Fixing Ubuntu shutdown problem

28/022006

Some users, myself included, have had problems getting Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger) to restart correctly. When attempting to reboot my machine, it instead powered off – not ideal if I want to restart the machine from a remote location!

This thread details a number of possible solutions. One of which is to type the following line into a console:

sudo vi /boot/grub/menu.lst

and edit the following section (or similar), adding the italicised changes:

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.12-9-386
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-9-386 root=/dev/hda1 ro noacpi nolacpi quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-9-386
savedefault
boot

After a restart (or power off/on), the restart functionality should work as expected. You can also try adding reboot=h as well as, or in place of, noacpi nolacpi.

Unfortunately none of this worked for me, but turning the ACPI feature off on my motherboard (an MSI 6330) did – I assume I’m losing some power saving functionality by doing this but I’m not too concerned as it’s a desktop machine, not a laptop.

Really Slick Screensavers

26/022006

solarwinds.png

Really Slick Screensavers is a collection of particularly nice-looking screensavers for Windows. There are also ports available for Mac OS X and Linux users. My favourite, pictured above, is SolarWinds (apparently no connection to the network monitoring software of the same name).

Unfortunately there seems to be a bug in Ubuntu Linux 5.10 (Breezy Badger) which prevents the Linux port of RSS from functioning correctly (the screensavers don’t appear in XScreensaver), so my Linux box is running Fireflies which is just as nice and also available for Windows and OS X. For Ubuntu users it should be as simple as downloading the Debian package and running sudo dpkg -i fireflies_2.05-1_i386.deb to install.

Recycle faulty RAM sticks in your Linux box

26/022006

I’ve built a Linux box from my spare parts bin, but unfortunately two out of the three 128MB RAM sticks I have are faulty. Fortunately, an enterprising Linux hacker by the name of Rick van Rein has built a kernel patch which allows Linux users to mark faulty areas of RAM so that they are never accessed, similar to the way that bad sectors on hard drives can be marked unusable. You can read more at the BadRAM site.

Unfortunately, enabling BadRAM support requires recompiling the kernel, which is a daunting procedure for non-technical users. However, Ubuntu users might find this thread helpful.

“Domain Registry of America” scam

25/022006

I’ve just received a letter from the “Domain Registry of America” (scam site URL) warning me that the expiry date of one of my domains is approaching. This is nothing but a scam which attempts to trick unsuspecting users into “renewing” their domain with DROA (i.e. transferring their registration to them) for up to 5 years. My advice is to either renew your domain with your existing registrar or let it expire.

The letter reads as follows:

As a courtesy to domain name holders, we are sending yiou this notification of the domain name registration that is due to expire in the next few months. When you switch today to the Domain Registry of America, you an take advantage of our best savings. Your registration for: *****.com will expire on June 07, 2006. Act today!

Domain name: *****.com
Reply Requested By: April 7, 2006

You must renew your domain name to retain exclusive rights to it on the Web, and now is the time to transfer and renew your name from your current Registrar to the Domain Registry of America. Failure to renew your domain name by the expiration date may result in a loss of your online identity making it difficult for your customers and friends to locate you on the Web.

Privatization of Domain Registrations and Renewals now allows the consumer the choice of Registrars when initially registering and also when renewing a domain name. Domai nname holders are not obligated to renew their domain name with their current Registrar or with the Domain Registry of America. Review our prices and decide for yourself. You are under no obligation to pay the amounts stated below, unless you accept this offer. This notice is not a bill, it is rather an easy means of payments should you decide to switch your domain name registration to the Domain Registry of America.

The letter goes on to offer me the choice of renewing my domain for one, two or five years, for £18, £30 or £55 respectively, and also offers the .net and .org variants for £30 each for 2 years.

Looks like exactly the same standard letter that was sent to this blogger a little over a year ago. Steer clear!

Fix Logitech keyboard annoyances

25/022006

Ben Pope has created a registry file for Windows which fixes a few annoying features of newer Logitech keyboards. By remapping keyboard scancodes, it effectively inverts the effect of the “F-Lock” key so that the F1-F12 keys work as standard function keys when F-Lock is off. This means you don’t have to turn F-Lock on every time you boot your computer or restart Windows.

The registry patch also remaps some of the media keys to return the Windows standard keycodes, which for me has stopped the annoying behaviour of the “Play/Pause” key which will sometimes start playing my current Winamp track from the beginning instead of pausing it as expected.

There are two caveats, though – firstly, it will only work when connecting the keyboard via PS/2, not USB (I’ve never seen the point of wasting a USB port when there is a dedicated keyboard port anyway), and it will cause you to lose functionality of some of the special keys.

I’m beginning to think I’d be better off with a “cheap and cheerful” keyboard rather than any of Logitech’s or Microsoft’s current offerings – anything with a standard keyboard layout, no F-Lock key, and play/pause and volume control will do the job.

The Oil PC

12/012006

Submerging your PC in cooking oil seems like one of the worst ideas ever suggested, but it’s been done by the guys at Tom’s Hardware. Turns out that oil is a pretty good coolant, and as it doesn’t conduct electricity, won’t short out your components.

The associated Digg story links to a few other people who have tried similar things. My personal favourite is this one – in my opinion, he’s done a better job by avoiding the gratuitous use of silicone sealant and employing mineral oil to improve visibility and presumably reduce the chance of the oil becoming rancid. I also like the airbrick which sends bubbles up through the case.

I’m interested in trying something similar – I replaced my graphics card today and stuck the old card’s fan in a pot of sunflower oil. When I powered it up, it started spinning as normal, although silently and a lot less quickly. I’m not ready to rebuild my main PC in a fishtank full of baby oil, but I’m tempted to drag an old junk PC down from the loft and see how it fares as a silent, oil-cooled system.

Note that it’s unlikely that you’ll end up with a completely silent system – certain components such as the drives and power supply are definitely best kept out of the oil – but you can at least reduce fan noise and maybe even improve cooling at the same time.

Obviously, experimenting with cooling-by-oil-submersion is not without its risks – there’s a chance that you’ll fry (no pun intended) your system and/or end up with a pool of oil on the floor – but you can certainly have fun trying.

Procrastination

09/012006

I have a rather scary exam in Formal Software Development tomorrow morning, so am finishing my last minute revision this evening. Rather than bore you with the details, here are a couple of fun stories I found on Digg earlier today:

PHP Easter Egg

Append ?=PHPE9568F36-D428-11d2-A769-00AA001ACF42 to any URL on most PHP-powered sites to see a cute picture of a dog (or a different dog, a rabbit or a guy with breadsticks up his nose, depending on the PHP version in use).

You can also use a similar technique to view the PHP and Zend logos, and the PHP credits.

There’s some more information here.

My only concern about this bit of harmless fun is that it exposes sites running PHP, but there are lots of other ways of finding this out with a default PHP installation. If you want to disable this, and other “clues”, set php_expose to Off in your PHP configuration file (php.ini) which I assume also removes other “clues” (such as PHP-specific HTTP headers). But I say: use PHP, and use it proudly. :)

(via Digg) – note that the trick no longer works on Digg URLs – the server guys did the php_expose thing!

How to cheat at Windows Pinball

The author of this article has uncovered a cheat in the 3D Pinball game bundled with Windows XP that has lain undiscovered since XP’s 2002 release. By typing the magic words “hidden test”, you are able to drag the ball around the board and do some other cheaty things. What makes it more interesting, though, is his explanation of how he unearthed the elusive cheat using debugging tools.

Apparently it only works on the XP version of the game, not the previous version which shipped on the Windows 2000 disc. However, the XP EXE should run on any version of Windows from 95 upwards. (If anyone can confirm or deny this, let me know.)

(via Digg)