Category Archives: Misc

Things that are not techie stuff, but I feel like I want to talk about anyway.

Solarum’s Open Source Project – nix32

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I thought I would post some information about a project that I started a few months ago called nix32.  It’s hosted on SourceForge for the most part, with a handy website that I host myself mainly because it’s just easier to manage that way.  The basic goal of this project is to create native command line tools for Windows that operate much like the commands that we know and love from Linux and UNIX.  Things like ls, mv, cp, df and so on.  I have become so used to, comfortable with and productive with the UNIX/Linux command line environment, that when I have to leave it behind on Windows, it’s pretty tough.  Not just changing from what I am used to, but also because I think the command line of a UNIX/Linux server is much more powerful and flexible than the Windows command line, even including the power shell.

I have been working on the more popular commands, and I have a few basics out now with basic functionality.  I hope to have more and better (improved) tools in the future.  I am writing everything in PERL and then compiling each one on Windows as a standalone exe using tools from ActiveState, and so far, they run very nicely.  It’s all completely open source, you can download the PERL scripts as well as the executable files if you want to take a look or help improve them.

Now, I know you can get similar results with other projects and products out there, CYGWIN comes to mind first.  However, that’s a whole separate shell and almost a little mini-Linux setup in and of itself, especially looking at the directory structure after it’s installed.  Here with the nix32 project I wanted to have native Windows executables that you can stick in your path somewhere and call right from the Windows Command Prompt, without ever leaving the Windows environment and without having to install anything.  So far that is exactly what we have, just copy the files somewhere, make sure it’s within or added to your PATH variable, and you are good to go!

So check it out, see what you think, spread the word and maybe even help out a bit and crunch a little code too.  Do whatever you feel and keep both feet on the wheel … or, keyboard maybe.  🙂

Stop Hijacking My System Tray

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You want to know one of the things that really draws my ire?  I mean really makes me want to uninstall your pathetic excuse for a piece of software, remove any remnants or traces of it having ever been near my machine in the first place, destroy the CD it came on with fire called down from the heavens and send ravenous zombie hordes to your home office?  It’s when some developer douche bag decides that he knows what I want more than I do.

I don’t mind if you ask me, give me a choice, but not every damn program out there needs to put one or more items into my system tray to load there every time the computer starts and slow down my startup time, eating away at memory and CPU power.  Normally this is under the guise of “speeding up the application”.  Well, I say that if you need all of those pre-loaders to make your application function acceptably, maybe you should go back to Fortran 101 and learn to write good code in the first place!

What’s worse, are the damn services that get installed and started that we don’t even know about.  Why does a simple media player need a web server?  Why does my GPS management app want or need to check out my hard drive at night?  Have all developers taken refuge at the throne of Bill Gates and Lenovo or something?

“We have a right to look at the user’s private information because they bought our crap.”  or “We don’t need to worry about writing tight, efficient bug free code, we’ll just tell the customer to by a new computer and get more kick backs from Intel.”

Not to mention the shift away from ownership to leasing.  Now when you “buy” software, you really are only “buying” a license that allows you to use it for a period of time.  Screw that noise, man.  If I am interested in a certain product and see that kind of license, ffft it’s gone and I am looking at something else.

This is just one reason why Open Source software is so damn good and popular.  Microsoft and the other behemoths of the commercial software industry want to come out and tell everyone that free software isn’t really free, it costs you more than the expensive slop that they sell.  The thing is, they don’t get it.  We don’t mean free as in dollars, we mean free as in spirit and ethics.  You get some open source code and you may spend a few bucks to implement it or get some support, or you may not, either way it is completely open.  All of the source code is there so you can make damn sure no one is spying on you or stealing information from you.  You can make a change to the app if you feel like it so that it fits better to your needs, instead of only getting “good enough”.  It’s free like the wind and water cascading down the mountain, and brothers and sisters, that’s a great place to be.

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Quick fix for Notepad++ and the dreaded “Error in CreateProcess (740)” problem!

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At least this worked really well for me, and a few other folk that tried it.  I don’t know if this is a Windows 7 thing since it seems that most folks experiencing this problem were running Win7, but not everyone.  Either way, I culled this from bits and pieces of other suggested solutions I found and thought I would share it.  You never know, it might help someone else like it helped me, and that’s what this site is all about, eh?

OK, on with the goodness!  Quick summary, I had Notepad++ (one badass text editor for Windows if you don’t already know about it) installed on my main machine, the Mothership running Windows 7.  I had a context menu entry so that I could write click on darn near anything and have the option to “Edit with Notepadd++”.  This has been a real handy option living in my context menu for years, and when it started flaking out I wasn’t happy about it.  At first I figured it was just Windoze being Windoh’s and it would be OK after the next time I rebooted.  However, as time went on, after the next reboot or two, it was still messed up.

Messed up how you ask?  Well, I could open the program with the standard shortcut, no problem.  Once open I could open files, no problem.  I could drag and drop files and Notepad++ would open them fine.  It was only when I tried to fire up Notepad++ with a file argument after the executable’s path (like the context menu) that I would get the following error message:

Error in CreateProcess (740): Is this command correct?
“C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe”
“D:\path\to\the\file_I_was\opening.txt”

That was it, no joy after that.  Nothing.  Nada. Irritating.  Well, to make a longer story shorter, I did some research and found that it came down to two problems.  Maybe only one, but I think it really had to do with both.  These were/are:

  • Windows 7 (and maybe Windows in general, regardless of the version) doesn’t like the “++” in the path.  The theory goes that Windows doesn’t have a publicly reported problem, like by Microsoft, but nonetheless it sometimes just lets special characters get on its bad side, and starts throwing some errors.
  • Windows 7 (and maybe Windows in general, regardless of the version) does not like the Notepad++ option during setup that says don’t use %AppData% for storing config settings.  This allows you to override Windows default behavior and store your config data in the program directory like in the old days.  Well, Windows 7 especially (maybe others) really hates this, and will fight with you over it.

So, what was the fix?  The fix should be pretty obvious after reading the two items above, but I’ll lay it out for you anyway, cause that’s what I do!

  • First, uninstall Notepad++, make sure to completely remove it.
  • Next, re-install Notepad++, you might as well snag the latest version from their site (http://notepad-plus-plus.org/) while you are at it.
  • During the re-install, make sure you change the installation path so as to remove the “++” from the install directory.  As a suggestion, I used “C:\Program Files\NotepadPP\”, substituting a capital P for each +.
  • Also, as you are installing, make sure you do not check the option that says to not use %AppData%, go ahead and let the installer put the config files where it wants.
  • Now, once the install is done, test it out.  For me, this fixed my problems, Notepad++ runs faster and smoother than ever before, which is a great thing.

I sure hope this helps you fix the problems you are having with Notepad++ and opening files from a context menu.  If not, drop a comment and share some details, maybe we can get folk to chime in and help you out!  Enjoy 🙂

VMware and avast! Internet Security Network Problem

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Just in case I am not the only one to run into this, I thought I would post the answer to a problem that vexed me for a while.  I run avast! Internet Security for my software host based firewall and anti-virus on my Windows boxes.  On some of those I also have VMware Workstation installed.  I noticed that when all of the protection settings or “shields” as they are called were turned on, my virtual machines couldn’t talk to anything else on the network when in bridged mode.  If I went to NAT mode or turned the avast! shields off, it would work, but neither of these solutions was satisfactory to me.  So, I kept on digging, even checked in with tech support to no avail.  Finally I found it, something so simple and trivial I wanted to scream, but my family is asleep right now so I didn’t.  In avast! Internet Security, there is an option to tell the firewall to allow Internet Sharing.  I guess multiple computers communicating in a shared manner like that looks bad if you didn’t plan it that way.  Well, when your virtual machines are running, it looks just like Internet Sharing, at least it does to avast! anyway.  Simply open up the main window, go to the firewall section and hit the “Expert Settings” button.  On the dialog that pops up there is a check box about in the middle (maybe a little lower) of the page to enable Internet Sharing.  Turn that on and your virtual machines will be talking like teenage girls with unlimited text plans.  Hope that helps someone out there, enjoy!

Drop Down Date Picker For Excel

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I was working on a spreadsheet where I had a range of cells I wanted a drop down date picker/calendar for.  Now, I could have just added a bazillion calendar controls (one to each cell) but I knew that was cheesy and that there had to be a better way.  Well now, I found an awesome tutorial on adding just the thing and I had to share.  One control and a little bit of VBA code and you are all set working like a pro.  Check it out, the info at the end of this link rocks!  Enjoy!!

http://www.rondebruin.nl/calendar.htm

Internet SPAM, Scams, Viruses and Phishing attacks are on the rise

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This is just a heads up to everyone out there to be extra careful when handling email.  We have seen an explosive increase in the number of attacks brought about to every day citizens through email.  From SPAM with fake links, to Internet Scams that these fraudsters want you to invest your time and money in, to Viruses/Trojans/Back doors, and of course Phishing attacks where someone pretends to be from some place familiar to you like your bank, eBay or PayPal in an attempt to get your account information.

There are some basic steps to take like using good anti-virus software, and making sure it is kept up to date, that can help you stay safe.  We posted an article a while back with these explained, and I believe we should take a look at updating it since it’s been a year or two.  The basic principals stay the same, and there is still lots of good info there, we will most likely just be adding more stuff to deal with new threats.  Take a look at it here, it’s called Web Surfing Safety, and we hope you find it useful.  In addition to that, be sure to check out the Library, since we have lots of other good information and tidbits in there too!  Thanks.