My grandfather, Jesse Augustus Perkins (Oct 18, 1872 – Apr 19, 1951), was an engineer on the Central of Georgia Railway.

The family moved back and forth between Columbus, GA where my mom was born to Savannah, GA where she graduated high school.

Then the family did an amazing thing. They sent my mom to Brenau for a year. Sounds like a theme you might see in a novel of Anne Rivers Siddons. I can just imagine what a financial commitment this must have been for the family.

Jesse retired at age 65 and went fishing every day after that. Within three years he had turned into an old man.

As we approach retirement we should plan to stay engaged in mind and body. Our choices today are much wider than in my grandfather’s time. Blogging is a choice I wanted to explore. I had no idea what a blog is. At last I found out that a blog is shorthand for a weblog. Wow, that cleared it up. So, what is a weblog?

Then on one of my trips to Fort Collins, CO I wandered into the public library. There was a book “Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation that’s Changing Your World” ISBN 0-7852-8804X published in 2005 written by Hugh Hewitt. I wanted answers to the following questions:

• How is a Blog different from a website?
• What client software is used to create a blog?
• Does any client blog software run on Linux?

I had already done a 35 page website, all hand-coded HTML using only the IBM OS/2 Warp Enhanced Editor to create it.

Instead of finding answers to any of these questions I found out instead what horrid people liberals are. Bloggers were going to expose corruption among liberal politicians, etc.

One thing I did learn from the Hewitt book is that blogs link to other blogs and thus each multiplies the power of those other blogs.

During the next few years I started seeing bloggers appear on cable television. Townhall.com on the conservative side, MediaMatters.com on the liberal side. Representative examples.

Then one day I logged in to Linux Questions.org , As I was reading through the Slackware forum I saw a message with a tagline inviting folks to see a blog article on moving from Windows to Linux specifically Slackware Linux. I read the article and wrote to the author, Brian Reichert who turned out to be a great guy. Brian used Nanoblogger to create his blog, and of course it runs on Linux.

Seeing Brian’s blog raised another question. What is a blogroll? I flirted with Nanoblogger for months before deciding that it was not for me. Soon afterwards I decided on a domain name kakoluri.com and registered it through A2Hosting in Ann Arbor, MI. A2 is a linux friendly hosting company. Their service has been superior in every way.

Eventually I learned that there is a Linux version of WordPress

WordPress runs on the host as a MySQL task. Instead of just starting a blog, I decided to find out about MySQL. The client software is included with Slackware Linux so I was able to get MySQL running on a localhost. In order for this to work you also have to have PHP running. In Slackware this is easy. You simply edit one text file to turn PHP on.

Where does the name kakoluri come from? I was reading a book about the Gypsies. Kako is a word which means chief and Luri is an old name for the Gypsy people. I promise that I am not from Romania nor do I have any ancestors from there.

When I was a child Adolph Hitler murdered six million Jews in concentration camps. This is well-known. Some people forget that Hitler also murdered hundreds of thousands of Gypsies in Europe as well. So I feel comfortable identifying with them.

With the choice of WordPress blog software, A2 Hosting, and a registered domain name, I was soon off and running. I found out what a blogroll is by accident. So the pieces started coming together.

Now with a few months of blogging experience under my belt, I found, almost by accident another book which answers the questions that the Hewitt book did not.

The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging, ISBN 978-4391-0500-9, published in 2008, avoids the adolescent ranting of the Hewitt book. It answers the real questions I have today.

• What should I blog about?
• How should I link to other blogs?
• How can I promote readership?

I blog about what I am passionate about. Microsoft ,
for example. These days it is quaint to think that computing should require some effort and study in order to do it successfully and safely. Microsoft has sold snake oil that says any idiot can run a computer if they use Windows. The worst thing about Microsoft is the kind of users they create – according to one author.

I am passionate about RealID. A national identification card is illegal in the United States. Despite that, governments, federal and state, have spent millions of dollars on a scheme to create a de facto national identification card.

The Huffington Post Guide says do not let perfect be the enemy of done. I get ideas from C-Span and other sources but if I delay very long it is too late. Despite that, I never run out of things to blog about. Somewhere along the line I decided to include a book of the week series. Now I’m busier than ever.

Posted by Gypsy Chief

We Have Links

Do you remember the old days when the Internet and World Wide Web were not considered to be the same thing? Back then people would create a web site with a links page which might go on and on. Some webmasters would give us a break by producing an anotated list of links.

Comes now the Gypsy Chief Blog. We decided to introduce links slowly and maybe say a few words about each one.

For example realnightmare.org has undergone significant changes as of late. I suggest you log on to see what’s new. RealID seems to me to be the poster child for government boondoggle. My interest in this was sparked when I discovered that the ACLU and The Cato Institute as well as The American Library Association all oppose RealID. CNBC anchor Larry Kudlow has been heard to support RealID but it seems to me his support is based on the notion that people with Real IDs would be first in line at the airport. Sorry, Larry, we can’t all be first in line at the same time. Look for more links coming soon.