eAction

One thing I believe I forgot to mention last time is that before your installation is complete, you will be asked for your choice of a “root’ password. You will also be asked to choose a user name and password. This can be confusing if you’re used to Windows, where you rarely ever get asked for a password. (Maybe if your computer was set up for two different people, you might have to switch to be you before you can touch your files).

Well, Root in a linux system is like the janitor or custodian who has all the keys to the building. He’s the one who has access to all the operating functions and who cleans up the place, and see that it meets inspection standards. Of course, if you are the one installing the linux system, you’re likely to be ‘root’ and you get all these duties and privileges.

One of the reasons a linux system is so much more secure than a Windows system is that whenever you need to do something critical to your whole computer system, you must take on this super-user role as “root.” When you are finished, you should step out of this role and become an ordinary user again. That is why during setup of your installation, you are asked to assign a root password, and also to create a user and password for yourself.

If you are going to have several people using the computer, you should set up a separate user name and password for each one, and fix the system so that to get in, each person must login as their own user name. That way, if anything happens to one user, it will not affect the other users or perhaps leave the whole system untouched. It also means that when there’s a problem, you can put on your “root” hat, and your ring of master keys and you can go solve the problem and make everyone happy again. Once done, you hang up your hat and keys, and become yourself again.

Now before you get too carried away with this auspicious authority role, it is wise to do some research and learn the basic commandline commands and when to use them. It is quite possible to give the wrong command and to bring the whole linux system down in a tumble. It’s best to give this role to the person who knows the most about the system, or who is willing to patiently learn and develop those skills.

I’m happy to share that if your linux system is well installed, you can go many days without having to do anything as ‘root’. But when a crisis comes - ah, you want your commands and emergency instructions nearby and on paper!

As the online lessons point out, you don’t want to stay in your “root” role all the time, even though everything looks just the same and you can forget. The danger of slipping up and making a wrong move is too great. You might.crash it accidentally. At least while you are still rather naive about many things. Later on that’s not such a great danger.

Respect your role as “root” but don’t let it swell your head.

It pays to have our answers ready, doesn’t it? We never know when someone is going to ask, “What’s your line of business anyway?” or “What do you do to make a living?”

Do you shrug your shoulders and make light of whatever it is that is your passion and main occupation?

Oh no! You’ve just missed a good opportunity to gain perhaps a customer, or a contact who knows others that can be referred to you. Let me encourage you to think carefully how to describe what you do in a cheerful and succinct manner and so the other person will think, “Ah-ha! Someone at last who can solve one of my problems!”

Recently a number of people from church have dropped by to visit. Ostensibly to offer condolences on the death of my Dad, for whom I was a live-in caregiver many years. When I invite them into the living room and they see my desk, they are often amazed, and wonder at what I do with my time, or “what do you do for a living?” they ask.

I in turn am astonished that they don’t know. I wasn’t trying to keep it a secret. I assure them that I’m a very busy business woman. I run it all from the computer. Then I try to explain it to them, until their eyes glaze over and they notice their watches and have to be going.

Some really care about me and want to know more, but - how do I condense it all into a short answer they can understand and digest?

So I’ve begun to think that what I really need is a brochure or folded card on which all my answers are carefully placed and they can take it home and read it over a few times, and even pass it on, if they don’t need my services.

That’s what I’ve been working on this morning. It took longer than I first thought, but I’ve polished it quite a bit, and though I want to wait a day or so to make sure I don’t catch more mistakes on it, I do believe this 4.5″ x 11″ card folded three into thirds with a front and three inside panels, should do the trick.

Right now I’m doing test print runs. At first I was using an off-white creamy paper with a linen weave that I thought look quite warm and classic. However on the side with the most weave, my photo doesn’t come out clear. So I’ve just tried with plain white cardstock and that looks much better.

The colour printer allows me to add some coloured graphics to break up the text a bit and illustrate it.

I believe most people can skim over this information in 30 seconds or less and find their questions answered, and links to go online to look for more. I even had room to mention my main affiliate link. I’ll need to carry some of these in my purse for a while and see how they go over, but it strikes me as a suitable answer to the problem - how to tell people about our business and make sure they take our special links with them. Be sure to slant your work description so it tells them what you could do for them!

You don’t need a great deal of desktop publishing skill to figure something like this out. The only consideration is what kind of paper are you able to work with? Then you find ways to adapt the idea to suit your situation and business info.

They say everybody should have a 30 second elevator speech ready for when someone asks what you do. I found that this helped me condense my many ventures into a more compact message and space. I like room fro my creative imagination. But with time I may learn to condense this some more.

Feel free to work with the idea for yourself.

Do you know what affiliate product is making the hotest, the most commissions right now?

SiteBuildIt! Yes, really. It’s taken off in a new way because of the use of videos to tell people about it. The top two Affiliates are churning out sales as if they’ve traded in their bikes for motorcycles - Vroom! Any of us (who are 5 Pillar affiliates) can paste a bit of code into a new web page we create, and presto we’ve got that fast-selling SBI TV screen on there, and if our visitors can find it easily, they are easily converted to wanting an SBI unit.

Would you like to see how my SBI TV looks?

Hey, it comes with 6 channels already!

You can also scatter other video ads (naturally, for SBI too) all over your other web pages as well. Just check your affiliate resource center for the codes.

Do you know what affiliate product is making the hotest, the most commissions right now?

SiteBuildIt! Yes, really. It’s taken off in a new way because of the use of videos to tell people about it. The top two Affiliates are churning out sales as if they’ve traded in their bikes for motorcycles - Vroom! Any of us (who are 5 Pillar affiliates) can paste a bit of code into a new web page we create, and presto we’ve got that fast-selling SBI TV screen on there, and if our visitors can find it easily, they are easily converted to wanting an SBI unit.

Would you like to see how my SBI TV looks?

Hey, it comes with 6 channels already!

You can also scatter other video ads (naturally, for SBI too) all over your other web pages as well. Just check your affiliate resource center for the codes.

(Just a note of explanation. The reason I’ve skipped so many weeks in this continuing series is because of my Dad’s illness, death and the funeral. All events which are very time-absorbing. I now need to find myself a new home and wrap things up here, but I am trying to get back to my usual work schedule too).

In our last lesson at the beginning of February we had just put the Linux installation boot disk into the computer and it was beginning to whirl and hum industriously. No doubt you’ve had your eyes straight on the screen, watching all the new things flash by. But suddenly it stops and it wants to know which way you are going to proceed. After a few installations you won’t hesitate, but the first time around it helps if someone explains the options.

1. Do you want to erase everything on the hard drive and install on a clean disk?
2. Do you want to leave what you have (i.e. your Other operating system) and squeeze this system in on the blank sections?
3. Do you want to manually partition your hard drive so you only touch certain areas?

There may be more, but those are the main ones. They may be worded more intuitively too, depending on the particular linux system you are installing.

Unless you know you want only this Linux system on this particular computer, or you know you have lots of gigabytes of space beyond what your other system is using, I suggest you bite the bullet and try the partitioning step. At the very least it will introduce you to things linux in a hurry. I made some mistakes, but I’m permanently wiser for it.

For the moment, let’s pretend you have a 10 GB hard drive. Check how much RAM you have. (That the amount of memory that indicates how much your computer can hold in it’s present-tense memory at any given moment). If that’s 256 MB, you want to create about 500 MB of a SWAP partition. This allows your Linux system to grab extra memory in an emergency. Saves on or prevents crashes!

So you indicate that on the partitioning tool. Assign 500 MB of space for SWAP.

For the boot area, shown with just a / you can assign 1.2 GB. That’s were all your start-up programs get to live.

Let’s give the /usr area 3.5 GB. That’s where you’ll install the programs you want to run, but which don’t have to all come to life on boot up.

That leaves 5 GB for the /home area which is where all the new files, graphics, documents, or whatever you create will be stored.

You’ll notice that the system calls the sections you’ve assigned by names like /dev/hda2 and so forth. Windows calls the drive sections names like C:/ or D:/ and so forth. Linux has this other naming convention. We catch on after a bit.

Before we can proceed we must initialize each of the partitions now. There will be warnings that to proceed means you are wiping anything off that currently resides on those sections. If it happens that you decided to leave Windows in place, you will have seen it’s partitions clearly marked, and of course, you do not initialize them now. That would be wiping your Windows OFF the hard drive! But Linux does need to initialize the partitions it will be living in, so it can call them it’s own.

You followed the directions? You didn’t leave any of the partitions out?

Good. Then we can move on. Now things will go faster.

You’ll be asked a few more questions, like what to call your machine/computer. If it is going to be an online server for a registered domain, you would of course, use that, but if it’s just your home computer, call it what you like.

In some cases you are allowed to choose the modules you want included in the installation. Some of the smaller systems just go ahead and give you all that’s on the CD or DVD.

The installation starts, and whirls away. I like to click on “details” to get a clue as to what it is installing. The larger a system, such as SUSE, that you install, the longer it takes. Maybe several hours. If you are installing a small one, it may be 20 minutes or less.

At some points along the way it will pause to ask you for more information or choices.

It will likely ask you what boot system you want. There’s Grub (for geeks who understand the more complicated lingo), and LILO which is easier for beginners. However I’ve discovered that when the kernel needs to be upgraded, it’s much better to have Grub in place as it saves you some steps. Grub can be set up to make for a very nice boot sequence too. So not to worry.

You get a chance to make a rescue floppy disk, which is a wise idea, although I confess I’ve skipped it a number of times.

Towards the end, it wants to know more things like the type of monitor you have, screen resolution, what your ISP address is - so it can set up your email address for you - and whether you want to go online to get the latest updates to this system. I try to get these matters all taken care of as they come up, so that when it announces it is finished, the system is up and ready to go!

Well, when it has re-boot, and you are finally in the system, you want to poke around a bit, and find the personal settings, and fine-tune them to suit your fancy. You are NOW a Linux user!

Of course, some of these details may not have been covered during the installation, so we’ll deal with them next time and discuss how to get everything checked out and operating smoothly.

I see that exactly one month ago I wrote the last issue of eAction, and I was apologizing there. Now I’m doing it again, but perhaps for more valid reasons. My Dad got cancer and died, fortunately before too much suffering, on February 24.

If you have experienced a death in the family you know that is when things really get busy! The family gathers from afar, funeral plans need to be made, calls and visits come interrupting everything you try to do, and you just have to give up your normal routines for the situation at hand. On top of that, your emotions go to extremes and you are not able to think like you usually do.

In my case, I’ve had all that last week, and now I’m running errands to the Executor of Dad’s will, and I’m dealing with a stressed out back. I forgot I have osteoporosis, and I did some lifting I should not have done.

However, the dust is settling and I’m slowing getting back into my business routines here at the computer. Answering many, many kind emails is one duty I’m allowing some precedence, but it will take a while to catch up yet.

Since this house needs to be sold and I must move into some new place, there are extra duties to add to my day. What makes it all bearable is that I have many kind friends and even business associates and contacts, who are willing to give me time. That means a lot!

Dr. Ken Evoy has written an excellent, in-depth article on this topic in his ezine, The EDGE # 083. I’d like to highlight just a few of these suggestions as I think we all need to be reminded of them from time to time. I’ll do this in my own words, however.

There is a Digital Millennium Copyright Act which protects the material that you produce for your web site. Although you or I might not stoop to copying from others’ sites, there are immoral people who have no qualms about this. The better your Intellectual Property is, the more likely it is that someone will copy-paste your text and even your graphics on their website. To a certain degree this is a very back-handed compliment to you.

On the other hand, it is wrong, and can cause some problems so you need to know how to proceed when you get to the “Now I must take Action” point. If the violation is vague you might be stuck, but you can take steps to ensure that each situation is more black and white, and that you have documentation to prove your ownership of your own materials.

1. Start a Documentation file. Put in it;
a record of your site ownership, and what shows up at WhoIs for your domain
proof of payment for your domain and hosting
backup your site and put it on a CD - file that CD
do that backup and filing of the CD again every 3-6 months.

2. At the bottom of every web page, put a copyright notice like this; (c) 2001-2007 Ruth Marlene Friesen - All Rights Reserved (If you put it in an includes file you can update it by making one change to the includes file and every page will be updated at once when you upload it).

Confronting Culprits

It is a good idea to do regularly searches on your keywords to see how you rank in the search engines. That is usually when you will discover some other site that is suspiciously like yours. Check it out, and if you are ready to confront the culprit, prepare a polite but firm email to the offending party, explaining who you are, and your site, and that they have taken your material without your permission. Ask them to take it down.

If those pages do not disappear fairly swiftly, you write another polite but firm email to their ISP or hosting provider. State that you have documentation to prove you are the rightful owner of that intellectual property, and ask them to remove the offending site. If they ask to see your documentation send them copies of it. Generally though, they don’t want trouble and will remove the site that stole your material.

Google has a site where you can check to see if any other site is copying your material. http://www.copyscape.com/ But do remember that you may have quoted your own material when you listed your site on some directories. So don’t get all uptight until you are sure it is truly a theft.

Your next resort would be to complain to the search engines, but they advise to be sure it is true theft of your web pages and content, and not must a quote that may even be in your favour and drive traffic to your site.

It really pays to be cool and collected, and not go off in 40 directions when you discover this kind of thing. But if you have taken steps to protect your intellectual property, then if it does have to go to litigation to be resolved, at least you are sure of winning your case.

Perhaps this is not necessary, but let me add one more thing. Make sure that you don’t steal yourself. Sure as anything, the opposing side will try hard to find evidence that you’ve been guilty of the some plagiarism too.

Nick Stubbs is a professional photographer. Just two years after building his SBI! site, he is now so busy with photo shoots (booked 12 months in advance) that he refers business to other photographers. Learn how Nick went from offline to online to offline to SBI! to a full-time career doing what he loves…Nick’s Case Study