Monthly Archives: January 2011

PCLinuxOS, LXDE, and User Management

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If you have read some of my recent Linux posts, you may remember I volunteer here in Albuquerque at two non-profit Community Centers, helping to keep their Laptops running from week to week. I have been doing this for almost a year now, and it has been a very rewarding experience with a lot of learning on the side. I installed PCLinuxOS as a first step recovery as Linux has so much to offer with little downside for the casual user, and PCLinuxOS is the cream of the crop for instant usability.

PCLinuxOS is an excellent distribution for everyone, especially for people who have never used Linux. The LXDE Desktop is similar to Windows reducing a casual users learning curve. Combine the two into PCLinuxOS – LXDE and it is an instant hit. Everything the Community Center’s need is included on one CD. The included programs are well thought out, and Open Office Org install is available at the click of a button, completing the setup.

If you use PCLinuxOS – LXDE, have kids, or other curious neophytes using your computer the changes below will help you. I created one user account for all users which I named, ‘guest’. I set the guest account to auto-login. Most users use Firefox, or type a paper, printing what they want to keep or sending their work to their online email account, so requirements are fairly simple.

I have done a lot learning from almost a year ago to present some of which will help you if you share your computer. With the user account I want to change logged on, the first change I made was to the PCLinuxOS LXDE desktop.

While the desktop is carefully thought out and wonderful for individual use, it is too much for a multiuser environment. The Network Icon, Terminal, File System, Quick Launch Toolbar Icons, and Internet Connection Icon are troublesome to curious users who know little about how computers function. Removing icons was the first change to the desktop.

After the desktop icons were removed, I found user focus turned to the Quick Launch Bar Icons on the bottom left of the screen. All those colorful Icons must do something fun, and the curious clicked and played with them as they could. At first I removed them all, then discovered that users had become accustomed to clicking on the Firefox icon, and some did not know how to start Firefox using the Menu. I gave in and crafted a safe, basic icon set.

The latest problem is with the internet connection. The Community Center’s connections are a pipe dream away from being a T1 connection. It would be a wonderful improvement to get to cable speed. Put eight or ten users on a slow connection and everything to and from the internet slows to a crawl.

I could imagine the thought process as every week as I restored wifi connections. ‘Wow, this sure is slow, there must be something wrong with this laptop. Let me click on this Internet Connection thingy and see if I can fix it.’ A few clicks later and the laptop is connected to an unmade connection, and the internet is now one one connection faster for everyone else in the room.

To begin modifying a user normal user account to a mostly harmless account I made the following changes:

If you installed Open Office Org, or you plan not to, open Synaptic Package Manager, and  remove ‘getopenoffice’ from your system. This removes ‘Get Open Office’ from your Desktop and Menu. If you installed Open Office, the icon on the Desktop and label in the Menu causes confusion for users, and headaches for you.

One of the buttons on the Quick Launch Taskbar is a button to launch the PCLinuxOS Control Center. Click on the button and enter root’s password. You should now be in the PCLinuxOS Control Center. If you are not, close the window and start over.

Click on the word ‘System’ on the left. Click on ‘Manage users on System’ on the bottom of the screen. Click on the user who’s account you want to dumb down, in my case, ‘guest’ and the account name and line will be highlighted.

Click on the Edit Icon on top. Next, click on the Tab ‘Groups’ This is where the real power of Linux shows itself. From here you control almost everything any user can do. I un-clicked the boxes dialout, and users. This creates a new group named guest which guest is a member of. The boxes audio, cdrom, cdwriter, floppy, lp (printer), polkituser, user (user’s new group), and video are all checked. You can uncheck them to deny your user from using any or all of them. You are done with this screen and can exit out. When your user logs in, they will not find the internet connection icon. If you leave the Networking Icon on the desktop, it will require root’s password to open.

Right click on any of the Quick Launch Taskbar Icons on the bottom left. If you clicked correctly an option for “Application Launch Bar” Settings is the first choice. Click on Application Launch Bar.

On the Settings Screen is three columns. The left side contains apps that are on the Quick Launch Bar. The right side contains apps that can be added to the Launch Bar. The center is the add, remove, move up, or move down buttons. From here you can customize what is contained on the Quick Launch Bar, or remove all programs if you so choose. Linux is all about choices. If you are admin of your system, you can control the choices.

There are many more options available to control, limit, and otherwise manage users of your computer while running PCLinuxOS on your computer. A short period of exploring and changing settings can prevent headaches later, and like myself, you will get to learn something in the process. If you are making changes always write down what you have done on a piece of paper so you know how to undo it if it does not have the intended effect.

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Meditation Ideas You Can Use

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I want you to know I am not a meditation expert by any stretch of the imagination, mine or yours. I can only speak from my experience, and the mileage of my experience varies according to your understanding. There are many people who teach meditation for a living, probably including your local college who will have more substantial information than this post may contain. This as an overview of my experience with meditation.

Over the years I have been skeptical about most paranormal or mystical concepts unless I have experienced them and can validate them myself. I have had to change my opinions about some things and with other things, they are not worth a second thought. Meditation however is the one of the ‘Real Deals’. Unless one is so rooted in their beliefs, believing nothing exists that cannot be proven scientifically, it is well worth your time and effort to give meditation a try.

The first type of meditation I learned which we all share or used to share is daydreaming. Daydreaming is a powerful free resource. Whether daydreams are confined to our minds or occasionally tap into some other source, I do not know. I do know daydreams tend to slip from the context of Daydreaming and become something else.

We all used to daydream as children. As we grew up daydreaming was relegated to those childish things we put away, or leave behind. Daydreaming in itself does not go away. After we have forgotten we used to daydream, daydreaming comes back to us in new packaging. Sometimes called positive affirmation, perceptive visualization, or other vague name, it is daydreaming. Once the pretty wrapper is taken off and we look closely, we will see the daydreaming we knew as  children in adult form.

A second meditation method I learned was meditating on or against trees. The idea is a tree will trade you energies, refreshing you and taking away your stress. How much energy exchange comes from the tree and how much from the process itself is not clear to me, but there is no better place to relax under when outdoors than a nice shade tree.

I stumbled into a quasi-meditation form that is part of Shamanism. I am not sure if Shamanic Flight could be considered meditation per se, but the process is about the same, only with different focus. Shaman’s use Shamanic Flight to help one or more people in some fashion. Shaman’s do this by being active in two realities at one time. Shamanic Flight is also used for other reasons, but that is a different subject.

One interesting aspect of Shamanic Flight is most people I know have met a ‘Gate Keeper’ who questions their purpose at the beginning of their Shamanic Flight. If the purpose for Shamanic Flight does not satisfy the Gate Keeper, their entrance to another world is denied.

They are kicked out of their semi trance state, waking with an abrupt start. In some instances Shamanic Flight is put on indefinite hold by the Gate Keeper, and you will become spiritually mundane against your wishes.

I came across a most interesting meditation which is uses a word to achieve a meditative state. If you have ever watched a movie where someone is in a sitting posture and repeating the word ‘Ommm’ over and over you are familiar with this type of meditation. While I personally do not think repeating Ommm over and over would work for me, I have experienced very interesting outcomes from using other words that feel right in the moment.

If you want to try a simple type of meditation yourself, start with daydreaming. Ask around  and find someone knowledgeable about meditation. If you do not know anyone, find one or more good written resource(s) to help you. If what you read sounds soft and mushy, find another book or website. Sitting down and successfully meditating cannot usually be done the first try without help. For some, meditation is a tedious painful process to go through before any of those wondrous benefits you hear or read about begin to be realized.

Shamanic Flight deserves the utmost respect, and extreme caution. If you want to explore meditation leave Shamanic Flight alone. Some people in their ignorance have approached Shamanic Flight as a new playground to be explored. Some of them are ever sorry for their lapse in judgement because they did not understand that what they were doing has effects and consequences in this reality.

Personally, I have found each type of meditation produces different effects or responses. Daydreaming opens me up to possibilities, it is fun and relaxing. Resting with my back against a tree, or sitting somewhere that feels special brings me to a white cloud-like space and leaves me both refreshed and relaxed. For a little while the world is repainted in warmth with bright colors, and everything is perfect.

Shamanistic Flight has taken me to places I would never have imagined, and situations I would not have conceived, as I am not that imaginative. I recommend you stay away from Shamanic Flight and leave it to others as it can be harmful to you and your spiritual self.

Meditation while speaking a word is amazing! I am not sure yet where you end up, but in my experience there is someone there to meet you, and they will know an awful lot about you. They have demonstrated to me at least, abilities I have a hard time coming to terms with even though I am/was the recipient of those abilities. The experience is akin to meeting someone who knows everything about you and your life, and they can help you in areas of your life if they so choose.

If you think meditation may be for you, find someone who has experience with meditation and let them teach you what they know. I may be falling off the deep end here, but meditation is a spiritual practice, not a physical practice. With any spiritual practice or undertaking, caution should rule the day. Things of the spirit have a lot in common with high risk sports such as hang gliding, or cave diving.

In the land of the spiritual, practicing thoughtlessness and rash behavior will hurt you both emotionally and physically. Meditation is a somewhat arcane practice in the western world and for good reason. We are generally too into our ego and personal fears to think beyond ourselves. As I once read, and am now passing on, treat everything of the spirit the same as you would standing in a bad part of town on a full moon night. It is better to be a live mouse, than a crippled or dead warrior.

With that disclaimer out of the way, the rewards of meditation are many. Insight, answers, life mysteries explained, the list goes on and on. Give it a try, it may be just what you are looking for and you never knew it, until you tried it.

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More Time For Your Life

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I used to be very frustrated when I took a college class with a friend. It was not the class, although it was not the most enjoyable class, it was the expectations of the class. We were expected to write a number of short papers, and one longer page which would be our final for the class.

Each week we would go to class, and learn about a different way of presenting information on paper. One week it would be from an observational view, the next week, a third person view, and so on. Thrown in for good measure was proper paragraph structure and proper placement of the paragraphs main sentence.

The class, although it had its boring moments, was a good experience from a beginning level on how to put together a paper correctly. If I could remember most of what I learned my writing would be cleaner and more effective.

What I found frustrating in the class was the friend with whom I was taking the class with. I took my homework very seriously. I would start the night after class, and add, change and polish my weekly paper almost every day until we met the next week and turned them in.

My friend on the other hand generally waited until a few hours before the next class, sat down, typed out their paper, and was done in less than two hours. The disparity in effort was troubling to me. I would spend six, eight, or more hours, and they would spend at the most two hours. When our papers were handed back, our grades would be equal.

There was some difference in our writing abilities, but there was also something else going on that I had yet to discover. I was yet to discover that when it came to managing my time effectively, I was not very good at it.

You see, I thought when you had free time it meant there was time to do things that needed to be done no matter how far into the future, work on my paper for example. It seemed perfectly logical to me, spend some time on homework each day, and it is all done when it needs to be. I thought I was making effective use of my time.

What my friend understood that I did not, was it was not the amount of time spent on something, it was doing something when it needed to be done was more important than doing it over time.

Unlike my friend I was not a stellar student in school. Once I started college, I decided I was going to keep up on my home work and not wait until the last minute to do it. That way I always had time to go over and fine tune my papers before I turned them in.

My friend on the other hand understood that in many cases, once a certain level of proficiency is gained, fine tuning becomes re-writing, and re-writing again; essentially writing the same material out four or five different ways before turning it in.

I eventually learned about time management and I understood that in some ways and areas I was creating busy work, and not value added work, my class writing being an example.

There are multiple ways of looking proper time management but they all can be distilled into to a few major points:

1. Everything that needs to be done carries a level of importance.

2. Not everything needs to be done at once.

3. Completing tasks ahead of schedule, is not always the best use of time.

4. Working on and finishing tasks when they are needed is much more effective than doing them over time.

The number 4 is the most important idea to take from the points above. Everything we need to get done in our lives can fit into four or even three levels of importance.

The idea of time management is two fold. Proper time management gives you extra time  to do whatever you want to do. Effective time management gives you a tool to list in importance all tasks needing attention, allowing you to work on and complete them in level of importance and time.

The time we have in our life is finite, even though it may not always seem like it. Working and reworking on a task that is not needed until some point in the future is less important than a task that needs to be completed by tomorrow.

Mark up your tasks in levels of importance with ones given to tasks that are a low priority, and a four given to those very important items that must be done, and done today or tomorrow at the latest.

Only work on those tasks that are level three or higher on your scale of importance. Tasks that you rate as level one or level two can wait until they become important enough to be raised to a level three or higher task.

Now you know how to better manage your time, which relates into better managing of your life. Why spend time today doing something that is not needed until next week? You may never see next week. Put off those future tasks, and do what needs to be done today.

If after going through your list of tasks and you find none that need doing today, you have a whole day to spend on something more important. More important may be curled up with a book, spending time with someone, or going outside for a walk around your neighborhood, or a local park.

Whatever something more important turns out to be, it won’t be wasting time on tasks that really are not that important, or doing busy work just to be busy.

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New Years Resolution You Want to Do

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It is January 2011 and many of us are starting our annual cycle of frustration, guilt, and unfulfilled wants in the form of New Year’s Resolutions. If you read my New Year Resolutions post from last year, you know I am not a big fan of New Year Resolutions in their present form. I offered up some ideas for changing New Year resolutions into something you can really use and feel proud of because they are obtainable ideas.

This year, I suggest another option for New Year Resolutions. Making amends, and letting those around you know how and what you really feel is my thought for this year. While it may sound a little silly, or perhaps something that sounds a little uncomfortable, yet is a healthy thing to do. Coming clean so to speak with those around you is liberating, for you and for those whom you love and care about.

One of the big misses for me when I was a child came in the form of endearments. While there was never any doubt how my Parents felt about me, it was rarely spoken. Rather how my folks felt about me was sent to the realm of being a given. When I grew into adulthood, I found it hard to express to those close to me, how I felt about them, and how fortunate I was to have them in my life.

Take a few moments and think about your life and how you interact with those around you. Maybe we have something in common when it comes to being open and grateful of those around us? Actions may speak louder than words on occasion, but heartfelt words can also quiet the restless beast. Maybe speaking a few words will bridge that slight distance we feel when we are alone and thinking of those around us.

It takes an especially strong person not to reflect us back to us, and be themselves instead of another form of us when we are together. People who can do this are rare, those people who always make us feel special even when we do not feel too special ourselves.

This year I propose that we let go of those artificial barriers we set in place separating us from all but those rare personalities. I have found the world does not end, the sky does not split, and the ground does not swallow me up when I say the unsaid that comes from the heart.

Instead I find that people in my life are empowered to be themselves without my personal barriers preventing them from being themselves. Life feels better when those walls are knocked down and you empower yourself to say what is in your heart and not let it remain locked up inside of you.

The poets of love have always written it feels better to share your heart with another rather than keep your feelings locked up. When it comes to matters of the heart, even if the other person does not feel the same way, you no longer have the burden of how you feel locked away in a dark corner. Family members and friends may know how you feel about them, but they will feel better if they not only know, but they hear how you feel about them.

What is in it for you is the feelings of distance and aloneness will slowly dissolve, and you may learn that most people, even strangers care about you and your well being more than you would have guessed. Change is hard. Making resolutions that fall by the wayside is harder. Try rewarding yourself this year with a resolution that makes you feel good about yourself and those around you, and see what happens!

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