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aaron-kelley.net :: Blog Posts :: Archives :: Posts in August, 2009 |
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Archive for August, 2009Windows – Turn off your screen NOWFriday, August 28th, 2009
One thing I always wished I was able to do is issue a command to turn off my laptop screen, but leave the computer running. If I’m going to leave my computer for a while, it doesn’t really make sense to leave the screen on wasting power, but the computer might be busy working on something, so I’d like to be able to leave it on. Windows, of course, lets you specify some amount of time to wait before turning off your screen. But, here’s a utility you can use to turn off your screen right away. Get the old taskbar behavior back in Windows 7Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
While I am actually quite fond of the new taskbar in Windows 7, not everyone will take a liking to it right away. Here is a good article on getting the taskbar to behave like it used to, with a separate Quick Launch section and the window titles of your applications displayed. Mount an SFTP/SSH server as a drive in Windows (for $40)Saturday, August 22nd, 2009
Working with files between two Linux machines or two Windows machines over the network is pretty easy — in either case, you can share files on one machine and easily access them from the other. In fact, in either case you can mount a remote share and make it appear as part of the local file system, so any application can use the files just as easily as if they were local. This is done via SFTP over SSH (or a number of other methods) on Linux, and via Windows’s native file sharing (SMB) on Windows. In fact, you can even mount a Windows share on Linux pretty easily using Samba, and use Samba to create shares that the Windows machines can access. Now, a cool thing about SFTP over SSH is that it typically works even if the machines aren’t on the same LAN. You can access files on a machine across the Internet, and still mount the share so that applications can access the files as if they were local. This doesn’t always work with SMB, as lots of ISPs block the ports required, and even if you can get a connection over the Internet, performance is usually poor. Moving an Ubuntu Server install to another machine – where’d my network connection go?Monday, August 17th, 2009
Alright, this is actually a pretty simple problem, but only once you know which configuration files to look at. I recently replaced the machine that powers this very web site with a better one. This was my first migration since switching to Ubuntu Server last winter. I essentially took the hard drive out of the old machine and plopped it in the new one, booted it up, and hoped for the best. Since Linux is not as picky as Windows about being moved to a new set of hardware, I figured it would work out fine. Sure enough, Ubuntu booted right up on the new machine without so much as a complaint. However, network connectivity was gone. The old machine was using a PCI Ethernet card, while the new machine had an on-board controller that I hoped to use. Anyway, I took the PCI card from the old machine and put it in the new machine, and then the network connectivity was back. Why wouldn’t Ubuntu just start using the on-board controller, though? Dell Inspiron 1520/1521/1720/1721 headphone static background noise – FIXSunday, August 16th, 2009
So, my main laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1720. I’ve had it for about a year and a half, and the whole time, I’ve noticed a little static noise in the background when using headphones. It’s not constant, but kind of a little whiny morse code sound. Bugged me, but I never was able to find a fix. Because the problem is much less pronounced when running Linux than it is when running Windows, I figured it had something to do with crappy audio drivers for Windows. I managed to fix it yesterday. Because of the nature of the fix, I don’t think the audio drivers have anything to do with the problem. I don’t know why the problem is so much worse under Windows… I’m going to guess it has to do with the graphics card being more active when Windows is running. But who knows? Yesterday, I came across this page on Yahoo! Answers which hints at a fix, but doesn’t really tell you what it is. Then I found these forums with a bunch of people complaining about the problem. Inspiron 1520, 1521, and 1721 (and maybe 1525?) users also seem to have the problem. More machines may have a similar problem as well. Lots of threads seem to indicate that there is no solution, but finally, this one points out exactly what it is. So, I went ahead and tried it myself, and it worked wonderfully. Anyway, I decided to document the fix, so here it is with pictures. Again, I have an Inspiron 1720, so these pictures are for that machine. I believe the Vostro 1700 is pretty much the same. Inspiron 15xx machines can be fixed in a similar manner, but there will be differences as to where the screws are and so forth. To perform this fix, you’ll need a small Phillips screwdriver, a flat-head screwdriver or small knife, and some electrical tape. Be warned, you have to pretty much take the computer all the way apart to get to the headphone jack on the inside, which is where we need to get. The whole thing (disassembly, fix, and reassembly) took me a little less than an hour. Note that I am not responsible if you somehow manage to break your computer or anything else while following these instructions. Nintendo DSi – Stuck Pixel, Part 2: What’d they do to my screen?Thursday, August 13th, 2009
Follow-up to Nintendo DSi – Stuck Pixel, Part 1 (August 3rd, 2009) Well… my Nintendo DSi arrived back yesterday. I unboxed it and turned it on, and upon first inspection, I was quite pleased. Both screens seem devoid of any pixel troubles. Also, they fixed another problem I had, which I believe a lot of the launch DSi’s had, where you can see a bit of light shining through off to the left of the left edge of the bottom screen. According to the little slip of paper that I got back with my system, the repair was valued at $75.00. I quickly noticed, though, that my bottom screen seemed very blue. It seems that they replaced the bottom screen with one that is either not calibrated properly or just plain bad. It has a blueish tint to it that is very noticeable, especially if whatever being displayed is bright. Use Windows 7′s built-in h.264 decoder in Media Player Classic HomecinemaWednesday, August 12th, 2009
On Windows, I always install the CCCP to get all of the codecs I need. It’s a nice pack of mostly open source software. Most of the audio and video decoding functionality it provides is provided by libavcodec from the FFmpeg project — this library also powers the decoding of VLC, Perian, and most notable media players on Linux. With the CCCP, this is provided in the form of FFDShow, a set of DirectShow filters that can be used by any Windows application that supports DirectShow. The CCCP also includes Media Player Classic, a nice, light player, pre-configured to just play everything right. No thinking involved, just install the CCCP. However, I find that libavcodec is not fast enough to decode high-bitrate h.264 content in real-time on my machine (2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo) — say, for example, the h.264 content that you would find on a Blu-ray disc. So, I set out looking for alternatives. WordPress – _wp_unfiltered_html_comment causing pages to fail (X)HTML validationSunday, August 9th, 2009
If you have a WordPress blog, and you log in, you may notice pages failing HTML or XHTML validation because of code like this: <input type="hidden" id="_wp_unfiltered_html_comment" name="_wp_unfiltered_html_comment" value="xxxxxxxxxx" /> This code only shows up if you are logged in, and allows your comments to bypass HTML validation, so you can use whichever HTML tags you like. What is causing the problem is the “id” attribute. According to the XHTML standard, the ID must start with a letter, and here it starts with an underscore. Windows 7 – First impressionsFriday, August 7th, 2009
The Good Windows 7 seems to me to be, more or less, Windows Vista done right. They could have easily called this something like “Windows Vista Second Edition” (if not for the negative association a lot of people seem to have with “Vista”). Most of the improvements are behind the scenes, with more optimal use of memory, less stuff running in the background, and performance optimizations across the board making your computer seem much snappier. If you are familiar with Windows Vista, moving to Windows 7 will not be a problem for you at all. From the surface, it looks mostly the same. Windows 7 availability on MSDN/TechNetThursday, August 6th, 2009
If you have a MSDN or TechNet subscription, get your evaluation copy of Windows 7 now! The RTM build is available for download as of a few minutes ago. I’ll post some impressions later. | ||||
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