Hard links vs sym links

Sometimes you are programming and the items you're working on are a subset/extraset of a program that you don't really want to include in your project, especially if the add-on project is being maintained with git or svn or something.

Sometimes your dev and your test are on the same box, so you can hard link the files you're working on in your dev directory and they'll mirror in your test instance. Hard links are better than sym links in this case because you want to distribute the files, not links to files, and you want your live test to not point to your dev copy.

Install byobu on Amazon AMI

How hard is this? I don't know...
Download source https://launchpad.net/byobu/+download
tar xzvf byobu_version.tar.gz
cd byobu_version
sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo install

(you might need autoconf and automake and gcc)

Skype using port 80 - Skype Community

Skype using port 80 - Skype Community

What's using port 80 on your computer? It could be Skype.

To really find out, type this:
netstat -ano | find ":80 " | more
then get the last number on the list:
TCP 0.0.0.0:80 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING 5628
tasklist | find "5628"
Skype.exe 5628 Console 1 19,956 K

Can't install Silverlight because it can't find installer

WARNING: Messing with registry entries can be dangerous. Anything you do with it is YOUR problem, not mine. Be sure to back up things before you delete things. I don't know if this will break things. All I know is that it allowed installation after it was removed.

1612 error for Silverlight 3.0

(you might want to remove the Silverlight 3.0 directory from Program Files first).

Go to regedit
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\D7314F9862C648A4DB8BE2A5B47BE100]
(you might want to back up this registry entry before you continue)

delete this entry.
Now you can install 4.0 without error.

using DynDNS with AWS

So, let's say you have an AWS instance that you don't run all the time, and you get a new IP each time you run it.

Sign up for an account on DynDNS and install the ddclient on your instance.
ddclient.conf example

syslog=yes # log update msgs to syslog
mail=root # mail all msgs to root
mail-failure=root # mail failed update msgs to root
pid=/var/run/ddclient.pid # record PID in file.
ssl=yes # use ssl-support. Works with
login=dyndnsusername
password=dyndnspassword
protocol=dyndns2
server=members.dyndns.org
dyndnshostname.dyndnsdomain.dyndnstld, anotherdyndnshostname.dyndnsdomain.dyndnstld
use=web
web=checkip.dyndns.org

now each time you start the service, you can go to the dyndns account instead of trying to figure out the new IP address/dns

Can not mark 'xubuntu-desktop' for upgrade

upgrading Ubuntu 10.10 maverick to 11.04 narwhal. so I went into synaptic and uninstalled xubuntu-desktop and got on with life.

Vipre no wireless?

working on a client's computer that sbamtray.exe when loaded at startup prevented wireless networks from being seen. msconfig clear check by it ...