JournalXtra

An Update on my Whearabouts

Dion de Ville — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:41:27 +0000

Hi faithful readers, I haven't deserted you or JournalXtra. I'm still about but have had to slow down while I concentrate on an event we are organizing and sponsoring to benefit a cancer charity local to Boston in Lincolnshire, England. The event will be held on the 28th August 2010 (this coming Saturday) and I will begin regular postings again from that day onwards. In the meantime I will stick to replying to comments, messages, emails and other help and work requests as and when I receive them. If I get time I will also make a post here too.

If any of you are in the area that day then you are more than welcome to come along. There will be the usual fun, games and raffles that are typically had at these events and a few local bands will be providing entertainment. You will need to bring your own alcohol. There will a burger van but bring your own snacks if you need anything more.

The event starts at 4pm, finishes at 11pm and a DJ will be spinning the decks after the live acts finish.

We have camping facilities so bring a tent if you want to stay over.

All profits will go to the Butterfly Hospice Trust.

The place to be is:

Keal Cotes Camping & Caravaning
The Villa
Main road
Keal Cotes
Spilsby
PE23 4AG
England

I'll update this post with any additional information.

An Update on my Whearabouts

This article is originally posted at http://journalxtra.com

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How to Install Windows Games and Apps into Linux

Dion de Ville — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:26:57 +0000

Last week I installed Ubuntu Linux onto my 12 year old nephew's laptop. He'd pestered me to do it for a while and this time when he came to visit he brought his laptop with him so I could get it working in ways that Windows never could.

He wanted his laptop to work faster than it was with Windows and for all its hardware to work.

Previously, we had to re-install Windows after it had become sluggish through software installation, removal, re-installation... As usual, Windows failed to install some of his laptop's hardware. Most importantly to my nephew, Windows failed to install his sound card drivers so his game and multimedia usage enjoyment dropped to zero.

He had used Linux on my computer and loved it. His favourite part of Linux is all the free games and the ease with which they are installed. So, back to the beginning point of this article, I had a lovely time installing Linux on his laptop (took an hour to install and 3 days to get his laptop's WiFi kill switch disabled - I'll explain how to do that in another post).

So, armed with his new Linux laptop, he logged into his favourite Facebook games and asked me how he could install Cheat Engine.

I explained how to use scanmem and Game Conqueror but neither programs suited his purpose.

So that spurred me to this article - How to Install windows Games and Apps into Linux.

Most Linux users, and I'm guessing you're one of us, are aware of Wine, the non-emulator that enables Linux users to install Windows software without having to duel boot with Windows. But are you aware of your other options:

How to Install Windows Games and Apps into Linux

This article is originally posted at http://journalxtra.com

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Ubuntu: Fixing the Blank Screen on Installation Bug

Dion de Ville — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:59:24 +0000

I had the pleasure of installing Ubuntu onto two old computers this weekend. One laptop and one desktop. Both resistant to Doctor Dion's orders.

The Ubuntu graphical installer is poor at detecting and setting up old graphics cards and monitors. It is a strange and frustrating problem because once Ubuntu is installed it detects and configures them effortlessly. The installation issue shows itself through symptoms which include any of the following:

A perpetually blank screen that prevents any set-up questions from being answered
A continuously moving animated gif that suggests "something amazing is about to happen"; which it is - the computer is about to get a boot from its frustrated user!

An error message that reads

vesamenu.c32: attempted DOS system call
boot:

Whatever the symptom, I am sure that it will have prompted you to clean your disc, to clean your disc drive, to re-download your installation iso, to reburn it at increasingly slower speeds, to Google umpteen times with search terms like:

Ubuntu: Fixing the Blank Screen on Installation Bug

This article is originally posted at http://journalxtra.com

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WordPress Security Tips

Dion de Ville — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:12:45 +0000

Look around the Net and you will see plenty of blog posts about WordPress sites getting hacked. As a blog owner you probably feel as protective about your site and its content as a teenage girl's dad feels about protecting his daughter from hormone charged males. If you were the parent of a teenage girl you would struggle to get her into a chastity belt and I couldn't help you to do that but I can help you protect your blog with software equivalents to chastity belts. So let's see how we can keep malicious users from getting into your blog's nether regions.

No blog or website is one hundred percent secure. All sites, no matter whether a content management system is used or not, is safe from a determined hacker. Even websites managed by NASA and other US military agencies are not out of bounds; as allegedly proved by Gary McKinnon. Google around and you will find more examples of seemingly impenetrable servers being hacked by seemingly everyday people.

The most any blog administrator intent on hardening his Wordpress site can hope to achieve through improved security is to deter bots and casual hackers.

I will say it again to make sure you got my disclaimer the first time round: a real and capable person who is determined to hack into a WordPress blog (or any other website) will always find a way in. The more secure a site is, the greater the challenge to hack it, the more determined the hacker becomes to undress it.

Getting back onto the purpose of this post, the four key concerns of any security bolstering plans for a WordPress site are:

WordPress Security Tips

This article is originally posted at http://journalxtra.com

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Heads Up About the Latest Atahualpa Theme

Dion de Ville — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:39:15 +0000

For those of us who like to use highly customizable free WordPress themes like Suffusion and Thematic, there is some good news today: Atahualpa 3.5.2 is available for download. Unfortunately (did you guess that was coming?), Atahualpa 3.5.2 has a serious bug that causes server CPU and memory usage to skyrocket.

I've tried Atahualpa 3.5.2 on multiple servers and in all cases the CPU usage spirals above 37% and the memory usage goes beyond 5%. Such a shame because its straight-edged look is a great alternative to Suffusion's curvy look.

I advise anyone wishing to upgrade to Atahualpa 3.5.2 to wait for a bug fix to be released or risk being kicked off your server. Alright, the most that'll usually happen is that your server account will be suspended until the theme is downgraded.

If you have already installed (or upgraded to) the new theme version and your web host has suspended your account without providing you access to your WordPress admin panel, just delete the Atahualpa 3.5.2 directory in /wp-content/themes/ to force WordPress to use its default theme (TwentyTen, or Kubrik in pre WP 3 versions).

Heads Up About the Latest Atahualpa Theme

This article is originally posted at http://journalxtra.com

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