Helpful advice discovered in my TV manual:

Q: What can be done if the PIN number has been forgotten?
A: Use the Master PIN code of 1276, then change to a number of your choice. Ensure no-one else can use the Master PIN by removing the Owner's Manual.

...from the Internet?

Avahi is a ZeroConf daemon for Linux - essentially a somewhat enhanced version of Apple's Bonjour protocol. With pretty much no setup I managed to have it advertising most of the services on my home machine around my LAN. tinyastronomer's Mac was able to see my CUPS printer and use it successfully on the first try with zero fiddling involved. Colour me ( Read more... )

It seems that Linux on my laptop is asymptotically approaching complete usability ( Read more... )

Things you don't want to find in your mailbox, #15:

The following warning/error was logged by the smartd daemon:

Device: /dev/sda, ATA error count increased from 0 to 96

For details see host's SYSLOG (default: /var/log/messages).Looks like I'll be needing a new hard drive, then... (Still, I guess it's one way to discover whether or not my ( Read more... )

...the AACS-LA is hunting wabbits.

Whatever you do, don't mention that number.

Obviously, printing it on a t-shirt is right out.

And don't even think about registering it as a domain.

IMAP is my bitch, yo.

(Less succinctly: a combination of RTFM and bincimap has resolved all my lack-of-workiness woes. (This should make migrating my primary desktop rather easier in future.) If I'm feeling very brave, I may even attempt to configure mutt to use IMAP later.)

It having been several years since my last such adventure, I'm getting to the point where I feel like upgrading my computing kit. Seeing as I have a large and opinionated geek contingent on my friends list, I figure trawling for recommendations might be worth a try ( Read more... )

After a couple of weeks of frustrating instability (typically X wedging itself and needing to be killed) and the discovery that only one of my available pool of video cards would even display the BIOS screen on my motherboard without corruption, let alone boot safely, I finally bit the bullet and snagged a replacement motherboard (Asus A7V600X) ( Read more... )

I think my video card is dying. This afternoon I suddenly had a complete system lock-up whilst trying to watch an episode of Ergo Proxy. I muttered a few imprecations in the general direction of NVidia, rebooted, and tried again. A few minutes later: gronk. Argh. Lather, rinse, repeat ( Read more... )

Okay, so it's now firmly established that I'm a moron. I realise that this may not be news to most of you, but somehow it always seems to manage to creep up on me...

Despite having made sure to check before opening my mouth, it turns out that the "Solutions CD" that came with my little Iomega device does, in fact, contain at least the modified ( Read more... )