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Getting Wireless to work on a Dell Vostro 1400

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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.

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Audio Ping Feedback.

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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.

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Strange SmartBro URL hijacking

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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.

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Bunch of Yahoos.

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Don't do it ...
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 [email protected], but when you get top management handing you cards saying [email protected] 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.

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