Google Page Creator

Google's Page Creator has some definite potential, but it's beta version needs some work. We took a peek behind the scenes at the website building software and even though we are still not done testing, we do have some initial thoughts from the perspective a website template designer in business for more than 11 years.It's certainly a fast way to create a website for the novice, but the source code jumped out of the screen and slapped me in the face. I believe, ARGH! was my honest to goodness reaction.The generated pages are pure internal CSS with the style sheet code so long, that the page's actual content was far down near the bottom of the page. What is the point of using CSS if you are not going to use it correctly? The use of internal CSS is our biggest complaint with Blogger. > Post your thoughts in our Basic BlogIf validation is important to you, the pages I checked did not validate but then neither does Google's website. I'm sure the source code would shock even the most flexible web designer. But if a person without any web design skills wanted to change the code to fit their needs, they would most certainly be lost. I'm really quite surprised. We have been hearing about Google's Page Creator now for some time and were anxious to see what Big G could crank out given that Big G tends to breathe new technology services. But this one was a disappointment. Granted it is BETA ... so we'll see.So far I didn't see any advertising on the generated pages, but I cannot image that being a long term option for a free web hosting service. I suspect we'll see Adwords on Googlepages.com in the near future. So what do you think? Have you tried Google's Page Creator? Do you think this will be just another free web hosting service with a WYSIWYG interface or is this the beginning of a paradigm shift in web development and we hosting? www.basictips.com

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10 Things You Can Do to Curb Global Warming

Responsible ChoicesThe choices we make and the products we buy test our commitment to maintain a healthy planet. When we burn fossil fuels—such as oil, coal, and natural gas—to run our cars and light our homes, we pump carbon dioxide (CO2) into the air. This thickens the heat-trapping blanket that surrounds the planet, causing global warming.Choosing modern technology can reduce our use of fossil fuels and help protect the planet. These ten steps will help curb global warming, save you money, and create a safer environment for the future.oneDrive Smart!A well-tuned car with properly inflated tires burns less gasoline—cutting pollution and saving you money at the pump. If you have two cars, drive the one with better gas mileage whenever possible. Better yet, skip the drive and take public transit, walk, or bicycle when you can.oneBuy Local and OrganicDid you know the average American meal travels more than 1,500 miles from the farm to your plate? Think of all the energy wasted and pollution added to the atmosphere - not to mention all the pesticides and chemicals used to grow most produce! So go to your local organic farmer to get your fruits and veggies.oneSupport clean, renewable energy.Renewable energy solutions, such as wind and solar power, can reduce our reliance on coal-burning power plants, the largest source of global warming pollution in the United States. Call your local utility and sign up for renewable energy. If they don't offer it, ask them why not?Also, support a national renewable electricity standard (RES). The Energy Bill signed in 2007 lacked key components that address our energy security and global warming emissions: a renewable electricity standard of 15% by 2020 and a tax package that will provide investment incentives for clean energy alternatives. Use our action center to urge your members of congress to support the renewable electricity standard and tax package!oneReplace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs.Especially those that burn the longest each day. Compact fluorescents produce the same amount of light as normal bulbs, but use about a quarter of the electricity and last ten times as long. Each switch you make helps clean the air today, curb global warming, and save you money on your electricity bill.oneSaving energy at home is good for the environment and for your wallet.Start with caulking and weather-stripping on doorways and windows. Then adjust your thermostat and start saving. For each degree you lower your thermostat in the winter, you can cut your energy bills by 3 percent. Finally, ask your utility company to do a free energy audit of your home to show you how to save even more money.oneBecome a smart water consumer.Install low-flow showerheads and faucets and you'll use half the water without decreasing performance. Then turn your hot water heater down to 120°F and see hot-water costs go down by as much as 50 percent.oneBuy energy-efficient electronics and appliances.Replacing an old refrigerator or an air conditioner with an energy-efficient model will save you money on your electricity bill and cut global warming pollution. Look for the Energy Star label on new appliances or visit their website at www.energystar.gov to find the most energy-efficient products.onePlant a Tree, protect a forest.Protecting forests is a big step on the road to curbing global warming. Trees "breathe in" carbon dioxide, but slash-and-burn farming practices, intensive livestock production, and logging have destroyed 90 percent of the native forests in the United States. And you can take action in your own backyard — planting shade trees around your house will absorb CO2, and slash your summer air-conditioning bills.oneReduce! Reuse! Recycle!Producing new paper, glass, and metal products from recycled materials saves 70 to 90 percent of the energy and pollution, including CO2, that would result if the product came from virgin materials. Recycling a stack of newspapers only 4 feet high will save a good-sized tree. Please...buy recycled products!oneMount a local campaign against global warming.Educate your community about how it can cut global warming pollution. Support measures at the national, state, and local level that:* Make automobiles go further on a gallon of gas;* Accelerate the use of clean, renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind;* Increase energy efficiency and conservation; and* Preserve forests around the world.Interested in helping your city become a "cool city"? It's easy! Click here for details and you'll be on your way to helping your city be Cool!

www.sierraclub.org/foundation

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What is Ubuntu?

Ubuntu is a community developed operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. Whether you use it at home, at school or at work Ubuntu contains all the applications you'll ever need, from word processing and email applications, to web server software and programming tools. Ubuntu is and always will be free of charge. You do not pay any licensing fees. You can download, use and share Ubuntu with your friends, family, school or business for absolutely nothing.We issue a new desktop and server release every six months. That means you'll always have the the latest and greatest applications that the open source world has to offer.Ubuntu is designed with security in mind. You get free security updates for at least 18 months on the desktop and server. With the Long Term Support (LTS) version you get three years support on the desktop, and five years on the server. There is no extra fee for the LTS version, we make our very best work available to everyone on the same free terms. Upgrades to new versions of Ubuntu are and always will be free of charge.Everything you need on one CD, which provides a complete working environment. Additional software is available online.The graphical installer enables you to get up and running quickly and easily. A standard installation should take less than 25 minutes.Once installed your system is immediately ready-to-use. On the desktop you have a full set of productivity, internet, drawing and graphics applications, and games.On the server you get just what you need to get up and running and nothing you don't.What does Ubuntu mean? Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'Humanity to others', or 'I am what I am because of who we all are'. The Ubuntu distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.

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10 Advantages of Ubuntu Over Vista

I converted from Vista to Ubuntu a little over 2 months ago and am soooooo happy with it, best decision of my life. I am going to tell you my top 10 advantages of it over Windows Vista. Please remember these are my own opinions, if you have more advantages and indeed any disadvantages (if you can find any) then please post them as comments.

1) Eye Candy If I am completely honest, the biggest reason why I converted was the eye candy. Sure Windows Vista comes with lots of it, but it just isn’t as good. Ubuntu 7.04 comes with just a few of the effects seen a lot nowadays, these effects include the rotating cube desktop and wobbly windows, it just makes it much nicer to use. I have installed Beryl on my computer to give much more eye candy. I base a lot of my judgments on looks first, features later.

2) Easy to Install ApplicationsInstalling new programs in Ubuntu is a doddle, far easier than in Windows, because there is one program that basically gives you access to most applications available to Ubuntu, simply click the program you want and it will install, you don’t need to accept agreements because its all open source so there is no need to click Next 20 times before the program is installed. Simply select the program and click OK, wallah! done.

3) SecureIn Windows Vista, to change a setting requires a ridiculous amount of dialog boxes and passwords, in Ubuntu, you are never logged in as an administrator (root), you are logged in as a simple user, you can change options that are only applicable to your user area but for changing options that affect the system you are required to input the administrator password, one dialog and you’re in, simple and secure. There is also the added bonus that there are very few viruses for Linux, I haven’t ever come across one yet so you can feel safe, imagine not having any virus protection software installed in Windows, there is no need for it in Linux, freedom from the threat of losing all your data.

4) Easy to change optionsUbuntu comes with a control panel but also comes with a menu next to the Applications menu where you simply select the thing you want to change, be it the Desktop background or the network settings. Everything on the windows that appear is simple and there are just the options you need so it is easy to change the options.

5) CommunityThe community behind Linux, especially Ubuntu is what attracts many people to the operating system. People in the Linux community are mainly ex-Windows users so they know what it feels like to be new to an operating system, so they are happy to help. Whenever I had and have a problem with Ubuntu I simply post on the Ubuntu forum and within minutes there are answers to the problems. I never got put on hold or had to phone up customer service and wait for hours if I had any problems.

6) FreeEverything about Ubuntu is free, the operating system (you can even have them send you a free copy of the operating system, they even pay the postage charges), the software installed is free (including all the software you can download) any help and support is free. The whole experience is 100% free, because it is open source. Open source means that you can distribute and even edit the code behind the program.

7) Simple NetworkingThe other day I was amazed with how easy it was to connect my Ubuntu laptop to my Windows XP PC. I simply plugged in my laptop to the network hub and it immediately connected with no problems, I didn’t even have to configure it.

8) Mozilla FirefoxOK, I know that you can use Firefox on Vista as well, but on Ubuntu, there is no Internet Explorer that keeps popping up and cant get rid of. Mozilla Firefox is the number one web browser (remember, my opinions).

9) FastWindows Vista is slow and takes up a lot of resources which means you need a pretty decent computer to run it, I know with my 1GHz computer with 512MB of RAM it was too slow to work with. Ubuntu is just fast, it doesn’t slow down in performance when it has been on for a couple of hours, it just keeps on going and everything opens literally a second after you click the icon, and closes when you click the X, with Windows Vista you have to wait for like 30 seconds before a program starts and try shutting down a program like Word 2007 or Visual Studio after using it for a couple of hours, it takes forever.

10) UpdatesUbuntu gets updated every 6 months, well as close as it can do, and whenever I turn my computer on there are updates for the programs installed. Compare that to Windows, how often does that get updated, well the 5 years between Windows XP and Vista sort of answers that question.So there you go, my top 10 advantages of Ubuntu over Windows Vista. As you can probably see I am very much into Ubuntu so obviously I am going to make Windows Vista look really bad compared to it, but it didn’t take much work to do that, so what does that say? Windows Vista is for some people and good luck to them (or you, if that is you), but Ubuntu offers a worthy alternative for all. Please leave your comments, I would like to hear from you.

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Top 10 Linux commands for Absolute Newbies

So you’ve installed a flavor of Linux such as Ubuntu or you have shell access to a Linux system and you want to start doing some damage. The admins at LXPages.com compiled 10 commands that every Newbie Linux user should definitely know to start being effective.

1) lsThis basic command is your eyeball into the filesystem. Use it to list the contents of a directory.

A) To view details such as the file permissions, user and group owner, last time file was modified pass the l option as suchls -l

B) You can search for filenames by using wildcards. To list files that start with the letter f, usels -l f*

2) findWhere did you save that file? Use the find command to find your files. The find command will search where you want it to search and find directories or files that match conditions such as name, date last accessed, file size and more. It has got many abilities, and they’re all listed in the man page.To search for files starting with the letter f recursively starting from the / root directory use the followingfind / -name f*

3) manWhat did we mean by the man page? man stands for manual, so “man page” really means it’s manual page. Most linux commands have manual pages that describe how the command is utilized. So you can usually type man to view it’s manual page. Great when you’re stuck and don’t know what the command is for or how it’s used. You use it by passing a command line as an option like thisman vi

4) viThe editor of choice for serious linux users [sorry Emacs fans ;-)]. Use the “man vi” command to read details on this prince of editors. Maybe this is why I love editing and coding in linux, I never have to lift my hands to do anything. Here’s a quick and dirty list of vi commands for you to start using.

A) If you notice on your keyboard the letters (H,J,K,L) are adjacent to each other, which makes them ideal keys to use for navigating this editor.a) l (move right)b) h (move left)c) j (move down)d) k (momve up)

B) YY - type in Y twice to copy a line

C) DD - type in D twice to cut a line.

D) P - type in P to paste a line.

E) :q! - quit without saving

F) :wq! - save and quit

G) :w! - save5)

catHow do you view the contents of a file? You can let the “cat” of the bag with the cat command! HA! Here’s how you can use the commandcat filename.txt6) moreWhat if there the file you cat fills more than 1 screen? You can pipe the cat command into more which will allow you to view the contents one screenfull at a time.cat filename.txt more7) grepAnd what if you need to search for certain phrases or words in a file? And for this we can use the grep command. Say we want to search for all the occurances of the word “passwd” in a filename, we can use the following commandgrep “passwd” filename.txtIf there are matches, the lines containing “passwd” will be printed.chmodYou have a script that you need to run, and oh no it won’t run? By utilizing the “ls -la” command you learned you can see if the script has execute permissions. If it doesn’t you may give it execute permission by runningchmod +x scriptfileAnd of course, you can run the scriptfile if it is a script by running it with a ./ preceding the filename on the shell command line like so./scriptfile9) psWhat are you running in the background? How can you tell? By using the “ps” command of course you can view What processes are running under your account.10) cp, mv, rmHow do you copy, move or remove a file? There’s actually three different commands for each of these functions.

A) copycp oldfilename.txt newfilename.txt

B) movemv oldfilename.txt newfilename.txt

C) deleterm oldfilename.txt

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