Joomla! templates looking strange in MSIE8

Some Joomla! templates looks nice in all browsers except Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8). One easy solution is to add the following line to the <head> section of the index.php for the template in question: <head>

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7"/>

Be careful to check that your site works as expected after applying this solution.

How to install both Windows XP and Easy Peasy (Ubuntu) on ASUS EEE Pc 900

Windows XP on ASUS EeePC

What you need

  • Two USB memory sticks. 2-4 GB is good for Windows and 2 GB for Easy Peasy. Sticks above 8 GB have been problematic for me.
  • A Windows XP installation CD with SP2. If you don’t have at least SP2 included, the install will blue screen. To update your Windows XP with SP2, follow this guide. If you upgrade your Windows XP installation with SP2 in a directory on the hard disk according to the Read more

How to make a Windows XP install CD with SP2 or SP3

If you have a Windows XP installation CD that do not have Service Pack 2 (SP2) or Service Pack 3 (SP3) on it, you will sometimes get in trouble when trying to install it on a computer with newer hardware. If you get a blue screen of death during the installation, it might be a sign that you need to include the SP2 or SP3. Newer Windows XP installations CDs comes with a SP already included. To check if that is the case with your Windows XP installation CD, insert

Read more

Trillian can’t connect with ICQ, unknown code 27

Sometime in mid July 2009 Trillian users started to experience problems in conneting to their ICQ accounts. Their ICQ account was in working order as they could use ICQ2Go to login. The error message displayed in Trillian is: Error logging into ICQ: Unknown code 27.

The problem is caused by ICQ removing an older ICQ protocol. Trillian have fixed this in their version 3.1.13.0. To upgrade to this version, follow these steps.

  1. Start Trillian.
  2. Pull down the Help menu and select Check for updates.
  3. Select Trillian and click Next.
  4. Follow the instructions to proceed with the update.

PeToUSB can’t find USB stick in Vista

When running PeToUSB under Microsoft Vista it might not be able to detect your USB memory stick. It displays “No USB Disks Found!”.

The solution is to right click PeToUSB.exe and select “Run as administrator”. If that don’t help, try rebooting your system making sure the USB memory stick is inserted while Microsoft Vista boots up.

Windows Vista cannot obtain IP-address from my Internet Service Provider

Under certain conditions a PC running Windows Vista is unable to obtain an IP-address via DHCP from the Internet Service Provider (ISP). The problem occurs if the ISP is running a non-Microsoft DHCP server. Among ISPs it is common to work with, for example, ISC DHCP-server which is the most common DHCP-server in the world.

The problem and a possible solution is described in the following Microsoft article:

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B928233&x=13&y=10

If you don’t want to edit your registry another simple solution is to buy a simple broadband router (internet sharing device) that does Network Address Translation (NAT). By doing this, the broadband router is obtaining the IP-address from the ISP, not the Windows Vista PC. In addition, you will be able to connect more than one PC to your Internet connection and those PCs will be protected by the firewall that most broadband routers have builtin.

Mysterious new mail icon in system tray

A new mail notification that occurs on the system tray looking like this:

Mysterious new mail icon in system tray

Nothing will happen when you hover the mouse over it or clicking on it. It is hard to understand which software this icon belongs to.

The answer is Vodafone Mobile Connect which is a software used to connect with 3G mobile networks as well as WLAN/Wifi networks using built in devices in your computer. It is being shipped with HP Compaq laptop computers for example.

The icon indicates that you have new unread SMS messages in your mobile device. To read the SMS click on the red Vodafone Mobile Connect icon in the system tray. You can see a bit of the red icon in the right edge of the picture above. Then choose “Show” and then “SMS” in the Vodafone Mobile Connect software.

Shutdown Windows Vista via Remote desktop

When you connect to a host running Microsoft Vista remote via Remote Desktop, the Shut down button is replaced by Disconnect.

To shutdown the host remote click on Windows Security just above the normal place for the shutdown/logout/disconnect buttons. This will bring up the standard screeen for switching user, task manager etc. At the right a red button is visible and under this the Shut down option is accessible.

Ubuntu eee: Intermittent DNS problems with Windows Vista Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)

When connecting an Asus EeePC 900/901 running Ubuntu eee 8.04 (‘Easy Peasy‘) to the Internet through a Windows Vista machine running Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) and you are experiencing intermittent DNS-problems, the problem can be related to IPv6 being enabled but there is no IPv6 Internet connection (only IPv4). In Firefox there is a DNS-error displayed, but hitting reload one or more times will bring up the desired web page. Internet access can also be experienced as slow or sluggish.

The problem can be that IPv6 is enabled in both the Windows Vista and the Ubuntu machine but there is no IPv6 Internet connection. The problem can be resolved by disabling IPv6 in Windows Vista running ICS. You can of course solve it by disabling IPv6 in the Ubuntu machine but then you have to disable it in every client inte network using the ICS, so it is more efficient to disable it in the Windows Vista running the ICS.

Instructions how to disable IPv6 in Windows Vista is found here. Don’t forget to enable it once you hook up your Windows Vista machine into an IPv6 enabled Internet connection Wink