Category Archives: quick tips
sql.mit.edu backups
The sql.mit.edu service performs nightly mysqldump
s to /mit/sql/backup/
. This could have spared me some grief when I wiped out my database.
Ubuntu 8.04 upgrade success
apt-get install -f
got me out of the dependency failure tarpit that was killing my attempts to apt-get install
packages and to dpkg --configure -a
. Another thing to try would’ve been apt-get clean -f
. A subsequent apt-get dist-upgrade
worked (took under 3 minutes).
FreeBSD CPU affinity
FreeBSD doesn’t support (userland) access to process/thread CPU affinity.
If you can’t boot your Thinkpad…
…try removing the battery, holding the power button for 20 seconds, and putting the battery back in. You should be able to boot now. This happens to me every so often – I learned the trick from Lenovo tech support a while ago.
SCIM causing apps to lose keystrokes
After the Ubuntu upgrade, SCIM was causing my keyboard to stop responding in various applications. This is a known bug. More details are in the issue tracker.
Opera 9.50b2 for x86_64 Linux
…can be found here.
Foreign keys require exclusive lock on referred table
In postgresql, creating a table referencing another table requires an exclusive lock on the other table.
VSFilter
VSFilter 2.34+ handles colorspaces differently, introducing the “green line bug.” Also, VSFilter 2.33 works with WMP, whereas 2.34 doesn’t.
valgrind
--db-attach=yes
doesn’t work in the Ubuntu valgrind package. Install it from source.