borisSCHEIMAN // » Misc

Compiling Mono 2.6 on Slicehost

Boris — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:34:53 +0000

It’s a pain in the ass. It takes ages. And did I mention it’s a pain in the ass? After reading the forums and stumbling upon xyzzyxyzzy’s awesome script, I decided to make it easier on all us Mono/.NET lovers.

I did it manually, but this should work – alas, you’ve been warned. Insert typical “Works on my machine” disclaimer here; if your cat dies from using this script, it’s not my fault. You need kernel version 2.6.24-23-xen (standard on Slicehost I think)

UPDATE: I’ll post the SVN version in a few. Seems there was a POSIX issue that wasn’t fixed on the tarball, forcing me to go the SVN way. New post in a few minutes, once I test it.

Windows XP Registry Hacks

Boris — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:45:32 +0000

I finally graduate in about 2 months. However, much to my dismay, I have to finish my social volunteer work. No, I didn’t do anything weird – it’s just a graduation requisite. I’ve been working at my university’s computer division, so I’ve had to format anywhere between 4 and 15 laptops every day. Yes. Every. Single. Day.

Unfortunately, most of the laptops are Dell C610s – in other words, 1GHz, 256MB RAM and they’re running Windows XP. You can probably tell that it’s very fun to optimize each system. (I’m proud of myself, they run pretty nicely for the low specs they’re sporting…)

With this in mind, I decided to code a .NET 3.5 application (free, of course) that does the job for me and also manages to be fully extensible through the use of a text-based hack database.

If you’re interested in downloading it, give it a go here. Read more if you’re interested in some of the example hacks, as well as the database specification.

The app itself has many, many hacks, but here are some of them just to get your attention:

StartUpDelay (Speeds up startup)
MenuShowDelay (Faster start menu)
WaitToKillAppTimeout, HungAppTimeout (Speeds up shutdown)
SuperFetch
UDMA66 Mode
Large system cache
…and many more

The format, per se, is the following:

Name
Description
Root value (Depends on type of hack: Registry, Command or Profile)
Argument
Value
; (End of entry)

Here’s an example of 3 different entries in the regs.dat file, with comments in square brackets:

Registry entry:

Registry: Modify StartUpDelay [Name]
It just removes the unnecessary wait time after a system startup before Indexing Service. (40000ms) [Description]
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControlContentIndex [In the case of a registry entry, the full tree]
StartupDelay [Registry key]
40000 [Registry value. If it's numerical, it's a DWORD - else, it'll get written as a String]
;

Command entry:

Services: Disable alerter service [Name]
‘Nuff said. [Description]
Command [Root value, leave as "Command" for command]
sc.exe [Actual command]
config “alerter” start= disabled [Parameters]
;

Profile entry: (aka, .ini files)

Profile: Set LocalLoadHigh [Name]
Speeds up Windows XP boot times. Load all info needed for your programs into upper memory by default, and it will free up the maximum amount of conventional memory possible. (the first 640K) [Description]
Profilesystem.ini386Enh [In the case of a Profile, it has to be like this: Profile<.ini file [in Windows dir]>

]
LocalLoadHigh [Argument]
1 [Value]
;

If you add anything to the regs.dat file, please post it as a comment so everyone can benefit. Thanks, and enjoy!

How to reprogram Dell’s MediaDirect button

Boris — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:52:49 +0000

Simple steps:

Download IntelliType: http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/download/download.aspx?category=MK
Install & select “Wireless Photo Keyboard”
Wait for setup to finish
Open Control Panel – Keyboard
Key Settings: disable all of these (edit, disable the use of this key)
1. Edit (Photo)
2. Print (Photo)
3. Send (Photo)
4. Slide Show
5. Show Favorites
6. Log Off
7. New – Print
Select “Library” – this IS the MediaDirect button
“Edit” – do whatever your heart desires.

Yay!

Shadow Puppets

Boris — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 04:10:25 +0000

Just happened to find this YouTube video while being lazy and oh so productive during the weekend. This guy is just unbelievable… Enjoy!

Transformers

Boris — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:44:05 +0000

Just when I thought that nothing could be worse than *actually* changing your name to Optimus Prime, I stumble upon this very… weird… site. Kinda old for current Internet standards (2-3 months), but still weird as hell.

Anyway, seems like some other guy decided it would be nice to change his middle name to Megatron. But – alas – he probably wasn’t aware of what the consequences for such action would be. (Other than causing extreme laughter when met that is.) The Big Ugly One (Scrubs reference!), aka Optimus Prime, has actually laid down the gauntlet for a mano a mano against Megatron.

I’d love to see them scream “TRANSFORM!” and fight it out. Or just roll out. Either one works.

Original link here

Elite moment

Boris — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 06:09:35 +0000

Just wanted to share something I stumbled upon some days ago, while driving in Mexico City. This is what my car’s (being a Peugeot 206) digital odometer looked like:

In case anyone was wondering, I was on my way back to Cuernavaca… the picture was taken on my 8525 cellphone on Calzada de Tlalpan. Now, if only the speedometer showed something remotely interesting… a.k.a., not 10km/h. Oh well.

First post!

Boris — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 00:30:54 +0000

So once again I decided to hop on the blogging scene, but this time I’ll actually post stuff on my site. Seeing as how I also just changed hosts (from C I Host to Lunarpages, if you were wondering.) I think it’d be fitting to post some of the coupons I found on the ‘net and saved myself a buck or two. Let’s put it this way: without coupons, I would’ve paid a lot. With coupons, I just about paid what the usual 6-month basic plan goes for. Now, don’t get me wrong – I love the service C I Host used to give me, but hosting several domains (legally) under one account is just… nice to have.

Anyway, here goes. Hope you enjoy;

Yeah, I had to go ahead and use the more tag. Sorry, couldn’t resist. (By the way, these coupons only work for 1 and 2-year plans.)

28poffWebHostingUnleashed :: 28% off the order.

28add1month :: $28 off and 1 month; the best one. I used this one actually…

28OffHosting :: $28 off; not that bad…