Archive for category Tips & Tweaks

Obscure Java error

Posted by Benny Chew in Coding/Development, Java, Tips & Tweaks on October 28th, 2007

Got a “java.lang.InternalError:Can’t connect to window server” while trying to get Glassfish up and running on a Mac G5 running Mac OS X recently at work which was pretty odd as our application and Glassfish do not fire up any GUIs. After some googling, problem was fixed by adding a ‘-Djava.awt.headless=true’ to the list of system variables.

Although it was fixed relatively easily, it seems rather odd that Java would actually try to access the X server even though I was running it through a SSH terminal window (PuTTY)..

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Firefox add-on: Split browser

Posted by Benny Chew in Firefox, Tips & Tweaks, Web on July 24th, 2007

A Firefox extension (add-on) which enables a Firefox window to have multiple tabs tiled to however you like which is useful if you have a widescreen LCD monitor. To read more, click here.

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YamiPod write up

Posted by Benny Chew in Gadgets, General Tech, Linux, Open Source, Tips & Tweaks, Windows on July 9th, 2007

Just posted a write up on YamiPod (Yet another iPod manager) which is an alternative iPod management software to iTunes here.

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Driver installation problems with Sony WALKMAN

Posted by Benny Chew in Gadgets, General Tech, Tips & Tweaks, Windows on July 7th, 2007

My sister got a Sony WALKMAN NW-E013F as a free gift recently and the installation of drivers continually terminated abruptly at about 70%. Initially she thought it was her fault but after some googling, it was Sony’s. >:| They somehow shipped CD-ROMs with defective drivers in them, which caused that installation troubles.

Taken from here:

Important information regarding the CD-ROM software supplied with the following WALKMAN: NW-E013/E015/E016/E013F/E015F/E016F

Some CD-ROM provided with the above mentioned models may not be used. Therefore, the Hardware Operation Guide (PDF) may not be opened and the Driver for Microsoft Windows 2000 users may not be installed.

If you’re having the same issues, just get the drivers from here and it should install fine. ;)

And here‘s the link to SonicStage 4.3 which is the software used to transfer your music to the device (similar to how iTunes works with the iPod).

Sony Asia Pacific’s announcement regarding this issue can be found here.

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myIPneighbors

Posted by Benny Chew in Tips & Tweaks, Web on June 25th, 2007

myIPneighbors provides a very quick and easy way to find out which other domains are hosted on the same server (IP would be more accurate I guess). If you have nothing better to do or just curious who else is on the same server as you, check it out.

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Testing LCDs for dead pixels

Posted by Benny Chew in Tips & Tweaks on June 25th, 2007

Just posted a short write up on testing LCDs at spherebox.

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Sharebee.com

Posted by Benny Chew in Tips & Tweaks, Web on June 16th, 2007

Just a site I came across earlier today which (re)uploads the file you uploaded to multiple file upload sites (Megaupload, zSHARE, Sendspace, RapidShare were the ones used when I tried). Sendspace links weren’t working for me then (apparently being fixed) and Megaupload link only worked after some delay. Link to the site: Sharebee.com

I don’t have much use for it, but if you’re into uploading files for multiple users to download from, this site would definitely cut the amount of time spent uploading to each different service. ;)

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A very neat WordPress plugin

Posted by Benny Chew in Tips & Tweaks, Web, WordPress on May 17th, 2007

As stated in the WordPress’s Codex, one of the steps in doing a proper upgrade of WordPress is deactivating all plugins beforehand (and reactivating upon successful upgrade). Since I’m managing a number of WordPress sites, and each WordPress install has a fair bit amount of active plugins, doing this is a considerably arduous task and annoying (especially so since updates/upgrades get released often).

I was googling around for a quick fix for this and found this plugin which works a treat. :)

Now if only that can be added to my shell script which currently automatically grabs the latest.tar.gz and rsyncs all the separate installs to promote further efficiency and laziness..

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Remove truncation of feed feature after more tag in WordPress 2.1

Posted by Benny Chew in Open Source, RSS, Tips & Tweaks, Web, WordPress on May 13th, 2007

If you have already upgraded to WordPress 2.1 and have the syndication feeds options set to ‘full text’, you might’ve noticed that the RSS feed for your blog post gets truncated after the use of the <!––more––> tag. This is a change in behaviour as compared to previous version of WordPress (2.0 and below) which would show the whole post in an RSS feed if the feed option was set to full text.

Without going into the debate of full vs. partial feeds (I’m on the full feeds side though ;)), there’s a WordPress plugin which does not require any additional configuration apart from just dropping it into your WordPress’s plugins directory and activating it. Get it from here.

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Windows XP/2003 Automatic Update restart annoyance

Posted by Benny Chew in Tips & Tweaks, Windows on May 12th, 2007

I got tired of my Windows 2003 automatic installation of security updates (and restart) when they are released, so I decided to go digging around to find a way to stop that. A quick Google search got me this site, whose step 2 did the trick. Here are the steps for my configuration:

  1. Go to Start->Run, and type ‘gpedit.msc ‘ without the quotes and hit OK.
  2. Browse down to Local Computer Policy->Computer Configuration->Administrative Templates->Windows Components->Windows Update.
  3. The settings which I changed are:
    • Enabled ‘Configure Automatic Updates‘ and set it to ’3 – Auto download and notify for install’
    • Enabled ‘No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Updates installations‘
    • Disabled ‘Allow Automatic Updates immediate installation‘
    • Enabled ‘Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations‘ and set it to 1440 minutes

Screenshot of my Group Policy Object Editor:

Group Policy Object Editor - Windows Update

As far as I know, Windows XP does not install updates automatically by default, so that might only be a default for Windows Server 2003 which I’m using. However, I believe the restart prompt is defaulted to 10mins for XP and 2003.

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