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Tips, tricks, howtos and information about some useful software applications

This section contains tips and tricks, howtos and help about useful Windows and Linux software applications.

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iOS Simulator and Xcode 4.3iOS Simulator and Xcode 4.3

Posted April 26th, 2012 in Applications and OSX

I installed/upgrade Xcode on my Mac Lion to 4.3 and couldn't work out where the iOS Simulator was. It turns out you have to manually configure Xcode to install the simulator but even then there's no obvious way to run the iOS Simulator. This post shows how I did it.

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Remove ads at the top of GmailRemove ads at the top of Gmail

Posted April 10th, 2012 in Applications

Gmail by default shows ads above the list of emails. It's easy to switch these off but they're not intuitively named when looking at Gmail's settings. This post shows how to switch them off.

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How to set the Gmail notification ringtone on AndroidHow to set the Gmail notification ringtone on Android

Posted April 2nd, 2012 in Applications

On an Android phone there is a notification ringtone which will be used by default for all notifications. The Gmail app allows you to specify a different notification ringtone which can be quite useful for having the default for SMS messages and something else for new emails, but the option is buried quite deep and I can never remember where it is, so this post will help to remind me in the future.

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Creating an SSH port tunnel with PuTTYCreating an SSH port tunnel with PuTTY

Posted January 1st, 2012 in Applications

This post shows how to do set up a port tunnel using the PuTTY SSH client on Windows. I don't normally use Windows myself but on occasion need to use the SQL Server Management Studio to connect to a server on an unreachable internal network, but can connect to a Linux server that sits within that network. By port forwarding with PuTTY, I can use Management Studio to connect to the normally unreachable SQL Server.

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Set file extension associations with Aptana Studio 3Set file extension associations with Aptana Studio 3

Posted November 28th, 2011 in Applications

I've started using Aptana Studio 3 to try it out for a while and compare it with Netbeans because Netbeans is such a memory hog (although Aptana seems to be a CPU hog instead so far). This post shows how to set up a custom file extension association in Aptana Studio 3. The screenshots are from the Mac version but should be the same for other platforms too.

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Move Postgres data files when disk space is running outMove Postgres data files when disk space is running out

Posted November 2nd, 2011 in Applications

I recently posted about how to move *nix application with minimal downtime, inspired by having to do this with a Postgres install I support. The last post looked at this in fairly general terms, and this post more specifically at the exact problem I experienced.

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Set up SysV init script for SplunkSet up SysV init script for Splunk

Posted October 3rd, 2011 in Applications

Splunk is a useful tool for collating and reporting on data in real-time. I've been recently setting it up for a customer and this little post is for self-reference so I don't get stuck next time trying to work out how to have Splunk start and stop automatically when the system starts and stops, using SysV init scripts. I couldn't see in the documentation where it was but worked it out in the end.

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Purge all Google Chrome user data on a MacPurge all Google Chrome user data on a Mac

Posted August 24th, 2011 in Applications and OSX

In Google Chrome you can easily purge browsing data including cookies, history, etc using the application preferences. But there are still a bunch of files that it doesn't touch. I was having some weird issues with my SilverStripe installs (I won't go into that here) which didn't happen when using incognito mode but did under normal browsing. Deleting all browsing data made no difference so I needed to really poke under the hood to delete all data.

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Keyboard shortcuts for Excel for MacKeyboard shortcuts for Excel for Mac

Posted June 14th, 2011 in Applications

I have Microsoft Excel for Mac 2011 and have found somewhat annoyingly at least a couple of the shortcut keys aren't the same on Mac as they are for the Windows edition. This post covers a couple of them and I will add to it as I find alternatives for common functions.

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Link to a specific status update in FacebookLink to a specific status update in Facebook

Posted June 6th, 2011 in Applications

A couple of days ago I posted how to link to a specific tweet on Twitter and in this post show how to do the same with Facebook. As with the Twitter post, you probably already know how to do this but just in case you don't... it's not obviously clear how to.

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Link to a specific tweet on TwitterLink to a specific tweet on Twitter

Posted June 4th, 2011 in Applications

OK, so you probably all know how to do this anyway, but I needed to link to a specific tweet yesterday and it wasn't immediately obvious to me how to get the link when I used the Twitter web interace. On the other hand, using the official Twitter client for Mac this morning it was a no-brainer.

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Searching Gmail by dateSearching Gmail by date

Posted June 3rd, 2011 in Applications and Quick Tips

This is a quick post for my own reference to show how to search Gmail by date range. I often write little tips like this for myself so I have somewhere easy to reference them as I forget this sort of stuff all the time :)

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How to refresh the projects file tree in NetBeansHow to refresh the projects file tree in NetBeans

Posted May 6th, 2011 in Applications and Quick Tips

This issue has been bugging me for a while and I just worked out how to solve it: if you're using NetBeans and add some files to the project outside NetBeans (like copying and pasting in Finder/Explorer) then they don't show up in the list of files in the projects tree view.

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Why a site might break in IE9 or IE8Why a site might break in IE9 or IE8

Posted March 29th, 2011 in Applications

Internet Explorer 9 was released a few days ago and I read an interesting post over at Six Revisions titled "Why IE9 is a Web Designer’s Nightmare". Although I haven't used it much (only for testing), I haven't had any issues with the few sites I've tested in IE9. This post looks at an issue which may potentially cause a web designer issues using IE9, and it's nothing to do with IE9 itself.

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Exporting only changed files in TortoiseSVN between versionsExporting only changed files in TortoiseSVN between versions

Posted June 15th, 2010 in Applications

TortoiseSVN is a powerful SVN client that plugs into Windows Explorer. This post looks at how to export just the changed files between two version numbers.

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Change the download location and prompt in Google ChromeChange the download location and prompt in Google Chrome

Posted October 10th, 2008 in Applications (Updated March 16th, 2010)

By default Google Chrome will automatically save downloads to My Documents\Downloads but it is possible to either specify an alternate automatic location or ask to be prompted each time. I covered this a while back for Firefox ("Change where Firefox saves files to by default") and in this post look at how to do this in Google's Chrome browser.

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Notepad++ fails to updateNotepad++ fails to update

Posted February 7th, 2010 in Applications

Notepad++ is a feature rich Windows Notepad replacement. It contains an automatic package update feature in more recent versions but if you are using an older version you will be prompted todownload an update package and then apparantly nothing happens.

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Remove a saved password with Google ChromeRemove a saved password with Google Chrome

Posted January 17th, 2010 in Applications

If you have saved a password for a website in Google's Chrome you can easily enough remove that password (or all saved passwords) if you no longer want it saved on your computer. This post shows how to do this witheasy to follow screenshots.

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BootStrapDotNetAsssitantExtension error in FirefoxBootStrapDotNetAsssitantExtension error in Firefox

Posted January 3rd, 2010 in Applications

Microsoft Windows installs a .NET Framework Assistant for Firefox which cannot be removed from the Firefox add-ons menu and throws errors in the error console. This post shows the error message and how to remove this unecessary add-on.

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How to specify custom user styles in FirefoxHow to specify custom user styles in Firefox

Posted December 27th, 2009 in Applications and HTML and CSS

It is possible to specify custom user styles in Firefox. These override the default browser styles, and are in turn overridden by the website's styles. User styles can be made to not be overridden by making them !important.

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Fix for Filezilla not showing .htaccess filesFix for Filezilla not showing .htaccess files

Posted November 29th, 2009 in Applications

FileZilla is an S/FTP client which can be downloaded from filezilla-project.org. This post shows how to solve an issue when FileZilla will not show hidden files on the server such as .htaccess files.

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Clear Firefox's cache to clear faviconsClear Firefox's cache to clear favicons

Posted December 12th, 2008 in Applications (Updated November 4th, 2009)

Firefox caches favicons even if it doesn't find one for a website. Often when I create a new website I don't create a favicon until after I've set the template up but Firefox continues to show the blank default favicon. This post looks at how to clear the cache, which forces Firefox to download a fresh copy of the favicon (as well as all other image files etc for all sites).

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How to disable Flash in FirefoxHow to disable Flash in Firefox

Posted November 1st, 2009 in Applications

I recently needed to test what some web pages looked like when Flash was disabled to show a prompt to install Flash, and discovered how to disable Flash temporarily in Firefox.

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Enable TortoiseCVS on network sharesEnable TortoiseCVS on network shares

Posted September 20th, 2009 in Applications

TortoiseCVS will not work on network shared drives by default so there won't be any of the CVS overlays in Windows Explorer for mapped drives and theright-click context sensitive menu won't show the checkout, commit, etc options. This post shows how to enable TortoiseCVS on network drives.

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Canon Easy Photoprint and CD LabelPrint Errors on Windows 7Canon Easy Photoprint and CD LabelPrint Errors on Windows 7

Posted June 9th, 2009 in Applications

I've recently reinstalled my main desktop computer from Windows 7 Beta 32 bit to Windows 7 Release Candidate 64 bit and had some issues using the bundled application software that comes with Canon's photo printers. This post looks at the errors and how I solved them.

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Setting the country with Microsoft BingSetting the country with Microsoft Bing

Posted June 3rd, 2009 in Applications

I was a little surprised when I took a look at Microsoft's new Bing search engine to see that it thought I was in the United Kingdom when I'm actually in New Zealand. It showed the United Kingdom when I was using Firefox but correctly showed New Zealand with Google Chrome. This post shows how to change the country settings when using Microsoft Bing.

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Adobe Photoshop "The Adobe Updater could not be started" errorAdobe Photoshop "The Adobe Updater could not be started" error

Posted May 29th, 2009 in Applications

Running Adobe Photoshop on Windows 7 Release Candidate I get the error message "The Adobe Updater could not be started. Please reinstall the application and components." This post looks at how to get rid of the error message when starting Photoshop (but does not get the Adobe Updater actually working).

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The file "WoW.exe" could not be foundThe file "WoW.exe" could not be found

Posted May 20th, 2009 in Applications

I play a little bit of World of Warcraft every now and then and after re-installing my Windows 7 Beta 32 bit to Windows 7 Release Candidate 64 bit got the error message "The file 'WoW.exe' could not be found. If this problem persists, you may be able to solve it by uninstalling and then reinstalling the game. If you are unable to correct this problem, please contact Blizzard Technical Support."

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Notepad++ find and replace does not close in Windows 7Notepad++ find and replace does not close in Windows 7

Posted May 19th, 2009 in Applications

I replaced my Beta install of Windows 7 with the Release Candidate yesterday and discovered that the find and replace dialog in Notepad++ no longer goes away when it's closed by instead stays where it is but is transparent/translucent. There's obviously some minor bug which needs to be fixed but in th emeantime there's an easy fix for this.

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Prevent Firefox from showing the downloads windowPrevent Firefox from showing the downloads window

Posted May 15th, 2009 in Applications

When you download a file by default Firefox will show a downloads window showing the progress and a list of recently downloaded files, and it doesn't automatically go away after the download has finished. This post shows how to either not show the downloads window at all, or allow it to show and then automatically close once the download is complete.

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Specifying the auto-login name with PuTTYSpecifying the auto-login name with PuTTY

Posted April 24th, 2009 in Applications

PuTTY is a freeware terminal emulator and SSH client for Windows packed with a lot of useful configuration options. I'm forever mistyping my login name when logging into a server and the only solution when you do this is to close the PuTTY app, start it up again and then try again. To make logins quicker and to save login name mistypes you can specify a auto-login username and then all you need to do is type in the password.

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How to enable IMAP access for a Gmail accountHow to enable IMAP access for a Gmail account

Posted February 23rd, 2009 in Applications

Gmail has a web based interface but it's also possible to access your Gmail mailbox using IMAP or POP and use a different (offline) application, such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird to access your Gmail. This post looks at how to enable IMAP access for Gmail. The same settings page also allows you to enable POP access but you're better off using IMAP.

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How to empty Google Chrome's cache to fix the "waiting for cache" errorHow to empty Google Chrome's cache to fix the "waiting for cache" error

Posted January 23rd, 2009 in Applications

This post looks at how to clear the cache in Google's Chrome web browser, which you will need to do if you are experiencing the "waiting for cache" error in Google Chrome.

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Notepad++ PHP function list pluginNotepad++ PHP function list plugin

Posted January 3rd, 2009 in Applications

Notepad++ is a free source code and text editor to replace Notepad on Windows and I use it myself for text editing, although I prefer to use a full IDE for PHP and web programming.

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Firefox is already running but is not respondingFirefox is already running but is not responding

Posted December 26th, 2008 in Applications

If you ever shut down Firefox and try to start it up again directly afterwards it might display the rather alarming error message "Firefox is already running, but is not responding..." and doesn't start up. This post looks at the error message and what to do.

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View and delete cookies for the current website in FirefoxView and delete cookies for the current website in Firefox

Posted December 18th, 2008 in Applications

Firefox 3 contains information about a page including a button to click through to see what cookies have been set for the current website. I've previously looked at viewing and deleting cookies in Firefox using another approach, but this post looks at how to do it for the current site only.

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Installing subversion on CentOSInstalling subversion on CentOS

Posted November 30th, 2008 in Applications and Linux/Unix/BSD

Subversion (SVN) is a version control system. This post looks at how to install subversion on CentOS (the process is similar for other Linux distros) and the setting up a repository.

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Download Crossover Office today for freeDownload Crossover Office today for free

Posted October 29th, 2008 in Applications and Linux/Unix/BSD

For today only you can download Cross Over Office for free. Head over to codeweavers.com right now to get your free serial number for either CrossOver Mac Pro, CrossOver Games Mac, CrossOver Linux Pro OR CrossOver Games Linux.

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Chrome Javascript date bugChrome Javascript date bug

Posted October 3rd, 2008 in Applications and Javascript (Updated October 24th, 2008)

There is a bug in Google Chrome which causes it to get the date and time wrong in Javascript in some timezones, apparantly only in the southern hemisphere.This post looks at the issue and how I became aware of it only because of using Gmail.

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Google Chrome switch to the dev channelGoogle Chrome switch to the dev channel

Posted October 24th, 2008 in Applications

A few weeks ago I posted about a Javascript date bug in Google's Chrome browser. I use Gmail with Chrome and was getting tired of the times being out by an hour so decided to try out the current dev version of Chrome to see if the bug had been fixed. This post looks at how to switch from the regular "beta" version of Google Chrome to the dev version.

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Change the window title in PuttyChange the window title in Putty

Posted October 16th, 2008 in Applications and Linux/Unix/BSD

Putty is an SSH/telnet/etc client which allows you to connect to remote servers such as a Linux or BSD webserver. When you change directories etc in a terminal shell the window title in Putty is likely to change, depending on the shell's settings. This post looks at how to change the Putty window title to be what you want and how to prevent it changing as you change directories.

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Google Chrome Stats - follow upGoogle Chrome Stats - follow up

Posted October 8th, 2008 in Applications

Google's Chrome browser has been out for over a month now and I thought it would be useful to have a look at stats across some of the sites I manage to see if people are still using it. Almost a month ago I looked at Google Chrome stats after the first week and will use those as a comparison now.

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View the raw email message in GmailView the raw email message in Gmail

Posted October 5th, 2008 in Applications

In Gmail you can click the "show details" option to view some of the basic message headers such as who the email was to and from etc, but you can't see the full raw message headers and message. There is a way to do it that isn't particularly obvious and this post looks at how to do this.

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Google Chrome automatically update itself without askingGoogle Chrome automatically update itself without asking

Posted September 14th, 2008 in Applications

Google Chrome appears to update itself automatically in the background without prompting the user whether it should do so or not. I only noticed this because my ESET Smart Security Center prompted me when I ran Chrome on the 7th warning me that the application had changed.

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Google Chrome StatsGoogle Chrome Stats

Posted September 11th, 2008 in Applications

Now that Google Chrome has been out for over a week, and Ars Technica reported their own Google Chrome stats, I thought I'd take a quick look at Google Chrome penetration across various websites I manage.

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Safari / OS X Proxy IssuesSafari / OS X Proxy Issues

Posted September 10th, 2008 in Applications

I am currently using a Mac for testing Safari and the office it is at is behind a proxy which requires a username and password to access. I set up the proxy details, and the user name and password and kept getting the error "HTTP 407 Proxy Authentication Required...". This post looks at other error messages and what I did to fix the problem.

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Create application shortcuts with Google ChromeCreate application shortcuts with Google Chrome

Posted September 7th, 2008 in Applications

Google's Chrome web browser lets you create "application shortcuts" for web pages. These are shortcuts on your desktop, start menu or quick launch which open Google Chrome at that web location. The search bar, options and tabs are not present when running a web page as an application and the website's favicon is used as the application icon.

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Google Chrome "not supported" by Google appsGoogle Chrome "not supported" by Google apps

Posted September 5th, 2008 in Applications

I've started using Google Apps so I can host my domain email at GMail. When playing around with the start page editor using Google's new Chrome browserI was surprised to be told my browser was not supported. Refer to the screenshot below.

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Google's Chrome web browser is releasedGoogle's Chrome web browser is released

Posted September 3rd, 2008 in Applications

As reported yesterday by me here and everywhere else, Google was to launch their new web browser Chrome today which they did. You can download it here: www.google.com/chrome Naturally as with everything Google releases it has the "beta" tag on it...

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Google to launch Chrome web browser tomorrowGoogle to launch Chrome web browser tomorrow

Posted September 2nd, 2008 in Applications

It's all over the Internet today that Google will launch its new web browser called "Chrome" tomorrow at www.google.com/chrome (this link won't work until tomorrow).

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10 Useful Free Windows Apps10 Useful Free Windows Apps

Posted August 21st, 2008 in Applications and Windows (Updated August 29th, 2008)

This post contains a list of 10 useful free Windows applications that I usually install on my Windows machines. They are all available for free and I haven't included obvious stuff like Mozilla Firefox.

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9 More Free Windows Apps9 More Free Windows Apps

Posted August 28th, 2008 in Applications and Windows

A week ago I posted a list of 10 Useful Free Windows Apps and discovered as the week went by that I forgot about a number of other useful free Windows applications that I use. This post looks at another 9 freeware Windows apps, two of which are Firefox plugins.

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View Outlook 2007 emails as plain textView Outlook 2007 emails as plain text

Posted August 26th, 2008 in Applications

Emails are often sent in HTML format containing rich text and images. Outlook 2007 is able to display emails in plain text format by converting the HTML version to a plain text version for you to view. This post looks at how to enable this in Outlook 2007.

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Rename tags in Google ReaderRename tags in Google Reader

Posted July 27th, 2008 in Applications

Google Reader (and other RSS readers) allow you to group your feeds into categories or "tags" as Google refers to them. It's not currently possible to rename a tag in Google reader so instead you need to create a new tag, assign all the feeds currently in that tag to the new tag and then delete the old tag. This post illustrates with screenshots this way to rename a tag in Google Reader.

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Playing DVDs with Windows Media Player 11Playing DVDs with Windows Media Player 11

Posted July 25th, 2008 in Applications and Windows

I have Windows Media Player 11 installed on my Windows Vista desktop and was surprised when I went to play a DVD and a dialog window popped up to tell me that "Windows Media Player cannot play DVD video". You have to ask what sort of media player WMP is when it can't play DVDs (and many other useful codecs like MP3 and xvid/DivX). A quick search on Google provided the answer which I will show in this post.

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How to disable Javascript in Mozilla FirefoxHow to disable Javascript in Mozilla Firefox

Posted July 19th, 2008 in Applications and Javascript

Forms on websites are typically validated using Javascript on the client side to prevent additional round trips to the server if a form hasn't been completed correctly, and are then also validated on the server side. When testing a website you need to be able to test both so need to disable Javascript in your web browser to test the server side validation. This post looks at how to disable Javascript in the Mozilla Firefox web browser. The specific version the screenshots come from are Firefox 3 but it should be the same for earlier versions.

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Backup/export bookmarks with Mozilla Firefox 3Backup/export bookmarks with Mozilla Firefox 3

Posted June 24th, 2008 in Applications

It is possible to backup and restore bookmarks from Mozilla Firefox 3 and also import and export them as an HTML file, which makes them able to be imported/exported between different web browsers. This post looks at how to backup bookmarks and export them them to an HTML file with Mozilla Firefox 3.

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Show Outlook envelope icon in Windows system trayShow Outlook envelope icon in Windows system tray

Posted May 20th, 2008 in Applications (Updated June 23rd, 2008)

By default Outlook has a little envelope icon in the system tray; the system tray is where all those little icons are near the clock in the taskbar at the bottom of your screen. You can hide it by right-clicking and selecting the "Hide Envelope" icon but this prevents it showing again when new mail arrives. This post looks at how to re-enable the Outlook envelope icon in the system tray.

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View email message headers in Outlook 2007View email message headers in Outlook 2007

Posted June 8th, 2008 in Applications

Recently I was configuring a new email account and needed to check the message headers of an email in Microsoft Outlook 2007. As I discovered it isn't all that intuitive how to view email message headers in this version of Outlook. This post looks at how to do this.

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Selectively delete cookies in FirefoxSelectively delete cookies in Firefox

Posted May 27th, 2008 in Applications

When developing websites or testing stuff I sometimes need to be able to delete cookies in my web browser. Session cookies can be dropped by simply shutting down the web browser and starting it up again, but if their expiry is set sometime into the future it is possible to delete in some web browsers yourself. This post shows how to selectively delete a cookie in the Firefox version 2 web browser.

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Change where Firefox saves files to by defaultChange where Firefox saves files to by default

Posted May 16th, 2008 in Applications

By default the Firefox web browser saves downloaded files to the desktop. I personally prefer to have my web browsers prompt me where to save a file each time I download something rather than automatically saving it to the desktop etc so this post looks at how to change this default behaviour in Firefox.

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Change Adobe Photoshop Filename Compatibility OptionsChange Adobe Photoshop Filename Compatibility Options

Posted May 10th, 2008 in Applications

Adobe Photoshop's "Save for Web" function will truncate filenames to 31 characters by default to (apparantly) allow for compatibility with Mac OS 9 browsers. The dialog box which gives the warning about the filename truncation tells you to edit the output settings but it isn't that clear where to go to actually change the filename compatibility options. This post looks at how to do this.

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Enable the Web Interface for uTorrentEnable the Web Interface for uTorrent

Posted April 30th, 2008 in Applications

The uTorrent bittorrent client has a web interface which allows you to control uTorrent with a web browser. This means you can control uTorrent while you are out and about or, in my case, from an upstairs laptop when the actual download is happening in my downstairs office. This post looks at how to enable the web interface for uTorrent version 1.7.7. It should work for all 1.7 versions.

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Adobe Photoshop ignoring ctrl+alt+print screenAdobe Photoshop ignoring ctrl+alt+print screen

Posted April 24th, 2008 in Applications

I recently installed Windows Vista onto my primary desktop computer and installed Adobe Photoshop CS2. I use the Ctrl+Alt+Print Screen shortcut key sequence a lot to grab a screen for pasting into Photoshop. The other day it suddenly stopped working and I intially assumed the problem to be with Windows Vista.

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Stop Adobe Photoshop CS2 on Vista asking you to registerStop Adobe Photoshop CS2 on Vista asking you to register

Posted April 15th, 2008 in Applications

On Windows Vista, every time you start up Adobe Photoshop CS2 you are asked to register. There's an button labelled "Do Not Register", but despite clicking this the next time you start Adobe Photoshop CS2 you will be prompted to register again. This post looks at the solution for this problem.

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Error creating audio CD with K3B with MP3 filesError creating audio CD with K3B with MP3 files

Posted December 27th, 2007 in Applications

The KDE CD and DVD burning application K3B allows you to create audio CDs by simply dragging and dropping MP3 and OGG Vorbis files and then clicking the "Burn" button. Conversion of the MP3 and OGG files are done automatically for you without having to do anything else, and the audio CD is created which can be played in a regular CD player.

If you get the error message "Problems while adding files to the project." and then "Unable to handle the following files due to an unsupported format: You may manually convert these audio files to wave using another application supporting the audio format and then add the wave files to the K3b project" when attempting to create an audio CD from MP3 files with K3B, then MP3 support has not been included in K3B and you need to add it.

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Kyum graphical frontend for Yum on KDE with screenshotsKyum graphical frontend for Yum on KDE with screenshots

Posted November 24th, 2007 in Applications

While installing Yum on openSUSE I discovered there was graphical frontend to Yum for KDE called KYum, so I installed that as well. This post has some screenshots of KYum to show it working in action.

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Mozilla Thunderbird exceeded maximum number of connections to IMAP serverMozilla Thunderbird exceeded maximum number of connections to IMAP server

Posted October 30th, 2007 in Applications

When looking at emails in several IMAP folders one after the other in Mozilla Thunderbird, I got the following error message and was unable to view that folder and the emails in it.

"Unable to connect to your IMAP server. You may have exceeded the maximum number of connections to this server. If so, use the Advanced IMAP Server Settings dialog to reduce the number of cached connections."

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Setting the tab size in nanoSetting the tab size in nano

Posted October 27th, 2007 in Applications

Nano is a text editor used on Linux and Unix based systems and is an enchanced free clone of the Pico text editor. By default the tab size in nano is 8 spaces, but it is possible to change the tab size either on the command line, in the system wide configuration file, or in a user specific configuration file.

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New_Face failed error when using MPlayerNew_Face failed error when using MPlayer

Posted October 10th, 2007 in Applications and Linux/Unix/BSD (Updated October 10th, 2007)

After upgrading from openSUSE 10.2 to openSUSE 10.3 I got the error message New_Face failed. Maybe the font path is wrong. Please supply the text font file (~/.mplayer/subfont.ttf) when starting up MPlayer to watch video files. MPlayer would run fine and show the video and play sound ok, but the on screen display would fail to display anything; the subfont.ttf it was trying to find is what was used for the on screen display.

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Azureus crashes on startupAzureus crashes on startup

Posted September 29th, 2007 in Applications

Azureus is a cross browser bittorrent client, and after upgrading openSUSE from 10.2 to 10.3 Azureus wouldn't start. I would get the splash screen flash up but then it would crash without actually running.

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Java error executing Zend StudioJava error executing Zend Studio

Posted September 28th, 2007 in Applications and PHP (Updated September 28th, 2007)

After an upgrade from openSUSE 10.2 to 10.3 I wasn't able to run Zend Studio 5.5.0. I would click the icon to start it up and nothing would happen; even the splash screen would not appear. This post looks at the Java error the upgrade caused and the fix required to make it work again.

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Installing fonts in Open OfficeInstalling fonts in Open Office

Posted November 30th, 2003 in Applications (Updated March 19th, 2007)

Open Office is an open source office suite which is compatible with Microsoft Office, containing a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software. This article looks at how to install fonts on Unix/Linux/OSX.

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KonquerorKonqueror

Posted November 30th, 2003 in Applications (Updated March 19th, 2007)

Konqueror is an open source web browser and file management system used in the KDE Desktop Environment, and the underlying KHTML rendering engine is also used in Apple's Safari web browser.

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How to save a video stream to file using HiDownloadHow to save a video stream to file using HiDownload

Posted January 21st, 2004 in Applications (Updated March 19th, 2007)

HiDownload is a Windows program that lets you capture streaming media such as real player movies, real player audio streams and Windows media movies and save them to your computer. HiDownload can capture live streaming radio broadcasts as well.

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Howto log into an SSH Server Using PuTTYHowto log into an SSH Server Using PuTTY

Posted March 23rd, 2004 in Applications (Updated May 24th, 2005)

PuTTY is a free telnet and SSH client for Windows and UNIX. This article covers how to log into an SSH server using PuTTY on Windows and also covers how to use private rsa and dsa keys when logging into an SSH server using PuTTY.

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Use RSA and DSA key files with PuTTY and puttygenUse RSA and DSA key files with PuTTY and puttygen

Posted March 23rd, 2004 in Applications (Updated May 24th, 2005)

PuTTY is a free telnet and SSH client for Windows and UNIX. This article covers how to log into an SSH server using PuTTY on Windows and also covers how to use private rsa and dsa keys when logging into an SSH server using PuTTY.

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VMWare Writelock Disk ErrorVMWare Writelock Disk Error

Posted July 16th, 2004 in Applications and VMWare (Updated May 24th, 2005)

VMWare is virtual machine software that lets you run a guest operating system inside your operating system without having to reboot your computer. This article covers an error that can happen which prevents VMWare from starting up in the event of a crash.

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Capture streaming audio and video media with HiDownloadCapture streaming audio and video media with HiDownload

Posted January 21st, 2004 in Applications (Updated April 13th, 2005)

HiDownload is a Windows program that lets you capture streaming media such as real player movies, real player audio streams and Windows media movies and save them to your computer. HiDownload can capture live streaming radio broadcasts as well.

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Howto save an audio stream to file with HiDownloadHowto save an audio stream to file with HiDownload

Posted January 21st, 2004 in Applications (Updated April 13th, 2005)

HiDownload is a Windows program that lets you capture streaming media such as real player movies, real player audio streams and Windows media movies and save them to your computer. HiDownload can capture live streaming radio broadcasts as well.

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Installing VMWare on GentooInstalling VMWare on Gentoo

Posted March 10th, 2005 in Applications and VMWare

This article covers how to install VMWare on Gento Linux if you are getting errors like the "/etc/init.d/vmware: line 919: [: -: integer expression expected" error when trying to configure the VMWare options.

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