Installing Drupal in VitualBox on Debian. Part 2. Including basic use of Terminal. VICTORY!

Smoke has cleared. And Drupal is now installed in my virtual server. Unfortunately there was no perfect tutorial to be found. I ended up using these two sites:

• http://www.davidam.com/docu/installingdrupal.html
• http://wp.geeklab.com.ar/gl-en/2013/07/02/how-to-install-drupal-on-debian-wheezy/
• Also used http://stackoverflow.com/ to help me though some of the problems

If you are stuck, Just Google: "How to (insert what you want to do) in Debian"

First one lacks information about packages that need to be installed, and second has some incomprehensible inputs in VirtualHost-files. But sure enough after hours of grinding (16 to be exact) Drupal is on my server and is working. Those hours will teach you about Linux architecture and Debian system. A knowledge of how to use the command prompt and commands are essential. If you are completely new to this, you should look them up. (http://ss64.com/bash/)

Command Prompt (or Terminal) can be found at: Applications > Accessories > Terminal

Be sure to login as system administrator by entering command: su (stands for Super User) and give the administrative password you needed to make in the installation process. This will give you access to root, so your Terminal should now say [root@computername:]. Now you have full access to all the files and right to modify them via Terminal.

For basic navigation, use commands: 

• ls (to see what is in the current directory)
• cd [the name of the directory]* (to change directory)
• cd .. (to go back one folder in the directory tree)
• mkdir [directory name]* (to create a new folder with given name)
• rmdir [directory name]* (to remove a folder with given name)

*Do not add those brackets

File editing or making new files:
To avoid using "nano" text editor, I recommend using: sudo gedit [file to open or one you want to make]
This will open the wanted file or a new document in Gedit text editor in current directory. Remember to put [.php | .html | .css] or other file ending if needed.
Gedit is readily installed in your system, if you are using Debian 7

First thing you should do, input into termial the following command: sudo apt-get update
This will update Debian to the latest stable version. Secondly go to the second link and follow at least the packet installing part. That will get you started.

I will not go to detail on how I managed to make the whole thing work, but if you have any questions, please ask me in the comments.

Though changing rights to all of the [var/www/] folders using [chmod -R 777]-command  is a bit extreme and should not be done at any real instance, it got my project working. Since I wanted to install the system only to get authentic test-environment to our service to be, those settings shouldn't harm your process.

If you are using the first link as guidance, I recommend that instead of creating a [mysite] folder, you just paste all of the Drupal extracts into the [var/www/] folder and use localhost address [127.0.0.1]. It removes some of the problems in those pesky VirtualHost-files. And if you are not really setting up a server, and your main idea is just to get it running so you can make a prototype and learn about Drupal. That should be more than enough.

It also helps having friends who knows about Linux-environments. I'm still looking for the ultimate "Drupal in
Debian" -guide. If that can be found, I'll post it here in my blog. Who knows, maybe I'll produce one myself after I get to know this system a bit better.

The feeling of getting this piece of ****( as I referred it to be multiple times during this project) working was a moment of elation and relaxation. All that tenseness build up by constant errors or unexplained walls in process just gone in an instant. When you get to this point, rejoice! Breathe in this feeling! It will keep you going, and get you addicted. The kind of healthy addiction for a feeling of accomplishment. If you don't feel it, you're more than probably working in the wrong field.

You will need patience for your own incompetence (you will never know enough), tenacity to push forward to your goal, and curiousness about the system in whole. That is the toolkit for your future heroics in the field of information technology. So I bid you safe journey to the endless bytes and wish you lightning-fast internet-connection.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! Over and out!
-Juho

Installing Drupal in VirtualBox on Debian. Day 1.

It has been a cold and stormy night. Not really, but the 8 hours of following instructions from: http://bit.ly/1leRt5A is really making it enough for me to create a some sort of internal raging storm.

It's not enough to have things that don't belong in the files, but some of the file changes are not explained at all. There should be a better tutorial. A simple step by step guide that just cannot go wrong if followed to the letter. Also explaining why are you doing these things and how is it relevant.

A single site where people can post links on tutorials and rate their usefulness. And only the shiny diamonds of a professional foolproof tutorials would get past the "shiv of endless wrath" that developers have for poor tutorials.

As a healthy masochist I am going back at it. If I find the crown jewel of Drupal-tutorials. The unsung hero of depressed tortured souls. I shall bring it forward to thee! And all can rejoice in it's everlasting awesomeness. At least till Drupal 8... But that my friends, is a completely another story.

But if you find it my friend, and come forth with it. Your tales will be told form here to.... the next post at least. So please, young traveler of the endless road of Linux proficiency. Tell us your secrets, and let it be known that the journey to the promised land of open source software, is not an endeavor in vain.

All hail the PENGUIN!

Prelude: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC7iR577OQw

Breakfast seminar @ Restaurant Mauno, User Experience driven design.

Picture from: http://on.fb.me/1cpsJSZ

I took part in breakfast seminar held by Turku Technology Properties.
It was a feast consisting of multiple type of bread, fruit, eggs. Oh, and BACON for days! Herbal avocado butter, mint and mango smoothies and different kind of cheeses were also supplied. Coffee, apple-, and orange juice were the choice for beverages. And all of this completely free of charge! I'm already liking this. Easy going music sets the mood in the space.



A mix of people fills the room filled with portable, lime colored workstations with an individual movable desks and a little space for your bag underneath the bench. Already liking the design concepts presented.

The first speaker began with the topic:

The Designing of usable and visually proficient Business Intelligence Solutions. 

(Matti Helenius, Adage Oy)

Picture from: http://on.fb.me/1cpsJSZ

He gave several pointers for why and how to design the BI solution. Below I tell some of them.

- Reports inefficient in companies for some of the branches. One BI solution is not enough for whole of the company.
- Compare a cars user interface to one found in space shuttles, complexity. Which one needs hours of training before efficient use
- User should be in center of the design
- Old dashboards with tacky meters are not self explanatory.
- Customer usually wants multiple capabilities on the dash, and it makes things difficult for end user.
- Adage uses mainly bar graphs to illustrate comparable data.
- Define user, and the main actions software is used for.
- Wire frame, and concept design -> iterative process with users
- Visual Design 5-10 from what to choose from.
- Tips for layout, Simplicity! Who uses in center? Tamed use of color 2 main colors + few from same pallet also lighter shades. Layout consistent.
- Guidelines for future use and consistency in navigation and design in general.
- Mobile, what data to show in limited space and how?
- Tablet, use of icons, icons relevant to data.
- Data more and more in lower tier leading and decision making.

User centered design, mobile user interfaces 

Picture from: http://on.fb.me/1cpsJSZ 

(Mikko Kämäräinen, CEO, Infinity)

Mikko talked with ferocious speed but to the point and without wasteful words. A couple of curse words were a welcome Finnish way to give his presentation a little flare and personality. Very entertaining speech with very good graphical presentation infused with clever ideas all around.

- Markets from B2B & B2C -> H2H, Human to Human is the only viable market.
- Why? What? Where? How? Serve the needs of the end user.
- User testing -> GooB (Get out of the Building) Go to your customer and see for yourself.
- Observe -> Design, test (iterate) -> implement (make decisions and iterate)
- Before knowing are you doing the things right, you should figure if you are doing the right things.
- Check -> Think -> Make -> Iterate. Make sure your conclusions are right. Ask your customers humbly.
- Minimal minimal minimal solutions.
- First design mobile then make them adaptable to bigger screens.
- Best interface is no interface at all. All that can be automated, should be.
- Lean -> how to test and create something new efficiently.
- Be as adaptable as possible. Everything should be up to be changed.
- Working prototype -> better than documentation. Prototype is best for testing, design, and time saving.

Contextual considerations for mobile situations - Insights from academic explorations.

(Eyal Eshet)

Picrure from: http://on.fb.me/1cpsJSZ

Israeli talker cracked a joke about Finns not being able to pronounce his name. "Total Hebrew" to some of us. Get it? Because he's from Israel. Also made a joke from demise of the all powerful Nokia. And it not being a reason for coming here anymore.

- Context matters:
- Convert an undesired situation into a desired one. Define problem, and for whom it is a problem.
- Design is about creating a fit between form and context

• Form: the solution, part of the world over which we have control over, and can decide the shape. 
• Context: the problem, anything in the world that puts demands on the form.
• Fit: mutual acceptability between the two.

- Better-informed design decisions -> more likely to meet user expectations
- Mobile shift: Elimination of time and space restrictions.
- Mobile is first mobile mass media

• Always carried
• Always connected
• Built-in payment system
• Available at the point of creative inspiration
• Most accurate audience measurement

- Moving towards wearable, everywhere computing.

All of the pictures were taken with permission from Turku Technology Properties Facebook-page.
All Of the days presentation can be found @ Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/YritystaKehiin 
 Do you have any questions about what was talked about? Ask! :)

Personal Branding with Jarkko Sjöman

So I got into class with a bunch of strange people to talk about personal branding, in tutorship of Jarkko Sjöman. (Twitter: @j_sjoman)

 Educate yourself:

Jarkko was a laidback relaxed guy who at the time was sporting a movember mustache and a REALLY standout tie.
And the notes aka "Teachings" i was able to make were as follows:

1. Establish yourself as a brand.
2. Make sure you stand out.
3. Market yourself and communicate in medias.
4. If you can't be found with Google, you just don't exist.
5. E-mail and paper portfolios are to be things of the past.
6. Your social environment and your personal brands visibility are going to be essential concerning employment in companies in your future.
7. Traditional employment processes wither. Deals for employment are made in networks instead of formal methods.
8. Headhunters are already finding employees through social media.
9. This day and age, knowhow is not sold, it is found.
10. Companies appreciate your networks. Those contacts are the most valuable part of your brand.
11. Employment process usually has only one winner.
12. Vision? Mission? Target? Passion? Teamwork? What is your brand about?
13. Produce interesting dialogue online. Talk, innovate, challenge and do all you can think of.
14.Think about what would you like your professional image to be, and how to achieve it.
15. Job-hunting skills are going to be highlighted in the future, so why not start to apply as a hobby?
16. What you do and who you are more important than your school diploma. And just diploma is not gonna secure you a job like it once did.
17. Your digital footprint is your own responsibility, and it's one responsibility you have control over also. All the tools are free and are there waiting for you.
18. Keep your honest passion in the center of your activities! Don't try to be anyone else!

Liked the seminar a lot! Had fun and got a lot to think about. Have you been working on your personal branding? How did your experiences go? Answer in the comment field, and let me know. :)

Months of Silence, Not Inactivity

Blog writing has not been my priority lately. So I'll summarize what I've been up to.

Project Management. That right now is the big word for me. I've bought "The Rules Of Management" by Richard Templar. And I love it! 107 compiled unspoken rules of management. It is very entertaining to read. In fact I was asked: "How the hell can a book like that make you laugh?" so I read out loud from the Rule 8: Know Your Own Importance.

"
Listen, if you don't set a standard, raise the tone, be the person you want your team to be, then you wont be a great manager. Your team is like a flock of birds or sheep or, well, anything that comes in a flock.(except maybe wallpaper) Where one goes,  they all go. And you're the one they all follow. If you shine, everyone shines. If you fail, everyone fails. Because of you. Scary Huh?
"

I started out as Project Manager at Citizen's Helpdesk in January of the current year. Mainly making sure peoples computers got fixed in a timely manner. But also learning heaps about what it means to be a manager. And about management skills. About how each individual needs different kind of incentive to get them to give the best they got. About creating the working environment, that makes people want to come to the work. And how to hand down critic when something is done poorly. Keeping workers motivated and self employed.
Here's their website for the interested: http://www.kansalaisenmikrotuki.fi/

As I was working there I also activated myself in improving the schools project environment. Sitting (sleeping) trough class after class of theory, just does not suit me well. So I thought of an environment where students could set up projects and trough those projects they could gain the credits and project working skills, from a subject in the area of the course, but more centered in their own interests.

Thus "Project Oriented Students of Turku University of Applied Sciences" was born as a Facebook group.
You can join @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/330960197021464/

Right now the group mainly consists of Information Technology students, but the goal is to be cross between all of the study fields. And make awesome things possible through collaboration.

Though my activation Project Coordinator for TUAS contacted me for an opening in a coming project. I assigned myself as a willing applicant, and so when my Project Management in Citizens Helpdesk was over. I seamlessly transferred to KaleidosCup- project group as a "student work coordinator", a kind of project manager.

KaleidosCup is a student competition that strives to produce innovative and cultural solutions to metal- and maritime industries. So even today I am there to make this competition happen. I'll update more after the competition.
For those interested in the student competition visit: http://www.kaleidoscup.fi/
This is a WordPress based site that I designed, and put together. And administrate currently.

Looking forward to my graduation, I started to write my thesis on subject :
"Using social media as a tool for project management"
I'll get the link to the web release here, as soon as I can. Deadline at the end of February 2014

So that is what I've been up to! Got any news in tech field you want to share with me? Please comment! :)

Tech Tuesday @ Boost Turku 4.12.2012

I'll start with explaining about the mysterious thing that is BoostTurku.

" Boost Turku is a student-based network for young entrepreneurs and entrepreneur-minded people sharing knowledge among the universities of Turku. Boost Turku strives to be an ‘easy-access’ open society for any kind of academic entrepreneurial matter. The underlying reasons for being involved in the society vary in large scale. It can be anything from just being interested in entrepreneurship as a concept to aiming to establish a global business changing the world. The core idea of Boost Turku is to match active people and create motion both within and outside of the society. "

(http://www.boostturku.com/about)
 
So when I got intrested of an idea of founding my own company, naturally I was intrested in their activities, so I liked them on facebook.

Then 13th of November, my newsfeed notifyed me of the event, this blogtext is supposed to be about:

TechTuesdays: How to iterate a game until it works

First I must say, that I was very pleasently suprised, by the light and easy-going athmosphere of the place. It is created with a warm welcome, and free refreshments such as snacks and soft drinks.
Also by the people who are genuinly intrested about who you are, and what you do.
Music was playing all the time, while waiting for the presentators to get ready. And friendly chitchat was taking place all around.

After a short wait the presentations started with a welcoming speech, on behalf of BoostTurku. And then continued with presentators from gamestudio called Tribeflame (http://www.tribeflame.com/). They specialize in games for tablet devices. Their speech was about the process into recognizing what are the factors that make the game great. And their process into finding out, what changes are needed to make the game more fun to play.

As a thecnique to achieve this, they presented A / B iteration. Wich basicly means, making multiple versions of the software, and then measuring the average duration of one gaming session. The one more fun to play obviously keeps the players more committed to the game, and that is then selected to be the new baseline. After this, just repeat the process untill you have a product that best suists your customers needs.

After the presentation they answered questions from the crowd, clarifying for example, that they used their own data gathering tool to analyze the players activities. Main reason beeing that free services were not good enough to please their needs.

Then the evening continued with networking, and resumed consumption of refreshments and snacks. All in all, best seminar I've ever been a part of. And I recommend anyone who's at all intrested by the topics in TechTuesdays to take part! I believe they said that the next one will be kept at the beginning of the coming year.

At least I'll be coming back for more! A sinciere thanks for the people @ BoostTurku and to TribeFlame!

P.S. The seminar was wholly kept in English, which suited me fine. Just a heads up :)

P.P.S. If you spot a typo, let me know. Part of why I'm writing this blog, is to sharpen my English.
Thank you for reading! And see you guys soon hopefully! :) Don't hesitate to comment!

A new medium of storage?

I am of course talking about the quartz glass piece @  http://2045.com/news/30602.html.
And am I the only one who immediately remembered the crystals filled with information, from the superman?

And then the search for this exact picture got me here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8699852/Supermans-memory-crystals-may-become-reality-in-computers.html

"Martynas Beresna, lead researcher for the project at Southampton University's optoelectronics research centre, said they can currently store the equivalent of a whole Blu-ray Disc – up to 50GB of data – on a piece of glass no bigger than a mobile phone screen."

That is rather impessive I would say. And glass/crystal memorysticks would be AWESOME! Though the size of a mobile phone screen varies a lot nowdays, still I'm intriqued.

"The material currently has four layers of dots, which can hold 40 megabytes per square inch" It seems the two techniques are diffirent in a such a way that the UK universitys model has no layers, but still holds better memory capability. Would somebody please go and show these people each others research, so that we can have high capacity crystal memory sticks? Pretty please?

I'm sorry for the Blog being updated only just now. Schoolwork (and Red Dead Redemption PS3) is taking up my energy. Though this is a shorter post, I could see myself doing these more in quantity, less in length. Occasionally writing something more informational for you, when someting is exeptionally intresting to me.

Thanks for you patience, not even a single E-mail complaining about my lack of activity! :)