Left 4 Dead Demo: OMG ZOMBIES!

So I preordered Left 4 Dead about 2 weeks ago and today I got the demo download offer from Steam. Let me tell you right now, this is the GOTY. Valve once again shows us that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to make a good game; you just need to make a really badass wheel.

Solution: PHP / WordPress won’t send email on Debian

I got this issue when I tried to send email on my VPS using PHP, the app would report everything sent successfully, but nothing came. This fix is for Debian specifically, but will work with any Debian-based Linux OS that use the apt-get package manager like Ubuntu.

Apple Releases iPod Touch 1.1.1 Update

Apple has released a firmware update for the iPod touch, bringing the device to version 1.1.1. The hefty, 150MB, update’s release notes cite only “Bug Fixes” but many users are reporting that the update addresses the “Negative Black” issue some of the week 36/37 iPods were effected by.

KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR when adding/playing/transferring video (.mov .mp4) or photos in iTunes 7 and QuickTime 7 in Windows Vista

I’ve had this problem since the release of Vista and it seems pretty isolated so I wasn’t able to find a solution on the internet, but though a series of events and random chance I seem to have found a solution.

FreeBSD Log: Setting up a Samba Server

This article was updated on May 23rd, 2007 to follow a stricter set of best practices.

A Samba server is a Windows shared folder server that allows you to share a directory on your FreeBSD server with your networked Windows computers. For this guide I’m only going to show you how to set it up and make a publicly accessible folder because frankly I don’t understand how to do some of the more advanced user creation and management.

FreeBSD Log: Changing Your Shell in FreeBSD (Unix)

Ok, so you’re just logged in and you’re already tired of sh, I would be to. Good thing it’s pretty easy to switch to bash, which we installed during the original FreeBSD installation. To change the shell we’re going to use the built in chsh (Change Shell) program as root.

FreeBSD Log: Logging into FreeBSD over SSH

Ok, so you’ve got FreeBSD installed, you have enabled SSH during the installation¹, you’ve edited your sudoers file and now you’re sitting back at your main computer ready to start remotely administering your server.

FreeBSD Log: Editing the Sudoers File

This article was updated on May 24th, 2007 to correct superficial errors.

Ok, so you’ve got your FreeBSD installed on your computer, you’ve booted up for the first time and you’re looking at the login: prompt. You’ll need to login as root to configure sudo to allow yourself to run commands as root from your normal account though SSH.