When you double-click a .camproj file and play it in Camtasia Studio, the mouse cursor is a black box.

Resolution:

If your display settings are in 16-bit color mode, change them to 32-bit color.

Windows XP: Right-click the desktop and hit Properties, go to the Settings tab. Under “Color quality”, change the drop-down from “Medium (16 bit)” to “Highest (32 bit)”.
Windows 7: Right-click the desktop and hit Screen Resolution, then Advanced settings, and click the List All Modes button. Choose the one with the same resolution as your current screen resolution but with “True Color (32 bit)”.

If the output of glxinfo | grep -i rend includes Software Rasterizer but already has direct rendering: Yes, then it’s very likely that you simply didn’t add your user to the video group. Do so by running usermod -a -G video [username] as root (or with sudo). After logging out and back in (or maybe a reboot), the output should now include Mesa and your video should be running fullspeed.

I also recommend undoing whatever changes you might have made from the ATI page and then going through them again, after you add yourself to the video group. For example I was messing with early and late KMS start but after adding myself to the video group I removed that; I basically undid all my changes, leaving only my custom xorg.conf file, and the video group was indeed the cause of all of my issues.

However, you may want/need to install radeon_ucode and maybe radeon-initrd still despite the video group. Do a search for installing packages from AUR, and follow the simple steps to get those installed in your system, and they will take effect on the next reboot. After radeon_ucode is successfully installed, dmesg | grep firmware should say something like “platform radeon_cp.0: firmware: requesting radeon/R300_cp.bin”; and the last line of dmesg | grep radeon should tell you that it initialized radeon. In any case, I installed those packages and left them in after discovering the video group, and my card is working great. So I don’t think they hurt anything.

Ugh. I can see the use in this feature for a multi-user system, but at the same time, it’s a little annoying that the Beginners’ Guide wasn’t very clear about it and the ATI page had nothing about it. I guess the moral of this story is, debug things as root first; the root user would’ve run video at full speed and then I may have narrowed it down from there.

Also a little sidenote: don’t use glxgears as a benchmark; the FPS can vary widely depending on the size of the window. For a moment I thought xmonad was slowing down my graphics compared to xterm, but instead I was just getting lower glxgears FPS in xmonad because it rendered on the entire left half of the screen, whereas xterm opened glxgears in a tiny window up in the corner of the screen. False alarm!

I am using the JPackage repository, so my java installation probably came out of there. And it seems to be slightly nonstandard, so I had to find the correct paths to make Artifactory happy.

Oh and also, I’m using the standalone Artifactory. I think it’s high time for me to learn an application server but for now, this is the last piece of my setup so I’ll let it be. Those of you that have the slightest clue about application servers might want to stop right here and just drop the Artifactory war file in your server.

Anyway, I’ll get to the point. Here’s what to do:

• Unzip artifactory somewhere. I unzipped it inside /usr/local; so, my ARTIFACTORY_HOME = “/usr/local/artifactory”.
• su and cd to that directory, then run ./bin/install.sh
• cd etc (or /etc/artifactory, but not /etc; install.sh creates a symlink in $ARTIFACTORY_HOME/etc that points to /etc/artifactory)
• Now edit the file ‘default’ with your favorite editor (vim default).
• Uncomment or add the two lines:
• export JAVA_HOME=/usr
• export JAVA=/bin/java
• Save and close this file. Now /sbin/service artifactory start – and you should be good to go!
• Optionally, before starting (or do a restart afterwards), edit jetty.xml inside the etc directory and customize the port that Jetty runs on, on line 52.

Feel free to comment below if you found this useful or if you have anything else to add!

1. start skype
2. go to tools –> options –> advanced.
3. uncheck Keep Skype in the taskbar while I’m signed in.
4. click OK

Thanks to “Good Samaritan” for pointing this out in the comments.

Here’s a quick and easy fix to the problem of Skype on Windows 7 staying in the taskbar instead of minimizing to system tray.

1. Exit or quit from Skype program.
2. Right click on Skype icon on Desktop or Skype shortcut in Start Menu, and select Properties.
3. Go to Compatibility tab.
4. Under “Compatibility Mode’ section, check the checkbox for Run this program in compatibility mode for: option.
5. In the below drop-down box, select Windows Vista (Service Pack 2).
6. Click OK.
7. Start the Skype program, and now it should minimize to system tray.

These instructions were found at http://www.mydigitallife.info/2010/01/23/how-to-minimize-skype-to-windows-7-system-tray-notification-area/comment-page-1/.

Edit: Welcome those of you who just upgraded to Linux kernel 2.6.31-20! This page WILL help you fix the sh:grub problem!

I’m running Wubi with Ubuntu 9.10; I upgraded my kernel (from 14 to 19) and after a restart, landed at the GRUB prompt, “sh:grub>”. Yikes! I wasn’t actually familiar with the GRUB prompt before now. After some Google searching, here’s what I found: (keep reading, this is not the final solution, don’t bother following this link unless you’re just curious)

sh:grub Fix Wubi after grub-pc update on Karmic Koala

I followed those steps. He is very complete in his instructions. However, when I hit the “boot” command after loading up the 19 kernel, my computer just rebooted. I tried it again with my version 14 kernel and it booted into Ubuntu just fine. Okay, so I figured I’d just uninstall kernel 19 and go back to 14. Well, when I tried to do that in Synaptic, the generic meta packages depend on 19 so they would have been removed as well. I don’t know if this is a bad thing, but it scared me into more searching, where I found the real solution:

Boot Problems:Wubi 9.10

It’s quite simple; just do as the Solution section on the page says. I was careful to back up my existing wubildr file, but after rebooting, my boot menu was back! I chose kernel 19, and it booted correctly. Yay!

Oddly enough, if you do a Google search for “boot problems:wubi 9.10″ or even include site:sourceforge.net, you will not find that page above. Edit: it is now in Google, though what search terms bring it to the top of the results I can’t be sure.

Edit 3-5-2010:

I just upgraded from 2.6.31-19 to 2.6.31-20 without problem. I did not have to recopy the wubildr file or anything; it just booted correctly. So it looks like this is a permanent fix!

Why is this MSS.log file locked? Is your backup program stumbling over it? Maybe you get this error:

The process cannot access the file because it is being
used by another process.

MSS.log is used by Microsoft Search. MSS probably stands for Microsoft Search Service. To unlock the file, go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services and then look for the Windows Search service; click on it, and click Stop in the left. Now the MSS.log file should be unlocked.

But, Windows Search is the program that allows you to search from your start menu and other places in Windows, so I don’t recommend stopping it. If for some reason a backup program is having trouble with it, consider telling the program to exclude that directory; if your backup program can’t do that, find a better program.

I only found this out because I’m having problems with Windows Search and trying to figure out how to read MSS.log… But upon Googling, I noticed that most people are having trouble with the file being locked. So, hopefully I helped you, random Googler! Good luck on your quest for backups; meanwhile I’ll keep looking around for why my Windows Search service keeps crashing and restarting, using 100% CPU time…

Oh, and if you even came here because your Windows Search is broken, read these answers: http://superuser.com/questions/101431/windows-7-search-indexing-is-stuck

Good luck!

Anyway, somehow some of the .svn folders got uploaded to FTP. There was a good 30 or so of them, scattered in subdirectories. And we’re talking a huge website; 6+ GB of content, I don’t even know how many folders, some of them run 5 or 6 deep. I needed to find all of the .svn folders and delete them.

I wrote a Python script to do it. I’m quite opposed to using Python as anything serious (I wouldn’t write an application in it) but I love how quick it is to whip up a little tool.

I think the following code is self explanatory, at least for someone who knows Python. You may need to obtain ftplib; I can’t remember. Of course, this code can work for any directory name that needs to be recursively found and deleted; just replace ‘.svn’ on the sixth line, and optionally change the output on the seventh; and, regardless of the directory name, you need to change the FTP server location and user/pass at the bottom of the script to point to your own FTP server.

Enjoy! (click ‘Read the rest of this entry’ to see the source code)

ftpRecursivelyDeleteAll.py:

from ftplib import FTP

def recurse(ftp):
  print ftp.pwd()
  for d in ftp.nlst():
    if d == '.svn':
      print '     svn!!!'
      try:
        ftp.cwd(d)
        cleanOut(ftp)
        ftp.cwd('..')
        ftp.rmd(d)
      except:
        pass
    else:
      try:
        ftp.cwd(d)
        recurse(ftp)
        ftp.cwd('..')
      except:
        pass # not a directory; ignore

def cleanOut(ftp):
  print 'cleanout ',ftp.pwd()
  for d in ftp.nlst():
    try:
      ftp.delete(d) # delete the file
    except:
      ftp.cwd(d) # it's actually a directory; clean it
      cleanOut(ftp)
      ftp.cwd('..')
      ftp.rmd(d)

ftp = FTP('123.123.123.123')
ftp.login('USERNAME','PASSWORD')

recurse(ftp)

ftp.quit()

You have to figure out what works for you. For me, when I need to get homework done, I work best alone with a textbook and some trance music. But I’m that kind of person that can sit down with a textbook and some problems, and figure them out. My brain is heavy on the problem solving, and not so much on the socialization. Whereas my friends, and my girlfriend especially, are more of the type that like to sit down with a couple other friends from the class and work through the homework together. When at first glance I can’t figure out a problem, I grab a book and scour it for similar example problems, discussions of the type of problem, etc. and grind through it until I get it right (then I usually practice a couple more times to make sure I got it right). My friends learn better from leaning over and asking the person next to them to explain it to them; and there’s no shame in that! Learning from others is what works for them, and it’s not cheating at all (as long as you’re learning to the point where you can do it yourself later, like on an exam).

I find that through it all, the best thing is to be honest with yourself and realize that when you’re studying or doing homework, you’re not just “getting it done” to move on to fun and games. This is the mindset that results in not learning anything. If you are doing a problem, and you arrive at the answer but you think to yourself “I don’t really know what happened,” don’t follow that up with “oh well, I’ll type it in and move on to the next problem!” Be honest with yourself, and realize that if you don’t know how to do it then you’re not going to know how to do it on a test; go back and try it again. Don’t just do it for the sake of a homework grade; LEARN it.

In the end, as long as you’re learning, that’s the most important thing. Maybe the first 12 years of school involved a lot of busywork, but college is not about busywork. It’s about learning. So be serious about it, and learn something.

Oh and after you’re done learning… Have fun! Your brain needs time to commit what you’ve learned to memory. Don’t overwork yourself.

I’d love to hear your tips in the comments. If you are headed into your first year of college, how do you feel? Did I help you think about it a little differently? Those of you that have spent a few years in college now, or maybe are long out, does this align with your thoughts? What other tips do you have? You don’t have to leave your name or sign up, so please give me your opinions, I’d love to hear them!

My first thoughts are, have the stores been told? Is Microsoft Office being pulled off the shelves? How can something like this even happen? In fact, I think the judge and the court and the entire state of Texas should be banned from Microsoft Word. If I were in charge at MS, I would issue an immediate Microsoft Update to revoke all licenses of MS Word and prevent people from opening it. What kind of widespread panic would ensue? Maybe then the court would take its decision back.

i4i is a company that apparently helps companies manage, collaborate on, and update important documents. These documents are in a .xml format which is meant to be opened in Microsoft Word. So they are deeply tied to MS Word in the first place. Why they would want to send it off the shelves is beyond me. They even tout, in their (PowerPoint) presentation linked to from their site, that they have a “Word-based XML Authoring” tool.

They have a press release on their site regarding this patent infringement mess. In it, they tout the $200 million (!!) that Microsoft will be giving them, for “damages” (oh yes, all the damages from them piggybacking off of MS software for their own product). They cite patent 5,787,449.

Here’s the patent. But don’t worry, I read through most of it and I’ll summarize it for you.

In the past, formatted documents have contained their formatting within the document. For example, HTML looks like this:

Here is some <b>bold</b> and some <i>italic</i> text.

And it would result in:

Here is some bold and some italic text.

Well they came up with this process where you separate the text from the formatting. You have a map that says which characters are formatted which way. Then the software can display formatted text from this map, instead of reading special markup tags in the body of the text. MAPS ARE NOT A NEW CONCEPT. This is NOT a big deal! Even at its time, filed in 1994 and issued in 1998, I really cannot believe that the patent office passed this.

This is not an invention. They took two Legos, put them together and said “here patent office, give me the right to sue anyone that puts two Legos together.” And so now, that’s exactly what they did.

Back when the internet was new, people were buying up domain names for the sake of extortion. You’d buy a good name, like the name of a company, for about $10 (for one year). Then you’d go to the company and say “hey guys, I bought your domain name so it’s mine. But you can have it if you pay me!” That’s the same sort of thing that happened here, and now Microsoft has to pay giant sums of money because they happened upon the same mechanism but it was patented.

Who ever came up with the idea of patenting mathematical structures anyway? Can I place a patent on, oh I don’t know, a mathematical matrix with letters in it instead of numbers, then go around suing algebra teachers? Another example of the ridiculousness of this case.

I am completely against the idea of patenting simple software concepts like this. The problem, of course, is what constitutes “simple.” Maybe back in 1994 this was a novel concept. Or maybe there were other people using the same simple concept and i4i was the first to send it to the patent office.

Anyway this has turned into a ramble/rant so I’m just going to cut this entry here. I’d like to hear your perspective, so please leave a comment. Let me know what you think, if I’ve gotten anything wrong or if there’s any misinformation. One bit of info that I’m unsure about is really whether Microsoft has been banned from selling Word. That’s what the news article says, but i4i’s announcement says “i4i can seek a court order blocking further use of its invention by Microsoft.” I can’t find the official court thing online to read the real verdict.

“No,” you say, “I store all my documents on my flash drive.” Okay, but do you store them on your hard drive too? All of them? Current copies? Do you really save your document to both places as you work? And your photos are backed up there too? What if it wasn’t your hard drive that broke, but your flash drive: you plug in your flash drive and Windows doesn’t even budge. There’s just nothing. Then what would you lose?

These are both very real situations. Hard drives today generally spin at either 5,400 RPM (revolutions per minute) or 7,200. Simple math tell us that’s 90-120 revolutions per second. Furthermore, the technology is not so different from a record player. Think of a record spinning 90-120 rotations per second, with a “needle” hovering just nanometers above it, but if the needle touches the drive, anything it touches will likely be permanently damaged. There really is no room for error here, and it’s a miracle of modern science that hard drives are as reliable as they are.

Flash drives, on the other hand, have no moving parts; but they are just as susceptible to corruption, if not more so. Do a search for flash drive reviews, and pick any model of flash drive (even your own), and you are bound to see reviewer after reviewer complaining of their flash drive having broken and losing data. You could be next.

Have I scared you enough?

This is the introduction into 4 blog posts that I will be posting in the next few days. I will tell you exactly why I could lose my laptop and external drives, and I wouldn’t actually lose any of my precious data. Because a laptop can be replaced, and a flash drive can be replaced cheaply, but data is invaluable. You need to act now to protect your data, before it’s too late.

Update 4/17/2010: This turned out to be the introduction and the conclusion; I never wrote the rest of the articles. I have no idea why I just stopped, but I apologize to anyone who might read this and wonder where the others are.