Rick Cable's Tech Stuff

iTunes - How to fix TV Shows that won't delete.

2011-12-03T08:44:00.000-08:00

Recently, I noticed that I had a couple of free TV shows that I downloaded in iTunes and they kept downloading over and over which then would sync to my iPad. No matter what I did iTunes would not let me delete them and I was getting very frustrated. I looked all over the web and could not seem to find a good answer so I figured it out myself.

Here is how you fix it manually.

First, let me tell you that this is on a Windows 7 PC. However, I'm certain the fix is very similar on any computer. Look at this solution and apply the configuration settings to your setup.

Find out where iTunes is storing your media files. In my case, a Windows 7 PC had them here.

C:\Users\Rick Cable\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media

Next, find the downloads folder

C:\Users\Rick Cable\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Downloads

You should see a folder for each download and in my case, each TV Show, and a file named "list.plist".

Since I had already cleaned my files out, I downloaded a free episode of Knights of Mayhem so I can show you real data from the list.plist file.

Here are the contents of the list.plist file. To fix, delete the temporary folder that was created for the download then open the list.plist file and delete all lines between the <dict> and </dict> tags and then save the file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>items</key>
    <array>
        <dict>
            <key>category</key>
            <string>itms</string>
            <key>downloadID</key>
            <string>J16N_V_160003334639723</string>
            <key>dsid</key>
            <integer>299476307</integer>
            <key>id</key>
            <integer>475364041</integer>
            <key>name</key>
            <string>Behind the Scenes / Knights of Mayhem, Season 1 / Knights of Mayhem</string>
        </dict>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

That's it.... hope this article helped.

Retaining Leading Zeros When Mail Merging from Excel to Word

2011-11-17T10:35:00.000-08:00

Problem:

I had created an Excel spreadsheet that was being used as a data source for a Microsoft Word mail merge but the Excel document had a field that used field formatting to add leading zeros to the numbers but the numbers were not being imported in to the mail merge document with the leading zeros.

Today's Challenge?

Retaining leading zeros on a numeric field when using Microsoft Word Mail Merge with an Excel source document.

The Solution

In Microsoft Word...

Change the mail merge field to read...

{ Mergefield ZipCode \# "00000" }

Change "ZipCode" to whatever numeric field you are trying to import / merge.

Loop Through and Update Records in SQL Server

2011-11-08T11:19:00.000-08:00

I had a challenge yesterday that I would normally solve using some Visual Basic code but had to do it in pure SQL on a SQL 2005 server.

THE CHALLENGE:
Loop through all the records in a table and then update the table based on some logic or condition.

THE SOLUTION:

Using a SQL Cursor, I was able to loop through all the records in a table and then run an SQL update command for certain records that matched a particular criteria.

Here is the code:

DECLARE @myEmpID int

DECLARE MyCursor CURSOR FOR

SELECT DISTINCT  EmployeeID FROM Employees WHERE Company=64


OPEN myCursor


--Read the initial emploee id value from the cursor

FETCH NEXT FROM myCursor

INTO @myEmpID


WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0

BEGIN

--Update goes here 

UPDATE Employees 

SET [Status] = 'T'


WHERE EmployeeID = @myEmpID AND Company=54


FETCH NEXT FROM MyCursor

INTO @myEmpID

END
CLOSE MyCursor

Kona's Crate for iPad - App Review

2011-06-26T09:33:00.000-07:00

Kona's Crate by indiePub ($0.99)

I'm always on the hunt for new iPad games that really make the best use of the iPad touch interface. Kona's Crate is an addicting game that has a simplistic and easy user interface.

Your job is to deliver a crate to Kona using a futuristic jet propelled board.

The play is easy at first but definitely challenging as you progress through the levels. The physics are fairly realistic and has the feel of the old Atari moon lander games from that was popular back in the 80's.

The graphics are top-notch and the sound effects and music are well done as well. I've spent many hours playing this game and I can see myself playing it for many more to come.

I would say this game would still be a bargain at $2.99 but the bottom line is that this game is lots of fun and well worth the price of $0.99.

SCREENSHOTS

VIDEO

Exporting Your Outlook Calendar to an Excel Spreadsheet

2011-06-15T15:38:00.000-07:00

I've have not posted for a while. Partly because I've been so busy but I've also not had anything worthy of a blog post.... Until today.

THE CHALLENGE: Exporting your calendar to Excel and getting a calculated value for the duration of each task or appointment.

I did not design the code and the author did not provide their name in it so I could thank them or give them credit. I've tested this and it works great!

Sample Output:

I've made a couple of small modifications to the original script:
1. Changed the destination drive from d:\ to c:\
2. Changed the output date format from dd/mm/yyyy to mm/dd/yyyy

How to make this work?

First, you will need to be on a PC running Windows XP or Windows 7. Copy the code below and paste it in to any text editor like notepad and save it with a file name like OutlookCalendarExport.vbs. Now you should be able to double click the file you just saved to run this script. You should get message boxes asking for the start and end dates then it will tell you that it is going off to do its work and will display a message letting you know when it is done. It will save the file on the root of you c: drive.

Here is the vbscript code:

on error resume next

DefaultDrive = "c:\"

set objFS=Wscript.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
If Not objFS.DriveExists(DefaultDrive) Then 
 msgbox "Your home drive is not mapped. (" & DefaultDrive & ")" & vbcrlf &  "Please resolve this before continuing.",48,"Drive Mapping Error"
 wscript.quit
end if


starttime = now

' ==== Define Variables
Dim theApp, theNameSpace, theMailItem, calendar, apointmentItems, appointment

' ==== Create a Shell and FileSystem Object
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject( "WScript.Shell" )
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

' ==== Create Excel Spreadsheet
Set app = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
Set wb = app.Workbooks.Add
app.Visible = False
app.AlertBeforeOverwriting = True
wb.Activate
Row = 1
Column = 1
Set ws = wb.Worksheets(1)
ws.Cells(1,1).Value = "Subject"
ws.Columns(1).ColumnWidth = 50
ws.Cells(1,2).Value = "Date"
ws.Columns(2).ColumnWidth = 9
ws.Cells(1,3).Value = "Start Time"
ws.Columns(3).ColumnWidth = 11
ws.Cells(1,4).Value = "End Time"
ws.Columns(4).ColumnWidth = 11
ws.Cells(1,5).Value = "Duration"
ws.Columns(5).ColumnWidth = 8
ws.Cells(1,6).Value = "Category"
ws.Columns(6).ColumnWidth = 25
Row = Row + 1
OutputFileName = DefaultDrive & "OutlookExport.xls"

' ==== Connect to Outlook
set theApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
set theNameSpace = theApp.GetNameSpace("MAPI")
set calendar = theNameSpace.GetDefaultFolder(9)
set appointmentItems = calendar.Items

' ==== Work out example dates
' ==== Selects Monday to Friday of Previous week as defaults
LastWeek = Weekday(Now)
Select Case LastWeek
 Case "1"
  Lastweek=Dateadd("D",-6,Date)
 Case "2"
  Lastweek=Dateadd("D",-7,Date)
 Case "3"
  Lastweek=Dateadd("D",-8,Date)
 Case "4"
  Lastweek=Dateadd("D",-9,Date)
 Case "5"
  Lastweek=Dateadd("D",-10,Date)
 Case "6"
  Lastweek=Dateadd("D",-11,Date)
 Case "7"
  Lastweek=Dateadd("D",-12,Date)
End Select

StartofRange = inputbox("Start of Range","Outlook Exporter",LastWeek)
StartofRange=cdate(StartofRange)
EndofRange = inputbox("End of Range","Outlook Exporter",(dateadd("D",+6,LastWeek)))
EndofRange=cdate(EndofRange)
DatetoQuery=StartofRange
 
If (StartofRange = "") OR (EndofRange = "") Then
 wscript.quit
End If

'Popup
Set Shell = wScript.CreateObject("wScript.Shell")
Msg = "Export Started. You will be notified when it is ready."
 Timeout = 5 
temp = Shell.Popup(Msg, Timeout, "Outlook Exporter") 
'if temp = -1 then
' wScript.Quit
'End if





' ==== Create Array to hold valid date range 
dim datearray()
numberofdays=DateDiff("D", StartofRange, (dateadd("D",1,EndofRange)))
If Not numberofdays = 0 Then 
 redim datearray(numberofdays)
Else
 redim datearray(1)
End if

' ==== populate the array with the valid dates for the query
datearray(0)=StartofRange
for x=1 to (ubound(datearray)-1)
 datearray(x)=dateadd("D",1,(datearray(x-1)))
next

' ==== Find appointments that occur between the StartofRange and EndofRange dates
set appointment = appointmentItems.GetFirst

While TypeName(appointment) <> "Nothing"
 if TypeName(appointment) = "AppointmentItem" then
  For x = 0 to ubound(datearray)
   ' ==== Check if appointment is recurring
   If appointment.RecurrenceState = 0 then
   ' =================================================================================
   ' ====================== Non Recurring appointment ================================
   ' =================================================================================
     If DateValue(appointment.Start) = datearray(x) then
      if (appointment.BusyStatus = 2) AND (appointment.sensitivity = 0) Then
       Beginning=TimeValue(appointment.start)
       Ending=TimeValue(appointment.end)
       Duration=DateDiff("N",Beginning,Ending)
       if appointment.AllDayEvent then
        Beginning="8:30:00"
        Ending="5:00:00"
        Duration="480"
       Else If Duration = "24.00" Then
        Duration="480"
       End If
       End If
       
       ws.Cells(Row,Column).Value = appointment.subject
       Column = Column + 1
       ws.Cells(Row,Column).Value = DatePart("M",appointment.start) & "/" & DatePart("D",appointment.start) & "/" & DatePart("YYYY",appointment.start)
       Column = Column + 1
       ws.Cells(Row,Column).Value = Beginning
       Column = Column + 1
       ws.Cells(Row,Column).Value = Ending
       Column = Column + 1
       ws.Cells(Row,Column).Value = FixDate(abs(Duration))
       Column = Column + 1
       ws.Cells(Row,Column).Value = appointment.categories
       Row = Row + 1
       Column = 1
      End If
     End If
   Else
   ' =================================================================================
   ' ====================== Recurring appointment -- get occurrence for date =========
   ' =================================================================================

    Set recurrencePattern  = appointment.GetRecurrencePattern
 
    Set recurringApptItem = recurrencePattern.GetOccurrence(datearray(x) & " " & TimeValue(appointment.Start))
    errorCode = err.Number
    err.Clear
    If errorCode = 0 then
    set appointment = recurringApptItem
     if (appointment.BusyStatus = 2) AND (appointment.sensitivity = 0) Then
      Beginning=TimeValue(appointment.start)
      Ending=TimeValue(appointment.end)
      Duration=DateDiff("N",Beginning,Ending)
      if appointment.AllDayEvent then
       Beginning="8:30:00"
       Ending="5:00:00"
       Duration="480"
      Else If Duration = "24.00" Then
       Duration="480"
      End If
      End If
      ThisOne = """" & appointment.subject & """" & "," & DatePart("M",appointment.start) & "/" & DatePart("D",appointment.start) & "/" & DatePart("YYYY",appointment.start) & "," & Beginning & "," & Ending & "," & Duration & "," & """" & appointment.categories & """" & vbCRLF
      If Not ThisOne = LastOne Then
       ws.Cells(Row,Column).Value = appointment.subject
       Column = Column + 1
       ws.Cells(Row,Column).Value = DatePart("M",appointment.start) & "/" & DatePart("D",appointment.start) & "/" & DatePart("YYYY",appointment.start)
       Column = Column + 1
       ws.Cells(Row,Column).Value = Beginning
       Column = Column + 1
       ws.Cells(Row,Column).Value = Ending
       Column = Column + 1
       ws.Cells(Row,Column).Value = FixDate(abs(Duration))
       Column = Column + 1
       ws.Cells(Row,Column).Value =  appointment.categories
       Row = Row + 1
       Column = 1
      LastOne = ThisOne
      End If
     End If ' status
    
    End If ' error code 0
   End If ' appointment.RecurrenceState = 0
  Next ' in date array
 End If ' TypeName(appointment) = "AppointmentItem"

set appointment = appointmentItems.GetNext
Wend

Beginning = ""
Ending = ""
Duration = ""

' =======================================================================================================
' ============================= Edited Recurring Appointments ===========================================
' =======================================================================================================

Set appointmentItems = calendar.Items
Set appointment = appointmentItems.GetFirst
While TypeName(appointment) <> "Nothing"
If TypeName(appointment) = "AppointmentItem" then
Set RecurrencePattern = appointment.GetRecurrencePattern
 Counter = RecurrencePattern.Exceptions.Count
 For y = 1 to (Counter)
 Set Exception = RecurrencePattern.Exceptions.Item(y)
  If (appointment.BusyStatus = 2) AND (appointment.sensitivity = 0) Then 
   For x = 0 to ubound(Datearray)
    If Formatdatetime(DatePart("M",Exception.AppointmentItem.start) & "/" & DatePart("D",Exception.AppointmentItem.start) & "/" & DatePart("YYYY",Exception.AppointmentItem.start)) = formatdatetime(Datearray(x)) Then
     Beginning=TimeValue(Exception.AppointmentItem.start)
     Ending=TimeValue(Exception.AppointmentItem.end)
     Duration=DateDiff("N",Beginning,Ending)
     If NOT Beginning = "" Then
      ws.Cells(Row,Column).Value = Exception.AppointmentItem.Subject
      Column = Column + 1
      ws.Cells(Row,Column).Value = DatePart("M",Exception.AppointmentItem.Start) & "/" & DatePart("D",Exception.AppointmentItem.Start) & "/" & DatePart("YYYY",Exception.AppointmentItem.Start)
      Column = Column + 1
      If Beginning = Ending Then
       Beginning="8:30:00 AM"
       Ending="5:00:00 PM"
       Duration="480"
      End If
      ws.Cells(Row,Column).Value = Beginning
      Column = Column + 1
      ws.Cells(Row,Column).Value = Ending
      Column = Column + 1
      If (Duration = "24.00") OR (Duration = "0") Then
       Duration="480"
      End If
      ws.Cells(Row,Column).Value = FixDate(abs(Duration))
      Column = Column + 1
      ws.Cells(Row,Column).Value =  Exception.AppointmentItem.categories
      Row = Row + 1
      Column = 1
      Beginning = ""
      Ending = ""
      Duration = ""
     End If
    End If ' date within range
   Next ' ubound(Datearray)
  End If ' appointment status
 Next 'y - counter
 set appointment = appointmentItems.GetNext
End If
wend

' =======================================================================================================
' =======================================================================================================
' =======================================================================================================


Function FixDate(Duration)
 Hours = fix(duration / 60)
 If (duration - (Hours*60)) < 10 Then
  Minutes = "0" & (duration - (Hours*60))
 Else
  Minutes = (duration - (Hours*60))
 End If
 If (Hours > 0) AND (Hours < 10) Then 
  T = "0" & Hours & ":" & Minutes
 Else If (Hours > 9 ) Then
  T = Hours & ":" & Minutes
 Else
  T = "00:" & Minutes
 End if
 End If
FixDate = T
End Function

' =============================================================
' ============ Sort Excel Data and save file ==================
' =============================================================
Const xlAscending = 1
Const xlDescending = 2
Const xlGuess = 0
Const xlTopToBottom = 1

app.Selection.Sort app.Worksheets(1).Range("F2"), _
                   xlAscending, _
                   app.Worksheets(1).Range("B2"), _
                   , _
                   xlAscending, _
                   , _
                   , _
                   xlGuess, _
                   1, _
                   False, _
                   xlTopToBottom

app.DisplayAlerts = False
err.clear
ws.SaveAs OutputFileName
If err.number = 1004 Then
 msgbox err.description & vbcrlf & vbcrlf & "Outlook Exporter cannot continue."
 err.clear
 wscript.quit
End If

wscript.sleep 2000

' ==== Tidy Up
set appointmentItems = nothing
set calendar = Nothing
theNameSpace.Logoff
set theNameSpace = Nothing
set theApp = Nothing
set fso = Nothing

Set ws = Nothing
wb.close
Set wb = Nothing


' ==== Exit Excel - important if visible = false
app.quit
set app = Nothing

endtime = now
TimeToComplete =  formatdatetime(endtime - starttime)

' ==== Inform that the report is finished
Retval = msgbox("Report duration was " & TimeToComplete & vbcrlf & vbcrlf & "View results now?",vbyesno + vbinformation,"Outlook Exporter")
If Retval = vbYes then 
 wsHshell.Run (OutputFileName)
End If
Set WshShell = Nothing

' ===========================================================================================================
' ================================================== Notes ==================================================
' ===========================================================================================================

' Lists appointments from Outlook Calander
' Includes only those appointments in user specified date range
' Includes regular , recurring and edit-recurring appointments 
' Only lists appointments where Busy and not Private
' If alldayevent then duration listed as 8 hours, start 8.30, stop 5pm
' If 24 hour event the duration listed as 8 hours, start 8.30, stop 5pm
' Converts duration to HH:MM format
' Sorts by Date, then start time
' Saves as H:\OutlokExport.xls

Use CSS and Sprite Images to Replace JavaScript for Rollover Menus

2011-05-03T11:22:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to say you can now ditch Javascript for roll over menus!
There is a new technique for designing roll over menus using CSS.
The example below uses only CSS to create the roll over effect for the menu. Basically, you can see the full "Sprite" image displayed below the menu. Using CSS hover you can set the background image to be offset to display the area on the "sprite image" that corresponds to the roll over area.

Rollover Menu	Sprite Image

If you would like to try it for yourself...
1. Make a folder for your sample
2. Create a new text file then copy the code below and paste it in your file.
3 Save the text file and name it something like sprite.html
4. Copy the sprite image to your own folder by right clicking over the image and choose "Save As". Make sure you save it as "icons.gif".
5. Open you file with your favorite web browser

The Code

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
 "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html>
 
<head>
 <title>CSS Sprites: Image Slicing's Kiss of Death</title>
 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
 <style media="screen">
 
#iconmenu {position: relative; margin: 10px auto; padding: 3px; width: 206px; height: 52px; background: url(pattern.gif);}
#iconmenu li {width: 50px; height: 50px; position: absolute; top: 2px; background: url(icons.gif) 0 0 no-repeat; display: block; list-style: none;}
#iconmenu a {width: 50px; height: 50px; display: block; border: solid 1px #fff;}
#iconmenu a:hover {border: solid 1px #000;}
#iconmenu #panel1c {left: 2px;}
#iconmenu #panel2c {left: 54px; background-position: -51px 0;}
#iconmenu #panel3c {left: 106px; background-position: -102px 0;}
#iconmenu #panel4c {left: 158px; background-position: -153px 0;}
 
#iconmenu #panel1c a:hover {background: url(http://www.rickcable.com/images/blog/spritebuttons.png) -1px -52px no-repeat;}
#iconmenu #panel2c a:hover {background: url(http://www.rickcable.com/images/blog/spritebuttons.png) -52px -52px no-repeat;}
#iconmenu #panel3c a:hover {background: url(http://www.rickcable.com/images/blog/spritebuttons.png) -103px -52px no-repeat;}
#iconmenu #panel4c a:hover {background: url(http://www.rickcable.com/images/blog/spritebuttons.png) -154px -42px no-repeat;}
 
 </style>
</head>
 
<body>
 <ul id="iconmenu">
 
  <li id="panel1c"><a href="#"></a></li>
  <li id="panel2c"><a href="#"></a></li>
  <li id="panel3c"><a href="#"></a></li>
  <li id="panel4c"><a href="#"></a></li>
 </ul>
 <div align="center">
 <img src="http://www.rickcable.com/images/blog/spritebuttons.png">
 </div>
</body>
</html>

The Best Lotto Apps for the iPhone

2011-04-04T16:58:00.000-07:00

I had just purchased my California Super Lotto and Mega Millions tickets (the winning ones of course ;-), and thought to myself..... Self, there must be some good iPhone and iPad apps out there for getting Lotto results and tracking my tickets to see if I've finally won.

I downloaded (purchased) and tried quite a few but there were only a couple I would recommend. I've decided to review 3 apps, 2 paid apps and 1 free app for the lottery enthusiast. Here are my top 3 picks for the iPhone.

Lottotopia for iPhone by Appade $2.99 (Top Pick)

Lottotopia has a great interface! This app lets you choose lottery games from just about any state and only shows you the ones you want. Lottotopia also was a standout application because it had the ability to keep track your tickets and tell you if you've got a winner. The interface was intuitive and easy to use.

Pros: Easy to use interface makes tracking your tickets a breeze. Shake to quick pick feature when entering ticket numbers.

Cons: No statistical data.

Game Screen

For each lottery game that you select you will have a screen that keeps you up to date on that game. You can swipe through each of games.

Ticket and Results Screen

This screen is for tracking your tickets for each game. Scroll up and down through all you tickets and draws.

Entering Your Tickets Screen

Entering your lottery tickets is really easy using this intuitive interface.

Lotto (Free App)

Lotto is a PowerBall and Mega Millions lottery results app for the iPhone.

Features:
- Designed Specifically for Mega Millions and PowerBall Lottery
- Push Notification of Jackpoint (only when it is more than $75 million)
- Push Notification of Lotto results (immediately after the drawing)
- Countdown timer until next drawing
- Displays the estimated jackpot and cash value

Lotto - Game Info Screen

- Email the Jackpot info
- Email winning numbers
- Link to the official lottery web site

Pros: Free

Cons: No ticket tracking and no quick pick feature.

Lotto Pro ($0.99)

Lotto Pro is a PowerBall and Mega Millions lottery results app for the iPhone.

Features:
- Designed Specifically for Mega Millions and PowerBall Lottery
- Push Notification of Jackpoint (only when it is more than $75 million)
- Push Notification of Lotto results (immediately after the drawing)
- Countdown timer until next drawing
- Displays the estimated jackpot and cash value

Pros: Has an interesting "Shake for quick pick" number picker. Has statistics with frequent and overdue number sets.

Cons: No Super Lotto or other games, just PowerBall and Mega Millions.

VBScript - Adding Days and Months to a Date

2011-03-22T21:42:00.000-07:00

Alright, I usually like to blog about some IT related challenge that I've recently overcome but tonight I'm just going to post some relatively common code that I know at least one person according to my web site statistics seemed to be looking for today in my blog and must have come up empty handed so they had to go find it on any one of at least a thousand other sites about vbscript.

What where they looking for? The VBScript code to add 3 months to a date.

Here it goes...

VBScript has a built in function called "DateAdd" that specifically deals with adding or subtracting when dealing with a date/time variable.

To use it you will need to know the syntax and parameters that it needs to make the magic happen.

For my example I'm going to get the current date and time of the system by calling the "Now()" function which grabs the date and time from the PC the script is being run on.

To add one year, it goes like this.

DateAdd("m",3, Now())

Since I wrote this code in March it should return a numeric "6" for June. To spell out the month you would have to due some more work and maybe I'll cover that in another post later. The important thing to remember when working with dates and times using DateAdd, all your output will be numeric.

The vbscript function, DateAdd, needs a couple of items separated by commas to make it work.

WHAT IT NEEDS AND WHY

1. DateAdd needs to know the "Interval" parameter which is the part of the date your are wanting to work with. In the sample above I used "m" to tell it that I want to add to the month.

HINT: Don't forget to wrap interval parameter text in double quotes.

2. DateAdd needs the number you want to add to the date and in my sample I used "3". If you want to get a previous month then simply give DateAdd a negative number.

3. DateAdd needs to know what date you are working with. In my sample I used Now() to the current system date/time. You could have passed the date via a variable.

Where I had used "m" to add to the month, you only have to change to interval parameter to change the year, month, day, hour, minute or second. Here is a list of all the interval parameters you can pass to the DateAdd function:

yyyy - Year
q - Quarter
m - Month
y - Day of year
d - Day
w - Weekday
ww - Week of year
h - Hour
n - Minute
s - Second

I know for some people the DateAdd function is like preschool but for people who are new to VBScript I know it helps a lot if someone stops to explain the how and why of how this stuff works.

Good luck and happy coding!
Rick

Windows 7 Error: The user profile service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded

2011-03-17T19:48:00.001-07:00

I Came home today and tried logging in to my Windows 7 PC and got the following error: The user profile service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded.

I initially felt a little panic as this was the first time that Windows 7 had ever given my any real trouble.

HERE IS HOW I FIXED IT USING STEPS 1-15

If there is another administrator account that you can log into, then jump to step 7 after logging into that account.
However, if you can't get to any accounts at all, then start at step 1.

1. Restart your computer and hit F8 multiples times until you see a menu-like screen, if you see the Windows splash screen then repeat this step
2. Highlight and hit enter on Safe Mode with Command Prompt. Try logging in there. If it still doesn't work, then go to step17
3. If you are able to login, once a command prompt pops up, type: net user administrator password /active:yes (you can specify whatever password you want for the administrator account.)
4. If you get a message saying "The command completed successfully", then restart your computer by typing: shutdown -r
5. Boot up again pressing F8, but this time choose just Safe Mode.
6. You will be able to login as Administrator with the password you set in Step 3
7. Hit (windows logo)+R
8. Type regedit
9. Once the registry editor opens up, look for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
10. In the left pane, find the one that starts with S-1-5..... and ends with .BAK; if you don't find one, skip to step 15
11. Right click it and click Rename, then change the .BAK to .BK
12. Right click the one with the same numbering but without the .BAK and add .BAK add the end
13. Right click the one that you renamed to .BK and clickRename, delete the .BK
14. Eventually, you have switched the .BAK from the end of the second entry to the first. That should probably fix your problem.
15. If you didn't find a .BAK then try this: Open Windows Explorer to C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Application Data
16. If you find another Application Data below the one you're on, then delete it. That should probably also fix your problem.
17. If you can't login in Safe Mode, then reboot and hit F8 until you see the menu again, then hit enter highlightingRepair Your Computer
18. Wait until all Windows Files finish loading, then hitNext when it asks keyboard language.
19. Try logging in here also, choose your user from the dropdown menu, and type the password, then jump to step 23
20. If that still doesn't work, then if you have your Windows Installation CD still, put it in and restart your computer.
21. Hit F12 until you see a menu of boot options, choose Boot from CD
22. Choose keyboard language then hit next. Find Repair Your Computer from a little below the center left.
23. Choose Open Command Prompt and type: net user administrator password /active:yes (here again you can specify a password)
24. Close the command prompt and click Restart and jump to step 5

To disable the administrator account, type this in an elevated command prompt: net user administrator /active:no

Thanks to Roi A. for posting this on answers.microsoft.com.

VBScript: Adding Leading Zeros to a Date

2011-03-09T14:12:00.000-08:00

I was recently developing a script to loop through an excel file and write the contents in to a text file. One of the specifications was that the output dates had to have leading zeros like 01/01/2011 but the excel file had them as 1/1/2011.

I thought there must a VBScript function like the built in CDate for or FormatDateTime but neither of these seemed to return dates with leading zeros so I wrote my own function to do it.

As in all programing, there are many ways to write this to get the same output but this way worked for me on the project I used it for.

Function FixDate(strDate)
Dim iTemp, arrDate, item, strTemp

' my custom date fix function
' split the date in to an array by the "/" character
' check each date item and check to see if the length
' is less than 2 digits. If so then add the leading zero

arrDate = Split(strDate,"/") 

for each item in arrDate
   if len(item) < 2 then
      item = "0" & item
   end if

' Next section makes sure there is no
' backslash at the end of the rebuilt date
' when I put it back together.
   
   if item < 100 then
      strTemp = strTemp & item & "/"
   else
      strTemp = strTemp & item
   end if
Next

' Put the date back together
FixDate = strTemp

End Function

How to call the function?

FixDate("1/1/2011")
or
FixDate(YourStringDate)

Skype Web Browser Plug-in Causes Web Designer Headaches

2011-03-06T11:29:00.000-08:00

I recently looked at a web site I had designed many years ago, KellersKove.com, and realized that the Skype browser plugin that Skype automatically installs had changed (broken) the page layout inserting its own CSS in to the web page via the Skype plugin.

Here is what you will have to do to fix it.

Step 1:

You will have to upgrade the Doc Type to:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

Step 2:

Add a Meta tag to the head section of your web page:
<meta name="SKYPE_TOOLBAR" content="SKYPE_TOOLBAR_PARSER_COMPATIBLE" />

I added it to my broken web page and it worked. Skype knows what they did. You can read some of the complaints and feedback here.

http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=78380

How to Share files between a Windows 7 PC and an iMac

2011-03-04T13:56:00.000-08:00

I recently purchased a new Windows 7 Ultimate PC and an iMac. This being my first Apple computer that I've ever owned I was really worried that I would not be able to have them talk to each other on the same network.

I was pleasantly surprised that with some setup on the Windows 7 PC and a couple of commands on the iMac the sharing of files was a breeze.

Step 1: Make sure you have a work group defined for your home network on the Windows 7 PC.

To do this right click over Computer or My Computer
At the bottom of the System Properties window under Computer name, domain, and workgroup settings select "Change Settings"

Step 2: Setup file sharing on your Windows 7 PC.
If you need more help setting up Windows 7 file sharing check out this article from the How to Geek.

Step 3: Setup the share on your iMac. Use Command K then enter "smb:\\workgroup\pc_name"

Step 4: On the Network window make sure you have the same workgroup name entered here so that it matches your Windows 7 PC network workgroup.

Now when you open Finder on you Mac you will see your computer on left navigation bar listed under "Shared".

You can also find some of this information on Apple's support site.

The Best Pinball Games for the iPad

2011-02-25T21:12:00.001-08:00

I was looking for some games for my iPad the other day and thought to myself what a great platform the iPad would be for some old classic pinball games so off to the Apple app store I go in search of some good pinball games.

I actually very surprised that I did not find more noteworthy pinball games for the iPad but here are a couple that I enjoyed.

Pinball HD

You can find each of the games in this bundle for sale in the app store for $0.99 each but I purchased Pinball HD as a bundle of 3 games which included and a demo of the 4th game, Slayer, for $2.99. Slayer is selling for slightly more than the other games so if you try it and like it you might want to wait and see if it goes on sale.

The games included were Wild West, The Deep and Jungle Style.

The game has a nice feel to it. The graphics are well done. I had found that the flippers are easy and responsive and the game play was smooth. The ball movement was realistic. A pretty solid game but not a lot of extras or bonus surprises. In my opinion, the bundle was worth $2.99.

VIDEO

Undead Attack

With a little trepidation, I purchased Undead Attack for $2.99 from the app store. I thought the idea of having zombies in the game sounded novel and worth a try.

The graphics are interesting and fun. The flippers are not as responsive as Pinball HD but maybe that is how the developers intended it.

The games premise is that you must defend yourself as zombies are trying to make their way past your flippers and in to your mansion. There are bonuses and surprises as you go.

I definitely recommend this game if your looking for something a little different, a mix of the new and the old.

VIDEO

How to Copy Files from Your iPod Touch and iPad to iTunes

2011-02-22T12:00:00.000-08:00

I recently made the mistake of purchasing a song on my iPad the other day and realized that I could not move song back to my iTunes. With a little help from some special software it is possible to copy and move files from your iPad to iTunes. Here is how I did it.

Unfortunately, iTunes to your iPod Touch or iPad is a one way street . Sounds kind of silly to me that if I buy a song on my iPad that I don't have an easy way to get my song back to iTunes and then to my iPod Touch.

First, you will need some special software. I'm not sure how many different kinds software are out there to help you work with files on you iPod or iPad but I quickly found and registered a copy of DiskAid, TuneAid, and PicsAid by DigiDNA.

I was able to purchase a bundle of all three for $29.95. Each version of the DigiDNA software specializes in managing specific types of files on the iPod / iPad.

Wanting to learn as much as I can about the iPod and iPad of course I was interested to see how the file and folders were structures and FileAid did exactly that.

DISKAID
DiskAid gives easy access the file system of the iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. DiskAid transfers any kind of files from computer to iPhone & iPad, back and forth. Is compatible with iTunes 10 and iPhone OS 3.x to iOS 4.x and works with or without jailbreak.

TUNEAID
Transfer your music to iTunes or any folder on your computer. Rescue your music from a computer crash or theft. Salvage a corrupted iPod ! Copies Music Videos and Movies as well as music. TuneAid prevents dupes when copying from iPod to iTunes. Use TuneAid to transfer iPod, iPhone or iPad music to PC & Mac !
PICSAID
Transfer iPod, iPhone and iPad Photo Albums synced with iTunes. PicsAid copies pictures from any Apple mobile device.

Skype Web Browser Plug-in Causes Web Designer Headaches

2011-02-19T07:57:00.000-08:00

The Skype web browser plug-in is causing web designers a lot of headaches. When you install Skype it automatically installs a browser plug-in that changes the way phone numbers on web pages are displayed.

For web designers this is a nightmare. Having a popular software title that is installed on millions of PCs all over the world that is able to override your CSS style sheet and cause your designs to fail.

I recently looked at a web site I had designed many years ago, KellersKove.com, and realized that the Skype browser plug-in had changed (broken) the page layout inserting its own CSS in to the web page via the Skype plug-in.

Here is what you will have to do to fix it.

Step 1:

You will have to upgrade the Doc Type of your web page to:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

Step 2:

Add a Meta tag to the head section of your web page:

<meta name="SKYPE_TOOLBAR" content="SKYPE_TOOLBAR_PARSER_COMPATIBLE" />

I added it to my broken web page and it worked. Skype knows what they did. You can read some of the complaints and feedback here.

http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=78380

Powershell Sample: Looping Through a List of Servers and Copying Files

2011-02-17T20:36:00.000-08:00

I'm new to Windows Powershell and have been wanting to learn it for some time now. I finally had a situation come up the other day that I thought might be a good excuse to sit down and write my first Powershell script.

The scenario:

I have three different servers running the same application. There is application data on each server that needs to be backed up and stored in a folder named in a date format but it is not necessarily the date the script is run. The folder structure is exactly the same on each server. I needed a script that could make a new folder to store the backed up data. I prompt the user to name the new folder defined on 3 different servers and copy files from another folder to this new folder, essentially creating a backup of data from a root folder to the new folder.

#  Script name:    Backup_Data.ps1
#  Created on:     2010-05-14
#  Author:         Rick Cable
#  Purpose:        Backup Files

#new folder name in date format mm-dd-yy
$NewFolderName = "" #Stores the name of the folder 
#Create array of Servers
$Servers = @("Server1","Server2","Server3")
$ServerName = @("Server 1 Description","Server 2 Description","Server 3 Description")

#Prompt user to enter the new folder name
$NewFolderName = read-Host "Enter the name of the new folder in date format mm-dd-yy"

#Function to process the files for each server in the array list.
Function Backup {

#Loop throug each of the servers
for ($i = 0; $i -le $Servers.length -1; $i++) 
{
write-Host $Servers[$i]
$BasePath = "\\" + $Servers[$i] + "\Share\"
$DonePath = $BasePath + "\Backup\" + $NewFolderName + "\"

if (test-Path $DonePath)  'if folder already exists
{        
write-Host "Copying files for" $ServerName[$i]
$FilePath = $BasePath + "*.dfm"
Copy-Item $FilePath $DonePath
write-Host "Copying log files"
$FilePath = $BasePath + "*.log"
Copy-Item $FilePath $DonePath
write-Host "Copying txt files"
$FilePath = $BasePath + "*.txt"
Copy-Item $FilePath $DonePath

write-Host "Files Copied"
} 
else
{
[IO.Directory]::CreateDirectory($DonePath)

write-Host "Copying files for" $ServerName[$i]
$FilePath = $BasePath + "*.dfm"
Copy-Item $FilePath $DonePath
write-Host "Copying log files"
$FilePath = $BasePath + "*.log"
Copy-Item $FilePath $DonePath
write-Host "Copying txt files"
$FilePath = $BasePath + "*.txt"
Copy-Item $FilePath $DonePath

write-Host "Folder Created and Files Copied"
}

}
}

#Run the function   
Backup

Introduction to C# Programming: ASCII Xmas Tree - C# and .Net Sample Project

2011-02-16T07:01:00.000-08:00

C#, pronounced C Sharp, is a relatively new programming language from Microsoft that was designed to take full advantage of the new .Net Framework.
Below is a sample project I did for a programming class I'm attending at MJC in Modesto. To test and run the code listed on this site you should download a free copy of Microsoft Visual C# Express 2005. There are four Visual Studio Express versions available for free from Microsoft, Visual Basic, C#, J# and C++.
The xmas tree project was a good idea. It really makes you think. I think this project could have been a little more fun for me if I had a little more time but my schedule just won't allow it. I don't see myself coming back to often to update this code but if others want to sent me some other samples I may post them later. So here it goes....
Last updated: Monday, December 4, 2006 8:00 PM

Screen Shot

This is what the final result should look like.

The Code

The purpose of this project as I understood it was to write a console program using C#. The goal is to draw a Christmas tree on the screen by making use of arrays and nested for loops. Of course, the one time I missed class all year and that was the day the instructor was discussing this new project. Luckily a fellow student took the time to go over it with me and this is what I came up with. Not sure if it is exactly correct but I'm sure it is close.
Download a copy of tree.exe, the executable file. You can run the code right from here by clicking on it or right click and choose save link as...

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Text;

namespace ConsoleApplication1

{
    class Program

    {

        static void Main(string[] args)

        {

            //create the main array

            int[] myArray = new int[] { 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 };
            //The outside foreach loop to loop throught the array

            foreach (int intLoop in myArray)

            {

                //creates the spaces, takes the array number minus 1 then divide by 2

                //this gives you the amount of spaces needed for each level of the tree

                 for (int iSpace = 0; iSpace < ((myArray[4]-intLoop)/2); iSpace++)

                {

                    System.Console.Write(" ");

                }               

                //middle loop writes the asterisks "*" the full amount of current array[]

                for (int i = 0;i < intLoop; i++)

                {               

                System.Console.Write("*");

             }

                //creates the spaces, takes the array number minus 1 then divide by 2

                //this gives you the amount of spaces needed for each level of the tree

              for (int iSpace = 0; iSpace < ((myArray[4] - intLoop) / 2); iSpace++)

             {

                 System.Console.Write(" ");

             }

            //creates new lines after all 3 loops run

             System.Console.WriteLine("");

            }

            //nest this loop and do it 3 times

            for (int iBase = 0; iBase < myArray[1]; iBase++)

            {

                // now make the base of the tree

                for (int iSpaces = 0; iSpaces < myArray[1]; iSpaces++)

                {

                    System.Console.Write(" ");

                }

                for (int iPipes = 0; iPipes < myArray[1]; iPipes++)

                {

                    System.Console.Write("|");

                }

                // now make the base of the tree

                for (int iSpaces = 0; iSpaces < myArray[1]; iSpaces++)

                {

                    System.Console.Write(" ");

                }

                  //creates new lines after all 3 loops run

                    System.Console.WriteLine("");

            }

        }

    }
}