Binary Expressions

Background Knowledge

I have Windows Vista Ultimate with Service Pack 1 with the following optical media drives. The system is approximately one year old.

• Manufacture: LG
• Model: HL-DT-STDVD-ROM_GDRH20N
• Firmware version: 0D04

• Manufacture: LG
• Model: HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GSA-H73N
• Firmware version: B103

Problem

There are two issues I’m experiencing all resulting in the fact that windows explorer is not refreshing the drive contents and/or drive volume label. Both issues occur on CD/DVD reader and CD/DVD writer drives. As well I’ve tried multiple discs from ones I’ve burnt to discs that were commercial produced and these discs all work fine on other computer systems.

1. My Computer/Windows Explorer is not refreshing the CD/DVD drive contents.
2. My Computer/Windows Explorer is not refreshing the CD/DVD volume label.

Issue #1 – Drive Contents

One of two scenarios occur. One, at times if I’m taking a disc out of one of the drives and then put another one in the contents of the drive is not refreshed or Windows Explorer will prompt to format the disc even though the disc is not blank and has been fixated (closed disc).

Two, after burning a CD/DVD I am rarely ever am able to view the contents of the disc via Windows Explorer. Again I’m prompted with a dialog to format the disc even though the disc can not be blank. Oddly again both issues are gone when I view the contents of the drive via the command prompt.

If I eject the CD/DVD out of the drive using Windows Explorer not pressing the eject button on the drive itself then putting the disc back into the computer usually allows me to view the contents of the disc within Windows Explorer.

The only reliable way I’m able to see the current contents of a given CD/DVD is by using the command prompt.

Issue #2 – Volume Label

The CD/DVD volume label rarely appears correctly within windows explorer. If it does by chance, it is then stuck with that volume label until I reboot Windows Vista. Trying to refresh by pressing F5 does not help. Even if I eject the CD/DVD from the either drive by pressing the eject button on the drives themselves or clicking on eject with the mouse the drive label still shows/appears as if there is a CD/DVD in the drive.

The only reliable way I’m able to see the correct volume label at all times is by using the command prompt.

Solution

I’m not aware of any solution, only work a rounds is doing one of the following list below. However these work a rounds are not perfect nor practical/logical. Even using an alternative application to Windows Explorer I still found issues of the correct volume name of the disc. Even if a disc was not in the drive it would still show a volume name. Although at least if you accessed the drive it would refresh the contents of the disc.

• Only use “eject” button within Windows Explorer and not on the physical drive.
• Use the command prompt to view contents of the disc and volume name.
• Use an alternative application to Windows Explorer such as FreeCommander or Xenon File Manager.

I’ve anyone has a solution that works 100% and allows the use of Windows Explorer please feel free to post your solution under comments.

Background Knowledge

I have Windows Vista with Adobe Acrobat Professional v8.1.3 installed and I was trying to covert to Adobe PDF within Microsoft Publisher 2007.

Error Message

Acrobat PDFMaker reported the following error message dialog, “Adobe PDF Printer is not bound to Adobe PDF Port. Cannot proceed further. Kindly change the PDF Port to Adobe PDF Port in Adobe PDF Printer Settings”.

Solution

1. Go to Control Panel -> Printers.
2. Right mouse click on “Adobe PDF” and left click on “Properties”.
3. Left mouse click on “Ports” tab.
4. Uncheck mark the current port that is presently check marked. Place a checkmark on either “Desktop\*.pdf” or “Documents\*.pdf”. Ensure the description is “Adobe PDF Port”.
5. Left click on “Ok” button then close the printers window.

Background Knowledge

Today (2008-01-12) I loaded Pidgin and discovered that I was no longer able to connect to MSN. It appears either Microsoft is blocking the connection or a new version has been release. What the cause of the matter is I have not been able to verify with certainty at this time.

UPDATE: Pidgin v2.5.4 has been released that temporarily fixes the problem.

Error Message

“Unable to Retrieve MSN Address Book using Pidgin”. See screen shot of the error message below.

Solution

1. Close Pidgin application.
2. Download and install “msn-pecan“.
3. Run Pidgin application.
4. In Pidgin “Show Buddy List” and go to the menu “Accounts” -> “Manage Accounts”.
5. Modify your MSN account, ensure the protocol shows “MSN”.
6. Change “Protocol” to “WLM” and then click “Save”.
7. Login to your MSN account.

Source: MSN Network Service Status
Source: Pidgin : Unable to retrieve MSN address list
Source: msn-pecan

Background Knowledge

With the use of Samba we are able to share files through a local network and make it appear as if the files are on the Mac OS X locally. The instructions below will step you through step by step on how to access files from the Mac OS X to a Windows XP/Vista™ system through the network.

NOTE: Instructions to unblock network traffic through a software/hardware firewall are not provided. Refer to your software/network manual or support web site for details.

NOTE: These instructions will not allow for sharing via the Internet.

Solution

Setting up a file share in Windows XP

1. Open Windows Explorer/My Computer (press Windows Key+E) or go to the Windows Start Menu -> Programs -> Accessories -> Windows Explorer.
2. Browse to a folder you wish to share and right mouse click on it and left mouse click on “Properties”.
3. Select the “Sharing” tab at the top of the “Properties” dialog.
4. Left mouse click on “Share this folder on the network” and type in a desired “Share name”. It’s best to keep the share name no more then 12 characters to ensure the share will work. If you wish to save files from the Mac to this share left mouse click on “Allow network users to change my files”.
5. Left mouse click on the “Ok” button.

Setting up a file share in Windows Vista™

1. Open Windows Explorer/My Computer (press Windows Key+E) or go to the Windows Start Menu -> Programs -> Accessories -> Windows Explorer.
2. Browse to a folder you wish to share and right mouse click on it and left mouse click on “Share…”.
3. To the left of the “Add” button click the down arrow and select “Everyone” then left mouse click “Add” button.
4. Left mouse click on “Share”.

   Note: Make note of path showing how to access the share you just setup (ie. \\foobar\helloworld) as you will need this later so you can connect from the Mac. Only exception is that you will need to change the backslashes to slashes on the Mac.

5. Left mouse click “Done” button.

Connect to the share via the Mac

1. In Finder go to Go -> Connect to Server.
2. Under “Server Address” enter “smb://” then the Windows computer name or IP address followed by a slash and the Windows share name (ie. smb://192.168.0.103/foo or smb://foobar/myshare).

Source: Mount Windows Shared Folder on Your Mac OS X

Background Knowledge

For some unknown reason my Windows Vista™ Ultimate with service pack 1 quit mounting USB flash drives. I’ve tried multiple flash drives and none would mount as a removable drive. At first I started to use a different USB port but eventually it didn’t matter what USB port I used the USB flash drives would no longer mount. I know for a fact my USB flash drives are fine as they mounted without any problems ever on Windows 2000 with service pack 4, Windows XP with service pack 2 and Edubuntu.

Solution

Uninstall the USB device dirver(s) that you are experiencing problems with. This can be done via your Windows Vista™ device manager or what I recommend to use is “USBDeview” (freeware) software application produce by NirSoft.

WARNING: Uninstall device drivers at your own risk.

NOTE: Be cautious uninstalling USB device drivers as you may render your keyboard, mouse or other devices unusable. Rebooting the computer system or plugging the USB device back into the system should cause the device drivers to reinstall. A manual installation of the device driver maybe required.

Uninstall USB Device(s) via Windows Vista™ Device Manager

1. Go to Control Panel -> System or just press Windows Key + Pause (press and hold the Windows key then press the Pause key).
2. On the left hand side left mouse click on “Device Manager”.
3. Double left mouse click on “Universal Serial Bus controllers”.
4. Right mouse click on the USB device driver you wish to uninstall and then left mouse click on “Uninstall”. Repeat this step for each device you wish to uninstall.
5. A “Comfirm Device Uninstall” dialog will appear, left mouse click on “OK”.
6. Close “Device Manager” window.
7. Reboot (restart) computer system.

Uninstall USB Device(s) via USBDeview

1. Load the “USBDeview” software application.
2. Select the device(s) you wish to uninstall. Right mouse click on one of the device(s) and then left mouse click on “Uninstall Selected Devices”.
3. You will be prompted with a confirmation dialog, left mouse click on “Yes” to uninstall device driver(s).
4. Close “USBDeview” software application.
5. Reboot (restart) computer system.

Source: Download NirSoft’s USBDeview for Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista.

Background Knowledge

There is certain times when one needs to pad zeros to the beginning (prefix) or ending (suffix) of a integer.

Below is what I came up with for a solution in JavaScript. All one has to do is call the function with the integer value, the length (integer) of the padding and position to place the padding. Use “start” for the prefix or use “end” for the suffix. Please lets see some comments on how to improve this small block of code.

Solution

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function fnPaddingZeros(nInterger,nPaddingLength,szPaddingPos)
{
	//convert integer to string
	nInterger=nInterger.toString();
	while(nInterger.length < nPaddingLength)
	{
		if(szPaddingPos == "start") { nInterger = '0' + nInterger; }
		else if(szPaddingPos == "end") { nInterger = nInterger + '0'; }
	}
	return nInterger;
}

Solutions

Using PHP function intval().

Code example: echo intval(“05″);
Returned value: 5

Using PHP function ltrim().

Code example: echo ltrim(“005″,”0″);
Returned value: 5

Background Knowledge

Since MySQL v4.1 timestamp and datetime data types are formatted “YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS”. Prior to MySQL v4.1 the timestamp was formatted as YYYYMMDDHHMMSS” and datetime formatted as “YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS”. Refer to MySQL Reference Manual for further details.

The Unix timestamp differs from MySQL. Unix’s timestamp is a integer value of seconds since January 1, 1970. For further explanation of Unix timestamps refer to Wikiepedia or UnixTimestamp.com.

Solutions

In MySQL you can use Unix_Timestamp() function.

Query Example: SELECT Unix_Timestamp(Date_Entered) FROM Foo;

Using PHP you can use strtotime() function.

PHP Example: $nUnixTimestamp = strtotime($nTimestamp);

1. Start Menu -> Control Panel -> System (keyboard shortcut: Windows Key-Pause/Break).
2. On the left hand side click on “System Protection”.
3. Now at the System Properties dialog under System Protection remove all check marks on available disks. Click “Turn System Restore Off” if prompted.
4. Click on “OK”.

Note: If you disable System Restore you will no longer be able to recover system in this manner.
Note: To reverse these steps to enable System Restore, place check marks on available drives you wish to choose. In most cases the C drive is all that is wanted.

Background Knowledge

By default Windows Vista will not connect to a Samba share if you are running Samba version less then version 3. The reason for this is because Samba did not add support for NTLMv2 authentication until Samba version 3.0.

Solution

1. Go to Start Menu -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Local Security Policy.
2. Local Policies -> Security Options.
3. Double click “Network Security: LAN Manager authentication level”.
4. Change the authentication to “LM and NTLM – use NTLMV2 session security if negotiated” (default authentication is “NTVLM2 responses only”).
5. Left mouse click on “Ok”.
6. Close “Local Security Policy”.

Note: The best solution is to upgrade Samba to version 3.0 or greater.

Source: Get Vista and Samba to work

Background Knowledge

If you go to signup.Live.com you will notice that you are required to create an email address either with live.com or hotmail.com. It appears for some reason that Microsoft has hidden the ability to sign up without creating an email address or create a limited account via live.com. Here is your options and how to do it.

Note: MSN Messenger is now called Windows Live Messenger.

Note: Signing up for an account provides a Windows Live ID that allows you to use all Windows Live services such as Windows Live Messenger.

Signup Options

Sign up using your own email address

Use an existing email address from any email provider of your choice (ie. example@somedomain.com). Using this method does not create a email address at hotmail.com or live.com.

Sign up creating a email address at hotmail.com

Creates a new email address using the MSN Hotmail.com service. This new email address will be used for your Windows Live ID.

Sign up creating a email address at live.com

Signs you up and creates an email address using live.com service.

Sign up with a limited account

A limited account allows you to use Windows Live services without having/creating an email address. The limited account creates a email address through passport.com, however the difference is you can not send or receive email messages with this email address nor can you retrieve your password if its forgotten.

Source: Windows Live ID
Source: Creating Msn Account Without A Hotmail Account

If you would like to remove the list of user accounts and force users to login using their username and password, change the following settings:

1. Go to Start Menu -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Local Security Policy.
2. Local Policies -> Security Options.
3. Double click the entry titled: “Interactive Login: Do not display last user name”.
4. Place a check mark in the “Enabled” check box.
5. Click OK and close “Local Security Policy” window.

Source: Make users to login with a user name and password