Duplicate Appointments and Contacts in Microsoft Outlook
For years I’ve been using the same Outlook data files from Office XP to the latest Office 2007. Through all of these upgrades and synchronizing against various PDAs, phones, Exchange servers, and Google Calendar imports, I’ve amassed quite a large amount of duplicate appointments and contacts. It has gotten to be so bad that I specially allocated time during the Christmas season to eradicate the clutter.
My procrastination had gotten the best of me until a little digging on Google revealed the existence of a free utility called Outlook Duplicate Remover by Fr. Simon. This clever program only requires a few simple configuration options and does its job without a lot of fuss. There is no preview mode so take the necessary precautions (i.e. backup your PST file). Although the splash screen doesn’t mention Outlook 2003 nor Outlook 2007, it worked for me but your mileage may vary. Another item off my task list!
Nokia E61
I purchased a Nokia E61 two weeks ago and have been enjoying its well thought out design as a mobile messaging device. I was under the impression that a handheld that doesn’t crash and works as advertised out of the box (more on this later) was a fantasy. Push email is fantastic as is the web browser (from which I am typing this entry using the device’s keypad). On the other hand I find the lack of Outlook e-mail syncing and A2DP Bluetooth stereo to be a little bit of a pain. The major pitful keeping me from dumping my device in addition to the two above shortcomings is the lack of medical software. I will post an entry on how I use both my Axim x51v and Nokia E61 in my daily hospital routine in the next few weeks. Until then, read up OSNews’ review of the E61.
Hacking aspSysInfo
Started by Björn and Rob, aspSysInfo is a clone of the ever popular phpSysInfo script for Microsoft IIS-based web servers written using Active Server Pages (ASP). Both of these scripts display system statistics (phpSysInfo) such as uptime, memory usage, file system resources, network information, and a device list of the host being accessed in a neatly formatted HTML page. Although aspSysInfo has been dormant for almost a year, phpSysInfo has continued on and is now compatible on Windows with IIS. It still requires (you guessed it) PHP to be installed which is overkill for–what amounts to–eye candy.
Installation for aspSysInfo is very straight forward. Unrar the file into a directory on your webserver and register two DLL files in the /components directory (i.e. ‘regsvr32 c:\path\to\file.dll’). A few options can be changed in /includes/config.inc. Everything should be ready now. The page can be viewed by pointing your web browser to the directory where aspSysInfo is installed. It should look something like this:
Note: Unlike the example system above, I am running Windows XP Pro SP2 but aspSysInfo should work on any modern version of Windows.
Instead, I saw this page with VBScript runtime error ‘800a0006′:
Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 2 Initial Review
Following up on my post announcing Vista’s availablity from yesterday, I want to elaborate on my experience running Windows Vista Beta 2.
Although the latest Beta 2 detected all of my hardware except my smartcard reader, I’m not impressed with a few major areas. 802.1x authentication does not work which is quite a large hindrance especially for corporate customers running secure wireless networks. Mainly, it does not work in my WPA2-Enterprise (WPA2 + AES + RADIUS) wireless network running at my home. Vista would send the proper authentication information and the Microsoft IAS RADIUS server (running on a 120-Trial version of Win2k3) would grant access (confirmed via logs) but Vista would not grab an IP address. Statically setting an IP also failed to provide network access. I had to pull out an old WEP access point and finally Vista worked wirelessly. Due to WEP’s insecurity, I have resorted to having to use the built in gigabit ethernet. Albeit that most of the public doesn’t have as elaborate of a wireless set up at home, but I’m surprised that this functionality is broken in Beta 2.
USB2 is horribly slow. I connected a USB2 memory stick to copy some files off the system when wireless wasn’t working. The new Vista file copy progress dialog displays transfer rate. The fastest it ever got was a molasses slow 300KB/s! Can you imagine waiting almost 10 minutes to transfer 150 megs locally? I almost went nuts. Again, I acknowledge this is beta software, but is it that hard to get USB Mass Storage drivers to work properly?
Windows Vista Beta 2 Available for (Legal) Download
Microsoft has just released Windows Vista Beta 2 for download. Scroll down to the country selection box and enter in your Passport ID. Microsoft will provide a serial number that can be used on up to 10 machines. The download is a DVD ISO image that must be burned before installing which should self-select against the most novice of users.
Once installed, Vista will complain about the lack of a virus scanner. At this time, both Computer Associates and Trend Micro are giving away free trial software. Give either one a try–they are both great.
Also go grab the lastest Vista drivers for your video card to get Aero Glass working. nVidia Vista drivers for x86 and x64 are available. Ati Vista drivers for Radeon cards for x86 and x64 are also available. Go to ATI’s main Vista Driver knowledge base article to pick the appropriate driver if you have a notebook or motherboard with built-in graphics. If after installing the drivers Aero Glass does not work after clicking the check box, chances are you need to have Vista reevaluate the performance rating of your system. Once that is done, an Aero Glass compatible system will yield the transparent interface.
When testing don’t be surprised with the numerous bugs, broken functionality, and many current applications failing to install–this is a beta! Although the latest Beta 2 detected all of my hardware except my smartcard reader, I’m not impressed. As per my previous post, there are some issues with 802.1x authentication which is quite a large hindrance. The other annoyance is the new non-admin user model. It is completely broken and illogical. Inevitably, those people that get Vista Beta 2 working on their hardware will complain about constantly being bothered to elevate privileges. The end result will either be people disabling the new protection scheme or learning to click without reading–both scenarios are disastrous and will render this protection useless.
Microsoft is encouraging users to submit anonymous comments. Please do so! Not doing so means that we shouldn’t expect every problem to be fixed in the release version.
The State of Dell’s Axim x51(v)
Something is rotten in the state of Texas… and no it is not ghost of a dead king but a bug-ridden PDA…
Shame on Dell and Microsoft. For nearly 5 months, I have complained (repeatedly) about system crashes (white screen of death), random battery drainage, disappearing memory cards, lack of WPA2 support and a crippled Bluetooth stack amongst the problems to have completely ruined my latest foray back in to the PDA world. To even suggest that I consider my PalmPilot Pro I purchased in 1997 to be a far more stable and usable device for basic PIM functions over a WM5 device is an embarrassment for the companies involved.
Although the Axim community has petitioned and complained on the phone for fixes, Dell’s oft repeated response to its customers has been “an update is coming in two weeks.” Right… the latest ROM update is version A06 released on January 3, 2006. Five months of “two week” excuses is not only frustrating but also led many to lose faith in the competence of Dell’s mobile computing division. A majority of Dell’s most technically savvy customers have already given up on any future updates including the anticipated AKU 2.0 for the Axim x51(v). What about an update including Microsoft’s Messaging and Security Feature Pack for Push Email? I’m sure it’ll be another two weeks but don’t count on it.
Google Picasa Released for Linux
While looking around Google’s website, I found a link to a beta Linux version of Google Picasa. Some months ago Google hired Codeweavers, famous for the Wine project, to do a Linux port of Google’s much heralded picture management software. What this means is the application runs in Linux with the help of Wine’s open-source implementation of the Windows API. It looks like a win-win scenario because Google has released over 200 patches back to Wine and Linux users get a great program. The FAQ has a list of supported distros and a lot of other useful information. Will this product offer enough features for users to switch from current photo management software like digikam?
tvnzb.com Is Back Up!
After being sold and remaining offline for nearly two months, tvnzb.com came back up two days ago. The RSS feeds are working as well. Although I am not a lawyer, I suspect tvnzb.com should be safe from lawsuits for the time being because it is hosted outside of the United States.
Overall I find this development to be interesting because contrary to “industry” expectations, the scene has not been affected by MPAA lawsuits filed against NZB and torrent sites around the same time tvnzb.com went down. Maybe it is time the industry moved in a direction that makes sharing of copyrighted material financially irrelevant. This doesn’t mean the threat of lawsuits but offering high quality episodes (i.e. DVD or HDTV) for purchase via iTunes or some other electronic store within hours of the broadcast. A season-long subscription with an ability to burn our own DVDs and print cover art within a reasonable pricing model would almost eliminate casual copyright infringement. I’m going to expand on this idea in a post in the near future (hopefully).
SkypeOut Calling Now Free
SkypeOut calling is now free within the United States and Canada until December 31, 2006. According to the press release:
Yes. It is really very, very free. There’s no prepayment, no minimum use, no subscription, no monthly fee, no nothing.
I just tried it and it works perfectly. As an added tip, I use my Bluetooth headset with Skype for wireless calling via an excellent plug-in called Vitaero.
Review: 2007 Audi RS4 vs BMW M3
Tiff Needell and the Fifth Gear gang take the new Audi RS4 and BMW M3 out on an open track for a review involving spirited driving and some drifting. As a previous Audi S4 (B5) owner, the new RS4 is the first Audi in six years that has me on the edge of my seat in anticipation. Tiff was not very specific about the dynamics of the car other than restating the general characteristics of Quattro cars. I wonder if the new rearward bias has improved handling and whether the chassis stiffening has been effective. I won’t spoil the overall outcome of the review but I was impressed.
The review is a 100meg download available here. If it doesn’t play, chances are you don’t have proper codecs. Download and install K-Lite Codec Pack.
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