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Vista not smart enough for "smart batteries"

Since I'm now working as a consultant at Pararede Netpeople, I decided it was time to take a spin on Windows Vista?, just in case I get assigned to a project where I have to use it. As I barely use my computer at home I decided to install it on my laptop, so I downloaded it from my university MSDNAA?, burned the DVD and left it for a whole morning upgrading from XP.

When the upgrade procedure finally came to an end everything was working with the exception of some device that needed drivers, I let Vista search for it on Windows Update but it doesn't find them, so I went to device manager to see what it was while I also realize that there is no power icon on my system tray... It was something called "Microsoft ACPI Compliant Embedded Controller" and that explains the missing power icon.

After looking at Acer's website without success and a couple of Google searches I came to the sad conclusion that I'm not alone and that there is no fix for it.

The missing support@acer.*

So I thought that maybe Acer might have some sort of driver that for some stupid reason is not available on their website, or maybe I just wanted to ask for some support so I sent an email to support@acer.es as it is listed as the correct address for someone who lives in Portugal to contact, a few minutes later I get a non delivery report stating the mailbox is disabled, so I tried support@acer.com and I get another non delivery report stating the user is unknown.

Ok, they don't have the drivers and their support e-mails don't work, I looked over the site I found this form wich I filled and sent to Acer. I am now waiting for an answer from them.

The time for Linux

As the laptop was configured to dual boot between Windows? and Ubuntu whenever I need to work on battery power I'm using Linux so I can keep track of how much juice I have left, given that in my classes I usually just need a browser and a text editor, and that I don't have the time to reinstall XP again, I will probably be using much more Linux than Windows on the laptop.

One of those Mondays...

Managed to wake earlier than the alarm was set, took a bath and went to work. The sun was shining and I was checking-in right on time, it should be a good way to start the week. But it wasn't, the first from my colleagues was "the network is down", down to the server room to find a broken power supply and a dead memory module, next the Windows? from another server decides to stop booting... Almost one day lost to recover everything and a cut on my hand.

I still hate Mondays.

Busy day

At work the day was spent trying to find why SDL? is seg faulting when initializing on a PXA270? board, it points to some kernel problem...

When I got home it was time to replace the Vaio hard drive, opening it wasn't easy, but when I managed to do it I was amazed to find that Windows? didn't complain with all the hardware changes from the Acer/TravelMate4001LMi, all I needed was to install de graphics and the capture drivers. The only bad thing is that it only has 128MB of RAM.

To end the day I fixed the problems that I was having with IronCoded, the main problem was on the encodings of the MySql backup, so after dumping all pages to a directory on the old server, copying them to the new and importing to a blank PhpWiki installation all seems to be fine. Maybe tomorrow I get the time to replace the texts on the SiteHeaders?.

WebLog entries for April of 2007

Browse the months, please be patient since the month page shows all entries for every entry from that month.

2007 Months with entries:

• April

Don't forget to backup your config files

The guys at Wildfire could change the name of the configuration file they pack for something like wildfire.default.xml, after the trouble I had this morning to find this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<jive>
  <adminConsole>
    <!-- Disable either port by setting the value to -1 -->
    <port>9090</port>
    <securePort>9091</securePort>
  </adminConsole>
  <admin>
    <authorizedUsernames>nferro</authorizedUsernames>
  </admin>
  <locale>en</locale>
  <ldap>
    <host>domaincontroller</host>
    <port>389</port>
    <baseDN>dc=domainname;dc=local</baseDN>
    <adminDN>administrator@domainname.local</adminDN>
    <adminPassword>*******</adminPassword>
    <usernameField>sAMAccountName</usernameField>
    <nameField>displayName</nameField>
    <emailField>mail</emailField>
    <debugEnabled>false</debugEnabled>
    <groupNameField>cn</groupNameField>
    <groupMemberField>member</groupMemberField>
    <groupDescriptionField>description</groupDescriptionField>
    <searchFilter>
                <![CDATA[
                        (&
                        (objectCategory=Person)
                        (objectClass=user)
                        (!(userAccountControl:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=2))
                        (sAMAccountName={0})
                        )
                ]]>
        </searchFilter>
    <groupSearchFilter>
                <![CDATA[
                        (&
                        (objectCategory=Group)
                        (objectClass=group)
                        (member={0})
                        )
                ]]>
        </groupSearchFilter>
  </ldap>
  <provider>
    <user>
      <className>org.jivesoftware.wildfire.ldap.LdapUserProvider</className>
    </user>
    <auth>
      <className>org.jivesoftware.wildfire.ldap.LdapAuthProvider</className>
    </auth>
    <group>
      <className>org.jivesoftware.wildfire.ldap.LdapGroupProvider</className>
    </group>
  </provider>
  <connectionProvider>
    <className>org.jivesoftware.database.EmbeddedConnectionProvider</className>
  </connectionProvider>
  <setup>true</setup>
</jive>

I would also like to know why don't they put the <group> part on the default file...

Memory Management

I always had memory issues, and I'm not talking about .Net applications eating all you available RAM until you reach 32MB free, anyway, the last times will be best forgotten. I know I'm not easy to deal with and I know that sometimes I tend to put too much importance on little things but I hate when people start to forget what I've done for them, really, I think that, after disloyal, ungratefull is the worst thing a person can be.

But since the show must go on, I'll just go on vacations on the first week of May, right after the Rotaract congress, that way if things aren't solved I'll have more patience to deal with them.

There was some more things to write about, but as usual I'm not in the mood for it.

WebLog entries for April of 2006