Jaunty Jackalope released; Vista all over again

That's right, I put the release of Ubuntu's Jaunty Jackalope on the same level as Microsoft's launch of Windows Vista. Although Jaunty's release wasn't announced by a troupe of performance artists like Vista, its fanfare-filled launch ensnared many users who were unaware of its development-release instability and widespread incompatibility.

My awareness and rage toward this issue started with a single click. After my package manager had downloaded several updates, I noticed a button above the list of updates encouraging me to upgrade my system to the newest release of Linux. I obliged, just as any inexperienced user would when greeted by a safe, important-looking button.

The installation took two or three hours, and it threw only a single minor error: the incompatible package libphoto (or something like that) wasn't installed. I shut down my system for the night, admiring the cool gradient loading bar before turning off the monitor.

When I booted up the next morning, I chose the newest kernel from the GRUB menu and expected a smooth startup. Instead, I was greeted by a total startup failure. My flashed between a black screen and a black screen with a red bar at the top several times before finally hanging on the glitchy red bar. Every time I tried to boot linux, I would get the same red bar of death followed by a permanent hang. Even if I attempted to fall back to an older version of the kernel, I would get the same result: total failure.

I decided to figure out what had happened and how to fix it, so I fired up Vista (GRUB still worked fine) and asked for help on the official Ubuntu forum. Instead of an explanation and instructions on how to fix my problem, I received this response from an experienced Ubuntu user:

Sorry to hear about your upgrade problems. 9.04 seems to be producing a lot more than its share of such problems (which is why we generally recommend against doing an upgrade).

As to reverting, sorry (again), there's no simple way to do that because an upgrade not only replaces packages it also removes them.

I was shocked. I had often heard tales of the stability of Linux relative to Windows, but now I realized those tales were just myths. I might expect to encounter this problem and response if I was installing Jaunty on an old, obscure, or esoteric system, but I never thought that my 64-bit Intel quad core PC wouldn't be supported by an Ubuntu distribution release.

I then began to notice all the encouragements for Ubuntu users to upgrade to Jaunty Jackalope: Jaunty has a plug on the Ubuntu forum index page, it is the default Ubuntu version for download on Ubuntu.com, and it also has that tantalizing upgrade button on the Package Manager. However, inexperienced users are supposed to ignore all that and instead ask the advice of an experienced Ubuntu user.

I find this incident startlingly similar to Microsoft's often-mocked Vista advertising blitz. Although Vista and Jaunty were unstable and had many incompatibilities, they were both released with much fanfare, enticing naive users to "upgrade" now. I understand that Ubuntu follows a strict six-month release schedule, but the trust of their users should be more important to them than an arbitrary schedule. On the other hand, Ubuntu could have officially released Jaunty but delayed the push for users to upgrade until after the OS was as stable as its predecessor.

I eventually had to destroy my Linux partition (along with all my data) and start again with Intrepid Ibex from my Live CD. After this incident, I might skip the Jaunty upgrade entirely and wait for the next long-term support release; I'm not anxious to "upgrade" Ubuntu again anytime soon.

Cheap keyword-rich domain names for sale

Yes, I am actually going to try to sell some domain names through my blog. I registered these because my registrar offered a discount when you bought five or more domain names. They're unique domain names with plenty of keywords, but I simply can't use them all. Here's the list:

• ActionScriptProgramming.com
• ActionScriptWebDevelopment.com
• CrashWebDesign.com
• DuskWebDesign.com
• ElegantActionScript.com
• ElegantJavascript.com
• ErrorWebDesign.com
• EvilWebDesign.com
• GetYourStory.com
• MeteorWebsiteDesign.com
• MiniTruckWebDesign.com
• RandomWebDesign.com

They're only one hundred dollars each, and they've got plenty of valuable keywords. Why not get one for your web design, programming, or software development business?

Google Trends: A powerful market analysis tool

It's not often that I find something to do that's both educational and incredibly addictive. However, Google Trends fits that description perfectly. I could spend hours scouring the data for market trends and checking the health of websites and industries. Essentially, this free web services gives anyone free access to the market data of the most widely used search engine in the world.

After spending only five minutes gazing at all the pretty graphs, I found an interesting trend. When I looked at the data for "nintendo wii", I noticed that the graph was on a general decreasing trend. I know that the Wii's popularity has steadily increased from its release, so I was puzzled by this result. However, a look at the graph for "wii" showed a more predictable upward trend. I believe that this incongruity between the search terms is caused by the public's increasing awareness of the Wii. As more and more people learn about the Wii, fewer and fewer use its full, formal name. Of course, this conclusion is strictly speculation, but it's an interesting theory, nonetheless.

Google Trends can turn anybody into a market analysis guru with access to possibly the largest consumer interest gauge in existence. You could use this service to pick which field of interest to study in, find the next big web service wave to ride, or pitch your web service to venture capitalists. However, one thing you won't find on Google Trends is this blog. It lives up to its name.

Social networking for lazy bums

Although I greatly enjoy software development, I don't enjoy researching of social bookmarking site interfaces just to let people share my blog's content. Luckily for me, I found AddThis, an incredibly easy-to-use social bookmark widget that's compatible with more services than I could possibly imagine. It's free to use, but you have to sign up for an account at AddThis.com before you can use it. Fortunately, that free account supposedly grants you access to analytics on who bookmarks your site and how (I haven't tried it out yet).

This free web service is an incredibly easy way to add social bookmarking to your site: I had it set up on my blog in about ten minutes. Now I've got more time to devote to real programming challenges!

Uber-cheap web design

When I say uber, you know it's serious. I may not be a world-class web designer (yet), but I may have found the cheapest and quickest way to learn the languages of the web and put up a website. Enjoy!

Okay, let's set the scene. You're the benevolent ruler of a tiny European country, when your despotic uncle stages a coup and overthrows your glorious government. You are forced to flee the country for the distant shores of America. You know the language and you know how to use a computer, but you don't have any credible job experience ("Riiiiggghhtt, you once ruled a country, so you're qualified for a management position. NEXT!!"). You decide to ride the internet wave, but don't think you have the cash or the skills to start a web design company. Not to worry, you have this list!

Step 1: Learn XHTML and CSS

The first thing your majesty needs to know is that there is a right and a wrong way to create websites. If you do it the right way, it will mean less work, more job offers, and tons of cash. If you do it the wrong way, it will mean time-consuming projects, bad-looking websites, and, eventually, the total failure of all your websites. If you try to learn web design with online tutorials and resources, you are pretty likely to learn web design the wrong way. I recommend you learn web design the right way with the very nice book, HTML, XHTML, and CSS, Sixth Edition: Visual QuickStart Guide. It is relatively easy to read and understand, and its tons of pictures and examples make the somewhat dry subject matter downright fun to read, in my opinion.

Buy it here: HTML, XHTML, and CSS, Sixth Edition (Visual Quickstart Guide)

Step 2: Build a website cheap

If you have time to learn and money to burn, Dreamweaver is supposedly as good as web design software gets, nowadays. However, you can make sites every bit as impressive with a few pieces of free, downloadable software.

First, to code the actual HTML, you'll need a text editor. If you're bound to the system standard software, you can use Microsoft Notepad, a stout little editor that will get the job done. Of course, if you plan to do any serious coding, I highly recommend getting a more versatile text editor, such as Notepad2. Notepad2 is a free text editor with convenient syntax highlighting for several common languages, such as XHTML and CSS. It is a must for any serious manual website construction.

You'll also need some free image-editing software, because if your website doesn't have pictures or graphics of some kind, it's not really a website. Here, you have two great options. If you have some time to learn and you need the most powerful free image editor, try out GIMP. It's got a wicked learning curve, but it can do almost everything Photoshop can do. If you want something familiar yet capable, try out Paint.net, another free editor. It doesn't quite have the features of GIMP, but it is way more intuitive. Remember, this is Paint.net, not Microsoft Paint. MS Paint is only good for making grainy graphics in outdated file formats.

You can find GIMP plus tons of tutorials here, and you can get Paint.net here.

Step 3: Show the world your genius (or not)

Now comes the part where you have to spend money, but not much. I have heard of places that offer you 'free' domain names and web hosting, but I have never personally found a legitimate one. Registering a domain name costs somebody money, period. However, it doesn't have to cost much, as I think I've found the single cheapest domain names on the internet. Netfirms.com practically gives away domain names for $5.95 for the first year, last time I checked. This price simply cannot be beaten, as long as you won't need customer service or bulk-buying tools. Don't be fooled by their free hosting service, however; they place big ugly banner ads across the top of all free-hosted websites, and you simply don't want that.

You can find truly free hosting services a few places, and my personal favorite is FreeHostia.com. According to my [free] website monitoring service, I get about 99.9% uptime for no money at all. The downside is that you can only host two sites per account, and you'll need to work with the DNS system to hook it up to your domain name. It's certainly not one-stop shopping.

You will find Netfirms here, and Freehostia here.

Step 4: Maintain your site

No good web designer simply puts up a site and leaves it at that; the web is all about change and newness. You'll need some way to change your site once you've got it online, and Freehostia's website tools simply don't cut the mustard. Enter Filezilla, the free, open-source FTP client with some very convenient features. For example, when you open Filezilla, you're only two clicks away from all of your websites. Even better, Filezilla will automatically switch to your matching local website folder as soon as you link up to one of your websites. It's a small, simple program, and I like it that way.

You can download FileZilla at here.

Step 5: Learn about your site's visitors

One of the most important and neglected aspects of web design is visitor tracking. Most people guage their site's traffic levels by looking at their server stats, but that is neither the easiest or the most accurate way to do it. You're much better off installing Google Analytics on your site and letting their top-quality software watch where your visitors come from, where they go on your site, and when do they leave. Best of all, you get all these great services absolutely free.

You should use this service to optimize your site for your visitors and gear your site toward them. For example, if you learn that most of your visitors find you through a yahoo search for neon-colored macrame, you should put emphasis on your more vibrant macrame weavings. (Not that there's actually a market for online macrame...) Always abide by the web marketer's code: "Optimize, optimize, optimize!"

You can sign up for Google Analytics here.

Step 6: Rake in the cash!

Many web designers like to pretend that they do it for the fame or the satisfaction, but in reality, everybody's looking for a quick buck. The easiest way to monetize your site is to use another convenient Google service, Adsense. Adsense is a simple piece of code that you add to your site which shows advertisements for websites relating to yours. For example, if you decided to run a gardening blog, Adsense would be likely to show advertisements for things like pest control products, gardening utensils, and other gardening websites. When somebody clicks on one of the advertisements on your website, Google pays you a small amount of money. Twenty cents doesn't sound like much, but if your site is getting a thousand hits per day, you can make a sizable chunk of change.

You can sign up for Google Adsense here.

Well, that's all the advice I have to offer. I can't promise that your website will succeed if you abide by these rules, because above all you need interesting content to drive traffic. Writing just another blog about tech stuff will get you nowhere.

Trust me, I know.