While doing research for part of a book I’m working on, I’ve been learning a lot of interesting things about self-profiling, or how, by our every day actions, we’re adding to an overall profile of very personal information about ourselves.

In the book, the main character tries to re-invent his life in an effort to add more excitement and adventure. As part of that re-invention, he basically shuts down his life in one country and moves to another, leaving as little of himself behind as possible.

I won’t go into any more detail about the book, I’ll just outline some of the things I’ve found while doing my research.

Here’s a tutorial on how to build an extremely strong password to use for logging into important sites like your bank, credit card provider, important web email accounts, etc.

First, start with a sentence consisting of 4 to 8 words that means something only to you so that it’s easy to remember. Then capitalise the first letter of each word:

My Mother’s Maiden Name Is Smith

Now, find punctuation or a symbol on your keyboard and use it between each word to fill in the spaces.

My*Mother’s*Maiden*Name*Is*Smith

Next, convert letters in the sentence to their similar numbers and symbols. For the purpose of this example, I’ve used 0 (zero) in place of the letter “o”, the # symbol for the letter “h”, the @ symbol to replace the letter “a” and the number 1 to replace the “i”.

My*M0t#er’$*M@1den*N@me*I$*$m1t#

You have upper and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols in a format that’s simple, a password that’s really easy for you to remember yet extremely hard for someone else to guess or crack. In fact, if you were a spy who was captured and was being tortured in a foreign country and they asked you what your logins and passwords were for your online contacts, you’d have a hard time telling your captors!

For added security, never use the same password on two different sites, and for heaven sake, never use the same password you use on Facebook or Twitter on your banking site or PayPal. If one of your accounts gets compromised, the person doing the compromising is smart enough to know that most people use the same email and password on lots of different sites and they may try to log in elsewhere using your credentials.

Be safe. But sadly, more and more people are falling victim to password phishing and cracking. Long, complicated passwords may be a pain in the butt to type in, but they’re worth it. Don’t be the next victim.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 is drawing to a close here at my home in New Brunswick, Canada and would you be surprised if I told you that a few hours ago, I read a post on a blog that said blogging is dead?

Let me repeat that last part “I read a post on a blog that said blogging is dead.”

Isn’t that sort of like if I picked up the phone and called my Mother to tell her that talking on the phone is dead? Or how about if I walked over to my neighbor’s house and told him walking was dead?

Now if that, in and of itself, isn’t already a good enough indication that whoever wrote the post is full of mongoose poop, lets travel back in time a few years so you can get a feel of where blogging came from, where it is now and where it’s heading:

In the middle part of the 20th century, animal bones and tortoise shells inscribed with a primitive pictorial language were found in the Henan province, China, at a Neolithic site at Jiahu. The artifacts are estimated to be at least 8,000 years old and are the earliest known examples of a complex written language. Over the next few thousand years, other cultures evolving in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Northern Africa and Western South America all developed their own forms of written language.

In the earliest examples, the medium and tools used to spread the written language were shells and bones. In other cultures it was the walls of their homes, temples, rocks, trees, pieces of leather, etc. But the medium was usually some type of convenient surface that could be carved, etched or painted on with relative ease. In other words, they communicated knowledge, beliefs, thoughts and art by writing on whatever was around at the time. The medium and tools simply facilitated the communication.

But that doesn’t mean the medium wasn’t important. Advances in technology have certainly facilitated advances in communication, even thousands of years ago. People eventually figured out how to make mud and clay tablets where, while soft it was easy to write on them quickly and then when they dried and hardened the message was preserved. The same happened when people discovered that you could easily carve, paint and/or dye messages into animal skins and the message was durable for years to come. And I certainly don’t need to explain how paper and the printing press revolutionised written language and communication.

And the medium has advanced now to the point where if someone in Melbourne, Australia typed 140 characters and clicked an Update button, milliseconds later you’re reading that message 12,000 miles away in Canada. But the purpose hasn’t changed at all in 8,000 years – the medium and tools were developed to facilitate the communication.

I’m writing this message by typing on a computer keyboard. That keyboard enters and stores my message onto a medium, like the hard drive on my computer, the RAM, whatever and when I click the Publish button, I tell software on a remote machine to store my message there until you decide to access it on your computer or device. Then you read my message. All that technology is there to process, store and serve my message to you.

8,000 years ago you would have been reading this message scratched into a tortoise shell.

Blog software and other tools like Wordpress, MovableType, ExpressionEngine, Twitter, Facebook Status updates, whatever, are just tools to facilitate that communication. They’re modern day tortoise shells.

Blogging is just a newfangled way of saying “I’m using this tool to communicate my message.”

The word “Blogging” might eventually die or be replaced, but communicating won’t. Even after we’re gone.

Someone, or something, somewhere, will eventually find our proverbial tortoise shells. How much do you think they’ll snicker at us when they decipher our scribblings and find the message “Communicating is dead?”

I’ve been doing a lot of contemplating lately. In fact, that’s pretty much all I’ve been doing. Other than working on a few small jobs for clients, I haven’t been doing much of anything for myself.

And that’s a problem. Here’s why:

If you are not building anything for yourself, be it a site, a reputation, a brand, or even just blogging a few times a week, you are dead. Plain and simple.

What happens (not if, but…) when the client work dries up? You have nothing to fall back on.

So from this point on, the work I do for clients will be used to fund a real business. That is all for now.

So I thought I’d do a follow up on my previous post about switching to linux as my main operating system and there’s not that much to report. Five days in and everything has been working flawlessly, even a Windows only graphics program that I installed and am using thanks to Wine.

My computer is running a lot cooler, with the fan only speeding up occasionally, the OS isn’t constantly bugging me to pay attention to it, tons of work is getting done with less distractions – just the way it should be.

I’m all about keeping things clean and simple, so my desktop is not cluttered with icons, there are no flashy backgrounds, no desktop effects, etc. and that’s what I find so sexy about the way I have Ubuntu Linux set up – it’s naked. Zen like. And that inspires me.

Not much of an update, I know, but there’s really nothing to say about the OS on this computer anymore. It’s out of the way where an OS should be so I can get on with my work.

For the past three years or so I’ve been trying out different flavors of Linux. The only version I actually got to work properly was Ubuntu 7.10 on an older desktop computer. Up until today, any time I tried installing Ubuntu on any laptop I’ve had has been either lackluster, with crucial things like wifi or dual monitors not working, to complete failure.

Today I downloaded the latest release of the Ubuntu Linux operating system, version 9.10. It was only released a couple days ago and searching around on the web I had found several horror stories about it not being compatible, upgraded borking people’s previously working versions, etc. But I took a chance on it anyway.

My main computer for the past 10 months has been a Toshiba Satellite L300-03C, with 3GB RAM, 250GB hard drive, 15.4″ screen, 256M video card and the other standard stuff that comes with it. Windows Vista Home Ultimate came pre-installed on it when I bought it and I’ve updated it religiously with all the updates. That laptop has all my stuff on it… work, personal, etc. so I didn’t want to dump the hard drive. I also didn’t want to do a dual OS system because I did that in the past and it was a hassle getting rid of the Linux files and Grub bootloader when it didn’t work and I had to free up space.

So I had a 120GB SATA drive kicking around in a USB hard drive enclosure. The drive was salvaged from another laptop I had that I scrapped because of a motherboard failure. Bingo!

I downloaded the Ubuntu 9.10 iso, burnt it to a DVD using the handy iso converter software that came with the laptop. So now I had a live DVD I could boot into Ubuntu from. I flipped over the Toshiba laptop, swapped out the drive with Vista on it for the 120GB and proceeded to format it and installed Ubuntu. 15 minutes later I was a Linux user.

Now for the real test. In order for me to be able to do what I want for my work and personal stuff, I need these things to work: wifi and an extended desktop so I can use my 23″ Acer H233H as a second display plugged into the laptop. I have never been able to get both working on Ubuntu Linux before and I simply cannot live without both.

So I cracked my knuckles and went into the Display menu in Ubuntu under System > Preferences > Display. I plugged in the video cable for the big monitor, turned it on and in the display menu clicked for it to automatically detect the monitor.

It worked. I moved the two monitor positions around a little to match my configuration on my desk and applied the changes. Boy, was I impressed. It was actually a lot easier than setting up dual monitors with an extended desktop on Vista.

Next came the wifi. It was on – the little light on the front of the laptop said so anyway, but that had happened before with previous versions of Ubuntu, so I was skeptical. I set up my router which until now was still in a box from my move three weeks ago. I typed in the WEP key (password) for the router and waited, and waited. It was already working and connected to the internet. Doh!

So I have all my main programs installed that I used on Vista, like Skype, FileZilla, Thunderbird, OpenOffice which came preinstalled, etc. and they all work faster and better than they did on Vista. Speakers, headset, mic, trackpad, ethernet, SD card reader… everything works perfectly. Oh, and the laptop is running way colder than before.

On Vista, the fan was always on at half- speed and whenever playing a youtube movie or with a couple normal programs running it would run at full speed. The hard drive light constantly flickered even after letting the computer sit idle for a while. What was it doing?

Anyway, the palm rests are cool to the touch as I type this and the fan is running, but it’s so low I can barely hear it. The hard drive light only comes on when saving something now, or when opening a program like OpenOffice.

So far, I’m impressed with Ubuntu Linux 9.10. Really impressed. But this is only day-1. I haven’t really used it for work yet and over time I’ll probably find things I miss about Windows Vista.

So the 250GB Hard drive with Vista on it is getting mounted in my portable USB hard drive enclosure. Vista will stay on it and I’ll be able to swap it back into the laptop at any time. But for now, I’m going to plug it into a USB port and transfer all my work and personal files across to this platform. Once that’s done I’ll have made the switch to Ubuntu.

I’m going to give it three months then swap the drives and boot up Vista for old times sake. Then, as long as everything goes well between now and then, I’m going to reformat that drive and use it for storage.

Now, who knows how to remove all traces of a burnt-on Windows Vista sticker from an aluminum laptop palm rest?

For the past three weeks, I’ve been ripping my hair out from frustration. Personal and family problems have been crushing, my work was affected and I had to cut back to part-time so I wouldn’t be dragging down my whole team and people I care about and to top it all off, I’ve been trying to get a couple simple sites set up with a new web host.

That last part about the web host is what this rant is about.

I have a simple shared hosting plan and the site you’re reading right now is hosted on that plan. I also use it to park a handful of other inactive domain names, etc. But for the new sites, the ones I plan on blowing out into businesses of their own, I want those hosted on VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting so that when the traffic and visitors start to grow, I have dedicated resources to serve up content to them without the costs of a dedicated server. I also want the VPS because they can easily scale into one or more dedicate servers seamlessly, without me having to manually fuck around with moving a site under load.

So in the past week alone, I’ve signed up for two VPS plans from two different companies. The first was going great. I set it all up with the main site running Wordpress as my blogging platform/CMS, and then the problems started. Every time I tried to edit a template file in the WP admin, I had to log in to the server using an FTP program and change the permissions of that file to 777. No other permissions would work, except to make the files world writeable, and that’s not very secure.

Then I installed my core set of plugins that I use on all my blogs, and most of them wouldn’t function at all. Updating them, I had to enter the server name and password in the WP admin or nothing would happen. Then, once activated, any file or folder they interacted with had to have permissions set to 777, world writable. THEN, after all that, any plugin that had to interact with an outside server, like the plugin I use to send an update to Twitter whenever I publish a post, did nothing. I also found out that the site’s xmlrpc function wouldn’t ping update services like pingomatic or google’s blogsearch, etc.

Support tickets? Don’t get me started. I ended up more confused than before.

So I sign up for VPS number two. Slick admin panel, very intuitive, super-nice and helpful contact at the company, among about a dozen other plusses… but after setting up a site on there and feeling like I could finally settle in for a night of writing, I crack my knuckles, wiggle my fingers and check to see that all the pages worked…

404. Every page, every post, everything – 404.

That’s how I discovered that the mod_rewrite module was not installed – a minor thing, surely?

Nope. No mod_rewrite, because mod_rewrite is an Apache server module and the server I was on was using Lighttpd.

Ok, so there has to be a way to make this server software act like Apache and allow my Wordpress install to rewrite the URLs, right? Wrong, not without digging deep into the bowels of the lighttpd.conf file and having to do whatever the fuck it is that some blogger found during a google search said would work but judging by the comments on his post only a handful of people could make it work and even then it was buggy. *sigh*

I`ll stop right there, because If you haven`t already gotten the message… I SHOULD HAVE SPENT THE PAST 10 DAYS WRITING FORWARD FACING CONTENT THAT GENERATES PAGEVIEWS AND REVENUE, Not “Trying this or that an maybe it`ll work.”

So anyone looking at this now who knows how to fix all the problems I had above and have the server purring like a kitten inside of 20 minutes, laugh all you want – but there are millions of people out there who know a hell of a lot less than I do about servers and whateverthefuck.conf files, and some of them want or need a VPS server to host their sites on.

I don`t know what their needs are and to tell you the truth, I don`t really care. But here`s what I want from a hosting company:

1. A VPS hosting plan on a LAMP server (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP.) that`s already optimized to run Wordpress – meaning – it just fucking works and runs smoothly if the site gets traffic spikes.

2. I want to sign up and pay <$50 per month, on a month to month basis, using fucking PAYPAL – Fuck you snobs and your credit card only plans.

3. I want a minimum of 512mb dedicated RAM burstable to at least double that. I want 40+ gigs of hard drive space and 500+ gigs of 100mbps bandwidth.

4. I never want to see another .conf file for as long as I live. That`s the host`s problem, not mine and once I`ve configured one or more Wordpress blogs on the VPS, once a week is enough to have to log into the hosting control panel – like, to dump log files or check error logs, server stats, etc. Simple shit like that.

5. I want to be able to upgrade to more resources or a more robust VPS or dedicated server by clicking a few icons, maybe entering a few things in a form if necessary and then paying more. Don`t take this the wrong way, but I do NOT want to have to talk to you or fucking email you.

6. And I want to do all that without ever having to submit a support ticket or email again, but you have to be available 24/7 if I need you.

Ok, so number six is a bit of a stretch, but you get my drift.

I know a few tech guys and even a couple people who ran hosting companies in the past and if they read this, they`ll be saying “OOOhh, lookey at this guy! Who the fuck does he think he is, demanding all that from a web host… What a fuckin ass!”

But listen up, web hosts – all of the above is doable and you know it.

I`m a customer.

I`m stupid when it comes to tech and server crap.

But I`m begging you to take my money and all I want is to not have to deal with you, .conf or your fucking support staff. Make it easy to get what I want.

MAKE THAT HAPPEN FOR PEOPLE LIKE ME FOR CHRIST`S SAKE.

I’ve always been a firm believer that we create our own reality.

Now, before you go off trying to tell me that we have no control over external influences in our lives, like if I’m walking down the street and a dump truck driver falls asleep at the wheel and runs me over, I already know that. What I’m talking about here is that reality is a matter of perception. How we perceive the external influences around us is our true reality.

Here’s an example – I know people who live in a constant state of negativity. They expect the worse out of everything and everybody, so that when things turn out better than what they expect they’ll get a little enjoyment out of it. These people are around me right now. They are my external influencers and have been for nearly a year and I’ve been letting that negativity get the better of me.

It’s affected my work, my relationships with others both professionally and personally and I’ve actually felt my mental state deteriorating because of it.

Well, I realized something tonight. I can either let those external influencers have a negative effect on me, causing me to fret constantly, be mad all the time, complain and feel sorry for myself, or I can change my perception of the whole situation I’m in and snap the hell out of it as I move forward.

If you read the title of this post, you probably already guessed that I chose the latter.

What does tomorrow have in store for me? I don’t know, but, what I do know is I’ll be consciously making an effort to change my perception of what happens, for the better.

It won’t be easy to change my perception of the world around me after a lifetime of self-defeating thought and behavior, but I’m already living the alternative and it’s time for change.

This is the last time I’ll ever say this to myself – “It can’t get any worse than this.”

BoingBoing says that dozens of witnesses saw a UFO crash into the Ottawa river last night, but no planes are missing from the area and they still haven’t found any sign of wreckage, of any kind.

2 months without posting here. Blowing away some cobwebs – cough cough.

Ok, so I’ve always wanted a site where I can just post real quick and drop links, pics, videos, etc. that I find in my online travels. I travel the web a LOT and read a LOT of stuff during my day to day routine.

What I’m envisioning is an eclectic mix of links to cool stuff, some videos, photos, rants, quick commentary, etc. That turns the site into an interesting place to visit.

I’m writing for the Inquisitr so there’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t make it onto the site, but I’d still like to to have a place where I can post real quick. I’ve looked at tons of different software that will enable me to do this, but haven’t found one I like yet. I’ve checked out services like Tumblr, Twitter, Posterous, Friendfeed, etc. and while they all have their good points, they also have their bad. None of them will do exactly what I want. Yes, I’m that picky.

So what I’ve decided to do is just post stuff here on this site using the Wordpress bookmarklet. I’ll need to do a little tweaking to get things looking ok, but I’ll start by posting first and figuring out my specific needs as I go.

For now, that’s it.