Site Stuff

hyprtext

So, the first post to hyprtext. Guess I better explain…

This is going to be a blog about the web. Talking about the new web services, Web 2.0 and all that stuff. Yeah, I know, another one. But I’m hoping this is going to be a little different.

One of the differences with this blog is that I don’t want to write it all. I really want other people to contribute. So, anyone email us to register then with the blog and allow them to submit an article. Please do so.

In addition to this, while we’ll be bringing you news of all the latest happenings in the world of the web, we’ll also be offering the occasional comment piece, full of reflection and wild predictions.

Also, we’re happy to host stuff for people. So, if you would like to start a blog, then get in touch. I’m sure I could sort something out here. I guess that’s true of other types of site like wikis, too.

Thanks to WordPress for being great as usual, and Mike Lococo for the original theme which I’ve hacked up a bit.

Ubuntu packages

Still not online at home, which makes my installation of Ubuntu a week or so quite frustrating: there really isn’t much I can do with it. Still, Pipex will be providing me with 6mb/s broadband in a week or so, which is something to look forward to!

Was having a poke about on Ubuntu though last night. I browsed through the repository of applications I can download and install, and was surprised to see that the majority of them state that they are unavailable for my system. This includes standard apps like Gnumeric and Abiword.

Could this have anything to do with the fact that I wasn’t online at the time, or is there something I should know about being able to install packages on Ubuntu?

[tags]ubuntu[/tags]

Blog break

Will be taking an enforced break from blogging for a while. I’m moving to a new house, which as yet doesn’t have a telephone line set up, let alone a broadband connection.

Hopefully I’ll have things up and running again by the middle of December.

Hello LGSearch readers!

Hello there to anyone who has clicked the Blog link from LGSearch. Rather than being directed to the LGSearch blog, you’ve been sent here, to visit the rest of the family.

LGSearch matters will be discussed here, along with the other work I am doing on a forum, wiki and this blog. Have a look around, and let me know what you think!

Wikis and whatnot

Work continues apace on what is only the second day of LGNewMedia. While the four sections of the site all look very different, I’m hoping to add some consistency of visuals by producing a common logo, based on the one used at LGSearch. Once that’s done, I think things will look a little more uniform. I have done nothing to set the forum up yet, though I have quite a bit of experience with phpBB so hopefully that won’t take too long!

My original choice for a wiki was PMWiki, which is lightweight and more than adequate for my needs. However, I have suspicions that it might just be a little too techy for a lot of people’s experience, so I went with MediaWiki, the engine that drives Wikipedia. This is a case, frankly, of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but MediaWiki is way easier to use that PMWiki and can produce some nicer looking designs.

So, I have the front page of the wiki looking quite nice, with some highlighted headings for the various sections of the site. The only problem I am facing is that the text links in the top right of the screen on this blog, the forum and LGSearch are missing, and I haven’t figured out yet how to edit the wiki template to put them in there! Am sure it will come in time.

The other slight disappointment is that I am unable to run the latest version of MediaWiki, as it requires PHP5 to run on your server. My hosts only have PHP4 point something, so I am having to run a legacy version of the software. Oh well, it’ll do for the likes of me, I’m sure!

Update: The wiki is now hosted at Wikispaces.

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