tag:www.baldguyweb.com,2011:/blog//2 2011-02-16T13:04:52Z I'm bald, I'm a geek, and I have an opinion. Check in every now and then and see how silly it is. Movable Type 4.35-en tag:www.baldguyweb.com,2011:/blog//2.1057 2011-02-16T13:01:08Z 2011-02-16T13:04:52Z

Youtube videos, etc. causing a big ugly yellow notification at the top of my Chromium screen notifying me that the Flash plugin has crashed, out of the blue, presumably after an Ubuntu update. The fix was simple, once I dug...

baldguy Youtube videos, etc. causing a big ugly yellow notification at the top of my Chromium screen notifying me that the Flash plugin has crashed, out of the blue, presumably after an Ubuntu update. The fix was simple, once I dug through ten thousand web pages to find it: open a Flash video in another browser (Chrome was fine, in my case), right-click on the video, under Settings, disable hardware acceleration. Problem solved! Once Flash turns into html5, this will be moot, but for now, hope this helps! tag:www.baldguyweb.com,2011:/blog//2.1045 2011-02-06T15:53:07Z 2011-02-06T16:13:37Z

Eventually, ripping/recreating DVD's will be a one-step process on Ubuntu, I predict, but for now, here are the three steps you must go through. Step 1: use Handbrake to rip the DVD into a file. I prefer the mp4, that...

baldguy Eventually, ripping/recreating DVD's will be a one-step process on Ubuntu, I predict, but for now, here are the three steps you must go through. Step 1: use Handbrake to rip the DVD into a file. I prefer the mp4, that allows me to watch the movie on my Android phone. Handbrake does some rather annoying things by default. I suggest starting off with High Profile, this gives you an mp4 capable of recreating a high-quality DVD. I suggest turning off chapter markers, use the H.264 video codec, then save as a profile which you can easily select each time you run the program. My rips average a tad over a gigabyte at these settings, preserving quality nicely. Step 2: Use WinFF. Convert the mp4 to NTSC DVD HQ Widescreen, assuming you live in the US. The PAL option is also available. This will create an mpg file. Step 3: Use ManDVD to convert the mpg into an iso, easily burnable by any disk burning program. That's what works for me, YMMV. Happy ripping! tag:www.baldguyweb.com,2010:/blog//2.974 2010-12-01T13:11:58Z 2010-12-01T13:14:40Z

Dunno why, but a couple of releases back, Ubuntu did away with the handy three-fingered-salute to restart X. An addon could be installed at that point, but now it's gone too. Simple solution to restore it: * Go to System->Preferences->Keyboard...

baldguy Dunno why, but a couple of releases back, Ubuntu did away with the handy three-fingered-salute to restart X. An addon could be installed at that point, but now it's gone too. Simple solution to restore it: * Go to System->Preferences->Keyboard menu. * Select the "Layouts" tab and click on the "Layout Options" button. * Then select "Key sequence to kill the X server" and enable "Control + Alt + Backspace". Or, if you're a command-liner, this: setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp Back in business! tag:www.baldguyweb.com,2010:/blog//2.842 2010-09-27T00:35:23Z 2010-09-27T00:46:10Z

Back in the mid 90's, I took a stab at cartooning. I had a bit of success, selling cartoons to some small print magazines and one national (Aquarium Fish). Here are a few I drew:...

baldguy Aquarium Fish). Here are a few I drew: ]]> ]]> tag:www.baldguyweb.com,2010:/blog//2.839 2010-09-16T15:59:52Z 2010-09-16T16:44:18Z

The Oglala aquifer feeds the plains states with irrigation water. However, it's being tapped in a quantity higher than is being renewed. In other words, it's essentially non-renewable. Eventually, it's going to vanish. And when it does, so will plains...

baldguy The Oglala aquifer feeds the plains states with irrigation water. However, it's being tapped in a quantity higher than is being renewed. In other words, it's essentially non-renewable. Eventually, it's going to vanish. And when it does, so will plains agriculture, to a large extent. The same thing is happening with computer geeks. There are many highly paid Dot Net programmers out there who drag and drop to build apps. They have no clue as to the ones and zeros that are working in the background to make things happen. That means that they are depending on Microsoft to make things run as smoothly and as quickly as possible. Hmm, you might as well depend on Charles Manson to be your PR guy. That brings me to the subject of this piece: the slow extinction of the geek who jumps into code fearlessly to extract the highest possible efficiency from the app. The guy who doesn't rely on defaults, who instead tweaks stuff to get the most bang for the buck. You're on the endangered species list, pal, and computing's gonna royally suck when you're gone. Open Technology Group in Raleigh, NC. I learned how to make PHP, MySQL, and SQL Server work for ME. I learned how to speed up web apps, and thereby provide a better customer experience . I'm shifting paradigms, due to circumstances beyond my control. I'm paring back FOSS development, to concentrate on C#. But once again, as a Boomer, a miser, and a Type A, I'm going to be concentrating on EFFICIENCY. I'll be using my brain cells to make things as easy as possible on the servers I admin, as well as the folks who ultimately pay my check. The bad thing is that dragging and dropping is the default way for programmers to do things. And it takes drive and initiative to get beyond that and make things run better. And those traits seem to be dying.]]> tag:www.baldguyweb.com,2010:/blog//2.836 2010-09-05T13:47:17Z 2010-09-09T21:43:49Z

College football has sadly become quite boring and predictable. Let me give you the rundown on how this season will go: The (insert SEC team here) will have their adoring local sportswriters announce that the (insert fractional Louisiana team here)...

baldguy the SEC is the Toughest Conference in the Universe. During each halftime break, ESPN announcers will mention Tim Tebow at least five times. There will also be heated discussions as to which SEC team will eventually win the National Championship, and despair will be expressed that it is practically impossible for TWO SEC teams to square off in the Big Match, even though the Top Twenty teams in the nation are all from the SEC. After the season is over, if a non-SEC player somehow wins the Heisman Trophy, there will be loud outrage expressed by the adoring local sportswriters about the unfairness of such goings-on. Claims of cheating, blanks ballots, and hanging chads will be angrily emitted.]]> ANY SEC team, but I can certainly guarantee that that will be the case with the Arkansas Razorbacks and chief sports editor Wally "Bad Call" Hall of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Either Texas or Oklahoma will be ranked within the Top Three until a close loss, at which point the puny non-SEC pretender will be swiftly dropped from the Top Twenty. The SEC Championship Game will be heralded as the Game of the Century, with commercial time going for approximately triple the price of mere Super Bowl ads. The University of Tulsa will surprise everyone by going undefeated and getting a BCS invite. Before the game, however, the Hurricane coach will announce that he is going to coach (insert wealthy SEC team here) next year for 50 million dollars. There, did I leave anything out?]]> tag:www.baldguyweb.com,2010:/blog//2.828 2010-07-24T13:35:53Z 2010-07-24T13:43:23Z

I was at Barnes and Noble last night, looking for a good science fiction book. I'm sort of stuck in the past, SF-wise, I like the works of the masters: Pohl, Clarke, Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Lem, Asimov, etc. I was...

baldguy I was at Barnes and Noble last night, looking for a good science fiction book. I'm sort of stuck in the past, SF-wise, I like the works of the masters: Pohl, Clarke, Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Lem, Asimov, etc. I was distressed to find no books at all by Anderson or Lem. The selections of the others were quite limited. On the other hand, there was a plethora of the later Dune books by Herbert (and/or son). There were also a ton of books by new authors with whom I'm not familiar. I realize that time goes on, and new faces take the place of the old, but I'm disappointed that two writers of the stature of Anderson and Lem would be completely left off the shelves at a book store. It doesn't seem like good business. The science fiction section should be well-stocked by the books of the authors who put it on the map in the first place. tag:www.baldguyweb.com,2010:/blog//2.823 2010-06-30T16:43:59Z 2010-06-30T16:49:48Z

I've foolishly relied on "security through obscurity" for my various AWStats reports. I have also had lots of referrals to my sites from sites which have nary a link on them pointing my way. Duh. I was being used by...

baldguy I've foolishly relied on "security through obscurity" for my various AWStats reports. I have also had lots of referrals to my sites from sites which have nary a link on them pointing my way. Duh. I was being used by these scumsuckers to provide bogus links THEIR way, thanks to my unsecured aws folders, in which dwelt my traffic reports. Presumably, these "links" would enhance their status with the search engines. It was fixed with putting password protection in place via .htaccess. If you have wide-open web tracking reports, and are seeing crap sites as major referrers, you're being used. Implement password protection ASAP. tag:www.baldguyweb.com,2010:/blog//2.819 2010-06-13T18:17:02Z 2010-06-14T19:50:14Z

I wrote a column a while back about Computerworld's Shark Tank. Since then, many of the folks that got mentioned in the article have moved on. Many more have blown in. And it continues to be a fun place to...

baldguy Computerworld's Shark Tank. Since then, many of the folks that got mentioned in the article have moved on. Many more have blown in. And it continues to be a fun place to read funny (allegedly) true tech stories, then afterwards to join in on the bantering that goes on in the comments. Anyhow, here's a couple of pics of 02BIrish and myself, wearing our hard-earned Tank shirts. Have you got one? Shoot a pic of you wearing it and I'll be happy to post it here. Let me know if you want to be famous or incognito. Click on the pics for enlarged versions (if you dare!) 02BIrish, world's greatest lymericist Ye Olde Bald Guy, in his usual state of stuporous oblivion This is Dimhelmet, he doesn't post many comments, but he wins shirts!]]> tag:www.baldguyweb.com,2010:/blog//2.817 2010-06-06T15:37:11Z 2010-06-06T15:54:07Z

Gadfly: pest: a persistently annoying person. We're all annoying, we can't help it. Imperfect humans will always sometimes rub each other the wrong way. And let's face it, sometimes we CHOOSE to be annoying. It can even be fun. With...

baldguy don't do is hang around Yankee discussion boards and annoy their fans. ]]> Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols over at Computerworld. His/her/its message is always the same: "Typical Linux (fill in blank here)." And his/her/its handle is "Anonymous." Brilliant. SJVN is an open source fan, and so am I. That's why I spend so much time there. The gadfly apparently despises the FOSS movement. Thus come the same repetitious comments, over and over. I wonder why all of that energy isn't spent among his/her/its like-minded fellows at anti-Linux blogs. He/she/it is certainly not alone. I guess because being a gadfly is appealing to some. I just wish those who do so in a boring, unimaginative manner would move on to something else. If you're going to be critical, can't you do so with imagination? If I was a better person, I would set the ignore switch. Alas, I'm not.]]> tag:www.baldguyweb.com,2010:/blog//2.814 2010-05-30T12:49:50Z 2010-05-30T13:04:19Z

I am very impressed with Ubuntu 10.04. Except for the fact that I was greeted with blank screen from the install CD, and had to get around that by booting with the nomodest option. See details here. Anyhow, somehow, my...

baldguy See details here. Anyhow, somehow, my desktop got ugly. Instead of my razor-sharp 1680x1050, I was topped out at 1360x768. That might be fine on my old 19" widescreen, but not on my gorgeous Samsung 24". The problem proved to be amazingly perplexing. Several times in the course of editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf, I fubarred things badly enough that X wouldn't even start. Finally, a solution was found. I found an xorg.conf online that restored every resolution. Click to continue, and I'll share it with you.]]> # nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig # nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder26) Thu Feb 14 18:13:41 PST 2008 # xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file) # # This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using # values from the debconf database. # # Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page. # (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.) # # This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only* # if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg # package. # # If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated # again, run the following command: # sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg Section "ServerLayout" # Uncomment if you have a wacom tablet # InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents" # InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents" # InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents" Identifier "Default Layout" Screen 0 "Default Screen" 0 0 InputDevice "Generic Keyboard" InputDevice "Configured Mouse" EndSection Section "Files" EndSection Section "Module" Load "glx" Load "v4l" Load "dbe" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Generic Keyboard" Driver "kbd" Option "CoreKeyboard" Option "XkbRules" "xorg" Option "XkbModel" "pc105" Option "XkbLayout" "us" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Configured Mouse" Driver "mouse" Option "CorePointer" Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice" Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "stylus" Driver "wacom" Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom" Option "Type" "stylus" Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "eraser" Driver "wacom" Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom" Option "Type" "eraser" Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "cursor" Driver "wacom" Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom" Option "Type" "cursor" Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "HP f2105" VendorName "Generic LCD Display" ModelName "LCD Panel 1680x1050" HorizSync 31.5 - 65.5 VertRefresh 56.0 - 65.0 Gamma 1 # ModeLine "800x600@56" 36.0 800 824 896 1024 600 601 603 625 +hsync +vsync # ModeLine "800x600@60" 40.0 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628 +hsync +vsync ModeLine "1280x768@60" 80.1 1280 1344 1480 1680 768 769 772 795 -hsync +vsync ModeLine "1280x720@60" 74.5 1280 1336 1472 1664 720 721 724 746 -hsync +vsync ModeLine "1280x800@60" 83.5 1280 1344 1480 1680 800 801 804 828 -hsync +vsync ModeLine "1440x900@60" 106.5 1440 1520 1672 1904 900 901 904 932 -hsync +vsync ModeLine "1600x1024@60" 136.4 1600 1704 1872 2144 1024 1025 1028 1060 -hsync +vsync ModeLine "1680x1050@60" 147.1 1680 1784 1968 2256 1050 1051 1054 1087 -hsync +vsync EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "nVidia Corporation C51 [GeForce 6150 LE]" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA" BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series" Screen 0 EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Default Screen" Device "nVidia Corporation C51 [GeForce 6150 LE]" Monitor "HP f2105" DefaultDepth 24 Option "DRI" "true" # Option "NoLogo" "True" Option "RenderAccel" "True" Option "Coolbits" "1" # Option "TwinView" "True" Option "AllowDDCCI" "True" # Option "BackingStore" "True" # Option "DamageEvents" "True" # Option "TripleBuffer" "True" # Option "UseEvents" "False" # Option "MetaModes" "nvidia-auto-select, nvidia-auto-select" Option "NvAGP" "1" # Option "TwinViewOrientation" "Clone" # Option "TVStandard" "NTSC-M" # Option "TVOutFormat" "COMPOSITE" Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True" SubSection "Display" # Virtual 1680 1050 Depth 24 # Modes "1680x1050@60" "1600x1024@60" "1440x900@60" "1280x800@60" "1280x720@60" "1280x768@60" "800x600@56" EndSubSection EndSection Hope this helps someone! If so, please leave a comment.]]> tag:www.baldguyweb.com,2010:/blog//2.809 2010-05-05T17:43:07Z 2010-05-08T15:37:45Z

Well, crap. The official Ubuntu 10.04 release didn't play nice with the Nvidia onboard video on my 2006 vintage HP a1483w. Booting led to a screen that was black. my monitor didn't detect a signal, and went dormant. What made...

baldguy Well, crap. The official Ubuntu 10.04 release didn't play nice with the Nvidia onboard video on my 2006 vintage HP a1483w. Booting led to a screen that was black. my monitor didn't detect a signal, and went dormant. What made me crazy was that I had run into similar issues before, and was able to boot into runlevel three (no GUI) and work on the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to at least get ugly video back, so that I could have the GUI running to experiment on. In the Redhat world, hitting escape when the grub menu pops up allows you to edit the command line. Adding a '3' to the end of the string that calls the Linux kernel overrides /etc/inittab and sends you straight to runlevel 3. Well, I was quite perturbed to discover that the boot string editing trick no worky with Ubuntu. Adding a 3 to the boot string had no effect at all. Ctrl+alt+f1 didn't work, either, no alternative login screen. What's even weirder is that there is NO /etc/inittab file to dictate system runlevel. In short, I simply could not boot into anything but a broken GUI, i.e. a black screen. Time to fall back on an old friend. Enter CentOS 5. fixed it. I continued to build Fedora webterms, and eventually put CentOS 4 to work as the server hosting the LAMP intranet I administer. But I was decidedly unimpressed with the Redhat desktop, and continued to run XP on my main work desktop. Late in 2004, a coworker showed me the Ubuntu Feisty Fawn system he had installed. It looked slick, was very intuitive, and blew me away with its Synaptics Package Manager. Installing apps was as simple as picking them from a list, the apt-get process in the background would take care of the rest! Within a month, I was dual-booting Windows and Feisty on all of my machines at work. I installed it on my Dell laptop and took advantage of the excellent network troubleshooting/monitoring tools available. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Canonical has been on a mission to make Linux simpler and simpler for the average user, a move I applaud. Many a newb has been happy with the Ubuntu I installed on their system. However, messing with the basic structure of Linux is too much for me personally. If I can't do a ctrl+alt+f1 to get a text login, I'm not happy. If I can't tell the system to boot into a different runlevel, same story. If the X process is rewritten so that xorg.conf doesn't exist any more, I have no file to reset back to dumb video mode, just in case. So, I downloaded the latest CentOS: version 5. It's very unfancy. The stock gnome desktop is quite plain-Jane. Its launcher panel is lacking a slew of applets that Ubuntu has. And worst of all, no Synaptic. I found a package called Yum Extender that does a serviceable job of giving me a friendly app install program. I have also gotten much more proficient in my use of yum, especially the search function that lets you find packages whose names you're not sure of. The other new thing to get used to is the way a stabilized release works. The newest versions of apps simply aren't automatically available. For example, upgrading from Firefox 3 to 3.6 involved me downloading and unzipping a bz2 file. Then, as root, I moved the /usr/lib/firefox-3.0.18 to /usr/lib/firefox-3.0.18.old, then moved the firefox folder that was zipped into the bz2 to /usr/lib, THEN renaming it to firefox-3.0.18. This was the lazy man's way to do it, to be sure, but keeping the same directory structure kept any launchers and/or associations from breaking. Alsa didn't configure itself to work properly with dmixer, thus only one application at a time could use sound. Any others opened up would give an error saying no sound available. The detailed fix can be found here. I installed compiz, and was able to get the neat desktop effects I learned to love with Ubuntu. However, doing so removed the ability to drag and drop windows! Probably something to do with the Nvidia driver that is stable, but aged. But on the other hand, I have a rock-steady system that will happily chug along until I finally buy myself a new smart box. No more six-month upheavals. No more structural changes discovered at the worst possible time, i.e. when the system is broken. And I'm back to doing business with the Redhat folks. That all feels good :-)]]> tag:www.baldguyweb.com,2010:/blog//2.807 2010-04-25T17:44:25Z 2010-04-25T18:12:45Z

I installed the late beta of Ubuntu 4.10 this week. Here are my thoughts on the process and the product. First of all, if you are not already keeping your home directory on a separate partition, I strongly recommend that...

baldguy Ubuntu Tweak if you haven't already. It instantly edits all sorts of obscure config files for you, making it simple to have a system that does exactly what you want it to do.]]> Fifth, I guess I'm getting smarter, or installing Ubuntu is getting easier. This was by far the smoothest experience I've ever had. The initial boot had ugly graphics, but Ubuntu quickly arranged for me to use the proprietary Nvidia driver. I know some purists out there bristle at the thought of having to do that, but not me. I now have full Compiz effects, pretty impressive to me on a four-year-old machine. I don't think I'll be upgrading any more on this box. This is a long-term release, and this sweet old system has earned the right to sail off into retirement with no further OS overhauls. I'm hoping that I'll be building my own power workstation from scratch before the end of summer. I guess there's some uproar over the window buttons being moved to the left by default. Again, I wouldn't know about that, my desktop looks just like it did before I upgraded. Oh, one last thing: you should make a list of apps you've added, and any non-standard panel applets you've installed. That will speed up the process of reinstalling them afterwards. You should also save /etc/fstab and grab the text from your crontab to make for quickly getting mapped drives and special processes back in business quickly. And another advantage of keeping your home directory intact from the previous system is that Crossover Pro, if you are using it, comes back with no further action required on your part. Since it installs itself and everything it does in your home directory, there it sits, relay to go back to work for you when you boot into your new OS. Lastly, this version of Ubuntu is the most stable yet. I had an issue with occasional X crashes with both 9.10 and Mint 8. Niot a single one since the upgrade. So I recommend you give Lucid Lynx a spin. It looks like Ubuntu will just continue to get better and better! tag:www.baldguyweb.com,2010:/blog//2.805 2010-04-24T13:04:07Z 2010-04-24T13:07:32Z

Are you like me? Taxed to death? Yet, pay taxes we do, because it's the law. Ya know, if we all had billions of dollars to spend on lawyers and lobbyists, maybe we wouldn't be in that boat: Click here...

baldguy Click here for more. Hey, Washington residents! The next time your local taxes are raised because of deficits, why not give Steve Ballmer a holler and thank him personally? :-)]]> tag:www.baldguyweb.com,2010:/blog//2.803 2010-04-11T15:18:31Z 2010-04-11T15:47:00Z

I have just returned from a week of asp.net training, at the behest (and the kind compliments of) my employer. First impression: I've given dot net programmers WAY too much credit. With Visual Studio, asp.net is quite simple to pick...

baldguy crappy Vista interface...]]>