Things Dennis Patrick Lambe Jr. Knows

How to change the volume label on a VFAT device in Linux

You can use the mlabel command from the mtools package. That tool uses a goofy DOS-esque drive label syntax that makes working with arbitrary media, especially USB devices, cumbersome. To get around it and specify the device file directly, use the -i image option and :: as the drive letter. To change the volume label on my Cruzer mini, for example, I use the command mlabel -i /dev/sda1 ::"newlabel".

How to keep your Dance Dance Revolution mats from sliding around or sinking into carpet

Rubbermaid makes a plastic mat designed to go underneath desk chairs on carpetted floors to help them roll smoothly. The 36x48 mat is the perfect size to fit under a DDR pad. I've been using one, and neither the dance pad nor the plastic mat move around at all. You don't even have to duct tape it to the floor anymore! You can get them from staples for carpets or hard wood floors.

How to prevent system lockups with nForce-based motherboards in Ubuntu 7.04

If your computer is freezing up and your kernel is reporting an error like the following:

ata2.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen
ata2.00: cmd 25/00:08:ff:18:d3/00:00:10:00:00/e0 tag 0 cdb 0x0 data 4096 in
         res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
ata2: soft resetting port

or if attempts to run system commands like ls result in Command Not Found errors, try disabling the smartd daemon. It has a bug as described in this thread.

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