When in Centos 7.1 I clicked on a *.doc file created by LibreOffice, gedit was run, even though the icon and the mime type (reported by "xdg-mime query filetype") were right. Other users didn't have that problem. I fixed this by removing ~/.local but not before fruitlessly … [Read more...]
Problems creating VMs with virt-manager on Centos 7.1
This seems to have developed a couple of unhelpful quirks. The first problem is that the default disk image file seems now to be qcow2, and there is no way to change this from the creation wizard. The second problem is that it no longer names the disc image … [Read more...]
annoyance of the day – Cognos, pdf, adobe plugin, firefox
To make Cognos work sensibly, it needs firefox to associate the adobe acrobat plugin with the various pdf mime types. When you go to the firefox Preferences menu, and to the Applications pane, there are a batch of three "PDF" content types, each of which you carefully … [Read more...]
orphaned icons in MacOS Finder sidebar “Places” list
If you have an icon in your MacOS Finder sidebar (in the "Places" section) that corresponds to a resource that no longer exists (eg a network share that has disappeared), it becomes surprisingly difficult to remove it (the right-click menu on it no longer has an option to … [Read more...]
the problem with email
I'm becoming decreasingly happy with using email for some purposes. This is an attempt to put into words one small subset of the problems I feel exist with email (as a general concept). I'm not going to propose any solutions ... This set of complaints is with mailing … [Read more...]
managing google’s cache of our machines
Recently, I needed to get rid of googles indexing and cache of a directory on one of our ftp servers. This is easier than I was expecting, but a description may save other people pain (this is usually an operation that needs doing in a hurry ...) arrange to have a … [Read more...]
Centos 7.1 for users
The current New User Guide is my quick attempt to update the new user guide. The new version of CentOS has changed the colour and location of things even if the things themselves haven't changed much, so I've had to change quite a lot. Here are some observations - There … [Read more...]
back problems, motorised desks
Sitting all day isn't very good for you; standing all day isn't all that great either (I've tried it for a few months, and am not convinced it was that good an idea). The latest variant in trying to make day-long computer use less damaging is motorised sit/stand desks … [Read more...]
UEFI secure boot (dual booting, etc)
When it first appeared, UEFI secure boot was going to be doom for free operating systems: http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/5552.html http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/6054.html but it turned out to be easier than predicted to get Microsoft to sign … [Read more...]
Extracting a PPD from Xerox
Or how to extract blood from a stone, linux style. Ok. The generic windows PPD for the Xerox 7855 doesn't quite do what we want. The linux install on the xerox page seems to require you to set up queues and use a xerox-supplied print command. A … [Read more...]