In order to click "mailto:" links on Web pages to launch an email program, Firefox (or Iceweasel on Debian) needs to be told which email program to use.

To do this, type "about:config" in Firefox's address bar, type in "mailto" in filter, look if "network.protocol-handler.external.mailto" preference …

In this post, I discussed "clone" mode of dual head with xrandr 1.2. Now I got an extra monitor, and would like to use "xinerama" mode, wherein the built-in laptop LCD and the external monitor share a single virtual screen.

To set this up, I changed my /etc/X11 …

This site is primarily powered by Drupal, i.e. it is a PHP site. However, we have a few Web directories that serves regular HTML pages. Since I installed Drupal in document root, access to these directories becomes an issue.

The main problem is that directory index file resolution is …

My work requires me to connect to many different SSH servers, and I have different passwords for each server. It's a pain in the neck trying to type in many different passwords everyday. The obvious solution is to use OpenSSH's public key login solution, so passwords are no longer needed …

Most of Linux laptop users have done some customizations on the system so it works the way we wanted. Now we want to save the fruit of our hard labor in case bad things happen. We want to backup not just the /home directory, but the whole / directory, minus some …

Command line manual page is an indispensable tool for working with Linux system.If you forget how to use a command, just type man followed by the name of the command. One thing I don't like about the manual system on my Debian sid is that it uses most to …

All of my laptops are now running Debian based Linux. It works great. Linux handles all my daily works well. However, there are occasions where I need a Windows machine. For example, I recently need to deliver a lecture on a system that runs only on Windows. Also, in the …

See for yourself. Be careful though, you don't want to hurt their precious eyes.

The most environment friendly SUV - human powered!

Introduction
Nowadays, it is not uncommon to see people multi-tasking with a dozen of windows open. With an 12 inch small screen, Thinkpad X61 really needs an efficient window manager for me to get serious work done. I have been struggling to find a good choice. Of course, 3D desktop …

On my old Thinkpad X31, there is a nice little program called tpb that makes all Thinkpad hotkeys work on Linux. However, that project hasn't been updated for two years, and tpb does not work with the newer Thinkpad models. On my new X61, notably, the sound volume controls are …

Thinkpad X61 has an VGA output port, so it supports dual-head display. However, with the Intel GMA965 graphics chipset in X61, the thinkpad_acpi (used to be called ibm_acpi) kernel module does not seem to support switching on or off this VGA port any more. The traditionally used commands, such as …

I got a brand new Thinkpad X61 laptop last Saturday. Unfortunately, the factory loaded Vista Home Basic was too bloated and ate up 700MB memory from a fresh boot without launching any application! If you know me, you know what I will do - remove Windows and load up Linux!

The …

Some people may wonder why would anyone want to do this? Well, there are at least two benefits.

One, I can write posts offline with my favorite editor, whenever I feel like it. Then post them from within vim once I got an Internet connection.

Two, I get to use …

How to display Chinese characters correctly on a Telnet client running on a non-Chinese version of Windows machine? Web browsers today support whatever character encodings, this is not so with Telnet client. If you make a Telnet connection to a Chinese server with Windows telnet client, you will most likely …

My Thinkpad X31 got a small 12.1 inch screen, so I decide to increase the screen real estate by adding an extra monitor. The idea is that the LCD and the CRT monitor will display different part of the same desktop. This dual head solution is sometimes called 'Xinerama' …

Under Linux, have you ever felt that stuff on your brand new LCD display looked blurry, especially with small font sizes, the words start to look fuzzy after a while? Chances are that you did not set the LCD with its optimal resolution. There is an easy fix:

1. Measure the …

Ok, what is centralized authentication? Why bother? Well, if each person in your home or organization uses her/his own computer only, no need for this. However, if you or your organization have a bunch of machines and people need to login to different machines at different times, you've got …

NFS (Network File System) is an old Unix technology that enables a machine to mount a remote file system. This is desirable for centralized authentication, as the user can access the same home directory no matter which machine he uses.

Server

Install NFS server:

apt-get install nfs-kernel-server

Edit /etc/exports …

I have been using Borland programming environment since 1994, beginning with its Turbo C 2.0, then Borland C++, and now JBuilder. This company has always produced programmer friendly products. Comparing with other products, Borland's offering are always the most natural, and the easiest to get the job done. At …