David Vielmetter

Adventures in stupid technology

  • ATI catalyst and driver update breaks SageTV

    My DVR runs on an ATI Radeon 4550 adapter from MSI and SageTV. The video card works fine, supports HD Video and HDMI output and is completely fanless allowing my DVR to be super-quiet. Last time I rebooted my machine (I reboot about once every 6 months or so) the system asked me if I…

  • CTRL+Click Signature to edit HTML outlook signature

    So you’re using Outlook 2010 or 2007 and want to edit your e-mail signature…but *really* edit your signature…like edit the actual HTML in Notepad++. Mostly because the editor available in Outlook->Options->Mail is pretty dismal if you want to create a nice HTML signature.  Here’s how to edit the actual HTML of your signature for HTML…

  • HP P2035n prints multiple copies of documents

    The HP P2035n printer has a known issue that is not well documented. If you install the printer as a network printer on a 64 bit operating system like Windows 2008 Server and share it, multiple unintended duplicate copies of documents may be printed if users print to the shared printer. Here’s how to resolve…

  • Adding the content of a Google Plus Profile to your site

    So a while back Google killed Buzz and eschewed in Plus in an attempt to dominate the social media space. Only time will tell if Google+ will ever reach popularity levels similar to Facebook…so far it seems to be in the fizzing out phase of most new hot internet fads. But, if you’re using Google+…

  • All Windows drivers suddenly appear unsigned

    So I saw a strange one today and got to exercise my noodle. An XP SP3 system where all windows drivers including mass (USBSTOR.SYS) suddenly appear unsigned. So, install a printer or pop in a thumb drive, and you get to click “Continue” a gazillion times. As if XP on a production Dell Optiplex 330…

  • IOS5 printing with FingerPrint

    I recently got an iPad2 and I upgraded to IOS5 pretty shortly after I got it to take advantage of iCloud. Since the upgrade, I haven’t been able to print via my previously setup AirPrint service on Windows. After wasting three days of poking around on the Internets researching ways to fix printing on IOS5…

  • QuickBooks license error

    Many software vendors use random pieces of information about your system’s hardware to create a license file. Intuit does this to create a file called EntitlementDataStore.ecml that is used by QuickBooks to determine if you are the rightful owner of QuickBooks. Make a change to your system, however, and you could find yourself getting a…

  • Downloads folder is slow to list items

    To me, there are few things worse than an intermittent computer problem…yea I know that’s a first world problem, but the occasional listing delay on the Download folder in Windows 7 definitely qualifies as one of those annoyances for me. I’ve just never had enough time to really analyze the problem and figure out what’s…

  • Screenr – a tool for error reporting

    UPDATE: Screenr has closed. Screencast-o-matic is my preferred replacement: http://screencast-o-matic.com With ever more complex business process software, the bugs are often deeply embedded within a process or sequence of steps. Unless you perform the sequence precisely, chances of reproducing the error, bug or crash are slim to none. This makes it difficult for developers and support…

  • Virtualize an aging server

    If you’re like most businesses, you’ve got a few aging servers in your infrastructure. They are probably running legacy applications you can’t afford to upgrade right now and as long as things still work, you’ve taken the “don’t fix it if it ain’t broke” approach to them. Problem is that the hardware these servers are…