I’ve been putting up with an annoying problem in Picasa on my main system for too long and finally decided to try and fix it. The system would play fine but when trying to export videos Picasa would just hang at 0.0% on the encoding/saving process. I was quite certain this was tied to the TVersity Codec Pack yet uninstalling TVersity and it’s pack didn’t solve the problem.

Time to turn to the trusty CCCP. I installed The Combined Community Codec Pack using all the defaults for the install and the configuration afterwards. Fired up Picasa, tried an export and it immediately started working.

Despite the how bloated Apple’s iTunes software has become it still remains one of the best music management programs available today. The quick search functions, ability to fully read ID3 tags and sort properly against those tags, as well as decent CD ripping and burning capabilities, all of which I just haven’t been able to find another client that can do everything as well. With all the time Apple has put into developing this software one thing that still baffles me is the lack of a “watch folder”.

I acquire my music from several sources such as CD rips, directly downloaded music, iTunes Store, or the Amazon MP3 store. I have a large music library and like having everything centrally located so any new directly downloaded music gets moved into a central library. None of these direct download files are found by iTunes unless I am willing to completely remove my library and re-index all the information. It would be ideal if iTunes could notice new audio files added to the folders that I have iTunes managing.

I was using a great 3rd party application called iTunes Library Updater with the 7.x versions of the software which would do exactly that. It would scan the folders I had setup in iTunes and add any new files as well as remove deleted files from the iTunes database. Unfortunately with the newest 8.x version this software no longer works and it looks like development has been abandoned. I may attempt to revert back to a 7.x version of iTunes but have worries that I may lose access to the DRM encrypted music I’ve recently purchased through the iTunes store. Hopefully Apple will address this in future versions of the software but I don’t see it being much of a priority for them as they continue to push the iTunes Store and don’t seem to care about music acquired from other sources.

UPDATE: SP2 is out

UPDATE: The evaluation period for Service Pack 2 has ended. Microsoft has a new page dedicated to SP2 which will be updated with download links to the update when it is officially released here.

If you’re a poor sap stuck on Windows Vista and would like first hand experience with the changes coming in Service Pack 2 it’s now available for public download.  Microsoft has an open public preview available for the shared platform SP2 for Vista and Server 2008 and offer a few download options.

You can get it through Windows Update here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=18045534-BF27-4953-B907-764C4682714C&displaylang=en

Standalone downloads are also available.

ISO for Server 2008 x86/x64/ia64: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=0A3D7A63-46AF-4E04-AC8C-91B8BC476450

Self extracting EXEs:

x86 for Vista and Server 2008: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=DCA54ECC-362A-4B4D-B62B-22780E839A7E&displaylang=en

x64 for Vista and Server 2008: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=361D0CA3-4B2C-4F1C-8B3E-DE376FDB1DE8

IA64 for Server 2008:  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9E77AE84-BB5A-4A3F-A481-68826B34C893

Microsoft warns that with these preview releases you may see “Evaluation Copy” on your desktop and at boot but this does not mean that your copy of Windows is no longer valid.  You must also be running SP1 before installing this update.

Here is a very simple batch file that can be added to the network logon script in Active directory or simply in your startup folder in windows if you or your end users frequently run into this error:


@echo off
ECHO Deleting Outlook 2003 temporary files
cd %userprofile%/local settings/temporary internet files/olk*
if errorlevel 1 goto end
del *.* /s /f /q
:end
exit


Batch file available here. (right-click, save as)

This batch file will simply navigate to the current user’s temporary Outlook folder and delete all the files in the root and sub-folders. Just be careful you don’t miss the %userprofile% variable, otherwise that command will delete all the files that happen to be in the current folder which is probably just the root of the user profile.

Original post found here.

Update 1/6/2009:  Big thanks to Mark suggesting some error handling to make sure you don’t accidentally wipe the current directory if the change directory command doesn’t take place.  I’ve updated the code snippet and example batch file with his suggestions.

Today I came across a new error in Outlook 2003. I had a search result set pulled up in my inbox of 700+ items and then tried to move one folder into another. I was prompted with the following error: Can’t move the items. Out of memory or system resources. Close some windows or programs and try again.

Here is another vague Outlook message but at least with this one most people would try closing Outlook and opening it again and the move will then work. Or you can simply close your search results in Outlook and perform the move without error.

Do you have some Office related updates from Windows Update that just won’t install? Check your system log and see if it’s error 0×80070643.

This cryptic message is Window’s way of telling you it needs the installation source media. This happens if you choose to remove the installation temp files at the end of the Office 2003 installer. Just put the CD or DVD in your drive and run the updates again. They will now properly apply and you can get rid of that annoying yellow update notification in your task bar.

I wanted to be more proactive when a job on our System i crashed so I started looking into options to send an email notification and SMS text message if something needed attention. After searching for a bit I came across a program on code400.com that was very close to what I wanted. This is an RPGLE program that uses the QUSLJOB API to list any job that is in *MSGW status and then send an email with the details of the job’s error using SNDDST. I made a few modifications to the code after trying it to better fit my needs. The program only had the capability to send to one email address yet I wanted to send it to an email distribution list on our Exchange server as well as send a text message to my phone for after hours support. The program also sent EVERY job in *MSGW, including any printer alignment messages. With my very basic knowledge of RPG I was able to add multiple email address variables and exclude any job that runs in the QSPL subsystem from being included.

Once the program ran to my liking I wrote a simple CL program that would call the program every 5 min and added the CL as an auto start job entry to our ITDEPT subsystem. I’ve had this configuration running for the past 6 months and it’s a great way to stay on top of any jobs that may be holding up QBATCH. Critical system jobs are usually fixed before end users even know something was broken.

Download the code here. The two variables for email are ‘emailaddress’ and ‘emailaddress1′. Simply change the variables to the email addresses you would like the messages sent to and compile.