Installing Linux on an IBM ThinkCentre M50 requires the ACPI interface to be disabled or you could see the system slow to a crawl. Here’s how I found out and how to fix it. (more…)

This one frustrated me enough that I have to post the solution.

At work we run RHEL4 on our production servers but with limited licences I decided to try CentOS4 for testing. I’d been mucking around with VirtualBox and as my test hardware had died I decided to try it.

When it came to installing the Guest Additions I hit a roadblock. I followed the instructions for installing the headers:

yum install kernel-devel

…but that wasn’t working. I was still getting:

Please install the build and header files for your current Linux kernel.

The trick is to create the default symbolic link to the header files:

ln -s /usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-92.1.18.el5-i686 /usr/src/linux

Problem solved by jeffreywt on the VirtualBox Forums.

My Vista adventure has been going for a few days now and I’m very tired of the User Access Control (UAC) prompt. Whilst I do appreciate the added security afforded by this ‘feature’ I’m finding it difficult to live with. (more…)

Occasionally I want to use Flash on a web page. Tragic, but true. I’ve been looking for an accessible, valid method for doing this. There are few candidates. I settled on the ‘Nested Objects’ method. It seemed quick, painless and didn’t require javascript. But there was a hitch…

Active Server Pages error 'ASP 0139'
Nested Object
An object tag cannot be placed inside another object tag.  

IIS’s ASP interpreter wouldn’t pass the page with nested <object> tags. (more…)

Having become tired of the gaggle of remotes on my coffee table I’ve ventured once again into the one-remote-to-rule-them-all world of universal remote control. My prior purchase was a $20 cheapie that relied on the input of ‘device codes’ to identify your hardware. The Harmony line of remotes are a whole different kettle of fish.

The ’secret weapon’ of the Harmony is that it’s ‘programmed’ using a PC. It’s a USB device. The interface used to configure the remote is even more sophisticated (and problematic) but I’ll get to that later. (more…)

I use DreamWeaver. A lot. I also write ASP but have realised that it’s probably time to move to ASP.NET now that 2.0 is claiming to make a lot of things easier.

In making this move, I’m having to come to terms with the Visual Studio 2005 IDE. It’s formidable. The more I can get it to behave like DreamWeaver the happier I’ll be. (more…)

It seems Yahoo are in the process of revamping their online e-mail application. The only thing is, it’s not ready yet. And they appeared to have screwed up the old version as well. (more…)

Every now and again I have cause to install MySQL. I wish I didn’t but, apparently, you can’t always get what you want. I try to make the process as painless as possible and get phpMyAdmin up and running almost immediately but always stumble on the creation of PMA specific tables as they are the only bit that need to be done from the mysql>| command line (yuk).

So I inevitably end up searching the MySQL help for how to do this. Well, no longer will I travail so for here they are.

So, after 3 years of floating around various sites on the ‘net, my blog(s) have finally arrived at their intended home, seanys.com. I bought the domain a couple of weeks ago but I’ve only just got around to tranferring my blog across from it’s previous ‘temporary’ home at seanys.kicks-ass.net.

Thankyou’s go to WordPress, MySQL and phpMyAdmin for making the moving process relatively easy.

Despite the name this is not a hacking article.

In it’s default install SSE2005 only allows local connections. Getting it to talk to other systems is a bit of a pain.

Here are some hints.