Setting up a printer in OS X using the CUPS interface

Office 2003 – fix SKU011.CAB annoyance

I recently setup a new user on a PC someone else had been using.  The PC had Office 2003 Professional installed.

Upon running Outlook 2003 for the first time Office looks for a file off the original install CD and will not proceed without it.  The file in question is “SKU011.CAB”.  Other Office applications, e.g. Word, will continue to work even if the file is missing but Outlook refuses to play ball.

Unfortunately, the client couldn’t find their 2003 install CD.  I got my own and searched it for “SKU011.CAB” but it wasn’t to be found.  How strange!

Eventually I found the fix on www.technotes.co.uk which involves changing a registry key so as to prevent Office from looking for the CD.  As always, making changes to the registry can be a very risky business if you’re not sure what you’re at.  Always take a backup of the registry by creating a Restore Point using System Restore…

• Start | Run | regedit
• Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE | Software | Microsoft | Office | 11.0 | Delivery
• Click into the sub-folder/key here which has a unique name
• Right-click the “CDCache” entry and change its value to “0”
• Close Regedit and cross your fingers!

This worked for me, hopefully it will work for you.  Best of luck.

The Need for Speed with DOSBox

I recently stumbled upon my beloved old copy of the absolutely fantastic original "The Need for Speed". This fabulous game came out in 1994 and blew me away. My sister, her boyfriend (now husband) and I spend a crazy number of hours playing this game. It rocked!

How to get it to play now though...? Well, I've used the wonderful DOSBox before for playing Doom 2 and Commander Keen and the like. This software runs in Windows (XP for example) and emulates a DOS environment with an old SoundBlaster 16 soundcard. Would it work with TNFS (The Need for Speed)?

After a lot of trial and error I finally got it working after getting a tip from a forum on a site called "alldeaf" (www.alldeaf.com). I hadn't mounted the CDROM drive properly. Here's what you need to do:

• Create a folder/directory on root of your C: drive called "tnfs" (i.e. c:\tnfs)
  
• Run DOSBox
• Type "mount c c:\tnfs"
• Type "mount d d:\ -t cdrom"
• Type d:
• Type "install"
• Follow the on-screen instructions

Hopefully this should do the trick for you. What a trip down amnesia lane! It really brought me back! It's still a brilliant game even if the graphics are a bit grainy.

An Exabyte sounds like a lot

Recently I was watching Ocean’s 13 which passed the time reasonably pleasantly.  There was a supposedly awesome computer which our handsome heroes had to overcome called “The Greco”.  Apparently it stored its data “in a field of Exabytes”.

This got me thinking about all the different storage metrics and the fact many of us can get them confused.  I decided to pop the following list down for your viewing pleasure…

Name	Abbreviation	Amount
bit	b	Fundamental unit of data storage
Nibble		4 bits
Byte	B	8 bits
Kilobyte	kB	1024 Bytes
Megabyte	MB	1024 Kilobytes
Gigabyte	GB	1024 Megabytes
Terabyte	TB	1024 Gigabytes
Petabyte	PB	1024 TB
Exabyte	EB	1024 PB

An Exabyte is seriously huge!  If you take it that DVD quality video requires a bandwidth of around 5Mbits/s plus about 0.45Mbits/s for its audio that gives a total bandwidth of 5.45Mbits/s.  This equals 0.68MB/s.  Now an Exabyte is a million million MB so divide that by 0.68, then by 60, then by 24, and finally by 365 and the answer is:

An Exabyte would be able to store 46,632 hours of playback time!!

Disabling AutoPlay in Windows

By default in Windows, AutoPlay kicks in when one inserts a CD-ROM, DVD, or USB drive containing some content - e.g. documents, images, music, or video.  Depending on your version of Windows and the content on the device, Windows may auto-run an installer (e.g. an Office install CD) or ask you what to do (e.g. open a folder to view files, play the music files with Media Player).

Some people find this feature annoying.  Another, more important issue is that the Conficker worm uses the feature to automatically jump from an infected USB drive onto the host PC.

To turn of the feature please follow one of the two methods...

Windows XP:

• Download TweakUI.exe... http://www.artifact.ie/applications/tools
• Install TweakUI.exe and then run the application
• Expand (click +) "My Computer", then expand "AutoPlay"
• Click on the "Types" option on the left and un-tick all boxes
• Also, click on the "Drives" option on the left and un-tick all boxes
• Click OK

Windows Vista:

• Open the Control Panel (Start | Control Panel)
• Click on “Play CDs or other media automatically”
• Un-tick the tick-box called "Use Auto Play for all media and devices"

Patching against the Conficker worm

The Win32Conficker worm takes advantage of a vulnerability in the Server service of pretty much all versions of Windows and allows a remote attacker to take control of the infected computer.

According to Microsoft "Most anti-virus software could detect and block the Conficker worm, so if you have updated anti-virus software on your computer, you are at a much lower risk of being infected by the Conficker worm."

However, it is also recommended to ensure your Windows OS is patched so that you are not vulnerable to the threat.  In order to ensure you are patched against this nasty piece of work please follow the steps below...

1. Find out what version of Windows you are running

• Hold down the Winlogo button (looks like the Windows icon) and tap once on R
• Type "winver" and hit Enter
• You will be able to read off what version of Windows you have, e.g. in the image below I can tell that I have Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 3.

2. Download the correct patch for your Windows version

• Open the following website: www.artifact.ie/applications/security
• Click on the correct patch version and choose "Save"
• e.g. Conficker_XP_SP3_KB958644.exe

3. Apply the patch

• Navigate to where you saved the patch and double-click it
• Follow any on-screen prompts that appear

To find out more about Conficker have a look here:

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/viruses/worms/conficker.mspx

What version of Office do I have?

Prior to Microsoft Office 2007, finding out what version you were running was very straightforward.  You clicked on the “Help” menu bar item and then on “About”.  Generally you would do this to find out not just what version you were running (i.e. Office 2003) but what Service Packs had been installed (e.g. Service Pack 1).

Recently I needed to quickly find out whether a customer’s Office 2007 installation had been upgraded with Service Pack 1.  I was stumped for a short while!  Where on earth was one to find the equivalent?

To save you the hassle, here’s the answer…

Click on the new “Office Button”, choose the relevant “Options” button at the very bottom of the menu, e.g. if you’re in Excel it will be “Excel Options”.  Then click “Resources”, and finally “About” – in fact you can probably see all you need to know at the bottom of the “Resources” screen without having to click “About”.

I’m sure they could have buried it a little more if they really put their minds to it!