The end of Plancake

Plancake announced December 24th, 2014 via mass email that they would be shutting their doors by November 30th of 2015.

I had signed up and used Plancake a few times.

While I personally didn't have much to use the personal task manager for, I saw a greatly useful utility for a lot of people.

And it is free, so I am a fan.

This is the email I received 2 days ago:

"Hi.

Sadly Plancake is going to shut down on the 30st November 2015.

This will give us all almost one year of time to find an alternative product and move our tasks over.

I suggest you should have a look at Wunderlist.com - I believe it is a great product and they have a powerful free account.

Please make sure you move all your data by the 30th November 2015, as it will not be available after that date.

This has not been an easy decision to take but I believe it is the best one for both the company and our users.

Please get in touch should you need any clarification or help.

Thanks a lot for the time you have spent with us and sorry for the inconvenience caused by this discontinuation.

It has been a great ride, I have really enjoyed this experience personally (with its highs and lows) but all good things need to end at some point.

Good luck with your endeavours.

Thank you,
Dan"

It's sad to see a great idea not make it. Hopefully this is a re-structure and not the end, per-say.

The website is becoming available, so if you want plancake.com, take action.

"Plancake is shutting down on the 30th November 2015 (more details here).

If you would like to buy this domain (together with plancake.co.uk, plancake.it, plancake.jp and plancake.org), please contact us at:
contact [at] danyuki.com" -http://www.plancake.com/

As a personal note to Dan, thanks for a great free service and a great idea!

Denny's Home World turns 100,000!

A while back I wrote about the strange history of Denny's Home World.

That article can be seen here:
http://dennygoot.blogspot.com/2012/06/history-of-dennys-home-world.html

But just as a recap, I started writing DHW out of boredom.

For the longest time DHW had absolutely no direction.

In 2009 it received a real direction, my passion for Linux, Open Source, and just technology in general.

Well, I had to toot my own horn here, because a milestone has been reached, and one I never thought would happen.

Denny's Home World has now had 100,000 page views.

Here's the proof:

The funny thing about this strange phenomenon is that I am not linked to a Youtube channel, I am not much of a advertiser, and I don't advertise (any more, i did try it for a short while as a test program) here on DHW either, meaning bots are less attracted to DHW (or so I've heard).

I just post what peaks my interest.

So thank you for your patronage.

In honor of this event, the website got a complete makeover, which you see now.

Thanks again,
-Denny

P.S. Please don't post about how awful that opening header image is, it's the original from the old DHW from the mid 90's.

PhotoFunia - add a spark to your photos

While monking around on the internet, I stumbled upon this website: PhotoFunia.com

It's amazing just what you can do with a picture here.

Want to show the one you love that you care? Make a an art exhibit out of her.

Want to make a cool picture of your friend's obsession with coffee? Put his or her face in the foam on top.

This is just a tiny fraction of the cool things you can do with this website!

Here's what the PhotoFunia people have to say about their website:

"PhotoFunia is the best way to add a spark to your photos, make them special and more original. In only a few seconds an amazing photo collage is ready, absolutely free. PhotoFunia is so straight forward to use, that anyone, at any age, can use it with ease.

Would you like to see your picture on the cover of a magazine or on advertising billboards of Times Square? How amazing will it be to see your portrait on the walls of Louvre or Hermitage museums? Want to try out an astronaut or a Santa suit? Or you prefer something more exotic, just like a dancer at the Rio's carnival? Excited to find out how good you look with a witch's hat or a queen's crown on? Perhaps you're just looking for a nice frame for your photos on a special occasion?

Make your own mark on the sand or write graffiti text on the wall, carve your name on the ground or create your very own road sign using our fantastic text effects. To add shadows, age your photo or render it black and white just visit Filters category.

A myriad of hundreds of effects is waiting for you. Our effects library is always expanding and every week you can find something new. As previously mentioned, using PhotoFunia couldn't be simpler: pick you desired effect, upload your photo and viola! All in all in just two simple steps and you have your very own work of art ready to save, send via email or share with your friends on a social site.

Take PhotoFunia with you wherever you go and create stunning images on your mobile or tablet with our great mobile apps.

Today, just like on the first day on the job on 11th of August 2007, we strive to make our users happy, as we continue to add new picture effects, explore different options for your photos and hopefully place genuine smiles on people's faces." -http://photofunia.com/about

I personally made the "art exhibit" option with pictures of my sister, and she loved it!

Here is an idea of the options available at PhotoFunia.com:

So if you love the things you can pull off here, here's the link again: (Picture below)

Kenguru - Simple, easy, inexpensive to use vehicle for the wheelchair bound community

"The KENGURU® gives you the independence you have been looking for! Whether it is commuting to and from work, visiting family and relatives or just meeting up with some friends to have fun, the KENGURU® will help you to do it on your own." -http://www.kenguru.com/

The Kenguru is a great idea when it comes to transportation for those who are wheel chair bound.

While you will not win any land speed records with it (25 mph is said to be close to it's top speed), it can get you from point a to point b within 50 miles on one charge.

In order to be easy to use, and minimal in size, it is an electrical vehicle. While this does give some limitations to the Kenguru (as noted above), it makes it short enough to the road for easy access, and yet large enough on the inside to make for an excellent vehicle for this purpose. (In my opinion).

If you like what you see (Images and video below) then you can reserve a Kenguru today.

The link for reservations is here:
http://www.kenguru.com/reserve-your-kenguru/

Here is a video on Youtube by the Kenguru group:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-lqr_TXRcQ

And here are some pics of the car, including interior thanks to Kenguru's Gallery page:

Resc-a-tux to the rescue

"Rescatux is a Debian-based GNU/Linux live distribution that includes a graphical wizard for rescuing broken GNU/Linux installations. The available rescue options include restoring the GRUB bootloader after a Windows installation, Linux and Windows password resets, and Linux file system checks. " -DistroWatch

I've used fix distro's like this in the past, but this one I love. It's only in beta, but the thing I love about it is their focus on ease of use.

Hirem's Boot CD for instance is a great tool, but it's focus is not ease of use, but power. I love Hirem's because of the power, but I think Rescatux is going to be Hirem's (some day) mixed with that Ubuntu-esque ease of use and "it all just works on boot" feel I love.

Here's what the Resc-a-Tux folks have to say about their software:

*And here's the tour video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nII0zph4Rww

Rescatux is a GNU/Linux rescue cd (and eventually also Windows) but it is not like other rescue disks. Rescatux comes with Rescapp. Rescapp is a nice wizard that will guide you through your rescue tasks. 

GRUB options:

Restore GRUB and GRUB2

(>=0.31 beta 4) Update any GRUB2 menues

Update Debian/Ubuntu grub menues

Windows options:

Restore Windows MBR (BETA)

Clear Windows passwords

(>=0.31 beta 4) Promote a Windows user to Administrator role

(>=0.31 beta 4) Unlock Windows user

Password options:

Change Gnu/Linux Password

Regenerate sudoers file

Clear Windows passwords

Filesystem options:

File System Check (Forced Fix) (BETA)

Support options:

Help

Web

Chat

Show log

Share log

Share log on forum

Boot Info Script

Expert tools:

(>=0.31 beta 3) boot-repair 3.199

(>=0.31 beta 1) Gparted 0.12

(>=0.31 beta 3) os-uninstaller 3.199

(>=0.31 beta 3) clean-ubiquity 3.199

(>=0.31 beta 3) photorec

(>=0.31 beta 3) testdisk 6.13

CLI Programs:

(>=0.31 beta 1) Gpart 0.1h-11+b1

The different approach of Rescatux is found in its main program: Rescapp. Rescapp is a nice wizard that will guide you through your rescue tasks.

At the first glance Rescapp seems to be just a launcher for Rescue tools:

However it has some Support features that make it unique:

Chat: Open the chat for asking help directly in Rescatux channel.

Share log: After running an option you can share its log (the action registry that it has done) so that in the chat they can help you better. O better, even, you can help debug and fix Rescatux bugs on the fly.

Share log on forum: Prepares a forum post alike text so that you can just copy and paste it in your favourite forum. Logs are nicely inserted into it with [CODE] symbols.

Boot Info Script: Run Boot Info Script option to share your computer configuration (specially boot one).

More than this the non-support features such as:

Check and fix filesystems 

Blank Windows passwords 

Change Gnu/Linux password 

Regenerate sudoers file 

Restore Grub 

Update Grub Configuration 

Restore Windows MBR (BETA) 

are being driven with nice wizards :

Features explained:

Check and fix filesystems 

When a filesystem has some errors in it some bad things might happen. Maybe GRUB1 or GRUB2 cannot find its own files (Grub errors) or the kernels (cannot find file error). Maybe the kernel can be loaded but its initrd stage isn’t able to find the final device root filesystem (Kernel panic – not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs. (initramfs))

This option tries to fix this filesystem errors even if the filesystem seems to be clean and ok.

Clear Windows passwords 

The old chntpasswd program has been hacked so that you can use it from a GUI. You can just select your Windows drive and the user you want its password to be cleared.

Change Gnu/Linux password 

Have you ever forgotten your Gnu/Linux password? Now you can change it from this nice wizard. As always you’re prompted to choose your Gnu/Linux installation and then the user which you want to change its password.

Regenerate sudoers file 

Have you ever tried to run an special program as a normal user… but by doing it you have somehow borked your /etc/sudoers file? Don’t panic! Now after baking up your previous sudoers file a new one is generated on the fly. You just have to select which it’s your user.

Restore Grub 

Not sure what’s the current situation with Windows 8 and Windows 7 but in previous versions once you reinstalled Windows (because of a virus or whatever reason) you lost your Grub menu. That meant that you couldn’t boot anymore into your Gnu/Linux system. The truth is that you can download the light-weight Super Grub2 Disk and boot into your system in a temporal way.

But how to fix it permanently? If you’re not good at the Gnu/Linux command line you can just use Rescatux’s Restore Grub option.

Update Grub Menues 

Sometimes the Grub configuration is no longer valid. Either your hard disks order at boot have changed (It should only affect to GRUB1) or you have added a new Windows installation and it’s not detected.

Update Grub option let’s you rebuild your Grub configuration files. This option will only work in Debian based distros like Ubuntu.

Restore Windows MBR (BETA) 

This option tries to restore Windows MBR but it’s kind of buggy because some users report that it’s not working for them. It probably works with no problem on Windows XP (without dynamic disks) and previous Windows versions. This is the reason why it’s a BETA option.

Super Grub2 Disk

You shouldn’t forget that Super Grub2 Disk is also included in Rescatux.

Architecture detection

Either you have an old 32bit system or a new 64bit system Grub2 integrated into Rescatux will detect it and load the corresponding kernel. 

*Information found at http://www.supergrubdisk.org/rescatux/

If you would like to get Resc-a-Tux, here is the download page:

http://www.supergrubdisk.org/category/download/rescatuxdownloads/rescatux-stable/

Great Little Book Shelf

Great Little Book Shelf

Thanks to a post left here by a reader, I was made aware of this unique program.

I downloaded the 64 bit .deb version at https://sites.google.com/site/greatlittlebookshelf/

Then I installed it in Ubuntu using gdebi.

It runs very well, and I am impressed with how functional it is, given that it is still in beta.

The only issue I have is that currently it only views pdf format, and I am an epub user.

That aside, I think there is a user base that would love this software package, so I am bringing it to your attention.

The program was written by Dejan Petrovic. (Not to be confused with the tennis pro..)

Here is a video showing the handy-ness of this program:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shUfCEv9o-0

Here are some screenshots of the program:

A working hoverboard by 2015

After reading articles about this, I just had to share it with you.

I have never had the dexterity to ride a skate board, snow board and the like,

But as a kid it was the stuff of day dreams, especially after the Back to the Future movie showed that hoverboard McFly uses.

I would have taken it, even if it did say Barbie on it.

While we are still quite a ways off from the model I just mentioned, by 2015 we will be able to purchase a literal hoverboard.

It exists now, and works.

Signe Brewster of Gigaom got to ride it, and I am a little envious of her opportunity.

It will be available by October 21st, 2015.

It will cost $10,000 and the battery only lasts 7 minutes.

If that doesn't turn you off (not that I have 10 dollars most of the time, let alone 10 grand), then you could own an interesting piece of technology and history.

It's not history because of the hoverboard technology itself. Technically that technology has been around for quite some time in the form of maglev trains, 1979 in fact.

But this is the first time such a device has been available (or I should say, will hopefully be available) in a small compact form for single individual use.

Well that's enough from me, let's take a look at this amazing piece of hardware:

If you are interested, then you can get in on the ground floor.

The company is currently running a kickstarter campaign.

If you are interested, you can find more information here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/142464853/hendo-hoverboards-worlds-first-real-hoverboard