While researching a problem I was having with Apache I came across indices, a “neat set of hacks” that adds some style to Apache’s default generated indexes. Using Scott Evan’s scripts, I was able to change my directory index from this:
to this:
Much nicer!
Tom and Molly read my e-mail about AT&T’s Enterprise Data Plan (and the lack of text messaging) on yesterday’s episode of Buzz Out Loud (#743). The text of my e-mail is in the show notes and their discussion of it starts at the 30:28 mark in the podcast.
This is the second time I’ve had an e-mail read “on-air” by the Buzz crew. My first was back on episode #521 (Veronica’s last episode) when I pointed out that Molly mistook X-Wings for TIE fighters. The fun in that one starts at right at the very beginning and then continues 32:00 in. I felt kinda like the comic book guy on “The Simpsons” after pointing that out. Sorry, Molly! 😳
If you don’t listen to BOL (“CNET’s podcast of indeterminate length”), give it a listen!
Today I did an in-place upgrade on my server from Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) to 8.04 (Hardy Heron) and it went pretty smoothly (considering I did it remotely over an SSH connection). I had to re-apply a few customizations to various config files but for the most part all of the hard work I’ve done tweaking server since initially setting it up last October was preserved. Nice work, guys!
I heard about all three of these sites on this week’s episode of Windows Weekly (#62):
More stunning examples of how people will register any domain name and find something cool to do with it. Liven up your next meeting with one of these!
… the office coffee machine is displaying a message that suspiciously resembles a Windows system error:
Luckily, just like Windows, rebooting it resolved the issue. 😀
When I wrote about my Vista woes I mentioned how ZoneAlarm would keep causing Vista’s tcpip.sys driver to BSOD, which forced me to go back to the Windows Firewall. Well, a month had gone by so I figured that I would give ZoneAlarm on Vista SP1 another try. I installed the free version (7.1.254.000) and went a whole week without a single crash! I was happy in thinking the problem had been resolved.
Then on Wednesday I needed to VPN into work to fix a problem … and couldn’t connect. At first I thought that I had just forgotten to configure ZoneAlarm’s trusted zones properly, but the settings all checked out. There was nothing in the firewall logs about any connections being blocked either.
A few Google searches later, I learned that apparently SP1 and some third-party firewalls (like ZA) have broken the VPN client in Vista. There are a lot of posts on Checkpoint’s forums and even MS TechNet about the issue, but there’s no resolution yet.
Well, no resolution except uninstalling ZoneAlarm. 🙁
So that was it … I’ve removed ZA and my VPN connection is working again. It’s back to the Windows Firewall for me until I can find a suitable replacement.
Apparently if you host your Blogger blog on your own server (like I do) instead of Google’s blogspot.com you miss out on some cooler features of the service (like advanced Layouts). Another missing feature is the widget that inserts a list of tags/labels used in posts into the sidebar.
Thankfully, I found a blog post that detailed a way to dynamically add the list of labels using embedded PHP. It doesn’t put the total number of posts with each label at the end like the blogspot widget does, but it’s better than nothing.
I found a quick and easy way to add smileys to a blog. They should work in comments too.
😉 😀 😛 😕 🙂
I received an e-mail from Bob of Stormbringer’s Thunder blog who wanted to share the joy of coincidence: we both use Blogger and both use the same Blogger template. Okay, no coincidence there as there are probably hundreds (or thousands?) of other bloggers using those same tools. The funny part is that we both posted about how we love PortableApps.com on Monday (mine, his).
Maybe this is proof of the Infinite Monkey Theorem in action? 🙂
I bought a Corsair 2gb Flash Padlock last August after hearing Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte talk about it on the Security Now! podcast (episode #106). I use it primarily for shuttling files back and forth between my home and work computers (in a TrueCrypt container), but have also configured it as a bootable device so I can run the Ultimate Boot CD from it (which is handy when I’m asked by friends or family to work on their broken computers).
Some other neat things I keep on it are the portable applications from PortableApps.com. You simply download the PortableApps Suite (or the individual applications you want) and then install them onto your USB flash drive. No information is written to your local PC’s hard disk … everything is encapsulated on the flash drive. You can now plug your flash drive into any PC and run your applications without worrying about having to install them locally, or leaving any personal information (say, browsing history) behind when you’re done.
I keep the usual portable suspects on my Corsair: Firefox for web browsing, Thunderbird for e-mail, Pidgin for instant messaging, PuTTY for SSH connections, etc. Those are all available for download and install from the PortableApps site. However, you can also add your own portable applications and have then run from the PortableApps custom start menu.
For example, I’ve added TrueCrypt, JungleDisk, Bucket Explorer, and mRemote to my personal portable utility arsenal.
Keep in mind that not every application is automagically portable: it needs to be specifically coded to not use any local PC resources (like .ini files, the registry, etc.). So you can’t just dump a program into the PortableApps directory on your flash drive and expect it to work. Do your homework (i.e., search Google) though, and you’ll find plenty of portable applications out there.
Start building your own utility belt today!