Ok, I've teased you enough with my post about Aero. Here's the story...
I found a Compaq SR2150NX at Staples for $250 after rebates and jumped on it. Sorry, but it's way more than that now.
This is a 3.3GHz, 512MB system. It has a 120MB hard drive and a LightScribe DVD burner and came with Vista Home Basic. That'd never do.
I ordered Vista Home Premium upgrade from Academic Superstore for $69.95 and 1GB of RAM from LD Technology for $61.99.
In my usual manner, I put the memory in before I ever powered it up. I used a paper clip to open the DVD drive and inserted the Vista Home Premium DVD and did the initial boot from that. I deleted the boot partition and recreated it. Then I used the technique described by Marc Liron to do a clean install of the upgrade DVD. Worked like a champ.
With the added 1GB of memory, I had 1.5GB total and the on-board video card had 128MB of RAM so I have Aero!
I ordered a 2GB USB drive from ZipZoomfly for $4.95 after rebate thinking it'd do ReadyBoost but it won't. The A-Data folks won't respond to my inquiries but for $5...
I am waiting for Active Virus Shield to release a Vista version and trying to figure what to do about Tivoli Continuous Data Protection which won't release it's Vista version until April.
I installed the Office 2007 that I got at the Microsoft Launch event so I've got both of the new UIs.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Globat Support
I use Globat.com hosting for my domain (desotonet.com). As you might expect, I tend to hold service organizations to a high standard. Back in 2005, I had problems with Globat (here and here) but in the end, they fixed my problem, probably quicker than I thought as I was having trouble testing it.
This problem in 2005 was when they restructured their e-mail servers. Before and since then, their service has been very good. They do tend to pester you with e-mail offering to upgrade you "automatically" if you don't opt out and I don't like that but if you do decline, they honor that. Their pricing is good especially for the first year then they try to upsell you. What I've found is that if you call and whine, they'll cut you a deal.
Anyway, this isn't about their pricing.
I use FavoriteSync to share my Internet Explorer favorites among several PCs. FavoriteSync will let you use their server to host your favorites for $6 per year but since I had my own web server, I just use it.
About 2 weeks ago, I began getting errors from the FavoriteSync application on my PCs. The error wasn't very clear but it referenced a Windows error "12030." A Google search suggested that this was something on the remote host denying the upload.
It seemed to come and go but I couldn't make any real progress at shooting it. I e-mailed FavoriteSync's support but never heard a word from them. I finally broke down and contacted Globat via chat.
Amazingly they took the information and contacted their Level 2 while I was on the chat with them. They promised me it would be fixed within 24 hours. Yeah, right.
I dutifully captured the chat log expecting I'd need to rub their nose in it in the near future but...
That was a week ago and I haven't had the problem since.
Thanks, Globat!
This problem in 2005 was when they restructured their e-mail servers. Before and since then, their service has been very good. They do tend to pester you with e-mail offering to upgrade you "automatically" if you don't opt out and I don't like that but if you do decline, they honor that. Their pricing is good especially for the first year then they try to upsell you. What I've found is that if you call and whine, they'll cut you a deal.
Anyway, this isn't about their pricing.
I use FavoriteSync to share my Internet Explorer favorites among several PCs. FavoriteSync will let you use their server to host your favorites for $6 per year but since I had my own web server, I just use it.
About 2 weeks ago, I began getting errors from the FavoriteSync application on my PCs. The error wasn't very clear but it referenced a Windows error "12030." A Google search suggested that this was something on the remote host denying the upload.
It seemed to come and go but I couldn't make any real progress at shooting it. I e-mailed FavoriteSync's support but never heard a word from them. I finally broke down and contacted Globat via chat.
Amazingly they took the information and contacted their Level 2 while I was on the chat with them. They promised me it would be fixed within 24 hours. Yeah, right.
I dutifully captured the chat log expecting I'd need to rub their nose in it in the near future but...
That was a week ago and I haven't had the problem since.
Thanks, Globat!
Friday, February 09, 2007
Take That Paul Thurrott
We've been playing with Office 2007 at work. I think once I get used to the new UI some of the features will be great. But the UI is going to take some time.
In one of Paul Thurrott's articles on Office 2007, he said "the ribbon doesn't really take up that much more onscreen real estate than does a standard set of menus and toolbars in an equivalent Office 2003 application..." I didn't believe that for an instant.
I don't use an external monitor on my laptop so I'm running on a 1024x768 screen. I've worked to minimize the space that my menu bar takes on Word 2003. Here's what mine looks like:
Count 'em. 77 pixels and I probably counted one or two extra.
Now here's Word 2007:
141 pixels. Waaaay too big for me. That's almost 20% of the screen height.
But all is not lost. Double click on one of the tabs and the ribbon will kinda autohide until you single click on a tab to reveal it. Esc will make it hide again. (Paul did mention this.)
The other issue I've had is compatibility with pre-Word 2007 users. Microsoft has changed the default style and default font. To minimize the grief for non-Word 2007 users, go to Change Styles and then Style Set and change to "Office 2003." This fixes the line spacing problem. Then go to Change Styles and then Fonts and set to "Office Classic." This gets you back to Times New Roman. If you leave it as Calibri, it will look nice to you but comes over to pre-Word 2007 users as a substitute non-TrueType font. Finally go to Change Styles and click on "Set as Default."
Now click on the Office logo and find Word Options down at the bottom. Click on Save and set "Save files in this format" to "Word 97-2003 Document."
Now go enjoy!
In one of Paul Thurrott's articles on Office 2007, he said "the ribbon doesn't really take up that much more onscreen real estate than does a standard set of menus and toolbars in an equivalent Office 2003 application..." I didn't believe that for an instant.
I don't use an external monitor on my laptop so I'm running on a 1024x768 screen. I've worked to minimize the space that my menu bar takes on Word 2003. Here's what mine looks like:
Count 'em. 77 pixels and I probably counted one or two extra.Now here's Word 2007:
141 pixels. Waaaay too big for me. That's almost 20% of the screen height.But all is not lost. Double click on one of the tabs and the ribbon will kinda autohide until you single click on a tab to reveal it. Esc will make it hide again. (Paul did mention this.)
The other issue I've had is compatibility with pre-Word 2007 users. Microsoft has changed the default style and default font. To minimize the grief for non-Word 2007 users, go to Change Styles and then Style Set and change to "Office 2003." This fixes the line spacing problem. Then go to Change Styles and then Fonts and set to "Office Classic." This gets you back to Times New Roman. If you leave it as Calibri, it will look nice to you but comes over to pre-Word 2007 users as a substitute non-TrueType font. Finally go to Change Styles and click on "Set as Default."
Now click on the Office logo and find Word Options down at the bottom. Click on Save and set "Save files in this format" to "Word 97-2003 Document."
Now go enjoy!
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Mio DigiWalker C310x GPS
I've been watching for GPSs for a while. The trigger for me to finally buy one is an upcoming trip to Ireland. DealsPlus had an entry recently for a Mio DigiWalker C310x GPS from Frys for $198 (by the way, the price is still good as I write this).
Of course, I Googled it and found that there was a very active user community. Interestingly, it is a WinCE platform and can be unlocked as simply as holding down 2 of its buttons and resetting it!
It came in just a day before a friend was making a trip to Microsoft so I loaned it to him to get some real world experience. As expected, it was useful to navigate around in the rainy Northwest but unexpectedly he found that it did a really good job of knowing where subtleties like on-ramps were.
It's taken a couple of days to learn my way around the menus. They're not entirely intuitive.
With all the talk on the forums about hacking and skinning, I haven't found that I'm unhappy enough with the out of the box experience to make it work hacking. (I know that's hard to believe!)
People are complaining about the age of the U.S. maps (2005), I haven't had any problems with them so far. There are rumors of a $50 map update in the Spring of 2007. But, what I haven't found is European maps for the C310x.
Of course, I Googled it and found that there was a very active user community. Interestingly, it is a WinCE platform and can be unlocked as simply as holding down 2 of its buttons and resetting it!It came in just a day before a friend was making a trip to Microsoft so I loaned it to him to get some real world experience. As expected, it was useful to navigate around in the rainy Northwest but unexpectedly he found that it did a really good job of knowing where subtleties like on-ramps were.
It's taken a couple of days to learn my way around the menus. They're not entirely intuitive.
With all the talk on the forums about hacking and skinning, I haven't found that I'm unhappy enough with the out of the box experience to make it work hacking. (I know that's hard to believe!)
People are complaining about the age of the U.S. maps (2005), I haven't had any problems with them so far. There are rumors of a $50 map update in the Spring of 2007. But, what I haven't found is European maps for the C310x.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Windows Desktop Search
One of the guys at work the other day was showing me Vista's new search capability. Then he mentioned that most of this was available for XP with Windows Desktop Search (WDS). So I went to Microsoft and found it here. Even as big a Google fan that I am, I was always cautious of Google's Desktop Search so I had avoided it. I'm not sure why I "trust" Microsoft's search more than Google's but that's what I did that day.
Anyway, I downloaded it and began playing with it.
From the Windows Desktop Search home page...
If that's not enough, here's the next bullet...
There's a separate setup for the Notes add-in. You have to have a local replica of your mail database. Then in the setup you browse to it and select it. It will take a while before you start getting search hits from Notes, maybe even the next day. This is due to WDS initially populating its index.
I have installed WDS twice as the upgrade required an uninstall and reinstall including the Notes add-in. Both times I've observed that the Notes add-in "finds" all the .nsf files and indexes all of them. A day or so after you install the Notes add-in, go back to the Notes add-in's setup and uncheck all the .nsf files except your mail replica.
WDS seems pretty aggressive at continually reindexing even when not much has changed. The good news is that it is also sensitive to your use of the system so it will back off indexing when you start using the system.
There's a toolbar option that puts the search field down next to your system tray. This is really neat as it begins searching as you type. But I'm protective of space in my taskbar so I chose to disable this. With this disabled, you invoke WDS by clicking on an icon in the system tray.
You can subset the search by document type, not just by the file suffix but by the logical type, e.g. presentation, document, etc. For most file types, you get a preview window.
WDS is so comprehensive that it quickly changes the way that you organize files. It really no longer matters where you put a file. Just put it pretty much anywhere and it'll be found instantly when you look for it.
Anyway, I downloaded it and began playing with it.
From the Windows Desktop Search home page...
Windows Desktop Search helps increase the productivity of information workers by enabling them to quickly and easily find what they are looking for.What really caught my eye was...
- Windows Desktop Search helps users quickly find and retrieve e-mail messages, documents, and many other file types located on their PC and corporate network.
- Windows Desktop Search provides a familiar, integrated, and convenient search experience for Windows users.
- Search index does not create privacy issues or device performance concerns.
- Windows Desktop Search integrates with other Microsoft Search technologies.
That add-in is here. Now, that's cool. Google's doesn't do that.
- Quickly search e-mail (Outlook and Outlook Express) to find the message you are looking for. With the optional Lotus Notes add-in find your Lotus Notes e-mail messages.
If that's not enough, here's the next bullet...
That's right. It indexes attachments to e-mails!
- Supports search for a wide range of document formats (even when included as attachments)...
There's a separate setup for the Notes add-in. You have to have a local replica of your mail database. Then in the setup you browse to it and select it. It will take a while before you start getting search hits from Notes, maybe even the next day. This is due to WDS initially populating its index.
I have installed WDS twice as the upgrade required an uninstall and reinstall including the Notes add-in. Both times I've observed that the Notes add-in "finds" all the .nsf files and indexes all of them. A day or so after you install the Notes add-in, go back to the Notes add-in's setup and uncheck all the .nsf files except your mail replica.
WDS seems pretty aggressive at continually reindexing even when not much has changed. The good news is that it is also sensitive to your use of the system so it will back off indexing when you start using the system.
There's a toolbar option that puts the search field down next to your system tray. This is really neat as it begins searching as you type. But I'm protective of space in my taskbar so I chose to disable this. With this disabled, you invoke WDS by clicking on an icon in the system tray.
You can subset the search by document type, not just by the file suffix but by the logical type, e.g. presentation, document, etc. For most file types, you get a preview window.
WDS is so comprehensive that it quickly changes the way that you organize files. It really no longer matters where you put a file. Just put it pretty much anywhere and it'll be found instantly when you look for it.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
USB SIM Card Reader/Writer - Part II
Way back when I had worried about backing up my phone's SIM card. Here's my blog entry on it. I put it on my 2005 Christmas list and Santa came through.
I played with it and played with it. It is a little odd in that it is actually a serial port device. To get it to connect via USB, you have to install a USB to serial port driver. This makes your computer see a new COMx port (in my case COM3) but you actually plug it into a USB port.
When I did all the installation stuff, the application kept saying that it got an error when connecting to the reader. I was suspicious of the USB to serial port driver.
After I reformatted my ThinkPad recently, I decided to try it again. I set a restore point and reinstalled it. Same thing. I restored to the new restore point and this time, I let Windows find the drivers on its own. It churned and churned but finally found them. Then I installed the application and fired it up.
I still got an error connecting. Hmmm. I wonder if I have the SIM card in the reader correctly? I flipped it around and tried again. It worked. Damn, I could have done that a year ago.
Anyway, it worked great. Here's a screen shot.
Not only can you read and rewrite (I haven't tested this yet) the SIM card, but you can export the data to a file on your PC.
I played with it and played with it. It is a little odd in that it is actually a serial port device. To get it to connect via USB, you have to install a USB to serial port driver. This makes your computer see a new COMx port (in my case COM3) but you actually plug it into a USB port.
When I did all the installation stuff, the application kept saying that it got an error when connecting to the reader. I was suspicious of the USB to serial port driver.
After I reformatted my ThinkPad recently, I decided to try it again. I set a restore point and reinstalled it. Same thing. I restored to the new restore point and this time, I let Windows find the drivers on its own. It churned and churned but finally found them. Then I installed the application and fired it up.
I still got an error connecting. Hmmm. I wonder if I have the SIM card in the reader correctly? I flipped it around and tried again. It worked. Damn, I could have done that a year ago.
Anyway, it worked great. Here's a screen shot.
Not only can you read and rewrite (I haven't tested this yet) the SIM card, but you can export the data to a file on your PC.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
U3
If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know I have a quest for an easy to use password tool. For a program/database, I've settled on KeePass from SourceForge. Then the challenge was how to make KeePass easy to use. I found a Hagiwara USB drive that faked being a CD-ROM drive. But, the honeymoon didn't last long. I gave an update here.
Then one night while working my RSS feeds on Bloglines, I came across a bargain from Dell. They had a 1 GB SanDisk Micro Cruzer U3 for $9 with free shipping. I bought 2!
I jumped on it because of the size and only realized that it was U3 after I had ordered it.
When it arrived, I started playing with the U3 capability. It is very similar to the capability of the Hagiwara but was "closed" (more on that later). Even with this "closed" architecture, it seemed like it was hackable in that all the control information was on the writable side in XML files.
A session with Google turned up loads of information. Here're several sources:
Actually, once I saw how easy it really was, I've built more just by hand. It seems to me like the U3 folks just make it look complicated.
Now briefly on the "hackable" angle of U3. Obviously there has to be a way to write to the CD-ROM side of the U3 drive. John Smith (and certainly others) has figured this out. Smith has AutoLauncher 4U3 that will let you run whatever you want via the CD-ROM's autorun.inf.
So far, I've found SanDisk's LaunchPad satisfactory.
Then one night while working my RSS feeds on Bloglines, I came across a bargain from Dell. They had a 1 GB SanDisk Micro Cruzer U3 for $9 with free shipping. I bought 2!
I jumped on it because of the size and only realized that it was U3 after I had ordered it.When it arrived, I started playing with the U3 capability. It is very similar to the capability of the Hagiwara but was "closed" (more on that later). Even with this "closed" architecture, it seemed like it was hackable in that all the control information was on the writable side in XML files.
A session with Google turned up loads of information. Here're several sources:
http://newmw.wordpress.com/2006/08/16/create-your-own-u3-applications/But let me just net it out. I used the Shortcut Creator 4U3 from SmithTech above and it worked like a charm.
http://www.elitenews.org/2006/05/installing-programs-on-u3-smart-drive.html
http://www.u3community.com/
http://www.eure.ca/
http://www.everythingusb.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=142
http://usb.smithtech.us/u3/
Actually, once I saw how easy it really was, I've built more just by hand. It seems to me like the U3 folks just make it look complicated.
Now briefly on the "hackable" angle of U3. Obviously there has to be a way to write to the CD-ROM side of the U3 drive. John Smith (and certainly others) has figured this out. Smith has AutoLauncher 4U3 that will let you run whatever you want via the CD-ROM's autorun.inf.
So far, I've found SanDisk's LaunchPad satisfactory.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Trusted Zone
I listen to Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson on the Security Now podcast. Sometimes (?) Steve Gibson is a little over the top but he certainly makes you think. In one episode, they talked about Steve's technique to use Internet Explorer more safely. Leo wrote this up here.
The net of this is to set your Internet Explorer Options so that the Internet Zone (Internet) is set to high security. This stops ActiveX, Java, and Javascript. Then add the sites you trust to use these capabilities to the Trusted Zone.
This sounds well and good but the impact has been pretty disruptive. For example, not running Javascript defeats Maxthon's Super Drag Drop.
But broader than this, I have found that these capabilities are required for a satisfactory experience at so many sites that you end up adding more and more sites to the Trusted Zone.
Here's a list that I started keeping as I had to add and then gave up on:
It's been an interesting experiment but I don't think I'm going to stick with it.
The net of this is to set your Internet Explorer Options so that the Internet Zone (Internet) is set to high security. This stops ActiveX, Java, and Javascript. Then add the sites you trust to use these capabilities to the Trusted Zone.
This sounds well and good but the impact has been pretty disruptive. For example, not running Javascript defeats Maxthon's Super Drag Drop.
But broader than this, I have found that these capabilities are required for a satisfactory experience at so many sites that you end up adding more and more sites to the Trusted Zone.
Here's a list that I started keeping as I had to add and then gave up on:
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/travel/20061210_wheretogo_map.htmlOh, on the yugma.com, you have to add https separately from http. You can wildcard second level domains, e.g. http://*.shoplocal.com.
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/documents/sunbelt_kerio_personal_firewall_user_guide.pdf (won't load or save)
https://www.yugma.com/index.php (won't load the Flash)
http://www.circuitcity.com
http://circuitcity.shoplocal.com
It's been an interesting experiment but I don't think I'm going to stick with it.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Kerio Personal Firewall
I always try to keep a couple of things to "play" with. Currently, I'm running Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall on my X20. It reminds me of ZoneAlarm but less resource intensive. I admit it's been a while since I've used ZoneAlarm but I suspect it hasn't gotten smaller.
Kerio has 2 modes: a free mode and a full mode. I'm running the free mode, natch. In the free mode, you get all the features except Host-based Intrusion Prevention and Content Filtering. There are a couple of more full mode features related to administration. Host-based Intrusion Prevention (HIPS) will prevent buffer overflows and code execution from running on your system. I've lived without that so far. For Content Filtering, I use the capabilities of Maxthon.
Every now and then Kerio nags at you about "running restricted version" but a single click dismisses the dialog.
One thing that Kerio does that is similar to ZoneAlarm is it has the concept of a "Trusted (network) area." This is normally set to the address space that is presented to your NIC, in my case 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0. You can tell Kerio that all access to this trusted area is Ok and minimize some of the prompts. I hadn't done that just so I could see what all was going on with the intention of eventually enabling that address space. However, once when I was on vacation, the hotel had a wireless network and they too were using 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0!
So before I turn that on as "trusted" in Kerio, I want to readdress my home router to a different, unusual address space.
There are a bunch of screen shots on the Sunbelt page referenced above and a users' guide here.
Kerio has 2 modes: a free mode and a full mode. I'm running the free mode, natch. In the free mode, you get all the features except Host-based Intrusion Prevention and Content Filtering. There are a couple of more full mode features related to administration. Host-based Intrusion Prevention (HIPS) will prevent buffer overflows and code execution from running on your system. I've lived without that so far. For Content Filtering, I use the capabilities of Maxthon.
Every now and then Kerio nags at you about "running restricted version" but a single click dismisses the dialog.
One thing that Kerio does that is similar to ZoneAlarm is it has the concept of a "Trusted (network) area." This is normally set to the address space that is presented to your NIC, in my case 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0. You can tell Kerio that all access to this trusted area is Ok and minimize some of the prompts. I hadn't done that just so I could see what all was going on with the intention of eventually enabling that address space. However, once when I was on vacation, the hotel had a wireless network and they too were using 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0!
So before I turn that on as "trusted" in Kerio, I want to readdress my home router to a different, unusual address space.
There are a bunch of screen shots on the Sunbelt page referenced above and a users' guide here.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
PortableApps.com
Recently, I was at work and looking for a copy of CamStudio. When I Googled it, I came across portableapps.com. PortableApps has a portable copy of CamStudio here. It's not in their index but I found it in the beta testing section.
So I nosed around PortableApps some and they have a nice collection of applications packaged to install and run on a USB drive. Examples are Firefox, 7-Zip, gaim, etc. If you don't find what you want, look around in the beta testing section mentioned above. I found a portable skype there.
So I nosed around PortableApps some and they have a nice collection of applications packaged to install and run on a USB drive. Examples are Firefox, 7-Zip, gaim, etc. If you don't find what you want, look around in the beta testing section mentioned above. I found a portable skype there.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Undelete Plus
A friend went through a situation some months ago where his My Documents got deleted by a LAN administrator. He searched for something to "undelete" these files. I don't remember what he found but his experience set me off on a quest for something "just in case."
I found Restoration from Brian Kato. This is available here. It seems like there are newer versions available but none of the crumbs lead back to the author.
Anyway, Restoration works pretty good. Here's a screen shot:
Then today, I ran across Undelete Plus while reading lifehacker.
It works well also but has an easier UI. Here's a screen shot:
The big difference from Restoration is that panel on the left side. With a single click, you can subset by the file type, the folder where the file is located, or the drive. In this example, I had deleted an Excel file. By just clicking on the "MS Excel WorkSheet" in the left panel, Undelete Plus displayed the file I was looking for.
Obviously, this is a trivial example. If your real life is more complicated, there is a powerful filter capability.
Remember that undeleting files is not guaranteed. Your mileage may vary.
I found Restoration from Brian Kato. This is available here. It seems like there are newer versions available but none of the crumbs lead back to the author.
Anyway, Restoration works pretty good. Here's a screen shot:
Then today, I ran across Undelete Plus while reading lifehacker.It works well also but has an easier UI. Here's a screen shot:
The big difference from Restoration is that panel on the left side. With a single click, you can subset by the file type, the folder where the file is located, or the drive. In this example, I had deleted an Excel file. By just clicking on the "MS Excel WorkSheet" in the left panel, Undelete Plus displayed the file I was looking for.
Obviously, this is a trivial example. If your real life is more complicated, there is a powerful filter capability.
Remember that undeleting files is not guaranteed. Your mileage may vary.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Christmas Wish List 2006
Uniden TCX440 Cordless Color Handset 5.8GHz
This is another extension for our new phone system.I got our current ones from Staples but they are out of stock right now. I'd recommend looking on eBay. Find one that has "Buy It Now." It should be less than $50 with shipping.
Pandigital 7" Digital Photo Frame
This is a digital photo frame like we gave Hanley when he got his Masters.OfficeDepot has it on sale for $89.99 after a $10 rebate.
Maxell CD-R Spindle, Pack Of 50
I can always use blank CDs.OfficeDepot has them on sale for $5.99.
Seidio Stereo Adapter
I know I've asked for and received one of these before but my new car has a place where I can plug my Treo into the radio. This will let me use my Treo to play my podcasts while I drive.You can order it here.
Smartphone Experts P6 Pouch Case
This is a horizontal case for my Treo.You can order it here.
Exilim EX-Z1000 Digital Camera
This is the latest model of the same camera that I have but with more megapixels and anti-shake.You can order it here for $279.96 with free shipping.
ACU-RITE Digital Thermometer with Humidity Gauge
This is an indoor-outdoor thermometer. I know we have one now but it is wireless and I have trouble keeping it working.I found this at Lowe's for $12.97.
Update 12/25/06: Thanks Santa!
Monday, November 06, 2006
Browser Share II
Last June, I posted about the changes in the browser share on my blog. I looked again last week at the mix. I was surprised to find that Internet Explorer (all versions) had dropped from 59% to below 48%. Kind of makes you wonder if IE7 isn't too late.
Firefox has dropped 3% points (10% relative). I wonder if that's not where the IE7 growth came from.
Since both IE and Firefox declined, the usage had to go somewhere. It went to Opera and Safari, together up from 3% to 20%. That's odd.
Firefox has dropped 3% points (10% relative). I wonder if that's not where the IE7 growth came from.
Since both IE and Firefox declined, the usage had to go somewhere. It went to Opera and Safari, together up from 3% to 20%. That's odd.
PPTX
I went to the HP Technology Forum last month. As usual, it was excellent. They just posted the presentations to their web site and I went out and downloaded the decks for the sessions I went to and was interested in.
One of them was a .pptx file. I guessed what that was (an xml file from Office 2007) and being curious, I doubled clicked on it to see what would happen. To my surprise, PowerPoint 2003 immediately opened it (or tried to). Seems that PowerPoint 2003 has a file association for .pptx files.
As expected, PowerPoint 2003 couldn't open it. Unexpectedly, I got an interesting pop-up.
Of course, I clicked on "Yes."
This took me to the 2007 Microsoft Office system preview site where I was offered a "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats." Sure, I'll bite.
I expected some kind of viewer but again I got the unexpected. When I downloaded and installed it, I then had the ability to "Open, edit, save, and create files in the robust file formats new to the 2007 Microsoft Office system in Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, and Office 2003."
Read that closely. With this update, you can "open, edit, save, and create" Office 2007 formats in "Office 2000, Office XP, and Office 2003."
Try it yourself.
One of them was a .pptx file. I guessed what that was (an xml file from Office 2007) and being curious, I doubled clicked on it to see what would happen. To my surprise, PowerPoint 2003 immediately opened it (or tried to). Seems that PowerPoint 2003 has a file association for .pptx files.
As expected, PowerPoint 2003 couldn't open it. Unexpectedly, I got an interesting pop-up.
Of course, I clicked on "Yes."This took me to the 2007 Microsoft Office system preview site where I was offered a "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats." Sure, I'll bite.
I expected some kind of viewer but again I got the unexpected. When I downloaded and installed it, I then had the ability to "Open, edit, save, and create files in the robust file formats new to the 2007 Microsoft Office system in Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, and Office 2003."
Read that closely. With this update, you can "open, edit, save, and create" Office 2007 formats in "Office 2000, Office XP, and Office 2003."
Try it yourself.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Untouched By Human Hands
I've written about VideoReDo before. It's still one of the few software programs that I've laid out my money for and well worth it. Recently, they pushed a new update for VideoReDo Plus v2.5. The new Ad-Detective feature automatically marks commercials for deletion. You still need to review its choices but it's pretty good.
Here's a screen shot of a recent scan I did.
Here's a screen shot of a recent scan I did.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Damn Spam Part II
I think I've turned the corner on my recent rant on spam. Somewhere I ran across a post that said that they had blocked this new "image" spam from their Gmail by using a filter to look for "multipart/related" in the message.
I went over to K9, right-clicked on an e-mail in the "Recent Emails" tab, and went down to Blacklist/Header... and entered "multipart/related".
This works pretty good. This morning, I got 29 spams and 25 of them were caught by this Blacklist entry.
I went over to K9, right-clicked on an e-mail in the "Recent Emails" tab, and went down to Blacklist/Header... and entered "multipart/related".
This works pretty good. This morning, I got 29 spams and 25 of them were caught by this Blacklist entry.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
How To Safely Store And Manage Passwords Part III
Back in February 2006, I described what I'd done for password security using KeePass in this post.
Since then, I've made a couple of more improvements. First, it was a hassle carrying around the 128MB Hagiwara USB key. It had too little storage to use for everything so I ended up with it being a second USB key in my pocket. I copied the KeePass directory over to my 512MB USB key and created a _KeePass.bat file in the root directory to run KeePass. This has been working fine.
In the last post, I mentioned that I was using a plugin to backup the database. DB Backup is the one I'm using. DB Backup lets you specify a place to put the backup copy of the database and how many copies to keep. It also lets you run a program AFTER the backup which is key as you'll see in a minute.
However, unless you put the backup copy back on the USB key, you have to write it to the PC's hard drive, e.g. c:\. This isn't a big deal since the database is strongly encrypted but it's messy in that you leave files scattered around and if you lose your USB key and have to go back to the backup you have to think a little to figure out where you backed up last.
I wanted to ftp the backup file up to my web site. I tried some things that didn't work and finally e-mailed the author. He replied promptly but said noone else had done this and offered a couple of suggestions.
I played with this and I've figured it out.
It takes 2 files in the directory where keepass.exe runs from. Here are the 2 files. Comments/explanations are in <>s. Remove them from the actual files.
Then in KeePass, go to Tools/DB Backup plugin/Set Backup Destinations. In "Destinations" put "c:\" (without the quotes) and click "Add." Then check "Additional program to be launched..." and put "keepassftp.bat" (without the quotes) in the input field. I also check "Show Window."
Note that this puts the ftp user-id and password in clear text in the directory where keepass.exe runs from. However, the backup of the database is strongly encrypted.
Since then, I've made a couple of more improvements. First, it was a hassle carrying around the 128MB Hagiwara USB key. It had too little storage to use for everything so I ended up with it being a second USB key in my pocket. I copied the KeePass directory over to my 512MB USB key and created a _KeePass.bat file in the root directory to run KeePass. This has been working fine.
In the last post, I mentioned that I was using a plugin to backup the database. DB Backup is the one I'm using. DB Backup lets you specify a place to put the backup copy of the database and how many copies to keep. It also lets you run a program AFTER the backup which is key as you'll see in a minute.
However, unless you put the backup copy back on the USB key, you have to write it to the PC's hard drive, e.g. c:\. This isn't a big deal since the database is strongly encrypted but it's messy in that you leave files scattered around and if you lose your USB key and have to go back to the backup you have to think a little to figure out where you backed up last.
I wanted to ftp the backup file up to my web site. I tried some things that didn't work and finally e-mailed the author. He replied promptly but said noone else had done this and offered a couple of suggestions.
I played with this and I've figured it out.
It takes 2 files in the directory where keepass.exe runs from. Here are the 2 files. Comments/explanations are in <>s. Remove them from the actual files.
keepassftp.bat
<begin file>
ftp.exe -s:keepassftp.txt <this is references the second file>
del c:\Backup_of_Database.kdb-0 <this is optional>
<end file>
keepassftp.txt
<begin file>
open hhhhhhhh.com <name of the ftp host>
uuuuuuuu <user-id for ftp>
pppppppp <password for ftp>
type binary
cd httpdocs <directory to put the backup file in - for second level directory, repeat on separate line>
delete Backup_of_Database.kdb-3
rename Backup_of_Database.kdb-2 Backup_of_Database.kdb-3
rename Backup_of_Database.kdb-1 Backup_of_Database.kdb-2
rename Backup_of_Database.kdb-0 Backup_of_Database.kdb-1
put c:\Backup_of_Database.kdb-0 Backup_of_Database.kdb-0
quit
<end file>
Then in KeePass, go to Tools/DB Backup plugin/Set Backup Destinations. In "Destinations" put "c:\" (without the quotes) and click "Add." Then check "Additional program to be launched..." and put "keepassftp.bat" (without the quotes) in the input field. I also check "Show Window."
Note that this puts the ftp user-id and password in clear text in the directory where keepass.exe runs from. However, the backup of the database is strongly encrypted.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Monstor Drive
I will be traveling soon and am expecting to take more photos than will fit on my SD cards. I'll have my work laptop with me but wanted a backup for my photos while traveling. I'd looked at bigger (4GB) SD cards but came across this. It was $70 after rebates so I jumped on it. Here's the manufacturer's page.
The pictures on these pages don't do the drive justice. Here's the one I took.
Here're the specifications from the back of the package.
The pictures on these pages don't do the drive justice. Here's the one I took.
Here're the specifications from the back of the package.
Friday, September 22, 2006
Now Hear This
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