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AirPort Roaming Network Configuration

The above diagram shows a home Airport network with wired (RJ-45) Airports in the Sitting room, Reception (Time Capsule) and Study (Loft) and a wirelessly connected Airport in the Conservatory connected to a HiFi system using a audio mini-jack port. Due to the proximity of the  Airport HiFi it wirelessly connects to the nearest AirPort Time Capsule in the Conservatory. The wired AirPorts are connected to  the LAN using a straight Ethernet cable connected to the WAN AP WAN Port port and nearest room RJ-45 wall port.

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Kate editor not parsing @media queries correctly

This problem exhibits itself when viewing css files with @media {…} queries with Kate text editor versions < v3.14. Kate highlights these sections incorrectly with  red underline or similar.

The fix for this bug is to add <DetectSpaces/> to the MQEV context of Kate’s  css.xml highlighting file so that it parses spaces after @media attribute and before the curly brace correctly.

In Kubuntu 14.04 css.xml is located in /usr/share/kde4/apps/katepart/syntax/css.xml

Edit this file with Kate as follows

kdesudo kate /usr/share/kde4/apps/katepart/syntax/css.xml

Find the second occurrence of “MQEV”

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Backup using FreeFileSync

FFS Dialog

FreeFileSynch (FFS) can be directly downloaded and installed from the author’s site:  http://www.freefilesync.org/. FFS is a free Open Source application for backing up and restoring user files and folders on Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems. One of the major benefits is that once the first backup has been completed only changes are backed up making subsequent backups faster. Also it supports USB backup drive names, e.g. [My Passport] as targets rather than relying on a drive letter which can change depending on which port the USB cable is plugged into,

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Disable Avast Email Signature

Using the Avast User Interface (Avast UI) you can disable options such as: insert note into out going mail; audio notices; social networking; pop-ups and others.

Open the Avast UI

Navigate to the Avast icon Avast icon in the Windows notification area. This is to the right of the Taskbar at the bottom right of the screen. If not visible click on the arrow head to the left of the notification area to reveal hidden icons. Right-click on the Avast icon  and select Open Avast UI.

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Transform Windows 8 to Windows 7 with Classic Shell

To have a Windows 7 desktop like the one above on your Windows 8/8.1 desktop or laptop follow the steps below:

Install Classic Shell and Windows 7 Desktop data Files

  1. Download Classic Shell 4.1.0 or later from http://www.classicshell.net/ and install with the default settings.
  2. Download [filedownload file=”downloads/Classic_Shell.zip” style=”color:#0000EE;”]Classic Shell.zip[/filedownload] This contains Windows 7 desktop background; Start Button images and Classic Shell “Menu Settings.xml” file with the following custom settings:
    • Enable Category View for Control Panel
    • Disabled all Active Corners
    • Replace Start Button using Windows 7 Start button
    • Skip Metro desktop on boot or login
    • Metro Apps.

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Disable Linux Mouse Scroll Wheel Click Paste

Follow the steps below to disable mouse middle or wheel click button:

From Terminal run xinput to discover the mouse device name

xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer                          id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® Classic IntelliMouse®        id=10   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                         id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Belkin Corporation Flip CC                id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ LITE-ON Technology USB NetVista Full Width Keyboard.

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Stop Spotify Stealing Windows Focus

This cure is applicable to Linux based systems such as Kubuntu and Ubuntu.

Stop those annoying pop-ups intruding into your workspace by simply running Spotify Music player in a second desktop window and leave it maximised as follows:

  1. Go to System Settings/Workspace Behaviour/Virtual desktops and increase the number of desktops to 2
  2. Activate second desktop by typing Ctrl-F2
  3. Launch Spotify and select the music you like to play
  4. Switch back to main desktop by typing Ctrl-F1 or select desktop from System Tray icon and continue working!

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Windows Clean-up Steps

windowclean

Check Drive Hardware

  1. Install and run Western Digital DataLifeGuard Tools
  2. Select drive and run Quick Test to check the drive for hardware faults
  3. If drive fails test image backup drive if possible and replace

Check Drive File System Integrity

Launch COMMAND window as Administrator. Run check disk with repair option at next boot

CHKDSK C:/F

Substitute “C:” with Windows system drive letter

If CHKDSK reports errors and successfully fixes them repeat command to double check to see if runs without error.

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