The Producers

Bec & I went to see The Producers tonight, it was excellent.
Will write up a quick review later on...

Make Acrobat Reader 6 load faster

Good information to Make Acrobat Reader 6 load faster from Darrell Norton's blog (seems everyone links to his blog).

Plus use the Adobe Reader SpeedUp tool to help in selecting plugins (using a graphical checkbox system). I'm going to try just the Search/EScript/Weblink path and see how it goes. Currently Reader v6.0.2 uses 33.5Mb of mem opening with no documents :'(

UPDATE:I went with the SpeedUp tools "Fast" recommendation, only EWH32 (81k) / reflow (305k) / Search (201k). And the cool thing is all other plugins are moved to "optional/" so they will load if the plugin is actually needed...
It seems to load VERY FAST, and now only using 18.5Mb of memory :)

Running Batch files on a selected Folder in Explorer

Configuring Windows Explorer - Context Sensitive Menus

Great way to run a Batch file on a particular directory.
Eg. Say you want to run a batch file after right-clicking on a Folder, so it is performed on that folder.

1. Go to Explorer --> Tools --> Folder Options --> File Types
2. Select the "File Folder" file type
3. Select Advanced --> New...
4. Action = Moved to Fixed
5. Application to use = cmd.exe /c cd "%1" | C:\fixed_dir.bat

This runs fixed_dir.bat file in the currently selected folder and exits the DOS window straight away.
In this case fixed_dir.bat contains:

mkdir Fixed
move *.jpg Fixed

Having a non-usable foot is not fun

Thursday 2004-07-1

Went into the Western Hostipal last Thursday for my ankle operation.

1 week ago

Blah, blah

Pre thoughts

I was thinking when I went in that, being last on the list, there was a good chance that I was staying the night (ironic given the "Day Procedure Unit"). I imagine this was because the doctor and physio I need to see afterwards would of gone home (fair enough).

12pm

Arrived at the hosptial, went through a series of people asking questions, then finally got to put the robes on and wait my turn. Turns out the robe thing (front and rear robes + booties) is a complicated procedure, I suggested a flowchart or diagram (Graham would be proud). Chatted to a guy named Brian, he was going in before me. He had been through some wars (type 1 diabetes, skin cancer, cancer under the throught, cancer between the optic nerves), poor bastard.

3pm

Got called in, sat on a trolley for 30min waiting, then went into the theatre and got my knock out juice before going to la-la-land.

More to come

Blah, blah...

Palm Outlook conduit problems #42

For the last few days, the Outlook Calendar conduit stopped working, with:

Outlook Calendar
The selected source folder [Paul Gregg\Calendar] was not found in Outlook. Synchronization will be performed with the default source folder [Paul Gregg\Calendar].
- Not Synchronized
Outlook Calendar synchronization failed

Tried rebooting, reinstalling Palm desktop and the v1.0.1 Outlook conduit updates (the v1.1 conduits that come with Palm Desktoip v4.1.4 don't work for me), nothing worked. If only I was smart enough to Google for it before, I would of saved myself a lot of trouble. Google came up with one hit troubles with Outlook 2002/XP sync.
The "Outlook /resetfolders" solution worked a treat, and I have seen that one before, if only I had remembered....

Current CD/DVD wishlist

CD's

• Something for Kate - newest
• Jack Johnson - newest (maybe, still to listen to...)
• John Butler Trio - newest
• Powderfinger - Internationist & more
• Simpsons - any (!songs in the key of)
• Led Zepplin - any (! LZ 1 & 2cd best of)

DVD's

• Simpsons - Season 4 boxed set
• Blade I & II boxed set
• Xmen 1.5 + 2 boxed set
• Fast & Furious CE
• Predator CE
• The Great Escape (CE? or SE?)

Windows 2000/XP SP Slipstreaming

Windows 2000/XP SP Slipstreaming:

"How can I slipstream service packs into the Windows 2000 or the Windows XP media?"

This makes updating way easier, especially with 3 computers used often, plus other people's that I help to maintain.
Even explains how to create a bootable CD version, plus links to "Slipstream Office XP/2003".

Found via Chris' Corner blog

Seven tricks that Web users don't know

Seven tricks that Web users don't know:

Ignorance is about things, not people
1. Logos that link to the home page
2. Concepts of security vs. privacy
3. Rollover menus
4. Arrow keys and drop-down lists
5. Navigation by hacking URLs
6. Knowledge of browser controls
7. Second browser windows
The geographic effect
Change sites, not user behavior

Great checklist of pitfalls to avoid when creating websites that real people use (ie. 99% of them). Found via Asa's blog

Design-By-Contract, Object Constructors, and Error Stacks in JavaScript

Inspector Gadget and Docs: Design-By-Contract, Object Constructors, and Error Stacks in JavaScript

Alex Vincent has a great way to help debugging and pre/post-conditional testing in JS.
I really like the Design-By-Contract methodology.

I've been thinking of this one for a while, using a system of debug asserts to test pre and post-conditions. I remember we used to have a function documenting style in DS309 (PJ's subject of course) that included both pre and post-conditional comments (+ function description). This was for the "user" of the function, to understand what were the requirements of using it.

Then over the years I thought wouldn't it be cool to have this automatically tested, either using main()/test functions in the class, or using Unit tests. Then what about using MACRO based tests via something like PRECONDITION() that would only work in debug code (much like mozilla's NS_PRECONDITION).

Stop Win XP from Searching Within ZIP Files

Stop Win XP from Searching Within ZIP Files:

From the Start menu's Run dialog, enter this command:
regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll.
Repeat and enter: regsvr32 /u cabview.dll.
Each time, you should get a notice that DllUnregister succeeded. Contrary to numerous Web sites displaying this advice, you need to restart the computer for the change to take effect.

I've gotten different advice over the years, and have instructions at home that I know work, but hopefully this does as well (still need to reboot)...

UPDATE: Turns out this didn't work for me, so need to dig up my info at home

UPDATE2: The hint from Mike works. Run regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll, reboot straight away, then run WinZIP immediately and answer yes to "fully associate ZIP files with WinZip??". Confirmed that it works because search now doesn't look through ZIP files.

Mozilla (+Firefox) user pref/extensions

(mentioning things not easily found by looking through options...)

These are only from a typical users perspective, not hardcore/web developer needs (like I'm typical)

Site icons

Here's the setup I run, BTW, some are defaults...

• browser.chrome.favicons = true
• browser.chrome.load_toolbar_icons = 2 (wouldn't try that on dialup :-)
• browser.chrome.site_icons = true

(See Hidden Mozilla Prefs by Pratik Solanki)

Popup blocking

This means a website doesn't take over the "Window Open" popup

• dom.disable_window_open_feature.location = true
• dom.disable_window_open_feature.menubar = true
• dom.disable_window_open_feature.resizable = true
• dom.disable_window_open_feature.status = true
• dom.disable_window_open_feature.titlebar = true
• dom.disable_window_open_feature.toolbar = true

Adblock

I couldn't live without Adblock.
I run the latest nightly, and just don't see Ad's anymore (after spending a little time training it on what I did/didn't want).

SmoothWheel

Yep, couldn't live without it either. Grab at SmoothWheel
If your on a fast compluter, it beats the built in smooth scroll, especially the "smoothness" and deacceleration coming to the end of a page...

Mozilla 1.7 RC 1 Released

The latest Mozilla Suite to be released is 1.7 RC 1.

Hopefully lots of people download and "push" the release to see if we can find any problems/crashers...