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Having just bought a new laptop, I went about installing Apache 2.2.14 and PHP 5.3.1 VC6 but quickly ran into problems when Apache flat out refused to load after PHP was installed.

The error Apache throws is “The requested operation has failed!”.

Apache crashes after installing PHP

Faulting application name: httpd.exe, version: 2.2.14.0, time stamp: 0×4ac181d6
Faulting module name: php5ts.dll, version: 5.3.1.0, time stamp: 0×4b051b35
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0×000e618c
Faulting process id: 0xd90
Faulting application start time: 0×01ca81af664b1357
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\bin\httpd.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP\php5ts.dll
Report Id: a40dce43-eda2-11de-9f0c-005056c00008

To cut a long story short, I went through each line of the php.ini file seeing which one was causing the problem. I narrowed it down to this extension:

[PHP_SYBASE_CT]
extension=php_sybase_ct.dll

Change to:

[PHP_SYBASE_CT]
;extension=php_sybase_ct.dll

Uncomment this extension by placing a semi colon in front, and Apache will load without any problem.

If you found this post helpful, leave a comment to let me know, thanks.

Recently I’ve been spending a lot of time in Explorer, copying multiple CDs and DVDs to a hard drive. When I ejected a disc, Explorer tries to select the following letter after the CD/DVD drive. This causes an error on my computer as the next drive is a multiformat card reader with no media in it. Usually this is not a problem and I just click “OK” and continue on my way, but I have 400 discs to copy and the thought of clicking “OK” 400 times is not my idea of fun.

There is a fix however! Hide the drives. This way, Explorer won’t pop up the error because it can’t see the drive. This may not work for everyone, but it does for me. I rarely use the media reader so it is more convenient for me to just unhide the drives again when I’m finished with my disc copying.

Thanks to http://www.pcdrome.com where I found the following tweak:

Open your registry and find or create the key below.

The “NoDrives” value uses a 32-bit word to define local and network drive visibility for each logical drive in the computer. The lower 26 bits of the 32-bit word correspond to drive letters A through Z. Drives are visible when set to 0 and hidden when set to 1.

If you are not happy working in Hex, add these decimal numbers to hide the drive(s):

A: 1, B: 2, C: 4, D: 8, E: 16, F: 32, G: 64, H: 128, I: 256, J: 512, K: 1024, L: 2048, M: 4096, N: 8192, O: 16384, P: 32768, Q: 65536, R: 131072, S: 262144, T: 524288, U: 1048576, V: 2097152, W: 4194304, X: 8388608, Y: 16777216, Z: 33554432, ALL: 67108863

For example to hide drive A and drive D, you would add 1 (A) + 8 (D) which means the value should be set to “9″.

To disable all the drives set the value to “67108863″.

Restart Windows for the change to take effect.

Windows XP Task Manager (where Normal doesn’t mean default)

I only just noticed this the other day when I was trying to resolve another unrelated problem. I was using Task Manager to keep an eye on my CPU usage which spiked to 100% usage every 120 seconds or so.

The default behaviour of Task Manager is to update once every second, and if you check the Update Speed option in the menu, “Normal” is already selected. That would lead you to believe that “Normal” is 1 second (High is every 0.5 seconds and Low is every 4 seconds).  The problem is, if you ever select anything in this menu – be it High, Normal, Low, or Paused – “Normal” will set the update interval to two seconds. It is impossible to get back to the default (and most useful) update interval of one second.  Simply, it’s bugged.

To get back to the default behaviour, you need to:

• Open Regedit.exe
• Browse to
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\TaskManager
• Delete the string Preferences
• Restart Task Manager

You will then have the default behavior of having an update interval of one second.  Thanks to Trogdor on the Firing Squad forums for finding this solution.

It’s official, Dell UK has started selling the Mini 10 for 299 pounds for the 1.33GHz version or 329 pounds for the 1.6GHz version.

You can buy it here. It won’t ship for another 3 weeks however.

More details on the Dell Mini 10 have been released:
http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2009/02/18/dell-s-mini-10-packs-a-punch.aspx

Some things that jump out:

• QVC gets to sell it first… er… right.
• It will be available on Dell.com on February 26th – one day before my pre-announced release date here
• QVC price is $559
• Weighs 2.86lbs
• 2 choices of Atom processor: Z520 or Z530
• 160GB 5400rpm HDD … no SSDs for the release
• 1GB of fixed RAM (non-upgradable)…. fail.
• No Ubuntu for release – coming later this year.
• GPS / TV Tuner / 720p screen all to be released later in the year.  Goddamit.

Summary:  Not a lot of netbook for a lot of money.  I’m going to have to reconsider which netbook to buy now.

I’m new to wordpress, as you can probably tell by the default template and lack of plugins etc etc.  However, 1 day after installing it, it prompts me to download and install a new update.  I comply.

After updating wordpress, I went to bed satisfied knowing my wordpress was up to date and all my worries had been solved… or so I thought.   What I didn’t expect was for it to revert my customised footer (with page counter) back to the stoneage.  Without telling me.  Unfortunately, I only realised this after I woke up, thereby losing a good 8 or 9 hours of stats.

ありがとうワードプレスさん。  (Thank you Mr. Wordpress).

Not.

Great Wall of China

Two days ago, I received an unexpected email congratulating me on my new job.  It was personally written and seemed genuine … except for the fact I have been in my job for over 5 years and the sender’s name didn’t ring any bells.  Oh, and the fact it was addressed to a “Peter” not me (I’m a “Paul” by the way).  However, we do share the same surname.

As any nice chap would do, I replied back informing the sender that I wasn’t “Peter” and wished them good luck in finding their intended recipient.

Yesterday, the sender told me she’s teaching in China.  Interesting, I thought.  I’m teaching in Japan, so it’s a bit of a similar situation, and … we have the same surname (the sender and the intended recipient are related, just not to me).  I replied back saying how I’ve always intended to visit China but just never got round to it.

Cue invitation to visit China.  Wow.

If I didn’t have a honeymoon and related expenses coming up later this year, I would most certainly be accepting the kind invitation.  I’ve always wanted to see China, but it’s just never happened.  I’m hoping I’ll have an opportunity to take the kind sender up on their offer sometime later, but it’ll not be this year.

Incase you’re wondering, just one character was missing from the email address which routed the email to me instead of her son.

The Dell Mini 10 is due to be released in the UK on February 27th, 2009!

I’ve been following the slow trickle of information released about the Dell Mini 10 for about a month now, and got a little fed up of clicking my bookmarked link to Google with the keywords “dell mini 10 release date”.  So, I clicked on over to dell.co.uk and pulled up a seat in their live chat.  To be honest with you, I didn’t expect them to give me the time of day, never mind the answers to the questions I was about to ask.

After a few seconds, a Dell agent named Avinash came in and 2 lines of pasted text appeared.  Not a good start I thought.  Please excuse the lack of proper formatting as this is not a copy/paste from the original log.  The original log is displayed at the bottom of this post.

Paul Synnott: Initial Question/Comment: Hello, I am waiting eagerly for the release of the Dell Mini 10.  Is there any hint of a release date?  A general ball-park ….
System: Avinash_K_Kumar has joined this session!
System: Connected with Avinash_K_Kumar
Paul Synnott: A general ball park date would be appreciated so I can plan my finances thank you
Avinash_K_Kumar: Thank you for contacting Dell sales chat.  This is Avinash, your Sales Advisor.  Please give me a moment while I review your query.
Avinash_K_Kumar: In order to Help you better can you provide me with your email address and Telephone number in case we get Disconnected so I can either come back to you by phone or email

However, things very quickly got exciting when after asking me to wait 2-3 minutes for the details to my question, he says:

Avinash_K_Kumar: So Paul the mini 10 is being launched on 27th of this month!!!

You read it right, the Dell Mini 10 is being released on February 27th, 2009!!  Wow.  A clear, concise answer to my question.  I was speechless, but not for long!  I quickly got a few more questions in before Avinash came to his senses:

Paul Synnott: I have a question about the power cable that will come with it… as you know, compactness is the key for the Mini, will the power block be the tiny one like the Mini 9, or a huge block like the other laptops?
Avinash_K_Kumar: its going to be the smaller one like the mini 9

Awesome.  No huge power block to carry around.  Winner.  Onto the next question:

Paul Synnott: one last question, I’ve seen the “leaked” slide about the specs, I’m a little disappointed it shows 2 HDDs and no SSDs for the storage options.  Are SSDs definately not being included as an option?
Avinash_K_Kumar:  We are working on that.. we sure feel that SSDs are a must for any compact machine.. but pricing also comes into picture if we include SSDs.. so will have the info in the last week of this month..

Understandable.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed that Dell can do some magic.  Ok, now for my actual last question:

Paul Synnott:  (oh, forgot to ask, any prices for it yet? )
Avinash_K_Kumar: Prices have not been decided yet but its going to be around the price of the Mini 12.. slightly cheaper though..

So, around 300-350 pounds I’m guessing.  Reasonable.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait.  It looks like a great machine and I’ll be first in the queue to buy it.  Full chat log below, made public with Avinash’s permission.

Dell Mini 10 release date chat log