A Couple of Donkeys

Tech Tip: Get Rid of that Annoying Apple Updater!

2009-02-27T03:50:00.000-08:00

Are you sick of seeing this pop up and taking the focus away from what you were doing?

Go to Start -> Programs -> Apple Software Update.

Click on Edit -> Preferences, go to the 'Schedule' tab and select Never.

Click Ok, then Quit.

If you want to update your software at any point in the future you can always go back into Start -> Programs -> Apple Software Update and download & install them.

Spiceworks

2009-02-09T08:35:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I changed jobs and moved industry from Architecture/Construction to the Travel Industry. As part of the job I inherited I got something I had been looking to implement for quite some time (already handily implemented for me by my predecessor!), a Helpdesk.

The Desktop Support aspect of IT can be tricky. Dealing with the organisation of a network, tracking devices, consumables and all the rest in addition to fielding user requests can sometimes become overwhelming. (When you've got someone at your desk, emails coming in and your phone ringing you'll know what I mean.)

So, saying all of this, my life has become so much simpler. Spiceworks included a Help Desk (which will connect to either MS Exchange or a pop3 email address), a network Inventory and some other cool features. It runs on either a windows desktop machine or a windows server. It's completely free, running ad supported on your network or you can also pay $20/month or $220/year to brand it with your own logo and remove the ads.

Visit the site - www.spiceworks.com to check it out for yourself.

Full disclosure: I don't work for Spiceworks or make any gains from writing about their product, I merely use their software and have found it good enough to post about it.

So, things have been quiet around here for a while...

2009-01-20T17:05:00.001-08:00

It's been a busy few months so we haven't been posting as much as we should have (or at all). One of the interesting developments we've been working on is home.system.

It's going to be a purpose built smart home / integrated computing system for one of our new homes. We will update shortly on its progress.

Tech Tip: Flash Earth - Google Earth Alternative

2007-03-05T05:18:00.000-08:00

For the past few weeks at work, every so often, someone would complain about Google Earth... Officially this isn't a program we use in the office but some of the people find it useful in the free version. The complaint would usually either involve the entire screen going Green or Black. Apparently, this is an issue with some graphics cards. Instead of trying to remedy the problem now, I usually uninstall Google Earth and direct them to the mashup website Flash Earth.

The Flash Earth API integrates with Google Maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth, Yahoo Maps, Ask.com (aerial & physical), OpenLayers and NASA Terra data.

Click here to go to Flash Earth

Tech Tip: Saving in Microsoft Office formats by default in OpenOffice.org

2007-01-22T10:17:00.000-08:00

OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute.

That's from the OpenOffice website. I like to recommend OpenOffice to friends and family members who ask me to 'get them' Microsoft Office because it's free and open (and its one less piece of pirated software in the wild...). The only problem is, when they save files to give to others for presentations or to print or whatever and that person uses Microsoft Office. If it were me, I'd automatically know to 'Save As...' a Microsoft .doc/.ppt/.xls file rather than just save in the default OpenOffice format.

For those and others who want to learn how to save in Microsoft formats automatically, read on.

In OpenOffice:

Go to Tools -> Options

Expand the 'Load/Save' section.

Click 'General' under 'Load/Save'

You need to change the default for each type of document (ie Text document, spreadsheet, presentation etc). To do this:

Select the type of document under 'Default file format' and 'Document Type' eg Text Document. Then select the format you wish to save it in under 'Always Save As' eg Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP. Obviously you don't have to switch it to a Word Document, you could as easily save it as a Lotus Notes something or other...

Tech Tip: Using 'No to All'

2006-12-22T03:25:00.000-08:00

Came across this handy tip via Reddit : Using "No to all" while replacing files in Windows

Thanks go to Vijeesh at Tech Xpress for that handy tid-bit!

Tech Tip: AutoCAD Fatal Error

2006-12-14T04:51:00.000-08:00

When installing AutoCAD ADT 2006 recently I came upon this error when starting CAD to configure settings:

AutoCAD Error Aborting.

FATAL Error: Unhandled e0434f4dh Exception at 7c59bc81h

This happened after installing Express Tools for ADT. The fix I came up with was to install the latest ADT Service Pack...

Tech Tip: InstallShield Error 1607 under Windows 2000

2006-12-13T03:44:00.000-08:00

Every once and a while, we come up against errors which shouldn't happen, but do. One such incident started happening to me lately while loading machines with software in work...

Every time I tried to install a certain application (which worked fine the first couple of hundred times I installed it) I would get InstallShield Error 1607. Searching Google gave me a couple of fixes but none worked. Eventually, I narrowed the cause down to one thing: Windows Installer!

To fix this error, go to Control Panel, then Add/Remove Programs. Uninstall Windows Installer 3.1 (KB893803). This will give you a dialog similar to the following:

Click 'Yes' to this, we will fix this in a moment... Then immediately after the uninstall, go to Windows Update and install any updates available (Windows Installer 3.1 should come up as a required update). Once this intalls, those programs will work fully again (afaik, you can run them but not uninstall them properly until Windows Installer is restored).

Tech Tip: Recommended browser: Firefox 2!

2006-10-31T12:53:00.000-08:00

As techie's here at A Couple of Donkeys we use only the best software and where possible like to use free and open source alternatives. Ever since it was called pheonix, we've been using Mozilla Firefox as our main browser. Compared to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, it just plain rocks!

The fact it rarely crashes, the multitude of extensions (which can do almost anything - from reading RSS feeds to Downloading images from webpages) and the features it provides put this browser as top dog in our book. In our opinion it is much better than Internet Explorer 7, which only serves to emulate Firefox features from days gone by.

So why did we post other than to point you to Firefox 2? Simply put, the majority of you (our readers) use Internet Explorer. Here's a screenshot of our sitestats to illustrate:

We urge you to make the switch to firefox, it's free and secure and you won't regret it!

Tech Tip: Removing the need for Ctrl-Alt-Del aka No more three fingers

2006-10-31T10:04:00.000-08:00

If you are tired of holding down those three familiar yet spaced-far-apart keys to logon your machine, here is the way to get rid of Ctrl+Alt+Delete.

It does involve a registry modification so be careful and back up the entries before doing this.

Go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Create a REG_DWORD called: DisableCAD

Then modify the data value as appropriate:

Value Data: (0 = Require Ctrl+Alt+Delete, 1 = Disable)

Tech Tip: Copy from a Windows dialog box

2006-10-25T07:25:00.000-07:00

To copy text from a Windows dialog box, simply hold down the Ctrl and Insert keys at the same time!

Tech Tip: Disabling the 'Display Properties' dialog under Windows 2k/XP

2006-10-17T09:23:00.000-07:00

During my college days, I always wondered how the administrator's had locked down all of the settings on the Windows machines on the network. One such setting which was disabled was the Display Properties dialog (reached by right-clicking on the desktop and left-clicking Properties). This allowed a standard wallpaper to be set and ensured you didn't sit down to a computer with a 640 x 480 resolution...

Anyway, recently in work I was looking into locking down Windows machines so they would all have a similar appearance and give a more uniform look to the office. Say what you will about restricting settings such as these, sometimes it's handy (so I don't have to look at someone's seizure inducing wallpaper while fixing their PC...).

Here is the registry setting which will do this, and it's a simple one to boot:

- Go to the Start menu and Run...
- type in regedit and hit [Enter]
- Navigate to HKEY Current User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies
- If a registry key called System does not exist, create it:

- Then, in System, create a new DWORD value called NoDispCPL. This is done by right-clicking under Default and left-clicking New -> DWORD Value as shown:

- Disabling the 'Display Properties' dialog is as simple as modifying this DWORD. (To modify a DWORD, right-click the DWORD and left-click Modify. You then want to modify the 'Value data'.)

- Setting the NoDispCPL value to 1 will disable the dialog and setting it back to 0 will enable it again.

This will work on both Windows 2000 and Windows XP machines. Feel free to comment if this doesn't work and hopefully we'll be able to sort it out for you!

Tech Tip: Setting up networked Windows printers with a double-click!

2006-10-12T02:32:00.000-07:00

The automation of setting up networked printers under Microsoft Windows 2000/XP can be easily automated using a simple Visual Basic script (.vbs).

This can be added into Active Directory to run upon startup or can be run by each individual user at any time.

To get this script to work, you need to know the server the printer's queue runs from, and the name of the printer on that server. You can use this script to install multiple printers at the same time too.

The script takes the following form:

' Printers.vbs - Printer Setup Script ' Basic network setup Option Explicit Dim objNetwork Dim strUNCPrinter Set objNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network") ' if anything goes wrong, ie a printer cannot be found, skip to the next one On error resume next ' add in as many as you like, the basic form is: ' objNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\SERVERNAME\PrinterName" objNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\print_server\Printer_01" objNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\print_server\Printer_15" objNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\print_server\Printer_09" objNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\other_server\Printer_12" ' You can change the text to say something else here if you wish WScript.Echo "Printer Setup Complete!" WScript.Quit ' End printers script.

When you run the script (it may take a minute..) you will see the following:

Copy and paste the script into a text editor (like Notepad) and save as printers.vbs. To run it, double-click the file in Windows Explorer. You could also set it up to run upon login using Active Directory.

Technorati tags:
Windows | Netowrk Printers | Visual Basic | WSH

Tech Tip: Stopping Registry file in Windows from being executable

2006-07-24T15:59:00.000-07:00

If you've ever come across the Windows Registry, you'll know that it's a powerful yet much misunderstood tool. regedit.exe can be both helpful and dangerous. If you run a registry file (.reg) without knowing what it contains, you run the risk of damaging Windows.

To make it so registry files can only be added to the registry by right-clicking on the file and left-clicking 'Merge', save the following text to a file called nomerge.reg:

REGEDIT4 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\regfile\shell] @='edit'

Stay tuned for more updates coming soon...

Then run that registry file by double-clicking it. This will be the last registry file you may double-click to run. From now on registry files will open in an editor such as notepad...

Tech Tip: Banging your iPod fixes it!!

2006-05-10T09:41:00.000-07:00

WARNING: This will probably void any valid warranty. Don't do this if you have a valid warranty.

Sad Paddy (broken iPod)

Before you're tempted to call bulls**t on this, it's pretty reliable. How reliable? I saw it done right in front of my eyes. At first I didn't believe this would work. I heard about a friend of a friend of a friend throwing his broken iPod in rage against a wall. It magically worked after that. Then he told the friend of a friend (who also had a broken iPod) just to bang it off of a desk. Again, the impact fixed the problem, the iPod worked again!

To finish off the story, I was discussing this story with my friends (Paddy). Surprise, surprise one of them had a broken iPod. Five minutes ago, literally he gave the iPod a bang off of the desk. And guess what, it worked!

If you've got a broken iPod, that is NOT under warranty, and doesn't work. Try giving it a bang off a desk (not too hard though, you don't want to smash it!!). So far it's worked! If it IS still under warranty, try getting it fixed before you send it back.

Anyway, the juicy stuff: bang the *side* of the broken iPod against a surface. Then test to see if it works!

End result: Happy Paddy!!

Feel free to leave comments (if it worked or otherwise)...

Tech Tip: Turning off services remotely with Windows

2006-05-01T19:48:00.000-07:00

This article applies to Windows Server OS's (Server & Advanced Server 2000, 2003), Windows XP and greater with the Service Controller Query Tool - sc.exe.

sc.exe is contained within the Windows Resource Toolkit. From the Microsoft website:

"The Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools are a set of tools to help administrators streamline management tasks such as troubleshooting operating system issues, managing Active Directory®, configuring networking and security features, and automating application deployment."

Anyway, what we need is a list of all of the computers on the local network and administrator rights within that domain. To do this, open up the command prompt (Windows-R -> cmd, Start -> Run -> cmd ...) or open the command prompt from the start menu and use the net command to list all available computers.

The usage is:

net view

Then, we need to identify the service name we want to stop. (A useful list of windows services can be obtained through your favourite search engine or here.) Then we do the following (again at the command line):

sc \\hostname stop servicename

where \\hostname is one of the names on the list we got from the net view command. An example would be to remotely stop windows automatic update:

sc \\machine stop wuauserv

The output will look something like the following:


SERVICE_NAME: wuauserv
        TYPE               : 20  WIN32_SHARE_PROCESS
        STATE              : 3  STOP_PENDING
                                (NOT_STOPPABLE,NOT_PAUSABLE,IGNORES_SHUTDOWN)
        WIN32_EXIT_CODE    : 0  (0x0)
        SERVICE_EXIT_CODE  : 0  (0x0)
        CHECKPOINT         : 0x1
        WAIT_HINT          : 0x3a98

If you need to do this on your local machine, you can either use the hostname of the machine, or leave out the hostname entirely and it should work. Using localhost, however, does not work...

As always, any questions or comments, feel free to post ;)

Tech Tip: YouTube & Bebo - update

2006-05-01T07:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the instructions for getting a YouTube video for a Bebo flashbox stopped working. This is because YouTube changed the way their videos play. A possible reason for this is the rate at which they're spending their startup capital...

The new way to get a link that works is to view the video on YouTube. Select the text from the box which says 'Embeddable Player'. Copy and paste this into a text editor (Notepad, Word etc). Then copy the website link, it'll look something like this

http://www.youtube.com/v/dsX3zSfktQI

Paste the link into your browser (internet explorer, or if you're cooler, firefox) and hit enter. Then copy the address that comes up once the video starts to play. That's the swf url that bebo are looking for.

The link should look something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/p.swf?video_id=dsX3zSfktQI&eurl=&iurl=http%3A//stati
c15.youtube.com/vi/dsX3zSfktQI/2.jpg&t=OEgsToPDskJYcUEudiZEiNquYCp0sdDY

Any problems with this method, feel free to leave a comment.

Tech Tip: YouTube & Bebo

2006-03-05T09:25:00.000-08:00

So, after getting into the social networking [wikipedia.org] thing, I've been thinking about the FAQ and help sections of these websites [facebook.com][bebo.com]. The FAQ/help sections of these websites often doesn't list details of how some of their technologies actually work. Point in case being bebo's 'flashbox' technology.

Instead of being like the rest of the 'beboers', why not add your own semi-unique flashbox by using YouTube [youtube.com].

Its pretty simple. Every video on YouTube [youtube.com] is identified by a unique bunch of letters and numbers. (eg ZRXLJp0BP9w). Bebo requires an internet url for the location of a beboer's flashbox. YouTube provides an interface to all of its video's by one player.swf file.

So, to get the video from YouTube onto your bebo profile, simply copy the random bunch of letters and numbers from the address bar of your browser and attach it to the end of this url:

http://www.youtube.com/p.swf?video_id=

For our earlier example, Dillinger Escape Plan's 'Panasonic Youth' (ZRXLJp0BP9w) the url would be:

http://www.youtube.com/p.swf?video_id=ZRXLJp0BP9w

Paste this into the bebo flashbox url and click 'save'. That's it, you're done. Enjoy the video you've just picked!

(For examples of two flashboxes done using this technique, check my bebo profile here [bebo.com] or my college class' bebo profile)

[Updated 29/Apr/2006 to reflect the change in swf file used by YouTube...]

Tech Tip: Thunderbird Tip

2005-08-02T17:16:00.000-07:00

To follow on from our previous post on Firefox keyboard shortcuts, we decided to show you this neat little trick in Thunderbird (the Mozilla mail client).

To 'Label' a message, you can just hit the appropriate number key.

0 - No label
1 - Important
2 - Work
3 - Personal
4 - To Do
5 - Later

The message will change colour once you hit the appropriate key.

And that's it for this tip. Watch this space for more!

Tech Tip: Firefox keyboard shortcuts

2005-07-29T01:50:00.000-07:00

So I was reading this article, and I decided I'd post some keyboard shortcuts, you may or may not know about.

Anyway, giving the link to that article is enough to post about in itself.

So here it goes: hopefully others can add their shortcuts too...

Ctrl-T - New Tab

Ctrl-W - Close Tab

Ctrl-Tab - Switch between tabs sequentially

Ctrl-PgUp - Switch between tabs sequentially forwards (Same functionality as Ctrl-Tab)

Ctrl-PgDn - Switch between tabs sequentially backwards

Ctrl-J - Open the downloads progress dialog

Feel free to add your own shortcuts...