error: Python was built with Visual Studio 2003;
extensions must be built with a compiler than can generate compatible binaries. Visual Studio 2003 was not found on this system. If you have Cygwin installed, you can try compiling with MingW32, by passing “-c mingw32″ to setup.py.

Now, I do not have Visual Studio 2003, but I do have mingw32. (Grab cygwin and when selecting packages, make sure than mingw-runtime and gcc are selected.)

Now, back with our setup.py file, execute:

python setup.py build_ext --compiler=mingw32 install

Hopefully that should solve any issues.

Make sure that you install the following packages:

• perl (just in case you do not have it)
• gzip
• tar
• unzip
• make
• lynx
• wget
• ncftp
• gnupg

Open the Cygwin bash shell and enter:

perl -MCPAN -e shell

Accept the defaults, and you are good to go.

Once in the CPAN shell, you can install modules with commands like:

install Date::Parse

I documented the process that I took to install CouchDB 0.7.2 on Ubuntu 7.10 (it is basically straight from with the CouchDB wiki, but with some small modifications to get it to work).

wget http://couchdb.googlecode.com/files/couchdb-0.7.2.tar.gz
tar -xzvf couchdb-0.7.2.tar.gz
cd couchdb-0.7.2/
sudo apt-get install automake autoconf libtool subversion-tools help2man build-essential erlang libicu36 libicu36-dev libreadline5-dev checkinstall
./configure
make
sudo checkinstall

Everything should be looking good.

We need to add a user and give that user permission to some directories.

sudo adduser couchdb
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/var/lib/couchdb
sudo chown -R couchdb /usr/local/var/lib/couchdb
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/var/log/couchdb
sudo chown -R couchdb /usr/local/var/log/couchdb
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/var/run
sudo chown -R couchdb /usr/local/var/run

You can run in a shell:

sudo -u couchdb couchdb

Or you can start the daemon:

sudo /usr/local/etc/init.d/couchdb start

To access to web view of the database, assuming you are running locally, go to:
http://localhost:5984/_utils/index.html

Stay tuned for some CouchDB programming…

First I tried the sudo update-manager -c -d, which error’ed out. So I hacked away at the /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/UpdateManager/DistUpgradeFetcher.py file by adding import os. Everything started going fine, except my connection was crawling (almost dial-up speeds)–there was no way that I was going to wait.

So I grabbed the latest ISO, picking the alternate install just to avoid the hassle of booting up into the live cd. Everything worked nicely–except I got a little worried when the install hung for ten minutes when installing Tomboy. But with a little patience, everything installed properly.

I’m currently updating the system and looking into the new Dual Monitor tool.

I am looking forward to exploring this new toy!

After a little digging, it seems like ohloh uses David Wheeler’s SLOCCount program. With an easy

sudo apt-get install sloccount

I was using SLOCCount to find out more stats about various other programs I was working on. I was happy to see that my afternoon of hacking on some Festival Python bindings is estimated to have cost $3,480. Now if only SLOCCount deposited that money in my bank account….

I was wondering what your favorite tracking/code stat programs are–let me know? I’ve been using CIA.vc, but are there any other must have code stat programs?

Outlook
I tried switching over to Outlook as my primary email/calendar program, my unholy marriage to Outlook lasted longer than I care to admit, mostly because syncing with my PDA just worked.

BirdieSync
With the release of Thunderbird 1.5, I decided I had enough of MS Outlook. Around the same time, Lightning and Sunbird caught my attention. After extensive google’ing, I found an excellent product, BirdieSync. I installed the trial version, and was loving it, until my 20 day trial expired. At €19.95 (roughly 40 27 USD) the product was a little extravagant as a college student. If you have the money and only use Windows, this is a decent option.

FinchSync
After the trial of BirdieSync ended, I switched over to FinchSync. This free (but not open source) product did work, but did not utilize Activesync at all, so you needed two separate programs the PDA client and desktop client both on and looking for each other. It did have the benefit of allowing me to sync via wifi (and if I wanted to, I probably could have remotely synced over the internet). However, this product still needs some polishing to make it a real competitor.

Back to Outlook (but with webdav and RemoteCalendars)
I did not spend much time with FinchSync, it just bothered me having to open the application on my PDA and desktop to sync. In addition, I decided to switch over to Ubuntu almost full time. So I engineered a complex solution. I still used Thunderbird and Lightning (both in Windows and Linux) which synced a iCal file up to a WebDav server (I could have used Google Calendar). Then whenever I was using Windows and cradled my PDA, Outlook would open and sync with the calendar by using RemoteCalendars. This solution worked alright for a while, mainly since I was using Windows so much for work. But two issues plagues this solution: 1) Windows needed to be on to sync, 2) I could only do a one way sync from desktop to PDA, since the Activesync always viewed the recently downloaded iCal file as “fresher.”

Finally, Funambol
Several weeks ago, I got a Motorola Q–a very nice Windows Mobile based smartphone. I went back to Google and my “knight in shining armor,” Funambol, appeared (formerly Sync4j). As a commercial product with almost everything open source, I got an enterprise solution for free. First step was downloading and installing the server–which I put on my Ubuntu server. After 20 minutes of that and configuring my firewall, I was onto getting plugins. I installed one into Thunderbird that syncs Lightning and my contacts. I installed one on my new Motorola Q, one in my old PDA, and one in Outlook for good measure. The plugins have nice integration into Thunderbird, Outlook, and Windows Mobile, while not using Activesync. One awesome benefit is that I can now sync through the internet–no more USB cable. It just works.

The Winner
Funambol, in my mind, is the clear winner of syncing solutions. Cross-platform, open source, free, nice UI, remote syncing, and solid performance. There are plugins for Blackberry, Palm, Evolution, SugarCRM, Exchange, LDAP, iPod, and quite a few others. I now have my calendar and contacts synced on multiple computers and smart devices. I am happy since I am free of Windows and getting the most out of my smartphone.

Update: damo corrected me, BirdieSync is roughly $27, not $40–thanks damo!

Add VirtualBox Repository
Open up /etc/apt/sources.list (with sudo gedit) and add this line:

deb http://www.virtualbox.org/debian feisty non-free

Add the VirtualBox Public Key

wget http://www.virtualbox.org/debian/innotek.asc
sudo apt-key add innotek.asc

Update Apt and Install

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install virtualbox

If you already installed VirtualBox, you may just need a simple

sudo apt-get upgrade

after adding the repo and updating apt.

Troubleshooting
If you run into a error when starting VirtualBox, execute a quick:

sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

and everything should be fine.

Again, look at the previous post if you have a problem.

I’ve been writing quite a few guides to using Ubuntu (or a least tools on Ubuntu); but I have also started getting involved in some Ubuntu projects, most notably VCS Frenzy. I’ve also updated my Launchpad Profile and my wiki page. Maybe one day I’ll get into the respected ubuntu-dev group.

1. Install Pidgin
2. Show you how to install something from source

Don’t be afraid by that last point–a few months ago I was too, but there is no reason to be afraid, because in 7 commands/15 minutes you are going to have Pidgin on your system.

Get the dependencies:
Compiling from source does not get all the dependencies like apt-get does, but luckily I will tell you. From the command line type:

sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-dev libxml2-dev gettext libnss-dev libnspr-dev

Additionally, if you want spell checking, include libgtkspell-dev in that list.

Get the source:
In my case 2.0.1 was the latest code, so check out the download page just to make sure. If there is a newer version, download that source version and skip this step:

wget http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/pidgin/pidgin-2.0.1.tar.bz2

Now unpack it:

tar xvfj pidgin-2.0.1.tar.bz2

cd pidgin-2.0.1

Configure and Install
Now the part that will take a few minutes between each command.

./configure
make
sudo make install

Congrats
You installed the latest IM client! Now, you have to remember that it is your responsibility to reinstall anytime a newer version comes out, apt-get will not do it for you. So do this until Ubuntu backports Pidgin or until you upgrade to Gutsy Gibbon.

Troubleshooting:

If you you get an error message like:

configure: error:

You must have the GTK+ 2.0 development headers installed to compile Pidgin.
If you only want to build Finch then specify --disable-gtkui when running configure.

then make sure you installed the dependencies:

sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-dev

Or if you get:

configure: error:

You must have libxml2 >= 2.6.0 development headers installed to build.

Same thing, install the dependencies:

sudo apt-get install libxml2-dev

Thanks to amosharper for catching this one:

configure: error:

The msgfmt command is required to build libpurple.  If it is installed on your system, ensure that it is in your path.  If it is not, install GNU gettext to continue.

Again, install the dependencies:

sudo apt-get install gettext

Additionally, if you are getting a warning at the end of configuration that MSN and Google will not work, or if they simple do not work, make sure you have the last two dependencies:

SSL Library/Libraries......... : None (MSN and Google Talk will not work
without SSL!)

Again, install the dependencies:

sudo apt-get install libnss-dev libnspr-dev

Do you want spell checking? If so, you should install libgtkspell-dev with apt-get, then rerun the configure/make/sudo make install.

Stay tuned as more documentation is added to the plugins (and stay on the lookout for a new release of the servlet and terminology). Remember, you can already develop an application around the RadLex API.

- Wiki user page.