I looked at the log files at /var/log/mysqld.log and saw the following lines:

100428 15:01:26 [ERROR] Error reading packet from server: Could not find first log file name in binary log index file ( server_errno=1236)
100428 15:01:26 [ERROR] Got fatal error 1236: ‘Could not find first log file name in binary log index file’ from master when reading data from binary log

I searched all over the Web and finally discovered, thanks to http://forums.mysql.com/read.php?26,20262,20628#msg-20628
that I was incorrectly referring to the master log file as mysql.bin.000005 rather than mysql-bin.000005 as it was supposed to be in the following statement:
CHANGE MASTER TO MASTER_HOST=’72.14.183.122′,MASTER_USER=’xxxx’,MASTER_PASSWORD=’xxxxxxx’,MASTER_LOG_FILE=’mysql-bin.000005′,MASTER_LOG_POS=628;

I corrected this and restarted the slave and everything appears to be working.

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MySQL replication errors

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The downside, the disk drive is only 4 Gb.

Before we bought it 4 Gb seemed small, but after all, it wasn’t that long ago that I paid about $500 for a 120Mb drive for my IBM desktop, and 4Gb still holds a lot of word processing documents. Or so we thought…

When the Asus arrived it included a handsome Xandros operating system. The “Easy” interface was ideal for someone used to MS Windows. The trouble was, it was shipped with a huge number of applications that took up virtually all of the disk space (like 95%) and there is no way to remove unwanted applications. Since we left the auto-update switched on we soon ran into problems of using up absolutely all of the disk space. We could have used an external disk drive to store documents, but in the shipped state the device did not run YouTube videos or Facebook chat. Of course, it might have done if we had been able to update packages but this was impossible because there was not enough free disk space.

Searching the forums it appeared that it was possible to remove applications. Some said this could be done by running in Advanced mode which required manifold changes and tweaks to operating system files (especially for the 900A). Others insisted that you had to mess with the disk partitions to allow changes to be made to the system partition (which contained the backup data and most of the available disk space). I believe you need at least  PhD in computer science to follow these conflicting instructions or at least a lot of patience. As with most advice for Linux, it roughly divided into 40% that conflicts with other advice, 40% written to make the person writing it appear very clever and to obfuscate information for everyone else, and 20% useful. And you never know which is which until you have spent many fruitless hours.

I eventually gave up and turned to http://www.eeebuntu.org/ This site is definitely in the useful domain.

EEE Ubuntu is a subset of Ubuntu that is designed to run on EEE machines ‘out of the box.’ At least that’s what the Web site says.

I followed the install instructions for EEEbuntu Base, which is the smallest of their downloads. I downloaded the ISO and then went to http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ to download a program that runs under Windows XP to create a bootable USB stick.

I adjusted the Asus to boot from the USB stick (by pressing F2 on bootup and changing the order of boot devices).

The real beauty of using the USB is you can boot up in the new operating system and test it out without touching the old. In other words, you can check that everything is working properly before you commit to installing the new operating system on the Asus disk.

After checking that the wireless driver was working properly and that it was possible to watch YouTube (which required downloading Flash, which was easy), I clicked the install link and installed EEEBuntu.

Having installed the operating system, the system recognized my wireless network. I just had to enter the password to connect. I quickly installed OpenOffice Word and Spreadsheet, and also Thunderbird for email.

Connecting to a Windows networked printer was extremely easy.

Overall I wish we had gone down this route months ago.

Asus make good machines but they need to be a little more thoughtful when they fill their computers with unneeded applications without a way to remove them.

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New Operating System for Asus EEE 900A

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An introduction to Internet marketing and planning

After several months of work I finally finished my book and put out a press release through PRWeb. The book described Internet marketing in a way which should be of interest to small businesses wanting to explore how they can market their businesses using the Web.

The book can be purchased here.

I orginally wrote the book using OpenOffice and then transferred it to Quark Xpress where I created each chapter as a separate file. By working on it this way I was able to create the look I wanted without incurring costs for a professional typesetter.

I wanted the book to be available as both a hard copy and as a downloadable version. Sometimes it is nice to be able to sit down with a book rather than reading everything on a computer screen. Therefore, I published the book through Lulu. Lulu produces professionally printed paperbacks and hard cover books using print on demand technology. This meant I was able to print a book, proof read it check the design and then reprint, fairly inexpensively. Once completed, books can be purchased through Lulu (as either a hard copy or pdf download) who literally print a copy after someone orders it.

I also got an ISBN number through Lulu which means that the book is available for order through regular book sellers and Amazon.com.

The whole process took me longer than expected. Every proof reading generated yet more corrections.

Ultimately, I think the whole prublishing indsurty will move towards print on demand (POD). The current economics of printing masses of books results in the pulping many books every year. This is wasteful and expensive. POD means that more niche titles can be produced and hence improves customer choice.

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My new book – An Introduction to Internet Marketing and Planning

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Denny Hatch (in Target Marketing) and Hershell Gordon Lewis (in Direct) always write very entertaining columns that always pack a thought provoking punch. There are always several other articles that are worthy of clipping.

So, whatever sort of marketing you are in, I highly recommend subscribing to these distinguished publications.

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Two excellent direct marketing magazines

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The industry seems to be divided on whether popups are a good idea. I suspect this is because they have been misused and abused by some sites. This has lead to the creation of popup blockers.

In our case we decided to use a popup (written using jQuery) but to restrict it (using a cookie) to make sure that it does not reappear for a site visitor for 20 days. In other words, if a new visitor came to billyfire.com today, and then visited every day for the next 20 days, the popup would not reappear until the 20th day.

I believe the value in the popup is to be able to relate specific information that you want a site visitor to focus on. If the visitor is not interested he can easily remove the popup and it won’t reappear (at least, not be 20 days).

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Popup

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I read an article about someone who scheduled, way in advance, a whole bunch of Tweets, and did so using Tweetlater. It seems like a good idea, if not really in the spirit of Twitter. In the process I set up an automated response to those who follow me. I had already tied it into my blog and so all my welcome to #dafsfj and #tytewty appeared as blog posts.

In retrospect , I think this is a bad idea. My blog started to look a bit spammy and it does not provide any useful information to readers. Particularly as many of the potential Twitter followers are obvious spammers.

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Twitter posts

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The twist with BudURL is that is includes analytics behind each link that you create. So, for example, you could include a BudURL link in a Twitter Tweet and then see analytics on any clicks on that link.

I will post more when I have examples of the analytics.

BudURL includes free and paid services based on the number of links you create.

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BudURL

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1. Creating a link in a WordPress blog The following video is a very simple demonstration of how...

I have used cPanel for some time and it serves its purpose well, however, if you are managing you own server it is not cheap.

I have recently been experimenting with Webmin and Virtualmin and, so far, I am impressed for the following reasons:

• The packages are available as GPL and hence you can play around with them before deciding whether you wanted to use them or not.
• A paid-for version is also available which included more features and support options. It s not expensive, at least not when compared to cPanel
• Provided you have a supported operating system, the software can be set up easily using a shell script provided by Virtualmin. I initially setup the system on a spare machine in my office and then created an instance on  a Linode VPS using Centos 5.2. Things worked pretty much out of the box, with the exception of e-mail that required some fiddling around with. If I had a couple of small criticisms of Virtualmin so far, they would be that some of the basic e-mail setup could be easier and the site forums are not particularly active.
• Unlike cPanel which seems to have its own abstraction layer of settings and files, Virtualmin sets up the underlying files. This means that if you removed Virtualmin everything would continue working (apart from being able to administer the server using Virtualmin, of course).
• Virtualmin is committed to educating its users. This means that by using Virtualmin you should, in theory, know more about Web hosting and Linux administration.

I am still busy tweaking my setup, but the experience has been rewarding so far.

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Web site admin

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My wife and I are on the lookout for some outdoor furniture to replace our old worn out chairs. I spotted an advert in my mail box for a liquidation sale of outdoor furniture, specifically for some ‘bar height’ chairs at a very reasonable price. We duly arrived at the warehouse which was full of some very nice looking merchandise. The prices points looked rather higher than the items we were considering and so, after a bit of hunting around, we found someone to ask about the chairs we wanted.

The sales assistant didn’t know the answer and went looking for her boss. A few minutes later he returned and said that the items we were looking for were sold out – and that the advert we had was for the previous week. We smiled and left the warehouse.

I don’t know much (or anything) about the ‘liquidation’ model of this business. I imagine that you rent a warehouse for a short time and then buy a load of merchandise that needs to be sold as quickly as possible, for the best possible prices.

So when when two willing buyers arrived at the warehouse, cash in hand, why oh why did they not try a little harder to sell us something?

Could they not have ventured that while the items we were looking for were sold out, there were some vastly superior items that would last longer, were only a little more expensive and would have been a great investment…and by the way we have financing available. Or, perhaps they could have offered us a discount off a more expensive item? I don’t think they would have had to twist our arms too hard.

The sales staff looked bored. Perhaps a small commission would have put a little pep in their sales presentation?

The lesson of the story is that while a buyer appears to be interested in one product or service, it may take a little probing to find what he would actually be willing to buy. We weren’t particularly interested in the chairs in the advert – we just wanted outdoor chairs at a reasonable price.

Sales staff need to be motivated to sell and prepared to ask a few questions.

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The art of personal selling

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The podcasting presentation can be found here.

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Podcasting tutorial video

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