Chris Simmons

Adobe CS4 Download File Too Large For USB Sandisk Cruzer

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Adobe CS4 Download File Too Large For USB Sandisk Cruzer

Part I
I finally took the plunge and bought the upgrade to CS4 yesterday from Adobe.¬† Downloading the gi-normous 4.8 GB file was like watching my cat try to eat a chijuajua.¬† Painful.¬† I guess I could have downloaded all the trials and entered the license code, but it just feels more “official” to download the single file.¬† At $599 I need “official”.¬† Update: I moved my downloading operation to my work computer since it was dying at home.¬† Once I finally got the file downloaded though I encountered a second problem.


Part II
I have a Sandisk Cruzer (8 GB).¬† However, after trying to put the 4.8 GB file on it 10 times and getting “The disk in the destination drive is full, please insert a new disk to continue” each time I finally did some googling and realized that the problem was that by default the Cruzer is formated to FAT32 and the maximum file size for FAT32 is 4GB.¬† Here is how to reformat to NTFS.

Change background color of fckeditor / ColdFusion rich textarea

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Preface: I work on a project for my office that is hosted by a third party.  Therefore, I do not have access to all the inner workings of ColdFusion.  Specifically I do not have access to the fck_editorarea.css file.

For a new form in the project I need to add a rich textarea.¬† The rich textarea will sit atop a div with a background color so I need to change the textarea’s background color to white.¬† If I can’t access fck_editorarea.css to change the style what can I do?¬† I can change it via the DOM with JavaScript.¬† For kicks I also added a border.¬† Place the following script just before the </html> tag.

<script type="text/javascript">
fckItem=document.getElementById('NEWSBODY___Frame');
// change bgcolor
fckItem.style.backgroundColor="#FFFFFF";
// add a border
fckItem.style.border="1px solid #0A0A4F";
</script>

Easy enough.

Dual Monitor Heaven USB2VGA

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I have finally joined the world of dual monitors.¬† Finances and standards at my office have thwarted my quest for two years to have a dual monitor setup.¬† My propensity to multi-task and staring at a fairly small (by developer’s standards) monitor for many hours a day has made this a painful defeat.

But at last… victory.

Meet the USB2VGA from startech.com (purchased via Dell).¬† This little guy finally allowed me to win the battle of not having to “open the box” to install any hardware.¬† It works quite well, is cost effective, and best of all… easy to configure.¬† If you can plug a device into a usb port then you have skills to set it up.

Can a dropdown box be imperialistic?

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usa! usa! usa! 

I¬†recently received a¬†request from a management member to put “United States of America” at the top of the countries dropdown list for our user registration process.¬† While this may seem an innocuous change to that person we do have a lot (maybe 1/3) of users not born in the U.S.¬†¬† I know it used to be popular to put the good¬†ole¬†U S of A atop of dropdown lists for its vast superiority “convenience” but it seems somewhat “politically incorrect” or “imperialistic” to me.¬† Any thoughts?

Rename a Subversion Repository

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The scenario: You have a folder called code-repo where you keep all your svn repositories (let’s assume it is located in the root c:/ on a Windoze system).  You have a repository named xproject.  For some reason you need to rename the repository.  Let’s say it needs to by yproject.  There are 3 steps to rename the repository and retain all the history you have in the repo.

  1. Create an svn dump file of the xproject repo: svnadmin dump C:\code-repo\xproject > c:\xproject.dmp
  2. Create the new yproject svn repo: svnadmin create C:\code-repo\yproject
  3. Load the dump of the old repository into the new one: svnadmin load C:\code-repo\yproject < C:\xproject.dmp

Sweet.

Who’s down with OPPM

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I have struggled for some time now with an expanding workload.  I direct a lot of projects for a couple of different business entities.  Since I have yet to find a way to disrupt the time space continuum and add more hours to the day I am ever searching for ways to stay focused and cram more into a 24 hour day.

Enter the OPPM.

one page project manager for it projects

The OPPM (One Page Project Manager) is the most effective tool I have found yet for project tracking/communication.  The real genius of it is its simplicity.  It literally is a one page document that can be easily interpreted by the boss, the project stakeholders, the managers, or just about anyone.  All you need is about 2-5 minutes to explain it to them once.  Where can I get more information you ask?

The OPPM (One Page Project Manager) website is a good start.

Then buy the book and read it.¬† The one I read is the one specifically geared for IT projects.¬† It’s about 125 pages and you can read it (and more importantly digest it) over a weekend.¬† Actually, once you read the first two chapters of the book you’ll be up and running.¬† Although I recommend reading the whole thing to learn the finer points.¬† I found the analysis of team member personalities very interesting (I’m the one with lots of unfinished books on the nightstand).

“But dude”, you say.¬† “I just dropped a wad of cash on MS Project.”¬† Don’t fret my friend.¬† You probably still need it to manage the nitty gritty.¬† And don’t throw out your Outlook task lists.¬† You can still use them.¬† The OPPM is meant to augment standard project management tools and methods.¬† The power of OPPM shines in meetings when people actually UNDERSTAND what is going on with the project without having to be a PMP.

Get it.  Use it.  You will be glad.

Nike+ Where’s my 1000 Mile T-Shirt?

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I’ve been meaning to post this for a couple of weeks.¬† I hit a running milestone on September 15th.¬† I broke the 1000 mile barrier.¬† My first run with Nike+ was December 27, 2006 (I got the running kit for a Christmas gift) so it took me a while to get there.

1000 miles with Nike+

One thing that sucks is curious to me is that when I broke 500 miles Nike+ offered to sell me a 500 mile achievement t-shirt.  At the time I thought I would hold out and get one when I shattered 1000.  Unfortunately though, that milestone came and went and I got no offer.  Does anyone know if there are Nike+ t-shirts for 1000 miles?

Incidentally I think the Nike+ interface is getting a little dated.¬† It takes forever too long to scroll back to old runs and I’d like to be able to do some more in depth analysis of my run data.¬† Help me out Nike.

CS4 Beta – Subversion integration does not support file:// protocol

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CS4 Beta has no love for svn file:// protocol

I was really excited to see that CS4 was integrating Subversion.¬† In fact it was the main reason I downloaded the CS4 Beta.¬† At my office I am the only programmer and you’ll have to trust me when I say my only option (for a wide variety of reasons beyond my control) is Subversion on my local machine’s file system and not as a Subversion Server.

Sadly, here is the error message that tipped me off that the file:// protocol was not a possibility:

You have entered non-matching protocols. Please check your settings.

I’m not the only one hoping for Adobe to add support.¬† Check this post as well.¬† If anyone knows of or hears about this getting changed in future releases please drop me a note.