Enabling/disabling IE's proxy via the registry

The registry entry which needs to be modified when you want to enable or disable the proxy for IE is

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Connections\DefaultConnectionSettings

Byte 9 has to be modified such that if you wanted to enable it, bit 2 has to be set. Alternatively, if you wanted the proxy to be disabled, bit 2 has to be cleared.

Example 1

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Connections]

"DefaultConnectionSettings"=hex:46,00,00,00,a8,1e,00,00,03,00,00,00,6e,....

In the example above, bit 2 of byte 9 is set. This means that the proxy is enabled.

Example 2

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Connections]

"DefaultConnectionSettings"=hex:46,00,00,00,a8,1e,00,00,01,00,00,00,6e,....

In the example above, bit 2 of byte 9 is cleared. This means that the proxy is disabled.

Issue with "Start without debugging" in Visual Studio 2010

With Visual Studio 2010 (VC++), after compiling and linking a project, attempting to run the application using "Start without debugging" will result in the console window opening and closing automatically.

To overcome this problem, the following needs to be done:
Project -> Properties -> Configuration Properties -> Linker -> System, please select Console (/SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE) in SubSystem dropdown

Merging and splitting PDF files

If you want to merge multiple PDF files or split a PDF file, an excellent free tool avalable is PDF Split and Merge. It can do more that just split and merge PDF files.

It can be downloaded from the following URL:
http://www.pdfsam.org/

It has a simple and intuitive interface, with which you can:

• split your pdf documents (into chapters, single pages, etc.)
• merge many pdf documents or subsections of them
• extract sections of your document into a single pdf document
• mix alternate pages taken from two pdf documents in straight or reverse order into a single document
• rotate pages of the selected pdf documents
• visually reorder pages of a selected pdf document
• visually compose a document dragging pages from selected pdf documents
• save and load your environment to automatize your recurrent jobs
• manage pdfsam settings and set an environment to load at start up

There is also an enhanced version of this tool, which has all the basic features plus:

• encrypt your pdf files (RC40 bits, RC128 bits, AES128 bits) and set permissions on them
• add a pdf frontpage or an addendum (or both) to your pdf documents
• decrypt pdf documents
• extract attachments from your pdf documents
• set viewer options to a document to tell the viewer application how should open the document
• set the metadata of a document (author, title, subject and keywords)

The features available and a comparison between the basic and enhanced version cna be found in the following link:
http://www.pdfsam.org/?page_id=42

Getting the size of a MySQL database

This is the command to get the size of the MySql database

SELECT table_schema "Data Base Name",
  sum( data_length + index_length ) / 1024 / 1024 "Data Base Size in MB",
  sum( data_free )/ 1024 / 1024 "Free Space in MB"
  FROM information_schema.TABLES
  GROUP BY table_schema;

Learning SQL the interactive way

To learn SQL the interactive way, use the site

http://sqlzoo.net

Manually starting Microsoft File Transfer Manager

Here's how to launch the Microsoft File Transfer Manager manually.

%SystemRoot%\Downloaded Program Files\TransferMgr.exe

Removing the OzioGallery footer

When Ozio Gallery is used within Joomla pages, the component displays a footer
OzioGallery2 by Joomla.it

If you search the source, you will not find the text as it is encoded (with base 64) within
“\administrator\components\com_oziogallery2\css\ozio.css”

1. Use http://ostermiller.org/calc/encode.html to decode the encoding in the css file.
2. Then remove the text that is not wanted and encode again.
3. Then paste it back to the css file, replacing the original text.

Note: For OzioGallery3, the folder structure seems to have changed. The ozio.css file for OzioGallery3 is located within the folder "administrator\components\com_oziogallery3\assets\css".

Converting man pages to pdf

Issue this command at a Linux shell to convert the
man -t <manpage_name> ¦ ps2pdf - > <manpage_name>.pdf

Note: The "-t" switch calls in the "groff" utility to convert the man output to Postscript format

e.g. man -t ls ¦ ps2pdf - > ls.pdf

Free MS Project Viewers

Microsoft did not release a free viewer for the MS Project files (mpp, mpx, etc.). However, there a couple of free viewers available. The viewers listed below might not be the top of the class for opening MS Project file formats, but they do provide the basic functionality.

• Gantter (http://www.gantter.com/) - Web based
• Free LiveProject Viewer (http://www.kadonk.com/LiveProjectProjectSolutions.aspx) Installation
• RationalPlan Viewer (http://www.rationalplan.com/viewer-project-management-software.php) - Installation

Free project management tools

Here are a list of some of the free project management tools that I have come across, especially for the ability to allow creation of WBS and the creation of decent Gantt charts:

• Gantt Project (http://www.ganttproject.biz)
• Open Workbench (http://www.openworkbench.org)

Cartoon creation software

There are two free cartoon (2D) creation softwares available:

• CreaToon (http://www.creatoon.com/)- Current version is 3.0. - Formerly payware, the owners are no longer developing this software and have made it available for free download
• Pencil (http://www.pencil-animation.org/) - This is a free and open source software which lets you create traditional hand-drawn animation (cartoon) using both bitmap and vector graphics

Screen recording software

Here's a list of some good and free screen recording applications for Windows.
1. CamStudio - http://camstudio.org/
2. DebugMode Wink - http://www.debugmode.com/wink/
3. TechSmith Jing - http://www.jingproject.com/
4. BB FlashBack Express - http://www.bbsoftware.co.uk/BBFlashBack_FreePlayer.aspx
5. UltraVNC Screen Recorder - http://www.uvnc.com/screenrecorder/

Some web based screen recorders.
1. ScreenToaster - http://www.screentoaster.com/
2. GoView - http://www.goview.com/