Articles in ‘Technical Interleude’

A Good Day of Tech

Posted on Tue 03/30/10 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

Sometimes computer troubleshooting goes well, and I’d like to share my experience from the past 24 hours…

A byte of tech: A thumb drive of Fix It

Posted on Fri 02/26/10 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

As a tech dad, I feel I need to give a little something back to my readers. So, I offer you a glimpse of the utilities I keep with me on a thumb drive at all times. These are the essentials for removing malware (spyware & viruses), tuning-up a PC and optimizing the removal of nuisance software and the installation of commonly used software. Note that having this list won’t guarantee everyone a free pass to kick your computer guy to the curb; believe it or not, it takes more than a thumb drive to skin a cat, err… a computer…

Groups vs. Organizational Units

Posted on Fri 07/28/06 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

For days I’ve been searching for this explanation about using Groups vs. Organizational Units…

Thanks Scott!

There Are Groups, and There Are Groups

In Active Directory, groups and organizational units co-exist. A group is generally a member of an OU; but an OU can be a member of another OU, and an OU can be an equal member of another OU as a group. When Microsoft inherited the OU concept from LDAP, it had to reconstruct it into a more pliable metaphor, like a folder for files. As a result, the definitions of all these terms often fail to resound in the mind of a newcomer, until the point where she can see them altogether and the collective context begins to form:

Firstname.lst

Posted on Wed 07/12/06 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

So today I was thinking…

If people’s last names were marked as file extensions, what would mine be?

Would I be like a .doc (document) or an .xls (Excel), .zip (compressed archive), .pdf (cross-platform-accepted document format), or perhaps a .bat (batch file, calling all sorts of other executables).

I think I would be Inspectaneck.par… a parity file that is used to reconstruct damaged files. That suits me self-reflexive view.

First name: Neck
Last name: par

P.S. Of course I mean to use the ol’ Microsoft 8.3 naming convention. Whateve

left_SHIFT

Posted on Wed 05/10/06 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

Today I made a conscious decision to start using the left Shift key on my keyboard. I realized that my unrealized devotion to the right Shift key was slowing my typing down. As of this afternoon, I began to use the left Shift key.

Zonet ZPS2102 Print Server - "Failed to Save Configuration"

Posted on Wed 01/25/06 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

After my network finally recognized my Zonet ZPS2102, I was unable to change any settings through the Wizard or manually through PSAdmin. I was receiving “Failed to Save Configuration” with each attempt.

To solve the issue, I manually changed my IP address to 192.

InternetUpdates.exe

Posted on Wed 01/11/06 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

What is InternetUpdates.exe ?

Is InternetUpdates.exe in your startup menu, or a running process?

Is InternetUpdates.

Sorting your email with Gmail

Posted on Tue 01/03/06 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

452 Too many recipients - Outlook 2003

Posted on Mon 01/02/06 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

I recently attempted to send a mass email using Microsoft Outlook 2003 to nearly 100 contacts in my address book.

For almost half of the recipients, I received an email saying that the email was undeliverable or deferred due to the following error:

452 Too many recipients

I understood the message. I guessed that the receiving servers interpreted my email as Spam or a DoS or something else unwanted.

What are the Chances? I asked Google Answers.

Posted on Wed 12/28/05 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

I found out about a year ago that I have an older half-sister. While I’ll probably fill in the blanks about this story at a later time, this post will touch on one interesting aspect…

Textpattern 4.0.2

Posted on Fri 12/16/05 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

The site has made a few backend improvements that might not be realized by the general public, but they are visible to me.

We’ve upgraded to Textpattern 4.0.

AOL thinks I need more friends

Posted on Thu 11/17/05 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

On November 16th, 2005, AOL decided I needed a few more buddies on my AOL Instant Messenger Buddy List. Besides suggesting that I need more friends, they suggested I need a few

MSN Search Engine, WTF?

Posted on Thu 11/03/05 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

Since I started this site in February, I’ve been amazed at the high ranks the MSN search engine has given some of my articles. And today, I am equally dumbfounded at the sudden disappearance of my top-ranking technical article from the search engine, entirely.

Consider these facts:

Overheating; defective heater hose

Posted on Tue 10/11/05 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

SATURDAY, 10/5/2005

The other day after driving in the city for about 20 minutes, I saw some smoke coming from under the hood when I slowed down. I pulled the car over and waited for it to cool down. I refilled the coolant reservoir with coolant.

MSN Instant Messenger - Verify your email address (email deleted)

Posted on Tue 10/11/05 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

MSN Messenger: Unconfirmed email address after name. How to verify email address after confirmation email is deleted or not received.

HP tech support in INDIA!

Posted on Thu 09/22/05 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

I knew it was about to happen… I was being transferred to INDIA!

But, my past experiences have been pretty good with the Indian tech support workforce. I really do not care who gives me support as long as they are:

  • Knowledgeable
  • Courteous
  • Intent on helping me to resolve my problem

I go not gripe about jobs being moved overseas (at least in this particular industry) because prior to the India migration, I can remember waiting on hold for nearly an hour for support.

So, here was my experience today with Tushar: He was courteous and robotic like most of the support agents are overseas; despite my comedic effort to tell him that the Fax Self-Test Report printed, “Ask your support agent to mail a new machine immediately!” he did not even snicker.

HP Officejet 7210: Faxing Error 345 (communication error)

Posted on Thu 09/22/05 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

This article will provide notes on a possible resolution to an intermittent problem with sending faxes on our HP Officejet 7210.

SYMPTOMS: While sending faxes to different places, the fax will intermittently attempt to transmit for usually 9:11 minutes. Then, it will disconnect and spit out an error report.

Secure transactions on websites using frames are not always verifiable.

Posted on Thu 09/15/05 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

I experienced something today that I had not yet seen in all my years of web browsing. While submitting an (implied) “secure” transaction on a website, I could not verify that the transaction was secure…

Burn ISO CD images with Windows XP PowerToy

Posted on Sun 09/04/05 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

Do you want to create a CD from an .ISO image using Windows XP, without using costly software?

Install

HOAX: Cellphone numbers being released to telemarketers.

Posted on Fri 09/02/05 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

If you’ve received an email claiming that cellphone numbers are being released to telemarketers, don’t believe the hype.

Protect your identiry - Start with a free personal e-mail certificate from Thawte

Posted on Thu 08/25/05 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

Auto Capitalize Outlook Address Book

Posted on Thu 08/25/05 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

I found the tip below on how to perform capitalization macros for the MS Outlook address book. This could same a LOT of time.

Only part of the read process memory or write process memory request was completed.

Posted on Sat 06/25/05 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

Only part of the read process memory or write process memory request was completed.

The above error occured while trying to copy an .EXE (executable) file from a burned CD on a machine running Windows XP Home.

Can I play .M4A files with Windows Media Player (WMP)?

Posted on Mon 06/06/05 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

The short answer is no. The longer answer is yes. See below:

What is the .

TiVo: Resurrection

Posted on Tue 05/10/05 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

So I was lended a TiVo unit with “lifetime service” a few years back. While I was using it, the on-board modem was taken out by a surge.

I was recently able to rig it up with an old external USRobotics 14.

CompUSA Hires Robots

Posted on Sat 05/07/05 in Technical Interleude, Read the post

Last night I stepped into my local CompUSA to hopelessly look for a SCSI terminator, which I didn’t really think they would stock.

I stepped up to the tech counter to take a chance they had them or knew of a local shop that might carry them. A tall, slightly overweight black man emerged sloooooowly from the large tech dungeon in the back.