Warning: mysql_connect(): Client does not support authentication protocol requested by server; consider upgrading MySQL client in /blah/somepage.php on line 123 The reason for this warning is because PHP4 can’t communicate with a MySQL5 server unless it’s using old passwords (set by using the OLD_PASSWORD() function below.) There are two simple ways to fix this. The first would be to upgrade your version of php. Unless you *really* need php4 (or below?

Picked up a WDTV last night for $200. As you may have guessed from some of my other posts, I’m into my A/V stuff, so this thing seemed like a bargain. Many reviews will rave about how great it is, and I must say it’s not too bad, but I have found there are bugs (even in the latest 1.0.1.2 firmware): Playback of any AC3 file seems to result in a barely noticable (but very annoying) 100ms or so audio lag.

*Updated! The xbox360 doesn’t like divx/xvid files that have ac3 sound tracks, so we can use mencoder to convert these files so they use 128kbit stereo mp3 soundtracks instead. This isn’t too hard to do, just use a command similar to: mencoder input.avi -ovc copy -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=128 -channels 2 -o output.avi Easy when you know how.

I recently purchased the Edimax EW-7728IN IEEE802.11n Draft 2.0 wireless card. Although I’ve not tested the performance yet, I have managed to get it to successfully connect to my Billion 7300N 802.11n wireless router at a rate of between 270 and 300Mb/sec. Before I began I read on the Ubuntu forums that many people had problems trying to get the thing to work. I found it was fairly straight forward which is probably a result of the new(ish) drivers on the edimax website for Linux.

Hi, I’ve posted this to my site in order to find people looking for a central coast linux user group (Central Coast, NSW, Australia that is.) Basically, I’ve sort-of found one at http://cclug.com, but it seems to be a bit dead with hardly any info. If you are interested in a central coast LUG, please leave a comment with your email address and I’ll get in touch. Perhaps you can help me find the mysterious CCLUG, or help me establish a new one?

If you find your system isn’t booting sometimes and you get this funny error message, edit your kernel boot line in /boot/grub/menu.lst: kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=75a92494-bdae-4715-92d9-f06d1887008e ro all_generic_ide e.g - Add the all_generic_ide parameter. All should be fine once again. I believe this is a strange Ubuntu kernel bug, although I’m not sure.

While it’s not possible to play mkv files directly on the xbox360, you only need to do a few things to remux the video and audio streams into the mp4 format. This means that no re-encoding is done with the video, therefore there is no loss in video quality. At the time of writing, the xbox360 doesn’t support anything other than 2 channel AAC audio for mp4 streams, so you’ll have to put up with that.

Once in a while, a fantastic piece of open source software comes along. Just the other day, banshee 1.0 was released. I must say, I’m *very* impressed. It’s like a much better, really great iTunes. With the addition of video it now covers pretty much everything I wanted in a media player thingi for Linux. Check it out: Banshee 1.0!

I updated my php-clearsilver installation guide today after discovering it’s wrong in a few places. Fortunately, I don’t think anyone’s ever used it (apart from me today.) If you know what clearsilver is and you use php, you might find it interesting. Installing PHP Clearsilver module for apache on Ubuntu and Debian

The Ubuntu UK Podcast show was recently established, someone I met from HantsLUG hosts it and it’s pretty interesting for those of you who are Ubuntu users. Check it out! Ubuntu UK Podcast