Simple Invoice

My brother asked me to help him do some invoicing for him.  In the past I have used freshbooks and was very happy with how it worked, but in the end the free product wasn't enough.  I set out to find a simple free product to create invoices.  I tend to use a bunch of different computers so a LAMP based solution seemed like a good choice for me and desktop software like GnuCash seemed overly complicated for my needs.

I looked around a while and found a few different options, but Simple Invoices stuck out to me because it had a unique offering.  Simple Invoices is a LAMP based project, but somebody created a Windows version.  At first I thought this is a great way to test out Simple Invoices with out investing a lot of time into setup.  With the Windows version, you extract the zip file, and run exe, and you are off and running in minutes.  I was able to test and determine this would work fine for me.  This Windows version was enough to get me in the door and get me hooked on using it.

The exe starts prepackaged versions of apache and mysql and allows you to open your default browser or the included app (a very simple browser). I was going to setup my linux server to host the final install, but before I did the setup I wanted to make sure I setup ssl so I would feel a little better about the idea of doing billing over the internet. I had a brainstorm before I get a chance to setup ssl.  I use a wonderful service called dropbox to keep a folder synced between my computers, and the windows version of Simple Invoice runs out of a folder, why can't I put my Simple Invoice install in my dropbox?

I have been using Simple Invoice in my dropbox on three computers for a few weeks now, and so far no problems.  I will add this disclaimer, I have not had simple invoices running on two computers at the same time yet.  I would imagine two copies of mysql running at once against one database could lead to big problems so I have avoided that by being very careful to always shutdown when I am done.  Maybe some rainy day I will to more testing on my test install before messing with live data. Speaking of test install, I have two simple invoice folders in my dropbox, one that is my live data, another that is a dummy test folder. I keep the test one just in case I need to test how something works before I go live with something.

So check out http://www.simpleinvoices.org or check out dropbox with my referral link http://db.tt/QOohbuE

Android on the Sprint Touch Pro (in color)

As of last night, Connect-UTB has released an Android build that fixes the color issues on the Sprint Touch Pro. This build for the RAPH800 is still not ready for day to day use, but is a clear sign that progress is being made. Currently you can't make phone calls, or much else, but does give you the chance to see how Android runs on the phone. I have to say I'm impresses how smooth it runs. The wonderful people at XDA behind this are doing a wonderful job making this happen and deserve a shout out. Also a thank you for Connect-UTB for hosting the file.

Grab the new build here

Ubuntu, CPU Scaling, Battery life and You

My laptop was almost burning my legs tonight so I did a little looking for CPU scaling options in Ubuntu. I found a very useful page on how to adjust the power save method in Gnome on Ubuntu 8.04.

Ubuntu, CPU Scaling, Battery life and You

Debian on the NSLU2 - Success

I finally succeeded in installing Debian on my NSLU2, now to play around and see what it can do. I am considering making it a webserver to server content to my Wii via the browser.

This is my first arm based linux box so it will be interesting to see what I can do with it. I also wonder how the 133Mhz is going to hold up. The NSLU2 can be modded to remove the factory underclocking, but there are some concerns about stability when running full speed. Time will tell what I can do with it now that it is a working linux box.

Debian on the NSLU2

I've now made a couple attempts to install Debian on my Linksys NSLU2. The NSLU2 has a very limited amount of memory so installing is a challenge. My big issue is seems to be running out of memory while formatting my drive. I've been lucky so far that it hasn't locked up because I am remotely accessing the machine via ssh from home. It looks like it isn't going to work again, I think I will have to prepare the drive in another computer and try again tomorrow.

Internet Laptop Update

I've made some progress on my fast booting internet laptop. Right now its booting in just under a minute. I hope to do some more tweaking and tuning yet, but 45 seconds is seeming harder to hit off of my Ubuntu install. I have already delayed starting of most non critical services until after firefox is loaded. Laptop is working decent otherwise except I also want to scale the CPU down a bit after its done booting to help with heat and battery life. Hopefully I will post a full guide after I'm happy with the results.

I still haven't made much progress on my simple web based wireless card manager. I have thought about it and I'd also like to maybe include a few other things like battery life info on this web page. I would really like to be able to get any computer information I need directly from firefox.

Project: Simple Internet Device

Goal: Create a fast booting laptop to get me to a browser asap and have simple wireless setup.

I have a laptop that boots up ubuntu base install with fluxbox right now. My plan is to have it boot up and start firefox. My current issue is I want to be able to setup wireless without having to fire up anything extra on the gui. My idea to fix that is to create a web based wifi manager to find and connect to access points. I lack php skills so this may be an issue, but I don't think it will be that hard to do.

Hopefully I can round up some help on this project. Once I can get a handle on the wireless then its time to start tuning the boot time and add some firefox extentions to fill in any other gaps.

I think this would be great to be able to apply this same idea to a web tablet, but until tech crunch comes out with their web tablet, I'm hoping this will be the next best thing.

AstLinux

Its been a while since I posted any updates. Currently I've been playing with Astlinux. My previous post talked about trixbox, a linux distribution designed to be the easiest way to get a Asterisk box up and going. While true, the web-based config seems to be somewhat of a pain.

I was talking with a friend and he really like Astlinux, so I went to work on trying it out. Astlinux is a striped down linux disto designed to boot from a compact flash card. In my test setup, my machine is booting from a 64mb CF card, and has a USB thumb drive to store voice mail and other data.

I have to say it was more effort to get the Astlinux machine going and achieve the same things I was doing with Trixbox, but in the long run I learned more and much prefer dealing directly with the config files over the web interface of the Trixbox.

My test setup now has the Astlinux box and a phone at my home, and the Trixbox and a phone at work. I am now able to call between home and work via Free World Dialup. I am also experimenting with a Skype to SIP program, It would seem like I can get my SkypeIn number to ring in on my Asterisk box.

I don't know exactly what I'm going to do next with the setup, I may be getting a land line in my home so, at that point I might push that number into my system, and I also might be connecting to anyother VoIP provider to handle long distance calls.

In the future I would like to be able to connect an Asterisk box to the work Shoreline system, allowing me to extend my work phone, to where I'm working and break me away from the desk, but I'm not sure I really want to be that reachable to the point that I will spend money on the hardware required.

TrixBox

This week I had some time to play with Trixbox, for those unfamiliar with Trixbox, it is a linux distro based on centos designed to easily setup an Asterisk VoIP server. I was able to get the machine setup with a couple Polycom 501 phones, but I haven't had much time to setup much else yet. I'd like to experiment more and what advanced features I can use to benefit me. I have a few projects in my future that might benefit from me doing some further testing.