http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/section-9-blog Blog of NickR en 2007 NickR unknown_webmaster@acme.heaven 53.8481 -1.829 Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:01:58 GMT Yet Another Community System http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 59 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-169-ubuntu-8.10-intrepid-ibex-released http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-169-ubuntu-8.10-intrepid-ibex-released Available from Ubuntu download page, announcement - Ubuntu 8.10 released. From a users viewpoint, this version offers various new improvements including:  Support for 3G wireless devices and improved Wi-Fi support. Nautilus, desktop file manager now has tab support. Encrypted private directories. guest user mode. On a more technical side, there is a newer Kernel - version 2.6.27, Gnome 2.24, Xorg 7.4, Updated Samba for Windows networking, Xen virtual machine. I will be downloading shortly and testing it from the LiveCD, I hope to see improvements with Xorg's auto-configuration ... more nickr Blog Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:51:12 GMT http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-169-ubuntu-8.10-intrepid-ibex-released#comments 0 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/post.php/article/169 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/feed.php/article/169 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/links/trackback.php?anchor=article%3A169 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-168-darth-scarlett http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-168-darth-scarlett The latest menace to crawl the known universe... Darth Scarlett nickr Blog Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:12:53 GMT http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-168-darth-scarlett#comments 0 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/post.php/article/168 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/feed.php/article/168 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/links/trackback.php?anchor=article%3A168 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-167-getting-power-management-to-work-in-ubuntu http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-167-getting-power-management-to-work-in-ubuntu After noticing that my Laptop was not Spinning down its HDD, I decided to investigate, a quick google and on the first page I found a useful page: Power Management - Ubuntu Wiki . After going through the guide, I noticed that my Harddrive was spinning down very quickly. After a bit of experimentation with different settings for the spindown time, I realise that the issue was with the APM settings overriding the spindown setting. The solution was use a setting of 128 to 255 and the HDD will spin down according to the spindown setting - anything less than 127 ... more nickr Blog Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:04:53 GMT http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-167-getting-power-management-to-work-in-ubuntu#comments 0 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/post.php/article/167 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/feed.php/article/167 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/links/trackback.php?anchor=article%3A167 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-166-my-ongoing-saga-of-moving-to-linux http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-166-my-ongoing-saga-of-moving-to-linux If your wondering where I have been, well, I apart from a summer vacation touring the South of England, I have been migrating slowly to Linux. The distribution I have currently chosen is Linux Mint. I think this is a more polished and stable version of Ubuntu, but not just that, but its default configuration is closer to how I prefer things to be configured. I am still considering using Debian Testing, but am waiting to for Lenny (the current testing) to be released to see how long it takes for the new testing to stabilise. So this ... more n1ckr Blog Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:32:20 GMT http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-166-my-ongoing-saga-of-moving-to-linux#comments 0 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/post.php/article/166 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/feed.php/article/166 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/links/trackback.php?anchor=article%3A166 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-165-mst-defrag-v3-public-beta http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-165-mst-defrag-v3-public-beta http://www.mstsoftware.com/en/Products/mst-Defrag/mst-Defrag-new I've been running this for a few days and so far seems 100% stable, well worth testing, especially with the generous 60 day trial. The main new feature is the command line tool which can be scheduled using the built in windows scheduler. This is great, because it gives you the option of both the proactive and the scheduled defrag, which is a unique feature. The proactive mode is great at defragging actual files, but I found it does not do space consolidate very well, by creating a regular schedules you can over come ... more N1ckR Blog Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:36:24 GMT http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-165-mst-defrag-v3-public-beta#comments 0 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/post.php/article/165 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/feed.php/article/165 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/links/trackback.php?anchor=article%3A165 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-164-xp-pro.-the-end-is-nigh-30th-june-and-support http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-164-xp-pro.-the-end-is-nigh-30th-june-and-support Windows XP reaches its sell-by date in a few days (with the exception of XP Home "either June 30, 2010, or one year after the general availability of the next version of Windows"). default.mspx Mainstream support ends 4/14/2009. That's only 10 months full support left ! Extended support ends 4/8/2014. Which is security fixes only, no new versions of browsers, media players or support for newer products (eg though, doubtful, next version of office might not support XP due to using a Vista only feature that will not get backported to XP). Even with XP SP3 only recently been ... more N1ckR Blog Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:48:16 GMT http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-164-xp-pro.-the-end-is-nigh-30th-june-and-support#comments 0 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/post.php/article/164 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/feed.php/article/164 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/links/trackback.php?anchor=article%3A164 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-159-why-windows-7-will-be-a-massive-success http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-159-why-windows-7-will-be-a-massive-success Windows XP was massively popular, Vista is in the Shadows, but IMHO will provide a good stepping stone towards Windows 7, which will be more popular that Vista, which Windows 7 will build upon (and be 100% compatible with). Windows XP has been a very popular OS, it managed to successfully build on the rock solid Windows 2000 and replace the lack-lustre Windows ME in one fell swoop. XP SP2 offered a significant improvements to further improve the reputation and popularity of Windows XP. Read Features_new_to_Windows_XP - Wikipedia, to find out more about about what was new in XP ... more N1ckR Blog Sat, 14 Jun 2008 12:12:20 GMT http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-159-why-windows-7-will-be-a-massive-success#comments 0 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/post.php/article/159 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/feed.php/article/159 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/links/trackback.php?anchor=article%3A159 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-158-i-am-back http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-158-i-am-back My arm is feeling a lot better and am back to blogging. I have been working on an updated version of my gallery code for YACS, I had hoped to get it complete in time for integration for the next big release - YACS 8.6 Macnana, but progress was slow and I missed the deadline. For now I will be concentrating on supporting the website, I shall be moderating the next English chat session on the 19th June and spend some time with documentation. Next week I shall be spending some time testing and helping to bug fix ... more N1ckR Blog Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:25:42 GMT http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-158-i-am-back#comments 0 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/post.php/article/158 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/feed.php/article/158 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/links/trackback.php?anchor=article%3A158 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-157-on-the-mend http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-157-on-the-mend I thought I would share a photo of myself with my broken arm and my little daughter Scarlett, 5 months old. In a week my pot is coming off and I am hoping for some better sleep and be able to type more comfortably. Me and Scarlett N1ckR Blog Thu, 05 Jun 2008 09:22:24 GMT http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-157-on-the-mend#comments 0 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/post.php/article/157 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/feed.php/article/157 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/links/trackback.php?anchor=article%3A157 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-155-emule-0.49a-released http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-155-emule-0.49a-released Emule 0.49a was released on the May 11th 2008. The new features of eMule 0.49a include Kad improvements ( obfuscation, better NAT, flood protection), changes to the messaging system (Captchas), GUI improvements (ability to save searches, search filtering of shared files) and the usual bug fixes and tweaks. You can download Emule from the official Emule site. Download Emule 0.49a N1ckR Blog Thu, 15 May 2008 10:28:18 GMT http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-155-emule-0.49a-released#comments 0 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/post.php/article/155 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/feed.php/article/155 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/links/trackback.php?anchor=article%3A155 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-156-claim-for-technorati http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-156-claim-for-technorati Technorati Profile N1ckR Blog Thu, 15 May 2008 09:52:43 GMT http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-156-claim-for-technorati#comments 0 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/post.php/article/156 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/feed.php/article/156 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/links/trackback.php?anchor=article%3A156 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-29-claim-for-technorati http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-29-claim-for-technorati Technorati Profile NickR Blog Thu, 15 May 2008 09:49:01 GMT http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-29-claim-for-technorati#comments 0 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/post.php/article/29 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/feed.php/article/29 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/links/trackback.php?anchor=article%3A29 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-71-potential-royal-marines-fitness-schedule http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-71-potential-royal-marines-fitness-schedule Great little training article http://www.mfat.co.uk/rm.php?page=rm1 also a lot of useful info on the site NickR Blog Wed, 07 May 2008 08:28:28 GMT http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-71-potential-royal-marines-fitness-schedule#comments 0 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/post.php/article/71 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/feed.php/article/71 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/links/trackback.php?anchor=article%3A71 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-154-broken-arm http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-154-broken-arm I managed to fall off my motorbike and break my arm, a week ago. I have broken my inner radius on my left arm right at the end near my wrist (top part broken off) and also a fracture underneath. Luckily my pot is holding the bone together so I wont need pins. I hope to get back to posting in my blog soon N1ckR Blog Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:16:32 GMT http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-154-broken-arm#comments 0 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/post.php/article/154 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/feed.php/article/154 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/links/trackback.php?anchor=article%3A154 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-153-ngrhodes.co.uk-htaccess-domain-redirects-the-easy-way http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-153-ngrhodes.co.uk-htaccess-domain-redirects-the-easy-way I have decided to update my domain to www.NGRhodes.co.uk . My motivation for doing this was simply picking something that is more memorable, rolls off the tongue easier, but at the same time not too dissimilar to my previous domain name. I had a quick look for .htaccess rules and found one simple easy way to redirect any domain and redirect the canonical non-www to www. RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.domain.com$ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 (from redirect www and no www) This rule simply redirects anything that is NOT my desired domain ... more N1ckR Blog Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:47:47 GMT http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-153-ngrhodes.co.uk-htaccess-domain-redirects-the-easy-way#comments 0 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/post.php/article/153 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/feed.php/article/153 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/links/trackback.php?anchor=article%3A153 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-152-phorm-must-be-opt-in-only http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-152-phorm-must-be-opt-in-only Good news at last. " The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued a major revision to its statement on Phorm, insisting that the ad tracking system must be deployed on an opt-in basis to comply with the law. " From http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/09/ico_phorm_tougher/ Statement by the IOC: " Even if Phorm is not processing personal data, the ISP undertaking the profiling may be to the extent that it uses IP addresses in that profiling and is able to link its customers to an IP address although this may not be its intention. To the extent that personal data is processed that processing must be fair and lawful in order to comply with the First Principle of the DPA. Regulation 7 of PECR will require the ISP to get the consent of users to the use of their traffic data for any value added services. This strongly supports the view that Phorm products will have to operate on an opt in basis to use traffic data as part of the process of returning relevant targeted marketing to internet users. " ... more N1ckR Blog Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:55:04 GMT http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-152-phorm-must-be-opt-in-only#comments 0 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/post.php/article/152 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/feed.php/article/152 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/links/trackback.php?anchor=article%3A152 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-150-suspend-nerc-petition http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-150-suspend-nerc-petition A petition the Prime Minister to suspend Section 6 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 to allow "byways open to all traffic" to be established where motor vehicle rights of way existed prior to 2006 NickR Blog Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:01:25 GMT http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-150-suspend-nerc-petition#comments 0 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/post.php/article/150 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/feed.php/article/150 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/links/trackback.php?anchor=article%3A150 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-149-sumo.-software-update-monitor-for-windows. http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-149-sumo.-software-update-monitor-for-windows. I have just been looking at update monitors for windows. I am not interested in auto-update features (that is tools that can download and automatically install), just in the functionality to notify. Appget installed fine, but when I ran the first scan, I found it listed lots of pre-release software which I was not prepared to download/install. There was also a few false positives and missed a few apps. The gui was not easy to use and lots of missing download links for updates. UpdateStar did not install correctly, it installed in my profile/appdata folder, which is ... more NickR Blog Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:17:00 GMT http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-149-sumo.-software-update-monitor-for-windows.#comments 0 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/post.php/article/149 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/feed.php/article/149 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/links/trackback.php?anchor=article%3A149 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-147-the-guardian-ditches-phorm http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-147-the-guardian-ditches-phorm " UK liberal's newspaper of choice has now decided it does not want to be associated with Phorm. " From http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/26/guardian_phorm_uturn/ " The withdrawl of the UK's most popular newspaper website* from its publisher network is a massive blow for Phorm and its investors, already bloodied by ferocious public opposition to involvement by BT, Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse. " Well that is good news. Just need Virgin (my ISP) and the others to follow NickR Blog Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:36:00 GMT http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-147-the-guardian-ditches-phorm#comments 0 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/post.php/article/147 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/feed.php/article/147 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/links/trackback.php?anchor=article%3A147 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-146-linux-gnome-clearlooks-xp-theme-how-to http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-146-linux-gnome-clearlooks-xp-theme-how-to As much as I enjoy using both Windows XP and Linux desktops, I have always preferred Clearlooks, the default Gnome theme on Linux. After a quick Google, I found an outdated article (Linux-looking Themes on Windows XP). So here is my quick updated guide, using the latest tools and I managed to find an even better Clearlooks port. Clearlooks XP Theme. 1. Theme PatchingThe first thing that needs to be done is patch the themes service to allow unsigned themes. I used Uxtheme Multi-patcher 5.5. Simply download and install. You may need to reboot ... more NickR Blog Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:06:35 GMT http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/article-146-linux-gnome-clearlooks-xp-theme-how-to#comments 0 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/post.php/article/146 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/comments/feed.php/article/146 http://www.ngrhodes.co.uk/links/trackback.php?anchor=article%3A146