Blog Moved

This blog has been moved to: www.darksideofthecarton.com

SoftPerfect Network Scanner stuck off-screen?

I recently ran into sort of an odd issue with the free version of SoftPerfect’s excellent Network Scanner. The window was stuck somewhere off screen. I have a dual screen setup, which probably contributed to the problem, and no amount of cascading the windows would bring it back into view. The problem is compounded by the fact that this program has no installer so there is nothing to reinstall.

After an hour or so of fumbling with this, I finally figured out a solution to my problem. The program may have no installer, but it does write values to the registry and one of these values tells the program it’s dimensions and last location.

To fix your application, if it gets stuck:

• Launch your Registry Editor (Start > Run > “regedit” and Enter)
• Navigate to the following registry location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SoftPerfect\Network Scanner\Window
• Change the Left and Top DWORD values to 0
• Relaunch the Network Scanner

This was a very frustrating issue to deal with and I am glad it’s fixed.

WalMart.com Makeover

It looks like the behemoth of a retailer has finally overhauled their website layout and gone are the nasty yellow and blue colors that remind me of their retail stores. With this new layout they have joined the rank and file of the web monsters with a white and blue layout with lots of neat little javascript touches. This new layout definitely makes it about 65 times easier to find things on their website.

The new site even has an online pharmacy where you can order new prescriptions, order refills, transfer your RXs, and view your past order history. Pretty neat stuff.

IE7 CSS Changes are on the Horizon

IE’s support for CSS has been lacking for years now. There is a posting on the IE Team’s blog that they are bringing a few changes to IE7. Most notably they will be adding PNG transparency, the bane of my existence, and enabling :hover for all page elements. This should help out the developers a lot.

 http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/08/22/712830.aspx

FireFox 2 is out and Alt S is broken

So I grabbed the final release of FireFox 2 this morning. The answer to the age old question of “Are your extensions broken?” is a resounding yes. I think maybe 3 of them work as of this morning. Luckily they are the ones that I use most of the time.

The next big annoyance with FF2.0 is that the developers decided at some point that the Alt+S shortcut that submits a form on just about every modern forum software needed to be changed into a shortcut to the History menu. This is utter crap and shows that the devs are completely out of touch with the user base. Luckily someone in some forum figured out how to revert it. Be warned though, I have no idea what other things this breaks.

To fix Alt+S in FireFox 2.x:

Open up a new Window/Tab and type “about:config” in the address bar.
In the Filter bar type: “ui.key.contentAccess” and press enter.
Double click the item and change the value from 5 to 4.

That is all. Enjoy your Alt+S ing again.

IE7 Gold

So IE7 is gold, which means it has been finalized and readied for release. While the links are not active on the Microsoft website, there are copies of the final release floating around in the wild from a brand new Yahoo Mail application. I installed it from there and have confirmed it is the final release. Having not used the beta before I have to say that it is pretty nice and refined. The only thing I’d like to have seen them add in was mouse gestures. I’ll keep using it off and on, but Firefox is still the browser of choice for me.

Vista Update

So far I have been completely unable to get Vista installed on this old machine. In RC1 it freezes at the Completing Installation screen and Beta 2 locks up while expanding the files. I’m going to try again later this week.

It's Been a While

So blog posting has taken a back seat to basically everything lately. Work is busy, all of my sites are in full swing, and life is happening. I did want to chime in about Windows Vista though. By now everyone knows that Vista runs great on the proper hardware and the Aeroglass theme looks amazing. What you don’t see a lot of information about is what does Vista look like on your parent’s old computer? That 4 year old beige box in the corner, yes, computers used to all be beige.

With that in mind I decided I would bring in my spare machine to work and get Vista RC1 installed on it and see how it runs. It’s a P3 733 with 768MB of ram in it with a GeForce Ti4200. Some of the parts have been tossed together from past incarnations of my main gaming rig. The install is well under way so we will see just how zippy it is once we are ready to go.

One Year Wonder

I consider myself a pretty smart guy, but this kid makes me look like I have the intelligence of a rock.

David Banh, an 18-year-old from Annandale, just graduated from the University of Virginia in one year. With a double major.

He started college with 72 hours under his belt from AP tests. His first semester he took 23, his second he took 37, and then he took his final 3 that summer.

He is now working on his Master’s Degree and expects to be done in 1 year as well.

I give this kid some serious props.