Recent Entries

Entry tags:

tablo

reconnecting to a Tablo (4th Gen) in the Android app

Per this Tablo forum thread, you should not choose the "Disconnect" option in the app unless you want to connect to a different Tablo. Disconnecting makes the app "forget" the current Tablo.

But suppose you didn't realize that, and have disconnected and want to reconnect. Or suppose you purposely disconnect in order to switch between multiple Tablos. Then, when you open the app the next time, it will prompt you first for your zip code. Then it will prompt you to turn on your phone's Location if it isn't already turned on.

Then it will prompt you to select either Wi-Fi or Ethernet for connecting the Tablo. This is where you can run into a problem. If you select Wi-Fi, because your Tablo was originally set up to use Wi-Fi, the next screen tells you this, as if you were setting up the Tablo again from scratch:
Check LED Indicator
Ensure that your Tablo's LED is pulsating slowly

The Tablo's LED *won't* be pulsating, because it was already set up. The app will not recognize this, and will remain on that screen with no option to continue.

The way around this problem is to go back and instead select Ethernet (even though the Tablo is connected via wi-fi). There will be a screen telling you to connect the ethernet cable to the Tablo. Ignore the message and select to Continue. Then the app will find the Tablo and let you connect to it.

Entry tags:

software,
windows

installing VirtualBox on Windows 8.1

After much effort, I finally got VirtualBox version 7.0.18 successfully installed on Windows 8.1.
Here are pertinent notes.

Use "Run as administrator" when installing VirtualBox.

If you leave the option selected for installing the Python Bindings, you may get an error about "Missing Dependencies" for "Python Core / win32api". If you don't plan to run Python scripts, you can deselect that option.

The rest of the notes below are about how to fix these errors which give no clue as to what is causing the problem:
"Oracle VM VirtualBox 7.0.18 Setup Wizard ended prematurely because of an error. Your system has not been modified." and "Installation failed! Error: Fatal error during installation."

You can try deselecting the option to install Bridged Networking, to see if that prevents the error.
In my case I still got the error even with both the Bridged and Host-Only networking options deselected.
Disabling my antivirus also did not prevent the error.

Some pages suggest adding (or updating if it already exists) a "MaxFilters" registry value of 20 under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Network.
Some pages indicate the name should be "MaxNumFilters" rather than "MaxFilters".
I added both, but still got the same error.

I extracted the .msi installer file with this command (it extracts the msi file to your Temp folder):
VirtualBox-7.0.18-162988-Win.exe -extract

I ran this command to generate a log file for the installation:
msiexec /i VirtualBox-7.0.18-162988.msi /l*v log.log

The log.log file showed these errors, which still didn't indicate what was causing the problem but at least showed which driver it was failing on:
DIFXAPP: ERROR: encountered while installing driver package 'C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\drivers\USB\device\VBoxUSB.inf'
DIFXAPP: ERROR: InstallDriverPackages failed with error 0xE0000247

This page shows how to enable logging of the installation:
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/MSI_Logging

In my case, I didn't have to enable any additional logging. I found that the following file already existed with timestamped output from each of my failed install attempts. Each attempt had gotten this error while installing the VBoxUSB driver:
C:\Windows\Inf\setupapi.dev.log:
Error 0x800b0109: A certificate chain processed, but terminated in a root certificate which is not trusted by the trust provider.

I tried the installation again with the USB Support option deselected. This way, the installation finished without an error. But the setupapi.dev.log file showed that the other drivers (VBoxNetAdp6 and VBoxNetLwf) now got the same "not trusted by the trust provider" error, even though it didn't cause the install to fail like before. So most likely, neither USB nor networking would work (as mentioned by the last post in this forum thread).

When I ran VirtualBox, it displayed this error:
Can't enumerate USB devices...
Failed to enumerate host USB devices.
Could not load the Host USB Proxy Service (VERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND). The service might not be installed on the host computer.

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=93367

Yes unselecting the usb option is the only way to install without failing. But i have been able to install the usb manually from extracting the the stock exe and then after that is done, I have extracted the 64bit msi using 7zip. All this goes to the %TEMP% folder btw.
Then cd to the newly created msi extraction directory and run powershell from within that directory with this command
"Dir | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name -replace "file_","" }" without the quotes.
It removes the "file_" from all the files that have that name.
Then from there to make it easier to work with delete everything that is not a .inf, .cat, or a .sys file.
If you dont need to delete the files then just rename "VBoxUSB_W10.cat" to "VBoxUSB.cat" and "VBoxUSBMon_W10.cat" to "VBoxUSBMon.cat".
After that just right click on every .inf file and click install.
This is most likely not needed but i was also have trouble with the network adapter and this fixed it as well.
For just the usb to work you just need to right click and install from these two files. "VBoxUSB.inf" and "VBoxUSBMon.inf"

Per the above, I used 7zip to unzip the install exe. (I also unzipped the msi; both contained the same set of files.)
I copied the File_VboxUSB* files to a separate folder.
I removed the "File_" prefix from the file names.
As my computer is Windows 8.1 (pre-Windows 10), I renamed VBoxUSB_PreW10.cat to VBoxUSB.cat.
I right-clicked VBoxUSB.inf and selected to install it.
It gave this error: A problem was encountered while attempting to add the driver to the store.
C:\Windows\Inf\setupapi.dev.log again showed this error:
Error 0x800b0109: A certificate chain processed, but terminated in a root certificate which is not trusted by the trust provider.

See:
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=104557
https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/20692#no1

https://www.virtualbox.org/changeset/94160/vbox

Additions: Windows: Use the same approach as with the host driver for .cat files, i.e. create 2 copies, one for Windows versions before 10, and one for 10 and later (which in UEFI Secure Boot mode modified the trusted root list, requiring Attestation Signing). The NSIS installer will deliver the appropriate file.

https://www.virtualbox.org/changeset/72004/vbox

Installer/win,HostDrivers/*/win: Ship two different .cat files, one for W10 w/ MS blessing and a pre-W10 that we created+signed during build.

https://mywindowshub.com/check-secure-boot-enabled-disabled-windows-8-1/

Steps to Check if Secure Boot is Enabled or Disabled in Windows 8 and 8.1
1. Press Windows+R to open Run Window. Type msinfo32 and press Enter.
2. Find out System Summary and in the right pane select Secure Boot State and check its state.

Secure Boot is turned "On" for me. Considering the above, maybe that means I need to use the Windows 10 versions of the drivers even though the computer is Windows 8.1.

I renamed VBoxUSB.cat back to VBoxUSB_PreW10.cat.
I renamed VBoxUSB_W10.cat to VBoxUSB.cat.
I right-clicked VBoxUSB.inf and selected to install it.
It gave this error:
The software was tested for compliance with Windows Logo requirements on a different version of Windows, and may not be compatible with this version.

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=104928

During the installation of the VirtualBox Guest Additions, the installation of the Windows drivers fails with error 0xE0000244 (ERROR_SIGNATURE_OSATTRIBUTE_MISMATCH: The software was tested for compliance with Windows Logo requirements on a different version of Windows, and may not be compatible with this version). AFAIU, due to Microsoft requirements, the driver signing for Windows 10 was changed, and is now incompatible to Windows 8.1. The VirtualBox devs are aware of it, but the issue hasn't been solved yet. Some deep technical background can be found in Downlevel Driver Enabler

This page shows how to get around the version error when installing Windows 10 drivers on Windows 8.1:
https://git.zx2c4.com/downlevel-driver-enabler/about/
It requires compiling a C file into a DLL (I may create a separate post on how I did that later), and temporarily updating a registry key to point to the new DLL.
So I compiled the C file to create the DLL and updated this registry key to point to it:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography\Providers\Trust\FinalPolicy\{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}\$DLL

Then I was able to successfully install VBoxUSB.inf!
I followed the same method to install the other W10 drivers:
VBoxUSBMon.inf
VBoxNetAdp6.inf
VBoxNetLwf.inf

(VBoxUSBMon.inf seemed to have a problem - a popup box displayed for a split second rather than the success message. But the below driverquery command showed that it was installed ok.)

To check if the drivers installed ok, two commands can be run from the command line:
driverquery > driverquery.txt
pnputil -e > driverlist.txt

The driverquery output only includes entries for "VBoxSup" and "VBoxUSBMon", not the other VBox drivers.

The pnputil -e output shows entries for the other drivers, however they are listed under different names like oem##.inf.
It is best to run the pnputil -e command both before and after the installs (change the output file name each time), so you can compare the output files to see what got added.

The setupapi.dev.log file shows how the oem## names match up to the VBox*** names. For example:
Installed catalag 'VBoxUSB.cat' as 'oem70.cat'
Installed catalag 'VBoxNetAdp6.cat' as 'oem73.cat'
Installed catalag 'VBoxNetLwf.cat' as 'oem74.cat'

After successfully installing the drivers and running VirtualBox, I initially still got the "Can't enumerate USB devices..." error. But then after restarting the computer, that error went away.

Entry tags:

android

Android keyboard not displaying

I was having this problem:
Gboard on Android disappears when creating group text messages?

I got around the problem by selecting "..." and "Show Subject Field". When I tapped in the Subject field, the keyboard appeared, and it remained there when I tapped back in the Message field.

Entry tags:

firefox

Firefox - Take a Screenshot

Firefox version 88 has removed the "Take a Screenshot" option from the 3-dot menu in the URL bar.

The option is still present in the context menu when you right-click on a page. However, I noticed that the context menu option is not present on certain pages, for whatever reason. In that case, you can instead use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+S.

You can also choose "Customize..." to add (drag and drop) the Screenshot shortcut icon to the Firefox toolbar.

Entry tags:

video editing software

rotating video

I had recorded some video upside-down and wanted to resave it in the correct orientation.

ffmpeg can do that with a command like this:

ffmpeg -i [input_file.mp4] -vf "transpose=2, transpose=2" -crf 23 [rotated_output_file.mp4]

However, when I tried that, the resulting file size was larger than the original. The "crf" parameter controls the quality and/or bitrate, so I tested different crf values. The number which resulted in a similar file size as the original had noticeably reduced quality. The number with a similar quality had a much larger file size.

Per information given on these pages, it is not possible to keep both the same file size and quality when rotating or otherwise editing the video. As I understand it now, the video in the original file has already been compressed, losing details. To play or edit the video, it is decompressed. To save changes, it has to be recompressed, which unavoidably results in losing even more details. To limit the loss of quality when resaving the edited file, one has to increase the file size.

https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/22553/how-do-i-edit-a-video-clip-without-increasing-size
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/314112-How-to-rotate-a-video-without-re-encoding

So rather than resaving the video, it may be preferable to keep the original upside-down video file, and use a video player that can rotate it on the fly while playing it.
In VLC this can be done by right-clicking the video and selecting:
Tools - Effects & Filters - Video Effects - Geometry - Transform - Rotate by 180 degrees

Entry tags:

hardware,
laptop

How to disconnect subwoofer on HP Envy 17-n000

A month or so ago, my laptop started making a short burst-of-static noise when starting up. Since then, the problem worsened; now it often makes a staticky noise when playing any audio, though mostly at the beginning of the audio.

[I've since noticed that the problem only happens while the laptop charger is plugged in.]

It seems to be a common problem for this laptop model, and seems to be related to the subwoofer:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Audio/static-through-Bang-amp-Olufsen-Speakers/td-p/6816301
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Audio/HP-ENVY-x360-Bang-amp-Olufsen-Sound-Problem/td-p/6826526
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Audio/Distorted-sound-from-HP-Envy-internal-speakers-when-plugged/td-p/7202628
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Audio/Subwoofer-Envy-17-malfunction/td-p/6598970

A comment in the last above link indicates that even replacing the subwoofer didn't get rid of the problem. Disconnecting the subwoofer seems to work - though obviously that will also affect the audio quality of the laptop.

The following videos show how to disconnect the subwoofer. First one has to remove the battery, optical drive, and back cover.

Replace the Battery | HP ENVY 17-n000 Notebook PC | HP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdsMooAgFp0

Replace the Optical Drive | HP ENVY 17-n000 Notebook PC | HP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcAzdecyVzk

Replace the Base Enclosure | HP ENVY 17-n000 Notebook PC | HP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unH7eiITT5s

Removing the back cover ("base enclosure") requires removing many screws.
From the above video transcript:
00:19 Remove the five 4 mm P1 Phillips-head screws that secure the base enclosure to the top cover.
00:36 Remove the seven 5 mm P1 Phillips-head screws that secure the base enclosure to the top cover.
00:53 Remove the two 2 mm P1 Phillips broad-head screws from the optical drive bay that secure the base enclosure to the top cover.
01:04 Remove the five 3 mm P1 Phillips-head screws from the battery bay that secure the base enclosure to the top cover.
01:21 Starting (at the) battery bay, carefully separate the edges of the base enclosure from the top cover.
01:31 CAUTION! To prevent damage to the base enclosure, take extreme care when separating the area around the optical drive bay from the top cover.
01:40 Lift the base enclosure off of the top cover and remove.

Replace the Subwoofer | HP ENVY 17-n000 Notebook PC | HP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjuz-DHUHQ0

Entry tags:

electrical

dealing with ungrounded outlets

This house (and the others I've lived in) has grounded 3-prong outlets in the kitchen. But as the house is over 50 years old, most of the other outlets are 2-prong and ungrounded. So when we need to plug in devices with 3-prong plugs, we've had to use 3-to-2-prong adapters.

The adapters stick out an inch or more from the wall, making them easy to bump into accidentally, especially when other bulky plugs are plugged into them. They also tend to be loose in the socket unless you attach them via the outlet's center screw (which is advised even if the screw and box aren't grounded, but then you always have the adapter sticking out from the wall even when nothing is plugged in).

The power cables running through the walls don't include a ground wire, so it's not a simple matter of replacing the 2-prong outlets with 3-prong ones, for be them to also be grounded. Likewise, the metal boxes in the walls usually have only a faint ground connection, if any.

In a few cases, I have run a separate ground wire from the outlet box down to the crawlspace, connecting it to a copper pipe, to provide a stronger ground. I've read that this is now discouraged, as the wire in the crawlspace could become disconnected, or the homeowner could later replace some or all the pipes with non-metal ones, leaving the "ground" wire and the outlet no longer grounded, without it being apparent to the user inside the house.

In a few cases, I've run a wire from the center outlet screw to a nearby HVAC vent in the same room to provide a better ground, while still using the 2-prong adapter.

I've read now that it is advised to replace ungrounded 2-prong outlets with GFCI outlets, which don't provide a ground but protect against users getting shocked in case of an electrical short.

I've also read that if the first outlet in a circuit has the GFCI protection, the other ones connected to it are also protected. And that it's ok to install regular 3-prong outlets for the others as long as they are labelled with the warning GFCI-Protected; No Equipment Ground". You may want to do this as GFCI outlets are much more expensive: currently the cheapest GFCI outlet costs about $13 while an expensive regular 3-prong outlet costs $2.

I've also just discovered that GFCI outlets have a limited lifespan of 15 to 25 years but sometimes shorter. Modern ones have triggers to prevent current flow once the end of life is reached, ie. once the shock protection has been lost. Once that happens, you have to replace the whole outlet, and anything downstream of it on the same circuit (including lights) will stop working until it is replaced.

If you have an older GFCI outlet, as is common in bathrooms, it may have reached its end of life and no longer provide shock protection, though it still provides power. You have to periodically use the Test/Reset buttons to check if it is still providing protection.

Considering all the above, one *might* consider replacing the circuit breaker with a GFCI breaker instead of installing GFCI outlets. If so, you may as well get a breaker with AFCI (arc-fault) protection too, to help protect against electrical fires, as the cost appears to be similar for both ($50 and up). There are outlets which have both GFCI and AFCI protection, but those are even more expensive (currently $30 and up) compared to GFCI-only outlets.

.

Anyway. I'd started out wanting to simply replace a few 2-prong outlets with 3-prong ones, even if they wouldn't be grounded. Then after reading about GFCI outlets, I decided to install GFCI outlets instead. But even that has drawbacks which I wasn't at first aware of.

Entry tags:

Windows audio stops working when you plug in or unplug playback device

My Win8 laptop has a problem sometimes when I plug in the external speakers, or unplug them, or plug the headphones in or out, in that the audio will stop working.

Sometimes it's only a problem in my browser when playing videos. If I completely close the browser and reopen it, then the sound on the videos works again.

Other times it happens even outside the browser, such as when playing music files. In this case when I go into the Playback Devices panel and select the "Test" option, it gives message "Failed to play test tone." The only way I had previously found to fix this was to reboot.

Today I tried the following, which fixed the problem without requiring a reboot!
In the Windows Services panel, I stopped and then restarted these 2 services:
- Windows Audio
- Windows Audio Endpoint Builder

Entry tags:

Tomsguide & uMatrix

If you're using the uMatrix add-on, the www.tomsguide.com website may block you from viewing it, with this message:

AD BLOCKER INTERFERENCE DETECTED
Thank you for visiting this site. Unfortunately we have detected that you might be running custom adblocking scripts or installations that might interfere with the running of the site.

We don't mind you running adblocker, but could you please either disable these scripts or alternatively whitelist the site, in order to continue. Thanks for your support!

Adding this uMatrix rule prevents the problem:

tomsguide.com vanilla.futurecdn.net * allow

Entry tags:

elections

2020 SC Democratic Primary results

With the new voting machines we have here in SC this year, one machine prints out the ballot with your selections and another machine scans your ballot.

One thing that slightly bothered me was the lack of privacy partitions around the machines in my polling location. It would be easy for anyone looking over your shoulder to see what you had voted. I wonder if they will add partitions for the presidential election.

Another thing that seemed odd was that the scanner was on the far side of the room (a large school gym) from the other machines, near the exit doors. That placement might not work well during the presidential election, when the room may be full of people waiting in lines.

I have some uncertainties about the scanner. After scanning my ballot, its screen showed a message that the ballot had been successfully scanned. But it didn't show what had been scanned, so you can't be sure that your vote was read correctly. That might be for privacy reasons. A poll-worker by the scanner told me how to use the machine, but I don't recall if the ballot had to be fed in face-up or face-down. So I wonder what happens if someone feeds their ballot into the scanner wrong-side-up? Would they get an error message? Would the machine not even accept the ballot if it were turned the wrong way?

I've looked at some of the election result report files from scvotes.org. I was curious if there was any mismatch between number of ballots cast, and number of votes for all the candidates.

So I downloaded the XML results for my county, and wrote XSL to filter the data. It shows that a total of 57930 ballots were cast in Richland County, but the sum of votes for all candidates was 57870. That is a discrepancy of 60. Those 60 are spread over several precincts. The largest per-precinct discrepancy is 4.

I haven't checked the other counties.

There is one precinct in the county that hasn't reported their numbers yet (Hopkins 2) - I wonder why their numbers aren't in yet. The overall state results are still unofficial. So I suppose I will wait until the results are official and then see if the discrepancies still remain.

I wonder if it is possible with these new machines, to cast a ballot without having made a selection. It ought to be possible to skip a question when there are multiple things being voted on, as not everyone may care to vote on each item. That might explain some of the discrepancy. But I can't imagine why anyone would bother to vote in a primary without making any selection, when there's only a single thing to vote on.

The first machine didn't have an option for doing a write-in vote that I noticed, but I wasn't really looking for it. The above link indicates that the machines do have that option. So that might also explain some of the discrepancy, if the downloadable reports don't include any write-ins.

Update, 2020/11/11: The final results reported 67555 ballots cast in the county and 67490 total votes (these numbers include the absentee ballots, which the initial results did not). That's a discrepancy of 65. The results don't mention write-ins, so I think that must be the explanation.

Entry tags:

printers,
software

Acrobat color printing problem

My mom was having trouble getting PDF documents to print in color. They kept printing in grayscale, even though the print options were configured for using color ink.

We finally figured out that it was due to the "Save ink/toner" option in the Acrobat print options, which had been selected. Unselecting that option fixed the problem, and we were able to print the PDF documents in color.

O/S: Windows 7
printer: Brother MFC-6490CW

Entry tags:

Minimizing data usage on Android Nougat (7.1.1)

As I have a limited data plan (250 MB per month) on my phone, I try to minimize unnecessary/unwanted data usage.

In the past, I kept data turned off except when I wanted to look something up, as otherwise Google Play (and other processes that I couldn't control) would eat up a lot of data, simply checking for available app updates and such.

But now it's possible to prevent Google Play from using cellular data (so that it will only check for updates when connected to WiFi), and I can keep data turned on all the time.

These are my settings:

- Data Saver is always turned ON.

- Settings / Apps / [Gear icon / Settings ] / Special Access / Unrestricted Data Access
(or: Settings / Data Usage / Data Saver / Unrestricted data access)

On this screen, I've turned unrestricted data OFF for all apps except for: Carrier Services, Messages, and Motorola Notifications.

- I have multiple browsers installed. The following 2 let me disable Javascript and images by default (though I can override that if necessary), and I mainly use them when I'm not connected to a WiFi network.
Naked Browser
Yuzu Browser (see here for info on using & customizing Yuzu)

In my Firefox settings, under Data Saver, I've selected to Show Images "Only over Wi-Fi". I've also selected various other settings to minimize the browser's data usage, and I use the uMatrix add-on to limit 3rd party Javascript. This is the browser I mostly use when connected to WiFi.

I don't use Chrome much, but it also has a "Data Saver" option in its settings.

- I try to limit actions which will use a lot of data (such as downloading or updating apps, general internet browsing, and watching videos) to when I'm connected to WiFi.

- I generally don't use apps like Google Drive & Photos for uploading data to the cloud. If you do, make sure that they are configured only to do it while on WiFi (turn off unrestricted data access for them).

Entry tags:

windows

Windows laptop battery log

The below command generates a battery report, showing when the laptop switched between running on outlet power versus battery power. It also shows when the laptop was turned on or woken up from sleep mode.

This was helpful in determining exactly what time a power outage started, as I had my laptop turned on and plugged into the AC outlet at the time it happened, and the outage caused it to switch to battery power.

The log also shows other interesting info, including the change in the battery's full charge capacity over time. Mine was initially 62,160 mWh, 3 years ago. Now it is down to 54,690 mWh.

From: https://superuser.com/questions/1165322/how-can-i-find-out-when-my-laptop-was-last-unplugged-in-windows-10

Open a Command Prompt as Administrator.
Type in powercfg /batteryreport /output "C:\batteryreport.html" and hit Enter.
Open the report file using a web browser.

Entry tags:

windows

Windows accidental drag and drop

Once in a while, I accidentally drag files or folders in Windows Explorer and drop them in another folder. Sometimes I don't realize it has happened until much later when I can't find the file(s) in the normal location anymore.

Sometimes I notice it right away, but it isn't immediately obvious where the files were moved to. Or I may suspect an accidental move has happened, but am not sure. In this case, one can hover over the "Undo" button in the top-left corner of Windows Explorer to see a brief description of the last action that was done, which can be undone by clicking the button. That lets you decide if you want to undo it or not.

There doesn't seem to be any particularly good way of preventing accidental drag and drops in Windows. There are workarounds, but they have drawbacks.

To reduce the likelihood of accidental drag and drops, you can increase the distance you need to drag an item before it invokes the drag and drop functionality. This requires a registry tweak:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-files/drag-and-drop-confirmation-prompt-accidentally/3d559ab4-f656-e011-8dfc-68b599b31bf5

However, this doesn't only affect drag and drops within Windows Explorer, but also on the taskbar and elsewhere. On my laptop, the default DragWidth and DragHeight values were 4.
Changing them to 50 causes a drop operation not to start until you've dragged an item about 1 cm.
Changing them to 100 -> about 2 cm.
Changing them to 300 -> about 2.25 inches... however with this value, dragging and dropping items on the Taskbar seems to no longer work at all.

Another option is to change the default drag and drop operation from move and/or copy to "create a shortcut". This also requires a registry change:
https://superuser.com/a/1149337
This change means that you will no longer be able to move files via drag & drop within Windows Explorer; you'll have to always use cut & paste instead. So you may find yourself accidentally creating shortcuts by mistake, when you really meant to move files.

Entry tags:

LibreOffice lost rows / accidental sorting

I have a LibreOffice spreadsheet file to which I add a new row at the end each day. The first column contains the date.

Yesterday when I went to add the new row, I saw that ten day's worth of entries were missing from the end, and thought that I had somehow accidentally deleted them. But undo was not available, so whatever happened must have happened the day before.

I thought the rows were permanently lost. Today I realized they had just been resorted by one of the other columns instead of the date.

To see what the rows are currently sorted by, select all the rows by clicking the top left cell. Then select from the menu, Data - Sort...
It will show the current sort keys, and will let you change them.

Entry tags:

thunderbird

Thunderbird minimum font size on incoming messages

Changing the font sizes in the Thunderbird options affected the font size in HTML emails from certain senders, but not others.

In fact, when I selected larger font sizes and unselected the option "Allow Messages to use Other Fonts", it caused the font to become even SMALLER in certain emails.

The comments on this page give the solution:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1447408

In the "Advanced" Font settings, the "Fonts for" drop-down defaults to Latin. When Latin is selected, the other values listed on that page are applied to most incoming emails. But to fix the font sizes in the remaining emails, I had to select "Fonts for" = "Other Writing Systems", and update those settings too.

Entry tags:

firefox

Firefox has stopped working (on startup)

On my work laptop (Windows 10, 64-bit), I've been getting this error sporadically (but fairly often) when *starting* Firefox.

> Firefox has stopped working
> A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Please close the program.

It happens before I even open any webpage. My homepage is a static local HTML file, and I do not save tabs when closing Firefox.

The error popup has options to "Close the program" or "Debug the program". The latter requires Visual Studio or some other program to be installed, which my laptop doesn't have. So I'm not able to debug it (although I wouldn't know what to debug anyway). The popup seems to originate from Windows, not from Firefox, as I've found no trace of the crashes in the Firefox log files.

The error only started happening after the browser was upgraded from version 57.*.esr to 60.*.esr. I've completely uninstalled Firefox twice (manually removing any leftover files/folders) and reinstalled it, but the error still happens, even with no customizations made nor add-ons installed. The problem still happens using the latest released version on the ESR channel.

The problem does *not* happen when using the same version of portable Firefox.

I suspect the problem is related to either the antivirus (McAfee) on the machine, or some other corporately-installed software (policy-checking, automatic updates, etc.) which I can't uninstall.

I did not find any reports of other people online having this particular problem with the current ESR version of Firefox. So I'm posting this here, in case any one else does a search on it. But unfortunately, I still don't have a solution.

Update, 2019/03/09: A few weeks ago, the laptop was updated to a newer build/version of Windows 10. Since then, the problem hasn't happened anymore.

Entry tags:

db2,
powershell

DB2 errors with misleading descriptions

Today, I wrote a PowerShell script to generate SQL files with INSERT statements containing test data for my database.

I then applied the SQL files against my database using the "DB2 -tvf [SQL file] -z [output file]" command.

The first problem I encountered was this error message:
DB21005E An error occurred while accessing the file "[output file]"

I checked and double-checked the output file name and path, and couldn't find anything wrong with it.
The error, it turns out, was due to me running the DB2 -tvf command from a regular Windows command window. It needs to be run from a DB2 command window.

The next problem was this error message:
DB21007E End of file reached while reading the command.

This error was due to my PowerShell script having generated the SQL files with the "UCS-2 LE BOM" encoding, while the DB2 command apparently only accepts files with UTF-8 encoding, and without the byte order mark. I'm actually not sure yet if that is the only format that DB2 accepts, or if it is related to which encoding the database in question is using.

Entry tags:

firefox

Overriding the URL for new tabs in Firefox, updated

As of Firefox version 59, the syntax listed in my prior post no longer works for overriding the new tab URL.

The "local-settings.js" file can remain the same as before.

But the "mozilla.cfg" file instead needs syntax like this now:

var {classes:Cc, interfaces:Ci, utils:Cu} = Components;

try {
   var newTabURL = "file:///C:/path/to/html/file.htm";
   aboutNewTabService = Cc["@mozilla.org/browser/aboutnewtab-service;1"].getService(Ci.nsIAboutNewTabService);
   aboutNewTabService.newTabURL = newTabURL;
   pref("browser.newtab.url", aboutNewTabService.newTabURL);
} catch(e) {
   Cu.reportError(e);
}

The above info was posted by user "cor-el" on this page:
https://support.mozilla.org/eu/questions/1202974

Entry tags:

javascript

newish JavaScript syntax

Some stuff for me to learn.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Grammar_and_types#Object_literals

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators/Destructuring_assignment

My initial reaction to some of those examples is stunned disbelief. Why would you want to allow defining a property whose name is an empty string, an exclamation mark, or a number? And why would you use array syntax, [], for those, when they aren't arrays? So that "car[7]" is not necessarily the 7th item in a car array, but might be a car property by the name of 7?

Yeah. How fun.