Don't Back Down

Move Thunderbird Signature for Identity

Chad Everett — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:00:00 -0500

One difficulty in current versions of Thunderbird is that even if you have set the preference to move the signature line related to the quote, it will not be saved correctly.

Luckily there is a way to move this manually. The only problem is that it is a bit of a pain to do so, and if it reverts, you have to make the change manually again. Fortunately it is not hard, just a nuisance.

The first thing you need to do is to exit Thunderbird. This is because the preference is stored in the user.js file. This file, stored in your profile folder, does not exist by default, so you may need to create it (if you have previously created it, or some other preference is stored in it, the file may exist).

If you do not know where your profile is, you may need to do some searching, as this depends on what OS you use for Thunderbird.

Once you have found and/or created the file, you simply need to add a new setting to the file. This setting tells Thunderbird which signature you want to move for which identity you want to move, and looks like this:

user_pref("mail.identity.id5.sig_bottom", true);

What's that? You don't know which id to use?

That's when it gets a bit more complicated. You will need to find your prefs.js file - found in the profile folder - and locate the identity that you want to change. Unfortunately this isn't the simplest file to browse. It isn't hard, but you will just need to scroll through it in order to determine which id you are looking for, and once you find it, use that number in the line above. Add it to the user.js file, save and restart.

Note: This article is a bit dated, and may not be valid for current versions. Please keep this in mind.

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Back-to-Back Bombs in Baghdad

Chad Everett — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:00:00 -0500

Way back in 2001, just after the second plane hit the second World Trade Center tower, before anyone in the US really thought much about terrorism, I turned to my girlfriend (who would later become my wife) and told her that it made sense that the second plane would wait a short while. It means that they get more media coverage. And it would not surprise me in the least if we would see something else a short while later (which we did). And so on.

As it turned out, there wasn't a whole lot more after the Pentagon plane hit, but there certainly could have been more. A whole lot more.

In fact, that was a part of the story in the 2007 movie The Kingdom, which starts with a bombing and then another bombing shortly thereafter, designed to do the most damage not with the first attack, but with the second, when rescue attempts are at their strongest (and the media is present as well).

So it really doesn't surprise me a whole lot that this is now unfolding in the real world as well. If anything, I am surprised that it hasn't happened more.

I am far from an expert, but the newspaper tells us that a suicide bomber detonated their explosive device as a crowd gathered to help in the aftermath of the first explosion. It seems like an excellent tactic if terror is really your focus. A single attack is relatively simple, and can come out of nowhere. Good, but perhaps less than effective, especially in today's world.

A second attack of this nature would be so much more impressive, as it not only has the same impact as the first, it may potentially scare off anyone rushing to the aid of the victims from the first attack, and it could be caught by whatever media is covering the event.

Chilling to be sure, and an escalation in the war, but certainly much more effective.

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VC8 Library was not Installed Correctly

Chad Everett — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:00:00 -0500

Another week, another software problem. But this one isn't coming from Microsoft. No, this time it is Logitech who is causing issues.

Though I waffle between keyboards from time to time, my mouse is almost always Logitech, because they are just so comfortable. These days it is really difficult for me to use anything else. And that means that I am almost always using - or installing - their SetPoint software.

As with most other software, however, that means I will probably run into a problem eventually, and this time around it is the error in the title: VC8 library was not installed correctly, please restart the machine and reinstall.

What? For a mouse driver? That is just insane.

So after digging around for a while, and reading all sorts of suggestions to install one version and then the next, I stumbled upon the answer. As with most problems, it is fairly simple: Install the Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable package first, then install SetPoint.

Since the package is labeled "Redistributable", you would think a company like Logitech would spring for the licensing fee to actually be able to redistribute it. But no - they make you go find it. It isn't hard, really - just search and you can get the appropriate version at Microsoft for your platform. It's just one extra step is all.

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What Do You Miss Most When Traveling?

Chad Everett — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 06:00:00 -0500

I am the first to admit that I don't travel nearly as much these days as I used to, and I am very happy for that. When I did travel, I was - generally - single (I was often dating, so I don't know if you can count that), I had few obligations such as pets, and it helped a great deal. I had to pay rent of course, but other bills were much lower because I was traveling so much.

Having the company pay for meals and lodging while on the road is pretty sweet. Heck, if you really want to save, you can turn down the heat and if push comes to shove you might be able to score some free dry cleaning too. But that might be a little much for most of us. So other than the sound of money flowing out of your checking account, what do you miss the most?

These days, I find that it isn't my bed (though I do miss my bed), my bathroom (which I also have come to know and love), or any other room in the house (which I also can miss immensely). And of course I miss the family, but for the sake of argument, keep people and pets out of the discussion.

I think the thing that I miss the most is my TiVo. I am actually not trying to sell you on one, but my behavior is so ingrained that when I'm lying in bed after a night of being on the road - whether it is for business or pleasure - it actually takes me a while to get used to even the feel of a different remote, and it takes me even longer to figure out why the stupid thing will not allow me to fast-forward past the commercials or introductions, or allow me to see what else might be on that is more interesting.

What I would really love is if the fine folks at TiVo could figure out how I could watch my TiVo shows while I was traveling. That would be awesome.

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Google Alerts via RSS

Chad Everett — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:00:00 -0500

If, like me, you use Google Alerts to be notified of new content when it appears, you also may not like having your inbox cluttered if you have a bunch of alerts configured.

Now there is a new option for you newshounds. Alerthounds. Whatever you call yourselves.

Google Alerts via RSS is a new option, allowing you to create a feed for those alerts, and you can pick up your feed in just about any location.

Naturally a good feed reader is a must, and for this I personally like Google Reader, but anything should work.

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Boy Killed While Trick-or-Treating

Chad Everett — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 06:00:00 -0500

A man in Sumter, South Carolina, saw masked people outside his house and opened fire. With an AK-47 assault rifle. Shots struck a 12-year-old boy. Thirteen times. The boy was pronounced dead at the hospital shortly thereafter.

With all the hubbub about whether or not teenagers should be trick-or-treating (and there are even municipalities enacting laws to enforce such a ban), perhaps the larger issue to ask is: Why in the world would someone have an AK-47 loaded and ready to fire, on Halloween of all nights?

If you don't like the holiday, that's fine. There are plenty of people these days who don't. I see more and more houses with lights off, which is a shame (that is a topic for another day, however).

So if you don't want people to knock on your door, turn off the light, go to the back room and read a book. Look for porn online. Go to your the harvest festival at your church. Do whatever you do. But keep a loaded assault rifle at the door while there are kids around, and then fire through that door into the front yard? That seems a little extreme.

I get that you may have been shot before, and I have no idea what part of town this person lived in, so I can understand being jumpy. I am also not someone who says that they should ban all guns just because there may be valid reasons (not sure this is one of them, but you get what I mean). But come on. Sometimes people are just stupid.

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Bailout Money Madness

Chad Everett — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 06:00:00 -0500

Way back in December of last year, rumblings were heard about a deal for freezing rates for homeowners having trouble with their mortgages. Yesterday, it was announced that the government may have the plan ready to use about $50 billion from the financial bailout in order to guarantee $500 billion in mortgages.

This must be new math, because I have no idea how $50 billion can guarantee $500 billion. Regardless, I want some of that action. I really don't get how the people who pay their mortgages and their car loans and credit card bills and every other debt they incur don't get any relief, while those who don't pay their bills get to take a free ride. It makes you wonder why you should bother being responsible.

Now I get that there are times when people hit hard times. And I feel bad for them. I really do. I don't mean to be an ass about it, either. I really don't. But if there is never any downside and the government is always there with a handout to keep everything from failing, what is the point of saving and trying to make sure that you have built up a safety net?

There is just no need to be a responsible adult and attempt to make good decisions if there is no downside if you don't.

And it isn't even just the individuals. The companies and the government themselves are right at the top of the list. Government has been running in the red for decades. Why should they get a pass? Why should companies be bailed out? Let them fail. Will life as we know it come to an end? Perhaps, for a time. But eventually it will all work out and we will be stronger for it.

Otherwise you will have one hand after another all looking for a handout.

When the banks got theirs, the automakers and insurance companies got in line. The executives at the companies defend their payouts saying that they deserve the million-dollar paydays because of the tough decisions that they have to make. And I don't question them. I am sure they have difficult decisions to make. But when they ultimately have to take money from someone else, perhaps they should take a big cut in pay. Perhaps we all should, rather than waiting on the dole from someone.

Update: On November 10, 2008, it was announced that investors in Countrywide were suing because of their losses. Some 400,000 mortgage adjustments were good news for homeowners but not investors. Someone always loses. Where is the shareholder relief? I have no doubt that a class action lawsuit will be along shortly, but that is not what I mean.

Update: On December 12, 2008, Dubya announced a $14 billion aid package for Detroit automakers. Ford has said they do not need money, at least in the immediate future. I wonder what business will be next. A slippery slope indeed - once the money starts flowing, there is no end in sight.

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Cannot Redeclare Class 'MT' in mt.php

Chad Everett — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:00:00 -0500

While the dynamic publishing model of Movable Type is not heavily used, it is actually a very useful feature. Probably not as a complete CMS - mostly because it is not full-featured - but certainly to provide some nice functionality on the side as it were.

Unfortunately the dynamic publishing functions are not documented much, if at all, so when you run into some issues, it can be difficult to troubleshoot. One of the more common problems you may find is an error message such as this one - when you cannot redeclare the 'MT' class, it will prevent the entire dynamic publishing subsystem from starting up, and you will be dead in the water!

Luckily, the problem is one that is easily solved.

There are two things to notice in this error message that are important and that will help us to resolve the problem.

The first is the class that is causing the problem. In this case, it is the class 'MT'. This is the base Movable Type class - that is to say, Movable Type itself. If you happen to find another class or function of some kind, you may have other issues, perhaps with a database call or maybe a plugin. But here, it is actually Movable Type that cannot load.

The second is the file that cannot load - that file name is mt.php. The problem is that the file it is referencing (mt.php) is almost definitely not where the problem lies. More than likely you will find that the problem is instead in the dynamic viewer, which is mtview.php.

Open this file - found in the root of your web site - and take a look at it.

Generally there are two reasons for this error.

The most common is that there are two include statements in the file. Comment out one of them if this is the case.

The other problem can be that the path to the mt.php file is incorrect. This is usually the issue if you have moved your installation directory and the file is not rebuilt (it should be rebuilt automatically by MT, but sometimes this is not done automatically). If you update the path manually, it will take care of the problem.

If you fix both of these problems and still have the error, there could be something else amiss - perhaps an extra line or call to a non-existent variable or something. But these are definitely the most common problems that you will find.

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North Carolina Ballots Strike Again

Chad Everett — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 06:00:00 -0500

About a year ago, some strange ballot wording opened the door to victory - or at least continued existence - to the Mecklenburg County Transit Tax. It seems that such wording may actually be handed down from the state.

You see, in most places, if you were to go into a polling place and vote a straight ticket, you would expect that your vote would include casting your lot for the president on that party. Not so in The Old North State.

Apparently in 1967, state lawmakers decided that Democratic candidate Hubert H. Humphrey might adversely affect the rest of the Democrats running, so the president was removed from the straight-party button, and that was that.

Since then, no one has thought much about it, and since we all know that no one is able to read or pay much attention to what they do because they don't have that much time on their hands, North Carolina has an inordinate amount of voters who cast no vote at all for president - even if they turn out and vote for every other election on their ballot.

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Windows Update Error 0x8ddd0018

Chad Everett — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 06:00:00 -0500

Another less-than-friendly hex error from our friends at Windows Update.

Why is it that they cannot write things out and just tell you what the problem is, or even better, how to fix it? That I do not know.

But like last time, the problem here is not hard to fix. In fact, this time around, it might be even easier.

The first thing you need to do is open a command prompt. You can do this with the icon (typically found under "Accessories") or you can use Start -> Run and type in "cmd". Whichever is simplest for you is fine. However, you do will need to run this as administrator, so if you are not administrator, you are probably better off using the shortcut and right-clicking to run as administrator where you can confirm the operation.

Once there, you just need to run a single command:

regsvr32.exe wuaueng.dll

This registers a DLL that is responsible for taking care of the error in question, and the next time that the update tries to run the process should be clear, with no problems at all.

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Hash Line Over-Indented

Chad Everett — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 06:00:00 -0500

Have you run into this error while trying to update your plugins from the legacy-style Perl format to a brand-spanking-new YAML layout, only to find that you can't seem to figure out just what the problem is? Spending hour after hour troubleshooting and still getting that annoying message and it just won't go away?

Look no further, because this one is easy. Well, sort of. You do have to look a little bit, but you actually are not missing a semicolon or a brace or anything along those lines. In fact, it might be a little hard for you to find, you just have to know where to look.

The problem is that YAML is very specific about spacing. Very specific, in fact. You need to make sure that your lines are spaced, not tabbed, and that should take care of your problem.

What is difficult to troubleshoot is if your tabs take up the same amount of spaces - that can make this one tough to track down. If you use an editor like UltraEdit, you might have a function that reads something like Convert Tabs to Spaces. Most editors have them - but this is a great function to help with this particular error. Get rid of those tabs, change them to spaces, and you should be ready to go.

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FDIC Plans to Raise Fees to Banks

Chad Everett — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 06:00:00 -0500

With all the excitement that banks are having lately - 13 insured banks and savings and loans have failed this year, including two major thrifts - the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has decided that they need more money coming in to help shore up the money going out.

As the insurance fund stands (and there apparently is an actual fund), the balance is somewhere around $45.2 billion, which is below the minimum level set by Congress, and the lowest level since 2003.

The FDIC, in their infinite wisdom, has decided that the current rate of 6.3 cents per $100 on deposit is too little. So banks will now have to pay 13.5 cents per $100. Unless the bank is considered in "strong" financial condition (roughly 91 percent of the 8500 banks and thrifts, though there is no mention of how this metric is obtained). In that case, they pay just 11.6 cents per $100 on average.

Apparently the goal of this plan is to shore up that insurance fund, and on the surface it seems like a decent idea - the institutions are putting in nearly twice the amount of money, right?

The only problem with the plan is that it has been in the works for months. Since before the account insurance limit was raised to $250,000 in the bailout legislation recently put into place. This change will probably have an effect on the prior amounts, but it is not going to touch $250,000 per account.

However, our wonderful government has already thought of that. The bailout legislation has given the FDIC unlimited temporary authority to borrow from the Treasury if needed to cover the new limits. Nice.

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How Would You Like to Share Today?

Chad Everett — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 06:00:00 -0500

With the incredible explosion of social media, there are social media sites everywhere. Any time you turn around, it seems there is another one. I'm not just talking about the big boys, like Facebook and Twitter, either. Mister Wong, anyone?

Cool name aside, there is only so much one person can do. So how do you decide which of these services to use? While I get that you might want to provide each and every one of them on your site so that you gain maximum exposure, there is a limit, right? How can you possibly expect to keep up? Enter even more services, which aim to help you do so. Now how do you decide among them?

That's where it gets challenging.

The largest offerings in this field are probably AddThis and ShareThis, though there are other options.

You can certainly roll your own, but that means not only keeping up with the offerings out there, you have to collect all the buttons for the services and then figure out how to post to each one of them. No fun at all.

Perhaps most importantly, however, is the impact to your visitors, and there is a difference. At least one person has decided that because of recent performance problems, third-party services, as useful as they are, should be disabled. Perhaps that is the answer.

When you use a third-party service, it loads, often by JavaScript, meaning it takes time - and as we become more and more impatient, those valuable seconds are really annoying. Even a few well-placed buttons, such as from the larger and more popular services, may seem like a more viable alternative. You may want to consider this when deciding what to add on your own site.

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There Are No TiVo DVRs Available on the Network

Chad Everett — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 06:00:00 -0500

While TiVoToGo (TTG) is not the most reliable piece of software out there, and often just being able to transfer shows from one TiVo to another is much more useful, there are times when being able to save shows to a computer for later retrieval is a nice feature.

Unfortunately it seems that more and more often, this error message comes up and getting it to go away is a royal pain. So what do you do when you get the message "there are no tivo dvrs available on the network"? Other than panic, I mean?

The first, and simplest, solution is to restart your TiVo Desktop. Unfortunately, it almost never works. So naturally the next step would be to restart the computer running the TiVo Desktop. But this too rarely works. Still, there are times that it will help.

I have found that I often get the error message after connecting to another network (usually via VPN), and by rebooting the computer, this resets the network adapter to the point that it can detect the TiVo devices correctly. It is also possible, depending on your network card, that you actually have to shut down your computer for a few seconds - so that the card actually loses power - in order to achieve this state. Rebooting will not accomplish this since it never removes power from the device.

The final solution I have found is definitely the most painful solution, but it does seem to work every time. It involves logging into your tivo.com account, disabling transfers for the device in question, running an update from that TiVo unit, re-enabling transfers and running another update. You do need to make sure that the updates run after the settings are completed on the web site. This is because the update actually processes those settings each time it connects, so by setting them on the site, you are reconfiguring the device during the update.

Because the update does load scheduling data, however, this can take a while to complete, so you may want to hold off on this as a last resort - but it does seem to take care of the problem every time that I have tried it.

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An Error Occurred While Trying to Find Updates

Chad Everett — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:00:00 -0500

Much like the Windows Update Errors I mentioned previously, it seems that Firefox has similar problems. Unlike those from Windows Update, however, these at least return a somewhat-friendly message, which helps a bit.

So instead of getting a cryptic hex number, you are given a message that reads something like "an error occurred while trying to find updates". Unfortunately, there isn't much help in resolving this error - and because many updates come from individual users, rather than a central repository - you may be stuck.

While there isn't much you can do if you get such an error as a user, there is at least the possibility that you can do some troubleshooting if you are a developer - or if you want to do some digging on behalf of the developer and send them some information.

The Firefox (and generally, the entire Mozilla) update process requires a few pieces to be in place in order to work correctly. One of the simplest issues is that the connection is not working right over SSL. However, this is almost impossible to troubleshoot, so about all you can do is try again to see if it works. If not, assume it isn't the issue and move on, because you can't help, even if it is the problem.

More likely is that if, like me, you forgot to update the MaxVersion setting in the update.rdf file, it won't work correctly. That is something I have done - more than once. Another item that could be at fault is if the UpdateKey and the Signature do not match. In that case, the update process will fail.

Luckily for most developers, if you host your addon at mozilla.org, many of these items are handled for you, and keeping some of the items updated (like the MaxVersion) are trivial. So it is something to look at - and although it does require jumping through some hoops, it may be worth the effort.

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Windows Update Errors

Chad Everett — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:00:00 -0500

There is no doubt that Windows Update is one of those things that has made life both easier and more complex for everyone. The process of receiving updates is now nearly transparent and can generally be painless - unless something goes wrong, in which case you get errors that give you messages that mean next to nothing.

So it was the other day when I received messages telling me that I had errors 0x80072ee2 and 0x8024d00e. Those don't even look like numbers (they are actually hex representations), that presumably mean something to someone, hidden in Redmond. Or maybe the computer is trying to speak to me directly.

After I decided that attempting to re-run the update process (multiple times) and rebooting (also multiple times) was not going to be successful, I figured I would try to determine what those errors meant - if possible - and see if there was any way to either get the process to run correctly, or at least get them to go away.

For the life of me, I can't tell you what I searched on, but it wasn't the numbers themselves that led to a resolution. When I actually looked for the numbers, it was mostly others who had no idea what they meant. In the end, however, the fix is relatively simple.

Step 1. Stop and disable the Background Intelligent Transfer Service.

Step 2. Stop and disable the Windows Update Service.

Step 3. Rename the SoftwareDistribution folder (under Windows).

Step 4. Restart the two services.

In the end, I have no idea what they meant. I really think that they just mean that "something went wrong, try again". Why someone cannot just say that, I have no idea. It would probably cause too many stock options to go underwater. Nice.

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Airport Extreme Base Station First Impressions

Chad Everett — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 06:00:00 -0500

After running with the Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS) for a little while now, I have decided that I like it. On most days. But there are definitely times that I really, really want to throw it through the window. And drive over it with the car.

Now I have no doubt that the current iterations of the AEBS are vastly superior to the older ones. If nothing else, it just looks a lot better. Now there is no way that looking better is going to be the only reason we are keeping these things around, is there? Probably not.

To start things off, the software is super easy to use. You just load it up, and it goes out and finds the AEBS. You don't have to figure out what IP address you have or anything. Now it does load Bonjour, the apple networking protocol, but that is what makes it so simple to use. Even if the rest of the network isn't running, chances are good that you will be able to detect the base station. This is good. Plug it in, follow a few steps, and you can be online in no time.

Where it starts to get a little dicey is if you want to do anything fancy.

The newer models of the AEBS support many (many) wireless protocols, even offer simultaneous dual-band networking. What that means to you and me is that you can stream high-demand traffic (video, voice) on one band and low-demand on the other. Unfortunately it isn't always so easy, because it means that your devices have to support the right bands, and not too many devices support the 5Ghz band where you want to get the best speeds. Even worse, because 2Ghz often creates a better signal, many devices latch onto that network, and won't even see the 5Ghz signal.

What do you do? Why you create a separate network name for the 5Ghz signal, of course. But finding that setting in the advanced panel is a bit difficult to do, and requires a bit of digging. It isn't impossible, of course, but make sure you do it, and make sure your devices connect to it.

Then you have to consider what is happening if you have multiple base stations. It is not hard to connect several of them together - but doing so in a way that makes your network function at peak capacity can be challenging. The best way I have found to do it is to connect the bases themselves together on the 5Ghz network, and the other devices on a 2.4Ghz network. However, the problem there is that for some reason the devices like to connect to the station farthest from them, which means weak signals. That means that you have to set up MAC address filtering so they will connect to the closer stations. Not impossible, but not the friendliest system either. Having a preferred station would be easier than setting up exclusion lists on other stations, but it works.

If you have a tool such as inSSIDer in your toolkit it may help as well, because these days everyone and their brother has a network, so eliminating interference will help you get the clearest signal possible. We had to try a few different channels before they would work well together - kept running into problems with other networks and wireless phones, then with devices that didn't want to connect to non-standard channels. Eventually we settled into a nice, clean area with good throughput.

In the end, the AEBS is a nice device, and has good expandability, but it is not the simplest device to work with. Just make sure you are ready to settle in for the long haul and have plenty of patience on hand. You will need it.

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Can't Call Method 'entry_based' on an Undefined Value

Chad Everett — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:00:00 -0500

Generally you will see this as a longer error message, typically coming from the ContextHandlers.pm module, with a particular line number, something like this:

Can't call method "entry_based" on an undefined value at lib/MT/Template/ContextHandlers.pm line...

The message may seem obscure when you receive the message, but in actuality, it just means that you are using a template tag that the publishing process cannot handle. You just need to remove it (or replace it with a tag that will function properly).

One of the most common occurrences of this error is the use of the MTArchiveTitle template tag within an individual entry template. Even though it would make perfect sense to be able to use the MTArchiveTitle tag - you are in an archive, after all! - the tag doesn't work that way, and you need to use the MTEntryTitle tag instead.

So change the tag, republish the template and you should be set.

If that is not the problem, locating the problem tag may be a bit more difficult - luckily Movable Type can help you out with error messages. Just review each of your templates by loading up each one and seeing if you have any errors when you are viewing them.

Unfortunately if you are using correct tags, just on the wrong template, it can be a bit more difficult to locate the problem. In that case, you might have to do a bit more digging - but this can generally get you on the right track.

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Manually Update Transactions in Microsoft Accounting

Chad Everett — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:00:00 -0500

Did you know that it is actually possible to update a transaction in Microsoft Office Accounting (also known as Small Business Accounting)? It is!

While I'm still not sure if I like the product, I have to say that it's actually not bad. It is more of a true ledger system than something like Quicken. In Quicken, for example, you can go in and edit to your heart's content - even after posting. Not so in Microsoft. You post it, you'll have to void and re-enter. That's more of a true accounting product. It's a pain, but it means you can't just go and change stuff after you have posted it. I respect the decision, but there are times I want to get around it, you know?

So how do you update transactions? Well, you'll need to have a query analyzer - some form of SQL will work, and then you just need to edit the database. The problem is finding your transactions. I won't go so far as to say that the data is truly relational, as there are a ton of tables, and they are scattered everywhere.

For instance, to edit a transaction, it seems you need to edit the accountregisterlinetable, documentlinetable, documenttable, postingtable and transactiontable. I don't know if this is all the tables, but these seem to do it - your transaction is updated, as well as all the other relevant information (accounts, balances, etc). It's quite possible that something else is affected, but all that balances that I've looked at seem to be okay. Your own mileage may be different.

Update: Naturally, it seems that Microsoft has decided that they should get out of some businesses. It's about time. They have discontinued their accounting product. Looks like it's all Quicken now.

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Can Dell's Automatic Updates Get Any Worse?

Chad Everett — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 06:00:00 -0500

I know that everyone complains about Microsoft, and I've certainly done my share of Redmond-bashing, but I have to say that their automatic updates do a pretty darn good job. They can get awfully annoying, and from time to time there is one that goes awry, but overall they offer a well-integrated experience that runs smoothly and I give them a thumbs-up.

Compare that to other companies like Dell and you might just see what I mean. You have to go to their site, download them individually, unpack them individually, try to find where they unpacked to (assuming you didn't make a note of all of them), watch as they may or may not overwrite each other. It's horrible.

And that is if you can actually get through the process (there are times that I don't).

If you see the list, you have no idea what you've downloaded before. It's just a list of what might be available - no idea what has been installed before or even what may apply to you. Only what applies to your model, regardless of what you have installed now. Some installation history and awareness of how it may affect you would be awesome.

So let's say you actually get everything downloaded and know where it is, there are actually instances where it has asked for an installation floppy. A what? Do you know how long it has been since I've had a computer with a floppy on it? I don't think I even have any floppy disks any longer (and I kept some for a while, even though I couldn't use some). I rarely even use CDs and rarely use USB sticks. I mean come on Dell. This is lame.

It is almost enough to make me want to throw away my computer and buy something from Microsoft. I can't believe I'm even writing that. I've spent the better part of my adult life trying to get away from Microsoft. But it is that bad.

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The Great Charlotte Gas Shortage of 2008

Chad Everett — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:06:48 -0500

It's times like this that I wished that I had some better way of displaying headlines. I don't know what, exactly. Maybe a big flashing sign. Or perhaps a rotating banner. Just something, because a story like this just begs for something more than text. I could always go retro and bring in the good old blink element, but that would just be annoying. So I suppose that means I'll just tell the story.

For those of you who don't live in Charlotte, or in the general area, we're low on gas. Really low. It's not because of the weather - at least not the weather that we have here. When Hurricane Ike hit what seems like months ago, apparently they shut off our gas pipelines or something. Because for the last week or so, stations all around town have gradually been shuttering their pumps, and now we're down to almost nothing. Gas-wise, I mean. Lots of lines, and plenty of horns. Even one arrest (maybe more, that's just all I've heard about).

What I find really interesting is just how bad it is. According to some reports, we're receiving normal shipments - but demand is so high, it isn't making a dent in the shortage. Some counts (from AAA, I think) just last week say that only a few gas stations are out, but as I drive about, almost no pumps are in operation. The few that come on have seem to have monstrous lines. What's really funny is watching people get in these huge lines to wait for gas. The paper even talks about people waiting hours in hopes that trucks will show up - even people following tankers around to see where they will stop.

Thus far, we've filled up three times in the last week, and waited a grand total of 20 minutes for all three. That's combined, folks. I'm not saying we're blessed (though we surely are), it must just be a matter of being in the right place at the right time and not stopping at the first massive line you see. I'm also lucky to not have to go into work. I mean if I had to, I could sit at my desk all day and not leave the house (much). One night, I went out because I wanted to see what was happening.

Out of probably fifteen stations, only two were pumping, and that at a massively reduced rate to lengthy lines of cars. It's ridiculous, and I'm left wondering if Charlotte is either the victim of a new form of terrorism or the pilot program to encourage people to try out mass transit, because the world as we know it seems like it's just about to collapse if this goes on much longer. It's really pretty interesting to watch. Almost as good as a hurricane - only no one really gets hurt in the process (there may be a few fights here and there, and the potential for lost jobs, but not the massive property damage and whatnot).

I've heard tell of slight gas problems in the surrounding areas, but nothing like what we're seeing here in Charlotte, with only one out of ten stations or so pumping. What are you seeing where you live?

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Installing PerlMagick in Windows IIS

Chad Everett — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 06:00:00 -0500

You would think that when an application installation offers to install a component for you, it would do what it is suggesting. Unfortunately, if the application in question is ImageMagick - and more specifically if we are talking about the PerlMagick component of ImageMagick for Windows, then the answer is absolutely not.

At first I thought perhaps the problem is that the files were in use, as we all know that if Windows has files in use, the won't be updated. So I rebooted. No luck. Then I uninstalled the prior version and tried again. Nothing. I rebooted, to make sure the prior version was gone. I removed the old files manually. I rebooted. I deleted registry entries. I got rid of every scrap I could find from the old version. I rebooted. Still nothing. The fact is that it just wasn't installing.

As it turns out, it's not that hard to make it work. You just have to realize that in some cases, when it says it is doing it, it isn't. That's a shame. It could at least tell you that it isn't doing what it says that it is.

The main reason is that it's a real pain to figure out what needs to be done.

First you have to figure out where the application (in this case, we're talking ImageMagick) installs. The best place to look is probably in the Program Files directory. But hopefully if you are doing the installation, you are familiar with your server, because it could potentially be anywhere. And since the version is appended to the directory, you need to be aware of the version you are installing. Otherwise you could install the wrong version, which may cause at least as many problems as you solve. It might even be easier to uninstall every version you have and then install only the new one.

So once you have a new version, open a command prompt in that location, change to the perlmagick directory and run ppm install. It's really that simple.

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Old-time Gas Pumps Close to the End of Their Lives

Chad Everett — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:00:00 -0500

Those of us who live in the big city (as if Charlotte is a big city) may not be aware of this problem, but it seems that there is a problem with some gas pumps in the world. Not the ones with electronic digital displays, but those that have the old dial-type digital displays. As an aside, does anyone remember the original digital clocks? I had one of those that had the old-style digital numbers, like the ones in Back to the Future (I think it was Back to the Future). I guess you would call them mechanical digital or something. But I digress.

It seems that these dial-style pumps are running into a problem. They can only handle gas that costs $3.99 per gallon or less. It's a limitation of the dials. Sure, it's possible to replace the dials, but it's a pretty expensive proposition. At the same time, the pumps can only count up to $99.99 per sale.

According to the article, they say that as many as 8500 of 170,000 pumps nationwide may have this problem. That is a big number taken as a whole, but ultimately not much as a percentage.

I'm sure that as stations are taken over and shuttered and turned into pizza joints and whatnot, some will be cleared out. One day, these pumps will surely sell on eBay for ridiculous sums of money. And I'm sure that there will be a similar problem with the electronic-style pumps because they can only handle $9.99 per gallon, since they just don't have the digits to display anything larger.

My wife insists that isn't going to happen anytime soon. I'm thinking that it's going to happen sooner than we think. Maybe not in the next two years, but probably in the next decade or so. You would think as they build new signs and create new pumps, they could put in four-digit counters instead of the three-digit variety or they'll hit the same problem. It can't cost that much more. Is it really such a problem that they can't see that far in the future?

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Populate Slimbox with a List of Photos

Chad Everett — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 06:00:00 -0500

Now that you have Slimbox up and running, you don't really want to manually create a bunch of links to it, do you? I mean you can, simply by adding the standard rel="lightbox" tag to your photos. But what if you have a bunch of photos? Or more specifically, what if you have a bunch of photos?

At that point, you have a couple of options. You can list them individually, which is certainly an option, but it gets messy very quickly, or you can use MT-SmugMug to fill in the blanks for you. That makes it a whole lot nicer.

For the first option, you just need to feed several images to Slimbox in an onclick event, like so:

onclick="return Lightbox.open([['url', 'title'], ['url', 'title'], ['url', 'title'], ['url', 'title']], 0)"

You are simply creating an array of all the image links and titles that you want to show in the Slimbox. Simple, right? The only problem is that it can get a little lengthy. Other than that, it's pretty simple. Just make sure you put single quotes (') around the url and title, and double quotes around the whole string, and you are set. But other than that, it's pretty easy.

What if you want to make it even easier, using MT-SmugMug? In that case, you can create a photo gallery template very easily.

You simply use the type attribute with a value of gallery, and in the data attribute, provide the album ID. It would look something like this:

<mt:SmugMug type="gallery" data="123456">

Then inside of the mt:SmugMug loop, you will iterate over those items to create your list, just like you are creating a list of entries.

onclick="return Lightbox.open([<mt:SmugMugPhotos>['<$mt:SmugMugPhotoLink$>', '<$mt:SmugMugPhotoDescription$>'],</mt:SmugMugPhotos>], 0)"

With the variable replacement available in Movable Type, you may even be able to store an album ID on an entry and pass that value into the mt:SmugMug tag, giving you photo galleries on individual pages, with little interaction at all!

Since you are using Slimbox, you might want to try Slimbox 2 instead. Rather than Mootools, it uses jQuery. That alone may not impress you, but it means that you may be able to use a single JavaScript framework for all your JavaScript needs. Since jQuery also seems to be seeing a bit more development lately, it's something to think about.

Need to get the latest version of MT-SmugMug? Check out GitHub, as that's where I'll keep the code updated.