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June 24, 2005

Add a company search box to Opera

I work for Tickets.com and we use a tool called Call Tracking to, of all things track stuff :-)

Either way, frequently I'm bouncing between cases, using only the case number. The main Call Tracking page has a form with a box to enter this, but it's a bit of a pain to have to keep that page open, and to switch back to it. Then it hit me, Opera probably would allow me to add it as a search dialog on my personal bar. Although it's a bit risky (because Opera doesn't support the changes, and upgrades may whack it), it sure was possible :-)

Opera 8 uses a search.ini file to define searches (if you have localized settings it'll be C:\Documents and Settings\YOURNAME\Application Data\Opera\Opera\profile\search.ini). You have to choices...you can edit it by hand:

http://www.schrode.net/opera/search/search_ini.html

Or you can use the free Opera Search.ini Editor (which is what I did to make sure I didn't hose up the file).

operasearchadd.gif

After that, right-click on your personal bar and select your search engine (please note, if you don't choose a keyword, you will not be able to select it in that list). You can see how I slected it in the image above.

(One more note, replace the value in the GET query string you would normally see in your address bar with %s...that is all I did to get our simple Call Tracking URL to work. E.g. "http://.../search.cgi?target=%s" versus "http://.../search.cgi?target=87711".)

Posted by alan at 2:38 PM | TrackBack

June 23, 2005

Vmware tools hosed up the mouse

I have VMware Workstation to allow me to run Linux on my Windows XP laptop. It is really slick (I'm using 4.5.2...5.0 is available).

Either way, after installing "VMWare Tools" on the UNIX system, I couldn't get X Windows to load...it said it couldn't start because of a mouse problem (couldn't find /dev/mouse).

Thanks to this link, I was able to solve it:

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=16918&tstart=60

Basically, the setting in /etc/XF86Config should have been /dev/input/mice instead of /dev/mouse. It seems to me the installation may have stopped X from looking at /etc/X11/xorg.conf, which had the right setting.

Why use VMware Tools? From the VMware Workstation Users Manual:

For best performance, it is important to have VMware Tools installed and running in your virtual machine...

A suite of utilities and drivers that enhances the performance and functionality of your guest operating system. Key features of VMware Tools include some or all of the following, depending on your guest operating system: an SVGA driver, a mouse driver, the VMware Tools control panel and support for such features as shared folders, drag and drop in Windows guests, shrinking virtual disks, time synchronization with the host, VMware Tools scripts, and connecting and disconnecting devices while the virtual machine is running.

Posted by alan at 6:51 PM | TrackBack

June 21, 2005

Hating and loving goodness

Since I haven't had something else intelligent (or otherwise) to say recently, here is the next quote I marked in C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity (in the last paragraph of chapter 5):

They offer an explanation of how we got into our present state of both hating goodness and loving it.

("They" being Christians.)

When I read that book, I found that statement ironically true, although out of context it may not make sense. Earlier in the same paragraph he makes a different point:

Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It therefore has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know that have done anything to repent of and who do not feel tha then need an forgiveness.

Could that be summarized as saying, "Christianity only makes sense in context"?

Posted by alan at 8:36 AM | TrackBack

June 14, 2005

Making exuses

C.S. Lewis notes another argument for the Law of Nature (as he calls it):

That is to say, I do not succeed in keeping the Law of Nature very well, and the moment anyone tells me I am not keeping it, there starts up in my mind a string of excuses as long as your arm...If we do not believe in decent behaviour, why should we be so anxious to make exuses for not having behaved decently?...For you notice that it is only for our bad behaviour that we find all these explanations. It is only for our bad temper we put down to being tired or worried or hungry; we put our good temper down to ourselves.

(You can read it fully in the second-to-last paragraph in the first chapter of Mere Christianity.)

Posted by alan at 8:02 AM | TrackBack

June 13, 2005

Tolerance

From David Limbaugh's book, Persecution:

The postmodern rule, more accurately formulated, is that all ideas must be tolerated except those that refuse to accept the doctrine that all ideas are equally valid.

Posted by alan at 8:35 AM | TrackBack

June 10, 2005

Perpetual adolescence

It's of no surprise to me that Theodore Dalrymple has written another article I want to quote from in the most recent National Review ("Looking for Boundaries"):

It is true, nevertheless, that precocity is no longer a merely individual phenomenon, but one that occurs on a social scale: It often seems to me that adolescense is now reached very early in life, but then is never really left.

I haven't thought it or said it as concisely, but I couldn't agree more with the second sentence...

Posted by alan at 10:02 AM | TrackBack

June 9, 2005

Iomega Application Services

Yesterday, listening to a CD via my external USB Iomega Super DVD on iTunes in Windows XP SP2, my computer was sluggish to a point of appearing to hang.

My previous laptop, regardless of whether I was actually using the Super DVD, started misbehaving after I installed the software that came with the Super DVD. Sometimes I literally couldn't kill applications, and I think other applications would never fully start (that is, show up in the process table, but never become visible). I wasn't sure, but I believe it only started acting weird after the first time I went into and came out of hibernation (so things were clean if I used the computer from a fresh start or restart).

Getting back to yesterday, when I looked at the task manager's list of processes, appservices.exe was hogging all the CPU. Killing it fixed the problem. But, what is the "real" solution?

I'm hoping the Iomega Application Services patch will solve it as it appeared to remedy the other issue I mention above. I'm creating this "nerd note" hoping that a search engine in the future might find it, saving some other victim of wayward application services from having to poke around as much as I did. (Also, when I went to look for the link on Iomega's support site yesterday, they don't seem to make it easy to locate. Luckily I had save the link from my last bad experience.)

Lest it sound otherwise, the Super DVD is great. This XP service is an add-on required by some of the Iomega software (e.g. Hotburn Pro).

Posted by alan at 8:30 AM | TrackBack

June 6, 2005

If only I could write like this...

Another great "A Slice of Infinity" for everyone to take a look at, "Journeys Before Our Own." One great quote:

The last verse of the book of Judges captures the situation and the mood of one stage in their history: "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit" (21:25)...The lessons they were left with are still timely in their importance and lasting in their urgency. Casual religion has serious consequences. Religious hypocrisy is altogether deplorable.

Posted by alan at 9:11 AM | TrackBack

June 4, 2005

Types of truth

The subject of truth came up during a Sabbath School lesson gathering last night. A young man named Shawn posited that there were three forms:

Without going into it too much, the only truth that matters when sharing is the pertinent type -- otherwise, why share it?

(I think this holds true for non-theological truth too...)

Posted by alan at 7:44 PM | TrackBack

June 2, 2005

Information Overload

Speaking of interesting articles, today's "A Slice of Infinity" installment is worth your time to read. Even if you don't believe in God, "Seeking Sense in an Age of Confusion" posits a potential reason why we struggle for order as we are deluged by items seeking our attention. An excerpt:

The voices clamoring for our attention range from the mystical voices of popular sitcoms, to the voices that promise an unbiased and serious engagement with issues and concerns. We are left with the impression that the world is one of chaos, a mess in need of individual, even if incompatible, interpretations. And yet we find such an impression troubling. If the world is one of chaos, why do we find in ourselves the desire for order, meaning, and purpose?

The world we live in is a created order. It functions by design and intent of a purposeful Creator. The denial or refusal of God, God's wisdom, or God's way tends to lead to a substitution of worship, wisdom, and way, not a complete vacancy of it....

Posted by alan at 10:35 AM | TrackBack

Playground rules

Interesting editorial, "Enough Already With Kid Gloves," in yesterday's USA Today. For instance, will having teachers grade in a color other than red help children's self-esteem, and does it matter?

Posted by alan at 10:30 AM | TrackBack