Windows XP Service Pack 3 is now available for download from Windows Update.

See the Technet article on installing Windows SP3. Note that they recommend having WinXP SP2 installed before installing SP3.
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Hiroko Mima has won the 2008 Miss Universe Japan. Hiroko, a university student and athlete from Tokushima in Western Japan, was selected from amongst 9 other beautiful ladies to represent Japan at the Miss Universe competition in Hanoi, Vietnam on July 14 later this year.

Having had the pleasure of meeting Hiroko, and two of the other competitors, Kana Anan and Yoshimi Sato, at the Emerald Ball in March, I can honestly say that the photos do not do them justice. The girls are much more beautiful in real life, and after putting up with 20 drunken Irish young lads at the Westin Hotel, they are great sports too.

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Android is an Operating System and application suite for mobile devices. It is being developed by the Open Alliance Project, with Google being a major partner so its is developing a lot of interest. The fact that Google has launched the Android Developer Challenge, which will provide $10 million in awards for mobile apps built on the Android platform probably has something to do with the amount of interest.

I decided to give it a go. Installing it and getting a simple application running on the emulator was a breeze. The installation instructions on the Android site were relatively straightforward, and the videos helped getting the application to work.
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Having trouble with your .NET framework? I had a difficult time getting Windows Update to install Hotfix KB928366 on my computer. No matter what I did, I couldn’t uninstall or fix the .NET Framework. After a lot of Googling and trying different suggestions, here is what worked for me.

How to re-install the .NET Framework 1.1

1. Remove the .NET Framework 1.1
   1. Download the Microsoft Windows Installer Cleanup Utility and install it.
   2. Run it from Start > All Programs > Windows Installer Clean Up
   3. Select .NET Framework 1.1 from the list and click Remove
2. Download and install the .NET Framework 1.1 Redistributable
3. Download and install .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1. Ignore the message saying it is already installed, go ahead and reinstall it.
4. Download and install .NET Framework 1.1 SP1 Security Update (KB928366). Reboot when asked to.

If this doesn’t work for you, here are additional instructions for repairing .NET version 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0.

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You dont often see this amount of concentration where I work!

I love how they made it look just like a normal desktop printer, just really really big.

Imagine trying to buy new ink cartridges for this thing.

Note the flashing lights to warn folks that this is a MASSIVE printer.

Yes, thats a PC monitor on the right hand side.

Best-Quality mode: 600 dpi (apparent)
High Quality mode: 448 dpi
Production mode: 336 dpi

* Up to 400sqm/hr at 336 dpi.
* Up to 200 sqm/hr in true 448 dpi.
* Up to 100sqm/hr in apparent 600dpi.

* Prints 140 posters 1.5m X 1.8m per hour
* 100 billboards per eight hour shift
* 6-color printing.

Size (HWD): 3.25 x 9 x 10m (10.5 x 25 x 62ft)
Weight: 2,700kg (5,952lb)
Power Consumption: 41 KVA max.

Went to the Tokyo Motor Show in Makuhari Messe today and met up with Hiro and Kesava. The new concept cars range from extremely cool to butt ugly. Check out more photos here.

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• Cool Eclipse Plugins to make development with Eclipse even better
• 300+ Tools for your Wordpress Blog
• Brazilian Waxing O_o
• Google Gears lets users use your web application offline
• Member Management System with Scriptaculous is a comprehensive user management system
• pQuery lets use use the power of jQuery with pure PHP
• Asp.Net is a useful resource for ASP development
• BlogDesk is a powerful desktop bloggin tool. See a review of it here

An extremely funny skit on the ancient art of cork soaking.

404 Notifier helps you identify any broken links in your site. Great if you move posts around and need to update links. Note it only works with pretty permalinks (2006/12/30/post-name), not ugly (?p123) ones.

Redirection Manage 301 redirections, keep track of 404 errors, and generally tidy up any loose ends your site may have. This is particularly useful if you are migrating pages from an old website, or are changing the directory of your WordPress installation.

AWSOM Pixgallery an Image Gallery/Archive plugin designed to make it easier for Artists or Webcomic creators to set up a portfolio of their artwork.

NextGEN Gallery a Gallery plugin using jQuery and Web2.0 features.

WPAds is a Wordpress plugin for showing and rotating ads in your blog. You only have to define the ad positions and the ads you want to rotate in each position, and WPAds will serve your ads randomly. WPAds can show contextual ads (ie, Google AdSense, Yahoo Publishers Network, etc) and also image banners.

WP Plugins Tracker This plugin helps webmasters to track new releases of the plugins they are using in their website from their admin panel.

TubePress is a WordPress plugin that displays YouTube video galleries in your blog.

FireStats is a very detailed web statistics system

Ed mislaid his video iPod last night. Luckily enough, Greg noticed it and put it somewhere safe so it wouldnt be stolen. He was even kind enough to leave a postit to mark the spot.

Too bad the postit blew away…

The StatTraq plugin for Wordpress has a bug where the Year and Month time periods are not displayed correctly. Here is a fix for the problem.

Download this StatTraq Calendar Patch. Extract calendar.php from the file and copy it into your \wp-stattraq folder, replacing the file that already exists there.

Now when you check your StatTraq statistics, you will be able to select time periods by Year or Month correctly.

The new in-out trays have been installed, complete with instructions.

IT had a mid-project party in Andys Bar in Yurakucho. We set out to beat the budget of ¥500,000.

The 8 pint Guiness was popular – we went through at least 3 of them.

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If you have a Linux Synergy client connecting to a Synergy server on another machine, you’ll want the client to start up with GDM so that you can access the mouse and keyboard to log in. Here’s how to get it working Ubuntu, although it should work on other distributions too.

Edit the Default file

sudo gedit /etc/gdm/Init/Default

and add these lines to it

#Synergy - place this line somewhere before the "sysmodmap=/etc/X11/Xmodmap" line
/usr/bin/synergyc serverComputerHostname

Where serverComputerHostname is the host name or IP of your Synergy server.
Also edit the PreSession/Default file:

sudo gedit /etc/gdm/PreSession/Default

And add these lines to it:

#Synergy - place this line somewhere before the "XSETROOT=`gdmwhich xsetroot`" line
/usr/bin/synergyc serverComputerHostname

Logout and now you should be able to login to Ubuntu with your server’s keyboard and mouse.

Yodm 3D is a virtual desktop manager with the fashionable effect : the rotating cube. If you’re using Windows and are feeling left out because all the other cool operating systems like MacOS and Linux have cool special effects (check out all the Beryl and Compiz videos on YouTube) for even the basic functions like changing desktops, then look no further.

Now you too can impress your friends by getting your desktop to spin like a cube. Download YODM free from keznews.com

Or better yet, switch to Linux!

Toy’d is an advanced next-generation Window Manager built on top of Aoof-Wm, an Advanced Object Oriented Framework designed specifically for the development of portable Window Management systems.

Drawing Manga Girls starts out with the theory of using wireframes versus shaded models, the different type of bodies (sporty, slim). The Manga style should not be confused with the Anime style. Manga proportions are very similar to real-life proportions, whereas Anime proportions wildly differ from anything in real life

The next chapter shows the difference between real proportions and manga proportions when drawing female bodies. Read the rest of this entry »

Installing Windows 98

• Run Windows 98 from a CD
• Driver Packs for Windows 98

Unattended Windows Installations

• Create an Unattended Windows XP CD
• Create a Multi-Boot DVD with every operating system and support tool you ever need
• Integrate Microsoft Update into your install CD

Unattended Application Installations

• The Great Unattended Project is an executable that silently downloads and installs commonly use freeware applications
• Hardware Driver Packs

Installing Office

• Patching Office 2003

Reference

• Make a 7-Zip switch-less installer
  • Custom SFX Modules for 7-Zip to make your self-installing applications look professional

Order of Preparation

1. Integrate Ryans Updates into your WinXP Installation source first so they can be modified or removed in a later stage if required.
2. Run nLite to slipstream servicepacks, remove unwanted Services and Components. You can add some later, like WMP11 or IE7.
3. Integrate Addons, so XPize can modify them at a later stage.
4. Integrate WMP11 before XPize changes resources.
5. XPize near the end to avoid any files replacing the XPized ones.
6. Add the DriverPacks

After Installing

Once you have installed your new operating system, you will need to make a few manual settings to get it customized. Give your system a unique name, enable file sharing.

Set File and Printer Sharing

Use the file and printer sharing wizard to get your system set up for sharing files, and give your computer a unique name at the same time.

1. Open file Explorer and right-click any folder and select “Sharing and Security…”. The first time you run the wizard will not set sharing on the folder you selected.
2. Under the Sharing tab, click the link that says “Network Security Wizard”. Do not skip the wizard the first time you set up a folder, otherwise you’ll have all sorts of problems accessing your folders. You can skip the wizard when you set up subsequent folders.
3. In the Network Setup Wizard click Next twice.
4. Select a connection method. The second option is probably the most common.
5. Enter a name for your computer, and an optional description, then click Next
6. Enter your network workgroup name and click Next. All of your computers should use the same workgroup name.
7. Select Turn on file and printer sharing and click next
8. Click Next and the wizard will configure your network
9. Select the fourth option (“Just finish the wizard…”) and click Next
10. Click Finish, then restart your computer when prompted.

Zero-installation applications can be run from USB sticks and are extremely useful for troubleshooting.

Spread32 is shareware and can do almost everything Excel does. It does not support Visual Basic, but it can run Excel 4 macros. 912KB

Atlantis Nova can edit Word documents and save them as .RTF. 1MB

With an installation size of 275MB for Microsoft Office XP, and about 250MB for OpenOffice, the tiny 2Mb for Spread32 and Nova is a small price to pay for two very useful applications on your troubleshooting USB stick.

Walter Zorn has useful javascripts for vector graphics, drag and drop, tooltips and image rotation.

YUI-EXT is a comprehensive Javascript library for developing web applications.
Vector graphics class for Ext
Tree panel with context menu
Drag and drop in a grid

Modern Blue Design has an interesting article on how to fight spam using CSS

Great T-shirt! One of my move engineers was wearing this today. I couldnt help laughing every time he walked by.

Apparently he didnt know what it meant. Unfortunately he says he wont wear it again.

I needed to migrate a Wordpress blog from one webhost to another. After installing Wordpress 2.5.3 on the new host, I looked around for some way of getting the content moved over. The recommended method was to import the content from a WXR file (WordPress eXtended RSS). However, the old host was running Wordpress 1.5 and it did not have an export function. The closest equivalent was the Backup function which saves the whole database as an SQL file.

Importing the SQL directly into the new site with PhpMyAdmin was one option, but since the database design may have changed between Wordpress 1.5 and 2.5, importing the SQL was going to be risky.

The method I chose in the end was to install the Wordpress-to-Wordpress Import plugin on the old site.

1. Download the ZIP file and extract.
2. Upload wp-xmlmigrate.php to wp-content/plugins/. You dont need the wordpress.php unless you are importing to an old version of Wordpress.
3. Activate the plugin. This adds WP Export under the Manage menu.
4. Select the categories you want to export, and click the Download button and save the file.
5. On the new site, click Manage > Import.
6. Select the WXR file you downloaded and give it some time to import everything.

The import process does a pretty good job of loading the content, and it even uploads images and attachments from the old site to the new one. You will have to clean up a number of links

Solomani did a great summary of this Martial Arts documentary I watched last year. Basically it goes through a bunch of martial arts myths and abilities and uses science to figure out if it’s true and how they do it. Essentially they used a modified $150,000 crash-test dummy for the testing. Here are some of the results:
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In a project I was working on recently, I moved the backend database from Microsoft Access to MySQL. It worked for the most part, but every so often I would get Write Conflict errors on certain rows of a table.

write conflict
This record has been changed by another user since you started editing it. If you save the record, you will overwrite the changes the other user made.
Copying the changes to the clipboard will let you look at the values the other user entered, and then paste your changes back in if you decide to make changes.

After checking various web pages for a cure, I came up with a list of things to remember when migrating MSAccess to MySQL:
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