WaFiTz! » Archive
Installing Updates… Windows vs Linux
Ever installed an old Operating System from fresh? Ever tried installing all the required updates in one go? It’s a necessity for some corporate environments and for consultants we can’t just grab the latest build from IT services. Here’s what happens when you install an outdated Linux distro: Click Update Manager “You have 217 Updates” Click Update All “The system needs to restart to update the Kernel” Restart……… Click Update Manager “Your system is up to date!” Here’s what happens when you install an outdated Windows OS: Click Windows Update “You have 48 Important Updates and 13 Optional Updates” Click Install Updates “Windows needs to restart to apply updates” Restart……… Click Windows Update “You have 17 Important Updates and 2 Optional Updates” Click Install Updates “Windows needs to restart to apply updates” Restart……… Click Windows Update “You have 4 Important Updates” Click Install Updates “Windows needs to restart to apply updates” Restart……… Click Windows Update “You … Read entire article »
Filed under: Distractions, Linux
New Green Hornet Trailer
I first saw this advertised at a Cinema in Germany, so I had to do a double-take as I knew the Green Arrow is coming out. Finally, it’s being advertised in the UK and looks like it would be worth checking out, especially if GA doesn’t hold up to the hype. (You may have to disable adblock to see it) … Read entire article »
Filed under: Graphic Novels, Worthwhile Watching
The Psychology of Ownership
Recently I got a new work laptop with Windows 7 and Microsoft Office Professional 2010 installed. Along with the laptop I got a Product Key Card for MS Office Professional 2010 to activate the license. I am old enough to remember the days MS Office was sold in larger boxes on CDs and DVDs. What happened? I slid out the plastic inner case and opened it to find a card with the product key printed on it. I entered this into the setup screen on my new laptop and MS Office (already pre-installed) was activated right away. Then I noticed that inside the cover of the slightly slimmer box, Microsoft has taken liberty to print some waffle about the environment – perhaps to infer this is the reason for no longer supplying … Read entire article »
Filed under: Distractions
This Letter Acknowledges No Debt To You, Or To Any Company You Claim To Represent
My favourite response to companies who email me out of the blue demanding money and clearly not playing by the rules… With reference to the above account, I would like to inform you the alleged amount owed is in dispute/I have no contract with you/I have never heard of you. I would now like the following information provided to me at your earliest convenience: A true copy of the alleged credit agreement you refer to for this account. This is my right under your obligation to supply a copy of the agreement under the legislation contained within s.78 (1) Consumer Credit Act 1974 (s.77 (1) for fixed sum credit). A signed true copy of the deed of assignment of the above referenced agreement that you allege exists. A statement of account I understand that under the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Complaints, Takeback
2011 Resolution
I don’t often make resolutions… I know myself too well to know not to make promises I’ll break so if I do I tend to keep them fairly low key. That said, I like to set large life goals and then take small steps in the right direction. My resolutions are usually spontaneous, as soon as I clear a problem I set a new resolution to avoid the same in future – so I don’t tend to wait for an arbitrary starting point like new years. Last year we decided to holiday in Ireland, we took the ferry across to Rosslare, then drove West around the peninsulas. We ended up at Killarney and decided to do some geocaching at the Torc falls, going for one called 360°. We bumped into another geocaching couple … Read entire article »
Filed under: Distractions, Takeback, WaFiTz!
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas to any faithful readers left. Apologies for the long absence, if you’ve been following the tweet summaries you will see I’ve been doing a fair bit of travel for my job and haven’t really had time to focus on or update the blog – so much so that I forgot to renew the domain and for a few days the url pointed at some advertising page. I’m back now, with some new toys recently so I’m hoping to do another homebaked tutorial for connecting PC to TV for media playback. Also, Happy New Year! … Read entire article »
Filed under: Distractions, WaFiTz!
Update: UNR 10.04 Wireless on Samsung N210
Back in March I posted a “how I did it” on getting Wireless working the Samsung N210, which involved installing and compiling the Realtek driver. The post proved immensely popular and was top of google search results for a while when searched for “samsung n210 wireless”. Unfortunately, unless you are still on Ubuntu 9.10 that guide is now useless, as I found out recently when I updated my Sammy netbook to 10.04. I did manage to get it working again, but it failed on another recent kernel update (2.6.32-24-generic) so I got fed up and rolled back to the last kernel (2.6.32-23). It appears that Canonical messed up with the firmware or something (here’s a bug report) and so new firmware needs to be downloaded after compiling. It worked for me just downloading the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Linux, Troubleshooting
VMware Image Quick Fix
Recently I had a virtual machine set to use 2gb ram which I was trying to run in VMware Player on my work laptop which also has 2gb phyiscal memory. I don’t have the full workstation license for my laptop so I couldn’t edit the image and modify the ram but I did find a quick and dirty hack by going into the vmx file, which is a simple text file, and altering the settings there. All I needed to do was power down my virtual maching and then open up the .vmx in gedit or similar text editor and then locate the following line: memsize = "2064" I changed the value to “512″, problem solved. You can do this for a number of different settings which I haven’t tested, but be careful. Make a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Troubleshooting
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