Michelle tries to stretch her arms in her new cube

It’s high time I posted a new set of instructions about how to build Pan Newsreader (for complete n00bz)!!!

First, fire up your terminal and install pan newsreader:

$ sudo apt-get install pan

So, why install pan, only to upgrade it?  Simply put, you don’t have to.  I like to, because then Ubuntu does nice things like makes the menu items so I can run this from Dash, installs icons, etc.

Next, we need to install the requirements needed to build pan.  These are the exact requirements that I needed from  fresh installs of Ubuntu 11.04 and 11.10.  Your mileage may vary!

$ sudo apt-get install git libgtk2.0-dev libgmime-2.4-dev gnome-common

This takes a while, and downloads over 100 MB of stuff…so it’s a good time to go read a goodnight story to your kids, or whatever it is you do in your spare time.  Note that I’m installing git, because it worked.  Previously I had to install kgit…again, YMMV.

Next, we need to clone the git source directory for pan.  We’ve installed git up above, so all we need to do is change to a convenient directory.  I like using my home directory, but you might choose another…

$ cd <<INSERT YOUR DIRECTORY HERE>>
$ git clone git://git.gnome.org/pan2

Let that run, and you’ll find a new directory entry called pan2.  Move into that, and let’s start the build process:  (Oh, by the way, if you want to make any alterations to pan like, for instance, changing the maximum number of concurrent  connections per server…now would be the time to do it!)

$ cd pan2
$ ./autogen.sh

You’ll see a bunch of things scroll past, as the compiler makes sure that you have all of the requirements, both in the compiler and the ancillary libraries, available and ready for use.  You will likely see a few complaints, but as long as no errors take place, you should be ok, and will be greeted with a cheery

Now type `make’ to compile Pan

So, let’s do just that, and actually build our binary with:

$ make

Now it’s time to go brew a cuppa your favorite caffeinated  beverage.  Once again, I might suggest a nice chai.  When everything calms down and your machine has flipped all the right bits, you should have a working binary file!  But, where is it?  And where should we put it?

Lets find out where your CURRENT pan binary is located:

$ which pan

This will probably return something like /usr/bin/pan – which is EXACTLY what it returned for me!  Make note of this, as you will need it … well, we’ll need it right now!  Let’s back up our current binary:

$ sudo mv /usr/bin/pan /usr/bin/pan_OLD

And let’s move the new binary into the old binary’s place, then set the correct owner.  Assuming you’re still in the pan2 directory from which we ran the autogen & make, you will find the pan binary hiding as:  ./pan/gui/pan
We’re in the final steps, now!

$ sudo cp ./pan/gui/pan /usr/bin/pan
$ sudo chown root:root /usr/bin/pan

You should now be able to run pan without any issues!  Let me know what you think of my tutorial, and how it worked out for you!

However, the ruling did not strike down the law in its entirety, as did an earlier ruling by Judge Stanley Vinson. Instead, the 11th Circuit Court opinion states that the rest of the law can stand, even if the individual mandate is unconstitutional. How does this make any sense?

The ONLY way that the law might even pay for itself is to expand the pool of insured, which is effectively what the individual mandate clause did. However, what happens when the pool is not expanded, but the tax increases and other stipulations remain in place?

The American taxpayers get screwed.

Now, you’ll not only be paying taxes to support a government run insurance product, but other private insurers will most likely still be forced out of the market, as they are not heavily subsidized by the American taxpayer.  How does a private business compete against the American government?  It can’t – if the government’s system goes into the red, they can just give it more taxpayer dollars to cover the loss.  A private business must make a profit.  Lacking that, they go belly-up.  So, what will the result be?

A single-payer system.  Either you get the government’s insurance, or you’ll get none at all.

Still sound like a Republican victory?

Most of you reading this blog already know about Evan. He has a condition called Moebius Syndrome. Basically, Moebius paralyzes some of the cranial nerves – specifically the ones that relay movement to the facial muscles and to side-to-side motion of the eyes. That means that Evan will have some extraordinary challenges when it comes to normal talking and communication. Fortunately, Evan is taking very well to sign language, and has learned over 150 signs already! He is also learning to sight-read alll of the words he can sign. Awesome!!

So how does the iPad fit in, you might ask! Well, enter ProLoQuo2Go…an Augmentative Assistive Communication program for the iPad. PLQ2Go acts as a talk board. Our hope is that this will give Evan yet another communication medium to use….after all, not everyone knows Sign Language!

In the coming months, I’ll be using this space to log how things go, as well as to post some pictures, some reviews, and our thoughts and feelings about the entire process.

Stay tuned!

**YAWN**

This MIGHT be an exciting announcement to anyone who isn’t a Beatles fan already, and who didn’t already have most of their albums on vinyl and/or CD. It’s not like iTunes doesn’t already rip at amazing bitrates & sound quality!

Way to go, Apple. I think I’ll go back to sleep now.