Auxiliary Memory

Here’s what to do if your Folder Pane disappears. The Folder Pane is the left one that shows the tree of mail folders: Inbox, Sent, Drafts, etc. If there is no space there (the other panes extend to the left side of the window) it is probably just not displayed, and you can drag its resize bar from the left, or display it with the View menu.

But if the Folder Pane just comes up as a blank space, it could be due to a previous crash of Thunderbird, or corruption of some auxiliary files that need to be rebuilt. Here’s how to fix it:

• Exit Thunderbird
• Find your profile folder.  In Windows, you can navigate directly to your profile folder at the following path:
     C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\<profile>\
• In Linux, look for it here:
     ~/.thunderbird/<profile>/
• or here:
     ~/.mozilla_thunderbird/<profile>/
• The AppData folder might be hidden: to show hidden folders, open a Windows Explorer window and choose
  “Organize → Folder and Search Options → Folder Options → View (tab) → Show hidden files and folders”
• You can (should) make a backup copy of your profile folder now, in case something goes wrong
• In the profile folder, rename the session.json and foldertree.json
  files (to session.json.bad and foldertree.json.bad)
• Restart Thunderbird

If something goes wrong, you can restore your old session.json and foldertree.json files, then go searching for a different solution.

I finally went looking for one of my pet peeves with the Thunderbird email tool, and the Internet did not disappoint.

I like seeing my message list with the newest items at the top of the list, yet I normally read them oldest to newest.  When I finish reading a message and delete it, Thunderbird’s default behavior is to select and display the message below the previous selection in the list.  My newest-at-the-top sort order causes the next older message to be displayed, which is probably the one I looked at just prior to the one I deleted.  I want it to select the next newer message.

Turns out there is an option for this in Thunderbird’s config options.

Go to Tools->Options…, Advanced tab, Config Editor….
Change the option mail.delete_matches_sort_order to true.

Now if only someone would add the Reply/Reply All toggle that I’ve been pining for….

Recently I needed a Python fix, Monty Python that is. I tried to watch the Spanish Inquisition on Netflix. Firefox (3.6) kept saying the Silverlight plug-in has crashed. Reinstalling Silverlight did not help. Luckily, someone else had already solved this one.  Silverlight would not run because the Windows Tablet PC Input Service was disabled.  I figured I did not have a tablet PC and was not using pen input.  Silly me.

I re-enabled the service and started it.  Silverlight ran fine after that.

I just learned this one: to get the text of cross references in your MS Word document to update (say you inserted another table and it changed the numbering of your Table captions), do a Print Preview… then close the preview window. Sigh. And that after a lot of time spent looking for an Update Cross References button. Also, searching in the Word help for “update cross references” turned up nothing.

This trick was part of number 6 of Ten things every Microsoft Word user should know.  Users shouldn’t have to know this.

Follow-up:  Others report that you can Ctrl-A to select the whole document, then press F9 to update the references.

I recently bought and installed a new HP OfficeJet 6500 All-in-One device.  Works great!  …as I eventually found out.  Lesson learned:  don’t always believe the installation test results.

Here’s how I learned my lesson:

I connect the new printer device to our network, and to the phone line. The phone line passes through the device (for fax) and on to an answering machine (a “TAM” (telephone answering machine) in some of the HP docs).  This is so the device can eavesdrop on the line and intercept fax transmissions before they get to the answering machine.

During the installation, the Fax Test keeps failing with the message “You are not using the correct type of phone cord.” Most phone cords have 4 conductors. The printer comes with a special 2-conductor cord, which is not very long. However, as instructed, I connect from the wall jack to the OfficeJet’s 1-Line connection with the supplied cord, and from the OfficeJet’s 2-Ext connection to the TAM with the TAM’s cord.

“Fax test failed: You are not using the correct type of phone cord.”

I try disconnecting the TAM.

“Fax test passed.”

Could the OfficeJet somehow be getting a signal from the TAM on the unused part of the 4-conductor cord? So I cut off one of the connectors, crimp on a new one to pass just the 2 (red and green) conductors, and connect it back up.

“Fax test failed: You are not using the correct type of phone cord.”

How can it know?!  I do some online searches.  Many of the posts just say “the special cord is too short; where do I get a new one?”  Of the posts that are actually trying to troubleshoot the problem, most solutions say “use the supplied special phone cord.”  I’m already using it.  One suggests to power cycle everything, so I try that.

“Fax test failed: You are not using the correct type of phone cord.”

Now I am starting to think the Fax Test is bad, so I run my own test.  The TAM and its attached phone are getting a dialtone, so there is continuity.  I try the HP FaxBack service, which comes conveniently preprogrammed on Fax Speed Dial #1.  It sends.  A few minutes later it receives.  The incoming call rings 4 times, then the TAM picks it up.  The OfficeJet hears the incoming fax tone and intercepts.  All works!  I’m happy.  My conclusion is that the Fax Test is flawed, and that I probably did not have to modify my phone cord.

I have occasionally found it necessary to have a program start when I log in to my Windows desktop, but with Admin privileges.   A little Google searching turned up this procedure for Windows Vista.  I assume it works the same or very similarly for Windows 7.  Because it is a bit mystical, I have been living in fear that the website with the instructions will disappear and I will never again be able to successfully set up a task in the task scheduler to run with Admin privileges, so I have copied the instructions here, with all credit due to the original author at Thomas’ Developer Blog.

To begin you have to start by removing that program from start up.

1) Run > msconfig
2) Click the Startup Tab
3) Scroll down until you find that pesky program giving you issues
4) Note the location and see if it is HKLM or HKCU

Open up regedit
1) Run > regedit
2) If it is HKLM go to HKey_Local_Machine otherwise it should be HKey_Current_User
3) Go to HKLM/HKCU > Software > Windows > Current Version > Run
4) Find that pesky program, right click, and delete that string value (the ab icon thing)

After that you need to go to task scheduler
1) go to: Start > Program Files > Accessories > System Tools > Task Scheduler
2) Under actions context at the top click “create task…”

Under create task
1) Give it a name (I choose the name of the program
2) Make sure you select run only when user is logged on
3) Check “Run with highest privileges
4) Go to the triggers tab
5) Click New
6) From the drop down select at log on
7) Make sure everything is unchecked EXCEPT “enabled” and click OK
8 ) Click Actions tab
9) Click New
10) Select Start a Program from the dropdownlist
11) Browse for the program you want to start
12) Click OK
13) Click Settings Tab
14) Check Allow task to be run on demand
15) Check Run task asap after a scheduled start is missed
16) Uncheck “Stop the task if it runs longer than:”
17) Uncheck “If the task is not scheduled to run again…”  (note that you can check this if you want, but only if you don’t plan to run the program again after a set time)
18 ) Make sure “Do not start a new instance” is selected from the drop down list at the bottom
19) Click OK
20) Restart and it should be working just fine

Today I upgraded my laptop, which dual boots Ubuntu and Windows 7, to Lucid Lynx (Ubuntu 10.4).  Towards the end of the upgrade it said it was upgrading Grub (the multi-OS boot loader) to Grub2.  It then asked me some questions about which partitions to modify.

Apparently I answered wrong, because when the upgrade finished and I rebooted, I got an error message from Grub: “Error 4: Symbol ‘grub_puts_’ not found“.  I ended up at a prompt that said “grub-rescue>” where very few commands worked.  Even “help” was not recognized.

Thankfully, others had blazed the trail.  A little web searching turned up a procedure for repairing the Grub install.  (Note:   the first command should be “sudo fdisk -l” with a space dash lower-case L).  I just booted from the Ubuntu LiveCD and followed the procedure.  That resurrected Grub and allowed me to boot successfully into Linux.

Well, as you might have guessed, my Windows 7 boot had also been clobbered.  To fix that, I had to boot from the Windows 7 CD and follow these instructions.

Finally, here are a couple of other informational references for Grub 2:

• Grub 2 Basics
• Grub 2

Many thanks to those who went before, battled the dragons, lived to tell the tale, and took the time to tell it.

During my last Japan visit, my good friend Tomo showed me how to take an iPhone screenshot:

1. Press and hold the power button
2. Press the main round button

The screenshot is saved in your Camera Roll.  From there you can email it, or sync it over to your main computer.

My hotel room in Japan had a ceiling heat/AC unit with a remote control on the wall to operate it.  I got by until I had to switch it from heating to cooling one day.  So I asked for help from one of my Japanese colleagues, who interpreted the controls for me.  I didn’t get around to experimenting with them all, but I labeled the buttons.  The Up/Down, Left/Right, and Wide buttons control the baffles that aim the air.  The buttons in the green box at the lower left are some kind of timer that I didn’t mess with:  maybe associated with the Sleep Timer?  The one that solved my problems was the Change Mode button.

Sorry that I forgot to write down the name of the manufacturer of the unit.

After my last big visual database delivery on a tight deadline, I thought I had Terra Vista terrain generation mastered:  simply convert the OpenFlight to .vsb and make sure to specify the path to your vt_sub.rgb texture.

Then this time around, my texture came out black.  What now?  Turns out I had gotten used to using the -ct flag for the to_vsb.exe command when converting my culture layers.  -ct compresses the texture maps to .dds format.  Make sure to leave that off when converting the terrain layer that is textured with a virtual texture!