What shapes, patterns or symbolism would you like in your garden? We are considering having 2 foot wide paths and no beds requiring no more than a 2 foot reach for easy access and tending. This means the widest bed on the edge or near a fence would be 2 feet wide and the widest bed between two paths would be four feet wide. Below are some fun designs based upon those two ideas. The designs below are within a small fenced area to keep the deer out. The girl in the drawing is standing arms out stretched just inside the garden gate. The brown is the paths and the green are the beds.

Below is a different variation that makes use of 2 foot wide borders, 2 foot wide paths and 4 foot wide interior beds. In this version there are front and back gates. The size of the garden below was changed to allow 2 four foot wide interior beds. Although the beds and paths use square-ish corners for easy on-the-ground layout, the final version is likely to be more naturally rounded.

Water Lines:

Other factors to consider are where to bury the water lines and place hose bibs. The garden is going to get all dug up so we might as well place the waterlines where they will be the most functional, least in the way and likely to cause the least hose drag issues. Should hose bibs be high and one use self coiling hoses or low?

Dream Garden:

We have been pondering the idea of a dream garden also. Like how the garden or gardening affects ones dreams.

The Ultimate Garden For The Gardener:

What would make a garden the ultimate for the gardener? Like having a small sink to wash ones hands, or the veggies, or a small workbench to pot plants or un-pot them.How about a small deck that one can also sleep on during the summer months?

What makes a garden people friendly? What are your ideas?

- The designs were done using Inkscape. -

Here are my (possibly) stolen images of a cartoon I drew for a blog article using Inkscape:

TWITTER LAYOUTS: http://m.profilelayouts.com/twitterlayouts/vitalbodiescartoon2007.html

HI5 LAYOUTS: http://m.profilelayouts.com/hi5layouts/vitalbodiescartoon2007.html

MYSPACE LAYOUTS: http://m.profilelayouts.com/myspacelayouts/vitalbodiescartoon2007.html

FRIENDSTER LAYOUTS: http://m.profilelayouts.com/friendsterlayouts/vitalbodiescartoon2007.html

Here is the real image: http://www.vitalbodies.com/blog/2008/07/19/vitalbodies-cartoon-the-sunday-comics-edition/

The site seems to offer no easy way for artists to have their work removed and no way to contact the site owner. They even put a copyright symbol on the bottom of the page – so they are aware of copyright laws.

WHO IS: http://whois.domaintools.com/profilelayouts.com

Wiki: http://www.aboutus.org/ProfileLayouts.com

Inkscape was used to draw the boxes and GIMP was used to edit the screen captures.

Larger Version: http://www.vitalbodies.com/site/uploads/images/graphics/MakeHuman_Boxes_V1_1920x1080_2.png

VitalBodies likes Postie for email blogging and wanted to create some appreciation graphics to show our support!

Which is your favorite?

VitalBodies is not associated with Postie, we just like the plug-in and secretly made some fun graphics as a show of support.

Which one did robfelty.com like the best? The winner is, number 7!

Created in Inkscape – Fonts are Bitstream Vera Sans and Impossibilium BRK.

VitalBodies.net has created an Open Source Drawing of a “Distribution Board” (as the Wikipedia would call it) or an Electrical Panel as we would call it. Some times called a breaker box, fuse box, breaker panel, electric panel or other names.

This Open Source SVG is intended to be a generic electrical panel and not a photo realistic drawing or an exacting drawing of a specific panel, opps box, um, I mean board, yes board, that’s it!

Useful to map out your breakers or as a starting point for a more specific panel/box/board drawing of your own – you know.

Created in Inkscape – Font is Bitstream Vera Sans.

Distribution Box - Click for a larger image

Visit VitalBodies.net for the latest SVG and to learn more…

VitalBodies.net made a number of graphics to support the Open Source DiscWrapper Project.

Use the graphics on your site to help bring exposure to this great project.

Use the software to make disk and jacket covers for your collection of disks!

We used Inkscape or GIMP to create some CD cover graphics graphics.

See all the Graphics

DiscWrapper is a cover designer for home-made discs. It was made with Code::Blocks and it uses the wxWidgets library. It has template covers. Depending on the case there are pages where you can place labels, images, and lists.

Visit DiscWrapper…

Getting Puppy Linux and Windows 2000 to play nice on an IBM Thinkpad

Written by a guest writer…

Editors Introduction: The Thinkpad (Win2K era) was running Windows 2000 so slowly that the time had come to reload it. We needed to run a dual boot of Windows 2000 and Linux to get an old program from the Windows 95 era to be able to run. We really wanted to be in Linux (only) but absolutely needed this old favorite program. After trying to load Ubuntu and failing because of a bios error we found Puppy Linux. We wanted Windows 2000 and Puppy Linux to play nice on the old laptop, so here is what we did, in a brief step by step format, to get them to behave…

Puppy Linux: http://www.puppylinux.org/

…And by the way, the notebook ran A LOT faster when we were done!

Jan 2009 – Rebuilding the computer (again)…

Before wiping the disk: get Firefox bookmarks; graphics drivers; Word templates, dictionary, and auto-correct; downloads folder; data!
Leave Ethernet and wi-fi cards plugged in.
1. Boot with Puppy Linux CD and use Gparted to make a 10 GB NTFS partition (for the OS) and a 30 GB Fat32 partition (for my data).
2. Boot with Win2k system disk and install OS to first partition. (Tried the IBM recovery disk but it wouldn’t work – maybe because I replaced the original 20 GB disk with a 40 GB.)
3. Install graphics drivers.
4. Install SP4.
5. Install Mike Lin’s Startup Monitor.
6. Install all programs that won’t do anything funny to the system (Concord, Streets and Trips, Word, Excel, boncenc, Total Recorder, syncback, infrarecorder, firefox with bookmarks)
7. Boot with System Rescue CD and make a compressed image of the first partition (save it in the second partition). (Whoops – it says NTFS support is experimental, so also…)
8. Boot with Puppy Linux CD and use Gparted to make a new NTFS partition 3 (same size as partition 1, with space made by shrinking partition 2) and copy the first partition there. Now the new install is backed up two ways.
9. Change my user folder to D: instead of C: with the instructions at the end of this doc.
10. Use IBM Software CD to install DVD Express and Configsafe.
11. Install drivers for wi-fi card. [Ethernet got installed automatically]
12. Install anti-virus and firewall (Avira and Comodo).
13. Copy my data and music files from backup disk to D drive.
14. Connect to Internet and make sure everything works.
15. Total Recorder will not work. Tried the suggestions in Help (at end of this doc), but before messing with the registry…
16. Use partimage to make another image of the partition since everything else seems to be working.
17. TR Help suggestions didn’t work. Finally solved TR issue by downloading an executable that installed the Fraunhofer codec from this site: http://www.free-codecs.com/MPEG_Layer_3_Codec_download.htm
and that solved the problem. Set options for TR.
18. Everything done so far works fine. Make a Configsafe snapshot. (I think this was done before I let any of the Automatic Updates from Microsoft start installing.)

Appendix
I. Changing User Directory (not just My Documents folder) from C: to D:
Step 1
1. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
2. Under this key, there will be some number of profiles (usually 6), each of these which represents a user name that you will find under C:\Documents and Settings.
3. Click on each PROFILE key entry and look at the value ProfileImagePath to identify which one represents your username.
4. Inside the registry editor, using RegEdit or a clone registry editing program (I use Registrar Lite), edit this ProfileImagePath value that represents your username and CHANGE the path to where you want to move your settings to. In my case, I wanted to move my settings from C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME to “D:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME”.
5. Save this new path value in the registry editing program.
6. Now export the whole profile key that contains this value. You will be prompted for a file name to save the exported information to. Pick a location on your hard disk (not on the C drive) and export the key. When you finish the export and look at the output file, it should look something like this (note that exported filename locations inside the registry always represent a single “\” character with two “\\” characters)

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\S-1-5-21-220523388-484763869-725345543-1003]
“ProfileImagePath”=”D:\\Documents and Settings\\USERNAME”
“Sid”=hex01,05,00,00,00,00,00,05,15,00,00,00,7c,eb,24,0d,dd,e8,e4,1c,07,e5,3b,\2b,eb,03,00,00
“Flags”=dword00000000
“State”=dword00000100
“CentralProfile”=”"
“ProfileLoadTimeLow”=dword68b90756
“ProfileLoadTimeHigh”=dword01c5b12b
“RefCount”=dword00000001
“RunLogonScriptSync”=dword00000030
“OptimizedLogonStatus”=dword0000000b

7. Delete everything below your new path name. It should now look like this:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\S-1-5-21-220523388-484763869-725345543-1003]
“ProfileImagePath”=”D:\\Documents and Settings\\USERNAME”

Step 2
1. Now do a full reboot (don’t just logoff/on) and sign into the ADMINISTRATOR account
2. Copy C:\Documents and Settings\Username folder (including all sub-folders) to the new path location where the target users personal settings are to be saved (D:\Documents and Settings\XYZ in this example). [Actually, I think the system will do this later when you reboot after running the registry file]
3. Logoff the Administrator account and back onto the User account
4. Run the registry file you previously exported to and edited with the .REG extension (right-click it and choose merge)
5. Reboot the computer again and logon to the USER account
6. Go to C:\Documents and Settings\Username and try to delete the complete folder structure
8. If Windows allows you to do this, then you have successfully transferred your settings to the new path location and all is well. Voila!

9. If Windows says that you can’t delete it because it or something in it is required by the system, then you’ve done something wrong. Open Regedit and make sure that you have modified the correct location for the user account and that it has been correctly updated.
10. If you have the right location and it hasn’t been updated, figure out why.
11. You might have to do a system restore if you’ve messed something up badly, so take a backup before and be prepared to do this if necessary.
12. Generally, an imaging program that can be initiated from DOS is the best way to restore everything if you run into problems.

II. Total Recorder Help instructions (this is what it said to do. Even though it didn’t work, I’m listing it here since I did it)
You should reinstall the codec from the Windows XP distribution.

1. Insert the CD-ROM in your CD-ROM drive. This example assumes the drive letter is “F”.
2. Go to the system folder (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32), and try to find the l3codeca.acm file. If the file is found, then make a backup copy and delete the original file.
3. Go to “Start”-”Run”.
4. Type the following:
expand F:\I386\l3codeca.ac_ C:\Windows\System32\l3codeca.acm
and press “Enter”.
5. Make sure that after running this command, the file
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\l3codeca.acm is present.
6. Go to “Start”-”Run”, type regsvr32.exe l3codeca.acm, and press “Enter”.

To add a little extra fun to this post, VitalBodies created an Inkscape Puppy Linux License Plate!

Click image to see a larger version.

A while back we wanted to make a Brochure for an exciting product offering and this what we came up with.

The goal was bold, simple, graphic and would show why this is such a great product compared to conventional heaters, ventilation and dehumidifiers.

Mostly people would only see the cover so we tried to make a cover they would click on to learn more about the products.

We used Inkscape for the main layout and GIMP for the photo editing and drop shadow.

Here is the completed PDF:

http://www.vitalbodies.com/ws07/files/SolarVenti_USA.pdf

A large part of the fun was making the graphics in Inkscape.

Dowsing, is all about going deeper. My graphic is all about inviting you to go deeper also. Dowsing is a deep study and a profound art. It is well worth the effort to learn. It is an effort to learn.

Layout: I used Golden Rectangles and Triangles, Sections and Spirals in the dowsing chart layout.

This wand was designed to respond and amplify the BODY’S signal.
Like a dog wagging it’s tail, you want to see the response!

Sometimes there is NO response and that IS a response.

The chart took many years to design and took even longer to test and to validate that it was fully accurate.

Wands are made of Stainless Steel or Bronze and very few of Nickel. Handles of Latex rubber or Polypropylene.

Chart made of Recycled 100% post consumer waste paper.

PHOTO: Photo shows a stainless steel wand with a Polypropylene handle.

Dowsing wand photo shot with a Sigma SD14

I designed this myself, and this design is available no where else. If you see this elsewhere it is a copy. Please report it.

Graphics were made in Inkscape on Ubuntu and the photo shot with a Sigma SD14 and sized in GIMP.

Available on Etsy and Ebay.

At VitalBodies we had UPGRADED all of our computers from Windows to Ubuntu some time back. And we have no intention of going back to Windows. This week we updated Hardy Heron to Intrepid Ibex. Very nice simple process. Much thanks to the Ubuntu Team!

Graphic Created With Inkscape.

Updating Ubuntu:

Essentially you just tell Ubuntu you want to be offered Normal Releases rather than just the Long Term Support Updates Only.

System > Administration > Software Sources > Updates > Release Upgrade > Normal Releases.

Check for updates:

System > Administration >Update Manager.

From here you will see if an Update is available.

For us updating required a reboot. Also once the installation part starts (after the download) you will not want to have any applications running. We had Firefox going and it simply shut it down. Firefox saved all our tabs though.

We noticed that our Preferences Appearance had been changed once the new upgrade had started after a reboot.

Preferences > Appearance > Visual Effects had been set to Normal rather than None.

That is easy to change to what ever you like though:

Preferences > Appearance > Visual Effects.

Evolution the mail program in Ubuntu also has had a few anomalies but those usualy get worked out in a day or so after a big update. For us when writing a reply to an email every word is underlined in red as if every word is mis-spelled.

USB DRIVE:

This version of Ubuntu is also fully able to run from a USB drive. This means you can take your favorite Operating system all of the programs, files settings and everything with you! Having a Portable Operating System is definitely the way to go!

GIMP 2.6.1:

GIMP 2.6 is standard with Ibex! Yes! Bugfixes, Updated translations. “One Window Gimp” option added. PlusGEGL.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEGL

There is also GIMP 2.6.2:

GIMP Features: http://www.gimp.org/features/

Overview of Changes from GIMP 2.6.1 to GIMP 2.6.2
=================================================

* Bugs fixed:

 557950 – Scaling in Gimp 2.6 is much slower than in Gimp 2.4
 558215 – unit and zoom entries in Statusbar not visible
 558451 – Cannot build GIMP using Sun CC on Solaris 2.8
 558420 – projection incorrect with alpha-less layers
 556603 – Zoom region always zooms in center of image
 557870 – "Qmask" message popping up here and there
 557705 – compatibility with GEGL > 0.0.20
 556248 – Scaling gives 'jagged' edges
 556804 – Zoom drop down doesn't update
 524615 – Print not to scale
 555246 – gimp crashes when a file is opened while a preview is generating
 556741 – Alpha layer automatically added (in psd format)
 556182 – Could you please explain a few strings [I18N]
 555697 – build fails if configured with --without-libjpeg
 134956 – Curves tool doesn't save free curves

* Updated translations:

 Czech (cs)
 Danish (da)
 Finnish (fi)
 French (fr)
 Japanese (ja)
 Polish (pl)
 Brazilian Portuguese (pt_BR)
 Swedish (sv)
 Simplified Chinese (zh_CN)

Overview of Changes from GIMP 2.6.0 to GIMP 2.6.1
=================================================

* Bugs fixed:

 555587 – PSD file crashes PSD plug-in
 555222 – PSD Load Plugin: unsupported compression mode
 555362 – gimp-remote is not working properly
 555280 – some gif files will not be open
 554890 – JPEG Save Options Dialog does not remember
 554966 – Gimp crashes creating a new image using a template
 554785 – Compile failure on uri-backend-libcurl
 554646 – Opening Help crashes GIMP with lqr-plugin installed
 553534 – centering issues after image scaling and setting zoom
 554898 – Compile failure on uri-backend-wget.c

* Updated translations:

 Belarusian (be)
 Catalan (ca)
 Finnish (fi)
 French (fr)
 Japanese (ja)
 Macedonian (mk)
 Punjab (pa)
 Brazilian Portuguese (pt_BR)
 Romanian (ro)
 Slovenian (sl)
 Swedish (sv)

Network Setting:

The little Icon that shows if we are connected to the router has had features added like VPN.

Graphics:

On the Lenovo ThinkStation Nvidia graphics driver (proprietary) is now fully operational and there is a control panel for that.

System > Administration > Nvidia X Server Setting.

Very nice, you can even monitor the temperature of the chip.

Blender:

The latest Blender version is also in Ibex!

Quit:

The Quit button is now integrated with logging in and out. To update to this change also required a reboot.

Printing Issues:

8.04 to 8.10:

Since this is a fairly minor update I would guess that the vast majority of the articles on this blog that were written for Hardy will work for Ibex.

Upgrade Notes:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes

Release Notes:

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/810