the wet beaver smiles when tickled

NT auth using apache and perl

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:51:42 GMT

Was trying to do AD auth via both apache and perl for various scripts and found the following links useful:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555092
in cpan - install Authen::Krb5::Simple

Surprisingly enough the M$ article is brilliant....

Annoying MBP and region lock

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 20:09:05 BST

My macbook pro is great, very few complaints with it at all but one of the biggest ones is the firmware locking of the DVD drive meaning you are locked to a certain region after a number of attempts. I find this annoying and restrictive especially as I travel to the US quite a lot, so I googled a bit and found that other people are using IDE->USB converters(avaialble on ebay _really_ cheaply and lo and behold it actually works!!! I can rip my favourite US DVD's without worrying about when to re-install my laptop - I can even rig up a couple at a time and use handbrake and visualhub together.

Permissions to view a resource calendar in exchange 2007

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 09:18:07 BST

It should be so simple, allowing a user to view another users calendar without giving them edit permissions - what could be simpler????? WRONG! It's poorly documented, confusing and down right stupid. I have googled around for ages trying to get it right and gone into the Exchange management shell and learnt all the stupid parameters that M$ insist on, into the user setting in the AD to give read permissions but unless I gave Accessrights:Fullpermissions(and therefore read/write permissions) I got nowhere :( The answer to my prayers was a tool called pfdavadmin which is available here and enables you to set proper permissions on a users folder(calendar/inbox etc etc etc). They could have made it so easy by putting it in the right click but instead a convoluted search was needed :(

Colin Murray

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 10:49:42 BST

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/shows/rpms/radio1/murray_wed.rpm

QDVDauthor and creating your own dvds

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 23:37:31 GMT

Have had some real problem creating disks using qdvdauthor on kubuntu so sorted out the following set of instructions to keep myself right for the future:

create my menus etc using qdvdauthor
click the burn disk button
uncheck the dvdauthor at the bottom and click ok (this creates the temporary directories required)
Wait for it to do it's thing and then click ok or close
Click the burn disk button again
click the export button and put somewhere sensible for you to find
I had to change and comment out the line about
jpeg2yuv
and replace uncomment the one underneath which begins:
jpegtopnm
open up the .sh file it creates and check paths etc
run this script and it will create your menus etc
navigate to the temp drive and locate the dvdauthor.xml file
run this:
dvdauthor -x /full/path/to/dvdauthor.xml
keep your fingers crossed and your disk space available......

It's not failed yet so hopefully it'll work. Also, apparently this is the right mencoder setup for dvd's - link to the full article in the below post.

mencoder -oac lavc -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd -vf scale=720:576,harddup -srate 48000 -af lavcresample=48000 -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vbitrate=5000:
ARTIFICAL LINE BREAK - DELETE ALL OF THIS keyint=15:aspect=16/9:acodec=ac3:abitrate=192 -ofps 25 -o OUTPUTFILE.mpg INPUTFILE.avi

creating dvds using free software

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:45:38 GMT

Found a great article here which helps to explain how to create dvds using entirely free (as in freedom) software which along with this page help to ensure you never have to use non-free software again.

More Radio 1

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 12:07:10 GMT

Vernon Kaye - Sat
Vernon Kaye - Sun

Moyles Listen again

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 10:08:23 GMT

I find it very annoying when listening to the listen again shows on BBC Radio that I am unable firstly to play in a standalone realplayer and secondly unable to rewind/fast forward etc. After a very small amount of digging I found the following URL's very useful:
Moyles Monday
Moyles Tues
Moyles Weds
Moyles Thurs
Moyles Fri

It's only Chris Moyles breakfast show atm but will get onto more later.

Radio 1 listen again

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 03:40:42 GMT

Have the links for most of the radio 1 listen again shows to post online and will be posting them over next couple of days.

Chemotherapy

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 03:39:22 GMT

First post in a while but thought it would be a good time to get back online. About 6 weeks ago I heard that my mum had been diagnosed with breast cancer after a routine mammogram had shown up some strangeness. A little while later and we found out that she would require a full mastectomy which would hopefully catch the problems that were there, unfortunately after 3 weeks without being able to drive and a fair bit of soreness we were told that she would actually require chemotherapy followed by a course of radiotherapy. Obviously this is a bit of a blow for not just her but for the rest of our family as well - I hope that she always looks as good and as healthy as when we spent the week together a few weeks ago but I know that the next 4-6 months are going to be hard for her and for all of us. All we can do is to be there for her and make sure that she has everything she needs to feel as comfortable as possible. Have been reading a lot of stuff on Cancer Help and found it to be a great resource for both reassurance and practical information. The durgs she will be on are:
E-CMF x4 : 2 weekly
Epirubicin x 4 : 2 weekly
CMF x 4 : 4 weekly day 1 and day 8