havar.info

Installing progams from the Google Pack, without using the Google Updater program

Håvar Henriksen — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:37:03 +0000

Most of the programs in the Google Pack could be installed without using the Google Updater program, but there is three exceptions: Spyware Doctor, Norton Security Scan and Google Photos Screensaver, you can’t install any of these programs without using the Google Updater program.
The version of Spyware Doctor that you could download from the Spyware Doctor website is limited to only scanning your computer, but not removing spywares.

But there is an solution, I used the Freeproxy program to sniff the connection, and set the Google Updater to use this proxy server when downloading the programs. I enabled the logging of all connections so that I could get the direct download link to the setup files.
The download links to the different programs are:
Spyware Doctor Starter Edition v5.5.0.204 (Multilingual)
Spyware Doctor Starter Edition v5.1.0.272 (Old version)
Use the last download link, if the first doesn’t work. (Just update it afterwards).
Norton Security Scan v1.3.0.26 (English version)
Norton Security Scan v1.3.0.26 (Norwegian version)
Google Photos Screensaver v2.0.0.1077

The Steampunk Keyboard Mod

Håvar Henriksen — Tue, 15 May 2007 07:04:17 +0000

This has to be the coolest keybord mod I’ve ever seen! A steampunk styled keyboard. The builder had to use two old 1920s-1930s typewriters to build the keyboard, but that wasn’t enough so he had to use some additional brass rimmed buttons for the extra keys. As the base for the keyboard, the author used a IBM Model M keyboard, manufactured in 1989.
Check out the article where you also could see a video of the keyboard in action.

Brushed aluminium version

The author of the mod, Jake Von Slatt, got asked about making another version of this keyboard for sale. But he wouldn’t do it himself, so he got a friend of him to make the keyboard for the customer. So he made The Brushed Aluminum “Von Slatt Keyboard” version. He made a brushed aluminium version of the keyboard, since that was what the customer wanted. This time, a modern USB keyboard was used.

Some more pictures:
Original version

Right view	Left view

Brushed aluminium version

Right view	Left view

You could click on the images to see a larger view of the image.

“Disk is not formatted” error when accessing floppies in Windows

Håvar Henriksen — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 23:10:00 +0000

If you are still using floppy disks and Windows, you might have gotten the “Disk is not formatted” error when trying to access a floppy disk inside Windows XP, especially old floppies.
You might then think that all the data is lost, but this might not be the case. I’ve seen this problem at least three times, the last couple of months. This happened to some non-working floppies, that some friends of me asked if I could check.
I found out that if I tried to mount (access) the floppy under Linux, it worked like a charm.
On another floppy that Windows insisted was not formatted, I tried to mount it under Linux and got some error messages (read errors), but the floppy got mounted and I was able to copy all but one of the files off of the floppy.
So this simple method might also work on floppies that are slightly damaged. If the file system on the floppy is damaged, and you get this error message when trying to mount it under Linux:
“mount: you must specify the file system type”,
it might mean that the floppy is completely damaged. But you could then try to dd the floppy to a image on the hard drive, or you could try a recovery program like PhotoRec which could recover several different file types (not just photos) off of a damaged media or a media where the filesystem is damaged.
You might also get this error in Windows on other medias (like USB flash drives, etc) which might not be as damaged as Windows insists, so try mounting it in Linux (or use the recovery option above) before giving it up or formating it.

Lithium ion battery makes notebook PC explode

Håvar Henriksen — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 09:33:46 +0000

This is what could happen if a Li-Ion battery pack on a notebook PC malfunctions. This is somewhat scary.

From: the pcpitstop.com article

We intentionally created conditions in which the Li-ON[sic] battery pack would explode inside a generic portable. The results are dramatic. There are numerous conditions where these fires can occur in real life. Faulty battery packs (driving the recalls), faulty protection circuits inside the PC, exposure to excessive heat, and blunt force are some of the major ways that this could happen to you.

Mozilla Firefox 2.0 released

Håvar Henriksen — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 21:04:51 +0000

Today Firefox 2.0 got released. Among the new features is spell checking directly in website forms, using myspell dictionaries. I am one of the translators of this browser to both Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk. The Norwegian Nynorsk translation is brand new translation as of Firefox 2.0, and did not exist before.
Other new features in Firefox 2.0 includes:

Search suggestions: Firefox now shows search suggestions in the searchbox for both Google and Yahoo searches.
Phishing protection: Firefox 2.0 includes anti-phishing technology based on the Google Safe Browsing feature of the Google Toolbar for Firefox
Javascript 1.7: Firefox 2.0 also includes support for the new version of Javascript, version 1.7

For more information of what’s new in 2.0 see:

To download Firefox 2.0 in Norwegian, you could visit firefox.no or mozilla.com for all the other languages.
Just to show that I’m a part of the translation team of Firefox and Thunderbird I include a screenshot of the about screen as seen in Firefox 2.0 Norwegian Bokmål edition.

Julian Beever - the Pavement Picasso

Håvar Henriksen — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 13:12:04 +0000

I just found this homepage with some really cool 3D-art drawings drawn right on the pavement by the artist Julian Beever, aka the Pavement Picasso.

From: wikipedia.org

Julian Beever is an English, Belgium-based chalk artist who creates chalk drawings on pavement that create the illusion of three dimensions when viewed from the right location. These trompe-l’oeil drawings are created using a projection called anamorphism and appear to defy the laws of perspective.

I also found some really cool street paintings by Kurt Wenner at his homepage.

Alternative telefonnumre

Håvar Henriksen — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 11:18:10 +0000

Note: this post is only available in Norwegian

Alternative telefonnumer (gammel side) er en liste over alternative telefonnumre til abonnenter som bruker 810/815 nummer og femsifrede spesialnumre (0XXXX). Denne listen inneholder en oversikt over alternative telefonnumre som ofte er billigere å ringe enn spesialnumrene som enkelte firmaer bruker. Enkelte har alternative gratis 800 numre, mens andre har vanlige “Norges nummer” eller eventuelt mobiltelefonnummer. Mobiltelefonnummer er kun billigere å ringe fra mobil i forhold til 810/815/5 siffrede spesialnumre. Fra IP telefoner og vanlige fastlinjer er ikke mobilnumrene billigst, da er oftest spesialnumrene billigst (Ref: 39 øre/min for spesialnumre og 89 øre/min for mobiltelefonnummer (Telios priser)).

Telefonterror.no

Håvar Henriksen — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 11:03:48 +0000

Note: this post is only available in Norwegian

Telefonterror.no er en grei tjeneste som per dags dato inneholder over 300 telefonnumre til telefonselgere og markedsanalytikere. Denne listen kan du så f.eks. importere i din mobiltelefon, slik at du lett kan se om det er en “telefonterrorist” som ringer og da bare ignorere samtalen. Eller for de som skulle være så heldige å ha en Asterisk PBX satt opp, kan sikkert legge til denne listen slik at telefonoppringning fra disse “terroristene” viderekobles direkte til en telefonsvarer.

Crop circle of Firefox prove intelligent alien life?

Håvar Henriksen — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 13:04:21 +0000

The only thing missing, a Mozilla Firefox crop circle, has been made.

On Saturday, August 12 the Firefox marketing bug, bug #347226 about creating a Firefox crop cirle, was solved by the Oregon State University Linux Users Group, when they descended on a field in Oregon and made a 4 000+ square meter crop circle of Firefox (with a diameter of about 67 meters). Some photos and an article about this event is available, and they’re worth checking out.

68% of UK Universities and Colleges use Mozilla/Firefox

Håvar Henriksen — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 23:42:45 +0000

From: slashdot.org

“mozillaZine is reporting that over two-thirds of British universities and colleges have installed Mozilla or Firefox on their campus computers. They cite an open source survey by OSS Watch that also shows rising support for Mozilla Thunderbird, Moodle and Octave, though a decline for OpenOffice and LaTeX. Predictably, all open source offerings are blown away by Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office’s 100% deployment rates.”