On 3G and outgoing mail not sending? Chances are, you need to set the SMTP server specific to your network. Here’s the list that may grow over time: (more…)
Archive for the ‘Did you know’ Category
Expire private images to protect privacy on the Internet?
2011
01.11
01.11
A new product over at x-pire.net (which redirects to x-pire.de) was unveiled in Germany today, with the aim of embedding expiry times and information into images so that they cannot be viewed after a certain time. In that way there should be a maximum lifespan to digital images on the web to prevent future embarassment, usage etc. At this stage, the prototype is available as plug-in for Firefox (as well as some other browsers in future), and expounds the idea of a ‘forgetful internet’ so that information is not immortal on the web. (more…)
Upgrade to WordPress 3.0.4 – HTML Sanitation bug
2010
12.30
12.30
From the WordPress Development Blog:
Version 3.0.4 of WordPress, available immediately through the update page in your dashboard or for download here, is a very important update to apply to your sites as soon as possible because it fixes a core security bug in our HTML sanitation library, called KSES. I would rate this release as “critical.” (more…)
AXXESS / Afrihost / IS / MWeb DSL slow-to-no international browsing update
2010
12.02
12.02
For what it’s worth: an alleged SEACOM cable break a few kilometers from Alexandria – eta of 2.5hrs or so…
WordPress 3.0.2 is out
2010
12.02
12.02
Don’t forget to upgrade inplace or download! It is a mandatory security update for all previous WordPress versions, and upgrades are easy 
AXXESS / Afrihost / IS / MWeb DSL slow-to-no international browsing
2010
12.02
12.02
Seems like there is an upstream cable fault (being investigated) that has caused international browsing from South Africa outward to fail.
Pings reveal failing terminations on the entry points into continental Europe and the US.
IS has reported it as follows, all others are piggy-backing (or just silent on the matter): (more…)
Your Kindle, PDFs, EPUBs, file and format conversion and you
2010
09.28
09.28
There are two irritations when it comes to the Kindle. First of those is your collection of PDFs you bought or own that you’d like to read as a ‘book’ on the Kindle (without going through the whole long USER@[free.]kindle.com) email and Whispernet delivery process. The other is the EPUB Sony Book reader format files that you have — but that the Kindle doesn’t interpret. Here’s how to get around this. (more…)
Firefox: Paste HTML code from one child frame to parent text-box – src stripped
2010
09.10
09.10
Here’s something fun: use Firefox 3.6.9 to have a set of Javascript code in a child frame append HTML code to a text box in the parent frame, and content of the string is modified:
what was
<img src="foo.jpg" alt="bar" width="1" height="1" />
becomes
<img alt="bar" width="1" height="1" />
which is pretty pointless… (more…)
MTN Business Data lines crash – down again
2010
08.30
08.30
Last time, generator maintenance in Johannesburg took everything offline.
There was just notification with the subject line “unknown” (referring to the categorisation of the issue) at 14h22:
SYMPTOMS EXPERIENCED: Intermittent Degradation in Service SEVERITY: Critical (more...)
Afrihost ADSL Uncapped – throttled at 32GB to 0.56Mbps
2010
08.28
08.28
So – Afrihost ADSL uncapped… the promise of “Pure Internet Joy” is part of the offering’s headline.
On a 4Mbps line, the offering of the uncapped account is quite good. Then came the warnings — throtteling may occur based on usage patterns. Then came the notification that there would be an hour-to-hour usage analysis to control the access to consistent line speeds for the “other 93%” of users using the IS-resold Afrihost bandwidth.
To my mind, that’s understandable – if someone’s pulling 210GB a month on an “uncapped” account, they should be throttled as that can be seen as excessive. (more…)
[UPDATE] SEACOM – finally, a light of hope after cable outage and line down: 23 July
2010
07.22
07.22
SEACOM expects all connectivity to be restored to full pre-crash conditions by 23 July 2010. The repairs are not complete yet, but, officially, “in the final stages of completion”, with only testing to go before the cable goes back down into the water.
[UPDATE] SEACOM operational update re repairs and down time
2010
07.17
07.17
Finally, SEACOM has posted new (well, another) report regarding the undersea outage off Mombasa, which, though initially projected to be completed by 11 July will most probably only be finished by 22 July 2010 according to latest reports.
Finally, though, they have announced that the “designated ship has been deployed to the location of the fault where it will proceed to locate the cable on the seabed.” They say that this action will have to take place in and around the area the cabled was dropped by the installation ship over a year ago due to tidal movements that may have relocated the cable on the sea bed. “This is normal and caused by the natural sea bed movements and strong submarine currents in that area.” (more…)
[UPDATE] SEACOM still eyeing the 22 July as targeted restore date
2010
07.15
07.15
Nothing much new, there is not even an operational update from SEACOM. However, unofficial reports are still pointing to 22 July 2010 as the targeted completion date forthe service to be restored for the submarine cable running up the East African coast. (more…)
On the fly compression of a tar-ball or mysqldump
2010
07.14
07.14
Just to jot it down lest I forget:
Tar’ing the local directory and streaming the tarball straight to gzip:
tar cvf - . | gzip > target.tar.gz
MySQLdump’ing directly to gzip: (more…)
[SOLVED] qlikView installation on Windows 7 – installation error
2010
07.13
07.13
You may encounter the following error on installation:
Installation ended prematurely because of an error
when trying to install 32-bit or 64-bit qlikView on Windows 7. With or without UAC (User Access Control), installation fails.
Suggestions to (re-)install vbscript.dll using regsvr32 vbscript.dll in the c:\windows\system32 (64-bit equivalent) directory didn’t help.
(more…)
End of life for Ubuntu versions
2010
07.12
07.12
In the story relating to release upgrades for Ubuntu, below the end-of-life table for the Ubutu Releases from the Ubuntu Wiki – just to have it all in one place; I’m only including the LTS (long-term support) editions, as these should be the only ones deployed on live production systems. In the meantime, Maverick Meerkat is due in October 2010, supported for 2 years. (more…)
[UPDATE] SEACOM – no news is good news?
2010
07.12
07.12
Since their last update, SEACOM – via their news section or the SEACOM Blog which are ostensibly the same (sort of very weak SQL coding and gaping holes asking for SQL injection) – has not released any further news since 9 July 2010 — the target date of recovery is 22 July 2010. (more…)