ArsGeek

Color Cop, color picking tool

8. October 2007

Ever needed to know what was a certain color wherever on your screen? Many applications already exists to let you know the color of a certain pixel on the screen, but everyone has their favorite one. Mine is Color Cop. The application itself is well-done and has lived through ages. Jay Prall first released it in [...]

Greasemonkey woes? Can’t install any scripts?

25. May 2007

2 Comments

I use greasemonkey a fair amount. Ran into a problem today, where I’d get a cryptic error containing ‘NS_ERROR_FILE_ALREADY_EXISTS’. After much searching, gnashing of teeth, and some swearing, the fix is pretty simple. Greasemonkey stores the scripts in your (mozilla profile directory)\gm_scripts directory - simply go in there, delete all of the scripts (I left the [...]

Network printing in Vista, UAC, and you

25. May 2007

3 Comments

Having trouble printing to a networked printer (say, on your workgroups Windows Server 2003?) in Vista? Have UAC (User Access Control) disabled? There is your problem! Vista won’t install the print drivers remotely from a networked printer, without UAC enabled. The only solution is to enable UAC, and then add the printers. Oh yeah, you [...]

Linux/Gnome quicktip - Connecting to a network share the fast way

15. May 2007

2 Comments

Want to connect to a network share without going through the long and arduous process of mounting it? Try this:Â hit (gently) the Alt-F2 keys to bring up a Run Application window. If you’re trying to connect to a server called sarcasm.arsgeek.com and a share named ‘haha’ enter the following: smb://sarcasm.arsgeek.com/haha Alternately, if you have an IP address and [...]

Linux Quickie - force your trash to empty on Debian/Ubuntu

26. April 2007

8 Comments

If you have something that’s stuck in your trash and you just can’t seem to get rid of it, this single command line should help. sudo rm -fr /home/username/.Trash Replace the username bit with your actual user name.Â This will forcefully empty your trash, but your Gnome or KDE trash icon may still show something in it. I’ve [...]

(application/x-mplayer2) in Firefox on Vista not working? Try this!

16. April 2007

0 Comments

Ebyblog has the fix for you. Download the two files, and place them in your plugins directory of Firefox (mine is c:\program files\mozilla firefox\plugins). Works like a charm! Click the icon, share the link:

A way to speed up digg.com in your browser

26. March 2007

2 Comments

Gleaned from our forum user Harrie and McQuaid at the Ubuntu forums, here’s a quick way to speed up the digg website in Konquerer/Firefox. In Konquerer, choose Settings -> Configure Konqueror. Then choose Adblock Filters. Check Enable Filters and add the following (you add it by pasting in the text box and press insert). digg.com/img/main-back.gif In Firefox with [...]

Enable telnet in Windows Vista

20. March 2007

20 Comments

By default, Vista installs without telnet available. I know, I know, you should be using SSH for everything now, but sometimes you just need good old telnet. Here is how to enable telnet in Vista: 1. Open ‘Control Panel’ 2. Select ‘Programs and Features’ 3. In the left column, select ‘Turn Windows features on or off’ [...]

Adobe Acrobat Reader got you down?

14. March 2007

19 Comments

EDIT: 7/12/07: This apparently breaks Acrobat Reader 8.1 - even removing the accessibility plugin causes Acrobat Reader to complain about an ‘invalid plugin’, then exit out. I put the plugin back in, and 8.1 does not seem to exhibit the same symptoms that 8.0 did (i.e.: no “please wait while the document is being prepared” [...]

20 must-have Firefox extensions

7. March 2007

0 Comments

Computerworld is running a story on 20 must-have Firefox extensions. My personal favorites are the Foxmarks plugin and the Adblock Plus plugin (I tend to whitelist sites that I like, and frequest, such as Arsgeek). PS: This post was written with the ‘Performancing’ plugin. Cool! Technorati Tags: firefox, plugins Click the icon, share the link:

Quicktips - how to change the default time out in Grub

14. February 2007

0 Comments

Do you need a little more time in making an operating system decision at your Grub boot screen?Â A little less?Â Here’s how to quickly change your timeout in Grub. First, we’ll copy the menu.lst file to a backup sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst.bak Next, we’ll gedit the menu.lst file and make a quick change. gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst Look for this [...]

Ubuntu Quicktip - Surround Sound through ALSA

9. February 2007

10 Comments

Got surround sound hardware but can’t get your sound to surround from your Linux box?Â Here’s a quick way to get it done on your Ubuntu box. This will also work on a variety of other distros. First, we’re going to create/edit a file called .asoundrc in your home directory. Open a terminal session (Applications ->Accessories -> [...]

Vista Quicktip - How to REALLY set your default programs

6. February 2007

9 Comments

I’ve been tooling around in Vista now for a solid 24 hours (more on this in a soon to be published article) and one thing that’s been bugging me is that even though I’ve set Firefox as my default browser, it’s not. Strange, eh? Every time I launched Firefox, I’d go in and [...]

Ubuntu Quicktip - Getting external montiors/lcd projectors to work with your Intel embeded Graphics chip

2. February 2007

1 Comment

Sheesh, I think the title’s going to be longer than this article. If you’re having problems with external monitors or LCD projectors in your laptop equiped with an Intel graphics controller, try this: sudo apt-get install i810switch Once it’s installed you can turn it on by typing: i810switch crt on Or turn it off: i810switch crt off simple! Click the icon, share the [...]

Ubuntu Quicktip - Converting Mac .dmg images into .iso images

23. January 2007

13 Comments

I recently came across a handy script that allows you to convert a Mac OSX or Apple’s iPod (iPod firmware generated images) to standard .iso files. You’ll need to have perl installed. Also, you may need to add an additional dependency in the form of a perl zlib module. So, here’s how to install [...]

Archive | Quicktips RSS feed for this section

Color Cop, color picking tool

Greasemonkey woes? Can’t install any scripts?

Network printing in Vista, UAC, and you

Linux/Gnome quicktip - Connecting to a network share the fast way

Linux Quickie - force your trash to empty on Debian/Ubuntu

(application/x-mplayer2) in Firefox on Vista not working? Try this!

A way to speed up digg.com in your browser

Enable telnet in Windows Vista

Adobe Acrobat Reader got you down?

20 must-have Firefox extensions

Quicktips - how to change the default time out in Grub

Ubuntu Quicktip - Surround Sound through ALSA

Vista Quicktip - How to REALLY set your default programs

Ubuntu Quicktip - Getting external montiors/lcd projectors to work with your Intel embeded Graphics chip

Ubuntu Quicktip - Converting Mac .dmg images into .iso images

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