Chris A. Brandlehner BLOG

Annoying Scroll-Lock indicator popup on Lenovo Thinkpad with Windows 7

Christian Brandlehner — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:09:19 +0200

On a Lenovo ThinkPad W510 I had an annoying problem with a popup indicating if the Scoll-Lock key was pressed. That tiny little grey window was popping up in the lower right corner of the screen.
The reason for hating that popus is that in Flightsimulator X the Scroll-Lock key is used to open the ATC window. If you play in DirectX fullscreen mode the screen flickers heavily for several seconds.
I found that the indator is not a Thinkpad feature but part of the Widcomm Bluetooth Stack. No idea why that software is doing this kind of stuff but here is the trick how to disable that indicator popup:
Use your registry editor and change the DWORD for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Widcomm\BTConfig\General to a value 0. To reenable restore the default value of 1.

No sound with AMAROK in Ubuntu Linux 9.10?

Christian Brandlehner — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0200

I had a strange problem with AMAROK not playing any sound. Even weird if I used the test-button in the preferences I did hear sound.
After searching the web I found that you have to install this package: libxine1-ffmpeg

There is a new Fix for Lotus Traveler

Christian Brandlehner — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 16:21:53 +0200

IBM released a new Lotus Traveler Fix that fixes some issues but also adds some new functions, especially for the Apple iPhone.

IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.x Books

Christian Brandlehner — Tue, 2 Feb 2010 11:45:10 +0200

I recommend these books for IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.x:

IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.1 FP1 is now available

Christian Brandlehner — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 15:49:12 +0200

See this TN for download instructions:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24025721

IBM Lotus Domino Change Manager

Christian Brandlehner — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 15:32:35 +0200

I found a product at the Lotusphere Showcase that seems to be worth having a look. IONET Software offers a change management tool for auditing changes in the Domino Directory. The Change Manager seems to be designed to work fine in a distributed server environment. All software is in Notes databases so no software needs to be installed on the OS or as an extension manager to Domino.

Cool Paragliding Video

Christian Brandlehner — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:59:17 +0200

I found this cool video on YouTube with lots of impressions of the Pre-European Paragliding Championship in Abtenau.
See more information on the European Paragliding Championship 2010 page or on facebook.

How to scoll using the Thinkpad Trackpoint

Christian Brandlehner — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 01:00:14 +0200

I really like to scroll using the third/blue mouse key on my Thinkpad. I was missing this feature with Ubuntu Linux and found that this solution also worked for my T60p.

Could not renew Lotus Domino Server SSL key

Christian Brandlehner — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 12:07:31 +0200

IBM Lotus Domino can use an SSL key to provide encrypted network access. To get SSL working you have to use the database cetsrv.nsf, create a certificate request (CSR), paste that into your PKI-providers form who will return a signed certificate. Once you merge that signed certificate into your servers keyring you are ready to go.
The problem I see is that the CSR created by Version 8.5.1 is based on the MD5 algorithm and most PKIs started to refuse MD5 in CSRs in favor of SHA-1 or newer algorithms. I see the problem that everyone who runs a SSL site on Domino will not be able to renew the certificate!

The Lotus Knowledgebase lists a problem that the signed certificate could not be merged into the keyring if signed using SHA-1 by the PKI but this problem was solved with 7.0.3 and does not apply to the current problem as the problem is that the CSR is always signed using MD5.

Read this article: Why is MD5 hash considered insecure?

What happens if a kid finds that solving a rubix cube is not enough

Christian Brandlehner — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:11:42 +0200

Last Christmas my son, now 14 years old, got a robotic toolkit present. This is a video showing the result. I was honestly stunned by surprise.

He uses the robotic toolkit to move the cube. A webcam is linked to a PC to feed the algorithm. A Visual Basic program feeds the robot with instructions.
Sourcecode available on his website.