Lawrence "The Dreamer" Chen's Blog

Well, there were 3 boxes from Amazon.com.

I started out thinking there were things I needed, or wanted to stock up on, or have in preparation for other acquisitions. But, then I trimmed it back to keep under budget...and I'm not sure I ended up with stuff I really needed.

First, the mouse on this computer is not moving around as well as it could. Not sure if the mousepad is getting gummed up (its a 3M Precise Mousing Surface pad, so maybe....) or the mouse bottom is getting gummed up, especially since the teflon pads have migrated around the bottom...so maybe that adhesive is what is gumming things up. So, I bought a new mouse and a new 3M Precise Mousing Surface pad.

Next, I was thinking of getting the Netflix Roku player. I doesn't come with an HDMI to DVI cable....and I would need one to connect it to my system. So, I got out of these. Of course, now I don't think I'll get the Netflix Roku. Because based on reviews...its not quite DVD quality, which since I do DVDs in an upconversion player...would likely be quite a step back. It also doesn't do 5.1, which I figured I could live with since my initial interest is watching old TV shows (namely old Doctor Who shows). So, there's probably no immersive sound field to get into....though I'm the guy that watches all his DVDs with subtitles, because I don't hear dialog all that well.

But, a review I watched recently, says the Netflix Roku player doesn't do subtitles either. So, that has pretty much shelved my interest to get one for the time being.

Third, or rather, in the box with the mouse and in the box that had the HDMI cable (the 3M mousing surface came in a 2nd day air envelope)....was a roll of duct tape. The one roll of duct tape that I could find the last time I needed to do a patch....disappeared. The building people had been in doing some other work, and I suspect they packed it off along with theirs when they left. But, I wasn't home when they came to do the work, etc. So, I don't know what really happened to it...except that it was on my dryer, which they moved and rearranged stuff around to do their work....and now I can't find it anywhere. One is regular duct tape of the same kind that had gone missing. And, another roll was acquired only because it said it was purple. Of course, its not the purple I was thinking it would be. Oh well.

The other two boxes from UPS?

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That's my Satellite 5105-S701, which has the host name 'sidrat'.

The machine is like 6 years old...there was a plan to upgrade in 3, and then 4...and then 5....and perhaps someday I will upgrade. Though what I've been thinking of getting...I'm not sure it would be called an upgrade. Been looking at Netbooks (don't know if I'll get one with XP or not, more interested in the idea of running Linux....but might get the XP so I can dual boot....or because the Windows version is the more powerful unit)

IE: HP MiniNote 2133 is either a 1.0 or 1.2GHz with Linux....but with Vista it comes as 1.2GHz or 1.6GHz. Guess they hate Linux users. Though I'll likely get something Atom based.

Anyways. The old laptop pretty much has been tethered to its powercord for some time. Not sure if I can get batteries for it. Though battery life was pretty poor new, now almost non-existent. But, a while back....while my brother, and his wife, were in Ghana....getting knocked down with Malaria. I had the laptop running 24x7 doing BOINC....malariacontrol.net

Over the last few days...I would come often find the laptop hung. I'd reboot it and forget about it.

Well, it was that way just a moment ago....I rebooted it, and almost immediately it hung again. It is summer now....and I can't remember when I started doing the full-time BOINC'ng...but it would've been late fall last year. So, I suppose it might not be happy about the warmer temps. Though I may have cooked it to death.

But, this wake time...and evening....so it is a cool time in my condo. And, if it is finding that too warm to stay up. There's probably something else wrong. Perhaps the CPU fan has stopped working. Since it was over $100 for a RFE fan for the desktop, I'm sure it would be pretty hefty to get parts for the laptop and probably not an easy self-repair project.

Guess its time to write off the old laptop.... Only problem is...I think its too late to buy a laptop with Windows XP now.

Hmmm...

There are certain sites that I use, where I use the dangerous feature of having Firefox remember my password....even though the site has disabled autocomplete as part of its security measures.

I did this by using a bookmarklet that hacked the currently loaded page, etc.

When I upgraded to Firefox 3, those sites stopped working. It would fill in the form when the remembered password, and using the bookmarklet broken the page (the login would fail).

While looking to see where I originally found the bookmarklet, and to see if it had been updated....I came across this:

Always remember password hack for Firefox 3

If you’re on Firefox 3 you can just edit your Firefox installation to get the “Always remember password feature” without having to run some JavaScript code on every page load:

• Shutdown Firefox
• Backup the file PATH_TO_YOUR_FIREFOX_INSTALLATION/components/nsLoginManager.js.

• Edit PATH_TO_YOUR_FIREFOX_INSTALLATION/components/nsLoginManager.js with your favorite text editor and find the following lines:

                if (element && element.hasAttribute("autocomplete") &&
                    element.getAttribute("autocomplete").toLowerCase() == "off")
                    return true;
  

  On the GNU/Linux version of Firefox 3 Beta 5 this code is inside the private method _isAutocompleteDisabled, on the Windows version of Firefox 3 Beta 5 this code can be found inside the local helper function autocompleteDisabled which is part of the private method _onFormSubmit.

  To let Firefox password manager always remember passwords those “autocompleteDisabled”-methods have to always return the value false.

  All you have to do to achieve this is remove the lines above or comment them out like this:

  //          if (element && element.hasAttribute("autocomplete") &&
  //              element.getAttribute("autocomplete").toLowerCase() == "off")
  //              return true;
  

• Save your changes and close the editor.
• Restart Firefox - Firefox password manager should now always remember passwords ignoring the autocomplete=”off” attribute.

Now the dangerous thing I've been doing is working again.....

userChrome.css

/* Multi-row bookmarks toolbar */
#bookmarksBarContent {display:block !important;}
.places-toolbar-items {display:block !important; height: 48px !important; overflow-y:auto!important;}
#bookmarksBarContent toolbarseparator {display:inline !important;}
#bookmarksBarContent .bookmark-item {visibility: visible !important;}
.chevron {height: 0px !important;}

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Link: http://www.umpcportal.com/2008/06/dell-netbook-coming-in-august-sans-function-keys/

Dell is pushing too little and too late.

Since seeing the power of the ASUS Eee Pc, I've been thinking of getting such a device. Though I wasn't sure if I could handle the sacrifice of hardware to get small, light and low cost. Then others started coming into the scene....such as the HP Mini Note. And, things started looking up that something suitable would be offered.

I then heard rumors of Dell coming out with something in June. And, since there are Dell's that can be had with Ubuntu...this seemed like it might be a good thing to wait for.

But, now they are saying August....I don't think I can wait that long. (too late). And, its not going to have function keys. Well, that's a sacrifice in hardware that I don't see myself accepting. (too little).

Guess I'll take a look over what is available now and pick the one that I'll have live with for the next 5-6 years (that's how old my previous laptop is).

Link: http://www.tamba2.org.uk/wordpress/TestTrack/2008/05/28/testing-60/

This is a test to see if I've fixed the PHP code to do trackbacks works.

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Even though, I had said yesterday that it was pretty much just a question of when...rather than will I...on getting the NetFlix Set-Top device. It occurred to me today that I thought LG was working on a device as well. And, then reading the various RSS feeds I get, started working if a NetFlix only Set-Top box was really thing thing to get. It would probably be cooler if it did more than just NetFlix, but I'm still leaning away from sticking a Windows box into my Home Theater.

If I were to stick a box in, it would be a Mac Mini....in fact that's another question of when than will I. I'm leaning towards this fall, to where I've decided to not put off getting a new Windows computer until perhaps the next Windows release (assuming I'm still stuck with a few Windows apps that won't move). An iMac to become my main desktop computer is starting to look like a possibility....

We'll ignore that the when will I question for the Mac Mini has been burning on my mind for over 3 years now.....

I guess I might wait a little bit longer on getting a NetFlix device (instead of the original plan of pulling the trigger sometime after I get back from the upcoming training trip I'll be going on for work).

Though there is the question of what kind of box NetFlix streaming would get incorporated into. Or if LG (or other company) will just come out with alternative NetFlix only devices. Because, I pretty much have no interest in getting a set-top box that does more than just NetFlix....if the extra stuff it does, just duplicates functions I already have.

I guess I'm more interested in whether there'll be quality or upconversion enhancements in rival offerings.

Link: http://tech.arantius.com/select-urls-in-putty

Now that I run irssi in screen and PuTTY (on my Windows machines)....it has been a wish of mine to be able to click links that appear. Alternatively, to have an easier way to select the whole link....

Double clicking on the URL leaves off the http: part, so that doesn't quiet work....its not enough, or too much. Depending on your perspective.

But, just now I typed some terms into Google and eventually came upon this posting.

Since its mainly for the saved session that launches/restores my irssi session that needs this, I tried the edit saved session method. It didn't work, because the line it gives to replace is actually the original line. The correct line to insert for Wordness32 is:

"0,1,2,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,1,1,1,1,1"

Also it was tricky finding the key Registry location, but it's:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\Sessions\....

Now to leave a note for myself to do this to my computer at work on Monday

Starting to look like 6.0/768 might be a real possibility for my DSL connection.

This morning (around 3am) another bump in speed. Sync rate is now 3008/512. No noticeable change in SN Margin, but Line Attenuation has gone up by another db.

DSLReport's Spectrum Tool shows an estimated downstream rate of 4660 now.

I may really look at moving more over to it now. Think I'll move the TiVo HD....though now that Amazon Unbox is going to have HD content, that might mean that I really should be looking at the 6.0/768 tier.

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Link: http://laptoping.com/hp-2133-mini-note-windows-xp-professional-for-businesses.html

Well, XP is finally an option for the HP 2133 Mini-Note. But, it isn't for everybody

But, it you can customize now....except you can't customize everything, and not all options are available. IE: you can only select Vista or Vista downgrade as your OS options. No customizing for a 1.6GHz with Linux. For some reason Windows users get 1.2 or 1.6 GHz CPUs, while Linux users can only get 1.0 or 1.2 GHz (and only preconfigured choices). Like no bluetooth for them.

I was kind of hoping to be able to get a fully loaded HP 2133 Mini-Note with Linux, not sure I want to get one when I'm being forced to get the unnecessary Vista part. Especially since I don't really want the Linux that comes with it either.

Word is that Dell will have something next month, hopefully they'll have a nice preloaded Ubuntu version....