Quick link: Microsoft instructions on how to enable remote desktop

Are here.

When doing a clean install, follow these steps (for me only)

- Back up all files
- Back up Outlook data files
- Back up Outlook rules

- Reformat
- Blow away Bootcamp partition
- Recreate Bootcamp partition
- start XP install
- Format using NTFS Quick option
- Install XP

- Fix mouse pointer, Start menu, view options (file extensions, invisible files), show computer on desktop
- Install all updates, including optional Windows Media player 11
- Install more updates
- Join wireless group
- Rejoin/install printers
- Install VPN
- Install Acrobat
- Download and install office
- Install office 2007 updates
- Start Outlook, quit
- Restore Outlook data files
- Restore Outlook rules
- Restore Windows files
- Add Windows Search
- Do VMWare Fusion Unity fix

Trying WinClone

Ok, previous tip on backing up using Disk Utility didn't work for me. Going to try WinClone now. Sounds like what I need.

When restoring Bootcamp remember to...

- Save all files
- Export all Exchange rules!!!

CFC Flex 2 data exchange example, using RemoteObject

http://blog.739saintlouis.com/2007/09/27/moving-data-from-coldfusion-cfcs-to-flex-2-applications-using-remoteobject/

Google hints I learned today

Date range:
Add &as_qdr=m3 for 3 months
http://www.google.com/search?q=photoshop&as_qdr=m3

Daterange finds files based on when they were indexed using the Julian calendar
photoshop daterange:2451544.5-2454370.5 (="photoshop" between 1/1/2000 and 9/27/07)

Filetype filters:
filetype:blah (such as filetype:pdf)

To get dictionary/wikipedia type answers:
define:word
or for more context
definition word

Operators:
| means OR
(picasa OR photoshop) site:gov

~ means synonyms
site:edu
inurl:wharton.upenn.edu

Alternate sites:
thumbshots.com to compare results between search engines, how many are unique
rollyo.com

VMWare Fusion 1.0 network problem/solution

This was the magic that worked for me.

Hi Folks,

Hoping you all can learn from the multiple-days worth of pain I endured. It all makes sense now in hindsight.

Setup:
MacBook Pro C2D 2.33 GHz, 3 GB RAM
Bootcamp 1.4 installed, XP SP2 on 30GB partition
VMWare Fusion, GM version installed

Problems:
- Over time Outlook 2007 stopped syncing to Exchange reliably. Some email would come in, but other email, some that was even sent earlier, didn’t get delivered to my Outlook Inbox until AFTER I quit and restarted the app. Hitting “Send/Receive” would not deliver the “stuck” email even though I could see it using Webmail. I also found that after losing and then restarting a VPN connection on the Mac, that browsers in my virtual machine we able to see sites inside the firewall, but Outlook said it still couldn'’t connect to the Exchange server.

Solution:
Turns out that the whole problem was that I was using the NAT networking option for my Bootcamp VMWare virtual machine. Once I switched to Bridged mode ALL the above problems went away. I had originally used NAT so that I could just open one VPN connection when at home (now I also have to launch Cisco VPN within my virtual machine when at home), but launching VPN twice is a small price to pay for getting this all to work. Got this tip from the VMWare forum (looks like NAT is a bit buggy).

If only I could have figured that out without having to have first clean installed both Windows and OS X…alas… Fixed a Bootcamp 1.3->1.4 error in the process and also uncovered an LCD screen hardware issue (machine in the shop now). What a week…

Hope this benefits someone else out there,
Bob

The real deal behind the Canon Dioptric Adjustment lenses

Probably don't need it, but man the numbering is super weird.
http://creativekarma.com/ee.php/weblog/comments/dioptric_adjustment_lenses_for_canon_eos_digital_slrs/

Best example on how to dynamically refer to worksheets

Right here
See last post with attachment.

Excel INDIRECT=eval(), vlookup

Was looking around for a way to dynamically evaluate cell references and finally after some digging found INDIRECT, which was just what I was looking for. VLOOKUP looks handy to transfer over data without having to specify a cell range.

Other basic, but key Excel learnings

Ok, so I obviously wasn't an Excel jockey before.
$A$1 means always refer to cell A1 and don't update the cell reference when copying.

Sheet4! means this reference is in sheet for of the same workbook. Haven't found a way to put a reference in front of the bang (a la A3! where the text of the worksheet is found in A3).

Array formulas in Excel, thank you...

Was trying to do a dynamic search for text within a range of Excel rows. Array formulas to the rescue. Great examples here:
emailoffice.com article

Be sure to hit "ctrl+shift+enter" when done entering the formulas or it won't work.

Cool Flash life expectancy calculator

http://www.poodwaddle.com/realage.swf

Faith, Reason books

From old article in the amhersttimes.

"The Language of God" Dr. Collins
"God's Universe" Dr. Gingerich
"Evolution and Christian Faith" Dr. Roughgarden

"Breaking the Spell: Reiligion as a Natural Phenomenon" Daniel C. Dennett
"The God Delusion" Richard Dawkins

Aetna 24 hour nurse health line

1-800-556-1555

Health DB
www.aetna.com, click on Take Action on Your Health, Treating Illness, Health A-Z

Korean War book I wanna check out

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/books/review/Frankel-t.html

Way to try out a different vocation on your vacation

http://www.vocationvacations.com/

How to play the guitar for newbies

http://www.mahalo.com/How_to_play_guitar_for_newbies

Design a room online

http://www.designmyroom.com/

Drag & dropping of rows in a Flex Datagrid

Don't know if I'll ever need/want to do this, but in case I want to find it later...
http://blog.flexexamples.com/2007/09/19/dragging-rows-between-two-different-flex-datagrid-controls/

Free stock photo resources

www.morguefile.com
www.photolib.noaa.gov

Two software packages to take images of Bootcamp partitions, sigh, only NTFS

http://www.twocanoes.com/winclone/
http://www.bombich.com/software/netrestore.html

Resize Mac disk partition without reformatting

Article on Macworld:
http://www.macworld.com/2007/02/secrets/marchgeekfactor/index.php

Maybe better way to backup Bootcamp partition more reliably with FAT32 format

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=717201&start=0&tstart=0

Enabling Start menu in Fusion Unity view

From Fusion release notes:
VMware Fusion provides a hidden option that displays the Windows task bar in Unity view. To enable this option:

Make sure that Windows Explorer is set to display hidden files and folders.
In the Windows guest, go to: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Tools.
Open the file tools.conf in a text editor such as Notepad.
Add the following line to tools.conf:
unity.showTaskbar = "true"
Save and close tools.conf.
Restart your Windows guest.
The next time you enter Unity mode, VMware Fusion will show the Windows task bar.

Backing up BootCamp partition

To do a fresh install back to a previous backup:
- Backup using Disk Utility at some good point to take a snapshot (some problems here)
- Use BootCamp assistant to combine partitions into one large one
- Use BootCamp assistant to recreate BootCamp partition
- Go ahead and start to install Windows by inserting disk (but only to format the new partition)
- Choose the right partition and format using FAT32 if you want to see files from within OSX
- Allow file copying to begin, but intercept on restart
- Hold down Option/Alt key and launch into OSX
- Use Disk Utility to restore image now that the partition is clean and recreated (won't work if you try to use the "Erase partition" option).
- Delete VMWare Fusion original virtual machine file and let it be recreated by VMWare
"I simply deleted the VM config file (/Users/[your_user]/Library/Application Support/VMWare Fusion/Virtual Machines/Boot Camp/[your /dev/disk#]/Boot Camp partition.vmwarevm), and then let VMWare Fusion rebuild the VM file... That did the trick, and I just hit cancel to avoid re-installing the VMWare tools (since they're already installed)."

See http://lonewolf-links.blogspot.com/2007/09/mbp-w-bootcamp-seamless-hdd-upgrade.html for more details.

What is this blog about?

Bob's Public Service Announcements blog are all the random things I figure out that:
a) I don't want to lose, but won't likely use again for months
b) Might help some other random soul out there

I won't likely check the comments, but feel free to discuss away.
Bob