Lorcan's Wiki public

public:adblockplus

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

This page has information about my favourite Firefox plugin - Adblock Plus, which can be installed from Firefox's addons page. Disabling Adblock Plus on Your Website If you want Adblock Plus to allow Firefox to display ads on a particular website, for example, to test the embedded adsense ads in your blog. Adblock Plus allows you to do this by setting up an exception filter in the preferences window. If you want to allow ads to be displayed on then add the following f…

public:adsense_wordpress

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

These instructions show how to set up a number of Google Adsense ads with the default theme on a wordpress blog. These instructions were written to describe how AdSense ads were added to . Signing up for Google AdSense First you must sign up for Google AdSense.

public:apacheosx

2008-09-05T09:00:56-05:00

Enabling PHP on OSX Leopard You will need to find the httpd.conf file and load the php module. The http.conf file should be in /etc/apache2/httpd.conf. Find the following line and uncomment it (remove the ”#” character at the start of the line):

public:applesoftware

2008-10-07T14:36:16-05:00

Internet Software * Firefox: what else? There is lots of information on my Firefox setup, plugins, etc. here * Adium: A great instant messaging client * Moodblast: an application for updating your facebook, adium, skype, twitter, jaiku, etc. statuses in one place * Skype: Voice over IP client.

public:backuppolicies

2009-01-03T04:30:14-05:00

Backing Up On OSX/Linux This pages describes a number of policies I use for backing up files on a number of Mac OSX and Linux systems I use. All files are backed up to another machine that has itself got robust backing up facilities (i.e., periodic offsite and physical backups). I have an account on that machine and a home directory under /home/lorcan. (Remember, for Mac OSX the home directory would be /Users/lorcan)

public:backupsvn

2009-01-03T08:30:03-05:00

In order to ensure your SVN repository is fully backed up you should schedule regular backups and store them on a remote machine. This document shows how to use svnadmin to backup your repository, rsync to copy it to a remote server, and cron to automate the process (so you don't have to remember to run the backup yourself).

public:changing_permalinks

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

Changing Permalinks in Wordpress This option is usually only to be recommended if you are dealing with a new installation and no posts, since the Permalinks for your old posts are now going to change thus breaking all existing links to your blog. However, if you feel you must, these instructions will show you how:

public:cxoracle

2008-08-25T08:25:07-05:00

First you will need to install Oracle Instant Client (instructions here). You must install both the basic and sdk packages for cx_oracle to work. * Download the cx_Oracle source files from sourceforge. * Uncompress them and enter the directory * Build and Install them: sudo python setup-py build sudo python setup.py install

public:discussion_plugin

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

This page contains instructions for installing and setting up the Discussion Plugin used in this wiki. * Download the Discussion plugin here * Unzip the downloaded file to the /lib/plugins directory of the dokuwiki installation (e.g., /var/www/wiki/lib/plugins)

public:eclipse

2008-09-16T06:19:50-05:00

This page has a description of my Eclipse configuration, including information about the plugins I use. Eclipse Plugins I use the following plugins, which I recommend: Java * Eclipse Checkstyle Plugin (update site: ): This is a plugin that enforces coding styles. There is more information on setting up a personal code style here. * EclEmma (update site: ): Java Code Coverage Software. * FindBugs plugin (update site:…

public:emergewordpress

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

Upgrading Wordpress in Gentoo Before attempting to upgrade wordpress, always perform a backup of your databases and wordpress installation, just in case something goes wrong. Currently (as of April 2006), the Gentoo wordpress packages are masked. If trying to emerge wordpress, the following warning is given:

public:firefox

2008-10-13T13:03:46-05:00

This page contains information on my Firefox setup, configuration, and plugins. Plugins * Firefox Web Browser: My favourite web browser - (you may want the one with British English). There are also a number of Firefox add-ons that I highly recommend: * Adblock Plus - a great ad blocker. There is a page on configuration settings for Adblock plus here. In order to get the best from Adblock Plus be sure to subscribe to a good filter list. * Language specific dictionaries * Download Sta…

public:fuzzyclock

2008-08-13T11:50:09-05:00

Fuzzyclock is a great clock for Mac OSX. This page has some information on configuring it. Making Fuzzyclock Appear in the Menu Bar on Login * Open System Preferences * Click on Accounts * Click on your account * Click on the Login Items tab at the top * Click on the + icon and browse to FuzzyClock to add it

public:gentoo

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

* A beginner's FAQ for Gentoo * Setting up an iTunes Server for Gentoo

public:gentoofaq

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

This document is a simple newbie's FAQ for Gentoo. Feel free to add new questions (and answers) here and change my answers if you feel that they are not accurate. After all, i'm just a newbie myself. :-) There is a more authoritative FAQ on www.gentoo.org.

public:gentooitunes

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

It's best to follow the instructions on this HOWTO on the Gentoo Wiki. Alternative Instructions When installing mt-daapt it is not necessary to use the howl USE flag, simply execute: sudo emerge mt-daapd Now copy the example file (/etc/mt-daapd.conf.example) to (/etc/mt-daapd.conf), and edit the following values to read (feel free to change these values, especially passwords, etc):

public:homenetwork

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

Running your Web Server from a Home Network To run a web server (or any server) from your home network and publishing your website to the wider world you will need the following: * a PC with a webserver running on it (I use Apache on a Gentoo box in this example) * A router connected to the Internet through an always on broadband connection. I use a Linksys Wireless-G router connected to an Eircom broadband connection. * A registered domain name * A Dynamic DNS account

public:linksys_portforwarding

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

Port Forwarding on the Linksys Wireless G Router These instructions assume you use a router to firewall your home network. In order for you to be able to access a machine on your home network from the outside world you will need to open the relevant port (e.g. 22 for ssh, 80 for http). To do this with the Linksys Wireless G Router follow these instructions:

public:linksyswirelessg

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

This page contains information and links about the Linksys Wireless G Router. The server that hosts this website is behind one of these routers, and I have broadband connections running through two of these routers: one with Clearwire broadband, and another with Eircom broadband.

public:macports

2008-09-25T11:37:48-05:00

The Mac installer for MacPorts can be downloaded here. Setting the $PATH Variable First you may need to set your $PATH variable. Do this by adding the following to your .bash_profile file in your home directory export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH

public:matlab

2008-08-31T08:43:38-05:00

Download and Installation I got Matlab from the college software store, it is not normally gratis. The installation requires XCode (you must be a member of the Apple Developer Connection to get this) and X11 (X11R6 available as part of Optional Installs.mpkg in the Optional Installs directory on the OSX install disk). If X11R6 is not installed the following error is encountered (when running /Applications/MATLAB74/bin/matlab -nojvm):

public:mysql

2008-09-04T08:46:43-05:00

Installation N.B. This is a work in progress!!! do not follow these instructions until this caveat is removed! I installed MySQL5, Connector/J, and the Python libraries for MySQL using mac ports (you will first need to make sure mac ports is installed):

public:mysqltooracle

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

Showing All Tables in a Database In MySQL the recommended way of showing all tables in a database is to use: show tables; , but in Oracle you should use: SELECT TABLE_NAME FROM TABS; Comment Style in Oracle SQL Files In MySQL SQL the comment style is to use the hash (#) character at the start of each line to be commented, or a line starting with ”-- ” or '/*' followed by '*/' for multi-line comments, e.g.,

public:mysqltutorial

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

This document is a brief tutorial into MySQL. This tutorial is based on an interactive lecture with 3rd year computer science students. The databases created here are not perfect (e.g., they do not follow best practices in database design), and the user should not interact with the database as root, except to create the new database.

public:octavefaq

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

Plotting with GNUPlot Changing a plot title To change the title of a plot use the following: title('New Title'); replot(); Saving a plot to a file To save a plot to a png file for printing or manipulating use the following (this code assumes your plotting has already been done):

public:oracleinstantclient

2008-08-25T08:30:14-05:00

Installing Oracle Instant Client on OSX This document contains instructions for setting up Oracle Instant Client and connecting to an Oracle Database from Mac OSX. It shows how to install Oracle Instant Client Basic and SDK, and SQL*Plus for and how to use SQL*Plus to connect to a remote Oracle Database.

public:perl

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

Problems with XML::Simple I had a problem when trying to load XML::Simple through cpan. Here was the message I got: ============================================================================= Fatal error: Your default XML parser (XML::SAX::PurePerl) is broken. There are known bugs in the PurePerl parser included with version 0.13 and 0.14 of XML::SAX. The XML::Simple tests will fail with this parser. One way to avoid the problem is to install XML::SAX::Expat - it will instal…

public:recoveringfromharddrivefailure

2008-08-09T10:31:45-05:00

Ok, so you're turned your machine on and it won't boot. Maybe you're having a Grub error 17, or a Dell DRIVE ERROR CODE 7 (well that's what happened me anyway) and are desperate to get what's salvageable from your hard drive. These instructions are what I followed when a hard drive failed on my Linux (Ubuntu) box. The steps here may work for other operating systems, but you will need a linux machine to execute the commands below. It should be noted that these instructions did not recover all the…

public:rxtxmac

2008-08-26T09:49:49-05:00

I needed to set up RXTX to interface with USB/Serial connections from my Mac. I was getting the following eror: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: no rxtxSerial in java.library.path thrown while loading gnu.io.RXTXCommDriver Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: no rxtxSerial in java.library.path

public:settingupwordpress

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

There is a great set of instructions on Wojciech Bednarski's blog. any additional steps are documented here. First install MySQL and PHP. Next, emerge wordpress using sudo emerge wordpress Then edit wp-config-sample.php in the wordpress installation directory (e.g., /var/www/localhost/htdocs/wordpress/) using the following values

public:sidebar

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

Blog home Gentoo FAQ

public:sieveongmail

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

This page describes how Sieve rules can be set up to forward copies of all incoming email from a Sieve-compliant mail server to your Gmail account. These instructions will not work if your mail server is not sieve-enabled. The examples provided below are used on a Mac OS X Server version 10.5 Leopard. Let's assume that the mail account you want to copy-and-forward to is joebloggs@gmail.com, the mailserver is called mail.example.com, that sieveshell is installed, and that you have your password …

public:snapshotting

2008-09-10T06:08:56-05:00

Snapshotting your Home Directorys with Rsync I use the following code to back up my home directories on my Mac using rsync. These scripts were created with advice from Mike Rubel's awesome page on snapshotting with Rsync. One script backs everything up every four hours, keeping the last four backups. The second backs it up every day, keeping the last four days. These scripts backup everything to the directory /snapshots which is owned and visible only by root.

public:sshkeys

2009-01-03T07:03:09-05:00

To save from constantly having to enter usernames and passwords when logging into remote servers it is possible to set up a key that can be used to open the connection. This document briefly describes how a key can be created and used. Creating a new Key Use ssh-keygen to create a new key

public:stamp

2008-12-17T07:51:56-05:00

There is plenty of software for Windows and Linux on Parallax's site. However, setting things up on a Mac requires a few steps: Visit Murat N Konar's website and download his MACBS2 software Only a limited number of adapters can be used when connecting the Stamp to a mac. These are listed on the MacBS2 website. When using the USB version of the Board of Education or an adapter based on FTDI's FT232 chipset it is essential to have the latest version of the FTDI drivers. The FTDI VCP drivers can…

public:start

2010-01-06T10:51:37-05:00

This page has some documentation relating to setting up and using software, most of which is used on this website, which is hosted on Webfaction. This page is under development, and I will be adding to it over the coming weeks and months. Caveat Emptor - the information on this page should be taken with a grain of salt. I make no guarantees that it is 100% accurate and will take no responsibility if code listed here causes problems for you.

public:svnwebfaction

2008-09-11T11:30:02-05:00

These instructions show how to set up a new subversion repository on webfaction and make it web accessible. The first instructions are specific to Webfaction but later sections are more general. Setting up Subversion on Webfaction Use the web panel to follow these instructions:

public:unison

2008-09-12T08:36:26-05:00

This document describes how to synchronize multiple workspaces to a single unison server. If you're careful (and rigorous) about this you'll effectively be able to keep each of the workspaces synchronised. Installing Unison You'll need to install unison. Before you do this, you should find out the exact version of the unison installation on your server. Your client version number must match this.

public:verifyrsa

2008-09-02T09:07:34-05:00

Executing the following command on the server you are connecting to will print out the fingerprint information on your RSA key that you should check before connecting to that machine for the first time. The fingerprint should be saved automatically by your SSH client at this point. If the fingerprints do not match do not connect.

public:webfaction

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

Copying dokuwiki pages to your new dokuwiki Installation on Webfaction - and making them apache-writable There are some permission issues with copying an existing dokuwiki filesystem to a new Webfaction install (this may also be an issue with other hosting companies). The problem occurs when the existing file permissions are incorrect, i.e., the files are not owned by the webserver. The solution to this is to change permissions to apache:username where username is your ssh user account. Assumin…

public:webfactiondokuwiki

2010-01-06T04:57:13-05:00

Setting up a Fresh Dokuwiki Install Migrating your old Dokuwiki content to a fresh install

public:wiki

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

This wiki was installed using Gentoo's emerge to version 20060309e * Setting up the Battlehorse Template that is used on this wiki * Setting up the Discussion Plugin

public:wordpress

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

* Installing and Configuring Wordpress * Setting up Google AdSense on a Wordpress Blog * Embedding YouTube Videos in Wordpress * Embedding Google Videos in Wordpress * Embedding XHTML-compliant Twitter badges * Upgrading Wordpress on Gentoo * Changing Permalinks on Wordpress

public:wordpress_googlevideo

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

To embed Google videos in a wordpress blog follow these instructions: * Log into the blog (as an administrator) * Open the Users tab of the admin page * At the bottom of the Users tab, under Personal Options, untick the “Use the visual rich editor when writing” option.

public:wordpress_youtube

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

To embed YouTube videos in a wordpress blog follow these instructions: * Log into the blog (as an administrator) * Open the Users tab of the admin page * At the bottom of the Users tab, under Personal Options, untick the “Use the visual rich editor when writing” option.

public:xhtml_twitter

2008-08-09T09:59:09-05:00

The Flash badge that Twitter offers on their website is not XHTML compliant as it uses the embed tag and uses plain ampersand (&) characters instead of & which is the correct XHTML-compliant form. This page shows how to take Twitter's Badge html and reform it into something that is XHTML compliant and will pass an XHTML validator.