johnmccollum.co.uk

Well, I didn’t see this one coming yesterday.

Google continued their assault on Microsoft by launching their new browser, Chrome, today - 24 hours after announcing it! 

I’ve just installed it, and first impressions are that it will be a serious contender in the browser market - as you would expect.

Installation was fast and easy, taking all of about one minute. It imported my settings from Firefox - bookmarks, passwords, the lot.

Another minute later, and I was up and running - actually, make that sprinting. This thing really moves - it’s lightning fast. The sleek interface adds to that feeling, and anyone coming from Firefox will be immediately at home, organising tabs and bookmarks like an old pro.

Text and graphics look great on Chrome - there’s a lovely soft, anti-aliased edge to the display. No surprise, given that the rendering engine is based on Safari’s Webkit.

The launch page borrows from Opera’s excellent quick-dial, giving you instant access to your recently bookmarked and most viewed pages.

There’s also incognito mode - where you can browse safe in the knowledge that no trace of your - ahem - browsing habits will be left on your PC.

All in all, Google Chrome is a frighteningly polished product, given that it’s a beta. The response has been very positive and I can’t wait to see some developer extensions appear to add to its feature list.

You can download Google Chrome here.

Have you tried Chrome yet? What are your thoughts?

As regular readers might know, I’ve been in the process of building my own PC for quite some time now. For my first build, it went well! Building the machine itself was a piece of cake - like putting lego together.

The challenges came though, when I started installing and configuring Ubuntu. For what’s supposed to a user-friendly ‘noob’ distro, I had my fair share of problems getting it up and running.

Here are some of the challenges I faced - and the solutions I found!

Problem #1: Installing Flash

I hit my first problem almost as soon as I started up firefox - no flash. Hey, that shouldn’t be a problem, right? OK, off to Adobe’s download centre. It helpfully recognises my operating system, and offers a choice of packages. I download the relevant one, and…

Nothing. 64 bit Ubuntu isn’t supported. OK, not a disaster - clicking on a blank Flash video offers a choice of Flash solutions to me. I choose “flashplugin-nonfree”, and hit install. I restart my browser…

Nothing. Checking synaptic shows that it’s been properly installed, but nothing happening in Firefox!

OK - next step: Ubuntu Forums. There are many, many users with issues with Flash, but the definitive post seems to be this one, which offers two solutions. I try the first…

Nothing. The second solution states not to use it, but instead to notify the developers of a bug, and wait for a response…yeah right. I try the second, unsupported, user supplied install script, and finally…

Success! Time wasted: 1 hour.

Problem #2: Graphics card drivers

Second problem - I try to enable advanced desktop effects, to be told that “Desktop effects cannot be enabled”. Not a very useful message, but it turns out that generic ‘Vesa’ drivers were being used. OK, since nearly every Google result gives results stating “same day support” for the 4800 series, this one will be easy to sort, right?

Right. :/

First thing - check Envy. This promises to identify the card, download and configure it. Sounds too good to be true? Unfortunately, for me it was - I had no success with my 4850.

The next thing I tried was the Ubuntu Hardy Installation Guide. This page provided two solutions (sound familiar?) One simple solution, one complex one. Guess which solution I tried first? Guess which one didn’t work? Yep, the simple one.

So, it was the 12 step manual solution for me. Frankly, I had no idea what was going on for most of those steps! Let’s just say that my desktop ended up looking like this (bearing in mind that it was completely blank before!):

However, it did at least work. Beautiful desktop effects!

Time wasted: Approx. 1-2 hours.

Problem #3: Guild Wars

Yep, the game of choice for millions of MMO fans no longer works on my new machine, despite working on my five year old PC (also Ubuntu). There’s an 88-page forum thread discussing various methods of getting it up and running under Wine, but to be honest, I didn’t read it all - I skipped to the last page. Just as well I did - it contained the following quote:

“Has anyone ever gotten Guild Wars working on ANY ATI video card?”

No one has responded positively yet.

I suppose I could always try Cedega, but I don’t hold out much hope for that, even. And it’s commercial.

If all of this sounds like I’m on a Linux downer - I’m not! I still love using it day to day, but I had forgotten that the initial configuration could be such a pig.

Oh, and the new machine still kicks ass, incidentally - loving it.

CMS Made Simple is the best content management system you’ve never heard of.

Version 1.4 brings a much needed redesign of the admin area, as well as numerous performance and stability tweaks.

As I mentioned before, no-one wants a static site anymore; I believe CMS Made Simple offers the simplest content management solution today.

Why do I love it?

• Any type of layout achievable with CSS is achievable with CMS Made Simple
• Completely table-less setup. (Assuming that’s what you want)
• Focus on accessibility; more so than most other CMS’
• Fine control over what administrators can and can’t do
• Easiest admin area imaginable

But what I really love about it is the speed at which users pick up the knowledge they need to run their site. Most training sessions for CMS Made Simple run at about 30-45 minutes, and not one person has had to come back for further training.

By contrast, I’ve seen training sessions for other CMS’ run into several hours, with repeat sessions required before they decide to delegate it to someone else anyway!

Having said all that, it isn’t perfect for every site; some of the extensions are of…dubious quality, so if a forum, e-commerce, or front-end login facility is required, I would go with another solution.

Having to edit the template in the browser window is also an annoyance, and I don’t favour the smarty templating system, but for small-medium formerly static sites, it can’t be beaten.

So please, check it out and spread the word!

Just a quick update! If you submit a website with your comment, the link will now be indexed by Google; just reward for taking the time to carefully construct and submit your thoughts.

Please note that any spam will be ruthlessly destroyed.

I’ve never got round to checking out Twitter, to my great shame!

I already have profiles on Facebook, Bebo, and other social networking sites - many of which allow a quick method of updating your status. So why bother with Twitter now?

• Update by mobile (just need to charge my mobile now )
• Easy integration into my blog

Unfortunately, Twitter doesn’t seem to want to check any of my email addresses for friends at the moment, so I am following: no-one. And I am being followed by: no-one.

You can rectify this by coming to see me at http://twitter.com/johnmcc!