There’s Ubuntu, and Kubuntu, and Lubuntu, and Xubuntu…well if Ubuntu (see the “U”?) uses Unity, then why can’t Gubuntu use Gnome?  Huh?  Just spin up another distro?

OK.  Maybe it’s not a great idea.  But it sticks with the theme, doesn’t it?

Now this is a simple and fast tool.  The way I like it.  There’s no extra junk to distract the eye. It has keyboard shortcuts for pretty much everything, which can really speed it up (once you remember what does what).  But there’s not too much functionality.  It’s a list, and it does it well.

They’ve expanded the use to mobile devices, via a browser.  I’ve used it on my iPad and my Android phone.  While the mobile version doesn’t let you do everything the full version does, it’s more than adequate if you’re dropped into a meeting, or at the grocery store.

There may be one thing I’d like to see added: the ability to highlight or to change the color of a certain list item.  That would be cool.

Take a look.

Of course, first I found somebody else who got Workbench compiled and running on Debian Squeeze and then wrote about it over at Robo47.net. Then, through trial and error, I modified the steps as I went, but they basically stayed the same.

Here’s what I did to get it running on my system

1. Install a whole lot of dependencies:

   aptitude install libzip-dev libzip1 libxml2-dev libsigc++-2.0-dev libcairomm-1.0-dev \
   libglibmm-2.4-dev libpangomm-1.4-dev libglade2-dev libaudiofile-dev libavahi-client-dev libavahi-common-dev \
   libavahi-glib-dev libbonobo2-dev libdbus-1-dev libesd0-dev libgconf2-dev libgcrypt11-dev libgnomevfs2-dev libgnutls-dev \
   libgpg-error-dev libpopt-dev libselinux1-dev libsepol1-dev libtasn1-3-dev libsqlite3-dev libboost-dev  libmysqlclient-dev \
   libmysqld-dev uuid-dev liblua5.1-0-dev libncurses5-dev libreadline-dev libreadline6-dev libfribidi-dev libgl1-mesa-dev \
   libglc-dev libglc0 libglu1-mesa-dev mesa-common-dev libpcre3-dev libpcrecpp0 python-paramiko libgtkmm-2.4-dev \
   libgnome2-dev python-dev

2. Download the source. Make sure you get the ‘oss’ not the ‘gpl’. Untar and position inside the directory:

   wget ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/misc/mysql/Downloads/MySQLGUITools/mysql-workbench-oss-5.2.22.tar.gz
   tar xzvf mysql-workbench-oss-5.2.22.tar.gz
   cd mysql-workbench-oss-5.2.22

3. Build and Install. NOTE: I ran the autogen three times, adding more needed packages (see list above), and it took a long time (old laptop), but it worked.

   ./autogen.sh --prefix=<some path>
   make
   make install

4. Run it:

   <some path>/bin/mysql-workbench

But we shouldn’t get too emotionally attached to tools. That’s what a car is; a tool. And that’s how I see Facebook or Twitter. They are tools.

They have a pupose. And most likely, your purpose is different from the next guy. Someone I know signed up on Facebook and asked, “what do I do with this?” To which I replied, “anything you want.” It’s yours to use as you like. If someone gets offended because you’re not using it the way they want you to, that’s their problem. It’s OK.

For instance, on Facebook, I just want to be connected with people I know and see their pictures, etc.  I don’t want to play games, or save the world.  So I ignore and block applications and request for that stuff, because it’s not why I use it.  I’m sure I’ve offended someone, but it’s nearly impossible not to.

They are tools, utilities to be used.  Don’t be religious about it, and don’t try to “get it right”.  Just use it.

Here’s a great site:  http://www.hosting-review.com/

Pretty straight forward, but their front page gives you an immediate view of what’s driving the competition.  For instance, the top ten rated hosting companies offer unlimited disk space and bandwidth at about $5 a month.  That’s pretty cool.  You can also read the reviews and see which way they’re trending.

But what else do they offer?  Scroll down the page (or click the Top 10 Lists link) and choose a list based on the feature offered.  I wanted SSH Hosting, so I chose that.  After looking at the the offers there, I went to the Adult Hosting link and made sure my choice WAS NOT there.  It’s worked out great.  

I’ve been very pleased and I check the list often to see what’s going on.

Like backup. I mean, come on, we’re just copying files here.  Why should I have to fight tooth and nail to make sure that I’ve got a second copy somewhere?  It can’t be that difficult.

Well, there’s some who are proving that it’s not.  MozyHome and Carbonite are two services that I’ve tried out and I can recommend either one.  I’m using Carbonite, but they each provide the same level of service.  MozyHome is free for the first 2GB of data, and after that it’s $5 per month for an unlimited amount.  Carbonite is just a flat $50 per year for unlimited backups.

Here’s how it works:  You download a small application onto your computer which just runs in the background.  You choose which folders, or your whole computer, to backup, and it just quietly keeps it backed up.  It “trickles” the data to their servers, strongly encrypted.  Only you, with your account, can get at it.  When you need to get files back, it is just a couple clicks.  Did I say you could backup your whole computer?  There’s no space limit.  You’re just limited by the speed of your connection.

For $50 or $60 a year, I find this a no-brainer.  Some might feel nervous about having their stuff out there somewhere, despite the security measures, but I see it as a strength.  I can get my files back from anywhere.  If there’s a disaster in my home, or I replace my PC, I just install the client and restore.  There are some additional steps (for security) when you install on a different PC, but overall I found it quite clean.

It’s nice to have something that works.

So how can we apply this idea elsewhere?

Have you ever heard of Robert Kiyosaki?  He wrote a book, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” that I read several years ago.  And you can join his Community online if you want.  But one lesson I got out of that book was how to change your thinking:

If you want to be rich, hang around rich people.

Now, that’s not an exact quote, but you get the idea.  And everybody’s trying to get rich, right?  But I wanted to expand that thinking a little further.  I want to change my mindset, the way I think.  That’s what he was really talking about.  Nobody get’s rich by osmosis.  But rich people think rich, act rich, and promote richness.  Eventually, if you’re paying attention, some of that will rub off.

So, if I want to change my mindset to be more positive, I should find some people with that mindset.  Smart people? Athletic people?  What ever you want?

Practice some immersion techniques for your brain.  Find those people you want to emulate and stick to them.  Immerse yourself in their activities and lifestyle, and think like them.

I’m not a theologian, and I don’t play one on TV.  So for those of you who enjoy picking apart and discussing (i.e. destroying) any one’s written word, I’m going to really disappoint you.  In fact, you’ll probably dismiss me.  Good.  I’m not talking to you anyway.

First of all, it’s FICTION.

Secondly, it can be a little hard to read.  I found it disturbing, especially in the beginning, but I got over it.  It turned out, well…. better than I hoped.

Next, I want to pull in a little scripture here:  

“prove all things; hold fast that which is good;”  1 Thessalonians 5:21

Now, read it.  Pray that God will teach you something, and read it.  Open your mind and heart to God, trust that you will be led closer to him, not away.  And read it.

It’s good.

There were many things that got me thinking.  I hadn’t really thought of God like that, but he is that way.  Or I thought,  ”I’ll let that go, it’s just a book.”  It’s OK.

God is really big.  He’s so big, in fact, that he can be exactly what we can handle, all the time.

I was trying to find a particular error message in our Exchange 2003 Event Log, but the string I was looking for was in the Description (or Message). You can’t filter on that in the Event Viewer, so I went looking for alternatives and naturally thought of PowerShell.

While I’m not familiar, exactly, with WMI, a little searching and testing gave me this:

Get-WmiObject -computer <server> -query “SELECT * FROM Win32_NTLogEvent WHERE (Logfile = ‘application’) AND (EventCode = 7004)” | SELECT * | where{$_.message -match ‘<search string>’}

It’s so satifying to know you’re getting exactly the information you need. Instead of wading through everything all the time.