I saw an advert in PC Pro claiming that the new Novell Suse Linux, version 9.2 Professional has improved support for mobile devices.

If you've read my previous post concerning Linux and WLAN you'll probably have guessed my reaction to this news.

I checked out suse.com, which is in the process of being moved to the Novell site, and read the product description with baited breath.

It seems that YaST (Suse's installer of choice) has been updated to include better support for WLAN, Bluetooth and IrDA.

It reads...

Improved WLAN support and configuration with YaST (including Centrino).

New YaST configuration modules for IrDA and Bluetooth.

Bluetooth support with autodetection for synchronization with Bluetooth cell phones and handhelds.

It's all very exciting stuff and for around 56 GBP it's competitively priced considering it comes bundled with over 1000 open-source software products.

http://www.novell.com/products/linuxprofessional/

Since a site redesign we've been using a custom 404 ASP page rather than our old HTML 404 page, this gives us the opportunity to add dynamic content to the 404.asp page.

However after setting up Microsoft IIS to serve our custom 404.asp page we discovered to our dismay, using a HTTP header viewer, that the 404 page was returning a code '200 OK' rather than a '404 Not Found'.

After some searching the ASP Response.Status object was found. Now with just one line of code at the top of our ASP 404 page we can set the status to 404 Not Found!

Here's the code.

<%

Response.Status = "404 Not Found"

%>

I've added a link to a handy HTTP viewer below.

http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html

After installing Windows XP Service Pack 2 many fans of various peer-to-peer software will find that they no longer function. This is due to changes made to the TCPIP.SYS file in SP 2 effectively limiting the amount of connections a PC can make.

Quite why this change has been made under Windows XP is anyone's guess. A few reasons spring to mind though...

1.) Minimising the effect of SPAM sent out from hijacked computers

2.) Throttling peer-to-peer networks.

I've found a site that purports to have a fix for the problem, but I haven't tried the hack, although I've included the link if you are brave. (I will accept NO responsibility for any concequences of using this hack though.)

All this news will be a blow to the rising number of BitTorrent fans, who use it to legally download Linux distros and other open-source software.

Perhaps this will help Linux gain more ground over Microsoft's Windows?

http://www.lvllord.de/?url=tools#4226patch

If like me you work with browsers and web pages on a daily basis then you might find this extension to Mozilla's Firefox a useful tool.

The extension simply adds a web developer toolbar to Firefox enabling you to perform many annoyingly awkward functions of web development much more efficiently.

One of my favourite features enables you to edit a sites' stylesheet on-the-fly. Other features are very useful too, such as the handy view source button, the browser resolution resize button and cookie information retrieval.

It also enables you to validate a page and outline various page elements including depreciated elements etc.

This toolbar is a must for any Web Developer.

http://www.chrispederick.com/work/firefox/webdeveloper/

A couple of years after the release of Internet Explorer (IE) version 6 and it's starting to feel dated. The competition (Mozilla, Opera, Safari) have superceded any advantage IE had over them with features such as tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking and built in multi-search toolbars. Microsoft's announcement of future revisions being shelved is another nail in the coffin for IE.

XP Service Pack 2 recently introduced a much-needed pop-up blocker for Windows XP users but I don't think this can save IE.

Mozilla's Firefox is gaining ground fast and I'm one of it's avid users. It's fast to load, has tabbed browsing (so you can avoid having 15 IE windows open at once), it's skinable and has a built in RSS reader and the best thing is it's FREE!

What's more it's open source meaning anyone can help in making it better.

What more could you want from your browser?

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/