the subject. continue reading »
