Imap rocks, especially since Thunderbird 3.0 and its smart folders allow all email accounts to look like local folders. Emails can be left on the server, where proper backups can be configured, and emails can be accessed from any number of devices and clients, including webmail. Having to nip home to check email is just [...]
Author Archives: mcmlxxii
Siemens SE 587 Dynamic DNS Update script
20/09/2009 – 10:07 am
Quick script I knocked up to update dynamic dns record at freedns.afraid.org, querying the router for its IP address. Uses expect to login via telnet to the router and curl to GET the http update url.
#!/bin/bash
# Siemens SE 587 freedns update script
# Jonathan Cutting mcmlxxii.co.uk
# 20/9/2009
# Config
router_login=”your_login_name”
router_password=”your_login_password”
router_address=”192.168.1.1″
afraid_url=”your_dynamic_dns_url”
afraid_update_url=”http://freedns.afraid.org/dynamic/update.php?YOUR_UPDATE_CODE”
# End config
dns_record=$(dig +short $afraid_url)
ip_address=$(expect -c ”
[...]
AR5008 and Network Manager.
04/07/2009 – 6:36 am
In both Ubuntu Jaunty and now Karmic, I have been experiencing pretty dreadful wireless performance using a combination of the Atheros AR5008 chipset and the default GNOME connection management tool Network Manager. I have read elsewhere that Network Manager scans at regular intervals for available networks in the vicinity, which appears to have the effect [...]
Gedit document words autocompletion plugin
01/02/2009 – 12:22 am
I followed a submission to reddit the other day highlighting a few choice plugins for gedit, as I am fond of using the default GNOME text editor. One plugin in particular caught my eye, the document words autocompletion plugin, written by Perriman. Retyping my inventive variable names (not to mention the oft flowery default php [...]
PHP class using Imagick – resize, reflect or drop shadow
06/01/2009 – 3:19 pm
I’ve been spending a bit of time getting to know PHP classes over the Christmas holiday, and I’ve written a couple to test out my knowledge.
The first is an image uploading class, which checks for various problems with files prior to moving them to a destination directory. It checks:
that the file actually exists
the size to [...]
How good is Ilford XP2?
07/12/2008 – 7:46 pm
I’m a very amateur photographer – I like the results of taking photos enough to have developed an interest in the process. To this end I still use a 1970s vintage Pentax MX, which has forced me to learn a little something about the interaction of shutter speed, aperture and film choice.
I use Kodak [...]
No! Please don’t do it!
13/11/2008 – 6:48 pm
There are some highly entertaining examples on the net of command line program output, but it’s great when you’re doing some system maintenance in Linux on your own machine and a gem unexpectedly crops up:
:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/dovecot restart
[sudo] password:
* Restarting IMAP/POP3 mail server dovecot
Warning: Last died with error (see error log for more information): [...]
Synaptics touchpad, SHMConfig, xorg.conf and Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10
07/11/2008 – 8:55 am
EDIT – Please note that this post only refers to the 64 bit version of Ubuntu.
Some significant changes have been happening to the X server over the past couple of releases of Ubuntu. One of the most noticeable alterations has been the removal of the xorg.conf file from the default Ubuntu install (edit – it [...]