Tech | Martyn Walker | Software Architect

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MySQL, On The Front Line, Programming, Tech No Responses »

Dec 282011

I recently changed the layout and the column resize effected the display of images and Picasa galleries. To overcome these issues I used the MySQL REPLACE command which made changing embedded HTML a breeze.

If you do not know how to run SQL statements against your database it is probably better that you do not try this as it may lead to serious damage to your blog, it may even destroy all your work so take care.

Start by taking a full backup of your database. Then take a copy of the wp_posts table so should disaster happen recovery will be simple and fast.

UPDATE wp_posts
SET post_content =
REPLACE(
	post_content,
	'width="800" height="533"',	
	'width="650" height="432"'
)

In the above example I wanted to replace all entries with a width of 800, height of 533 with 650 and 432 respectively. The entire database updates when this SQL statement runs. As a precaution consider making another copy of the table to test the SQL statement first.

How to batch render and stretch in Sony Vegas 11 Pro

On The Front Line, Sony, Sony Vegas Scripting, Vegas Pro, Video, Video Editing, Visual Studio No Responses »

Dec 212011

batch render 300x195 How to batch render and stretch in Sony Vegas 11 Pro

Selecting batch render in Sony Vegas Pro

If you have prepared regions in a video which you wish to output as individual files Sony Vegas Pro has a simple script called “Batch Render” that will do the dirty work for you. However it won’t stretch to fill video for you and if this is a requirement then you need to change the script.

Research reveals Vegas Pro versions before 9 would handle stretching to avoid letterboxing too. However the default installation no longer does. This is how you do it:-

Locate the script directory (usually C:\Program Files\Sony\Vegas Pro 11.0\Script Menu)
Make a copy of “Batch Render.cs” and call it “Batch Render Stretch.cs”
Open the new file in a text editor and find the two lines that begin “args.OutputFile =”. You will find them around line 97 and 106.
Create a new line below them and add “args.StretchToFill = true;” (without the quotes (see below)
Save your changes, refresh the script listing in Vegas and use the new script to render files as before but use this new script instead

After your changes the code should look something like this:-

if (RenderMode.Regions == renderMode) {
	int regionIndex = 0;
	foreach (Sony.Vegas.Region region in myVegas.Project.Regions) {
		String regionFilename = String.Format("{0}[{1}]{2}",
				filename,
				regionIndex.ToString(),
				renderItem.Extension);
		RenderArgs args = new RenderArgs();
		args.OutputFile = regionFilename;
		args.StretchToFill = true;  // <------------ Add this line
		args.RenderTemplate = renderItem.Template;
		args.Start = region.Position;
		args.Length = region.Length;
		renders.Add(args);
		regionIndex++;
	}
} else {
	filename += renderItem.Extension;
	RenderArgs args = new RenderArgs();
	args.OutputFile = filename;
	args.StretchToFill = true;  // <------------ Add this line
	args.RenderTemplate = renderItem.Template;
	args.UseSelection = (renderMode == RenderMode.Selection);
	renders.Add(args);
}

If programming’s not your thing you can download a copy of the script ready-made by clicking here.

If you’re interested in programming Vegas this is a good starter video:

How to disable the annoying audio warning to clear cache

Annoyances, Google Software, Google Toolbar, Software, Utilities 2 Responses »

Nov 292011

1951881 blog 300x219 How to disable the annoying audio warning to clear cache Do you keep hearing a voice message warning you to clear your cache and cookies? I don’t, but my father experiences it and when he described it I could not believe it. Why would such a pointless and stupid message be played every time you opened the browser?

At first I thought it was something wrong with Internet Explorer but removing the Google Toolbar solves the problem. Further investigation results in problem with Google’s data gathering process (surprise surprise).

If you wish to keep the Google Toolbar this is what you need to do:-

1. Click the Toolbar’s wrench OR the dropdown arrow beside the search .
2. Click Manage.
3. Click Privacy.
4. Then select Turn off features that send information

However this has not worked for everyone – with some claiming they disable it and it automatically enables itself again later.

On the subject of People have said….

Some think this is a ploy by Microsoft to stop people using or supplying information to Google. No one has suggested that it might be Google trying to get people to switch from IE to Chrome which is a more likely result (Google Toolbar does not work in Chrome!).

I think it is more likely a programming error and the issue, apart from being extremely annoying, Google are taking so long to fix it.

As for whether this is a Microsoft or Google problem IMO it is Google at fault, if they want to offer their Toolbar on IE then its up to them to get it to work properly.

How to change text size in chm help files

Annoyances, Help Files, Microsoft No Responses »

Nov 092011

I am experiencing a problem with fonts in help files. As you can see from the picture the font used for the Index is readable. The font used for the content is too small.

read using magnifier Custom 150x150 How to change text size in chm help files

Read with the magnifier

Once so desperate and in a hurry the only solution I found was to start the Magnifier which proved awkward and intensely frustrating but that had as much to do with the useless information in the help file as the sheer stupidity of not being able to read it. I remember swearing if I ever found out who was responsible it would take an army to stop me from blinding the bastard.

A little research resulted in a suggestion to change the Accessibility options. I felt a little resentful at the suggestion my eyesight was in some way to blame but I gave it a try. Here’s what you do:-

Open the CHM file.
-> Options -> Internet Options -> Accessibility -> Ignore Fonts Sizes on specified Web pages

Presto! You can read the help file but don’t get too excited, now go to Internet Explorer and visit your favourite website, what do you see? In most cases it will be a mess with silly font sizes.

I was crushed.

Further research suggests CHM Authors set font sizes but all files were using tiny fonts. Either the entire help file writing fraternity had gone bonkers or something else maybe wrong.

Clearing cache, using various mouse and keyboard combinations changed nothing. The fonts remained too small in the content area.

Forums, Microsoft and Yahoo Answers and other searches were not coming up with any results so I loaded Sysinternals Process Monitor, set some filters and nosed around the registry to find a bizarre call being made to some default entries buried deep under ‘International’ settings for Internet Explorer. It’s not surprising it has been difficult to fix, anyway, this is how you do it:-

How to change text size in chm help files

Easy way

1. Download this .reg file unzip and double-click fix-font-in-chm.reg and follow instructions to change your registry.

Not so easy but less risk as you are in control of the changes

1. Open regedit
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\International\Scripts\3
3. Change IEFontSize to 03,00,00,00

How to Solve WHS 2011 Connect in one simple step

Annoyances, Business, Microsoft, Software, WHS 2011 1 Response »

Oct 292011

Go to http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=23621

Explanation

I spent an entire hour trying to figure out why one of my PC’s would not connect to my fresh Windows Home Server 2011 installation. I don’t mind admitting I was mighty pissed off. How come every other PC connected via http://myserver/Connect – as per the instructions supplied by my new server’s post installation tableau and not this’n?

A little research quickly reveals many people experiencing similar problems. A bunch of them just gave up and did a complete reinstall. This made me think the problem was probably a router issue (firewalls and routers often to blame for connection issues and often forgotten by frustrated users staring at tubes and not cables).

I checked my hosts file – nothing odd there.
I checked my router – updated as per WHS 2011 via upnp.

It appeared my one naff PC had nothing stopping it gaining the same access the other PC’s on my network enjoyed. So a little more research using different phrases…

2478716 blog 200x300 How to Solve WHS 2011 Connect in one simple step

Unable to connect to WHS2011 Server when installing the Connect
Whs 2011 Client Connection Failure
WHS2011 Cannot Install Connector
WHS Connection Issues
download windows home server connector
WHS 2011 Connector Software Won’t Install
Cannot Install WHS2011 Connector

You get the idea. 5 minutes of this revealed nothing obvious. Plenty of replies and suggestions but zero solutions “Turn IPv6 off and it will work – it worked for me” with others suggesting “Solution is easy, you just need to install Windows Home Server twice”.

Microsoft knowledge base is often the place for solutions but it has been difficult to find stuff in there due to contaminated google searches full of rubbish. As the big G is not a Microsoft fanboy answers are buried many pages away from view.

Bing has none of these hangups and offers the right kind of bias, and thus, anyone of the above search terms will lead you to articles that often refer to Microsoft’s own solution to the problem which is a small executable file that once run solves all the issues and connects your disgruntled PC.

But why don’t Microsoft supply that as part of the Connector software? Perhaps the answer for that lies in Bing.

That link again if you missed it at the top of the article is http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=23621

Sanitize Gmail Contacts For Windows 7 Phone To Avoid Error 80070057

Annoyances, Business, Gmail, Gmail Contacts, Google Software, Hardware, HTC, Mobile, Software 25 Responses »

Oct 102011

Update

Mike Mongeau, a forum moderator at Microsoft Answers says as follows, I would point out the error I experienced was with one of the custom fields and not date but I think the date field will be the most common of the two. If this doesn’t work for you move beyond the update section for another potential remedy:

Everyone: I’ve done some digging and believe I know the cause behind the error code. It seems Google contacts allows for birthday fields of many formats, including something like Month, DD, YY. So, a birthday like “October 17, 11″ will cause a sync failure. The phone sees the year not as 2011, but actually as year 11. It naturally balks at this. Here are some other notable findings with this:

What’s odd is that Google doesn’t allow you to enter birthdays in this format (at least, not any longer). Instead, to get myself into a “bad state” I had to import my contacts with the birthday field entered like this. Meaning you guys either (1) imported your contacts or (2) had entered these birthday values in some older interface of Google’s contacts.
This isn’t a regression. Any contacts with this birthday value will, in fact, fail to sync pre-Mango – just the error code isn’t shown.

To fix: simply edit the birthday field of your contacts in this format (or delete) to be MM, DD, YYYY. Finally, remove and re-add your Google account.

3082818 s Sanitize Gmail Contacts For Windows 7 Phone To Avoid Error 80070057 The Problem
After installing Windows 7.5 (Mango) on my HTC Mozart Windows Phone all worked well for a couple of days. I noticed that Gmail was sometimes not synchronizing but put it down to poor cell coverage. I began to receive calls showing the number and not the contact, and then, when trying to make a call one day I found all my contacts missing.

I searched for solutions online. I found similar complaints however these were for the earlier version of Windows 7, 7.5 better known as Mango had only just been released and surely, the problems in the older version of the software had not been brought forward to the new?

They had.

I followed several suggestions on forums and blog posts but failed to solve the problem. I raised my question on Microsoft Answers but that, at time of writing this still offered no solution. Strange name for a website “Microsoft Answers” because they never bloody do.

The Solution For Me
To understand the solution it’s best you know what I think the cause is first. That way you may find a better solution for your own particular set of circumstances: I believe the cause is WP7′s inability to understand Gmail’s Custom field used in their contacts list to store miscellaneous information. At first I thought it might be some of the character sets in use in my contacts. I have Asian, Eastern European, Russian, Greek and several other contacts all of whom have shared their Vcards with more information in their own characters, but after summarily deleting these Microsoft remained incapable of importing them.

Some had large quantities of information, so I targeted these next, but still, Microsoft could not import them.

I was left with a few that had HTML tags which I removed and still Microsoft could not import Gmail contacts.

I then removed all Custom fields in Gmail and at last, Microsoft managed to import the records. So this is my solution and these are the steps I took to successfully import Gmail Contacts into my Windows 7 HTC Mozart Mobile Phone.

Export all Gmail contacts to Outlook CSV
Open CSV in your editor (I used Excel)
Delete the Notes column (in Excel click the top of the column and hit delete)
Save your CSV
Import CSV into Windows Live Contacts (this maybe unnecessary but I figure if Microsoft Phone cannot read Microsoft Windows Live contacts then I may as well have bought brick)
Delete all contacts in Gmail (Don’t panic, Gmail has an easy to use recovery feature if you screw up)
Export from Windows Live to CSV
With Gmail Contacts empty, use Gmail’s import utility to import the contacts you exported in the above step from Windows Live
Go to your Microsoft Windows 7 Phone and Synchronise

That did it for me; I hope it helps you.

Epilogue
Chrissakes Microsoft get this sorted. I can see people dumping your phone because of this one tiny-itty-bit of a problem and your choice to ignore complaints exacerbates the rush for alternatives. I decided against iPhone because I have Windows everything around me, I chose not to go for a Galaxy S because a friend complains the O/S and programs often crash. I am happy with the decision but frankly, if I can’t get access to my contacts the iPhone or Android make much more sense.

Limit Text Input Characters in an HTML Text Input Field

Javascript, On The Front Line, Programming No Responses »

Sep 202011

If you need to restrict the characters input into an HTML text form field, use the following Javascript to save time and resources wasted on a round trip to the server.

// Removes all non word characters such as +#</>
frmYourForm.inputText.onkeyup=function(e){
  e=e || window.event;
  var w=e.target || e.srcElement;
  w.value= w.value.replace(/[^\w-]+/g,'');
}

For other patterns check the list on W3Schools.

How to Reset the Joomla Super Admin Password

Joomla, MySQL, On The Front Line, Programming No Responses »

Aug 212011

You will need access to your database via PHPMyadmin or other similar tool, if you don’t know what this means ask your IT or host to help out.

1. Open your Joomla database and look for the ???_users table where ??? is the prefix you selected during installation.
2. Open an SQL editor and enter the following code (replacing ??? with the prefix used in your database)

UPDATE ???_users SETPASSWORD= MD5('password')WHERE usertype ="Super Administrator"

If it worked you will see something similar to this:-

1rowaffected How to Reset the Joomla Super Admin Password

If you don’t then you will need to look through the list of users. You may find that a security measure (whether human or machine) has renamed the usertype to ‘deprecated’ or other setting to block its use. Edit this back to Super Administrator and rerun the above steps.

Invalid argument supplied for foreach in mysqli.php on line 391

Hosting, Joomla, PHP No Responses »

Aug 212011

This is a note to self. When you see Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/yourdom/public_html/libraries/joomla/database/database/mysqli.php on line 391 it means the host has run out of disk space on the tmp folder used for sessions and other temporary files. Specifically Joomla is trying to create a temporary table and it appears it gets as far as creating the pointer and php/mysql errors at the point of reading the data rather than at the point of adding data to the table.

So if you are not me and you have this error then the solution is to ask your host to clear out the /tmp folder and increase the amount of disk space allocated to it so it doesn’t happen again.

Moron Skype! Sorry, that should be more on Skype

Annoyances, Microsoft, Updates, Upgrades No Responses »

Aug 012011

I have liked Skype for too long. The service is responsible for the reduction in communication costs worldwide. I used it to keep in contact with friends, family and business while living and travelling for the past 10 years. I know, my story is typical.

But Skype, you are throwing that love away…

A few months ago Skype began to force updates on three of my PC’s, each running a different version of Windows, and each of them refusing to run the new code. I even blogged about it in May Stop Skype Auto Updates, Don’t want to upgrade Skype Thanks

Selective Customer Support

I tried the forums (see this) and received no reply to my direct requests for support.

As if it wasn’t difficult enough there is a confusing and circular process just to arrive at the support input form which includes having to login twice. I’m sure someone will dispute this, perhaps their website can’t handle Google Chrome or IE, but the location of this form is not clear and at each stage they want you to read the FAQ or analyse your input to show a list of totally irrelevant answers. This despite pasting the precise error code and message. Ironically the only information to be found on the site about this issue is in the forum where complaints on this subject are either injudiciously slammed by a Skype techie or ignored.

I eventually found the form again and decided before downgrading to a working version of Skype again, I would keep the forced update (on a machine I rarely use) and try work through a fix with them and thus apply the fix to my other two machines so I can put this time-wasting nonsense behind me.

No such luck.

Skype, again, ignored my request, but the next day I received this incredible email from them:-

First complaint is perhaps picky but why do so many companies thinks its ok to write emails that start with something like “This is an automated email, sent by a friendly Skype robot, please don’t reply.” Control freaks! Another example of “Its ok for us to talk at you but oooh no, we’re not going to listen back!” To be fair Skype and other companies that do this often provide another means to communicate, but in Skypes case… well see above.

I took the survey and gave 100% low rating on everything to do with the customer service representative as he/she never contacted me despite having my phone number, Skype name and email address in the original request for help. I use Gmail and this was used in my request for help. However I have had Skype longer than Gmail existed so just in case they still use my old email address I checked its working. All mail to this address is successfully sent directly to my Gmail account. All spam filtering handled by Gmail so just in case I regularly checked the trash folder and as Google is my witness, Skype never sent a thing.

Downgrading Again

As I needed Skype (and there’s a clue as to why they do so well by ignoring their customers) I decided to follow my own instructions and return to a working copy. After running the uninstall my browser is forced open (having been required to close all programs for the installation to run) to display this message:-

You see that handy little link just by the-big-green-download link? The one that says “Do you need some help?” Wonderful! It takes you to the FAQ.

Epilogue

The latest version of Skype, as of a couple of days ago, still will not work on three of my PC’s. As the majority of Skype users do not have a problem I have to conclude its something I have done to make it go wrong though after spending time comparing the machines only Microsoft Office (various versions) and Skype are in common. Perhaps now Microsoft owns Skype they may turn their attention to this problem but I hold out little hope.

One thing that is wrong and can be fixed is their customer support and the attitude of some of their technical staff. I recently paid $25, its not a lot, but I still expect something for my money which right now is impossible to use without Skype attempting to force me to update, at my inconvenience.

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Martyn Walker | Software Architect | Hiker And Hacker

Search and replace words and text throughout your entire WordPress blog

How to batch render and stretch in Sony Vegas 11 Pro

How to change text size in chm help files

How to Solve WHS 2011 Connect in one simple step

Sanitize Gmail Contacts For Windows 7 Phone To Avoid Error 80070057

Update

Limit Text Input Characters in an HTML Text Input Field

How to Reset the Joomla Super Admin Password

Invalid argument supplied for foreach in mysqli.php on line 391

Moron Skype! Sorry, that should be more on Skype

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