Word Clouds

I hate them. That is all.

Alternative to the meta key

I use and love my Unicomp Classic 101. When I bought it I was primarily using Linux and didn't see the need to have a Windows (also known as meta, super, that-one-between-ctrl+alt, etc). Since moving to mostly Windows 7 though, I've noticed that there is functionality built around that key. I believe this is increasingly showing up in Linux window managers as well. If any of you are in the same boat as me, fear not! In Windows 7 ctrl-esc provides the same functionality!

Microsoft Security Essentials

I never thought I'd find myself recommending a product from Microsoft, but Microsoft Security Essentials billed as "The anti-annoying, anti-expensive, anti-virus program" rocks. Free for up to 10 computers this thing lives up to those claims. Since there's no "premium" version unlike almost every other Windows antivirus, there's no need for nagging, or ads. The updates are smooth and require no user intervention, unlike a particular open-source windows av. MSE also provides real-time protection which in some similar products is a premium feature. I really haven't found anything to dislike about this product just yet, and I will certainly be installing it on the computers of everyone for whom I end up providing pro-bono tech support.

Enable telnet client in Windows 7

The telnet client is inexplicably disabled in a default install of Windows 7. It's there, but must be specifically enabled. Here are the instructions from technet:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. On the Control Panel Home page, click Programs.
3. In the Programs and Features section, click Turn Windows features on or off.
If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.
4. In the Windows Features list, select Telnet Client, and then click OK

Annoying.

VirtualBox NIC Compatible with Server 2012 RC?

I've been toying with the Windows Server 2012 RC in VirtualBox. One of the bigger frustrations thus far was that it didn't have drivers inbox for the default virtual NIC and there are not yet readily available drivers compatible with Server 2012. Through trial and error I found that setting the NIC to "Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (82540EM)" successfully solved this issue.

Remove editing restrictions in Word 2010 with 7zip

So you forgot or lost the password to unlock that important Word 2010 form. Not to worry. After reading this post on spiceworks I worked out this technique to unlock a .docx for editing. I doubt this will work with a document that isn't readable without a password but I haven't tested. What follows is a step by step that assumes you have 7zip installed (with explorer extensions).

1. Make a copy of the original document and rename it to have the .zip extension.
2. Extract .zip file and in the contents find word\settings.xml
3. Edit settings.xml to remove the XML element beginning with w:documentprotection. Remove everything including < and >
4. Copy the word directory to the same location as your document.zip file.
5. Rename your file to word.zip
6. Right click word directory and choose 7zip -> Add to "word.zip"
7. Rename word.zip to yourformname.docx
8. Do a little dance and be happy that this episode of your life is now over.

That's all there is to it: easy as pi!

Where does Virtualbox store VMs in Windows XP?

For whatever reason I was having a brainfart about where my VMs were stored whilst in the process of backing them up. Google searches returned very little pertinent information as the search terms involved are used in myriad different contexts in relation to Virtualbox and virtualization in general. The answer is of course:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Virtualbox VMs\

I'm sure this is configurable, but this appears to be the default directory under an XP host. Happy virtualizing!

Unauthorized Modifications

From the "WTF?! Is that even legal?!" department comes this warning I found in the manual of a LaCie NAS we purchased: "Caution: Modifications not authorized by the manufacturer may void the user's authority to operate this device." Normally every device carries a warning that unauthorized modification will void warranty which is understandable. This warning seems heavy handed and is undoubtedly unenforceable.

Boogie Board RIP Initial Impressions

Edit: After writing this post I sent a couple emails to the support department over at Improv. In less than an hour I receive this response:

Hi Josh,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble with your current RIP, I believe that it may in fact be a stylus issue. Can you send me your address and I will have a replacement stylus sent at no charge?

Thank you!

Amber Osborne Customer Service Representative Improv Electronics a Kent Displays Company 343 Portage Blvd., Kent, OH 44240 Phone: 330-673-8784 Ext. 163

Now that's what I call GREAT customer service! Thanks Amber!

I take a lot of notes at work. I've got stacks of notebooks with details covering just about everything I do. Most of those notes are totally unimportant but once in a while I have to dig through these stacks of notebooks (which are in no particular order) to find that one invaluable piece of information. Then along came the Boogie Board a writing tablet with a novel extremely low power LCD display whose slogan "Say goodbye to paper!" sounded almost too good to be true.

I bought one of the original versions from Staples and found the writing experience to be acceptable, but the original had no option to save any data so it was more like a digital chalkboard than notebook. After persistent requests the manufacturer Improv Electronics came out with a new and improved version called the Boogie Board RIP (which stands for Record. Image. Preserve). This catch here is that they weren't able to directly capture the image from their novel LCD design, but rather overlaid the LCD with a digitizer like those found in Wacom graphics tablets.

The biggest downside to this approach is that the stylus is no longer any pointy device but now must be the kind designed for this style of digitizer. I haven't tested it but I suspect any Wacom or aftermarket stylus designed for this type of device should work with the BBRIP. Actually to be fair any someone pointy object will make an image appear on the tablet, but won't activate the digitizer thus your image can't be saved. Of course you won't know that this has happened until you've connected your BB to the computer via USB to sync the PDF files.

The other major problem I've had is that the digitizer seems to be far less sensitive than the display. A note which is perfectly legible on the device only captures about half of my pen strokes! This is, in fact, completely unacceptable as it makes this device no more useful than it's OG cousin which cost a third of the price. A ray of hope, however, is that this issue could be related to manufacturing artifacts that will work themselves out over time. I'm currently overwriting the screen completely in an attempt to work out these kinks achieve adequate performance.

Another cool feature of the device is called Virtual Desktop Companion. This nifty piece of software available as a free download from the support section of Improv's site creates a mirror image of the tablet display on your computer screen which updates in real time. Draw on the BB, see it on the screen at which point you can save or email directly. Though the website says "Compatible with Windows OS" my testing on two different XP SP3 machines indicates it is in fact NOT compatible with XP. It works well in 7-pro x64. I haven't tested Vista.

The Improv website also has a section for developers so hopefully we'll see some additional drivers for the digitizer in this device so that it could be used as a full fledged input tablet. If that ability were introduced this would be a far more useful and feature rich version of a bamboo type tablet!

So, I just opened the box yesterday and those are my initial impressions. I'll write up another review after spending some time with it (unless it gets returned first.

Stop the presses: Wingdings has a use!

I've known about the Wingdings font for nearly 20 years first seeing it in Windows 3.1. As children we thought ourselves insanely clever when we used it as a cipher to leave secret messages on the computer. Since that time Wingdings has been naught but the butt of jokes and an annoyance that would occasionally get accidentally selected and screw up projects. Today, however, for the first time I found an actual good use for it. I needed to add a dotted line with scissors icon to a project to indicate that the page ought to be cut out of the booklet. As it turns out the octothorpe character (shift-3, #) is a scissors icon in Wingdings! Today is truly a historic day in the history of all dings and the wing variety in particular.

Create .iso in Windows with free software

It's no secret: I love CDBurnerXP. The program is free, fast, and has none of the bloat that somehow has crept into almost every other disc writing software. It's available from the link above and even on Ninite. Today I learned of a useful feature it has which I had previously used other software for. This software can write .iso files of existing discs. On the main menu select "Copy or grab disc" Then simply choose the hard drive as the target and click copy. Easy as pi! I originally found the instructions here.

Check mailbox size and usage in OWA

We run the Outlook Web Access component of exchange to allow our users webmail access. In OWA it's not immediately apparent how to check the size and usage of the mailbox. My initial google search turned up an forum post from 2004 which states that this isn't possible without a third party product. After browsing several other articles however I discovered that all it takes is to mouseover the mailbox name and a popup will present mailbox size and current usage. This feature is only available in the non-light version i.e. IE only. This page was where I initially found instructions. Hope that helps!

Pro-am Tip of the Day: Overhead Projector

If somebody asks you for an overhead projector they PROBABLY want one of these:

NOT one of these:

General Failure. The parameter is incorrect.

Today, out of the blue, a user informed me that he could no longer follow hyperlinks from within Outlook 2007. The error he would receive simply stated "General failure. The URL was: "http://www.test.com/" The parameter is incorrect". I found a lot of references to this being an issue with the default web browser and I attempted to reset this default in every way under the sun. I changed it in the Internet Options control panel. I used the program defaults tab of Add/remove Programs control panel. I installed various other browsers in an attempt to cause one of them to fix the broken setting. I changed the file type handlers from the Folder Options control panel. I even tried manually editing the registry entry for http and https protocols. None of this had any affect whatsoever on the error in Outlook. I performed a repair install on Office, I updated to the latest service pack, all in vain. The only solution I've uncovered was to uninstall ie8. Issuing this command: %windir%\ie8\spuninst\spuninst.exe will revert to ie7 which of course cannot be safely used at this point in time. At least after uninstalling ie8 firefox or chrome is able to install itself as the default browser successfully.

Great Android App: AdAway

Market Download - For rooted phones only. Installs a custom hosts file to redirect ads in browser or in app. I've previously used AdFree but found it to be less than successful.

Office chair

I'm currently scheming about how to convince my work to buy me one of these:

Perhaps I'll hire a crooked ergonomics expert who will recommend such a workstation to increase my comfort and productivity? Honestly it's a steal at only ~6,000 CAD!

View and convert Visual Foxpro .fpt files

Foxpro (.dbf) databases store memo fields in an separate file with the .fpt extension. I've been using DBF Explorer to poke around in a .dbf database recently but all of the memo fields were left blank. Luckily I've come across a nifty little perl script which will convert .dbf AND .fpt (in situ no less) files into .csv or apparently .json. You can find dbf2csv free at Burton Systems Software. The license even states that the script is "uncopyrighted". Easy as pi!

Netgear GS108v2: The Immortal Switch

We have a couple of Netgear ProSafe 8 Port Gigabit Switch model GS108v2 around the office. These things fail so often it's not even funny. Luckily I've discovered something I would guess Netgear would rather I forget. The device comes with a lifetime warranty on the hardware. The really interesting piece here, though, is that if the device was purchased prior to 11/09 an RMA doesn't require a proof of purchase. What's that you say? They're still available on Amazon? That's right - $60 USD will buy a gigabit switch with a warranty that will last until 2037! Though, by 2037 we'll likely be on 1000GbaseT or some such, but still - thanks Netgear!

Pro am tip of the day

If you walk in to the workplace someone asks you "Are you here to fix the internet?" the correct answer is simply "Yes".

Avería: The average font

I recently read about Avería on BoingBoing. This font was generatively produced by averaging some 725 different fonts using a purpose developed algorithm. Yesterday while randomly browsing the Open Font Library I was pleasantly surprised to find a copy of Avería! It's available in seven different weights in truetype format. I'm unfamiliar with the license, but the details are available and I'm guessing it's pretty permissive. I think this may be the beige of typefaces.

Writing a .iso to a USB drive in Linux

I've recently been attempting to test the lastest LTS release of Ubuntu: 12.04 Precise Pangolin on a touchscreen laptop recently retired from active service in my agency. I grabbed my .iso and tried first with UNetbootin, only to be dumped rather unceremoniously to a (initramfs) prompt with BusyBox.

After failing in my first attempt I decided to try some advice I found here: simply umount /dev/sdc1 (or whatever) then cat diskimage.iso > /dev/sdc1. While this did appear to create a good disk, I was unable to boot it at all.

Then after reading the bootable USB creation instructions on the Ubuntu page I decided to try the Mac methodology since I've used dd for this purpose before and I see no reason why this wouldn't work on Linux. Strangely though, it did not.

The eventual solution I found was to rename the .iso to .img and use usb-imagewriter from the ubuntu repositories. *shrugs*

Laptop S-video in Black & White

One of my media computers is connected to one of our TVs via s-video -> RCA. This has proven to be a right fine solution and even though it's a rather old machine (P4, 512Mb RAM) it's proven sufficiently powerful to play 720p content over the network. Unfortunately for some reason outside my control it recently began only displaying video in black and white on the s-video port. I did some preliminary research on Google and found all kinds of weird and incorrect answers.

In the end it turns out the video output had been set for PAL color instead of NTSC. The actual fix for this will vary by graphics chipset so I won't go into much detail here, but just in case someone else is wondering why their s-video output switches to black and white: check the color encoding!

HTML5 Benchmarks

I've been looking at HTML5 benchmarking sites this morning and thought I'd post them all together:

• Asteroids Benchmark
  
• Paintball Testdrive
  
• Impact HTML5 Benchmark
  
• HTML5 Compatibility Test
  
• Canvas vs. HTML vs. Flash vs. SVG
  
  

This last one in the list is particularly interesting as it not only provides a direct comparison of these different animation techniques but also has configurable CGI parameters to change many of the variables involved. Fun!

SVG in Android Browser

I learned to my disappointment today that my favorite android browser Dolphin HD doesn't support Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG).  Luckily Firefox does!  I'm currently giving the beta version a try for checking the bandwidth usage monitor in DD-WRT, but it seems quite quick for general browsing as well.

Setting up SPAN for packet sniffing on a Cisco Catalyst

The documentation on this subject is extensive and like all things Cisco somewhat archaic. I'm posting this here in an attempt to simplify and as a reminder to myself the next time I need to do this. Telnet in to your switch and issue the following commands:

1) enable
2) configure terminal
3) no monitor session all
4) monitor session 1 source interface fastEthernet0/1 both
5) monitor session 1 destination interface fast/Ethernet0/10
6) end

Command 3 clears any existing SPAN sessions. You can change the port number at the end of command 4 to the port of the uplink on the switch to monitor all traffic.  Alternately you can specify a range of ports. Change the port number at the end of command 5 to the port on which you intend to set up your sniffer. In order to turn the SPAN off then rerun the first three commands. That's basically all there is to it. Now plug in a laptop to the monitor port and run dumpcap on the ethernet interface.

CPU & RAM Info in Linux

I'm posting this because I've found myself having to look it up more than once. If you find yourself on an unfamiliar Linux system and need the CPU or RAM information you can simply cat /proc/meminfo for RAM, or cat /proc/cpuinfo for CPU. Easy as pi!

jQuery quickSearch Dynamic Row Count

I just spent an hour struggling to find a solution to what seemed to be a fairly simple problem. I have a webpage comprised primarily of a large table and a textbox which uses a jQuery plugin quickSearch to filter the table. What I wanted then was a dynamic count of the rows returned by quickSearch. In the end this was accomplished wih the following code in the HTML:

Results: <p id="count"></p>

And the addition of this argument to the quickSearch function directly after the "loader:" argument:

onAfter: function() {
document.getElementById("count").innerHTML=($('tr:visible').length-1);
}

Now, if one's quickSearch use were doing something other than simply setting rows to hidden then this example may not work exactly as shown, but this may be useful for other applications as well.

Android FOSS Market

I'm always in the market for free Android software (free as in beer and/or speech). Today I came across F-Droid which is a new market catering solely to FOSS software. They have an app as well as a convenient mobile interface for downloading packages. androidVNC is already listed as well as a number of other very useful applications. I'm sure this resource will only grow with time.

Pro-Am Tip of the Day

Always carry a spare Internet.

Sanyo 2016 Rehab

Lately my interest in vintage stereo equipment has been waxing (no pun intended). In this vein I recently purchased a Sanyo 2016 receiver from Craigslist. I had been informed by the seller that the volume know was a little scratchy and might need to be cleaned. When I got the unit home and plugged in for testing, however, I found that all of the knobs were in terrible shape. I had crackling, drop outs in one or either channel and overall very poor sound quality. After a bit of research I found this thread which suggests using a product called DeOxit. I purchased the DeOxit at my local Radio Shack and used it as described in the linked thread. I am now proud to say the receiver works as well as I could have ever hoped for. My only regret is not buying the bigger bottles as I have a pair of vintage Pioneer SE30 headphones in need of similar treatment.