Author Archives: johnny

About johnny

I'm a French-born Scot living in Spain. Computers have interested me since I can remember and conveniently I'm now studying a computer science degree. This here is my BLOGOSPHERE OUTLET where I post solutions to problems I've had in the office or any other arbitrary project, hopefully for future reference AND TO BE PICKED UP BY THE BLOGOSPHERE. (not really I hate the 'blogosphere').

How to check database type of subversion repository

Doing some maintenance on my Subversion repository –namely taking out a directory and creating a new repository with only that directory– I wanted to find out how to check what type of database (FSFS or Berkeley DB) my current svn … Continue reading

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Select boot device key on Sony Vaios

Most BIOSes nowadays have a feature whereby pressing a specific F key brings up a one-time boot device selection menu, handy for operating system (re)installs. The BIOS on my new Vaio didn’t display any information regarding keys (not even how … Continue reading

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Find XPath to any element quickly with FireBug

Edit: I found out that right clicking on a tag in Firebug’s HTML tab and clicking on “Copy XPath” is a much quicker method. I just discovered a way to quickly find the XPath to any element on a webpage … Continue reading

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“Logon failure: unknown username or bad password.” when trying to access Windows XP share from Windows 7

After a recent Windows Update I could no longer access the folders on my Windows XP file server. A window popped up asking for a username and password even though they are both the same on the two computers. The … Continue reading

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Turning screen off with “Access IBM” button

My trusty old T43 has a blue “Access IBM” button just above the F-key row that has sat unused ever since I first reinstalled windows. The other day while browsing the thinkpads.com forums I found an interesting use for this … Continue reading

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Revisiting PPPoE forwarding to PfSense

A few months ago I described how I started using PfSense as a proper gateway. I configured my ADSL router to act as just a modem, forwarding the PPPoE tunnel to PfSense. PfSense would then be in charge of everything … Continue reading

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Automounting Windows samba share with autofs – dollar sign and SELinux woes

The target directory for my (well, the one I got from DokuWiki’s wiki vOv) DokuWiki backup script is on a Windows fileserver. I did some searching and the best way to access this share seemed to be using autofs to … Continue reading

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Backing up DokuWiki with rotating backups on a samba share

After procrastinating for a while I got down to setting up backups for our DokuWiki installation: it was getting to the point where it had enough useful information that losing it would be a Disaster. I got cold sweats just … Continue reading

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Comtrend HG/CT536+ and how to bridge PPPoE connections

Recently I managed to fix my horribly designed -and implemented- home network such that computers accessing the internet no longer had to double-NAT. It has been glorious and extremely stable: much better than having to restart the ADSL router/gateway every … Continue reading

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Windows 7 open command prompt from right click context menu

Windows XP had the PowerToys, which added useful functionality to the system. One of my favourites was the “CMD Shell here” PowerToy, which opened a cmd prompt with its working directory set to the folder you were in. Vista incorporated … Continue reading

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