November 14th, 2008 admin
A lot of commentators in the blogosphere have shown disappointment at the fact that little seems to have changed with Ubuntu 8.10. My answer to them is that in fact a lot has changed, but not much of it is visible. To my mind a lot of these under-the-hood changes have addressed fundamental issues which needed to be fixed as a priority, so that normal users could just get on with the business of using Linux, rather than scrabbling around in config files.
Also, Ubuntu has an aggressive schedule, which means release are made every 6 months. I believe the purpose of the April (.04) releases is to introduce new features, and the October (.10) release is to refine them and fix any breaks. Compare this approach to Windows or Macintosh, where releases are made around every three years, and you can appreciate that releasing little and often means that changes are more diffuse and less apparent. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in General IT, Linux | No Comments »
November 11th, 2008 admin
I keep hearing how Ubuntu has finally nailed the dual head hassles of the past, and now you can just plug in an external monitor and go. Alas I’ve never had that experience, either with this Dell Vostro 1400 or either of the two IBM Thinkpads I’ve run Ubuntu on.The IBMs were both 1024×768 resolution, as is my external monitor. The Dell is a less standard 1280×800 resolution. I also, on occasion plug it into my LCD TV, but that’s another story.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in General IT, Linux | No Comments »
November 10th, 2008 admin
I’ve been getting irritated with the touchpad on this new Dell Vostro 1400. I type for a while, and then my palm touches the touchpad, sending the pointer skimming into the line above, or clicking on buttons I don’t want to click on. So, I looked around and figured out a solution.
First of all for Ubuntu Hardy 8.04, you need to edit your /etc/xorg.conf file, for which you’ll need root privileges - use sudo.You just need to add one line in the input device section, which is the one in bold below. (Intrepid 8.10, see below)
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "0"
Option "SHMConfig"
EndSection Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in General IT, Linux | No Comments »
October 21st, 2008 admin
Just had an irritating couple of hours when I discovered that my Wordpress Theme was broken. The sidebar had slipped to underneath the main column, and the background of the main posting area had disappeared. I tried clearing my cache first of all. Then I tried looking at the site in different browsers. It was still broken in IE: although the symptoms were slightly different the sidebar was still misplaced.
OK, time to roll my sleeves up … Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in General IT | No Comments »
October 14th, 2008 admin
Having spent hours tinkering with getting Ubuntu’s wireless to work on at least three previous Thinkpads, before I bought this Vostro I did some research around the internet. I found a bunch of happy Vostro 1400 Ubuntu 8.04 users, and the fact that Dell was releasing Ubuntu on some of its other machines. Good signs. However it seems that the hardware specs between Vostro 1400s vary depending on where and when they’re manufactured, so I think that research might have been misleading.
Anyway, I’ve been trying to get wireless working on and off for the last 3 or 4 weeks, and I’m almost there, so I thought I’d share my experiences.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in General IT, Linux | No Comments »
October 9th, 2008 admin
Step back a few years … I’ve often thought when I’m under a desk somewhere jiggling wires, is that some kind of audio feedback on ping would be useful: your server isn’t responding, but when you re-seat the ethernet connector it comes back online; you have a messy, unlabeled switch to work through, so you unplug wires until the audio feedback stops, and you’ve located your machine. That kind of thing.
I’ve occasionally looked around the internet for such a tool and uncovered a couple of scripts and tools which don’t quite work. I’ve even thought of writing my own script, but never quite got around to it. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in General IT, Linux | No Comments »
September 14th, 2008 admin
I’m at a loss to explain this unless SmartBro’s DNS or proxy servers have been taken over. Here’s the deal. I’m surfing normally, and then suddenly I try to go to a normal site (economist.com, yahoo.com, facebook.com, google. com, iptools.com etc) and instead of getting the correct page, I get a weird spammy advertising page, even though the URL in the Address bar looks correct.
The image to the right is an example. Click on the image to get a full sized view. I have more examples saved if anyone is interested. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in General IT, Philippines, Security | No Comments »
September 14th, 2008 admin
I was just idly playing on the youtube site, and I discovered a neat trick which their designers used. All the images from the page (with the exception of the video previews) are held in a single image, which is then re-positioned on the page using CSS to create the illusion of several images. To see the big image, click on the grey bar at the top for example and select View Background Image. Or you can just click on this link:
http://s.ytimg.com/yt/img/master-vfl55102.gif
Now check out the upload button for example. You can see this is made up of a section of the long yellow bar, and then the yellow lozenge at the top of the image overlaid to create the left and right rounded corners of the button. Very cool.
This approach means that the site only ever has to load a single image for all the design, and consequently the pages have a much quicker load time. Genius. Why didn’t I think of that …
Posted in General IT | No Comments »
September 12th, 2008 admin
Don't do it ...
I’m continually startled by the way people use email in the Philippines. Using a Yahoo address is phenomenally popular, even for business. I could forgive a mom and pop company from using momandpop@yahoo.com.ph, but when you get top management handing you cards saying ceo_888@yahoo.com.ph there is something clearly very wrong.
In no particular order, here are a few reasons why you should NOT use yahoo for your business email address. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Life, Philippines, Security | 1 Comment »
September 9th, 2008 admin
This is the ultimate breakage: a breakage in the beer chain! In a country where cheap beer is a lifeline out of the inefficiency and brokenness, the danger of an interruption in the beer supply cannot be overestimated. Nevertheless I’ve been noticing dwindling supplies of bottled San Miguel Beer in Manila over the last few weeks, and now virtually every supermarket I visit has empty shelves. A national disaster. No San Miguel Pale Pilsen, no SMB Light, and …. no Super Dry <whimper>.
That’s not to say there’s no beer at all, mind. There is canned beer, which has always been inexplicably more expensive than bottled beer — around an extra 30%. And of course because of this, its the only beer left on the shelves. And there is foreign beer of course, but who in their right mind would pay 120 pesos for a can of Heineken, when the local brew is a sixth of the price and tastes much better.
I’ll investigate further. Questions will be asked. Hang in there fellow Manilans.
Posted in Life, Philippines | 1 Comment »
