Sync iTunes to Android

After hours of trying other solutions, I finally found how to synch music to an android device from my iTunes list.

- Install this app, Sync iTunes to android-windows
- Download the Windows app on the computer you have iTunes installed on.
- Change the location if you want them to be on an SD card. Follow the guide for this question, "How to sync to external sdcard?" here.

By default it will store to location recommended by your phone manufacturer. However we provide a setting in synctunes android app where you can change the location to external sdcard. To do that your first step should be to unsync/delete any music from phone you’ve previously synced, if you do not, it will take up space unnecessary disk space, because we are now defining new location and all music would now go there. To set the new location open synctunes on your phone then go to Settings -> Service uncheck it. The change the sdcard location and check the service again. Press back button to come back to main screen. Now when you sync again your files will go to external sdcard.If you can not locate the sdcard settings please contact us for help 

- Find the IP address of your Android device through the Wifi app. Select the connection, and tap it to see the details. It will show the IP address.
- Enter the IP address when you set up the windows app. This guide will show you how.

Get a DB Diagram in PDF from SQL Server Managment Studio

Here is a way to save a database diagram into a file format so that you can easily pan without it trying to refresh from the DB.

open the diagram and right click somewhere in the middle and you'll have there the option to "Copy diagram to clipboard". From here you paste to MSPaint or another image creator and save to wanted format; (http://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/34132/how-export-a-sql-server-2008-diagram-to-pdf-filetype)

From there just paste into MsPaint or some other program and save it.

Plex Media Server

Last January, I set up Plex Media Server for my home media system.

Here is a guide to having it actually start up like a real service in windows so you don't have to login to have it work.

Plex Queue

I just figured out how to use the Plex Queue. Now I don't have to download videos and store them locally.

At http://plex.tv/web/app#!/playlist/queue/help you see
1 - a button you can drag to your bookmark bar. It contains the following javascript

javascript:%20var%20s=document.createElement("script");s.type="text/javascript";s.src="//plex.tv/queue/bookmarklet_payload";var%20h=document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0];h.appendChild(s);void(0);

When you click this bookmarklet on a page with a video, it will add it to your plex queue. It does this by connecting through to your plex account and the plex account your plex server is using.

2 - A generated email address after the pattern, queue+[generatedKey]@save.plex.tv. If you email a link to a page that has a video you would like to watch later, just email the url to it.

So far, I have been able to queue from these sites, youtube, gc.lds.org, lds devotionals. Facebook videos that are public do not seem to work.

Using Google Voice on Chrome with Multiple Sessions

If you share a windows login with someone else in your house, managing account logins in browsers can be tricky. I think I just figured out how to get a secondary account session to work with the Google Chrome Google Voice extension.

- Log in as the second session in Google Chrome.
  https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/1721977?hl=en&rd=1
- Tell the GV extension to use the second account session.
  chrome-extension://kcnhkahnjcbndmmehfkdnkjomaanaooo/options.html

Disable Firefox Close Other Tabs Warning

In Firefox there is not a "Don't ask again" check box on the Close Other Tabs warning dialog. Here is how you disable the dialog

    - Type about:config into the location bar and press enter
    - Accept the warning message that appears, you will be taken to a list of preferences
    - Locate the preference browser.tabs.warnOnClose, if its value is set to true, double-click on it to change its value to false
    - Repeat this for these 3 preferences browser.warnOnQuit, browser.warnOnRestart and browser.showQuitWarning

H/T to https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/753984#answer-302390

Space on Solid State C Drive

Adding a SSD for a C drive does make a system faster but they are much smaller than regular hard drives. 

I found this article that said that you can safely delete old files in the windows temp folder. It freed up over 25 GB of space for me.

Run "Disk Cleanup" and get rid of Windows Update files.

Use WinDirStat to find files to delete
- Delete the contents of C:\WINDOWS\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed. See also this.  This folder was 4.6 GB for my in June 2015!
- Also try this "Is it safe to delete files Under C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download" this was 1.6 GB
- Delete *.dmp files.
- Delete Acrobat Setup Files
- Uninstall Microsoft Windows SDK

Add Facebook Like Button Below Post Titles

Here is a great article that will add a Facebook like button to your blog posts.

How to edit a scanned PDF file

How to edit a scanned PDF file

"In this tutorial, learn the easiest way to edit a PDF file that originated from a scanned document. This multi-step process involves running Text Recognition (OCR) on your scanned document first and then using the new Content Editing panel tools in Acrobat XI."

Moving an Outlook offline data file

If you are running out of space on your C drive you might try moving your Outlook offline data file to a secondary drive.

http://www.slipstick.com/exchange/moving-outlook-ost-file/

Notepad++ Missing Context-menu

For some reason the right-click menu item "Edit with Notepad++" has gone missing on several computers. The following from stack overflow worked for me.

- uninstall Notpad++
- Download and install "Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Service Pack 1"
- Re-install Notepad++

console.log throws error on Internet Explorer IE

console.log is a great debugging tool. It is better than alerts.  Older versions of IE will give you a

'console' is undefined

Error if you try to use it. I put the following at the top of a javascript file that is included in my web app and it kept IE from throwing script errors.

//If we are on IE8 or similar console won't be defined
if (typeof console === 'undefined') { ////do an alert in IE. You could make it write to another window if that worked better
//console = { log: function () { alert(arguments[0]); } };
//just swallow the call in IE
console = { log: function () { } };
}

I crafted this solution from this page.

Outlook Rule for All but Exchange Server Mail

I get junk email at work from a few places every day. The in place junk filter does not seem to catch them.  I was thinking of trying SpamBayes again, then I thought that all of my junk mail comes from outside my company.  And I rarely have email from outside my company that is not junk mail.

I just created a rule in Outlook that applies to all emails that are not from my company.  It moves all email to a folder "except with /ou in the sender's address".  This site says that "/ou" will filter for internal Exchange server mail.

Folder Filters in Beyond Compare

I love Beyond Compare. My NAS puts a folder in some of my folders with a bunch of numbers in it.  I like to hide this folder when I am comparing folders

This is how my filter shows up in the text box:  "-*983db650f7f79bc8e87d9a3ba418aefc\"

How do I see LDS Mission Boundaries on a Map?

- Go to maps.lds.org
- Login with your LDS Account in the upper right of the page
- Click on the map layers icon in the upper right of the map

- Click on Boundaries in the Layers popup box in the lower right of the map

- Check the box next to Missions in Boundaries

Now pan and zoom to see the mission boundaries.
Here is a list of LDS Missions

Online Photo Blur Tool

I used this to blur the rest of the picture to focus attention to one part of the photo.

How to make your pictures private or public 2014

Easy Color to Grayscale Online Converter

http://online.puzzleflow.com/process/all2gray

What makes a good engineering culture?

A great answer on quora.

Software Engineering is the Art of Fighting

"software engineering is the art of fighting with exponentially increasing complexity of solutions" Dima Korolev

Japanese Characters in my Firefox Search Bar

Sometimes I accidentally do a keyboard combination that activates Japanese or some other Asian language in the search bar of Firefox.  The easiest solution is to just restart the browser and you can again type in English characters again

Hot Water Circulation Pump

This is a hot water circulator pump.  It was making noise in our house a few months ago.  It circulates the hot water through the pipes so it does not take as long for the hot water to get there.