KDE 4.4 Feature: Drag to edge to Maximize

I do not like the new feature in KDE 4.4 for dragging a window to top of the screen to maximize it. Here is how to disable this feature.

Open System settings -> Workspace Behavior -> Screen Edges

Now deactivate:
* Maximize windows by dragging them to the top of the screen

Thanks to commentors for the updated info.

Fix Pidgin's Google IM "Lost Connection with server" error

(Please note this fix was some time ago with an older version of Pidgin, and older versions of Gtalk. Particularly the address 'talk.gmail.com' doesn't always work.)

Recently I encountered an old error in Pidgin, and here is my solution to it. While visiting a network at a local college, my Google IM account throws this error in Pidgin:

Lost connection with server: Connection reset by peer

Here is how to fix this.

1. From within the main Pidgin window, select the menu "Accounts"-> "Manage Acconts"
2. Select the Google IM account in question. Click the "Modify..." button.
3. Check the option: Force old (port 5223) SSL
4. Uncheck the option: Allow plaintext auth over unencrypted streams
5. Set Connect Port: 443
6. Set Connect Server: talk.google.com
7. Click the "Save" button and re-connect with your account.

Trouble Shooting
If you get a message asking you to accept a certificate, you have probably forgot to add the Connect Server address.

Ubuntu Linux software easy download support

This is mostly a thought piece or commentary. One reason to run a very popular distribution of Linux is that it tends to be widely supported. Ubuntu is certainly one of the most popular Linux Distributions in the world.

Just today, I checked out the www.pidgin.im website and to my delight I found, under the Downloads section, an explicit area for Ubuntu. It had easy to do instructions for adding automatic Pidgin updates into your Ubuntu system. These updates are made possible by members of the community running their own complimentary APT repositories (PPAs under the Launchpad website), which Ubuntu helps provide with bandwidth, tools, tutorials, etc.

The APT system is one of the greatest inventions in computer software management history, and one of the absolutely greatest features of Linux. Ubuntu has helped foster spreading of the marvel and ease of the APT system.

So, the one line conclusion: The APT system is great (if you didn't already know) and Ubuntu is continuing too expand and make great use of it.

Firefox plugin support under Ubuntu

So for some of you, this will be old news, but it was new to me.

In times (not so long) past, a major complaint concerning Linux was its plugin support for browsers. Namely, if you went to a website that needed, for example, QuickTime... Firefox would inform you that a certain plugin was missing and that's about as far as it would help. Installing the plugin (and anything else needed) would fall to the user, and sometimes that task was not easy.

Ubuntu continues to make the user experience better in their distribution, since they apparently have a solution to this problem. Ubuntu provides a package program called Ubufox which will assist users in automatically install plugins as necessary. It's a simple "Enter your password" and click Next solution, and doesn't get much smoother than that. I used this for the first time today and I didn't even have to restart Firefox. It just worked.

I haven't found something this nice since they automated Nvidia driver installation with the (KDE/Gnome)-Jockey program. Nicely done once again Ubuntu.

Firefox add-on/extension woes -- Corrupt profile

UPDATE: I apologize for any strong language in the original post (listed below for history's sake). I was very frustrated at the time this was happening. The short version of this story is that I had serious Firefox profile and add-on corruption issues when I updated to a particular version of Firefox 3.6, and it drove me crazy.

I found a solution. Use the bleeding edge versions of Firefox in Linux. It is shockingly stable and works great 97% of the time, seriously. Plus it's sound-barrier-shatteringly fast compared to the current stable Firefox.


OLDER POST:

So I have literally done 3 and 1/2 hours of debugging Firefox 3.6 lately and all I have to show for it is certain knowledge which plugins are causing my profile to CONTINUALLY become corrupted.

Ever since Firefox reached 3.6, I have had corrupt profile problems. This is pretty annoying, I must say, since this only very rarely happened under 3.5. Now, it should be noted I use quite a few extensions/add-ons/plugins. About 20 currently. I used to utilize more in the past.

Now, I only know the profile is somehow corrupt because Firefox 3.6 simply REFUSES to start occasionally. I have rebuilt my profile probably literally 30 times by now.

So far, any single one of these following extensions (as of today) are corrupting my Firefox 3.6 profile:

• Autopager
• Download Helper
• DownThemAll!
• FireFTP
• FireGestures
• Xmarks

I'm currently looking into what I can do, since these are probably some of my favorite add-ons, especially Xmarks, FireGestures and Autopager. At this point, I'm going to start using the Firefox debugger more in depth and also doing code comparisons between these add-ons to determine if they have any similarities between them.

UPDATE/EDIT v1:

Well, I have good news and bad news. The bad news: I could not figure out how to use the firefox-dbg package (the firefox debugger). Also, the source code to comb through with the above listed add-ons is huge, and seeing as how I am not a Firefox add-on programmer, it would be quite a lot of work.

The good news: I pulled down the Mozilla Daily Builds of Firefox and the corruption bugs seem to be gone for now. (WAIT, no it is not. See update v2.) It is possible this profile corruption bug has been aggravated in the currently point release which just came down the Ubuntu apt-pipe this morning, because the latest build is version 3.6.2 and the problems seem to be gone. Let's hope this is pushed out to official quickly.

UPDATE/EDIT v2:

I spoke to soon. The bug remains even in the latest daily Mozilla. Fuck this shit. I'm moving to Chrome for the time being. I am still a mozilla Firefox fan, but I can't use this right now.

As it is, even though Chrome only supports about 70% of all the add-ons I use, that is more than I can current use in Firefox. This is embarrassing and infuriating.

UPDATE/EDIT v3:

Chrome is not the answer to my problems, though it has been an interesting experiment. I have switching back to Firefox 3.5 for the time being until I can confirm where the problem lies.

UPDATE/EDIT v4:
Use the bleeding edge versions of Firefox in Linux. It is shockingly stable and works great 97% of the time, seriously. Plus it's sound-barrier-shatteringly fast compared to the current stable Firefox. The bugs are gone.

Windows plagued by 17-year old escalation bug

Back in June of last year, a vulnerability was discovered in the Windows Kernel which that allows untrusted users to take complete control of systems running most versions of Microsoft Windows.

The vulnerability resides in a feature known as the Virtual DOS Machine, which Microsoft introduced in 1993 with Windows NT, according to this writeup penned by Tavis Ormandy of Google. Using code written for the VDM, an unprivileged user can inject code of his choosing directly into the system's kernel, making it possible to make changes to highly sensitive parts of the operating system.

"You can in theory write to memory segments that are otherwise considered highly trusted and sensitive," said Tom Parker, a director in the security consulting services group at Securicon, a Washington, DC-based security practice. "So for example, malware could possibly use it to install a key logger."

The vulnerability exists in all 32-bit versions of Microsoft OSes released since 1993, and proof-of-concept code works on the XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008, and 7 versions of Windows, Ormandy reported.

Ormandy said the security hole can easily be closed by turning off the MSDOS and WOWEXEC subsystems. The changes generally don't interfere with most tasks since they disable rarely-used 16-bit applications. He said he informed Microsoft security employees of the vulnerability in June.

"Regrettably, no official patch is currently available (then late January 2010)," he wrote. "As an effective and easy to deploy workaround is available, I have concluded that it is in the best interest of users to go ahead with the publication of this document without an official patch."

Microsoft security officials - who are already working double-duty responding to a potent Internet Explorer bug used to attack Google - said they are looking in to Ormandy's advisory and are not aware of attacks that target the reported vulnerability.

Early this month, Microsoft did finally put out a security update patch to this bug, more than 6 month after it was reported. Laughably in standard Microsoft quality and style, this update promptly crippled some systems with the notorious Blue Screen of Death. The systems thus falls into a reboot loop. The only way to solve the reboot looping or BSOD is by removing the patch... or such was the conclusion of thread pertaining to the issue on the MS support forums.

And people wonder why I still claim Windows isn't a very secure OS.

Microsoft Windows bugs that could be fixed, but won't be

This is just a list of the bugs I observe in Microsoft Windows that are still popping up, more than 10 years after viable solutions having been discovered. (In the case of some bugs, the time is even longer). The list is short right now but I will update it as I find more, which shall doubtless occur in time.

The follow Microsoft Windows bugs that still exist because they don't care enough about you as customers to fix them. Instead they'd rather kowtow to the RIAA and MPAA with useful system performance leeching software you never wanted and will ONLY inconvenience you. Yeah, way to go guys. Give the people stuff they'd riot about if most people knew or understood it, but never fix real problems for them.

• Virtual Memory running low / running out. [Confirmed since Windows XP, until currently today (2010-02-06) with Windows 7]. It should be noted this still occurs on machines equipped with tons of memory.
• File System Fragmentation (with NTFS and/or FAT32). [Confirmed since Windows 2000 until Windows 7]. Let's not even start on the abysmal performance of Microsoft File Systems.
• Rebooting (still too frequently). Need I say more? Every single update that is security related requires an update, and not just those. Too much I tell you, especially for a system that is so horribly insecure.

This List is not necessarily Bugs, though they are still problems that COULD and SHOULD have been fixed decade(s) ago.

• Slow Windows Update Downloads. There is no excuse for this. Honestly, none. Not anymore anyway.
• Slow Windows Update Execution. I really forget how long these can take sometimes and just accept this as normal. It's pretty ridiculous when I take a moment to notice it.