Notes
Disable Java plugins to avoid drive by installs
As a computer repair technician I clean up a lot of computers with Java based malware. Java is known for its zero-day vulnerabilities and as a popular vector for cross-platform attacks. Not to mention the fact that Java Runtime Environment (JRE) updates never remove old versions, and Java installs and enables plugins for all popular [...]
A good reason to dump OpenDNS
Like me, you’ve probably read all sorts of great things about the public DNS service OpenDNS, but one thing you should find out for yourself is how it will impact the speed of your web browsing. After using OpenDNS name servers for months at work I started to notice that page load times at home (on a [...]
Fix a malfunctioning BlackBerry Trackball [video]
A friend of mine had a couple Bolds with trackball issues, we went as far as taking one of them apart and attempting to clean the trackball mechanism with no luck. I finally came across this method on a forum and we were amazed by the results – so amazed that we recorded the process [...]
Enable Gnome Video Thumbnails in Arch Linux
Gnome’s file manager Nautilus does a great job of automatically thumbnailing all kinds of files including pretty much any video file. But, in a fresh Arch Linux install you still need a few gstreamer packages to enable totem-video-thumbnailer to do its job…
Relevant Windows 7 facts
This is not meant to be a thorough report, just the highlights I found relevant related to its recent release. Versions Starter is weak (for netbooks) 32-bit only, OEM pre-install only Home Basic is for emerging markets (we probably won’t see it in the US much) Home Premium is what most consumers will end up [...]
Sometimes Ghost is truly the best tool
Lately I’ve been loving Clonezilla for rolling out refurbed Dell workstations. It’s been really cool, boot from USB “liveCD”, clone disk to disk directly over gigabit ethernet, reboot, repeat. But after doing 10 of them, I ran into the true limitation of Clonezilla. Clonezilla relies on ntfsclone and partimage (great tools) but they share a [...]
Fix Slow Scrolling in jEdit
So far jEdit is proving to be a great editor (FTP/SFTP support is great) but after tweaking it to my liking (BufferTabs plugin, fonts, etc.) I noticed that scrolling the main text area had become very slow. I didn’t want to just blame Java so I looked it up and found the cause.
Fix slow connections to Ubuntu SSH servers
As of Ubuntu 8.10 and older, connections to SSH servers with default configs can be annoyingly slow. This is because the OpenSSH daemon uses DNS to run a reverse lookup on the client to be sure that they aren’t faking their hostname. You can disable most look-ups by implementing the following setting: As root edit [...]
Hide Administrator from Welcome Screen in Vista
By default the Administrator account in Vista is Disabled – everything is run in a sudo fashion without actually logging in to the Administrator account. Some times due to external password recovery systems or other various reasons the built-in Administrator account is enabled, causing it to show up on the Welcome Screen. In order to [...]
Fix Vista Update Loop
Symptoms include this message on boot: “configuring updates stage 3 of 3. 0% complete” and then an automatic reboot and the same message over and over again in an endless loop.
