Norse Technologies Knowledge Base Free Knowledge Articles

Google makes the really neat program Picasa 3 for managing and editing photo/image collections. Since Microsoft Windows it a travesty and I therefore use Linux as much as possible, I was in need of a better and more stable photo management software to replace the buggy unstable F-Spot program. To my glee I found that Google releases a Debian version suitable for using under Ubuntu’s flavor of Debian Linux. I love you Google. Anyway, it was still a 2-step process, which would frighten most Windows users, but this bit of work in the beginning assures that I am using reputable sources for software that can be installed without visiting a website or downloading anything from a web server, as I would have to do if using Windows. Not to mention that by being forced to the wild web in order to download all applications and software just opens up a computer to problems because the user must decide which software makers to trust, not a good situation for casual users who aren’t in touch enough with the current “scene” to be able to make an educated decision about which company’s software is trustworthy and which are not. Alas, I digress…

To install Picasa on Ubuntu:

1. Create a backup copy of your file: /etc/apt/sources.list
2. Edit /etc/apt/sources.list using “sudo” and the editor of your choice e.g. vi, vim, gedit.
3. Add the following line:
   deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ testing non-free
4. Save the file.
5. Update apt-get’s repository list using: sudo apt-get update
6. Try to install Picasa now: sudo apt-get install picasa
7. If it installs, then Hooray! You’re done! However, if you get an error like the following, then proceed to the next steps:
   W: GPG error: The following signatures couldn’t be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 1234567890123456
   W: There is no public key available for the following key IDs:  1234567890123456
8. The long number will be different for you, and you’ll need it for the next step.
9. Run the following commands, substituting 1234567890123456 with the number from your error messages:
   gpg –keyserver pgpkeys.mit.edu –recv-key  1234567890123456
   gpg -a –export 1234567890123456 | sudo apt-key add –
10. Assuming that you get success, and you should as long as there’s no typos, try again to install Picasa directly with Ubuntu apt-get:
    sudo apt-get install picasa
11. Picasa will download and install, you may be required to verify that process before it proceeds, though.

Check put these for a bit more info, and the source of the steps needed for this process:
[Debian] Apt-get : NO_PUBKEY / GPG error
Howto Install Picasa 3.5 in ubuntu

Posted under Freeware, Graphic, Linux, Software

Using Adobe Illustrator CS4 (this procedure may also apply to CS3 and earlier versions, please let me know if it does) you can make a neat little object that looks like it is curved, rounded, and shiny, with a light shine highlight and edge darkening effect to get the full depth.

1. Start with an image layer, containing the image that will be the skin of the object (which is in our case a round convex button).
2. Put a new layer under it.
3. On the new layer create a circle (Ellipse (L) tool and hold Shift to force circular, hold Alt to anchor center point of ellipse while manipulating the size) that encompasses the part of the image that whall be visible on the final “button” to be created.
4. Create a radial gradient in the circle. Make it lighter in the center.
5. Create a new layer between the image layer and the circle layer.
6. Create another circle on this layer, a bit smaller than the last one, and shifted down a bit so it almost touches on the lower boundary of the circles.
7. On the same layer create an ellipse that is larger than the circle, but leaves a crescent at the top of the button, for the shine.
8. Using the layers box, and holding Shift, select both these layers. Then click Pathfinder > Subtract From Shape. This trims out all but the crescent.  (If it does the opposite, Undo (Ctrl-Z) back and reverse the order stacking order of the circle and ellipse on this layer, and try this step again.)
9. Create a new layer between the image layer and the original circle layer.
10. On this layer create a rectangle that covers the entire crescent.
11. In the rectangle, create a white-down-to-black gradient (at -90 deg.) using the standard black and white color pair.
12. Using the layers box again, select both the rectangle and crescent layers.
13. On the Transparency panel dropdown (located in the right-corner of the panel) menu selet Make Opacity Mask.
14. Select the original circle and copy it.
15. Select the image layer, and paste the circle using Ctrl-F.
16. Select the pasted circle. Remove the fill and stroke from it.
17. Select the entire image layer (which selects all sublayers too) and do Ctrl-7 to create a clipping mask. Now your button looks round.
18. Create a new layer above the image layer, but under the shine layer.
19. Paste the circle again into this new layer.
20. Convert the fill to a B&W gradient.
21. On the gradient, move the center nugget toward the black as far as it will go. This creates a domed shadow effect.
22. In the Transparency panel, select Mode of Multiply, then select Opacity of 20%.

Viola! Now you have a round  button that looks roundy and shiny.  Rotate the crescent layer to change the direction of light in the shine.

Great Adobe Illustrator tutorial I got this metod… thank you Veerle!

Posted under Graphic, Uncategorized, WebDev

I found some nice information on which browsers are being used, which resolutions and operating systems are running them, what desktop resolutions they have, etc. Very nice. See how fast Vista is losing usership…

• Browsers
• Browser displays
• Operating Systems

Info courtesy W3Schools

Posted under Browsers, Network, Operating System, WebDev

Sometimes in testing network settings and authentication ( for instance when setting up a Samba server and users on a CentOS, Ubuntu, or Feroda Linux system) I often find it useful to force my Windows PC client to “forget” the login username and password that it has on record, for the current session, so that I may login again with another username/password combo. Easily accomplished, this Windows trick works on all modern Microsoft operating systems.

The situation: You need to login again to a network share on a Windows file server, or a Linux server,  without rebooting the client computer.

The fix: Disconnect from the shares using the NET command.

1. Open a command prompt. (My favorite way is: Win-R, type cmd, press Enter)
2. Type NET USE * /DELETE
3. It will prompt you for verification, type Y and Enter.

That’s it! Enjoy, and may your login be forgotten!

Courtesy, Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308582

Posted under Microsoft, Network, Software, Windows

The most awesome emulator of all time, puTTY.exe, just got even easier to use. Along with loggiong automatically into a SSH session add the Windows shortcut that loads a saved session and launches it, now you have one click shell access to your Linux host from your Windows PC.

Here’s how:

1. Download puTTY.exe
2. Save it to the folder  C:\puTTY\
3. Open a Windows Explorer window in C:\puTTY\
4. Run puTTY.exe once, and create a “saved session”, making note of what you name it. My example below uses the name my neatly named Saved Session
5. Right-click-drag puTTY.exe and drop it next to itself, this creates a shortcut to the .exe file.
6. Right-click the shortcut you just created, on the popup menu click Properties.
7. In the Target box, add -load “your-saved-session-name” after C:\putty\putty.exe
8. The final content in the target box should look like:

   C:\putty\putty.exe -load "my neatly named Saved Session"

9. Save the shortcut. Viola! Move or copy this shortcut anywhere you like (e.g. your Desktop, your QuickLaunch toolbar, your custom explorer toolbar, etc.) and you have 1-click access to a command prompt on your Linux / Unix host.

Enjoy!

Posted under Apple, Freeware, Linux, Microsoft, Network, Software, WebDev, ZyXel

So, you have a Windows system that gets a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) during bootup, and you can’t see what it says before it disappears. Not a big deal, except that the system won’t boot into safe mode either, so you can’t do the regular method, using the Windows GUI, to set the system properties settings so that the system does not automatically reboot when the blue screen appears. Yikes! Well, if you want to stop the system from rebooting beforee you can get the STOP: codes, and find out how to fix the problem, here is a really neat way:

How To Disable Automatic Restart For BSOD If You Are Unable To Get Into Windows

Download UBCD  here

Another neat tip from a Japanese Lenovo support board, save me some work today (use Google to translate):

Need to Repair Install Windows (second R during setup) when STOP: 0 × 0000007B (0 × F789EA94, 0) / INACESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE occurs on restore of OS onto new hardware / storage controller.

Thanks all for the help!

Posted under Hardware, Microsoft, Operating System, Software

The following is totally copied from myfixes.com excellent article.

This article applies to the following type of errors:

Resolution:

A. Boot the system into the Recovery Console and CHKDSK

B. Perform the System Restore
Inside the Recovery Console type the following commands to change the directory to the system restore directory:

If you get an Access Denied error:click here
If you don’t get an Access Denied error :

If there is no _resto~1 folder or if there are no restore points inside it:click here

If the _resto~1 folder exists, inside it there are several folders named RP1, RP2. These are restore points. RP1 is the oldest restore point. You can use

to view what RP folders are available. If no restore points are available click here. Otherwise choose the most convenient RP folder. Supposing we have RP3 available let’s type in:

Change the directory to snapshot:

Restore the main registry branches. If you are being asked if you want to overwrite type in y to agree.

Type exit to reboot the system. Start the computer normally

Based on:
The support.microsoft.com article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q307545&ID=KB;EN-US;Q307545

The icompute.info article:
http://www.icompute.info/System_restore_from_xp_cd.htm

Posted under Microsoft

In a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet cell one can use a custom function to effectively grab all test after the final (last) occurrence of a particular character or string. This is accomplished by simply creating a Custom Function and then using that function in a cell formula. Following is the code and instructions for how to create and then implement the function.


Function PullAfterLast(rCell As Range, strLast As String)
PullAfterLast = Mid(rCell, InStrRev(rCell, strLast) + 1, 256)
End Function


1. Highlight the above code, and copy it to the clipboard by pressing CTRL-C, or by right-clicking on the text and on the resulting popup window left-clicking on Copy.
2. Open Microsoft Excel (or proceed to step 2 if you prefer to open Excel by clicking  the desired existing .xls file directly.).
3. Open the workbook you wish to use the function with, or create a new workbook.
4. Open the Visual Basic Editor window by pressing ALT-F11 on the keyboard, or clicking Tools > Macros > Visual Basic Editor
5. Insert a new module by right-clicking on ThisWorkbook > Insert > Module or on the toolbar clicking Insert > Module
6. Paste the clipboard contents (which is the code above this numbered procedure) into the code window by pressing CTRL-V, or by right-clicking in the code window and on the popup menu clicking on Paste, or by clicking the menu toolbar on Edit and clicking on Paste.
7. Close the Visual Basic Editor by presing CTRL-Q, or by clicking File on the menu toolbar and then clicking Close and Return to Microsoft Excel.

The custom user defined function is now available to be used in the formulas of cells. To use it, the following syntax format is used in the cell’s formula:

=PullAfterLast(A1,"yourstring")

Of course, replace yourstring with the appropriate character or string.

This info was combined from ozgrid.com article about how to make custom functions easily, and vertex42.com article where Dave Hawley gave the universe this function’s code, many thanks!

Posted under Excel, Microsoft, Office

Thanks to Mike Dent’s efforts and OTRS, we now know how a CSV file can be imported into the MySQL database directly. Here is the sample code:

mysql> load data infile '/tmp/otrs_test.txt' into table customer_user
fields terminated by '\t' lines terminated by '\r' (first_name,
last_name, address, postcode, phone1, email, customer_id, valid_id,
create_time, create_by, change_time, change_by, login);

Make sure to import all the required fields (that is, the ones that the database requires, see the table schema for details, >show table x;)

Posted under Freeware, MySQL, WebDev

From the MySQL website:

For input, if the FIELDS ESCAPED BY character is not empty, occurrences of that character are stripped and the following character is taken literally as part of a field value. Some two-character sequences that are exceptions, where the first character is the escape character. These sequences are shown in the following table (using “\” for the escape character). The rules for NULL handling are described later in this section.

\0	An ASCII NUL (0x00) character
\b	A backspace character
\n	A newline (linefeed) character
\r	A carriage return character
\t	A tab character.
\Z	ASCII 26 (Control-Z)
\N	NULL

For more information about “\”-escape syntax, see Section 8.1, “Literal Values”.

Posted under Freeware, MySQL