Ramblings, ideas, problems, and solutions

Thoughts on many things

  • 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. Microsoft have published a tool kit called Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools. In it is a nifty little utility called…

  • 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: 900 MHz Intel Celeron CPU 1024 MB RAM 16 GB SSD 8,9” TFT 1,3 Mpix WebCam Atheros 802.11g WLAN card SDHC card reader Output/Input: 1xVGA 3xUSB 1xRJ-45 TP NIC 1×3.5mm Minijack audio out 1×3.5mm Minijack audio…

  • Removing the File Association Web Service Dialog

    I’m often annoyed by this dialog box when I open unassociated filetypes: Luckily, the annoyance is simply removed thus: Startmenu > Run Type regedit and press enter Find the folder HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/Explorer Create a new DWORD value called NoInternetOpenWith, with a value of 1 Update: I’ve tried this on Windows 7, and it works there as…

  • 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: Go to System >…

  • 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…

  • 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. Luckily, this error is simply resolved. Microsoft have issued a hotfix, KB935448, which fixes this problem. Simply download in the correct language, install, reboot, and your problems are gone.

  • 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,…

  • 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: First, you need…

  • 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! Download the patch (.zip).…

  • 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. This can be a problem if you use public computers, because the session key might be retrievable. With the session key in hand, access is apparently simple…