Twitter Access Problem - Mobile Web

Problem: Recently I have been unable to access twitter on my cell phone. I would get to the log in page but constantly get a "403 Forbidden" error when trying to access the site.

Solution: Make sure you are going to m.twitter.com and not www.twitter.com. This small change fixed the problem for me.

Service Pack 3 Install Error - Not Enough Disk Space

Problem: When attempting to install service pack 3 for Windows XP an error appears stating that there is not enough disk space even though there is plenty of free space on the computer. Error shown below:

"There is not enough disk space on C:\\WINDOWS\$NtServicePackUninstall$ to install Service Pack 3. Setup requires a minimum of 4 additional megabytes of free space or if you also want to archive the files for uninstallation, Setup requires 4 additional megabytes of free space. Free additional space on your hard disk and then try again."

For me the problem showed up in my bootcamp install of Windows XP on my mac.

Solution:You need to add a key to the registry.
- Go to: hkey-local-machine\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\setup
- Add a new string value named "BootDir" and set the value to C:\

Apparently it was trying to install the update to the recovery partition and not the C: partition.

Online Tools - Stopwatch

This is a handy site when you are on the computer and need a stopwatch or timer. Very simple interface making it easy to use.

http://www.online-stopwatch.com/

IE 7 Messing Up Large Icons on Desktop

Problem: After installing Internet Explorer 7 on my lab machines I noticed that all my desktop links with custom icons were now showing the default IE7 icon. I have all my icons display in "Large Icon" view and every time I would try and change them the icon would reset to the default.

Solution: The problem is caused by a settings change in the registry and is fairly easy to fix if you know how to modify registry settings. You need to change the following keys to '47':

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics\Shell Icon BPP
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics\Shell Icon Size

Then reboot the computer and the problem should be fixed.

Adobe Reader - No Printers Available

Problem: When I go to print a PDF from Adobe Reader or Acrobat an error box appears and says the following:


"Before you can perform print-related tasks such as page setup or printing a document, you need to install a printer."

It's not a problem of not having printers, I actually have 19 printers available to me on this computer.

Solution: I did not have a default printer specified and if that setting isn't there Adobe Reader cannot launch the print dialog.

Google Analytics and Blogger

You can run Google Analytics on a web page through Blogger but you have to set it up exactly right.

Go to www.google.com/analytics and sign up for an account. During that process you will be given a bit of code to add to your site. You add this code to your template but you have to place it right before the </body> near the bottom or it won't work. It will just endlessly show as "tracking unknown" on the Google Analytics website if the code is placed anywhere else. See code sample below:



This is a feature I think would be nice if it was integrated into Blogger itself.

For those that don't know what Google Analytics is; it's a site tracker from Google. It was originally designed around their AdSense but you can use it without running AdSense on your site. It gives you information about number of visitors and such.

OS X Tips - Changing File and Folder Permissions

Sometimes I find that in OS X the file and folder permissions are not set correctly and I start getting errors. Below is how to change the file and folder permission settings. You will need an account with administrative rights to complete these tasks.

Ctrl-Click or Right Click on the folder or file you need to change the permissions for:



Open the Sharing and Permissions settings:



Click on the padlock in the lower left corner and provide a user name and password for an account with administrative rights when prompted. This unlocks the settings so that you can make changes.

Select the user that you want to change permissions for and modify them using the pull down area under "Privilege"



You can also change the ownership and apply settings to enclosed items (for folders) by using the pull down menu shown below:



Once you are done click the padlock icon again to prevent further changes to the new settings.