Some Thoughts » code(ish)

WTS Bookstore Blogpartner Tools

Aron — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 20:00:21 +0000

After getting tired of searching through my email for my WTS Bookstore blogpartner id every time I link to a book on their site, I decided to make a bookmarklet to make the process a bit easier. (A bookmarklet is like a mini javascript application that can be built in to a web browser bookmark.) Then I thought some of you fine folks might like to have one too, so I made a little webapp that will create one for you (with your blogpartner id, of course, not mine).

Simply enter your blogpartner id, click the button, and the hyperlink below the button will automagically become your very own bookmarklet. Drag the link to your toolbar or somewhere else handy. Next time you want to link to a book, find it at WTS Books.com, then click the bookmarklet. Your blogpartner id will automatically be appended to the URL in your browser’s address bar. There’s a video how-to available too, which you can watch after you’ve made your bookmarklet. The tool is available here.

For those those a little more web-savvy, I’ve also created a small script that will automatically append your blogpartner id to every wtsbooks.com link on your site (without overwriting existing ones). You can either paste the code directly into your html header, or link to an external .js file. Either way, you’ll need to update your html tag to call the changeAllLinks function on the onload event (). Note that you should replace my blogpartner id with your own…unless of course you don’t want to…which would be fine with me. I will assume you know what you’re doing, so please don’t expect a whole lot of “technical support” on this one. The script is available here.

Enjoy!

[Update: Greg just reminded me about this tool, which is way cooler than mine. But the script above might be helpful to some.]

Automatic Updates Loop Killer

Aron — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 14:06:41 +0000

Hit by that annoying “Automatic Updates has encountered a problem and needs to close” loop when you start up your rig? Try the following:

Create a new text document on your desktop, title it fixmyrig.bat, and drop the following code in it:
net stop WuAuServ cd %windir% rd /s /q %windir%\SDold ren %windir%\SoftwareDistribution SDold net start WuAuServ
Save it, close it, then double-click it to run it.
Restart your rig to see if it worked. It did for me!

Hope this helps all you fine folks out there. If anyone wants/needs an explanation, let me know. Or follow the HT link just after this sentence. (HT: MichaelM)

Delayed Shutdown (Windows)

Aron — Sun, 08 May 2005 04:18:36 +0000

Ever wanted to fall asleep to your mp3 playlist? Now you can.

Here’s how:
1. create a new text file and type ‘shutdown -s -f -t 2000′
2. save it as ‘shutdown.bat’ (no .txt file extentsion) somewhere convenient
3. click it to shutdown!

Notes:
- the -s means to shutdown the local pc
- the -f means to force processes to shutdown without user intervention
- the -t sets the time until shutdown, in ~~milli~~seconds – change this to whatever you want. (2000=33 min. ~~and~~ [&] change)
- to stop the timer at any time before shutdown actually starts, hit Windows-R and type ‘command’ when the command window pops up, just type ‘shutdown -a’ (which means, ‘abort the shutdown.’) then hit enter. then type exit, and hit enter.

enjoy!

Duplicate Emails in Outlook 2002/2003

Aron — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 21:20:09 +0000

Many people have problems with getting duplicate emails in Outlook 2002/2003. I don’t know why this happens, and I don’t know how to stop it from happening.

However, I have modified some code I found (somewhere) that will loop through your Inbox (and subfolders) and delete any duplicate emails it finds.

If you have a lot of emails in your Inbox (or subfolders), it may take a few seconds (and your screen may go blank for a moment) – but don’t worry. It’s working hard to relieve your stress. It will run twice, each time notifying you of how many emails it has deleted. (Once seemed to miss a few here and there. Go figure.)

Copy and paste the code from this file into a New Module in Outlook. (In Outlook, hit Alt+F11, then Insert->Module.)

And, you’ll have to have macro security on low to run this macro.

Outlook TimeSheet

Aron — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 05:03:42 +0000

[UPDATE: This is no longer available for distribution--sorry. -AG 7.14.05]

Just developed this little tool – “TimeSheet” – for a friend of mine. It loops through your calendar for a selected date range and outputs the total hours by category (or subject, company, location, whatever–I could change it for whatever you need).

If you put a client’s or project’s name in the “Categories” field, this would be a super easy way to track your work. It creates a printable report using a Post Item, which could be saved to a ‘clients’ or ‘projects’ folder as needed.

If you’d like me to customize this tool for you, sign in and leave a comment – I’ll keep your comment hidden and contact you via email. (There would be a nominal fee, depending on how much customization you’d need.)

Save and Strip Picture Attachments in Outlook

Aron — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 19:17:35 +0000

Ever get an email with 24 pictures attached?

Now you can click a button and save them all to the directory of your choice AND remove them from your inbox. This little VBA code will save the pictures to the directory you choose, remove the pictures from the email, append a permanent link to the body of the email to the location of each picture on your hard drive (for later reference), and attach a very small blank text file to the email (for a complicated reason which I won’t go into.) The code works on multiple emails, but you’ll have to select the directory for each selected email. (If this is a problem, let me know, and I’ll change it for you.)

This is not reversible, so be careful about which directory you move your pictures to. The directory must be made prior to moving the pictures.

To do this:
1. Paste the code from saveandstrippics.txt into an Outlook code module and hit CTRL-S to save it.
2. Select the email(s) from which you want to save and strip the pictures.
3. Tools–>Modules…–>SaveAndStripPics.

Enjoy!

Sick of Fax Numbers as Email in Outlook?

Aron — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 18:42:16 +0000

Sick of seeing fax numbers as valid email addresses in Outlook 2003?

This code will prepend “fax: ” to all of the fax numbers in Outlook (BusinessFax, HomeFax, and OtherFax) so it won’t be recognized as a valid email address.

To do this:
1. Copy the text from this file: fixfax.txt
2. Open Outlook and hit ALT-F11 to open the Visual Basic Editor (VBE)
3. Insert–>Module.
4. Paste the code into the module and hit CTRL-S to save it.
5. Go back to Outlook and view your contacst as a “Phone List”
6. Select them all.
7. Tool–>Macros…–>FixFax

Enjoy!