Reflections on American Life ← Villeneuve Family Portal ← Just another WordPress site

Force Kubuntu to let you install new login themes

Mar

2011

Problem: You’re tired of the default Kubuntu login theme and want to install a new one. But when you try to add new themes by going to System Settings > Login Screen (under the category System Administration) > Theme, nothing happens. Cause: A flaw in KDE Solution: Open Konsole and type: kdesudo kcmshell4 kdm This ...

Help Thunderbird display emoticons in messages sent from Microsoft Outlook

Mar

2011

Problem: Mozilla Thunderbird (running on a GNU/Linux machine) doesn’t display emoticons in messages that were sent using Microsoft Outlook. Instead, emoticons appear as the letter “J”. Cause: Microsoft’s lack of concern for web and email standards Solution: Install the “Wingdings” font so that Thunderbird can actually render the emoticons. On the latest versions of Ubuntu, ...

What to do when GParted crashes on your Live CD

Mar

2011

Problem: GParted crashes while starting up when launched from the Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat Live CD, or from a Maverick USB installation. Restarting the computer and beginning another live session fails to help matters. Solution: There’s actually a pretty simple solution for this very annoying problem: Upgrade GParted. A user dealing with this problem could, ...

What to do when Flash audio stops working on Ubuntu/Kubuntu

Sep

2010

The situation: You’re trying to watch a Flash movie in Firefox and you can see video just fine, but the audio is stuttering like a broken record, making it impossible to hear the sound. Audio does not stutter in non-Flash applications. You have the latest version of Flash from the Ubuntu repositories. What’s going on? ...

Recovering a lost blog post: What to do when you’ve tried everything

Aug

2010

The situation: You’ve just spent the last few hours writing a post for your blog or newsletter, using the editor built into your blogging or mailing platform, which you access inside of a web browser. You go to hit Publish, and you get prompted to login (because it auto-logged you out for some reason). Or ...

What to do when the GUI won’t boot up after a kernel update

Aug

2010

After running an update the other day at the prompting of KPackageKit (the software that Kubuntu uses to manage and install system upgrades), I rebooted to find that my GUI (graphical user interface) had disappeared. Puzzled, I logged in at the command line and tried to start X, but Kubuntu threw back an error. I ...

Remove Google Analytics from OpenVBX

Jul

2010

If you’ve installed OpenVBX on your server to provide an administrative backend for your virtual phone system, then you may have noticed that Twilio, Inc. – the company that released OpenVBX – has slipped a Google Analytics tracking script into the package’s source code. I consider this unethical, because they don’t state upfront that they’ve ...

Bluetooth to the rescue

Jun

2009

As anyone who has spent enough time with electronics knows, computers and mobile phones are delicate, fragile devices that are prone to malfunctioning or breaking. And often it takes just the loss of one essential component to render an entire device useless. That’s what happened to me at the beginning of the month when I ...

Huskies defeat Arizona, 83-78, at Hec Ed

Feb

2009

Nice: BREAKING NEWS: Washington has clinched at least a tie for the Pac-10 basketball championship with an 83-78 victory over Arizona. Details to come. It was a pretty close game all the way through, but the Huskies stayed ahead at the end with good free throw shooting, making up for missed shots in the first ...

We’re better than this, Mustangs

Feb

2009

This is how a high school basketball game ends in our house? In a matter of seconds, Friday night’s KingCo 4A Crest Division boys basketball game between Redmond and fourth-ranked Garfield turned sour. In a bizarre scene, a Redmond High School senior charged out of the stands and punched Garfield player De’Andre Taylor in the ...