pv (Pipe Viewer)

http://www.debianadmin.com/pv-pipe-viewer-shell-pipeline-element-to-meter-data-passing-through.html

Sometimes there is a need to copy lots of data verbatim. In Linux the easiest way is to use dd command for it, or dd_rescue in case of errors. However, original dd has one drawback, namely it's not possible to know its progress until it finishes. Copying partition images with size in 30-40 GB range is boring, because the commands starts, disk LED is flashing, and nothing is displayed. The aforementioned pv has a lot of potential in my eyes, because it brings long awaited progress information.

Since I haven't copied big files using dd recently, I cannot predict whether it would work (most probably yes). But when the need arises, I'm definitely going to use pv in combination with dd to possibly get a nice progress info. :-)

How to customize NetBeans look and feel

A good overview of possible options for custom look and feel in NetBeans can be found here:

http://javahowto.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-to-customize-netbeans-look-and-feel.html

Apart from original tip concerning MetalLookAndFeel, the above is a nice source of ideas, which I like a lot. :-)

Logout Vista button required 43 people

I read this once but I lost the URL, and now I've found it! It's an old one, but a good one:

http://moishelettvin.blogspot.com/2006/11/windows-shutdown-crapfest.html

And the moral of this story? Weekly meetings, multiple layers of management and the end result which people still don't like much. Shame on you, Microsoft. :-(

Working arrow keys in VMWare Player

http://aldeby.org/blog/index.php/arrow-keys-not-working-with-vmware.html

That's a simple fix for VMWare, which doesn't recognize a changed method of handling keyboard keys in new XServer.

you may experience some problems with arrow keys, pg up/pg down and home/end keys with vmware 6.5 and Ubuntu Linux Intrepid 8.10.

a workaround for those problems is to create a file named config under .vmware folder in your home directory and fill it with the following text:

xkeymap.keycode.108 = 0x138 # Alt_R
xkeymap.keycode.106 = 0x135 # KP_Divide
xkeymap.keycode.104 = 0x11c # KP_Enter
xkeymap.keycode.111 = 0x148 # Up
xkeymap.keycode.116 = 0x150 # Down
xkeymap.keycode.113 = 0x14b # Left
xkeymap.keycode.114 = 0x14d # Right
xkeymap.keycode.105 = 0x11d # Control_R
xkeymap.keycode.118 = 0x152 # Insert
xkeymap.keycode.119 = 0x153 # Delete
xkeymap.keycode.110 = 0x147 # Home
xkeymap.keycode.115 = 0x14f # End
xkeymap.keycode.112 = 0x149 # Prior
xkeymap.keycode.117 = 0x151 # Next
xkeymap.keycode.78 = 0x46 # Scroll_Lock
xkeymap.keycode.127 = 0x100 # Pause
xkeymap.keycode.133 = 0x15b # Meta_L
xkeymap.keycode.134 = 0x15c # Meta_R
xkeymap.keycode.135 = 0x15d # Menu

Other solutions:

• http://bias9.blogspot.com/2008/10/keys-not-working-in-vmware.html
  

  
  This is an upstream bug in VMware’s code. If your keyboard is not functioning correctly in VMware, add this line to ~/.vmware/config (create file if necessary):
  

  xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true

  
  http://www.ultimalinux.com/wiki/VMware
  

  
  
• http://communities.vmware.com/message/918459
  
• http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1007439
  

Good news on ASP.NET MVC

Fine description of MVC pattern implementation in ASP.NET can be found on ScottGu's blog. This post accompanies the Release Candidate of ASP.NET MVC 1.0:

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2009/01/27/asp-net-mvc-1-0-release-candidate-now-available.aspx

WTFPL - The ultimate free license

http://sam.zoy.org/wtfpl/
In a word: cute!

Debugging PHP with NetBeans and XDebug

A small tutorial from NetBeans' Knowledge Base:

http://www.netbeans.org/kb/docs/php/debugging.html