Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Roxio CD Creator 000D error

I had trouble installing Roxio CD creator on a Fujitsu Lifebook (e8420) it kept giving me "000D" error which isn't very helpful. Turns out the windows 'My Documents' folder was re-directed to h:\ and I didn't have a h:\ mapped to anything. This was the MSI throwing back a Pre-requiset failure based on it didn't have access to the 'my documents' folder.

Using the Subst command fixed the issue. "Subst h: d:\".

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Wii Virtual Console issues on HD TV's in Australia (PAL users)

I recently downloaded Super Mario 3 for the NES on the Wii. No problem using it on my smaller TV but when it came to the 50" HD plasma it would display "Mode Not Supported" turns out that nintendo doesn't do 50Hz TV to well through component video.

We can fix  this by enabling "component video mode" in some games..


  1. Go into the operations manual for the game. 
  2. Then hit Z+A+2


more info here.

and here

Wii Component Cable Interlace mode
The mode can be enabled by accessing the operations guide of the game, and (with the Nunchuk attached) pressing the buttons Z + A + 2 simultaneously.
The mode can be disabled by using the same method, but with the button combination Z + A + 1 instead.
ref

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Anli & Laura's Lesbian Gamer Geek Wedding

"We wanted a ceremony that reflected our geeky, romantic, pink aesthetic, while at the same time being profound and meaningful. Our ceremony was themed around the video game Portal and the anime series Revolutionary Girl Utena."
 

Monday, September 28, 2009

Thursday, August 13, 2009

To print Configuration pages for the HP and Epson Printers.

HP Laserjet printers: the configuration page that is printed will contain information on the printer, including its queue name

HP Laserjet 4, 4M, or 4M Plus:
1. Press On Line to take the printer OFF LINE.2. Press Menu until TEST MENU appears on the printer panel.3. Press Item until SELF TEST appears on the panel.4. Press Enter to print a self test page.5. Press On Line to return the printer ON LINE.
HP Laserjet 5 or 5M:
1. Press Menu until TEST MENU appears on the printer display.2. Press Item until PRINT SELF TEST appears on the panel.3. Press Select, and the panel will read PRINTING CONFIGURATION PAGE.
HP Laserjet 4000 series, (includes 4050 and 4100 models):
1. Press Menu until INFORMATION MENU appears on the printer display.2. Press Item until PRINT CONFIGURATION appears on the panel.3. Press Select to print out a configuration page.
HP Laserjet 4500 and 4550 series:
1. Press Menu until INFORMATION MENU appears on the printer display.2. Press Item until PRINT CONFIGURATION appears on the panel.3. Press Select to print out a configuration page.
HP Laserjet 8100 and 8150 series:
1. Press Menu until INFORMATION MENU appears on the printer display.2. Press Item until PRINT CONFIGURATION appears on the panel.3. Press Select to print out a configuration page.

Monday, July 20, 2009

The folly of Xcopy.exe

Problem: Xcopy.exe prompts me to ask me if what i'm copying is a file or directory?

Tech Details: I have 2 files I wish to copy. 1 file already exists in the destination(and is read only) and the 2nd may or may not exist in that location (pending who was upgraded)

Note: Since file 1 is read only, Copy.exe doesn't like to overwrite read only files

So
Xcopy c:\1.txt d:\temp\1.txt <-- this will work OK because its overwriting the existing file Xcopy c:\2.txt d:\temp\2.txt <-- doesn't work becuase it prompts the user is what i'm copying a file or a diretcory? (because file2.txt doesn't exist) Even if you put the /Q as an arguement on xcopy.exe it halts. It asks the user but just doesn't show the question... DUH WTF? Anyway the way I get around this is to use Copy.exe and not xcopy.exe. We just have to make sure we prepare the copy area first. I.E REM Prepare the copy area first del /F /Q "c:\temp\1.txt" del /F /Q "c:\temp\2.txt" <--- included for the people whom may have this file. REM Copy the files copy /F /Y c:\1.txt c:\temp1.txt copy /F /Y c:\2.txt c:\temp2.txt

This works for me and may be useful for others.

then of course there is Robocopy

Thursday, July 16, 2009

HP laserjet 'Scan to E-mail' slows my printer down (9050,9040,9000)

Problem: i've just configured my printer to use scan to e-mail and now the interface is slow and printing is slowed down.

Reason: If the you have your main server entered as DNS hostname or alais of that hostname it slows the printer down as it has to resolve the name to an IP address.. I heavn't exactly nutted out if this is a HP or DNS issue just yet.

Workaround:
Enter the 'Device's SMTP Gateway:' on the send mail tab of the digital sending area as the IP of your mail server and not the hostname

i.e If it was SMTPBLAHBLAH.JOEJOEINC.COM change that to the IP address of the mail server instead and click apply (no need to reboot the printer).

If you like this post and it helped you please leave me a comment!

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Business Alert - Anthony Pierce of Dun and Bradstreet VIC

Anthony Pierce of Dun and Bradstreet. I've never met you but you've taken it apon yourself to hassle my family without proof and that in my books is a bad thing to do. If you are going to randomly select a family to harras you picked the wrong one.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

How to calibrate a HP9050 TouchScreen.

Don't bother with HP.com.au you won't find this information on there.

If you ever need to reset/re-calibrate the touchscreen on a HP 9000 9050 9040 etc printer try this.

- Turn off the printer.
- Hold down # and C buttons while turning the printer ON.
- A screen will shortly appear in the upper left region that has tiny black dot on it. tap this dot with pen or something pointy (although not as sharp as a knife as you'll damage the touchscreen). It won't really give you any feedback that you've pressed it.
- A second dot will appear in the lower right region of the screen. tap this dot.
- The printer will then boot as per normal and the touchscreen will be calibrated.

Result = Happy User :)

If you like this post leave me a comment!

Friday, April 24, 2009

PSA - Batteries

To whom is interested. Let it be known that batteries are a consumable resource just like ink in your printer.

You don't log warranty calls when your printer runs out of ink. You just buy more ink and put it in the printer. A similar case is like your car you don't take it back to the vendor and ask for more petrol when it's empty you go an buy more petrol for your car.

Batteries DIE all the time, which is why you need to buy new ones. They all have limited lifecycles. There is no such thing as a perfect battery that never dies they will all break at sometime. It is in the nature of the chemical reaction that is going on inside the battery.

P.S. someone e-mail me when they do design the perfect battery. I want to buy millions.

Friday, April 03, 2009

Jenny McCarthy bodycount

I had the chance to see this lady on telly this morning she was on NBC promoting a book on why you should not vaccinate your child.

dead set if you do a little research on her you'll find that she is just plan wrong and pretty much bases her entire case on a sample data of ONE. that's right. Just because she believe it worked for her means that it should work for the entire planet.

People like here peddling her wares to stupid people make people die because of stupid ill-informed choices.

fair enough if you don't want to vaccinate your kid that's your choice just please never say to me " I chose to not vaccinate my kid because of what Jenny McCarthy showed me"


http://digg.com/d1nnSu
http://www.jennymccarthybodycount.com/Jenny_McCarthy_Body_Count/Home.html

Friday, March 27, 2009

Reserving future payments idea for bank accounts

To Whom It May Concern:

I would like to suggest a new option for future payments.

Why can't we hold a reserve of money for scheduled payments when setting up future payments? Surely this would be a sensible option instead of late payment fees and warning users that if there are insufficient funds in the account that you'll be charged etc. I know that leaving it the way it is now would be a cash cow for a bank but I am pretty sure if you asked any user they would love to avoid insufficient funds penalties. This seems like a great way to do it helps everyone involved. The bank still has useable cash in the account until bill payment time. The end user knows a payment will go through and finally the honouring a transaction to the biller would go a long way as well. Everyone wins.

A great way to implement this would be when setting up a future transaction the user could chose option such as “ Would you like to reserve the cash amount for this future payment?” It could be a check box somewhere in the form.

Then on the main page under the account summary you could have a field that show the amount of reserved money for those future payments.

I think this would be a great idea and good way for command to make a few more friends around the place. I certainly would cringe less knowing that I future payment I setup WILL go ahead instead of having to logon again at bill time to make sure a payment went through.

Yours truly
Joe ParsonsLogic department.

Monday, March 09, 2009

Foxtel Saves You Money.

Foxtel you seriously must think people are idiots... "Sign up to PAYTV to save money". Why? I save money by not giving you my hard earned cash. You see I have a secret to revile that foxtel doesn't want us consumers to know.

My secret is that I have Free-To-Air Tv 24/7 and also the internet. Stumble/Youtube/Itunes/Joost. With those an more combined I don't need to hand over my money to watch Ad's in a format that it worse than regular TV.

and Those whom want to use PayTV why not look at the other providers of PayTV such as SelectTV as there packages are cheaper and still have all the main channels.

How consumers consume media is changing. We are entering the digtal age where everything is digtal and consumed in that format. Get with the game.

If you look at facts most of the good stuff on foxtel will cost you upwards of ove 100$ per month.. Yes you can get the basic package but to get the stuff that most people want you have to pay for it.

Friday, March 06, 2009

Going from Human-Waiting to Human-Being


Please allow me to post a quick update. I would very much like to let you know that Phoebe Elizabeth Parsons has just come to join the real world. Born on 3/3/09 @ 23:23 (hey! there all prime numbers except for the 09 of course)

We've just made it home and Phoebe is having a great little nap right now.. (So is Mum).

A massive shout-out to the following peoples as well:

Sheila (Midwife), You should rename your self to TopSheila because that's what you are. You helped us all the way along and even went beyond the call of duty to help us and for that we are so grateful. You are natural and you really do care about what you do, it shows. Thank you.

Paula (Midwife), for helping bring Phoebe into this world. you are also awesome! Thank you for dropping in afterwards after you shift to make sure we were OK. Thank you.

Amy Wakley, You are such a natural midwife and A great Friend. You helped not only Rissa but me also. I can see why Rissa keeps you as her best friend. You were there all the way along You made it so much easier for me to cope. Top honors to you my friend. and you can pretty much consider yourself an honorary Parsons as well.

Bev (Midwife), you helped Rissa make it all the way from week 1 to week 40.8. your advice has always was always spot on and when Rissa came home from every class she was always just that little more prepared for what laid ahead. Thank you.

I trust the public system not because I have to, but because of the people in it. Thank you to The Sutherland Hospital you have some of the best staff in the world.



Regards Joe Parsons

Very Proud Dad

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Telstra you go to hell!

This will be a short story about Telstra ripping off my father in law so if you’re not interested then stop reading.

My father in law (FIL) and I get on pretty well. He has a nice house and chose to have Bigpond cable connected to the house it’s been like that for ages (since the cable was planted in that street). He was paying 59.95$ p/m for cable for 12 Gb download. (I personally don't think this is a good deal anyway)

A rep from Telstra on the 22/12/08 called him to offer a newer faster Internet for less money. This enticed my FIL to sign up to replace the cable account as he though he would be saving money and still getting the same deal / downloads / faster internet from the same vendor What was agreed to on the phone was a 12 month plan on the wireless NextG at 29.95 a month.
FIL 6/1/09 finally had the contracts e-mailed sent through and to my utter disbelief my FIL has been taken for a ride.

Telstra supposed upgrade was to move him from fast cable Internet to NextG wireless. FIL was told that wireless Internet is much faster than standard Internet and that's a reason to upgrade. NextG isn't faster than cable. How could it be?
The actual contract send and was Telstra NextG wireless 1 GB @ 59.95 P/m with a 250$ per Gb over charge. His average usage while on cable is 4+ Gb a month. Also the contract terms had been extended from 12 to 36 months.

I can't believe the balls of Telstra to go ahead and take advantage of someone who was told he was going to get a better Internet for cheaper.

I had to ring up Telstra on the FIL behalf and explain the situation he's been placed in and I asked for a "Please Explain" and was told, "I have no idea why Telstra would of offered that."
All I can say I've not liked Telstra for ages now and this just re-affirms that Telstra is to big now and has lost control of its own employees to allow them to take advantage of the unassuming end users who get promised the world and delivered shit in a can and without a can opener.