David Vielmetter

Adventures in stupid technology

  • Turn your Linksys E1500 into a Wireless Repeater

    Unfortunately the wireless router that came with my new FIOS connection only covers half of my house. To get wifi coverage in the yard and the whole house, I decided to re-purpose my Linksys E1500. Here’s what I did: First I installed the DD-WRT firmware and with it turned my router into a Wireless Repeater…

  • Javascript errors during Adobe Flash Player update

    If you’re still running Windows XP and haven’t updated your Flash Player in a while, you might get some Internet Explorer script errors when you try to update the player. Here’s two ways to resolve the problem. [the problem] [the solution (in two acts)] The easy way: [step 1] Download the full Adobe Flash Player…

  • Location of the Outlook Temporary OLK folder

    The location of the temporary files location Outlook uses to store files when you double-click an attachment (also known as the OLK folder) is different on each windows system. Depending on your version of Office, a registry key will reveal the exact path of this folder. Here is a list of versions of Microsoft Office…

  • Crimping a proper Ethernet patch cable

    This article covers the steps necessary to properly terminate an Ethernet cable. There are several ways to do this and each has benefits for a given application. First we’ll cover the male adapter or RJ-45 plug: [requirements] Crimping/Crimp tool – available at most computer/electronics retailers CAT5e or CAT6 Ethernet cable RJ-45 plugs – also available…

  • Batch encrypting PDF documents in Acrobat Professional

    The other day a customer asked me how quickly apply some sort of protection to thousands of PDF files so that they could not be changed or printed. Challenge accepted I said. Here’s how: [requirements] Adobe Acrobat Professional [procedure] [step 1] Open Adobe Acrobat Professional. Then click File->Action Wizard->Create New Action [step 2] Expand the…

  • 10 Reasons to love the new Outlook.com

    I’ve been beta testing Outlook.com for a month now and I like it. Finally Microsoft got it right with a simple and uncomplicated web based email experience. Best of all, now anyone can experience Outlook.com. Simply switch your Hotmail account over to the new UI or create a new account at Outlook.com. Here are the…

  • Keep your garbage can clean with cat litter

    If you’re like me, that little bit of OCD in you absolutely loathes the nasty sticky mess at the bottom of the garbage can. I had to clean my garbage cans recently because a bag tore open and leaked gross stinky garbage liquid all over the bottom. Since that cleaning, I vowed to never do…

  • Empty Favorites in Windows Explorer Navigation Pane

    When you delete the Links folder from your user profile folder in Windows 7, strange things happen. First you’ll still see the Favorites icon in the Windows Explorer navigation pane, but it’ll be an empty heading. Right clicking the empty heading offers to “Restore favorite links”, but this feature doesn’t work if you’ve deleted or…

  • Run OS X Snow Leopard on VirtualBox

    More and more frequently I find myself assisting customers with business analysis issues in Mac shops. Things can get complicated when dealing with multiple operating system platforms. A process that works great on Windows may not necessarily work on a Mac and vice versa. Throw some Unix or Linux into the mix and things get…

  • Unable to print from Quicken

    After changing drivers or added a new printer to your system, you may no longer be able to print from within Quicken. This is an issue that affects only Quicken and other programs print normally to the newly added or changed printer. Here’s how to resolve this issue with Quicken: [step 1] Close Quicken. [step…