Paul Wilkinson

Filename Tidy: a tool for cleaning up dates in filenames

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My preferred way to write a calendar date is “Year-Month-Day”, e.g. “2006-12-31”. This is the ISO 8601 extended format, which has a number of advantages, one of them being that it sorts nicely when using lexicogrpahic sort. Many files that I download or generate (bank statements, bills, screenshots) have a date in the filename by default. I started cataloguing the filenames, and I found a wide variety of different date representations in the filename.

Xubuntu 24.04 login crash on VirtualBox – details and workaround

Sun, 23 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

There’s a bug affecting certain configurations of Xubuntu when installed in a VirtualBox VM. I encountered it on Xubuntu 24.04. The Register describes the symptoms: We tested all three installation options of Xubuntu 24.04 in VirtualBox, and we consistently noted one glitch. After installation, on the first boot, it crashed when we logged in. However, the second attempt worked fine. Unfortunately, the second attempt isn’t completely fine: some background services don’t entirely recover, like the VirtualBox Guest Additions needed for shared clipboard.

Lyca Mobile customer billing data likely compromised

Fri, 14 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0100

Introduction

Lyca Mobile (aka Lycatel), a mobile virtual network that operates in UK and other countries, appear to have suffered a breach of their customer billing system, and credit / debit card information is actively being used to attempt card fraud.

If you have ever paid for Lyca Mobile services using a credit card or debit card, I recommend urgently cancelling the card.

Things I've learned about my Solis S5-EH1P5K-L solar PV hybrid inverter

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Introduction

In 2022 I had a solar photovoltaic and battery system installed in my house. This article lists a few things I’ve learned about the inverter in my system: the Solis S5-EH1P5K-L, the 5 kW variant in the S5-EH1P(3-6)K-L range.

How to improve VirtualBox guest time synchronisation after host sleeps/suspends

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Introduction

If you find the guest system time greatly out of sync after resuming from suspend, it could be because the VirtualBox Guest Additions default parameters are too lenient. You can change them as described in My solution below.