Tuesday 29 June 2010
Monday 28 June 2010
Smithsonian
Sadly not true, but it should be:
Smithsonian Institute, 207 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC 20078
Dear Mr. Williams,
Thank you for your latest submission to the Institute, labelled '93211-D, layer seven, next to the clothesline post... Hominid skull.'
We have given this specimen a careful and detailed examination, and regret to inform you that we disagree with your theory that it represents conclusive proof of the presence of Early Man in Charleston County two million years ago. Rather, it appears that what you have found is the head of a Barbie doll, of the variety that one of our staff, who has small children, believes to be 'Malibu Barbie.'
It is evident that you have given a great deal of thought to the analysis of this specimen, and you may be quite certain that those of us who are familiar with your prior work in the field were loathe to come to contradict your findings. However, we do feel that there are a number of physical attributes of the specimen which might have tipped you off to its modern origin:
1. The material is moulded plastic. Ancient hominid remains are typically fossilised bone.
2. The cranial capacity of the specimen is approximately 9 cubic centimetres, well below the threshold of even the earliest identified proto-hominids.
3. The dentition pattern evident on the skull is more consistent with the common domesticated dog than it is with the ravenous man-eating Pliocene clams you speculate roamed the wetlands during that time.
This latter finding is certainly one of the most intriguing hypotheses you have submitted in your history with this institution, but the evidence seems to weigh rather heavily against it. Without going into too much detail, let us say that:
1. The specimen looks like the head of a Barbie doll that a dog has chewed on.
2. Clams don't have teeth.
It is with feelings tinged with melancholy that we must deny your request to have the specimen carbon-dated. This is partially due to the heavy load our lab must bear in its normal operation, and partly due to carbon-datings notorious inaccuracy in fossils of recent geologic record.
To the best of our knowledge, no Barbie dolls were produced prior to 1956 AD, and carbon-dating is likely to produce wildly inaccurate results.
Sadly, we must also deny your request that we approach the National Science Foundation Phylogeny Department with the concept of assigning your specimen the scientific name Australopithecus spiff-arino. Speaking personally, I, for one, fought tenaciously for the acceptance of your proposed taxonomy, but was ultimately voted down because the species name you selected was hyphenated, and didn't really sound like it might be Latin.
However, we gladly accept your generous donation of this fascinating specimen to the museum. While it is undoubtedly not a Hominid fossil, it is, nonetheless, yet another riveting example of the great body of work you seem to accumulate here so effortlessly. You should know that our Director has reserved a special shelf in his own office for the display of the specimens you have previously submitted to the Institution, and the entire staff speculates daily on what you will happen upon next in your digs at the site you have discovered in your Newport back yard.
We eagerly anticipate your trip to our nation's capital that you proposed in your last letter, and several of us are pressing the Director to pay for it. We are particularly interested in hearing you expand on your theories surrounding the trans-positating fillifitation of ferrous ions in a structural matrix that makes the excellent juvenile Tyrannosaurus Rex femur you recently discovered take on the deceptive appearance of a rusty 9-mm Sears Craftsman automotive crescent wrench.
Yours in Science, Harvey Rowe Chief Curator-Antiquities
Smithsonian Institute, 207 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC 20078
Dear Mr. Williams,
Thank you for your latest submission to the Institute, labelled '93211-D, layer seven, next to the clothesline post... Hominid skull.'
We have given this specimen a careful and detailed examination, and regret to inform you that we disagree with your theory that it represents conclusive proof of the presence of Early Man in Charleston County two million years ago. Rather, it appears that what you have found is the head of a Barbie doll, of the variety that one of our staff, who has small children, believes to be 'Malibu Barbie.'
It is evident that you have given a great deal of thought to the analysis of this specimen, and you may be quite certain that those of us who are familiar with your prior work in the field were loathe to come to contradict your findings. However, we do feel that there are a number of physical attributes of the specimen which might have tipped you off to its modern origin:
1. The material is moulded plastic. Ancient hominid remains are typically fossilised bone.
2. The cranial capacity of the specimen is approximately 9 cubic centimetres, well below the threshold of even the earliest identified proto-hominids.
3. The dentition pattern evident on the skull is more consistent with the common domesticated dog than it is with the ravenous man-eating Pliocene clams you speculate roamed the wetlands during that time.
This latter finding is certainly one of the most intriguing hypotheses you have submitted in your history with this institution, but the evidence seems to weigh rather heavily against it. Without going into too much detail, let us say that:
1. The specimen looks like the head of a Barbie doll that a dog has chewed on.
2. Clams don't have teeth.
It is with feelings tinged with melancholy that we must deny your request to have the specimen carbon-dated. This is partially due to the heavy load our lab must bear in its normal operation, and partly due to carbon-datings notorious inaccuracy in fossils of recent geologic record.
To the best of our knowledge, no Barbie dolls were produced prior to 1956 AD, and carbon-dating is likely to produce wildly inaccurate results.
Sadly, we must also deny your request that we approach the National Science Foundation Phylogeny Department with the concept of assigning your specimen the scientific name Australopithecus spiff-arino. Speaking personally, I, for one, fought tenaciously for the acceptance of your proposed taxonomy, but was ultimately voted down because the species name you selected was hyphenated, and didn't really sound like it might be Latin.
However, we gladly accept your generous donation of this fascinating specimen to the museum. While it is undoubtedly not a Hominid fossil, it is, nonetheless, yet another riveting example of the great body of work you seem to accumulate here so effortlessly. You should know that our Director has reserved a special shelf in his own office for the display of the specimens you have previously submitted to the Institution, and the entire staff speculates daily on what you will happen upon next in your digs at the site you have discovered in your Newport back yard.
We eagerly anticipate your trip to our nation's capital that you proposed in your last letter, and several of us are pressing the Director to pay for it. We are particularly interested in hearing you expand on your theories surrounding the trans-positating fillifitation of ferrous ions in a structural matrix that makes the excellent juvenile Tyrannosaurus Rex femur you recently discovered take on the deceptive appearance of a rusty 9-mm Sears Craftsman automotive crescent wrench.
Yours in Science, Harvey Rowe Chief Curator-Antiquities
Saturday 26 June 2010
Mac: Combine JPEGs
Open both images in separate Preview windows. Go ahead and save one of them as the name of the combined file you want to use (you definitely don't want to overwrite either part until you have the combined image you want).
In the renamed picture window, Edit/Select All, Edit/Copy, then Tools/Adjust Size... and make the image large enough to hold both parts. Don't worry if it's too big, you can crop it later. When it's big enough the image will be stretched, possibly weirdly if you didn't scale proportionately, but it doesn't matter because you're going to overwrite that image anyway.
Edit/Paste and with your mouse, drag this image to where you will want it on the final image. When you have it placed where you want, Click somewhere outside of that part on the now stretched part of the image, which will lock the pasted part where you have placed it.
Go to the window of the other part you will be adding, and Edit/Select All, Edit/Copy it, then click on the image you will be pasting to, and Edit/Paste, move this part where you want it, and again click on some part of the image outside of what you've just pasted and moved to lock that in place. If you don't do the clicking thing, the paste will not take.
If you need to trim parts of the image, Edit/Select All to select the whole image and move the dotted lines with your mouse and the little circle handles until everything you want is in the lines and everything you don't want is outside. Now Tools/Crop. You may need to redo these steps as sometimes a small bit you didn't want will be included.
If you make a mistake, you can Edit/Undo, so don't worry about making mistakes.
When you're satisfied, just File/Save, and voila, you've joined two images into one.
From: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=344576
In the renamed picture window, Edit/Select All, Edit/Copy, then Tools/Adjust Size... and make the image large enough to hold both parts. Don't worry if it's too big, you can crop it later. When it's big enough the image will be stretched, possibly weirdly if you didn't scale proportionately, but it doesn't matter because you're going to overwrite that image anyway.
Edit/Paste and with your mouse, drag this image to where you will want it on the final image. When you have it placed where you want, Click somewhere outside of that part on the now stretched part of the image, which will lock the pasted part where you have placed it.
Go to the window of the other part you will be adding, and Edit/Select All, Edit/Copy it, then click on the image you will be pasting to, and Edit/Paste, move this part where you want it, and again click on some part of the image outside of what you've just pasted and moved to lock that in place. If you don't do the clicking thing, the paste will not take.
If you need to trim parts of the image, Edit/Select All to select the whole image and move the dotted lines with your mouse and the little circle handles until everything you want is in the lines and everything you don't want is outside. Now Tools/Crop. You may need to redo these steps as sometimes a small bit you didn't want will be included.
If you make a mistake, you can Edit/Undo, so don't worry about making mistakes.
When you're satisfied, just File/Save, and voila, you've joined two images into one.
From: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=344576
Sunday 20 June 2010
Saturday 19 June 2010
Windows: Hidden shares
1 Open Windows Explorer
Navigate to the Network folder in the tree, and select your own PC to see all (visible) shared folders.
2 Expose the Hidden Shares
To see a hidden share, type it into Windows Explorer's address bar, complete with trailing $, and press Enter. Easy—if you know the name.
3 See Everything That Can Be Seen
Use the Computer Management tool (comp mgmt.msc) to see a complete list of all hidden and visible shares on your PC. You can right-click any shared item here and select Stop Sharing to get rid of it, but Windows will share it again when you restart unless you disable the feature altogether.
4 Plug the hole
In the Windows Registry (Start | Run, regedit), navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters, and create two new DWORD values, AutoShareServer and AutoShareWks, both set to zero.
5 Reboot
You'll need to restart Windows for the change to take effect.
Navigate to the Network folder in the tree, and select your own PC to see all (visible) shared folders.
2 Expose the Hidden Shares
To see a hidden share, type it into Windows Explorer's address bar, complete with trailing $, and press Enter. Easy—if you know the name.
3 See Everything That Can Be Seen
Use the Computer Management tool (comp mgmt.msc) to see a complete list of all hidden and visible shares on your PC. You can right-click any shared item here and select Stop Sharing to get rid of it, but Windows will share it again when you restart unless you disable the feature altogether.
4 Plug the hole
In the Windows Registry (Start | Run, regedit), navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters, and create two new DWORD values, AutoShareServer and AutoShareWks, both set to zero.
5 Reboot
You'll need to restart Windows for the change to take effect.
Win XP: Custom Notifications
Launch Regedit from the Start menu's Run dialog. Navigate to HKEY_ CURRENT_USER\Software\ Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\TrayNotify. In the right-hand pane, locate the Binary values named IconStreams and PastIconStreams and delete them. That's not sufficient, though, because Windows Explorer still has the current list in memory.
Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up the Task Manager. Click on the Processes tab, highlight the entry for Explorer, and click on the End Process button. Still in the Task Manager, select New Task from the File menu, type Explorer, and click on OK.
Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up the Task Manager. Click on the Processes tab, highlight the entry for Explorer, and click on the End Process button. Still in the Task Manager, select New Task from the File menu, type Explorer, and click on OK.
Win XP: Prevent reboots
Click Start, then Run. Then type regedit and press Enter. Be careful in the Registry, following the directions slowly and reading twice before clicking once. With the Registry Editor opened, click and expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies and finally Microsoft\Windows. Right-click on Windows and select New\Key with your left mouse. Type WindowsUpdate and press Enter. This will create a new folder.
Now right-click on that folder and create another new key, this one named AU, and press Enter. AU stands for Auto Update. Turn to the right-hand pane, where an entry reads (Default); right-click on the white space and select New DWORD Value. Enter the string NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers, and press Enter. Now double-click that entry and change the Value Data to a 1, with the Base button of Hexadecimal selected.
Click on File | Exit, after which the Registry autosaves (just as other applications ought to but don't), and reboot. Once Windows loads this value it should never force a reboot when you are not present.
Now right-click on that folder and create another new key, this one named AU, and press Enter. AU stands for Auto Update. Turn to the right-hand pane, where an entry reads (Default); right-click on the white space and select New DWORD Value. Enter the string NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers, and press Enter. Now double-click that entry and change the Value Data to a 1, with the Base button of Hexadecimal selected.
Click on File | Exit, after which the Registry autosaves (just as other applications ought to but don't), and reboot. Once Windows loads this value it should never force a reboot when you are not present.
Win XP: Add Print Directory feature
To create the Printdir.bat file, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type the following command, and then click OK:
notepad
2. Paste the following text into Notepad:
@echo off
dir %1 /-p /o:gn > "%temp%\Listing"
start /w notepad /p "%temp%\Listing"
del "%temp%\Listing"
exit
3. On the File menu, click Exit, and then click Yes to save the changes.
4. In the Save As dialog box, type the following text, and then click Save:
%windir%\Printdir.bat
Create a new action for file folders
1. Click Start, click Control Panel (or, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel), and then click Folder Options.
2. On the File Types tab, click File Folder.
3. Click Advanced, and then click New.
4. In the Action box, type
Print Directory Listing
5. In the Application used to perform action box, type:
: printdir.bat
6. Click OK.
7. Click OK, click OK, and then click Close.
1. Click Start, click Run, type the following command, and then click OK:
notepad
2. Paste the following text into Notepad:
@echo off
dir %1 /-p /o:gn > "%temp%\Listing"
start /w notepad /p "%temp%\Listing"
del "%temp%\Listing"
exit
3. On the File menu, click Exit, and then click Yes to save the changes.
4. In the Save As dialog box, type the following text, and then click Save:
%windir%\Printdir.bat
Create a new action for file folders
1. Click Start, click Control Panel (or, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel), and then click Folder Options.
2. On the File Types tab, click File Folder.
3. Click Advanced, and then click New.
4. In the Action box, type
Print Directory Listing
5. In the Application used to perform action box, type:
: printdir.bat
6. Click OK.
7. Click OK, click OK, and then click Close.
Win XP: Refresh thumbnails
Select Search from the Start menu (in some older Windows versions this menu item will be named Find), choose to search for files or folders, and search your local hard drives and their subfolders for files named Thumbs.db. When the search is finished, you'll have a list of all the thumbnail files. Click within the results area, press Ctrl+A to select all of them, and press Del to delete them. You'll have to confirm that you want to delete them, and you'll get a second confirmation request because Thumbs.db is nominally a system file; click on the Yes to All button. Now all of your folders with pictures will get new, fresh thumbnails the next time you view them.
Win XP: Folder settings
By default, Windows XP remembers the last 400 folder settings. After 400, it's supposed to discard the oldest settings, so that it always remembers the most recent 400. In some cases, however, it just stops remembering new settings when the number of settings hits 400. Note that the steps that follow will clear all your old folder settings so Windows XP can remember more, and this method also raises the limit higher than 400.
1. Launch REGEDIT from the Start menu's Run dialog.
2. Navigate to the Registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell. If this key is not present, skip to step 8.
3. If a subkey named BagMRU is present, delete the entire subkey.
4. If a subkey named Bags is present, delete the entire subkey.
5. Look for a value named BagMRU Size (with a space between BagMRU and Size).
6. If this value is not present, select New | DWORD Value from the Edit menu and name the new value
BagMRU Size.
7. Double-click on the BagMRU Size value, choose Decimal, and enter the desired number of folder settings for Win XP to remember (for example, 1,000).
8. Navigate to the Registry key HKEY_ CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\ShellNoRoam. If present, repeat steps 3 through 7.
1. Launch REGEDIT from the Start menu's Run dialog.
2. Navigate to the Registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell. If this key is not present, skip to step 8.
3. If a subkey named BagMRU is present, delete the entire subkey.
4. If a subkey named Bags is present, delete the entire subkey.
5. Look for a value named BagMRU Size (with a space between BagMRU and Size).
6. If this value is not present, select New | DWORD Value from the Edit menu and name the new value
BagMRU Size.
7. Double-click on the BagMRU Size value, choose Decimal, and enter the desired number of folder settings for Win XP to remember (for example, 1,000).
8. Navigate to the Registry key HKEY_ CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\ShellNoRoam. If present, repeat steps 3 through 7.
Win XP: Booting into safe mode
Just select Run from the Start menu, type MSCONFIG,and hit Enter. Click the General tab, click the Advanced button, check the box Enable Startup menu, then click OK and OK. When you reboot (and until you uncheck that box) the Startup menu will appear during the boot process and remain visible for 30 seconds or until you make a selection.
Win XP: How to clean boot
Note You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group to follow these steps. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from follow these steps.
1. Click Start, click Run, type msconfig in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. On the General tab, click Selective Startup, and then clear the Process System.ini File, Process WIn.ini File, and Load Startup Items check boxes. You cannot clear the Use Original Boot.ini check box.
3. On the Services tab, select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and then click Disable All.
4. Click OK, and then click Restart to restart your computer.
5. After Windows starts, determine whether the symptoms still occur.
Note Look closely at the General tab to make sure that the check boxes that you cleared are still cleared. Continue to step 6 if none of the check boxes are selected. If the Load System Services check box is the only disabled check box, your computer is not clean-booted. If additional check boxes are disabled and the issue is not resolved, you may require help from the manufacturer of the program that places a check mark back in Msconfig.
If none of the check boxes are selected, and the issue is not resolved, you may have to repeat steps 1 through 5, but you may also have to clear the Load System Services check box on the General tab. This temporarily disables Microsoft services (such as, Networking, Plug and Play, Event Logging, and Error Reporting) and permanently deletes all restore points for the System Restore utility. Do not do this if you want to retain your restore points for System Restore or if you must use a Microsoft service to test the issue.
6. Click Start, click Run, type msconfig in the Open box, and then click OK.
7. On the General tab, select the Process System.ini File check box, click OK, and then click Restart to restart the computer. If the issue continues, the issue is with an entry in your System.ini file. If the issue does not continue, repeat this step for the Process Win.ini File, Load Startup Items, and Load System Services check boxes until the issue occurs. After the issue occurs, the last item that you selected is the item where the issue is occurring.
How to start the Windows Installer service
Note The Windows Installer service does not start if you disable Load System Services. To use Windows Installer in this case, you must start the service manually:
1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.
2. In the left pane, click Services and Applications, and then click Services.
3. In the right pane, right-click Windows Installer, and then click Start.
If you run a Setup program without manually starting the Windows Installer, you may receive the following error message:
The Windows Installer service could not be accessed. Contact your support personnel to verify that the windows Installer service is properly registered.
How to return from a clean boot state
1. Click Start, click Run, type msconfig in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. On the General tab, click Normal Startup - load all device drivers and services.
3. Click OK, and then click Restart when you are prompted to restart your computer.
1. Click Start, click Run, type msconfig in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. On the General tab, click Selective Startup, and then clear the Process System.ini File, Process WIn.ini File, and Load Startup Items check boxes. You cannot clear the Use Original Boot.ini check box.
3. On the Services tab, select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and then click Disable All.
4. Click OK, and then click Restart to restart your computer.
5. After Windows starts, determine whether the symptoms still occur.
Note Look closely at the General tab to make sure that the check boxes that you cleared are still cleared. Continue to step 6 if none of the check boxes are selected. If the Load System Services check box is the only disabled check box, your computer is not clean-booted. If additional check boxes are disabled and the issue is not resolved, you may require help from the manufacturer of the program that places a check mark back in Msconfig.
If none of the check boxes are selected, and the issue is not resolved, you may have to repeat steps 1 through 5, but you may also have to clear the Load System Services check box on the General tab. This temporarily disables Microsoft services (such as, Networking, Plug and Play, Event Logging, and Error Reporting) and permanently deletes all restore points for the System Restore utility. Do not do this if you want to retain your restore points for System Restore or if you must use a Microsoft service to test the issue.
6. Click Start, click Run, type msconfig in the Open box, and then click OK.
7. On the General tab, select the Process System.ini File check box, click OK, and then click Restart to restart the computer. If the issue continues, the issue is with an entry in your System.ini file. If the issue does not continue, repeat this step for the Process Win.ini File, Load Startup Items, and Load System Services check boxes until the issue occurs. After the issue occurs, the last item that you selected is the item where the issue is occurring.
How to start the Windows Installer service
Note The Windows Installer service does not start if you disable Load System Services. To use Windows Installer in this case, you must start the service manually:
1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.
2. In the left pane, click Services and Applications, and then click Services.
3. In the right pane, right-click Windows Installer, and then click Start.
If you run a Setup program without manually starting the Windows Installer, you may receive the following error message:
The Windows Installer service could not be accessed. Contact your support personnel to verify that the windows Installer service is properly registered.
How to return from a clean boot state
1. Click Start, click Run, type msconfig in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. On the General tab, click Normal Startup - load all device drivers and services.
3. Click OK, and then click Restart when you are prompted to restart your computer.
Win XP: Folder view
1. Right-click on an empty area of the folder.
2. Click View and select your preference.
To change the default view for all folders, perform the following steps:
1. Change the view for the current folder, as previously described.
2. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
3. Click the View tab.
4. Click the Like Current Folders button.
2. Click View and select your preference.
To change the default view for all folders, perform the following steps:
1. Change the view for the current folder, as previously described.
2. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
3. Click the View tab.
4. Click the Like Current Folders button.
Win XP Tips
Clean out Prefetch: Run on the Start menu and type "prefetch" and an Explorer-type dialogue box will open. Press Ctrl A to highlight all of the shortcuts and hit the Delete key to zap them.
Information about PC and XP, including the time system has been running since it was last booted up: Go to Start > Programs > Accessories and click on Command Prompt to open a DOS type window, at the flashing cursor type "systeminfo" and all will be revealed.
To keep a permanent record of this data type instead "systeminfo > info.txt" and this creates a text document in whatever directory you launched Systeminfo from.
File search: Go to Change Preferences again and this time click on "Change Files and Folders Search Behaviour" then select "Advanced - includes options to manually enter", and the Search window will return to the traditional layout.
Remove unnecessary services: Go to Run on the Start menu and type 'services.msc'. This will bring up a list of all of the programs that can run or are presently running in the background. To find out what each one does simply right click on it and this will display a dialogue box with a description and a 'Start Type' drop-down menu with Automatic, Manual or Disable options. Here are some Services that you may find, these are not usually needed by non-networked home PCs and can be safely disabled:
Alerter
Clipbook
Computer Browser
DHCP Client
Distributed Link Tracking Client
DNS Client
Fast User Switching
FTP Publishing Service
Human Interface Access Devices
IIS Admin Service
IPSEC Policy Agent
Indexing Service
Messenger
Net Logon
Remote Procedure Call Locator
Remote Registry Service
RIP Service
Run As Service
Server
SSDP Discovery Service
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Upload Manager
Windows Time
Wireless Zero Configuration
World Wide Web Publishing Service
Workstation
Edit the Send To Menu: When you right-click on a file and choose Send To, menu options let you copy that file to the A: drive, the My Documents folder, or various other places. You can add a menu item that will send files to any folder you want. Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\username\SendTo for Windows 2000 and XP, or C:\Windows\SendTo for Windows 98 and Me. If you don't see the folder you want, select Folder Options from the Tools menu, click on the View tab, and check Show hidden files and folders. In a second Explorer window, select the folder in question. Right-drag it into the Send To folder and choose Create Shortcuts Here. Rename the shortcut as you want to see it in the Send To menu.
Control Launch Order: You may need to launch multiple start-up programs in order, perhaps to connect to a VPN before launching a program that needs that connection. Create a new folder called C:\Ordered Launch and drag any shortcuts that currently reside in Start | All Programs | Startup to this new folder. If the shortcuts don't already exist, create them in the new folder.
Open a command prompt, navigate to C:\Ordered Launch, and issue the command DIR /B /S > ordered.bat. Enter notepad ordered.bat to open the resulting batch file in Notepad. Copy and paste the lines in the desired launch order. Surround each line with quotes and precede it with the start command and a space; for example, start "C: \Ordered Launch\First Program.lnk".
Double-click on the batch file to test it. The programs will start in the specified order, but if one takes longer to initialize, it may appear out of order. In that case, insert a delay line after the slow-starting program. This line will insert a 5- second delay: ping -n 5 127.0.0.1 > nul. Edit the value after -n to set a different delay. After testing the file, open Windows Explorer and right-drag it to the Startup folder, selecting Create Shortcuts Here.
Move the My Documents Folder: Keeping the My Documents folder on a partition separate from the operating-system files can save you pain if you have to reformat the boot partition. You may also want to store it on a network share that gets backed up regularly. Right-click on My Documents on the desktop or in the Start menu and choose Properties. Click on Find Target to select the new location, and click on OK. In the Move Documents box, click on Yes to move the documents.
Restore a Lost Status Bar: When you open Windows Explorer, the Status bar may be absent even if you previously checked View | Status Bar in the menu. To make Windows remember that setting, first close all Windows Explorer windows and launch just one. Size it the way you want and put a check next to Status Bar in the View menu. Now close the window by holding down the Shift key while clicking on the X icon at top right. This also works in Internet Explorer.
Specify a Starting Folder for Windows Explorer: Windows XP launches Windows Explorer in My Documents by default. To make Windows Explorer start in another folder, edit the shortcut that launches it. Right-click on the shortcut and choose Properties. Click in the Target field on the Shortcut tab and press the Right Arrow key. Append this text " /e,C:\"—that is, space, slash, e, comma, C, colon, backslash—to the existing command. You can substitute another folder for C:.
Shut off Indexing System: Launch Services.msc from the Start menu's Run dialog. Find the Indexing Service (Cidaemon.exe) and double-click. Click on the Stop button and then set Startup type to Disabled.
Disable Recent Documents History:
1. Open the Registry Editor (select Start/Run, type regedit, and click OK).
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.
3. Create a NoRecentDocsHistory D_WORD key. Double-click the value to open it once it is created.
4. Set the Data Value to 1 to enable the restriction.
5. Click OK and close the Registry Editor. You'll need to restart the computer for the change to take effect.
Remove unwanted fonts:
1. Open the Fonts folder in Control Panel.
2. Select Edit/Select All and then Edit/Copy.
3. Create a new folder on your desktop, open it, and select Edit/Paste.
4. In this new folder, delete any of the fonts you do not want.
5. Return to the Fonts folder in Control Panel. Right-click the selected fonts and click Delete.
6. Go back to your new desktop folder and click Edit/Select All.
7. Return to your Fonts folder and click Edit/Paste. You now have only the desired fonts in the Fonts folder.
Information about PC and XP, including the time system has been running since it was last booted up: Go to Start > Programs > Accessories and click on Command Prompt to open a DOS type window, at the flashing cursor type "systeminfo" and all will be revealed.
To keep a permanent record of this data type instead "systeminfo > info.txt" and this creates a text document in whatever directory you launched Systeminfo from.
File search: Go to Change Preferences again and this time click on "Change Files and Folders Search Behaviour" then select "Advanced - includes options to manually enter", and the Search window will return to the traditional layout.
Remove unnecessary services: Go to Run on the Start menu and type 'services.msc'. This will bring up a list of all of the programs that can run or are presently running in the background. To find out what each one does simply right click on it and this will display a dialogue box with a description and a 'Start Type' drop-down menu with Automatic, Manual or Disable options. Here are some Services that you may find, these are not usually needed by non-networked home PCs and can be safely disabled:
Alerter
Clipbook
Computer Browser
DHCP Client
Distributed Link Tracking Client
DNS Client
Fast User Switching
FTP Publishing Service
Human Interface Access Devices
IIS Admin Service
IPSEC Policy Agent
Indexing Service
Messenger
Net Logon
Remote Procedure Call Locator
Remote Registry Service
RIP Service
Run As Service
Server
SSDP Discovery Service
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Upload Manager
Windows Time
Wireless Zero Configuration
World Wide Web Publishing Service
Workstation
Edit the Send To Menu: When you right-click on a file and choose Send To, menu options let you copy that file to the A: drive, the My Documents folder, or various other places. You can add a menu item that will send files to any folder you want. Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\username\SendTo for Windows 2000 and XP, or C:\Windows\SendTo for Windows 98 and Me. If you don't see the folder you want, select Folder Options from the Tools menu, click on the View tab, and check Show hidden files and folders. In a second Explorer window, select the folder in question. Right-drag it into the Send To folder and choose Create Shortcuts Here. Rename the shortcut as you want to see it in the Send To menu.
Control Launch Order: You may need to launch multiple start-up programs in order, perhaps to connect to a VPN before launching a program that needs that connection. Create a new folder called C:\Ordered Launch and drag any shortcuts that currently reside in Start | All Programs | Startup to this new folder. If the shortcuts don't already exist, create them in the new folder.
Open a command prompt, navigate to C:\Ordered Launch, and issue the command DIR /B /S > ordered.bat. Enter notepad ordered.bat to open the resulting batch file in Notepad. Copy and paste the lines in the desired launch order. Surround each line with quotes and precede it with the start command and a space; for example, start "C: \Ordered Launch\First Program.lnk".
Double-click on the batch file to test it. The programs will start in the specified order, but if one takes longer to initialize, it may appear out of order. In that case, insert a delay line after the slow-starting program. This line will insert a 5- second delay: ping -n 5 127.0.0.1 > nul. Edit the value after -n to set a different delay. After testing the file, open Windows Explorer and right-drag it to the Startup folder, selecting Create Shortcuts Here.
Move the My Documents Folder: Keeping the My Documents folder on a partition separate from the operating-system files can save you pain if you have to reformat the boot partition. You may also want to store it on a network share that gets backed up regularly. Right-click on My Documents on the desktop or in the Start menu and choose Properties. Click on Find Target to select the new location, and click on OK. In the Move Documents box, click on Yes to move the documents.
Restore a Lost Status Bar: When you open Windows Explorer, the Status bar may be absent even if you previously checked View | Status Bar in the menu. To make Windows remember that setting, first close all Windows Explorer windows and launch just one. Size it the way you want and put a check next to Status Bar in the View menu. Now close the window by holding down the Shift key while clicking on the X icon at top right. This also works in Internet Explorer.
Specify a Starting Folder for Windows Explorer: Windows XP launches Windows Explorer in My Documents by default. To make Windows Explorer start in another folder, edit the shortcut that launches it. Right-click on the shortcut and choose Properties. Click in the Target field on the Shortcut tab and press the Right Arrow key. Append this text " /e,C:\"—that is, space, slash, e, comma, C, colon, backslash—to the existing command. You can substitute another folder for C:.
Shut off Indexing System: Launch Services.msc from the Start menu's Run dialog. Find the Indexing Service (Cidaemon.exe) and double-click. Click on the Stop button and then set Startup type to Disabled.
Disable Recent Documents History:
1. Open the Registry Editor (select Start/Run, type regedit, and click OK).
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.
3. Create a NoRecentDocsHistory D_WORD key. Double-click the value to open it once it is created.
4. Set the Data Value to 1 to enable the restriction.
5. Click OK and close the Registry Editor. You'll need to restart the computer for the change to take effect.
Remove unwanted fonts:
1. Open the Fonts folder in Control Panel.
2. Select Edit/Select All and then Edit/Copy.
3. Create a new folder on your desktop, open it, and select Edit/Paste.
4. In this new folder, delete any of the fonts you do not want.
5. Return to the Fonts folder in Control Panel. Right-click the selected fonts and click Delete.
6. Go back to your new desktop folder and click Edit/Select All.
7. Return to your Fonts folder and click Edit/Paste. You now have only the desired fonts in the Fonts folder.
Windows: Transparent background for icon labels
Right-click My Computer.
Choose Properties.
Click the Advanced tab in the dialog that appears.
Click the Settings button in the panel labeled Performance.
Click the Visual Effects tab in the Performance dialog.
Check the box titled Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop.
Click OK, OK.
Choose Properties.
Click the Advanced tab in the dialog that appears.
Click the Settings button in the panel labeled Performance.
Click the Visual Effects tab in the Performance dialog.
Check the box titled Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop.
Click OK, OK.
Win XP: Bigger Thumbnails
The easiest way to do this is with Microsoft's free (and support-free) TweakUI utility. You can download it from www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx. Launch TweakUI, open the Explorer item in the tree at right, and click Thumbnails. Here you can adjust the thumbnail size from 32 to 256 pixels square (the default is 96). Do note that a 256 by 256 image has over seven times as many pixels as a 96 by 96 image. You may want to also slide the Image Quality slider to a lower setting, so you don't expend too much disk space caching those extra-large thumbnails. After you've made the change, you'll see larger thumbnails in both thumbnail view and filmstrip view.
Word: View two parts of document at once
With the file open, click on the small horizontal line above the Ruler toggle, or simply press Ctrl-Alt-S. A line will appear, bisecting the screen. Above and below, you'll see the active document; you can scroll in each section independently to edit in different areas while viewing others. You can even change the view, for example from Print Layout to Draft.
The dividing line can be moved up and down on the screen, and you can get rid of it by pressing the same button you used to activate it, pressing Ctrl-Alt-S again, or grabbing it with your mouse and moving it all the way to either the top or bottom of the window.
The dividing line can be moved up and down on the screen, and you can get rid of it by pressing the same button you used to activate it, pressing Ctrl-Alt-S again, or grabbing it with your mouse and moving it all the way to either the top or bottom of the window.
Word: Indenting bullet points
Select Tool | Autocorrect Options from the menu and click the tab titled Autoformat as you type. Check the box called Set left- and first-indent with tabs and backspaces and click OK. Despite the description, this setting also affects how the Tab key changes indents. With it checked, Tab and Shift-Tab increase and decrease the indent level. Without it, they both insert a tab character into the document.
Word: Left and right align on one line
Select Tabs from the Format menu and click the Clear All button. In the Tab stop position box at top, enter the width (in inches) of the editable area of your document. You can get that value by looking at the right-hand end of the ruler above the document. Check the Right option and click OK. Now type some text, press the Tab key, and type some more text. The text before the tab is left-aligned; the text after the tab is right-aligned. Easy! If you want to end the right/left alignment after you've typed some lines, open the Tabs dialog again and click Clear All.
The drill is almost the same when you apply this effect to existing text. First, highlight the lines you're going to change. Use Find/Replace to replace any tabs (represented by ^t) with spaces. Then proceed to set the right-side tab as above. Finally, insert a tab character at the desired location in each line.
There are some variations on this technique that may prove useful. When you create the right-aligned tab, you can choose from one of several Leader styles. Word will fill the space before the right-aligned portion with dashes, dots, or underscores. You can also set a tab in the middle of the ruler and define it as a Center tab. Now enter a line of text split by two tabs. The first part will be left-aligned, the middle part will be center-aligned, and the last will be right-aligned.
The drill is almost the same when you apply this effect to existing text. First, highlight the lines you're going to change. Use Find/Replace to replace any tabs (represented by ^t) with spaces. Then proceed to set the right-side tab as above. Finally, insert a tab character at the desired location in each line.
There are some variations on this technique that may prove useful. When you create the right-aligned tab, you can choose from one of several Leader styles. Word will fill the space before the right-aligned portion with dashes, dots, or underscores. You can also set a tab in the middle of the ruler and define it as a Center tab. Now enter a line of text split by two tabs. The first part will be left-aligned, the middle part will be center-aligned, and the last will be right-aligned.
Word: Changes in documents
Open the older version, then select Tools | Compare and Merge Documents from the menu. In the resulting dialog, select the newer version. Uncheck the Legal blackline and Find formatting boxes. Click the down arrow attached to the button labeled Merge and select Merge into new document. Save this new document with a name that identifies its sources, for example "changes from june 29 to july 20.doc." Repeat as necessary for other pairs in the sequence.
In print, the merged document will show changes clearly. New text will be underlined and colored, and deleted text will appear in balloons in the right margin. You may prefer simply to strike out deleted text (likethis), especially if there's a lot of it. If so, choose Tools | Options from the menu, click the Track Changes tab, find the drop-down box titled Use Balloons (Print and Web Layout), and select Only for comments/formatting in the drop-down list.
In print, the merged document will show changes clearly. New text will be underlined and colored, and deleted text will appear in balloons in the right margin. You may prefer simply to strike out deleted text (like
Word hints
Shrink document by one page. A document whose last page is mostly blank is a waste of printer paper, especially if you have to make a lot of copies. Your letters and mailings will also look more professional if they fill the pages nicely. If Print Preview reveals a skimpy last page, click the Shrink to Fit (Word 2003) or Shrink One Page button (Word 2007). Word will tweak the fonts in the document to make it a page smaller. Don't like the results? Just press Ctrl-Z to Undo.
Calculate in tables. Sure, you can embed an Excel worksheet in a Word document, but if you just need a few simple calculations, you can use Word's own math skills. Select a cell at the bottom of a column and click Formula on the Table Tools Layout ribbon (Word 2007), or select Formula from the Table menu (Word 2003). Word will suggest =SUM(ABOVE), but you can select among over a dozen functions.
Besides choosing ABOVE, BELOW, LEFT, or RIGHT to work with all cells in the specified direction, you can reference individual cells and ranges as you do in Excel—for example, =AVERAGE(A1:C3).
Merge to e-mail. Mail-merging to letters and envelopes is too-too 1990s, but you may still need to send a common message to a group of correspondents. That's no problem, since the familiar mail-merge feature in Word can also send e-mail messages. In Word 2007, complete your letter, click Finish & Merge in the ribbon and choose Send E-mail Messages from the menu. In Word 2003 select "E-mail messages" at the very first step of the Mail Merge wizard. Either way you'll be prompted for a subject (the same for every message) and for a data field that holds e-mail addresses of the recipients.
Compare two documents. Your newest client just returned a revised version of a contract document file but didn't mark his revisions. Is he trying to hoodwink you with sneaky changes? Rather than ruin your eyes poring over the old and new documents, have Word find the differences. In Word 2003 open the old document, choose Compare and Merge Documents from the Tools menu, and select the new document. In Word 2007 choose Compare | Compare from the Review ribbon and select both the old and the new document.
Document inspector. Your Word 2007 documents may contain a lot more information than you realize--tracked changes, comments, hidden text, private properties, and more. Distributing a document with this kind of data present can be embarrassing. To make sure you're not revealing too much in a Word 2007 document, click the Office button at the top left, point to Prepare, and click Inspect Document in the resulting menu. Word 2003 has no precise equivalent, but you can get some benefit using the Security tab of the Options dialog. Check the boxes "Remove personal information from file properties on save" and "Warn before printing, saving, or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments."
Built-in translator. The Research panel in both Word 2007 and Word 2003 includes an option to translate the selected text or the entire document between various languages. It's more useful when you're trying to puzzle out what a foreign-language document means than when you want to communicate your own thoughts with those who don't speak English. To see why, translate a few sentences from English to another language and then back to English.
Create fancy equations. Sure, you can write "the electric field equals one over the electrical conductivity times the electric current density," but is a lot more compact. To insert an equation into Word 2007 choose Equation | Insert New Equation from the Insert ribbon and use the tools on the Equation Design toolbar that appears. In Word 2003, it's a bit more awkward. Select Insert | Object from the menu, choose Microsoft Equation 3.0, and click OK, then use the Equation toolbar that appears.
Use math autocorrect. (Word 2007 only) All of those fancy math symbols can be available even outside the Equation Design toolbar. Click the Office button at the top left, click the Word Options button, select Proofing, click AutoCorrect Options, and check the box "Use Math AutoCorrect rules outside of math regions." Now you can type \aleph to insert an aleph (א), \int for an integral sign (∫) or even type \quadratic to insert the entire quadratic equation (x=(-b±√(b^2-4ac))/2a).
Calculate in tables. Sure, you can embed an Excel worksheet in a Word document, but if you just need a few simple calculations, you can use Word's own math skills. Select a cell at the bottom of a column and click Formula on the Table Tools Layout ribbon (Word 2007), or select Formula from the Table menu (Word 2003). Word will suggest =SUM(ABOVE), but you can select among over a dozen functions.
Besides choosing ABOVE, BELOW, LEFT, or RIGHT to work with all cells in the specified direction, you can reference individual cells and ranges as you do in Excel—for example, =AVERAGE(A1:C3).
Merge to e-mail. Mail-merging to letters and envelopes is too-too 1990s, but you may still need to send a common message to a group of correspondents. That's no problem, since the familiar mail-merge feature in Word can also send e-mail messages. In Word 2007, complete your letter, click Finish & Merge in the ribbon and choose Send E-mail Messages from the menu. In Word 2003 select "E-mail messages" at the very first step of the Mail Merge wizard. Either way you'll be prompted for a subject (the same for every message) and for a data field that holds e-mail addresses of the recipients.
Compare two documents. Your newest client just returned a revised version of a contract document file but didn't mark his revisions. Is he trying to hoodwink you with sneaky changes? Rather than ruin your eyes poring over the old and new documents, have Word find the differences. In Word 2003 open the old document, choose Compare and Merge Documents from the Tools menu, and select the new document. In Word 2007 choose Compare | Compare from the Review ribbon and select both the old and the new document.
Document inspector. Your Word 2007 documents may contain a lot more information than you realize--tracked changes, comments, hidden text, private properties, and more. Distributing a document with this kind of data present can be embarrassing. To make sure you're not revealing too much in a Word 2007 document, click the Office button at the top left, point to Prepare, and click Inspect Document in the resulting menu. Word 2003 has no precise equivalent, but you can get some benefit using the Security tab of the Options dialog. Check the boxes "Remove personal information from file properties on save" and "Warn before printing, saving, or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments."
Built-in translator. The Research panel in both Word 2007 and Word 2003 includes an option to translate the selected text or the entire document between various languages. It's more useful when you're trying to puzzle out what a foreign-language document means than when you want to communicate your own thoughts with those who don't speak English. To see why, translate a few sentences from English to another language and then back to English.
Create fancy equations. Sure, you can write "the electric field equals one over the electrical conductivity times the electric current density," but is a lot more compact. To insert an equation into Word 2007 choose Equation | Insert New Equation from the Insert ribbon and use the tools on the Equation Design toolbar that appears. In Word 2003, it's a bit more awkward. Select Insert | Object from the menu, choose Microsoft Equation 3.0, and click OK, then use the Equation toolbar that appears.
Use math autocorrect. (Word 2007 only) All of those fancy math symbols can be available even outside the Equation Design toolbar. Click the Office button at the top left, click the Word Options button, select Proofing, click AutoCorrect Options, and check the box "Use Math AutoCorrect rules outside of math regions." Now you can type \aleph to insert an aleph (א), \int for an integral sign (∫) or even type \quadratic to insert the entire quadratic equation (x=(-b±√(b^2-4ac))/2a).
Word: Auto summarise
Select it from the Tools menu and you get several choices for summarizing the current document. You can highlight key points or create a summary of the document in several different places. A control lets you choose what percentage of the document size the summary should be; you can also choose a specific length in words or sentences.
Word: Adding thousands separators
Instead of just typing the number, choose Insert | Field (Word 2007 users will choose Quick Parts | Field from the Insert ribbon). Select the very first item, titled = (Formula) and click the Formula... button. Type your number here following the = in the first box, then select the number format #,##0.00 and click OK. Your number will appear nicely formatted.
If you need to change the value later, click on the number, press Shift-F9 to show the field codes, make the change, and then press Shift-F9 to switch back to showing the field value (if you don't see the change right away, press F9 to update the field). Yes, this is an extra effort, but there's no simple way to apply the formatting the way you can in Excel.
Of course, you still need to fix up the existing numbers, and to do that you first need to find them. Suppose you want to change all numbers consisting of 6 to 12 digits followed by a decimal point and 2 digits. Press Ctrl-F for Find, click the More button, and check the Use wildcards box. In the Find what area at top, enter <[0-9]{6,9}.[0-9]{2. Do not include the period at the end of the preceding sentence.
Here's how this odd string of wildcards breaks down:
< [0-9]
{6,12}
[0-9] {2}
beginning of a word any character from 0 to 9
from 6 to 12 occurrences of whatever came immediately before a plain old decimal point
any character from 0 to 9
exactly two occurrences of whatever came immediately before
When you click Find Next, the first matching number will be highlighted. Leave the Find dialog box open and switch back to the main document. Press Ctrl-F9 to convert the highlighted text into a field. Insert an equal sign right before the number, then a space and \# "#,##0.00" (including the quotes) after the number but before the ending bracket. Press Shift-F9 to toggle from viewing field codes to viewing the number itself. Now switch back to the Find dialog, find the next number, and repeat.
If you need to change the value later, click on the number, press Shift-F9 to show the field codes, make the change, and then press Shift-F9 to switch back to showing the field value (if you don't see the change right away, press F9 to update the field). Yes, this is an extra effort, but there's no simple way to apply the formatting the way you can in Excel.
Of course, you still need to fix up the existing numbers, and to do that you first need to find them. Suppose you want to change all numbers consisting of 6 to 12 digits followed by a decimal point and 2 digits. Press Ctrl-F for Find, click the More button, and check the Use wildcards box. In the Find what area at top, enter <[0-9]{6,9}.[0-9]{2. Do not include the period at the end of the preceding sentence.
Here's how this odd string of wildcards breaks down:
< [0-9]
{6,12}
[0-9] {2}
beginning of a word any character from 0 to 9
from 6 to 12 occurrences of whatever came immediately before a plain old decimal point
any character from 0 to 9
exactly two occurrences of whatever came immediately before
When you click Find Next, the first matching number will be highlighted. Leave the Find dialog box open and switch back to the main document. Press Ctrl-F9 to convert the highlighted text into a field. Insert an equal sign right before the number, then a space and \# "#,##0.00" (including the quotes) after the number but before the ending bracket. Press Shift-F9 to toggle from viewing field codes to viewing the number itself. Now switch back to the Find dialog, find the next number, and repeat.
Word: Text on screen, not on prints
To do this, highlight the text in question, choose Font from the Format menu, and check the box titled Hidden. The text is not visible either on your screen or in print. To bring it back into view, select Options from the Tools menu and click on the View tab. In the Formatting marks area, check the box titled Hidden text. Now the text appears on-screen (with a dotted underline to let you know something's different about it) but still will not print.
Wednesday 16 June 2010
Windows: Disable searching in ZIP files
From the Start menu's Run dialog, enter this command: regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll. Repeat and enter regsvr32 /u cabview.dll. Each time, you should get a notice that DllUnregister succeeded. Contrary to numerous Web sites displaying this advice, you need to restart the computer for the change to take effect.
Now, when you search, the operating system will ignore ZIP folders instead of treating them as folders. If you don't care about that feature, you can leave it turned off. But turning it back on is as simple as repeating the two regsvr32 commands without the /u.
Now, when you search, the operating system will ignore ZIP folders instead of treating them as folders. If you don't care about that feature, you can leave it turned off. But turning it back on is as simple as repeating the two regsvr32 commands without the /u.
Windows: Prevent accidental copies
Click the topmost file you want to copy. Hold down the Ctrl key and down-arrow through the list. You’ll see a faint selection rectangle that moves down as you press the arrow. When it reaches another file you want to copy, press the space bar. (If you select the wrong file, press the space bar again to deselect.) When you’ve made your selections, press C without releasing the Ctrl key to copy the files to the clipboard. Navigate to the destination folder and press Ctrl-V to paste in copies of those files.
Windows: Bringing lost or zero size windows into view
First, make sure that the program in question is active, either by using Alt-Tab to select it or by clicking the program's button on the taskbar. Now press Alt-Spacebar to open the system menu of the active window, the one you normally access by clicking the icon at the window's top left. The menu will appear along the edge nearest to the window's off-screen location. Press M to select the Move menu option and then use the arrow keys to bring the window back into view. Actually, once you've pressed any arrow key, the mouse should move the errant window even though you're not holding down a button.
If the window were truly zero-size, you could bring up the system menu in the same way and press S for Size. Press an Arrow key to select the corresponding edge of the window. Continue pressing the same Arrow key to expand the window in the direction of that edge.
If the window were truly zero-size, you could bring up the system menu in the same way and press S for Size. Press an Arrow key to select the corresponding edge of the window. Continue pressing the same Arrow key to expand the window in the direction of that edge.
Vista: External drive named consistently
Click the Start orb and enter diskmgmt.msc to launch the Disk Management utility. Right-click the external drive and choose Change drive letter and paths from the pop-up menu. Click Remove, and confirm the worry-wart prompt that says some programs may not work correctly. Right-click and again choose Change drive letter and paths. Choose Add and add E: as the drive letter. Close Disk Management. The drive should now appear as E: every time.
Windows: List of filenames in folder
Click Start, then Run, and enter cmd—it's faster than digging for Command Prompt in the Start menu. Navigate to the folder in question using your good old DOS skills. This command will get you a list of filenames in sorted order: DIR /B /ON *.* > filelist.txt. The /B switch gives a Bare listing (filename only) and /ON means sOrt by Name. You will have to delete the name filelist.txt itself from the list.
If you're using Vista, this task is much easier. Select the files in Windows Explorer, hold Shift, and right-click them. Choose Copy as Path from the menu. Paste the list into whatever editor you prefer. You get the full pathname for each file, but a simple find/replace will clean that up if necessary.
If you're using Vista, this task is much easier. Select the files in Windows Explorer, hold Shift, and right-click them. Choose Copy as Path from the menu. Paste the list into whatever editor you prefer. You get the full pathname for each file, but a simple find/replace will clean that up if necessary.
Windows: Dispose of Hiberfil.sys
From Control Panel launch the Power Options applet. Click the Hibernate tab and uncheck the box that enables hibernation, then click OK. The Hiberfil.sys file should now be gone. If not, reboot and delete it manually.
Windows: stop "Recent Documents"
Launch Registry Edit (regedit) from the Start menu's Run dialog and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. Look in the right-hand pane for a value named NoRecentDocsHistory. If you don't find it, right-click in the right-hand pane and choose New | DWORD Value. Name the newly created value NoRecentDocsHistory. Double-click the value and set its data to 1. In the exact same way create DWORD values named ClearRecentDocsOnExit and NoRecentDocsMenu and set the data of each to 1. Reboot to complete the process.
Windows remove items pinned to start menu
Go to the Registry editor (Start | Run | regedit ). Navigate to the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage. Look in the right-hand pane for a value named Favorites. This binary value defines your pinned Start menu items. You can't edit it, but you can get rid of it and start fresh. Right-click it, choose Rename, and name it something like Favorites_not. Reboot the computer.
Your Start menu now has no user-defined items pinned to it, only the Windows-supplied Internet and e-mail items. When you pin your current favorites, Windows will re-create the Favorites value in the Registry.
Your Start menu now has no user-defined items pinned to it, only the Windows-supplied Internet and e-mail items. When you pin your current favorites, Windows will re-create the Favorites value in the Registry.
Windows bulk rename and move files
FOR %v IN ("ken*.aif") DO MD TEMP&MOVE "%v" TEMP&REN TEMP "%v"
The FOR command takes every file matching the file specification "ken*.aif" and runs the command line following DO, swapping each filename for the variable %v. You can string multiple commands together on a single line by separating them with an ampersand (&)—handy! For each file, then, we create a folder named TEMP, move the file into that folder, and then rename the folder to the file's original name. This two-step process is needed because you can't have a file and an identically named folder in the same location.
Now, you said you want the folder to have the same name as the file. But maybe what you really want is not the file's whole name—you just want the filename portion without an extension. In that case a simple command will do the job:
FOR %v IN ("ken*.aif") DO MD "%~nv"&MOVE "%v" "%~nv" Here we've used %~nv instead of %v. This is a special code that tells the FOR command we just want the filename, not the extension.
Also, to rename using wildcards - REN *Page* *Page*.jpg
http://www.experts-exchange.com/OS/Microsoft_Operating_Systems/MS_DOS/Q_21873735.html
The FOR command takes every file matching the file specification "ken*.aif" and runs the command line following DO, swapping each filename for the variable %v. You can string multiple commands together on a single line by separating them with an ampersand (&)—handy! For each file, then, we create a folder named TEMP, move the file into that folder, and then rename the folder to the file's original name. This two-step process is needed because you can't have a file and an identically named folder in the same location.
Now, you said you want the folder to have the same name as the file. But maybe what you really want is not the file's whole name—you just want the filename portion without an extension. In that case a simple command will do the job:
FOR %v IN ("ken*.aif") DO MD "%~nv"&MOVE "%v" "%~nv" Here we've used %~nv instead of %v. This is a special code that tells the FOR command we just want the filename, not the extension.
Also, to rename using wildcards - REN *Page* *Page*.jpg
http://www.experts-exchange.com/OS/Microsoft_Operating_Systems/MS_DOS/Q_21873735.html
Windows Tasks at shutdown
Open a Command Prompt window and determine the exact commands needed to copy the desired files. Use the XCOPY command, as it handles big files better than plain COPY. If you back up the same files every day, you can hard-code the full path for those files in the command. For each file you'd use a command like XCOPY /Y C:\BIG\BIG.DAT \\REMOTEPC\BACKUPS. The /Y command line switch automatically answers yes if XCOPY asks whether to overwrite an existing file having the same name. If you've mapped the network drive to a local drive letter, the command might look like XCOPY /Y C:\BIG\BIG.DAT G:\BACKUPS. It may be that the set of files that need backup changes every day. In that case, establish a folder that holds only those files and copy all files from that folder: XCOPY /Y C:\BIG\*.* G:\BACKUPS.
When you've verified the commands needed to back up your files, launch Notepad and enter those commands into a new document. Save it on the Desktop as "MyBackup.bat"—include the double quotes, so that Notepad won't be tempted to rename it MyBackup.bat.txt. Launch the batch file and verify that it does the job correctly. Now open it in Notepad again and add this command at the end of the file: SHUTDOWN -S -F -T 60 -C "Shutting down in 60 seconds"
Once the files have been copied, this line will start a 60-second countdown and then shut the system down. If you have a change of heart, quickly click Start, then Run, and type SHUTDOWN -A.
When you've verified the commands needed to back up your files, launch Notepad and enter those commands into a new document. Save it on the Desktop as "MyBackup.bat"—include the double quotes, so that Notepad won't be tempted to rename it MyBackup.bat.txt. Launch the batch file and verify that it does the job correctly. Now open it in Notepad again and add this command at the end of the file: SHUTDOWN -S -F -T 60 -C "Shutting down in 60 seconds"
Once the files have been copied, this line will start a 60-second countdown and then shut the system down. If you have a change of heart, quickly click Start, then Run, and type SHUTDOWN -A.
Vista: Instant search
When you perform a search with Vista's new instant search feature, you can save the search results as a special folder. This powerful feature lets you create a virtual folder, which will dynamically update—when you search next month for files that are less than a week old, the files won't be the same as they were yesterday. Saved searches, aka search folders, are by default is saved in your \\Searches\ folder. You can save all the searches you perform regularly this way. And here's the cool part: Just as with the instant search in the Start menu, with search folders Vista's not just looking for regular files; you can have it include e-mails, contacts, and applications.
Nintendo Customer Service
Recently my son's DS Lite only displayed a blank screen when powered on (even though the green power button was lit), and googling these symptoms revealed this was not something that can be resolved without recourse to Nintendo.
With a heavy heart, I went to the Nintendo site, expecting the worst in terms of cost, process, etc. My fears, though, were not realised. The site has clearly signposted links to servicing, and the process was remarkably straightforward. If the item is in warranty, then repairs are free, but if not, then you return the item (for which they provide a freepost address which allows the item to be tracked) and they contact you to confirm the price of repair.
We raised a support ticket here - http://www.nintendoservicecentre.co.uk/index.php, and received a confirmation email and then a further mail with the reply paid label. The DS was returned on Saturday, and the following Thursday we were told the charge for repair was just over £30. Paid for this online, received an email confirmation that package had been despatched, and the DS was back the Tuesday afterwards (would have been Monday if someone had been in to sign for the parcel!)
So 9 days in total for £30. Very impressed!
With a heavy heart, I went to the Nintendo site, expecting the worst in terms of cost, process, etc. My fears, though, were not realised. The site has clearly signposted links to servicing, and the process was remarkably straightforward. If the item is in warranty, then repairs are free, but if not, then you return the item (for which they provide a freepost address which allows the item to be tracked) and they contact you to confirm the price of repair.
We raised a support ticket here - http://www.nintendoservicecentre.co.uk/index.php, and received a confirmation email and then a further mail with the reply paid label. The DS was returned on Saturday, and the following Thursday we were told the charge for repair was just over £30. Paid for this online, received an email confirmation that package had been despatched, and the DS was back the Tuesday afterwards (would have been Monday if someone had been in to sign for the parcel!)
So 9 days in total for £30. Very impressed!
Monday 14 June 2010
Mac: Podcast import / export
Export OPML from iTunes
1) Launch iTunes
2) Click on the Podcast icon in the Source area on the left side of iTunes
3) Goto …
File > Export Song List
In the dialog box that appears select OPML from the formats drop down menu near the bottom of the window. Don’t forget to name your opml file and make sure there is a .opml extension on it.
5) Click save
Import OPML from iTunes
1) Launch iTunes
2) Click on the Podcast icon in the Source area on the left side of iTunes
3) Goto …
File > Import
In the Import dialog box find your OPML file. Click choose.
4) You’ll see a box comes up that says, “Are you sure you want to add XX subscriptions?” Click yes
1) Launch iTunes
2) Click on the Podcast icon in the Source area on the left side of iTunes
3) Goto …
File > Export Song List
In the dialog box that appears select OPML from the formats drop down menu near the bottom of the window. Don’t forget to name your opml file and make sure there is a .opml extension on it.
5) Click save
Import OPML from iTunes
1) Launch iTunes
2) Click on the Podcast icon in the Source area on the left side of iTunes
3) Goto …
File > Import
In the Import dialog box find your OPML file. Click choose.
4) You’ll see a box comes up that says, “Are you sure you want to add XX subscriptions?” Click yes
Excel: Sum cells based on colour
'Sums cells based on a specified fill color.
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Dim rCell As Range
Dim iCol As Integer
Dim vResult
iCol = rColor.Interior.ColorIndex
For Each rCell In rSumRange
If rCell.Interior.ColorIndex = iCol Then
vResult = WorksheetFunction.Sum(rCell) + vResult
End If
Next rCell
SumColor = vResult
End Function
SQL - Where clause
From http://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql_where.asp
Quotes Around Text Fields
SQL uses single quotes around text values (most database systems will also accept double quotes).Although, numeric values should not be enclosed in quotes.
For text values:
| This is correct: SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName='Tove' This is wrong: SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName=Tove |
| This is correct: SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE Year=1965 This is wrong: SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE Year='1965' |
Operators Allowed in the WHERE Clause
With the WHERE clause, the following operators can be used:| Operator | Description |
|---|---|
| = | Equal |
| <> | Not equal |
| > | Greater than |
| < | Less than |
| >= | Greater than or equal |
| <= | Less than or equal |
| BETWEEN | Between an inclusive range |
| LIKE | Search for a pattern |
| IN | If you know the exact value you want to return for at least one of the columns |
Saturday 12 June 2010
Mac: Folder actions
Programmable automation is built into the OS X operating system in the form of the scripting language AppleScript. As its name suggests, AppleScript is a user interface for writing scripts—small programs that you can run on their own or in conjunction with other activities (including other scripts or macros). One of the more useful things you can do with AppleScript is to create folder actions, a few examples of which we'll examine here.
A folder action has a simple purpose: It applies the relevant instruction to any item added to or removed from the folder. Let's say, for example, that you have a number of graphics files in TIFF format, and you need to resize them, convert them to grayscale, convert them to PNG format, and resave them for a Web publication you're working on. A graphics program such as Photoshop could do this, but if the files are coming from various locations on your Mac, it would be more convenient to drag them into a separate folder from those locations and have the transformations applied automatically. A folder action would make this happen—and without your having to open the programs required to effect the changes. Of course, folder action scripts don't have to be that complex. Nor should your first attempt be, if you're considering writing it from scratch, In fact, OS X ships with several built-in folder action scripts, all of which are relatively simple. Here's a list of a half-dozen of them:
add – new item alert.scpt A pop-up window appears to let you know that an item has been added to the folder. This script is obviously useful for shared folders whose contents you need to monitor.
close – close sub-folders.scpt Designed for screen clean-up; whenever an item is added to the folder, the folder and all its subfolders close automatically.
convert – PostScript to PDF.scpt This script converts PostScript (EFS) files to PDF files the instant you add them to the folder.
image – Duplicate as JPEG.scpt When you add an image file to the folder, OS X will automatically create a copy of that file in JPEG format. If it's already in JPEG format, it will do nothing. There are actually three scripts of this type built in to OS X: one to convert to JPEG, another to PNG, and a third to TIFF.
image – Rotate Left.scpt Any image file added to the folder is rotated 90 degrees to the left. A similar script does the same but rotates to the right, while two others flip the image vertically or horizontally.
image – Info to Comment.scpt When you add an image file to the folder, information about the file is added to the Spotlight comments field. A related script lets you automatically see these comments whenever a new file is added to that folder.
The built-in folder action scripts are located in Macintosh HD -> Libraries -> Scripts -> Folder Action Scripts.
Clearly, these aren't earth-shaking additions to anyone's automation arsenal. But they point to the power of folder actions, especially in cases where you have multiple files to be acted upon. Once you have the script in place, the simple act of dragging a file from one folder to another causes the actions specified by the script to occur. You can't get much more basic than that.
Folder actions work by attaching specific scripts to specific folders: I'll get to this in a minute. For folder actions to work at all, though, the folder action system must be activated. You can do so in two primary ways:
This cascading menu points to the Enable Folder Actions option. After you've enabled Folder Actions, you can disable them by returning to this menu.
With folder actions enabled, you can tell OS X what you want that folder to do, by assigning it a script. To select the script you want applied to a specific folder, right-click that folder and choose More -> Attach a Folder Action. Typically, you'll be presented with the Folder Actions Scripts folder, but if not, navigate to Macintosh HD -> Libraries -> Scripts -> Folder Action Scripts.
The scripts are found in the far right panel; consider placing your custom and downloaded scripts in this folder as well for easy reference.
Each folder may contain multiple folder actions, so you're not restricted to doing only one thing with a drag and drop. If you have your Mac's sound volume turned up, you can hear the scripts being enacted, each with a separate ping. In some cases, the script creates sub-folders; open the parent folder to see what the script has done. (For example, the file-conversion scripts included with OS X do this.)
The Original Images sub-folder contains the graphics files dropped into the parent folder; the JPEG, PNG, and TIFF sub-folders contain the corresponding copied and converted files. All these folders were created automatically by the script.
A folder action has a simple purpose: It applies the relevant instruction to any item added to or removed from the folder. Let's say, for example, that you have a number of graphics files in TIFF format, and you need to resize them, convert them to grayscale, convert them to PNG format, and resave them for a Web publication you're working on. A graphics program such as Photoshop could do this, but if the files are coming from various locations on your Mac, it would be more convenient to drag them into a separate folder from those locations and have the transformations applied automatically. A folder action would make this happen—and without your having to open the programs required to effect the changes. Of course, folder action scripts don't have to be that complex. Nor should your first attempt be, if you're considering writing it from scratch, In fact, OS X ships with several built-in folder action scripts, all of which are relatively simple. Here's a list of a half-dozen of them:
add – new item alert.scpt A pop-up window appears to let you know that an item has been added to the folder. This script is obviously useful for shared folders whose contents you need to monitor.
close – close sub-folders.scpt Designed for screen clean-up; whenever an item is added to the folder, the folder and all its subfolders close automatically.
convert – PostScript to PDF.scpt This script converts PostScript (EFS) files to PDF files the instant you add them to the folder.
image – Duplicate as JPEG.scpt When you add an image file to the folder, OS X will automatically create a copy of that file in JPEG format. If it's already in JPEG format, it will do nothing. There are actually three scripts of this type built in to OS X: one to convert to JPEG, another to PNG, and a third to TIFF.
image – Rotate Left.scpt Any image file added to the folder is rotated 90 degrees to the left. A similar script does the same but rotates to the right, while two others flip the image vertically or horizontally.
image – Info to Comment.scpt When you add an image file to the folder, information about the file is added to the Spotlight comments field. A related script lets you automatically see these comments whenever a new file is added to that folder.
The built-in folder action scripts are located in Macintosh HD -> Libraries -> Scripts -> Folder Action Scripts.
Clearly, these aren't earth-shaking additions to anyone's automation arsenal. But they point to the power of folder actions, especially in cases where you have multiple files to be acted upon. Once you have the script in place, the simple act of dragging a file from one folder to another causes the actions specified by the script to occur. You can't get much more basic than that.
Folder actions work by attaching specific scripts to specific folders: I'll get to this in a minute. For folder actions to work at all, though, the folder action system must be activated. You can do so in two primary ways:
- Right-click on a folder and choose More -> Enable Folder Actions
- Right-click on a folder, choose More -> Configure Folder Actions, and check Enable Folder Actions on the resulting Folder Actions Setup dialog box.
This cascading menu points to the Enable Folder Actions option. After you've enabled Folder Actions, you can disable them by returning to this menu.
With folder actions enabled, you can tell OS X what you want that folder to do, by assigning it a script. To select the script you want applied to a specific folder, right-click that folder and choose More -> Attach a Folder Action. Typically, you'll be presented with the Folder Actions Scripts folder, but if not, navigate to Macintosh HD -> Libraries -> Scripts -> Folder Action Scripts.
The scripts are found in the far right panel; consider placing your custom and downloaded scripts in this folder as well for easy reference.
Each folder may contain multiple folder actions, so you're not restricted to doing only one thing with a drag and drop. If you have your Mac's sound volume turned up, you can hear the scripts being enacted, each with a separate ping. In some cases, the script creates sub-folders; open the parent folder to see what the script has done. (For example, the file-conversion scripts included with OS X do this.)
The Original Images sub-folder contains the graphics files dropped into the parent folder; the JPEG, PNG, and TIFF sub-folders contain the corresponding copied and converted files. All these folders were created automatically by the script.
Mac: 10.6: Fix Samba write access from OS X to Linux servers
After installing the OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.3 update, I found that I could no longer write to Samba (SMB) volumes shared from my Linux server (running Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala) that I had mounted on OS X.
Whenever I tried to copy a file from OS X to the mounted Samba drive, I got this error message:
Whenever I tried to copy a file from OS X to the mounted Samba drive, I got this error message:
The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to access some of the items.To solve the problem, turn off Unix extensions in your Samba server (Ubuntu 9.10 in my case) by adding the following line to smb.conf in the global settings block, and then restarting Samba:
unix extensions = noYou might also need to unmount and re-mount your Samba volumes from OS X after you make this change
Mac: Show File & Folder information directly within the Finder & Desktop
You can set Mac OS X to automatically display file and folder information directly within the Finder and on the Desktop.
Enabling extra item information displays:
* Get to the Mac OS X Finder / Desktop
* Open the ‘View’ menu
* Scroll down to ‘Show View Options’ (or hit Command+J)
* Click the check boxes next to ‘Show item info’ and ‘Show item preview’
Extended item info and previews will now be included on items displayed in the Icon view.
Enabling this feature shows things like the item count of a Folder when in icon view. My personal favorite part of this ’show item info’ feature is the ability for picture files to show their dimensions directly under the file name, this is so incredibly useful for anyone frequently working with images and manipulating pictures.
Mac: Compare images side-by-side directly within Finder
You can quickly compare any two images side-by-side by using Mac OS X’s QuickLook feature.
* Select the two pictures within the Finder that you want to see side-by-side
* Hit the Spacebar to enter into QuickLook mode
* Click on “Index Sheet” at the bottom of the Quick Look window (it’s the icon with four tiled windows)
* The Escape key exits side-by-side view, and hitting Spacebar again or clicking away from the window exits QuickLook mode
Assuming you have the screen resolution to support it, there’s no reason you can’t compare four or even twenty images side-by-side with this method. This is a really handy tip for photographers and graphic artists.
Mac: Set iTunes volume
It has always peeved me that some songs will play louder than others. This is due to a multitude of reasons, from the source audio to the way it was ripped, but nonetheless it’s obnoxious when one song is quiet and the next is blasting. Stop messing with your speaker volume though, because iTunes will automatically adjust song volume level to be constant for you! It’s a setting that should be enabled by default if you ask me, but since it’s not here’s how to turn it on:
Enable iTunes automatic song volume adjustment
* From the iTunes menu, navigate down to ‘Preferences’* Click on the ‘Playback’ tab at the top
* Select the checkbox next to ‘Sound Check’
* Now select ‘OK’
Now restart iTunes and the song volume will be consistent across songs, with iTunes automatically adjusting the levels for you. No more speaker tweaking
Mac: Create a hidden folder
You can create a folder that is hidden from the default Finder GUI view by taking advantage of Mac OS X’s unix underpinnings, here’s how:
* At the command line, type:
Feel free to replace the name hiddenfolder with anything else, leaving spaces and special characters out of the name will make it easier to deal with in the future.
* Type in the full path to the folder you just created, replacing ‘username’ and ‘hiddenfolder’ with your username and folder name, respectively:
* Your hidden folder will now be opened in the Finder, you can drag and drop whatever you want into the directory
And you can make any invisible or hidden folder visible again by reversing this and removing the period from the front:
Note that you can’t enter a period in front of a folder or file name in the Mac OS X Finder, if you try you will be presented with this dialogue box telling you the dot “.” is reserved for the Mac OS X system software:
If you have Apple’s Developer Tools installed you can use a utility called ’setfile’ which allows you to set any directory or file as invisible, you can read more about hiding files and folders with setfile in Mac OS X, but the limitations on visibility are practically identical to the above technique: file is invisible from the Finder but visible with ls -a or certain applications.
Create the secret folder
* Launch the Terminal (located in /Applications/Utilities)* At the command line, type:
mkdir .hiddenfolderFeel free to replace the name hiddenfolder with anything else, leaving spaces and special characters out of the name will make it easier to deal with in the future.
Access the secret folder
* Now click back to the Finder, and hit Command+Shift+G to bring up the ‘Go to Folder’ dialog box* Type in the full path to the folder you just created, replacing ‘username’ and ‘hiddenfolder’ with your username and folder name, respectively:
/users/username/.hiddenfolder/* Your hidden folder will now be opened in the Finder, you can drag and drop whatever you want into the directory
Making existing folders hidden and making hidden folders visible again
You can actually make any folder invisible from the Finder (and most apps) just by adding a period to the front of the name, you can do this with existing folders via the command line:mv Folder .FolderAnd you can make any invisible or hidden folder visible again by reversing this and removing the period from the front:
mv .Folder FolderNote that you can’t enter a period in front of a folder or file name in the Mac OS X Finder, if you try you will be presented with this dialogue box telling you the dot “.” is reserved for the Mac OS X system software:
Setting Mac OS X to display hidden folders
You can actually set Mac OS X to display hidden files by issuing a command in the Terminal. This will expose your hidden folder completely within the Finder, but you’ll also see tons of other important system files and folders. This is generally not recommended to keep activated as it is both confusing to many users and it makes it easy to accidentally delete important files.Notes on hidden folders
Remember that these folders are not hidden completely, they are just not visible from the Mac OS X Finder. Many applications won’t see the folder either, but various FTP programs like Transmit have the option to show invisible files and the folder would be visible to those applications. Likewise, the folder would always be visible via the command line to anyone who typed the ls command and added the -a flag, signifying to display all files, like so:ls -aIf you have Apple’s Developer Tools installed you can use a utility called ’setfile’ which allows you to set any directory or file as invisible, you can read more about hiding files and folders with setfile in Mac OS X, but the limitations on visibility are practically identical to the above technique: file is invisible from the Finder but visible with ls -a or certain applications.
Mac: Delete specific pages in PDF
Hold down Shift-Command-Delete with one or more pages selected, and only those pages will be deleted from the document. Page numbering, however, does not update to reflect this deletion until you (re)save the file
Mac: Show exact duplicates in iTunes
In iTunes, a very useful feature is the File » Show Duplicates menu item. As expected by its name, you can use this feature to help weed out duplicates from your iTunes library. However, many people (myself included) have different versions of songs, remixes and such, which will show up as duplicates when using this feature.
The solution is to hold down the option key prior to selecting this menu item. When you do, Show Duplicates changes to Show Exact Duplicates. In this mode, iTunes shows only true duplicates, and not remixes or alternate versions.
The solution is to hold down the option key prior to selecting this menu item. When you do, Show Duplicates changes to Show Exact Duplicates. In this mode, iTunes shows only true duplicates, and not remixes or alternate versions.
Mac: Convert Images
You can convert many different image file formats in Mac OS X for free using the included Preview application. As of Mac OS X 10.6, Preview supports the following file types and will convert between any of them: GIF, ICNS, JPEG, JPG, JPEG-2000, Microsoft BMP, Microsoft Icon, OpenEXR, PDF, Photoshop (PSD), PICT, PNG, SGI, TGA, TIFF
Here’s a very simple walkthrough to convert images within Preview:
* Open the image file you want converted within Preview
* From the File menu navigate down to ‘Save As’
* Select the file format you want the image converted to from the ‘Format’ drop down list
* Click “OK” to save and convert the image to the new format
The above process will hold true regardless of the origin images file format and the desired file format.
Preview.app supports a wide range of image conversions: GIF to JPG, JPG to GIF, PSD to JPG, JPG to PDF, JPG to BMP, BMP to JPG, BMP to GIF, PNG to GIF, JPG to PNG, TIFF to JPG, and just about every other variation between these and more. As long as the image format is supported by Preview, it will convert it to any other supported file format.
Here’s a very simple walkthrough to convert images within Preview:
* Open the image file you want converted within Preview
* From the File menu navigate down to ‘Save As’
* Select the file format you want the image converted to from the ‘Format’ drop down list
* Click “OK” to save and convert the image to the new format
The above process will hold true regardless of the origin images file format and the desired file format.
Preview.app supports a wide range of image conversions: GIF to JPG, JPG to GIF, PSD to JPG, JPG to PDF, JPG to BMP, BMP to JPG, BMP to GIF, PNG to GIF, JPG to PNG, TIFF to JPG, and just about every other variation between these and more. As long as the image format is supported by Preview, it will convert it to any other supported file format.
Mac: Reset a lost password
If you’ve forgotten or lost your password in Mac OS X, you can reset a password by booting from a Mac OS X install disk. Insert the Mac OS X install disk into your drive, reboot the machine, and hold down the “C” key to boot from the disk. Once booted, select your language preference then pull down the ‘Utilities’ menu to “Password Reset” or “Reset Password” (wording is different depending on which version of Mac OS X you’re booting with). Select the disk which the password needs to be reset on, select the Username, and then enter a new password. Reboot as usual, and your Mac OS X password will be reset!
Mac: Easily view available disk space
Select the drive in the Finder, then press the Space Bar. In the Quick Look window, you'll see the drive's capacity and unused space details.
Mac: Hold the Command key to open a folder in a new window
You can open a folder in a new window by holding down the Command key when you click on it. This is a really useful tip if you’re trying to copy files from inside one folder to another, just open the directories side by side and copy away!
Tuesday 8 June 2010
iPod photo sync issues
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1314
Symptoms
When using iTunes to sync photos to iPod and iPhone, iTunes creates a folder called iPod Photo Cache in the top level of the folder you selected for your photos. Picking another folder to sync does not erase the previous iPod Photo Cache. Depending on how many photos are being synced, the hard drive could fill up.
Symptoms
When using iTunes to sync photos to iPod and iPhone, iTunes creates a folder called iPod Photo Cache in the top level of the folder you selected for your photos. Picking another folder to sync does not erase the previous iPod Photo Cache. Depending on how many photos are being synced, the hard drive could fill up.Resolution
Drag the folder named iPod Photo Cache to the Trash or Recycle Bin.
Monday 7 June 2010
Mac: Remove pages in PDF
- Delete a page: Command + Delete
- Move a page: Click and hold on the page and drag to reorder
- Add another PDF: Drag the PDF into the sidebar
Friday 4 June 2010
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