Month: January 2007

Workaround Discovered For Clean Install With Vista Upgrade DVDs

Microsoft internal documentation reveals workaround for Vista Upgrade DVDs with no need for a previous version of Windows

Link to Workaround Discovered For Clean Install With Vista Upgrade DVDs

Original article can be found at Workaround Discovered For “Clean Install” With Vista Upgrade DVDs at Dailytech.com. Clean installs are a useful fix for a variety of difficult to solve problems but I find it very curious that Microsoft does not require the original disk.

idproxy.net: Use your Yahoo! account as an OpenID

In an ideal world, some or all of the sites with large user databases (Yahoo!, AOL, Google, Amazon and so on) would act as OpenID providers, allowing their users to sign in to OpenID supporting sites around the Web. Until that happens, people who want to use OpenID need to sign up for Yet Another Account to do so.idproxy.net, launched today, is my attempt at speeding up the process. It uses Yahoo!’s Browser-Based Authentication API to allow you to sign in with a Yahoo! account, then lets you create one or more OpenIDs (of the form something.idproxy.net) to use with sites that support the OpenID standard.

In effect, it lets you use your Yahoo! account as an OpenID.

Source: idproxy.net: Use your Yahoo! account as an OpenID

Okay, I got distracted again. This time it was OpenID. It did not take me too long to setup an Open ID using my Yahoo! account and figure out how to authorize logins. It took me a little longer to figure out why I may want to use Open ID.

The primary advantage of using Open ID is with posting comments on other people’s web sites who require that you prove your identity before you make a comment. This can get pretty cumbersome to manage if you have a lot of sites that require you to setup a userid and password. For me Open ID is marginally useful but it is an interesting step in the right direction of managing your online identity.

For kicks I decided to try out the latest version of the WordPress OpenID plugin. It kind of works. The problems I have noticed so far are:

  1. I cannot login using OpenID my test blog(localhost/blog) running under XAMPP. I get a OpenID Authentication Failed: Bad signature.
  2. I had to add a slash to the url in the Trust root option.
  3. The login form is messed up on the remote server. It has “WordPress User:” and “Open Identity:” in a large font(i.e. Heading 2) with two boxes in which you can enter the OpenID. Only the second box works. I am running PHP version 4.4.4 on this server and GMP is not compiled into PHP. The login screen looked fine on my local test blog.
  4. There is a little funkiness with the first login to a WordPress site using OpenID.
    1. First you login into WordPress using your OpenID.
    2. Most of the time you will get an authenticate screen from idproxy.net for you to approve. If you do not get an approval screen(e.g. IE), you should open a new window and login to idproxy.net and see if you have any approvals waiting for you.
    3. Once you authenticate your access, you get a WP login screen where you need to enter the OpenID a second time. It doesn’t tell you why you are getting this screen but I think this is when your userid is created in WordPress.
    4. You should now be logged into WordPress. You should go to profile and modify the default geeky settings to something a little more descriptive and human-like.
  5. Once you have a userid created in WordPress subsequent logins should go smoothly.
  6. The OpenID plugin status information box will autoexpand when you move the mouse over it to show the details about the plugin on the remote server while it does not autoexpand on the local server.

Depending on your version of PHP and whether the GMP and BCMath libraries, this plugin works differently but it does work. Since OpenID probably has value, my solution to the login form problem was to hack the user-interface.php file and comment out lines 107-114. I am not sure what the code thought it should be doing at that point but I know the form works as designed without that code messing it up.

The Outlook "Move" tool for DST has been released

Download details: Microsoft Office Outlook Tool: Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Office Outlook:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e343a233-b9c8-4652-9dd8-ae0f1af62568&displaylang=en&tm

To install this download:

  1. Before running this tool, make sure that you have installed the Windows patch that contains the most up-to-date time zone definitions or you are running Windows Vista with the most up-to-date time zone definitions.
  2. Download the file by clicking the Download button (above) and saving the file to your hard disk.
  3. Double-click the tzmove.exe program file on your hard disk to start the Setup program.
  4. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation.

Instructions for use:
After you are done installing the tool, it will automatically launch for you.

  1. Verify your default Data File is selected and Update to reflect changes to Windows time zones is selected, and continue through the rest of the tool.
  2. If you need to run the tool again, then launch tzmove.exe (located in the \Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\Office Outlook Time Zone Data Update Tool\ folder.)

Note that if you have created non-recurring appointments on your Calendar since you updated your Windows time zones, you should click the Details button once the tool has reported that its scan is complete and uncheck any such appointments before continuing. Additionally, after running the tool, make sure to go to your calendar and review your calendar items to ensure that they appear at the correct times.

This is the standalone mailbox tool…and I’m not sure I understand what it’s doing?

Timezone screen image

Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | live it!

Link to The Outlook “Move” tool for DST has been released

"Synctoy is unable to determine if other instances of SyncToy are running, possibly because perfmon counters are turned off for some components. Is this the only instance of SyncToy currently running?"

 

Stuffa,

Enabling that perf counter for the PerfProc.Dll addresses this issue and
enables SyncToy to run.

We will take a look at alternative means of determining whether SyncToy is
already running for possible inclusion in a future release.

For those interested, the registry entry for PerfProc is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\PerfProc\Performance

As you might expect, the Disable Performance Counteres REG_DWORD = 0 for not
disabled and = 1 for disabled.

I hope this helps.

george

Source: SyncToy not running – throws System.InvalidOperationException-Usenet Gateway

Reading a blog about a similar problem I decided to finally see if I could finally find an answer to an annoyance I have with Synctoy. Other than this annoyance I really like Synctoy. I changed the Disable Performance Counters to 0 in the CurrentControlSet rather than the ControlSet001 and it  fixed my problem. From what others have written about this problem, this is the typical solution recommended but it did not work for some people.

WP Lightbox JS WordPress plugin

WP Lightbox JS is a WordPress plugin that enable you to use Lightbox JS script to overlay images on the current page. This plugin also adds a “Lightbox JS” quicktag to the post window in the WordPress admin section.

What is Lightbox JS

Overview

Lightbox JS is a simple, unobtrusive script used to overlay images on the current page. It’s a snap to setup and works on all modern browsers.

Benefits

Places images above your current page, not within. This frees you from the constraints of the layout, particularly column widths.

Keeps users on the same page. Clicking to view an image and then having to click the back button to return to your site is bad for continuity (and no fun!).

huddletogether.com

Source: WP lightbox JS WordPress plugin

After upgrading to the latest version of ImageManager I added WP Lightbox JS to provide a more user friendly way to look at the enlarged pictures. For an example look at Windows 2003 Terminal Services – What licenses do I need? Examples both with and without SBS 2003.

Windows NT Backup – Restore Utility

This download is a utility that runs on Windows Vista and Windows Server Codename “Longhorn” to restore older backups, made using the “NT Backup” application on Windows XP or Windows Server 2003. NT Backup has been replaced in Windows Vista or Windows Server Codename “Longhorn” with different applications, which are not compatible with the .bkf files that NT Backup created.

Link to Windows NT Backup – Restore Utility

Wow,  I did not realize that they changed backup formats and Vista’s backup would not read the XP backup files!

ImageManager 2.0

Current Version: 2.3.9 (WordPress 2.1 supported)

NOTE, the plugin is only tested with WordPress 2.0 and WordPress 2.1

click to view the ImageManager demo

The ImageManager plugin integrates the stand alone PHP ImageManager + Editor with WordPress. The ImageManager provides an interface for browsing and uploading image files on/to your server. The Editor allows for some basic image manipulations such as, cropping, rotation, flip, and scaling.

View the flash demo.

Feature list

  • Simple image editor (crop, rotate, flip, and scale).
  • Upload and delete images.
  • Can be localized using the included ImageManager.pot file.
    Language files: Chinese, English (default), German, Japanese, Norwegian and Spanish.
  • Supports the Role Manager plugin. Capabilities: Upload Files, Make Direcory, Edit Image and Delete Image.
  • Add style using inline style or by setting a class name.
  • Insert the selected image as; the original image, thumbnail with popup (create mini galleries), thumbnail with a link to the original image, thumbnail, or a text link to the original image.
  • Lightbox support. Added rel=”lightbox” to the Thumbnail with link to image and to Link to image. This should make it possible to use the WP lightbox JS or other lightbox plugins together with ImageManager.
  • You can disable the native WordPress Upload Files.

Link to ImageManager 2.0

Reminder to myself. Give this guy a donation! He fixed it to work with WP 2.1. The simple image editing provided by this plugin is all I need most of the time.

WordPress 2.1 Self-inflicted Problem

I upgraded one of my blogs to WP 2.1 and in the process I ran into an interesting problem. When I tried the insert image button I could not see the insert or cancel buttons at the bottom of the pop up window. When I clicked on X to close the window, it refused to close. This problem only occurred in Firefox 2.0.0.1. It did not occur in Internet Explorer. It also failed when I used Firefox and tried to view the page using the IE tab add-on.

This morning I decided to try the portable version I have of Firefox(2.0.0.1) and it worked. So I went back to my desktop version of Firefox and cleared the cache(Options – Advanced). Now it works.

I think this problem occurred when I tried to delete some directories during the upgrade and I did not notice that they did not go away before proceeding with the rest of the install. When I moved the new directories into place I got a mixture of new and old code rather than a clean install of new code. During my initial testing I noticed some problems and replaced the directories a second time.

I am guessing that an old version of the javascript was still in the cache for my desktop Firefox. The browsers that worked had the correct version.

REMINDER TO MYSELF — Be patient! Rename the existing directories before installing. You can delete the old directories after everything is working.

WordPress Plugins I need to upgrade for WordPress 2.1

I decided to quickly check my plugins for V2.1 compatibility and here is what I found.

  • Akismet Version 1.2.1 should be okay.
  • Feedburner Feed Replacement I have versions 2.1 and WordPress 2.1 needs 2.2 or later.
  • Google Sitemaps I have version 2.7.1 and WordPress 2.1 needs 3.0b5.
  • ImageManager Version 2.3.7 is okay. Updated: I just installed upgraded a site to WP 2.1 and there is no button for Imagemanager. It appears Per has it working but he is still testing the change.
  • Sidebar Widgets Version 1.0.20060711 is okay.
  • WordPress Database Backup I have version 1.7 and WordPress 2.1 needs 1.8 or later. Current version from Il Filosofo is 2.0 and WordPress 2.1 will not include the Database Backup plugin.

From this list I can see I only have to get three updated plugins.

10 Things You should Know About WordPress 2.1 » Technology, Blogging and New Media

 

Plugin Compatibility – As mentioned above, many plugins will no longer work in 2.1 due to deprecation of database table variables. However, whenever there is a new version of WordPress, the other possible “plugin breaks” extend farther. Fortunately, the WordPress community has been hard at work testing plugins with 2.1 determining compatibility. You can find a list of backwards-compatible plugins at the Codex.

Source: 10 Things You should Know About WordPress 2.1 » Technology, Blogging and New Media

Last week I updated all of my WordPress blogs to 2.0.7 even though I knew 2.1 version was coming soon. There were security issues and Mark’s changed files update  minimized my work on this minor update. As you can see, this update is a bit more complicated since I need to check my plugins first.

Resizing Animated GIFs

Problem: The animated GIF is too large. In my case it was too wide for the sidebar of a blog I was updating.

Solution: Although you can resize the animated GIF using a variety of programs, such as GIMP, and at http://www.gifworks.com/index.php, I found that the highest quality reproduction was made by Photoshop. I used a realtively old version, Photoshop Elements 3.0. After resizing the image, you must tell Photoshop you want to save it as a GIF, check the animate box, and pick a frame delay. The first time I tried it the frame delay was set to 0.2 seconds and the GIF raced through the images.

Keyboard Shortcuts for special characters

Link to Keyboard Shortcuts for special characters

HTML Name Code HTML Number Code Glyph MacOS Windows Description
‘ ‘ option – ] Alt + 0145 left single quote
’ ’ option – shift – ] Alt + 0146 right single quote
‚ ‚ single low-9 quote
“ “ option – [ Alt + 0147 left double quote
” ” option – shift – [ Alt + 0148 right double quote
„ „ option – shift – w double low-9 quote
† † option – t Alt + 0134 dagger
‡ ‡ option – shift – 7 Alt + 0135 double dagger
‰ ‰ option – shift – r Alt + 0137 per mill sign
‹ ‹ option – shift – 3 Alt + 0139 single left-pointing angle quote
› › option – shift – 4 Alt + 0155 single right-pointing angle quote
♠ ? black spade suit
♣ ? black club suit
♥ ? black heart suit
♦ ? black diamond suit
‾ ? overline, = spacing overscore
← ? leftward arrow
↑ ? upward arrow
→ ? rightward arrow
↓ ? downward arrow
™ â„¢ option – 2 Alt + 0153 trademark sign
" " “ double quotation mark
& & & ampersand
&lt; &#60; < less-than sign
&gt; &#62; > greater-than sign
&#91; [ left square bracket
&#93; ] right square bracket
&ndash; &#150; – option – hyphen Alt + 0150 en dash
&mdash; &#151; — option – shift -hyphen Alt + 0151 em dash
&nbsp; &#160; Alt + 0160 nonbreaking space
&iexcl; &#161; ¡ option – 1 Alt + 0161 inverted exclamation
&cent; &#162; ¢ option – 4 Alt + 0162 cent sign
&pound; &#163; £ option – 3 Alt + 0163 pound sterling
&curren; &#164; ¤ Alt + 0164 general currency sign
&yen; &#165; Â¥ option – y Alt + 0165 yen sign
&brvbar; or &brkbar; &#166; ¦ Alt + 0166 broken vertical bar
&sect; &#167; § option – 6 Alt + 0167 section sign
&uml; or &die; &#168; ¨ option – shift – u Alt + 0168 umlaut
&copy; &#169; © option – g Alt + 0169 copyright
&ordf; &#170; ª option – 9 Alt + 0170 feminine ordinal
&laquo; &#171; « option – \ Alt + 0171 left angle quote
&not; &#172; ¬ option – l Alt + 0172 not sign
&shy; &#173; ­ Alt + 0173 soft hyphen
&reg; &#174; ® option – r Alt + 0174 registered trademark
&macr; or &hibar; &#175; ¯ Alt + 0175 macron accent
&deg; &#176; ° option – shift – 8 Alt + 0176 degree sign
&plusmn; &#177; ± option – shift – = Alt + 0177 plus or minus
&sup2; &#178; ² Alt + 0178 superscript two
&sup3; &#179; ³ Alt + 0179 superscript three
&acute; &#180; ´ option – shift – e Alt + 0180 acute accent
&micro; &#181; µ option – m Alt + 0181 micro sign
&para; &#182; ¶ option – 7 Alt + 0182 paragraph sign
&middot; &#183; · option – shift – 9 Alt + 0183 middle dot
&cedil; &#184; ¸ option – shift – z Alt + 0184 cedilla
&sup1; &#185; ¹ Alt + 0185 superscript one
&ordm; &#186; º option – 0 Alt + 0186 masculine ordinal
&raquo; &#187; » option – shift – \ Alt + 0187 right angle quote
&frac14; &#188; ¼ Alt + 0188 one-fourth
&frac12; &#189; ½ Alt + 0189 one-half
&frac34; &#190; ¾ Alt + 0190 three-fourths
&iquest; &#191; ¿ option – shift – ? Alt + 0191 inverted question mark
&Agrave; &#192; À option – ` A Alt + 0192 uppercase A, grave accent
&Aacute; &#193; Á option – e A Alt + 0193 uppercase A, acute accent
&Acirc; &#194; Â option – i A Alt + 0194 uppercase A, circumflex accent
&Atilde; &#195; Ã option – n A Alt + 0195 uppercase A, tilde
&Auml; &#196; Ä option – u A Alt + 0196 uppercase A, umlaut
&Aring; &#197; Ã… option – shift – a Alt + 0197 uppercase A, ring
&AElig; &#198; Æ option – shift – ’ Alt + 0198 uppercase AE
&Ccedil; &#199; Ç option – shift – c Alt + 0199 uppercase C, cedilla
&Egrave; &#200; È option – ` E Alt + 0200 uppercase E, grave accent
&Eacute; &#201; É option – e E Alt + 0201 uppercase E, acute accent
&Ecirc; &#202; Ê option – i E Alt + 0202 uppercase E, circumflex accent
&Euml; &#203; Ë option – u E Alt + 0203 uppercase E, umlaut
&Igrave; &#204; ÃŒ option – ` I Alt + 0204 uppercase I, grave accent
&Iacute; &#205; Í option – e I Alt + 0205 uppercase I, acute accent
&Icirc; &#206; ÃŽ option – i I Alt + 0206 uppercase I, circumflex accent
&Iuml; &#207; Ï option – u I Alt + 0207 uppercase I, umlaut
&ETH; &#208; Ð Alt + 0208 uppercase Eth, Icelandic
&Ntilde; &#209; Ñ option – n N Alt + 0209 uppercase N, tilde
&Ograve; &#210; Ã’ option – ` O Alt + 0210 uppercase O, grave accent
&Oacute; &#211; Ó option – e O Alt + 0211 uppercase O, acute accent
&Ocirc; &#212; Ô option – i O Alt + 0212 uppercase O, circumflex accent
&Otilde; &#213; ̥ option Рn O Alt + 0213 uppercase O, tilde
&Ouml; &#214; Ö option – u O Alt + 0214 uppercase O, umlaut
&times; &#215; × Alt + 0215 multiplication sign
&Oslash; &#216; Ø option – shift – o Alt + 0216 uppercase O, slash
&Ugrave; &#217; ̪ option Р` U Alt + 0217 uppercase U, grave accent
&Uacute; &#218; Ú option – e U Alt + 0218 uppercase U, acute accent
&Ucirc; &#219; Û option – i U Alt + 0219 uppercase U, circumflex accent
&Uuml; &#220; Ãœ option – u U Alt + 0220 uppercase U, umlaut
&Yacute; &#221; Ý Alt + 0221 uppercase Y, acute accent
&THORN; &#222; Þ Alt + 0222 uppercase THORN, Icelandic
&szlig; &#223; ß option – s Alt + 0223 lowercase sharps, German
&agrave; &#224; à option – ` a Alt + 0224 lowercase a, grave accent
&aacute; &#225; á option – e a Alt + 0225 lowercase a, acute accent
&acirc; &#226; ̢ option Рi a Alt + 0226 lowercase a, circumflex accent
&atilde; &#227; ̣ option Рn a Alt + 0227 lowercase a, tilde
&auml; &#228; ä option – u a Alt + 0228 lowercase a, umlaut
&aring; &#229; ̴ option Рa Alt + 0229 lowercase a, ring
&aelig; &#230; æ option – ’ Alt + 0230 lowercase ae
&ccedil; &#231; ̤ option Рc Alt + 0231 lowercase c, cedilla
&egrave; &#232; ̬ option Р` e Alt + 0232 lowercase e, grave accent
&eacute; &#233; ̩ option Рe e Alt + 0233 lowercase e, acute accent
&ecirc; &#234; ̻ option Рi e Alt + 0234 lowercase e, circumflex accent
&euml; &#235; ë option – u e Alt + 0235 lowercase e, umlaut
&igrave; &#236; ì option – ` i Alt + 0236 lowercase i, grave accent
&iacute; &#237; í option – e i Alt + 0237 lowercase i, acute accent
&icirc; &#238; ̨ option Рi i Alt + 0238 lowercase i, circumflex accent
&iuml; &#239; ï option – u i Alt + 0239 lowercase i, umlaut
&eth; &#240; ð Alt + 0240 lowercase eth, Icelandic
&ntilde; &#241; ̱ option Рn n Alt + 0241 lowercase n, tilde
&ograve; &#242; ò option – ` o Alt + 0242 lowercase o, grave accent
&oacute; &#243; ó option – e o Alt + 0243 lowercase o, acute accent
&ocirc; &#244; ̫ option Рi o Alt + 0244 lowercase o, circumflex accent
&otilde; &#245; ̵ option Рn o Alt + 0245 lowercase o, tilde
&ouml; &#246; ̦ option Рu o Alt + 0246 lowercase o, umlaut
&divide; &#247; ÷ Alt + 0247 division sign
&oslash; &#248; ø option – o Alt + 0248 lowercase o, slash
&ugrave; &#249; ù option – ` u Alt + 0249 lowercase u, grave accent
&uacute; &#250; ̼ option Рe u Alt + 0250 lowercase u, acute accent
&ucirc; &#251; û option – i u Alt + 0251 lowercase u, circumflex accent
&uuml; &#252; ü option – u u Alt + 0252 lowercase u, umlaut
&yacute; &#253; ý Alt + 0253 lowercase y, acute accent
&thorn; &#254; þ Alt + 0254 lowercase thorn, Icelandic
&yuml; &#255; ÿ option – u y Alt + 0255 lowercase y, umlaut

New Backup drive for SBS

Buffalo 500g External Hard Drive Buffalo 500g drive station external USB 2.0 SATA hard drive

Source: Micro Center Online BYOPC Specific Product Information

I took advantage of an After Christmas sale and upgraded my backup drive. The Lacie 250 GB drive was a little bit too small. This drive cost me $170 including two rebates. I also picked up a 1GB USB drive. It cost me $9.99 including two rebates. I am planning on putting together a monowall firewall with an old PC I have. The latest beta version of this firewall will boot from an USB drive.