Don't Surf in the Nude!

Static IP for wireless printer

2012-01-28T13:01:00.000-08:00

I've lost count of the number of times I've tried to print or scan something only to find the printer wasn't recognised. It's a wireless printer (very conveniently situated out of the way on the other side of the room), and of course the reason it wasn't recognised is I hadn't given it a static IP address. Occasionally the router gives the printer a different address to the one I entered when setting up the printer and the computer can't find it.
I'm not the only one to have had the same problem. When I read about a printer not working on the Debian forum recently, I guessed it was also an IP problem. After an update to Debian 6.0.4 today, I decided to check if the printer was working, and it had disappeared again!
I decided it was time to look into giving the printer a static IP. I'd always assumed this would involve turning off DHCP (making connecting other devices like smart phones more of a pain), but I was wrong. Giving the printer a static IP address simply involves giving it an address outside the DHCP pool. There are some detailed instructions here.
My printer now has a static IP address, and as an additional benefit, it now connects in seconds, whereas it used to require several minutes to connect by DHCP.

Configuration heaven

2012-01-27T12:14:00.000-08:00

I've been trying out KDE on a Fedora Live USB after reading this review comparing it to Windows 7.

[U]sers moving between KDE and Windows 7 won't find many differences in basic navigation. However, the differences in how features are implemented are obvious as soon as you start configuring.

They certainly are. Every application in KDE seems to have one hundred configuration options, as does every panel, widget or window. It's clearly aimed at "power users". Fiddling with configuration options is not my cup of tea. I like the minimalism of Gnome, and Gnome applications.
Give me Gnome 3 with its almost complete lack of configuration options any day.

Gnome users are revolting V

2012-01-27T11:48:00.000-08:00

More of a reactionary backlash than a revolution: Linux Mint has torn down the new institutions of progress and restored the old regime. They have recreated Gnome 2 from Gnome 3, complete with wobbly windows, the minimise button, quick launchers and window buttons in the panel, and applets galore in the notification area.
Now I quite like Gnome 2. I'm using it now. But it's a Windows 95 paradigm which needs to go.
I love Gnome 3 and I'm looking forward to it geting into Debian stable. There are some things which I wish were more configurable in Gnome 3, but none of them involve going back towards Gnome 2.

Resume a download in Firefox

2012-01-24T23:06:00.000-08:00

I left the computer on overnight to download an .iso file. In the morning, there was still about 100MB of 600MB to download. I was doing some browsing when the internet stopped. I rebooted by router and it started again, but my download resumed from zero. Oh noes!
The partially downloaded .iso was in my Downloads folder with a .part tag, and Firefox had created a new, almost zero .iso file.
Fortunately, I found a way to get Firefox to resume the old, almost complete download here,although I had to adapt it slightly: pause the new download, delete the empty .iso file, rename the old .iso.part file to .iso and restart the download in Firefox.
It also seems to be possible to resume downloads with wget. This didn't work with the .iso.part file, but maybe it would have after removing the .part tag.

Automount USB hard drive in Debian

2012-01-19T13:35:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to work out why my USB hard drive wasn't recognised by my recent install of Debian Squeeze if I plugged it in after booting (it worked fine if plugged in while booting).
This post on the Debian forum gave me the clue I needed.
I went to System>Administration>Users and Groups and clicked on Advanced Settings for my user name. It was just a case of ticking Mount user-space file systems (FUSE).

CheckGmail keeps asking for username and password

2012-01-16T14:16:00.000-08:00

CheckGmail is a nice little utility for... well, I'm sure you can guess what for. The version in the Debian Squeeze repository gave wouldn't let me log in and kept telling me the username or password was wrong.
The update command that's supposed to cure the problem according to the website didn't work on my system, I think because I don't have Sudo set up.
There's a method of manually updating the program described on this site.
That didn't work until I'd applied a patch as described here.

Debian 6.03 install niggles

2012-01-09T07:56:00.000-08:00

I installed Debian 6.03 on my laptop recently. I found a couple of niggles post-installation.
The first was that the external hard drive wouldn't mount. I found the solution here.
The next was that the protocols in Pidgin were greyed out. I found a work around here, but the real problem was that Network Manager wasn't working- the install had configured an Ethernet connection leaving Network Manager obsolete. I had a connection but no way of enabling wireless. I found the solution here.
Despite the niggles, Debian really is rock-solid. Even after just a year it feels dated compared to Fedora 16 which I've been using recently, but it doesn't have the same huge updates every few days, or any of the minor crashes.
I am missing Gnome 3, and looking forward to seeing it in Debian 7, hopefully in a similar rock-solid state by then.

Firefox 9 crashes

2012-01-05T21:55:00.000-08:00

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has a report that Firefox 9 was prone to crashes. I did notice Firefox crashing two or three times recently. 9.01 apparently fixes the problem (or more accurately removes a bug fix which caused the unexpected problem). I have 9.01 now on Fedora and haven't noticed any more crashes.
9.01 is also claimed to show noticeable speed improvements. I can't say I have noticed. When I do notice the internet being slow, it's usually because of some third-party content that won't load. Anything on Wordpress takes forever to load.

The safest web browser? Part III

2011-12-13T22:29:00.000-08:00

Accuvant Labs has a new study out on browser security. The report (commissioned by Google) says Chrome is the most secure browser, because it has a well-implemented sandbox. Well, maybe.
But the report also contains data on browser vulnerability statistics, along with some very sensible caveats on using these to make any claims about security:

Given all this information, we can conclude that the browsers are different. Development methodologies, corporate structure and patch release infrastructure all play a role in making dissimilar graphs. However, none of these pieces of information can be used to draw a security related conclusion.

They seem to be saying, "please don't use our vulnerability graphs to imply that one browser is more secure than another".

Unfortunately, actually reading the report seemed to be too much trouble for ZDNet.

[A]ccording to the report Mozilla’s Firefox has the highest vulnerability count compared to Google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Would you switch browsers over the results from a comparative review such as this one commissioned by Google?

Either they didn't read the report, or they couldn't resist a bit of sensational journalism. Either way, they are doing a gross disservice to their readers.

As usual, the partisans pick up the FUD and start spreading it around:

Firefox fails miserably.

Avast! forum.

I don't know which is more depressing: that a news source can so casually misrepresent a report they are writing a story about, or that there are so many gullible idiots around that will lap up the misrepresentation.

Gnome extensions site

2011-12-07T13:50:00.001-08:00

Gnome how have a web site where users can install shell extensions, just like Firefox users can install add-ons at the Mozilla site. What I really want to see there is an extension that will allow me to get the functionality of Alt Tab with a mouse click on the panel, maybe next to Activities.

Gnome users are revolting less

2011-12-03T13:14:00.001-08:00

Or should that be less revolting?

Seems that Gnome 3 isn't that bad after all

Hey, with gnome-tweak-tool and the dock extension, gnome-3.2 is starting to look almost usable.

InternetNews.com

I'm trying to check out the dock extension now. Seems to be in the Fedora repository, but how to enable it is another questions.

Update: OK, you have to install gnome-tweak to activate the dock. Which is a turd. There may be some things Gnome 3 could do better, but this is like nailing a lump of wood onto the side of a new car to help you find the door handle more easily.

Alt Tab in Gnome 3

2011-12-03T11:45:00.001-08:00

Alt Tab is a very useful keyboard shortcut in Gnome 3. But why isn't it available with a mouse click? Using the the 'Activities' button or hotspot is just too busy when switching between applications.
I've been using Windows 7 a bit recently and I quite like the way Windows does application switching: application icons appear in the bottom panel and hovering over the icon brings up images of open documents.
Gnome is more minimalist, and doesn't show running applications in the panel. But why not have a button in the panel for application switching, with the same function as Alt Tab for us mouse-bound users?

Needles, noodles and nanodes

2011-11-23T15:07:00.001-08:00

Goolge has celebrated the work of science fiction author Stanislaw Lem with a doodle inspired by a story in The Cyberiad about two bickering robotic inventors who create a robot that can produce anything beginning with the letter 'n' upon request. The robot brings forth a needle, noodles and nanodes before one of the inventors foolishly asks it to make nothing, and the robot obliges.
The illustrations in the book were apparently by Daniel Mróz, and it's these that inspire the doodle as much as the Lem story.

The safest web browser? Part II

2011-10-23T12:23:00.000-07:00

I've written before about browser security. I found that if you look at browser exploits in the wild, which is really what matters, Internet Explorer and Firefox have been affected by such exploits in recent history. (Internet Explorer has been affected by far more further back in history, but let's put that behind us.) Looking at that criterion, Opera and Chrome are "more secure".
Of course it's also possible for a browser to be a vehicle of security compromise via a deliberate download of malware, rather than a "drive by" download as the result of a security exploit. I've also written about Microsoft's claim that Internet Exporer is much better at blocking this sort of malware than other browsers, and found that it is, but possibly with a 30-75% chance that the "malware" blocked is a legitimate file or program- a false positive rate that would cause outrage if it was a third-part anti-virus program doing it.
Now there's a new story which claims that Internet Explorer is the safest browser and Firefox is the least secure. To cut to the chase, it's Microsoft doing its own evaluation of browser security, and giving more weight to Internet Explorer's (somewhat contentious) ability to block malware than its record on security vulnerabilities.
The story has been greeted by derision by two other writers on the ZDNet site, who point out that at the same time the story appeared Microsoft Explorer contained a major security vulnerability that affected even the latest version (IE9) which Microsoft was touting as much more secure, and that the "online security test" that Microsoft was doing was merely looking at the browser ID string and reporting Microsoft's previously-determined security assessment based on its own (some would argue biased) weighting.
Is there any truth to Microsoft's claim that Internet Explorer is "more secure" than Firefox? Another story I came across this week takes a slightly more objective look.

Paul Mehta, senior research scientist at Accuvant, told the SecTOR audience the Web browser rendering process should run at low integrity so, if it is compromised, the underlying system is still ok. In IE, the browser is assigned low integrity and the same is true for Chrome. Firefox runs everything as a medium integrity process, according to Mehta. (eSecurity Planet.)

So Internet Explorer and Chrome are "sandboxed", and Firefox isn't. Doesn't that make Firefox less secure? Well not if there are exploits which can get through the sandbox and infect the system, which is exactly the sort of exploit reported in Internet Explorer above. Which makes the Microsoft claim regarding Firefox debatable. I have reported a story which claimed that Chrome's sandbox had been breached, but never found out if there was any truth to it. So the Microsoft claim that Internet Explorer is more secure than Chrome is also debatable: we have a proven exploit of the MS sandbox, verses an unsubstantiated claim of a breach in the Chrome sandbox.
An important point to make here is that Internet Explorer is "sandboxed" and Firefox not because Microsoft won't let non-Microsoft software use its sandbox. The playing field is not level for Mozilla, Google or Opera. Chrome has chosen to add its own sandbox, which may give it a security advantage.
So what is the safest browser? Well, if you really feel the need for a sandbox, possibly Chrome. If somebody tells you its Internet Explorer 9, they've probably been listening to the Microsoft FUD. If they tell you Firefox is the least secure, then they've definitely been listening to Microsoft FUD, and as I pointed out before, they're very likely doing so for partisan rather than evidential reasons.

Gnome users are revolting IV

2011-09-25T14:08:00.000-07:00

Here's one Gnome user who is definitely revolting:

Reactions across the Internet were virtually identical with one fine division; users who were using Gnome 3 in a production environment or had use cases that required them to maintain a productive work-flow were completely hampered by the experience while the much smaller class of adventurous casual users thought that it was pretty and offered enough bling for them to impress their friends with.

I have to say I don't recognise myself from the description. Is this claim based on some sort of scientific survey, or just pulled from the author's behind? Certainly there are a lot of anti-Gnome 3 reviews on the internet, but there are some good ones too.

Here are a couple of examples.

Two reasons Why Jim Nelson Likes GNOME 3 Shell:

Stability – Considering this is an initial release, I’ve found the Shell to be remarkably stable. I’ve had no freezes or crashes. While that seems like a low bar to overcome, this is essentially an 0.1 release. Not much 0.1 code can make the claim that it’s stable. Most 0.1 code is just happy it compiles.

Productivity – I should list this first, but I decided to save the best for last. My productivity has jumped since I switched to GNOME 3 Shell. This might be a highly subjective evaluation. I suspect I’m not alone.

No, you're not. Jack Wallen likes it too. Here are a couple of examples of the 10 things he's grown to love about GNOME 3:

1: Minimalism I have always been a minimalist. No icons, no widgets, no nothing. I want a clean desktop, and GNOME 3 offers about as clean a desktop as you can get without running E16. The only object on the desktop is the panel — until you reveal the launcher. But just because GNOME 3 takes a minimalist approach doesn’t mean it’s not easy to use. In fact, once you get used to it, it’s one of the easiest to use desktops you will come across.

7: Compositing The compositing of GNOME 3 is elegant and far from overstated. Instead of going the Compiz route, GNOME 3 opts for subtle use of transparency and a few simple, clean effects that highlight how a compositor can actually improve the efficiency of a desktop. Transitioning between windows or in and out of the Dash is about as graceful a transition as can be had on a computer desktop. Best of all, the compositor on GNOME 3 does not, in any way, take a hit on the performance of the machine. GNOME 3 compositing is so much in the background, you will hardly notice it doing its thing.

Gnome 2 is a Windows 95 paradigm. It's inefficient and redundant. Put a quick launch icon on the panel and it will launch the application, but it won't let you switch to it or tell you what that application is doing. No you can't minimise windows in Gnome 3, because it doesn't have a crowded and unreadable bottom panel. No, Gnome 3 isn't perfect, but it's already getting better.

I'm sure there must be more people like me who love the elegant efficiency of Gnome 3. Let's make out voices heard!

Gnome users are revolting III

2011-09-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

Hate Gnome 3? Looking for an alternative?

Jack Wallen has a suggestion.

Which is clearly an elegant improvement over the ugly and dated Gnome 3 paradigm.

Er... Or maybe Jack Wallen is taking the piss?

Mozilla Extended Support Release

2011-09-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

I've previously blogged on how the new fast development cycle from Firefox was making corporate deployment difficult.
Mozilla is now making a concession to corporate users with an Extended Support Release with security updates for 42 weeks instead of six weeks with the fast release cycle. Datamation has the story.

Gnome 3 built-in screencast

2011-09-20T12:06:00.000-07:00

Gnome 3 has built-in screencast recording. Just press Ctrl-Alt-Shift-R (you'll need to be a bit of a digital gymnast). How cool is that? No. 9 of Ten Gnome 3 features that won me over. Find the screencast in /home as a .webm file (reddit).

Gnome 3.2

2011-09-14T15:08:00.000-07:00

I've been using Gnome 3 for a couple of weeks now, and enjoying it a lot. There are a few things about it that I was thinking could be improved, but today I discovered from the As far as I know blog that the Gnome team is already ahead of me.

Gnome 3.2 is going to get:

A matching GDM welcome screen.
Integrated chat- no need to launch Empathy.
More natural workspace switcher behaviour.
Device hot plugging work nicely with the shell.
More obvious waiting messages.

The last one, for me, is the most annoying. Leave the computer for a few minutes and the only way to see if an email has arrived in the meantime is push the cursor into the bottom right of the screen to bring up the message tray.

Edit and convert GTK-RecordMyDesktop output

2011-09-08T13:38:00.000-07:00

Just a link I found useful while experimenting with RecordMyDesktop. Output is in the Ogg format, which Avidemux can't edit. TuxArena Blog has a tip on how to convert the output file to a format Avidemux can handle, and at the same time reduce the size of the file before uploading to a video-sharing website of your choice.

Can't stop GTK-RecordMyDesktop in Gnome 3

2011-09-08T13:08:00.000-07:00

RecordMyDesktop is a program for recording screencasts. I was trying it out today when I encountered some unexpected results. I started recording, but couldn't find a way to stop. The program was in the Gnome 3 notification area at the bottom of the screen, but clicking it resulted only in the top Gnome panel disappearing. Fortunately I found a solution on Google before my HD filled up. There seems to be an incompatibility issue, which can be avoided by unticking a couple of (non-essential) options as described in the link.

Here's the screencast of the unstable behaviour. All-in-all a success, despite the hitch. A screencast review of Gnome 3 is a upcoming project.

Connecting to 1.gravatar.com

2011-09-07T01:51:00.000-07:00

Recently I've noticed WordPress blogs taking a long time to load, or stalling before loading completely, while Firefox displays the message Connecting to 1.gravatar.com. The delay is minutes rather than seconds, so this is a serious inconvenience.

The problem seems to be with the Gravatar service, which supplies an avatar to comments added to a blog post.

WordPress Comments Slow Down Page Speed.
Gravatars Can Slow-Down Your WordPress Blog.

Update: Adding an AdBlock filter for Gravatar fixes this. Simply right click on any Gravatar avatar and select AdBlock Plus: Block image.

Update 2: Not quite. Add a custom filter for http://*.gravatar.com/avatar/* to block all of Gravatar's servers.

s*.wp.com is also causing delays.

Empathy at startup in Gnome 3

2011-09-02T23:25:00.000-07:00

To run Empathy (the chat program in Gnome 3) at startup, it seems to be necessary to run gnome-session-properties in a terminal and manually add Empathy. (Found on Ask Ubuntu.)
Update: It seems the aim is to integrate chat into Gnome without the need for Empathy running.

From 3.2, GNOME 3 will have fully integrated chat and messaging. This means that the system will be able to automatically log you into chat and messaging services without you needing to launch a separate application, and you will be able to take calls, reply to chat and room invitations as well as file transfers from the shell itself. Much of this has already been implemented, including a decent chunk of backend work.

As far as I know.

Integrating Pidgin and Gnome 3

2011-09-02T23:09:00.000-07:00

Pidgin has always been my favourite chat program, and I've stuck with it even after Gnome switched to Empathy, partly out of habit, but also because it has the ability to block messages from people I don't know, and the ability to show email messages from web email applications and quickly go to the email page.
I've moved to Fedora 15 because I want to use Gnome 3, and I'm giving Empathy another go. I'm using Gmail to check my old and little-used web email accounts like Hotmail, and unless I get start getting annoying spam with Empathy, I might stick with it.
Empathy uses Gnome 3's new bottom-of-the-screen notification system. Apparently Pidgin doesn't, but there's a Gnome 3 extension that allows Pidgin to integrate. Hubfolio has a guide. I may be checking it out if the spammers find me.

Opera in Fedora

2011-09-02T22:49:00.000-07:00

It may not be open source, but I like Opera, and like to install it on Linux. I'm using Fedora 15 at the moment, and Opera is a manual install, and must also be updated manually when updates become available, but it's not hard to do. If Not True Then False has a guide.