I am facing this Apple Mighty Mouse annoyance for the first time and it looks like it’s very common problem everyone experiences.

After disconnecting the Mighty Mouse, turning it upside down and rubbing the scroll on a soft cloth in different directions has fixed the issue.

Anyone else facing similar problems can check a small video available http://www.info.apple.com/images/kbase/302417/302417_1.mov

We came across this weird behavior where a VirtualHost container of a few random domains inside httpd.conf were including a ^M carriage return.

ServerName domain.tld
ServerAlias www.domain.tld
ServerAdmin webmaster@domain.tld
DocumentRoot /home/user/public_html/user^M

The Apache daemon went down frequently because of this as any user which made any modifications to their Apache configuration (addon, parked and subdomains), the daemon was restarted and all web services came to a halt due to the carriage return in the httpd.conf.

cPanel technicians reported they have seen this issue but have not been able to replicate it. Fortunately, the issue hasn’t occurred again and we hope that cPanel can identify and fix this bug.

I bought a Macbook (white) sometime last month. It’s slick ! (something which Apple hardware is quite renowned for), stable OS + eye candy.

My primary requirement was a Linux notebook and since Mac OSX is Unix it perfectly suffices my needs plus I get everyone around me to *drool*

With respect to work, I largely work on the command line, SSH (Secure Shell) being the ideal and common way of logging into servers. Life cannot get any more beautiful than this

For anyone who wants to know more about Unix that’s running underneath MacOSx, check this page

Below are the list of applications with which I cannot live without now,

1. Adium : is a free instant messaging application for Mac OS X, released under the GNU GPL and developed by the Adium team. With Adium, you can connect to any number of messaging accounts on any combination of supported messaging services and then chat with other people using those services.


Adium

A definite must have for any Mac OSX user, the product is polished and with so many IM protocols it supports out of the box, you’ll never have enough.

2. Quicksilver : A unified, extensible interface for working with
applications, contacts, music, and other data.

Quicksilver

Quicksilver is an application launcher. Similar to Apple’s Spotlight feature but more verbose with all the additional plugins available. It’ll find exactly the thing you’re looking for in your computer.

3.Growl : Growl is a notification system for Mac OS X: it allows applications that support Growl to send you notifications.

Growl

Any new software installed gets registered, example the Vienna RSS reader extracts feeds, growl will notify the user of the feeds extracted etc.

4. Firefox : I didn't like the Safari browser that comes with Mac OSX, installed the Firefox latest for MacOSX Tiger. I've grown used to using Firefox as the browser at workplace plus the fact that Firefox + extensions = bliss !

Mozilla Firefox

5. KisMAC is an opensource and free stumbler/scanner application for Mac OS X. It has an advantage over MacStumbler/iStumbler/NetStumbler in that it uses monitor mode and passive scanning.

KisMac

An alternative to Kismet or other WiFi stumbler/scanning applications on Linux. Interestingly, these guys (KisMAC) moved their project/website to a different country, Switzerland to be precise due to software laws in Germany. Talk about intent !

6. OmniFocus is a personal task management system, designed to quickly capture your thoughts and allow you to store, manage, and process them into actionable to-do items.

I got a alpha testing license for this one. Although I haven’t used to extensively, I got to say, this one is one helluva polished product to look out for in the future.

Over the months after working for Network Redux I’ve got used to using BaseCamp for managing my day to day life.

OmniFocus

You can expect a review of OmniFocus sometime soon.

PS : At the time of writing this, OmniFocus is still in alpha stage, you’ll have to subscribe to their mailing list and wait for them to give out free sneak previews.

That’s it folks. I’ll keep adding more in the near future.

After a long vacation in Belgaum, I’m back in Bangalore with loads of energy and home sick !

In some interesting news, while I was in Belgaum I did manage to setup a Wi-Fi hotspot for Pai Resorts. This so happened due to a common friend and the patience and time provided by the proprietor Pai Resorts. Thank You !

The entire resort is now wireless which includes the 4 cottages apart from the main building which hosts the conference room.

The equipment used was the always reliable and sturdy Netgear WGR 614 Access Point. More information about the access point can be found here

After days trying to find maharashtrian eateries in Bangalore, I’ve finally found one w00t w00t !. This place called Rajvardhan Foods located at Jayanagar 9th Block (the road besides Big Bazaar) absolutely rocks. It’s just not the vada pav’s though, they also serve sabudana vada, misal pav, tarri-vada pav, batata vada, and sabudana kichdi and thalipeeth to name a few. A perfect delight for a marathi manus

Oh btw do buzz me if you know of any such places in Bangalore.

On a different note I’m sick, down with cold and fever.

I’ve been recently hooked to downloading and listening to podcasts in my recently bought 30 gig Ipod video..mostly technical but lotsa of them. Bashpodder is a kick ass project which makes downloading podcasts a walk in the park.

Just download the below 3 files,

bashpodder.shell
parse_enclosure.xsl
bp.conf

Chmod the file bashpodder.shell to give it execute permissions since this is the script that does all the fetching/downloading of the podcasts from the URL’s that have been configured in the sample config file bp.conf(make sure you check that file out first as it already has a few links mostly GNU/Linux related podcasts)

chmod 755 bashpodder.shell

Add your favorite podcast URL’s in the file bp.conf and you’re on your way.
./bashpodder.shell

The above script when initiated will start downloading the podcasts and sorting it in a folder with the current date. Coolness !

You can check the author’s page here.

Everyone loves bash for one simple reason : ” tab completion “

I find it quite difficult working on shell’s other than the bash shell because I simply love the auto-complete feature of bash and I keep pressing for file name completion….etc etc

I’m a lazy sys admin and I don’t love to type . If you are like me then you will definately love the package bash_completion which will also complete argument’s to a command when is pressed. Like for example :

[digen@ws61 ~]$ tar
A c d r t u x


After pressing tab it returned the argument’s of the command tar. Kewl !
You can get the source package from here
. RPM binaries are also available and instructions for installing is also provided.

Check whether your mail server has been blacklisted:http://www.mxtoolbox.com/EOM/eom/public/blacklists.aspx

Cartoon image taken from http://www.gapingvoid.com  .A must visit website for some amazing cartoons.