Last thing you'll ever read…again
Tutorial
Carpet
Apr 28th
I woke up this morning to my alarm clock on the other side of the room. Why is it on the other end? Too tired to care, I strutted across the room and turned it off, brought it to my bed and checked my emails like I usually do. Went back to bed thinking “Thank god it’s a Saturday!”.
It’s not Saturday. It’s Wednesday. I work on Wednesdays. Fuck…it’s cold. Now I remembered why it was on the other side of the room…so I would have to get up to turn it off…
Somehow managed to crawl myself out of bed and put on my fat boy pants. God I love my fat boy pants.
I caught up with Tim for lunch today. Haven’t seen him since…oh God…like end of uni last year?!
Has it really been that long?
I think I’m going to write up a simple “webapp” and host it on my site. I’ll add people to the list and then specify the last time that we’ve “caught up”. It’ll be sorted by time and will be colour coded to see how many people I haven’t bothered keeping in touch with. Then I will call them up one at a time and meet with them 
Isn’t that a nice idea? *adds to list of random projects to do*
So I was talking to Tim about the usual stuff we used to talk about. It was nice.
Towards the end when we had to go he said something that was quite interesting.
Apparently, God spoke to him during our little meeting. He said “carpet” but Tim wasn’t 100% sure.
God may work in mysterious ways but really? Throw me a bigger bone here.
You know, I’ve only really ever “prayed” once. When you’re desperate you do anything right? But nothing happened.
Who knows?…only You do right?
Vlog?
Jan 20th
If I should Vlog about anything what should it be? I’ve been enticed by Ben Taylor after his amusing videos regarding NOT visiting reddit. See here.
So if I can Vlog about ANYTHING. What should it be? I really can’t think of anything interesting to talk about >.>
Nobody have been commenting on my stuff lately, makes me a sad panda 
Tutorial: Boot Ubuntu 9.10 Partition using Virtualbox inside Windows (deprecated)
Nov 22nd
This article is now deprecated as 10.04 has been released. Comments will be disabled. Check back for an updated version.
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So Ubuntu 9.10 got released several weeks ago and people have been asking about how to get my old tutorial working for 9.10.
The problem is that Ubuntu 9.10 uses the new grub 2 boot loader which changes LOTS of things. In this tutorial I will be showing you how to get Ubuntu 9.10 (or any other linux OS with grub2) working under your Windows installation.
Before we begin, you should have a dual boot setup. I will NOT be showing you how to setup a dual boot, if you need help plenty of other guides out there.
Step 1: Creating a grub 2 boot iso
The grub iso file will allow you to specify which partition to boot into.
- Boot into Ubuntu
- (OPTIONAL) Configure your /boot/grub/grub.cfg This is so that you don’t accidentally boot into your Windows partition from inside Windows! Bad things will happen if you do!!!
$ gksudo gedit /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Comment out your Windows Menu, should be towards the bottom - Create the bootable iso
$ grub-mkrescue –overlay=/boot/grub GRUB2CD.iso - (DO THIS STEP ONLY IF YOU PERFORMED STEP 2)
$ gksudo gedit /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Uncomment out your Windows Menu, so you still can boot into windows after the reboot! - Move the iso into a location that is accessible by windows
Step 2: Creating the .vmdk file
This creates a file which tells Virtualbox what partition to actually load as the harddrive. Unfortunately, unlike VMWare Workstation, Virtualbox does not support a GUI interface for selecting RAW hard disks as the “virtual hard drive”.
- Boot into Windows
- cd into the directory you installed virtualbox
- Find out which drive contains Ubuntu (if you don’t know already)
Run the command: VBoxManage.exe internalcommands listpartitions -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDrive1
(where 1 is the number of the hard drive ubuntu is installed on. E.g. Master should be 0, you’re second hard-drive should be 1 etc…The output should be something like:Number Type StartCHS EndCHS Size (MiB) Start (Sect)
1 0×07 0 /32 /33 1023/254/63 902023 2048
5 0×83 1023/254/63 1023/254/63 49677 1847346543
6 0×82 1023/254/63 1023/254/63 2164 1949086188In this example, my Ubuntu partition is number 5 and the swap is number 6. So my Ubuntu partition lies in PhysicalDrive1
- We now create the VMDK file with the given information
Run the command: VBoxManage.exe internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename C:\ubuntu.vmdk -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDrive1 -register
Step 3: Setup Virtualbox
Now everything should be ready to setup Virtualbox. Create a new virtual machine. Select the .vmdk file we just created as the hard drive and mount the grub.iso file we created at Step 1.
Step 4: Running the VM
Due to the way grub 2 works, whenever you put into it you now have to load the appropriate grub config file.
Just type the above into terminal and grub should load and boot into your Ubuntu 9.10 installation.
If this has helped you in any way, please take the time to drop a comment (or a donation)! If you have any problems, just post a comment or send me an email through the “Contact me” page.
ISSUES:
- For some reasons Grub does not recognise the partition if you specify the EXACT partition entry of Ubuntu. You have to specify the entire drive for it to be recognised.
- It doesn’t seem to like nvidia drivers in this release so you might have to reset your x.org for it to work inside a VM. Just have to live with the lack of acceleration!
References:
Firefox Extensions for teh Pros
Nov 3rd
So with every installation of Windows/Ubuntu, I find myself reinstalling Firefox and then reinstalling all the extensions and then configuring the extensions to match my needs.
Unfortunately, Mozilla only has this crappy service that syncs your bookmarks (which 100 other extensions do already) and does not offer extension or settings sync.
I’m just gonna list a run-down of all the extensions that I use to improve my productivity.
- Adblock Plus – Blocks ads!
- Better Gmail 2 – It just runs several greasemonkey scripts to make your gmail experience that much better. It emulates “Folders” and allow dynamic Favicon displays.
- Download Statusbar – One of the most annoying things about firefox is that when you download something it opens it up in another window. Why?! This extension displays everything in a neat statusbar.
- Echofon (Formerly Twitterfox) – If you use twitter then this is an extremely light and simple twitter client. Most clients that I’ve used are generally extremely verbose. This displays a tiny icon in your statusbar and alerts you when there’s a new tweet.
- Faviconize Tab – I find that at any given time I always have two tabs open, Gmail and Google Reader. What this extension does is that it makes the tab size of selected tabs to be the size of the favicon. This way you reduce clutter and allow more tabs to fit on the one screen!
- Fire Gestures – Brings mouse gestures to Firefox!
- Hide Menubar – One of the simplest extensions I have installed! It allows you to hide the menubar. To use the menu you just press ALT. You just saved x-pixels of screen real estate!
- Net Usage Item – This basically checks your Net usage, it pretty much supports every ISP in Australia. However, the UI isn’t that great. But since I’ve hidden the menubar I just dock it in the corner of the menubar. Press alt when I want to see it. It beats having to install a separate Usage Checking client.
- Skip Screen – If you follow me on twitter/facebook/msn, then you’ve probably seen this. But this is an amazing extension. It basically skips the waiting time when trying to download files from Rapidshare and what not.
- Speed Dial – Whenever I show people this extension they’re like “Oh so it’s just a copy cat of Chrome!”. No you ignorant fools! It’s copying speed dial made by Opera! Unlike Chrome though which shows you the sites you’ve visited the most, it only allows you to select the sites that you want to visit.
- Tab-mix plus – To put it simply it’s like your tab-bar on steroids and then injected with Rhino hormones. The main reason that I use it is that it supports multiple-row tabs and also allow you to customise the size of each tab.
So this is the result! It only demonstrates couple of the extensions but the changes are quite significant. If any of the extensions interest you give it a try! If you know of any other funky extensions, drop a comment!
HowTo: Slimming down your Windows 7
Nov 3rd
When I was on Windows XP I had this crazy obsession with making XP as slim as possible. I made custom XP installs slipstreamed with the most recent updates, disabled all the unnecessary services and only used apps that had small memory footprints.
I believe I got it down to around 18 processes on start up. Then I moved to Ubuntu and all these obsessions went away. I mean, Ubuntu would just keep chugging no matter how much crap I chucked at it.
Now I’m on Windows 7 and whilst those crazy obsessions have NOT returned, it does interest me as to what I can disable to get the most out of my system.
So here is a list of all the services I decided to disable. Just type services.msc in the start menu and hit enter. Double click the service, select stop and then “disable” from the drop down.
Disclaimer: I’m not responsible for ANYTHING yada yada yada.
- Diagnostic Policy Service
This is basically that thing that goes “Windows have detected a problem, would you like to check for solutions?” TBH, the advice from that thing is actually quite useful. But I don’t really need it. - Distributed Link Tracking Client
Keeps tracks of all the “linkages”. E.g. You create a shortcut to document A. You move document A to another location. Windows will automatically update all shortcuts to point to that new location so you don’t get “File Not Found” errors. Not very useful if you ask me, unless you’re a shortcut junkie. - Function Discovery Provider Host
Used for Home Groups. Not useful if you don’t care about sharing files or have other methods of doing so. - Function Discovery Resource Publication
See 3. - IP Helper
It’s meant to help transition to IPv6 but I don’t know of any ISPs that even support IPv6 so until they do this service can go bye bye. - Offline Files
Disgusting. - Peer Name Resolution Protocol
When was the last time anyone used Remote Assistance? - Peer Networking Grouping
See 7. - Peer Networking Identity Manager
See 7. - Problem Reports and Solutions Control Panel Support
This can be disabled in the control panel. I don’t care too much for error reports. - Windows Connect Now – Config Registrar
Unless you have a “Compatible with Windows 7″ sticker on your router, this is useless. - Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service
Interesting service, but I won’t ever be sharing music over the network.
I recommend you keep a list of all your changes and revert back if there are any problems.
That’s it for now. I have several other blogs lined up but just haven’t been bothered posting them. The lack of comments saddens me.
Don’t diss the Sims
Sep 6th
Let me set the scene. The year was 2000, I’ve just finished my selective school test so my life for the next 6 years was set.
I was visiting China for the first time in 4 years, it’s been so long that I hardly remember anything any more. The place where we lived which I thought was huge turned out to be this tiny 3 bedroom apartment. In fact, even now I still picture it to be rather spacious, maybe it’s just the 8 year old me picturing how things were then.
Anyway, I was quite excited. I had a pocket full of cash and back then the conversion rate between AUD to RMB was 1:6. You could buy a decent breakfast for 2 RMB, a decent lunch for 10 RMB, but that’s ignoring the high possibility of catching food poisoning. So I was visiting this local book shop. It wasn’t one of those tiny book shops…it was sorta like the Dymocks equivalent, except they sold all these other random things on the side, such as electronics and video games.
So naturally I was going through the video games section as happy as a fat kid in a candy shop.
I bought three games that day, and of those three games, only one remained till today.
Games from Aus usually cost around $100, but I managed to get a legit copy for only $10AUD.
So what does a 12 year old kid do when he gets his hands on a copy of the Sims?
Well…it’s obvious isn’t it?
This is promptly followed by going on the toilet which I must say wasn’t as “exciting”. I also managed to find a “nude patch” on the internet that removed the blur. YES I KNOW, I am extremely sad. But come on, the censor gets pretty annoying after a while AND it’s not like Maxis decided to add detailed textures of the human body into the Sims.
To date, I have legit copies of The Sims, Livin’ Large, House Party and Hot Date. Hot Date made and broke me. When I bought Hot Date I was pretty excited. Installed it straight away. It added lots of additional features to the game. For one, there’s more than one type of making out. So naturally I went through every single one of them. It also allowed you to “have fun” in various other locations such as the change room of a clothing shop. Eventually after playing hours and hours on end of the Sims, I eventually got sick of it and didn’t touch it…until yesterday.
So 8 years on, they’ve released the Sims 3. I skipped Sim 2 for some reason, I felt unclean playing it. Also my computer was way to slow to run it well. My current comp struggles slights with the Sims 3, but it’s still playable. No matter what people say about the Sims, it’s still the world’s best selling game of all time. I mean, I tend to play it mostly for the building features, who doesn’t want to build their dream home?
I started to reminisce last night, so I downloaded all the in game music files
I’m sure those who’s ever played Sims will remember this song.
[Script] Chatlog to Email Converter Plus! RC
Jun 27th
Today I will be releasing the Release Candidate of my Chatlog to Email Converter Plus!
I added “Plus!” as it is designed for Messenger Plus! chatlogs.
It now supports every form of Messenger chatlogs text or html and also has emoticon support.
Requirements:
- Python 2.6 (preferable, 2.5 should also work but untested)
- Beautiful Soup
- Mozilla Thunderbird
Wishlist:
- Remove Thunderbird requirement and support direct upload to specified imap server
Download:
I’ve setup a google code project for my script. Yes it’s open source!!!
Instructions for use:
- Place all your chatlogs inside one folder
- Place my script within the same folder (make sure the folder does not contain any files apart from chatlogs or images)
- Open up a command window inside that folder
- Type “python chatlog2email.py -p -t” to convert all plain text and html chatlogs to mime format (type python chatlog2email.py –help for advanced usage)
- Once it’s done you shold see a file called “Chatlogs” move that file to <Path to thunderbird preferences>\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\Mail\Local Folders
- Open up Thunderbird and drag drop the chatlogs to an email account that supports imap
Easy!
If you have any problems either post here or file a bug report on google code.
If you found this useful, drop a comment or send me an email. It makes me happy
Tutorial: Cleaning your WLM Contact List
Jun 23rd
Over the years you will find that your contact list gets cluttered. You’ve deleted people, blocked people or even both. Maybe others have deleted you, blocked you or both. For the people that have blocked or deleted you…why bother keeping them on your contact list?
Why not delete them? But then how do you tell who’s actually blocked and/or deleted you?
I present Noroom’s ListCleaner. I’ve had this app for many years now, although never bothered to share it with anybody. The original author no longer supports it, I would love to see it ported to a nice .net application or even the features incorporated into Messenger Plus! Live. Maybe I can write a script for it 
Here’s the description from the readme.
Often, whenOften, when u sign in to Messenger, the server sends a list with containing
users who have permission to see you online, who do not have permission, who
have you on their contact list, and who you have on yours. Sometimes you delete
some users, and people delete you from their list, too. Even though they don’t
have you on their list anymore, their email will stay on the list of people who
can see you online. Why allow them to see you online, if they don’t have you on
their list anymore? It is pointless to give them persmission to see your status
when they don’t have the ability to do so.
Now, let’s say you block someone and then delete that user from your list.
Imagine that the person you blocked also deletes you. That person’s email will
stay in your block list, even though it is not likely they will talk to you,
because you are not on their contact list anymore.sign in to Messenger, the server sends a list with containing
users who have permission to see you online, who do not have permission, who
have you on their contact list, and who you have on yours. Sometimes you delete
some users, and people delete you from their list, too. Even though they don’t
have you on their list anymore, their email will stay on the list of people who
can see you online. Why allow them to see you online, if they don’t have you on
their list anymore? It is pointless to give them persmission to see your status
when they don’t have the ability to do so.
Now, let’s say you block someone and then delete that user from your list.
Imagine that the person you blocked also deletes you. That person’s email will
stay in your block list, even though it is not likely they will talk to you,
because you are not on their contact list anymore.
“Often, when u sign in to Messenger, the server sends a list with containing users who have permission to see you online, who do not have permission, who have you on their contact list, and who you have on yours. Sometimes you delete some users, and people delete you from their list, too. Even though they don’t have you on their list anymore, their email will stay on the list of people who can see you online. Why allow them to see you online, if they don’t have you on their list anymore? It is pointless to give them persmission to see your status when they don’t have the ability to do so. Now, let’s say you block someone and then delete that user from your list. Imagine that the person you blocked also deletes you. That person’s email will stay in your block list, even though it is not likely they will talk to you, because you are not on their contact list anymore.”
All you have to do is download the app and login with your WLM account. The app will then collate all the people that you can delete. Simple!
I know this isn’t much of a tutorial but it’s something that I thought people would find useful. I bet most people would be quite surprised at the results.
Too bad it’s not opensource, I would love to take a quick look under the hood of that application.
In case you missed the download link above here it is again.
Tutorial: Getting Firefox to Remember Password for WebCT
Jun 5th
One thing that has frustrated me for MANY MANY years is the fact that Firefox does not allow you remember the username/password for WebCT. I cannot express how annoying this is. Opera was able to do it fine why can’t firefox?!
Usually I’m fine with just typing in my password and my relatively weak password to get access to WebCT. But today I really couldn’t be bothered any more. Did a bit of searching on the Internet and realised that it really isn’t Firefox’s fault that it doesn’t remember the password, it’s todo with the way that WebCT is written.
Okay so how do you get Firefox to remember the password?
- Press ctrl-b to open up your bookmarks in firefox
- Drag and drop this LINK into your bookmarks
- Open up the login screen to WebCT
- Click on the bookmark you just saved
- Type in the your username and password and firefox should give you an option to Remember it!!!
If you want to extend your password manager capabilities take a look at Secure Login
Note: The above method will work for any website that does not want you to remember the password.
Edit 07/06/09:
If you’re annoyed at WebCT logging out after 10 minutes of inactivity you can simply get Firefox to reload the webpage every 5 minutes. It’s not so elegant but I guess it works.
References:
Quick Guide – Setting up Pop3 for new USYD Uni Mail
May 9th
Quick and dirty guide on setting up pop3 for the new USYD Uni Mail.
