Rubénerd!

Man I love that picture!

And if you're using Internet Explorer, sorry Microsoft wants us to call it "Windows Internet Explorer", again I urge you to download an alternative.

Stop IE

Just upgraded my two WordPress powered sites to version 2.0.4. The Rubenerd Show went from 2.0.3 to 2.0.4, and the Rubenerd Blog went from 2.0.1.

If you read the instructions (aka: RTFM) upgrades can be painless. I was very impressed, this was my first WordPress upgrade :).

To "securely" delete a file on a UNIX or Unix-like system such as GNU/Linux, BSD/Mac OS X, Solaris, Kenny Rogers:

user$ srm FILENAME

From the manpage:

srm removes each specified file by overwriting, renaming, and truncating it before unlinking. This prevents other people from un-deleting or recovering any information about the file from the command line.

And how do you make it dance?

srm, like every program that uses the getopt function to parse its arguments, lets you use the -- option to indicate that all following arguments are non-options. To remove a file called '-f' in the current
directory, you could type either "srm -- -f" or "srm ./-f".

* However just to clarify, there is no such thing as secure in computing. All computers have inherent (even if not yet discovered) flaws and data recovery can only be truly rendered useless if the device containing the data you want to delete is ripped out, incinerated, shredded or placed inside a nuclear reactor with evil demonic monkeys. You have been warned.

Development and discussion of srm is carried out at http://source-forge.net/project/?group_id=3297, which is also accessible via http://srm.sourceforge.net.

This website has been invaluable to me so many times. Basically it's a repository of outdated software that has been made unavailable by their original creators in an attempt to get you to get the later release.

I wholehearteldy agree with their slogan "Because newer isn't always better". I think to a certain degree newer versions of programs are useful when they provide better support, improved feautres [that people actually care about] and security and stability fixes, but too often in regards to commercial software it seems vendors just roll out new versions just to get their hands on more of our money.

Some examples of "outdated" software I still run:

• Windows 2000 Professional: the only version of Windows I'll touch)
• iTunes 5: I can't afford a video iPod, and it seems more stable than v6
• Office 97: Well, I use OpenOffice.org now, but before then I used it, even after 2000, XP and 2003 since came out. What other "useful" features did they include?

OldVersion.com

As a (now) Mac OS X and BSD user I really don't use Windows anymore, but when I'm forced to I still use Windows 2000 Professional.

Windows XP looks like a toy (and behaves like one too) and frankly its just a pain in the ass disabling all the stupid visual effects. For the most part Mac OS X's visual effects are very well executed but in XP they're just hideous, not to mention the fact it chews up how much RAM sitting idol. Plus of course Windows 2000 is far more stable and reliable... I know saying those things and Windows in the same line is an oxymoron, but it's better than any other Windows offering Microsoft made in the past or since.

The rant ends there ;).

Anyway I've always been a bit dismayed that if I want to run Windows in Apple's Boot Camp using my MacBook Pro I had to use... Windows XP. Apparently though a guy in Japan has come up with a way to boot Windows 2000; and all it involves is moving NTDETECT from the XP to the 2000 CD amongst other things. I'm going to check it out.

Japanese guy with handle name "intelmacmini" reported his successfull
installation of Windows2000 on Intel MacMini in his blog (japanese).
( http://intelmacminiw2k.blog64.fc2.co...ry-1.html#more )

In his report, he made installation CD similar to the one used in XOM. However, I found that you can install Windows 2000 on Intel Macmini if you replace NTDETECT.COM file in Windows 2000 install CD with NTDETECT.COM file in Windows XP install CD.

Another critical step is to press F5 key when " Press F6 in you need to ...." is displayed. Press F5 key , not F6.

Then you should choose "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface(ACPI) PC". Then you can go through installation process to the end.

OnMac.net: Windows 2000 Install SUCCESS!

Tracking my progress in setting up Ubuntu on my ultra-modern B&W Power Macintosh G3, specs: Open Firmware 3.1.1, 300MHz, 80GB, 512MB. It's almost as fast as my MacBook Pro ;).

Ubuntu Forums: Problem booting B&W G3.

By using the BlackBerry Java Development Environment you can simulate a BlackBerry device on your Windows machine:

The BlackBerry® Java™ Development Environment (JDE) is a fully integrated development environment and simulation tool for building Java 2, Micro Edition (J2ME™) applications for Java-based BlackBerry devices.

It is a Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) compliant J2ME environment for developers who wish to maintain seamless portability in their wireless applications. In addition, the BlackBerry JDE provides a full suite of interfaces and utilities to take advantage of some of the unique features of the BlackBerry device.

Mac or *BSD version anyone? :(

I've recently brought back a Blue and White Apple Power Macintosh G3 to life, and I was going to put a flavour of BSD on there (instinctively), but I changed my mind and decided to dump Mac OS 9 on there, for nostaligic reasons ;).

Anyway finding a basic web browser that's still being compiled for that OS is a real challenge, but some digging around did produce some links:

WaMCom
This is the 2003-07-21 release of WaMCom, the Web and Mail Communicator.

Unicode in Mac Browsers

Information regarding unicode support in Mac OS 9 browsers; it's actually very useful simply because it lists all the browsers!

More when I find them.

I had no idea as to the existance of this command, but as I was searching through my /usr/bin/ directory trying to see what version of Perl I had, I saw the nice command.

Typing man nice gave:

NAME
nice -- execute a utility with an altered scheduling priority

SYNOPSIS
nice [-n increment] utility [argument ...]

DESCRIPTION
nice runs utility at an altered scheduling priority. If an increment is
given, it is used; otherwise an increment of 10 is assumed. The super-
user can run utilities with priorities higher than normal by using a neg-
ative increment. The priority can be adjusted over a range of -20 (the
highest) to 20 (the lowest).

Available options:

-n increment
A positive or negative decimal integer used to modify the system
scheduling priority of utility.

DIAGNOSTICS
The nice utility shall exit with one of the following values:

1-125 An error occurred in the nice utility.

126 The utility was found but could not be invoked.

127 The utility could not be found.

Otherwise, the exit status of nice shall be that of utility.

COMPATIBILITY
The historic -increment option has been deprecated but is still supported
in this implementation.

SEE ALSO
csh(1), getpriority(2), setpriority(2), renice(8)

STANDARDS
The nice utility conforms to IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 (``POSIX.2'').

HISTORY
A nice utility appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.

BUGS
nice is built into csh(1) with a slightly different syntax than described
here. The form `nice +10' nices to positive nice, and `nice -10' can be
used by the super-user to give a process more of the processor.

As a long time previous DOS/Windows user that moved to Mac and BSD back in 2002, I guess its like assigning priority in the Task Manager in NT/2000/XP/2003?

Who cares, I can say UNIX is being nice :)

While I think WordPress is an incredible, easy to use and reliable publishing platform, the one gripe I have is that there is no nice default archive page.

Browsing around I came across a great site which I used to create custom archive pages for this blog and for the Rubenerd Show:

db.rambleschmack.net: How to Make a WordPress Archives Page

By default, WordPress doesn’t seem to have an archives page. It just stacks up all your months of writing in the sidebar. This strikes me as an inelegant solution (interface clutter, anyone?) It also strikes me as a solution that does not scale well. I haven’t yet come across a WP site that’s been going for, say, five years (in fact I don’t think its been around anywhere near that long), but just imagine.

It’s actually remarkably easy to make your own archives page with the power of WordPress templates (AKA themes.)

VERY useful, check it out.