Just in case anyone was wondering, I haven’t been abducted by Linux-loving aliens. Nor have I inexplicably dropped off the face of the planet. The reasons behind my lack of recent posts are firstly – a lack of time; secondly – and happily – my Ubuntu 12.04 installation has been so unbelievably stable that it hasn’t required much tinkering or tweaking at all!

Anyway, this isn’t a technical problem, nor is it specifically Ubuntu-related, but I think it comes under the category of ubuntu with a small “u”; the philosophy of community, mutual support, and giving back when you can. That’s what I thought when I read the June 21st 2012 news release on www.pool.ntp.org. The full release can be read here. The chances are that you’re already using servers of the NTP project – even if you don’t realise it. So I decided to give a bit back and join the pool with my Ubuntu server and static IP. If you want to help out too, then it’s fairly easy to set up. Read more…

Good old Skype, it seems to have been in Linux Beta forever! I suppose now that Skype is part of the happy Microsoft “family”, it probably always will.

Anyway, I recently had a problem where Skype would not open on my Ubuntu 11.04 laptop. Well, to be precise, Skype opened and closed immediately. The solution was simple enough. Read more…

I don’t really use Evolution much – it’s not just that I don’t agree with evolution as a theory (which is a completely different subject), but that I don’t use POP mail too much, and so Evolution (the mail client) tends to be of little use. A common problem, though, after not using it for a while can be the “Error Generating Message List” followed by other vague errors about corrupted disk images or folders. Fortunately the solution is quite simple. Read more…

Let me start off by saying that, in general, I like SonicWALL products. They were the first firewalls I ever sold and, as such, they are still the ones I feel most familiar with, and know best. It’s also no secret that their GlobalVPN Client makes it ludicrously easy to create and connect to a VPN. Unfortunately, though, SonicWALL’s focus is very Windows-centric. This means that, now I have a need to connect my Ubuntu laptop to a SonicWALL VPN, I have to leave the warm and fuzzy comfort of the GlobalVPN client and get to know Openswan a bit better.

According to what I have read and researched, many people have difficulties connecting Openswan to a SonicWALL appliance. I was no different. At one stage I had decided that it would be easier for me to gnaw a tunnel to my client’s office through solid granite, rather than persevere trying to get the VPN tunnel running. In the end, though, I got it working – here’s how. Read more…

It was back in November 2009 when I first received my invitation to try out Google Wave, I blogged about it and commented on what I felt needed to happen to make Wave into a great collaboration platform, that could seriously enhance regular e-mail communication. The news today that Google is pulling the plug on Wave didn’t really surprise me because, since my initial blog post, I’ve logged in to my Wave account regularly – only to find that everything has stayed pretty much the same. Read more…

Since I can never pass up the opportunity to play with new development tools, I’ve created a ZX Spectrum persona for Firefox 3.6. It’s now in the public persona gallery for download here:

ZX Spectrum Retro Persona

So…go on – dress up Firefox in the 8-bit glory of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum! I’ve already uploaded some more designs, so check the above link regularly for new personas – or should that be “personae”?

Strange how, for years, I stuck with just Firefox. Now, I flip regularly between Google Chrome, Opera and Firefox depending on my mood or particular task.

Anyway, I wasn’t content to wait for the official standard Ubuntu repositories to be updated with Firefox 3.6, so – if you want to get the latest version of Firefox on your system, here’s how to do it on Karmic: Read more…

Although I have my doubts about Google, it still doesn’t stop me hypocritically waiting in line to receive an invitation to play with their new toys. So, after a long wait, on Sunday I finally received my invitation to the preview of Google Wave. I’m issuing a “long post alert” now, so you can cancel next year’s holiday if you plan to read all of this at once!

What is Google Wave?

Most people have already heard of Wave, but it’s actually a bit difficult to succinctly define exactly what it is. At its core, it is a HTML5 application, which provides a real-time messaging platform. That sounds a bit drab, but Wave has a lot of interesting possibilities. Read more…

The Search For a Case

The first step in building the media centre was, for me, to find a suitable case. And by suitable, I meant that it satisfied the following criteria:

• Be pleasant to look at
• Fit into my existing TV unit
• Have room for expansion
• Provide sufficient cooling

Let’s face it – most of the time, computers are not the most attractive of objects – especially PCs. The average desktop PC is an ugly, functional slab of plastic. I know the Mac evangelists will point towards the iMac, which, for sure, is a nice looking piece of kit, but it’s way above my budget.  The result was that I felt like I had a challenge on my hands to find a case that met all of my requirements.

After doing quite a bit of research online, I was drawn towards the Antec enclosures. They’re not bad to look at, and seem to tick all the boxes. The main problem I’d encountered with Antec in the past was that their non-standard power supplies were notoriously unreliable, and then impossible to source a replacement for. This meant that I had a new requirement to add to my list: the power supply must be more dependable than a paper hat in a thunderstorm – or a standard, replaceable part.

Eventually the search turned up the Antec NSK2480. Strange, perhaps, when you consider what I just wrote above; however, it’s a nice box, and looks more like a piece of high-end stereo equipment than a computer. Even better, the power supply is standard and so when (not “if”) this PSU becomes kaput, I can replace it with a standard ATX supply.

Other nice features – it has dual, controllable, ultra-silent fans. These can be controlled with the integrated switch, or attached to a fan controller. The hard disks sit on little silicone grommets to reduce vibration, and the 5.25″ expansion bays lift out easily. The finish on the case is very good too, it doesn’t have any nasty sharp edges, so I shouldn’t have to count my fingers after fitting the motherboard. Access is via a single screw on the upper rear of the case, and the screw has a thumb-grip for easy removal. Inside, it has a triple-chamber design, which helps with noise and vibration reduction and also aids airflow.

So far, so good. Now all I need is something to put in it, but it is October now, so I can start shopping for a motherboard!

Although I do like Firefox and currently use it as my primary browser, I’m in the process of obtaining and compiling up the Kazehakase browser.

In the meantime, I’ve been getting annoyed with extremely slow browsing and an apparent keyboard delay on Firefox under Ubuntu 9.04. I don’t find the WordPress site the quickest, but a keyboard delay leading to missing characters when I’m typing makes it even more frustrating. Add in browsing at the speed of an arthritic sloth with terminal asthma and a limp, and I’ve succeeded in my quest of finding something new to shout at.

Anyway, after deciding that enough was decidedly enough, I searched for, and found, a reason for this problem. I’ll explain why this problem affected the keyboard in a moment, but the solution is as follows:

• Open Firefox and in the address bar type:

  about:config

• In the Filter bar, type:

  ipv6

• Double-click on network.dns.disableIPv6 to set the value to “true”
• Restart Firefox

Obviously I’m assuming that you’re operating in an IPv4 environment, like me. Disabling this setting rapidly speeded up my browsing and removed the keyboard delay. But why?

Well, the browsing bit is obvious. If Firefox is attempting to resolve my IPv4 DNS server over IPv6, then it simply can’t. This is adding in an overhead on the browse time. Disabling IPv6 resolution means that it always resolves using IPv4. So that’s one problem solved. The keyboard issue took a bit more thought before I realised what was happening.

Basically, it boils down to the same name resolution problem. When you search in Google, you get the handly little “suggestion” as you’re typing. Each time you type a letter, Firefox has to make another call to Google’s servers to adjust the suggestion. Therefore, we experience the “lag”. The same problem happens if you have inline spell-checking switched on, which is why WordPress and any other text form was slow.

Switching it off has made Firefox more usable again, and the only thing that causes keyboard delays now is my rather random typing style!

EDIT 30th October: Check out this post for how to disable IPv6 in Ubuntu completely – this makes other browsers such as Opera work quickly.