StarCraft on Vista

Installing StarCraft on Vista can be a pain. First, you need to add the a registry key in the following location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\Shell Folders

If there is no key named "Programs" add one of type string with the following contents:

C:\\Users\\%USERNAME%\\AppData\\Roaming\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs

Exactly as shown.

Now you can install StarCraft (it will give a non-fatal error which you can ignore). Don't bother running it, quit and install BroodWars - it will give the same error.

Download the latest patch from Blizzard and install it.

Once the patch is installed, you can follow the instructions here to copy the MPQ files over to run without the CD.

Now, to get the game to run you need to tell Vista to run StarCraft.exe as an administrator, or you'll get a "Unable to identify Application Version" error.

If you do run as Administrator, it should allow you to connect to Battle.Net - note that you may have to tell Vista to allow StarCraft to access the internet.

Note: I originally thought that this was Vista 64, turns out the system had 32 bit Vista.

request_module: runaway loop modprobe binfmt-0000

When trying to upgrade my kernel on a Gentoo box I got the above error. Many people discussed it, but all the solutions seemed to be "it went away." However, I couldn't get it to stop occurring until I told Gentoo to rebuild the entire toolchain used by genkernel:

emerge --emptytree genkernel

and then rerunning genkernel solved the issue. The best hint seems to be that it is something to do with a bad version of CPIO or similar, or some library that changed and didn't get fully recompiled.

I've filed a bug on this with Gentoo:

http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=246370

VMware Fusion incorrectly assigns user ids for hgfs shares

Because VMware is aimed at CentOS, by default the hgfs shares are set up to be owned by the user with id 501; you'll need to change this so that it's owned by your user. To do this, first run `id`:

$ id
uid=1000(user) gid=1000(user)

Then edit `/etc/fstab` and change the line:

# Beginning of the block added by the VMware software
.host:/ /mnt/hgfs vmhgfs defaults,ttl=5 0 0
# End of the block added by the VMware software

to

# Beginning of the block added by the VMware software
.host:/ /mnt/hgfs vmhgfs defaults,ttl=5,uid=1000,gid=1000 0 0
# End of the block added by the VMware software

Where the values for `uid` and `gid` come from the output of the `id` command as above.

Remount `/mnt/hgfs`:

$ sudo umount /mnt/hgfs
$ sudo mount /mnt/hgfs

Note that you'll have to do this EVERY TIME you upgrade VMware tools.

Enable Mac OS X Leopard Remote Desktop for VNC via SSH

If you have SSH access to your Mac, you can remotely enable Remote Desktop. However, if you want to VNC into the Mac, you'll need to set a VNC password and turn VNC on. The following huge command turns on Remote Desktop, enables VNC, and sets the password to password.

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart -activate -configure -access -on -restart -agent -privs -all -setvnclegacy -vnclegacy yes -setvncpw -vncpw password

However, the last part doesn't seem to work, so you can run:

sudo nano /Library/Preferences/com.apple.VNCSettings.txt

and put this as a single line:

6755221DFCC7B786FF1C39567390ADCA

which is the encoding of "password". Now use SSH tunnels, connect, and it should work. You can then change the password via system Preferences to a more secure one.

To turn off Remote Desktop run:

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart -deactivate -configure -access -off

Exporting a database in human-readable form from mysql

Using mysqldump with the defaults results in huge INSERT statements that can be hard to deal with if you're fiddling with the output by hand; this command dumps a database in a more readable format:

mysqldump -u root -p -h hostname.dns --databases databasetodump --skip-extended-insert --complete-insert > database.sql

Of course, replace the italic words with the ones that apply to you.

Using ntpdate like rdate

If you want to just update the current time on a linux box but not configure ntpd, and rdate is not available or not working, use this command:

ntpdate pool.ntp.org

Simple!

Apple Remote Desktop and the 3.889 Error

If you have Mac OS X 10.5, you can run "Screen Sharing" which is Apple's version of VNC. However, if you simply enable it and try to connect, you will get an error such as:

VNC server supports protocol version 3.889 (viewer 3.3)
VNC connection failed: Incompatible Version.

This will also appear as similar errors about incompatible security and so forth from various other VNC viewers; the above error is xtightvncviewer on Ubuntu Linux.

The cause of the problem is that Apple's Remote Desktop supports additional features in security that are not part of the normal VNC protocol; to fix it, click "Computer Settings" under Screen Sharing on the Sharing page of System Preferences, and set a password for VNC viewers. Then it will work.

Onyxia Wipe

Odd groups got left, even groups got right. That means 1, 3, 5, 7 left; 2, 4, 6, 8 right. 7 & 8 are whelp groups.

Ok listen the f*ck up. You are going to DPS very, very slowly. Now, and by slowly I mean f*cking slow. If you get aggro, it means you are going to lose 50dkp because you didn't know what the f*ck to do. And watch the f*cking tail. If you get into the whelps, you lose 50dkp again, for not being where the f*ck you were supposed to be.

There is no aggro reset. There is some #@#% about an aggro reset when people don't know how to manage their aggro. After 2 Sunders you can basically start doing damage to it. Assuming you know how aggro works and you don't over-aggro.

Ok nuke it, dot it. Help the whelp groups. When it's in phase 2, nuke it as hard as possible. You want to get it down as fast as possible. Have dots up on every time, 2 rows, Shadow Word: Pain, Warlock curses, Rends, everything. I don't see enough dots, more dots now. Come on more DPS. Hit it like you mean it. You'll have time to rest in phase 3 while I'm getting the aggro. Remember, save all your aggro reducing abilities for when it lands. That means Feign Death, Vanish, f*cking Fade, anything you can use to reset aggro.

At 40% you will stop dots, until then you will throw more dots. Throw more dots, more dots, more dots, come on more dots. Ok, stop dots. Now hit it very hard and very fast. Lee run to the center, Mulgras run to the center, Forsyte run to the center, Nurf run to the center, Isis run to the center. Whatever the f*ck you do, do not stand next to other people. Mulgras, center. Just heal me. Lee do not... Go away from the head, Lee. Go away. Ok DPS, slowly. Come here you f*cking c*nt. Watch the tail!

Whelps!

Crushim was feared into...

Who the f*ck was that? Crushim, what the f*ck? Whelps, left side! Even side! Many whelps! Now, handle it! F*ck! That's a f*cking 50dkp minus! What the f*ck was that #@#%? If you stand in the right f*cking place, there is no way you are going to f*cking get into the goddamn whelps, whatever f*cking Fear, tailswipe, whatever the f*ck, OK? It's like one in a f*cking million. From the f*cking north corner to the middle into the f*cking whelp cave, IT'S NOT EVEN F#CKING REMOTELY IMAGINABLE!

Gmail Chat Smilies

This has all the gmail chat smilies known so far.

VMWare Server Timesync on Ubuntu 7.10

I had installed VMWare server on Ubuntu with little pain, but it would not keep the time stable in the XP guest. I had installed the VMWare tools, but it wouldn't help - it would get up to a day off in a short period of time.

Turns out that my processors automatically scale down (Core 2 Quads), and so I needed to edit /etc/vmware/config and add the line host.cpukHz = 2400000 which is the correct one for my 2.4GHz CPU. After this, I restarted the vmware-server service, and the time is perfectly synced.

I was able to confirm the kHz number to use by running burnp6 from the cpuburn package on all four cores and looking at /proc/cpuinfo to see what speed it reached.

Windows Vista still uses the NT 3.5 file picker!

Glorious 3D accelerated Windows Vista Home Premium still uses the NT 3.5 file picker for adding fonts! If you right click in the fonts window, and select install new font, you get.....



Windows NT 3.5 will live forever!

German

As we all know, Germanic is the opposite of "cute." Compare, if you will, the words for "butterfly" in various languages (use your best, exaggerated accents for best effect):

• Spanish: Mariposa

• Italian: Farfalla

• French: Papillon

• Portuguese: Borboleta

• German: SCHMETTERLING

Apache 413 error problems

I had an Apache 2.2.3 HTTPS server configured, and it kept complaining that the uploads were too large. I tried setting the php.ini settings, adding LimitRequestBody, nothing worked. It still died.

Then I looked in the ssl_error_log and discovered:

request body exceeds maximum size for SSL buffer

which was the hint I needed. I was using Apache SSL client certificates, which have a limit of 128K, and if re-negotiation has to happen, a larger POST will fail.

This Bugzilla posting had the clues - You have to set the following as DEFAULTS for your SSL server, not just the directory.

SSLVerifyClient require

Otherwise it forces a renegotiation of some sort, and fails with a 413 error.