Firefox in both Windows and Linux lets you drag a tab to the Desktop which gets saved as a .url file. Inspecting these files shows the url in question is saved as text inside the file.

On Windows, Firefox is quite happy to open the browser at the url when double-clicking the .url file. In Linux (at least in KDE which my Kubuntu install uses) this doesn't happen. Firefox opens the file itself so you get a browser window containing the url text.

This is how I got Firefox on KDE to open my files as desired.

1 - create /bin/url.sh
#!/bin/bash
IFS=$'©'
FFOPENURL=$(less $1)
firefox $FFOPENURL

2 - Right-click a sample .url file, select "Open with" from the popup menu and enter /bin/url.sh in the edit box. Make sure you tick the "Remember application association for this file type" box. Click OK.

This should now work...

I've always been a big fan of Lotus Notes and have been "happily" using v7.01 under Wine. The new Lotus Notes 8 is built on Eclipse (another tool I use extensively) and so I've been keen to get any of the current beta versions to work. Beta 2 was a dead loss but Beta 3 seems to be that more usable.

Here's my step-by-step guide to get it up and running:

1. Ensure the Notes fonts will look nicer than the default
sudo dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig-config
select autohinter, automatic, no for bitmap fonts

2. Link sh to bash. The Feisty default is dash which causes "Generic LSE Failure" errors when you run the client after install.
$ sudo mv /bin/sh /bin/sh.orig
$ sudo ln -s /bin/bash /bin/sh

3. Extract the Notes Client download
$ cd ~/Desktop
$ mkdir Notes8Beta3
$ cd Notes8Beta3
$ tar xvf ../notes8_linux_beta3_prod.tar

4. You'll need to do this magic step to avoid a bug in the Installer:
$ sudo cp deploy/install.xml /root/
Basically copy install.xml into the root folder because that's where the Installer goes looking for it.

5. Run the GUI Installer
$ sudo ./setup.sh
You will now get the InstallShield GUI. Here is what I did in the GUI. It'll make sense when you go through it, and except for selecting all components, it's just the straight defaults.

Next (Intro screen)/I accept both terms/Next (License)/Accept default path (/opt/ibm/lotus/notes)/Next (Path)/Select all features/Next (Features)/Install (Summary)/ (Wait a while ) /Finish

6. Fix the /etc/lotus directory
After the install, you will have to change the parameters on the /etc/lotus directory.
$ sudo chmod -R 755 /etc/lotus
If you don't do this, you will get an error telling you that pernames.ntf can't be copied.

7. Application Icons
By default, the installer will create your Desktop icons. You may need to logout and back in again for them to be picked up. Failing that, the command line is:
$ /opt/ibm/lotus/notes/notes

8.The client will now launch. Eventually you will get the typical new-client wizard. If you've ever installed a Notes client before, it will all make sense...

Next (Welcome screen)
Name: {your name}
Server: (server name)
Next (User Information)
Next (Connect to server)
Network type: TCP/IP
Server address: (server address)
Next (Network Info)
File name: (Path to my ID file)
No (Do not copy to data folder)
(Password)/OK
Next (Setup additional services)/OK (Notes setup is complete!)

You should now have the Getting Started screen!

Good Luck!

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Since installing IE7 this week I started getting the following message whenever I launched an application installed on a network drive (ie. a location on my Samba server):

"The publisher can not be verified. Are you sure you
want to run this software ?".

It seems the new internet security features in IE7 decided that my network was a risk. I guess it's sort of fair, since I've never explicitely told IE7 that it's safe but still, it's a bit galling.

Anyway, to fix the problem,

1. Open Intenet Options from the Control panel


2. Select Security/Local Intranet/Sites/Advanced


3. Enter the network drive letter or UNC and click Close

This should add a rule for file://{servername} and should fix the problem for all EXEs on the server in question.

Boo Hoo. My perfectly stable install of VMWare Desktop v5.5.5 stopped working today. Clicking the icon on my desktop popped up the Hourglass cursor which went away after 3-4 secs with nice VMWare screen at the end of it.

It turns out a recent Ubuntu Automatic Update installed new Kernel files (I'm now on v2.6.15-27) and as VMWare was compiled/configured against my older kernel, it fell over.

So. To fix it:

1. Start a console session


2. type

   sudo apt-get install kernel-headers-`uname -r`

   to install the C header files for the current kernel


3. type

   /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl

   to recompile the VMWare binaries


4. You can now run VMware Workstation by invoking

   /usr/bin/vmware

Worked a dream.

Using W3C's CSS validation service, you might see Warnings about your CSS stylesheet such as:

"You have no background-color with your color"

The link above gives a simple overview of the issue and the "fix".

Basically, you should ensure that each style that uses a "color" attribute has a corresponding "background-color" attribute at the same level. For styles that need a transparent background colour, use "inherit".

I'm glad I'm using b2evolution for my Blog engine. Their built-in Antispam features make it really easy for me to keep my blog comments clear. A couple of clicks and my whole blog is cleaned - and it links back to the b2evolution website so other users can automatically use each others entries to make cleaning even quicker.

It's a real pain to have to code these sorts of features into our software. I'm quoting on a website development job now. A good 10% of the cost is just for security features to avoid getting spammed (or worse). It's OK for me as the recipient of the cash but not nice for the poor customer...

Your own POP3 mailbox. One off payment for life. POP3 and Webmail access. Ideal for users who don't like the long and complicated email addresses supplied by their ISP - especially if they plan on moving ISPs in the future...