Remote Control of an OS X Box

Posted in Uncategorized on August 10th, 2008 by lyz

You’re trying to connect to an OS X box and your vnc viewer just doesn’t seem to work. Then, after many a google serch, you discover that OS X’s remote access protocol is incompatible with most VNC servers.  Tuning to Apple for help yeilds a solution, for a small(large) fee.

Thankfully, there is a better way.  There is a free VNC server for OS X called Vine.  Download it and install the server.  Now you should be able to connect through a typical VNC client.

Remember, if you use tightVNC to connect, use the F8 key to bring up the menu that allows you to switch to fullscreen and disconnect the session.

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When the Power Goes Out

Posted in Uncategorized on August 5th, 2008 by lyz

The storms that went through yesterday had an interesting effect on the available wifi networks in the area.   It wasn’t so much the storms that caused this, it was more the lack of power in the area when the lightning started striking.   Here is what the wireless situation looks like with and without power:

Before power goes out

Before power goes out

A UPS on internet equipment is something that I haven’t seen in too many places.  Apparently, not many people in my complex have heard of it either.

Power just went out

Power just went out

And finally, I win.  The Xantrax Xpower 400 actually kept the Internet up for over 8 hours after the power outage.

I stand alone

I stand alone

Of course, the server didn’t do as well, and I had to turn it down after 20 minutes.  It’s tough to have 99% uptime off of home DSL.

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Fixing this error: You either don’t have a PayPal account or your PayPal account is not linked to your eBay account

Posted in Uncategorized on August 1st, 2008 by lyz

Some content is taken from http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?threadID=1200182458.

I tried to link my ebay account to my paypal account and it would just simply not work. After going through the prompts many times, it would still say that there was no association. There is a fix in an odd location.

Go to account settings -> addresses
Click on all addresses
Then click on add paypal addresses

This gives yet another paypal login. After login, I was greeted with a message thanking me for creating a paypal account. Hmmm.

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Discovering Dependant Dlls in Windows

Posted in Life on July 24th, 2008 by lyz

Sometime, you just don’t know which dll files to register.  Enlighten yourself with dependancy walker .

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Liberate Your Fonts

Posted in Uncategorized on July 14th, 2008 by lyz

They’ve been out for over a year, but I just stumbled upon them this week.  Redhat release some very high quality and non-encumbered fonts.   Most distibutions will have them in a package named liberated-fonts.  They are substitues for some very popular fonts such asTimes New Roman, Thorndale, Nimbus Roman, and Bitstream Vera Serif.  Check em out at https://www.redhat.com/promo/fonts/.

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Slick Favicon Website

Posted in Uncategorized on July 13th, 2008 by lyz

Check out http://www.favicon.cc/ for your various favicon needs.

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What To Do When All of Gnome’s MIME Enteries Break

Posted in Linux on July 13th, 2008 by lyz

When double clicking on apps don’t seem to open the correct program anymore on almost every file, there is most likely an issue with the MIME database.  The MIME database tells the desktop environment which program should open a file.  Try this to re-associate things.

update-mime-database ~/.local/share/mime

This tip was found after searching the net and landing on this page.

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