Our Box (#6, 4.8 lbs and 11.7″ x 11.7″ x 11.7″)

• 1 GFM 3-in-1 Digital Camera (accessories packing is opened, but everything appears to be included)
• 1 Bean Sprout Mini Digital Outdoor Camera (new)
• 1 Collapsible Picnic Basket
• 1 Camp Rock Alarm Clock
• 1 Flush Light (toilet handle w/ flashing night light, new)

• 8 Packing Material (Texas Air, 8 inflated)
• 1 Cardboard Box (damaged/opened)

Unfortunately, the box was not well taped and it appeared to be tampered with in transit. Hopefully nothing “fell out” along the way. More tape, please! The last box (#5) to ship to our house was in very similar condition, yet the box shipped to my office (#4) was in perfect condition. Hmmm…

Thanks, Woot!

Box of Contents (#6)

Box Damage

My Box (#4)

• 1 Zune 1089 30GB (refurbished, like new condition, everything included, works!)
• 1 Framed Star Wars Film w/ Certificate of Authenticity (Anakin Skywalker)
• 1 Captain Kirk Bobblehead
• 1 Spock Bobblehead
• 1 Targus Laptop Cooler (no A/C adapter included)
• 1 American Tourist Camera Case
• 1 Western Digital Caviar 40GB ATA Hard Drive (probably DOA)
• 1 Maxtor 40GB ATA Hard Drive (also probably DOA)

• 2 Tissue Paper (Invisible Letter)
• 1 Cardboard Box

Allison’s Box (#5)

• 1 Plantronics 855 Bluetooth Headset (everything included, appears to work!)
• 1 Sansa 4GB e260 (everything included, refurbished, screen will not power on - DOA)
• 1 Framed Star Wars Film w/ Certificate of Authenticity (Obi-Wan Kenobi)
• 1 Captain Kirk Bobblehead
• 1 Spock Bobblehead
• 1 American Tourist Camera Case
• 1 National Geographic Watch Box (empty)

• 7 Packing Material (Texas Air, 7 inflated)
• 2 Tissue Paper (Invisible Letter)
• 2 Silica Gel Pack
• 1 Cardboard Box

Lots of good stuff in there! Still no Woot lights! Maybe next time… Thanks, Woot!

Box of Contents (#4)

Box of Contents (#5)

Box of Contents (#4 and #5 combined)

Zune 30GB (close up)

I can has A/C adapter for transporter deck?

Allison’s Box

• 3 Polaroid Digital Photo Frame Designer Faceplate
• 1 Belkin Zipper Cases for XM Xpress
• 1 American Tourist Camera Case
• 2 Tuffwrap Xtreme for the iPod Touch (pink)
• 1 SmartWipe Gloves (LCD/Plasma Display Cleaner, 3 Pack)
• 1 Western Digital Caviar 250GB ATA Hard Drive — DOA!

• 9 Packing Material (Texas Air, 7 inflated)
• 3 Tissue Paper (Invisible Letter)
• 1 Cardboard Box
• 1 Cat (War Paint Design)

My Box

• 3 Polaroid Digital Photo Frame Designer Faceplate
• 1 Belkin Zipper Cases for XM Xpress
• 1 American Tourist Camera Case
• 2 Verona Flip case for iPod Classic
• 1 Western Digital Caviar 250GB ATA Hard Drive — Also DOA!

• 11 Packing Material (Texas Air, all inflated)
• 1 Tissue Paper (Invisible Letter)
• 1 Cardboard Box

So we basically got a bunch of the same stuff, but had lots of fun regardless. Too bad those hard drives did not work, though. That would have made a nice RAID1 setup. And again, no Woot-off Lights! Maybe next time…

Box of Contents (#2)

Box of Contents (#3)

Box of Contents (#2 and #3 combined)

Belle Is Not Impressed

Here’s what we got…

• 1 Chop and Grate Set (Slap Chop, working)
• 2 Belkin Zipper Cases for XM Xpress
• 1 Classic Frogger Handheld Game by Excalibur (working)
• 1 Burp Pen (working)
• 5 Halloween Visibility Lights (only 2 work, 3 are dead)

• 3 Pieces of Packing Material (inflated)
• 2 Pieces of Tissue Paper
• 1 Cardboard Box

• 3 Cats (see photos)

My wife and I are very happy with our first bag of scaffolding. I only wish Woot had put some Woot-off lights in there for us. Maybe next time…

Box of Contents

Box of Cats

Box of Cat

• …perform a backup? [rsync]
• …calculate a directory’s size? [du]
• …find files within large folders? [find]

How to time a Linux command line operation:

$ START=`date`; COMMAND_GOES_HERE; END=`date`; echo -e “Start: $START\nEnd  : $END”

Command Output

Start: Tue Oct  7 10:12:31 CDT 2008
End  : Tue Oct  7 11:42:07 CDT 2008

Simply having an appropriate host name does nothing to enforce the concept, though. The subdomain intended for SSL connections should not be accessed any other way, and likewise all other subdomains should disallow SSL connections.

With Apache + mod_rewrite, we can…

• Force secure.domain.com to only allow SSL connections.
• Force https://anything_else.domain.com to redirect to https://secure.domain.com.

Note: It is assumed that your Apache setup consists of two virtual hosts: one for domain.com:80 and one for domain.com:443 (SSL-enabled). This is how most website control panels configure a site. Unfortunately, the control panels also configure a site’s subdomains so they are accessable on both port 80 and port 443, which is basically what we are trying to work around.

Rules for the non-SSL virtual host (port 80)

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond   %{HTTP_HOST} ^secure.domain.com$         [NC]
RewriteRule   ^(.*)$       https://secure.domain.com$1 [R,L]

Rules for the SSL-enabled virtual host (port 443)

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond   %{HTTP_HOST} !^secure.domain.com$        [NC]
RewriteRule   ^(.*)$       https://secure.domain.com$1 [R,L]

If mod_rewrite is out of the question, it is possible to simulate the same effect in code. This method uses a HTTP 302 redirection (just like mod_rewrite), so it is very important to call this script before any output is sent to the browser.

Using PHP

// Before any output, preferably as the first line in the script...
if
(   (   $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] == 'secure.domain.com' &&
        $_SERVER['HTTPS'    ] == '' // (non-SSL)
    )
    ||
    (   $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] != 'secure.domain.com' &&
        $_SERVER['HTTPS'    ] != '' // (SSL-enabled)
)   )
{
// Redirect...
    header('Location: https://secure.domain.com'.$_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]);
    exit(0);
}

Google steps in…

You might be wondering why I would waste Google’s bandwidth to look up words, or even why I would waste my own time with the hassle of opening a web browser. The truth is Google can offer me the fastest word lookup for my (possibly specific) situation. All of my use cases listed above involve a web browser, which is already open and ready for my input. And Google is so fast it does not seem to matter how you use it, or how frequently. Besides, I would be very surprised if any of you even try this trick.

A more typical scenario, for the more typical user

You are typing a message in a forum, and your message reads: “But I already submitted a cancelation request!” While previewing your message, you wonder if the word “cancelation” is spelled with one or two L’s. You certainly don’t want to sound uneducated while fighting the man, do you?

Note: These steps assume you are using Firefox, and have Google set as the default search engine. Also note that these steps are designed to keep your hands on the keyboard. If you reach for the mouse, you are slowing down the procedure! Emacs, anyone?

1. Copy the word in question to the clipboard. Shift+Arrow Keys will start a selection. Ctrl+C will copy the selection to the clipboard.
2. Press Ctrl+T to open a new tab.
3. Press Ctrl+K to move the keyboard input to the Firefox Web Search box, which is located to the right of the Go button.
4. Press Ctrl+V to paste the word into the Web Search box. Press enter.
5. Google’s opinion of the word will be shown:
• If the word is hyperlinked to answers.com (top-right corner, where Google says “Results 1 - N), then it is spelled correctly.
• If a new word is suggested, under the Google search box, then it is probably misspelled and the suggested word is probably what you really meant. Copy the corrected spelling to the clipboard.
6. Press Ctrl+W to close the tab. Paste the word, if necessary, and continue about your business.

I understand this looks like a lengthy operation, but with some practice, you can be back in the forum with the correct spelling in under 5 seconds. Opening a dictionary program, or even navigating to a dictionary website, would take much longer.

]]> http://translocator.ws/2006/01/22/using-google-as-a-spell-checker/feed http://translocator.ws/2006/01/14/winxp-env-vars http://translocator.ws/2006/01/14/winxp-env-vars#comments Sat, 14 Jan 2006 21:19:13 +0000 Jim http://translocator.ws/2006/01/13/windows-xp-environment-variables The following table lists the system and local environment variables for Windows XP. This information is difficult to locate when needed, so I decided to post it here for quick reference.

Tip: To quickly open your user’s hidden Application Data folder…

1. Open the Run menu (Windows Key + R)
2. Type %APPDATA% in the prompt, and press Enter.




Table 1 - An excerpt from the Windows XP Command Shell Overview documentation from Microsoft

Variable	Type	Description
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%	Local	Returns the location of the All Users Profile.
%APPDATA%	Local	Returns the location where applications store data by default.
%CD%	Local	Returns the current directory string.
%CMDCMDLINE%	Local	Returns the exact command line used to start the current Cmd.exe.
%CMDEXTVERSION%	System	Returns the version number of the current Command Processor Extensions.
%COMPUTERNAME%	System	Returns the name of the computer.
%COMSPEC%	System	Returns the exact path to the command shell executable.
%DATE%	System	Returns the current date. Uses the same format as the date /t command. Generated by Cmd.exe.
%ERRORLEVEL%	System	Returns the error code of the most recently used command. A non zero value usually indicates an error.
%HOMEDRIVE%	System	Returns which local workstation drive letter is connected to the user’s home directory. Set based on the value of the home directory. The user’s home directory is specified in Local Users and Groups.
%HOMEPATH%	System	Returns the full path of the user’s home directory. Set based on the value of the home directory. The user’s home directory is specified in Local Users and Groups.
%HOMESHARE%	System	Returns the network path to the user’s shared home directory. Set based on the value of the home directory. The user’s home directory is specified in Local Users and Groups.
%LOGONSEVER%	Local	Returns the name of the domain controller that validated the current logon session.
%NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS%	System	Specifies the number of processors installed on the computer.
%OS%	System	Returns the operating system name. Windows 2000 displays the operating system as Windows_NT.
%PATH%	System	Specifies the search path for executable files.
%PATHEXT%	System	Returns a list of the file extensions that the operating system considers to be executable.
%PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%	System	Returns the chip architecture of the processor. Values: x86, IA64.
%PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER%	System	Returns a description of the processor.
%PROCESSOR_LEVEL%	System	Returns the model number of the processor installed on the computer.
%PROCESSOR_REVISION%	System	Returns the revision number of the processor.
%PROMPT%	Local	Returns the command prompt settings for the current interpreter. Generated by Cmd.exe.
%RANDOM%	System	Returns a random decimal number between 0 and 32767. Generated by Cmd.exe.
%SYSTEMDRIVE%	System	Returns the drive containing the Windows XP root directory (that is, the system root).
%SYSTEMROOT%	System	Returns the location of the Windows XP root directory.
%TEMP%and %TMP%	System and User	Returns the default temporary directories that are used by applications available to users who are currently logged on. Some applications require TEMP and others require TMP.
%TIME%	System	Returns the current time. Uses the same format as the time /t command. Generated by Cmd.exe.
%USERDOMAIN%	Local	Returns the name of the domain that contains the user’s account.
%USERNAME%	Local	Returns the name of the user who is currently logged on.
%USERPROFILE%	Local	Returns the location of the profile for the current user.
%WINDIR%	System	Returns the location of the operating system directory.

]]> http://translocator.ws/2006/01/14/winxp-env-vars/feed http://translocator.ws/2005/12/22/microsoft-kb-remove-linux-install-winxp http://translocator.ws/2005/12/22/microsoft-kb-remove-linux-install-winxp#comments Fri, 23 Dec 2005 04:48:24 +0000 Jim http://translocator.ws/2005/12/22/microsoft-kb-how-to-remove-linux-and-install-windows-xp I just ran across a Microsoft KB article that I thought was interesting.

Microsoft KB Article ID 314458, Revision 2.0, December 14, 2005

This article explains how to remove the Linux operating system from your computer and install Windows XP. This article assumes that Linux is already installed on your computer’s hard disk, that Linux native and Linux swap partitions are in use (which are incompatible with Windows XP)…

Hmmm… Is Microsoft having trouble with those new cheap computers that are shipping with Linux?

Microsoft is probably not hurting much from Linux computer sales, but considering that a user educated enough to install Linux would also be able to remove it, the KB article must be targeting those who bought a computer with Linux preinstalled.

I bet those users feel pretty bad when they learn their $200 computer needs a $130 copy of Windows XP Home to make it work for them.

]]> http://translocator.ws/2005/12/22/microsoft-kb-remove-linux-install-winxp/feed