Setup GeoIP for PHP5 on Ubuntu Server

I lost a few hours on this, although I done it sometime ago. To make sure I don't forget it again, here it is:

1. Install geoip packages:
   sudo apt-get install geoip-bin php5-geoip
2. Download GeoIP Lite version:
   wget http://geolite.maxmind.com/download/geoip/database/GeoLiteCity.dat.gz -O /tmp/GeoLiteCity.dat.gz
3. Unzip GeoIP Lite to /usr/share/GeoIP/GeoIPCity.dat (this is what I forgot: to rename the file):
   sudo gunzip -c /tmp/GeoLiteCity.dat.gz > /usr/share/GeoIP/GeoIPCity.dat
4. Reload apache
   sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

Elegant SEF columns layout

I found this somewhere (I can't remember where). I'm not using it now, but it's good to know.
The CSS is

/* @begin columns/sidebars (fixed L,R; liquid C) */
.columns-both, .columns-left {
  padding-left: 200px; /* LC width */
}
.columns-both, .columns-right {
  padding-right: 150px; /* RC fullwidth + CC padding */
}
.columns-container .column-main, .columns-container .column-left, .columns-container .column-right {
  position: relative;
  float: left;
}
.columns-container .column-main {
  width: 100%;
}
.columns-container .column-left {
  width: 190px;          /* LC width */
  left: -200px;          /* LC fullwidth + CC padding */
  margin-left: -100%;
}
.columns-container .column-right {
  width: 140px;          /* RC width */
  margin-right: -150px;  /* RC fullwidth + CC padding */
}
/*** IE6 Fix ***/
* html .columns-container .column-left {
  left: 150px;           /* RC fullwidth */
}
/* @end columns/sidebars (fixed L,R; liquid C) */

and the HTML (in a Drupal theme) is:

   

     
     

     
     
     
   

   
   
   

     
   

   
   
   
   

     
   

   
 

Working out OpenVPN with Network Manager in Lucid Lynx

For two years now, I've used OpenVPN to connect to a server where I upload some of the stuff I work on. Until now I always started OpenVPN from the terminal, because I didn't manage to get it working from the Network Manager in the last 4 Ubuntu versions.
Last weekend, I had some spare time and I installed Lucid Lynx on my laptop. I tried (again) to get OpenVPN working with Network Manager. As usually it failed, although I was pretty sure everything I did was correct.
So I decided to import my existing openvpn configuration file and export it back to see if there's something different. After doing this, I've noticed a few difference, but most of them were just due to syntax. However, two lines looked more interesting:

user openvpn
group openvpn

I've checked and saw that with these lines in the configuration file, the openvpn connection failed to start even from the terminal. Therefore, I did the following:

1. create the openvpn group as a system group using
   
   

   groupadd -r openvpn

2. assign the openvpn group to the directory (and files) that holds my openvpn key and certificates (mine and server's):
   
   

   chgrp -R openvpn openvpn_folder

3. assign group read permissions to the openvpn settings directory and remove permissions for others:
   
   

   chmod g+r,o-rwx openvpn_folder

After these steps, the OpenVPN connection started from the Network Manager without problems (note that it's recommended route only traffic for that network through that connection).

Matlab 7 startup problem

Recently I had to install Matlab 7 on a Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop running Windows XP SP3. Everything went OK during installation. However, Matlab failed to start: it started, showed the splash screen, show the full application window, and as soon as the prompt was about to appear, all windows closes.
After some googleing I found out that this is caused by Matlab 7 using the wrong version of the Blas library (http://www.mathkb.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/matlab/12542/MATLAB-7-R14-crashing). Dell Inspiron 1501 has an AMD Athlon processor.
The solution was quite easy (considering how much time I lost to find it): add the environmental variable BLAS_VERSION with the value atlas_Athlon.dll.