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Ever since I went ‘Apple’, the urge of moving away from Microsoft Windows operating systems is getting bigger and bigger. A couple of weeks ago I installed a two Ubuntu servers (v7.x) at work. Mainly for testing , and educational purposes.
The installation went extremely smooth on old Compaq ML370 server hardware. So, as a test I tried to install Adobe Coldfusion MX (Coldfusion 8 ) on the Ubuntu server (with Apache, and MySQL).

There are several postings on the Internet suggesting that it should be possible. Even though Ubuntu isn’t on the supported platforms list for Adobe Coldfusion MX.

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Ever since I upgraded to Wordpress 2.5 I had to moderate every comment posted on this blog. Note that I hadn’t turned this on in the Wordpress settings.

Some research showed that it might have to do something with ‘older’ plugins. After a trail and error period I found out that the WP Hashcash plugin was to blame. Ever since I de-activated it, the problem seems to be gone.

Since I upgraded from OSX 10.5.1 to 10.5.2 I haven’t been able to use my shared printer on on my Windows server. Every job I submit gives me an error saying On Hold (Authentication Required).

There’s no way that I could submit the printjob to the server from my Mac.

It seems that there is a bug in the authentication mechanism on OSX 10.5.2. If you add a (network) printer by using the System Preferences, you get to browse to find the actual printer. this results in a printer in the following location:

smb://<servernetbiosname>/printershare

For some weird reason this won’t work. You need to specify the IP adres of the server or include the windows workgroup name in the url. This can be done by using the System Preferences. But you can also use CUPS. This is the webinterface on OSX to access printing services. You can access CUPS by entering the following URL in your browser;

http://localhost:631

This give you a webinterface for managing printers. Just add (or edit) the printer. During the ‘Wizard’ you can specify the actual path/URL where CUPS can find the printer. Just one of the following:

smb://<username>:<password>@<IP Address>/<Printershare>

smb://<username>:<password>@<workgroup>/<servername>/<Printershare>

Don’t worry about the username and password being displayed in the URL. These will be ‘moved’ upon insertion to the Keychain.

Alternative is to add the Advanced button on the Add Printer Wizard on the Print & Fax panel in the System Preferences. This can be done by doing the following:

• Open System Preferences
• Open Print & Fax
• Click on the ‘+’ to add a printer.
• Right-click (or ctrl + left-click) on the menubar
• Customize Toolbar
• Add the ‘Advanced’ button

With the Advanced button you can specify the exact smb path mentioned earlier to add the printer by its IP address or with the workgroup information in its path.

More info on the Apple Support Discussion pages [1, 2].

I listened to the latest ‘This Week in Tech’ podcast today. They mentioned a screensaver called FlickrFan. This screensaver can connect to flickr account and images to use in the screensaver. But it also downloads current Associated Press images in high quality and more. This results in awesome pictures from around the world covering the news in HIGH-RES.

B.t.w. it’s much more than just a screensaver, but I liked the screensaver-part best.

One thing I hate is not knowing where I am. I had this in Windows, and I still have it OSX.

By default OSX doesn’t show the full path in the finder. This is annoying as hell. Especialy when you’re having shares called ‘Pictures’, and the chances are quite big that you might have a local directory called ‘Pictures’. You can’t tell the difference.

Using the following terminal command, you get the full path in the Finder. So no more ‘Pictures’, but ‘/Volumes/Pictures/’

Terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES
killall Finder

Simply replace the YES for NO to disable the feature. This is OSX 10.5 or higher only!!

It seems that my little upload / download page for adding root certificate authorities Symbian phones is also a big help for those who use Windows Mobile Devices.

Very strange that there are millions of smartphones on the market, and that everyone, regardless of the phones they have, experience the same problem. Why won’t Microsoft (Windows Mobile) and the Symbian people simplify the interface of adding root CA’s?

W00t… KPN is finally starting to upgrade their network to support VDSL. This COULD mean a major speed upgrade for me. Currently I only have a 4Mbps ADSL2 line (but with a 1Mbps upload, thanks to XS4ALL). This is the maximum throughput for me, since I live too far from the distribution hub.

Other interesting news is that KPN won’t charge their customers for MOBILE data connections made from the 21st of December till the 30th of December 2007. So, it’s all you can download via GPRS, UMTS

The default background image on OSX Leopard is this annoying Aurora/starfield kinda picture. To change this, just change the desktop background image by using the rightmouse button on the desktop.It’s something different to change the background image on the login screen. Some searching revealed that it uses the DefaultDesktop.jpg in the /System/Library/CoreServices/ directory. ‘Just’ replace that file with your own picture. There is a small catch. If you replace it, it will get the wrong permissions on the file, and therefor won’t show up on the login screen.Just ‘reset’ the permissions on the file like this:

• sudo chown root /System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg
• sudo chmod 755 /System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg

You may need to enter a username and password while executing these commands.

It seems that Gmail is going to enable IMAP support for their free mail service.

The gmail application for mobile devices is nice, but it IMAP is nicer to have.

It seems that the IMAP option isn’t available on my account (yet). Guess I have to wait a little longer.

Somehow, people are directed to my website by queries which contain the following key-words; ‘remove‘, ‘certificate‘, and ‘e61‘. So, here’s a quick certificate uninstall guide:

Menu -> Tools -> Settings -> Security Settings -> Certif. management -> Scroll down to the certificate you wish to delete -> Options -> Delete -> Confirm Delete -> Yes.

It’s not that hard

(the ‘guide’ is written for the e61i, but I doubt if it’s much different on the e61)

By default, the Google search page is displayed in the language from the country you’re in. You can change this in the ‘preferences‘ on the Google page. The actual text near the language preference is:

Display Google tips and messages in: [<LANGUAGE>]

According to me that’s only interface related and (at most) tips/local event related (like Queen’s Day etc.). But it also influences the search results. Just try it by switching to several different languages.

Shouldn’t search results be the same?

The Nokia E61(i) phone is capable of making Voice over IP (VoIP) phone calls. The nice part is that you don’t need your cellular carrier to make phone calls. All you need is a VoIP account somewhere.

The world greatest ISP (in Holland), XS4ALL, gives 2 free VoIP numbers to its customers. So, it was time to get it working on my Nokia E61i.
First of all, I wasn’t familiar with the VoIP terminology, so I needed a manual for dummies on this. Luckely, the dutch tweakers forum gave me some answers on the topic.

After configuring the phone I got error messages about not being able to connect to the service. I did read some reports on this, and they all mentioned that some phones didn’t seem to work properly…
Fortunately, a colleague of mine has the same phone, and he got it working. So, it could be something else… My DSL modem for example.

A quick test showed, that when I used my neighbors open WiFi, I was able to connect to the service, so I needed to look at my modem. A quick search revealed that there was a new firmware (released by my ISP). After updating the firmware everything worked fine.

One drawback though. The default outgoing call type is set to cellular, so every call you make will be using the normal GSM network. There is no easy way of switching this to VoIP. This can only be done in the the Phone menu (Menu -> Tools -> Settings -> Call).

The Nokia 61(i) has some default applications and tools on the screen. These applications can be opened by clicking them instead of browsing through the menu. They are probalby the applications you use the most. The default applications and tools are nice, but most likely, every user wants his/hers own apps there.

It took me a while before I figured out that the screen you see is called the ’standby’ screen. Lame name for this screen if you ask me.

Anyway, you can edit this by going to;

Menu -> Tools -> Settings -> Phone -> Standby

A couple of day’s ago, I tried to play an episode of Painkiller Jane on my Nokia E61i. The original format was in the DivX format, so I used VisualHub to convert it on my Mac to the MP4 format (320 pixels wide).

This part was relatively easy. The next step was a bit harder; trying to get the 100MB file from my Mac on the Nokia. Somehow, there’s no way of transferring the file from a Mac to the Nokia via USB. The USB connection works file with iSync, but this has no option of synching files. When connecting, the phone gives you the option of using the ‘PC Suite’ or ‘Data Transfer’. The first is using iSync, and the latter gives you an error that the devices can’t be recognized.

Nokia does have an application for the Mac to transfer files to, and from the phone (Nokia Media Transfer). BUT, the Nokia E61 is NOT supported

This means you’re left with Bluetooth, or using a web server and download the file. If you don’t own your own webserver you’re stuck with Bluetooth (which is terribly slow b.t.w.). Both are a pain in the butt in getting large fils on the phone. I had to resume the download via the web server about 10 times before I had downloaded it, and Bluetooth… well don’t get me started on that.

My advice; don’t use a Mac to transfer large files to the phone, but use Nokia PC Suite with the USB cable on a PC to do that.

B.t.w. the Nokia E61i played the episode just fine.

Oke, the first annoyance about the Nokia E61 is a fact. Well, actually it’s about the Nokia PC Suite with which you can connect the phone to your (Windows) PC.

Somehow my Nokia E61i wouldn’t connect using bluetooth with the Nokia Software. It could connect to the PC itself, but the Nokia software didn’t want to ’see’ the phone.
So I tried to remove the pairing between de two devices (which seemed to work). After that I tried to pair the two devices again… That’s were the trouble started.

The software did see the phone via bluetooth, but it gave an error when I wanted to connect. The error said ‘Cannot Authorize Phone’. Connecting via the USB cable worked fine.

I tried rebooting the PC and the phone several times, but the error persisted. Finally I removed the software from the PC and reinstalled it. Same error occured .

This was the point when I seriously thought about going back to a Windows Mobile device. There was one more thing I might try, and that was going through the registry of the PC and remove EVERY reference to Nokia. I first uninstalled the software and afterwards I removed everything Nokia-related in the registry.

After a reboot I reinstalled the Nokia PC Suite software, and everything worked fine.
This proves that Nokia software is as buggy as Microsoft software.

How hard is it for a piece of software/developer to remove all references to the software when you remove it? (rhetorical question)