Somewhere in June 2009, I became self-employed. Since it involves sending invoices, I decided to create a template with OpenOffice. After creating a new invoice, I export it as PDF and email it to the customer. Saves me paper, ink, envelopes, stamps, trips to the post office, fuel, ... You get the picture.

Unfortunately I still have to hand them in to my bookkeeping office on paper, so I still have to print them once. Which is what I've been doing since June 2009. Until I tried printing invoices from Q4 2009, somewhere in December. The printer refused to print anything.

Some months ago, I ordered a Dommel SpeedConnect Plus connection. Since Dommel is using the network of the monopolist Belgacom in Belgium, I am forced to buy one specific type of VDSL2 router: Sagem F@st 3464. If you want to know why Belgacom forces this type of modem, you can find the report of the BIPT here, in English, Dutch or French.

Belgacom no longer uses theses modems for their own customers, but only resells them to ISP's using their xDSL network, so this is probably just a way for Belgacom to get rid of the Sagem's they still have in their stock.

So, recently I updated my iPhone to 3.1.2. Unfortunately, the custom firmware image I used contained both Cydia and Icy. I don't own an Apple computer myself, so I am unable to build my own custom IPSW, so I asked somebody else. And no, I will not use redsn0w because it sucks. It never worked for me on my iPhone 2G, it always came in recovery mode while it should go in DFU mode. Or was it the other way around?

Now it seems, if you install both Icy and Cydia, that Icy messes up the Apt/DPKG database. Joy ... Cydia errors when trying to install anything:

Cydia: Error Couldn’t configure pre-depend dpkg for ncurses, probably a dependency cycle.


Because I always forget ...

To update your Dell BIOS in Linux, download the .exe BIOS file from the Dell website. Extract the HDR file with "wine D630_A15.EXE -writehdrfile". This will extract a file D630_A15.hdr.

When you have this HDR file, run the dellBiosUpdate utility that comes with Dell's libsmbios:

dellBiosUpdate -u -f D630_A15.hdr

Afterwards, reboot your machine, and the BIOS will be updated.

Cheers!