CentOS does not always have VIM installed on it. This is easy to fix though:
yum install vim-common vim-enhanced vim-minimal
Run as sudo.
Recently I registered with the new Virgin Money credit card service. They have just taken over the running of their own credit cards from MBNA so everyone has to re-register on their new system.
I selected a 14-character password containing a mixture of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols.
Five minutes later I was changing it to a simple easy-to-remember phrase. Why? Because every time I log in to my account I have to enter a set of certain digits from my password.
The problem is that I have no idea what my password is. It is safely secured away in 1password; I never look it at, I never know what it is. But thanks to Virgin Money’s so called security measures, much like other financial organisations do, I am instead forced to use a far more easily crackable password.
If you attempt to run php.exe on Windows you may get an error involving the following DLL.
MSVCR110.dll
The resolution to this is to install “Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 Update 4”. Note that you should install the 32-bit version even if you are using a 64-bit operating system!
This can easily catch people out first time, however you can just install the 32-bit version over the top.
If you use self-signed certificates on cPanel and WHM, they will still expire each year. You may find yourself getting an email such as:
The SSL certificate for ftp on host.example.com will expire in less than 30 days.
Your server’s SSL certificate for ftp will expire in less than 30 days. You need to install a new certificate as soon as possible. You can install a new certificate using WHM’s “Manage Service SSL Certificates” interface: https://host.example.com:2087/scripts2/manageservicecrts (Main >> Service Configuration >> Manage Service SSL Certificates).
To resolve this, click the link as suggested by the email. Then, next to each service, click “Reset Certificate”. This will generate a fresh certificate and automatically install it.
Google Chrome is not the only application struggling with OS X Yosemite’s file dialog. When saving files in Coda, the dialog will continually fall off the bottom of the screen.
Currently the only known workaround for the issue is to switch to the simple view by clicking the up arrow next to the file name box, and then click it again to re-expand the dialog and then it will be probably sized again. However, you need to do this every time you save a file.
There is a bug in Apple’s OS X Yosemite in which the file dialog boxes grow larger than the screen. However, it does not seem Apple are in a rush to fix this.
The workaround is different for each application but for Google Chrome you can temporary solve it by running the following commands.
defaults delete com.google.Chrome NSNavPanelExpandedSizeForSaveMode defaults delete com.google.Chrome NSNavPanelExpandedSizeForOpenMode
The box will continue to grow each time you use it, so you will have to run these commands again every time the box gets too big again.
After years of waiting, after every single tiny village around Leeds getting fibre, the city centre finally has fibre! What a glorious time we live in. Top marks to BT Openreach, they turned up when they said they would and got it sorted within a hour.
This was us before:
And then this was us after:
And now:
If it keeps increasing like this, I will have all the world’s bandwidth by Christmas!
I was dragging an image from my desktop into a folder when it happened to pass over my browser with Google open on it. Suddenly, Google suggested that I might want to search the web using the image.
How well it works is debatable, but it is certainly interesting.
For example, if I upload the image I use as my avatar I get a series of pages that that image is used on. It also shows me visually similar images, but none of them are me.
I can see that finding where an image has been used can be useful. Not sure about the similar images though. However, it works better if you use a photo of a celebrity. It identifies the person and then tries to find relevant pages.
The image I uploaded was just called 11.jpg and doesn’t have much metadata, so it is quite impressive that it worked all that out from the image.
Recently, I wrote about some of the poor user experience encountered when using HSBC’s online banking.
Today, I am going to show you how to fix some of it. These instructions are for users of the Google Chrome web browser. If you use Mozilla Firefox, you can probably achieve a similar effect using Greesemonkey.
Tampermonkey is a browser add-on that allows you to run custom user scripts on existing websites. The first thing you will need to do is install it.
Once you have done that, the Tampermonkey icon will appear in your browser. Click this and when the menu appears select “Add a new script…”. Wait for the page to load, then copy and paste the following in:
// ==UserScript==
// @name HSBC online banking
// @namespace https://www.business.hsbc.co.uk/
// @version 0.1
// @description Improves HSBC's online banking
// @match https://www.business.hsbc.co.uk/*
// @copyright 2014
// @require http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js
// ==/UserScript==
$('#benSortCode').attr('size', '8');
$('#benAccountNumber').attr('size', '10');
This code will then be run every time you access a HSBC online banking page. So, as if by magic, when you try and create a new payee, the boxes will be big enough:
HSBC have had a number of what I would consider problems with their websites for the many years that I have banked with them. A few years ago I submitted an online feedback form, but nothing changed, so last month I wrote them a letter (as you do when you get to my age).
It would be nice if they could find the time to fix these issues. They recently had time to issue me a new, more complicated, security device and add an annoying pop-up trying to get me to install their Rapport malware for example. However, they have not had time to make their passwords case sensitive.
I really don’t know how these issues arise in the first place though. As I told them in my letter.
4 June 2014
RE: INTERNET BANKING
To Whom It May Concern:
I have been unable to locate a postal or email address for your internet banking service, so I have resorted to writing to the branch and hope that you will be able to pass it on to the relevant parties.
Over the past few years I have consistently run into a problem with your internet banking for my personal account.
When I go to “make a payment†I have the option of selecting “pay a bill or organisation†or “pay family, friends or otherâ€.
I need to make a payment to HMRC, to which I am given the account number and sort code. But when I go to “family, friends or other†and try and enter the account details it says the payee already exists and that I must use “pay a bill or organisationâ€.
When I go to “pay a bill or organisation†I then have to select HMRC and then select one of their tax offices. But I have no idea which office I am supposed to pay. All I have is that the account name is HMRC and then I have the sort code and account number.
I do not for the life of me understand why you will not let me make a payment in the usual way using the sort code and account number.
However, even if we overlook that, how you expect anyone else to translate nonsense phrases likes “HMRC NIC DEF PYTâ€. I don’t know what that is! How is anybody supposed to know?
I have included a printed-out screenshot of the bewildering screen.
I think at very least you should list the sort code and account number next to each entry, and use descriptive names for them, so that we can check we are paying the right account. Better still, just allow people to make payments using the sort code and account number like you would reasonably expect to be able to do at any bank.
MAKING PAYMENTS ON BUSINESS BANKING
Another piece of feedback I think is important is regarding your business internet banking. When you go to make a payment on there, you are able to go to “new payee†and enter the account details.
However the sort code is only 4 characters wide and the account number box is only 6 characters wide.
As you know, sort codes are 6 characters long and account numbers are 8 characters long.
This means that it is very difficult to check you have entered the correct account number and sort code because they do not fit in the box at the same time. I have enclosed a printed-out screenshot with this letter to demonstrate the problem.
As a software consultant, I have literally no idea how this situation could arise. Surely, if even the most basic testing can been carried out on your website, someone would have spotted that this was a significant design defect.
I would suggest that the boxes are extended so that you are actually able to see both the sort code and account number.
Yours faithfully,
Chris Worfolk
I received a letter back from them saying they had passed my feedback on. The issues still seem to be on their website though, as shown by this screenshot:
Clearly there is not enough space in those boxes to enter the account number and sort-code and be able to see the full number to check you have entered in correctly. I would not even dare pass that code to a tester; Chris K would be appalled.
If I ever get the time I am going to write a browser plugin to fix these issues myself.