Tech stuff and info dump

Trouble printing large file: “Unable to write print data: Broken pipe”

April 20th, 2010

Recently had trouble printing a large document – received error message “Unable to write print data: Broken pipe”.

Quick fix: printing the document in sections worked.

For other options: this ubuntu forum post has various links/discussion.


Filed under: Fixes
April 20th, 2010 12:06:36

OpenID delegation: using a blog URL as OpenID

April 04th, 2010

I was recently trying to sort out OpenID delegation for a blog. I wanted to leave comments on someone else’s Live Journal blog using an OpenID that pointed to my blog’s URL.

Sam Ruby’s article, OpenID for non-SuperUsers has everything one needs to know about OpenID.

For my purposes, all I needed to do was get an OpenID (which can be obtained here) and add the following to the header.php file for the WordPress blog that I wanted to use as my OpenID URL:

<link rel=”openid.server” href=”http://www.myopenid.com/server” />
<link rel=”openid.delegate” href=”http://my-openid-account-name.myopenid.com/” />

(The my-openid-account-name string needs to be replaced with an actual OpenID account name.)


Filed under: Services
April 04th, 2010 12:56:18

WordPress api key

February 14th, 2010

I always forget where my api key is when I install the WordPress stats plugin.  It is here. On the WordPress.com site:

My Account -> Edit Profile


Filed under: WordPress
February 14th, 2010 21:16:17

Fix for xmms (broken after last Jaunty update)

February 11th, 2010

After the most recent Jaunty update, I received this “Couldn’t open audio” error message when I next tried to play audiobooks on xmms:

Please check that:

Your soundcard is configued properly
You have the correct output plugin selected
No other program is blocking the soundcard

This thread had lots of info on diagnosing the problem.

(All I had to do was go to Options -> Preferences -> Audio I/O Plugins and choose “ALSA 1.2.11 output plugin [libALSA.so]” from the “” menu. It had been set to “OSS Driver 1.2.11 [libOSS.so]” before.)


Filed under: Fixes
Tags:
February 11th, 2010 17:19:50

Long live xmms! (Ubuntu: Hardy, Jaunty, etc.)

February 10th, 2010

I’m an xmms girl. I’ve never needed the extra features in xmms2, so I was distraught when xmms was no longer available from my friendly neighbourhood Synaptic Package Manager once I moved to Hardy.

Thank the stars, this wonderful person provided all the information I needed to rectify the situation.

This also worked for me in Jaunty (Netbook Remix).

Long live xmms!


Filed under: Installation
Tags:
February 10th, 2010 13:30:33

Getting around Google fade

February 10th, 2010

The fade-in effect on the Google search engine home page causes me disproportionate rage. I have given it a go for over a month now, but I still cringe every time I load the page, and I’ve decided I just don’t need this kind of aggravation on a daily basis.

I tried out a few other search engines but nothing appealed, so now I’m back to Google. However, the daily bad feeling generated by the fade-in is too much for me. Life is short, so I’ll live it fade-in free.

Here are several of the things I’ve tried, all of which work in one way or another in Firefox….

1. I had Google as my ‘home’ page in Firefox. Changing the link from www.google.com or www.google.co.uk to this:

http://www.google.co.uk/firefox?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official

leaves me with all links but none of the fade-in. My only hesitation in making this change is that I enjoy the occasional changes to the Google logo.

2. I then tried adding the Noscript plug-in and disabling scripts from running on Google, available here:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722

This worked, but every time I opened a search page, a little Noscript message would pop up, informing me that scripts were disabled. This was better than the fade, but not quite as good as things were before all this fade-in business began.

3. Finally, I tried the Stylish plug-in available here:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2108

Once it was installed, I pointed my browser at Google, clicked the Stylish icon and chose ‘Write new style’ from the menu. I then entered:

@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);

@-moz-document domain(“www.google.co.uk”) {

#ghead
{
opacity:1!important;
}
.fade
{
opacity:1!important;
}
.gbh
{
opacity:1!important;
}
#fctr
{
opacity:1!important;
}
#sbl
{
opacity:1!important;
}

}

in the text box and saved. (Many thanks to BdgR47!) Everything works beautifully now – there is no fade, no extra plug-in messages messing up the page and I’ll not miss any festive logos. The world is, indeed, a better place in which to live.


Filed under: Customisation
February 10th, 2010 12:14:30

WordPress – add stats plugin

January 07th, 2010

Add to plugin directory:


wp-content/plugins

Download and full installation instructions here.


Filed under: Customisation,WordPress
January 07th, 2010 05:50:26

WordPress – add calendar plugin

January 07th, 2010

Add to plugin directory:


wp-content/plugins

Download and full installation instructions here.


Filed under: Customisation,WordPress
January 07th, 2010 05:48:43

WordPress – add new themes

January 07th, 2010

Add new themes here:

wp-content/themes/

Full WordPress codex details available here.


Filed under: Customisation,WordPress
January 07th, 2010 05:19:41

MediaWiki – change default icon

September 24th, 2009

Make a 135×135 pixel .png image.

Copy it to:

/var/lib/mediawiki/skins/common/images/wiki.png

and refresh the browser.


Filed under: Customisation,MediaWiki
September 24th, 2009 14:39:15