Argodyne Heavy Industries

Thundbird Search

Argonaut — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:20:06 +0000

The Mozilla Foundation has changed the default search engine in Thunderbird version 11. They took a check from Microsoft and the default is now Bing. Even worse you can’t change it to use Google because there is no option for Google to be used as the search engine. The list of engines used is Bing (the default), Yahoo!, Amazon, AOL, eBay, Twitter, and Wikipedia. One can only surmise that Mozilla was paid to remove Google as a search engine.

There are a couple of methods for adding Google back to list of Search engines to be used. Unfortunately, none are for novices.

The first and easiest method is use the Config Editor built into Thunderbird. This is located under Tools … Options … Advanced … General.

If you are using Windows it should look like the screen shots below.

Once you have the Search Editor up, search for the word “search” ( no quotes obviously). The Preferences we are interested in are:

browser.search.defaultenginename browser.search.order.1 browser.search.order.2 browser.search.order.3 browser.search.selectedEngine

Add Google. browser.search.order.3 should have no value so you can change this to “Google” and it will add Google as a search engine.

Change Google to default. If you want the default search to be Google, change browser.search.defaultenginename to Google from Bing.

If you are like me and loathe both Bing and Microsoft then remove all Bing entries and replace them with Google.

The second method is to add a search provider profile for Google to your user profile for Thunderbird. This is from Roland Tanglao who is a Thunderbird Technical Support Lead.

First, locate your Thunderbird profile folder. If you need help reference these instructions which can be found here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Runtime_Directories#Thunderbird
or here:

https://support.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/kb/Profiles#w_where-is-my-profile-stored

Once you have found your profile directory you should create a sub-directory named “searchplugins” if it does not already exist.
Then click on this link: http://bwinton.latte.ca/Work/google.xml
and you will find the Google search plugin xml file. Save the content of this page as google.xml in the searchplugins directory identified in step 1. In Firefox, this can be done by right clicking anywhere in the page then ‘Save page as…’ google.xml
Restart Thunderbird
Perform a search. Search for something, then click the newly added Google icon on the side.
To make Google your default search engine, click the little heart at the bottom. Now all your future searches will open up in Google.

When you are done the search results page should look like this on the left side:

Also the favorite icon on the bottom left of the search results page should be red for Google. Something like this:

Much better now that the ~~Google scrape engine~~ Bing has been purged from your mail client. I have not figured out how to remove all the unwanted search engines just yet. Roland also added this to a different blog:

Oh and here’s the reason aka “corporate stuff” as to why Google was removed in TB 11: QUOTE from Marketing
The Thunderbird default list of search engines reflects the agreements and authorizations we have with their respective owners. We do not have such agreement or authorization from Google.
This is a change that’s primarily driven by business agreements and we generally do not publicly discuss these details. We realize it can influence the community, but as it is, we believe that the default list of search providers will give great search results.

Holy Music Batman!

Argonaut — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:31:15 +0000

It has been a while since I last counted my music. My CDs are gathering dust in boxes and the botched attempt to re-rip everything into FLAC format died after the first box. And yes, I actually have an APE file; no idea where I found that. I’m sure I missed some rather obscure audio format I have buried in some directory. This surely covers 99.9% of my audio files.

$find / -type f -iname “*.ogg” -o iname “*.mp3″ -o iname “*.aac” -o iname “*.flac” -o iname “*.wma” -o iname “*.ape”|wc -l

$find /music -type d | wc -l

$ du -c *.ogg *.mp3 *.aac *.flac *.wma *.ape | tail -1

1116505110523 bytes (=1,064,782.25 megabytes)
118,120 files

Just when I thought I was done. I missed a whole NFS mount. I need to add:
187791097030 bytes
10990 files

So the new total is:
1304296207553 bytes (=1,243,873.79 megabytes)
129110 files

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Society that licences MP3 charges quite a bit. No wonder they have a 2 billion dollar annual research budget. I also noticed they get a little uppity when you write MP3 instead of mp3.

Commute Bike

Argonaut — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 05:10:57 +0000

In preparation for commuting back and forth to the office I decided I will need a bike. This was the easy decision to make. Deciding which bike to buy is the hard part. I have visited eight local bike stores near my neighborhood and so far and I’ve also done a lot of research on the web. After all that work, I have narrowed down my choices for a commuter bike. I’m not a bike pro or really even a hobbyist. I just need the exercise and with gas prices continuing upwards it won’t hurt to fill up the gas tank a little less often either. A secondary use will be taking Miss A. for rides in a bicycle trailer. I’m sure she’l love that.

Being the nerd that I am, there are a few technologies that are a must-have for me. First is belt drive. I really like the quietness of the belt drive. When you see (hear) one in operation you’ll be amazed at just how quiet they are. Belts are less maintenance and certainly less messy than chains. I don’t want a mess and I don’t want to do maintenance, and I don’t want a pre-ride ritual. I have laziness levels I need to maintain otherwise life might get a little out of whack. Chains are old school, belts are cool. I like the reliability a belt affords. These belts are just like the ones used on your car engine. They last a really, really long time. How often do you change a belt on a car? I’ve never ~~done it~~ paid a mechanic to do it. Nevertheless, there are doubters and naysayers. If you doubt the reliability claims, ask this guy, he may disagree with you. As far as I can tell all the belts are made by the same company, Gates.

The second critical technology for me is a rear internal hub transmission. I’m not really a tinker with the bike kind of guy and the less maintenance the better for me. If you think there are belt drive haters out there, then you need to get out more and meet the internal gear hub haters. Internal gear hubs are a solution for all situations but for me who doesn’t want to mess with a bike much, just want it to work an internal gear hub is a good solution. If you are new to internal hubs, check out this video (it is in English):

There is a ton of additional information available from Sheldon Brown’s website. Probably way more information than you care to digest. Makes for some good reading.

The third technology I wanted was disc brakes. Once again they are more reliable and less maintenance than other technologies like a rim brake. Drum brakes for bikes don’t seem to have evolved much in the last few years. I could be wrong and if I am then I’m going with disc brakes look way cooler.

I don’t need pedals with special clips in them. I dont want to carry an extra pair of shoes with me (again, lazy) I doubt I will be going fast enough to work up a sweat. At least I hope I don’t work up a sweat. I should probably keep an extra deodorant stick in my office, so I don’t become the “smelly guy.” I also don’t need suspension. As much as it is extremely cool technology and affords one much bad-assery, I just won’t use it while commuting. Furthermore, I don’t need a ton of gears as I have only a few small hills to traverse during my five mile journey. I’m sure eight gears is more than enough for my needs of commuting to work and hauling Miss A through the neighborhood and around the lake. Below are the bikes on my list thus far.

Trek Soho Deluxe

The Trek SoHo Deluxe is a bike with a lot of value. It has an 8-speed internal hub gear, a belt drive, and a disc brake in the front. It has a drum brake in the rear. I think Trek really went cheap out on the rear brake. Hopefully they will throw in a disc brake for next year’s model. I’m pretty confident I need more stopping power in a brake than it can provide. The paint job is also gloss black. Matte paint jobs seem to be all the rage, shiny is out.

Specialized Source Eleven

The Specialized Source Eleven has everything you could ever want in a commuter bike. The only problem is the price. I can’t possibly justify a five mile commute with this bike, or can I? The Source Eleven comes equipped with disc brakes and integrated lights, rack, and fenders; plus 11-speed Shimano Alfine internal gearing with belt drive. The 11-speed hub gear has a 409% gear range which is very impressive.

The Cannondale Bad Boy 1 has an amazing look to it. It is painted with a matte black paint. The mono front fork is just awesome looking as well. However I can’t figure out if you can actually fit fenders and and a rack to it. Also, the lack of a belt drive and an internal hub gear are a deal-breaker for me.

The Specialized Sirrus Comp looks gorgeous as well. It has no belt drive, no internal hub gear and no disc brakes. The caliper style brakes just seem outdated to me. I really wish specialized would get with it for us non-bike hobbyists.

Spot Brand Ajax

The Spot Brand Ajax is a terrific bike. It meets all my requirements from above. I think it looks great. The paint is a matte black and the rims are white. Another nice feature of this bike is the dropouts which allow belt-driven or chain-driven configurations, and painless wheel removal with no need to re-tension the belt. Changing a flat rear tire on the road without having to call up the SO to pick me up will be wonderful. You also don;t have to re-tension the belt which is uber-critical on a belt drive system. The frame and fork accommodate full fenders and racks, which will provide for urban versatility and utility.

I have an old Killer V 900 mountain bike that is still surviving. It is so good looking. I can’t bear to part with it as I love it too much. It looks like this.

Blog moved.

admin — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:50:02 +0000

Finally got around to moving this blog to a better hosting provider. Hostmonster (Blue Host), just wasn’t getting it done. Too many outages, slow servers, crappy tools. To be fair their customer support was okay. Other than that it wasn’t … Continue reading →

TRIM command in Windows 7

Argonaut — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:18:37 +0000

How to enable TRIM command in Windows 7 with a Solid State Drive

All versions and releases of Windows 7 support the TRIM command. To enable or disable TRIM Command, you will need to open an Elevated Command Prompt window.

How To Open an Elevated Command Prompt window: Click on Start Orb > Type “CMD.exe” in Search box > Right click on “CMD” and select “Run as Administrator” (If you receive a prompt confirmation, click YES)

How to Enable TRIM Command

In the Elevated command Prompt windows, type the following:

fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 0

How to Disable TRIM Command

In the Elevated command Prompt windows, type the following:

fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 1

To check to see if the TRIM command is enabled n Windows 7 do the following:

fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify

DisableDeleteNotify = 1 (Windows TRIM commands are disabled)
DisableDeleteNotify = 0 (Windows TRIM commands are enabled)

How to enable AHCI in Windows 7 after Instalation:

Exit all Windows-based programs.
Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
Locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESSystemCurrentControlSetServicesahci
In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.

After this you’ll have to restart your computer, go to BIOS and enable AHCI. When you log in to Windows again, you’ll notice the installation of drivers for AHCI. Another restart will be required to finish the driver installation.

These steps are provided at your own risk and not suggested unless you know and understand the risks. You will want to make sure the controller driver and MB BIOS support this option before you enable it.

TRIM command for Linux

Argonaut — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:44:11 +0000

Most current SSDs support the ATA_TRIM command for sustained long-term performance and wear-leveling. The TRIM command is supported by the Ext4 and Btrfs filesystems but the latter is beyond of the scope of this tutorial. Most Linux users will find the ext4 filesystem more than sufficient for their needs. There are two requirements for using the TRIM command in Linux.

Properly working installation of Ubuntu or other GNU/Linux distribution.
Linux kernel 2.6.33 or later. Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick) ships with kernel 2.6.35. This kernel is also available for Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid) via a backport package.

With these two requirements satisfied, enabling the TRIM command is easy.

Make a backup copy of the current /etc/fstab for disaster recovery purposes:
sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab_bak-notrim

Edit the /etc/fstab file:

gksudo gedit /etc/fstab
or
sudo vi /etc/fstab

For every partition using Ext4 we add the word discard to the list of options. That means you need to prepend or append the word “discard” to the existing list of word options separating it with comma without leaving a space. Nothing else needs to be modified. For example, to change the root filesystem entry from:

UUID=[NUMS-AND-LETTERS] / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1

we change the entry to:

UUID=[NUMS-AND-LETTERS] / ext4 discard,errors=remount-ro 0 1

Save the changes and exit your editor.

Restart the operating system to have the changes take affect.
shutdown -r -y now
reboot
init 6

In case you make a mistake you can boot from the Ubuntu Live CD or other live Linux media, mount the root partition of your SSD and revert the changes by correcting any typos or syntax errors or restoring your backup file.

To test that the TRIM command is working, take the following steps:

Switch to the root user or preface your commands with sudo:
sudo -i
Creat a 50MB file with random data:
dd if=/dev/urandom of=tempfile count=100 bs=512k oflag=direct
Check the starting LBA address of the file:
hdparm --fibmap tempfile
Read the first address of the file, note that you need to put the first LBA in place of [ADDRESS]:
hdparm --read-sector [ADDRESS] /dev/sdX
Remove the file and synchronize the filesystem:
rm tempfile
sync
Use the same command as in 4 to re-read the LBA:
hdparm --read-sector [ADDRESS] /dev/sdX

If TRIM is working correctly, the output of the last command will be a series of zeros. If the output is anything other than zeros, TRIM is not working. Check to make sure your kernel supports TRIM and recheck your ext4 filesystem configuration. This test will not work if your filesystem is encrypted.

Adobe CS 5.5 Annoyances

Argonaut — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 03:27:18 +0000

I recently installed Adobe CS 5.5 on a Windows computer, and it left a pile of annoyances. Most of them were easily removed by unregistering the DLL, but one I had to muck with the registry to remove. Most involve sticking junk in the context menu because there is that one user who loves zillions of tools (junk) in their context menu. Not me. Not most any power user I know of.

Adobe Acrobat inserts itself in everything. I only need to “print” to a PDF and nothing more. This removes it from Microsoft Office,
regsvr32.exe /u "C:Program Files (x86)AdobeAcrobat 10.0PDFMakerOfficePDFMOfficeAddin.dll"
regsvr32.exe /u "C:Program Files (x86)AdobeAcrobat 10.0Acrobat ElementsContextMenu.dll"
regsvr32.exe /u "C:Program Files (x86)AdobeAcrobat 10.0Acrobat ElementsContextMenu64.dll"

Adobe Contribute CS 5.5 inserts itself into Office as well. It adds itself into all your browsers except Chrome, thank goodness. This junk uses memory and slows down your browser.
regsvr32.exe /u "C:Program Files (x86)AdobeAdobe Contribute CS5.1PluginsFirefoxPluginnpContribute.dll"
regsvr32.exe /u "C:Program Files (x86)AdobeAdobe Contribute CS5.1AppSupportFilesFirefoxExtensionnpContribute.dll"
regsvr32.exe /u "C:Program Files (x86)AdobeAdobe Contribute CS5.1PluginsIEPlugincontributeieplugin.dll"
regsvr32.exe /u "C:Program Files (x86)AdobeAdobe Contribute CS5.1PluginsOfficePluginen_USResourcesOfficePluginRes.dll"
regsvr32 /u "C:Program Files (x86)AdobeAdobe Contribute CS5.1PluginsOfficePluginOfficePlugin.dll"

Adobe Bridge CS 5.5 has several annoying context menu takeovers. The DLL it uses has other functions and cannot be unregistered without breaking Adobe Bridge CS 5.5. You remove this entry from the Windows registry. If you don’t know what you are doing don’t mess with the registry. Use something like ShellExView which is a Shell Extensions Manager, to fix this. It is pretty easy to use and powerful; so use with caution.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTDirectoryshellBridge

Enjoy your restored context menu. I wish Adobe would give the user the option to remove these within each program. People have complained about this for years and Adobe has never listened.

3D in 15 years

Argonaut — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 17:55:49 +0000

I’m pretty sure we are going to look back at this current 3D craze and say to ourselves, “Wow, what a joke that 3D stuff was a few years ago.” I am continually amazed by how much marketing overhype there is regarding 3D. It is pretty much as lame as the the old color based 3D technique of the fifties. Those sucked and so do these. To even call it 3D is offensive to all future 3D technologies and holograms. The one good thing to come out of this was James Cameron’s Avatar release pushed all the theatre owners to upgrade to digital projectors.

You know it is baseless when you can get 3D binoculars. Please stop the madness.

Merry Christmas

Argonaut — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 14:00:35 +0000

Merry Christmas

Angry Birds

Argonaut — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 00:27:54 +0000

If you’ve spent any time playing Angry Birds then you’ll like this. Angry Birds is a great time wasting “artillery” style game for the iPhone and iPad. Definitely worth the couple bucks it costs.

from Zero Lives