Don't get me started on the problems with a mixed network, but here's information to make sharing files easier.
MacOSX will read-only mount a NTFS partition by itself, but there is no way without extra software to read a HFS drive in Windows. For read-only access to an HFS drive in Windows, HFSExplorer does the trick quickly, and is open-source and free (GPL Ver 3).
Now if you want full access, it gets a little more complicated and / or expensive.
MacDrive gives Windows full read/write on HFS, but at a price of about $50.
MacOSX 10.4 + can get full read/write on NTFS with NTFS-3G (Both Free and Commercial versions available) and MacFuse. The latest release of NTFS-3G also simplifies the setup, installing both the driver and Fuse in one package.
As a disclaimer: I am noting information on all of these packages for reference, but the only one I've actually used myself is HFSExplorer. For that one, at least, I can say it gets the job done. Used it just today to read files from an external USB HFS drive. The interface is a little complicated (definitely for the advanced user) but the great thing about read-only access is you can't screw anything up. I was also surprised at the speed of file transfer from the USB HFS volume to the local drive, it seemed faster by itself than a Windows cut-n-paste.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Kids these days.
I finally figured out why my new laptop has been randomly rebooting. It was not a hardware issue or problem with windows and all the virus scans came back clean. Very hard to troubleshoot, because I could not replicate the problem at will, and never saw it actually happen.
Turns out, it's my three-year-old daughter pushing the power button every time I leave the room. She wants to work on the computer like daddy. I guess this means I will have to move up my plans to put Sugar on a Stick on the old laptop.
In the meantime, I don't normally recommend other blogs, but this fellow has issues with his young daughter and his work as well.
Turns out, it's my three-year-old daughter pushing the power button every time I leave the room. She wants to work on the computer like daddy. I guess this means I will have to move up my plans to put Sugar on a Stick on the old laptop.
In the meantime, I don't normally recommend other blogs, but this fellow has issues with his young daughter and his work as well.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Mobile Email Woes
The kids here at work (and by kids I mean my bosses) are using HTC Touch Pro phones (Windows Mobile 6.1) and we've recently changed over our email services to a new ISP. Turns out, changing the email accounts on the phones was a problem - I had email capabilities set up on the phones before I left for vacation a week ago - only to return to them not working.
What's worse is that it's only half-broken. Receiving email works either by IMAP or POP, but sending doesn't want to work at all. Makes it hard to troubleshoot when something works sort of.
Worse yet, trying all the same email settings in Outlook or Thunderbird or whatever your fancy works just fine too; problem then lies with either the phone, the carrier or the networks not playing nice.
Phone carrier blames the email provider, the email provider blames the phone carrier. Doesn't matter, the problem actually lies with the fact that Windows Mobile 6.1 is trying to allow the phone carrier to specify alternate SMTP servers (ie. use their own, to streamline network traffic), which sounds fine on paper, but in fact is a headache when the carriers don't bother to do this. In that instance, a blank value is added for the alternate SMTP server, which essentially disables SMTP on that email account on the phone.
The issue identified, there is a Windows Mobile hotfix from Microsoft for the problem:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=d9d71b2e-d2dd-44f2-86e5-1e53aad7fb7a&displaylang=en
5 minutes to install per phone, include a phone reboot. Mail sends fine after that. I have heard, but not verified, that the hotfix needs to be reinstalled after adding another email account.
This is all a fine example of a bug being introduced when trying to add "features" or "make things simpler". How about next time we just add a checkbox to the account setup page on the phone that says "Use the damn server settings I specify and don't try to get smart about it."
What's worse is that it's only half-broken. Receiving email works either by IMAP or POP, but sending doesn't want to work at all. Makes it hard to troubleshoot when something works sort of.
Worse yet, trying all the same email settings in Outlook or Thunderbird or whatever your fancy works just fine too; problem then lies with either the phone, the carrier or the networks not playing nice.
Phone carrier blames the email provider, the email provider blames the phone carrier. Doesn't matter, the problem actually lies with the fact that Windows Mobile 6.1 is trying to allow the phone carrier to specify alternate SMTP servers (ie. use their own, to streamline network traffic), which sounds fine on paper, but in fact is a headache when the carriers don't bother to do this. In that instance, a blank value is added for the alternate SMTP server, which essentially disables SMTP on that email account on the phone.
The issue identified, there is a Windows Mobile hotfix from Microsoft for the problem:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=d9d71b2e-d2dd-44f2-86e5-1e53aad7fb7a&displaylang=en
5 minutes to install per phone, include a phone reboot. Mail sends fine after that. I have heard, but not verified, that the hotfix needs to be reinstalled after adding another email account.
This is all a fine example of a bug being introduced when trying to add "features" or "make things simpler". How about next time we just add a checkbox to the account setup page on the phone that says "Use the damn server settings I specify and don't try to get smart about it."
Friday, June 26, 2009
Remember to floss...
My older daughter had gone off to play with the neighbor girl and the toddler was playing with Barbie dolls in her room, but was a little disappointed that she couldn't go with the bigger kids. She asked me to play with her.
"You can be the little princess, Daddy," she said, handing me her Sleeping Beauty doll.
"I don't want to be the little princess," I answered, more teasing than actually declining; as the father of two small girls, I am expected to dress baby dolls, play with princesses and ponies, get my hair brushed and occasionally, wear a tiara.
Drag queens and fathers of toddler girls - the only men who can pull off wearing a tiara.
"I don't want to be the little princess," I continued, and it was then that I spotted her dinosaur on the floor nearby, "I want to be the dinosaur," I picked up the large plastic tyrannosaurus, "and the dinosaur is going to eat this princess."
The three-year old sighed, "No, he not hungry."
"He's going to eat this princess," I said, making chomping noises and moving the dinosaur to get a good bite of the princess sprawled on the floor. As I turned him over, though, another princess fell out of the mouth of hollow, plastic rex.
"He not hungry," she repeated, not looking up, "he already eated."
While trying not to laugh out loud, I shook the dinosaur, there was something else in there. I turned rex upside down again, and a long piece of green plastic fell out.
"That his toothbrush. Toothbrushes are good for getting out princesses."
"You can be the little princess, Daddy," she said, handing me her Sleeping Beauty doll.
"I don't want to be the little princess," I answered, more teasing than actually declining; as the father of two small girls, I am expected to dress baby dolls, play with princesses and ponies, get my hair brushed and occasionally, wear a tiara.
Drag queens and fathers of toddler girls - the only men who can pull off wearing a tiara.
"I don't want to be the little princess," I continued, and it was then that I spotted her dinosaur on the floor nearby, "I want to be the dinosaur," I picked up the large plastic tyrannosaurus, "and the dinosaur is going to eat this princess."
The three-year old sighed, "No, he not hungry."
"He's going to eat this princess," I said, making chomping noises and moving the dinosaur to get a good bite of the princess sprawled on the floor. As I turned him over, though, another princess fell out of the mouth of hollow, plastic rex.
"He not hungry," she repeated, not looking up, "he already eated."
While trying not to laugh out loud, I shook the dinosaur, there was something else in there. I turned rex upside down again, and a long piece of green plastic fell out.
"That his toothbrush. Toothbrushes are good for getting out princesses."
Friday, May 29, 2009
All your base... oh, nevermind.
Was playing in PHP this morning, then switched to a different project and was playing in Visual FoxPro, and as any multiple-language programmer will tell you, it's a bit annoying to shift between similiar languages, particularly because functions are generally just different enough to screw something up, or exist in one and not the other.
In my case this morning, I realized that VFP has no built-in function for calculating numbers in different bases - BASE_CONVERT() in PHP.
So I wrote a set of functions to do it.
Syntax is the same as the PHP version: BASE_CONVERT(NUMBER,BASEFROM,BASETO).
The functions have been tested in FoxPro Dos 2.6 and VFP 9.0 SP2, so should work in everything in between.
Source isn't pretty, but it IS functional, and fully commented.
Download the source PRG (ZIP) here.
"There are only 10 types of people in this world: Those that understand binary math and those that don't." - Unknown
In my case this morning, I realized that VFP has no built-in function for calculating numbers in different bases - BASE_CONVERT() in PHP.
So I wrote a set of functions to do it.
Syntax is the same as the PHP version: BASE_CONVERT(NUMBER,BASEFROM,BASETO).
The functions have been tested in FoxPro Dos 2.6 and VFP 9.0 SP2, so should work in everything in between.
Source isn't pretty, but it IS functional, and fully commented.
Download the source PRG (ZIP) here.
"There are only 10 types of people in this world: Those that understand binary math and those that don't." - Unknown
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Someone reads the Terms and EULA's
Even though I may be the only one.
From the email I just sent PayPal:
***
I apologize if this message is not properly directed, I chose what would seem to be the best option for informing you of this information. Please forward as appropriate.
On the PayPal User agreement located at the web address http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/UserAgreement/ua/USUA-outside#pbp-policy in the definitions section, Section 15, part ay, the definition for SNAD is as follows:
ay. "Significantly Not as Described" means the definition provided in section 13.11 of this Agreement.
However, the user agreement provided on that page contains no section 13.11 Section 13 ends at part 9. The actual definition of SNAD can be found in section 13, part 7 of the user agreement.
I assume this is merely an oversight in editing or a typographical error. Just letting you know.
***
I probably enjoyed pointing that out to them too much.
From the email I just sent PayPal:
***
I apologize if this message is not properly directed, I chose what would seem to be the best option for informing you of this information. Please forward as appropriate.
On the PayPal User agreement located at the web address http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/UserAgreement/ua/USUA-outside#pbp-policy in the definitions section, Section 15, part ay, the definition for SNAD is as follows:
ay. "Significantly Not as Described" means the definition provided in section 13.11 of this Agreement.
However, the user agreement provided on that page contains no section 13.11 Section 13 ends at part 9. The actual definition of SNAD can be found in section 13, part 7 of the user agreement.
I assume this is merely an oversight in editing or a typographical error. Just letting you know.
***
I probably enjoyed pointing that out to them too much.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Irony
For a while now, I've been working on a plain-text compression\encryption program as a bit of a hobby. I don't think the program will ever be worth anything to anyone but me, it's just something I do when I'm bored, or when I need to take a break from other programming projects for a few minutes.
Working on this program has taught me a lot about compression and encryption on computers - and I've gotten reasonable results from my efforts, being able to compress plain ASCII text to levels comparable to commercial programs such as WinZip. This pet project is also helpful in other situations, such as when I'm trying to pick up a new programming language, and I think to myself, "How can I duplicate my encryption algorithms in this new language?" That gives me a baseline for teaching myself the new language, since I'm familiar with my own algorithms, I can concentrate on the language rather than the program.
Here's the thing: I wrote an outline of the program with some notes a little over a year ago, and I put it in a word document called "Encryption Program.doc" Haven't looked at the document since, because I can recite most of the algorithm off the top of my head.
I password-protected the word document.
I don't remember the password, so the document is encrypted.
It's the digital equivalent of writing the combination to a safe on a piece of paper and locking the paper in another safe. Why I would have password-protected this document, I don't know, but that only makes me want to open it more.
Working on this program has taught me a lot about compression and encryption on computers - and I've gotten reasonable results from my efforts, being able to compress plain ASCII text to levels comparable to commercial programs such as WinZip. This pet project is also helpful in other situations, such as when I'm trying to pick up a new programming language, and I think to myself, "How can I duplicate my encryption algorithms in this new language?" That gives me a baseline for teaching myself the new language, since I'm familiar with my own algorithms, I can concentrate on the language rather than the program.
Here's the thing: I wrote an outline of the program with some notes a little over a year ago, and I put it in a word document called "Encryption Program.doc" Haven't looked at the document since, because I can recite most of the algorithm off the top of my head.
I password-protected the word document.
I don't remember the password, so the document is encrypted.
It's the digital equivalent of writing the combination to a safe on a piece of paper and locking the paper in another safe. Why I would have password-protected this document, I don't know, but that only makes me want to open it more.
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