Did you know that OpenSSH includes function to act as a SOCKS4 and SOCKS5 host? (I didn’t)
It is as simple as creating a “Dynamic forwarded port” in PuTTY or using the -D switch with the SSH client.
Tunnelling just became a whole lot easier.
Archive for category Software
SSH Proxy
Nov 30
Echofon
(formally known as Twitterfox)
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Tweetdeck
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Seesmic
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Peoplebrowsr
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Deleting in Gmail IMAP
Oct 27
Getting “Delete” to work as expected in Gmail IMAP was surprisingly complicated.
The default action when a client deletes a message is to archive it (ie: move it to “All Mail”). I didn’t like this because then if I accessed the account from POP the deleted mail would still be downloaded.
Recommended IMAP settings tells you all the things NOT to do, but doesn’t give any useful advice on how to setup clients.
Eventually after trying many different settings I realised the simplest method was to tell the client to MOVE the message to the Gmail Trash folder when it is deleted. To do this in Thunderbird2 required manually editing the prefs.js file to specify a custom IMAP trash folder:
user_pref("mail.server.server#.trash_folder_name", "[Gmail]/Trash");
Note that the case of the trash folder name IS important.
Disable WordPress Autosave
Oct 20
WordPress’ Autosave feature was getting on my nerves. Often I make several revisions of a page before I save and WordPress was saving intermediate drafts that I didn’t want to keep.
I was surprised to find that there is no option in WordPress core to disable Autosave. Thankfully though it is incredibly easy to disable through editing the source or creating a custom plugin.
The following code (take from the reference link below) will function as a WordPress plugin and will disable autosave (works in WordPress 2.8)
<?php /* Plugin Name: Disable Autosave */ function disable_autosave() { wp_deregister_script('autosave'); } add_action( 'wp_print_scripts', 'disable_autosave' ); ?>
References
OpenSSH escape characters
Oct 19
SSH has tilde (~) as an escape character by default. Make sure that the last you typed in was nothing or a newline, then type one of the following sequences:
~. - terminate connection ~B - send a BREAK to the remote system ~C - open a command line ~R - Request rekey (SSH protocol 2 only) ~^Z - suspend ssh ~# - list forwarded connections ~& - background ssh (when waiting for connections to terminate) ~? - this message ~~ - send the escape character by typing it twice
References
OpenSSH Escape Characters
man page ssh(1)
PowerPoint vs OpenOffice
Aug 4
Comparing PowerPoint 2007 vs OpenOffice 3.1.0 vs GoOo 3.1-10.
There is one crucial feature I use in PowerPoint that has prevented me from switching to OpenOffice: the Presenter View.
Microsoft PowerPoint
PowerPoint 2007 has further improved the presenter view from previous versions: it can now no longer hogs your primary display and can even be resized. This allows for even easier access to the main program window while a slideshow is running.
Why would you want that you may ask? Realtime edits. You can edit your slideshow while you are showing it. From adding new slides, rearranging slides, and editing slide contents – changes are updated immediately.
Editing the current live slide is also possible – with changes appearing AS YOU TYPE. It is also very easy to annotate slides, with various pen and marking tools.
OpenOffice Impress
OOo Impress does not currently include a presentation manager of any description. Well at least that’s what I can tell from the documentation and options. Worse still, this version of OOo crashes every time I attempt to run a slideshow. So at this point I gave up and decided to look at an alternative build named Go-oo.
There is a Presenter Screen plugin for OOo 3.0, but had no luck getting it to work with current builds of OOo.
Go-oo Impress
Go-oo Impress already includes the Presenter Console plugin so I was finally able to test it. Lets see how it compares to PowerPoint 2007.
| PowerPoint | OpenOffice | |
|---|---|---|
| Presenter Views | Single view with resizable panes: Slide scroller, Notes, and Current slide | Pre-set views: Notes/Slides/Current Slide |
| Presenter Window | Resizable | Locked Fullscreen |
| Live Edit | Yes, changes are immediate | No, program interface completely locked |
| Go-to Slide | Yes | No |
| Annotation | Yes, Pens, Hi-lighters, etc | No |
| Blank screen | Yes, Black/white screen options | No |
Both contain a timer and simple back/forward navigation.
This comparison reflects the features I use regularly in PowerPoint, and as you can see Impress is still rather unimpressive in this regard. I have hope that OpenOffice will continue to improve, but by the time it catches up to where PowerPoint is today the goalposts will have already moved.
Firefox’s XML Slowdown
Jul 1
For many months a buglet had been niggling at me. Anytime I opened an XML document in Firefox the entire browser would freeze for several seconds. If I was trying to debug a RSS feed or an XML settings file this would quickly become extremely annoying.
Today I fixed it.
First I tried a few of the obvious things. I already knew that this was not a core Firefox bug because this did not happen on any other PCs – it had to be something related to my PC. I checked the default profile with all addons disabled – still froze. I tried using a profile in another user’s account – still froze.
Then I had an idea how to find the culprit: I fired up regmon. After a few tests I quickly narrowed it that the freeze was happening right after loading the key HKCR\feed\shell\open\command\(Default)
I checked the contents of that key and I saw immediately what the problem was. The key was pointing to a program on a shared folder – so every time Firefox loaded XML it would attempt to mount this shared folder and this was the cause of the freeze.
After deleting the registry key my Firefox is back to being speedier than ever!
PHP/IDE Comparison 2009
May 25
Eclipse
PHP Development Tools all-in-one edition, Version 2.0
Pros:
Show Syntax Errors/Warnings in a Tab
Show “Tasks” in a Tab (matches @TODO texts)
Subversion plugin includes repository browser
Cons:
Slow
No visual editor for HTML
Slow
No wordwrap
Slow
Cannot disable code folding
Slow
Syntax Errors/warnings cannot be customised or disabled for specific files
NetBeans
PHP Edition, Version 6.5
Pros:
Subversion support is built-in
(I love the inline Visual changes: coloured tags for add/change/delete blocks of code)
Show “Tasks” in a Tab (matches @TODO texts)
Cons:
No visual editor for HTML
No wordwrap
Notepad++
Notepad++, Version 5.1.1
Pros:
Really Fast (well this is more a text-editor than a fully featured IDE, so this is to be expected)
Cons:
Opened file tabs difficult to use (use Window Manager plugin instead)
Cannot fine-tune workspace components (eg. cannot have both Function List and Window Manager on the RHS)
Instead of “Projects” have “Sessions” and “Favourites”
Cannot disable Code Folding