But I’m a real IT’er and I eat apples for breakfast, so after a little fixing I created this.

With a little fiddling the disk fitted, but the bracelet came out a half centimeter and I was unable to close the computer case. So I went to one of our company technicians and he made a little cut into the bracelet next to the original hole. Et voila!

Not the best solution, but it fits perfect and the SSD stays on his place.

After a little googling around I discovered that one of the programs uses GNU/Getttext to handle system language preference. Under Windows this function selects his languages not based on the Windows Language Preference, but rather on the regional settings. In my case this is Belgium. I find that a little bit odd, because Belgium has 3 official languages (Dutch, French and German). Not to mention the number of other nationalities who have a different native language. Luckily there is a workaround possible and you can force the language by setting the environment variable LANG. Just run the following command as an administrator in a command promt:

REG add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" /v "LANG" /t REG_SZ /d "en_US" /f

A little reboot later and all the programs start in English. (fig04.png)
If you want a different default language you need to change the “en_US” part to one of the following codes: language codes (Microsoft)

References:

http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=86094
http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/FAQ.html#windows_setenv
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms533052(v=vs.85).aspx

Prerequisite

The following tools are needed and you can download them by following the links:

• 7-Zip
• Windows build-in extractor
• Firefox setup file (en-US)
• 7zSD.sfx and app.tag (only needed when you create a new setup-file)

Note: about 7zSD.sfx and app.tag: you can also use the 7zSD.sfx from the 7-zip website, but it will give you a different setup-icon in the end. To create the app.tag-file, save the code in an ASCII-file (notepad) and save as app.tag (example).

Extracting

Open Firefox Setup 5.0.1.exe with 7-zip and extract to an empty folder. If you have 7-zip installed you can right-click on the Firefox Setup 5.0.1.exe > 7-zip > extract to “Firefox Setup 5.0.1\” (fig01.png, fig02.png)

fig01.png, fig02.png:

Default Settings

Default settings can be changed by an end-user. In this example we will use Google as default search engine, but an end-user could prefer Bing and using this method will give them the possibility to customize this. The end-user preferences will be stored in his own profile and the change will be limited to that profile. Warning: Not all options work so be sure to test them out!

Navigate to core\defaults\pref\ and open/create custom.js with a text-editor (fig03.png).
This is a normal javaScript-file and you add default settings with the function:
pref(“<key>”, <value>);
To find the default keys and values, open firefox and enter about:config in the address bar (fig04.png).

In our example we add the following line to custom.js:

pref("browser.search.defaultenginename", "Google");

fig03.png, fig04.png:

Locked preferences

Locked preferences are the same as default settings, with the exception that user can’t change the setting. Locked preferences are grayed out in the options menu our shown italic in about:config(fig05.png). In our example we will prevent client updates (and corresponding messages), because users don’t have the necessary right to do an update. But we will allow them to update there add-ons (or extensions) because updated add-ons are stored inside there profile. Firefox will also check once a week for an add-on update instead of the default one day.

First navigate to core\defaults\pref\ folder and create/modify the text file custom.js (fig06.png).
Add the following lines:

pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0);
pref("general.config.filename", "mozilla.cfg");

Next, navigate to core\ and create or modify the text file: mozilla.cfg (fig07.png).
Important: on the first line, add 2 slashes (//). In this file you can define the locked preferences almost in the same way like the default settings. But instead of using pref, you need to use the lockPref function:
lockPref(“<key>”, <value>);

To disable the client update function add the following lines in mozilla.cfg:

lockPref("app.update.enabled",false);
lockPref("app.update.auto", false);

For the add-ons add:

lockPref("extensions.update.enabled", true);
lockPref("extensions.update.interval", 604800000);
lockPref("extensions.update.notifyUser", true);
lockPref("extensions.update.url", "https://versioncheck.addons.mozilla.org/update/VersionCheck.php?reqVersion=%REQ_VERSION%&id=%ITEM_ID%&version=%ITEM_VERSION%&maxAppVersion=%ITEM_MAXAPPVERSION%&status=%ITEM_STATUS%&appID=%APP_ID%&appVersion=%APP_VERSION%&appOS=%APP_OS%&appABI=%APP_ABI%&locale=%APP_LOCALE%&currentAppVersion=%CURRENT_APP_VERSION%&updateType=%UPDATE_TYPE%");

The interval is 604800000 milliseconds, which is 7 days or once a week.

fig05.png, fig06.png, fig07.png, fig08.png:

Changing the default homepage

Changing the default homepage is maybe the most common thing for a enterprise setup. But since version 4 from Firefox, changing this setting is harder than you would expect from an “open” browser.

In the core-folder you find the file omni.jar. Unlike standard jar-files, which are zip-files, this is an optimized version using a python script. The big disadvantage is that 7-zip is unable to open the file because it handles compressed files really strict. Lucky for us, the extractor build into windows is less strict.

Rename the file omni.jar to omni.zip (fig09.png) and right click on the file > Extract All… (fig10.png, fig11.png). Go to the folder where you extracted the files (normally \core\omni) and navigate to chrome\en-US\locale\branding (fig12.png) . Open the file browserconfig.properties with a text-editor and change the setting browser.startup.homepage (fig13.png). Notice the little square in fig13.png? That’s just a line break under *nix, you can just remove it.
Example:

browser.startup.homepage=http://stijn.dhaese.be

Go to the omni-folder and compress all the files and folders to omni.zip. You can use 7-zip if you like, because this time we aren’t going to use an optimized version. (fig14.png) Rename the file to omni.jar. Than move this file to the core-folder (fig15.png). It’s best to do a little clean-up and remove omni.zip and the folder omni.

fig09.png, fig10.png, fig11.png, fig12.png, fig13.png, fig14.png, fig15.png:

Extensions/Add-ons

Extensions or Add-ons can be found on https://addons.mozilla.org, in this guide we will use ReminderFox by Tom Mutdosch and Daniel Lee. You can find it here.

Download the add-ons (use save as…) (fig16.png) and extract the .xpi file with 7-zip to an empty folder inside core\extensions (fig17.png, fig18.png). In the folder where you extracted the add-on, you will find the file install.rdf. This is an XML-file and you just need to open it with a text-editor. Inside the xml element <rdf:description> you find the xml element <em:id> (fig19.png). Rename the folder of the add-on to the value of <em:id> (fig20.png).

fig16.png, fig17.png, fig18.png, fig19.png, fig20.png:

Little note: In the future you won’t need to extract the .xpi file and you just need to place them inside core\extensions. It’s on the roadmap of the Mozilla team.

Creating the Setup File

The next and final step is optional, you can go to the extraction folder of the setup file an just run setup.exe (fig21.png). It depends on the way you deploy the installation, but in most cases you are better off with one compact setup file.

To do this select the setup.exe and core-folder and compress to a 7-zip container (fig22.png)
Move this file to the folder where you stored 7zSD.sfx and app.tag. (fig23.png)
Open a command prompt, navigate to the folder and use the following command (fig24.png):

copy /b 7zSD.sfx+app.tag+"Firefox Setup 5.0.1.7z" "Customized Firefox Setup 5.0.1.exe"

Note: You need to change Firefox Setup 5.0.1.7z to the name you have used to create the 7-zip container.

And that’s it, Customized Firefox Setup 5.0.1.exe is now you customized Firefox installation file.

fig21.png, fig22.png, fig23.png, fig24.png:

Final word

I hope you find this guide useful to create a customized setup for you enterprise environment.
If you have any comments or remarks, feel free to do so. The same way for spelling error’s, English isn’t my native language, so please if you find one (and I’m sure you do), let me know.

References:

http://www-archive.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/l10n/localize-release.html
http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Locking_preferences
http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries#Extensions.
http://blog.mozilla.com/tglek/2010/09/14/firefox-4-jar-jar-jar/
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3065694&group_id=14481&atid=114481

Lets start:

1. First close down steam. Right click in the taskbar icon and exit.
2. Go to steamapps folder of steam folder. In most cases you will find this in
   

   C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps

   or
   

   C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps

3. In this folder you will find 4 files: left 4 dead base.ncf, left 4 dead binaries.ncf, left 4 dead client binary.ncf and left 4 dead sound.ncf. Remove these files.
4. Next, go into the common folder, there you will find a left 4 dead folder. Again. remove it.
5. Start Steam and normally left4dead will be gone in your “installed” list and will be found in the “not installed” list.

Now that wasn’t so hard, probably the reason why I didn’t found any guides about it on the net. If you want to install the game again, just use the disk or download it.

1, 2, 3 -tutorial

All you need to do is go to the source code of the page ands search (ctrl+f) for ‘v_videoUrl’ the link after that is the download link. Copy paste in your browser and done.

Another and easier way is to copy-past the permalink into the next textbox and hit “Give me the download link”.

Note about piracy: It’s really complicate, if you download, print or save something from deredactie.be you need to keep in mind that all materials are copyrighted. However, there is a grey area in the Belgium law that allows you to use it for personal use and (if I’m correct) for studying. Let me put it this way:

• May you show it to your friends? Yes
• May you place it on facebook (or other website)? No
• May you use it for a school project in class? Yes
• May you use it for a school project outside class or in front of strangers? No

Black Browser preview

Just like the previous version, you can download it from my Deviantart account. There is support for windows (Vista/XP), OS X and Linux (Gnome and KDE), hope you like them.

Here some useful links to install them:

• L!ve working example [link]
• How to create and delete a shotcurt (Windows) [link]
• Changing a windows shortcut icon (and other FAQ) [link]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Belgium License.

1. Let’s open a terminal and run: acpi_listen
   Then hit the ThinkVantage key. In my case it generated an “ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001018″ event.
2. In the “/etc/acpi/events/”-folder you will find the file: thinkpad-thinkpad.
   Open it in an editor and you will see something like:

   # ThinkVantage/ThinkPad/Blue button
   event=ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001018
   action=/etc/acpi/thinkpad-thinkpad.sh

3. See the file /etc/acpi/thinkpad-thinkpad.sh in the script? Go to the folder and open it.
   In my file I had:

   #!/bin/sh
    
   test -f /usr/share/acpi-support/key-constants || exit 0
    
   . /usr/share/acpi-support/key-constants
   acpi_fakekey $KEY_PROG1

   But for some reason this didn’t work and I changed $KEY_PROG1 to $KEY_MACRO, getting:

   #!/bin/sh
    
   test -f /usr/share/acpi-support/key-constants || exit 0
    
   . /usr/share/acpi-support/key-constants
   acpi_fakekey $KEY_MACRO

4. Save the file and restart acpid by running the following command in your terminal: sudo /etc/init.d/acpid restart
5. Now it’s time to check our success, run xev in your terminal and you will get a little window next to your terminal, ignore the terminal for now and click on the little square, then hit the ThinkVantage button and look at the terminal. You will see 2 events, something similar to:

   KeyPress event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x2800001,
       root 0x6a, subw 0x0, time 2000522842, (138,83), root:(781,500),
       state 0x0, keycode 120 (keysym 0x0, NoSymbol), same_screen YES,
       XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
       XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
       XFilterEvent returns: False
   
   KeyRelease event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x2800001,
       root 0x6a, subw 0x0, time 2000522842, (138,83), root:(781,500),
       state 0x0, keycode 120 (keysym 0x0, NoSymbol), same_screen YES,
       XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
       XFilterEvent returns: False

   Really important is “keycode 120 (keysym 0×0, NoSymbol)“, write down the keycode (in my case 120) and close the window.

6. Open a new terminal or go to you home folder (in your terminal) and execute the following command: xmodmap -pke > xmodmap.conf
7. Open the file and add XF86LaunchA to your corresponding keycode (in my case 120), giving you:
   keycode 120 = XF86LaunchA

   Note: XF86LaunchA, is a keysyms so you can’t just place something here, you can look up the keysyms in /usr/share/X11/XKeysymDB. I used XF86LaunchA but if you would like to use the ThinkVantage button to do something different you could assign a different keysym. Example, you want to open the default webrowser, then you are better of with XF86WWW.

8. Let’s assign this map to the keyboard with the command:xmodmap xmodmap.conf
9. Again start xev (like in step 5). This time you need to get something like: “keycode 120 (keysym 0x1008ff4a, XF86LaunchA)“
10. This means success but first we want to load xmodmap.conf when Ubuntu starts. To do this, enter the following commands in the terminal:

    sudo cp xmodmap.conf /etc/xmodmap.conf
    cd /etc/gdm/PostLogin
    sudo cp Default.sample Default
    sudo gedit Default

    Now add to the file: xmodmap /etc/xmodmap.conf
    And save.

    The first time you will start (or restart) your system, ubuntu will ask to load the file. Offcource, we want to do this so select the file and load it. If you want, you may remove the xmodmap.conf in your home folder at this point.

11. Last thing to do is to assign the key to the terminal in System >Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts.
    And… SUCCES

I hope this tutorial could be of some help. Please leave a comment if you have a suggestion or a problem or just want to say thank you. In the future I will try to update this version to the last release of Ubuntu as soon as I installed it. If you would use this tutorial for commercial use, like placing it in a magazine (online and offline) or book, please donate a small fee.

You can download it on my Deviantart account.
It contains a PNG (*nix), ICO (windows) and ICNS (OS X) version.
And here some useful links to install them:

• L!ve working example [link]
• How to create and delete a shotcurt (Windows) [link]
• Changing a windows shortcut icon (and other FAQ) [link]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Belgium License.

After a few weeks of designing I have finally finished a blog design for wordpress and decided to use it as my default blog engine.

Why? Well because it’s popular and while I was designing I noticed it was quite easy to extend with your own code. Next to that, it’s also stable ^_^

Together with this wordpress I decided to ‘ditch’ my old domeinname (codeforpron.com) and in a few days or weeks I will redirect them to this domein (http://stijn-dhaese.be/blog).

The disadvantage of this little operation is that I will lose all my old post from my own system, however I currently moving them to wordpress and for most of the time it’s just copy and paste (lucky me).

Greets