Protopage Desktop

Protopage.com is an online desktop service hosted in the UK. You create an free account/password, setup the desktop as you like with with links, notes, and/or news sites, then set it as your home page. Have been using it for about four months?!? Very handy in that I now have the same desktop at home as with work. It's a little thing, but it sure is nice.

Updated Adblock Plus Text File

Edited 20 Apr 06: Posted updated file.

Posted latest update of Adblock Plus ad text file in Savefile.com folder. As usual, type in brick to access the folder.

If you have Firefox and don't have Adblock Plus, you don't know what you're missing, or in this case, not missing. AB+ is a sweet FireFox extension that blocks images from web sites, using the usual wildcards. Who is the worst culprits, site adverts of course. It's amazing just how much faster web pages appear when the browser doesn't have to load a buncha ad-crap along with the good stuff. You choose which sites are blocked and the list is exportable to text file. Makes it so very nice when I install AB+ on a user's 'puter.

More Fixed FF 1.5.0.1 Extensions

Edited 20 Apr 06:
Savefile.com has removed them.

Added two more extensions, Tabrowser Preferences 1.2.8.8 and Zoomy 2.0 to my Savefiles project folder Firefox Extensions Fixed. As before, these the fix lets you use them in FF 1.5.0.1 while you wait on the author to come up with a real solution. As usual, type in brick to access the folder.

Savefile.com Free File Hosting

Per my previous posting, I fixed some FireFox extensions for 1.5+., but I can't always access them from work depending on where I'm at or who I'm logged in as. Came across a very sweet service, the free filehoster Savefile.com. You create an account, then a project folder, then you upload the file(s). If you like, you can add a password, per project. Easy-peasy, not even queasy.

The three FireFox extensions I fixed are External Applications 1.7.1, MapIt 1.7.2, and Ook. I've also uploaded my current Adblock Plus "bad ad" text file. If you want to give them a go, you do so at your own risk. My software-blogsite disclaimer is in force for these as well. As of this posting, the password brick will get you in all my projects/files. The Savefile projects are FireFox Extensions Fixed and Adblock Plus Text File.

Technorati

I stumbled across Technorati and on a lark, linked this to it blog a month or so ago. Lo and behold, I find an article in an Oct 05 Discover magazine talking about Web 2.0. (I'm usually at three issues behind 'cause I not only read it from cover to cover, but have to re-read several really interesting articles.) I'm usually not an early-adopter, too much Scots blood to waste good moola on stuff that will be cheaper-better-faster when the next new thing/upgrade comes online. Yet, it didn't cost me but a few minutes to create a profile and add a link to my blog.

Bart's PE Builder Bootdisk CD

I used Bart's PE Builder for the first time today, and it surely made this netadmin's life boocoo easier. Had a XP PC do a BSOD, so I set up the external hard drive to Ghost the image back on. No joy as the HDD had bad sectors. Had bookmarked BPE a while back for "its and grins." Fifteen minutes later I'm running format and chkdisk, happy as the proverbial clam. Once the two were finished, Ghost worked fine and dandy. Only problem I had was during the build, the verify reported the NTOSKRNL.EXE wasn't found. Evidently when BPEB copied it from the i386 CAB to te c:\pebuilder3110, it was renamed to NTKRNLMP.EXE. Twas no biggie, I just copied the NTKRNLMP.EXE to a second file and renamed it to NTOSKRNL.EXE. Probably some fix on the forum site, but as I got it to work, I didn't worry with it.

Has a bunch of plugins you can add to the basic disk. If you so desire, you can write your own plugins as well. Seven stars out of seven for this gem.

Upgrade SAVCE 8.0 to 10.0 on Netware 5.1

After I installed Symantec 8.0, this is the weird error I received: Error: "S32evnt1.dll. An installable Virtual Device Driver failed DLL initialization" I went to here to find the solution from Symantec. Below is the condensed version.

To edit the Windows XP registry

1. On the Windows taskbar, click Start > Run.
2. In the Run dialog box, type regedit
3. Click OK.
4. Go to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\VirtualDeviceDrivers

5. In the right pane, delete the VDD value.
6. In the left pane, right-click the VirtualDeviceDrivers key, and then click New > Multi-String Value.
7. Type VDD for the name of the new value.
8. Exit the Registry Editor.
9. Restart the computer."

CSS and Frames

I've been monkeying around with my web page, happily learning CSS. Got the thing validated XHTML Transitional and CSS via W3C. Then I decided I'd figure out frames and had fits trying to get the index page to work with CSS.

Between having no luck on finding a solution and having read boocoo on how crappy frames behave, I decided to leave my site no frames. Lo and behold, I found on Google this link to DarkBlue, aka Jonathan M. Hollin's blogpost on how to emulate frames. Even tho I'm not planning on using it any time soon, it is nice to have the hack.

Ghost 2K3 with Windows 98

Ok, ok, I know that nobody uses Windows 98 PCs anymore, unless you work for a not-for-profit like I do.

Anyhoo, in the past, I had no problems with Symantec Ghost with a LaCie external hard drive to duplicate Windows XP PCs. Assumed (yeah, I'm former Air Force and do know what assume stands for) that the same boot disk would work for a Windows 98. Proverbial big mistake.

I had two issues. First, the Win XP boot disk wouldn't recognize the LaCie hard drive. Then, once I got it to see the external drive, Ghost would not restore the image. Said the source partition was too large. So after much sturm und drang, here's the drill for both. I put the XP drill first as that's the first OS I used Ghost on.

Windows XP Boot Disk:

Using a Win XP PC, format the floppy to FAT as a MS-DOS startup disk, Quick Format unchecked. Then delete everything but the command.com, io.sys, and the msdos.sys from the floppy. On my network drive, I have a folder with the following in it:

Ghost folder containing; Ghost.exe, Ghost.ini, Ghosterr.txt.

USB folder containing: aspiehci.sys

Root containing: Autoexec.bat, config.sys, guest.exe, ibmbio.com, ibmdos.com, mouse.com, mouse.ini.

Autoexec.bat contains:
@echo off
SET TZ=GHO+05:00
GUEST.EXE
MOUSE.COM
echo Loading...
CD GHOST
GHOST.EXE

Config.sys contains:
DEVICE = usb\aspiehci.sys /int /all
LASTDRIVE = Z

Copy the entire contents of the drive to the XP floppy, protect it, and you're good to go.

If you don't have the aspiehci.sys, you can find it on Symantec's web site or Google for it. It's actually from Iomega, as is the Guest.exe file.

When you do an Ghost an image to or from with the Win XP boot disk, do a disk selection, not partition. Then choose the first partition as usual.

Windows 98 Boot Disk:

I still used a Win XP boot disk as described above. On the network Win 98 folder, the Ghost folder is the same, but the USB and root files are different.

USB folder containing: DI1000DD.SYS and USBASPI.SYS.

Root containing: Autoexec.bat, config.sys, guest.exe, ibmbio.com, ibmdos.com, mouse.com, mouse.ini.

Config.sys contains:
Device=usb\usbaspi.sys /v
Device=usb\di1000dd.sys
LASTDRIVE = Z

As with XP, copy the entire contents of the drive to the 98 floppy and protect it.

Many thx to swhartung aka NightOwl, Ghost Guru at Radified Files Forum. I got the usbaspi.sys and di1000dd.sys files from Radified Files download page. Per NightOwl's suggestion, I used the usbaspi.sys from the kxlrw40an.exe file and the di1000dd.sys from the mhairudo.zip file.

With the Win 98 boot disk, it's reverse, do a partition selection, not disk.

Long Live DOS!!!

GroupWise 5.5 Restoring Deleted User

Accidentally deleted a Novell 5.1/GW 5.5 account. Recreating the NW side was no biggie, but getting the user's GW back online was so no fun.

Started the Great Google Search around 1600L. Searched in a variety of ways to include GroupWise "restore user" and "GroupWise 5.5" "restore user." It's freakin' amazing at the number of different ways posted to do this, most of them quite complicated, and all were basically useless. It wasn't until late in the evening that I hit on the answer and it was rather simple, compared to the gyrations listed on many of the sites.

What worked for me was this:

1. I recreated both the NW and GW accounts for the user. That way my user could continue to send and receive email while I was working on the restoration.

2. From backup tape, I restored wpdomain.db to a safe folder. Then I started NetWare Administrator, clicked on Tools – System Connection. At the GW System Connection window, I clicked on the Specify Other Domain button. I then browsed to the folder holding the restored wpdomain.db and selected it. After the GWSC window indicated it was pointing to the restored wpdomain.db, I clicked on the Connect button anyway. (There is something to be said for healthy paranoia.) I found the user's NW account (AKA the userid) and double-clicked on it. I then clicked on the GroupWise button. In the middle of the second box, I found the users three character File ID (or FID) which I will call OLD. I then went back to the GWSC and pointed it back to my live wpdomain.db. I then did the same drill to get the users new account FID which I'll call NEW.

3. Now that I knew the user's old FID, I restored the users backup USEROLD.DB from \po\ofuser to the same safe folder.

4. At this point, I had my user forward any email received from the new account to me. I then advised the user to get out of GW completely, to include Notify. Assured user could still remain logged on the the network, just couldn't use GW.

5. Using Windoze Explorer, I went to the live \po\ofuser folder, found the USERNEW.DB and renamed it to USERNEW.org. I then copied USEROLD.DB from the safe folder to the live \po\ofuser folder. I then renamed it from USEROLD.DB to USERNEW.DB. For grins and giggles, I logged on as the user and tried opening GW and no joy. Didn't even recognize the user even had a GW account. So, I opened my standalone GWCheck 5.5 and ran a structural rebuild on the account. Praise to Jesus, this time the user's GW account was up and happy. I then forwarded the users new email back to the restored account.

6. I reminded the user today that any email sent after the system backup and before the GW account was recreated was lost. Being that the user had 99% of the important email and the calendar back, the user was pretty happy.

Even tho I didn't leave until 2230L last night, it did feel good knowing that issue was resolved and I now know the drill.

Potential Firefox Extension Fix

Have been using Firefox 1.5 since it came out. Has been working just fine. If you're still stuck with Internet Explorer, you don't know what you've been missing. Go here to get it. MapIt was the last extension that wouldn't work in 1.5. MapIt's one of those extensions that even my 'puter-challenged social services users find handy. Many thanks to TrackZilla for fix which worked like the proverbial charm. I'm willing to bet the drill would be applicable to other stuck extensions. Here's a snip from the site on the drill:

[SNIP]

How to get Map IT! to work with FF1.5

by TrackZilla, Wednesday, November 30 2005

Here we go: 1) change the xpi extension to zip; 2) open the install.rdf file inside said zip file; 3) change maxVersion from 1.0+ to 1.5; 4) save changes to install.rdf; 5) copy new install.rdf back into zip file; 5) change zip extension back to xpi; 6) install and mapit!
[ENDSNIP]

FavIcon from Pics

Ever wonder how other web sites display the miniature icon in the URL line, like Blogger's orange and white B? FavIcon from Pics allows you to upload the picture/graphic you want to be the icon, converts it to a 16x16 format. Then it shows you what it will look like. You like it, you can download it in a zip file. You don't, upload a different pic and see how it goes. It will even give you an animated icon, but I thought that was too cheesy.

It also gives you the link to get the .ico to work. I would have published it here, but Blogger wouldn't let me post HTML. I put the line in the Style Configuration section of each page, below the link to my .css stylesheet. If you're going to validate it W3C XHTML Trans., don't forget to put the /> to close the link.