fenderTech

Ubuntu: Running Dynamo Executable: No such file or directory

2011-10-27T00:34:00.000-07:00

Symptom:

root@testMachine:~/iometer-2006_07_27.linux.i386-bin/src# ls
dynamo iomtr_kstat scripts
root@testMachine:~/iometer-2006_07_27.linux.i386-bin/src# ./dynamo
-bash: ./dynamo: No such file or directory

For this case, you need to make sure you have ia32-libs installed. To check whether the package is installed, run:

root@testMachine:/# dpkg -l ia32-libs
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-==============-==============-============================================
ii ia32-libs 20090808ubuntu ia32 shared libraries for use on amd64 and i

if it shows "un", meaning ia32-libs is not installed. If is installed, it will show "ii"

Install ia32-libs by

apt-get install ia32-libs

* Please note that, for simplicity, i using root account to run the above command, you might need to add sudo in front of the above commands if you are not using root account.

dpkg : status database area is locked by another process while trying to install

2011-10-13T04:15:00.000-07:00

This will happen if you accidentally kill the apt-get process and dpkg become orphan process. To solve this problem you can either

Reboot your server or do the following:

sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/lock

sudo dpkg --configure -a

How to change boot order for Ubuntu (>9.10)

2011-09-14T23:16:00.000-07:00

1. cat /boot/grub/grub.cfg

see the order of the wanted kernel. Starts from 0.

Example:

…

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-30-server' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux
# this is 0
--class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 71119ab7-e93f-49a9-80f1-efc11398c954
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-30-server root=UUID=71119ab7-e93f-49a9-80f1
-efc11398c954 ro quiet
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-30-server
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-30-server (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu -
# this is 1
-class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 71119ab7-e93f-49a9-80f1-efc11398c954
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.35-30-server ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-30-server root=UUID=71119ab7-e93f-49a9-80f1
-efc11398c954 ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-30-server
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-28-server' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux
# this is 2
--class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 71119ab7-e93f-49a9-80f1-efc11398c954
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-28-server root=UUID=71119ab7-e93f-49a9-80f1
-efc11398c954 ro quiet
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-28-server
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-28-server (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu -
# this is 3
-class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 71119ab7-e93f-49a9-80f1-efc11398c954
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-28-server ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-28-server root=UUID=71119ab7-e93f-49a9-80f1
-efc11398c954 ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-28-server
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
…

2. vi /etc/default/grub

change GRUB_DEFAULT=0 value to wanted kernel
Example:

If we want to boot to 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-28-server' we should set 2

3. run update-grub to update

4. reboot and check with uname -r to see if correct kernel selected.

Iphone data and charging cable

2011-07-31T08:06:00.000-07:00

Daiso is selling it for SGD 2 and it works! :)

Bluetooth disappear after reformat Dell Inspiron 1525

2011-07-23T02:20:00.000-07:00

If you are not able to turn on your bluetooth after reformat and reinstall your inspiron 1525 laptop. You might want to try the following patch from Dell

Dell Bluetooth Patch

Or do a google search on the following keywords

BTW Radio ON, A00

firefox crash - msvcr90.dll

2011-07-22T22:24:00.000-07:00

If you encounter firefox crashing whenever you open some webpage, you might need to disable some add-ons for the browser, and most of the time, the add-on you might want to disable is AVG safe-search.

To disable it, go to Tools-Add-ons and select Extensions. Disable the add-on and restart your browser

If you look at Windows event-viewer, this is the likely entry you will see

p.s. if you experience the same thing for I.E, disable AVG safe-search might also be your solution.

Mount NFS shared on ESX -notes

2011-04-20T23:04:00.000-07:00

Few things to take note:

If you encounter the following error and are sure that your NFS server firewall is ocnfigured properly or disable

 mount: mount to NFS server 'hostname' failed: System Error: Connection refused

You might want to try this this

 esxcfg-firewall -e nfsClient

If you encounter the following error:

 mount.nfs Input/output error

You might want to check your portmap status and start it if is stopped.

Check ths status

 service portmap status

Start the service

 service portmap start

VMware ESX 4.1 smb - How to mount CIFS drive

2011-03-30T20:24:00.000-07:00

For shared drive without domain:

[user@system ~]mount -t cifs //192.168.123.123/share /mnt/CIFS -o username=Administrator

For shared drive with domain:

[user@system ~]mount -t cifs //192.168.123.123/share /mnt/CIFS -o username=Administrator,workgroup=Domain

Ksym Dependancy - rpm

2011-03-09T01:43:00.000-08:00

If you encounter some ksym (..) dependancy problem when installing kmod package, you might want to try the --nodeps switch.

rpm -ivh --nodeps kmod.something.rpm

Some quote from the HP website

"RPM uses KMP packaging dependency data to ensure the dependencies are met
before installing the binary RPM.  Red Hat maintains a whitelist of kernel
symbols which RPM uses to validate against the KMP binaries.  Some symbols may
be in the kernel but not on the whitelist which results in a failed binary RPM
install. The user will need to use the "--nodeps" switch when installing the
binary."

How to install iostat in CentOS

2011-03-07T22:20:00.000-08:00

The command below will do the job!

# yum install sysstat

ESX 4.1 - initialization of module ipmi_si_drv failed

2011-02-06T22:06:00.000-08:00

If you encounter such problem and you are sure your system doesn't support ipmi, you can disable it by editing this file /etc/vmware/init/init.d/72.ipmi

Add in the following line (italic) and save the file.

return ${SUCCESS}

Exec esxcfg-init -I || {
return ${NON_CRITICAL_FAILURE}
}

VMware ESX 4.1 smb - mount error 111 = connection refused

2010-12-27T19:31:00.000-08:00

If you encounter the following error when you try to mount to a CIFS share on a windows server from service console as shown below:

[root@esx41 mnt]# mount -t cifs //192.168.44.88/shared /mnt/CIFS -o user=administrator
Password:
mount error 111 = Connection refused
Refer to the mount.cifs(8) manual page (e.g.man mount.cifs)

This is probably caused by the ESX firewall issue, to enable Samba client connections:

[root@esx41 samba]# esxcfg-firewall -e smbClient

And this should fix the mount error 111 problem.

How to enable VMware Web Access

2010-12-07T22:23:00.000-08:00

Go to the console and log in. First check the status of VMware web access service by typing this

service vmware-webAccess status

if the service is stopped, just type

service vmware-webAccess start

and you should be able to login to web access.

To have web access enabled every time you start your ESX server, type the following command:

chkconfig --level 345 vmware-webAccess on

Add CD/DVD ISO images to Citrix XenCenter

2010-12-06T01:31:00.000-08:00

In VMware Server, pointing the virtual DVD drive to the CD/DVD image is a straight forward process, just select ISO and choose the optical disk image path. When using Citrix XenCenter for the XenServer, you need to create a Storage Repository (SR) to let your virtual server see the CD/DVD image. This is how you do it:

1. Select the XenServer( not the virtual machine) on the left hand pane. After that, make sure you select Storage tab and you should be able to see a button call "New SR..". Click on it.

2. Depends on how you share your image file, click the correct option. In this case, we are using Windows file sharing, so we select "Windows File Sharing (CIFS) under ISO Library.

3. Fill in the necessary information like the sharing path, user name and password that is allowed to access this sharing folder.

4. Go to your virtual machine and under Storage tab, you should be able to see the new selections under DVD Drive 1 drop down menu.

Missing language bar in Windows Vista

2010-10-15T08:44:00.000-07:00

If you happen to experience this problem, might want to try the method mentioned in the link below

http://www.sysprobs.com/language-bar-missing-vista-windows-7

Basically is to add one more entry in

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

with the following string value "ctfmon"="CTFMON.EXE"

After that, restart your machine.

Cannot access Microsoft website or others antivirus website

2010-08-31T20:08:00.000-07:00

If you having this problem of not able to access Microsoft website including their Windows Update site, there is a possibility your PC is infected by conflicker virus. To verify it, go to this website.

There are few conflicker removal tools in the web and you can easily google it. However since conflicker also prevent you from going to some antivirus webpage, you have to use other non-infected PC to download any tools from the antivirus webpage or find a third party webpage that host the conflicker removal tool like this.

How to install RapidSVN on CentOS

2010-07-26T20:35:00.000-07:00

To start off, you need to grab the necessary rpm packages. Just go to pbone and type RapidSVN and wxGTK in the search box. and look for the correct rpm packages that match your OS. Besides this, you also need to have subversion, instead of using rpm, i am going to use yum to do it

yum install subversion

After that, install wxGTK follow by rapidSVN.

rpm -ivh wxGTK-2.8.9-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm

rpm -ivh rapidsvn-0.9.6-2.el5.rf.i386.rpm

If everything done nicely, you should be able to launch RapidSVN as below

Link to launch the RapidSVN Subversion Client

RapidSVN GUI Interface

Make your media player "Always On Top" of other windows

2010-06-13T03:37:00.000-07:00

This is a very useful feature which can allow you to watch video while surfing net, especially if you are surfing those Paid To Click (PTC) pages. This post will show you how to set the "Always On Top" feature on the following media player.

VLC Media Player

Windows Media Player

For Windows Media Player, you need to go to Tools->Options... and the setting is under Player tab.

Real Player

Install 2008 R2 on ESX 3.5 with Dell T410

2010-05-17T22:24:00.000-07:00

If you encounter the following message when you try to install 2008 R2 as a VM in Dell T410:

Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause... File: \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe Status: 0xc000035a Info: Attempting to load a 64-bit application, however this CPU is not compatible with 64-bit mode.

you need to enable virtualization technology to overcome this problem

From BIOS screen, go to Processor Settings

Change "Virtualization Technology" to "Enabled"

Fibre Channel (FC) Disk Interface

2010-01-08T05:36:00.001-08:00

Dell T410 pictures

2009-11-01T17:05:00.000-08:00

T410

This configuration can put in 6 3.5" harddisk

T410 internal: There are 5 PCIe slots and take note that one slot is being used by the SAS card. All slots are PCIe Generation 2 except for slot 3.

Dell T710 pictures

2009-11-01T16:48:00.001-08:00

T710
This configuration can put in 8 x 3.5" harddisk

T710 internal

T710 internal: With the cover taken away, you can see the processor and also the memory slots. Processors are E5502. It can support 144GB memory if all the memory slots are fully populate with 8GB RAM.

T710 internal: There are 6 PCIe slots, 4 are x8, 1 is x16 and 1 is x4 and all are PCIe generation 2 which means each lane can support up to 5.0 Gb/s. There is actually one more PCIe slot which is actually being used to plug the SAS card.

Can't initialize IBM DS4800 LUN under Windows 2003

2009-10-29T23:42:00.000-07:00

Scenario:

You create 2 LUNs from IBM and assign it to one Windows host. You have no problem initialize the first LUN but when it comes to second LUN, Windows will prompt message saying "The operation did not complete. Check the System Event Log for more information on the error" and you are unable to initialize.

When you go the Event viewer, the viewer shows "The device....disappeared from the system without first being prepared for removal"

The problem might be because you allocate the LUN to the different controller that you connect to your host as shown in the diagram below.

So to solve this, you can set the Ownership/Preferred Path to Controller in Slot A. Take note that if you only have one LUN and you allocate to controller that is not connected to your host. You might not even see the LUN from your host at all.

Set note pages slide image and notes image to standard size

2009-10-02T02:04:00.000-07:00

This usually happen when you copy a bunch of slides from other presentation and incorporate it into your current presentation. and the result might be what you see below, page 1's slide image is smaller than page 2's slide image

Page 1

Page 2

To overcome this, i prepare the VBA script below. Not sure if there is a non-VBA method that can be used to solve this, but if yes, please let me know also.



Sub resize()
    Dim x As Long
    Dim y As Long
    Dim i As Long
    Dim arrayCount As Integer
    Dim shapeNameArray() As String

    ' Loop through every presentation slide(s)
    For x = 1 To ActivePresentation.Slides.Count

        ' Manipulate shapes in notespage view
        With ActivePresentation.Slides(x).NotesPage

        ' Loop through every shapes in the notepage view slide
        For y = 1 To .Shapes.Count

            ' To select the presentation slide
            ' Usually the presentation slide will be on top,
            ' so use top property to limit the selection
            ' the use of height property is optional
            ' the use of this is mainly to filter away shapes like
            ' header, footer and page number
            ' which might be in place, and usually those shapes' height will not
            ' be higher than 90, so i use this as the condition
            ' The reason i say is optional is because you can always go to
            ' Edit Header and Footer to take out 
            ' all header, footer and page number 
            ' and reapply them later
            ' 1 inchi= 72

            If .Shapes(y).Top < 100 And .Shapes(y).Height > 90 Then
                .Shapes(y).Height = 364.32
                .Shapes(y).Width = 486
                .Shapes(y).Top = 28.08
                .Shapes(y).Left = 46.8
   
            ' To select the notes page
            ' Usually notes page will be be below presentation slide
            ' so use top property to limit the selection
            ' Again use of height is optional
   
            ElseIf .Shapes(y).Height > 90 And .Shapes(y).Top > 100 Then
                .Shapes(y).Height = 322.56
                .Shapes(y).Width = 486
                .Shapes(y).Top = 404.64
                .Shapes(y).Left = 46.8
            Else
                ' Do nothing
                ' or you want to apply something to the filtered shape here
            End If

        Next y
        End With
    Next x
End Sub

To use this code, you must first enable macro if you have not donw so and then open the VBA editor, follow this link to find out how to do it. Remember, always make a copy of your power point slide before you applying any changes to it. This code is only tested on PowerPoint 2007.

Revised script for IP range ping

2009-09-16T02:05:00.000-07:00

Last year i actually wrote a script to do the same thing but the script is not really good and always have the annoyed dos windows pop-up. This time, i using the example on the "Hey, Scripting Guy!" and it is a much much better script in terms of neatness and speed) for doing the same thing

'Create a file to write the result
'============================================================

FileName = "PingResult.txt"
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

If (fso.FileExists(FileName)) Then
Set resultFile = fso.OpenTextFile(FileName, 8)
else
Set resultFile = fso.CreateTextFile(FileName, true)
end if

subnetID = "192.168.35."

For range = 2 to 254 ' specify range of ip
ipAddress = subnetID & range
if Ping(ipAddress) then
resultFile.writeline ipAddress & " is alive"
else
resultFile.writeline ipAddress & " is dead"
end if
next

'Using Win32_PingStatus class
'============================================================
Function Ping(ipAddress)

Set objWMIService = _
GetObject("winmgmts:\\.\root\cimv2")
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
("Select * from Win32_PingStatus " & _
"Where Address = '" & ipAddress & "'")
For Each objItem in colItems
If objItem.StatusCode = 0 Then
Ping = True
else
Ping = False
End If
Next

End Function

Screen capture program to capture mouse pointer

2009-08-23T23:21:00.001-07:00

If you wat to do screen capture to also include mouse pointer, this program will come in handy. Furthermore, it is free. :)

With Windows Screen Capture key

With ScreenHunter program:

How to connect to hidden accesspoint on Windows Vista

2009-08-23T22:42:00.000-07:00

1. Right click on the network icon on your right below tasbar and select "connect to a network" as shown

2. On the "Select a network to connect to" window, click on "Setup a connection or network".

3. On the "Choose a connection option", select "Manually connect to a wireless network".

4. On the next window, you need to keyin the required information. For the option "Connect even if the network is not broadcasting", please visit this link to learn more about the secuirity issue on this opton.

5. And lastly, just select "Connect to...".

Where to download Brocade/Cisco firmware?

2009-08-19T23:20:00.000-07:00

As you know, HP also sell Brocade/Cisco FC switchs which they rebrand them to storageworks B-series/C-series switches. You can actually get the firmware from their site. Just click this.

Task Scheduler - problem running the vbs

2009-08-06T03:19:00.000-07:00

If you encounter task scheduler try to run your vbs task which involve action on network drive but fail. Besides looking at security permission, please also check the following setting shows on the picture below. Make sure is "Run only when user is logged on". If you choose the "Run whether user is logged on or not", you might not run your task with the intended user and thus fail.

Windows 2008 Task Scheduler

Nokia E71 - How to type underscore "_"

2009-07-28T05:52:00.000-07:00

Apparently underscore is not part of the symbol can be found on the keypad. To type it, you have to press the "Ctrl" key once and select this symbol from the on screen symbol table. This key is located at the bottom right corner of your phone keypad as shown in the picture below.

Script for event log backup

2009-07-22T18:40:00.000-07:00

Simple script to do the event log backup using wevtutil, this is an unpolished script, please use it with care. wevutil is supported on Windows 2008 and Windows Vista.

'Backup event log script

'Get the current date and time
CurrentDate = now

sAcceptableChars = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789"

'Remove "/", ":", " " from CurrentDate and put it
'in FixDate

For x = 1 to Len(CurrentDate)
ch = mid(CurrentDate, x, 1)
If InStr(sAcceptableChars, LCase(ch)) > 0 Then
FixDate = FixDate & ch
End If
Next

Set wshShell = WScript.CreateObject ("WSCript.shell")

'Start to do event log backup

wshshell.run "C:\Windows\System32\wevtutil cl _
Application /bu:E:\AppEvent_" & FixDate & ".evt", 1, True

wshshell.run "C:\Windows\System32\wevtutil cl Security _
/bu:E:\SecurityEvent_" & FixDate & ".evt", 1, True

wshshell.run "C:\Windows\System32\wevtutil cl Setup _
/bu:E:\SetupEvent_" & FixDate & ".evt", 1, True

wshshell.run "C:\Windows\System32\wevtutil cl System _
/bu:E:\SystemEvent_" & FixDate & ".evt", 1, True

set wshshell = nothing

How to move your shape data text box in Visio 2007

2009-07-13T21:56:00.000-07:00

To do this, you have to use "Text Block Tool" as shown below.

Once you select this, move your mouse pointer over any shpae data text box and you can start to move shape data text box when your mouse pointer change to overlapped double rectangle as shown below.

Free Upgrade to QuickOffice 6 for Nokia E71

2009-06-17T06:14:00.000-07:00

Free upgrade for your QuickOffice, why wait? Go ahead and upgrade it. Just go to Menu->Office->QuickOffice->Updates and Upgrades to get it. :)

Nokia E72 Spotted

2009-06-15T00:35:00.000-07:00

Nokia E72
by DevilsRejection

I won't really upgrade my E71 any time sooner but this really make me drooling for it. Gotta resist my temptation on this one and ask myself to go for the model after E72. :p

Notes: Is official, the detail spec is here.

Problem Ejecting USB Mass Storage Device

2009-06-14T02:58:00.000-07:00

I believe all of us experience this problem before. And the typical solution is to close any related program that is running on the portable hard drive itself. However, sometimes even after you do this, some background process might still have a lock on the files on the portable hard drive that is very hard for us to detect. So one of the way to solve this problem is to use unlocker.

once you install unlocker, simply right click on the drive you want to eject and click on the unlocker.

And you will see unlocker window pops up. In this example, is the windows explorer that lock the drive. So simply click the unlock button to Unlock it. Simple and easy. :)

Setup FTP server on Windows 2003 Server

2009-06-10T00:55:00.000-07:00

To setup FTP server, you need to have the windows installation disc with you and follow the steps below:

1. Go to Add or Remove Programs and choose Add/Remove Windows Components
2. Under Windows Components Wizard, highlight Application Server and click Details.

3. Under Application Server, highlight Internet Information Services (IIS) and click Details

4. Under Internet Information Services (IIS), select File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Service and click OK.

5. You will be prompted to insert the Windows installation disc.

6. And that's it, you will be able to access Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager to further configure your ftp server.

SkyFire is version 1.0 now

2009-05-28T22:55:00.000-07:00

If you not already know, sky fire is one of the mobile browser that can support playing flash and silverlight video and the best thing is, you can install this on your Nokia E71. :)

Get it here

usb print server

2009-03-15T07:43:00.000-07:00

Today just purchased one usb print server (pci 101M) from Carrefour. the reason i purchased from Carrefour is because Carrefour got 15 days refund policy, so if really this print server cannot work with my printer (Brother DCP-135C), i can always return the product. But thankfully, it works! And the best part is, the default IP for this print server (192.168.1.200) is in the same subnet of my Linksys wireless router, so basically this print server works straight out from the box.

So what left for me to configure is just host configuration, meaning the configuration on your PC that you want it to print through print server. Below are the steps taken to configure a Windows Vista system.

1. Go to Control Panel -> Printer
2. Click on Add a printer

Click Add a printer

3. From the Add Printer windows, choose Add a local printer

Choose Add a local printer

4. In the next windows, choose Create a new port and for the Type of port, select Standard TCP/IP port

5. Next, select Device type as TCP/IP Device and also input the IP address for the print server, in this case, 192.168.1.200, the default.

6. The next windows shows the system is try to detect the TCP/IP port. This process might take a while.

7. Next windows ask for additional port information. In this windows, under device type, select Custom and click on the Settings button.

8. in this new windows, slect LPR as the protocol we going to use. For Queue Name under LPR Settings, type lpt1.

9. Next windows should ask you to install printer driver. Select the printer from the manufacturer printer list. If your printer is not in the list, you might need to click Have Disk to install the printer driver. In my case, the printer driver is already installed when i first purchase the printer.

10. Next step will ask you to enter printer name, you can also use the default name generated. If everything goes well, you should be able to see the last windows on sayaing you have successfully added the printer. you can choose to print the test page to confirm everything is ok.

scansnap s300

2009-02-20T09:08:00.000-08:00

Just borrow this from my friend, is really small and portable and the best thing about this is it can do duplex scanning with auto paper feeder and can be powered using your laptop through usb cable. Is actually quite fast also especially when you use power from the wall socket.

Video showing scanning 16 pages (duplex) of colour document when this scanner is powered by usb

Video showing scanning 16 pages (duplex) of colour document when this scanner is powered by wall socket. Is extremely fast in this setup.

Nokia E71 - Removing Failed

2009-02-13T05:53:00.000-08:00

Symptom: Try to uninstall application from your phone using Application Manager but encounter "Removing Failed" message.

Possible solution:

Take out your micro-sd card and read the card through PC.
Make sure you enable show hidden files and folders option.
Go to private folder, search all the random number named folder and once you find the application file(s), delete the folder contain the file(s).

Have to take some time to go through all the folders

Why deleted folder keep appearing?

2009-02-12T06:59:00.000-08:00

Had you ever encountered this weird scenario, after deleting a folder, and you make sure it is completely gone, and after a while, this folder mysteriously appear again? This indeed happen to me and after i read this, then i realize my problem is because of Windows Media Player. Apparently i set the "Rip music to this location" to the folder i want to delete and whenever you open your Windows Media Player, it will try to recreate this folder for you, talking about trying to be helpful... So the solution, change the path to a permanent location. Hope this helps if you encounter the similar problem. :)

Go to Tools->Options->Rip Music and change the path to a permanent folder

Missing Microsoft RDP Client Control

2009-02-06T07:46:00.000-08:00

System: On a fresh install Windows XP SP3 system with all the Windows update

Symptom:
When try to use IE7 to initiate a terminal service connection, you find that it won't work and you see a little pop-up message saying Add-ons disabled.

Add-on Disabled message

When you go to Manage Add-ons, you find no Add-ons are disabled and you also cannot see the Microsoft RDP Client Control Add-on.

Everything enabled?

Solution:
Go to Internet Option and go to Advanced tab, click on the Reset button to reset Internet Explorer settings. Restart the Internet Explorer and retry again and this time it should work.

Click on Reset button

After restart your Internet Explorer, you can see Microsoft RDP Client Control!

Free LineRider Mobile

2008-12-23T20:23:00.000-08:00

There is this promotion going on from SymbianGear where you can download this game for free from 24 - 26 December 2008. Click this link to find out.

Why i can't use my Nokia E71 as modem?

2008-12-14T04:33:00.000-08:00

I had experienced this issue for quite a while and only today i manage to solve it. My problem is because i disabled the telephony service (think i disabled last time as i think i will never use it). So if you having the same issue when you just can't seem to use your phone as your modem. This might be a solution for you.

To check whether your telephony service is enabled, follow the following steps

For Windows XP, click Start, click Run, type services.msc in the Open box, and then click OK. For Windows Vista, click Start, type services.msc in the Start Search box, and then press enter.
Double-click Telephony.
On the General tab, click your Startup type box, if is Disabled, change it to Manual and then click OK.

This virtual machine appears to be in use

2008-11-05T00:02:00.000-08:00

For VMWare Workstation 6.0, when you do not shut down your virtual machine cleanly, you might encounter this prompt (as shown) when you try to use the virtual machine again.

The solution to this problem is simple, just go to your virtual machine directory, remove any folder with extension *.lck.

Convert mp4 to avi

2008-10-26T08:29:00.000-07:00

Today happen to shoot some videos using my Nokia E71 phone and there are all in mp4 format. To view it, i always use VLC player when my WIndows Media Player fail to open it. Is still not too bad but my friend asked me it is possible to get a free program to convert it to other format that can be played on Windows Media Player? Google around internet and yes there is, the Avidemux. Is quite a nice program and once you manage to find the best setting, converting video is a very straight forward task.

Open the file you want to convert

Select your settings, for my case i choose
Video: MPEG-4 AVC (x264)
Audio: MP3 (LAME)

And lastly, save the file and remember to the label the extension, example, name.avi

Do you have any free program to recommend, feel free to add in the comments! :)

Windows XP Installation Hangs at Setup is inspecting your computer’s hardware configuration

2008-09-19T00:48:00.000-07:00

Been trying to install Windows Xp on one particular machine and it always stop at "Setup is inspecting your computer’s hardware configuration". After google from the internet, realise that Windows Xp is very particular when you try to install over an used disk - means you got some non-windows partition inside (example: Linux). To solve it, i use the ultimatebootcd to delete all the old partitions and it works after this.

Script to ping a range of IP address

2008-09-09T06:04:00.000-07:00

I wrote this script last week as i need to find out the IP address for particular storage box. Is not really neat but it did help me in identify the IP address without me brute force myself. To use it, you need to copy and paste the following lines into a text file and save it as "something.vbs". After that just click on it abd the result will be saved in the ping_result.txt file.

'Create a file to write the result 
Dim objFile, strGuyFile, strFilePath
strFilePath = "ping_result.txt"
Set objFile = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set strGuyFile = objFile.CreateTextFile(strFilePath, true)
' Create shell object to run ping
Dim objShell, subnetID, range, result
subnetID = "192.168.37."
Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
For range = 2 to 254 ' the range of ip we want to test

Set objScriptExec = objShell.Exec("ping " & subnetID & range & " -n 1")
result = objScriptExec.StdOut.ReadAll
WScript.Sleep 500
strGuyFile.Write(result)

Next          
strGuyFile.Close

Enable Telnet in Windows Vista

2008-07-25T07:18:00.000-07:00

I seldom use my own laptop for office work until today when i need to use it to telnet to some equipment to shutdown and to my surprise, there is no Telnet for my laptop which is running Windows Vista. Luckily this feature is disable but not taken away. To enable back, simply go to Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Turn Windows features on or off. A windows will pop up and from the list, just click the Telnet Client and that's it, you have your telnet back. :)

Auto Insert Pinyin For Office under Windows Vista

2008-05-30T01:11:00.000-07:00

I believe a lot of us feel very frustrated when we realize this pinyin (phonetic guide) feature is not working for Windows Vista. It seems like this is one of the bug that Microsoft successfully to fix it with their SP1 release. So this is how i get it to work.

I have a machine upgrade to Windows Vista SP1*. If you are using Office XP, download the Office XP Tool: Global IME (Simplified Chinese) and install it. After installation, it should works.

If you are not using Office XP but using Office 2003 or Office 2007. Things will get a bit more complicated. This is because the Office XP Tool: Global IME (Simplified Chinese) cannot be installed without Office XP installed. Hence, the way i do it is to install Office XP alongside Office 2003 or Office 2007. After that install the Office XP Tool: Global IME (Simplified Chinese). Once installed, you can uninstall Office XP. I know is troublesome but so far this is the only way i can make this works.

I will try to explore to see if i can install Office XP Tool: Global IME (Simplified Chinese) without Office XP and if is successful, i will post on my next post.

You can see that Microsoft Global IME for Office XP coexist with Microsoft Office 2007

Windows Vista Service Pack 1

Success!

* You might want to make a backup image before you apply Windows Vista SP1. you might want to check out this link on the potential Vista SP1 problem.

Auto insert pinyin using phonetic guide for office installed under windows XP

2008-05-27T09:33:00.000-07:00

When you are using Windows XP with this version (to check windows version, you can go to start ->Run and type winver)

You might face this problem when you are using the phonetic guide to auto insert pinyin.

There is no pinyin inserted under Ruby Text

To solve this problem, you can apply the following registry trick. Copy everything and paste it on a notepad. Save this as yourname.reg and remember to choose the save as type to All Files. Double click the file and it will auto insert all value into your computer registry.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\MSIME.China]
@="PINTLGNT"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\MSIME.China\CLSID]
@="{E4288337-873B-11D1-BAA0-00AA00BBB8C0}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\MSIME.China\CurVer]
@="MSIME.China.1"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\MSIME.China.1]
@="PINTLGNT"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\MSIME.China.1\CLSID]
@="{E4288337-873B-11D1-BAA0-00AA00BBB8C0}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MSIME.China]
@="PINTLGNT"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MSIME.China\CLSID]
@="{E4288337-873B-11D1-BAA0-00AA00BBB8C0}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MSIME.China\CurVer]
@="MSIME.China.1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MSIME.China.1]
@="PINTLGNT"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MSIME.China.1\CLSID]
@="{E4288337-873B-11D1-BAA0-00AA00BBB8C0}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{E4288337-873B-11D1-BAA0-00AA00BBB8C0}]
@="PINTLGNT"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{E4288337-873B-11D1-BAA0-00AA00BBB8C0}\InprocServer32]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\PINTLGNT.IME"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{E4288337-873B-11D1-BAA0-00AA00BBB8C0}\ProgID]
@="MSIME.China.1"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{E4288337-873B-11D1-BAA0-00AA00BBB8C0}\VersionIndependentProgID]
@="MSIME.China"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{E4288337-873B-11D1-BAA0-00AA00BBB8C0}]
@="PINTLGNT"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{E4288337-873B-11D1-BAA0-00AA00BBB8C0}\InprocServer32]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\PINTLGNT.IME"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{E4288337-873B-11D1-BAA0-00AA00BBB8C0}\ProgID]
@="MSIME.China.1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{E4288337-873B-11D1-BAA0-00AA00BBB8C0}\VersionIndependentProgID]
@="MSIME.China"

After apply this registry trick, you will able to see the pinyin straight away.

The pinyin is shown :)

It seems like this only apply to older version of Windows XP as when i try on the version below, it works perfectly straight out of the box. However, i can't confirm this.

The idea for this solution is actually taken from this link. It seems like for office xp user, you can install "Office XP Tool: Global IME (Simplified Chinese)" to solve this problem. I might try it once i got time. I also working on the similar problem on Windows Vista and i will post my finding on next post. :)

My SD Card Case

2008-05-11T09:10:00.000-07:00

Today i went around Sim Lim Square (IT Hub in Singapore) to look for SD card case and after 1 hour searching, the best case i can get is as shown as below. Nice case but it costs $17 which is too much above my budget.

The case is good but is too expensive

I continued searching and i came to this shop at 6th floor where they sell small name card CD case. This case is cheap (10 cents only) and that's why i decided to buy it and bring home to see whether i can create my own SD card case or not.

So my SD card case project started with material gathering and in fact the only material i need is the 0.15 cm cardboard. Using a pen knife, i successfully cut out 4 SD Card slot and although the cutting is not perfect but SD Card can all fit in. After an hour work, i finally completed my SD card case. Is not really high grade work but it works. Although the card case opening hook may seem fragile but i don't care because is only 10 cents and if it spoilts, i can just go and get another case.

My SD card case - When it is closed

My SD card case - When it is opened

My SD card case - Front View

My SD card case - Back View

My SD card case - Side View

Print PDF document that is locked for printing

2008-05-01T21:34:00.000-07:00

Just google around and found this link talking about the issue above. I try the method (ghostscript and gsview) mentioned in the link and it works. And what's more, is free.

Upgrade Memory Module on Dell 640m

2008-04-26T08:10:00.000-07:00

Initially i thought replacing memory module for my laptop will be an easy task. I mean, usually for laptop, accessing the memory module is just unscrew that particular memory module cover, unplug existing ram and plug in the new ram. And to Dell 640m, yes, this only apply to one of the memory slot which is dimm B but to access dimm A, you actually need to remove your dell notebook's hinge and keyboard. Now it seems like a big project already and the service manual from Dell actually teach you how to do it step by step.

Since there is step by step guide, i don't want to repeat all again in this blog but just to share with you my experience. For me, removing the hinge is definitely the most challenging part. The reason being, the hinge is a plastic cover that is secured by some catch, so to remove it, you always have the fear on whether will you break it or not and luckily, i manage to remove the hinge without any significant damage but with some minor scratches :(. After remove that hinge, the remaining task is actually very simple, just remove the keyboard, or just flip over like what i did and you will be able to see the memory slot. After finish installing, just power up your laptop and wait for it (it takes some time) to ask you to press F1 to continue.

Finally, the hinge is removed. I must admit is not perfect job and there are some minor scratches.

I just flip over the keyboard and be extra careful especially on the ribbon cable that connected to the keyboard. And you can see from here also, the memory slot.

A closer look.

I am actually upgrading my laptop ram from 1GB (2 x 512MB) to 2GB (2 x 1GB). So some of you might wonder whether Dell 640m support memory more than 2GB as officially the maximum ram that Dell 640m can support is 2GB. However, base on this forum, somebody actually try to install 4GB (2 x 2GB) and it works. However, the maximum ram you can see will be roughly 3.3GB as operating systems will use some of the memory space. So is really up to you to decide. For me, i happy with 2GB ram and this upgrade should last me at least 2 more years. :)

How to format drive bigger than 32gb under windows XP

2008-03-27T03:02:00.001-07:00

Although fat32 is old technology, but it is supported by many OS natively. But if you find you have problem format it using Windows XP because

You can't find the fat32 option when do the format or
You encounter message saying your volume is too big (bigger than 32Gb).

You can try this fat32format. Is a very handy tool and the website also contains step by step guide as well as some troubleshooting hints.

Dell Inspiron 700m/710m can't read 2gb SD card

2008-03-27T02:18:00.000-07:00

This happened to my friend's Inspiron 700m just now. She inserted the newly purchased 2GB SD card into the Inspiron internal card reader and found that the system detects none, is it SD card problem? End up is not SD card problem, apparently is you need to update the driver. Go to this link and download the necessary driver and install it.

If the link doesn't work out, just go to Dell website and do a keyword search on this "R139212.EXE". :)