Linux

There are 43 posts tagged Linux (this is page 3 of 3).

Firefox 2.0 & The Linux Backspace Key

Firefox 2.0 was released on Tuesday and if you haven't already downloaded it, I highly recommend you do. There are several new features which I believe make it worth the upgrade:

  • A huge speed increase, in both starting the browser and loading web pages
  • A very large number of bug fixes over previous versions of Firefox
  • Built-in spell checker, which automatically checks the spelling of words you type inside text boxes, including web based email clients
  • Session-save feature, which allows you launch your browser and have it load all the web pages you were previously viewing

A number of the features which have been included with Firefox 2, such as the spell checker and session saver, were previously available as extensions for Firefox -- those two in particular were my favorite extensions and I'm happy to see them finally built-in.

The disadvantage to upgrading right now is the small number of extensions that have been updated to work with Firefox 2. About 80% of my extensions no longer work after upgrading, however the ones that are most important to me -- the session saver and spell checker -- are already built-in. If there are some extensions you are currently using that you absolutely cannot live without, then make sure they support Firefox 2 before you upgrade!

For those Linux users who have upgraded to Firefox 2, you may have noticed that your backspace key no longer works as a back button to go back one page. The Firefox developers decided to change the backspace action to scroll up one page instead of back one page, as explained here:

The backspace key was mapped to the browser “Back” function in Mozilla for consistency with Internet Explorer. However, to improve consistency with other applications running on Linux, it was decided that this mapping should be optional—and set based on which platform the browser was running on. As a compromise, this preference was created to allow the backspace key to either go back/forward, scroll up/down a page, or do nothing.

You can easily change the backspace action by using about:config (in your address bar) and then changing browser.backspace_action to 0 instead of 1. Restart Firefox, and backspace will have the same action as it did in previous versions.

There are lots of little bells and whistles in Firefox 2 and I'm still discovering them every day. Today for example, while I had about 15 tabs open, I noticed a little arrow on the right edge of Firefox next to all the tabs. Clicking that arrow brings down a list of all the tabs, with each of their titles fully visible. That is an extremely useful feature if you regularly have several tabs open (as I usually have 20+ tabs open at a time).

Great work on Firefox 2 Mozilla and Firefox developers! Don't worry, I won't send you a poisoned cake like Microsoft. 😉

Bugs are in my Stomach!

Some useful things I learned the past few days:

Want to disable the annoying Linux console bell that beeps when you type the wrong command?

setterm -blength 0

Want to disable the graphical login on Ubuntu/Kubuntu?

echo "false" | sudo tee /etc/X11/default-display-manager

Here's an excellent article on getting PHP4 and PHP5 running side by side while using Apache 1.33. I'm recoding the work I've been doing for Aerva using Object-Oriented programming and templates. So to utilize PHP5's OOP features, I needed to have it running on my laptop.

Last night, while taking a crap, I suddenly became extremely dizzy and almost fainted. I literally almost fell off the toilet! I've never almost fainted like that before, ever. When I stood up, I couldn't even walk. Since then I've had a really bad stomach ache, almost threw up twice, and wasn't able to eat very much today. Maybe it's food poisoning (DJT, Vietnam?) or some stomach bug. I was reconsidering completing my Friday workout, but I decided I'd start the workout and stop if I started feeling worse. I actually felt better after I started the workout and I was able to complete it in it's entirety.

The temperature for today, as well as the next two days, is supposed to be in the upper 90's. I'm headed to the beach tomorrow morning, then I'll probably spend the afternoon doing programming work for Aerva. The project I'm working on has a deadline of this Wednesday, and I've got plenty to finish before then.

I had 4 appointments to show the Bowers ST 3 bedroom apartment today. None of them showed up. Anyone looking for a 3bdrm apartment? New stove, new bathroom floor, some new paint, 3rd floor, first month + security deposit, no utilities included, $800 a month.

My truck's transmission really felt as if it was about to crack open while driving to work on Wednesday, so I took the train in on Thursday. I parked my truck at my Lowell office and rode my bike to the train station. I think it was quicker to ride the bike to the train station than it was to drive there; three minutes tops, and I save myself $5 parking. I did some quick calculations and figured out I can save $30 a month taking the train into work three days a week (assuming I don't have to pay for parking and instead ride my bike to the train station, otherwise it's $30 more expensive to take the train in). But the $30 isn't the great part. I actually save my truck from 1000 miles every month! That should extend it's life for awhile (it has 143k miles right now). Taking the train adds an extra 3 hours a week of commuting, but that's 3 hours I can read or use my laptop, so its all good.

I decided not to buy another cell phone. However, by accident I was looking at T-Mobile's website and I glanced at their Blackberry plans. If I switch to T-Mobile's service, I can get the same number of minutes with the unlimited Blackberry Internet service for $40 less than what I'm paying now! And if it costs me $170 to cancel my 2 year contract with Nextel, I still would save $340 by switching to T-Mobile right now ($40 x 12 months = $480 saved, $480 - $170 = $340). Add that $40 to the $30 a month I'm saving by taking the train, and I've just saved myself $840 a year! This finding-ways-to-save stuff is becoming fun!

Urgh, I still feel the stomach bug inside me and my body still feels weird. I've had chills all day today, even though its been 85+ degrees and I still feel a little dizzy when I stand up. I'm sure if I threw up, I'd feel better, but I'm too stubborn to throw up. To give you an idea of how stubborn, I've only thrown up twice in the past 15 years.

Maybe lying in the sun at the beach tomorrow will help.

Must
Remember
To
Wear
Sunblock...

Learn your *nix permissions!

I spent so many hours trying to figure out how to give Apache access to files that were owned by another user. First, I created a symlink to the directory:

[code]
mercury:/var/www# ln -s /home/raam/gallery gallery
mercury:/var/www# ls -al
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2006-06-02 23:28 .
drwxr-xr-x 14 root root 4096 2006-05-14 21:50 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 2006-06-02 23:20 gallery -> /home/raam/gallery
mercury:/var/www#
[/code]

However, when I tried accessing that directory via HTTP, Apache said permission was denied. I tried adding /home/raam/gallery to the httpd.conf file using the clause, but that did nothing as well. Continue reading →