Tom's Diary

Today’s Activities

• Shower. DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.  Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.

Log

08:45 AM: I’m up.

09:00 AM: Facebooked for perhaps ten minutes. Friend count: 620 (up one). Fan count: 114 (unchanged).

11:10 AM: Leaving now to to shop for glass block window supplies at Lowe’s.  Back later.

01:30 PM: I’ve finished shopping at Lowe’s.  Now I’m waiting out front for my ride, just inside the exit doors.  It’s raining.

02:00 PM: While waiting, friend Wanda happened by and saw me.  She offered me a ride home once she was finished shopping, and invited me to wait in her warm car until she came back out.  Nice lady.  Our family has known her for decades.  In fact, she and I were in the same class when I attended public school in the late 6os.  Hmmm.  If I’d have known I’d run into her, I’d have brought the windows home with us, instead of paying to have them delivered.  Oh well, I’m still saving a boatload of money by installing these glass block windows myself instead of paying a contractor.

03:15 PM: I’m home, and still feeling somewhat wiped out from Momday’s treadmill workout.

04:30 PM: Watched today’s episode of  Dr. Phil,   called   Why Am I Still Single?

06:30 PM: Closely examined the cellar windows to see how best to remove them, so that I can replace three of them.  They’re to be delivered tomorrow.  I removed the bottom portion of the frame of the first window, and also learned how to remove and re-attach the window glass.  Even with the bottom frame removed, you can still put the glass back in the window well.  That will be handy for keeping the cold air out until I’m ready to install the glass blocks.

08:30 PM: Read the table of contents (ten pages) of this new book I bought last week, called Upgrading and Repairing PCs, the 20th Edition, by Scott Mueller.  I haven’t reviewed this information for several years, and this book discusses some technologies that I’ve never studied before.  Yep, it’s time to review as well as expand what I know about computers.

10:00 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of    NBC’s Nightly News    broadcast via the DVR.

11:00 PM: Talked to   [Emmy].

11:20 PM: I’m heading to bed.  Good night and do stop back tomorrow for more content.     Good night.

12:05 AM: The daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs.  The monthly keyword hit count for this run is 958, up from 954 at last check.  The record high for this dimension remains at 1788.  The next goal: 2000.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

• Offer from Travelers Auto Insurance.  No thanks.
• Offer from First Energy Solutions to make them my electricity supplier.  Not at this time, thanks.

Related Posts and Links

• Today’s Diet: 2012-01-11

Today’s Activities

• Shower. DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.  Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.

Log

09:00 AM: We’re up.  Merry Christmas to the Christians, and happy Holidays to the other faiths of the world.

09:15 AM: Facebooked for perhaps ten minutes. Friend count: 616 (up two). Fan count: 114 (unchanged).

09:20 AM: No workout on the treadmill today.  It’s a vacation day after all. 

11:30 AM: [Emmy]   opened her gifts.  She liked the talking watch though she did gripe about having to learn a new appliance; one that’s significantly different than the watches she’s owned in the past.  But she learned the new button-press sequences pretty quickly, for setting the time on the watch as well as its four alarms.  She also enjoyed the Pittsburgh sports team scarfs and hats as well.  She’s easy to please.

02:00 PM: We sat in the living room for an hour or two, enjoying the Christmas music being played on WALY 103.9 FM, and I admired our very simple yet beautiful Christmas tree with its lights aglow while we listened.

04:00 PM: Sisters Christine and Diane decided to visit Mom, and invited   [Emmy]   and I to come along.  So, we went.  I took some clean laundry up to Mom, and brought home not only her dirty clothes.  I also brought home some items that Mom no longer wears, due either to lack of proper fit as a result of weight-gain,  or due simply to the fact that said clothes are currently out of season.  Because Mom’s locker at the home is so small, we can only store clothes there that wears every week or two.  Otherwise, we run out of room.  I maintain her full wardrobe here at her house.

06:20 PM: Then, [Emmy]   spent the late afternoon catching up on some of her favorite TV shows via my DVR.  We’ve both been remiss in keeping abreast of our TV viewing with all the visiting and such that we’ve enjoyed the past couple weeks.  In fact, the DVR has filled up a few times during the past couple days, so that it did not record some of the shows.  But we got it down to 80% full now.

06:30 PM: While   [Emmy]   watched her shows, I worked on my computer.  It’s been blue-screening a lot lately.  This began sometime over the past three or four days.  I suspect my antivirus software is the culprit.  However, the blue screens do not occur in the same program each time.  These “moving” blue screens could be a symptom of a failing power supply or failing memory, or a failing hard drive.  I must narrow down the possibilities.  So I’m going to temporarily remove my antivirus software and see if the blue screen incidents decrease.

06:40 PM: Leaving now for sister Christine’s.  She has much left-over food from last night.  So we’re going to help her family devour it.  Back later.

08:00 PM: They served supper, which in my case consisted of two pieces of lasagna and some peanut M&Ms for dessert.  They also served ham, but I declined that, as I’m not a terribly big ham fan unless it accompanies big noodles and potatoes, as it does in ham pot pie.  Sister Jojo brought what was left of her snowman cheese ball as well, and   [Emmy]   and I indulged in that, spread on some crackers.

10:45 PM: We’re back home.

11:00 PM: [Emmy]   is heading to bed.

12:05 AM: The daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs.  The monthly keyword hit count for this run is 873, up from 860 at last check.  The record high for this dimension remains at 1788.  The next goal: 2000.

12:15 AM: I’m heading to bed.  More tomorrow.  Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

No mail or other deliveries on this Christmas day holiday.

Related Posts and Links

• Today’s Diet: 2011-12-25

Today’s Activities

• Shower. DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.
• Wash (1) load of pending laundry (blue jeans).  DONE.  148 loads done in the washer now.

Log

07:30 AM: I’m up.

08:15 AM: Facebooked a bit.  Friend count: 581 (up two).  Fan count: 111 (unchanged).

11:00 AM: Attempted to set up my HP 3300 combo printer on my Dell XPS 8300 computer. However, I encountered an error message during the software installation process that said that the file copy operation had failed.  I got this message at the same place in the installation process.  So, thinking that the software CD was scratched or finger printed, I tried cleaning it.  No luck however.  The error persisted.  So then I attempted an install on my much older Windows XP machine.  This installation went fine. So this version of the HP printer software I have apparently will not install on Windows 7.  I checked around for a revised version on the HP web site but could find nothing conclusive.  Hmmmm.  I do hope I’ll be able to print from my new computer.  I’d hate to be forced to buy a new printer.  HP does have a universal printer driver that can be downloaded.  I’ll try that soon and see if I can at least get basic printing functionality on this computer.

12:00 PM: Posted the   WPSBC Alumni Association –> Bylaws 2011    piece.  In this revision, I’ve added the current slate of officers’ names.

01:30 PM: Packed for my upcoming Pittsburgh trip.

01:40 PM: Leaving now to visit Mom and to travel to Pittsburgh.

03:55 PM: Visited with and had a Mexican lunch with Mom.  Now, I’m leaving the nursing home for the train station.

04:30 PM Arrived at the train station.  The train to Pittsburgh is running roughly a half hour late.  So I’m listening to Dr. Joy Browne on my iPod to pass the time.  I’m well into the December, 2008 episodes now.

05:45 PM: Leaving Altoona now on the train that just arrived here.

08:40 PM: Arrived at Pittsburgh.  Listened to Dr. Joy Browne the whole way.  I’m smarter as a result.

09:15 PM: Arrived at   [Emmy's].

09:30 PM: Started the music drive sync process to copy my latest additions to my music library, to the satellite drive.

10:45 PM: Made my bed of blankets and quilts on [Emmy's] bedroom floor.  For the past hour and a half, we watched some TV and talked about everything and nothing too. 

12:05 AM: Reviewed the daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs.  The monthly keyword hit count rose this time, and currently stands at 1081; down from 1091 at last check.  The record high for this dimension remains at 1788.  The next goal: 2000.

12:10 AM: Bed time.  More tomorrow.  Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today.

Related Posts and Links

• Today’s Diet: 2011-09-22
•  WPSBC Alumni Association –> Bylaws 2011

Today’s Activities

• Shower. DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.

Log

08:00 AM: I’m up.

08:45 AM: Facebooked a bit.  Friend count: 578 (unchanged).  Fan count: 111 (unchanged).

09:45 AM: Unloaded the hutch in Mom’s sitting room, in preps for moving it to the kitchen the next time I have help here.

10:45 AM: Completed and sent out authorization forms to stop all tax witholding on Mom’s pensions, and to stop monthly money transfers from checking to savings.

11:00 AM: Leaving now to visit Mom.  Back later.

01:30 PM: Mom and I watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   in their social room at the nursing home.

02:45 PM: Then, we went to the recreation room while she arranged more flowers for around the facility.

03:50 PM: I’m back home.

04:55 PM: Worked with a customer to set up his Verizon DSL high speed Internet service.  However, his DSL modem is not responding as it should.  So, Verizon is sending a technician to check out his installation tomorrow.  I’ll follow up with the customer later tomorrow.

05:30 Nap time.  Back later.

06:15 PM: I’m awake again.  No walk today, as the skies look like rain, and it is spritzing out.

07:10 PM: Watched the 2011-09-15 episode of   Dr. Phil,   which was a follow-up on Ted Williams’ (golden voice) recovery from drug addiction.

09:30 PM: Watched all pending episodes of   NBC’s Nightly News    via the DVR.

11:00 PM: Talked with   [Emmy].  We watched tonight’s season premier episode of   Hawaii Five-0.

12:05 AM: Reviewed the daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs.  The monthly keyword hit count rose this time, and currently stands at 1080; up from 1074 at last check.  The record high for this dimension remains at 1788.  The next goal: 2000.

12:10 AM: Bed time.  More tomorrow.  Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

• Promo Only’s Urban Radio music series; the 2011-10 edition.
• Yet another warranty extension of coverage offer for our Maytag Bravos washing machine.  NO THANKS!
• A 2010 dental bill for Mom, when she was a patient at UPMC Pittsburgh.
• Offer for Geisinger Gold medical insurance coverage.  Not at this time, thanks.
• A $100 Verizon Wireless gift card.  Apparently this can be applied toward a new cell phone.

Related Posts and Links

• Today’s Diet: 2011-09-19

I’ve received several requests to teach people how to upload pictures from their computers to Facebook; to their home pages.  So I’m posting these instructions here for ready-reference; not only for myself, but for the askers as well.    This routine works on the http://facebook.com/ site as of September 9th, 2011.  The procedure goes as follows:

1. You first save the picture to your hard drive.  Remember where
   you saved it as well as its file name, as you’ll need this information in order to upload it.
2. Then, bring up your Facebook profile page in your favorite web browser.
3. Find the   Upload Photos button (near the top right corner of your screen) and press it.  The   Upload Photos   dialog box appears.
4. Press the   Select Photos   button.   The   Select Photos   window appears.
5. In the   Select Photos  window),  navigate to where you have saved the picture file, and click the picture file.  This begins the upload process.
6. Once the picture has been uploaded to Facebook, you’ll see the Upload Photos   dialog box.  Here, you can create a new photo album for the picture.  Follow the prompts.
7. Then, you’ll be asked if you want to publish your new album.   Press the   Publish Now   button to make it visible to other Facebookers.

Good luck.

Tom Hesley

Today’s Activities

• Shower. DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.

Log

08:00 AM: I’m up.  It’s mostly cloudy outside, and the temperature is a little warmer than yesterday morning, at 54 degrees.  I’ll be taking no walk this morning however; I’m rather tired.

12:00 PM: Continued working the Tommy’s Tunes software build issues on Windows 7.  Many of the components are no longer required, as I now do all music searching with Wimanp’s Media Library search function.  So I removed said components from the build, and this eliminated many of the errors.  Most of the other errors have been fixed as well.  I’ll continue working this project later today.

12:50 PM: Posted the   Solving Access Denied Errors in File Copying PERL Scripts in Windows 7   piece.

04:00 PM: Added capability to decend through sub directories to my music volume normalizer program.  Now, it will find files in the specified folder AS WELL AS in sub folders, and maximize their overall volume levels.  I’d like to add this feature to all my other batch music file processing programs, as this would reduce the amount of manual intervention required to normalize, tag, and convert new music files for addition to my Tommy’s Tunes music library.

06:10 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   via the DVR.

06:15 PM: Leaving now for walk 67 of 100 for 2011, to the south cemetery.  Back later.

07:15 PM: I’m back home.  A nice and warm yet crisp walk this evening.

10:00 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of   NBC’s Nightly News   via the DVR.

11:00 PM: Talked with   [Emmy].

12:05 AM: Reviewed the daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs.  The monthly keyword hit count dropped again, and currently stands at 1284; down from 1308 the last time I checked.  The record high for this dimension remains at 1788.  The next goal: 2000.

12:10 AM: Bed time.  More tomorrow.  Good night.

03:30 AM: Woke up early.  The bedroom is too warm at 76 degrees and I probably ate too many calories yesterday.  I sleep best when I hold calorie intake below around 1500 calories currently.  But unfortunately at times, my appetite overpowers me and I end up going above that, as was the case yesterday.  So, I’ll putter here in the blog and listen to the iPod until I grow sleepy again, which usually takes about an hour or two.

05:30 AM: Heading back to bed.  Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

• Analog Science Fiction magazine; the 2011-10 edition.

Related Posts and Links

• Solving Access Denied Errors in File Copying PERL Scripts in Windows 7
• Today’s Diet: 2011-08-31

I have a   PERL script   that installs software on a PC by   copying files   into the Program Files (X86) directory.  I’ve run this from a   Command Prompt.  for years without troubles on Windows XP.

Problem:

But when run on   Windows 7,   Access Denied  error messages display for every file the PERL script attempts to copy.

Solution:

One way I found to solve this problem is to set my Command Prompt to run as administrator.  Do that as follows:

1. Right-click your Command Prompt shortcut.  This causes the Command Prompt Properties window to appear.
2. Click the Shortcut tab in that window.  The available options in the window change accordingly.
3. Click the Advanced   button.  The Advanced Properties window then appears.
4. Make sure the Run As Administrator checkbox is checked.
5. Press the OK button to close the Advanced Properties window.  This action once again reveals the Command Prompt Properties window.
6. Then, back in the Command Prompt Properties window, click the Apply button.
7. Finally, press the OK button.  This closes the Command Prompt Properties window.

Now, when you open a Command Prompt, you’ll be prompted by Windows 7, asking if you want to allow this program to make changes to your computer.  Press the Yes button.  This closes the UAC window and takes you into the new Command Prompt window just opened.   Now you’re running it as an administrator.

At this point, I was able to run the heretofore offending PERL scripts in this Command Prompt window without further Access Denied error messages.

Be careful not to run other commands in this “super user” authorized Command Prompt window, lest you risk serious damage to your computer if the program(s) you run turn out to be malware.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts and Links

• Copying DTBs To NLS Player Cartridges
• Folder Sync Program

Today’s Activities

• Shower. DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.

Log

09:25 AM: We’re up.

01:00 PM: Fixed a problem [Emmy] was experiencing with the JAWS screen reading software on this computer.  In some edit boxes, JAWS would not speak typed-in characters when you’d arrow back over them in Internet Explorer 9.  Not sure why this worked.  But I picked Tools–> Compatibility View in Internet Explorer.  After that, JAWS spoke the characters flawlessly and has continued to do so ever since.  I stumbled across this fix just by “playing around.”

03:30 PM: Nap time.  Back later.

05:00 PM: We’re awake again.

06:00 PM: Now that we’ve got JAWS working on this computer for [Emmy], I configured Outlook 2010 so she can access her email account when she’s logged into her personal account here on this computer.

06:50 PM: Leaving now for walk 49 of 100 for 2011, to the south (Logan Valley) cemetery.  Back later.

07:50 PM: We’re back home. Mostly cloudy but calm weather out there tonight.

07:55 PM: We arrived home to find sisters Christine and Diane waiting for us, wondering if we’d like to go out for ice cream and to visit Mom.  Well, we’re usually up for socializing.  So we’re going.  Back later.

09:00 PM: We visited Mom.  She’s doing well; although she did say that the lunch at the Mexican restaurant yesterday upset her stomach apparently.  That sort of food is not on her usual meal menu. So perhaps she’s just not used to eating the chips and meat with the higher-than-typical fat in them.

10:00 PM: We’re back home.  We brought some pizza too.  Nothing like a late evening snack.  Yum!

10:15 PM: Sister Christine called to say that she found   [Emmy's]   iPod in the back seat of her car, and that she and her husband Rich are bringing it over shortly.  Nice.

10:25 PM: Sister Christine and husband Richard arrived.  That returned the iPod to a grateful [Emmy], and the four of us sat out on the south porch, gabbing about everything from Mom to the upcoming high school football season here in Bellwood.

11:10 PM: Christine and Rich left for home.  I gave them a couple of insulated coolers to take with them, since we never use them here, and I was tired of them taking up so much space in our basement.

11:45 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of   NBC’s Nightly News   via the DVR.

11:55 PM: Skimmed all back rerun episodes of   Dr. Phil   on the DVR.

12:05 AM: Reviewed the daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs.  The monthly keyword hit count dropped, and now stands at 1521; down from 1553 the last time I checked.  The record high for this dimension remains at 1788.  The next goal: 2000.

12:10 AM: Bed time.  More tomorrow.  Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today.

Related Posts and Links

• Today’s Diet: 2011-08-13

[Emmy] uses the   Money Talks   checking account management program from the  American Printing House for the Blind (APH)   to keep track of her personal finances. However, since she got her new computer, three error message boxes always have come up when she closes the program. They are as follows:

• Error writing categories.
• Error writing pay names.
• Error writing items.

She did not get these on her old computer, and says that she’s noticed these ever since we installed the Money Talks software on her new Dell computer. She asked me to investigate.

Thus, I tried numerous possible solutions including the following:

1. I looked in the Event Viewer logs. No errors were written there at the same time as the above errors displayed on the screen.
2. I reinstalled Money Talks. This did not fix the trouble.
3. I deleted the program from her system with the Add / Removes Programs wizard. Then again, I reinstalled Money Talks as in item 1. This still did not fix the trouble.
4. I made a backup copy of her registry, then removed all mentions of Money Talks that I could find within it. Then I tried item 2 again. Still, the problem persists.
5. I installed Money Talks on my computer, but was unable to duplicate the above errors. It closes just fine on my machine.
6. I also noticed that in none of the reinstallation steps above was I prompted to reenter [Emmy’s] access code. Hmmm. This induced me to suspect that Money Talks leaves some data behind, even after uninstalling it. Perhaps it’s some sort of zombie data left over that caused the above errors.

Well, I looked around remotely through [Emmy’s] computer and could find nothing obviously wrong. So I called the APH tech support line. Did not talk to someone immediately but did leave a voice mail. They called back within several minutes (fast), and I explained the issue in detail.

They’d never seen this before.  So to be safe, they said not to rely on the accuracy of Money Talks until the error messages have been eliminated. The support specialist said he’d confer with a software engineer colleague and get back to me ASAP. I asked him to ask the engineer if there are any other files that Money Talks writes besides the account data (.mtf) file. He said he’d check.

About a half-hour later, the APH support specialist returned my call, saying that he had no immediate answers. However he assured me that the developer would look at the code to devise an answer within a few days. The engineer also advised to have a look at the following files that Money Talks also writes to host computers:

• %AppData%\aph\Money Talks\category.ini
• %AppData%\aph\Money Talks\items.ini
• %AppData%\aph\Money Talks\paynames.ini

Solution: Well, I found these files. I did not find them before because they do not normally show up since the AppData directory is normally hidden. But upon inspecting the files, I quickly discovered that the read-only bit was set on all of them. We do not know how this happened. But there it was. Anyway, whenever I cleared this bit (with the ATTRIB –r command at a command prompt), the errors upon Money Talks program exit mentioned above occurred no more. Wow! Problem solved.

I notified the APH support technician of my findings and thanked him and the engineer profusely for their help.  Perhaps I should work as a support engineer myself. 

Take care.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• QuickBooks Company File Restore Issue

Today’s Activities

• Shower. DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.

Log

08:00 AM: I’m up.

11:00 AM: Began the weekly system backups for all my blogs.

11:30 AM: Completed the weekly system blog backups.

11:55 AM: Posted the   Weekly Backups: 2011-07-30 piece.

12:00 PM: Spent much of the morning reading about writing scripts for the JAWS screen reading software from Freedom Scientific.  I’m doing this to help   [Emmy]  troubleshoot a problem she’s having with entering data into Winamp’s media library window.

03:00 PM: Solved [Emmy's] JAWS and Winamp problem and will post details about this presently.

05:00 PM: Talked with [Emmy], and talked her through the installation of the JAWS script for Winamp that I revised to fix her trouble.  She now reports that the difficulty has been eliminated.

07:30 PM: Leaving now for walk 37 of 100 for 2011, around the south cemetery.  Back later.

08:30 PM: I’ve returned home.  It was pleasant walking in the evening sun with temps in the upper eighties.

09:35 PM: iPodded on the east porch for an hour plus.  I just couldn’t let thie beautiful weather go yet.

10:00 PM: Watched tonight’s episodes of   NBC’s Nightly News via the DVR.

11:00 PM: Talked with   [Emmy] via the cordless phone from the first floor office.

11:55 PM: Followed the continuing debt ceiling crisis coverage on CNN for nearly an hour.

12:05 AM: Reviewed the daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs.  The monthly keyword hit count rose some, and now stands at 1640; up from 1637 the last time I checked.  The record high for this dimension remains at 1788.  The next goal: 2000.

12:35 AM: Bed time.  More tomorrow.  Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

• Cable + phone + Internet bill.
• Mom’s pension pay stub.
• Informational papers from Medical Assistance regarding Mom’s coverage in the nursing home.
• Drivers License renewal forms for Mom.  Unfortunately, she’ll probably never drive a vehicle again.

Related Posts and Links

• Today’s Diet: 2011-07-30
• Weekly Backups: 2011-07-30