After going around in circles for a while I found the simple piece of the puzzle I’d been overlooking.

To create name based virtualhosts available locally with Apache2, create and enable your site as usual (using a2ensite) and then, edit the file at /etc/hosts to include your new ‘ServerName’ at 127.0.0.1.

e.g.

127.0.0.1 mynewsite.local
127.0.0.1 localhost


Simples.

The Problem : The headphone / earphone jack is being ignored by Ubuntu 8.04 (‘Hardy Heron’) on the Sony Vaio VGN-FZ21S. Sound continues to play exclusively through the lap-top speakers whether or not headphones or earphones are plugged in.

The Solution :

Edit the file :

/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

To include this line at the end :

options snd-hda-intel model=vaio

Save the file and reboot your machine.

Mad props to these guys for providing me with the solution. And this fix should also work in Ubuntu 7.10.

Now I can get back to Battlestar Galactica, without pissing off the neighbours

• Cross-Platform

  

  • GIMP

    Often cited as the best free alternative to Photoshop, this is at least a highly capable image editor. Although unfortunately for a design tool, the interface can all seem a bit clunky and it gets in the way at times.

  • Inkscape

    A very decent vector image editor. Similar to Adobe Illustrator, and a much nicer interface than the GIMP. Recommended.

  • Synergy

    This nifty little application allows you to share one mouse and keyboard with other machines on your home or office network. So when I’ve got my Windows laptop propped up beside my desktop iMac, I can move control from one machine to the next by simply ‘moving the mouse’ from one screen to the next. Really good.

• Windows

  

  • Crimson Editor

    I’ve tried many a text/code editor for Windows (such as the amicable Notepad++ and HtmlKit) but I keep coming back to Crimson Editor. It’s simple, no fuss, highlights my code and works well with my FTP Client and has distinguishable tabs (looks at you, HtmlKit!).

    One thing it doesn’t do is code auto-compleation – and that is missed at times. Still recommended.

  • SmartFTP

    I still haven’t really found a decent free/open-source FTP client for Windows, so I use this one. It’s free for non-commercial uses and costs $50 for a professional licence.

  • Putty

    A small, free, telnet/SSH client for Windows. Does the job well.

• Apple OS-X

  

  • I’ve found it extremely difficult to find decent free software for OS-X, but there certainly is a number of reasonably priced and very good software options out there. I use Coda for text editing and FTP access. It costs $79 for a licence and is, in all honesty, totally worth it.

• Linux (KDE)

  

  • Quanta+

    A really decent, though quite bulky, code editor for KDE. Includes every feature you could want, and then some. If you use KDE, get Quanta+.

See also : Firefox Plugins for the Web Professional