Enabling Extended Attribute support in a Thecus N2200-EVO
In a related post to my notes on enabling extended attribute support for the Synology DiskStation DS212j, I've managed to accomplish the same task somewhat more elegantly in the Thecus offering. As compared to the Synology 2-bay unit, the Thecus is about the same size and price and offers similar functionality, with the added benefit of hot-swappable drive bays (though the "hot-swappable" part remains something to be proven to me; let's jet say that they are front-accessible, without screws to remove to extricate the drive caddies from the chassis). Getting EA support was considerably easier than with the Synology, as well.
Still more PHP 5.3 fixes for Joomla! 1.5
When you're on a roll, you're on a roll...
Almost done patching this particular old rowboat. This installment deals with quieting this bit of error log noise:
PHP Deprecated: Function eregi() is deprecated in blahblah\components\com_htmlmap\views\htmlmap\tmpl\default_map.php on line 20
Updating the TCPDF library in Joomla! 1.5
TCPDF is an excellent PHP class for creating PDFs from dynamic (or static, for that matter) web content. Unfortunately, the version of TCPDF bundled with Joomla! 1.5 (all 1.5 releases after at least 1.5.8 - someone please correct me if I am wrong - was version 2.6.000_PHP4, dated March 7, 2008. It's also not very PHP 5.3-friendly (there are other parts of Joomla! 1.5 which are not fully compatible with PHP 5.3, but this article will focus on TCPDF). Time to freshen up, methinks.
Removing the WP Post to PDF icon in WPTouch Pro
This is a follow-up to an earlier post I did, which dealt with removing the WP Post to PDF icon in the free version of WPTouch. I've since registered for the Pro version of WPTouch, and the solution is a bit more elegant (and less obvious).
Enabling Extended Attribute support in a Synology DiskStation DS212j
As small NAS devices go, the Synology DiskStation offerings are quite good. On the bang-for-the-buck scale, they rank well near the top, offering a diskless, 2-drive-capacity enclosure for right around $200 street price. I won't go into a litany of features here, and truth be told, Rosenthal & Rosenthal is not a Synology business partner, so I have no great axe to grind insofar as additional sales of these units is concerned. Detailed information on the hardware and software may be found on the net in various places. The focus of this post, however, is on getting support for EAs (extended attributes) on this device.
Adjusting the Lightword theme for WordPress
I got a report today from a long time friend and colleague about some difficulty he was having with my blog. It seems that his view of the pages were lacking the date "tabs" to the left of the content column. He quickly confirmed that when I sent him a snippet of a screenshot (quick shout out to M. Evans, the author of Abduction!, which is an absolutely fantastic tool for capturing all or portions of browser content).
Mantis email fun – part 2
Well, this is embarrassing... I can't believe I started this draft back in January (of 2012), and let it sit so long. Sorry about that...
You may read up on my involvement with a particular Mantis Bug Tracker installation in part 1 of this series. This time around, I'm going to discuss adding the ability to discourage email recipients from replying to bug update announcements.
CRTs vs LCDs in 2011/2012
An interesting thread cropped up on the eComStation Technical mailing list on Yahoo! in the past few days. One of our list members was inquiring about the ability to set refresh rates in the Panorama video driver. Short answer: you can't (well, at least, not yet). This is covered in the VESA FAQ. Apparently, the original poster has a CRT which requires proper tuning of the driver for his monitor's refresh rate. One of the first responses to come back to him (aside from the correct answer, pointing him to the FAQ) was the obvious question: "Why are you still using a CRT?"
I suppose what has amused me the most about this little exchange was the assumption that by now, CRTs have become yester-tech, and that *all* truly modern systems (this was a fresh install of eComStation 2.1) should be outfitted with LCD monitors.
I was going to jump into the post, but instead, I'll just migrate some excerpts here, and include my own commentary at the end.