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  • Uninstalling Ubuntu

    If you’ve installed Ubuntu as a dual boot with Windows then removing it isn’t easy (which is a shame that they make installation so easy but make no effort in assisting with uninstalling).

    Removing the partition that Ubuntu lives on is the easy bit – sadly, it also removes GRUB, which is the menu that allows you to choose your OS during boot. As a result, you’ll simply get an error during the next reload and you won’t be able to even start Windows. Nice.

    It would appear that you have to repair the Windows MBR (Master Boot Record) – this will restore the standard boot method. I found an excellent article on how to do it but, sadly, as this was on a Netbook (and is often the case with Laptops these days as well) I didn’t have any Windows installation disks.

    You can use Win2Flash to create your own Windows disks on a USB stick – and there’s a great article for how to do this too.

    However, after doing this and following the instructions in the first article, I found it booted just the same (at this point I hadn’t removed the Ubuntu partition, as I still wanted to be able to access Windows!). In the end, I came across a utility named MBRFix – this can be run from Windows and is a command mode utility to perform various actions on the MBR, including restoring it.

    Install MBRFix and run the following command (assuming you’re running XP)…

    MbrFix /drive 0 fixmbr

    Then simply reboot to ensure it’s worked – the GRUB menu shouldn’t appear and XP should boot as normal. Once this is confirmed, remove the Ubuntu partition and then use a free partitioning tool to reclaim the space.

  • Laptop batteries – when and how should you charge them?

    I have to say, I’m confused. I keep reading conflicting information about what to do with laptop batteries and charging them. Most advise seems to revolve around regularly using the battery until its flat and then re-charging it. Elsewhere, though, I’ve read that with modern batteries this isn’t required and, in fact, damages them.

    The battery I recently bought for my Netbook came with the following advice which is what I’m following…

    When using for the first time discharge the battery to 3% and then full charge
    You must turn off or recharge the battery when it reaches 3% – no not discharge to 0% or you will shorten its life
    Every 2 months, discharge the battery to 3% and then full recharge – this will keep the battery in its best condition

    I’ve re-worded the above from its original bad Chinese translation, and omitted the various bits about ensuring you charge it up before storing it long term.

    However, it would appear that most instructions DON’T relate to Li-ion (lithium ion) batteries – it’s highly likely this is what you’d have in your laptop. One thing that is consistent, though, is that such batteries will only last 2-3 years.

    My advice – recharge fully before full use and never let it drain too much. Advice seems to differ between 3% and 10% as the minimum level. Having said all that, my daughter’s Samsung laptop comes with a program (Samsung Battery Manager) to help extend battery life and it does that by not letting you charge it above 80%.

  • Sky+ bug hits Copy+ users

    As you may know, I’m the web developer for the Copy+ software, a freeware Sky HD backup and copying tool. The developer, Stuart McConnachie, used to work with me many years ago – he writes the software and I keep the website going. It’s a relationship that works well and Copy+ has been of use to many people in that time.

    Recently, Sky has started upgrading its Sky HD firmware and users have been found that recordings copied with Copy+ are not always playing back properly. At first, people started contacting Sky, thinking it was their firmware. However, they have now posted an official response.

    1Tb Sky+HD Issues – Update 13/10/2010 – 19:00

    Investigations continue into the issues reported by a minority of Sky+HD 1Tb customers.

    We now understand the root cause of an issue with Copy+ software used on the set top box prior to the latest software update that can cause an error in the filesystem which is critical to the new software, causing corruption to planner and recorded content. We are aware that many of the issues reported by customers are not caused by Copy+ but customers who have used Copy+ will need to perform a full system reset. We regret that some of our customers are suffering from this, but reiterate that Copy+ is not a Sky product and is not supported or endorsed by us.

    Further updates will be provided as the investigations continue.

    Because of this, Stuart has put out an official statement.

    We would like to sincerely apologise to all of our users with “1TB” boxes, and also to Sky, for the inconvenience caused by this issue, which does indeed appear t be caused by a filesystem discrepancy introduced by Copy+.

    We appreciate that Sky can not be responsible for testing for compatibility with a third party application such as Copy+, but then equally it is impossible for us to test against future Sky software releases as we have no advance knowledge of what they may contain. It is an unfortunate situation for all concerned.

    We fully accept that the best course of action for effected users would be to perform a Full System Reset as suggested by Sky. However we accept that some users my have recordings which they do not wish to lose, and so wish to offer a possible, if somewhat more technical, alternative.

    To that end we are continuing to investigate and believe we are close to developing an application to fix the inconsistencies in pre and post update recordings so that they no longer risk overwriting each other. Please note that any such “fix” will not be able to recover already lost or damaged content, however it will prevent further losses in the future. Any such fix, as with using Copy+ in the first place, would of course be entirely at the users own risk. While we finalise testing this tool, users can minimise the risk of overwriting further recordings, by avoiding making new recordings or deleting content. However we fully understand if users would prefer to follow Sky’s advice and regrettably have to FSR their system.

    Once again we would like to sincerely apologise to all our users effected by this unfortunate incident and the subsequent loss of recordings.

    I’ve updated our Twitter feed and posted a link to the above statement of Stuarts on the download page.

    I have regularly contact with Alex Lane from What Satellite magazine, so made him aware. Today, they have posted their own news story (currently, gulp, their leading news story). I even get a name check, although incorrectly.

    All of this puts Copy+ into the spotlight a little.

    All Stuart can do now is to try and understand (if he can) what’s caused this. The important thing to note is that this issue doesn’t occur on the old firmware. None-the-less, new recordings made on the new firmware don’t have an issue.

    To me, and this is just my personal opinion, this suggests a change in the Sky firmware. A friend has suggested that maybe Sky have done this to “nobble” Copy+, but I think that’s overly cynical – this will have given Sky bad press as much as Copy+.

    Maybe Stuart will find a way to correct for the issue on old recordings. At the very least we need to correct for whatever it is for new usage.

    But Alex made a very good point…

    I can’t help thinking this wouldn’t have happened if Sky did the sensible thing and licensed Copy+ as part of its own toolbox.

    It would be such a useful tool for Sky’s own installers or third parties to offer to customers upgrading their Sky+, or for backing up the product on a regular basis.

    Obviously, I couldn’t comment 😉

    Update

    On the 28th October we released a new version of Copy+ – it doesn’t fix existing recordings but does ensure that any new backups made with the new Sky software don’t corrupt. Again, What Satellite covered the story.

  • Stupid Company Slogans #31

    I’m sure it can’t just be me that’s often left with a need to wretch after reading some ponpous, and often confusing, company slogan.

    Today, I’m sat looking at the side of a van belonging to a company named Wells. They install and maintain power and network cabling (although their website makes the main boast of being an internationally recognized market leader for Real-Time Public Information systems. Basically, scrolling information displays like those you find at railway stations).

    Their slogan is… prepare the paper bag…

    Working Today for Better Partnerships Tomorrow

    (no “TM”)

    This leaves me with the following questions…

    1. What the hell does that have to do with installing cables?

    Oh, just the one question.

    Well, other then wondering why they’ve pinched a slogan from a dating website.

    Seriously? They install cables and all they’re worried about is having better partnerships? Maybe installing cables well should be a higher priority – do that right and you’ll have better partnerships.

    I also like the fact that they’re working towards better partnerships “tomorrow”, rather than today.  Not very optimistic.

  • WordPress README files and Markdown

    For those who’ve not come across Markdown, it’s a way of using simple keyboard characters in a text file to indicate formatting. For example **this would be bold**.

    WordPress uses Markdown for the README files that accompanies each plugin – this same file is used to display the plugin details on the WordPress site. Therefore, as a plugin author, I am required to produce Markdown format files.

    At the moment, because I want to have my plugin details on my site as well, I copy and paste the README file to a WordPress post and re-format it. Now, you can change WordPress to use Markdown, but it requires switching off the standard editor as otherwise it will modify the results.

    One of the authors of Markdown, John Gruber, provides conversion scripts in Perl, as well as instructions for modifying WordPress. What I would ideally like, though, is a way to display README files on my site, as required. There is a plugin that will already do this but it does the conversion itself and, well, not very well. The results are iffy to say the least.

    To make matters worse, WordPress’ implementation of Markdown does not match the standard design.

    As with many of my plugins, the need to be able to do something myself has lead me to write a solution. Michel Fortin has converted John Grubers script to work under PHP and, using this as a basis, I am creating a plugin that will display WordPress format README files in a post.

    I’m still working on it, but the principle is that I read in the file and, first, convert the WordPress format to standard Markdown format. From there I can use Michel’s script to do the final conversion. So far, it’s looking good and I’m spending time now adding extra features, such as the ability to miss out README sections (for instance, the installation instuctions) – otherwise, the README is displayed as it is in the actual file. It finds WordPress username and tags and adds automatic links and I’m going to add compatibility with my Simple Content Reveal plugin, so that each section can be collapsed and revealed.

    I’ve already had to speak to Michel about it after having some initial issues, and he’s been very good and helped me out.

    Look out for it in the coming weeks!