Greasemonkey

So what is Greasemonkey?
Greasemonkey is an addon for Firefox that allows the user to write scripts which alter the web page dynamically.

Userscripts
This site contains scripts which can be used by Greasemonkey. This would be a good place to have a look to get an idea of what things can be achieved. Its a place where user share their scripts with everyone.

If you know some web technologies like HTML, CSC and javascript, you will be able to write your own scripts.

More information about this can be found on wikipedia

Fixing issues after new windows xp installation

After I installed Windows XP, there was nothing in the Network Connections so I could not connect to the Internet using my router. Also sound was not working and some games were not working.

How to fix this
You need to install the drivers for the motherboard.
You first need to find out the model of the motherboard.

• You could open up the computer and check the model number written on the motherboard.
• Check the specification of your computer. Maybe the invoice for the computer contains a list of components.
  

For example my motherboard was an "Intel D915". So you just go the google and search for "Intel D915 drivers".

So on the Intel website, there were 4 drivers

1. A driver so that the basic components on the motherboard work correctly
2. A sound driver
3. A network driver (This created a LAN network connection)
4. An advanced graphics driver. I believe for the on-board graphics card

So after installing all those drivers, everything is working fine.

Rock Climbing for Beginners

If you have never been rock climbing before, then your first experience is quite interesting. So I thought I shall share some interesting things that I learnt. This is indoor rock climbing. Not that actual thing.

I am only going to go over the basic things a learnt. If you want more details then there is always wikipedia.

Since it was my first time, the people working there give gave me and work colleagues a demo about safety and how things work. Also wearing a harness for the first time can be difficult and can be uncomfortable at first.

The demo started of showing how to climb a wall with a belayer. I think it was a top rope system. So the climber attaches themselves to one end of the rope. This rope goes to the top of the wall and then comes down to the belayer who is also attached to the rope. The belayer stands about 5 metres away from the wall.

So as the climber climbs the wall, the belayer has the pull the rope so the rope between the two is always tight. So that if the climber falls, they only fall a small distance. They have special systems attached onto the rope, so that if you do fall, the rope automatically locks, so its quite safe. Then once you have reached the top or have had enough, you can let go of the wall and the belayer will slowly bring you down.

How they measure difficulty
The rock climbing walls have colour coded holds(placed where you put your hands or feet). Each of the colour coded holds are given a level which is shown on the wall. And the aim is to use a single colour to get to the top. If you can then you have achieved that level. Simple as that.
Easier levels have many holds which are large and easy to grip. Harder levels have fewer holds in hard to reach locations and are difficult to grip.

Lead climbing
Another style of climbing that I saw was lead climbing. There is still a belayer, but as the climber climbs its there responsibility to clip themselves into clips along the way. This style is for more experienced rock climbers.

Don't need a belayer
There where also tall narrow walls which don't require a belayer. There is still a rope that you have to clip your harness on, but as you climb the wall there is a mechanism that keeps the rope tight and if you fall, it automatically takes you down slowly.

Bouldering
Instead of going up the wall, in bouldering you go across. In other words rock climbing sideways.

So that was my first experience regarding rock climbing and I recommend that you try it once.

Dual boot Windows XP and ubuntu 8.10

I bought a second hand computer for real cheap so I thought it might be a good idea to try and setup a dual boot using windows xp and ubuntu 8.10

I asked a few people at work and they said it would be very straight forward so I decided I should give it a go and I had nothing to lose. But the journey was harder than I thought.

It is a good idea to install windows xp first. This is because if you decide to install windows second, windows overrides the boot load so you wont get the option of which operating system you would like to load up.

Before you start installing anything, you should decide how the hard drive should be partitioned to accommodate the dual boot. Now I had a 120GB hard drive. So I wanted 40GB for windows, 40GB for ubuntu and 40GB as a separate partition for my files so that both operating systems can access it.

By default, ubuntu can view and modify the contents in the windows partition but windows is unable to even see the ubuntu partition.

Installing windows xp first

So the mission began and installing windows was easy but it takes a while. Maybe about 25 to 30 minutes. So when I was asked about the partitions at the start I only created one 40GB partition and left the rest as free space. The rest of the installation is straight forward.

Let me say, windows xp is extremely fast on the clean installation. The time from computer startup to desktop is like 15 seconds. There is hardly any loading time for the operating system.

But I had a major problem. I had nothing in the "Network Connections" so I could not connect to the internet. The computer was connected to the router but I could not connect to the LAN. I believe some network adapter drivers are missing. But this is a separate issue I will discuss later.

Next installing ubuntu 8.10

The live feature available when installing ubuntu is very handy. It loads up quickly and you can use the operating system without having to install it. It detected being connected to my router automatically and I could browse the internet straight away. So its good how everything just works without having to do anything.

Then on the desktop there is a icon called "Install" which allows you to install ubuntu through a nice wizard. Everything is straight for apart from the Partition section.

There are a few options when decided where ubuntu will be installed.

1. The first option is resizing an existing partition to make room for ubuntu. The problem was that it was only resizing the 40GB I had allocated for windows.
2. There are 2 other options but both of them result is using the entire disk (120GB) for ubuntu.
3. The last option was to setup the partition manually, but this requires some advanced knowledge regarding allocation of disk space required for ubuntu. Like allocation space for the root, swap etc

None of these is what I wanted. I already had 40GB for windows and I wanted to use the free space I had left.

After some researching, I found out there is a "Partition Manager" option in the "System" menu on the live running system. This allows you to manage the partitions on the disk.
You can add, edit and delete partitions.
So after some fiddling around, I created a FAT32 partition at the end of the disk and resized the windows partition to take up 80GB. Resizing partitions is quite simple because it involves dragging a rectangle to the size required.

Then I started the installation progress again and when I got to the partition section I selected the first option of resizing the windows partition which I changed to 80GB. So know is have 40GB for each operating system. The rest of the installation is straight forward.

Finally

Now its was time to restart the computer and to see which options I would be confronted. These are the options:

1. Load ubuntu, the name started with ubuntu but there was lots of random text afterwards.
   
2. This had the same text as the first but the "(Safe)" at the end
3. There is an option to load another operating system.
4. The last option is windows xp