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 […]
Technology
Help Thunderbird display emoticons in messages sent from Microsoft Outlook
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
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
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
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 […]
Remove Google Analytics from OpenVBX
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
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 […]
Safari for Windows: it just doesn’t work
When Apple announced it would offer Safari for Windows last June, I was curious to see how the browser would compare to Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer…so I downloaded it and tried it out. I was quite surprised to find that the browser functioned like an alpha product. It was buggy, slow, and extremely unpleasant […]
HP MediaSmart Server software and support far from stellar
A couple of weeks ago, after waiting nearly a month, I finally took delivery of HP’s MediaSmart ex475 Server, which I’ve been wanting to try out ever since I heard about it in early 2007. The system, which is based on Microsoft’s Windows Home Server, comes with a terabyte of storage, a 1.8 GHz processor […]