Dan's Blog

Configuring auto-logon in Windows Server 2003

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 16:34:00 -0400

I have a few virtual machines that I wanted to skip the logon step. This site show exactly how to do it with a few registry tweaks. Its a time saver!

Cloning VirtualBox images

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:51:00 -0400

syntax I'll never remember.

C:\Program Files\Sun\VirtualBox>VBoxManage clonehd "base.vdi" "myNewBox.vdi"

Pageflakes

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 07:38:00 -0400

In me never ending quest for the ultimate browser start page, I'm giving Pageflakes a try. The interface is very similar to iGoogle or "My Yahoo" personalized start pages. I thought I'd try something that's off the corporate bandwagon. From their "about us" page: Pageflakes, the social personalized homepage, is revolutionizing how we how we start with and use the Internet. At www.Pageflakes.com, you can easily customize the Internet and make it yours using '"Flakes" ? small, movable versions of all of your web favorites that you can arrange on your personal homepage. You can also participate in the Pageflakes community, sharing your page as a "Pagecast" with a private group or with the world, and connecting with other users across the globe. Over 235,000 Flakes and 140,000 Pagecasts are available for thousands of uses and interests, including Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, news, sports, e-mail, local events, search, photos, music, videos ? even interactive tools like a calendar and a to-do list ? and just about anything else you do on the web at school, work and at home. The Pageflakes user community creates and helps each other discover more new Flakes and Pagecasts every day.

Removing An Obsolete Workspace From Eclipse 3.1

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:36:00 -0400

Courtesy EclipseZone

Eclipse is storing the workspace information in a preferences file called "org.eclipse.ui.ide.prefs". This file is located under "%ECLIPSE_HOME%\configuration\.settings" and contains a key named "RECENT_WORKSPACES". The value of this key contains a comma separated list of workspaces, more precisely the path to the workspaces. If you delete one of the entries, it'll disappear from the workspace launcher.

Disable Shutdown Event Tracker on Windows Server 2003

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:34:00 -0400

Click Start, and then click Run.
Type gpedit.msc, and then click OK.
Expand Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, and then expand System.
Double-click Display Shutdown Event Tracker.
Click Disabled, and then click OK.

Reference: Microsoft Support

Firefox Default Zoom Level

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 22:22:00 -0400

I find myself squinting more and more when I read blogs on the internet, but I hate the lower Windows display resolutions (I'm using 1400x900). Firefox has built in keyboard shortcuts for zooming (CTRL+/CTRL-), but I find them clumsy to use...also, you have to repeat this for every page you view. I found a Firefox extension named Default FullZoom Level that meets my needs perfectly. I can set the default zoom to 125% so I don't need to change it on every page I view, and I can easily change the zoom by clicking CTRL, or CTRL. for zooming in and out respectively. Those shortcuts are more user friendly for me than Firefox's default ones, and the default zoom level is a life saver.

7 Must-See Web Design Videos and Presentations

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 08:05:00 -0400

I need to watch these: http://www.noupe.com/design/7-must-see-web-design-videos-and-presentations.html

Blog Apptacular ColdFusion Builder Extension - Scaffolding

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:11:00 -0400

I need to watch this http://www.terrenceryan.com/blog/post.cfm/apptacular-coldfusion-builder-extension-scaffolding

25 User Experience Videos That Are Worth Your Time

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:03:00 -0400

I need to watch these videos From Smashing Magazine: "We're all mostly accustomed to educating ourselves by reading articles. Rare are the opportunities to attend conferences or watch live shows on subjects that we're interested in. That's why we are presenting here phenomenal videos and related resources on the topic of user experience (UX) by different presenters at different events. We have focused on current content but have included some older videos that are still relevant. It will take you more than 16 hours to watch all of these videos. So, make some popcorn, turn off the lights and enjoy." The videos: 25 User Experience Videos That Are Worth Your Time

Setting the physical file path of an application with ColdFusion

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:12:00 -0400

Hopefully this tip will help someone down the road too, or maybe someone can enlighten me as to the "right" way to code for the physical file path of an application. I was setting the following code in the OnApplicationStart() method to set the application's physical file path (http://mydomain.com/myApplication): The application uses index.cfm as a "controller" (i.e.index.cfm?disp=thispage) so I THOUGHT it would set the path relative to the root of the application (C:\inetpub\wwwroot\mydomain\myApplication) Well, it does...MOST of the time....I still haven't gotten to the bottom of it, but sometimes the rootpath would get set to nested directories (C:\inetpub\wwwroot\mydomain\myApplication\middle\). I can only assume that the application would sometimes reinit when it was in the middle of processing something in the "middle" directory. Long story short, I'm about to deploy this code fix to (hopefully) resolve the problem: . The application.applicationname is the same as the "myApplication" directory, so I'm hopeful that this will work....at least my three test runs worked..lol

Change the default port on the built in ColdFusion Webserver

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:49:00 -0400

More syntax I never remember


Changing the Port Number for ColdFusion MX 6.1

If using the Macromedia standalone web server with ColdFusion MX 6.1, you can also change the port from 8500 to 80 or any other available port.

Simply open the install directory:\CFusionMX\runtime\servers\default\SERVER-INF\jrun.xmlfile and search for8500, which is near the bottom of the document. Change the port number from 8500 to the available port you wish to use, such as port 80, and save this file. Stop and restart the ColdFusion

Changing the web root for ColdFusion's built in webserver

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 10:31:00 -0400

I never remember this file path/syntax when setting up a new machine (instructions courtesy of Adobe support) 1. Make a backup copy of C:\ColdFusion8\wwwroot\WEB-INF\jrun-web.xml, and then open the original version of the jrun-web.xml file.
2. Edit the system-path attribute to change to the new web root directory:


   /*
   c:/inetpub/wwwroot/

Note: Remember to use forward slash characters in the pathname.

3. Save the file.
4. You can now move the CFIDE and cfdocs directory to the new web document root. These directories contain the files for the ColdFusion Administrator, the ColdFusion documentation, and the ColdFusion example code. Caution: Do not move the WEB-INF directory. It must stay under the cf_root\wwwroot directory.
5. Restart the ColdFusion server.

Reset Identity Key in SQL Server

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:07:00 -0400

I never remember this syntax... DBCC CHECKIDENT (mytable, RESEED, 0)

Clone Virtual PC images

Wed, 20 May 2009 16:44:00 -0400

Courtesy of http://www.pcmech.com/article/dont-rebuild-virtual-pcs-copy-them/ "One very handy trick I found is that you can copy virtual hard drives (.vhd) files and instantly get another environment. For example, you could build a new virtual PC hard drive and load XP with all the updates and then simply copy the VHD file to a new file name and, whola!, you now have two ready to go environments. All you have to do is just run through the virtual PC creation wizard and set it to use an existing hard drive (your copied VHD file) and you are ready to go."

Microsoft Virtual PC: Network connectivity with Windows Server 2003

Sat, 09 May 2009 09:48:00 -0400

I had some trouble getting network connectivity on my virtual Windows Server 2003 Instance. Thanks to this post, I learned that I had to set the Networking Settings for the VM to use Shared Network (NAT) as the network adapter, and then: "To fix the Shared Network (NAT) Internet no connection or not working issue, the resolution is to manually assign the IP address for the DNS Server for the guest operating system to 192.168.131.254, the virtual gateway IP address used by Virtual PC. To make the change (in guest operating system), open Network Connections folder (in Windows Vista, access via Network and Sharing Center), and right click Local Area Connection network icon to select its Properties. Then double click on Internet Protocl (TCP/IP) under General tab or Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) under Networking (for Windows Vista) tab. Click to select the radio button of Use the following DNS server addresses, and then type in 192.168.131.254 into the IP address box for Preferred DNS Server. Click OK twice to exit, and voila, the Shared Network (NAT) now works as it should with Internet access."