*Posted [here][] – Naturally the moderator refused it. Though ostensibly for fighting spam, moderation is also very handy for suppressing criticism.*
[here]: http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2006/06/the-giant-blogging-terms-glossary/
At my most geekiful
*Posted [here][] – Naturally the moderator refused it. Though ostensibly for fighting spam, moderation is also very handy for suppressing criticism.*
[here]: http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2006/06/the-giant-blogging-terms-glossary/
In response to Gordon’s post, [Firefox Extensions Revisited][], this is a list of the Firefox extensions that I am currently using.
[firefox extensions revisited]: http://www.gordonmclean.co.uk/index.php/archives/2006/03/28/firefox-extensions-revisited
* Adblock Plus 0.6.1.2 (also on the iBook and at work) ((There are forks of Adblock all over the place, and it’s very, very confusing. I’ve had problems with 0.6.1.2 on Ubuntu so I’m using a different version, 0.5.11.3, which is available here))
* Bookmark Backup 0.4
* Colorful Tabs 1.1 (also at work)
* del.icio.us 0.5.11 (also on the iBook and at work)
* Disable Targets For Downloads 1.0.1 (also at work)
* Download Manager Tweak 0.7.1 (also at work)
* Gmail Notifier 0.5.5.2
* ListZilla 0.7 (also on the iBook and at work)
* Menu Editor 1.2 (also at work)
* Mouse Gestures 1.0.4 (also at work)
* NoScript 1.1.3.9 (also on the iBook)
* Resizeable Textarea 0.1b (also at work)
* SessionSaver .2 0.2.1.031
* Slim Extension List 0.3.1
* udtool 0.6.6 (also on the iBook)
* Urban Dead Homing Beacon 1.0 (also on the iBook)
* User Agent Switcher 0.6.8 (also at work)
* Web Developer 1.0.2 (also at work)
* WebmailCompose 0.6.6
* Yahoo! Mail Notifier 0.9.9
The following extension I currently only have installed on my computer at work, as there wouldn’t really be much point installing it on a non-Windows computer:
* IE View 1.2.7
Of course, in the near future I am going to be trying out many of the extensions that Gordon uses as well. [Download Statusbar][], for example, is looking like a promising replacement for Download Manager Tweak. This is the kind of list that doesn’t stay static for very long.
[download statusbar]: http://downloadstatusbar.mozdev.org/
Rather annoyingly, I cancelled a bittorrent download, and when I resumed it would not pick up on the previous download. It looked like I might be forced to restart, losing 152MB of progress. Each time I tried to select the existing directory to attach to, the file browser would navigate *into* the directory, which is not what I wanted – the contents of the torrent *is* the directory.
Hooray for command line. I located the torrent file in my `/tmp` directory and used the following command to get back on track:
`gnome-btdownload –url /tmp/myfile.torrent –saveas ~/downloads/thedir/ &`
So, if you watch my linklog, you’ll notice that I recently installed [moto4lin][] on [Ubuntu][] so that I could hack my [Razr][].
[moto4lin]: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=56253&highlight=moto4lin
[ubuntu]: http://www.ubuntulinux.org/
[razr]: http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details/0,,69,00.html
The primary reason for doing this was that the external screen would display my service provider’s icon. This, to me, seemed like a bit of an imposition – why should I be forced to advertise their product? I’ve already bought it – what more do they want? Blood?
So I created a 96×80 GIF image called cl.gif and uploaded it to the phone, overwriting the existing file in /a/mobile/system/ – worked a treat.
I then went to town getting rid of all the preinstalled crap that had been marked as read-only, and hence undeletable from within the phone’s menu.
Here’s where it gets interesting, because to give the user the impression that this crap isn’t taking up shedloads of space, the phone has been programmed to subtract the mass of this crap from the total space displayed when you request a memory report.
Further to a previous post where I asked you to name my new web app, I’ve decided that it’s ready for public release.
I’ll probably tweak the appearance of it at some time in the future, but it’s all up and running now at Valet.
I’m working on a program that utilises the [W3C Validator][] to “watch” a webpage, and automatically send you an email if your page stops validating. Functionally it’s fully operational, and is currently undergoing alpha testing. However, I have no idea what to call it, and its working title stinks like rancid ass.
[w3c validator]: http://validator.w3.org/
Help. My current fallbacks are things like “watchr” and “validatr”, which are derivative and dumb and preferably avoided. Please donate your ideas by email (there’s a link in the sidebar) or put something in the comments box.
*UPDATE: It’s available [here][]*
[here]: http://www.pete.nu/valet/
Today marks the one-year anniversary of my long-awaited switch from Windows to Linux. Though it was not an overnight transition, it’s much easier to put a date on commencing the metamorphosism than completing it.
I always try to be very careful around the subject of Linux advocacy, because if you say too many positive things about it, then people will fall under the misconception that it’s a good substitute for Windows. And it’s not, but it is a good alternative, if you’re willing to face the learning curve.
Some things worked right out of the box (eg USB, all essential hardware at a basic level), some things required a little bit of effort (eg wireless networking, multimedia keys on the keyboard, optimal screen resolution), some things just never ended up working, but I got over it (eg lack of read-write support for NTFS, lack of support for Lexmark printer, burning audio CDs takes twice as long), and some things still bug me a little to this day. For example:
But conversely, some things happen so much more smoothly than before, it’s unreal. I’ve found myself writing shell scripts and python programs to automate tasks that I would previously have done manually, like correcting ID3 tags on MP3 files, and transferring photos from my camera to the computer.
I’ve heard people describe Linux as having a steep learning curve, but as your skills improve you realise that it doesn’t obstruct you from doing the things that you want to do. The only limits upon what you can do, and learn, are the limits of your willingness.
I currently have two window managers installed on my computer: GNOME (which is the default with Ubuntu) and Fluxbox. I installed Fluxbox because I found GNOME to be just a little bit too heavy on the features, and I quite fancied the idea of starting with something really lightweight and then just finding ways to add the particular features which I needed.
I’ve been using Fluxbox as my default window manager for about a week, with some success. I’ve managed to resolve a good number of my gripes, but a few things still are outstanding.
That’s the entire contents of my list.
I’ve got config fatigue now, and so I’ve set GNOME as my default again for a little while. When the time feels right, I shall go back and see if I can strike some of these items off the list. Rest assured that as and when I nail them, I’ll leave an update here.
These words, “Windows XP won’t boot after replacing motherboard”, were what I repeatedly typed into [Google][] many many times, with slight variations (such as replacing “replacing” with “new” etc etc). I had replaced my computer’s motherboard with something rather different, and though my Ubuntu Linux installation was booting fine, Windows XP wouldn’t work. I’d get the following messages from [GRUB][], as usual, and then it would freeze.
[google]: http://www.google.com/
[grub]: http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
Not a major problem – I only ever used Windows for playing games, and even that wasn’t frequently. I can’t really justify spending shedloads on a fancy 3D graphics card, so the games in question tend to be things like the original [Half-Life][], [Max Payne][], and [Worms 2][].
[half-life]: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000B8U0YC/
[max payne]: http://www.rockstargames.com/maxpayne/
[worms 2]: http://www.worms2.com/
Most of the responses that I got were “Make sure that you have enabled LBA in the BIOS” but I knew that this couldn’t be the solution, as I’d already tried that.
Or… had I?
It seems that I had made some major mistake, most likely only enabling LBA for my master hard drive, and not for the slave drive. For when I was at my wit’s end, contemplating completely reinstalling Windows, it struck me like a lightning bolt. I tried it… and… success!
I’ve been having trouble with this site in Internet Explorer. It loads fine in Firefox, but when I try to open it in IE, I get a nasty dialog box.
The title is “File Download – Security Warning” and the text in the box says “Do you want to save this file?” with a load of blah blah blah and ultimately “Save” and “Cancel” buttons.
I couldn’t find anything on Google, which is why I’m putting it here. Maybe one day it will help someone. Or maybe one day I’ll forget how I fixed it, and I’ll need this to jog my memory.
Anyway, much investigation revealed that the culprit was the “favicon” – when I removed the line that referenced the icon, my problem went away. It smelled a little as though my problem was with mime types – I’m very insightful like that. As it turned out, I was utterly correct.
Add the following line to the bottom of your .htaccess.
AddType image/x-icon .ico
I understand that you can also use httpd.conf to do this somehow – one day I should sit down and figure out what this is all about.
Wait a few minutes, clear your cache, make a cup of coffee, or stroke a rabbit. When you come back, all will be better. I hope.