Zip files corrupted on download in internet explorer no FF or Chrome
Jul 20th
Aghh the joys of working with websites..
One step forward another step back.
Scenario
You have zipped files available for download from your site, blog, CMS etc. When you test the download process our in IE you get an error:
The Compressed (zipped) Folder is invalid or corrupted.
Publish wordpress to twitter
Jul 18th
Having just spent all morning getting grief from she-who-must-be-obeyed I am having a bad PC day. Her command was simple enough
MAKE MY BLOG POST TO TWITTER
hmm. 1st it was “who the hell would want to use twitter” then it was like “make my facebook page talk to twitter” now its “make my wordpress blog talk to twitter”. The facebook talking to twitter was a bit of a pain but I figured wordpress would be a doddle. I used the built in plugin search / install tool to try about 5 different twitter integrators and none of them would work. Alex King who produces the most popular plug in Twitter Tools was starting to lose his cool so it is clearly a problem with some esoteric combination of servers and twitter.
Eventually at the bottom of the plugin search page is WP to Twitter by Joe Dolson. Finally!! This worked a treat 1st time around, supports bit.ly and a few other shortening services and is very easy to use. Is these words are true there should be a link flying its way over to twitter right now pointing back to this page 
How to extract *.tgz or *.tar.gz
Jul 18th
To extract .tar.gz or .tgz files from terminal or via ssh
tar -zxvf file.tar.gz
or
tar -zxvf filename.tgz
I don’t know about anyone else but 99% of the time when faced with a compressed tar file I want to extract it to its own folder and view the progress of the decompression. So why it is that every time you seek the answer to this question do most linux support sites feel the need to explain over 1500 words every single possible switch and variant of the tar command coupled with the historical development and legacy options of the command. WE DON’T CARE.
SSH as a different user on remote linux box
Jul 18th
Scenario:
You are sat at a linux box (ubuntu, fedora, suse etc) and want to ssh into another linux box (probably your webserver). By default typing ssh remote-domain.com will attempt to log you in as the user you are currently logged in as. However, you may want to log into the remote machine as someone else.
Short answer:
in a linux terminal enter
ssh user@remote.com
Long answer:
More >
ubuntu 10.04 1st impressions
May 15th
I have installed this on two machines now. The 1st is the samsung nc10. I instaled through wubi as this is a great way of installing Ubuntu if you wish to keep your Windows installation in one piece (and who wouldn’t). All the hardware is working on 1st attempt including bluetooth and wireless. Even most of the keyboard f keys are working with the exception of the brightness keys. The system is responsive and comparable to windows 7. The open office spreadsheet loads in a reasonable time ( a few seconds) and is very usable. Clearly, the Ubuntu team have worked hard to ensure that Netbooks are covered.
More >
4870×2 overheating, BFBC2 crash, PC reboots, PC freeze
Apr 21st
I have been having a nightmare with my PC lately. This rig is 18 months old with the following spec:
Intel q9550 2.8 @ 3.4ghz
Asus Rampage Forumula x48 mobo
8 gig corsair DDR2 Ram
Power Color 4870×2
In a antec gaming 900 case with enough fans to power a hover craft.
All was well in the world of my baby for the 1st 18 months of life till I started to place Battlefield Bad Company 2. For the 1st time it crashed in a game! It has never done this before. I am running Windows 7 x 64 and this is a dream system. Even after 18 months it feels as good as the day we bought it despite 2 changes in OS and a constant stream of experimental beta apps. Windows 7 is awesome :)
And now.. it crashes!! it even turns the monitor off when it feels like it! Like many people I blamed BFBC2.. it does have a few bugs after all. However, things just got worse and even in 2d use things were starting to fall apart.
More >
How to fix VNC in opensuse 11.2
Mar 17th
Just to give a bit of background.. We have a load of PCs in the house.. 3 in the study, 1 in the kitchen, a couple of floating laptops and an old tablet PC acting as a media centre in the lounge. It is the latter that has been the cause of my latest grief. Having so many PCs means it is very expensive to upgrade everything to Windows 7. I tried the early betas and the RC of Windows 7 on just about everything we had to see how it performed with different hardware and I have to say Windows 7 is awesome.
However, MS are still greedy sods and it costs way to much for a house hold like ours. So the fall back is Linux. Last week the Tablet PC laptop started to reboot every 2 hours anouncing the end of the RC period for windows 7. Time to find an alternative. My default Linux dostro is Ubuntu apart from failing to install the wireless drivers this generally detects everything and works a treat (once you get rid of that god awful orange and brown).
I installed Ubuntu on this aging Asus R1F and all looked good. Movies streamed from my main Windows 7 machines and I nearly died when for a laugh I threw the toggle switch and discovered that the bluetooth AND the WIFI worked out of the box!! This is an amazing achievement for Ubuntu. So all was well in the world till we sat down to watch the latest Supernatural… where was the sound!!
More >
Where was RAF Skellingthorpe located.
Feb 19th
This map shows a modern OS map with a 1960s map over laid. I have used the lakes and Doddington Road and Skellingthorpe Road as place markers. There appears to be a bit of discrepancy around the tree line at the top. Essentially what is currently the Birchwood estate occupies most of the area where the runway was. Remains of this can still be seen in the area eg behind the Birchwood Community Centre. Other clues are in the woodland that borders the north of the estate. What is currently the Wild Life Public House represent the original entrance to the base as indicated by blue sign on the pub. Bomber Command 50 squadron 1st arrived in November of 1941. At its peak it housed 1803 men and 295 women. In 1942 50 squadron relocated to Swinderby and flew the newer Lancaster bomber. In 1943 61 squadron arrived at Skellingthorpe with 30-36 Lancaster bombers. Over 208 bombers in total were lost from Skellingthorpe.
add to the mini-cart left hand box in Magento
Feb 14th
You need to tweak your theme to allow you to post a message in the mini-cart area (the bit that show “You have no items in your shopping cart”)
This is quite simple.
More >
What does PAX / P.A.X mean in business retail
Jan 16th
Per Annum Exclusive
Essentially it refers to fact that the rent doesn’t include additional costs eg insurance or business rates.
