Lekhonee – A blogging Application for WordPress Blogs
Posted by Tyler Brown
Ok, so the first piece of software I would like to touch upon this month would be the piece of software I've started to use for this blog this month called Lekhonee. There is both a KDE and GNOME version, and the UI is essentially similar on both versions (though I think there may be some favoritism towards KDE). You can easily find Lekhonee in the Ubuntu Software Center/Synaptic Package Manager for Ubuntu!
Lekhonee (Click for Larger Image)
So, to start off with the Basics, Lekhonee's UI is pretty straight-forward. You have an area to input your blog's message, a right sidebar for selecting categories, area to add your tags, and to include a Title. One thing I would like to mention is formatting is kinda limited to a few options, such as bold, Italics, including a link or Image, however, you do have the ability to include HTML formatting as you like. Overall I have to give the UI a 7/10, although it is very straight-forward and easy to use, you do have limited formatting options in the toolbar.
Now some of the not so obvious features of Lekhonee include being able to browse through and edit older posts (Edit > Old Posts), The Last Post (Edit > Last Post), or you can actually upload files as well (FIle > Edit) which I actually just learned about when writing this post.
Now, there have been a couple differences I've noticed between the KDE and GNOME versions of Lekhonee, one of which is how the Categories are selected on the right sidebar. On the GNOME version, if I want to select more than one Category, I have to press Ctrl (like I would in the file manager), while in the KDE version I can just select more than one w/o having to press Ctrl. Its a tiny annoyance and wouldn't prevent me from using the GNOME version of Lekhonee, however, it was a bit annoying when I when from first testing the KDE version to using the GNOME version. Another difference is probably due to the KDE version is ahead in development compared to the GTK version, but the bottom area in the GNOME version where it has the WordPress Tab it just says "For Future Use", whereas in the KDE version I see a button that says "Add Page". Although the button does nothing when pressed, I just found that interesting (as well as the fact that the KDE version had another tab at the bottom that was faded out that had the text "Future Work").
So overall I would have to say that Lekhonee is a pretty good, straightforward application for Blogging using WordPress, although it could use more options, it definitely does the job I need it to do. I would personally give Lekhonee a 8/10.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to Read Today's Blog Post, Subscribe and Check Back for Friday's Post in a couple days, and tell your friends about my blog as well. Another thing I would absolutely appreciate is Feedback in the comments section, whether you liked the blog post, disliked it, etc.
- Tyler J. Brown (Condoulo)
The post is brought to you by lekhonee v0.7
Blogging Schedule – NEED FEEDBACK
Posted by Tyler Brown
Ok, this blog post is going to be more of an update than anything else. I was thinking over the weekend, and I thought that I should try to bring more structure to the schedule in which I released blog posts. Maybe not do one every day, but instead every other weekday? I was thinking one for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The reasoning would be it would give me a day to write and edit it, and I would make sure its good to release the next day, and then an entire weekend before Monday to work on it.
Another thing I was thinking of is maybe have a different type of content for each of one of those days? Maybe a software review on one of those days, a News roundup on another day (probably Friday), and even a Linux distro review on another?
However, what I'm also looking for is Feedback. What I'm wanting to know is what do you want to see on this blog? Software reviews, Linux Distro reviews, more news, more personal stuff (although I think personal blogs won't follow any schedule, and will be posted just whenever), more videos, etc? Please leave comments on this post to let me know. Because lately I've definitely felt more motivated to start getting stuff setup on this blog and creating more content.
What I would also like some feedback on, is possibly getting a new theme for this blog, as well as what would you like to see on this site in general?
So again, thanks for reading, subscribe for more upcoming content, a new post coming this Wednesday, and PLEASE leave some feedback in the comment sections. I'd like to see what you all think.
The post is brought to you by lekhonee v0.7
Back on Vista…. and using Opera
Posted by Tyler Brown
Yes, you heard it correctly. I am back on Vista. So what happened? I was on Windows 7 Ultimate for nearly a year (From the RC to the RTM).
Well, as some of you may have known, I had gotten an MSDN account through another staff member when I was a staff member at McInTEC. After I had decided to leave in January, I lost my MSDN account too. No big deal, right? I saved my keys. That was all fine and dandy until just within the past week or so all my Windows 7 Ultimate Keys that I had, about 3, ended up getting blacklisted from Microsoft for no reason.
So why didn't I fight Microsoft to get my keys back? Well, for a couple reasons. First off, I got the MSDN account for free through that other staff member at McInTEC. No point in trying to get back keys that I didn't even pay for in the first part, even if they were legit in the first place. Secondly, I will be going to college this fall, and as a college student, I will either be able to get a huge discount on Windows 7, or the school that I plan on going to will offer a copy of Windows 7 Pro to their students via an MSDNAA account.
So anyway, now that I'm back on Vista, this time Vista Ultimate x64 (Thanks to a couple good friends! 
), I might as well talk about my experience a tiny bit. I will say one thing for sure, it isn't until you go back to using Windows Vista, that you start really noticing the small things in Windows 7 that you got really used to. For example, on Windows 7, I had gotten quite used to the superbar, especially how it grouped applications together, and how I could close a window just by clicking the scroll-wheel on my mouse. I had also gotten used to using Aero Peek to check my widgets, primarily using the keyboard shortcut Win+Space. Yeah, I know on Windows Vista it also brings the gadgets to the front, but it doesn't put them back in the background either. Those were just probably a few of the things I've kinda gotten used to again.
So, as usual when it comes to an OS reload, it'll probably take a couple weeks to a month to remember to reinstall everything that I use every now and then, but from the looks of it, everything is running alright, I am having no issues, etc. Enough about Vista though, I'm going to talk about Opera.
So about early March is when Opera 10.50 came out to the public as a final release, in time for the EU Mandated Browser Ballot Box Microsoft had to include in Windows 7 to be released, which is the reasoning they used as to why the Linux and OS X releases hadn't been released. Then about later that month Opera 10.51 was release, which fixed a few bugs, improved performance, etc. Anyway, when I did the reinstall of Vista, I decided that instead of installing Chrome first, I would instead give Opera a chance and use that as my primary browser for a little while. So far its been a pretty interesting experiences, a few bumps here and there, but definitely I can say its a great browser.
To start off with, Opera 10.5x sports an amazing new UI, including support for Aero integration with Vista/7, as well as including integration into XP Luna, Zune, and Media Center themes, which is going above and beyond what Google has done for UI integration w/ Chrome on XP and what Mozilla has done with Firefox. Opera 10.5x also includes a new tab design, and has moved the entire menu bar over to one button on the top left corner, that sports a red background and a white Opera logo (you still do have the option to move the Menu bar back to normal).
Opera 10.51 UI for Vista/7
Enough about the UI, what about the speed, and its performance. Opera 10.5x is the first version of Opera that I've used that has had an amazingly fast JS rendering engine. Its about as fast as both Safari and Google Chrome's Javascript engines. Its loading of pages is also very very quick. Loading pages is also very very quick. In terms of resource usage, when using flash, it can be a bit of hog, but thats not very surprising. Flash by itself on browsers that take advantage of out of process flash is also very much a hog. Overall, performance for me has been very good, speed has been great, and most of my issues may have come from the websites themselves.
So despite the many great features I've found with Opera, it does have its own issues. Mostly with how certain websites act in it, including a few pages on Facebook, Google Reader, and including Geeks.pirillo.com. I'm not going to go more in-depth of other features, issues, etc. Because, its nearly 2 months after the original release of Opera 10.50, so theres probably already enough blog posts on it. Overall, I'm just going to say thats its been a great browser so far in the past few days, and I'm going to continue using it for a little while. Who knows, it may stay my default browser, or I might have to go back to Chrome. I'll update that for you all in a week.
Anyway, thanks for reading the first blog post in a couple months! Please subscribe to my blog by clicking the orange RSS icon if you want to see more content. I also appreciate comments, and CONSTRUCTIVE criticism on my writing.
- Tyler Brown
Just a random blog post.
Posted by Tyler Brown
Well, just a random blog post I guess. No real reasoning behind the post, or any real topic, just something random. I guess just to catch up or something. I haven't posted in a while, so, I figured I would.
So yeah, I've been looking into doing a few screencasts again. Its been a couple years since I've done a few on a regular basis. The biggest problem is the fact that I can't find a good screen recorder on Linux that works all that great.
I also went dual monitors as of late! 
I guess I'll post a picture later. Its not all that great of a second monitor, its a 19" Standard at 1280x1024, and towards the top the color is messed up, but it doesn't bother me at all. I tworks great for its purpose, and thats to be used as a second monitor for putting IRC, Digsby, and Skype stuff on. as well as check stuff online while I'm watching a movie or something fullscreen on my main monitor.
Well, I guess thats all I'm going to talk about in this blog post. My next few blog posts will probably a bit more "Formal" with a topic and everything.
- Tyler
Once Again, just a few updates
Posted by Tyler Brown
Ok, I figured I'd want to go with a theme that was a bit, simpler. To focus more on the content, and not theme.
I will be blogging more often from now on, now that I've got my blog more on my mind and such. I think I will also do another blog post later on Tonight, depending if I feel like it.
Anyway, Please subscribe, sign up, etc.
~ Tyler Brown (Condoulo)