Encourage IT: Human Solutions with Information Technology

GoDaddy 60-Day Domain Transfer Lock Is ICANN Violation

chrispwalters — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 17:48:40 +0000

GoDaddy is violating well-established ICANN regs: “A registrant change to Whois information is not a valid reason to deny a transfer request.”

I just got off the phone with a GoDaddy representative and a supervisor. The CSR stuck to policy. The supervisor was down right rude and argumentative. For a detailed explanation of GoDaddy’s bogus policy see this blog post.

I tried to transfer our church’s domain to Dreamhost, which is an excellent company, by the way. I updated the Whois info earlier this month, and by doing so I apparently agreed to lock the domain from transfer for 60 days, which is the bogus GoDaddy policy. I understand and even appreciate, to some extent, the policy to help prevent domain hijacking, but what this boils down to is GoDaddy’s denial of customer rights to change their mind. This is tantamount to changing your car registration info, and then the state tells you can’t sell your car for 60 days after the change. No one would stand for that. Therefore, I will be eliminating all of my business with GoDaddy and further recommend to everyone to not do business with GoDaddy.

Download Adobe Reader X Standalone Installer

chrispwalters — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 16:47:18 +0000

If you don’t like the idea to go through the Adobe Download Manger to download Adobe Reader X (10), then you want the offline standalone Installer which lets you download the latest Adobe Reader version right away on your computer without downloading other junk first! In this tutorial I am going to show you how to get the direct links to download Adobe Reader X Standalone and how to always be updated with the latest Adobe Reader version by gaining access to Adobe FTP page which contains all its PDF Readers products!

Here are all the Adobe PDF Reader version directly available for free download.

Adobe Reader X Standalone for Windows Operating Systems

Adobe Reader X French version Download link here
Adobe Reader X German version Download link here
Adobe Reader X Japanese version Download link here
Adobe Reader X US-English version Download link here

Adobe Reader X Standalone for Mac Operating Systems

Adobe Reader X French version Download link here
Adobe Reader X German version Download link here
Adobe Reader X Japanese version Download link here
Adobe Reader X US-English version Download link here

If you wish to always stay updated and never miss the latest Adobe Reader version, here is a little trick for you.

As soon as Adobe releases the latest PDF reader it will put it online right away on its public (bu rather unknown) FTP server. Here you will be able to find all PDF Reader version for any kind of OS including UNIX, LINUX etc.

(cross post from webtlk.com)

Manually Delete DNN Module

chrispwalters — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:36:34 +0000

Ever install a DNN module and then your whole site goes down? If after you install a DNN module and then get a .NET error like “Required permissions cannot be acquired” (turn “Off” customErrors in your web.config file to see full error), then you can manually delete the module files you uploaded (in the “DesktopModule” and “Bin” folders) to get your DNN site back up. Once your site is working again, login and uninstall the module in the “Host / Module Definitions” interface.

Rebellious CD Player in Car Stereo

chrispwalters — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 01:13:05 +0000

I drive a 2006 Hyundai Tiburon with the J290 stereo and six CD changer. If you have this stereo or a similar such stereo you know how it “remembers” what track was playing and exactly where it was playing when you turn it off and back on or switch to the radio. Anyway, this morning, in haste before starting the car or even turning the key to the accessories position, I wanted to swap out the six CDs in the stereo and thus I ejected all of them by simply pressing the eject button. The battery can handle powering the eject mechanism, right?

Sure enough, the CDs ejected fine, but after I started the car and headed out of my neighborhood I noticed something funny. The stereo displayed that it still had all six CDs loaded and that it had cued up a particular disc, a particular track, at an exact time. “Hey, it remembered where I left off at least!”

“Ah, it’s just a glitch,” I thought, “I’ll simply press the load button and put a new CD in there to clear it up.” Nope. The stereo would have none of that. In fact, the stereo’s CD menus were completely frozen; it would not allow me to do anything with the CD changer, but the radio worked just fine. “Okay, when I get to my destination I’ll pull the fuse to the stereo, which will reset the stereo, and then I’ll have my beloved bass-thumping stereo back.” Nope. That didn’t work either.

Once I finally got home at the end of the day I detached the battery. That did the trick. Everything appears to be functioning normally, though I need to reset the clock and my radio presets.

This reminds me of a few PCs and laptops I’ve used over the years that wouldn’t shutdown, even after depressing the power button, and would only turn off after disconnecting the power cable or yanking the battery from the laptop. Conjure up in your imagination any of several images from the Terminator or Matrix movies to see the future of where we’re going with technology that won’t behave! Or maybe we humans will wind up being the oppressors of non-compliant technology as in the flesh fair scene in A.I.

Yet Another Facebook Program to Opt Out Of

chrispwalters — Mon, 10 May 2010 22:30:14 +0000

Facebook keeps adding new crud that we have to keep opting out of. Here’s yet another new “sell your soul to third parties” program from FB we should opt out of. Thanks to Kurt Knutsson‘s blurb today in the newspaper:

Account
Privacy Settings
Applications and Websites
Instant Personalization Pilot Program
Edit
Uncheck Allow select partners …

Google Calendar URL Parameters

chrispwalters — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:19:35 +0000

Having played around with the parameters added from the embed tool in Google Calendar, I figured out how to add holidays, for example, to the URL that links to a shared calendar.

This URL uses Christian and U.S. holidays:

http://www.google.com/calendar/hosted/[domain]/embed?src=admin%40pumyf.org&color=%23A32929&src=en.christian%23holiday%40group.v.calendar.google.com&color=%23AB8B00&src=en.usa%23holiday%40group.v.calendar.google.com&color=%232952A3&ctz=America%2FChicago

Public Google Calendar Sharing Options

chrispwalters — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 01:39:37 +0000

For the life of me I could not figure out why Google Calendar was not letting me share all details with the public. I was only getting the “See only free/busy details (hide details)” when I wanted “See all event details.” I’ve done this before so I knew it was possible. Did Google change something?

Well, I finally found the answer in the Google support forum, thanks to user raika79. Here is the answer from raika79:

You have to go to the Administrator Panel (Click “Manage this domain” – or ask your domain manager to do so).
Under Service Settings, click Calendar.
Right beside “Service Options”, you have “Outside this domain – set user ability” and then you have 3 choices:

* Only free/busy information (hide event details)
* Share all information, but outsiders cannot change calendars
* Share all information, and outsiders can change calendars

You have to choose options 2 or 3 to allow others to view the details of your calendar. I chose option 2, saved changes, logged out of my Google Apps account, cleared my cookies and history (you often have to do this with Google Apps so I did it just in case), logged back in and sure enough, I had the option to “Let others see all event details”.

Duh. I thought I should share this in case anyone is encountering the same frustration.

Social Bookmarking 2.0 with Diigo

chrispwalters — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 04:04:34 +0000

I finally joined a social bookmarking site. I toyed with Delicious in the past, but then when I decided to commit to one I stumbled across Diigo. I see Delicious bills itself as “the biggest collection of bookmarks in the universe.” That’s fine. I want tools, however. I want ease of use. I want portability (wiki on “social network portability”). Diigo describe their site as a “Social Information Network (SIN).”

A SIN is a social network where information consumption, research, and sharing is central, and where the connection between people and people, between people and information, and between information and information, are exploited and harnessed to improve knowledge sharing and content discovery, and to enable more meaningful social connections and intellectual exchanges.

“Improving discovery” says it all for me. So far I really like what I see in Diigo: highlighting, sticky notes, robust search, snapshots, and a cool Javascript bookmarklet called Diigolet for all major browsers. Check it out, you won’t be disappointed.

See what I am doing on Diigo.

Resurrect Old Computers with Puppy Linux

chrispwalters — Sun, 03 May 2009 01:23:56 +0000

Approximately four years ago I decided to explore several Linux distros to learn about their capabilities and to discover for myself what all of the hubbub was about in geekdom since Linux had become ready for usage by the masses. As someone who had messed around with computers since third grade nearly 30 years prior I found it easy to download and burn Linux operating system ISOs to CDs and boot computers from these CDs. I was immediately gratified when I used Knoppix to boot a computer after Windows simply refused to boot completely and thus was able to backup important files to a flash drive and then reformat the hard drive and reinstall Windows. When I was going through these steps I learned that I could install both Knoppix and Windows on the same computer’s hard drive and use GRUB to choose which OS I wanted to boot to.

After much exploration of the various Linux distros I found that Puppy Linux was the best “light” Linux that could be booted from CD or from a flash drive (or installed on the hard drive) and that with Puppy Linux I could resurrect old computers. Puppy enables faster boot and shutdown times than the outdated Windows 98, more efficient CPU usage for faster application response, tons of features and software, and all within 50 MB to 100 MB. For example, I installed Puppy Linux on an old Compaq Armada 1700 laptop with a Pentium II 266 MHz and 256 MB RAM. I also installed a D-Link wireless PCI card. I have used this Compaq laptop many times over the years to surf the Web and to write. Yes, I am a sucker for nostalgia, and, in fact, I am writing this post on the old Compaq dinosaur run by Puppy.

I think if you are someone who is sick and tired of all of the problems you have with Windows and just want a computer that works and all you need is Web browsing, email, word processing, and some other basic applications like spreadsheets, image editing, drawing, etc., then spending a few bucks on an older computer and installing Linux, such as Puppy, is the way to go. All you need is a modicum of tech savvy, the ability to follow instructions, and an afternoon of patience to get set up (maybe even just an hour or so). I sincerely believe the vast majority of “late adopters” who have little to no computer experience would be well-served by their younger friends and family by setting them up with a computer running Linux (I think installing Knoppix on a decent computer–at least 512 MB RAM and Pentium III–is a good option for general users) because they are not pre-disposed via the QWERTY phenomena to the functionality (dysfunctionality?) of Windows.

Free Anti-Virus and Anti-Rootkit Software

chrispwalters — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 04:02:52 +0000

I have installed Norton’s Internet Security software on a few computers, and in my experience, while Norton makes good software, Norton significantly reduces your PC’s performance. And then there’s the price of the software, and the subscription fees. If you’re tired of Norton or McAfee chewing up your computer’s resources (and your money), download AVG’s free anti-virus software. I also recommend educating yourself about rootkits and how they can hide various nefarious infections from your plain view and from solid anti-virus software. After reading about rootkits you may want to download something like IceSword (for advanced users), which is a free anti-rootkit program, or RootkitRevealer. Note: you should have Microsoft Automatic Updates turned on, and thus you should have Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool already installed.

Or, if you want to believe Apple and their claims that Mac users are relatively free from worries about computer infections, then buy a Mac, but be prepared to spend a lot more money, a ton of time learning a new operating system, and plenty of frustration on top of that.