Ramblings, ideas, problems, and solutions

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  • Remapping the Caps Lock key – Windows

    I’ve previously showed you how to disable the Caps Lock key in Ubuntu. There are many ways of doing this in Windows as well, my favorite is to simply remap it to something else.

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  • Trying out the Asus EeePC 900

    Hardware
    Hardwarewise, there’s nothing truly astonishing about the Eee. Let’s have a look at the specs of our unit:Asus EeePC 900 (more…)

  • Removing the File Association Web Service Dialog

    I’m often annoyed by this dialog box when I open unassociated filetypes:

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  • Running commands and programs on startup in Ubuntu

    In a previous post, I showed you how to disable the Caps Lock key in Ubuntu. The problem with this method is of course that it only lasts for the duration of your current session. To resolve this problem, you need to have the command run automatically at startup.
    Here’s how: (more…)

  • Disabling Caps Lock – Ubuntu

    Whenever I get a new keyboard for my desktop computers, the first thing I do is remove the Caps Lock key. It’s a useful key to be sure, but I dislike it. It’s much better in my mind to use the Shift key. As a result, I have been looking for a way to disable it, which I knew was possible in Linux at the very least.

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  • Resolving “Illegal System DLL Relocation” errors

    I’ve been seeing errors in computers running Windows XP SP2 lately saying that “Illegal System DLL Relocation”, referring to a DLL called RTHDCPL.ocx.

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  • Identifying unknown devices – SIW

    Part of my job is setting up new computers. Part of the routine is to make sure all hardware devices have been installed. Now, this can be easier said than done, when all the information I have to go on is that the device in question is called “USB Device”…
     
    Now, a while ago, a colleague of mine showed me a piece of software that so impressed me that I immediately put it on my on-site troubleshooting kit. The software in question is called System Information for Windows, or SIW for short.
     
    SIW is a powerful bit of software that can be found here. The application to solve the aformentioned problem is as follows:
     
    I plugged in my USB drive, and started SIW. I then found the entry “Devices” under Hardware. There I found the errant device, and found it to be identified as “vid_0c24&pid000F” A quick Google later, I knew the culprit to be the onboard Bluetooth card.
     
    Instead of spending a lot of time trying different drivers, the above approach allowed me to find a solution, and implement it, within the space of ten minutes.

  • Installing Uplink on Ubuntu Linux

    Uplink is a really fun game that I’ve played on and off over the years. Having gotten my Ubuntu-computer up and running, I felt it would only be natural to pick it back up. Installing it isn’t as straightforward as in Windows though, as I quickly realized. This is how it’s done:

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  • Resolving problems with GMail Notifier when you’ve set GMail default to HTTPS

    If you’ve fixed the security problem described in my last post, you might have noticed that the GMail Notifier no longer works. It seems Google have also seen this problem occur, and they’ve even made a patch for it. Here’s how to get it, and how to apply it. Happy patching! (more…)

  • Stoppering GMail’s default security problem

    At this year’s DefCon, a security problem inherent to the default settings in GMail was unveiled. The problem is that, by default, GMail does not use encrypted sessions.

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