If you use Google Calendar sync and have upgraded to Microsoft Office 2010 you’ve no doubt discovered that the two don’t work together. Here’s the world’s easiest fix:

1. Download this file: GoogleCalendarSync.zip
2. Unzip it
3. Go to C:\Program Files\Google\Google Calendar Sync
4. Rename GoogleCalendarSync.exe to OLDGoogleCalendarSync.exe
5. Move the new GoogleCalendarSync file to this folder.
6. Launch  Goggle Calendar Sync.exe
7. Fixed.

In the simplest of terms, the latest version of the Sync.exe file reads the version of Microsoft Outlook differently from the way the older version of the same file does. We are simply replacing the latest version of the file with a slightly older one.

Cheers!

UPDATE 17Aug: Google has released an update that should work with the 32 bit version of Outlook 2010

Lets say you were going to get rid of your television but still wanted to be able to watch your favorite shows at your leisure.  No problem. Here’s how:

This is not going to be a tutorial on the magic of Bit-Torrent, Wikipedia does a fine job at that:

BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used for distributing large amounts of data. BitTorrent is one of the most common protocols for transferring large files, and it has been estimated that it accounts for approximately 27-55% of all Internet traffic (depending on geographical location) as of February 2009.

BitTorrent protocol allows users to distribute large amounts of data without putting the level of strain on their computers that would be needed for standard Internet hosting…. The protocol works as an alternative data distribution method that makes even small computers with low bandwidth capable of participating in large data transfers.

There are several bit torrent programs available but in the spirit of keeping things extremely simple we are going to use a pre-configured version of uTorrent. We are also going to use an anonymizer service that will cost about $7.00 a month.I do not have an affiliate link or get a kickback for promoting this service – I just stand by it whole-heartedly and believe it is worth the 7 bucks a month to remain anonymous. If you don’t feel the need to use it  – skip ahead to right here: Click Me.

First, Go to BTGuard.com and create an account. I have a subscription. If you just want to “test the water” make a single month payment.

Once your account has been created click on the link that reads Install BTGuard

Choose the Easy Install

Recommended for most users, the easy method will install a pre-configured BitTorrent client (uTorrent) & encryption software. All you need to do is download and install!

For windows only, please use the advanced install of Vuze for Mac or Linux.

Once you have downloaded the BTGuard file, run it to install the pre-configured version of uTorrent

You will be prompted for your BTGuard login information, fill it in and select ok.:

The software will check your account status and then give you a message stating all’s well!

Select Continue and  – whats this?

If you get a similar firewall message make sure you tell the program to ALLOW uTorrent. In this case I will choose Unblock.

Would you like to make uTorrent the default torrent application? Yes indeed and “Always perform this check!”

Ta-Da! You have a Bit Torrent program installed!

Let’s look at 2 settings  – Click on the yellow gear icon or select OPTIONS –> PREFERENCES and go to CONNECTION

You will see that the information for a proxy server has been filled in automatically:

The other setting to take a look at is DIRECTORIES. I don’t think i need to give you a screen shot for that one – just select what folder you want your downloaded files put into. I have a folder in My Documents I created called Recently Downloaded. Whatever works for you – make it so!

At this point we have the ability to download movies and television shows using uTorrent. Now let’s set up which ones we want . .

Go to showRSS and register for a new account. You don’t even need to supply an email address!

Don’t forget your username and password. You will need it to add and remove programs later!

Once you have created the account the next step is to create a list of television programs you want to subscribe to. I’ll add 3 to mine:

I added Californication, Caprica and Dexter. You can add all the programs you want.

Finished? Ok, now click on FEEDS

Next to Get Your Feed Address choose BOTH TYPES OF TORRENTS and INCLUDE PROPER AND REPACKS then click GENERATE.

You will be taken to a page like this:

Copy the link that looks like this: http://showrss.karmorra.info/rss.php?user_id=24575&hd=2&proper=1

Here comes the magic . . . Open uTorrent, select FILE then ADD RSS FEED

Paste the link address in the FEED URL Box.

Check CUSTOM ALIAS and make up a name like TV SHOWS

Select AUTOMATICALLY DOWNLOAD ITEMS PUBLISHED IN FEED

and check the box for USE SMART EPISODE FILTER

Click OK and hold on to your hat:

Things to remember:

1) BTGuard is costing you $7.00 a month to provide you an anonymous Bit Torrent connection.

2) uTorrent is the program you are using to download “Torrent Files” of your choosing.

3) ShowRSS is where you are managing what TV shows are automatically downloaded with uTorrent.

4) Log in to ShowRSS to add or remove programs.

5) If uTorrent is running, its checking for new episodes!

And now that you have a Bit Torrent program . . .go find some torrents!

All I ask for in return is Beer and Books. Beer and Books.

Cheers!

If you have a jailbroken iPhone that is running the 3.0 and want to add MMS capability to it read on!

Start by connecting your iPhone to your PC and closing iTunes

Next, download this file: ATT_US-5.5 and save it to your desktop

Nowwe need to get to a command prompt.

• In Windows XP choose START – RUN – and type CMD the hit enter
• In Windows Vista chose START and in the “Start Search” box type CMD and hit enter

Now you have a Command Prompt window open like this:

Type the following string EXACTLY as show and hit Enter:

“C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunes.exe” /setPrefInt carrier-testing 1

If you get an error, you didn’t type it in exactly as shown above. If You hit Enter and iTunes opens – you didn’t type it in exactly as shown above.

Open iTunes manually

Select the iPhone you want to add MMS capabilty to. You can use the same computer to update several phones. I did both mine and my wife’s on my laptop.

Now press the SHIFT key and click UPDATE (Notice that I have not updated my phone to version 3.1)

In the bottom right-hand corner of the dialogue box is a drop-down box. Change it from “Ipod/IPhone Software (*.ipsw)” to “iPhone Carrier Configuration Files (*.ipcc)”

If you don’t have the ability to select “iPhone Carrier Configuration Files (*.ipcc)” then you missed something above. Most likely you didn’t enter the command correctly.

Select the file you download earlier (ATT_US-5.5) and you will see the progress bar zip by as the change is applied.

Reboot your iPhone:

• Hold down the Home button (that’s the big button in the lower front) and the Sleep / Wake button (that’s the little button on the top right) down.
• Keep holding until you see the screen go black and then the Apple logo appear.

Once the phone has rebooted go to your messaging and select a contact to send a message to.

You will see the camera icon is now available:

Tap the camera icon, take a picture or choose an existing one . . .

YOU Sir or Ma’am, are ready to send MMS messages on OS 3.0!

Here is a little surprise I received upon returning from vacation. I was editing a blog and when I went to save the post an error popped up reading:

• The server (our server domain, e.g. DOMAIN.COM) at Magic requires a username and password.

Well isn’t that special?

The problem is caused by the vars.php file located in the WP-INCLUDES folder. Someone did a SQL Injection (Read More Here) and added code to the file.

The fix is an easy one – 2 steps:

1. Download a new version of the vars.php file from WordPress and replace the corrupted one. Look here – Simply choose your WordPress version
2. Update WordPress to the latest version!

Normally, the files starts:

<?php
/**
 * Creates common globals for the rest of WordPress
 *
 * Sets $pagenow global which is the current page. Checks
 * for the browser to set which one is currently being used.
 *
 * Detects which user environment WordPress is being used on.
 * Only attempts to check for Apache and IIS. Two web servers
 * with known permalink capability.
 *
 * @package WordPress
 */

But after it has been “hacked” there is encrypted text reading something like:

eval(base64_decode("JGxsbD0wO2V2YWwoYmFzZT....

So once again, Look here – Simply choose your WordPress version, go to WP-INLUDES, download Vars.php and replace the one on your server. Then update WordPress for better security.

If you are running a WordPress website and have noticed that Firefox crashes whenever you try to add an image – here is the solution.

Just Disable Google Gears.

Go to Tools > Add-Ons, select Gears and ‘Disable’ it.

Fixed.

Almost all mail client program send e-mail using port 25, which is also the port used by mail servers to talk to each other. But port 25 is widely abused by malware to spread worms and spam. As a result, many ISPs are restricting its use.

Hang on – it will make sense in a second:

Most people having a setup where they are on an Internet Service Provider (ISP) like ATT and have an email address like “MyEmail@ATT.net”  You connect to the internet using ATT and send mail through the ATT server – no problem.

But if you have your own domain email address or an email address from another ISP you may hit a snag. In these cases you are connecting to the internet through your ISP (like Comcast, SpeakEasy, ATT, etc) and trying to send email through your third party host like “MyEmail@SuperCoolWebsite.com”

Your ISP says “Hey! There is someone on my network trying to send email through someone elses address! This might be spam or malware!” You can receive mail, but you can’t send mail.

Recently ATT and Verizon both made changes that affected outgoing mail. Here’s the fix:

If you cannot SEND MAIL

1. Open OUTLOOK
2. Select TOOLS
3. Select ACCOUNT SETTINGS
4. Highlight the account in question and select CHANGE
5. Select MORE SETTINGS
6. Select ADVANCED
7. Change from PORT 25 to PORT 587
8. Save everything and restart Outlook

Other email programs will have similar settings. Look for PROPERTIES or PREFERENCES and find the outgoing mail server option.

One other option to check is that you are authenticating before sending. In other words. logging in with your username and password to both check and send email.

In Outlook the options window looks like this:

This tells Outlook to send your username and password before trying to send mail. If you have problems try enabling or disabling this setting.

The screen shots used in this how-to are my actual settings and they work just fine with SpeakEasy and ATT.

Sometimes when you want to upload photographs to online services or self-maintained systems like WordPress you may find yourself in the position of needing to reduce the file-size of the images. After all, your 8 mega-pixel camera takes pictures that are just that – around 8MB sometimes!

There are several programs you can use to reduce the file size of your images but if you have Microsoft Outlook installed then you have everything you need!

Here is a super-fast and easy way to reduce those image file sizes using Microsoft Outlook.

1 ) Put the original image files in one folder on your desktop.

2 ) Create another folder that will hold the set we will make. Lets name them “Start” and “Finish”

3 ) Open the “Start” Folder, and select all the images in that folder.

- Highlight them all, or select one and then CNTRL-A to select all, etc.

4 ) While all of the files are selected, Right Click and SEND TO –> MAIL RECIPIENT

5 ) The “Send Pictures via E-Mail” prompt will open. Choose “MAKE ALL MY PICTURES SMALLER”

6 ) Select the size you want, I usually use LARGE and I find this to be plenty of compression.

- In Vista the option for picture size appears as another window.
- In XP click the SHOW MORE OPTIONS link and the pop-up window will expand.

7 ) Give your computer a few seconds to work its magic. The more files you are reducing, the longer it will take. I have done over 100 at a time before – no problem.

8 ) An email message will appear with all of the reduced size files in the attachments area.

9 ) Select one of the attachments, hit CNTRL-A to select them all, and save them to the FINISH folder you created.

- You can also click once on one of the files, then right click and choose SELECT ALL
- Once all of the files are selected you can drag and drop them into the FINISH folder or cut and paste – whatever is easier for you!

Now you have a folder of images that are usually less than 100KB instead of 4-8 (or higher!) MB a piece.

How easy was that!

When upgrading WordPress you may receive the dreaded Error 500 – Internal Server Error:

Don’t Panic. This usually means that the files you uploaded did not completely replace their predecessors.

Check your FTP settings and tell your FTP program to OVERWRITE existing files on the server. Some thing like this:

I usually have my Uploads option set to “Overwrite if Source Newer” but I have seen this cause problems when uploading WordPress revisions like WordPress 2.7.1 so I change it to “Overwrite” when upgrading the files.

Re-upload the files, refresh your admin panel and breathe a sigh of relief.

How many times have I been asked this – let me count the ways . . .

How can I set up an excel document with suspense dates and get alerts from Outlook to remind me when they are due?

I built an Excel project management spreadsheet that uses start and end dates to track tasks. One field shows remaining days to complete the task. My question, is there a way to have excel utilize my Outlook to send me an email once a task is within 3 days of completion or past due? (I do not have the funds to license all my staff with Microsoft Project)

And a dozen more in the comments of various articles. Here’s the deal gang, while this sounds like an excellent idea – automatic Outlook reminders from an Excel spreadsheet – its not.

If you approach this with VBA code that says “Send an email to Outlook when . . .” that “When” statement has the potential to really screw some things up. First off, the spreadsheet needs to be open for the code to run. What happens when you go on vacation for two weeks and come back and open the file? What if you just forget to open the actual file because you are relying on an automatic reminder? How many pop-up meail windows are you going to get? How do you know everyone was emailed that needed to be emailed?

This is a case where automation sounds fantastic but in my opinion its really not a good idea.

Soapbox aside . . . Of course I have figured out an alternative for you.

I think the original script for this came from Martin Green over at FontStuff.com, or I found it in a discussion board. Disclaimer: I have modified the script to bend it to my will but I want to give props to whoever wrote the original core script. OK, props given – lets solve this mystery!

Do you want Excel to alert you of an approaching due date? Do you want to be able to send an automatic email to a person related to an item in that spreadsheet? Try it this way:

1. Download this file: Outlook eMail from Excel. (17k zip)
It is the example we will work from. I am going to show you a few tricks and then leave you to your own devices. Copy the pieces that work for your unique situation, ignore the ones you don’t need.

2. We are going to be working in developer mode so make sure you know how to enable it in Excel. The directions are in this posting.

3. Open up the spreadsheet you downloaded and follow along… Oh, and the spreadsheet has a Macro in it that you have to enable. Its safe, Trust me. I used to work for the Government.

So what are we looking at?

These columns can be rearranged anyway you see fit for your unique project. In this example we have people’s names, an email subject, an imaginary due date, an “email sent?” column, the person’s email address and a custom body message.

Click on any cell in a row to select it and then click the SEND MAIL button at the top of the spreadsheet. I’ll choose row 6, “Bill Jones”, the email generated looks like this:

What happened? The email address was filled, the subject line of the email was filled in and the custom body message was put in the body between two other lines of text.

Light-bulbs going off yet?

Where did those other lines of text in the body come from? A Macro. Let’s take a look at that macro so you can customize it.

Choose the DEVELOPER tab in Excel and click Macros (Again, the directions for enabling the Developer tab are in this posting.)

With the Macro box open select SendEmail and Edit.

Here is the code that does the magic.

There are 3 lines of code you need to be aware of so you can modify them if need be:

1. Email = Cells(ActiveCell.Row, 10)
2. Subj = Cells(ActiveCell.Row, 4)
3. Msg = Msg & “Dear ” & Cells(ActiveCell.Row, 1) & “,” & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & “Here is some precanned text before the BODY info in the spreadsheet. ” & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & Cells(ActiveCell.Row, 13) & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & ” And here is some more precanned text in the macro AFTER the Body stuff.”

Line 1 says “Get the email address from Row 10 of the active cell.” This is a little misleading, its actually column 10 or “J”.

Line 2? Get the email subject from row (column) 4 or “D”

And Line 3? Prints “Dear” and whatever in is column 1 or “A”, and then the precanned text before and after whatever in in the spreadsheet in column 13 or “M”.

If you change around the columns in your spreadsheet, simply change the numbers to correspond to the data’s new location! You can even add more information in the email from your spreadsheet – the magic term is “Cells(ActiveCell.Row, ????)”

Not too bad! Not too complicated either.

Now lets take a look at the date information back in the spreadsheet:

In the top right hand corner of the spreadsheet is Today’s Date, Excel formula being “=TODAY()”

The dates in column “F” are “Due Dates” I entered in manually. Maybe your spreadsheet will calculate these cells from other data you have. The color change is based on a “Rule” that is comparing the date we entered to today’s date. You could just as easily give yourself a heads-up by referencing a date in the future instead of today’s date “=Today () +7″, etc.

Back to the rule:

1. Highlight cell F4
2. Select Conditional Formatting
3. Select Manage Rules

And there is the rule that says “Blank Cells are just white” and “If the value of this cell (the date of this cell) is less than or equal to Today’s Date in R1 – color me reddish.”

You know have a visual flag that the item is due or past due and action needs to be taken!  Again, change this to whatever suits your need! Make it red, make it green – your choice!

The red X in the sent column is just another “food for thought” column. A reminder to yourself that you actually acted on the due or overdue item. So let’s look at this from the beginning on a typical work day:

1. Come in to the office.
2. Have Coffee
3. Chit Chat
4. Check Facebook
5. Etc.
6. Open Spreadsheet
7. Look at the DATE column. Is anything highlighted that doesn’t have a Sent notification?
8. Yes? Click a cell in that row and click the SEND EMAIL button.
9. Send the email
10. Put an X in the Sent box!
11. Check Facebook

That’s pretty labor unintensive! Seriously? 3 Steps

1. Look at the DATE column. Is anything highlighted that doesn’t have a Sent notification?
2. Yes? Click a cell in that row and click the SEND EMAIL button.
3. Put an X in the Sent box!

I am looking forward to see how all of you will improve upon this simple concept. This has been a hot topic in the comments section. There is no one size fits all solution but I hope that by taking this simplistic approach I save a lot of people a lot of time.

It doesn’t have to be complicated, and you don’t need to be a programmer!

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by their users. You won’t find editors at Digg — YOU are the editor and decide what gets added or “Dugg.”

How do they do this? Everything on Digg — from news to videos to images — is submitted by people like you. Once something is submitted, other people see it and Digg what they like best. If your submission rocks and receives enough Diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of our visitors to see.

Take a Quick Tour of Digg if you have never used it before. I highly recommend creating an account so the website will remember your custom settings. If you are regular Digg visitor you probably check it every hour and know what’s going on in the virtual as well as the brick-and-mortar world well before your neighbor.

Here is a super-easy way to Tweet on Twitter what you Dugg on Digg.

Twiggit is an automated service that lets your friends on twitter know what articles you digg. Simply visit their website and sign up.

You only need to provide your Digg username, your twitter name and password and an email address.

Once you have done that, everytime you visit Digg and Digg and article, Twiggit will update your Twitter status with a link to the article.

And hey Twitter-folk! How about trying out the Tweet This feature for this post!