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Getting my desktop back on Ubuntu 12.04

2014-01-07T20:43:00.000-08:00

Quick summary: Can't start my desktop (GUI) > No Internet access, hence no apt-get install > What the hell?!

For some reason, I have unintentionally uninstalled ubuntu-desktop from my system. That is, when I try to log into Ubuntu, all I get is the command line (tty). The command startx which is supposed to run the graphical desktop gives me some sort of "not found" error. From what I've read in forums, I'm probably missing an installation of ubuntu-desktop. Strange.

GRUB loading, Error 21 on Windows 7

2013-05-31T23:50:00.002-07:00

I installed Linux on a flash drive and after booting my computer, I encountered an error:

GRUB Loading Stage 1.5.
GRUB loading, please wait...
Error 21

From what I read, this means that I can no longer boot windows normally without having the flash drive plugged in because my Windows MBR was corrupted by the installation of GRUB Stage 1. Anyway, a great explanation of this mess can be read here (start at the second paragraph).

MBR can be easily repaired with the Windows recovery disc, which I don't have but I did find an easy solution which worked well for me.

Volume slider keeps going down

2013-05-28T18:33:00.000-07:00

A strange thing happened to my volume slider - it kept sliding down to 0 by itself.

In my case, the solution was quite simple. My keyboard has media keys and it turned out that the volume down key was jammed. If you encounter this same problem, I hope it's just because of your volume control keys as well. I came across posts in forums whose problem lies in the soundcard or other complicated stuff.

Computer restarts after hibernating

2013-05-18T20:55:00.000-07:00

Just a quick tip here. Whenever I run into the problem of having my computer restart instead of hibernating, it is usually because of plugging in a new device -- most often, a mouse.

If this is your case, you can try the following solution.

How I got SpeedFan to run at startup in Windows 7

2013-04-16T20:15:00.002-07:00

I was having trouble running SpeedFan on startup. I've already tried placing a shortcut on the Startup folder and even tried using the Task scheduler. Not sure what configuration I am missing on the Task scheduler but I always see an error that SpeedFan can't be started up because of admin permissions or something (although I did set it to Run with highest privileges). Anyway, if you seem to have the same problem, you can try my solution but I don't guarantee that this is the best. If anyone knows how or why, feel free to share it in the comment section.

Display post thumbnails for post summaries in Blogger

2013-04-15T05:36:00.001-07:00

I've seen blogs which display post thumbnails with its post summary in their homepage, search results, label results -- well as long as it isn't a static page or the post page itself. You can do this in a number of ways. You can settle for thumbnail images at the beginning of your posts, or create two versions of your post image (a thumbnail size and its original size) or perhaps use a script to do the resizing.

Using custom fonts in your Blogger template

2013-04-10T00:43:00.000-07:00

This post will be about applying custom fonts in your Blogger template using Google web fonts. I'll be assuming you are already familiar with HTML and CSS so I won't get into much of its details -- but feel free to ask if you need any help.

How to crop and resize videos in VirtualDub

2013-04-01T07:46:00.001-07:00

This post will be about cropping and resizing your videos in VirtualDub. The steps involved are pretty easy so hopefully, I won't end up confusing you or myself.

My CamStudio and VirtualDub settings for time-lapse videos

2013-03-25T08:34:00.001-07:00

Today I will share about my CamStudio and VirtualDub settings for recording time-lapse videos (meant for Youtube). I always forget about the setup I use so I thought of posting it here to keep it handy. If you are interested, feel free to read on!

How to add, delete and edit labels in Blogger

2013-03-20T00:41:00.000-07:00

In this post, I will show how you can add, delete and update labels for multiple posts in Blogger.

Using if/else to customize elements in specific pages in Blogger

2013-03-19T07:33:00.000-07:00

Controlling certain elements visibility, usually widgets, in your blogger pages can a bit confusing if you are not familiar with coding or with the blogger template. In this post, I will note down the things I learned in using the if/else tag for hiding or showing elements in specific pages in blogger.

I'll be focusing in using the if/else tags in your template - how to use it and where you can use it. Anyway, just let me know in the comments section if something isn't clear.

Setting up a Test blog in Blogger

2013-03-17T01:39:00.000-07:00

I thought I'll just share with you guys how I setup my test blog here in Blogger. Well it's a reminder to myself too cause there's a couple of things I sometimes forget when putting up my test blog.

In case you are wondering what a test blog is, it's basically a site where you do all your testing especially if you are unsure of the outcome. It could really be risky to apply updates directly to your live blog especially if it's a major change, unstable or experimental.

This post is meant for existing blogs in which you want to put up a test site for. You can still follow this if you haven't got a blog yet but some of the steps used here won't apply.

So let's begin!

Use next and previous post titles as navigation in Blogger

2013-01-03T00:43:00.001-08:00

UPDATE [2013.05.01]: Simplified steps and updated code and sample. As a dear reader pointed out, the old post wasn't beginner friendly (and yes I confused myself as well).

By default, at the end of each Blogger post, we get the "Newer Post" and "Older Post" navigation links. As I have seen in other sites, it looks better if it showed the next and previous post titles instead. So in this tutorial, I will show you how to customize your post navigation links so that it will display the titles of your next and previous posts.

Replace "Newer Posts" and "Older Posts" with post titles.

How to use Blogger labels as navigation in your blog

2012-09-09T17:22:00.003-07:00

Labels in Blogger, if used correctly, are a great way of categorizing your posts. So now I will show you how to use them as navigation in your blog.

How to customize AddThis on Blogger

2012-09-09T01:48:00.000-07:00

If you plan to use or are using the AddThis widget on Blogger, you may find that you cannot easily control where to make your AddThis share buttons appear.

When installing AddThis for Blogger, normally you would use its Blogger widget. I find this too bulky as it uses javascript to parse your template to render the buttons. Sure you can modify the script so that you can position your buttons elsewhere but I don't find that solution flexible enough.

Instead of using the Blogger widget, I will show you how to use the AddThis website code on your Blogger template.

Increase volume in Windows 7, quick & dirty

2012-09-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

Often times I would come across videos (especially online) whose volume is way too low. I don't really know much about tweaking audio and stuff so here is a quick and easy way to temporarily amp up the volume.

Creating your own Blogger template from scratch, sort of

2012-09-04T17:33:00.000-07:00

UPDATE [2013-03-14]: It looks like Blogger has updated a lot of things on its Template Editor since the time of this writing so, I've added some updates on the notes that needed updating (??). I've marked them with "UPDATE" or a ~~strikethrough~~ and I hope this won't confuse you (or myself).

I've always wanted to create my own Blogger template and tried so many times before but couldn't really get it right. I think I finally understood a somehow large chunk of it. I think.

Anyway, here in this post, I will note about the things I have learned/will learn in creating your own template. I won't be getting into much detailed stuff on HTML and CSS how to's. I'm assuming that you already have basic knowledge on these subjects and that you know your way around Blogger. Still, if you have any questions or there is something I didn't explain well, just feel free to leave a comment, and hopefully I can answer it.

Windows 7 File Association - "Open with" problem

2012-06-06T02:48:00.001-07:00

For certain programs, I have trouble associating it with the file it should open. No matter how many times I try, it just won't show on the Open with dialogue box. Turns out that I had to edit something in the registry to update the program path.

Spam referrer links

2012-02-20T20:04:00.002-08:00

I came across some weird referrer links having Forex stuff on the url. Turns out, these are referrer spam. I've read somewhere that you shouldn't click on it. Well, I did (that is, before I came across the article) and I've got to say these sites have nothing to do with mine. Here is a good explanation on what the heck these links are.

blockOptions.cgi in referring links

2012-02-20T17:42:00.000-08:00

While I was browsing through my referring links, I came across something similar to XXX.XX.X.XX:XXXXX/cgi-bin/blockOptions.cgi?ws-session=XXXXXXXXX. Being the newb that I am, I was worried whether someone might be hating my site and decided to block it or perhaps hack it :{