Ramblings, ideas, problems, and solutions

Category: Tools

  • FotoWare Color Factory checks whether a share is offline

    In Service Release 4 of Color Factory 7, FotoWare introduced a new feature, enabling it to check whether a network share is offline. When it finds that the share is offline, the channel is temporarily stopped, allowing other channels on the server to keep running.
     
    When a share is found to be offline, this will be logged and displayed on the Operations Center status page.
     
    For some shares on non-Windows systems, this check may appear to fail even though the share is online. From Color Factory 7.0.511 and later builds, this function may be turned off on a channel by channel basis, on the error handling tab of the channel:
     

     
    Caveat lector: I used to work with support at FotoWare. This blog is my own space, I am not paid to write it. I write about FotoWare and FotoWare products because I believe in them.

  • Blogging on the go, WordPress for iOS

    While I do most of my blogging on my computer, uploading the posts and images directly through the control panel. However, from time to time I will write a post while on the go, using my iPad or even (shudder) my iPhone to write and post the update.
     
    Whenever I do that, my choice of app is easy; because all my blogging is done on blogs using WordPress, I use the official WordPress app, which lets me do many things, such as comment management, tag and category management, and, of course, posting, scheduling and editing blog posts:
     
    The WordPress app uses the XML-RPC framework to talk to the blog itself, and allows you to do pretty much anything that you want to do with regards to comments, posts and pages, as well as reading usage stats for the site. It allows you to configure several sites, and you can readily choose between them from the app:

  • Travel adapter kit

    Whenever I go travelling, I bring a number of devices with me. I will always bring a cellphone and my Kindle, and depending on the trip, I might also bring a bike computer, iPad and camera, to mention a few possibilities. I have made it a habit to bring as few chargers as possible, as well as as short cables as possible. This serves two purposes; the kit takes less space, and weighs less. Hence, I bring a kit containing the following pretty much wherever I go:
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  • Using MSTSC to connect to a console mode session.

    One of the most important tools in any sysadmin’s tool kit is the ability to remote control servers and client computers. Being able to quickly connect to Terminal Services is a great way to do so. If you’re like me, you leave a few windows open whenever you leave a machine, and a neat trick is to be able to see these same windows when you login remotely.
     
    As it turns out, that is fairly easily done. When using the mstsc command line tool, you simply need to use the appropriate switch to activate a console session, and off you go! Simply use the following command, and you’re good to go: mstsc /console

  • Creating your own ringtones on iPhone

    One of the most annoying things to me as a user, is the fact that I’m not able to assign my music files as ringtones. The “offical” way of adding more ringtones, is by buying them from Apple, however, you can generate them yourself, using your iPhone and a computer. To do so, you need an app that will create the ringtones for you, I use RMakerPro, but you may of course choose whichever you want. Here’s how I do it:
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  • The power of remembrance: TK

    A while back, one of the blogs I read on a regular basis TK had an article about the authors’ own greatest weakness when it comes to writing, namely getting too caught up in research TK. While he admitted that it made for deep articles, it also meant that he sometimes lost the ideas in his mind.
     
    That is, until he found this article TK by Cory Doctorow, and in turn wrote this article TK on the same subject himself. The idea goes something like this; instead of dropping what you are doing, go do the research, get the links and put them in the article, simply use the two letters t and k, in that order, and go on writing.
     
    When you’re done writing, you simply go back and search for TK, do the research that you want, add the information and links, and hey presto, you’ve finished article, without losing your train of thought.
     
    I have been doing something similar, but much more rime consuming, namely typing, in capital letters, what I needed to do, e.g. like so: ENTER LINK HERE. While fairly visible, it did mean that I lost these things, and sometimes have published blog posts with these markings in them.
     
    For this article, and a few TK others TK I’ve written lately, I’ve been using the TK technique, and it has been great. In this article, to illustrate my point, I’ve left the markings in. Hopefully, this will make me a better writer in the long term.

  • BitLocker asks for BitLocker Recovery Key at restart

    Having gone from Windows XP to Windows 7, we are seeing a rash of new problems. One of these is that a lot of our users are unable to boot into Windows, as they are prompted for a BitLocker Recovery Key. The temporary fix for this is simple enough; look up and tell the user the BitLocker Recovery Key, and have them enter it. Well, I say simple, but the BitLocker Recovery Key is a string of eight segments of six digits, and having to enter this each and every time you reboot gets … tiresome … very quickly.
     
    So, let’s see if we can’t improve on that. There are two methods, the first usually suffices, but sometimes, I’ve had to go for the second. The first solution is as follows:
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  • The iPad reviewed

    First off, I know I said I wasn’t going to get an iPad. That decision was based on the hype and buzz about it, after laying hands on one myself, though, I’ve got to say I was simply wrong. Probably not about my concerns, as I still feel they are valid, but about my decision not to get one.
     
    What it all boils down to is this; do I think it is worth paying the cost, and accepting the limitations for what I get?
     
    Quite obviously, my answer to that is yes. If it hadn’t been, you would not have been reading this, now would you? The question to answer, then, is not if, but why it is worth it to do so.
     
    This post will be part rationalisation, part review, and I ask you to bear with me in that respect. Still, though, here goes…
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  • Controlling the version of Java installed

    Every so often, I encounter computers that, among other things, have very specific prerequisites. For SAP CRM and Mobile Sales, more often than not, a specific version of Java should be installed. If it isn’t, problems ensue. Now, while you’ll always have the option of finding out what version is installed through the control panel, there is a much quicker way.
     
    Simply open a command line, and enter the command, and the result will be displayed promptly. The command is:
     
    java -version
     
    Here’s the result:

  • Toolkit essentials – Software tools part two – Executables

    Like their physical counterparts, software tools are absolutely necessary for successful IT support. I usually divide them up into two categories; CD images and executables. In my last post, I covered CD images, now to the executables I bring with me: (more…)

  • Toolkit essentials – Software tools part one – ISO files

    Like their physical counterparts, software tools are absolutely necessary for successful IT support. I usually divide them up into two categories; CD images and executables. The first are usually distributed in the form of iso-files. I usually carry the following with me, along with blank CDs, so that I can make the tools I need to:
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