The Unexpected (good) side effect of using Ubuntu

I am a Ubuntu believer, as one of those total converts for almost two years now Ubuntu has answered my every computing need. Even Ubuntu games are coming of age and I find myself not even using Wine but sticking to the native Linux games. Sure I knew the power of Ubuntu and run many of the critical applications my company relies on, on that very platform. Then something happened that I never expected. Slowly but surely as I involved myself with the Ubuntu community I started learning more about the world getting to know cultures and people from everywhere. I started this blog and then joined the Planet Ubuntu Users in doing so I met gouki I’m pretty sure from Portugal this guy runs the Planet Ubuntu Users, love his website it’s simple but fantastic. One day my post on the planet stopped working while trouble shooting this I found out that a few others post had stopped working as well one of those was Isabelle Duchatelle from France, was this person some kind of smart her post have taught me a thing or two, after a few emails back in forth we found the issue and where back on the planet as usual. Soon after I starting getting heavily involved in my local Ubuntu Users group and while asking some questions here and there I had some correspondence with the legendary Jono Bacon from the United Kingdom a man I found who is always willing to help or turn you on to a band you never heard of, for a guy like me who loves music that alone is worth talking him. Because of Ubuntu I got involved with Software Freedom Day, Document Freedom Day, and Open Discussion Day. All of which has introduced me to people from Nigeria, Malaysia, India, South America, and a host of other countries. What has happened with me on the local level is just as amazing my Local Ubuntu Users Group in New Mexico has become an official group and have started some pretty successful projects of our own. I’ve also gotten involved with the US Teams and met some great people like Aaron Toponce. So what’s the side effect you say? Well, when I used Windows I was in a cocoon plugging away day after day I sure never cared about a Bill Gates blog like I do a Mark Shuttleworth blog, and while I love other Linux distributions, ( I live in New Mexico so there is a special place in my heart for Gentoo ), Ubuntu has brought me into a community, a community of people that really do want to make computing free and open. A community that treats the newbie as respectfully as the seasoned users. I’ve learned so much in the past couple of years and this year I’ll be presenting at Ubuntu Live (hey guys in charge of Ubuntu Live, think we can get that registration price down a little) where I’ll be able to shake hands and say thank you to the community I’ve come to love. So I’d say a pretty good side effect for a guy who two years ago had no idea where Nigeria was.

Have to say Hi to GCleric

Welcome to the Planet Eric, glad to have you aboard. Eric’s one guy I’m glad to have working with Ubuntu he knows his stuff.

Well, here it goes…do the headlines show up.

WordPress Tech support gave me a few more ideas so here we go….

Thanks to everyone that has helped me with this issue, I’d guess to say if I wasn’t dealing with Ubuntu people I would have never got all the help that I’ve gotten.

Ubuntu people rock!

Testing to see if my Headlines show up.

Testing to see if my Headlines show up. My last few post have not been showing up correctly when my blog gets aggregated.

I asked WordPress tech support but got a we didn’t change anything remark, you know I run a fairly large Help Desk and I refuse to let my people give that answer to any request, it’s just damn lazy.

So the testing and the looking over all my options continues. Funny thing is other (but not all) WordPress users  that have their blogs aggregated on Plant Ubuntu Users are seeing the same thing….

Aggregate test

For some reason my blog is not aggregating right on the Ubuntu Planet Blog, so this is a test.

Congratulations to New Ubuntu Members!

Congratulations to the new Ubuntu members this week as seen in Ubuntu Weekly News Letter #56. An even bigger way to go to Isabelle Duchatelle and her Ubuntu Membership I guess you will be leaving us (planet ubuntu users) soon and moving on to planet ubuntu just like that Joe Terranova did. I’ve enjoyed your post and your opinions and expect great things in the future for you….again way to go to all who got membership this week.

Ubuntu Loco Team USA Meeting

The Team USA Project meeting was last night over 100 people and I’d say about 20 states represented. Not sure how long it lasted I got sleepy after about 4 hours. Nice to meet others working hard on getting an Ubuntu team in all 50 states. Now if I can only get the New Mexico team to official status. If you were there drop me a line.

US - Ubuntu Loco Teams Meet and Greet

Date: August 4th, 2007
Time: 8pm EST (UTC Details)
Location: #ubuntu-us

Looks like it’s time for all the US teams to get to know one another. I’ll be there hope you are too. Hey New Mexico has to represent.

Planet Ubuntu Users - Now with Ubuntu Theme Colors

Hey look at us, I have to say I like the new theme!

Ubuntu, Open Source, and Ron Paul

That’s right Ubuntu, Open Source, and Ron Paul. What could those three things have in common, well Ubuntu and Open Source sure, but what’s with the Ron Paul? As some of you may have guessed next years presidential  elections in the United States of America is more than likely going to be an ugly brutal mess. No one is happy about the war no matter what side of it your on. The economy looks like it’s booming but only if your one of the have gots and not one of the have nots. Gas prices are rising every day, which means food prices go right up with it. Thanks to the Patriot Act, we’ve been kissing most of our civil rights good bye too. So what does any of this have to do with Ubuntu or Open Source Software, for that matter Ron Paul? Well Ubuntu is a community thing each of us helping one another. The more you contribute the more you get back, much like Open Source Software. I’ve debugged a few applications in my day and the skills and techniques I learned was more valuable than any programming class I’ve ever took. That bring me to Ron Paul and what he stands for. When I started looking for a person I could trust to lead the United States I started to get a little worried everyone scared me, that is until I found Ron Paul, the only republican to vote against the war from day one, vote against the  Patriot Act, and even understands what Internet neutrality means. I’m not sure if Ron Paul is aware of it but he brings to the table all the values that most of the Linux users and Open source Developers I know care about. A free and open society, free of government intervention, and the right to do as you please as long as you do not infringe on others.

Yes I know this is kind of a political rant, but with lobbyist for Microsoft trying to kill the Open Document Format, Telcos trying to regulate the Internet, and senators trying to tell us the internet is like a bunch of tubes. We just might want to get a little political before were all regulated out of the very rights we as open source supports hold dear.